Martin Fisher

In my experience, the bitterness isn't always obvious until they're cooked. Having said that, some carrots are free of bitterness.

That is one of my biggest pet peeves!!!!

Hm, I am not particularly convinced by either argument. The latter argument (re: fridge temperatures) has been debunked. As for rapid chilling for food safety, I think you will find that the risk is minimal if almost nonexistent if you chill in an ice bath as opposed to simply moving the bags from the SV machine directly into the fridge.Rapid chilling is the recommended safe procedure for sous vide food that'll be held in the fridge for an extended period of time. "(to avoid sporulation of C. perfringens (Andersson et al., 1995)), and either refrigerated or frozen until reheating for service. Typically, the pasteurized food pouches are rapidly chilled by placing them in an ice water bath for at least the time listed in Table 1.1." "While keeping your food sealed in plastic pouches prevents recontamination after cooking, spores of Clostridium botulinum, C. perfringens, and B. cereus can all survive the mild heat treatment of pasteurization. Therefore, after rapid chilling, the food must either be frozen or held at below 36.5°F (2.5°C) for up to 90 days, below 38°F (3.3°C) for less than 31 days, below 41°F (5°C) for less than 10 days, or below 44.5°F (7°C) for less than 5 daysto prevent spores of non-proteolytic C. botulinum from outgrowing and producing deadly neurotoxin (Gould, 1999; Peck, 1997)." Source: http://www.douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html

You can sometimes strip the core out of mature carrots, especially the older larger cultivars. Halve or quarter the carrot lengthwise and impale the core on the end with a fork. If you're lucky the core can be easily separated from the outer part of the carrot and stripped out. For many years I've added 20% cored carrot to my pumpkin pies.....I like the flavor, natural sweetness and the bright orange color.

FWIW, removing the core is often recommended because it can be bitter. I'm pretty sure that's the line of reasoning that the MC and MC@H folks are following. The bitterness can very quite a bit from cultivar to cultivar and maturity also plays a part.

If it's something that's totally new to me I try to follow the recipe as close as possible the first time. More often, I incorporate what I think are the best features of more than one recipe.

I also gave up brining long ago in favor of presalting a.k.a. dry-brining. Russ Parsons' Dry-Brined Turkey (a.k.a. The Judy Bird)

Yes, but you know that you MUST have a $300 pressure cooker that doesn't vent aroma and flavor to do it correctly, anything short of that will not do.

It can happen anywhere..... Suspected [Olive Oil] Fraud Hits Major Israeli Supermarkets

One of my favorite recipes - so simple, and so good. Marcella Hazan's Braised Celery with Onion, Pancetta, and Tomatoes

Mark Bittman just tweeted that Marcella Hazan has passed- so sad! Mark Bittman ‏@bittman 4m "RIP Marcella Hazan, one of the true cooking greats in US history. Died this morning, Longboat Key, FL"

It all boils down to the sad but true fact that you can't necessarily trust other people to supply wholesome and authentic food.

It's puzzling, isn't it?

It's been a problem with honey for a very long time.

That's all well and good, but if a salt is labeled Mediterranean (or whatever) sea salt how does one know that it's authentic? I don't think that there is a practical way of knowing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nukazuke

I assumed that most folks would know what I meant. Sea salt generally meaning salt that's recently produced from evaporated sea water as opposed to salt that's mined or whatever. Knowing how people behave when money is involved makes me wonder how much "sea salt" is the real thing.

Cast iron skillets and dutch ovens in several sizes are all I use for roasting, all the way up to a 17" skillet. No problems under the broiler. For the larger skillets I use a wok lid if a lid is need.

Yeah, not a good idea.

Also, it's one person's view and remarks. Let's look beyond the surface. Why punish Barilla's 14,000 employees who are totally innocent in this? If you do really care what the CEO thinks, write him a letter and tell him why he's wrong!

I need to have respect for someone to be offended by their remarks, that doesn't happen often. I can't respect someone that I do not know. I may not like the remark, but I'm not offended. Having said that, I don't buy many commercial products anyway.

This issue seems to make the headlines frequently. I often wonder how much "sea salt" is real; the profit potential in fake sea salt is enormous. Host Note: This post was split off from a topic about olive oil fraud into its own topic here

Same here. I love me some rabbit with gravy. Re: chitlins. Gross. ------------------------" You like sausages? dcarch We were talking about chitlins, not sausages. Chitlins are an alien life form that should only be eaten by one's worst enemy. Stuffed with tasty sausage meat? That's different. How about andouillette? Chitterling sausage!

No doubt, but i'm only comfortable speaking for my own country. I went out on a limb and assumed that most folks are smart enough to know that laws will be different in their country.

Laws vary state to state. Squirrel season is currently open in NY state. Daily bag limit of 6.