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The event which started this was a jar of Victoria Mediterranean Sun Dried Tomatoes in Olive Oil, from Victoria Packing in Brooklyn. Largely the tomatoes had most of their skin and plenty of pith which was very tough. I thought it must be possible to buy better tomatoes. I just bought a soup packet which had quite a bit of dried carrot and celery which I thought might be good to have on hand (25 year shelf life ). I looked around online and could only uncover emergency food suppliers selling 72 hour to 1 year emergency food kits. I did find Purcell Mountain Farms for beans. Recommendations?

I've been reading some great egullet threads on where to buy different foods, so I thought to ask about two current issues: what brand of sun-dried tomatoes in oil do you use? And where do you get it from? where do you buy dried vegetables and dried fruits?

For my stovetop tagine, I have ended up reducing the water in any of Paula Wolfert's recipes because the pot is so efficient.

When Lee Valley (US and Canada) first introduced these scissors they were $4 USD. The points are not sharp and they cut through anything. I have dozens of pairs all over my house. To clean, I open them and put in the dishwasher. http://www.leevalley.com/us/wood/page.aspx?p=59398&cat=1,64488

Yes! Please!

I use Evernote, purchased (along with a scanner) because I was moving across the country and didn't want to schlep all those recipe books.

I have ordered some ham hocks from Father's and will report back. I intend to taste every single one of the hams which have been recommended!

Also, what exactly is "country ham" flavour?

These hams look very interesting. What do you recommend if one prefers low smoke flavouring?

I believe that spam is more than 50% fat.

How so?

Actually I'm using a tagine. I used already-cooked rice, duck, veg and added fresh leek and still-frozen peas (damp). I added oil and duck fat and about 1/2 cup of mushroom stock. The leek had been soaking in water, so that added more liquid. So, the pot was not dry. Should it have been? The instructions I found seem to heat up the pot (above halfway) at the finish for about 5 minutes.

Because Maple Leaf Farms sells duck leg meat in 2 lb bags,I have to be creative about using it in a hurry. Hard as it is to believe, one might have too much duck fried rice, eh? As one of my dishes, I've tried "Chinese" clay pot rice which has formed a crust on the bottom of the pan. I'm not sure what I was doing wrong. Too much liquid? Too hot? Here's another good example. Hassouni posted in 2013 this picture (which is not on his website). Can you tell me how to achieve either of these crusty-bottomed rice textures?

I'm going to a Burns Supper (Robert Burns) next weekend and my contribution is Scotch Broth (my favourite soup). My local agricultural college being lambless, I bought packets of boney "Lamb Stew" from a Middle Eastern grocery store. I've been cleaning the meat for hours and it occurs to me that some parts will dissolve during long cooking. But I don't know which parts though. Do I need to cut away (i.e. what happens to): skin? (does lamb stew meat ever come with skin attached?) opaque white connective tissue (~1 mm) nearly transparent, thin silvery layer (is this fascia?) fat cartilage white things that look like veins but there's no blood in them other connective tissue I, personally, don't like messy, gristly stew. I am taking most of the meat from the bones, then broiling the bones for about 30 minutes at 425F, then putting the bones into the stock pot water. I'll add the (somewhat cleaned) lamb meat later. Also, how do these requirements for cleaning the meat change if I'm sous viding the meat at 133F? P.S. Large fat deposits are removed because we feed them to the birds.

@btbyrd, is that true even when the bones are surrounded by chicken leg meat?

@HungryChris, can I ask for the recipe?

I'll be interested to hear other opinions (as well) on how to select the most flavourful potatoes.

Wondering about the value of cutting through chicken bones when making a stew. When I'm making chicken or duck stock, I cut through the bones so that the marrow can become part of stock fluid. When I'm making stock, I filter it eventually, so any fine bone particles get removed. I know in Asian cooking that the chicken thigh gets chopped into 3, but I'm assuming that's to make the pieces smaller. What's your opinion? Is there value in chicken bone marrow getting into the stew? If one picks out the bits of broken bone ends, is that good enough?

Thank you for all 18 pages of this topic! Only took me a few days . . .

I have a hankering for something made with coffee and I can't find any vegetable-with-coffee suggestions on egullet. Ideas?

Last time I made baked brie, I had too many layers of puff pastry which didn't cook enough. I've looked at a few blog posts where it seems "other people" are able to have many overlapping pastry leaves, see link. Suggestions about how to avoid undercooked dough?

This is the only discussion I can find on inverter microwaves. Are there updated opinions?

@Kim Shook, sorry for my delay. Could you please say what is the topping on this dish? Thanks.

My casserole looked the same as others on this thread, but I've got to say: these slow roasted tomatoes are absolutely fabulous! If you haven't tried this, you wouldn't know how out of this world they are.