JAZ

Something that occurred to me recently is a trick I use when making macaroni and cheese. I like the flavor of aged gouda or cheddar but they do tend to get grainy. Adding a small amount of cream cheese seems to keep the sauce much more smooth -- about an ounce per cup of bechamel, added when the sauce has thickened but before I add the cheese. Maybe it would help with this dish as well.

Thanks, all. Now that I think about it, it makes sense that the center sections of the leg bones would have the most marrow. Duh! Unfortunately, going to a butcher who will cut bones for me is not an option. I don't think the bones suffer much from being frozen, though, and now that I know what to look for, I'm sure I can improve on the quantity of marrow from the packages of bones I buy. They're cheap, and since I can always use the end pieces for stock, I don't mind buying extra.

I love marrow bones. I used to get them at my butcher in San Francisco, but when I moved to Atlanta, I couldn't find them at my usual market. Now, they've started to carry them pretty regularly, so I've been buying them again. But the ones I get now don't always have much actual marrow in them. Instead, the center is calcified (no, I don't know if that's what actually happened, but that's what it seems like). For instance, of the six I bought recently, two were filled with marrow, two had some marrow and a lot of hard stuff, and one had no marrow at all. With this bunch, it seemed that the smaller bones -- that is, the bone segments with the smallest diameter -- had the most marrow. Is this a rule I can go by? Is there some other clue I'm missing? (I don't remember as much variability in my previous experience, but maybe I was just lucky.)

My mom used to use Liquid Smoke to good effect -- not in smoked meats, but in "smoked" salmon dip and the like. The key, though, is to go easy. As janeer said, 1/2 cup is probably too much; the stuff is pretty concentrated. In any case, you can certainly get the tender part down in the kitchen. Just cook your meat low and slow, and be patient.

A friend of mine sent me this link to a recipe from Amanda Hesser, because he knows I have a thing about texture. I think her initial premise is correct: But I think her solution is all wrong. Baking macaroni and cheese with a layer of cheese on top doesn't give you crunch; it gives you leathery cheese you can barely chew through. Plus, I've tried the cream+milk combination in the past, and am not convinced it makes superior mac and cheese. Mostly, I'm not sure why she chose this odd route to getting a higher crunch to soft ratio. When I make macaroni and cheese, I just use a shallow dish that fits the macaroni/cheese mixture in a thin layer -- like one or two noodles thick. Then I top with buttered panko, mixed with parm if I have it and want to go the extra mile, and bake. But maybe I'm missing something. Has anyone tried this? What do you think?

First, I would go with lemon juice rather than orange; I don't think orange is acidic enough to balance the syrups. Second, I usually start with equal parts of the sweet and sour elements and adjust from there. So for this drink, I would start with 2 oz. rum, 1/4 oz. each of the syrups and 1/2 oz. of lemon juice (per drink). If you're set on using orange juice, add lemon juice as well for balance -- maybe start with 1/4 oz. each of lemon and orange.

Are you aiming for sales of items to be eaten at the market, or items to be taken home by the customers? Or both?

Thanks for the ideas, everyone. Showing the students the "right" and "wrong" starches to use for various dishes is great. Lisa, is your water particularly alkaline? Do you salt the cooking water as well as add the vinegar?

Once cut, red beets "bleed" their color amazingly, so I doubt you'll get any visible layers; everything will be deep pink. If you want visible layers, you should probably choose yellow beets.

Dave the Cook and I are teaching a series of classes on Kitchen Science. So far we've done eggs, meat, and fruits and vegetables. Because there was so much material to cover on fruits and vegetables, we decided to do a separate class on starches. It's still a big subject, so we're trying to figure out what to teach. The class is three hours long, with about an hour of that hands-on for the students. We hope to end up with 3 to 5 hands-on tasks that either illustrate how various starches behave, or teach the students a technique with starches that they might not have encountered before, plus additional recipes/techniques to demonstrate. (In the Eggs class, for instance, the students whipped egg whites and made souffles, poached eggs,and made egg-emulsified sauces.) If you were taking a class on the science of starches, what would you expect or want to learn?

Does Red Robin count as fast food, though? Isn't it a sit-down restaurant?

I've found jalapenos to vary wildly in heat level -- this in all kinds of markets (in San Francisco and the Atlanta area, mostly). The explanation that I've read is that capsaicin levels are dependent on soil conditions and moisture levels, and since those vary, the level of heat in these chiles varies as well. It might be that growers and buyers take than into consideration and try for milder heat levels. But I'd still never say that jalapenos taste like bell peppers, even when they're mild. Serranos and habaneros, in my experience, seem to be more even in their heat level. Another thing to keep in mind is that if you eat a lot of capsaicin (in chiles) for a long period of time, your tolerance for it grows. It might be that your tolerance has increased and so the chiles that you used to experience as hot no longer seem so.

I don't remember the details, so don't quote me on this! But I imagine it was a half cup of butter to maybe 1.5 cups confectioner's sugar, and 1 tablespoon cream.

Just to throw a couple more suggestions into the mix: I sometimes make them with 2 oz. rye, .25 oz each lemon and orange juice, and a teaspoon of grenadine. Very similar to the balance of Dave's above, but more of a rye hit. If you don't like much fruit, you might prefer this. Also, I found sour oranges at a local "International" market, and used about .75 oz. of that juice to 2 oz. of rye and a teaspoon or so of grenadine. It was, quite possibly, the best Ward 8 I've ever had, but sour oranges aren't readily available, so it's going to be a rare treat for me.

My mother used to make a browned butter icing for spice cakes and cookies which called for browning the butter, then just mixing in confectioners sugar and a bit of cream to the right consistency. It's not a fluffy style like buttercream (it does tend to harden up a bit upon sitting), but it's really good and easy.

While I think those elements are probably there, it seems from what people list as comfort food that starch is a common base -- noodles, potatoes, rice and beans show up frequently. Mostly, though, I think "comfort food" is whatever one grew up eating. I don't expect (for instance) Thai, British and Chilean people to list the same comfort foods, because they probably don't have the same food memories.

A lawsuit has been filed against Yelp for these practices, although it's not on behalf of a restaurant. Here's one account. I personally take Yelp about as seriously as I take Zagat, which is to say that it's a good way to get a restaurant's address and phone number.

Here's a much better look at the matter from the Albany Times Union: And my favorite bit:

Black is the only color of that comes with stainless steel knobs for the lids, but you can buy the stainless knobs separately and replace the original ones on any colors and sizes.

Your best bet, if you don't use egg whites, sugar or honey, is to use very finely ground salt and pepper -- the smaller the particle size, the more likely the seasonings will stick to the nuts.

Richard, is this a paid class, or something free? If you've got a group of paid students who are already interested in pressure cooking, then things like stocks and canning would probably be appropriate. If it's just a free demo, though, I think you need to stay with something simpler. One of the problems I've had doing pressure cooker demos (free ones, that is) is that there's really nothing to watch, and people get bored and wander away. But if you can come up with something to cook that takes only 15 or 20 minutes, something that's familiar to most people, you'll be more likely to catch and keep their interest. I've done chicken thighs braised with tomatillos and chiles, for instance; boneless thighs are falling apart tender in 20 minutes. And although I'm not a fan of pressure cooker risotto, it always seems to impress people. My advice is to go ahead and start whatever dish you decide on right at the beginning of the class, then while it's cooking, talk about all your discussion points. When you're done talking, the food will be done and you'll have something tangible to show the students.

Are you teaching a series of classes to the same group of seniors, or will they be stand-alone classes to various groups? If you've got the same group for several classes, a good way to start would be to ask them what they're looking for, and then tailor subsequent classes to their needs. I do this with a class for beginners, and it's surprising how different their expectations can be.

Salt has the effect of diminishing bitter flavors. Because of that, with ingredients that are both bitter and sweet, it seems to heighten the sweetness (one easy way to get this effect is to try a piece of grapefruit with nothing on it, then try one with a few grains of salt). So I could see it affecting the balance of drinks with heavy bitter elements. Given the small amounts of ingredients in cocktails and the fact that with very few exceptions you don't want a salty drink, I'd think that a few grains would be the upper limit.

While it's true that the bottoms of older Le Creuset pots were coated in a matte black enamel (they weren't untreated cast iron), LC pots have had hard enamel coating on the bottom for years (Staub does too, as does Lodge enamel coated cookware). It's perfectly safe directly on the burner.

So your menu choices for the week are based on what requests you get? Do you have standards that are on the menu regularly? What if no one has any suggestions?