rane008

Thanks everyone! This is great advice. Franci - is this basically salt cured foie? I'm very interested in this! I've decided to do 4 plates, each with a different preparation (poached, seared, terrine mi cult, and ?), so this could be the last. Am I correct in that it seems this is uncooked?

Hi All, My mother's birthday is coming up and she asked that I make foie gras for her, since she's never had it. I've ordered a Grade A - 2 lb. whole liver from Hudson Valley, and was wondering if I could get some ideas for preparation. My plan is to do 3 or 4 composed plates. I'm thinking of doing the Gewurztraminer poached foie with pickled cherries and the seared foie with lobster and fig, both from the French Laundry cookbook. Anyone else have some good ideas? She's up for almost anything, so let me know what you think!

SLB - I live in the SF Bay Area and that price doesn't surprise me at all. That said, I still think it's ridiculous. Try to get in good with your butcher, though. I have a deal with a local, organic butcher and he only charges me $2/lb for leaf. I just rendered 5lbs of it a couple days back, yielded about 2.2 qts.

Yeah that's what I was thinking of. Oh well.

This thread is fantastic, just finished reading the whole thing. What I love about BBQ is that it marries pork and pork fat with its best partner: smoke. This is something that Asian treatments tend to leave out.

I may be wrong here, but I'm pretty sure I've seen these pots at Cost Plus World Market. May be worth a look?

Older version of Joy of Cooking is a great idea. You can find a recipe in there for almost anything. However, I'm surprised that no one has mentioned James Peterson's Cooking http://www.amazon.com/Cooking-James-Peterson/dp/1580087892/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1425405334&sr=1-1&keywords=james+patterson+cooking From a practical perspective, it has excellent and extensive illustrations and photographs for all sorts of techniques. Check it out.

Normally I enjoy most TJ's products, but recently I bought some of their whole wheat naan (a product I used to love), and was thoroughly disappointed. The bread was dry and bland, whereas it used to be moist and flavorful. Would not recommend.

The enemy of a good sear is external moisture. To minimize any surface water, I salt the scallops and let them sit for 10 minutes. This will help draw out some water. Then dry with paper towels and put on a wire rack over a sheet pan and leave uncovered in the fridge for 2 hours. This will develop a "tack" on the surface--it's a sticky substance the caramelizes well. For the actual sear, clarified butter is normally used, though I've used regular olive oil and grapeseed oil in the past. Cast iron is preferable since the addition of the cold scallops won't cool the pan significantly. Get the oil pretty much smoking hot, add scallops, don't crowd, work in batches.

Polenta. I much prefer my polenta made with only water, salt, and mounted with butter at the end.

Thanks for the insight. Was thinking they were tin. Still want them (the set is $150), but I want to have more flexibility with the cooking temp, as well as no need to resurface.

Title says it all, really. I'm looking at a set of pots on my local CL and wondering if they are tin-lined or SS. Attached is a picture of them.

Honestly, I like doing the bind on the burger for several reasons: It makes working with the burger easier It evenly distributes the seasoning It spreads some of the fat from the short rib around the grounds for better self-basting And I just like the texture more. Not working the beef, well you can do it that way, but if you are grilling, it's very difficult to prevent the burger from breaking up. I'm curious as to why everyone here is so into it.

This is the one to get: Check out the reviews, or take it from me, it's a fantastic rack (no double-entendre intended). Price point is excellent as well.

The Last Burger: Equal parts skirt steak and short rib. The skirt is ground once through a medium plate, short rib once through the fine plate. Into the KitchenAid with the paddle and a good amount of pressed garlic, salt, pepper, and smoked salt. Beat to form natural bind, as for sausage. Served on ciabatta with chipotle catsup, stone ground mustard, sharp cheddar, house-cured bacon, heirloom tomato, onion confit. Next time I make it, I'll upload a pic.

My mom once told me that when a couple gets married, they buy a bottle of Worchestershire sauce. That same bottle stays in the fridge until they both pass away. My own bottle is a decade old and I'm not married. (Note: I do not think that the presence of eldritch condiments in my fridge is the reason I am not married.)

Want. Want now.

Are you sick of the markups that some stores are putting on trendy items? Have you found yourself muttering, "How much?!!" This is the tread to call out those outrageous prices: I'll start. A certain local market here in Lafayette, CA is charging $6/lb for heirloom tomatoes AT THE HEIGHT OF THE SEASON. Don't get me started on what they want for scallops. Mods: If this is in the wrong forum, let me know and I'll move/remove it.

young_ I'd seriously consider NOT going to culinary school. It's good to have the structure that a decent culinary school provides, but I don't know if the costs is justifiable. Think of it this way. You have two options: 1. go to C School, 2. get a job in the BOH of a restaurant that makes the cuisine you are interested in. In the latter choice, you'll get trained AND paid for it. This is how I learned (my mom is also a retired master-level baker, so she was instructional as I grew up). I also supplemented my experience with reading. Lots and lots of reading. Here is a list of books I'd recommend: Pepin Cooking by James Peterson (actually, any of his books are really good) A copy of Joy... Mastering the Art of French Cooking The Silver Spoon More Advanced: This would depend on what kind of food you want to cook, though French Laundry Cookbook Modernist Cuisine I also read a lot about culinary traditions. For that (if not so much for the recipes), I'd recommend the Culinaria Series. There's mixed reviews, mostly because of inaccuracies in the regional recipes, but I find the articles re the traditions very good. If you are set on culinary school, though, here are a couple of considerations: 1. The community college route mentioned above is a great idea. I don't know where you are geographically, but Diablo Valley College in the San Francisco Bay Area has a GREAT program and you get access to one of the most diverse and exciting culinary scenes in the nation. 2. If you are set on a name school, do as much research as you can on which one has the best reputation. These are probably CIA in Hyde Park, Johnson & Wales, or Le Cordon Bleu in France. These schools give you a much better chance of getting a good job out of school. But it's no guarantee and you have to measure debt v expected earnings. 3. If you do go to culinary school, consider deeply specializing in pastry. Pastry chefs are pretty much ALWAYS in demand. They are like the dental hygienists of the culinary scene. PM me if you want to have a 1/1. Stephen

I will one day own that set of books. That day is not today.

Hi All, I've been thinking about this for some time. In James Peterson's book Cooking, he claims that the ideal temperature for roasting chicken is 145F. Now, I know that the USDA claims it should be cooked to 160F, but I find that dry and rather over-protective. From what I understand, e. Coli and the botulism bacteria are killed at 137F, and removing the bird at 145F will result in a 155F internal temp after 10 minutes of rest, basically clearing out all the bad stuff. I've tried this several times and been very happy (and healthy) with the results. (Do you guys have thoughts on "optimal" interior temp, realizing that it is also a matter of taste?) However, I have heard that the cavity is the last place to achieve the desired temperature. I am not sure if this is true, but it does lend to a bigger question, that of stuffing. i hardly ever stuff a bird, because by the time the stuffing reaches the safe temp, the bird is overcooked. So I was thinking, could you scald the interior cavity of the bird with boiling water to kill anything inside it, then run a cold bath to prevent further cooking? Also, couldn't the bird be stuffed with hot stuffing, which may accomplish the same thing? Cheers, Stephen

I've heard a lot of great things about the Northern Tools grinder, and even read your posts, slkinsey, in the older thread. Glad to hear that the Beast lives. At this point, I'm thinking I will go with the STX because price:(perceived) value is spot on for me. $370 for the Northern is a bit more than I can handle right now, and I'd like to use the STX as an intro to the standalone grinder. After reading the reviews on the NT, though, it does sound like a GREAT product.

@lindag, both actually. When I'm in the mood, I grind beef for my "Last Burger", thought the KitchenAid can handle that. I'm more interested in doing more sausages and revisiting cured saucissons. I know that if I want to do emulsified sausages, I'll need a piston-style stuffer, but this looks good for most of the things I want to do. @BeerCan, yeah, I saw that and it does suck. I think the legal term is "puffery". But the reviews are good, so... I may pull the trigger here soon. If so, I'll let you guys know.

Hey Everyone! Second post, first thread here. I am loving this community. Seriously. Loving. It. So I saw the old grinder recommendations thread and couldn't find a follow up. I'm really interested in getting a good grinder, as my KitchenAid is from 1986 and feeling its age. Has anyone had any experience with this one? http://www.amazon.com/STX-TURBOFORCE-3000-SERIES-ATTACHEMENT/dp/B0012KJBR0/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1342121341&sr=8-6&keywords=maverick+meat+grinder It's the STX Turborforce 3000, which when expressed in all caps sounds like a 1950's informercial. Still, the reviews are very good and it retails at $150! The motor is something like 1800 watts as well. Thanks all, Stephen