CathyL

No mean trick, since everyone in the industry has worked for him.

Kit Anderson's Bad Attitude Chili. (Ha! I beat =Mark to it.)

I'll copy & fax the butter cookie recipe, if you like. Or any from her other books.

Since yeast is already not rugelach to me, it might as well be chocolate. Zabar's is only blocks away... I'm sure I'll love it. I'll just have to call it something else. Rochelle, let me suggest another favorite from Maida's Book of Great Cookies: brown sugar butter cookies sandwiched with a browned-butter filling. The dough works well in a cookie press.

I've tried the Zabar's rugelach and like them, but I draw the line at chocolate. That's as bad as putting blueberries in bagels. Well, okay, maybe not quite.

My grandmother was from Poland...I guess that explains it. Our family likes 'em crisp & short.

You're only half-Jewish, right?

Maida's recipe calls for refrigerating the dough overnight. It contains no sugar at all but I add 2 tsp because my grandmother did; Nana also used 6 oz. of cream cheese instead of 8, no doubt because that's what two small packages of Philly add up to. They're still very rich. No jam, just cinnamon sugar & chopped walnuts. I haven't made them in years but I used to use a pastry cloth (and a mixer!). Maida rolls out the dough in a circle and cuts into pie-shaped wedges. My grandma rolled a long rectangle and cut adjacent triangles, which I went back to after trying Maida's method once. Easier to get consistent sizes/shapes, at least for me. Rochelle, if the Bat Mitzvah girl loves chocolate, I highly recommend Jane Freiman's brownies - another Maida cookie book recipe. Divine.

While a butt may be cooked after 4 hours, it's not cooked enough to be pulled pork. It needs to stay on the smoker long enough for the internal fat & collagen to break down; that's what makes the meat tender and juicy. Let the next butt go longer, and when you think it might be done, stick a fork in it. If you can pick the butt up, it needs more time. A few temp spikes along the way don't matter. edited to correct a sudden attack of dyslexia.

Yep. I ordered my chicken sitter here.

Yes, I remember the lemonade too - yuck. A friend once did beer butt chicken with Tequiza - double yuck. I agree, it's a fun way to do chicken (unless the can tips over on the grill!), and a great conversation piece - especially among Q-starved Manhattanites.

I think you're right, Dave. Someday, I'll do a side-by-side cook: beer can (I actually use a ceramic 'chicken sitter') vs. vertical roaster. Meanwhile, I'm butterflyin'.

It is a gimmick, and the liquid in the can doesn't steam enough to affect flavor or moistness, but for some reason the chicken does turn out very tasty. Cook's Illustrated did one of their pseudo-experiments a few years ago, with water in one can and beer in another, and judged the beer version better. Still, I prefer to smoke chicken butterflied, for the reasons you mention. A water pan in a smoker does not add appreciable moisture to the air.

I remove it, using the paper towel method Jaymes described. Even easier when the ribs are cold.

Water pans add negligible moisture to the air in a vented smoker. They're useful as a heat baffle, though.

Dave the C, if you haven't made Suvir's Tomato Chutney you have not lived. In my house this is a staple.

Drape thick bacon slices across the top.

Word. Doneness is a condition, not a temperature. No need to brine a butt unless it amuses you.

We were married Sunday morning in a rabbi's study, then went home with our three guests for Dom Perignon, cheese, prosciutto and the cake I'd made (orange genoise w/orange butter cream). That left a long stretch until dinner, and it was -10 below outside, so we all went to see Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. Dinner was at PS 77, a long-gone little French restaurant in the neighborhood. Can't remember what we ate.

The master speaks. The hardest lesson to learn, for me, was that temperature swings don't matter much when you're smoking something for hours.

If Pete's does count, the honors go to Fraunces Tavern - operating since 1762.

I've had a BGE for 6 years and wouldn't be without it. Alan's web site is an excellent resource on ceramics in general. I have a pal in Atlanta who makes naan on his Egg's interior walls (well-scrubbed). There's a newish company called Primo whose cookers are reportedly well-made, and somewhat less expensive than a BGE.

I've always had trouble with Taylor analogs - the digitals are much more reliable. D the C, did you have the Maverick probe in the meat while you were searing? It's only rated up to, I think, 392º F (as are the Polders) and has a tendency to go wacky at higher cooking temps. The Maverick works fine for me most of the time, although the probe display and the remote lose their connection every now and then. And it won't work at all from my bedside table, which is of course the critical location during an overnight cook.

Paragon - the knife department is on the second floor.

The Korean farmers who sell home-made kimchi at the Union Square greenmarket make one with Jerusalem artichokes - very good, with a more delicate crunch than the radish variety. Their cabbage/chili/scallion version is my favorite, though. Jin, I think your potato dish sounds scrumptious. I like brown rice with sriracha and cold cabbage kimchi.