Ashen

I find it hard to beleive that anything with capsaicin would stop bleeding faster. It is a well known vasodilator, so if anything it should increase blood flow in that area.

I havn't ever done it but I have heard that ground black pepper was used as an old butchers trick to help stop a wound bleeding.

alton brown covered this one in a good eats ep about asparagus .. apparently genetics is responsible for both things. quote from the show transcipt " Here's the other complication. Genetics determine whether you are a smelly excreter or not an excreter, or whether you are a detector or a non-detector, in which case you don't even know what this conversation is about, which is probably a good thing." I guess in my case I am both a smelly excreter and detector. blah.. although it might be even worse if you were an excreter and non-detector and were in a public washroom. lol..

I really like carnaroli. It certainly is more forgiving on the cooking side for texture and the end product is usually creamier than made with Arborio. That being said, Arborio or even what they simply call, "italian style rice" here can make very good risotto. I have told my wife in the past , that if we go to italy, I will need an empty suitcase to bring back different kinds of rice. lol Since most on this thread like risotto and seem a bit adventurous I hvae a fun experiment you can try.. Switch out the rice for millet but use risotto cooking technique. The results are deliciously suprising. I just had a why not moment one day when I neeed to use up some millet, I thought was getting a bit too old.

Yep same with my mention of toasted vs non toasted. I used that reference since it was the nomenclature of the article to distinguish between this step and just adding a good amount of liquid and rice at the same time. To me it just meant putting the rice in with the softened veg and fat and stirring about for 30 -40 secs approx to coat then starting to add stock.

I am not sure if this was meant to refer to my comments or not, but maybe I should be a little more clear. I only claim to know what constitutes "good risotto" for me. The reason I know this is that I have actually experimented with it myself . The toasted vs not toasted creaminess issue is not news to me. In the past I have even tried and actually made a decent risotto with full cook brown rice. If you think stirring for 17 to 20 mins is long , try it with brown rice. LOL My other issues with his procedure that make it not for me is the fact that I have never made risotto that took the exact same amount of liquid as the ones before. Change the variety of rice, humidity level on that day or just the added flavouring ingredients and it is a whole different ballgame as to how much liquid the rice needs to get to the nexus where you have proper creaminess, desired looseness, and firmness in the center of the rice grain. The other issue I have with cooking it in all the liquid at once at a boil is that you can easily , ( although not all the time) burst the rice cuticle which produces a texture change I don't like. Toasting strangely enough seems to help against this happening. So this isn't just me knowing one way home and refusing to look for something different. It is simply the way that produces the product I prefer. I won't claim to be an arbiter for what anyone else likes though. Just because I like vanilla ice cream, it doesn't mean the people who like chocolate (Or cake ) are wrong.

I say it if works for him and he is satisfied with the end product , good on him.. I know I won't bother trying it though, I know what I like and that is not it. I think I fit into that hardline italian group he is talking about though. LOL I was eating risotto before I could speak, and had it at least once a week the first 20 odd years of my life . Changing now is just really not an option. I do agree with him about the importance of mantecare and all'onda though. (although he says it is a flat disk you can actualy see the wavyness in his picture) To my mind they are much more important than al'dente even. If you get all three optimally and hit the triple crown it is a beautiful thing. I will have to respectfully disagree with the earlier poster who said it isn't about the rice. It is most definitely about the rice, proper chicken stock elevates it, but if you can't taste the rice it is pointless. The name of the dish is risotto after all, riso=italian for rice. I never eat risotto at restuarants, so few even come close to doing it to my liking. Even if they did somehow get the triple crown, there is generally that last hurdle . Most chefs these days just can't leave it alone. IMO a risotto should have no more than two ( 3 max if they really compliment each other) strong flavours to it , and they shouldn't overpower the rice . Instead they can't help themselves and you get monstrosities like port reduction braised oxtail ,portabello mushroom, gorgonzola risotto, topped with toasted pistachio gremolata. The mangiacakes love it I am sure.

Pretty traditional here as well although I did brine the turkey. roast turkey , unstuffed. but with homegrown herbs and onion in cavity. mashed potatoes buttercup squash brussel sprouts cornbread dressing, (rasins instead of dried cranberries this year) broccoli, cauliflower casserole. (yep the old school stuff with canned soup . LOL ) gravy from drippings. thinned with potato water and thickened with flour slurry. homemade cranberry sauce. dessert A choice of maple rum pecan pie pumpkin pie apple pie

Thanks to all who contributed , this is very interesting info on this topic. I don't think it will change the way I do brisket though. I have used both the traditional method , in a charcoal water smoker with wet mop ,and then also using a "texas crutch" midway into the cook.(foil wrapping). There is a noticable difference between the two imo at the end of the cooks, and the traditional method just produces the kind of product I want for brisket. I have basically switch over to the foil wrap option for pork shoulder though, I pull the foil off near the end and let the bark dry . It cuts the cook time way down and I find I like the finished product better this way.

Strangely they don't distinguish between porterhouse and T-bone here but they do label Wing Steaks. What the article referred to as bone-in strip steaks. I must be perverse but I would rather a wing steak or small fillet T-bone any day. Of course that is because I have no use for tenderloin/ fillet. To my mind it is the most overhyped overpriced piece of the cow.

I will be doing a prime rib soon too , so I read the recipe.. My understanding after reading it , is that he is calling for uncovered air drying in the fridge overnight whether you choose to salt the day before or not. I am not sure I agree with this though, if you salt and wrap eventually any moisture the salt pulls out will be reabsorbed. I wonder if a two day process might work. Salt and wrap overnight first night, then uncovered airdry overnight second night.

He actually. I am pretty sure there are some orchards near bowmanville that have limited availabitly for Russets if you really want to source them. I found out quite recently that there are actually a few different types of Russets. I now know that my preferred type are Egremont Russets.

I have retired my old double sided cast iron griddle. It lived in my old BBQ for awhile but now is packed away and no doubt slowly rusting away.. I have a round cast iron comal now that I love. I have made tortilla and bannock on it over the bbq, taken it camping and it is perfect for pancakes and eggs over the campfire.

Any Walmart should carry a lodge reversible cast iron griddle.. It could be in with the camping stuff .

southern Ontario Canada.. My favourite are russets. Hoping the new crop will be good. some years they are just too mealy or woody to enjoy. followed closely by good ambrosia and honeycrips. I say good because they seem to vary wildly in quality. Neither seems to store very well either. I will only buy these two in season and after trying a sample at the farmers market stand. This past week at the market the best tasting apples were the new Galas.

I'm a little late to the topic but heading into fall and apple season I get a craving for apple dumplings with hard sauce. Appleton rum is usually our choice for the hard sauce. A good baking apples cored and peeled( peel can be left on but I don't like it) brown sugar ,cinnamon,rasins if you like in the center. wrapped in homemade pastry , baked and towards the end the hard sauce( rum, water, butter, sugar and cornstarch ) is basted over . awesome.

Just a thought but what about a sandwich in a nice crust panino with pizza tasting ingredients. Subway has an unofficial sub like this.. Simple called the pizza sub. It isn't on their official menu but every subway I have ordered it at knew how to make it. Basially , salami, thin sliced green peppers, mozzerela cheese , and the marinara sauce from their meatballs. You could buy a nice crusty panino, put some the mozz, your homemade tomato sauce and slices of good dry cured salami and whatever veg he likes on his pizza on it.

I have never heard of this, and it puzzles me. Since I don't even wash my ancient cast iron, let alone boil water in it, I can't imagine that boiling water in it would do anything other than remove its aged seasoning, please explain. I'm prepared to learn--but skeptical. highly heating a dry cast iron will do more damage to the seasoning than a bit of boiling water. On the flip side though , I see no real benefit to this practice except that the pan will be at almost the exact same starting temp each time you cook a steak.. Somewhere just above 212 F and rising quickly . The water in the pan will not let it rise much above that until it is completely gone. Personally , I just keep a cheapie (taiwan) cast iron pan for high heat searing. When the seasoning gets too beat up I just burn it clean on the Q , scrub out and reseason. probably 2 or 3 times a yr. I treat my wagner ware and findlay with a lot more respect though, and they are what I take camping for cooking on the campfire.

try to always buy Dirty potatoes. They keep longer , and just plain taste better if you wash them just before using them.

I normally store bottles of oil in my pantry but if I buy in bulk I have stored the excess at the very bottom of my fridge. There was no noticable change in quality over the few months it took me to use it up. I would bring it up to room temp first before using though. Cold fats all have a closed taste to them compared to when when warm I find. As soon as it is warmed up the taste opens and is just like normal.

It depends on my mood and how much minced garlic I need. If it is a small amount or I feel like using my knife I will smash with side of blade sprinkle with salt and then chop and smear with side of blade for a paste. Mostly I now use my zester microplane for fine minced garlic.. it takes it down to puree consistency and you don't even need to add salt.. If I need a lot of minced garlic.. one or two bulbs worth, I will pull out the big granite M&P. I prefer all three of these to using a garlic press, as they mince down finer and I find it tastes better.

a shallot jam, chutney , marmalade would be pretty tasty and a great way to preserve those. I don't have a specific recipe for you but there are results on google for all three of those.

Thanks for this reply Jenni.. It was exactly what I was looking for..It was a homemade rajma , that my wife brought home from a lady she works with that hooked me on it. That restaurant versions I have tried aren't worth eating usually.

I am having a great habanero harvest this year too.. Depending on just how loco you are , grilled, bacon wrapped habanero poppers are a wicked way to use them up. I made up a batch recently for a family get together , along with jalapeno ones for the less adventurous members of the fam. Basically a filling of mushroom , bacon, garlic, cream cheese, parm, and my own dry rub and hot spice mixes. stuffed into seeded cut in half habs, ( or jalapenos) then wrapped with bacon and grilled indirect on the smoker til the bacon goes crispy.

Jenni.. If it is not too much trouble . How would you prepare a masala for Rajma? It is one of my favourite dishes and I have made it before but would love to tweak it . You don't have to worry about exact amounts, I am just looking for what flavours you like to blend for it ususally .