Nick

Since this thread just surfaced again, I dug out the latest copy of CI to read the editorial. It's on water dowsing. And, to me interesting. But then you have to remember Kimball writes his editorials from VT and I was born in VT and raised across the river in NH. It's familiar territory to me. Water dowsing is also familiar territory to me. I first learned of it as a child from Creighton Churchill (A Notebook for the Wines of France), an old family friend, who was having water dowsed for a new well on his farm - by an old man from VT. Perhaps it is a New England thing to find his editorials interesting. But then again, if a cooking mag were being published from Alaska, I'd find an editorial written in a local vein from there interesting as well. In a mag that's otherwise filled with good cooking tips, I like the idea of an OT editorial.

THERE'S an idea! I hate throwing things away as long as I think there's any hope of using them.... so they hang on in the back of the cupboard. This would get them right out into the open where I'd be forced to make a decision. Now, what to do with the stuff in the bottom of the freezer?

When you're looking at thinly sliced roast beef at the deli counter of the local supermarket (or in the sealed plastic elsewhere), you're looking at round.

Pork cutlets marinated in tamari and ginger?

I've gotta get one of these things. Hotdogs and hamburgers with buns, along with fried chicken. Versatile to say the least.

Rather than turning the timing cooking thread into a boiled egg free-for-all. Anybody got any recipes for pickled eggs?

How could anyone do a pork roast without rosemary and garlic?

I don't want to turn this into a boiled egg thread, but outside of using them in a few dishes calling for hard-boiled egg, their use I want to learn most about is pickled eggs. Got a recipe? That will give me an excuse to try your ten minute suggestion. Edit: Let's keep this to timing cooking. Maybe I'll start a separate thread on pickled eggs.

I just checked in at the Recommend a Book thread and saw the baker's recommendation for a book on timing cooking. That got me to thinking (a dangerous preoccupation of mine). Do you always, often, never - time your cooking? The only thing I time is a boiled egg. Six minutes.

Jin, That's some hard trip. Although women used to control their men by what they cooked for them. Edit: removed an unnecessary "did"

Dining as an art form. Interesting. Steve, You must have never gardened, at least in so far as growing food. There are so many variables - the soil conditions, seed viability, weather, etc. No chef that I can imagine has to deal with the vagaries that the small organic (non-irrigating) gardener/farmer does. And still come out with a beautiful carrot, onion, potato, etc.

I'd like a mandoline. I have a good set of sharp Wusthof knives that I know how to use - but I want a mandoline. After I get one and use it for awhile, I might put it away in the attic and go back to my knives. But, who knows?

Cabrales - Thanks for your (as always) complete explanation. Since I don't eat chocolate and have no more appreciation for it than I would an expensive bottle of wine - the whole thing is rather baffling to me. Steve - I can understand blowing a couple of hundred euros for a tasting menu at a three star joint (should I ever be so lucky as to find myself in one), but chocolate? Suzanne - No shit!

Who were often in bed with the religious leaders in their country. Yes. Perhaps King James could be a prime example of this.

Those hallmarks may also include throwing off the yokes of monarchs and despots of all types.

Curled bacon. The story goes that if your pig has a tightly curled tail - the bacon will curl.

Since Andy's post here, I've been wondering about the sort of person who would buy chocolates at £100 per kilo. Would they, when offering a taste to a guest, be reluctant to say how much they cost for being thought a fool? Or could they not help but gush, "These cost me £100 a kilo."?

I was thinking Mitterand.

Dstone, I've taken my acorn and gone back to the tree. Try looking at papal history.

Mark - Lighten up. BTW, have you discovered who M. King Hubbert was?

You guys have got the pan too hot. Think about coming down to the kitchen, no clothes on, after getting a healthy helping of morning dew and while your old lady's taking a shower you get the bacon going. Caution is in order. Oil and bacon? Never.

For those as mystified as I - "Where would we be without the French. This little gem is all about the Ortolan, a tiny sparrow-like songbird under threat. Not from loss of habitat but the all consuming French appetite. First capture your Ortolan, force feed him for a month, then bung him in the oven. Dress yourself up like something from the KKK, drink as much Armagnac as you can possibly hold and then gorge yourself on Ortolan a la roast. It's the meal that President Mitterand reputedly ordered on his death bed." Time for a new avatar, Jason?

Baked buttercup squash stuffed with (cooked) brown rice with a dash of butter and maple syrup. It's really quite good and certainly nutritious, but after eating so much of it during a particularly poverty-stricken winter in northern VT I haven't been able to face it in the thirty years since.

Ah, bacon. It does seem to gather a crowd. Just today, thinking about Jim Dixon's Smithfield ham post, I began to think of cob-smoked bacon and hams. I haven't had any in nearly thirty years - since I lived in way north VT near Canada and there were three general stores in different towns that would go in together on a carload (rail) of corncobs, split up the cobs, and each smoked bacon and hams in their own way. Though I prefered the bacon smoked by the store in Jeffersonville, all were way beyond hickory. So, today I was thinking of doing the same as I did on the Gulf shrimp thread. I will go on a search for the best mail-order cob-smoked bacon - and maybe a ham. Not sure yet. For now, I've been getting "Oscar's" (hickory smoked) from upstate(?) NY at a local coop. It's the kind of bacon that I use an All-Clad for rather than cast iron. It's (to my mind) better on the underdone side with little browning. The only difference between slab and sliced is in the fact that after slicing, the slices are exposed to air and will lose some flavor. Other than that it's all in how the hog was raised, the butchering, the curing and smoking, and how well it was kept after that. IMHO

Max, I'd be the last to call this mindless drivel. This is an unseasoned intellectual mindnumbingly brilliant discussion. Guess I'll take mah acorn and head back to the tree while I can still find it. Y'all have fun now.