Chris Hennes

Yes - According to Ruhlman (original post here):

I wonder if I just use way more oil than everyone else . I keep all of my oils in identical clear glass non-airtight pouring containers on my counter next to the stove, where is is no doubt too warm for proper storage. I probably refill any given bottle every couple of weeks, which at least to my taste is a short enough time that no significant oxidation is noticeable. I find that keeping them all easily accessible to the stove gets me to think about and select the appropriate oil for a task, and though it may simply be a placebo effect, I think it has improved my cooking. For me, convenience wins.

I'm so confused. Chris, what the heck is that hydraulically-actuated coffee-shop seating thinger? What event is this at?

That is an interesting statement: could you explain in more detail what you are going for here? I take the opposite approach, making sure during both smoking and cooking that the sausages only reach 150 F, to prevent any fat from being rendered at all.

This is a very interesting thought: I don't actually know what the real differences, from a food perspective, various bacterial strains offer. If you start with the assumption that for sausage purposes you must choose a strain that eats the type of sugar we include (generally dextrose), then it is a question of what those bacteria convert the dextrose into. I'm not sure how many options there are: what is the actual chemical compound that the normal Bactoferm colonies produce? Do the Acidophilus bacteria produce the same thing? If so, and they can survive in the same environment, I don't see why you couldn't use them.

Are you specifically thinking classic French? What about classic Italian? I have oft dreamt of cooking through Bugialli's The Fine Art of Italian Cooking, if only because his tone cracks me up (he is quite certain that he is infallible), and it really starts from basics. I'll never do it because I can't bear the thought of sticking exclusively to one book, but still, the idea intrigues me. And it seems the popular thing to do these days...

I'll be honest, even though I have one of the aforementioned fancy-pants roasting pans (I probably bought it because Cook's Illustrated gave it a favorable review), I still transfer the deglazing liquid back to a saucepan before actually making anything but the simplest sauce, simply because it is easier to work with on my non-gargantuan stovetop. In retrospect, I'm certain I could have gotten by just fine with the pans that slkinsey is suggesting.

I'm not sure about adding oats to get the Entenmann's texture: if I recall, this type of crumble is not crunchy at all, but quite soft. Rob, is that what you are going for, or are you looking for something crispy?

I just recently made the Indian-spiced Spaghetti Squash from the most recent issue: it is very good. I overcooked the squash, so make sure you check it about five minutes before they say it should be done, and remember that squash can vary widely in size. That said, I'm really not sure what you would want to serve this dish alongside: it does not have the cooling effect that I think of as sides for curries and the like. Any suggestions for what main course would go well with this one?

Whenever I make gnocchi I make large batches and "IQF" them as you have described (by laying them out on a baking sheet). They take slightly longer to cook than fresh ones do, but as far as I am concerned any loss in quality is very minimal if you keep them bagged well.

Once you're rendered the fat out, keep the fat! All these suggestions for the skin itself, but don't forget that turkey fat will function much the same way chicken fat does. And it should keep for approximately forever in the freezer.

I've got the Cuisinart that tim mentions, and for the most part think it's great. The clad bottom conducts heat very well, but because of it's shape is not as efficient on an electric range as on a gas, since it is raised in the center. That said, it only spends a few minutes on the range, and the heat conduction is good enough that deglazing has never been a problem with it.

I am particularly interested in hearing about the "Everyone's Talking About Food and Restaurants - But Who Do You Trust?" session, especially in light of the fact that it is both sponsored by Zagat at moderated by Nina Zagat. Which to me brings up the question: who can you trust about who you can trust? I will be curious to hear how pro-crowdsourcing the panel appears, or whether you really feel that it is being moderated impartially.

I've been looking at the Heart of Palm recipe as a first attempt: I don't think I will make all of the different varieties (five are presented), but maybe one or two to start. They actually look like they would make great "small bites." One thing I am confused by, however, is the inclusion of the recipe for preserved Meyer lemons: I don't see them used anywhere, unless every mention of Meyer lemons in the recipe is meant to refer to the preserved lemons. Am I just missing it, or what? The trouble with using preserved lemons is that that turns this from a one day to a three month recipe! Not that that has ever stopped me before... and in this case, I could just make some of the other fillings, and skip those that call for the lemon. There are lots of interesting modifications one could make to these recipes: this one in particular seems like fertile ground for experimentation.

Seriously, I wasn't joking about the practice bit. It can be fun to try to get technology to solve this for you, but the most straightforward way is a pen, paper, thermometer, and a pot of refrigerated water (so it starts at the same temperature as your milk). I have one of those digital probe thermometers with the temperature alert for cooking meat: it's perfect. Take the cold water and pour it into your pan. Set your range burner to the lowest setting and put the thermometer in. Write down the time. When the thermometer beeps, see how long it took. Start over, next time using the next-highest setting on your stove. It should not take that many attempts to dial in on what setting on your stove brings cold water to temp in the appropriate number of minutes. It's a bit of a pain, but you only have to do it once for any given stove-cookware-water volume combination.

As a brief update, following some mockery from Chris A. I finally purchased a hygrometer for the chamber, so I can now tell you that the humidity with nothing in there but the pan of salt and water stays at a quite steady 65%. This is a bit lower than I was expecting: of course once I put a bunch of wet meat in there I would expect it to jump up, but clearly the circulation is a little too good for the baseline chamber, exchanging too much outside air. I can think of a couple ways to increase the humidity should it become necessary, but I am going to wait and see what happens when I put some sausage in there first. Also, certainly everything Dougal says above is true: the main problem I had with the "old fridge" school of thought is that I have neither a basement nor the garage space necessary, and I have to keep my chamber in the kitchen. I needed an appliance that a) was compact and b) was attractive. I'm not sure my current "pillowcase-over-the-window" solution is that attractive, but I'm working on that .

Maggie, thanks so much for all the time and effort you have dedicated to the Society over the years. I'm glad you will at least be staying around to inject your insightful wit and good humor into the discussions here, though your work with the Daily Gullet will be sorely missed.

Practice. At least, that's my method. Every stove is different, every piece of cookware is different, the external temperature will influence it, etc.

I don't understand the relation of the two sentences: in the first, it says 220 and the second it says 100. ← My reading of this is that they have designed the package size for 100 kg of meat, but you can use the whole package in less meat, or you can use less of the package and freeze the rest. My understanding is that as long as you have enough live bacteria to get you going, it is actually the amount of sugar (lactose, sucrose, etc.) you add that controls the flavor: the bacteria will simply consume it all, converting it into the flavor compounds we are looking for, regardless of how many of the little buggers there are.

Dougal is correct about the clamps: I used to use my wife for this purpose, but the clamps work a bit better . As for taking it outside on a cold day: there have not been any since I moved to OK, but I am hoping that in January I can do some serious Charcuterie in the garage where I have a big work table set up.

I would think that 10 liters of solution would spray a lot of damn sausages! How small a quantity can you reasonably mix the stuff in? Is this one of those where you have to way overkill the small quantities to make sure nothing goes wrong (as is suggested for the other Bactoferms)?

To be honest (and probably horribly conceited...), I find that various sausage-makers have differing quality standards, often without even realizing there is an option. A lot of places you find on the internet don't talk about keeping things cold and maintaining a good emulsion because they don't know about it, have never tried it, and are perfectly happy with the sausages they are making, though they are often what one of us would consider broken. I have happily eaten many of these sausages, but once you've really focused on the craft of making a perfect sausage, you develop an appreciation for what a top-notch sausage is supposed to be like. It varies by sausage type, of course, but in general a tight "grain structure" even when the meat is coarsely ground is an indicator that you've got it right. Of course, you can't tell until it's too late, hence our obsession with cold! I notice you are using the KitchenAid attachment to do your stuffing. I personally found this to be nothing more than an exercise in frustration, especially with a well-emulsified sausage, which is quite sticky. You might want top check out this topic on stuffers.

I'm one of those people who probably enjoys cooking most anything more than eating it, though I do love to eat. Most things that I cook I do generally want to eat myself, but as for things where I don't: nearly anything sweet, but dipped confections in particular. They are generally quite complex, requiring very large numbers of steps, many of which require you to be very meticulous: truly a joy for someone who enjoys the mechanics of cooking. It helps that they tend to be beautiful when you do them right, and people love them. I just don't have that kind of sweet tooth., so I give 99% of them away, usually sending them into the office with my wife. Pastries, on the other hand, I do not share.

My Amazon copy arrived today, and it is a gorgeous as I had hoped. Of particular interest to me is the section by Chef Achatz where he describes many of the ways he comes up with dishes: it is well written and gives nice examples of the sorts of things he does to develop these incredible-looking recipes. The recipes are certainly not for the faint of heart, but I'm looking forward to playing...

I agree that browned garlic in carbonara doesn't sound all that good... though to be honest, I never put garlic in my carbonara anyway. Onion, on the other hand, is key, its sweetness balancing out the richness and salt of the dish. But you want the onion translucent, not browned. ← Interestingly enough, I just looked at a number of cookbooks, including two Roman cookbooks, Marcella, della Croce, et. al., and none of them have onions in the recipes. Garlic is sometimes shown, but in those recipes, the whole garlic cloves are heated just until browned and then removed from the dish. Cream is sometimes shown as an optional ingredient as well, and I, like Maureen, like to use a mix of parm and pecorino. ← Interesting. In The Fine Art of Italian Cooking Bugialli has you chop the garlic fine and add it early. His description makes it sound to me like he is making modifications to (what he considers to be) the original recipe, which is a little unusual for him, but I gather he thinks the original is "too heavy." He recommends a blend of parm and pecorino, and a bit of red pepper flakes, but no onion.