Mjx

I'm going to have to go with 'wow', which I realize is spectacularly inarticulate. This is the the first time I can recall seeing a savoury gel and thinking, 'I need to do that'.

Yep Nope. My point is that if the stock solids are cut into small pieces, their size is such that any water-soluble flavour molecules are very quickly extracted, and you get something full-flavoured in a short time. If I'm cooking up a big batch of whole bones, I don't expect much flavour from them; increasing the cooking time won't change that. But you will get a lot of gelatine. I'd saw up the bones in small slices, and cut the cooking time down to an hour; why run the stove for 8 hours to accomplish what only need take an hour? If the stock solids don't have much to contribute in terms of flavour (e.g. bones), lengthy cooking can't actually change that. Usually, If I cook something on the bone, I leave a bit of meat on, and I save cuts that don't have much to offer in the way of meat for stock (e.g. bird backs); I just keep chucking all this stuff in a bag I keep in the freezer. Often, I don't even use vegetables, just a bay leaf and little nutmeg and salt. I roast the bones before making stock. If the stock comes out kind of wimpy, I may simply save it to use as the liquid for my next batch of stock, rather than using it as such.

I can't remember where I got the 'to about halfway-up' or 'a couple of inches for really large cuts' (either way it's never more than the latter, and usually less), but this does ensure a volume of liquid substantial enough to maintain a consistent temperature, and not cook away in a hurry if the lid isn't on perfectly.

That seems contrary to tradition and the experience and recommendation of many chefs... nevertheless it has a point (continue reading). I think it is not poosible to make a general statement: different components of a stock have different optimal extraction temperature & time profiles. Gelatin from bones needs the longest times, much longer than one hour. For beef meat one hour simmering may be optimal in many cases (actually 60 minutes at 85ºC was found optimal in this study). Vegetables likely have a similar profile (in my experience). Aromatics are often considered to produce highly volatile aromas that do not stand long times, so some suggest to add them at the end of the cooking (either some time before finishing, either when the heat is stopped -infusing while it gets cold-, either putting them when reheating the stock for using it). . . . . I do agree with you regarding the extraction of gelatine from larger bones, but I personally prefer the flavour of more briefly cooked stocks to that of longer-cooked stocks (this is inevitably going to be subjective, and vary considerably from person to person). Although I often make mixed-source stock (chicken, lamb, various game), I break things down into small/thin pieces, which optimizes extraction, and even with the brief time-frame I described, it gels as firmly as any longer cooked stock I've seen (cleanly spoonable). If I'm boiling up a bunch of more or less intact larger bones, I'll cook them for a quite a while, but I'm not aiming for flavour.

By 'the end' I'm understanding you to mean when the stock is finished; since that's the point when you remove the solids from the stock, adding something at point would have no effect of the finished product. For whatever it's worth, I haven't found any advantage to using more than about an hour to make stock: prep/roast/brown the components, then sweating them 20 minutes, and simmering barely covered in water 20 minutes. Any longer doesn't seem to give more flavourful results, things just get more murky and dull (I may use some extra time if I want to reduce the stock, however).

Until you get a tagine, you can use a Dutch oven. I've done stovetop braising with no problems, even in the kitchen I'm currently using, which has a lousy cooktop prone to heat spikes, making this a bit tricky.

Unless you're cutting something very hard and bulky, like a winter quash, I'm fairly certain an adequately sharp blade shouldn't require much force or speed to move through what you're cutting. One other possibility: if you're very tall, the cutting surface might be too low for you to bring the knife all the way down, without your paying constant close attention (owing to the angle between your hand and the cutting surface at the bottom of your stroke). I noticed tall friends had this problem in the kitchen in our flat, when they used the pullout cutting table which was exactly the right height for my rather short self.

These are lovely, Dave, exactly the sort of thing that makes me love gelled things so much. Also, the pretty moulds inspired me to try to get my hands on some myself; mysteriously, nothing even remotely like this is to be found, hereabouts. Any shots of the inside? Did the flavour/texture combination meet your expectations?

I do a lot of braises, since I love the result (and I can continue working while dinner is kind of making itself). I think I would have gone with more liquid; after browning the meat and what-have-you, I add enough liquid to the pot for it to come about halfway up the meat (unless it's simply colossal, then I'll go with a couple of inches), quickly bring it to a boil over high heat, then immediately snatch it it off the stovetop and put the pot in the oven. I check every couple of hours to make sure not much of the liquid has cooked away (I use a Le Creuset, too, and the lid isn't super tight, so there's some loss). I braise between 125 and 150 C/260 and 300F, and figure a large piece of meat will take a minimum of three hours; I'll often leave it for five. Keep in mind that with the liquid inside, the temperature in the pot will be much lower than that of the oven. If I were going with a temperature as low as 200F, I'd be prepared for it to take seven hours (never tried it, however). I don't use a thermometer when braising, but at about the three or four hour mark, I'll poke at the meat a bit with a fork, to get an idea of where the texture is.

It would also be a good idea to wait tables for at least three months. When you're familiar with what is happening on both sides of the service equation, it is far easier to pinpoint the source of inevitable kerfuffles (i.e. difficult diner/incompetent waiter). It's also an excellent way to confirm whether or not one is truly a 'people person', not to mention, waiting tables while acquiring the skill set he's seeking would be concrete evidence of genuine commitment to this area of work.

Are you looking for a slicer, or something else?

How liquid is the mixture you're putting into the bag? I've never experimented with a bag, but I've watched others do this, and usually something very juicy was used, and the mixture in the bag was quite liquid. However, I have worked quite a bit with quinces (I put the pulp through the finest plate of a food mill). It's never occurred to me to try to get a clear gel from them, but if I was going to give this a go, I'd add a lot of water; quince is mostly dense pulp, and although it contains a fair amount of water, I believe the pectin in it sequesters it, so the pulp does not easily part with its juices.

Two weeks into what? That is, in what sort of place are you working (e.g. restaurant, diner, hotel restaurant, catering service)? Not sure what you mean by 'a lot of people'; well-connected to others in the industry who have useful jobs to offer? Without knowing anything about your relevant background, it's not possible to really say; more details are definitely needed, but a 'little prep and a lot of pot washing' is not going to get you far. What sort of offers have been 'flying about', and are they being offered to you, or someone who's only done a bit of prep and washed dishes? Well, what is your goal? Apart from that, if you look at the careers of various successful chefs, it's pretty clear that there's no one winning formula, but no one gets far without working their arse off and being in the right place at the right time, with a robust skill set (regardless of how acquired) ready to deploy.

Heidi, this was pork. I had this idea that, given that the meat is pounded thin, and veal, pork, and chicken breasts all tend to run dry, the handling could be the same for any one of them, so I thought I'd ask more generally; evidently not the case! I salted the meat, ground pepper over it (I wanted to get these worked into the meat a bit), then pounded them not-thin-enough. I then did them natur style, with a bit of salt, pepper, and nutmeg mixed into the whole rice flour I used. I gave them 3 minutes on the first side, which gave alovely golden brown result (I used grapeseed oil), but the second side was tricky, since the meat curled (because the fibres weren't broken down enough?), so they didn't lay flat, and mostly were only exposed to direct heat if I pressed down on them, which I didn't discover until about 2 minutes into the second side. They were pretty tasty, anyway, although a little too thick and dry. Did I make an insane number of mistakes?

Bumping this, since I'm interested in hearing whether anyone has come up with some fantastic recipe for schnitze, which they'd like to sharel. I've got some meat ready to prep., and I'm going with the previous advice to give it three minutes per side, although I'm wondering a bit about just how high a temperature is regarded as ideal.

Off-hand, I'd have to say head to the local slaughterhouse, since coagulation happens really quickly (in fact, without salt or something stirred into it, I'm not sure you'd get it home still liquid), so this isn't something you're likely to find at a butcher, but one of the vendors at the greenmarket might be more accessible/helpful.

No luck with forming it on parchment, then using a peel or baking sheet slipped under that, to transfer it to the oven?

I really regret being pushed to eat certain things when I was a child, since these efforts effectively acted as aversion therapy, and to this day, my inability to even gag/keep down most cheeses is probably one of the saddest things.

Thanks, Kim! Your shrimp look so delicious; I really miss good shrimp (I cannot understand how I live in a coastal town, yet finding decent shrimp is so difficult!). The chicken was roasted according to the simplest and best roast chicken recipe I've yet found, from The Best Recipe (with a few very minor tweaks). The recipe calls for buttering the chicken, and then seasoning it with salt and pepper. The chicken is not trussed. My tweaks are all in the prep: I prefer olive oil to butter (butter does give better browning, however), and since I always brine the chicken, I actually don't salt the chicken after oiling it (the double salting gets too intense). Also, instead of distributing the pepper over the chicken after oiling it, I mix the pepper right into the oil, and it all goes on at once. The recipe recommends preheating the oven with the roasting pan and rack inside, for even browing of both sides, but following an incident that yielded spectacular burns, I no longer bother (also, the ovens here are all convection ovens, which helps avoid unevenness) The roasting times are the same as the ones in the recipe: preheat the oven to 190C/375F, and roast the chicken 15 minutes on each side, then turn up the heat to 230C/450F, and roast the chicken on its back for 20 to 25 minutes (keep an eye on the chicken during this last step, if your oven runs hot). The skin is amazingly crisp, and we often end up eating most of it while carving, so there's not much left by the time it's plated (we restrained ourselves, for the sake of better-looking pictures).

Roll out, maybe season it, and make crackers?

And the first question that leaps to mind is, 'what do scorpions taste like?' followed by 'the things on sticks are the tails, aren't they?' I'm imagining bitter shrimp.

Thanks The beans are La Doria, and they're pretty decent, although I'm surprised that an Italian firm produces baked beans, since sweetness in savoury foods isn't hugely popular (I'm guessing this is an export-only product).

I've generally found that the shortening becoming warm tends to make the dough greasy; I agree with Jane, if your dough is tough, it's probably being overworked. Even in mid-winter, in the unheated kitchen in our last flat (effectively a walk-in refrigerator, according to the thermometer), my hands seemed to warm up enough to soften the shortening (and I hate using metal tools, because the sound/vibration of them moving against the bowl makes me cringe), so I'd cut the butter into slices, then thin strips, then tiny cubes (tossing the butter in a little rice flour between each set of cuts, to keep the bits from sticking together), then chill (not freeze, since that's like trying to work together flour and pebbles) the butter while I was getting the rest of the ingredients gathered and set to go. The tiny cubes of butter work in very quickly, so the dought is light rather than grasy and heavy. In terms of avoiding tough dough, what worked for me was switching to a recipe that replaced part of the water with vodka (gluten doesn't develop well in the presence of alcohol). Swapping in a bit of rice flour for the wheat or spelt I usually use also gives good results.

Mu first thought was that it was a one of those old-fashioned solid burners from an electric stove, then I noticed the handle, which makes it look like it might be a baking surface for some sort of flat bread, a bit like tigelle.

Recently, my boyfriend and a friend of his bought and shared half a pig, which was delivered portioned (including some as ground meat, sausage, and liver pate), and featured at dinner several dinners and lunches running (it gets dark pretty early now, so the images aren't all one might wish). Tenderloin: Medallions with borlotti and caramelized onions: A stir-fry of pork, shitake, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, and ginger: Liver pate with black pepper and citric acid: Then, we kind of needed a break from pork. Roast chicken: Soup made with the leftover roast chicken, and broth made from a mixed bag of meaty lamb, venison, chicken and pheasant bones: And yesterday, salmon marinated in lime juice and cloves, with rucola and baked beans (the latter may seem a little odd with salmon, but worked really well):