Chris Hennes

Stink?! Bacon!? Sacrilege! What temp were you at?

I made veal stock with bones-only just yesterday: if you get a good deal on the bones it's still worth making, IMO.

I'm a fan of habanero in just about anything sweet, I think it's a great idea. An apple butter with a bit of burn sounds great to me!

Thanks for all the breakfast burrito recommendations: I had one the other day, and they really are pretty damn good. Way better than those things McDonalds sells. And available all day, to boot!

Forums Upgrade: New Ways to Share Topics At the bottom of every eG forums topic there is an area called "Share this topic"—here's what it looks like in the new version: If you don't recognize all the buttons, don't worry about it: each one of them is a different way to share this topic with your friends, and there are a LOT of different ways to share links these days (though if your favorite is missing, please e-mail me). They are, from left to right: Twitter, Facebook, de.licio.us, StumbleUpon, e-mail, print, and download. Those last three have always been there: they allow you to simply e-mail a link to a friend, print out a page of the topic, or download the page to your hard drive. The first four each work differently, depending on the exact service, but I encourage you to check them out, especially if you already use one of those sites. And if you don't, now is a great time to have a look: they are all great ways of finding new ways to blow an afternoon important information online.

I wonder how much Gail was authorized to offer for that immunity deal.

My wok doesn't spend a whole lot of time sitting on the tripod . But I guess it's completely stable, since I've never even had to consider stability.

Forums Upgrade: New Search Options and Interface On Saturday we upgraded to the latest version of the software that runs the eGullet Forums. One of the most noticeable changes the developer has made in this new version is an updated search interface. Now, no matter what you want to search, you always use the search bar at the top of the screen. This applies whether you want to search all forums, just the forum you are in, or even just the specific topic you are in. We hope this makes it easier for new members to find, since there's only one place to look! You'll also see a completely new interface on the Advanced Search page that hopefully makes some of the many options a bit clearer. We're still working behind the scenes on the search engine itself (which has a few glitches we are aware of, and no doubt some more that we are not!), so that should be improving as we go along with this version. As usual, please provide feedback either directly to me (via chennes@eGstaff.org or PM) or to the main feedback address, feedback@egullet.org.

The wall is always going to have a bit of texture. If you spray the paint onto the glass is can be perfectly flat (you have to make several light coats).

That guy on HGTV's Color Splash Miami did something like it, but they actually painted the back side of the glass itself, not the wall. It looked terrific.

It's pretty common here as well, at least during peanut season. Surely there is someplace in New York that does it.

Christina, the most I've tried is about ten pounds, and that was in pretty wide casings (so less surface area trying to lose moisture all at once). Of course, ten pounds is a LOT of salume! And OliverB, I think you are right on all counts, I've heard of people doing so. Haven't really needed to try it myself yet, though.

My wife points out that the advantage of brands like Dole is that there are coupons to be found: so it may be more cost effective if you have that option. I'm willing to pay extra for the convenience of pre-sliced, pre-frozen fruit, when the "fresh" stuff on the shelves during the winter here isn't that good anyway. Now, when peaches are in season here in OK it's a different story altogether...

Have you had any luck with commercial brands of frozen fruit? I tried a few bags of the local store brand and it was terrible: nearly tasteless, compared to fresh. I don't see why that should be, I would have thought frozen fruit would be one of those things that could be packed at it's flavor peak.

Man, when you say "large smoothie" you aren't kidding. I'm not sure I could eat that much for breakfast.

I'm actually very surprised by how low that temperature is: when I do pulled pork I cook it to 202°F, in an attempt to ensure complete breakdown of the collagen. I usually do it in a relatively humid smoker, though: if I transfer it to the oven I wrap it in foil before doing so. I would definitely never describe the result as "dry."

Are you rolling it? If it's rolled I would take the skin off: if not you could go either way.

I don't recall: some I had heard of before, some I had not. Do you have a "top 5" favorites?

I was at the liquor store today and saw that they no have something like a half dozen different cachaças: can anyone suggest what the good ones are these days? In particular for mixing...

Forums Software Upgrade On Saturday afternoon we'll be taking the eGullet Forums offline for about two hours while we install a software upgrade. It's a relatively minor upgrade that fixes a few software bugs, though there are a few new features that I'll be posting about once it is installed and working properly. In particular you'll notice an updated interface to the search engine, and some new social networking connection options. While we've tested the new software, there are bound to be a few glitches here and there: please don't hesitate to contact me directly if you find one. I can be reached either via PM, or e-mail.

Even more likely: they knew full well that they were casting people who would crash and burn during certain challenges, and thought it would make good TV. Watch poor Eric! I bet his flavors are fantastic, but presentation is not exactly his strong suit. I have no doubt there will be more "showpiece" sorts of challenges, despite showpieces being a minuscule part of being a pastry chef: audiences seem to love that crap. I don't think he's long for this show.

I've frozen lobster scraps and made stock later to good effect, so I think as long as you have a good cold freezer you could store them away if you really wanted to.

Their major flaw is that they allow condensation to form on the coffee as it thaws: I think that vacuum-sealing the beans will solve this issue by removing the vast majority of water vapor.

I agree that vegetables are used in pastry, and more specifically in desserts: my belief, however, is that in a dessert competition, dressing your mannequin in a salad is not a wise move. Clearly the rules allowed it, but you're not going to win any "difficulty" or "style" points doing so.

How long is your layover in Memphis? You eating there? Do you recall the name of the coffee place at LGA that's been getting all the press recently? I don't recall which terminal it was in.