Martin Fisher

I love everything, with the exception of one fairly common flavor combination. While I love the flavors of black pepper and lemon and use them all the time, there's something about the combination of the two, showcased in something like lemon pepper chicken, for example, that sends me running!!!!! ~Martin

Wow! Excellent thread! I've decided to take the sous vide plunge and happened to stumble upon this thread tonight. The timing couldn't have been more appropriate. Can someone recommend a good affordable reference thermometer? Thanks! ~Martin

For a beginner, I recommend the Marianski books, Home Production of Quality Meats and Sausages, The Art of Fermented Sausages and Meat Smoking and Smokehouse design. ~Martin

Your bacon should be just fine, you're at about the correct cure level. It's not uncommon for good well-fatted pork bellies to cure out with little or no residual liquid. About the smoke, I'm a strong advocate of cold smoking bacon (hot smoking bacon is a relatively new and inferior method, IMHO), the finished product is far superior to hot smoked.

I can tell you with great confidence that's definitely not the case....not everybody cares! I think it's obvious that the employee in question is one of those people.

I think it's safe to say Jim Gerritsen doesn't need a paradigm shift, and has some idea of what he's doing and talking about. What sort of farming do you do? I don't doubt that he knows what he's talking about. Commodity farming sucks...been there, done that! It wasn't until after I underwent a paradigm shift that I started getting fair prices for my products and farming in a truly sustainable way. Too each his own! I'm an organic grower of vegetables, meats and eggs (and a few other products) who markets directly.

You can't cure someone of irresponsibilty. Even if you condition that person to apologize and appear to take responsibility that certainly doesn't mean that they truly care. Three written warnings and then a firing.

I love making tomato conserva, sausage and stock.

When you grow commodity crops, you've got to expect commodity prices. IMHO, Mr. Gerritsen needs a paradigm shift. Instead of playing the commodity game and investing in things that rust, rot and depreciate (the $200,000 tractor.) Mr. Gerritsen should seek to, as much as possible, only invest in things that reproduce and turn the suns energy into dollars while also developing markets selling directly where he sets a fair price for his products, but most of all, stop whining and blaming others!!! YOU must be the change you wish to see in this world!

Who knew? This is totally new news to me, I had no idea that some pizza shops make fresh mozz from Polly-O curds. The Polly-O plant is basically right here in my neighborhood, much of the milk from local dairies goes to Polly-O and Leprino. I've always made fresh mozz from good raw Jersey milk.

I add celery rib near the end of cooking to avoid the mushiness. I'm a big fan of celery flavor. Celery leaf flavor is fleeting, IMHO Have you considered lovage? It has a bold flavor, to me it tastes like celery and walnuts...I can't help thinking of Waldorf salad when I sample it straight up. LOL It's extremely easy to grow. I use it a lot.

I'm a big fan of halving a turkey, because I love to have turkey quite often. LOL. For Thanksgiving I typically traditionally roast one half and cure and smoke the other. I think it's clever to split them while still froze, I had to laugh though, somehow it brought back memories of years ago when our neighbor got drunk and sawed a frozen deer in half with a chainsaw!!! LOL BTW, Mr. dcarch I've taken your tomato trellis method and ran with it, I love it!!!!