Chris Hennes

I am buying a half hog this fall and they were butchered this morning. The guy who raised the pigs saved some spleens for me since I said I wanted them. Of course, I've only got one recipe (Fergus Henderson's Rolled pig's spleen from The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating). Anyone else have any favorites? I'd be particularly interested in anything of a more Modernist bent. Can I cook one sous vide? What time/temp do you think?

I add bitters as you suggest when I'm playing around. I wouldn't say it makes changes any more fundamental than switching brands of base liquor, etc. Sometimes it's better, sometimes worse, but rarely dramatically so in either case. And TBT orange and Regans taste completely different, so no, I don't think it's redundant to own both.

In fact, in this case I'd argue there's nothing particularly special about using cast iron. I use a cheapo nonstick skillet.

I have basically the same model you do, and mine is dead silent with no appreciable leakage at pressures all the way up past the second bar and into the overpressure zone (but below the safety vent limit), so I'd say there's still something wrong with your cooker. I'd go with pazzaglia's advice above and try to get hold of someone at KR to talk to them about it.

I'm making it for me and my wife, so while for nostalgia's sake I'd like it to taste basically like what I remember, it's not that important for it to be exact. After all, the dressing isn't the only ingredient anyway. And I've already subbed out the canned olives with real ones, and the bottled parmesan with real. It seems reasonable to try to make an improved version of "Italian Dressing" while retaining the basic flavor profile.

Viscosity and stability are pretty easy to control with xanthan gum and soy lecithin, which I usually incorporate into vinaigrettes intended for anything but immediate use anyway. I just made up a pretty decent match for my memory of whatever the stuff is my mother used by making a standard white wine and plain olive oil (not EV) vinaigrette and seasoning it with fresh garlic, dried oregano, yellow bell pepper, crushed red pepper flakes, and ground black pepper. I think it's more acidic than the bottled stuff, but if memory serves the garlic and oregano seem to get the flavor in the ballpark otherwise. ETA: Added some shallots, too. Getting closer, I think.

According to a post from a commenter on their Kickstarter page, the T&C reads, in part: That seems to pretty clearly ban anyone from developing for multiple sous vide platforms. I'm glad the physical controls look to be useable and that apps were a distant second concern of mine, since this will almost certainly prevent the more capable developers from working with this device. We'll be left with apps from your random dabblers who only have this, and no other, sous vide solution.

No, it's a family recipe for a pasta salad.

I've got a recipe I want to make that calls for a bottle of "Italian Dressing" — not being much of a salad eater, I of course don't have any, but I've probably got the ingredients to make something like it. A cursory search with Google yields almost entirely recipes that call for dried basil, which as far as I'm concerned means the recipes are garbage (given the amount of flavor in dried basil). Does anyone have any better ideas?

I found the adobo flavor to be consistent with other adobo dishes I've had (albeit this was a bit richer!).

We ate at Dog-n-shake, where I had a dog, a burger, and a malt. The dog was pretty good, I liked the bun. The burger was forgettable, and the malt could have stood some more malt powder but was good otherwise. I also liked both the fries and the onion rings, and the whole thing was really inexpensive, so I can't really complain. We also had lunch at Saigon. OKC has a lot of great Vietnamese, but Saigon was right up there in the mix. I enjoyed their make-your-own spring rolls (can't recall the real name of the dish...). Finally, we stopped at Head Country in Ponca City on the way, and as cyalexa points out above, the ribs are excellent. The brisket not so much, but the ribs!! Very nice indeed.

I think a good blueberry pancake recipe is to take your favorite buttermilk pancake recipe, remove any vanilla, and add lemon zest (I add the juice of the lemon for good measure).

Holly said it best, I think: I don't understand why your griddle had mushed berries stuck all over it. Are your berries bursting and then sticking to it? I wonder if it's actually due to the lightness of the batter having a less moderating effect on the heat that a thicker (non-iSi'ed) batter.

I don't know how you make your bacon, but if it's basically already cooked via hot-smoking I don't know why you'd need to get the temp up to 165°F. When I've made these I simply cooked them to medium rare and didn't worry about it. Obviously that doesn't mean it's perfectly safe to do so, but it's a data point anyway.

Bourbon and triple sec, a la Bo Friberg's Caramelized Apple Pie (I'm actually making this pie right now).

I just made this again today, and I'd say I used about a third of the dressing.

Honestly, I don't remember.

I posted about it here: I remember the dressing being very strongly flavored, but it wasn't particularly thick, I don't think. Does the photo look like yours?

For those looking for Kroese on the web these days, he contacted me today to let us know that his English-language website is now www.kroese-exclusive-packaging.com.

According to this site (among others, but I don't have a truly authoritative source), propylene oxide cannot be used in conjunction with organic labeling, so if the problem almonds were certified organic then PPO was not the culprit in the sliminess. Were they actually labeled as "organic" and "unpasteurized"?

I think the problem here is that the granola is already made, right? And now needs to be "re-clumped"? It seems like Lisa's technique is going to be the way to go: did you have a chance to try it, Kim?

Over in the Air Waffles discussion a few of us have been playing with using a siphon to dispense waffle batter, which yields remarkable results. I'd love to see someone try a similar idea with a dumpling.

Is there anything worth seeking out in Wichita? It is known for any foods? Are there any great burger places? What about on the high end? I've never been there before, I don't really know anything about it, but I'm there for a weekend and I'll have a car.

While true, I still believe that a list such as what the OP appears to be seeking would be incomplete without sturgeon roe. I personally love salmon roe, which is quite easy to come by, but I don't think it would make a list of "top gourmet foods." I'm imagining the list as it might appear on BuzzFeed or The Food Network. Hey, it's not my list, it's just a list.

Chef Ferran Adrià once said here "Remember that a very good sardine is always preferable to a not that good lobster." That said, I think one could probably identify a Northern-US list of "gourmet" ingredients/foods to try. It might look something like this: Foie GrasCaviarLobsterDry-aged Prime steakWagyu beefBlack trufflesWhite trufflesRampsChampagneHeirloom tomatoesCronuts (hah!)I'd suggest that here at eG the list turns out a bit differently (which is why we've had trouble helping you), and is probably best summed up something like this: look at the foods you eat every day and ask "is there a better version of this?" For example, if you eat omelets, try making one with eggs from chickens that are pastured. If you like BLTs, try making one with a high-end bacon and heirloom tomatoes. Etc.