Nick

Don't remember Bohack, but I remember Black Label. Whew!

If you want to get really serious about pit smoking, check out Dave Klose' site BBQ Pits Spent quite awhile on the phone with him one day last summer and he's quite a man. Made a post about this on a different site and got this post in return - "He not only sells some damned good pits (I own one), but he's one hell of a storyteller. One night at a bar in Carlsbad, he had a whole table of 'Qers laughing so hard they couldn't sit straight. That's about all I remember about that evening, along with marvelling at the man's alcohol tolerance. Just a little fella (around 5'10" or so) with two hollow legs. Hell, he was even buying most of the drinks! What a guy!!"

Maybe I missed something, but I didn't see anything in her article that couldn't have come from somewhere else. Couldn't see anything that came from our posts. It's okay; we pitched in. I didn't learn anything from it - since being on the coast, I knew most of it. But, it was well written and maybe it says something that it was noted on the front page under "Inside Today's Journal."

How come Heston didn't reply to Scott on this?

How do you do the cheese stuffed jalepenos? Are the shrimp in them too? How big are the jalepenos? That sounds like something I'd like to try. Thanks.

Good, organically grown garlic bulbs will keep all winter. Store the same as onions and shallots. For some reason, the cloves after being broken off from the bulb won't keep very long.

With nothing better to do at the moment, I just weighed my nearly new Wusthof Classic 10" cook's knife (which is also my most used knife). Came in at 9 3/4 oz. Are they starting to skimp on the steel?

Jeez Chefette, you ever think about getting into meat and vegetables, with a little bread (aka grains) on the side?

Chowders and pea soup.

I thought this was a one night trip. Weekend at most.

Theoretical one. 10" cook's knife, paring knife, boning and/or fillet knife, carving knife, steel, spatula, scraper, meat fork, tongs, large and small spoon, ladle, can opener?. For sure the pepper mill and maybe some salt. Can't imagine the need for stones. Then once there, remember all the other things you should have brought. I like to travel light. Edit: Brush for cleaning roots. Good thread FG. Gets you to thinking.

The best grungy oil to use is whale oil (sperm oil.) It's no longer on the market, but you may be able to find some at a gunshop that's been in business for many years and has some on a shelf in the back. I used to use Nye Oil, but with the whaling ban, it disappeared. Last year I was at my local gunshop/gunsmith and he was showing me the way back of his shop and I spied many cans of Brownell's sperm oil on a shelf. I said, "You've got sperm oil!" He said, "Yeah, I had to do a lot of jerking off." He gave me a can. I later went back and bought 4 cans at $25/can. I'm not in favor of resuming whale hunting, but there is no better oil. As far as opening clams, I'll tell you how some clam shuckers do it around here. Commercial clam shuckers. Wash the clams, place them in a suitable container, pour boiling water over them, and let sit for no more than 1/2 minute. Drain and immediately cover them with cold water. Then shuck. No flavor is lost and the neck skins come off easily.

Steve, I don't know shit, but the terrine you just described sounds dynamite. Here I was just trying to figure out a good cassoulet and you do that. The longer I stay at this site, the further behind I fall.

For a suribachi like yours I would give my kingdom - if I had one. We're moving into snipe territory.

Ah, the smell of it when you're grinding it in the suribachi.

Well, after many beers, I have to say that when I got the Pro Chef and spent some time looking through it I came upon their recipe for cassoulet. I went, holy shit!, it would take me all day to make that! You can talk about your fancy cooking all you want, but I'd love to try a good cassoulet. Edit: Maybe I'm being a little harsh, but you get my drift.

Gomasio - Take sesame seeds and gently roast them in a pan. When the temp's right they might hop a little. As they start to get brown, take one and see how it tastes. If you don't have other smells in the kitchen, you can also tell that way. When they're ready, put them into a suribachi and add some sea salt and grind them. The amount of salt makes a big difference as this is a condiment. Good gomasio, like tamari and miso, is a good thing.

"bas cuisine" - had to do another Google search. It was all French stuff that needed to be translated. Didn't bother. So cassoulet is a peasant dish? Probably is. Like so many of the haute cuisine dishes that are bragged about here. Many of them had their beginnings in "peasant dishes". I would rather rather have a simple meal cooked by simple people that knew cooking, that ran in their families for generations, than the cooking of latest hot-shot in Paris or NYC. Just the country boy in the wrong thread.

The best is. The rest is..... stew. Maybe you have a recipe for cassoulet?

The onions will fall off your knife if you don't use a thumb and forefinger to hold them together for the cross-wise slicing. Edit: That wasn't too clear. What I meant was that the onion slices should be kept together for the cross-wise slicing.

I'm more of a sweat shirt guy when it gets cold. Thanks for explaining Nina W. I'm a little slow but but I'll catch on after awhile.

Thanks Brit. That's the best definition I could hope for. Most of the above has had me completely befuddled. It's what we call around here, good cookin'. Edit: Doesn't take much to befuddle me.

This ignorant country hick has found himself in the wrong thread. Who's Nina W. ?

That's how I do - but the little buggers still stick to the knife. Onions I have no problem with. Skin it and cut it in half length-wise. Lay the flat side down, and slice it some more length-wise while keeping it all together. Then, if you want it finer, cut it cross-wise. Then mince it if that's what you're going for.

Does that mean I can't wear jeans and a tee-shirt?