JAZ

I love to cook, and I like my own cooking. That being said, when I'm cooking for a class or an event, the last thing I want to do is eat what I've made. Not that it's not good. But I remember seeing Mario Batali on some talk show when the host asked him what his favorite food was. He said (paraphrasing): "When I've been the kitchen all day, my favorite food is whatever someone else makes." I second that.

I think cooking times -- either in the oven or on the stove -- are a different animal from prep times, or "start to finish" times. While cooking times will vary, depending on such things as the accuracy of your oven, your cookware, your stove top, your idea of "medium" heat, it's still important to give some time guidelines to the recipe readers, but also to let them know other cues to tell when something is done. So, "bake for 30 minutes, or until golden brown on top and set in the middle" seems like a perfectly acceptable instruction -- I know that it will take around 30 minutes, so I'll start checking at 20 or 25. But I also know what I'm looking for, so if my oven is off, I can still tell when the item is done. As far as prep goes, not only is there everything others have already mentioned that affects prep time, but there's familiarity with a recipe too. The first time you make something, everything takes longer. The second and third time, you get more familiar, and you learn places where you can double-task -- so, for instance, you know that you can start the pasta cooking and have the mushrooms chopped (or whatever) by the time the pasta is done. When we write recipes for students, we never include total time or prep time, but we always include cooking times -- we just add visual and tactile clues so the students have a way to double check times.

Don't get me started: if I had a dime for every stupid thing said by cooking instructors -- in person, on TV, on the radio or on blogs -- I'd be a rich woman. Examples? Ina Garten telling her audience to add oil to pasta water to keep the pasta from sticking Chris Kimball on America's Test Kitchen telling his audience that meat chopped up in a food processor is "ground" Lynn Rosetto Kaspar equating "dumpling" with "dim sum" Joanne Weir saying that sorbet is "just the same" as granita, it's just "a different kind" of sorbet Michael Ruhlman saying that the difference between bread dough and pasta dough is that in pasta, egg takes the place of water A cooking instructor I know telling his students that white button mushrooms "turn into" cremini as they grow A different cooking instructor I know explaining that the difference between kosher salt and sea salt is that kosher salt is mined And that's just off the top of my head.

It seems to me that there are two problems with this approach: first, the bacon or pancetta wouldn't cook through in the time the macaroni and cheese takes to cook, and second, it would result in puddles of rendered fat in the dish.

Years ago, I had some similar constraints and made a dressing with bacon, onion and lots of mushrooms. I probably used sherry and chicken stock to moisten. I'm pretty sure I just used white bread for the starch. (Everyone liked it, by the way.)

I don't go to the trouble of making cups, but I've been making peanut butter balls every year for Christmas for ages. One year I made something else and my brother-in-law hounded me for months until I finally gave up and made a batch for him. My filling is Jif extra chunky and powdered sugar, and I dip in dark chocolate. A couple of years ago, I decided I wanted something a little different and came up with a combination Butterfinger-Reese's which was really great. Here's the recipe for the Butterfinger part; if anyone is interested I can post the "Reese's" filling, but there are recipes all over that are very similar to what I make.

I'd suggest the New Belgium 1554 -- it's porter-ish, rich and very well-balanced. If you want something hoppier, I recently tried Sierra Nevada's Northern Hemisphere Harvest and was very impressed. Of the others on the Imbibe list, I've tried the Dogfish Raison d'Etre; for me it was too sweet.

I've never been a big fan of milk chocolate, which used to mean that I was out of luck when it came to mainstream candy bars. It used to be that the only mainstream, industrial candy bar that came in dark chocolate was Mounds -- which, since I don't like coconut, didn't help me at all. The past few years have seen more bars in dark chocolate, though. I think the first was the Milky Way, with a few more following suit. Now you can find Snickers and Reese's in dark chocolate, and even M&Ms come in dark now. The latest I've found was dark chocolate Kit Kats, which may very well be my downfall (they're really good). If Butterfingers ever expand to dark chocolate, I'll be in heaven. Anyone else like this trend? Are there any other bars out there that have made the switch that I should know about?

One thing to keep in mind is that if you heat your cooking fat to the proper temperature when frying, your food really won't absorb much of it.

As I understand brining, what matters is not merely whether the flavor molecules are water soluble, but how big those molecules are. Not very many are small enough to pass through the cell walls.

This blog post from NPR written by Linda Holmes seems to be a fairly balanced summary of the situation. She ends on a voice of reason: Good luck with that.

I'm having a very hard time understanding how any of these examples is parallel to the case of salt. From everything I've read on the subject, which is quite a bit, the only proven link between sodium consumption and health is that some people (about a third) who already suffer from high blood pressure are salt-sensitive. That's a far cry from saying that sodium is "bad" for everyone, even from saying that excess sodium "causes" hypertension. Would you say that since some people are lactose-intolerant, the government should regulate our dairy intake? Since some people are allergic to nuts, shellfish, etc., the government should ban those foods? Since some people have celiac disease, the government should regulate gluten consumption for all?

Why do you say this? In what way does eating salt lead to obesity? Can you cite studies?

Erin, what are you tiao donuts? Your letter reminds me of my walk to the light rail station (on my way to work) when I lived in San Francisco. I walked by this great little bakery that made excellent croissants and pastries. In my case it wasn't so much time as it was calories, but when I had time, I'd just stand in front of the shop and smell the great aromas. Not as satisfying as eating the goodies, but it always made me happy.

I love toast, so I have toast on my wall.

Although I'll drink coffee out of paper or foam cups if it's the only choice, I really don't like to. Ceramic is my first choice, then porcelain or china. Needless to say, I don't drink much take-out coffee, and when I stay at a hotel that only has plastic or paper cups, I often buy a mug to use while I'm there.

I recently made a recipe by Hubert Keller I found in an old Fine Cooking magazine for cabbage salad with sherry vinegar and cumin. I had lots of cabbage, an apple, and some walnuts; I love cumin; and I love Keller's food. I thought it would be great. Wrong! What a pain for such a mediocre dish -- the separate blanching, shocking and marinating took way too long and way too many bowls. Also, it just wasn't very good: the red cabbage lost almost all its color, and the texture was rubbery -- halfway between cooked and raw. I have plenty of better cabbage recipes, so this one will not be making a reappearance.

Anna, although I haven't used SLT's hard anodized line, I was working for Sur La Table when they came out with their first line -- the 3-ply stainless cookware. We used it quite a bit in the kitchen there, and it performed very well. If the anodized line is the same quality, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.

A while back I was looking for a cracker recipe and happened upon this one from Fine Cooking. The first time I used all sesame seeds for the topping, but had trouble with them all falling off. So the second time, I mixed sesame seeds into the dough (toasted first) and was fairly happy with the results. I didn't pursue the project any further so I never wrote up my recipe, but I recall adding about half a cup of sesame seeds. You can also add them to tempura batter.

I've had fish fillets crusted with finely crushed pecans -- I think it's a pretty traditional Cajun preparation, so I imagine you can find recipes online.

I recently read this Serious Eats article by Kenji Alt which was reprinted in Best Food Writing 2010. After trying his method, I have to say that it produced the best fries I've ever made, and one of the best batches I've ever tasted. They didn't particularly remind me of McDonald's fries, which is what Alt was after, but they were great. His method has three parts -- boiling in water with salt and vinegar, a very quick bath in hot oil, and the final fry after the fries cool. Mine were slightly larger than 1/4 inch in diameter (which is what he calls for) and they were quite cold when I fried them the final time, so they took quite a bit longer than the 3-1/2 minutes he specifies. Other than that, his technique worked perfectly. I forgot to take pictures, but I have half of the batch in the freezer to test out the last part of his theory, so I'll try to remember to photograph them.

Have you done this yourself? A few years ago I was trying to come up with a non-alcoholic drink that was reminiscent of a gin and tonic and tried several times to get a juniper flavored base without alcohol. I had no luck at all and assumed that the taste molecules in juniper berries were only soluble in alcohol, not water. Of the suggestions here, I think going with a different infusion like Earl Gray Tea is the best option.

There might be different ways a cookbook can be bad, but I submit that a cookbook with a recipe for Banana Salad Dressing is bad by any measure: mashed banana mixed with mayonnaise, peanut butter and evaporated milk, meant to be served on fruit salad. The book? The Use-It-Up Cookbook, which has a ton of suggestions for using up leftover foods, none of which sound appetizing at all.

Most citrus fruit and chocolate. I like them separately, but I don't get the pairing. Orange and dark chocolate are okay, but lemon, lime or grapefruit just don't go with chocolate.

Steven, do you find that PJ's tastes are changing, or does he still like the same things in his lunches? He seems very adventurous (not that I have much experience with that age group). And I know you've mentioned elsewhere that what you can pack is limited by his school. How does that affect lunch-making?