JAZ

When I was looking at recipes, some of them called for rolling in panko only, and some called for the more typical flour, egg and panko coating. I tried the panko-only technique, thinking I could save time and mess, and I had the same problem you had -- the croquettes leaked and fell apart. The flour-egg-panko version didn't suffer from that. It's definitely worth the extra time.

What's with using the phrase "fancy-pants" to describe what (I assume) the writer thinks of as a fussy dish or restaurant? It seems as if I'm seeing it everywhere recently, and I'd rather not.

Pam, I think mushroom croquettes would be great -- finely diced sauteed mushrooms, roasted garlic, maybe a little brie or havarti or fontina cheese.

So, it's that time of year for lists -- "The 10 Best Cookbooks," "What Every Foodie Must Read" etc. -- and frankly, they get tiresome. Some publisher feels it's necessary, and the same old standbys are trotted out. Not that the standbys can't be good, of course. There are classics that show up on these lists for good reason. But still, it's refreshing to read Slate's version of the end-of-the-year list. Slate asked a variety of food people -- chefs, historians, writers and editors -- for their personal and quirky choices, and they came up with a great list. Some are classics, some obscure; all sound like they're worth looking for. It's cool (to me, at least) that The River Cottage Meat Book shows up twice (chef Dan Barber and Matt Sartwell, manager, Kitchen Arts & Letters, both recommend it). I think it's great that Mimi Sheraton's entry probably can't be found without scouring second-hand book stores. Julie Powell, Christopher Kimball, Ming Tsai and our own Steven Shaw also add their choices. Here's the entire list. What do you think? What would you add?

I teach cooking classes -- mostly cocktail party menus. For some reason, when I wrote up the menu a couple of months ago for an upcoming class, I added "smoked chicken and green chile croquettes," never having made a croquette before in my life. Thanks to Google, I found some recipes to start with and came up with a pretty decent recipe. I'm still tweaking it (I'll post it when I have a final), but I'm satisfied with the basics. Like Chris, I'm using a very thick bechamel as the binding agent, with onion, minced roasted green chiles, a little Monterey Jack cheese, chicken and spices. One thing I'm having a little trouble with is getting them to set up -- they're tending to get a little squished during the cooking process. Is that just that I'm not letting them chill enough?

Are these the same as "sand cookies"? I love those.

Kerry, I just taught a candy class, and made three batches of caramel in the past week. It'd been quite a while since I'd made it, so I wanted to practice. Your recipe was fabulous, but I found that at 250F, the caramels were very soft -- excellent tasting and easy to eat, but within 15 minutes after cutting into squares, they'd settled into puddles. I ended up cooking the last batch to about 256F and they held their shape much better (yes, I double checked my thermometer -- I used three to be sure). Every recipe I've read gives 250F as the temperature for firm caramels, and as far as I know, when I used to make them I would have used that temperature. Could this be due to humidity (it's really dry here right now) or some other factor I don't know of? By the way, I tried a square silicone cake pan to pour them out, and it worked better than any other pan I've ever used -- no buttering, no lining with foil and then peeling it off. They just popped out of the pan. I highly recommend it.

I've always enjoyed Cortez, although I've heard mixed reviews from others. I think it's got a great atmosphere, and many of the small plates are excellent. The cocktails are pretty good, if somewhat less inspired now than they were before Todd left for Bourbon and Branch (if you like cocktails, do go there -- it's right around the corner from Cortez). I also had a great meal at Salt House, but it's not close to where you are, and it is loud.

It's also important to remember not to crowd the pan -- I think no matter how high the heat, if you have more than a single layer of mushrooms, the liquid won't evaporate quickly enough and they'll start to steam.

My drink of choice was from Prohibition: the Scofflaw, which I first read about in Harrington's Cocktail and then in Dr. Cocktail's Vintage Spirits & Forgotten Cocktails. Although the two books agree on the origins of the cocktail (Harry's New York Bar in Paris; 1924), the recipes diverge slightly. I went with a combination of the two: 1.5 oz. rye (Rittenhouse bonded) 1 oz. dry vermouth (Niolly Prat) 1/2 oz. lemon juice 1/4 oz. grenadine (homemade) It's a very good drink -- a more interesting, fruitier version of a whiskey sour -- if not terribly complex. I'll be making it again.

In my posts on veal stock, I've been trying to figure out exactly what's so special about it. It was suggested, and Mr. Ruhlman agreed, that its primary virtue is its neutrality -- that it adds texture with no taste of its own. That, to me, sounded similar to what MSG does -- enhances flavor and adds mouthfeel with very little taste of its own. Hence my musing that MSG might add "something more" similar to what veal stock does. At that point, I asked why, if neutrality was the desired effect, that he suggested a brown stock rather than a white one, and he said that it was more versatile in the home kitchen. I got some brown veal stock, and used it much the way he suggested. I wasn't assuming that his treatise was a codified recipe, so I took a few liberties with it. As I posted, it was a great sauce, but my opinion was that it wasn't neutral in any sense of the term. Although Mr. Ruhlman hasn't weighed in on my reflections from that trial, it's clear from the comments of other members that my diversions from the "recipe" as written rendered my opinion invalid. So, I repeated it, sticking as closely as humanly possible to his directions. I guess I have a different sense of what "neutral" means than Mr. Ruhlman (and apparently, most everyone else.) It's still a nice sauce (although it's thin without further reducing), but I'll still say it's not neutral -- I think that's what's nice about it. And I'll say again that, as nice as it is, I'll never use it on fish.

If you can find the small "entertaining" breads, you can top them with a couple of different cream cheese based spreads, run them under the broiler, and have a good snack that's reminiscent of 50's-60's card parties but still tastes great. I like cream cheese and crabmeat, mixed with minced green onions, salt and pepper. Curry powder if you like that. Or cream cheese and smoked salmon and dill. Or minced ham and Gruyere, mixed with a little mustard and just enough cream cheese to make it spreadable.

I know that when I took a pizza class from Peter Reinhart, he advocated making the dough in advance and letting it rise slowly in the fridge at least overnight. He said that the flavor improves and also that the gluten is less elastic and makes the dough easier to work with. He didn't say anything about 9 days, though.

I followed Mr. Ruhlman's directions for this sauce, with two differences: I used red wine instead of white (because I had it and also because I was using the sauce with beef) and I reduced the sauce a bit before adding the butter (because it was way too thin). It was very good; I can see the points about texture, certainly. But I agree with Steven: this was not a neutral sauce. I can't, in a million years, imagine serving it with fish, unless for some reason I wanted to substantially mask the taste of the fish.

They're available through Amazon -- Sahale Snacks. I've never seen them, much less tried them, but they sound interesting. I used to make Cajun spiced pecans, which called for mixing Tabasco and Worcestershire sauce into egg whites (beaten until pretty foamy but not stiff). Then you tossed the nuts in that and added the spices before baking. The spices stuck to nuts; the egg white didn't add any flavor; and the nuts were very crunchy. For incorporating balsamic, you might try that method -- I'd reduce the balsamic first.

I've been making a drink with grenadine (homemade; Pom mixed 1:1 with sugar) and bitters that's very good -- spicy and kind of medicinal (in fact, a friend suggested naming it "Dr. Robert"). So, Dr. Robert it is: Pour .25 oz. grenadine and about 1/2 tsp. of Angostura bitters into a champagne flute and top with dry sparkling wine or champagne.

(emphasis mine) Do you mean the information isn't accurate? ← I mean, more precisely, that it's often incomplete, and thus not reliable as a sole resource (for a beginner). You and I know something about cookware, but a beginner who reads: and uses it as a guide to buying cookware will soon find out that "heavy-gauge stainless steel" isn't a material that cookware is typically made from. I'm sure that Mr. Ruhlman means heavy-gauge aluminum clad in stainless steel, but that's because I know cookware. A beginner isn't going to know that. And if I pick an entry at random -- this one about mustard -- I read: Again, you and I know when he's switching from talking about prepared mustard to mustard powder (Coleman's) and back again (Dijon), but will a beginner? It's not clear, and I think a text designed for a beginner has to be clear. So that's what I mean by unreliable -- there's some interesting information in there, but previous culinary knowledge is necessary to evaluate it. In my opinion, it's simply not a very useful book for a beginner.

Maybe it's because I've mostly cooked for only myself or for two, leftover protein is part of my usual cooking strategy. For instance, if I want to roast a chicken or a pork loin, I have three choices -- eat exactly the same thing for several days in a row, waste a lot of it, or use it in recipes later. So using cooked turkey in other recipes seems completely natural to me -- it's just another ingredient. It's true that turkey is not anywhere close to my favorite protein choice, but if I have it, I'm going to use it. Doesn't anyone else in the country regularly use leftover cooked chicken, pork or beef? What's the big deal with using turkey the same way?

Anne, I see this book as being a possibly helpful addition to a basic library, so I think it depends on what other books you've given them and where their interests lie. I don't think it's anything close to a main text for a beginning cook; the information is too random and is not always reliable.

I wonder what the owner will do when customers start to come in with the new Kindle or other "electronic books"?

Not personally but you might want to read about Viking here (scroll down): Gastromaniac's ← We have two Vikings at work, and they're horrible. The racks don't fit right (even after being replaced) so if they're full, the weight of the dishes pulls them off the guides. The flatware basket is awkward and somehow collects water, so if you remove it when the dishes are done and dry, you get splashed. I'm not sure how long a regular cycle takes, but it seems like about 18 hours. They are quiet, though.

Here are a couple of my recipes (from RecipeGullet): The Faux Margarita 1-1/4 oz chipotle orange syrup (recipe below) 2 oz lime juice 1/4 oz grapefruit juice 1 oz water Shake over ice and strain into chilled, salt-rimmed glass. Or pour over ice if desired. Chipotle orange syrup Bring 2 cups water to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and add 1 dried chipotle pepper and 2 strips orange peel. Cover and let simmer for 15 to 20 minutes (liquid should be slightly spicy but not overtly hot). Strain out the pepper and orange and add ¾ cup sugar. Bring back to a boil and stir until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and let cool. Twisted Mojito 1-1/2 oz jalapeno mint syrup (recipe below) 2 oz lime juice 3 oz club soda or seltzer Shake the syrup and lime juice over ice. Pour into an ice-filled hurricane or tall glass and top with club soda. Jalapeno Mint Syrup Bring 2 cups water to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and add 2-3 sliced jalapeno peppers and leaves from one small bunch mint. Cover and let simmer for 15 to 20 minutes (liquid should be slightly spicy but not overtly hot). Strain out the peppers and mint and add 1 cup sugar. Bring back to a boil and stir until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and let cool.

I have several comments and questions here. If the point of veal stock is "neutrality," then why, in your recipe in Elements, do you call for browning the bones and meat and adding tomato paste and mirepoix? It seems to me that if you want something that adds a silky texture and no discernible flavor of its own, you'd do better to make a white veal stock -- no browning, no aromatics, no tomato paste. I mean, I'm all for brown stocks, but surely a brown veal stock will be nearly as robust as a beef stock -- certainly more so than chicken. I think you've touched on what makes MR so rapturous about veal stock. Rather than "least essential", I would substitute "most ineffable". I think that some experiences might be ineffable; I'm not sure that veal stock is one of them. It may not be a particularly romantic notion, but I'm quite sure that whatever veal stock does for a sauce can be described, and at least in part explained. Of course, in his example, the wine is what he says to use to deglaze, not the stock. Veal stock goes in later. And I would bet that if you substituted water and a pinch of MSG, you'd get a very similar "something more."

Okay, I can see that: it's like MSG, then. But I'm still curious about your example. It seems to me (from your description) that of all the elements in that sauce -- mushrooms, shallots, wine, butter, salt and pepper -- the veal stock is the least essential. That is, if the veal stock were missing (replaced with water), I'm sure the sauce wouldn't be as good. But if any of the other elements were missing, I'm guessing the sauce would be bad -- weak or unbalanced or thin, that is -- and no amount of veal sauce could make it right.

What is it, exactly, that makes veal stock such a wonder for the home cook? Why do you think it's categorically different from beef stock or chicken stock? Is it the texture? The taste? The umami element? I have no doubt that the pan sauce described is great, but this description seems to beg the question: The butter adds texture and lusciousness; the mushrooms add the mushroomy element, presumably. The part about being fresh and made a la minute from my kitchen would hold regardless of what liquid I used. Is it merely that veal stock is rich and meaty? That's a wonderful thing, but what makes it richer and meatier than beef stock?