Dave the Cook

...and so Fat-Guy brings us full circle. One day, in an unremarkable thread, he mentions, in passing, that he is thinking about buying one of these. He gets us to feed him all this information, then slyly moves on to arguing with Plotnicki about something (anything). But he has planted a seed. The next week, he introduces a topic about slicing things really, really thin, insinuating that the only decent tool for the job is a $300 countertop rotary deli slicer. We toss some ideas around, and Fat-Guy waits. And waits. Eventually, somebody suggests what? A granton-edge Wusthof Santoku! He must have turned blue holding his breath, waiting for us to do his evil bidding... Now he can justify the knife--it wasn't his idea, it was somebody else's. And it's not an $80 hit to the pocketbook, it's a $220 savings. What a clever clever man. I feel cheap and used.

I would think consistency would be a problem. With paper-thin or near-paper-thin slices you don't have much margin for error.

Well, I have an Oxo (or a reasonable counterfeit), so I'll say yes, because it's better than the VP I used when I did it. I'll also come clean and admit that I haven't actually done salumi this way. But we used to use this technique to shave nearly-frozen Hormel "prosciutto" for hors d'oeuvres and garnishes. Anyway, I figured it was worth a shot, as long as Fat-Guy seemed to be trembling by his PC, waiting for suggestions and willing to try just about anything.

Not to confuse things, because I think for the most part this is really is technique and practice practice practice, but one should not underestimate the utility of a vegetable peeler for small, hard salume.

BTW, where is this recipe that gives me an excuse to use a half-cup of chopped garlic?

Never heard that one before. A colloquial linguistic erosion common to rural and Southern U.S. We use it lots hereabouts.

Given the price and the "J&R Music" appellation, I'd bet Cuisinart has discontinued it. Better get yours quick.

Lucky you to have green tomatoes this late in the year. Ours crop is almost gone. Make a Remoulade, substituting finely crumbled blue cheese for about 1/2 the mayonnaise, and let it meld for at least an hour. Core the 'maters slice them about 3/8" (~1 cm) thick. Dip in flour seasoned with salt, pepper and a teeny tiny bit of sugar. Then dip in egg, then corn meal. Fry in neutral oil over medium high heat. Or, season the flour with S&P, thyme and cayenne. Instead of blue cheese, adulterate the remoulade with some Old Bay (if your Remoulade has tarragon, omit it) and chopped shrimp.

Including pesky metaphorical horses, thank God. Tommy, is it like this? Or this? Find it here. I have both--use the first for dry spices, the second (got it for free, otherwise I wouldn't have it) for wet stuff like garlic, ginger, small fresh peppers, etc. Reversible and removable blade--easier to clean the gunk out of than the coffee mill. Very handy.

And what will the health inspector have to say about that? Believe it or not, I did it on purpose... edit: effing tags.

This horse has been out of the barn and hanging out in the commercial kitchen (and mine, too, for that matter) for at least 25 years. Now FoodTV has turned it loose on the public. About ten years ago, I read the following in an IBM style manual (inserted as a response to the hot tech-writing controversy of the era, whether or not "access" could be an action word): Swear to God.

I'll assume it's a serious question, but I don't know the answer. If I had to guess, I'd say it probably is, if cost is your main consideration. You'd have to compare the cost of heating the oven for 35 minutes (plus pre-heating, which would probably cost more than maintianing 400 degrees once you got there) with the cost of heating however many gallons of water one d/w cycle requires. I think most d/w's heat their own water and recycle a lot of it, so they're pretty efficient. The cost of running the mechanical bits is negligible compared to the heating costs. It does work, by the way, as long as your water is hot enough--about 145F should do it. Shellfish and thin filets come out very well, and it's almost impossible to overcook them, since the temperature never exceeds the temperature at which the fish proteins coagulate (around 170F, I think). I only do it to prove it can be done; it's not a standard part of my batterie. The dishwasher at our house is always full of other things, anyway.

Welcome! Not having Jason's respect for international boundaries, I would go another direction. Substitute andouille sausage for the ham, leave the ketchup in the pantry and add a can of diced tomatoes (drained, I think), a little thyme and maybe some basil. Gewurtz or grenache-shiraz. Or lager. This site never fails to make me hungry. Just for fun, you can do those cartouche thingies in the dishwasher--upper rack, regular cycle, no detergent.

Sounds like the start of a great thread, Nick--"What's your greatest culinary sin?" Like mixing Dream Whip with canned chocolate pudding and selling it as chocolate mousse... (250 servings one desperate Sunday)

So there's no future in cloaking smugness with a veil of false humility? Damn.

They're called skimmers. I use one like this: The problem is that scum bubbles are often the same size (or smaller) as the holes in the skimmer. So I'm thinking about getting one like this: And thank you, mb.

For a long braise like this, I would go for 250. You're trying to accomplish two things: 1) allow the flavors sufficient time to meld; 2) melt the collagen in the meat to get that silken texture characteristic of a perfect braise. The first can be accomplished by braising until done, then letting the braise sit over night. But heat will accelerate reactions, and some reactions take place only in the presence of heat, so longer is better. The second you want to do without driving all the juice out of meat too early. It will happen eventually, because a braise is by definition well-done meat, and well-done by definition is dried out. But you want to replace the juice with the melted collagen. If the meat dries out too early, the protein matrix will tighten up, and there will be no place for the collagen to go but out into the liquid. It will make for great sauce but dessicated meat. The meat needs to remain at about 200 (collagen melts at around 180, if memory serves) for a few hours in order to allow complete conversion of the collagen into gelatin. I think it needs to be as high as 250 because you will have some heat loss from the oven and the pot. (If you've got a really well-insulated oven, you could try 225.) But at 300, I think you're going to be boiling most of the time, and this is what you want to avoid. This explains a common phenomenon. People say they don't like pot roast because it gets so dry. So they cook it less--and they like it less--so eventually, they don't cook it at all, which is really too bad. They need to cook it more--four hours for a 3-1/2 pound chuck is about right. But this is just my theory (and opinion, and I do go on sometimes). johnjohn, sorry if I'm explaining stuff you already know, when all you wanted was a number.

Saturday: Grilled flatiron steaks over hardwood charcoal Fries: russets soaked, then deep-fried (just once; too late for the full treatment) Grilled portobello and romaine salad--marinated the 'shrooms in EVOO, lemon and anchovy and grilled with the steaks; brushed the lettuce with the same marinade and did one minute per side while the steaks were resting. Whacked it all up and tossed--big hit. Next time will mix in some raddicchio and couple of the last summer tomatoes, maybe a little Parmesan. Stonehaven Shiraz-Cabernet I found for $7. Decent. Sunday: Grill-smoked beef ribs--I don't normally do beef twice in a row like this, but I had put off the steaks from Wednesday or Thursday, and the beef ribs were a special. I wanted to do pork, but they were four times as much, and I hadn't done beef in several years. Gave the ribs a dry rub of ancho, cumin, coriander, celery seed, garlic and onion. Cooked two hours by the side of a ~275 F fire. Ok, but a little disappointing--family expressd desire to have baby backs or pork spare ribs instead. Just realized in writing this up that I left salt out of the rub, and this probably had something to do with it. Blue cheese potato salad Black bean/red pepper/corn relish Rosemount Grenache Shiraz--nice match with the spice; we have this often with Cajun food. Since the grill was going for so long anyway, I grilled five zucchini and smoked a few links of spicy fresh pork sausage for use later in the week.

So egg flavor is less important than acid/fat balance?

I have to agree with JM. I spent four of the last six years in Houston. For all of its progressive talk, and all its admirable accomplishments, Houston still revels in its Westerness and its cowboy/oil-town-rowdy provincialism. Not that it doesn't have pockets of refinement--but my impression was that the market was well-served by what was already there. I think there are a number of other cities in the South and Southwest (even in Texas) where your friend's chances would be better. If it's got to be Houston, look at the Woodlands (of course), the downtown areas where some gentrification is going on, and Clear Lake, where there is some young money. No offense, Jess.

In the course of tracking down all the wonderful information you guys have provide, I found out the following: Apparently, Copco was broken up a few years ago. What's left of the old company makes teapots and gadgets, but no pots and pans. That part of the company is controlled by Aga, the oven people, and is not easily obtained in the US. (Historical sidenote: Sam Farber, founder of Copco and nephew of the founder of Farberware, come out of retirement to start Oxo, the company that proved you really could get people to pay $19 for a manual can opener. He was inspired by his arthritic wife's struggles with everyday kitchen equipment.) Note on Griswold, for those unfamiliar with it: Wagner (of WagnerWare fame) bought the Griswold castings. Eventually Wagner got out of the cookware business. Thanks for all your help. A few minutes ago, I bought a Lodge 11-1/4" round pan. It was $15 on Amazon. Following FG's sage advice, I added a cookbook and got free shipping. I'm $15 ahead of the LeCreuset price. This was what I wanted to do in the first place, but the swoop of those handles (useless as they may be), kept tugging at me. Maybe when I 'm rich, I'll buy one and set it out as an objet d'art. Nice to be back on the One True Path. By the way, the real deal-killer was LeCreuset's warning about using heat above medium. Don't they expect people to actually use these things? Anybody making book on the upcoming Fat-Guy vs. Margaret "The Wuss" Pilgrim match?

I've been giving this a lot of thought, and I have some ideas about how to extend the shelf-life of homemade mayo. As I was working through a protocol in my head, it occurred to me that perhaps no one is really interested in doing it. Do you folks want longer-life homemade mayo? If you do, what are the characteristics that you are least willing to give up? Some possibilities that occur to me: -"eggy" taste - texture - choice of fat (and by the way, what is the fat of choice?) - other taste components

I have the Lodge version of the two-burner grill, and I loved it when I had a gas cooktop. Now I have a ceramic top, and it is unworkable. One of these days I'll replace the range, but until then I need a single-burner solution. Also, the dishwashers complained that it was too heavy.

Seductive, isn't it? What's the deal with Griswold?