Mark Muller

I don't have experience with purely liver based patés, but I have successfully frozen pork paté (that included some liver). I froze it after I made the forcemeat, but before cooking in its mold. My procedure was pretty much: Grind/flavor/mix forcemeat as usual Place forcemeat in disposable aluminum loaf pan Place loaf pan in freezer bag and freeze the whole thing Remove from freezer and allow to thaw in refrigerator Bake the paté as usual, right in the disposable loaf pan The resulting paté was every bit as good (to me, at least) as ones made without the freezing step. In fact, I think they were better. My theory is the extra time of everything being together allowed for more of a cure and/or better marrying of flavors. This is now my go to technique for patés - instead of making one good size one, I make a double batch and divvy it up between three slightly smaller disposable loaf pans and freeze two of the them for future consumption.

If you want a real rusty nail, you'll need to use scotch! Still I can't seem to get my hands on any quality rye whiskey, the few times I do find it, it might as well have been labeled "Hobo Juice". I would never claim rye + drambuie is a rusty nail. But I like to experiment, and I had rye in the cabinet, so I tried it and I liked it. In fact, I like it better than a rusty nail. The spice of the rye is a nice contrast to the drambuie. You can even make it more like an old fashioned - rye plus a splash of drambuie plus some bitters.

I like to mix about 2 parts rye whiskey and 1 part drambuie, usually over ice in lowball.

Not to be flip, but cook outside? Not just traditional grilling, but frying, blackening and stir frying on an outside propane cooker. I have been known to make ice cream and queso on my carport, just to avoid having to listen to the ice cream maker or blender. Some of the common camping stoves put out more heat than common kitchen stoves. As for inside, I just avoid cooking in any way with much spattering or odor. ie, I don't fry inside. The Ducasse method of cooking a steak was a revelation not just because it is good, but because in can be done inside without much fuss or mess.

We have a Gel Pro, and we are happy with it. It is comfy to stand on, and has held up well. We have had it over a year or hard use and it neither looks nor feels any different then when new. For cleaning, we run the vacuum cleaner over it when vacuuming, and clean up any wet spills with a sponge or damp paper towel. Messy spills clean off easily.

Stackable baskets/crates. That way you lift out the ones on top and can see what is in the ones on the bottom. I made some to fit my freezer out of some scrap wood I had laying around. Nothing fancy - just 3/4" plywood ends and 1/4" plywood slats connecting the ends.

Make a syrup with it and use it in cocktails. My favorite is an old-fashioned variation: 1.5 oz rum (I like Barbancourt 3 or 5 star here) 1 dash Angostura 1 teaspoon piloncillo syrup Combine all with ice in a rocks glass and give it a good stir. The amounts can be varied to taste. Other uses: Sweeten coffee with it Use in place of dark brown sugar in any baking recipe

Fonda San Miguel is nice for this sort of thing.

Souffle, of any type. I don't know that I was intimidated by them, but when I finally got around to trying to make one, it was a revelation how easy they are. Any idiot with a mixer (or just a strong wrist) can make a souffle.

Seville oranges, as well as any other sour oranges I have had, are fantastic in cocktails. I use them all the time when I can get them. As the juice is sour, not sweet, I use them in place of lemon or lime juice. They are usually less tart and/or more watery then lemons or limes, so you have to adjust either the amount of juice, the amount of sugar, or both. The juice is superb in a daiquiri variation, a margarita variation, or with just gin and sugar.

Has anyone with the Rancho Gordo pilloncillo compared it with its more easily available brethren? I understand that it is granulated instead of a fudgy cone, but how does the taste compare? As for myself, I do like the piloncillo I get from my local grocery stores, and I haven't yet met a palm sugar I don't like. The ones available in my local asian grocery stores span a pretty large spectrum of flavors. I especially like a very dark palm sugar from Indonesia that I can't seem to find anymore. I find all of these distinctly stronger tasting than anything labeled "turbinado" or "demerara".

An old comment, but to weigh in - your midtown store was an anomaly! I picked up the bulleit rye near brooklyn heights for around $32. I'm also sure I saw their bourbon for a similar price around 23rd and 7th, so they're around! Still, I'd love to be able to pick it up for $21. As I mentioned in another thread, a friend of mine found Bulleit Rye for me somewhere in Maryland and reported that it was selling for $21.99. Yesterday I bought Bulleit Rye in Austin TX (specs on airport) for ~$23. It was about $1 more than Rittenhouse BiB, and $2 more than Wild Turkey. I sipped some and compared with Rittenhouse BiB. It is different than the Rittenhouse, but not hugely so, and I don't think I really have a preference for one over the other - both make a tasty Manhattan. It is less aromatic than Rittenhouse. My next project is to make a side by side comparison of Manhattans and Old Fashioneds made with each. Interestingly, they also were selling (ri)1 for ~$20 - a far cry from what it was priced the first time I ever saw any. At $20, (ri)1 isn't a bad buy at all.

Thankfully I have never had stainless appliances. When in the planning of a kitchen redo, we parted ways with an architect partly because she nearly insisted we either replace our brand new black refrigerator and stove with stainless ones, or at least put some stainless panels over them. We bought black appliances partly because in our existing kitchen the side of both the stove and refrigerator are exposed, and on most of the "affordable" stainless appliances, only the fronts are stainless - the sides are black.

If I recall correctly, they did. The public (when used) would vote using stars and then the judges offered their stars and everything was totaled for the contestants. Yes they did. I preferred it that way for three reasons. One was to make it different than the the regular top chef. The second was that the total included some stars from the quickfire, so blowing off the quickfire wasn't a good idea. The third was because it let the viewer know what the critics/judged actually thought, which can the difficult to ascertain from the limited amount of discussion we get to see.

The metro shelving units in our kitchen have wood tops on them. Not so much to dress them up, but to turn the top into a counter top. So each of our 18"x36" shelf units provide a ~24"x38" counter top. Regardless of the reason, the result is that the appearance of the shelving itself isn't very noticeable. Of course, I don't mind the appearance of metro shelving... Metro shelving plus a wood top also makes a nice microwave stand. In our case, the wood overhangs a bit to one side, giving a space for knife slots.

Onions? Cilantro? Cumin? Chipoltle Powder? In guacamole? You sir are a decadent liberal of the first order . My guacomole is avocado, lime juice and salt, and maybe a dash of hot sauce. I only put the lime juice in to slow it turning brown. I don't dislike the other additions, but they get in the way of enjoying the avocado. I am most conservative with regular (ie, drip or press, not espresso) coffee, which I prefer black. If I add dairy to regular coffee, it is because I do not like the coffee much. I also prefer my iced tea unsweetened without any lemon or fruit juice. Just plain iced black tea.

For me a foot operated trash can is ideal, as I can carry whatever it is I need to toss with both hands and throw it away. We have one of these I didn't like paying that much for a trash can, but it has held up for a few years so far and works well. It replaced a cheaper can which didn't hold up as well. For compostable things, we keep a stainless steel pail with lid on the counter next to the sink, and empty it onto the compost pile as needed. I like that I can move it next to wherever I am working and shovel scraps into it.

I like the following untraditional combo: Canned tuna, healthy splash of olive oil, tiny bit of plain yogurt, a bit of mustard, capers, chopped black olives (preferably oil cured), herbs de provence and salt. I think of it as "Mediterranean"

I wouldn't really call two locations national, but it appears to be trying: http://www.chedds.com/ And yes, I have been to the location in Austin, and I liked it.

Maybe a jigger - ie something like this: http://cook-pro.com/370-372.htm I would think a 1.5 oz jigger would be large enough, and the conical shape should enable it to work for a variety of egg sizes.

Whenever I encounter a cocktail I really like, I use it's ratios as a template for experimentation. For example, the corspe reviver #2 - the usual formulation is: 1 part gin 1 part lillet 1 part lemon juice 1 part orange liqueur 1 dash anise liqueur (Pernod at my place) The template is then: 1 part base spirit (gin, whiskey or any type, brandy, rum, or ??) 1 part wine like substances (lillet (blanc or rouge), dry vermouth, sweet vermouth, sherry, leftover wine, etc, etc) 1 part sour juice (lemon, lime, sour orange, calamansi, or even 100%, unsweetened cranberry juice) 1 part liqueur (cointreu, amaretto, st germain, drambuie, benedictine, sloe gin, cherry heering, etc, etc) 1 dash something strongly flavored (pernod, creme de viollete, bitters, maraschino, etc, etc) Obviously not every permutation works, at least for me. But some are great. A favorite result is gin/sherry/lemon/cointreu/pernod, which happened when we had sherry in the house but no lillet. Two other nice results were scotch/dry vermouth/lemon/drambuie/maraschino and tequila/dry vermouth/cranberry/cointreu/maraschino.

I think of the difference between ginger and galangal as similar to the difference between lemons and limes. They are similar and may be used in similar ways, but no one would mistake one for the other, nor should one sub one for the other and expect the result to be the same. A daquiri made with lemon isn't a daquiri, but you might still like both, and a key lime pie is not a lemon pie, but they both have their place. That said, galangal syrup makes some interesting cocktails, and neither galangal nor ginger work for me in coffee.

In my experience, lemon pith is about the least bitter citrus pith there is. It is certainly less bitter than lime or grapefruit pith. Gabrielle Hamilton (the chef at Prune) has a fantastic recipe for "pickled" shrimp that uses whole (ie rind and all) lemons sliced thin and the bitterness is pretty minimal. When made with limes, it is a bitter mess.

I have seen Alton Brown do this: http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com/Season9/jerky/jerky_trans.htm (scroll down to scene 13) I haven't tried it, so I can't comment on this method's effectiveness or the quality of the results.