Chris Hennes

Another month has gone by and the sausages are ready to come out of the curing chamber. Most of them were completely covered in a powdery white mold that smelled like cheese: A few of them had small patches of green mold on them: After Chris Amirault's and my encounter at the Calabria Pork Store, I followed that guy's practice of washing and skinning the salami, and not worrying about the green mold. I then vacuum-sealed them and tossed them in the refrigerator where I will leave them for the next week to allow the internal moisture to even out some. I sampled the ends of a couple of them and they both turned out very well. I thought the Lombardia tasted a little too salty, considering that it has very little other flavorings besides just the taste of the cured pork. The Finocchiona was fantastic, though.

I wouldn't worry too much about the volume at this point, though in the future probably don't let it triple in the initial rise (I usually only let mine double before refrigerating).

Did you bake off a loaf and have problems, or are you just commenting on the volume of the dough?

The weather has been good here, so I've been out "wokking" for most of our meals this week. Spicy Garlic Eggplant (pp. 144) This is one of my favorites. This time I made it with some kind of small eggplant I picked up at the local pan-Asian market, I'm not sure the exact variety. I undercooked them a bit, but the flavor is just superb; very robust, not for the faint-of-heart. Kung Pao Chicken (pp. 74) This was almost a great dish, but turned into a flop by the addition of far too many peanuts. The recipe calls for 3/4 cup, but I think more like 1/4 cup would be appropriate. The flavor of the roasted peanuts completely dominated the dish, which was otherwise very good. Martin Yan's Genghis Khan Beef (pp. 91) Another of my favorites from this book, this is a very flavorful stir-fry consisting almost entirely of beef. I served it with a simple stir-fried asparagus (and white rice, of course). Cousin Zane's Sichuan Beef (pp. 95) I think the downfall of this dish was my use of a chicken stock prepared in the classical French manner, rather than a Chinese-style stock. Ultimately due to the shear quantity of sauce this dish came out tasting like a cross between a pot roast and a generic Chinese-American restaurant Chow Mein. It was OK for all that, but not worth the hoops you jump through, and frankly could probably live without the liquid addition entirely. Once thickened with cornstarch this dish just screams cheap Americanized "Chinese" (and I don't mean that in a good way). Has anyone had any luck with this dish?

There is a bit of discussion on Five Guys over here. I like 'em. You choose your own toppings, so it's hard to see how they would overwhelm the burger: I find the beef to be pretty flavorful (for a fast-food burger). But I think the Braum's burger I had the other day was clearly superior, and was ready faster to boot (yes, they have a drive-through).

I've heard of them, I think we have them. But what is a "butterburger"? Sounds frightening...

Having a drive-through is just a proxy for being fast enough that the throughput is about one order per minute per line, and probably no more than five minutes to complete one single order from start to finish (and even five minutes is a long time). Fast. No broad philosophical questions: if Thomas Keller will make me a burger in that timeframe, he counts.

I suggest for the purposes of this topic we go with "it must have a drive-through window" and I therefore withdraw Five Guys from consideration. As the discussion Mitch linked to makes abundantly clear, this is no easy distinction, and the line has definitely been blurred by the "fast casual" places. Perhaps a "best chain burger" discussion is in order, too. But I personally am looking for a burger I can grab and run with when I'm in a hurry. No waiting in line for 20 minutes, no 10 minutes to cook it to order, etc. FAST food.

Well, as I originally intended it, I really wanted places with a drive-through window. But that crosses Five Guys off the list, despite their burger being distinctly "fast food-esque" (albeit very good for a fast food burger). I think everyplace else mentioned has a drive through window, though.

I had a bacon cheeseburger at Braum's, a regional chain, this weekend, at it was indeed very good. Thanks for the recommendation, Rico, I don't think I would have tried them otherwise, I associate them with ice cream, and place that specialize in ice cream rarely seem to have good burgers, in my experience. And, count me in favor of flavor enhancement! If it tastes good, it tastes good, and I don't want to know what's in it, or how many calories it is. It's not like I'm eating these things every day...

Actually, I've never had to try to adjust it DOWN, only up, so I put a tray of water in. When that's not enough, I hang a towel into that tray and tie it off on a rack set at the topmost position, increasing the surface area for evaporation.

That's the one I use, and it's working like a charm. I have about ten pounds of salami curing in there right now.

He doesn't seem to have any sample articles up that I can find, just the opening letter from the current issue.

I definitely need some basic-level training, I was planning on going to that part.

Does anyone know why Reinhart's recipes call for additional yeast to be added when making a poolish- or other pre-ferment-based bread? There is already plenty of yeast in the pre-ferment, as far as I can tell, so I don't understand why you'd bother adding any more. I haven't even noticed a substantial difference in rise times when omitting the second batch of yeast.

I've used it in enchiladas and empanadas before, though I prefer shredded post-cooking to minced in both of those. But sometimes you make do with what you've got. Bayless and Kennedy both have very good recipes for these. Or hell, the empanadas you could do without a recipe at all, saute some onion, add the beef, brown, add chili and garlic to taste, and use that as a filling.

I got my Capresso Infinity yesterday, and fired it up for the first time this morning. So far, it's excellent, considerably better for use with the french press than my old "budget" Cuisinart grinder. The Cuisinart generated a lot more fines than the Capresso, so I had to be pretty careful when drinking to stop before hitting the dregs. There are still some fines from the Capresso, but probably only 10% of the amount from the Cuisinart. Of course, it cost twice as much...

Over in a discussion of French Press technique bmdaniel posted a quick comment about the Aeropress, which I had never even heard of. Long-time owners, do you still use yours, or is it sitting in a drawer someplace? How does the flavor of the coffee compare to the French Press method? Better, worse, or just "different"?

FInding a mom-and-pop anything here in the southern midwest is challenging. And most of them are crap, sometimes even crappier than the major chains. I make a pretty wicked burger at home (following paulraphael's suggestions here) and I know I can't hold fast food up to that standard, but the burgers you guys are describing sound great, for what they are. How are Sonic's burgers, since you mention them? I've never been there (I know, I know, bad Oklahoman...).

And? How did it taste?! Were you happy with the dried pasta? And could you sense the chicken livers in the meat sauce? I've never tried including them in it.

The place I buy my parmesan from actually sells containers of rinds... at full price. I like it in soup too, but sheesh, how about a discount?! There must be some other things to do with it, I guess.

Seriously, I know this is really stupid... but until recently I only drank your basic lagers. I only just learned about what the difference between a lager and an ale was! So I've tasted some beers that were described as "tripel" or "dubbel" but I don't know what they were talking about! And it doesn't help that I liked everything that was put in front of me. The bartender was friendly, but business was brisk so I felt bad asking too many stupid questions.

That sounds great: was the sauce for the brats, or did you put it on other stuff?

We recently got a new pub in town that specializes in Belgian and Belgian-style beers. I went there last week, and it was great, but it reinforced to me that I know NOTHING about them. Wit? Dubbel? Trippel? etc. Also, are there any "definitive" examples of the various styles that I should seek out?

Artisan's Pride (artisanspride.com, 1965 West Lindsey Street, Norman, OK) From their website: I'm thrilled to have these guys in town, it saves me driving all the way up to Kamp's up in OKC every time I need meat. I use them primarily for beef, since they have far and away the best selection and quality in town. Their prices are competitive, and the service is top-notch. They also have some chicken, pork, lamb, etc., but it's basically the same stuff you would get anywhere else in town (I buy it from these guys anyway because I like them, but that's me). If you live in Norman, this is the only place you should consider buying beef. Sign up for their mailing list too, they sometimes get great deals from their distributor. At Christmas this past year they were selling all their prime rib at choice prices, and I saw some gorgeous-looking, clearly-prime specimens go out the door for a song.