Rico

So, I tend to spend an inordinate amount of time in the old eGCI courses, and happened to be reading this one yesterday. Seems like something I, for one, would like to try, given the time. Edited to fix nitpicky nonesuch.

I've been looking around, and it seems this particular product has been around for at least a year, so it's likely a lot of you have seen it. But I had to make sure.

Agreed with bmdaniel, I think it's a perfectly suitable steakhouse. American Airlines magazine said it was the best place to get a drink in Dallas, for what that's worth - I can name a few that I prefer, if you're interested. How long are you here? How many meals out? Edited to take out unnecessary commentary and edit some poor, poor grammar.

Second that, but with just about every photo and description you've posted.

This blog is already a helluva lot of fun to read, Scottyboy. Those photos are great, and I'm eating up the insight, as it were. Looking forward to a good week's reading.

Ha- saw Luling in a post two below this one on the big board and got all excited, thinking 'All right! Talking about barbecue!' Then I saw that it was about watermelon. I like watermelon, but not as much as barbecue, so I was a little disappointed. Then my eyes scrolled up and saw this post. My heart leaped. Anyway, I'm glad to hear they were on. We made a trip down there a couple months ago and were - likewise - not disappointed. There are others in Texas that can make a mad brisket, but Lockhart really is like barbecue heaven to me.

RRO, everything you've posted looks great, but that photo of the cheese just slapped me in the face and took my money. In a good way.

mgaretz - That brisket intrigues me. Is there something you would do differently next time to improve the results? It looks really good - though it's a little unnatural to me to see a sliced brisket that's that pink. Getting used to the capabilities of a sous vide machine is a little strange when you've grown up slow cooking everything in a smoker. rarerollingobject - I saw your post and decided I am going to start learning how to make tartare this weekend. I'd say it shouldn't be that difficult, but I've said that about a lot of things and been completely wrong. Anyway, your post is just another example of why this thread is so great: the moment I think I know something about cooking, I can come over here and realize just how much I don't know.

Are you kidding me? They make that stuff? The only time(s) I remember eating 7-11, it was past midnight and my options were hot dogs off the rollers or nachos where you could dispense your own nacho 'cheese'. I think some chili product was also involved. This irritates me. 7-11 is headquartered here. Why is everyone else getting all the good stuff?

Dakki, that's a helluva good-looking meal. Great shot of it, too. How was the chistorra? I've never tasted it.

ScottyBoy, that looks astoundingly good. Man. And as a side note, your Athletics play my Rangers tonight. I do hope Rich Harden does not share the same success you had with the pig.

jmolinari posted a ciabatta recipe on the recipegullet a few years back, and I went ahead and tried it out the other day - it works. Well. He says he's got a better one now, but for a first-timer, I was really happy with this one.

I also laughed while reading this - I am perhaps too fond of my own and have a difficult time doing anything with them except caprese salad or just slicing them and eating them. It's indefensible, really - better tomatoes make a better sauce, or salsa, or whatever, and homegrown ones shouldn't be limited to just dishes where they are the raw, featured attraction. And yet I still can't bring myself to do anything but that with them ... I'm sure it has a lot to do with the fact that everyone thinks the best tomatoes in the world are the ones that he/she grew, and should be treated as such.

Well, first off, I'm going to say that there really must be something wrong with me, because everyone who seems to be in the know says Franklin is the best in Texas, and I just ... well, I'll go ahead and say it: I don't get it. To me, I'd go to Black's in Lockhart, given the choice. I mean, if Franklin were in Dallas I would go there all the time - it is without question good barbecue, it's just that on our barbecue trip, it didn't bowl anybody over. Anyway, here are some photos. They're not fantastic shots, but I think they'll show that you're not going to lose either way. Franklin lean: Franklin fatty (bottom right; I know, I could have taken a better one): Snow's - I remember it being good - looks a little dry in the photo, though:

For the duck prosciutto, he calls for a dry cure of ... salt. Just kosher salt. Just lay the breast on a layer of salt and cover it completely with salt. Then refrigerate for 24 hours before the week-long drying. So should I cure it in a brine, is there a better way? And by better, I mean have a less salty result and still have it be 'cured.'

Well, I need to make clear that I'm pretty new into curing meat, so honestly I don't know if it was too salty or not. It tastes pretty heavily of salt, but I guess I just figured that's how it was supposed to be. I'd like to try it with less of a salt influence. Would I just cure it in the salt for 18 hours instead of 24? Twelve hours? Or am I on the wrong track entirely? (Edited to fix an entirely inconsequential grammar issue that would have bothered me the rest of the day had I not addressed it)

So, I'm a little late on the bandwagon, but I just finished drying and slicing some of the duck 'prosciutto'. It was an easy recipe, which explains why it was my first real success from the book. I'm starting to learn how rewarding this can be when it turns out ...

Dakki, that sounds freaking delicious. And I'm stealing it. And ChrisTaylor, 2X. Looks damned good to me.

Humility noted. Now please tell us about the chicken. You can't post that photo and then not talk about the chicken.

I'm going to go with Janeer and LindaK and cast another vote for the tomato-season BLT. Throw some grilled shrimp on it for an SBLT, and that'll do, too ... But during winter ... hell, it was 102 degrees here today. I can't remember winter.

Well, dinner was leftover takeout chinese, but at least dessert was homemade: The first peach dessert of the season - vanilla-almond peach pie. (incidentally, I thought I remembered a desserts! thread, but a search didn't seem to turn one up for me)

Back in the days when I was a culinary whelp, completely and totally dependent upon tried-and-true recipes that I had to follow word for word lest my ignorance destroy a dish (not that I am a culinary Michelangelo now, by any means), I delved into Julia Child's The Way To Cook. It taught me a lot, to say the very least, and I was fortunate to happen upon it as one of my first 'real' cookbooks. It's been several years since I've read it, but I went through it this morning looking for something or other, and glanced at a photo of 'Mediterranean Fish In Aspic.' And this is by no means the only aspic in the book - she clearly, throughout her career as a culinary ambassador, espoused aspic. So what happened to it? Did Jell-o ruin what once was a well respected manner of preparing a dish? I'll be honest - the photo of Mediterranean Fish In Aspic looked unappealing to me. Is that because I grew up with Jell-o and imagined that the shrimp and fish were encased in something Bill Cosby may have endorsed? My only other French tome, Robuchon, makes no mention of aspic in its rather large index, which explains why I haven't come across it while going through it. So was it just something Julia liked, and was never really a well known dish, or was it once something widely respected that just went out of style. Most importantly, though, it is not popular anymore because it's not that good, or because of a perception issue? Or is it popular, and I just haven't been going to the right places?

I have Obscene Sandwich envy. That, sir, is impressive.

Agreed. In fact, we call it the elephant wing. We make it in a style of a particular tacky 'breastaurant (rhymes with 'fooders')'- breaded, fried, then sauced. They're good luck for the Mavericks so far, too.

But ... they're free. Is it theft if they're free? You may not be taking them for their implied intended use, but it's certainly not theft if they're giving them away sans written instructions or guidelines, right? Maybe they think it's uncool, but theft? Not in my mind. You're not depriving them of something they intended to keep.