JAZ

I don't know where you get your turkey, but "wonderfully scrumptious" is not a term I'd apply to most of the turkey I've eaten in my life. Most supermarket turkeys (which is probably where most people in the country buy theirs) are pretty flavorless, and since many people tend to overcook them, they're dry too. Now, overbrining can cause problems, true. I've overbrined shrimp, chicken thighs and pork chops, and in all cases the texture suffered. But it's awfully hard to overbrine a whole turkey. That seems like a bit of an overgeneralization. I'm with Russ on the sugar, incidentally. I don't use it.

There's also a specific tool for the purpose -- a grease mop, which is made of a material that absorbs oil but not water. And now you can buy sheets of the same stuff. The mop is reusable; the sheets, I believe, are for one use only.

The best thing I ever made with the leftover turkey and carcass was mole (loosely based on a recipe from a Rick Bayliss book). We'd smoked the turkey that year, so the whole dish had a smoky undertone that worked really well with the mole spices. Another year my sister made a salad with wild rice, dried cranberries, turkey and. . . some other stuff. I can't remember, but it was good.

For more information on bitters (perhaps more than you want to know), check out this earlier thread.

Well, not that you'll probably need them any time soon, now that you've ordered, but Plumpjack on 24th in SF carries the whole line of Fee Bros. bitters -- peach, mint and angostura as well as orange. Tower Market also carries the orange. Sam's right in that a dash of bitters can be a welcome addition to many cocktails; even something as simple as a screwdriver is improved by a dash.

Thanks for the link, Sam. I was just trying to describe this drink to someone, and couldn't remember the exact ingredients. I was thinking it had Calvados, not Pear Eau de Vie. It was a deliciously complex cocktail -- one of those that, if I hadn't known what was in it, I'd never have guessed. And like many of Audrey's cocktails, it's a combination of ingredients that seems unusual at first glance, but that actually goes together beautifully.

Someone did an experiment here and I can't recall who. Maybe Russ Parsons. But the result was that the combination of rolling them and nuking them produced the most juice. ← Robert Wolke addressed this topic in What Einstein Told His Cook, and concluded that rolling and microwaving helped increase juice extraction only when one was juicing by hand -- that is, with no implement at all. But if you juice with a electric juicer, reamer, Mexican juicer or (I assume) a ricer, it doesn't make any difference. Incidentally, for best results, roll then heat-- not the other way around.

I make the John Thorne inspired, Cooks Illustrated stovetop version, except that I use Monterey Jack for its melting qualities and aged Gouda for flavor. If I don't have aged Gouda, I use really really sharp cheddar. If you don't know this version, it calls for evaporated milk. My best ever incarnation of the dish occurred when I used leftover evaporated milk that I'd stored in a jar that previously contained smoked mustard. The milk took on this ethereal subtle smoky flavor from the jar that imbued the whole dish. (I just found some more of the mustard, so I plan to save the jar and try to recreate it.) Although I have to say that the cut up, rolled in panko, deep fried leftovers that Alton Brown made on his show have me re-thinking the bechamel/custard baked-in-the-oven style, just so I could do that with the leftovers.

Great idea, Fifi. Several years ago, I decided that for Mother's Day, I'd take all of my mother's recipes (handwritten cards, mostly, but with lots of clipped out recipes from magazines too), enter them all into MasterCook and make a cookbook. For her, primarily, but also for me and my siblings. It took me way longer than I thought it would (somehow I felt that I had to expand on instructions like "mix as usual and bake until done"). But I did get it done, and it's pretty cool. I used a binder designed for recipes, which has dividers with pockets for additional clipped recipes. The pages are like photo album pages, where you peel back a plastic cover and can stick anything to them. It meant I had to trim the pages a little to fit, but it also gives the flexibility (on the extra pages) to paste in new recipes in a variety of formats. That being said, I don't think the format matters nearly as much as just doing it.

Another dissenting opinion, here, but for a different reason. Every single package of Tim's I have ever bought has had a slightly off flavor as if of rancid oil. I kept hearing raves about them, and kept thinking I must have just had bad luck, but as the count grew towards a couple dozen, I finally gave up. Maybe it's just me. My objection to the Kettle chips is that the packages are almost physically impossible to open -- at least without crushing the contents! ← I agree that quality control is not the best with Tim's -- or it used not to be. Aside from the alder smoked package, although I haven't had any that tasted rancid, I've occasionally had packages that seemed stale, and in those, the chips do get unpleasantly hard. It does seem that this happens less often now than a couple of years ago. And as for the Kettle Chip packaging, they finally saw the light. Now the packages are scored at the top so you can open them without resorting to scissors. And, not to hijack the Tim's thread, I have to say that my current favorite chip is the Kettle crinkle cut salt and black pepper (which also, if you read the ingredients, contains garlic powder and cayenne).

I shallow fry them. It doesn't really take much oil that way, but I think they're much better than baked. And let's face it, if you're spending the calories, you may as well have them the best they can be, right? Once time I happened to have leftover bacon grease and used that as the cooking medium. Quite worthwhile.

The alder smoked chips were the one big disappointment I've had with Tim's. I'd tried some of the other flavors and liked them, and read a "tasters' panel" on barbecue chips in the San Francisco Chronicle that raved about Tim's alder smoked, so of course I tried them when I saw them. I couldn't even finish the small bag I bought. They tasted as if someone had poured a bottle of Liquid Smoke over the chips -- acrid, bitter and nasty. I thought I might have gotten a bad bag (oversaturated with the flavoring or something) but I haven't been brave enough to try again. I still really like Tim's Jalapeno and Salt and Vinegar, but when I want barbecue/smoked chips, I get Kettle brand Mesquite chips.

So far no one has mentioned Le Creuset's buffet casseroles, which have become my favorite (well at least tied with my 5.5 quart casserole). The buffet casseroles are shaped much like a deep skillet but with two short handles instead of one long handle. The lid is more domed than the usual LC lids. They're the best vessel ever for braising meats. I got the 5 quart and liked it so much I got the 3.5 quart one as well (although I don't use that one much). [i should probably issue a disclaimer here that I get most of my Le Creuset free from LC incentive programs at the store where I work, so I've got more than any sane person needs. I've even got four of the "mini-cocottes" -- how sick is that? But they are cute.]

The first time I heard of Velvet Falernum was when Dale DeGroff came up with the Flaming Orange Gully. Quite a while afterward, I came upon it in my favorite spirits shop and bought a bottle. I'm curious about it. From various posts here on eGullet and on DrinkBoy's site, I take it that there are different brands of this liqueur, though -- is that true? The bottle I have is John D. Taylor's Velvet Falernum, with an alcohol volume of 11%. What other brands (if any) exist? Are they demonstrably better or different than the one I have? Higher proof? Also, has anyone made their own (following the recipe in the Flaming Orange Gully thread)? How does that compare? Also, what sort of recipes are out there that call for it? I use it in place of simple syrup in Daquairis with a dash of peach bitters and have had it with Chartreuse and pineapple juice at a bar here in San Francisco. Both good, by the way. (Dr. Cocktail, my apologies in advance if you cover it in your book. My copy hasn't yet arrived.)

Or you could carve a facsimilie out of a disk of lemon rind.

I like red beets, and to me the golden ones are okay, but very mild. A couple of friends of mine who don't like red beets like the golden ones, so maybe you'd like them too.

For camping and vacations, we always use Bisquik, which is reliable and as good as or better than any "fancy" mixes I've tried.

There are other American eaux de vie besides Bonny Doon -- Clear Creek up in Oregon produces some, as does St. George Spirits in Alameda, CA.

No one I talked to about it seemed to know.

Laurent Gras is no longer at Fifth Floor; last night was his last there. Apparently Melissa Perello is taking over the helm.

Use thighs instead. Seriously, is there some reason you're determined to use boneless chicken breasts? The thighs have much more flavor and are much more forgiving of slight overcooking (a cooking instructor I know put it this way: "the problem with chicken breasts is that you have a 30 second window between salmonella and chicken dust."). If you want to use breasts, and you don't like brining, you might consider pounding or slicing the meat into thin pieces (like a scallopini) so they'll cook evenly and very quickly.

I love Le Creuset, for all the reasons mentioned above. Mostly cleanup, although it's also nice to have a good looking cooking vessel that you can take to the table and serve from as well. You know there's an outlet store for LC in Vacaville, right? I haven't checked the prices, but I know the discontinued pieces are significantly marked down, plus they carry "seconds" as well.

I'm with you on this one. In my opinion, the only good thing that Waldorf salad ever did was to inspire a hilarious Fawlty Towers scene.

Winning the lottery.

Inadequate, indeed. I'm in awe. Doc, if you ever want to hire anyone to come by and, I don't know, catalog, or dust, or anything, let me know.