melkor

I use cellartracker and am very happy with how it works. My only complaint would be that the website is slow from time to time.

Chanterelles have a rubbery texture when reconstituted. Morels and porcini both reconstitute well but aren't exactly value priced - more reasonably priced wild mushrooms would be black trumpets and yellowfoot chanterelles, both reconstitute well and are generally available at more reasonable prices. Far West Fungi in the ferry plaza has dried porcini in 1lb bags. I've got no idea where to get dried morels at a reasonable price but fresh ones will be available throughout the sierras over the next several weeks.

I finished off batch #2 of beef bacon earlier in the week. This time I used wagyu brisket point from snake river farms. The first batch I cold smoked for 4 hours before hot smoking it, this time I just hot smoked it. Double smoked is much better. The wagyu fat has a much better taste and texture than the fat from the generic untrimmed brisket I had used previously. Behold, bacon for those of us living reduced pork lifestyles: before slicing sliced Almost ready to flip... I'll double smoke the next batch, otherwise I'm happy with how it turned out. The flat from the same brisket made some seriously good pastrami. I'll post pics when I steam some more.

Veal somehow seems more appropriate. Might as well have some foie gras too.

I freeze the pastrami in large pieces, unsteamed. I wouldn't freeze slices. It also keeps in the fridge for a long time - two weeks at least.

Reasonable people can disagree when it comes to Montreal or NY bagels being best. Everyone can agree that the spongy single-serve bread with a hole in the middle sold at grocery stores everywhere are not only awful but that they are in fact not bagels at all. Making them square just brings these non-bagels one step closer to the boring sandwich bread that they already taste like.

The book calls for 5 days for corned beef and 3 for pastrami, it also uses 1/2 cup of white sugar in the corned beef compared to a cup of white sugar, half a cup of brown sugar, and a quarter cup of honey for the pastrami. Which recipe did you follow? I've got no explanation for why the book uses a longer cure for the corned beef. I've been working with 20lb whole briskets and scaling the brine and adjusting the curing time accordingly.

Ick.

Montreal smoked meat is more or less pastrami with a different crust. More coriander and I think mustard seed, less black pepper. Either way, figure out a rub, rinse off the meat, pat it dry, rub the spices on one side and smoke it at around @200*F until it hits 150*F internal. Wrap it in plastic wrap then foil after it comes out of the smoker, let it cool and stick it in the fridge overnight. Steam it for 2 or 3 hours before serving.

It's the same cure the pastrami just gets a strong spice rub and a lot of smoke.

Great, I'd love to see the pics! I've got a bunch of brisket curing in the fridge - some of it will end up as corned beef, the rest as pastrami. If you've got a smoker and don't need all 7 pounds of corned beef, you might try smoking part of the cured brisket to make pastrami.

I've had much more trouble getting the brine to penetrate thicker sections of brisket than I've had with the brine being too weak. I made a double-strength brine and had the same results as single-strength. As long as you've got the meat completely submerged in the brine it should be fine. The cure seems to take 7-14 days rather than the 3 the book suggests and I'd suggest leaving out the white sugar and cutting back on the brown sugar & honey.

Top 5 for what type/price range? SF itself or are we including the rest of the bay area?

Wenol works unbelievably well. I've used it to clean pans that look completely unrecoverable. Use the rough side of a dry sponge. I used wenol to clean the stainless-steel exhaust on my previous car when I sold it after 85,000 miles - it went from being completely black to looking new.

There are a bunch of cheaper walk in wine cabinets that along with cellar tracker - the difference in price pays for a lot of wine.

I've got another two hanging so I put this one back with the others, I'll check on it again next week. This is the first time I've used artificial casings, so far I'm not a fan.

How would you define too soft and squishy? It's some soft, and some squishy, but certainly more firm than it was when it went into the casing.

Is it done yet? This is in theory some beef salami, as you can see from the toe tag it's been hanging for 10 days, it's lost 40% of its weight and is reasonably firm. This is my first batch of dry cured sausage so I thought I'd get a 2nd opinion before chowing down on it. Thoughts?

In Napa: French Laundry, and La Toque for dinner. Terra as a backup dinner option. Martini House and Bistro Jeanty for lunch. Bistro Don Giovanni as a backup.

Yep. The water will help it get going without getting hot enough that it changes color.

Did you put a little water in the pan? You'll be left with little crispy bits, but the bulk of the fat should melt.

Santi in Geyserville is good, as is the taco truck at Lytton Springs road (128 east). I've had some really good dishes and some less than fantastic dishes at the Dry Creek Kitchen. I'd either hit the Lytton Springs taco truck or NY Pie in Santa Rosa (4th and Brookwood) for a great casual meal.

I don't think subliminalkid was being a smart ass at all. If people aren't eating there, how can you expect to get a flood of replies when you ask about recent experiences there? It's really rare to hear anything good about Winterland. The restaurant has been empty each time I've gone past it but I've never felt compelled to give it a try based on everything I've heard. If the restaurant stays open, good for them. If it closes, a few weeks later most people won't remember it was ever there.

Fiddleheads, chanterelles, morels, ramps, and plenty of other things are either free or really expensive. I know that we treat wild mushrooms very differently when they're abundant. During the few weeks of the year that porcini are up we put them in everything - the rest of the year we're very careful with how we use what little we've dried. When I used to pay $20/lb at the store for chanterelles I carefully brushed each one and used them very carefully. Now I think nothing of filling a colander with the ones we've foraged, cleaning them quickly under running water and using half a pound to make scrambled eggs.

I generally like off-dry whites for stronger cheeses - Vouvray, Alsatian pinot gris VT/SGN, etc. I just don't find the reds that compelling with strong cheeses.