Chris Hennes

I could use a low- to mid-range recommendation for dinner one night, if you've got any suggestions. Must have a veg-ish option (e.g. Biker Jim's sounds like it's out). ETA: And I know it's contradictory with my low/mid desires, but reservations are a big plus.

Re: cookbooks for pates and terrines: I suggest CIA's Garde Manger. It has some good sausage recipes as well.

I personally recommend R&P for the technique info, more than the recipes themselves. The recipes aren't bad, per se, but they can be sort of hit-or-miss. I still maintain it's the best beginning charcuterie book out there, but I tend to use other resources for the spice blends, etc.

Nice, bonus points for location convenience (I'm staying downtown). That's one night taken care of...

Funny you should mention this today: on my to-do list is to find a few places for dinner when I'm in town in August. Reading past reviews of the area is pretty depressing: I can't really justify driving the 45-60 minutes to Boulder for one almost-memorable meal.

What table are you looking at? I thought MC modeled the cylinders as infinite (e.g. they basically assume the diameter is smaller than the thickness).

Are you doing molded pieces, or dipped/rolled/etc.? If molded, you are going to get a much whiter base by using Kerry's suggestion in post #2; that is, don't color the chocolate itself, just coat it with white cocoa butter.

When they say "above" in that case, they are referring to a completely separate recipe, for a pressure-cooked mushroom broth. I don't have the book on me at the moment, but the recipe is in there.

Yes, we're definitely in at that rate. Also, we moved our flight so should now be able to join you for the entire Tremont crawl (airline timeliness permitting, of course).

That's what I did, anyway. I have made a lot of pasta, I just added water until I got a texture similar to what I was used to.

I'd say that considering how many of us have encountered the exact same issue, it's pretty clear that there's something up. Can all of our disparate flours really be so different from the MC team's? The pasta was great once the dough was brought up to the proper consistency with water.

I go with aglio e olio (olive oil and garlic) when I'm really looking to highlight the pasta itself. Of course there are a zillion recipes that are great with homemade pasta, but I find that this one is best for when you want the flavor of the dough itself to shine brightest.

Depends: if homemade, nothing at all (not out of any sense of purity or something, I just like the way they taste plain). If out, either butter, or if available, maple syrup (NOT "maple"-flavored corn syrup!).

When someone puts a plate of food in front of me, my first action is to lean forward slightly, and inhale deeply. The sort of action one might see at a normal dinner table immediately followed by an "Mmmm! That smells great!" The idea that this might be offensive to the host is odd to me. I do engage in phase II smelling, which I admit may be more questionable: just before eating the first bite off my fork, I do the same deep inhalation. I think there is a clear social difference between the sniffing action one makes when investigating potential spoilage, versus one appreciating the aroma of the food. Then again, I appear to have offended Fat Guy, so maybe it's not so clear after all!

The chocolate chip cookies were above average. The chocolate-chocolate chip were inferior, IMO. Both smelled good, however. But, more importantly, why the hell are you eating at a Taco Bell if you're in New York, Hennes? I was no longer in New York, my flight had just landed back in OKC and it was time for Fourthmeal. I will make sure to give the hot sauce a smell next time, though, I promise. For those who don't smell your food before eating it: why not? Smell is a critical component of taste: when you are tasting wines you give them a swirl and a sniff before tossing them back. Why not do the same with food?

When someone (and I won't say it was Fat Guy) drags you across Harlem because you HAVE to taste these amazing cookies, cookies so good they redefine the entire genre of cookie, cookies so good he was so breathless with anticipation that we walked right by the store the first time, I feel you owe it to the cookie and to the anonymous cookie-lover to give the cookies a fair shot. Meaning you ought to give them a deep sniff prior to biting into them, in my opinion. Although yes, I do actually do this all the time when I am actually trying to appreciate a food or beverage, as opposed to just seeking sustenance. I did NOT give last night's Taco Bell this treatment.

Oh, duh, yeah, that's probably Dallas: that would make the tall building the Bank of America building, which is shaped like that (though most of the time you see it at night, with the green neon outline). It's not Oklahoma City (e.g., I'm not blogging!) and it's too big to be Tulsa (which does have tall buildings, but not that tall, and not that many). ETA: And the photo is taken from Reunion Tower, which is why it's not in the picture .

Philly? From what angle? Sure doesn't look like Philly to me. Where is One Liberty? And I don't think that's the Comcast center.

We'll be there Sunday.

We're interested in the Tremont crawl, but can't make it at five (flight scheduled to arrive at 4:45pm). We'll try to catch up with you at the second or third locations, depending on actual arrival time.

My shoulder was eight pounds: the center is going to come up to temp relatively quickly (a couple hours), then sit there for ~70 hours. I doubt for these very long time cooks you need to be concerned with the size of the piece of meat, unless it's truly gargantuan.

I'd definitely suggest this experiment. I've made a lot of pork shoulders, and the textural difference you get with the LTLT technique is amazing. As for the other items, I'd suggest going with whatever your usual method is, so you have some kind of baseline.

I used a basic rub this time and was happy with the results (salt, pepper, chili powder). I don't think there's any reason not to add a rub if you normally like to have one, the recipe and technique are flexible of course. Also, misting won't help you in this case, I would bet. You're smoking at pretty low temp and high humidity to begin with: you aren't going to lower the wet bulb much with the misting. The surface of my pork had dried out some by the time it came out of the smoker, but I don't thinking the smoking time is long enough to result in any significant muscle fiber contraction: lowering the wet bulb temp that tiny additional bit from the misting isn't going to change anything, I'd bet.

I just pulled out a pork shoulder from the SV rig and shredded it (no forks required here). This was done with 7 hours in the Bradley with Applewood, then 72 hours at 150°F, and this is the second time I've done it. I guess without a side-by-side comparison to an alternate technique it's tough to address Phaz's experience: I would definitely not describe the result as "dry", in any way shape or form, though. I also get plenty of smoke flavor, but that's before any saucing, so that of course makes a difference. I wonder what explains this difference in experience?

I've availed myself of one of the "free product" coupons floating out there to try this stuff: for the record, it's just cream cheese with some added stabilizers. It has the taste and texture of normal Philadelphia-brand cream cheese, and can be spread on bagels, etc. Until you get it over high heat in a situation where you might experience some graininess with a regular cream cheese, it's nothing unusual. I've added it to mashed potatoes and scrambled eggs to good effect, but the same can be said for normal cream cheese. I also tried to push its limits and used it the way one might use cream, to finish a pasta sauce. I deliberately brought the sauce to a boil before adding it to the pasta, and it held together as promised. They aren't really breaking any new ground here, I don't think, and for the most part it's just a marketing gimmick. But I guess if you find yourself wanting to boil stuff with a lot of cream cheese in it, maybe it's useful. ETA: I should amend the above to note that, in a side-by-side comparison, the Cooking Creme is a bit thinner than cream cheese. Not quite as thin as mayonnaise, but closer to that texture than to that of a brick of normal cream cheese. I suppose this probably made it stir into the cooked stuff better, but that didn't really occur to me as I used it.