Dave the Cook

Fried pork rinds as big as your head.

I don't remember if it used to be on rye or not, but the steak melt has grilled onions. When I lived in Houston a few years back, it was one of my favorites. I also managed, most weeks, to indulge in a Sourdough Jack. As I recall, the fries are decent when fresh, but the curly fries not so much.

I guess. I neither recommend nor discourage the practice. I'm just saying it works. Personally, I don't do it. All that goes in my chicken stock is chicken, water and salt.

I was dubious of the onion skin thing, too. But apparently, the pigments are water-soluble. The peel from one onion turned about a quart of water a pale tea color in a short period of time.

Personally, I wouldn't bother with a circulaor until I'd established that the SVS didn't work as advertised. I'll be watching closely, Chris. I'm this close to pulling the trigger on a SVS.

Despite claims to the contrary, I've also seen knives become magnetized from spending time on a mag strip.

I'm in. Thinking about a chipotle glaze.

From what I understand, they're a little behind schedule on getting the book-related website up. Give it three weeks or so, and you might get a good preview.

More information on Modernist Cuisine over here.

Propane has about twice the energy per cubic foot as natural gas, but they ignite and burn at pretty much the same temperature (source here).

I got a peek at a small part of Modernist Cuisine the other day. Like others, I gasped when I heard the price (although it's available at Amazon on a pre-order basis for $422 (click here for a Society-friendly link). Having seen approximately 2% of it (24 pages out of 2200), I can say that if you have the money, it's likely to be worth it. There are five separate volumes: History and Fundamentals: culinary movements, microbiology, safety, health, heat and energy, physics Techniques and Equipment: traditional cooking, modern ovens, sousvide, the "modernist" kitchen Ingredients and Preparations: meat and seafood, plants, thickeners, gels, emulsions, foams, wine, coffee Plated-dish Recipes: tender cuts, tough cuts, poultry and birds, fish, shellfish, eggs and dairy, starches, fruits and vegetables Kitchen journal: a spiral-bound volume for the owner's own notes; includes condensed versions of many of the book's recipes Imagine On Food and Cooking, expanded to include what this book calls modernist techniques and ingredients, with photography that at least equals what you see in something like Keller's Under Pressure. Many of the photographs have been usefully doctored (they've got a real Photoshop whiz, and I say that as someone who's been called a Photoshop whiz himself) to illustrate principles; many are directly annotated. A friend looked at some one photo in particular and remarked, "I don't cook in a wok, but that picture sure makes me want one." Something that's flown under the radar is authorship. Nathan is listed first, but he's got two co-writers: Chris Young and Maxime Billet. Both are Fat Duck alums, among several other impressive things. That's what I remember for now, but maybe questions will jog my memory.

Nor have I seen anyone say that a recipe came out badly for having used unsalted butter. Having said that, I think I'll start looking at date codes on butter.

Great input; thanks. It'd be helpful not to have to replicate my home bar in a vacation home, so extra credit goes to deft repeated deployment of ingredients, like Mike suggests. Taking Katie's approach, but with Maraschino: Aviation John Collins Fancy Free Are there other ways to link drinks? What would you match with a Ward 8, or a French Pearl?

Thanks for all the comments. I went off to do some research, and now I'm at the point where the more I learn, the more confused I get. I started off believing what Chris said: that you can't (or shouldn't) install solid flooring at or below grade. Knowing that I can only helps in one way, though. The ceiling in the kitchen is only seven feet (was there some architectural movement that made this fashionable? There's no structural reason for it.) I'd like to minimize the height reduction, because I think with such a short ceiling, every inch counts. So if I was to go the solid route, how thick does the decking need to be? And what are the advantages to 3/4" boards over 3/8"? Just the number of times it can be sanded down? Right now, my time is cheap, so I'd like to install the floor myself with the help of impressed labor (aka my son). That makes engineered flooring, especially floating floors, very appealing. I'm pretty sure that I read somewhere (can't find it now, of course) that it's not a good idea to use floating floors in rooms with heavy stationary objects (hello, refrigerator!). Anyone have experience with this? Oh, and after looking at some samples, I'm including bamboo in my list of possibilities. It's no more water-friendly than any of the other choices, but it's attractive and, especially when stranded, very tough. It doesn't hurt that it's popular these days, what with its "sustainable" rep -- since I don't plan to stay here all that long, resale issues are on my mind.

(Get your mind out of the gutter.) I'll be heading down to the beach for a family reunion later this week, and I volunteered to host a daily cocktail hour. Of the 20 people who will be there, 18 are of legal drinking age, but few are what you might call cocktail enthusiasts. I hope to convert a few. Rather than just pour by request, I'm thinking of programming each day with three libations: a sour, a tall drink, and whatever you call drinks in the category that would include Negronis as well as Manhattans and Old Fashioneds -- short drinks that aren't sours, in other words. So what I need are five or six sets of gateway-style drinks; it would be cool if each set could be thematically related in some way. Who wants to start?

The canning process, because it involves at least a small amount of cooking, will change texture, color and flavor of most foods. If you like it, you like it. For me, it's tuna. I don't much care for it fresh, but I'll eat the canned stuff any time.

More Than Gourmet has a product they call Roasted Vegetable Demi-Glace and another called Veggie Stock Gold. Both come in highly-reduced form. I haven't tried these particular items, but their veal and duck, which are sold the same way, are very high quality. You might want to track down a sample (if you go the Amazon route, it seems you have to buy six) and see if you like it.

The pleasure obtained from using a well-made tool is hard to put a price on. What I can say is that I have both the WMF and the OXO. If the WMF is all sticky, as often as not I'll wash it rather than reach for the already clean OXO.

That's probably a matter of personal taste; I'd say no -- or at least that other factors such as how the carcass is chilled and what the chicken ate will make more difference.

Really? I thought rum was made with molasses or cane juice. Will it still taste rum-like when made with refined sugar? I didn't say it would be good rum! But there's not a lot of difference between simple syrup and cane syrup that's been pressed from sugar cane -- cane syrup has a little more glucose and some trace vitamins and minerals. (Don't get me started on the definition of "raw" sugar.) The flavor of rum is only partly determined by the sugar or sugar bypoduct that starts the process; yeast strains, fermentation time, distillation technique and aging method contribute significantly.

I'm not surprised that pitmasters have trouble with chicken. Slow-cooking a bird over a banked wood fire is conducted on a different time scale than a whole hog, or even a shoulder. The margin of error for chicken breast is much tighter than that for pork loin. Not to mention that pulling a loin out of a whole hog before the rest of the animal is done is much easier (and more portion friendly) than carving out a chicken breast and waiting for the rest of the order to be ready for the plate.

We've avoided the jalapeno-garnished items. They're canned and/or pickled, and that's not a taste we care for.

Rum.

About 5-1/2 years ago, I replaced my kitchen floor (read about it here). The "new" floor has not held up well. Perhaps I didn't seal it properly, or the housekeeper was negligent. In any case, I'm going to replace it. I've cooked in kitchens with all the common floor types except bamboo, and I've decided on wood. It's resilient, pretty, glass and china friendly, and won't look like it needs cleaning (even though it might) the day after I dry-mop. Here's the thing, though: there's a lot to choose from, starting with the composition of the planks themselves. What advice and education can the membership offer?

I admit to sitting in the car and eating. Since my son lived with his mom, it was a way to extend our time together before I dropped him off.