Dave the Cook

Yeah, let's wait and do giant after the holidays. Besides, I haven't even looked at the recipe. I'm going to do the duck this weekend, too. I like parsnips fine, but I'm with maire-louise, the giant ones that you usually see aren't very good. I think turnips would work; even carrots would be OK, though their sweetness seems to run counter to the rest of the dish. I'm up for risotto just about any time; I'll find the right rice and stand by. Seth, if I recall, Craig's recipe calls for brodo, which is not quite the same thing as stock. OK, I haven't looked at the recipe in a while, so I'm not certain. But I know that a deep, rich meaty stock is often not what Italian cooking entails.

Or in VD Stew (EU version), of course.

Ooh. I went there, too. It was also very good: spotted prawns, which as far as I know, you can't get anywhere else, and some great mussels.

When I was in Seattle a few years ago, I really liked Etta's. I'm sure it's considered touristy by the locals, but I had a good time, the seafood was very fresh, and Tom Douglas is a very good chef. I don't know if they have a bar, or if the menu is available there in any case, but I walked in and was seated immediately -- not unusual for a lone diner, in my experience. It's one block from Pike's Market.

Welcome, GSBravo. I agree with you regarding the benefits that usually accrue to a company that maintains focus on core business, and I certainly agree that today's McDonalds burger suffers in comparison to the burger of twenty years ago. But I'm not sure it's all that clear that McDonalds is in serious trouble. Their stock is hovering around its 52-week high, and it seems to be maintaing its market share -- after all, it's not the only fast-food franchiser to have gone through a difficult period over the last few years. All of which is to say that while we may not care for the product, and we might disagree with the way the company is being run, McDonalds shareholders are not hurting. It's possible that what we think McDonalds core business is might be different than what the people running the company think it is.

Somebody remind me: what's the difference between a bistro and a brasserie?

Actually, I understand that. I was (mostly) joking in my earlier post, but if you were to say that it tasted like diesel fumes, I'd not only wonder how you knew what diesel fumes tasted like, I'd be disinclined to try the wine myself, even if you meant it "in a good way."

I was taught that currant jelly was the proper thing to serve with Monte Cristo sammiches.

but sure to share your notes. no less that 1 page, double-spaced. 12 point font. use of thesaurus and abstruse literary and architectural references optional. Extra points for comparing the taste of the wine to things you wouldn't dream of putting in your mouth: start with rocks (and pebbles), leather, varnish and ink.

Not to go off-topic -- well, OK, it is off-topic, but Varmint will just have to get over it: For the oblivious among us, or just for me, please explain this. (My sister-in-law loves this wine.)

I freeze it if I'm pretty certain I won't use it in, say, six weeks. It's not so much that the fat will go rancid in the 'fridge, it's that fats, even in closed containers, are great at picking up the aromas (not to mention downright odoriferous compounds) and tastes that waft about the enclosure. This is not to say that freezers can't harbor some pretty stinky stuff, too, especially since, in most designs, the two compartments share the same air. Frozen fat is just less susceptible.

Just out of curiosity, what do you think that would bring on eBay?

Right. But as it turns out, pint of water-based liquid (stock, wine, juice) weighs pretty close to a pound, and sometimes that's helpful to know. Edit to add: avoirdupois.

Then a pint's a pound (etc.) ? Remember? "A pint's a pound, the world around." Well, that was the "etc." part. But it's not always true. A pint of duck-butt pinfeathers won't weigh the same as a pint of slippery kidneys, for example.

Coquille: don't let Sam make you feel guilty about not having bacon fat in your freezer. I'd bet he's got friggin' pigeon fat in his freezer. The guy collects fat the way most people collect belly button lint (which by the way doesn't go in the freezer, but in a Tupperware container in your pantry, lest it dehydrate in the low temperatures).

Then a pint's a pound (etc.) ? Good to know. Thanks.

I think this says more about the sort of people who vote in Citysearch polls than it does about Chicago tastes or Midwestern interpretations. Look at the Citysearch results for any decent metropolis (you might start right here on eGullet), and you'll see that chains predominate. Edit to add the nearly superfluous observation that Chicago has a significant Italian-American population, and many excellent Italian restaurants. IMO, it's one of the better cities in the US for Italian and Italian-American dining, with or without Maggiano's (which, btw, is owned by the same company that owns and/or operates Chili's, Macaroni Grill, On The Border and a number of other chains, and is based not in the Midwest, but in Dallas, Texas).

That's exactly it -- -- and as egregious an example of copyright infringement as I've ever seen. Edit: no reflection on guajolote, who merely found it.

It's similar, except in the J&J recipe, the breasts are boned and the filets are separated from the carcass. The wing tips are used for stock, and the remaining two joints are separated. In other words, you've got 12 pieces. But as I recall, the cooking is pretty much the same, though the veggies are added for the braising portion. Duh. Someone with the book handy can probably be more helpful.

I'm into duck! I've done Julia's recipe in J&J; I'd like to try Jacques' Skillet Duck. And while I'm not an unabashed fan of Martha, I'm tired of her taking hits from people who would rather trash her than understand what she tries to do (yes, I used to be one of those people, too). Edit: thanks to Maggie, for helping me see the real Martha.

VD Stew.

I suspect Lenore would spell the last item: Poe Boy wouldn't she?

Yes, and it makes a wonderful sauce. But it's not really the neutral base that Matthew's looking for, I think.

Well, you can try it yourself and see if it makes a difference to you. If there was only one way to do a dish, we'd only need one cookbook! Yes, you could think of it that way. But another way to describe it is that you're replacing water (something without much flavor and no body, which you evaporate in the process of reduction), with stock, something that has a lot of flavor and body. Also, wine is full of compounds that transform at temperatures below the boiling point, so the intense application of caramelization isn't necessary to effect a change in flavor. You underestimate yourself, I think. Certainly a word like "layer" can mean different things to different people, but much, much better cooks than I (Pepin and Prudhomme, to name a couple) have employed the word, even in referring to rustic dishes like Boeuf Bourguignon. In my opinion, there can be a lot of sublety in Coq au Vin or Crawfish Etouffee; since the basics are pretty much a given, it's the subleties that separate a good version from a great one. You can look for it, but if you seek a chemical reaction sort of thing, it's not there in this dish (meaning Beef Burgundy), other than the how temperature affects wine esters. However, acidity certainly contributes to flavor in Beef Burgundy, as well as many, many other dishes. I wasn't clear about what went into the pouch in Jacques and Julia's recipe: a good handful each of chopped onions and carrots, a head's worth of smashed garlic, and the usual thyme, bay and parsley. It's a pretty healthy bouquet garni.

The pumpkin does add some flavor, but it's deceptively mild. I've seen a number of people take a piece of sweet potato pie thinking it's pumpkin, and never notice the difference. Yes, you can puree fresh pumpkin (just in case you didn't decide a second ago to substitute sweet potato pie), but it won't taste the same as good-quality canned pumpkin, unless you're growing one of the varieties of sugar pumpkin. I'm sure that processors blend different varieties and carefully control specific gravity in the interest of product consistency, much like orange juice producers. Evaporated milk is not sweetened. It's simply fat-free milk that's been reduced by 50%, something you can easily do yourself. (The sugary stuff is called "sweetened condensed milk.")