FoodMan

Chris, What is the best way to get a siphon going using the bottle filler. I mean I can think of one or two, but my concern is contamination. Since the bottle filler has that thing at the tip to prevent overfilling so "sucking" on it to get a siphon going is not possible. The only other way I can think of is filling the tube+bottle filler with water, dipping the tube end in the beer and hope the water will get a siphon going. What exactly do you do?

In Lebanon Avocado's primary use is in a sweet smoothie type drink. blend the avocado with milk and clotted cream and honey to taste. Pour in a glass and garnish with more clotted cream, a drizzle of honey and blanched peeled almonds that have been soaked in water as well as come pinenuts. You "drink" this smoothie (which is known as an Avocado cocktail -or simply as avoca- BTW) with the assistance of a sturdy spoon of course.

Wow, this Capon Magro sounds fascinating. I am a little confused though with a few things in the recipe: 1- The bread loaf, are we supposed to leave pretty high walls on (say 3 inches or so making it more of a bread bowl, or are we to leave nothing more than a half inch high walls or so. I guess the use of the word "disk" later on confused me. 2- How are the layers built? are the vegetables mixed together? Or does each vegetable get it's own layer? 3- How is this served? by itself? with some sort of good crsuty bread?

Ok, I roused and swirled the fermenting jar last night and right away all the "foam" from the surface broke apart and fell down to the bottom. Also the smell of the wort is very nice, it actually smells like beer with a nice hop aroma. Will the bottling class be posted tomorrow?

I'm looking at the chart on page 34 of the book, and I misspoke. I thought it was a picnic, but obviously by the shape it is either a portion of the ham or the shank. On this chart, Michael says that the jowl is cured like pancetta. I've got two here, so I'll do one with the pancetta cure. Still looking for suggestions for the other one. ← I sure wish I can find fresh jowls here. I would definitly cure like Pancetta and hang. Also Mario Batali has a recipe for Guanciale in Babbo and Molto Italiano. If I remember correctly he uses a similar mixture to the Pancetta cure but no pink salt.

I believe it is 1.5 quarts (6 Cups, right?). It should be this exact one, in red.

I have a couple of "beginner" questions; 1- "rousing". I guess I'll do this today when I get back home, but is the goal here to disturb the layer of sediment on the bottom? Mine is about a good 1/2 inch now. What about the layer of foam on top? We are not to break or disturbn that right? 2- I noticed for the past couple of days that the foam layer has a couple of "holes" in it with the wort showing. Is that ok? Or does it mean that I really need to bottle the beer because it is exposed? Looking -and very nervously- forward to the bottling class.

I was wondering when we'll see the bottling lesson...My beer seems to be doing ok so far. This Thursday it will be two weeks. So do I need to bottle it by Friday or Saturday?

I did similar thing with 1/2 lb portions of fat back. I just did not go with my gut feeling and use it in this instance. I should've.

LOL...kudos for you going above and beyond what a one liver from a chicken demands. I've been planning on making this recipe for a while but never got a round to it yet.

Bump! I made this terrine this past weekend from the Charcuterie cookbook, It's called "Veal Terrine Gratin", the gratin refers to the seared pork pieces that are ground along with the raw veal. It is flavored with a Madeira reduction, shallots, garlic and spices. I also folded in a good dose of chopped chives for good measure. It is so satisfying to make and eat a good terrine or pate that I always wonder how come I never make it more often! I need to change that.

This past weekend I made two projects, The Smoked Andouille, it came out very good and flavorful. However, the recipe does not ask for fatback and I think the butt I bought is leaner than it should. So, the sausage is a tad dried than it has to be. It is still delicious and will make a great addition to cajun specialties. I also made the "veal terrine gratin" with the seared pork and Madeira. This one came out perfect, smooth, rich and after cooking I saw minimal loss of fat. So, my emulsification techique is working fine just like the Mortadella. I also flded in a good doze of shopped chive. The amount of meat was not enough to fill the terrine mold though (the standard Le Creuset one). It only filled about 3/4 of the mold, so the terrine was a little shorter than I would've liked. I'm guessing a recipe+1/2 should fill the mold. Here is our portion that we had for dinner last night, with cornichons, homemade onion jam, Dijon mustard and homemade baguettes.

I'll add my comments to praise the cooking of Lazio/Rome. I had a blast, learned a lot, and made the my best food in this series. I am also sad to see it leave with several items in my note book still to be made, like Tripe alla Romana, oxtails and the semolina gnocchi and more artichokes as well as a proper carbonara (am I the only one who did not make a carbonara?...oh well.) On to Liguria.

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yup. exactly. this is one of those cases where only looking at a little of the science gives you a false picture. yes, salting does draw moisture, which you might think would inhibit browning. but the moisture it does draw is loaded with "stuff" (too lazy to look it up) that encourages browning. it's very simple to test. salt a pork chop a couple of hours in advance and then cook it side-by-side with one that hasn't been salted. after testing judy's theory, i now do just what she suggests--when i get meat home from the store, i salt it on both sides. right before cooking, i pat it with paper towels to remove any excess moisture. Then i cook it. makes abig differences in teh browning. ← I agree, lots of the stuff that gets pulled to the surface are proteins that get nice and browned (not caramalized) via the "maillard reaction". This makes for a much better piece of meat like Russ said and like Alton Brown always says. So, I salt a good 30 minutes to an hour before cooking, sometimes more.

Nah, you did not forget...I made those a good while back, not in this thread

Well, I made those a good while back but here are the Suppli from Molto Italiano, they were addictively good: I agree about Lazio staying on the first page. Only yesterday my local store (HEB) had the most amazing looking artichokes in both green and purple and with a good 5 inch stem! I have to try those. They were labled long-stem chokes and sold for the hefty proce of 2.99 each.

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I have gotten belly from Hong Kong before, but the problem is they always have them cut up into 2lb square pieces and the butcher in all honesty is NOT very helpful and when I asked him to leave a whole slab of belly whole for me he said I need to stop by and if they have not cut the pork yet, I might be able to get a whole piece . So, my new source with very heplful butcher and awsome pork for a much less cost than anywhere else is the HEB on Beechnut and Beltway-8. The place is huge and prices are very reasonable and their produce is awsome (can you tell I was impressed by my first visit?). They cater to the local Asian population so they sell all the excellent pork parts that Hong Kong does and they are very very helpful. Here is their number, 281-564-5201 ask to talk to Joakim, Edward or Joe at the meat/butcher counter. To get a full uncut slab of belly you need to call early around 7 AM before they divide up the pork. PM me if you need any more details. Good luck. ← Thanks for the information , Elie. I live in The Woodlands, and we have the hybrid HEB-Central Market up here, but I think they cater to the prime filet crowd I do get into Houston two or three times a week, so as soon as I finish off the 4 two-pound bacon slabs I just finished smoking, I'll head that way! "get there around 7 a.m." let's see, if I leave about 5:45 I can make it! Thanks for the phone number--it seems that a call the day before is in order. ← Oh, no need to GET THERE at 7AM, just give them a call and talk to the butcher around that time. I did just that and picked up the meat on my way home after work. It was all ready and wrapped for me.

maybe because we have a life?

Did you try Pete's Fine Meats on Richmond? They have all kinds of game and exotic meats, so they might have it.

I have gotten belly from Hong Kong before, but the problem is they always have them cut up into 2lb square pieces and the butcher in all honesty is NOT very helpful and when I asked him to leave a whole slab of belly whole for me he said I need to stop by and if they have not cut the pork yet, I might be able to get a whole piece . So, my new source with very heplful butcher and awsome pork for a much less cost than anywhere else is the HEB on Beechnut and Beltway-8. The place is huge and prices are very reasonable and their produce is awsome (can you tell I was impressed by my first visit?). They cater to the local Asian population so they sell all the excellent pork parts that Hong Kong does and they are very very helpful. Here is their number, 281-564-5201 ask to talk to Joakim, Edward or Joe at the meat/butcher counter. To get a full uncut slab of belly you need to call early around 7 AM before they divide up the pork. PM me if you need any more details. Good luck.

Let’s be realistic here, laidback manor is aiming high. It is not making “safe food” for a mass audience. It’s ideals are El Bulli, Alinea, Moto, WD-50….that is no secret. So, for Cook to draw a comparison between “lbm” and these establishments is understandable. What these restaurants do is difficult and juggling many highly involved courses all done pitch perfect is a feat. I am still amazed at how easy everything seemed at El Bulli when we dined there last year, but one visit to the kitchen and seeing it’s LARGE staff at work, confirmed that it is anything but. With that being said Cook’s review is not all bad, and her complaints can be summarized by these points: 1- Bad fry job 2- Inconsistency from the kitchen, a very good dinner in January and a bad lunch later…. 3- Odd Combinations of food Every critic has his or her own pet peeves, Cook as far as I can tell usually has two. The first one is “sweet food”, other than dessert of course. At a place like “lbm”, she is on here own because altering the diner’s perception of where a sweet course might appear is a major part of the formula of the cuisine. I wonder if she ever ate at Alinea or WD, doesn’t seem like it. If she does, I am not sure she will like it much either. She seems to me, from tons of reviews I’ve read by her, like a traditionalist. Her other pet peeve it the greasy, soggy or otherwise imperfect fried food. Since she mentioned it more than once, I doubt that she is imagining it and on more than one occasion. There really is no excuse for any restaurant, especially one at this level, to serve bad fried items. This might be a problem Chef Rucker and team need to work on and it does not sound too difficult to fix. Inconsistency happens at new restaurants while kinks are still being worked out, and it is my opinion that a restaurant should not be reviewed until it has been up and running for a good six months. Personally, I like to formulate my own opinions about restaurants and I am still planning on giving the manor a visit. Hopefully the fryolator is in a better condition .

My educated guesse, or what I would do: Yes yes, in the fridge yes, in the fridge I would say shock them in ice water first then put in cooler. Don't think so.

Dave, what can I say other than my stuff pales compared to your lovely work. On a good note, I found a much better source for my pork belly today and at 1.90/lb for awsome looking belly, it is heaven sent. I picked up a slab a little under 5lbs to start curing more bacon and also they sell great pork butt for the same price. Bought some of that too to make some Andouille.