SethG

Amy, that is brilliant. I just checked the Ikea website, and there's a number of different stemware choices at the rate of $3.99 for six glasses! Unfortunately, the glasses are only available for in-store purchase, which means I would have to trek out to Elizabeth to get them. Thus I'm still looking for other ideas, but if nothing better comes along, I'll make the trip. Thanks so much. Edit: by the way, if you didn't find your stockpot, you should go to Target. This has been discussed several times here on eGullet-- there's a 16 quart stockpot under the brand name Chefmate that sells for about $30 at Target, and it's stainless steel with an aluminum disc in the bottom. Nonreactive, and it fits in the dishwasher (or at least my dishwasher) too.

We're hosting an engagement party next weekend for some friends. I hate having wine in plastic cups, and I thought it would be nice to get a bunch of really cheap wine glasses. We're having about 30 people. I've seen a few options on the web for glasses in the $3 range per glass but I'd like to find 'em even cheaper if I can. I want to care not a whit if they get broken. Mail order/internet sources are welcome. Also if anyone knows of a resto supply place in NYC that might fit the bill, I'm all ears.

This is probably wise, since (given the implications of the article) if you sprang for the $15 product you'd likely be spending more for mislabeled farm-raised salmon. Stores in New York use labels too-- only it turns out that labels lie. I'd like to see a follow-up article from the Times this summer, when the genuine wild product should be easier to obtain.

Never mind.

If I recall correctly, the Fairway price for wild salmon was nowhere even close to $19, much less $23, a pound. It was more like $12. I don't know if I can bring myself to pay $23 a pound for any Salmon that isn't smoked!

What I'm having a hard time figuring out is this: I've noticed a difference in color, texture, and flavor between wild and farmed salmon, such that I've made "never go back" comments in the past. I purchased salmon marked wild most recently at Fairway in, I think, February. And I felt pretty good about its quality. Does this mean: a. I've been lucky and always purchased the real deal? b. I've fallen victim to the placebo effect? or c. I've purchased farmed salmon that's been falsely promoted as wild by unscrupulous wholesalers/retailers-- but who may have picked the best of their farmed salmon in order to try to pass it off as wild? Should I stop paying more if any of these is true? Aren't I still getting something for my extra money in any event? Or has the Times now spoiled the magic with its reality-based coverage?

Salmon Gone Wild, Or Is It Just Sold That Way? The New York Times has the goods, testing supposedly wild salmon from numerous retailers (some of them among the most expensive in New York) and finding most of them to be farmed. Upon confronting some of the retailers, Marian Burros gets what can only be described as pretty fishy answers.

I'm bumping this to report that I just had a very positive experience with Salter customer service. I've had the Salter 1002 since December. This is a cool-looking scale, because it is just a glass plate that sits atop some plastic legs. But the plate apparently wasn't attached to the plastic all that well, because one day one of the plastic legs just fell off, severing the metal connectors, making the scale unusable. I was a little pissed off, but I called Salter customer service and was very pleased with their response. They told me that the model has been discontinued (perhaps because lots of folks have had the same problem?) and agreed to send me a new model 1006, which is a more expensive scale, in return. They're sending it out right away, no questions asked. They couldn't have been nicer. The Salter scale I called about came with a ten year warranty, so if I were you, Jensen (if you haven't resolved your problem already), I'd just call them up. If my service was typical, they should take care of you. USA: 973-227-3057. Canada: 416-740-6009. Good customer service buys a lot of loyalty in my book.

Dorie, your presence here is such an amazing boon to all of us... please do not ever feel you have let any of us down. If not for your books, I'd have no experience in sweets! And because your books are so good, I've had practically no need for any others. Edit: and by the way, I've got another batch of chocolate ice cream whipping up right now.

Richard, that cake looks fantastic. Like the biggest, fudgiest brownie ever. Welcome to the Herme fan club, viva. I think there is a higher proportion of complicated creations in the Desserts book, as opposed to the Chocolate Desserts book. It is the more intimidating book at first glance. But there's also plenty of easy stuff with which to get going. I'm hoping Dorie will give us some insight into what went wrong with Doc's pudding. I'd like to try it myself, but I want to be sure I'm using the recipe properly corrected!

Thornado, did you say you were having a SMALL birthday party??? What a spread! How many people did you serve, and why wasn't I invited?

I've done it many times with bread. I haven't tried it at 550 (my oven's highest setting) with pizza, but I don't see why not.

Patrick, if you really don't want to slide the pizza, you might try putting your pizza on a sheet of parchment paper on back of a half-sheet pan, and then sliding the paper (with pizza on top) onto the stone. I'd worry that the time spent heating the metal between your stone and your pizza would be detrimental (if only slightly) to your end product. Sliding pizzas off a peel can be scary, but it is also thrilling! And not so hard once you get the hang of it. Edit: and heat the stone for a long time. Preheat for an hour or more if you can.

Count me as a satisfied customer of quarry tiles. If you go to Home Depot, ask for the unglazed ceramic tiles-- they come in gray and red. They're half an inch thick, 6 x 6 inches square, and they cost about 60 cents each. Buy a dozen and you can configure them however you like on your oven rack. I usually put six of them in a single layer, producing a nice 12 x 18 rectangle. They are heavy and sit still on my oven racks. The bottoms are grooved so they don't really slide around. If you want a thicker thermal mass you can always double them up as well. I like the flexibility of the tiles and I'm very pleased with the results I get. (I might be even more pleased with a Hearth Kit, but I don't think I'm doing any worse than I'd do with your average pizza stone.) I haven't experienced any of the theoretical problems speculated upon above, such as chipping, flaking, etc. Zillions of bakers use these tiles, so I'm a bit skeptical as to whether there's any problem in using them. (And, incidentally, I have to disagree with IML. Pizza dough, decent or otherwise, does best with a stone.)

Not to be contrary, but you really ought to give Schneider a second look. There's a lot of great stuff in there that requires no advance planning. The celery root puree with apples is a great all purpose starch side that I make all the time. There are also really good base recipes with good suggestions for variations in saucing or flavoring. There's a lot of good focus on method-- take the papillote section, for example. The leeks in papillote are great. I totally agree about the French Laundry. I checked it out from the library and returned it unused. I'm just not that into straining.

That is what its meant to do. Leves a sort of basin for the gravy, onions, etc If you wnt the centre o rise use a deeper batter (smaller dish) - but then its a popover. ← Thanks, Jack! Then I guess it was perfect!

Depending on my mood, there are only 2 dining destinations in Brooklyn that I -MIGHT- be willing to go over that many bridges for and neither of them are Chinese restaurants, unfortunately! ← This may come as a surprise to you, but Brooklyn is found on the same island as Flushing.

Yeah, but Jason, have you been to Brooklyn?

Are you some kind of zen master of self-control??? Mine is long gone.

I mean no disrespect to Fried Dumpling (and its ilk). It is a place I often stop into if my lunch has left me feeling like I still need a little something. Likewise, I have no quarrel with New Green Bo (I eat there for lunch with an almost metronome-like consistency). But am I alone in finding depressing the extent to which these few, hardly adventurous restaurants have dominated this thread? I agree with the high marks NGB's soup, fried pork and other dumplings have received. But there's a lot more to dumpling life than New Green Bo's limited options. (Incidentally, I find the Bo's steamed vegetable dumplings to be bland). I've mentioned above one restaurant in Brooklyn that recently knocked my socks off with a wide variety of creative, tasty, and beautiful-to-behold seafood dumplings. I expected to hear more about other restaurants that offer similar experiences. Are we so lacking in such places? Or are most of us only interested in how many pork dumplings we can get for a dollar?

I made the chocolate ice cream from page 185 of CDBPH yesterday. I've never been a fan of chocolate ice cream. I think it seldom lives up to the name "chocolate;" it seldom really tastes like chocolate. But Pierre, as usual, has the secret. Get rid of almost all ingredients other than chocolate, and you've got a winner! That is some kick-ass chocolate ice cream. I was worried that it wouldn't set up well if I followed Dorie's instructions to the letter. She says to cool the melted chocolate/milk until it's room temperature or a little less. I was afraid the ice cream wouldn't set very well unless I made it colder than that before it went into the machine. So I put the mixture in the fridge for half an hour after it cooled to room temperature. I would have let it cool longer than that, but I wanted it to set after processing in the freezer for at least two hours, and I was out of time. But I needn't have worried. It sets up beautifully, because of the chocolate. I realized this is really a frozen ganache, puffed up with air. I also made the Breton Sand Cookies from the Desserts book (p. 95), but I think serving them with the chocolate ice cream was a mistake. The cookies' subtle virtues were obliterated by the brute force of the chocolate. I was underwhelmed with the cookies last night, but this morning they taste pretty great. I think next time I might disregard Dorie's advice and let them brown a little, so that they look a little more like the photo in the book. I think I'd like them a little bit crispier.

I did use the pyrex, although you're right, edsel, that might have been unwise. No cracks in the pan, but I don't think the pudding puffed enough. It climbed the sides and rose over the top of of the dish-- but only on the sides. It puffed in the middle too, but not as dramatically, and within a couple minutes sank back and seemed a little heavy. Maybe my fat wasn't hot enough. People enjoyed it anyway.

Have you seen the stuff this man bakes? Feh! A beginner, he says. If he's a beginner, I'm a newborn. ← Um, thanks, I guess! I really am a beginner, except when it comes to bread. Just about all my other pastry experience has come since this past Thanksgiving. If the stuff I've made looks decent, eGullet and Dorie Greenspan deserve the credit.

I'm just a beginner like you, Cala, but I agree with jgarner53: my bench scraper is my best friend.

Thanks so much for all the replies. I'm curious about this idea of doubling the recipe. I was going to use a 9 x 13 pyrex pan. But the recipe I quoted above calls for a 10 x 15 pan-- won't 9 x 13 be too small if I double the recipe? I think I will add a bit of dry mustard, thanks!