JAZ

In a follow-up column to that piece, he talks about causes of off-flavors and aromas, which he says can (but don't necessarily) arise during the curing/fermentation process:

I'm in much the same boat. I liked my GelPro mats at first, but one of them curled up a lot, so much that the lining tore. While I haven't made the plunge and bought Wellness mats, the kitchen where we teach has them and I'm very impressed. They've lasted nicely under heavy wear and tear for several years, and I've noticed less leg and back fatigue after classes since they've been in the kitchen.

It seems as if we went through a phase of trying disappointing recipes, but we recently tried two new ones that, well, rocked. One was sriracha-honey green beans from the blog Bare feet in the Kitchen. We roast green beans with garlic chips all the time, but this was an easy alternative. The other was from Serious Eats: salmon and potatoes with creamy anchovy sauce. The only change we made was to stir in the capers after the sauce was made to keep them whole. I personally thought that while the sauce (apparently based on a recipe from Modern Sauces by Martha Holmberg) was good with the salmon, it really shone with the potatoes. We used the leftover sauce a few nights later on some steamed broccoli and it was great with that as well. I'm thinking that it would be a good match for a Nicoise-type salad. Any other great new recipes out there?

As a recipe writer, I find it's difficult sometimes not to specify a particular brand of an ingredient, if I think it's going to make a big difference in the way the recipe will turn out. But in that case I always try to explain why, and if possible give other options. For instance, I use Valentina brand Mexican hot sauce in a several recipes, so I say that, but I also give a couple other brand names and just say that if my readers use anything else, they may have to adjust the acid level, because that can affect the results.

The bar book was The Bartender's Guide and the baking book was Great Cookies. The prices seem to depend largely on what's out of print or just out of stock. As I said, these two were anomalies, but it's been pretty lucrative for me.

Something you might consider if you have books you definitely don't want is selling them through Amazon's Marketplace. It's not difficult to set up an account, and although Amazon takes a small cut, they take care of pretty much everything. Especially if the books are old, you may be able to sell them for more than list price. Although most of the books I've sold this way have gone for $20 - $30, I got $100 for a bar book I bought for $10, and $90 for a cookie book I bought for $15. If the books are out of print and still in demand, it can be worthwhile.

I'm not sure if this would fit in, but if you want to show the way different tastes affect each other, try letting them taste grapefruit alone, then with a pinch of sugar, then with a pinch of salt. We've done that for adult taste "labs" and our students are always amazed by the way the salt mutes the bitterness of the grapefruit, so that it seems much sweeter than it does with the sugar, which just seems to highlight how acidic and bitter the grapefruit is.

According to Harold McGee, another way to slow the multiplication of the bacteria is with acid -- which is why, according to him, sushi rice is safe at room temperature.

Last week we bought a bunch of scallions at our usual market. They were slightly larger than usual, but otherwise looked normal. But when I sliced them, they were filled with a slimy residue. At first I just thought it was the membranes between the layers, which can be a bit slimy. But this was something else entirely -- more like okra slime. It was especially pronounced in the greens; when sliced, the greens were hollow as usual but filled with this colorless slimy goo. Has anyone else run across this or heard of it? What's up with the slime? (The next bunch we bought was fine.)

Pam, I used to make an appetizer with sauteed mushrooms and roasted garlic in pastry shells topped with a little piece of Brie. The combination of mushrooms and Brie is excellent.

If you're looking for ideas to use applesauce itself and not additional ideas for apples, you could try Julia Child's recipe for apple tart -- it uses mostly applesauce with a top layer of apple slices. Here's a version of it.

A reply from LA magazine: Hold the Salsa, NY Times! Never having tried tacos in either New York or LA, I can't say who's right. But it's an interesting, if biased, read.

This will sound obvious, but if your pans have "stay cool" handles and you're used to using them on the stove top, drape a side towel or oven mitt over the handle when you take it out of the oven. Otherwise -- if you're like me -- you'll forget that it's hot and grab it and burn your hand.

I know several people who regularly use wonton wrappers for ravioli. For my taste, the wrappers are a little thick, but if you don't want to make pasta, it's worth a try.

I thought that kale, like spinach and chard, contains oxalic acid in amounts that interfere with the absorption of calcium and iron, so that it's actually better for you if cooked.

The author of Smitten Kitchen was on NPR a few days ago talking about raw kale salads. Here's the piece, with her recipe. Personally, this quote about sums it up for me: "I don't actually think that a world where people are eating a lot of kale versus a lot of, I don't know, potato chips or bacon is a bad place," she says. "I just don't understand the fervor."

If you stretch your definition of "pantry" to include relatively long-lived fridge items, you could make quesadillas (tortillas, cheese, salsa).

NPR's All Things Considered ran this story on "kitchen pollution" a few days ago, and while it's not terribly helpful for your situation (their main fix is to buy a better exhaust fan), it is interesting in what it doesn't mention, which is carbon monoxide. They do have a few tips if you can't buy a new fan that vents outside. I'm not sure how much of a difference they'd make, but they're easy enough to do.

This may sound boring, but a combination of sweetened cream cheese lightened with whipped cream is great in chocolate sandwich cookies. Like the best version ever of that 60's icebox cake with Famous chocolate wafers and whipped cream. I use the mixture for a brownie "cheesecake" sundae and students go crazy for it.

What does more sugar do, besides making the dessert sweeter? What does the alcohol do? Both sugar and alcohol affect the freezing temperature, so if what you meant by "icy" is that your dessert freezes too hard, adding either will make it softer.

I don't have this book yet, but I know Ivy and can say that she always does substantial recipe testing, so her recipes always work. I don't have the book but have seen a couple recipes from it online. Here's one for rye crackers: Swedish Caraway Rye Crisps and one for amaranth and cheddar crackers.

Shel, I'm unclear about what you mean by "caramelized." You can brown carrots either by roasting or sauteeing, in which case you're really talking about the Maillard reaction, or you can glaze them with sugar or syrup, which you can then actually caramelize. Which effect do you want?

We actually like this drink -- maybe it's not A list, but definitely B list. A couple of things -- we use white grapefruit whenever possible in drinks, and my guess is that the red grapefruit doesn't have the acid necessary to stand up to the vermouth. Also, we use Beefeater, mostly because that's our bar gin. Again, it seems to me that Plymouth would get lost. And third, we use M&R sweet vermouth. I'm not very familiar with Dolin, but I'm not much impressed with it. The one odd thing about this drink, as we make it, is that it really doesn't taste of grapefruit or sweet vermouth -- the combination ends up tasting like something else entirely. We happen to like it, but I guess if you're expecting a grapefruit drink, it would be disappointing.

I've used several brands and models since they came out. In my opinion, it's not the brand that matters as much as the type. Although I prefer swivel blades for regular peelers, they're a disadvantage in julienne peelers. So go with a fixed blade version. Also, I prefer a Y-shape handle over the straight version.

Large eggs average 2 ounces by weight and one would probably be around a quarter cup by volume. For salmon cakes, I'd imagine that one large egg would work fine.