Mjx

Could a lot of the fat have bloomed out? This does tend to happen if it gets too warm.

No substitutions for me, they generally really depress me. There are plenty of low fat/carb things that I appreciate, but for themselves, not as replacements for something else. My big weakness is for wheat-based things and potatoes, which I have to restrict anyway, since my body has issues with them. But when I want either of those things, I eat them (this happens less and less often, since I feel pretty run down afterwards), which keeps me from eating a whole platoon of would-be replacements, followed almost inevitably by what I was trying to not eat. I should be up front about the fact that I've never followed a specific weight loss plan in my life, but when I want to ditch some weight (as when I recently buckled down to get rid of the roughly 30 pounds I piled on when I was ill for a couple of years), I just eat dinner, and whatever I like. Not eating during the day soon has your stomach accustomed to smaller portions, so you get built-in portion control, and I find that 'dinner only' is a strategy that I can stick to indefinitely. I know there are arguments against this approach, but from a logistical standpoint, this works out best for me (and I do take nutritional supplements), particularly since I almost always eat dinner with others, but am on my own at other mealtimes.

I'm in! I use Rossetto Kasper's recipe as a base/guideline, but skip the dairy, which gives it a mouth feel that I find kind of repulsive, as well as sort of muffling other flavours. I use about a litre and a half of stock (often chicken, since it adds another dimension), instead. The November/December 2011 issue of Cook's Illustrated presents a recipe for Bolognese that has some interesting points to it, including the use of chicken livers (which I'm seriously considering) and powdered gelatin (which sounds both iffy and kind of intriguing). Any thoughts on the use of gelatin? Because of the reduction involved, it doesn't seem like making Bolognese sous vide would work out, while reducing just some of the ingredients is going give quite different results from reducing everything together. Might still make an interesting experiment, though.

Yesterday, I saw a billboard that gave me pause for thought (meaning, I stopped dead, and goggled at it in momentary disbelief). It advertised the Stronzo brewing company (possibly not safe for work, if you live in a conservative country), of Copenhagen (I'm in Denmark, at the moment). The thing is, 'stronzo' is one of the Italian words for 'shit' (but is often used like the English 'arsehole'). The guys behind it are apparently Danish, but I have no idea of whether or not they know what 'stronzo' means (or whether they care), nor what (if they do know) they are thinking. Statements like 'People with attitude' and 'Stronko.dk is in the air' are all over the site (and the billboard, which I didn't think to take a shot of), and their offerings include a 'Brown Stronzo', which does not exactly evoke a 'yum' response from me (it conjures up the liquid manure that's sprayed over fields as fertilizer), but then again, I'm not much of a beer drinker. They also describe themselves as an 'innovative microbrewery' brewing 'creative beer of the highest quality'. So, naturally, since I'm supposed to be concentrating closely on my work, I cannot stop wondering what deal is: expensive joke/social experiment? wild marketing manoeuvre? Is it any good? Heck, is this even legit? Any thoughts? or, even better, knowledge?

How assertive is the butter in that? A distinctive butter note always seems weird to me, in something lemony of this sort.

Any chance of your assigning another use to your mackerel (actually an oily fish, not a white fish), and trying the drying with cod or another white fish? Not sure how dry you're going to get a fish with such a high oil content.

The lemon bar recipe from CI is extremely good, and very balanced (I admit to tweaking it slightly, since I like lemon-flavoured things to be distinctly sour).

That's pretty bizarre, since it's something of a stretcher to make a connection between BSE and caul fat, which is more isolated from the central nervous system than many cuts of beef... but I'm guess they were counting on the public not knowing much about that. Still, since sheepish is in the UK, the FDA's decisions shouldn't have much of an effect on the purchase of caul fat where he lives..?

Precisely, which means that accurate, reliable scales are available at most price points, making them a worthwhile investment for anyone who think they might bake even just twice a year, unless they're feeling really indifferent to results. If something is unreliable, you return it. In their magazine, which is definitely not targeted at the experienced cook or baker alone, they've been using weights at least as far back as 2002.

Would it be very complicated to do what CI does, which is to give the weight beside the volume measurements? Giving the option for conversion feels less reliable to me.

Today's grey sky and perpetual spatter of rain suggested braised venison, puree of red lentils and hokkaido squash, and black lentils:

Hm. I was responding to: I didn't intend to mount an attack on what is clearly a substantial project. But the thing is, even novice bakers want consistency in results, and since they are novice bakers, they don't yet have a feel for ingredient adjustments, so they rely even more heavily on recipe accuracy than more experienced bakers; weight simply delivers better consistency than volume. Cook's Illustrated, which caters to cooks and bakers at every level does include weights for this reason. I'm not saying the inclusion of weights is a 'must', but it is my opinion that it would be exceptionally valuable... and opinions were what you asked for!

'Hunk' sounded wrong for any caul fat, so I took a quick look about online, and found beef caul fat images such as this one, where it looks pretty much like any caul fat. Could the stuff you have have been improperly stored, and melted/stuck together?

I have to agree with what Lisa Shock says, and add that the absence of weight-based measures would be a criterion for my not even considering using such an app. The basic concept sounds interesting, so it'd be a shame to not go the extra miles, and make it something that helps people achieve consistent and reproducible results.

It's not quite so bad as that. True, getting this sort of thing in the shops is increasingly difficult, but if you get friendly with a butcher, you can still have him or her request the the odds and ends you want from the slaughter house, and process them yourself (a hacksaw will do the trick on virtually any bone, unless you have a super-pretty kitchen that you don't want to risk trashing). Or, you can try going to the slaughterhouse yourself: In Denmark, I can't even find suet in the shops, so I go round to the slaughter house, and collect some there when I need to stock up. They don't even charge me (the seem to wonder what I want with this large glob of kind of gross-looking fat), but I always contribute something 'for the Christmas lunch', and they apparently remember that from one year to the next

My favourites are the ones I grew up with in Florence, but I have no idea of what they're called. They've very small, black olives, preserved in oil, with thin, firm flesh, smooth, not wrinkly skins, and not bitter, but a very full olive-y flavour. I have trouble even finding them in Florence, now, so I wonder whether they're a varietal that just isn't prolific or robust enough to be attractive from a contemporary business standpoint. If anyone does know what these are called, I'd love to know.

A lot of macaron fillings seem flat, and I'm fairly certain that the problem is fixable with a tiny pinch of salt. If you wanted to stay with your original idea of a cream cheese filling, you could try adding a little almond extract, too: It wouldn't change the colour, and it would add an aromatic dimension that is often sorely lacking in macaron fillings (for whatever it's worth, I'm firmly in the jam filling camp, when it comes to macarons, since dairy-based ones tend to seem too heavy).

If I get something that thick, I often take some stock or broth in a separate pot, and start adding the thick stuff to that, until it reaches the consistency I'm looking for: with grains (and legumes, even more so) as a base, the capacity for unaffected absorption seems limitless.

It could be a question of alternatives. For Apry, one can substitute the widely-available and excellent Rothman & Winter Orchard Apricot. For Creme de Cacao, I'm not sure what alternatives are better than Marie Brizzard. Meletti Cioccolato, maybe? Godiva or Mozart dark chocolate liqueur? (I haven't had any of these -- anyone know if they are any good and if they are close to Creme de Cacao?) I'm also keen to try the Mozart chocolate spirit. I would be cool if that plus simple made Creme de Cacao. That way you could use it in cocktails and control the sweetness independently. I've yet to find it in the Boston area. The Mozart Black is fantastic, a really solid chocolate hit without any milk/creamy nonsense about it: I prefer it to any creme de cacao I've tried, and that covers a fairly broad selection. The other Mozart liqueurs I'd rank in the same category as Godiva and that sort of thing. Haven't tried the Mozart Dry (the spirit), but that's just because I haven't stumbled across it, yet.

Aaaaaaaah, I wanted to be wrong! But I was fairly certain I remembered that from McGee On the up side of this debacle, my boyfriend's parents thought it was fine, and couldn't see what I thought was wrong. My boyfriend had to kick me under the table to get me to wipe the stunned look off my face. And I still couldn't eat the damn stuff.

The sort of reaction you described is often due to habit or comfort zone, so that might be the underlying problem as much as any missing sensory perceptiveness (but if it's the latter, my take on it would be 'taste/flavour blind'). My first thought though, was 'He may not like eggs.' Personally I can't stand them, never could, and the most wonderful and thoughtful presentation can't change that fundamental fact. When faced with a bunch of eggs on my plate, and the realization that I have to eat them, I can literally feel the blood drain from my face, and my stomach bunch convulsively, as a warning of what may happen should I attempt to force them in. 'Tasteless', indicating a lack of flavour, would actually mean that he would need to be well-browned, and would probably require assertive and careful seasoning to be worth eating

That is how most braises/stews work. You over cook a tough cut the meat until the connective tissue, such as collagen, starts to break down and re-lubricate the dried out meat. But if the starting temperature is too high, doesn't that accelerate the collagen breakdown, while simultaneously causing the muscle fibres to contract more rapidly, essentially wringing out the collagen, in a way that doesn't happen when you go low and slow? I'm wanting to be wrong about this, by the way.

Man, it's nice to leave the stone age. Instead of spending a couple of hours trying to press seed-and-skin-filled pulp through a strainer (followed by extensive scraping of self and kitchen), the food mill just burned through the batch of Japanese quinces, and I managed to keep the pulp off myself too. This is just great. Why the hell didn't I get one of these before?

Grrr. I forgot to mention one crucial point: I don't have the option of ditching the meat, because it isn't mine, but my boyfriend's mother's contribution: this isn't even regarded as an option. Which means I feel doubly bad about the situation. I've been taking on an increasing amount of the cooking, to the relief of both myself and my boyfriend's mother, and now I'm dreading future screw-ups like this. On the bright side, she doesn't actually see a problem with the meat. And the sauce actually would be great with those suggestions, thanks! Sure! This is the basic recipe I keep in mind (but I inevitably deviate), although it's been a long time since I looked at the book from which I got it: Cut a kilo (a little over 2 lbs) of beef shin or shank into cubes, toss into a large, deep pan, add 5 minced garlic cloves, three teaspoons coarsely ground pepper, 700 g (about 25 ounces: if I'm using tinned tomatoes, I use two tins) crushed tomatoes, a half teaspoon of salt, and enough water to pretty much cover the beef. Bring to a simmer, and simmer covered for two hours. Add a glass of red wine, and simmer for an hour more, or a bit longer, to reduce the sauce to a consistency you're happy with. You'll notice there is no mention of browning the meat: traditionally, you don't, and it still doesn't get that wet dog smell, but is delicious! However, unless I'm feeling unusually lazy, I do brown the meat very briefly over very high heat. I also usually add rosemary/bay leaf. The proportions of the ingredients can vary tremendously, and the results are still great, because the recipe is a very forgiving one. No pressure cooker, alas I recall reading about this when I first began cooking meat, and have some recollection of excessive heat causing rapid shortening of the fibres, dissolving and squeezing out the collagen (?) to an extent that is not reversible, whereas low temperatures cause this to occur more slowly, so the collagen is dissolved but not wrung out of the meat by rapid shrinkage. I'm hoping I'm remembering this incorrectly (it's been over a decade since I read up on this), and that it's actually something more... reversible. Seriously? Perhaps it's worth giving it another couple of hours, then. I'm kicking myself for not thinking of that, but unfortunately, I wasted so much energy feeling aggravated about the overheated burner, I didn't do anything actually intelligent about it. Just moaned to myself about it and probably did some fuming and pouting. Fortunately, with food, there's usually a 'next time'.

Easily removed with light and tweezers? Visible to the unaided human eye. The occasions I actually have seen parasites in fresh fish I'd bought, I felt too queasy to eat, however (which is pretty weird, when you consider that if I'd been looking at them as specimens in one of my bio classes, I could have gone eaten a solid lunch immediately after, without turning a hair).