runwestierun

I have 3 words for you: Filet O Fish.

Darienne, I hate to break the rules straight off, but is there any way you could bring an electric tea kettle? When the new husband and I go camping, 5 out of 7 nights we will eat Cup O Noodles with canned chicken. The noodles and dehydrated vegetables come in a styrofoam cup and we pour hot water in it. Then we split a can of Costco Kirkland brand canned chicken (the best IMHO) between the 2 cups. We buy the dried noodles at Costco, too, they are Nissin brand ramen cups. It's certainly not haute cuisine, but it works and stores easily and indefinitely. Don't forget peanut butter sandwiches!

To go with the apricot sesame chicken I would either enjoy the above mentioned buerre blanc made with a fruitier white wine or a ginger garlic scallion steamed fish. I like ginger and apricot.

I still don't have my copy! Arg!

-- the picnic has longer muscles with more connective tissue, and the butt will have thicker clots of muscle. For someone looking to maximize collagen, the picnic is the one you want. There is alot of collagen in both. I do believe there is more in the picnic, but almost too much, because sometimes the meat can feel a little slimy when it's done. I cook alot of pork shoulder. When I go to the wholesaler, I usually have these to choose from, cryovaced in packs of 2: Bone-in butt Boneless butt Bone-in picnic Boneless picnic And that is the order I choose them in. If I can get all bone-in butt I am the happiest. I like the flavor of the meat in the butt better, I like the clots of muscle, and I like the extra flavor the bone imparts. There is plenty of collagen and fat and it is absolutely luxurious when cooked right. It is the undervalued bargain meat cut of the century. Competition BBQers generally choose the bone-in boston butt to cook for pulled pork.

Sorry for not being clear, Chris. The whole roast (maybe 15 lbs.) is called a "shoulder roast". The part that is closest to the leg is called the "picnic" or "picnic shoulder" almost always. The higher part is called the "boston butt", the "butt", or occasionally just "shoulder" (without the word "roast") interchangeably. But usually, the top part will have the word "butt" in it and the bottom part will have the word "picnic" in it. Here's a diagram: http://www.90meat.com/porkDiagram.gif

The pork shoulder roast goes from about the pig ear to the top of the front leg. The top part is the largest part, that's the boston butt, the butt, or the shoulder. The bottom part, the part that stops at the top of the leg, is the picnic. It's a little more than half the size of the butt. I don't know why they call it a butt. Here'sa good picture of the two: http://www.dizzypigbbq.com/images/RecipeImages/skinned.jpg

Chris, I know how to do this but I am worried I won't be able to explain it well. Make your dough, let it rise, punch it down and form it into little tight individual balls. (I don't know the word for this, but you know how you roll a little ball and then keep tucking the dough under until it's taut? That.) Then cut each little dough ball in half on the equator. I mean, if you make your dough ball taut by turning it under and under, when you are done you set the dough ball on the bench with the tucked-under part down, touching the bench. Then it is a ball like a Weber kettle grill is a ball. You cut it where the Weber opens, through the middle, right in half. Then put the halves right back together like you are closing the Weber, pinch the two halves together at the seam, and tuck under the ugly little pinched parts, pushing any excess downward like you do when you are tightening up your dough balls. Then continue with your second rise and finish as your recipe directs. I spent the better part of last year trying to figure out hamburger bun shape. This worked really well. I would experiment with different dough recipes, making a batch and shaping the buns different ways. This worked the best most consistantly. It is important that the dough ball is taut, that you cut on the equator, and that you fold the pinched parts downward after the cut, just so you know.

Yes! We had a neutral wire break outside on the power pole and it sent a giant power surge through the house and blew everything up that was plugged in, so we got all new appliances at the same time to replace those. The BEEPING! It took 2 full months to discern what beep was coming from what appliance and what it meant. Lord. It reminds me of an episode of Top Gear where they were test driving some American car. Jeremy had the car door open and it was dinging like crazy and he yelled something like, "Do you Americans think I wouldn't know that I just opened this door?"

Dan, I am afraid that my apple desserts are all quite regular (pie, crisp, etc) but I do use 2 things in most of them--a little boiled apple cider that I get from King Arthur Flour and a little cardamom or Grains of Paradise. The cider makes the apple flavor more intense and the spice gives it depth of flavor and complexity beyond cinnamonnutmegallspice. Good luck in finding the perfect thing.

Mine shipped too. I am glad, because after reading Dorie's post it would've been really hard to wait. Olive sables! Tuna pizza! Mustard tart! This is going to be a really good week.

Thank you for your suggestions. We picked the Egg up and I got most of the accessories you all suggested--plate setter, rib rack, beer can chicken and beer can turkey racks, pizza stone, electric starter and ash scraper. I also got a cast iron grill grate, I loves me some cast iron. I am fascinated by the BBQ Guru and the Stoker. At first I thought the Guru would be the right one for me, but then I learned the Stoker is hooked up to Twitter now. You can get a tweet from your meat and it will tell you it's temperature. Who wouldn't want a meat tweet?? I was up against a deadline tonight so the new husband cooked a flat iron steak in the virgin Egg for supper. He waayyy overcooked it, past medium, past medium well. No red, no pink. Not a fault of the Egg, he was just unfamiliar with it. But here's the thing: the meat was still juicy. What? Yep, juicy. Who ever heard of such a thing?

I second this: in the past week alone I've pulled over a half dozen books off my shelf that hadn't seen the light of day in years. I really think that EYB is a revolutionary idea, and I certainly wish them success. Especially since I have a lifetime membership!! Me three. I am really enjoying rediscovering my cookbooks especially with all the beautiful produce this time of year. And just now I was reading the thread about Eileen Yin-Fei Lo's book "Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking". I thought I bought that book, I remember looking at it. So instead of ransacking the house I typed it into the EYB database and there it was in my library. Yay! And why would I have to ransack the house to find that book if I didn't have EYB? Because now that I have that index I have arranged all my books by------wait for it------COLOR! Yep. I've put different colored books in different bookcases and it's pretty. The room feels much more harmonious and now my books are all girlied up.

I make cold pressed coffee. It's way better than cooled down hot coffee. It's not in the least bit acidic or bitter--I don't know why. But when I use the same beans and cold press them vs. putting leftover hot coffee in the fridge for later, the cold press is so deliciously different. It's smooth and lovely. It gives me the same kind of joy as does the crema on a perfectly pulled shot of espresso. I put half a cup of medium to coarse ground coffee in a jar with 2 cups of cold water. I let it sit on the counter overnight, covered, about 12 hours. Then I pour it in a French press to push the grounds down and pour it over ice. Heaven!

I remember Jane saying somewhere that they don't automatically delete your library once your free trial is up. They save the information in case you decide to join later so you don't have to upload all those ISBNs again.

There is a giant thread on EYB over at Chowhound and I think I remember someone else not wanting to use Paypal. If I remember right, Jane said they would have other payment plans once they were out of beta, but then there wouldn't be the lifetime option anymore. She is just offering the lifetime membership while they are in beta.

I am one of the haters. Anytime a recipe calls for green pepper I substitute poblano or anaheim. If it must have no heat then I use the sweet banana peppers (I love the flavor of these) or a sweet red pepper. I love chiles, I love other peppers, but that grocery staple green bell pepper just wrecks a dish for me.

I will chime in with another no buttermilk recipe: Thin Swedish style pancakes 1/4c melted butter 1/4c sugar pinch salt 4 large eggs 1 1/8c all purpose flour 2c warm milk cream butter and sugar whisk in eggs and salt whisk in flour whisk in milk (the flour first makes it easy to avoid lumps) This is a very thin batter but the pancakes are eggy and delicious. They are a little more substantial than a crepe but not as chewy as a '49er-type pancake. They are my family's favorite.

I bought mine last February. Perhaps the Drs. Eades would like to replace mine with one that does not leak? I know that they read this thread. I know that it doesn't leak, it's just condensation. The first time I used it for short ribs I left the water in it for 3 days after I'd shut it off just to make sure. Not one drop of water. But it does lose a significant amount of water onto the counter during use and I don't like that. Maybe it was just the early ones that do that? Maybe all we need is a new lid and the fix wouldn't be very expensive. So, after reading/responding about the SVS leakage problem, since it wasn't just mine that has the problem, I decided to try again to contact Sous Vide Supreme. I had written months ago about the problem but had received no response. Apparently, in the meantime, they REALLY got their customer service together and I received a response within hours!! That is really impressive to me. I received not just an email response but I also received a telephone call. I was told that out of around 5000 units sold, they have had this problem with about a dozen units. They have fixed the problem and they are happy to replace any unit that has this trouble. Here is the content of their email to me. If you have the same problem, feel free to contact Mr. McAfee. He was entirely curteous and attentive. I give many cudos to the SVS company for this approach! Hello again Merridith, I reviewed the blog you attached but was unable to add a comment. If you would be so kind as to post the customerservice@sousvidesupreme.com and my number 877 787-6836 and let everyone know that if they are having any problems with their SousVide Supreme to please get a hold of me and I’ll make sure there taken care of. Thanks Merridith. Doug McAfee SousVide Supreme I called Doug McAfee and he was very accomodating. He told me to take the Sous Vide Supreme back to my place of purchase (Sur La Table) and that he would replace it. That's what I did today. The lid on the new one doesn't look any different than the old one but it fits much tighter. I haven't tried it yet but it really looks like they fixed the problem. And even though I bought my first leaky one in March, it could have conceivably been sitting in stock for a couple months and been one of the really early ones. This one's great. Thanks again, Meredith.

I would like a show that mirrors what you learn in culinary school, one that is taught by instructors and follows a school syllabus. Same thing for pastry school. I don't want to be told over and over how easy something is and then have it dumbed down nearly unrecognizably. I want to really learn and master a skill.

Thank you, Elsie. Could you please tell me more about this BBQ Guru? I see their website and got mightily confused.

I am a lucky lucky girl in that the new husband just told me he ordered an extra large Big Green Egg for me and we are going to go pick it up tomorrow. While I have pined for a BGE for many years, it has never been a pressing enough reality that I looked at the accessories. We live over 100 miles from the egg shop, so I'd like to get everything I need in one trip. I have no clue what is necessary. What did you/would you buy with your BGE?

I wonder if you are noting that Finish is less effective than Electrasol because it doesn't have phosphates? Here in Oregon dishwasher detergents could no longer contain phosphates as of July 1, 2010. Washington state changed to no phosphates over a year ago, so people would come to Oregon to buy dishwashing soap. Laundry detergent hasn't had it since 1993, dishwashing soap was the big holdout (because non-phosphate dishwashing detergents work so poorly). Maybe your state has switched and that was the difference you were noticing? Here is a list of states that have banned it so far: Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

Do they stand up to being run through the dishwasher? Yes. I noticed in some catalog that they now have a professional model that's metal. These are plastic. I always wash it in the dishwasher. I've given at least 4 as gifts and they've all held up in the dishwasher, too.

The baking soda goes into the cooking water at the beginning, so the eggs are boiled in it. I guess I break the membrane, too, at the ends of the egg when they're done but I have never really thought about it. I might do an eggsperiment to see how little baking soda you can use and still blow the shells off. Maybe a smaller amount couldn't be tasted. So eggciting!