Ufimizm

I have a 16" heavy cast iron wok that I love. One of my favorite things to do is to throw it in a hot oven and then use it on my electric stove that does not have that much heat output. I find I get great results. I actually bought it an a sporting goods store in the camping section for $7.00

One of my favorite techniques is to put my cast iron wok in the oven to get it good and hot and then put it on my electric stove. This makes up for my lack of BTU's from my stove.

I love spatzle!!!! I grew up on the very traditional style but have since learned to use them in many different ways. I don't use a spatzle maker, but instead use the cutting board and oiled knife method. mcattaneo23 Brought up the most important point of not over mixing. And for adding flavorings or colors you are just limited by you imagination. My personal favorite use is to use them in Asian inspired cooking. The last thing I made was a coconut curry soup with chicken. I made the spatzle and flavored them with Siracha and cooked them in the soup. I have also made the same soup and made them with Thai basil. I also like to put them in different stir fry combinations. These are just a few of the things that I put them in

Your bump to the thread inspired me to cook 7lbs of legs this weekend. I always associated fried Chicken with nicer weather, but it tastes just as good when it is 10 below outside. I only soak in buttermilk. I think doing the brining is another step that would add too much misture to the chiken. I salt and pepper the chicken all over and then take a good sized onion, some cloves of fresh garlic and some hot sauce (I used Franks this time) throw it in a blender with some buttermilk and let it grind the veggies to nothing. I soak ovenight, run through some seasoned flour and shallow fry in lard and Crisco. It always comes wonderful.

Thank you to everyone who has responded so far. I appreciate the insight!

I love the challenge of trying to make dishes for people that are a little homesick. I was wondering if anyone could help me with either some authentic Turkish recipes or at least the names of some dishes. I have a friend who was born and raised in Turkey and I want to suprise them with some good home cooking. The 2 things that make this a little challenging is that I live in rural Wisconsin so sourcing some the more unique ingrediants may take awhile and secondly they are a good cook themselves so it raises the bar of how good my dishes need to be. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I made a huge pot of red beans and tried to figure out how to use this sausage. The sausage has and offal off taste and I tried to moderate it down. I ended up poaching the sausage in water with salt, onions andblack pepper. I then sliced it and fried it to try to harden the texture up. I added it to the red beans and it soaked up a good amount of juice. It was rather dissapointing though. Normally when I make a batch of this for a gathering it dissappers, but this time I have plent left. I have lived in Wisconsin for most of my life and have always had access to a variety of good buthcer shop selection of sausage, but this stuff through me for a loop. From the little I can find it is a local specialty of Natchez, But I was unable to find any reciepes that use this softer offaly sausage. If anyone has any other suggestions of what to usee this with please post. I still have about 10lbs of it to use up lol.

I had a friend who was living down in Natchez, MS bring back 20 lbs of Garlic Sausage from Passbach meats. It's a smoked beef sausage made with beef and offal meats (heart, tongue, head meat, glands...etc) It has a stronger offal type flavor and the couple links I have cooked have a more mealy texture. I am supposed to make red beans and rice with it. I have a good recipe for red beans and rice, but I can find no recipes using this type of sausage. I am either afraid of it being too overpowering, or turning to mush. Is anyone familiar with this type of sausage that could offer a couple tips in using it.

With the new bacon topic, I figured you bacon enthusiasts would appreciate the "Bacon Flowchart." http://www.flickr.com/photos/fncll/2129889439/sizes/o/

I was at my local Asian food store and came across some frozen little octopi. Frozen they appear to be about the size of a baseball. I am looking for some tips to make them. I have found a lot of examples where 1 person love's thier technique but dislikes another, and the next person is the exact opposite. Any ideas or tips would be greatly appreciated.

How is your Rumtopf going, I am curious on the progress?

I have been experimenting with taking loin back ribs, giving them a good spice rub, vacuum sealing them and putting them in a large pot of water that I keep about 225 degrees for about 3-4 hours (poor mans sous vide). I cool them down and then broil them in the oven to bring them up to temp and then sauce them. The flavor is excellent, but I am struggling with getting the cooking time right, they either have too much tug to them or too little. Any suggestions on the cooking time to get a better mouth feel to them. I want tender with a little bi of tug, but not completely fall off the bone texture.

Fruit will float at times. The best thing to do is to find a plate that will keep the fruit submerged. As for the browning that will happen with oxidation as well as the alcohol bleeding colors from the fruit. The only thing I can think of is maybe pretreating the fruit in some ascorbic acid (Vitamin C). This may help to prevent discoloration. I know it works in canning. Hope this may help

We used to make Rumtopf when I was a kid. The key is adding the fruits when they are at there seasonal peak. We always started with strawberries and then went right down the line (raspberries, blackberries, plums, peaches....etc) until the apples were ready. The last thing would always be the pineapple. We always tried to add the same amount of fruit in each layer, would add a handful or two of sugar and then cover it with rum by about 1/2 to 1 inch. As for the Rum we just used white Bacardi. We would usually be down adding fruit in order to let it sit about 2-3 months until Christmas time. Big thing is remembering to keep the rum level over the top of the fruit. I hope this may help you a little bit.