Chris Hennes

This is true, since the energy you took out by adding something cold needs to be replaced by the same amount of energy regardless of how much water is in the pot, but from a practical cooking standpoint, it matters. If your water temp is only a couple degrees below boiling your food will probably cook very similar to the way it cooks in fully boiling water, whereas if you drop the temp 50° it will certainly not. So, for practical purposes, if you have enough water there is no need to wait until the water returns to a boil to start timing. (Note that I don't intend this to be authoritative, I'm just speculating).

I have yet to find a single-piece tong that opened wide enough for my tastes: do you have a recommendation? I am a little nervous about some of the fancier recommendations because I am not the world's most careful cook, and am pretty hard on my tongs. I'd be concerned about breaking the ones with little plastic bits, etc. My current main set of tongs is the kind where the locking mechanism is gravity-engaged, which is great once you get used to it, but every once in a while it screws you. I've also had these jam up over time. I'm intrigued by the other possibilities. What gets used in a restaurant kitchen? Do they lock closed at all? What mechanism?

For reference, that is the Vinotemp VT-28TEDS 28 Bottle Thermoelectric Wine Cooler. They advertise it as being "virtually silent," which is a damned lie, but it's quieter than a full-sized fridge, so if you put it in your kitchen it's no big deal. I got mine on sale at Target, but Amazon.com has them here as well.

I'm doing my garden planning for next season and decided to put in some horseradish because I love it as a condiment on sandwiches. However, from past experience I know how this grow-it-yourself thing works out: I am going to get inundated with the stuff in short order. Besides the suggestions above does anyone have any dishes where horseradish is a dominant or at least strong flavor? I have had horseradish-encrusted beef tenderloin and it was great (as long as you didn't mind that you couldn't taste the beef!). What else can I do with my projected abundance?

In my opinion, tongs are one of the most indispensable kitchen tools. I don't think it is possible to have too many sets, in too many lengths (well, as long as you have the storage space...). I was looking for a new set recently and it struck me how many options there are these days: I mean, I have your basic spring-loaded stainless steel tongs with the little locking tab in the handle, but a quick search on Amazon yields tongs with nylon heads, silicon heads, and different locking mechanisms. Do you have a tongs preference? What are the best ones out there?

I propose a new trial: day-old home-ground versus fresh home-ground, in a side-by-side comparison.

OK, so I finally got off my duff and took Fat Guy and Dave the Cook's various pieces of advice: I just relocated my liquor cabinet into the dining room, opening up a big chunk of space in the kitchen. I bought one of those wire mesh shelving units and loaded it up with my cookware, opening up a vast swath of additional pantry space. It has a bit more of an "industrial" look than before, but not altogether bad. I think maybe I need some nicer-looking pots and pans, though. Like maybe a a five piece set of Mauviel copper for less than $200 .

Are you specifically looking for something with that kind of texture (i.e. mayonnaise, bechamel, etc.)? My first thought was to do a traditional chile verde sauce (basically just tomatillos and chiles) and to reduce it down to get a thick enough consistency for your sandwich. It keeps for a week no problem (it also freezes with no loss of flavor/texture).

In concept, it doesn't really differ-you get the same result. OK, I am just confused about who is talking about what, I guess! Greweling has you use tempered chocolate in all his ganaches, and I find that many of them set up very quickly without tabling. But he does call for tabling some of his ganaches (for example, the coffee ganache in his "poodle truffles" on pg. 109) even when they call for tempered chocolate. So I guess I am still confused about when and how to table them. Does it always help, or does it depend on the recipe?

Phew, I'm glad someone else saw that, too. I was starting to worry about my memory! I think you're right, I think that was the bouillabase.

Do you all use long-handled bar spoons for stirring? I'm a complete amateur and have difficulty getting the appropriate swirl action going with the spoon, so I've taken to using a chopstick instead, which I have an easier time maneuvering around in the glass. What's the trick to using a spoon and not getting it caught up with the cubes and chipping them?

How does this result differ from just using tempered chocolate to make the ganache?

In particular, I'd be concerned that you weren't getting the temperature high enough: I don't think there are any advantages to making a stock with a cooler-temperature water than about 200ºF, you will not get very good flavor extraction. I can't imagine stock benefitting from the additional temperature precision offered by SV, so it just seems like a waste of a plastic bag. origamicrane , am I missing some detail that you are thinking of where SV might bring something to the table?

No: let them continue to brine in it. You may be better off putting them in ziploc-type bags so that more of the brine is in contact with the meat. Are you planning on rinsing them before you hang them? I think the Ruhlman recipe calls for that; I don't know about the others. I did, anyway, and I think it was a good idea.

How often do you run your dishwasher? I end up running mine basically every day (sometimes twice!), even when it's not totally full, for just this reason. If you are concerned about energy efficiency or water use, most dishwashers have a "short cycle," and are in general much more water-efficient than hand-washing anyway.

We're still at the part of the season where all you have to do to stay in is to not screw up: slow and steady will get you pretty far right now, and taking risks in not really rewarded. There are enough remaining contestants right now that you can be relatively certain that someone is going to make something that is downright bad. Ariane has enough experience under her belt to get her through this part of the season, but I too question whether she has the chops to make it to the finale.

After a couple hours in the oven I was confident that I had rendered as much fat as I was going to get, so I strained the solids out. The resulting pile of leftover goo was downright nasty-looking: I had no desire to attempt to create some kind of "cracklin-pancake" out of it, so I just discarded it. The rendered fat was absolutely beautiful, snow white, soft and creamy out of the fridge. It made some wicked-good tamales.

Why magnetic? (you'd want to use much stronger magnets on the fridge side) I attached mine to my tile wall with double-stick foam tape, and it's not going anywhere fast. A little Goo Gone will remove it when I move out or reorganize, no holes in the wall, etc. You could attach one to the fridge the same way.

Is there a twelve-step program for dealing with drawers like this? Actually, I think this drawer is pretty easy to organize: start by getting rid of the 3/4 of it that you don't actually need or use. You have two cocktail strainers in there! Surely there must be other stuff that you don't use, or at least use so rarely that it could go in a box in the closet. When I moved cross-country this summer I used that as an excuse, or impetus, to force myself to prune. I ended up keeping a lot of stuff, but about 75% of the gadgets I kept I have in a box in a closet for those rare occasions I use them. So, keep the extra strainer (for emergency backup purposes), but it doesn't have to live in the kitchen, IMO.

They are both great, but I am a sucker for mashed potatoes, so that's what we had this time. We have enough leftovers for two more meals, though, so I am going to go with egg noodles for the next round.

JAZ, I'm looking at the counter you have here: You say you want to keep this space open, but what about just somewhat open? I'm thinking of those wire steel shelves extending from the floor to the ceiling, used to store glassware. On the higher shelves you put the stuff you don't need that often, and on the lower the stuff you use daily.

This is true, but until you have really filled up "every cubic centimeter," it is always worth taking a look at areas where you may be wasting space. In my new kitchen, for example, I am "out of room." Except that I'm not, really. It's just that the built-in shelves are uniformly-spaced and not moveable, which is just crazy. There is plenty of space in there, I just need to rip out the old shelves and put something more flexible in. JAZ, this comes at a perfect time for me. Every time I look into my pantry I think, "wow, this really sucks! I need to do something about this!" Hopefully some great ideas come along that I can steal .

If there is steam coming out at a velocity and quantity high enough to burn you, you have the heat up too high. In general the water should only be simmering (though I'm sure there are exceptions...). If you don't have your heart set on a double boiler, my personal recommendation is a stainless steel bowl that is completely rounded on the bottom (no flat part)—this removes any areas where stuff might build up that the whisk is unable to reach, and allows it to fit over any size pot. That's what I do now (even though I own a DB, which turned out to be a waste of money and space).

Too bad you live far away, I'd offer you mine: I never use the damned thing. Since the steam does the job of spreading the heat evenly, the only real design criteria is the shape of the top portion: does your whisk fit in there nicely, with no nooks and crannies you can't get into? If so, buying the cheapest one you can find that fits that will do you just fine, I think. Mine has an aluminum disk in the bottom of the lower part, but as far as I'm concerned that is over-engineering it.

Interesting: I did not notice that recipe in there. 1 1/2 hours at 85ºC (185ºF). Interestingly, he notes that: This never really occurred to me: there is actually water in the chunks of fat that must be removed. I was thinking that the only water was coming from adding it to aid in the rendering, but apparently that is not the case. Be sure to let us know how it goes.