Dave the Cook

Following is an excerpt from an e-mail we received from Phyllis Isaacson, Director of Information Services at The James Beard Foundation. (Since we're in a membership hold at the moment, she wasn't able to join and post herself.) Please refer to the entire message here.

We've received the following from Phyllis Isaacson, Director of Information Services at The James Beard Foundation. (Since we're in a membership hold at the moment, she wasn't able to join and post herself.)

Cool! Congratulations.

I'd be surprised if Monica has much, if anything, to do with the cover of her book. These things are usually handled by the publisher.

I hadn't thought about that, but you're right, foodietraveler. Actually, it's a shortcut in the Mexican kitchen, too. I don't understand the reference to "immigrant kulfi," though. I'm almost totally unfamiliar with Indian cuisine. Maybe you could explain?

It's my opinion that there's not much that doesn't go with roast chicken, so it's a pretty safe choice. But I've gotten fond of pairing Shiraz with slow-cooked or smoked meats. Lots of these are red meats (assuming you don't buy the pork producer line that pig is white meat), but certainly almost any poultry or rabbit would work. I also like Shiraz with Cajun foods, especially those that call for really dark roux -- etouffees and gumbos featuring duck, chicken, shrimp and the like often work well as long as the wine isn't too rich.

I agree with everything Bux said. In addition: I think the precooked egg idea will probably work with things like Caesar salad dressing, where the emulsifying power of the egg is not called on to do heavy duty. I'm dubious of making butter sauces, though. Once the yolk has coagulated (which, if memory serves, starts happening at about 140 F), the lecithin responsible for emulsification binds the fats and other proteins in the yolk, and is no longer available to bind the butterfat. If you were careful to pull the egg as soon as you hit 160, you might have enough left to make it work, assuming carryover doesn't coagulate it or turn it into scrambled eggs. I'm not sure how you measure the temperature of two egg yolks, though, even if you add a couple of tablespoons of vinegar or lemon. It's not enough for even a Thermapen to get an accurate temperature. If eggs are a concern, flash-pasteurized eggs seem to work pretty well. The pasteurization time and temperature are carefully controlled to prevent coagulation. The home cook doesn't have access to the equipment necessary to do this. I'd also point out that there is a big difference in taste between cooked egg and raw egg. Finally, with reference to the buffet alluded to in the link: far more stomach ailments are transmitted on produce (which gets a lot of hands-on contact) than through raw egg yolks. Oh, and welcome, RedHermes.

I know practically nothing about Indian cooking, but this conversation sounds like an echo of the ones you'll hear about chili powder, grilling/smoking spice rubs and Cajun spice mixes. I make my own usually, and yes, they're to my taste and I know the quality, and they're better than what I can buy at the local grocery. But I would hate to think that my obsession would stop anyone from making chili or gumbo just because they aren't inclined to follow my example. There are decent commercial chile powders and spice rubs. If this availability encourages someone to explore a new cuisine, I'm all for it -- maybe one day they'll be obsessive, too. But until then, a butt rubbed with Penzey's is better than no butt at all.

Winners of Round 22 announced here.

Yeah, I'm having the same jones.

To me, the draw at Schlotzsky's is the bread, which is an interesting cross between an English muffin and a pita. If their signature ingredient isn't going to pull in sufficient numbers, I don't think replacing it with a tortilla is going to help, especially since the rest of their offering is pretty mainstream. I think they were also doomed by poor strategy for locating stores (they always seem to be in the least convenient spot in their neighborhood), and an advertising message that never settled on one thing long enough to gain a foothold in consumer consciousness.

He may not be an actor but he is an entertainer and I don't see the problem with that. When folks like Emeril raise the consciousness of the mass market about the value of using fresh and high quality ingredient, more people begin demanding those types of items from their local grocery chains. More demand means better selection, sometime more competitive prices and at the very least it means I dont' have to hunt as far and as wide for some items I want to cook with. These days I can buy good quality pine nuts, imported cheeses, decent olive oils and the like at my local Sam's Club Wholesale store. I have to think that the influence of Food TV and the like has been a factor in this realtviely recent development. As an analogy let's consider Starbuck's - many coffee drinkers and espresso lovers think they're BS but the fact is that they have raised the bar for independent operations, increased consumer awareness and actually increased the market for better quality coffees. By the way.... Emeril was the head chef at Commander's Palace in New Orleans at a rather young age - early 20's if I recall correctly. You don't get a job like that by having shtick or connections - you earn it by being very good at what you do and having an intuitive ability to get other people to work with you as a team. I don't give a whit what people think about the TV shtick - the guy's got skills. Thanks, Owen. Correct on every point. I wouldn't doubt that his attitude is any less applicable (or helpful) when it comes to wine and wine lists.

I was perusing a recent gift, Cooking from Quilt Country (highly recommended), when I came across a recipe for Escalloped Oysters. A couple of sleeves worth of saltines, crushed, are doused in half-and-half and blessed with a pint of shucked oysters and their liquor. This is poured into a baking dish and stuck into a medium oven. The saltines absorb the liquid and sort of melt into something that's not quite heavy mashed potatoes, not quite dairy-saturated bread. A similar recipe was traditional fall-winter holiday fare when I was growing up. On both Thanksgiving and Christmas Eves, we would have oyster stew, which was a thin, simple veloute sort of thing: roux, milk, oyster liquor, oysters. The roux was made with excess butter, which would float to the top of the bowl, creating a lovely, rich two-tone surface. There were always leftovers; these were used instead of the aforementioned half-and-half to moisten the crackers for the next day's casserole. (It didn't occur to me to ask until I had been consuming this stuff for about 45 years how it had come to be a custom among Quakers, Mennonites and Amish in otherwise oysterless Indiana.)

I've got 20 ounces of ground pork butt, the same amount of ground veal shoulder, and 2-1/2 pounds of ground chuck. I bought this stuff to make meatloaf, but I couldn't talk the guy into fresh-grinding half-pounds of meat. By my calculations (always suspect, of course), that's enough to make about 3 pains de viande. I don't need this much meatloaf anytime soon, and I hate freezing raw ground meat. No problem: I'd make meatballs. So there I was, halfway up arms in ungulate ooze, when it occurred to me that I didn't really know what I was doing. I've always used the basic meatlof mix (meat, starchy binder, an egg, seasoning) and gave it a nudge towards Italian (or Italian-American) with extra parsley, garlic, oregano and basil; sometimes a little fennel seed. But I don't have a set recipe, which is kind of unusual for me. Easy enough, I figured. I'll check into eGullet, grab a few recipes, synthesize them into something that sounds good, and go from there. Lo and behold, there is no meatball thread, at least not by that name. Now there is. Let's hear it: meat proportions, binding preferences, seasoning, browning method, simmer or not, and in what?

Here is what I remember as a consumer in the mid 70's: The Japanese-made Cuisinart processors were well made, but similar in appearance and performance to the French made Cuisinarts, which had a Pabst motor. News reports, and industry information at the time indicated that Cuisinart, of Conn., had lifted the French design, after a disagreement with Robot Coupe, and had the machine made in Japan. There were lawsuits over this, and Cuisinart won, in U.S. courts. Robot looked like a loser, and their product was not available in the U.S. or Canada. The fancy tubes and push buttons cames later. I have a Robot Coupe food processor that I bought in the early 80;'s. It closely resembles the Cuisinarts that were also available at the time. Mine has a chrome body. I still use it. I have a whole set of grating discs, etc. (which I never use). I remember the lawsuit, and I also remember home-style Robot-Coupes. I believe the consumer market is what the lawsuit was about, as well as (if memory serves) reverse licensing of technology. Robot-Coupe had completely missed the potential of adapting their machine for home use. When Cuisinart launched their line, Robot-Coupe sought to recover lost ground by asking Cuisnart to turn over their designs. Perhaps there were agreements to exchange technology, and R-C felt that it had been cheated. Regardless, when Cuisinart refused, R-C sought relief in the courts. Sometime during this period, R-C brought out its own consumer product, and, yes, it was very similar in appearance to the Cuisinart product. I suspect the rush to market had something to do with this, and maybe access to the Cuisinart modifications did, too. Of course, even today, most food processors are nearly indistinguishable. There are only so many ways to package a bowl, a blade and a honkin' big direct-drive motor. As for the manufacturing dispute, I think that R-C was the original fabricator, again, under license, of Cuisinart's machines. When R-C sued Cuiz, the latter probably felt uncomfortable with the manufacturing arrangement, and found someone else to make them. If someone else has more accurate, or simply more, information, I'd love to hear it. Nevertheless, Robot-Coupe has been active in North America for more than 30 years (check Robot-Coupe USA for more details). They abandoned the consumer market long ago, and now specialize in choppers, blenders, mixers and devices that invoke combinations of these processes for commercial food prep, nutrition, health care and laboratory uses. And they still make food processors.

Manufacturing and engineering are related but separate processes, all the more so if they are done in different countries. Regardless, I'm not aware that Japan has a reputation for manufacturing (or designing, for that matter) shoddy products. The Robot Coupe technology was indeed licensed in 1971. But the Robot Coupe was a commercial design, and almost completely unsuitable for domestic use. Before putting it on the market, Sontheimer had to re-engineer almost every part. It's not possible to "steal" your own work. Robot Coupe still markets commercial equipment under their own name; their North American base is in Jackson, Mississippi, and has been for thirty years. I can find no evidence that they are in any way associated with KitchenAid, unless Robot Coupe manufactures KA food processors. This is a common practice, and not consistently correlated with product quality. But even if they are, KitchenAid has an excellent reputation in consumer products, despite some recent issues.

Jim Cowan recounts an adventure with his aptly nicknamed friend: It started with an impromptu tasting of nearly random Pinot Noirs. Indignation ensued when the most anticipated bottle exhibited a familiar unpleasant aroma. The next thing we knew . . . * * * Be sure to check The Daily Gullet home page daily for new articles (most every weekday), hot topics, site announcements, and more.

Most people know Vogue as a big, fat magazine. eGullet knows it as home to Steingarten. But as hefty as the monthly is, it's still not sufficient unto Jeffrey. He had some stuff left over from his August column, and he sent it to us. Here are the extra recipes . . . * * * Be sure to check The Daily Gullet home page daily for new articles (most every weekday), hot topics, site announcements, and more.

Men love Boston Cream Pie. If you don't want to serve it up straight, it seems to me that this is a dish that lends itself to deconstruction quite readily.

We always had saltines with chili, too. My mom learned how to make chili from her mother-in-law, who, though a second-generation Midwesterner, spent her early married life in Arkansas, and, as a prominent Quaker, also had significant family ties to Pennsylvania. Thanks to Robb, fifi and mrbigjas, we finally have sufficient evidence to support the long-standing contention that my grandmother was the until-now mythical "Ms Four-Square," renowned and regaled by anthropologists for decades -- the Texas-Pennsylvania saltines-with-chili infection vector.

That's how it's supposed to be done, though I often leave the keelbone in and just crush it, because I'm lazy. Removing it does make for easier service, though. If you're taking it out, save it with the back bone -- lots of collagen in that thing, and that's what gives stock great mouthfeel (speaking of R-rated!)

It also cooks more evenly, which I think is more important than either timing or service. Edited to say: spatchcock.

I've done this on "lesser" cuts like chuck eye and top blade steaks to good effect. I usually add some ground ancho as well. The chile doesn't get into the meat, but the surface residual of salt, molasses and ancho makes for a tasty crust after grilling. I've also cut back on the salt in favor of some soya, which has a somewhat richer flavor. Soy sauce is not as effective as salt for brining, though, so you can't swap it out entirely. I like the technique on the shoulder cuts because I think the texture of these steaks is better when they're closer to medium than rare. I used do them black and blue so they wouldn't toughen up, and that meant really bloody plates, and sometimes an unappetizingly gelatinous serving. By brining, I can cook them a little longer, at a slightly lower temperature, and get a great-flavored, tender (well, for chuck, anyway) steak that appeals to everyone. As for trying it on more expensive cuts, I'm sure it works, but I've never tried it. Luckily, I haven't had to serve a well-done ribeye or strip since my father-in-law died, and that was before I'd ever heard of brining.

There's no doubt that it will work -- the only question is if you will like the end result. "Red" meats like lamb and beef aren't usually brined, but that's because they have lots of internal fat, and brining isn't necessary. Despite its superficial similarity to these meats, venison is quite lean. I'd try it.

If I recall correctly, there was also talk about sharing skills and technology -- in other words, making better cars. I'm not sure if that actually happened in the case of Daimler-Chrysler. But it's notable that nowhere in the Molson-Coors story or the corporate announcements, is there talk about better beer. I had the same thought. The fact that this deal pre-empts the offer Ian Molson was putting together makes me wonder if family politics weren't a motivating factor. If Coors could do just as well by spending money on their own brands, surely Molson could have put Ian's premium price to work for equally good effect.