Chris Hennes

Bingo---that's the one I was thinking of. I know I've made that one in the past and it was really good. Maybe I will give the muffins a shot too, but I'm definitely staying away from the Sept. '95 recipe: it's just not very good.

The other night I made the Golden Northern Cornbread from the September 1995 issue, and I was quite disappointed with how it turned out. From the article: In my opinion, there was very little flavor, it was a bit dry, and it was not very "Northern-like" at all to my tastes (that is, it was not soft, moist and sweet). What gives? I could swear I have made a successful CI-recipe cornbread before, it must not have been this one! I was left wondering if it was the cornmeal itself: I used a stone-ground organic that had lots of germ in it, so I was hoping for a lot of great flavor, as the article promised me! Is there another Northern-style cornbread recipe in a more recent issue that I could be thinking of? (I feel like it might have actually had corn kernels in it, anyone remember that one?)

I am guessing they are not the same, since those specifically say they are dry (no preservatives), and there is no indication that they are actually frozen. My understanding was that the frozen scallops were also "wet." Of course, who really knows... we didn't get to see the brand on those scallops.

Well, it figures that just as I'm getting ready to leave town, the local Wegman's starts carrying the Fever Tree tonic water. It's only $5/4 bottles here (only!), and is definitely a far cry better than my usual Canada Dry, though whether it's four times better is debatable. Nevertheless, I have to agree with the sentiment that it is wonderful stuff: the subtle orange flavor is intriguing in a simple gin and tonic (I'm drinking Plymouth in mine at the moment).

Well, I'm not real well-travelled, but based on the street signs and automobile types, I'd guess we're still in the U.S. ETA: My guess is that is the New York Washington Square arch.

I occasionally play around with different cuts: I made a meatloaf this week that used short ribs as the beef component, and it worked really well. I like hamburgers made with a blend of chuck and other cuts, since I generally agree with them that chuck is not that flavorful. Just because it's going into a burger doesn't mean that you have to use the cheapest cut out there, IMO.

Mussels Steamed with Leeks, Tomatoes, and Garlic (Fine Cooking 90, January 2008, Q&D) Recipe here if you have online access Any recipe that calls for scrubbing four pounds of mussels has a hard time calling itself "quick," in my opinion. Nevertheless, tonight I made this steamed mussel dish from the "Quick and Delicious" section, and it was in fact, pretty tasty, if not terribly quick. I love leeks, and they are a focal point of this dish, so that helped. Really, I could have lived without the mussels entirely and just dipped the baguette I had in the leek and tomato sauce, which I think would make a good pasta sauce as well. Other than scrubbing the mussels the recipe is straightforward, with only a few ingredients, though I substituted a fresh heirloom tomato for the canned diced tomatoes the recipe calls for. There is a bit of tarragon in the dish, which in my opinion was completely lost in the finished dish: I couldn't detect it at all. I was surprised that it was added so early in the cooking: I like tarragon added at the last minute. Next time I may go half and half with it, and add a little at the very end.

As far as I am concerned, right now his principal qualification towards being interim head judge is that he has eaten more different foods in more different places than most of the rest of us combined. I bet he has a hell of a palate. Since they are supposed to be judging primarily on the taste of the food, I think he is perfectly qualified.

Bacon-Wrapped Meatloaf (Fine Cooking 91, March 2008, p. 37) Recipe here if you have online access Tonight for dinner was one of the meatloaf recipes from the March 2008 issue: the one I had was a recipe from Jessica Bard, and was a standard meatloaf base with a sherry-marinated cremini mushroom addition, and wrapped in bacon. Overall I was very pleased with the recipe, but there are a few things I will change before making it again. First, the texture was looser than I prefer for meatloaf. The instructions have you mix and work the meat as little as possible, but since I ground the meat myself (making it very loose to begin with), I think I carried that a little to far, and didn't work it enough. Second, I think I will use more thinly-sliced bacon next time. I was using homemade, and I had sliced it thicker than was optimal for the meatloaf, since you need to crisp it up at the end without overcooking the meat, which turned out to be a problem. Finally, I found the gravy to be a bit bland: rather than using watered down chicken stock, I think a full-strength homemade beef or even veal stock would fit the bill better. It's a good thing the meatloaf itself wound up so tasty, because I am going to be eating it for lunch for the next week!

Nice shot, Peter. I agree with the cooking time: I did the same thing the other night and wished I had left them a bit firmer. I wonder how long you really need to cook them to be "mostly safe." I'm sure the 10 minute recommendation is a "cover our butts" time.

Tonight we ate at The Gamble Mill, at 160 Dunlop St. in Bellefonte. This is another of the Fonash.Kendeffy Restaurant Group's places (Alto Italian and Zola New World Bistro being the others at the moment), and again, I am very glad to have Fonash and Kendeffy in the area. I started with a charcuterie platter, which is typically sort of so-so in these parts, and was pleasantly surprised to find quite good, classic French charcuterie, and if it wasn't homemade (I don't know), it was at least artisanally produced. Its only real flaw was that the last place I had a charcuterie plate was Au Pied de Cochon in Montreal, where it is truly exquisite, and The Gamble Mill's suffered in comparison. Still, if it's on the menu when you go there, order it. Next up was a spinach salad, sprinkled with a very nice bacon. The salad was well executed and tasty, if not the most exciting thing in the world. For my entrée I had a smoked pork chop with sauerkraut and grilled plum. The chop was a bit dry, but the sauce it was served in was quite tasty, and the sauerkraut very good (though perhaps not as good as Herwigs). I would order this again, but might try to request the pork cooked a bit less. We ended the meal with Hungarian Crepes, which were mediocre, and we didn't finish. The crepes were sort of cold and insipid, with a poor texture, and the filling just tasted like knock-off Nutella. Fortunately, the 17 year-old Bowmore Scotch I enjoyed with it made up for any deficiency and I left happy anyway . Overall, another good place by Dave Fonash and Paul Kendeffy. These guys are taking over the high-end scene in the area, and everyone is winning as a result.

Do you have a link to the one you have? I can't find any smokers on their website . Propane sounds good to me, too, but I don't have any idea how much the things use. How much runtime can you get out of a tank? Though I guess over 18 hours would be probably be cold-smoking with continuous ice addition anyway, so maybe having to pop on another tank is no big deal...

That just means all the back-issues of number 75 are sold out. ← No, seriously, check this out: Where would #75 fit? Was there a special Christmas issue, maybe? Edited to answer my own question: at least in 2004 there was a special "Fine Cooking Annual Holiday Baking Issue 2004," which is not listed for 2005. So maybe the granola recipe was in the "Fine Cooking Annual Holiday Baking Issue 2005" that they don't have available right now.

It's been a while since I had anything to add here: their recent specials just haven't been, well... special. But today comes something a bit out-of-the ordinary for them: bing cherries. From the newsletter: At $20/lb these better be the best cherries anyone ever ate, though !

That's a very good question: the article says it is from issue #75, but according to the back-issue order form, there is no issue 75! So I have no idea what is going on there, but it appears that the recipe was recycled for the December 2007 breakfast pullout, so have a look there.

I'm not so sure about that: take a roast, for instance. Provided you are not doing an oven-sear on it (i.e. you are not starting at 500 F and dropping it down, perhaps because you seared it on the stovetop first), I don't see how pre-heating the oven has any real effect. I can't think of a reason not to, at least preheat while you are searing, but if the oven isn't full-heat before the roast goes in, so what?

Over the years here at the eGullet Forums a number of topics involving that nectar of the gods, Scotch Whisky, have come up. For example, What do you take in your Scotch? What do you have on your shelf? How to find someone to run a Scotch tasting? Non-Scottish "Scotch" from Canada and Japan While I personally generally stick to single malts, there is plenty of room in this topic for the blend-aficionados out there as well. So, fellow Scotch-drinkers, what say you? What is your favorite everyday drinker? Special occasion splurge? Dream bottle? Highlands or lowlands? What about Islay? Do you find that particular smokey, peaty, iodine flavor a wonderfully intriguing sensory experience, of would you rather be drinking from a latrine? As for myself, at this moment I am enjoying a glass of Talisker, neat. My everyday drinker is whatever is on sale at the state store that I wasn't drinking last month , but I tell myself that when I finish my Ph.D. I am going to pick up a bottle of The Macallan 25 year and invite some friends over. I love the Islays, though the Laphroig cask strength is a bit overbearing, IMO.

It's actually in the fridge because I was out of room in the freezer, where I typically keep high-oil-content stuff that I don't use very often. If you leave it out at room temp it goes rancid much, much faster. At least, I assume that is true of wheat germ: I know it is true of whole wheat flour, which is what I was basing that on.

Well, his recipe wasn't really butterscotch in the sense we think of it anyway (which I agree sounds not-terribly-edible), but it calls for butter and Scotch, so I guess maybe it is more of a play on words. I have my doubts about whether miso will have the powerful affect on the caramel that fish sauce does, but Dale has consistently shown himself to be a better, and more imaginative, chef than I am, so I think I will withhold judgement! I guess my overall point is that I don't want to judge the dish based on its name alone: the recipe looks like it may be salvageable with a little TLC.

Well, I can't help with the physical magazine, but the article you are referring to is "The Best Ever Spaghetti & Meatballs" by Frank Pellegrino, from Fine Cooking 71, pp. 50-51. The article is here if you have online access, and the recipe is here. I will have to give this one a shot: I am currently enamored with the Cook's Illustrated meatballs, but I like variety!

That must be based on the 1993 recipe? Or the maybe the 1998? The 2007 recipe doesn't use the wheat bran. Do you toast it before using it in this one? I never realized CI had so many different bran muffin recipes!

Crispy Sweet Pecan Granola (From Fine Cooking 75, pp. 34) Recipe here if you have online access. Tonight I was trying to use up some random ingredients I had in the pantry, so I made one of the granolas from Fine Cooking. This one is flavored with cinnamon, vanilla extract and brown sugar, and is fairly loose (by design). It has just the right amount of sweetness, and each individual ingredient shines through clearly in the final product. I don't mean to say it's not harmonious, just that each ingredient seems necessary for the final product. It was very easy to make, and doesn't require any outlandish ingredients, so I'm pretty happy with it. Of course, I don't know what I'm going to do with six cups of granola...

I'm cleaning out the fridge, trying to use up some spare ingredients: I came across, way in the back, an unopened jar of wheat germ. I can't recall what I thought I would ever use it for, though I suppose it must have been a bread recipe. Anyone have any good thoughts on how to use up a whole lot of it all at once?

I'm not saying butterscotch and scallops cannot be made to work together, but I doubt it. However, we cannot compare it to the Vietnamese caramel used in cooking. The caramel (of which I always have a homemade jar to use in recipes) is burnt sugar and water, that's it. Butterscotch is not caramelized, it contains butter, scotch whiskey and brown sugar. Very, very different flavor profile. In the quantities he seemed to apply to the poor scallops I also went 'belch'. I actually was hoping I-cannot-cook-but-can-bitch Lisa to go home, but oh well. My hope is for a Richard Vs. Stephanie finale. ← Well, taking a look at the recipe here, it appears that he does caramelize the sugar, and there is no brown sugar called for. So nomenclature aside, I can't see a reason that this absolutely would not work: he may just not have executed it well. I've made (just the other night, in fact) a similar dish, though without the scotch and with fish sauce instead of miso (big difference, I know, but conceptually...). Edited to add: if he didn't caramelize the sugar to a dark enough stage it would have been too sweet: could his mistake have been that?

Thanks for the video: was that all in real-time or was there some time-lapse action going on there?