Mjx

This doesn't mesh with my experience at all; I've eaten fish (mostly trout, and some perch) caught directly from the river, and they've always tasted clean and fantastic. I've never quite seen the point of court bouillon, but these fish would probably make fine versions of it, for... whatever it's used for.

The venison en croute looks looks beautiful! If you want the pastry a bit more 'done' next time, you might want to give this a go (method I use for this same dish, I have no sous-vide setup): Take the (raw) venison directly from the refrigerator, and sear it at very high temp., just to colour it, then wrap it in the pastry, and bake it briefly in a very hot oven. The venison I get is (mostly) from roe deer, so the pieces are quite small in cross-section, but using this method, it's still possible to serve it rare.

Eeeh, you may have a point, and this may be my only option, although I haven't entirely given up on finding another source/option.

Actually, it is possible to treat the exterior of each piece before tying them together. Unfortunately, the work that describes this (Guess What Came to Dinner, by Gittelman), is in a moving box, and I can't lay hands on it. Possibly someone else has it? You soak the meat in water to which a small but effective quantity of chlorine has been added; what I cannot remember is how much bleach per volume of water, and how long it needs to be soaked.

Thanks, but as I said, I don't want to get a whole bale-ful of them, just a few (which I was able to do in Italy), since I use them fairly seldom (and I hate waste, so throwing the excess out isn't an option). If all else fails though, I guess I'll have to see whether can club together with a few other Italians I know in DK, and go that route.

Interesting, I didn't know that they were used in Norwegian sweets, too. I could go round to the Catholic church (yes, I'm still in Denmark, and there aren't so many Catholic churches here), but I feel a bit shy about doing that. I agree, the rice paper doesn't seem like it would quite work out. Maybe I could find shop that stocks Norwegian ingredients, in Copenhagen. I need to check the Asian shops; I haven't seen the sort of rice paper you describe, just what's used for spring rolls, and that just doesn't seem to fit the bill.

I'd have significant reservations about using any sort of home unit in a restaurant setting; are commercial induction ranges available? If not, there may be good reason for it, and it would at least be worth investigating carefully.

If you ever happen to do a side-by-side of the pita dough with and without the L-cysteine, I'd love to see some pictures of the crumb (I'm kind of hazy as to what makes something classifiable as a dough relaxer, but I can't think of how else to describe the effect of adding fat to a dough, after the flour and fluid are already at least partially combined, since it definitely kills the 'snap', making the dough very supple, and the crumb both soft and friable).

They may have done, and think they're being maverick/edgily cheeky (sort of like Stronzo beer)

After candying some quince, I decided the best fate for it is panforte, then realized that there is no way I'm going to be able get the ostie (thin, flat wafers made of I'm-not-sure-what) that cover it. My first thought was 'Make them!', then I wondered whether the rice wraps used for spring rolls could be used (thin as the discs are, the seem a bit thicker than what I have in mind, and the starch looks more gelatinized than it is in ostie). Have any of you either successfully used rice wrappers, or made ostie? I could get them online, but then I'd have masses of them, and I'd rather not have to store anything I won't be using relatively quickly, since storage is at a premium (we're in a very temporary space).

No rush. It's never silly to not buy something you're unlikely to use. Besides, even if you don't get an oven now, it doesn't rule out your ever doing so; you can change your mind later. At the very least take your time considering this, and comparing your options. When I think about Italian food, the oven isn't really so desperately crucial (I grew up in Florence, where the food is somewhat different, but still).

I'm seriously impressed (especially since Valentine's Day hasn't really made any inroads here in DK + I become excruciatingly embarrassed by traditional displays of sentiment, so I'll be lalala-ing/whistlingly turning a blind eye to the entire holiday ). Did you use the same cutter to create the veg hearts and the chocolate ones?

Just curious, here: I add oil (usually olive oil) to dough to relax it, particularly when I'm making empanadas; how does using L-cysteine stack up against using oil, in term of working texture?

My first thought was exfoliating gloves, if you can get hold of some; I use them to clean potatoes (they make them in brown, and marked 'potatoes', for this very purpose, but they're the exact same things, just more expensive), and they make a quick job of it. They are pretty durable, cheap, and take a good deal of the skin off new potatoes (more so, if they've been soaking for 5 minutes or so). Or, if the skin on the ginger is thickish, perhaps you could use the mail gloves you already have?

First thing that springs to mind is peposo. Just a cheap cut of beef, tomatoes, garlic, a little wine, and lots of pepper, braised for a couple of hours, then reduced. Since traditionally, the meat isn't even browned, there's very little fat. Yet, the flavour is so intense, it's borders on the uncomfortable to eat without an accompaniment (potatoes are traditional, but I have problems with them, so I often go with a red lentil puree). I'm sure it's possible to gorge yourself on this, but no one I know seems to do this. I'd put dried fruit and bresaola in this category, too. Let's look at what you're talking about, though... Leaving aside the fact that many cheap cuts are actually quite high in fat, you're not exactly saying that peposo makes you full so much as you're saying that the intensity of flavor makes it difficult for you to eat all that much of it. Considering that you're eating it with an accompanying starch, the guess is that you don't necessarily eat a notably smaller quantity of food when you're having this dish. That's the thing: I actually do eat less. In fact, I made a version of this tonight, with some venison. It was delicious, but about a 3/4 cup of rice with about the same amount of peposo over it was as much as I could handle (there were no other dishes, this was it). My boyfriend had a little more but not much. Once it is reduced, the tartness of the tomatoes approaches the richness of tomato concentrate. Well, I can't disagree, and I'm not arguing against any of the points you make. The questions were whether intensely flavoured things satisfied in smaller quantities, and whether intensely flavoured foods were very likely to be rich in fat. My own impression (confirmed empirically, if not exactly representatively, since I don't know all that many people) is that richly-flavoured foods do seem to satisfy at smaller quantities; and the foods I mentioned were simply examples intensely-flavoured foods that are not particularly high in fat (I'm not looking at this from a health standpoint, by the way, just source-of-flavour perspective). Your point about, say, dried apricots still being simply apricots minus the water is absolutely correct, but the thing is, I can eat close to a kilo of fresh apricots, one after the other, whereas over 5 or 6 dried apricots are enough for me at one go. And I just cannot eat much bresaola (2 or three slices), but I can eat a small bistecca fiorentina (0.75 kg or so) on my own. For many people (I'm not saying this is universal), there does seem to be some sort of connection between flavour intensity and satiety, and it seems to be something independent of high levels of fat to carry the flavour.

First thing that springs to mind is peposo. Just a cheap cut of beef, tomatoes, garlic, a little wine, and lots of pepper, braised for a couple of hours, then reduced. Since traditionally, the meat isn't even browned, there's very little fat. Yet, the flavour is so intense, it's borders on the uncomfortable to eat without an accompaniment (potatoes are traditional, but I have problems with them, so I often go with a red lentil puree). I'm sure it's possible to gorge yourself on this, but no one I know seems to do this. I'd put dried fruit and bresaola in this category, too. I should mention that I do tend to seek out this type of food, because rich things (meaning those containing a fair amount of fat) tend to make me queasy, if I eat more than a little.

I don't know why more richly flavoured foods might make people feel more full – or more satisfied, which is not exactly the same – with smaller amounts, but I've noticed that it does, and when discussing it with others, many have mentioned experiencing a similar effect, almost as though the brain is somehow keeping track of flavour units as a measure of how much has been eaten.

This may not fly with the people you know, but if a gathering this big is really rare for you, is there any chance you could ask to borrow the pieces you need from one of your guests? Given the size of NYC apartments, you probably don't want pieces you virtually never use taking up space, regardless of the material they're made of. I don't think it's ever occurred to me to use paper or plastic, apart from for picnics and barbecues (where there was an excellent chance of things being lost or damaged). I've just stuck with inviting smaller numbers of guests, although I almost inevitably end up using very obviously mismatched pieces.

I wonder whether the various perceptions have most to do with the culinary tradition one knows best; when I think of intense flavours, I think in terms of seasoning and reduction, rather then something with a great deal of fat; I grew up with Tuscan cooking, wich tends to be relatively lean, but is often very concentrated.

I've noticed this phenomenon too, and wondered whether it is universal, or specific to some people. If nothing else, I am very aware of how full I feel if what I'm using is intensely flavoured, while I can easily eat more than a comfortable amount of something bland before noticing that I've done so. Which makes me wonder, why do conventional 'diet' foods tend to be so bland?

Please let this be an elaborate joke, please... I mean, I'm openminded and all, but bacon just would not get me going, not in that way, anyhow. Ick. On an equally uplifting, tasteful, and, unfortunately, apposite note, Stronzo beer tastes like beer with... wait for it: orange juice. Yep, this brew has it all: classy name, charming marketing, and a flavour that makes you want to pound a bottle of Jaegermeister to make it go away. YeeHah.

I also meant to add, there are commercially available bitters brands that use essential oils in their recipes. Thanks, that was exactly what I wanted to know!

Are you speaking of oils in this regard - http://www.baldwins.co.uk/Essential-Oils/Essential-Oils/344 - ? I was thinking of something (branded or not) that was a recognized bitter used in drinks (even something that was once often used, but may have fallen out of fashion). Anything like that exist? I'm familiar with essential oils, since fragrances are another area of interest for me, but most aren't safe for consumption, even if the raw ingredient itself is not necessarily toxic, as extraction methods for perfumery/aromatherapy only need to be safe for dilute application to the skin.

It kind of makes sense, although I don't have any personal bias at all; I've never had hash (although I've had biksemad), not even sure I've ever even looked at any before this, and am likely to make a hash that is at least small, partly discrete chunks of meat and... well, hokkaido. Although I'm telling myself that without potatoes, it's not really hash, so I can't include my version here, if it has no potato (but... there's also the argument that the basic hash premise involves the using-up of odds and ends of meat and starch). and I love potatoes. On the other hand, if I make it with potatoes, I'm going to be in pretty poor shape after I eat it, and hokkaido as somewhat 'potato-y' texture, so I'm tossing this back and forth in my mind.

It sounds as though alcohol extracts something that is fairly unpalatable: In ganache, the scent was distinct, but I noticed no added bitterness, so I'm guessing that the fat extracted/carried flavour far less efficiently than it did aroma (a bit in the way that an enfleurage does in perfumery). How do small quantities of fluid lipids mix in drinks? Are there any bitters that are at least partly oil-based?