Lyle

Well if you're shooting for something more crispy, less bready, you may not want to have that fully elastic "rip-reistant" consistancy. For a crispier crust, I've had more success with a wet dough, overloaded with yeast, that is a pain in the a** to deal with but has a thin cracker like consistency when baked in a hot oven. If it's the lack of 'fresh' taste, I've noticed that almost every cookbook recipe for pizza dough grossly underestimates the amount of salt necessary to bring out the taste of the crust over more agressive toppings. Try kicking that up a notch (sorry). Also, if it's thin crust you're after, try adding a small amount of whole wheat flour to the mix, maybe, at most, one part in ten. What exactly are you shooting for? Thin crust or a more doughy neopolitan style? What's your flour/water ratio?

What type of flour are you using? Are you using fresh yeast? Also, don't roll it out. I did that alot when I first started baking pizza. Unless you have a really, REALLY wet dough, though, it compresses it to an unacceptable consistancy. Learn to stretch it into an ugly oval, then progress to something closely resembling a circle. You'll get better at it. I did. Edit: If it is truly comparable to bread, stretch (or if you must, roll) it thinner and use an HOT HOT HOT oven.

I think alot of them are being pressed out because, at least in the Hill Country, North, and East Texas they are no longer the only place to eat in town. Especially if said town is on or near a major highway. I've also noticed that, for the most part, treats, not eats, are being praised. I'd stay away from their food menu. I'll take Whataburger, and their fries, any day over the mighty DQ. Luckily, since Whataburger seems to have targeted DQs recently with their store openings, all one has to do is run across the street for a delicious DQ dessert. Oreo Blizzard all the way. Funny, I don't remember them inverting it last time I got one.

Just wanted all to be aware that my local TV listings indicate that NBC is rebroadcasting the first episode of The Restaurant tonight (July 26) AT 8:00 Eastern. For those who missed it. Like me.

Apparantly my Google isn't as good as your Google. Thanks for the link. I'll probably have to divide the "steak" into portions as it's too huge to fit into any braising vessels I own. I guess I was wondering if I could break it down into, well, steaks. Not a good idea apparantly. Braising it will be. Thanks.

AAARRRRGGGHHHH!!! One of the most enjoyable promises I've ever kept.

My extended family is very close-knit and all happen to live in the same rural town. I don't guess they happen to live there, they choose to. At any rate, they sometimes go in on and butcher an entire side of beef to divide it up. On a recent visit, we got in on their "scraps". We brought home massive amounts of ground and roasting beef. Last night, while looking for a small meat component for our veggie-intensive-garden-plucking-eating-to-clean-out-fridge-to-waste-as-little-as-possible diet, I pulled out this novelty sized piece of beef labeled Seven Steak. It's huge (no weight printed on it by the butcher)...I'd say maybe 5 lbs...looks like a comically large steak. Shirley Corriher has a gumbo recipe. Google seven steak. Lots of people have gumbo recipes. I'm not that crazy about 15 lbs of gumbo. I won't be doing anything with this slab of beef until I get back from vacation, but what else can I do with it? I've never heard of a Seven Steak. What is it cut from? (If you say a cow, I'll scream) Why is it called Seven Steak? Why am I capitalizing that? Can I break it down into further components, cook some as steak, others in, say, a strogonoff?

Nobody has yet.

If I could be allowed for a moment to limit the argument to highly civilized and educated countries and be allowed to make gross generalizations, isn't it often a simple question of priorities? Limiting this to personal observation, how many people who in GOOD FAITH diet and/or exercise in the effort to lose weight fail? I am lucky. I'm a lazy bastard who, outside of occasional hiking trips and routine yardwork, doesn't get a lick of exercise. I eat as much of anything I want. My heart may some day leap out my ear (doctors tell me so far I'm fine), but I'm one of the thinner people I know. I'm in fact skinny. If I were to gain 30+ pounds in the next six months, would I diet to lose the weight? Probably, but I can't be sure. As Steven's assumption states, I am faced with an unlimited food supply. The pleasure of eating may still be a higher priority than the pleasure of looking fit. My sainted mother continually gained weight after my birth, and for years "dieted". She never lost much. The pleasure of eating outweighted the pleasure of looking fit. It took a dire prediction from several medical professionals to realign her priorities. She took to a simple diet, probably her tenth over the span of 30 years, and because weight was now important to her, she has lost much of her heft. The laborers that burn three times the calories a day that I do also have this infinite supply of food to replinish their energy stores. At this point, the pleasure of nullifying hunger pains outweighs the pleasure of looking fit. Fine. Introduce a fast-food tax. Take it forward to a butter enrichment tax (BET) for sauces at nicer restaurants. Ban foie gras. I'm not losing weight staying at home grilling steaks and making mashed potatoes either. Organic or otherwise. Although taste may or may not be subjective , pleasure IS. Those who derive pleasure from consuming McGriddles or dry salads or whatever won't stop until it becomes their priority to stop. Good luck reprograming us to think that way. I know it's not healthy. I really don't care. It's not important to me...yet.

"We started with the shrimp cocktail for $21.95. Six large shrimp arrived lying on lettuce leaves like white slugs that had keeled over and expired after their midday feast. What do people see in shrimp cocktail?" At least Hodgson shows some honesty here that no matter what this dish would not satisfy.

This time of year is the worst. My fridge is full of tomatoes (green and ripe), squash and zucchini from the admittedly too-large garden. Freezer full of purple hull peas. We really can't give enough away. And this year the tomatoes are too acidic for anything but fresh (delicious and juicy this yr) or sauteed to work well; no reduced sauces for freezing. The upshot of this is every spring we are abruptly forced to vaccum out most of the previous year's booty. I have promised three years running I wouldn't horde like that in the fall and winter so I woulden't feel this deep, depressing guilt. The trend says to put your money on the refridgerator winning again this year.

Hmmm, don't know what the problem was for you. I have a rotating plate in mine, so maybe that helps. But also, the plate a paper towel method works too. Now that I think about it, the tray was in fact too large to rotate in our microwave. The circular plate, of course, would. The main reason we got rid of the micro-tray though was it was a single-use item and we seldom microwave bacon, usually only for topping on a potato or as other garnish. Or for mock swordfighting.

Then why do so many first generation Vietnamese in the United States use them?

I had one of these, and had little success. I don't know why. I laid the bacon across the ridges, the fat fell into the pools, and all were happy. But the bacon, for me, cooked much less evenly; it needed constant manipulation to keep certain pieces from burning and others from remaining floppy. Could the exposed bacon-bottom have something to do with this? With the paper towel method the fat absorbed into the towel is still in contact with the bacon. Would that matter?

Have you tried those blue-tinted shop towels? They're tough but I know you're looking for maximum absorbancy, and I'm not sure how they compare to a high-quality kitchen towel in that department.

I didn't purchase them intently for home cooking, but I have two small Coleman portable burners that I have found useful not only for hiking, but for certain in-home kitchen tasks such as roasting peppers (it takes forever on my electric coils) and certain cookware. I got mine from a surplus store several years ago for about $10 a pop. I find it useful to get at least a moderate gas flame in my ultra-modern electric kitchen.

Why would you need a flame tamer? What would happen if you put the bowl directly on the element?

It always goes well with venison. Sorry, I had to. But do you have a good source for medallions? Venison, that is.

Huh. In my Whole Foods the only whole chicken is sold from behind the counter; if there were any spoilage, it would be evident when it was weighed and bagged.

If anybody wants to know what was on the menu of about a half dozen Tex-Mex places and Taquerias in Huntsville, TX about 10 years ago, I'm your man. Otherwise, I've got a big bag of nothin'.

I guess that renders my previous question about the availability of flavored mayo moot. They must add something else to the mix for even the most generic mayos. What differs? Does it taste more acidic?

With that kind of consumption, is it more common in Japan to run across home-made mayo than it is stateside or is it viewed more as a convienence ingredient?

Holly, did Claiborne instruct you to spoon the gravy over the chicken, or was that your own doing? Nice, thorough article Holly. Thanks.

"One of the problems with using mayonnaise in frozen entrees used to be that the taste would be ruined when the food was heated in a microwave oven due to the separation of oil. Since 1998 Asahi Denka Co. has been marketing a mayonnaise-like dressing for business use that does not separate when heated thanks to a proprietary solid fat. The product had the shortcoming of being more sour than the average mayonnaise, but in April 2002 the company came out with an improved product that is 20% less sour." Oh, my. I wonder if it is common practice to sell a variety of flavors of mayo. The pork sauteed in heavily mustard-ed mayo sounds interesting.

Would this be an appropriate cut for smoking?