OliverB

There seems to be a serious case of germophobia in this country! I have to laugh at the wipes they offer at safeway, as far as I know just wiping something off with a chlorox soaked rag does nothing unless you wait for a couple of minutes, by which time you've already gone your merry way with the cart. And germs. I wonder, do some people wipe down each bill in their wallet? Each coin? I read that each bill in circulation has traces of cocaine on it, now you can imagine what other much more common things will be on there too. So what. Don't use them as spoons. Yes, I have kids, and they always sat in the seat, and the boy rode the cars too. I hated those, as it's something like a stretch limo version of a cart, but he loved them. (luckily they were all broken by the time the girl came along!) Now they offer kid's shopping carts though (how cute!), don't stir your soup with those either. Of course, more germs in school anyway, as they don't disinfect them three times a day. Really, washing hands is good, washing produce is good (though you can't wash of germs unless you use very hot water and soaps) and a reasonable amount of personal hygiene. As someone else mentioned already, those that compulsively wipe down their cubicle/car/house/cart with disinfective wipes and soaps are also in my experience those that get sick more often whereas I remember quite some of the never-wash-hands league that never got sick. Ever. As much as their employees were hoping for it at times.... Oh, and kids etc will be just fine - just think of where they come from on day one. Instant germ attack and it's necessary for the immune system. Now, passing who knows what around at recess, I believe that's where the true sharing comes - quite literally - into play

ha, you almost sold me one! I'll still hold off though, I'm still not convinced I need this at home. I agree though, the rice cooker pit thing is not for me either. But it's great to see the first consumer level machines coming out for this, can only get better (and cheaper) in time if they have some success. And this unit really seems to work well and it looks nice enough to have on the counter. I'm mostly not sure I'd use it enough to make it worth the price of admission. For now I'll continue on concentrating on cooking with fire though, thinking of a fireplace bbq or spit right now...

that might explain part of why I have not seen (or can find on amazon.de) lots of expensive books, patisserie is not my dept :-) Still, curious about other books. I've looked around on Amazon Germany quite a bit now and find most books are priced in the 20-40 Euro bracket, the smaller paperback ones that are much cheaper set aside. There are actually lots of those, smaller books, maybe 150-200 pages focusing on something like pasta, bbq, etc. Many photos, generally useful, but also not expensive at all. Grafe und Unzer is one such publisher and I have a couple, some are almost more booklets or little magazines if you will. All with good recipes and instructional photos and each less than 10 Euro. Now, I can only look at Germany and Austria, don't know about France, Spain, England, etc, I just can't find that many high priced high end books, at least not more than I can find on the US market. That's just where I'm struggling with the subject of this thread. There are some vanity books (big fat duck, El Bulli) that are gorgeous in and out, but certainly not made for a large market. Somebody mentioned 14.000 being printed of the El Bulli book, that's not many books. Ad Hoc at Home had over 100.000 printed (and sold out) just recently, a list price $50 book. Hopefully somebody can add a couple more high priced great books to this thread for us to check out! I like to treat myself to the occasional wonderful book, books are one of my passions. Especially some that are as gorgeous and well made as the Big Fat Duck one.

Chris, I think it's just that over night all the salt was able to level out all over, including seeping into the what evers in your soup, so if you taste the liquid part it won't be as salty as the day before, nor will the solid pieces taste salty enough, as the salt got diluted. So, yes, the salt got absorbed in a way, or evenly distributed, and it needs an other kick to bring it back up to taste. This should not happen with a well blended smooth soup though, or does it? Maybe. But I'm sure it's all just because osmosis and all kinds of other processes leveled things out over night. Including the tastes of the ingredients, which is why some of these things taste better the next day. Or even the day after that etc. And that might also be the reason that premade stuff has more salt, as it has time to sit for weeks or months to even out (and become a mush that tastes exactly the same all over, no matter what part you have in your mouth).

too late to edit, but I just spent an other half hour or so on amazon.de but have a hard time finding many books that cost more than 40 Euros. I find those mentioned above, but that's about it. There are some books I'd like to get and I put them on my wish list (Witzigmann, Kokje, Schubeck) and I'm sure there are more. I'm not familiar with current German chefs though. Maybe I'll get me a michelin guide for Germany one of these days just to find out about some. But in the spirit of this thread, I really can't find many books that would cost more than 40 Euros. Current exchange rate makes this a bit pricey, but I tend to look at things in a 1:1 ratio if I want to get a feel for the value of something in Germany. So, now I'm really curious what other high end and very expensive books there are, aside of those couple mentioned here. Some encyclopedic, some (vanity) show books like the El Bulli ones. Of course high production values and little print runs make things expensive. I just can't find all the high end books catering to those that are happy to pay 100 or more Euros and now I'm really getting curious. I always look for suitcase stuffers on my way back from there :-)

every bookstore I came across, can't remember their names. Talia was one, there are others. It is true that even the small paperback books usually have tons of photos, but many of the US ones I have do too. I'll look again next year for sure, if you have any favorite ones that you can recommend to look at, please let me know, maybe via PM to keep this on topic if it's more than a couple. But maybe one or the other here would also be interested, at least to take a look at them on amazon.de?

wonderful! I had to put the book aside since we're in the middle of cookie baking, but probably will continue with it in a day or two, or at least after Christmas. I really have to find duck breast somewhere locally, so I don't have to order that. Asian markets maybe?

whole foods has all kinds of salts, as my cupboard can tell. There I got Hawaiian black salt, Himalayan black salt (with charcoal), Himalayan rock salt, real rocks and a little grater, but it also comes in smaller pieces, lemon salt, herb salt, Fleur de Sel, gray sea salt, and a couple more I'm sure. If you have one up there, check them out. It's not always only with the spices, check around the cheese counter too and ask. These are all finishing salts, not on the cheap side, but you don't cook with them and they'll last a long time.

I can't quite imagine the Canadian version of the food channel being any worse, how could that be? There used to be a lot on there I watched, now there is nothing. Not a single show I watch anymore, it's all idiotic cooking circus shows inspired by that silly Iron Chef and a bunch of talking heads that are no cooks nor really know much about it. The southern lady that bathes everything in butter, the pretty Italian that shows more cleavage than cooking (not that I'd complain much, but still...), some moron with spiky hair traveling and eating himself silly in diners, Rachael EVO-O Ray, and so on. All completely useless to me. I wish we'd get more Jamie Oliver (I've cooked many of his recipes with great outcome), get Heston, darn, get any real chef really showing how to do things, instead of dumbing down recipes to yet an other 30 minute wannabe replacement of the real thing. And since Alton is headlining the crap Iron Chef America I've lost interest in him too. Besides that he seems to be running out of ideas for good eats anyways (and the art direction and layout of his books is terrible). If pbs wouldn't have those nagging "give us your money now" people all the time, I'd watch it more, but recently I find much more interesting stuff on youtube than anywhere else. Sadly.

The new book, Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking by Eileen Yin-Fey Lo has a chapter on the pantry items you'd most likely want to have. We just got two very big new Asian supermarkets here and I made my shopping list from that book. These markets are amazing, there are so many things I've never seen or heard of, great fresh and cheap fish, all the pork pieces you can't find anywhere else, from ears to tubs of blood, simply amazing. I'd set up a basic pantry from the above post or if you get the book, from the book - or both. Then select a couple recipes, get what you need and have fun with it! And don't forget to have some lunch from the hot food counters too! Oh, and walk down the kitchen equipment lane too, great prices on all kinds of things, from little gas burners to mortars, knives, and so on.

sprinkle on popcorn? Use in marinades etc? On a roast beef sandwich? Mix into burgers? I threw mine out, it's usually just dried horse radish with green color. I like fresh horseradish better, just peel and use a micro plane to get a nice pile of "looks like graded cheese" spicy surprise :-) Maybe use in a bloody mary? I could not find much use for it until it was way past it's date.

I don't see why defrosted meat won't work just as well? Haven't heard that before. As I buy chunks of animals, most of my meat is frozen. I actually found that meat frozen with a liquid (not oily) marinade tastes much better once defrosted, I guess the slow defrosting in the fridge kind of adds a bit of brining action to the meat.

just for future reference, via google you'll find several chem supply places that sell it, but you seem to have to get a pound at least. As it's only around $10 that's probably not a big problem. And if you don't like to order it from some chem supply place, it appears to be sold via Amazon too. But using pink salt should work as well, though I'm not sure about the dosage, if you'd use the same amount or more/less. I have pink salt, but I like to do some things the real old fashioned way at times, I might just have to get me some. Note that this can be used to make gun powder and other such stuff, if you're afraid of landing on some watch list you might want to stick to pink salt edit: too funny not to add to this, a quote from Amazon: " Frequently Bought Together: Customers buy this item with waterproof wick cannon fuse 10 ft by ISLE" I guess you might want to ask your favorite pirate or civil war re-enactor for a pinch of this stuff!

Oh, great! Glad I could help! I just happened to see it while looking for ginger syrup on the same shelf. Almost bought some but figured that now I know where to get it I should wait for a recipe to make with it

interesting question, goes along with my wonders about a signature dish. I don't have one, as I practically never make the same thing twice the same way. Above all I'm a meat cook, if there's no meat (and I include seafood in this) involved I have little interest in making it. There are exceptions of course, soups for one, but in general there's always some meat being worked on. And I'm getting more and more into charcuterie, plan to make my own sausages next week (hopefully) and like to do as much as I can from scratch and as fresh as possible. Meat grinder, pasta machine, canning equipment, all available. I also love to make pickled things, I wish I had more room for storage to make batches that justify the work. I also love chopping, cutting, dicing, could do that all day. Despite a pretty good cook book collection, a bit over 200 now I guess, I don't cook "a recipe" all too often. That would involve writing a shopping list and being all organized about it I use recipes as inspiration and change them depending on mood or what's in the house. I actually plan to change that ans start what I decided to call threesomes, I plan to pick a random book off the shelf and make any three dishes from it, picked at random or by reading through the book. Mainly to make use of my books. I doubt though, that I'll ever have a signature dish. Oh, and guest are usually guinea pigs around here, it's one of those times where I do make recipes I've never made before. It's more fun to enjoy a successful meal with more people - or laugh about the disaster I sometimes dream of becoming a butcher once the kids are old enough for me to have to work again....

They did; it's called A Day at elBulli.

I agree with dougal, most of these are a bit of a trophy thing. ElBulli doesn't even have the recipes printed in it? Didn't know that, but that really makes it just a food photography book, a nice memento to take home or buy later if one ate there. But a cook book that has all recipes on a CD is a rather strange thing that I'm not sure I'd buy. (not that I'd think I could replicate many of the recipes anyway). Maybe they should edit things down a bit and publish a book with wonderful photos AND recipes, just not all recipes but a good selection. I'd be interested in that. I own the big Big Fat Duck cookbook, and I bought it solely as an art book, as the illustrator is one of my favorite artists for many years. Were it not for the illustrations, I'd not have bought it. Some of the books mentioned in this thread are most likely rather small print runs too, which makes higher prices necessary. I have no idea how many BFD books were printed, but aside of the price, the size alone makes it rather impractical for most. I have the new "cheap" edition too, to actually eventually use. I'd never dream of taking the original anywhere close to the kitchen. I'd think that most people balk at anything above $30 for "just a cook book", and $50 seems to be the upper limit for most. And most probably don't care about fancy paper vs just good paper, let alone gold or silver gilding on the edges. Adds little to nothing to what a book is essentially about, the content. And aside of the ElBulli books, it seems that most are eventually published in a more reasonably priced edition for the rest of us. Just look at Ad Hoc at Home, Thomas Keller's last book. List is $50, most people buy them at heavy discounts, it had a print run of supposedly more than 100.000 and it's just about sold out everywhere. (I can't understand the statements that Thomas Keller's and other American chefs are basically useless and a book with no printed recipes is useful. I don't have a computer in the kitchen and would have to print any recipe myself? On my own paper? After paying that much for the book? Luckily we all have different tastes and priorities, or we'd all be fighting over the same single ONE cook book ever published ) Also, I'm in Germany and Austria at least once a year and always check the cookbook section in every bookstore I come across. And occasionally in Italy (though I don't speak Italian and thus don't buy the books) And I find most books there to be smaller, often paperback, and certainly not more expensive than here. Usually they are cheaper with less photos and simple paper. I have a bunch of them. And poking around on amazon.de, I find lots of books that are rather cheap, not many that would cost a lot of money. At least in Germany it's still illegal to sell books below cover price too. I'm sure publishers here know that most people buy books via amazon etc, and keep that in mind when they price books. Hey, a $50 book for $31.50 is such a good deal, just have to get it! That does not work in Germany. Just my impressions of course, but I was actually surprised by the lack of "coffee table" style books in the stores. There were a few and a couple piles on bargain tables, but nothing like what I see here at just about any store. I had hoped for more.

Always go by weight for these things, if the recipe only calls things out by cups and does not specify which salt (or sugar for that matter) they use, go with the ratios mentioned above. And rather err on the low salt side and a shorter bath. A wet marinade should do almost the same, a 12 hour bath in brine would probably add more moisture to the meat than just a wet marinade though. I think it mostly might make a difference with thick cuts like roasts, whole chicken, etc. A wet marinade should be just fine for regular cuts though. As long as the "wet" part is water or some other water based liquid (juices, beer, wine, etc) and not oil, which won't penetrate the meat. And what ever water might get pulled out of the meat will just float to the bottom where it might not get back at the meat.

I don't have the measurements of molecules, but I've read in several places that it can't penetrate meat. That doesn't mean that it won't penetrate the little nooks and crannies all over, especially in cooked meat, which tends to loosen up and open "doors" for anything. But it won't penetrate the meat itself, just the little openings that might develop. As far as I know, you could put meat in any kind of fat for a long time and nothing would happen. Even regular marinades only get into the meat on the surface, contrary to brining, which works because of osmosis and the natural law of things in one container trying to even out. The salt in the brine will first suck water out of the meat, eventually it'll get pulled back in, carrying salt and other flavorings with it, thus making the meat moist and tasty. I guess one could try an experiment, marinade half of one very thick steak in oil and flavorings, the other in brine with the same flavorings. Cook it and then taste compare the inner parts only? As for duck confit, I would not call the aging controlled rancidity, rancid fat (and only oils/fats get rancid) is unpleasant. The meat ages in the fat. Could be interesting to cook one duck leg as regular confit, steam an other and put in fat after cooking. Let both age the same amount of time and see how things taste. Maybe even steam a third one and then vac pack it and wet age it, I'd guess the effect would be the same. All 3 are cooked, all 3 are sealed away from air and external moisture, while internal moisture is trapped. I won't do it, if I'd want to make confit I'd go the traditional way, I like doing things that way (which is why sou vide - while interesting - won't be happening in my kitchen anytime soon. Too many other kitchen gadgets and equipments I'd rather buy first. All just guesswork on my side, I've never done confit and find duck way too expensive to experiment with, but if one has easy access to relatively cheap ducks, could be fun to try.

I just saw some at Whole Foods, don't know if you have one locally, but if you do, call them. It's $7 for a jar. Also Asian supermarkets usually at least have whole boiled (or roasted) chestnuts, sometimes frozen. I'm not sure how a paste is made, but would imagine it involves a blender. Oliver

Planet Barbecue by Reichlen and Modern Gastronomy: A to Z by Ferran Adria are on my wish list. I'm seriously running out of shelf space though, I'll have to limit future purchases....

for my mess in place I use little glass ramekins or what they're called, got them at the hardware store. The larger one holds about a cup of liquid w/o flowing over. For storage I use the cheap plastic containers with the blue lid, though they tend to turn into a pile at times, especially if our little one gets into them to "cook". I really like the idea of those restaurant supply store containers with all the same lid, I'll have to get me some of those!

I usually see it as 12 hours, I somewhat doubt it means "prepare this at 11pm before you go to bed". It's actually something I find a bit hard to schedule at times (with kids and all). I want to make the fried chicken from Ad Hoc at Home, needs to brine 12 hours and not longer. As I'm busy making dinner, eating dinner, and getting the kids to bed, I have yet to find the time (or energy) to butcher a chicken after all that and brine it. Hopefully today.... I might also just do this in the morning and brine it until I need it, so less than 12 hours, more like 8 to 10. Probably won't matter much in this case. Probably doesn't matter much in most other cases either. I just think it basically means no longer than 12 hours. Now, if I only knew what a "medium" onion or a "large" clove of garlic is supposed to be....

small baby potatoes go on baking sheet, add garlic (peeled if I feel like it), fresh rosemary, good dose of coarse salt and pepper, douse with olive oil, toss and in the hot oven they go, usually 450 degree or so. Might add small onions if I have any or some onion cut into large pieces. Might stir them around once or twice if I get to it. Other option, make a pouch of heavy duty aluminum foil, put in same ingredients and close tightly, put on bbq. I sometimes even rest them on the chimney used for starting charcoal after the newspaper has burned off to give them a head start. Turn and move around occasionally, once chimney gets too hot move to the side. Once coals are covered with ash, add to bbq, put grill on, put potatoes close to fire ( I usually have the fire on one side) and close lid of bbq to heat. Clean grill grate, add protein and cook covered. Might have to play with timing depending on what I cook, but they come out wonderfully creamy with a bit of char here and there, delicious! Come to think of it, I think I have to make some baked potatoes in my big green egg one of these days.... I love potatoes in any way they come, from mashed to chips, could eat them every day. Especially purple ones.

I do put them in the sink to get them out of the kid's reach, but my sink is never filled with soapy water (or anything else if I put the knife in there). Just about anything goes in the dishwasher and the knives and some other things get washed under running water. My knives, meaning "my" knives, are used and washed only by me (check the price on Shun Ken Onion knives and you'll understand) and it's a rare day where somebody else cuts more than bread in the kitchen anyways. Soon to change, as my 6 year old is getting his first cook book (Silver Spoon for Children) and his first knife, an unexpensive sandoku with a plastic sheath, in 10 days. He's been interested in cooking and helping and we have lots of band aids, so I figured it's time. All knives, from a cheap pairing knife over Chinese cleaver and butcher knives to my Shun are now on magnet strips ($16 or so at Target) on the wall, well out of reach of my 2 year old girl and the 6 year old knows better than to touch them, all are extremely sharp. But if I should ever have to wash everything in the sink, no knife would ever be in there, they'd get washed by hand first and put back on the magnet. But even our table knives are pretty sharp, I don't have scars left, but depleted our band aid supply at times, so I'd have to wash those first too, before filling the sink. As I'd rather throw out the TV than not have a dish washer (preferably one that plugs into the wall instead of a live one) chances are slim that injury will ever occur. I guess I rather burn myself on the not quite fully opened oven door than get cuts on knives hiding in soapy water