Nick

Corn chowder. Yes, just corn chowder - while my mother made it fairly often, I have never made it until tonight. I followed the recipe in the Pro Chef almost exactly, something else I've never done until tonight. The only change I made was adding just a bit of oregano toward the end and after adding the heavy cream, decided not to add all the called-for milk. Best corn chowder I've ever had, if I do say so myself.

I don't have the experience or historical knowledge to answer this, but perhaps some members here more well-versed than I could make a go of it. Had Escoffier (and Ritz) not come along, what direction would cooking, menus, and the running of a restaurant have taken?

Thanks, Sparrow. I always bring the eggs up to room temp before boiling and haven't had much trouble peeling. But I've heard before that older eggs peel better. I'll do a trial. I've got some eggs that have been in the fridge for a couple of weeks and some I just bought today that were probably laid a couple days ago. Got any suggestions for marking the shells? Pencil maybe?

I may be wrong about this, but I seem to remember back in the '50's going into liquor stores in VT and NH with my father and there was a large board on the wall listing the various spirits with a number beside each. You'd write down the numbers of what you wanted on a small order form and present it to the person behind the counter who would then go in back and retrieve your order. Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, it was this way in Maine not all that long ago. Does anyone else remember this, or have I slipped a cog? (These were all state liqour stores.)

ever tried chopping up fresh whole horseradish in a blender?

Just to add a note to Nickg's post above for those unfamiliar with this. From the Escoffier bio link I gave at the beginning - "It was here (the Hotel National in Lucerne, in 1884) that Escoffier met Cesar Ritz who came from a small village in the Swiss Valais. Ritz started as a hotel groom and rapidly worked his way up to head waiter and into Hotel Management. The mutual understanding and teamwork between [Escoffier] and Ritz was to bring about the most significant changes and modern development in the hotel industry."

Thanks, Matt! That'll get me going. Around here (midcoast maine) it's easy to come by good fresh (a day or two old) eggs from free range chickens - though they're not ranging too far right now in two feet of snow. Just for the hell of it I just did a google search on pickled eggs and found this site at cooks.com. 658 recipes for pickled eggs and a pop-up for each one. Annoying. The few recipes I looked at weren't as good as some of the ones at the link you gave. But, I did come across a recipe for pickled eggs or knackwurst and thought, why not the both together? Which leads to what else could one put in the jar that would go with them? A note of caution: Some of the recipes call for adding the just boiled vinegar, etc. to the glass jar. I'm not sure one gallon glass jars can take that kind of heat. I'd let the vinegar cool some.

Ah, and so it looks like this under those conditions. My own connection now seems to be passing through the same dark matter and energy with sypmpathic resonances. But, I think I like things the other way so I'll reset my doppleganger port to null. There, that's better.

What would be your reaction if a man who was dining alone (and not a slimeball) asked if you would like to share a table? Or, do you prefer to dine alone? Edit: I actually often prefer dining alone, and as Suzanne says below, "check out the room, the other diners, the wine service, the waitstaff -- to me, there is SO MUCH to look at when I'm alone." And you can really concentrate on the food.

Are they cooked before drying? I always dried mine raw after brining.

You didn't rehydrate them?

As far as keeping after opening, I think it would depend on the humidity of your house. If it's relatively low in humidity, they would probably keep fine in a ziploc in the cupboard. I once dried some Maine shrimp (after brining) and had no trouble keeping them for months.

Rogov has an interesting piece that touches on this discussion in his article Who Criticizes the Critics?

Toby, that's a great recipe. I'm going to try it. Thanks.

Assuming each were no more than a few "mouthfuls", it is a menu that makes me wish I had been there. It seems like "down-home" cooking compared to some of the offerings today.

Just looked at the current Sautewednesday and noticed Cole had this to say about Kimball's editorials - "Personally, we are fond of Christopher Kimball's editorial in Cook's Illustrated. His candid glimpses from his personal life are honest and sincere, bordering on the nostalgic - at least to us. Maybe it's the "grass is greener" syndrome? He lives in rural America and we live in the big (little) city. Whatever it is, we appreciate his gesture to communicate to his readers, and only wish that other editors were as inspired."

These are words worth considering. To digress for a moment... When I began my "career" in steelworking, I started with a forge and anvil. I was lucky enough, as I began, to one day find myself at the forge of Niles LaCoss who himself had started at the forge many years before and was then in charge of maintaining the locomotives for the cog-railway on Mt. Washington and had himself built the last new locomotive from scratch. While I still have a forge and anvil in my shop; I rarely use them now. But, they are there as well as the lessons I learned from Niles one winter day at his forge. His lessons remain indelibly imprinted in my mind and my steelworking today is a result of the attitude toward my work that I learned from him and others, and from those who are now long gone, but took the time to write down their thoughts and methods. As in steelworking, cooks (and artists) can make a go of it without appreciating what has gone before them - but they will lack the steadying influence that can be gained from knowledge of the masters that preceded them.

Thanks for the good posts. This has gotten me fired up to the point that I just ordered a couple of books from Amazon. They have a package deal on these two right now. The Escoffier Cook Book: A Guide to the Fine Art of Cookery by Auguste Escoffier. I thumbed through this book at Barnes & Noble a few months ago and one thing that struck me was that he was cooking with wood fires. I've been cooking on wood-fired ranges since 1968, and that alone made me interested in his work. It was also interesting to see in his biography (link in first post) that, "Cesar and Escoffier opened the Hotel Ritz in Paris, which was the most modern of the time.... However at their instance the ovens were fired by coke or wood." I realize that I'm probably in a minority of one when it comes to using a wood-fired range top and oven these days, but there are some of us who believe that the fuel source has an effect on the cooking. The other book I ordered is Auguste Escoffier : Memories of My Life. This has been translated by his great granddaughter-in-law. From the customer reviews, "What a great happening when German Emperor was told that the chef of your upcoming meal is none other than a former war prisoner from France who wants to poison you. When asked about this by one of Emperor's officers inspecting the kitchen, Escoffier replies" "You may dine in peace. If, one day, your country once again seeks war with France, and I am still able, I will do my duty. But for the time being, you may relax and not let anything trouble your digestion." As well as, "....Ho Chi Minh was working in Escoffier's kitchen preparing vegetables in 1914." This book should be really interesting reading. Amazon noted that they had only three copies of this in stock and since I just bought one of these, get your order in soon if you want one. (Note: The links to the books above will get egullet 15% if you buy directly from the links.)

Thanks, Angel. I'll be giving cornstarch a try in the next marinade that's right for doing that.

It comes down to a matter of trust and your own good judgement. Your own good judgement has to include so many things that it would be impossible to go into here. Perhaps foremost, it would be as much knowledge as you can gather, historical experience, and common sense. People can say anything, packages can represent themselves in anyway the scriptwriter presents them on the package. Your trust (or lack of it), and knowledge (or lack of it) includes everyone from grower, through processor and distributor, purchasing agent, people handling the products all along the line, and finally, if it's a restaurant, your cook and server. That said, a day boat will get you no better fish than a "trip" boat - if the people on the day boat don't take care of their catch. It's the same in agriculture whether it's meat, fruit, or vegetables. It's all in the people who have come before you in this long line of producing and distributing. The shorter you can make that line, the better.

I can't help but throw this story in here - A woman was putting together a pot roast for herself and a friend and before putting the meat in the pot she cut off a piece and threw it away. Her friend asked why she had done that and she replied that it was the way her mother did it. So the friend went to to the woman's mother and asked why she cut off the piece of meat and threw it away before putting the meat in the pot. The mother replied, "That's the way my mother did it." So the young man went to the grandmother and asked why she had cut off the piece of meat and thrown it away. The grandmother replied, "Because the piece of meat was too big to fit in the pot."

Why the cornstarch?

A few years ago I saw an article about some people here in Maine that were growing shitakes on logs - so I did a google search on the subject. Here's the link to the result. Growing mushrooms on logs

I first heard of tilapia when New Alchemy Institute on Cape Cod (near Wood's hole, I think) began to promote growing them as a part of the self-sustainability movement in the seventies. even growing them indoors. Never have tried eating them. Here's an entertaining short article by Gary Hirschberg on his experience at New Alchemy in those days.

Maybe it has something to do with conceiving "art" as long lasting - the paintings, the sculpture. The art of cooking is devoured and is gone, with only the memory remaining. Like sand art from Tibet. "The monks are making a sand mandala. The brilliant-colored sand creates a replica of a statue of a palace, as seen from above. "The monks will work from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day. When it is complete on Sept. 8, the mandala will be swept away." The nature of impermanence.