Mottmott

I almost always agree with Jack, but alas, not this time. If I ate out more regularly than I do, perhaps I might. But most of my meals are home cooked and consist of larger portions of a few foods and less complexly developed dishes. So when I have the chance to have a many colored coat of taste, I'm there for it. It's a wonderful luxury to have a thoughtful progression of tastes and textures, ingredients and techniques. I do find, as someone already suggested, that with age, smaller amounts of a particular food satisfy my desire and I have more need of variety on the plate. For example, when younger, I could eat a whole steak, a baked potato, and a salad, but now I find myself cutting a NY strip into 2-3 portions, depending on its thickness. I find with a larger portion, that the meat becomes less delicious with each bite. When at a really good restaurant, I opt for a tasting menu. Three courses at most restaurants is simply too much food for me to eat, but I want the flow of tastes that at least 3 or 4 courses will bring.

I have a Kunz recipe that calls for a cup of tamarind paste and what I do I find at the store? Tamarind liquid. Could someone explain the mysteries of tamarind conversions? I have seen it in beans, block form, and in liquid. Oddly, I've not seen paste. And most important of all, how do you all like to use it?

This is my favorite voyeurist thread. We need a leer smilie! I hope y'all have as much fun working off those desserts as you do makin' and eatin' 'em.

I put the question raised by Mottmott directly to Nick Ochs today. First, antibiotics and hormones. All the beef they sell comes from a single supplier in Berwyn who slaughters only local steers. No growth hormones are used. Antibiotics are used only for therapy, not on the sub-therapeutic level, i.e., in the feed. (Sub-therapeutic use of antibiotics is where the danger resides.) Hey, if a cattleman has an investment in an animal and it gets a bacterial infection, he wants to protect that investment by giving the animal the proper medicine, and I have no problem with that, just as I'll ingest antibiotics when medically appropriate. But the beef Harry Ochs sells do not get antibiotics in their regular feed. Now onto tenderness and flavor. Harry Ochs carries both choice and prime beef. And even within the category of prime, he has two levels of aging. The pre-cut strip steaks you see in the front case are not the best available at Harry's. Most of the prime beef is dry aged for two weeks. However, a smaller quantity is aged for six weeks or more. It is cut to order, not pre-cut for display. Ask for it. You'll pay for all that water loss, but your tongue won't regret it. Harry Ochs does all his own hanging (at his supplier's facility, I believe). The cattle are fed on both grass and corn (the latter to encourage fattiness). As for the marbling issue, Nick opined that because they trim it very closely, it appears to be leaner than it actually is. Some personal observations. Marbling is an important component of what makes a good steak or roast, but it is hardly the sole determinant. Some experts contend marbling and fat content are responsible for only one-quarter of a piece of beef's flavor and tenderness. The breed, age and feed of the animal are also important. An older steer will be tastier, but it will be less tender than a young animal. An animal that's strictly grass fed will be considerably leaner. And all other things being equal, there's still natural variety between individual animals: some just taste better than others, even if they're from the same herd, fed the same food, slaughtered the same way. Nor can you entirely rely on the USDA grading system. I've had pieces of Choice that were was tender as Prime and more flavorful, and I've had Prime that should have been graded Choice. As for Whole Foods, I concur that they offer some excellent beef, and I frequently buy my meat there. Unlike their exorbitant prices on fish, WF is competitive on beef. And their lamb can be exceptional. But I also buy from Harry Ochs and Martins. What I particularly like about Harry Ochs is the service: if you want a beef navel, he'll get it for you. If you want 20 pounds of beef cheek (as someone asked for recenlty -- was it you, Shacke?), he'll get that, too. You want your meat cut a certain way? No problem! So, Mottmott, I'd recommend giving it another try, but this time asking for the super-aged beef. And I'd be happy to join you in a taste test! ← Thanks for this iinfo, particularly that the meat is local as well as not daily dosed with drugs. Last time I was at RTM, I put off buying beef there and make an extra shopping stop at WF just for the meat (which is practically the only thing I'll buy there). I'll check out the back of the Ochs shop stock next time I'm there. I must say, though, that my first disenchantment with Ochs came with a pre-ordered rib roast that definitely did not match up with others I had from them previously. As for the marbling, the marbling I look for is the delicate streaking inside the meat and no amount of trimming would change that. Indeed, with standing ribs, I'm about to resort to the old fashioned practice of larding the beef when I don't see enough marbling. I don't eat a lot of beef anymore, and when I do, fat be damned. It would be great fun to do a cook-off of steaks from Ochs, WF, and a Waygu for good measure. Our own little America's test kitchen?

No, if I haven't made it, I won't claim it. I am guilty on the other side, though. Whenever my DIL serves quiche to her guests, I've made the pastry and prebaked it for her. I don't know - or care- whether she fesses up to not having made the pastry. But now I'm curious.

The only food I buy with any regularity at WF is meat which they claim is free of antibiotics and hormones. The only alternative is the mostly frozen meat at the farmers' markets. Otherwise, in Philadelphia, I find everything else I need better and cheaper at a neighborhood coop, the Reading Terminal Market, 9th St market, and, in milder weather, the farmers' markets. I think they use the patina of a market that sells organic foods and subscribes to the natural or whole foods concept as a mask to charge more for the conventional produce which seems to be most of what they sell. Their fish counter smells fishy to me. And cheese in plastic wrap? Puh-lez. I know people who shop there because it makes them feel good to be the kind of people who shop there instead of old-fashioned supermarkets, but seldom scratch cook.

As I live alone, I resort to steaks and chops often, so I really notice. I believe I asked about the antibiotics/hormones at Ochs some time back and was told it was not a/h free. It was so long ago, though, I may misremember. But that issue aside, the Whole Foods (Callowhill St) steaks are better marbled. Waygu beats it, but I only treat my company to that.

Another vote for KA. You'll make pasta much more often.

I'm curious whether anyone else has noticed this. I used to buy meat at Ochs, but seldom do so any more. All things being equal, I prefer getting meat that does not have antibiotics or hormones. Now a beautifully marbled steak or standing rib could make me bend on that, particularly if I'm already at RTM. But lately I don't see beautifully marbled meat there, and the last time I bought a rib roast there it was merely acceptable. I've taken to buying meat mostly at Whole Foods because of the additives issue, and I have to admit that I have pretty good luck finding well marbled beef there, too. This annoys me, as I'd rather support individual vendors than chain stores.

Thanks, it will be a great help to know what I'm looking for looks like.

Thanks everyone. I'll try the store on Race as dagordon has snagged one there. I've already tried Washington Ave. Perhaps I was just overwhelmed by the miles of jars and bottles. And asking for help there didn't get me very far, either.

I have a couple recipes that call for catsup manis, but I have not been able to find it in Philadelphia. OK, I've only looked a couple places. But I hope that someone can point me in the right direction. Failing that: can it be made at home? It seems as though it's a sweet? tomato-y, soyish sauce?

Char is a nice choice but its availability is very limited. It's certainly possible you had wild char, since that constitutes about one-third of the commercial volume of arctic char; but since the season for wild char is late summer and fall, it's more likely your fish monger was selling farmed char, from either Iceland or Canada. Note that the closed system technology for farming char is much less harmful to the environment than the estuarine salmon farms. As a food fish, and taxonomically, it's closer to trout than salmon, though all three are salmonids. ← You mean Ippolito's fibs to me about the wildness factor? Though to be fair, I think the last time I made gravlax was in November.

I only use wild fresh fish for curing. I also tend to use arctic char rather than salmon. It seems to be available when wild fresh salmon is not. And it seems more delicate than the salmon to me.

Santa was good. Generally I prefer to get my own kitchen equipment, but this year I did get a lovely haned painted wooden serving dish and Hidden Kitchens from my kids. I also got a really useful, attractive set of cheese knives from my kids' stepmother. (And I did buy myself an AC copper core 12" fry pan.)

I don't often bake cookies as they're a bit fiddly in the baking for me: in the oven, out of the oven, in the oven, out of the oven, endless batches. Yes, they're cute. Yes they taste good. But fiddly. And if you are into decoration. Well, you know. But cookies I must make, so I throw myself on your mercy. I thought I'd make some coconut macaroons. What happens if I go the route of just egg whites, sweetened mositened coconut, and sugar vs the versions that also uses either evaporated or coconut milk? Which version will give me the little bits of coconut sticking out all toasted looking, like spider legs? Which will give me the slightly gooey center? Which will be tastiest? edited for typo

Could somebody please explain to me how marketing messages can be delivered to a 3-year old, without the parents' participation and consent? [see my signature line, please.] Numbers talk. Turn off the television and say NO to your kid, and stick to it. No one has ever died from a nagging. And no one has ever been a mark without allowing it. ← I defy anyone to insulate their child utterly from media and advertising, short of moving to a cave in Montana. And while I have read about parents who were able to be utterly perfect over many years, I have never actually met one of these creatures. Admittedly, I live in a challenging zip code, so perhaps my own bad choices have doomed my children to be raised in an atmosphere of licentious media and snack food consumption. The question I am curious to hear you answer is the one about whether corporations, by dint of their corporate-ness (corporeality?), are free from any responsibility for their actions? Mottmott: I'm not sure I'm down with the Friedmanesque idea that corporations should be responsible only to shareholders -- I think it leads both to damaging externalities (fat kids, poisoned rivers, collusive behavior, etc.) and can damage the economy as a whole when a compony focusses incessantly on next quarter's numbers. I don't think that they are obligated to become agents for social change, either. Not in their job description. And the profit motive -- when not turned into an object of fetish worship -- is generally a positive force. But, somebody needs to be hanging around to whack them on the bridge of the nose with a rolled up newspaper (coincidentally, the same technique I use to keep my kids out of the Doritos) when they get out of line. Given their immense power, resources and talent, the market only imperfectly performs this function, and individuals are more or less helpless, so the government assumes the regulatory role. Assuming, then, that there is a childhood obesity problem and that companies' actions are contributing to it, it's unrealistic to think that they will voluntarily change their behavior or that a handful of eGulletors are going to get them to change. Thus it is legitmate to call for government regulation. It is fashionable -- if intellectually lazy -- in some quarters to tar all government regulation with the same brush, and many regulations and prohibitions are indeed bad, inefficient, whatever. It should be pointed out, though, that may regulations are indeed effective and beneficail Our air is cleaner, our food safer, and our furniture less likely to burst into flames because of regulations. So, in the junk food case before us, I haven't necessarily thought enough about the balance between regulation and potential benefits to come down for or against new regs. I am, however, fully committed to the idea that it is a legitimate approach and could well be appropriate here. I get by with a little help from the feds; I get high with a little hep from the fed; Gonna try with a little help from the feds ← Busboy, I hope I'm not Friedmanesque, I can't even bear to read his smugness anymore. I don't think that the way things are necessarily the way they should be. But I need we all should understand the nature of the beast if we are to deal with it. I agree that unregulated corporate power is not good for society. It's not even good for a "free market."

Lordy,fingers crossed. It's not the season in the northeast, but I have made a veggie terrine a few times using a recipe I saw on TV, mostly just layered roasted peppers, and grilled zucchini and eggplant layered and pressed, then served with a pepper sauce. It was very tasty and colorful, but only the pressing held it together, so it did tend to fall apart a bit. I think if I were doing it for a party, I'd line the terrine with chard leaves to form a shell for it. I also tried a vegetable terrine in Daniel Boulud's first cookbook and have never been tempted to do it again.

This looks like a perfect place to ask about my buddha's hand that I just bought. I was told it would last at least 2 weeks at cool room temperature, but one of the tiniest fingers has just gone moldy after only 3-4 days, so my schedule to candy it is speeded up. Has anyone ever candied buddha's hand? I was wondering if it is possible to do the "fingers" intact. Also as they are such different sizes, I assume that I'd take them out of the syrup in stages from small to large. Or must I cut them up and remove the fruit. And, for the record is there any use for the fruit pulp? I have candied orange peel and grapefruit peel using method that take different lengths of time. I think the 3 day version I did yielded better candies. I think if I were just candying them to use in cooking, I'd use the quick method edited to add I've made watermelon rind, too, using Joy of Cooking recipe. Love, love, love watermelon rind.

Sounds like I'd brave the cold for it!

As you are dismissing her work in general, I'd like to ask. Have you actually used any of her recipes? Have you looked at this book? (I haven't yet.) What do you mean by "substance"? I think the range and dependability of her recipes (taken as a whole) for the home cook has been wonderful. So unless you're comparing her to cutting edge chefs or writers who delve deeply into particular cultural cuisines and food history I'm not sure what you mean. And for those who want to try before you buy, check out her website where you have access to most of what's in her magazines and shows. I'm not sure about the book recipes.

Oh Lordy, it's been a long time since I've updated. Add about 25 or so that I bought at Atlantic. Then I bought about 6 on baking, including Baker's Apprentice, Silverton's bread baking, Baker's Dozen, elsewhere another 10 including Wolfert's Slow Mediterranean, Stevens' on braising, Bouchon. I've run out of room in my cookbook bookcase. I need to cull the herd.

I would think you can do the same thing people who make cheesecakes in a waterbath do. Double wrap the outside of the mold with foil, preferably heavy duty. And save me a slice.

Could somebody please explain to me how marketing messages can be delivered to a 3-year old, without the parents' participation and consent? [see my signature line, please.] Numbers talk. Turn off the television and say NO to your kid, and stick to it. No one has ever died from a nagging. And no one has ever been a mark without allowing it. ← Just curious here. This is directed not to you personally so much as anyone who feels immune to being subject to societal attitudes and pressures on themselves and their children. We're all marks to the sharks. Do you have children? Are they always only 3 years old? Do you have children and a job? Do you have children and a job and less than 8 hours sleep per night? The advertisers nag us and our children, and then our little inner voices and our children nag, "buy, buy, buy." How many of us do not have a bad case of the I wants? Advertising teaches us what to want. On a personal note, I've noticed a curious thing. When I watch TV and a food commercial comes on, I am often moved to take a trip to the kitchen. So I'm after a slice of my homemade pie and not Mrs Smith's, does that mean I'm not influenced by advertising? Are those calories any less real?

It eats quite well, thanks! I like a pretty spice-laden filling...I use 1 3/4 tbsp cinnamon and 1/2 tsp of nutmeg yesterday, but that's partly b/c my cinnamon wasn't the strongest or the best quality. (Right now, it's the Safeway brand.) Jmahl: That's a beautiful cake! I like how you photograph your desserts with the picture from the cookbook/magazine behind it. ← As a fellow sweet fiend, a word of advice - get some Ceylon cinnamon (Penzey's) it's a wonderfully floral addition to your dessert spices. While you're at it, try the Vietnamese cinnamon, too - more robust than the delicate Ceylon and particularly useful if you use cinnamon in your savory dishes, too.