IndyRob

No, it wasn't spreadable. It was sliced very much like corned beef. (Maybe I should just work on doing a corned beef with salami flavor)

Way back when, in my early college days, there was a small startup deli whose salami sandwiches I absolutely loved. Just white bread, some mustard, and a nice mound of very tender, moist salami. I've been looking for that meat ever since. I would say the texture most resembled the better deli corned beef or pastrami - but of course with the salami flavor. But all the salami I've sampled since is simply not going for that effect, whether it be called Cotto, Genoa, Hard Salami, etc. Is there a name for this sort of salami, or is it just one particular maker, or what?

I wonder what would have happened if, in the inital selection of sous chefs, they had included a few Top Chef: Just Desserts All Stars.

Nah, I think it started with "They are nutrition students." Isn't that a curriculum designed to give you the academic credentials to prove that you are always right - no matter which end of the equation you are on?

I'm not sure if this season of Top Chef will ever be topped. Great, close finale, and my guy won. But once again, how can you go into a Top Chef finale without killer dessert? I think one very good (not even necessarily remarkable) might have won the day.

Tomato soup? Other than that, I got nothing Sriracha? That came from a thread here. Not sure if I'm ready to commit - although I am loving it on my scrambled eggs.

Nice idea, but maybe more to do with the relative cost of barrels left over from importing foreign booze, compared with barrels made new from the vast swathes of oak forest in the UK's massive area of land, that hadn't been whittled down at all for purposes like shipbuilding ?, I would imagine that barrel re-use would have been the norm. But not necessarily using burned barrels or keeping them in the containers for any longer than it would take to distribute. I was in Louisville, Ky. during the Maker's Mark fire some years back. It was quite the inferno. I doubt that it was the first distillery fire.

Sorry, I think I inartfully tried to make my point while trying to be concise. Here's what I was thinking.... First, we have a relatively simple goal. Make something that tastes like (or similar to, but better than) something else. Here, we're talking about something out of a bottle. Texture isn't really an issue. We're not talking about replicating things related to service (temperature, ice, the shape of the glass), just flavor - and maybe color and smell. Even if we had a pure scientific method for measuring flavors, they'd be meaningless. Like colors, everyone perceives flavors differently. It's a biological fact. And, they also perceive them in the context of their own experiences. Plus, like smells, flavors can evoke memories. That's why, if I seemed a bit dismissive, it was because the goals, in the end, are more than man man - they're mind-made. Take the New Coke debacle. Pepsi is slaughtering Coke in blind taste tests and is picking up marketshare on the back of it. So Coke decides they need to do something about it and creates a formula that wins those taste tests. Great, now they have a better product, right? No, it's an astounding disaster. Coke and Pepsi are both products that most people will like at first taste. But when we move in the realm of things like Scotch and Beer, we're talking more about acquired tastes (along with the reinforcing effects of alcohol). Acquired tastes necessarily involve some sort of social pressure (normally peer pressure) to get you to sample the product in the first place. That's where the marketing folks can start to play a role. So, if I am able to create the blind taste test winning 'New Coke' of, say, Bourbon, can I ever be taken seriously? Especially if I said I did it with a bottle of vodka and a few drops of, um...(made-up word) methylcyoiodine? Things that mature necessarily change over time. But was that ever really the goal? I suspect that spirits aged in charred oak barrels came about not because someone had an epiphany, but rather that they ran out of barrels and, rather than pouring the rest of the product on the ground, they decided to store the remaining product in those barrels behind the barn that were damaged in the last fire (after a good cleaning). And those got opened absolutely last. Then the epiphany came. But does something need to be twelve years old in order for it to be good? I don't think so.

Right. We're talking alcohol delivery systems. I just wanted to get that straight. Age and timber may make a difference, but does the age and timber need to come from the storing process? Many good wines are blended. Can we not simply add some of the char of wood to the manufacture? I think there are better ways to skin this cat.

I was just watching some TV show that had a proud display of oak charred barrels, and thought "How long before Nathan Myrvold jumps on that train?" I'll be honest up front and say that I don't at all get spirits such as whisky, bourbon, et. al. As an outsider they appear to be referred to in whispered tones, always with a reference to the age of the spirit, the barrels, the tradition, etc., etc., Yeah, right. Take the alcohol out of it and see if that sense of romance stays. Absynthe seems to be the world record holder for alcoholic hype - to the extent that it got itself banned. I don't think that any home distiller could match the established brands. But a good one with a first class marketing department could.

Interesting. Are these predominantly locals - newly empowered due to the change in regulations?

Absolutely! All in favor say "Aye!" Aye! - If they add another 30 minutes to each episode.

This was bugging me and I was googling for an answer. Finally, I watched Rick Moonen doing the goulash and despite the title, he also did the strudel. The dough came from a box. He called it strudel dough, but said you could also use Phyllo dough. It looked exactly like Phyllo dough to me and was treated in the exact same way. Again, Moonen left off the interesting garnishes.

I've never really embraced Chinese food. I know now that I don't think I've ever actually had real Chinese food. So that's probably a bit unfair. But especially in my early experiences, there seemed to be a complete absence of proper bread. Of course, the asian countries that get invaded by France get bread. I think that's part of the deal. We invade you, and you get bread. From the French point of view, I'm sure it seems a fair deal. And now we get banh mi. So anyway, my wife and son love these Chinese buffets. Sometimes I'll go along, but often they'll just go themselves when I'm otherwise engaged. Or I just don't want to go. But then they told me about the place with the crab legs - all you can eat. Awesome. I'm there. But no bread. It turned into a hollow experience. Like if you go to a restaurant, have a great entree, but the waiter never delivers a single drink order. You just feel a little bit incomplete and unsatisfied. So how evil would it be if I turned to smuggling - filling the pockets of my trenchcoat with baguette slices spread with cultured butter, and turning up my collar to conceal the consumption of my illicit fare? Yes, I'm sure it's unlawful and unwanted. But, c'mon, it will necessarily mean that I'll eat less crab (I don't really eat that much in one sitting anyway). Do I risk disembowlment at the hands of a dragon-tattoo festooned tong enforcer? Or rapid-fire whacks from the cane of an elderly matriarch? The disapproving stares of my fellow diners? Or, maybe, a lucrative black market trade?

I would't think so. The flavor difference between regular and cultured butter is pretty subtle. And in the quantity used, I'd think there'd be very little difference. But I have been considering adding culture directly to a starter. Back to fats, a couple of years ago I was following a foccacia recipe when I realized that a good quantity of olive oil that was meant to be reserved and used on and under the dough, got added directly to it. I wound up with a very wet dough and discovered my mistake upon reviewing the recipe. But I decided to drop some dough in a small oiled pan, let it proof and see what happened. It actually wasn't bad. The crumb had a dense texture somewhere between bread and biscuit. I thought that if it were refined a little, it would be good for the sort of boule-shaped loaf you get at some Italian(ish) restaraunts meant to be torn apart and dipped in olive oil and/or balsamic.

We need the Modernist Cuisine Channel.

Well, maybe the low expectations helped, but I thought the show was okay. This isn't an instructional type program, it's modified version of Dinner: Impossible. More time, but with the quirky molecular blingstronomy done by the quirky, often overly optimistic, and nearly always diplomatically deprived chef. Marcel's Meltdown might've been a better title. I think I'll keep watching. How else am I going to find opportunities to mutter "Really, Marcel? More foam?"

That's basically what I was saying. But I'll blame you if Blaise doesn't win.

i noticed that too, but you have to think they know that a lot of people would focus on that. Normally I would take dim view of these sorts of spoiler posts, but based on some other recent teaser fails, I think it's legitimate to bring it up. I think I've made a few comments about them telegraphing results in this thread. They used to be really clever about this. But lately, I feel that they have been testing the limits and have often gone over the line. Unfortunately, when someone analyzes the preview, it comes down to analyzing which side Padma is wearing her brooch on. Did they swap left and right to cover themselves? I don't care. But I am absolutley certain that the producers are not taking the care that is demanded of the contestants.

I had to check my memory with the help of the world wide wikipedia. Kerr's The Galloping Gourmet went from '69 to '71. That correlates well with my memory of watching him in the early afternoons in the midwest at the age of 7 or 8.

Looking forward to it. I had occasion to drag out the ShopVac the other day. When I turned it on I was impressed by the power of the vacuum. Of course, this immediately made me ponder the ways in which it might be employed in the culinary arts. Today I discovered GLAD Press'n Seal plastic wrap. I'm pretty sure a marriage is possible here, but a preliminary FoodSaver powered test revealed that some development of technique will be required.

This is pretty much exactly what Collichio said in the extended judge's table video on the Bravo site.

He was Gordon Ramsay's Gordon Ramsay and cult idol for young line cook Anthony Bourdain.

Yes, cooking Japanese food for Morimoto's last meal would be hard enough even for a trained Japanese chef. To give that challenge any one of these three...., well, that was just sadistic. So I'm glad they turned to the sudden death overtime bite. BTW, Richard mentioned he didn't have a recipe for strudel dough, but appeared to make nice looking strudel. Did he find some phyllo dough back there or something?

I generally avoid these things. The idea is good if you have a great product. But usually I find it's a frozen pizza or something. I think once in around 20 years I've actually bought something based on an in-store tasting. I think that was some sort of dip made by the store's deli dept. There are definitley no upscale samplers in my area.