Mjx

I'm currently in a country where it's difficult to find many fairly straightforward ingredients (e.g. molasses, Triple Sec), and my very simply planned Christmas dinner is proving a bit of a logistical nightmare, so I am feeling deeply, deeply envious of your access to all this great stuff; your dinner is definitely going to be amazing. Well then: I'm off for a final, hopeful, hunting and gathering expedition to try to find those last, missing items I need, or reasonable substitutes/replacements. Happy whichever-holiday-you-celebrate, all!

How about garganelli or gnocchi, or strozzapreti (which are pretty close to spaetzle)? Or, you could just make shorter pappardelle or tagliatelle: I've sometimes made traditionally long pasta shapes as short as 3" (either because they seemed to work better at that length, or by request, because of the sub-par pasta wrangling skills of some of the invited guests).

I don't know whether you've sorted out the logistics of your kitchen lighting issues by now, but if you haven't, I venture to suggest that your best bet is going to be lighting mounted below eye level (e.g. mounted to the underside of one or more cabinets, even though I know this is something you prefer to avoid), since you do demand utility of your kitchen. I've moved more times than I'm able to count, have cooked in over a dozen different kitchens, and one thing I can say for sure: Having the fixtures installed so light falls directly on what you are working – so your head and upper body don't block the light – is probably worth the sacrifice of 100% strict period accuracy. Besides, if you get small halogens (ones with pivoting heads, or gooseneck models, sort of like these), they can be pretty much tucked out of sight, and you can use whatever attractive period fixtures you prefer for the rest of the room/time. We have a part-vintage 1953 kitchen in our flat (floors, tile walls, and cabinets are original, but the counter was raised and uglified by previous owners, and we installed a Gaggenau oven and stovetop, since the originals units were long gone), and haven't sorted the lighting in it, but it looks like we're going to end up with low-mounted track lighting over the counter (no cabinets on that side of the kitchen, so under-cabinet lighting is not an option for us). We looked at some more period-appropriate options, since we liked what remains of the original kitchen, but the cost was insane (prices run high in Denmark, even without the 25% sales tax), and I really didn't want to go back to overhead lighting, since our last place pretty much converted me to the low-mounted alternative.

The pappardelle I've bought (and those I make) are a bit thicker, as well as broader than tagliatelle, which seems to give the extra wiggle room necessary to consistently cook them with a more discernible al dente centre. I'm guessing that pasta thickeness varies from brand to brand, and possibly from country to country, even for a given brand, to accommodate national preferences (sort of the way Mars Bars are sweeter in the US than in Denmark).

Bite, for me; the sensation of my teeth sinking into and through perfectly cooked pappardelle is incredibly satisfying. When it comes to anything intended to be chewed, I'm a fan of firm/chewy, and tagliatelle don't seem to quite deliver on that front (putting this into perspective, however, I prefer tougher cuts of beef to filet mignon).

Williams Sonoma isn't the first place I'd look for a good price... most of the things they sell are available elswhere at easily half the price they list. But I have to confess I enjoy browsing (and occasionally buying, even if they demand a kidney as payment) in their shops far more than in Bed Bath and Beyond.

Oh, I was thinking splayed out flat, I suppose because it seems easier to measure that way. But even sort of bunched up, my tongue (which my piercer said is on the small side) is wider than most pappardelle I've seen. But I'll leave it at that, I didn't mean to hijack this post!

I thought of this post today, when I came across The Perfect Pantry – a food writer's 250+ favorite ingredients, with recipes. This is something that can never exist in quite the way you describe, not only because food and its preparation are constantly evolving, but because access to knowledge and ingredients is constantly changing; for example, just when you think you've nailed the last item, along comes a never-before-done recipe translation from, say, Gujarati, which mentions three new ingredients and two new techniques. Or, I once came across a very old recipe for a pigeon dish that recommended using the 'readily available and delicious' passenger pigeon (the last of which died in the 40s). Your best bet would be to compile a personal database, starting from whatever reasonably comprehensive source you first find, and then adding others: they often cross-link to related sites and databases (a good thing, since the more comprehensive directories I've seen have also tended to be less accurate, and this is a good way to catch errors). This can be added to on an ongoing basis, keeping it right at the cutting edge of your knowledge. Actually, perhaps eGullet already has such a project simmering along, which I've overlooked? It certainly would be something doable, given all the potential member contributions.

That sounds more like lasagne! I love pappardelle; the ones I grew up with were always thicker than tagliatelle, so I've always made them that way, too, and they're amazing with game sauces (have you tried making them with about 30% chestnut flour? Exceptional). I confess that I don't care much for tagliatelle, but I think that is because I associate them most with the sauces I like least, and they never seem particularly satisfactory... thin ribbons, meh.

I'd consider leaving it as is, but slicing it very thinly, and serving it with something intrinsically bland, which would act as a strong foil/balance it (e.g. rice)? I don't know how much salmon you cured, but you might want to experiment with small batches, first, to see what approach makes the most of what you've got.

Fair enough... But, 'judgemental?'

Do meals that were nightmarish simply because of the sheer amount of food involved count? Because I have a couple of beauts, but the food itself was (mostly) good to excellent, although the amounts I was expected to eat exceeded my understood capacity about twice over, and I wanted to curl up and cry. Except that leaning forward would have made me spectacularly sick.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Takashimaya is closed, and I couldn't find the T-Salon when I looked for it last week (it may have moved). I love The way McNulty's smells, but the prices/range seem to be geared to the tourist. <sigh> I never did get my hands on a fresh tin of gunpowder, after all... I wish I'd seen this thread last week!

I wonder by how much these statistics would drop, if people were consistently careful about personal and kitchen hygiene. After all, careful prep removes or destroys a lot of pathogens: You kind of have to start from the assumption that most raw food items have a fair chance of being contaminated, and act accordingly. I admit to having been a germ freak as far back as I was able to understand the concept of 'germs', which was when I was about six: At my school, in Italy, we queued up to go to the loo, and then the teacher would keep an eye on us to make certain we all washed up properly (each of us using our own personal soap, nail brush, and towel, which were brought to school every day in a sponge bag); we were told in simple, but very clear terms why this was important. Since then, however, I've also had my mind persistently boggled by those who seem to think they're getting away with something clever by not washing their hands before eating, or ignoring basic kitchen hygiene. Producers and distributors should take a great deal more care in their plants, but a lot of the risk posed by contaminants would still rest with the consumer; teaching kids to take care of themselves at an early age would not only be likely to improve hygiene at personal level, but would also encourage these kids, once they became adults, to be a great deal more demanding about the safety of the food they purchase: If you don't care much, you don't care much right across the board.

I frankly hate the entire tipping thing, whether it is presented as a 'service charge', or simply an expected tip, and hate hidden costs at least as much. I say charge the full cost up front; it 's not the sort of thing that deters people. I find it much pleasanter to eat a meal where I know that the staff is properly paid, and not counting on 'the kindness of strangers' for reasonable earnings. It's an ugly system, and there are better ways of insuring good service (complaining about poor service, for example). But forcing a tip is certainly not the way to go. I worked (very, very briefly, it was that horrible, and paid a little under $2/hour) as a waitress in the US, and I suppose that in some places waitresses are paid a good wage, on top of which they also earn tips, but this is the exception, not the rule. There is still no requirement to pay minimum wages to waitstaff in the US (Waiter/Waitress Wages). Still, a built-in service charge has the advantage of protecting wait staff from suffering at the hands of those who apparently believe that not tipping/tipping very little is the best way to express your disapproval of the tipping system (which, nope; if you disapprove, just avoid establishments that use this practice, and patronize those that eschew tipping in favour of paying staff standard wages).

I'm going to have to hope for the best... there is so little meat, there isn't really anything to cut off!

Try a decent-sized health-food store: I'm fairly certain I've seen elderflower sold as tea in these shops.

:smile: Thanks guys, this was a major worry of mine... I've had several dreams in which I was racking my brains, trying to figure out what to do with a bunch of freezer-burned venison, and came up with various freakish (from a waking perspective) solutions.

I used a brand called American Spirit; I don't smoke, so I don't know much about tobacco, and I don't know whether pipe tobacco would be safe to use in food. Incidentally, you can grow tobacco yourself; apparently, during WWII, many Danes did so in their backyards, so it must be fairly hardy/have a short growing season.

Hm. I have a friend I get together with every time I come back to NYC, and lunch at Viceroy, on 18th and 8th. I'm not entirely certain why (we discuss that topic every time we get together), but it has become somthing of a ritual: I get a burger, every time. Usually, so does he. Quite good burgers, actually. He flirts with the waiters, I leave him to it, go downstairs to take photos of myself making faces at the mirror in the loo.

It's an excellent idea, although I haven't had much luck with pomegranates in Denmark; about 4 out of five are all seed, with a thin, pallid veil of 'flesh' on them, not the juicy, ruby-red loveliness I'm used to. Still, if I get half a dozen or so, I might get lucky..? Certainly seems worth the trouble. No sausage maker, however; our kitchen has almost no mechanical appliances, apart from the hand-held mixer and the scale, so there's going to be a lot of hand mincing involved (we blew the kitchen budget on the Gaggenau oven and stovetop) Thanks for mentioning a specific cookbook author who's actually trusted! I was wondering about the reliability of some of the recipes I was browsing. I'm actually in NYC for a few days, so I can browse Barnes and Noble's cookbook section to my heart's content. The carcass is frozen like a rock at -15C at my boyfriend's parents' place! I'm actually rather nervous about the effect the freezing may have had on the meat, and how it will affect the final results. I agree, rare is the way to go... unless the meat has been made mushy by the freezing. Don't quite know what I'll do, then.

Certainly, it's very simple to do: I used a standard cream and bittersweet chocolate truffle recipe, but added a pinch of organically grown tobacco shreds to the cream before heating it over an extremely low flame in a very heavy pot (it took about half an hour for bubbles to start appearing around the edges of the pot). Once I took the pot off the heat, I let the tobacco steep for about 2 minutes longer in the hot cream, then strained the cream to remove the tobacco shreds, and proceeded as usual for truffles. The tobacco was noticeable, but very subtle; I feel that it enahanced a note which is present in some chocolates. The effect was very elegant and smooth, not at all harsh. My research on tobaccos's toxicity, in case you're interested: I found this monograph: Smoking and Tobacco Control Monograph No. 9: Chemistry and Toxicology (see chart, p 61 [7th page of .pdf file]). Nicotine was my primary concern, owing to its immediate toxicity (as opposed to the cumulative/long-term effects of other compounds), but nicotine appears to comprise between 0.6 and 2.9% of the dry weight of tobacco (p. 7 of the monograph), which means that an entire 40g (1.4 oz) packet of the brand of tobacco I used would contain between 0.24g and 1.16g nicotine, well below the median lethal dose, even for children (no children ate these, but it seemed a good idea to use as stringent a standard as possible: IPCS: Nicotine). I'm not certain how much the pinch weighed--my scale doesn't measure under a gram/fractions of grams--but it was certainly under a gram, meaning that, on the outside, there were 0.03g of nicotine present in the entire batch of truffles.

Thanks for getting back to me! This is is occupying my mind to the point that I've begun dreaming about it, so I really appreciate feedback. budrichard, thanks for the heads-up on the CWD, I clean forgot about that, and looked into it. Apparently, CWD has not been detected in roe deer populations in Northern Europe. Yet. Still, this adds a bit more weight to my going for an off-the bone preparation. Yes, it's a roe deer (which explains its size), the only species that I've seen served here. That presentation would be gorgeous, and roasting the vegetables with the meat would give them an incredible flavour, but I don't think I could pull it off with such a small animal; the meat is so thin that it would be really difficult to not over-roast unless it was protected from direct heat. This also sounds delicious! Roe deer loins are generally small (on this one, probably tiny), so I wouldn't be able to butterfly them properly, and I can't quite make out what the deal is with the flaps, either (the venison is being held in someone else's deep freeze, and when I looked at it the other day, I couldn't make out the details through the plastic). There doesn't seem to be much flap meat, but what you describe has me thinking that if I did grind the flaps, then combined that with chestnuts and bacon, it could be served as a side dish.

Thanks budrichard! And yes, the backstraps and tenderloins are there, along with the ribs, and you've confirmd my initial sense that that the various cuts present would be best if prepared separately. It was just that I'd been urged to take a 'one big roast' approach by the hunter who brought down the deer, and I figured that perhaps my lack of experience with cooking nearly-whole, large mammals might mean I was ignorantly overlooking a potential winner. Is there any good reason to leave the spinal column attached? It doesn't seem as though it would add much, but as I said, it isn't something I've ever thought to try before (I've only worked with boneless cuts of venison, up to now). I'm also trying to figure out what to do with the ribs, since the animal was a really small one, and the layer of meat is very thin. Given the small amount of meat available, and the fact that this is supposed to serve six, I'll probably go with my initial idea of searing the meat, then taking the en croute + bacon route. Think I'll pass on this approach! The ground here in Denmark is already frozen hard enough to require a jackhammer to break the surface!

My sense is that attempting to roast an entire deer torso (all that attaches to the thoracic and lumbar spine, but nothing else) in one piece wouldn't yield particularly good results, but I've never tried it, and realize I may be completely mistaken; I'm being urged to do this for the upcoming, major holiday dinner. The venison I'm supposed to be preparing is from a small deer (the entire piece is 2.5 kg/5.5 lb and about 55cm/22"; yes, it was an adult), and I can understand the appeal of presenting it whole, but the cuts of venison I've worked with previously tended to demand very different treatments, so I just can't see how this would work (leaving aside the logistics of fitting the whole thing into the oven, never mind finding a roasting pan to hold it). I've looked at some of the existing venison threads, but the approaches described seem to focus on individual cuts; I'm guessing that there is an excellent reason for this. I had hoped to be able to do a trial run on this, but it didn't happen. Has anyone here roasted this large of a section of venison, and if so, with what results? Any suggestions would be much appreciated.