nolnacs

Well, sure, that was my point. Irrigation and groundwater depletion are serious issues in the plains states but not in other parts of the country. Unless you are saying that non-irrigated crops also deplete groundwater... It's also a bit disingenuous to say most corn is not being used as food. Only 25-30% is being used for ethanol and feed for animals is still food (indirectly). It's true that organic grain farms are a small percentage of overall acreage, but they do exist. Where else is Horizon getting the feed for their gigantic organic dairy operations? I'm not here to defend grain (or any other crop) subsidies - I think that they should all be abolished. It's just that if you are trying to convince people and your talking points are littered with over generalizations and half truths, you are not likely to be taken seriously.

Generalizations are a dangerous thing... I grew up on a family farm in Indiana and my father still grows corn and soybeans on about 900 acres of land which is actually quite a bit larger than average for the state (~250 acres), which I suppose you would consider a factory farm as I believe you are using it as synonym for grain monoculture. Let's start with the easiest assumption to shatter: water usage. Very little makes me as angry than some statistic thrown out about how much water an acre of corn needs. It is NOT relevant. What is relevant and what most people are concerned with is the amount of water used for irrigation. You see, in many parts of the country it rains regularly and farmers do not irrigate their crops. In Indiana, the only people who irrigate are the seed corn companies which means that there is no wholesale depletion of ground water. Now onto the hardest one, pesticides/fertilizers. Most grain farmers use pesticides and fertilizers as a matter of course - my father certainly does, but there are organic farmers who farm large amounts of land without using artificial pesticides and fertilizers. It certainly can be done - there is nothing about grain monoculture that would prevents farmers from doing so. I have no statistics on energy usage to back up a claim either way, but I am curious why you think that a large field planted all at once would require more energy than a small scale operation. There are efficiencies to planting and harvesting on a large scale. If anyone has any insight into this, I would be eager to know. All this is based on my experience in one state (#5 corn producer and #4 soybean producer in US), but I am well aware that commodity crops grown in plains states tend to have different effects - much larger farm size (thousands of acres) and much higher ground water usage. My point is simply that not all commodity farms are the same and many of the things that they are attacked about do not apply to many of them.

Emily_R - I agree that more humidity is generally good, but make sure that you have some air circulation. I had too high humidity when I was trying to cure pancetta in a small wine fridge and had to deal with a lot of mold. That being said, your pancetta looks great! Do you have any plans for that nice looking meat?

I got the same message as well. I wonder if any will be shipping soon or if the whole batch will be delayed.

My mom is a decent cook and an outstanding baker. While I would say that I learned some cooking tidbits from her, I definitely learned more about baking - pies, cookies, crisps, cakes etc.

Has anyone else tried removing fat from duck skin as described on 3.82? That is the method where you cook the skin at 55 C for 24 hours and then scrape off the fat. I tried scraping off the fat earlier tonight after letting the skin cook for the allotted time. It did not work so well for me. The fat did not want to come off unless I applied some force and if I did that I was more likely to rip the skin (which was very fragile at this point) than take off the fat. I did cook the entire skin instead of just the skin over the breast as was suggested, but I didn't see any difference in scraping the different areas. Perhaps I needed to cook my skin longer?

By the way, putting the leftover fish and pineapple in the same container..... not such a good idea. I'm sure that some part of my brain recalled that pineapple contains an enzyme which can turn meat into mush, but it certainly wasn't active that night!

Nathan - I am puzzled by one of the brine recipes on p. 3.168. Generally, the salt content is 1% of the brine (for scaling 1), but the basic pink brine has a salt content of 10%. Why is that brine so much higher?

Last night I made the rosemary pineapple to accompany steamed red snapper. It's one of the simpler recipes in the book - slice pineapple into chunks, vacuum seal with rosemary, salt, sugar and pepper (I used aleppo) and then let the flavors meld for several hours. While it was sitting, I happened to read in Modernist Cuisine that you can ripen fruit sous vide by cooking it around 100 F so about an hour before I was going to use it, I tossed in a water bath. After I pulled the pineapple out of the water bath, I thinly sliced some of it and stuffed the snapper with the sliced pineapple (I served the rest of the pineapple on the side). I'm not sure how much of a difference the water bath made, but overall it was quite good and complemented the fish well.

Yes, and I failed to resist it. I was looking to replace my crappy blender anyway...

Dried seafood (oysters, scallops etc) are an integral part of Chinese cooking, but I certainly understand your point about eating seafood past its prime.

Not exactly sure I understand this. I'm not suggesting that a privatly owned liquor store can't make a profit in Ridgway or Dushore, but to think the selection or service would be better than exists now I do doubt I'd still question whether there's be a store there at all. Doing the math based on my understanding of what's been proposed, they expect to pull in $1.5 Billion from selling 750 licenses to operate liquor stores throughout the commonwealth. That comes out to $2M per license. I'd wager that there are large swaths of PA where the profits from liquor sales would have trouble getting a shop owner to breaking even after financing a $2M license and all the standard business overhead. that is what they talked about, Chris. And you are 100% correct. That is why the total revenue number they were tossing around was a bunch of hooey. Is there a reason that all the licenses need to be the same price? Maybe ones in Philadelphia could be $4M and ones in say... Reading could be $500K. In any case, I think having such a small number of licenses is ludicrous. Mike - why do you think that PA could not have alcohol sold in supermarkets, gas stations etc? I'm genuinely curious - I find all of these restrictions on buying alcohol to be bafflings.

I just got the book about a month ago but I did try their recipe for cacio e pepe. I found that the pasta needed to cook for considerably longer than they recommended (I think it was a minute or two... I don't have the recipe in front of me) and even then was still a bit on the chewy side. Now, this might have had something to do with the roasting of the pasta - perhaps I roasted mine longer than they did and so needed to soak longer than the 2 1/2 hours that the recipe calls for. I wasn't thrilled with this technique the first time around but I do want to try it again.

Really? I had a custom cabinet made for me a few years back - a really nice looking piece made out of reclaimed barn wood and it was cheaper than buying an equivalent piece from a place like Crate & Barrel. Perhaps it is because the guy I bought it from just had a website that he used to showcase his furniture and sold direct to the consumer thereby avoiding the showroom, commission etc. I've also heard of other furniture makers doing the same. Perhaps that is the way for these craftsmen to stay afloat.

I love wood sap (i.e. maple syrup) so bring on the wood pulp as long as A) it is not harmful B) it is not misrepresented As long as those two conditions are met (and I have no doubt about A) then I cannot see what the problem is unless someone wants to engage in some knee jerk hysteria.

I'm sorry, but I previously lived in rural/suburban areas (in Indiana) and in a large city (Chicago) and I couldn't believe the asinine, antiquated alcohol laws that Pennsylvania has when I moved to Philadelphia and I say this as some one who DOES NOT drink. I just occasionally want to buy some wine or hard alcohol to cook with. First off, simply selling the stores to a private company is a horrible idea. You are just replacing one monopoly with another. They need to open up the alcohol market to competition. As far as chains taking over, in the suburbs the nearby liquor store was one of the few businesses around that was not a chain! As far as sufficient competition, let grocery stores sell wine and beer as well. That helps a great deal with providing competition in smaller towns/cities. I can't believe how passionate this issue makes me when it really does not affect me very much. It just irks me that I can't buy some cheap wine to cook with at Trader Joes.

I just got my copy yesterday and while I knew that the books were large I couldn't conceptualize how truly massive each volume was until they were in front of me. I've been reading through the first volume today and the nutrition section in particular with great interest. As I read about all the different studies that have been done and all the contradictory or insignificant results, I began to wonder if there is such a thing as THE optimal diet - perhaps instead there a handful or dozens of optimal diets for people with specific genetic traits. I have no scientific basis for this hypothesis but perhaps genetic variation between people accounts for the disparate effects from different diets. Modernist cuisine points out several instances where men and women had very different results from the same diet - I just wonder if that could be taken even further to point where some people would thrive on a low fat diet while others thrive on a paleo diet and so forth. Some idle wondering on my part - I would be interested to know if any research has been done along these lines.

I'm not a regular at any restaurant - although I usually do get pizza from Stella Pizzeria about once a month, but I am at John Yi Fish Market at the Reading Terminal Market. The same guy helps me every week (or so) and we always chat as I decide what I want.

I love the pictures showing the slow unwrapping... it's like Christmas morning. I can't wait till mine arrives on Monday.

That is strange. I ordered in July and I get the shipping soon message from Amazon - the actual date they give me is March 11th

Sure! Barbecued lamb is very good. I've smoked it before (but only to slicing temperature, not pulling temperature.) Yes, it's delicious! Lamb (traditionally mutton) barbecue is a sadly unappreciated regional (Kentucky) type of barbecue. It is usually served with black sauce which is primarily comprised of vinegar and worcestershire sauce

I've only been living in Philadelphia for a little over a year but I have never liked their cupcakes - primarily because of the frosting.

I used to work at McMaster and I have to agree that this is true. They have an enormous selection, great service and fast delivery but you pay for it.

A few different questions here: I've seen comments about Modernist Cuisine that state that much of what is commonly "known" about food safety is incorrect. Can you give some examples of that? Along those lines, I believe I saw Nathan say in an interview that nutritional guidelines are often incorrect giving the example of olive oil being healthier than lard. How much does the book delve into nutrition? Nutrition is highly contentious and certainly seems to have contradicting research and studies... how did you approach the topic? Finally, does Modernist Cuisine cover dry curing at all?

I have a Salter scale as well and I haven't had any problems finding the replacement coin batteries. Places like Best Buy. Target, Walmart etc all carry them here. If the stores near you normally carry the battery, maybe you can have them order and hold some for you so that you don;t have to pay extra for the shipping...