OliverB

funny, an other rather timely thread to pop up, as I hope to get around to making my first ones this weekend - finally. Now, for the whole temp thing, how long does the grinder thing stay cold if it's from the freezer? At least mine is made from aluminum, which warms up pretty quick. I'm kind of thinking about making some kind of ice sleeve wrapper thing for it. They sell those plastic bubble things for wine bottles, look like a bunch of sausages next to each other forming a tube. I think it should be possible to cut that open and modify it a bit to add more cooling to the machine. My freezer is tiny, for some reason the former owner of our relatively large house had only an apartment size fridge planned for the kitchen. I don't have an ice maker nor do I have room for making cubes, but I can always get a bag at Safeway. Just takes more planning. Do you semi freeze your meat after cutting but before grinding? I'm going to make some Nuremberg brats, the one and only, the king of brats. And I got a recipe from a Nuremberg area butcher and I can't wait! Have to make some Bavarian Brezeln to go along with them :-) Now I just hope that I actually find the time to make them......

it's like any artwork, once you made it you own the copy right to it. You can, but don't have to register it, as long as you have proof that you made it first. Of course, none of this will prevent anybody from making a copy or using your design as a starting point and going after somebody is costly - and in case of a cake probably not worth it. Unless you walk down the aisle at Safeway and see it on a box of some premixed cake thing. My guess would be that cakes don't sell for tens of thousands of $, the monetary damage would probably be so small that it won't be worth your time and money to go after the copy baker. There's lots of info online regarding copyright for artwork, and it does not matter if it's a sculpture (which you could probably call a cake) or a drawing, a photograph or a painting. wetcanvas.com has lots of info too for example. Add to that the fact that you'd most likely never hear of a copy cake, I'd personally not worry about it. Unless you make a cake for a high profile person (Obama, Britney, The Stones etc). But in general, once you created something unique you own the right for it and if you have proof you could go after a copy cat baker and would most likely win. Though the $ would hardly be worth it. There are millions of cakes out there that infringe on some very strong (and strongly defended) copyright like Disney characters or barbies etc. With the option to use an inkjet printer to put just about any picture on a cake this has increased a lot too. And I seriously doubt that Judy's bakery or Tom's Cake Stop got a license to put those characters on their proudly displayed birthday cake creations, as I doubt some kid's parents would be willing to pay for that... So, unless you create truly unique cakes, I'd probably not worry about it and even if I came across a copy cake I'd probably just be happy that it inspired somebody else to try to make a copy. Now, I'm not a baker, I'm a small time artist that cooks a lot, though take all this with a grain of salt of confectioner's sugar, if you're really worried get a copyright lawyer involved. Of course, with cakes my guess is that there's only so much unique stuff you can do and chances are that something quite similar to what you bake was done before, so proving that what you made is truly unique and has never been done before might not be easy? Just my two marzipan roses, hope this helped? Goolge will get you tons of info about copyright and artist's copyright and a truly wonderful cake is a work of art, even if you can eat it. There are no restrictions in which medium you have to use for your art. The only real way to protect your design is not to show it to anybody, but that's kind of pointless~~ Just don't put Mickey and Barbie on the cake..... [edit] to add, any intellectual work is copyrighted, regardless of what it's made from/of/with. So - w/o being a lawyer - I'd say yes, you can protect the design if it's really unique. But that's a big if, as I'm sure you take your inspiration from things you've seen. Oh, and don't bake cakes that look like some famous buildings/people/items, as many of those own the copyright for any likeness in any medium (even photography of said building), and some of them are very aggressive in protecting it. If in doubt ask a specialist lawyer. Otherwise don't worry and take copy cats as flattery :-) [edit]

I've never even heard of this, sounds and looks delicious! I'll have to look for that, wonder if I can find it at the Asian markets?

Thanks! It's not so much cooking w/o the spices, but reducing the heat and then adding some more once I reserved some for the kids. I'm certainly looking forward to experimenting, I looked at the book in the store before ordering it (store copy had a lot of shelf wear) and it looks great! >And I'd be willing to bet your children will grow into it long before you get tired of cooking from it. I think I'd loose that bet :-D

Amazon is still sitting on my book (free shipping costs nerves!) and I can't wait! Question: are the recipes mostly on the spicy to fiery side? I have little kids and might have to divide things up before adding the hot stuff. But boy, do all these pictures make me hungry!

how timely again, I just love this site! I just ordered this book, should have it in a couple of days. Can't wait to use it, always nice to have an excuse to go to the Asian supermarket for more things ;-) Can't wait to cook some of these wonderful looking dishes, thanks all that posted pictures! I'm starting to take pix of what I make also, I'll try to remember to post something here if it comes out good (and good looking)

I generally stay away from all prepared frozen stuff, too many "exotic" tings in there and too many cooking tricks to ensure everything is cooked in what ever minutes it takes, but there are exceptions. The Tarte was already mentioned, that thing is so good that I'd not hesitate serving it to anyone and I doubt I could make them any better myself. Just the kids aren't the biggest fans, they prefer the pizza, and TJs frozen pizza is really much better than the major brand stuff you find elsewhere. That they are made in italy in real wood fired ovens is nice, but also a bit silly IMO. I love Italy, my favorite country to visit, but to import pizza from there is a bit much. TJs does have a lot of things from Europe, they are (still - I believe) owned by Aldi, the super discount grocery from Germany (where you can actually buy California nuts for a 5th of what they cost here in California, go figure.....). They have nice salads and finally have open fruits. I'm not a fan of packs of 4 or 5 or what ever, I prefer to pick my own and take as many or as few as I need. They do have good meat, though I'm suspicious of meat packed in one of those drum like packs, they have some inert gas in there instead of air which keeps it good longer. But how long was it in there? They have some precooked ribs slathered in sauce that are really quite good. And the tri tip steak is also really good. Great selection of coffee too. Some very good breads, nice little loafs that we more or less finish with one dinner, which is neat. I love their cheese selection, same brands as at Safeway, but much much cheaper. Some nice upscale olive oils and the one in the big round bottle with a pour spout is quite good for general cooking. The balsamico in the little square bottle is good too, for regular I use the Kirkland brand, which is also very good (and for very special occasions I use the expensive stuff my cousin makes in Italy, yummmm!). I've not have had any luck with their frozen fish though, fishy tasting, too moist, just not good. Lamb chops on the other hand are very good. Some nice snack food and bars too. I like their own brand beer (not sure if they sell it all over the US? It's made in San Jose by Gordon Biersch AFAIK and is quite authentic). I don't usually buy wine there, our house wine is Meridian which I get at Costco and we get 3 bottles from a local wine store each month for more fancy (around $15) selections. Nuts and all the dried stuff is great and a wide selection. Flowers are cheap and keep just as well as any others. I've almost always been lucky with their avocados too, the baby heirloom tomato mix is fun to use, as well as the little onions. Service is always great and yes, returning stuff is no problem. I've had their muffins mold on me more than once and didn't even return them, just told them and that was that. (I don't buy those anymore). I go there once a week now, as my son has Karate in the same strip mall. Add the farmer's market on Sunday and I rarely go to Safeway anymore, Whole Foods for specialties like dry aged beef or fresh fish (if I don't get it at the market).

soak and then use. Kind of like dried mushrooms in a way.

Oh, bummer, now I really want squeeze bacon! That's the problem with online April's jokes, they don't go away the next day and make little sense anymore. Oh well, I guess I'll have to go and grind up my own bacon.... Bacon salt, yes, can add a nice smoky taste (as does liquid smoke) but you have to be really careful, if you use it like salt in a recipe the food will be pretty much inedible. Like licking the inside of a smoker that hasn't been cleaned in years~~~ Add a dash of Dave's Insanity sauce for a perfect dish:-)

What about the Waring Pro slicer? I have little use for a slicer, so spending several hundred on some hefty thing that I can't move won't really do me much good, no matter how pretty those actually are. I just got the Waring Pro meat grinder, which seems very sturdy (have yet to use it, cracked a rib recently and am just getting back to being fully mobile), seems like they make good products. I would use it to slice things occasionally, possibly increasing use over the next years while I get more into charcuterie. But it's not something I want to have sitting in the kitchen all day. I have very sharp knives and can slice a salami for a sandwich just fine, it's more for those times where I have to slice a lot of stuff, things that are too hard for a mandolin. Curious what others might think of Waring Pro equipment. Oliver

I'm long looking for a smoker to buy, almost got a Bradley, but so far I was put off by the technical problems those have, like the pucks not advancing or the plastic front piece cracking. Things like that tick me off, especially if they are known, no matter how good service might be. I do NOT ever want to talk to service, particularly not about issues that are known but not fixed for a long time. I'm also put off by the pucks, not so much the cost, but the fact that I'm locked into what ever wood they provide. I'm more and more drifting towards just a regular oldfashioned little smoke house kind or maybe even build something myself, I have a hilly lot with quite some unused areas. I'd love something that I can set and forget, I'm just not that convinced by the options that don't cost a fortune. Was anybody ever able to make their own pucks for the Bradely? I would like to smoke some European style things and they use wood that is not usually used here. Just one of those things with too many options, each with their pros and cons. Might still spring for a Bradley since they seem nice and compact, right now I'm very undecided. Just used my weber to smoke a bacon that turned out fantastic too, so.... Decisions, decisions.....

ROFL, that stuff is so bizarre that I'm actually tempted to buy it and put it out on the table at random moments, LOL. I actually own something called bacon salt that's made with no bacon what so ever, I'm pretty sure it's just salt and liquid smoke. It's very strong, almost unusable and I keep it just as a curiosity of sorts. We should probably start a new thread about the most useless kitchen products and gadgets. High on the top of my list would be any tool that does just one thing you hardly ever do but take up lots of space, like pineapple slicers, those odd avocado slicers, things like that. And on the ingredient front I'd have to nominate Dave's Insanity Sauce, a hot sauce that probably will burn holes in your counter if you drip it around. I bought it and tasted a tiny tiny drop just to have my mouth explode. I seriously have no idea what you could use this stuff for. And I love hot food, but it should have some kind of taste besides the pain~~~

I'll look at the book for sure, but it's the first Ruhlman that I'm not inclined to just order w/o seeing it first. From the descriptions here I somewhat doubt that I'll have much use for it nor do I really see where a beginner would benefit much from it, at least not more than from a good all round cookbook with actual recipes and addtl explanations etc. Seems like ratios are something one can learn from recipes and then transpose on self created dishes quite easily. Does the book contain a good number of sample recipes? Or is it mostly "to make this dish use 3 of this, 1 of that, 2/3 of that there and a pinch of this here"? Guess I'll have to plan a trip to the book store - not a bad thing actually :-) But this is one of the rare cases where just reviews don't tell me enough. {edit to add:} Just looked at the contents on Amazon and there's a lot of info in the book that I'd personally never use, I don't make anything sweet except christmas cookies (based on my grandmother and great grandmother's recipes) which I hardly eat any from either. I'd have little use for pie, biscuit, cookie or any batter ratios, nor for the chocolate etc things towards the end of the book. Just a personal preference of course, I never make desert and hardly ever order it when going out. I just wasn't born with a sweet tooth, except that one for Haribo Gummy Bears - but only the ones you can buy in Germany :-) {end edit} Oliver

you could also get something like the private preserver wine preserver, a bottle with some inert gas in it that you use to replace the regular air in an open bottle. We are just now experimenting with it, but it seems to work very well. If there's no oxygen in the bottle, there's nothing there to oxidate the wine and it should be fine for a long time. While freezing might work, I'd stay away from it. For one because it just "seems wrong", but also - and more importantly - because the freezer section of my fridge is already full to the rim and there's no room for wine cubes. Oh, and I'd most likely forget about them in there anyways....

Brezeln

I can't wait for the first fava beans to show up! They are a bit more work than a sack of dry beans, but oh so worth it! I mostly just blanche or steam them, a bit of butter, some salt and pepper, that's it. Serve with a nice bbq steak, with pasta, with fish. They're quite possibly my favorite beans. Also make great soups! Oliver

just my regular weber grill, worked out pretty well. Just not something you can set and forget, I'd rather not use it for some really long smoke session, but I found it pretty easy to keep the temp around F 200. It turned out delicious, I can't wait for lunch time, as I'm gonna have some of it again :-) Then I'll probably freeze the rest.

I also just smoked my 2nd bacon (first one I just roasted) in my Weber, worked out great! I was not sure how far I could control the heat, but I managed to keep it around 200F with little problem. I lit 8 briquettes off to one side, then covered them with wet Hickory chips and put the bacon on the other side. I had to add a couple more coals over time and went through quite some wood chips, but the outcome is fantastic. Very dark, smells like a mountain hut in Austria and is super delicious, smoky, moist, just great. I sliced some thinly and chopped it up a bit, put that over some thinly cut tri tip steak I put on the bbq later, made a kind of de-constructed bbq bacon cheese burger. Some pictures: The bacon fresh from the smoker and sliced It probably took between 2 and 3 hrs to get up to an internal temp of F 150. I had to play with the vents a bit, I kept the top ones open just about the whole time, I closed the bottom ones a bit when it got too hot in there and also used a water spritzer to cool the fire off at times. Pretty easy, you just can't venture far away from the bbq. I preserved some lemons and kumquats at the same time. Fun stuff :-) Oh, bacon is made per Ruhlman's Charcuterie book

Ah, thanks, that was the word I could not think of and thus not search for! Great :-)

Hi, I just cured a bacon which I intend to smoke on the bbq (a first try). Now, I know it's good to have it dry a bit to form a "skin" that will help the smoke adhere better, but I can't find the reference. How long do I have to leave it open in the fridge? I have to smoke it tomorrow, will that be enough time? Thanks! Oliver

Hmm, quite some that won't interest me much. I have all under the "professional" tag and they are all great books for sure. I'm curious about Southeast Asian Flavors and the Milk book. I also have the Fat book, it's a great one too. Have but have not read In Defense of Food, Flavor Bible is a fun book to page through though I'm not sure I'd call it essential and I find it a bit convoluted. Beyond the Great Wall could be interesting, but I'd have to look at it first, make sure I won't have to climb over that wall first to find ingredients. The rest more or less covers what I already have and would be of little use to me. Interesting list though, anybody know what their categories for nomination are? Oliver

(Emphasis mine.) I'm sure gfron1 already knows this, but this is really bad advice. The risk with canning low-acid foods is botulism, which is not detectable to the naked eye. You won't know you've got it until you get sick. So if you "just try it," you run the risk of death. ← good point, I guess I needed some more coffee... Don't try it, make sure you find instructions somewhere. I wish there'd be a simple home test kit for botulism... Oliver

I might just have to try that since I just got a meat grinder :-) It seems that the pasta gets a much rougher surface which should help holding sauce. With the pasta machine I get very smooth pasta, the extrusion process seems to make those little thorns pop up.

I've been reading in Culinaria Italy and came across images of hand extruded pasta. They use a tool that's basically a brass pipe, a screw plunger part and a bottom with exchangeable bottom plates with different hole sizes. The pasta they show looks amazing, tiny little "thorns" opeining away from the main strand (like a very prickly rose stem) that I'm sure will hold great amounts of sauce, very different from pasta cut with a pasta machine. Now, I'm not ready to plop down a couple hundred for the Italian machine (called a bigolaro) as pretty as they are, nor a couple thousand for an electric machine. Some stand mixers seem to have extruder attachments, do those work well? Like most of those attachments they seem rather small and toy like. I don't have a stand mixer, so I can't try that. Would my meat grinder work? I might just try that. Or the sausage stuffer? Would it be worth the trouble to try? Curious if anybody here makes both or decided for one of the other. It wold be nice to make macaroni and others with holes in them I guess. Opinions? Oliver

Well, made the 2nd loaf last night, the dough was now a bit over a week old. I had stored it in a large bowl in the fridge, some liquid had separated out on the side where I took the dough out last time. I formed it a bit different this time and sprinkled some anise and fennel seeds on. Baked per instructions after a bit over an hour of rest (where it barely rose). The crust turned out great, very crunchy: The crumb was about the same density, but there were a couple moist areas that could have baked a bit longer I guess? It tasted good, a bit more tangy than the first one I guess, though it's hard to compare w/o having that one still around. The seeds definitely added to the taste, next time I'll throw some into the dough. All in all I like this approach, it's nice to be able to more or less decide on a whim to bake some fresh bread! We had a nice thick steak last night, some salad with fried quail eggs and the bread, all very good. Next I'm gonna try one of the variations in recipe from the book. Anybody else create some of those? Or the different formed loafs? I can't wait to make the Pain d'Epi, though I'd make that with about 2lb of dough to get a larger loaf. Fun stuff and stepping back into the kitchen from the bbq was just wonderful, the smell of fresh baking bread should be sold in bottles ;-) Oliver PS: I have a Jenn Air range and the oven has a vent in the top that goes into the downward sucking vent, is that an issue? Do all ovens have a vent? A lot of steam came out there. All turned out nice, but I'm wondering if I should increase the water a bit? If all ovens vent it's a non-issue I guess, but I have no idea if they do.