meicjos41

I'm going to be in Parma next week, and I am looking for some awesome restaurants to check out. I will have a couple days to explore the city, and would love any recommendations for food related activities. Thanks for the suggestions!

I'm going to be around Chiavari next week, and was looking for some restaurant recommendations in the area. So far, my list includes Osteria Luchin, La Brinca, Osteria dei Mosto and Trattoria il Portico. (All from past eGullet suggestions) We would also love any information about the area that is useful (good markets, streets to explore, etc.) Thanks for any recommendations!

Just placed my order after following the discussion for a while. Duncan, you may not have been intending to market your product by providing thoughtful responses on this forum, but you certainly did. I purchased it because you have taken the time to address everyone's concerns, and you seem to really want to make your customers happy. I really appreciate that, and I am looking forward to experimenting.

This is Chef Achatz at Harvard, I don't know why this would cause people to lose their respect for him.

The major difference between Spanish and Mexican chorizo is that Mexican chorizo is a fresh sausage; meaning that it is ground meat and fat that has been seasoned and needs to be cooked. The seasonings used as well as the type of meat vary throughout Latin America. Spanish chorizo is most often found in a dry cured state. The meat and fat are seasoned and usually spiced with smoked paprika, then are hung to dry. The Spanish chorizo is salumi made in Spain, and can be eaten after it has been dried. There is a charcuterie topic where there is a bunch of info regarding chorizo.

Just curious Chris, what kind of meat do you use for making bratwursts? I think that the Charcuterie recipe calls for veal and pork, but I don't have a good veal source. Have you tried different types of meat or a straight pork brat?

I am also a Wisconsinite and have developed a great way to prepare brats. I begin by caramelizing onions, then I add peppers, garlic, and fennel (if I have it on hand). I deglaze with Schlitz beer and will add fennel seeds, crushed red pepper, black pepper corns, etc. (I also may add sauerkraut at this point) then poach the brats in the beer and veg. "soup" until cooked through. They are then put on a hot grill to caramelize the casing, and returned to the beer where they sit on very low heat for the Packer game. During commercials they can be served with mustard and the veg/kraut piled on top. I don't know if this makes the brats themselves taste any better, but I assure you that the veg and kraut benefit from sharing a pot with the brats.

I'm also interested in how to best prepare paella for a restaurant. Does anyone have any experience par cooking rice, and cooling it so that the pick up can be fairly quick (under 20 minutes)? I don't want to give up the crust by using par cooked rice. Any help or info would be great.

For the shoulder: brine for 12-24 hours, confit in a 200 F degree oven for however long it takes to get meltingly tender, then cool, slice, and sear to develop an amazing crust. Serve it with a salad/slaw with a very acidic dressing to cut through all the fat.

I just made some this week. I ordered a whole pig, and gave them specific specifications about how I wanted it butchered; however, they ended up slicing the belly with the skin already off. I just tied the slices together and cured it as normal (no skin). I only cured it for five days, and it was a little salty, but after a minute blanch it tasted perfect. I just pulled out some more sliced pork belly from my freezer this morning, and am planning on doing curing it tonight or tomorrow but for only 3.5 days. I think that you'll be able to make some pretty delicious bacon even if there is no skin to begin with.

I kind of like have having a microwave above the range. We have an electric range, so there aren't too many flames and the ventilation system built into the microwave works beautifully. We are lucky enough to have one of those fancy microwaves that can act as a convection oven. So I will put that at a low temp, and use it to store food. It really works great in that manner.

I ate at Marigold this last weekend, and I would highly recommend it for a fairly cheap brunch or breakfast. I still have to get there to try out their lunch.

I ate at Crazy Water this last weekend and it was pretty awesome. Almost all the food comes out from behind the bar by two guys in a little kitchen. There were six burners, a convection oven, and a mini fridge. The food they put out was impressive. I ordered some stuffed dates and braised short ribs. Both dishes were outstanding. I highly recommend this place.

Here is some sweet potato soup with some of the best cheese in the U.S. (Carr Valley Snow White Cheddar), a little bit of Hawaiian pink salt, and some ok truffle oil.

Duck Prosciutto Take the beasts off with the skin, and cover with salt in an airtight container in the fridge for 24 hours. Rinse off all of the salt and dry the breasts with towels add some pepper and wrap them up in cheesecloth then hang them in your basement for a week.

Culinary Artistry is a book that has an excellent section about composing a dish and has many charts about flavor pairings. http://www.borders.com/online/store/TitleD...linary+Artistry

http://www.butcher-packer.com/index.php?ma...ex&cPath=237_12 I think it is only available through the internet, at least I think I remember that from the book. Check out the sources section at the end.

Chris what brand of wine cooler did you get, I'm thinking about treating myself to one of these for Christmas, and If you recommend that model, I would love your input.

Thanks, thats what I will do

I'll try that out. The slices are about 1 to 1.5 inches, I'll post some pictures tonight. I like the idea of pulling some out every so often and testing them out, so I'll do that for sure. On an unrelated note, can you freeze hog casings? I couldn't find a butcher (tried 7) that would sell 20 feet, so I ended up buying a case and I'm sure that there are hundreds of feet of casings. I'm only worried about thawing and refreezing every time I make sausage until the case is empty. Has anyone tried freezing these guys, or is keeping them in the salt solution in the fridge my best bet?

I'm fairly new to this area of cooking, and am looking for some advice about bacon. I just ordered a pig, and gave the farmer specific instructions on how to have it butchered (i.e. don't turn the belly into bacon I would like to do it myself). Well, I went to pick up my pig and the belly was not cured or smoked, but it was sliced. So now I have beautiful, raw, and sliced pork belly. I'm wondering if I should make any adjustments to the recipe to compensate for this. Right now I'm planning on tying the slices together with butchers twine to make about six inch wide slabs, then proceed normally. Do you guys think this will work? It is my first time making bacon, and I'm not all that confident.

I'm planning on doing a pre-salted turkey this year, and just wanted to see if everyone is trussing their birds. I've always trussed chickens, but haven't thought to truss a turkey. So do all of you truss the turkey?

I'm just wondering how much people clean off the bones before roasting. Do you try to get must of the remaining meat off, or roast them with some of the meat on the bones?

Just wondering how your dinner was, I'm from Madison, but living in Eau Claire now, and really want to make it back to L'Etoile.

http://video.epicurious.com/index.jsp?fr_s...3194b3cd&rf=rss I really like this video, it's Thomas Keller making gnocchi, and about IQFing them. Pretty helpful.