FoodMan

Same here...the risk of Salmonella is minute if you buy your eggs fresh and store them properly. Just ask Alton Brown I love the mousse from Herme's Chocolate book and it uses raw egg whites. The other mousse I make is a Jamie Oliver recipe and he too uses raw yolks. So it is not just old recipes of a bygonne era that understand the great potential of raw eggs. Like Patrick and Wendy said though, pasteurized eggs should be available at your supermarket these days.

How wonderful! How do you do it, does it last for long, and is it possible to freeze it without destroying the aroma/flavour? I hope you don't mind the barrage of questions! ← I AM very impressed. My grandmother in Lebanon makes her own from her own very fragrant pink roses...it's not easy, basically she distills it using a setup very similar to spirits distillery. You can imagine how good the whole house smells when she does that! Is that how u make yours? What kind of roses do you use?

Thanks Chris! "Crazy Straw" it is

Many thanks Jason! It looks great. I will give it a try soon.

By siphon, I simply mean using the property of water in a tube to pull the water behind it along with it once some of it has fallen below the top level of the source. Here's a quick sketch that should get the idea across. Click here for more on the siphon principle. ← My question was not clear. I do know what the process is. To get a siphon going the liquid needs to be initially pumped/sucked out of the source, right? My question was refering to what we would need to get it going. I am assuming that simply sucking the beer out is not very hygienic and could lead to contamination of the beer. So, do we need to buy a small pump or does one come with the racking cane? Sorry if I am being too thick here or if this is all discussed in the bottling course.

Can we get some pointers on the lamb proscuitto? Did you use the proportions from the book? Was it boneless and butterflied and rolled? That lamb sausage looks amazing. I love Abra's idea about treating it like Greek Gyro meet and tuck it in a pita with some tzatziki and onions!

Chris, before I rush off to my local homebrew shop can you please clarify why you mean by "siphon"? Is the siphon part of the racking cane? or do we need to buy it seperatly? BTW, I was really tempted to go the "live yeast" way after reading the comments above since I make my own sourdough bread pretty much every week from my own starter and have been doing so for a few years now. This is a whole new process for me though and I would like to keep up as much as possible with your class, so a packaged dry yeast it is. After a few successful batches with that...who knows...

Alford and Duguid's lovely baking book has a recipe for a wonderful almond milk bread (hmmm...haven't made this in a while, maybe tomorrow for breakfast ) in which they use just made almond milk. Their version is dairy based, so basically it is milk simmered with lots of almonds and pureed and strained. I can PM u the exact measurments if u like. For a non-dairy (water) based version of Almond milk, Rick Bayless has a recipe for it in his "Mexico One Plate at a Time" labeled "Almond Horchatta". Also let me know if you want this one instead.

sure try running the bulgur in the processor and see if it helps. IF that fails, try it as is anyways and see how it works out. The rest of your ingredients should work fine. Sorry, I did not notice this post earlier!

We did end up going to Lucques for my B-day this past Sunday, I made up my mind after I saw the following menu, with pork belly on the list : sunday, april 2, 2006 kumquat and arugula salad with golden raisins, toasted almonds and shaved parmesan *** grilled tasmanian salmon with spring onion frittata, roasted asparagus and black truffle butter or slow-cooked pork belly with turnip-parsnip galette, sherry and french horn mushrooms *** strawberry crostata with pine nuts, saba and mascarpone cream We both enjoyed the dinner very much. The restaurant was busy but by no means packed or noisy. Service was efficient and professional. The food was top-notch and a very good value for the price tag. Both my wife and I went with the pork belly. It seemed that even at a place like this selling pork belly is not an easy job for the waiter. He seemed genuinely please that we both ordered it. Throughout the meal we heard him several times trying to sell pork belly and extolling it’s virtues to the suspecting diners with little success. Salmon seemed to sell much better. We were very happy with this main course, it was tender, very juicy, properly crisped on the skin side and with very little melting flavorful pork fat right under the skin. It was by no means greasy or cloying and was subtly seasoned. The galette served under the pork with it’s turnip ribbons was a perfect match as was the slightly tangy “jus” surrounding the whole thing. I would order this again without hesitation. The salad and the crostata were nothing special, but well done and a very good beginning and end to the meal. I also loved the little plate of almonds and olives they place on the table and polished it off. To drink I had a glass of Sancere with the first course and a Pinot Noir with the rest of the meal. My wife, 5 months pregnant, had just water. Lucques lived up to our expectations and we would love to check it out again on a “full menu” night. Thanks to all who recommended Lucques!

No luck finding fresh pork jowls here Kevin or I would've already cured some . Luckily, IMHO, my homecured pancetta kicks butt and will replace guanciale whenever it is needed!

Chris, you mention one packet of yeast. I know it is Ale yeast, but like you said there are several kinds like "Safale S-04 Ale Yeast - 11.5 grams ", "Nottingham Ale Yeast - 11grams", "Cooper's Australian Ale Yeast - 7 grams", "Doric Canadian Ale Yeast - 11 grams".... What kind is prefered and how much do we need?

Great class Chris! I've been meaning to start homebrewing for a couple of years but never had...thought I needed much more stuff than that. Hopefully this class will push me to action. I am sure I will have more questions but for now, how do you feel about flip top reusable bottles (the cobalt blue ones that Alton Brown used on his show)? They are more money than the regular ones, but it seems worth it since you do not need to buy a capper or caps and they can be reused. Also, this seems like a stupid quetion, but aren't one liter PET seltzer bottles too big? Thanks again for taking the time to share this with us.

Funny you should mention it. I've been looking for a slicer on Craigslist for several weeks now! ← I hear ya! I find the best way to get thin thin slices is to get the meat cold and use a serrated bread knife.

Kevin, it actually doesn't look bad. Hey we cannot all eat frico all month (well maybe we can), we have to try different regional dishes. Hathor, I actually would ADD some sage and brown butter to this "sauce" instead of replacing it, since the pasta itself is very mild. So, the cubed squash will work great with the classic butter/sage combo.

Man, that looks freaking awsome! Absolute perfection....my next sausage project . Looking forward to seeing your Pastrami Gravlax.

... And all I have to say is ------->> ← Samen, Smen, Samnah, Samni....all refer to clarified butter. In this case NOT salted. Melted butter works perfectly fine too. Please do let us know if you do (or don't) change your mind about the wonderful rosewater.

As promised, here is the adapted recipe. So I expect you to be the first to make it in that nice and shiny, brand new smoker of yours . I am sooooo jealous.... Please let me know if anything does not make sense in the recipe and I will edit it.

Yum of course! ok, let's get one thing straight people, DO NOT DRINK rosewater or orange blossom water for that matter by itself. Like Abra said, you would not use vanilla extract on it's own in a shot glass would you? Both should be used in small quantities to flavor dishes mainly desserts. In Lebanese and middle eastern sweets it is indispensible. It is used to flavor the filling for baklawa (baklava) and to flavor the syrup that is is soaked in. A teaspoon for a cup of simple syrup is all you need. I repeat drinking it on it's own unless you are using it like a medicine is NOT a good idea. Brands that I like are Cortas and Al-Wadi, both Lebanese of course here are a few recipes that use it: fragrant syrup milk ice cream a versatile Lebanese nut filling for desserts nut-stuffed phylo rolls Hope this clarifies rose water's use a little bit

It actually did, it added a nice level of sweetness and a very subtle squash flavor.

thanks for all the suggestions so far...they all sound good and this cornstarch idea just gave me another one! Maybe a pastry cream base with lots of crushed pineapple.

I am in charge of making a coconut cream cake with a pineapple filling. I do have the coconut cake part down, but I am not sure how to incorporate the pineapple into the filling. My thought is to make a buttercream and fold in sweet pineapple chunks. But, do I use canned pineapples or should I use fresh and cook/sweeten them myself? I am also worried about the filling turning too wet. So another idea is to simply layer sliced pineapple between the cake layers and top with the buttercream filling. Anyone ever done this before? Any ideas are welcome. Thanks.

you make a good point. Also if the guy is a regular and like u said the waiter maybe busted his hump for a customer he knows, then a 40% on a table of 6 might've seemed a generous thank you from a regular customer. In general though, I still think it is the diner's reponsibiltiy to check his or her bill.

Congrats to Chef Rucker and his staff on a job well done! What about the very first "whine" from Mr. Englander though? Does the waiter really need to tell the diner that "hey a gratuity has been added to your bill" even though it is probably written on the menu and it must've been on the bill? I do not think so, as a paying customer, I make sure my bill is always correct and I would not expect my waiter to advise me of the added gratuity.

Funny, I had the same problem with too wet dough when making a squash gnocchi recipe. This recipe really works great because she only adds in about 3.5 oz of roasted squash to the dough. The prune vinegar is basically made by simmering brunes with red wine vinegar and pureeing it. then it is mixed in with a little orange juice.