Marlene

That's what I did. I had a house showing while I was gone, and it made the house smell wonderful! I had to test a piece of the beef when I got home, and it was incredibly tender. I've now strained it three times and it's in the fridge where it will stay until Friday. Should this be a thin sauce or should it be a little thick?

There are so few things I can think of that I don't like butter on! I'd say grits, but then just about anything would have to make them better.

Knocking down walls with a sledgehammer is so satisfying after a frustrating day. Don't let them scare you Dean. My kitchen renovation including ripping out the ceiling and floors, took 3 weeks total.

Hot dogs must be burnt in order to be edible. I always toast my hot dog buns as well. Cheese definately, mayonnaise? Well, I won't knock it since I haven't tried it, but saurkraut would be good..

I'd say you have good reason to be excited Dean. It sounds like you've done good planning and even better research. I'll look forward to the pictures.

boneless beef short ribs

Here's my next question. Can one braise too long? It's 6:00 p.m. and the dish has been braising for about an hour and half. I checked the meat and it's not that tender yet. So probably another hour. The problem with that is I have to leave the house at 7:30 for about an hour. So I wouldn't have time to do the straining, defatting step before I leave. So I was thinking I could leave this in the oven at 200 until I get back. Is that going to be a problem?

Did you taste it? I'm telling you, you add butter to that and you have an amazing red wine sauce!!!! ← I did taste it. It never occured to me to add butter!

Fortunately I have a lot of both! I have taken pictures as I go, but I'll wait until it's completely finished, then publish the step by step pictorial. One thing though, that red wine reduction smelled heavenly..

It is indeed not that complicated however, the beauty of this recipe lies in its pedagogical virtues. It teaches the homecook so much about certain aspects of "classic" cooking techniques. It involves at various steps infusing, reducing, marinating and braising techniques that can be applied in a myriad of other dishes. It not only does that but also shows how such techniques can impact the flavor, texture and complexity of each component of a particular dish. It can certainly be shortenend but I would recommend anyone to try it, just because it is a great cooking "seminar" in itself for any homecook willing to learn. ← Well, it's complicated to me . Seriously, I am doing this for exactly as you suggest, to learn. I am at a point in my home cooking where I am getting comfortable tackling the unknown and the more difficult. I will do this step by step as Keller specifies. It's in the oven braising now.

Bourdain's recipe is more like mine. Althoug I don't add carrots and I use shallots instead. I also use meat from the rib (you can get a great deal on it at a Korean Market. It's in the meat case, 4-5 pound whole piece.) I only add parsley, no bouqet garni. I don't add bacon either. I also add much more wine. And for those who care about authenticity, versions without bacon are authentic. Ina- Please no canned broth. Clean, fresh water is SO much better than the tinny, salty taste that canned broth will inevitably give a dish. Keller- No comment. ← I've decided I'll do Keller's this week, and Bourdain's next week. I want to do a taste comparision between complex and simple!

It does. The part that seems to be missing in Keller's recipe is to strain the reduction which of course makes sense. Of course I could be just missing that. Ok, beef is browning, wine is about to go on reduction!

I'm a little unclear as to why I would put all that stuff into a straight reduction and then add more of it afterwards?

I'm just starting my prep work for the Keller recipe. Somebody with the book please clarify something for me. In the ingredient list, Keller lists a bunch of stuff for the red wine reduction. Do I put the onions,et al in while I'm reducing the wine? Further into his instructions, he more or less says to add the onions and leeks etc to the wine reduction. I am so confused. And I've just started!

Individual molten chocolate cakes? Turtle cheesecake? The carmelized apples with cinnamon twist puff pastry I did a few weeks ago, was easy to make ahead, elegant in presentation and yet not to heavy after a large meal. Oh never mind, I just saw the "no apples" thing. Strawberries with grand marnier?

If you only have one batch of lardons at hand that might become difficult. The meat is seared at the initial stage of the recipe before it is cooked in the wine. The lardons on the other hand are used as a garnish and added just before the dish is served. Between both steps, there is a whole night going by during which the meat is marinated in its own cooking liquid. On day one, you can certainly cook your lardons, set them aside and then cook the meat in the lardon fat. Then you can just add the lardons to the meat while it is braising and leave in the marinade overnight. By doing this though you are defeating the very premise of Keller's recipe which is to degrease and "refine" as much as possible the cooking liquid. If you want to use Keller's recipe, i'd say go all the way on your first attempt and follow the recipe. You can always bring your own variations on subsequent attempts. ← While I can always get more lardons, I suppose you're right. I should follow the recipe fully the first time around.

Susan, I am so thrilled for you! Reading this and having you, Jenna and Judith do this course is a big part of what makes the time I put into the Society worthwhile. Will Heidi start experimenting more with coloured food now do you think? Congratulations!

Please do. And feel free to stop me before I do something rash!

Well that's what I thought. But that's not what his book says, although as I say, the recipe is fairly complicated. I've read it 5 times already. But maybe I'll do that anyway. Just because it sounds good to brown the meat in the rendered fat. This is one of the more complicated recipes I've attempted, but I'm looking forward to the challenge.

I've assembled almost all of the ingredients for Keller's recipe. I think I'm going to try that one first. As I said, there's something decadent about reducing a whole bottle of red wine. The grocer's didn't have fingerling potatoes, so I have some baby reds instead. And no red pearl onions, only white. And of course, there will be no mushrooms. I'll embark on this tomorrow and take pics of the process along the way. clarifying lardoons. I got a slab of bacon and will cut it up. But Keller's recipe seems to suggest that they are cooked at the end and served with the bourgnion rather than used in the making of the dish. Correct?

You can never ask to many questions. How else do we learn? I have a tilt head and for me it works just fine. But then I'm not a heavy duty baker, nor do I do a lot of doughs in mine. Mine is an artisan.

I should add that I do use mine to aid in defrosting meat sometimes!

I use mine I confess to start my baked potatoes then I finish them in a convection oven. I use it for popcorn and melting butter. Occassionally Ryan will reheat pizza in it. that's about it. I always melt chocolate on the cooktop, I don't know why.

You could make your own. I normally make my own using heavy cream, fresh parsley, some prepared horseradish, creme fraiche and a little kosher salt and some white pepper.

The reduction is done. Here are the pictures from the final part of the process: Right out of the fridge with the fat on top: Jelly underneath! At final reduction: I intentionally reduced this more than my other two stocks. I was looking to see how much more the flavour intensifies the further one reduces. I had found when I reconstituted a cube of beef stock the other day, that I needed two to get the flavour I was looking for. What I got was a stock reduction much more complex that the previous two I'd done. This is an incredibly rich stock reduction. I think I'm going to be very pleased with this. I ended up with 3 ice cube trays and a small cupful. Now that I've made three batches of stock more or less back to back, I'm getting pretty comfortable with the process. I found it a lot easier to gauge this one in terms of looks and taste for what I wanted. I also find it a very relaxing thing to do. There's no hurry to the process and it's a great thing to do when it's cold and snowy outside. I haven't found it particularly messy, and I can do a lot of other things while it simmers, and then reduces. Thanks to everyone for their help! I am now officially in love with making stock. A la Miss Scarlett: As God is my witness, I shall never buy store made stock again.