JAZ

One thing I do when I'm salting the food I'm cooking is to put a little of the food into a prep bowl when I think I'm getting close to the right salt level. Then I add a tiny bit more to the food in the bowl and see if it helps or hurts. If the food doesn't need more salt, I haven't ruined the whole dish. Incidentally, I've noticed with my cooking students that the most common error in salting is to get to the point where there's almost enough salt and then stop. When I have them try the trick with the prep bowl, it's often an eye-opener for them. It shows them exactly what we're tasting for. Keep in mind that when you're "salting to taste," you don't (usually) want your food to taste salty. What you're tasting for is really what the salt does for the other ingredients. If you taste a soup that's undersalted, for example, it'll taste flat, and some herbs or spices might seem overpowering, while others don't seem to show up at all. Add a pinch or two of salt, and the flavor overall will become more lively (for lack of a better term) and the other flavors should come into balance. Sometimes when you think you need more salt, what you really need is a touch of acid (lemon juice, wine, tomatoes, etc.). You can use the prep bowl trick to test for acid levels, too. And don't discount MSG as a flavor enhancer, unless you have a reaction to it. Check out this TDG article for more information.

That's beautiful. A few years ago, I was browsing through a few antique/used shops with a friend of mine and we came upon this 40's bar/liquor cabinet. I can't remember all the details, but when you opened the front, a shelf slid out and lights came on. It was very cool, but very expensive, so it lives on only in my memory. I do have a pretty nifty bar -- 50's or 60's I believe -- with a black metal base and white formica top. It came with three triangular bar stools, also with black bases and white leather seats. It has a couple of shelves for glasses and liquor, but without a source of water or ice nearby, it's mostly for show. I store stuff in it, but always have to drag the bottles into the kitchen to actually make drinks. When and if I get a digital camera, I'll take a photo.

I had some of these in a mushroom class I helped with a few years ago. They were sweetish and tasted vaguely of maple syrup. I think they were sauteed and placed in a tart shell, maybe with some cinnamon added. The novelty wore off after about the second bite, and I've never since felt the need to seek them out.

Just to burst everyone's bubble here, I have to say that I hate any and all blue cheeses in any carnation whatsoever. I can't even describe how vile they taste to me.

Absolutely never. Fortunately, it's very easy to clean by hand. Um, I've been putting my le cruset cast iron dutch oven in the dishwasher for 20 years now, and it doesn't seem to be a problem Edit to add: From Le Creuset: Le Creuset Cookware Pans are handcrafted in France of cast iron, which absorbs heat slowly and spreads it steadily. The cast iron is coated with porcelain enamel, which requires no seasoning and cleans easily. Dishwasher safe. Hmmm, the insert that came with mine said no dishwasher. Veddy, veddy interesting. If your Le Creuset is older, the instruction booklet that came with it likely did say "no dishwasher." The bottoms of the older pans were not coated with enamel and could rust. Now, however, they're coated all around and are, technically, dishwasher safe. Our Le Creuset sales rep has reservations about putting them in the dishwasher, however. He says the problem is not what can happen to the pots, but what can happen to the dishwasher. Apparently the heat and weight of the pots can actually warp the dishwasher racks.

Has anyone tried Caesar's in Berkeley? I've heard good things about it but haven't been.

That surprises me, because the Diet Coke with Lemon is horrible (and I love regular Diet Coke) -- it was like drinking a diet cola while inhaling Lemon Pledge.

It's funny, I was thinking a little of the juice might be a good addition to a Bloody Mary.

All the time! They're what I use when they're in season. I think the sweeter meyer lemon juice complements the sourer seville orange juice perfectly. regards, trillium How would you say the taste of the two compares? I can definitely smell and taste the tangerine in Meyer's lemons and I use them (alone or with orange juice) in many drink recipes that call for plain orange juice because I like my drinks on the tart side. Now I guess I'll have to find some Sevilles to do a comparison.

I used up some rather undistinguished pork shoulder meat in a variation of Julie Sahni's vindaloo recipe in Introduction to Indian Cooking. It was great.

I don't own these, but they definitely belong in the category of "I-can't-believe-someone-got-paid-for-this": Toast Macho Nachos I did, for a short while, own a cookbook called something like "The California Wine Menu Cookbook." I picked it up at a garage sale for $1, which was about $.90 more than it was worth. The first recipe in the "Appetizer" section was for saltine crackers wrapped with a piece of bacon and broiled; the second was for Vienna sausages heated in the goo they're packed in and served with a "tangy" dipping sauce of half mayonnaise and half mustard. I've blocked out the rest.

Something a little simpler than Al Dente's recipe is to saute a couple of onions, season with salt, pepper and a little thyme, and remove from the pan. Then brown the beef (also seasoned with salt and pepper). Place both in a large oven proof casserole (with lid, preferably) and add porter or other dark beer to reach about three quarters of the way up the meat. Stick it in a 350 degree oven for about an hour covered and about an hour and a half uncovered or until sauce is reduced to your liking. Stir a small spoonful of dijon style mustard inot the sauce and adjust the salt. I make this with shortribs now, but started out using the technique on round and chuck. Turns out great.

I make a spice mixture with ground chipotles, cumin and dried orange peel that's good on most fish and meat. I will add, though, that although I do like it, it's quite possible to overdo the amount of cumin in any given dish -- it's such a strong flavor that too much will overpower all the other flavors, and it can also become very bitter, with a sort of old gym sock aftertaste.

I know people who swear by Illy, but I've never tasted any Illy coffee, ground or whole bean, that was better than mediocre.

A very good friend of mine moved to Vacaville from San Franicsoc a couple of years ago and told me that one of the main reasons she was able to make the change was this market. I think she's taken a couple of classes from them and like them, as well.

My sister once brewed a beer for a competition that she decided to call Goat Scrotum Ale. A friend of hers created a great label for it, but it didn't win. My favorite name for a commercial beer is Magnolia's (SF brewpub) Cole Porter.

For some reason, the title of this thread gives me visions of old, rancid bottles of oil lounging in the back corners of the pantry, smoking cigarettes and drinking fortified wine out of brown paper bags.

I wouldn't say that modern Americans don't think about digestion. It's obvious to me from watching then endless TV commercials for antacids, Gas-X, Beano, laxatives, fiber pills, etc. that many people think about it all the time. What's changed, though, is that rather than focusing on foods that are digestible, we focus on medicines or other products that will enable us to digest whatever we want to eat.

Interesting suggestion (the bay leaf/caraway combination). I would also (off the top of my head) say that rosemary could probably stand in -- it's not the same, of course, but it's strong and piny, so I think it would have the same general effect. But gin would be my first choice -- one of the "juniper-y" types, not Bombay Sapphire or Tanquerey Ten.

My two cents' worth: I like the way Staub cooks, but in my experience its thinner clear enamel surface doesn't clean up nearly as easily as the hard enamel surface of Le Creuset. As for shape, if you want something primarily for roasting and braising rather than, say, stews, you might want to consider what LC calls its "buffet casserole" -- it's much shallower than the round or oval french oven style, but comes with a lid, which makes it more versatile than most dedicated roasting pans. I have a lot of Le Creuset (shall I make everyone jealous and say that most of it was free?) and find that I'm reaching for my two buffet casseroles more and more often. The 5.5 quart is especially useful.

This won't use many -- unless you have a party, of course. But they're good. After School Special

Welcome, Colin. Like Marlene, I usually go for a twist in my martinis, and when I am in the mood for another garnish, I tend to reach for pickled green tomatoes (aka "tomolives") or cocktail onions instead of olives. I love olives of just about any type, though, and there was a time that my martini garnish of choice was an olive, so here are my thoughts. Sable and Rosenfeld's Tipsy Olives are designed for martinis -- they're spiked with vermouth and stuffed with pimento -- and are a very good and reliable brand. They're pretty widely available, too (click here for search results). Reese's is another good choice, but be warned that they make all their garnishes very sour (they're my brand of choice for onions and green tomatoes, but they're too sour for some people). For a while, I used to buy small green olives stuffed with lemon peel, which were ideal for martinis, but I can't find them any more. They also came stuffed with onions, which I also liked. I know they were a Spanish brand, so if you have a store that specializes in Spanish foods, it might be worth asking about. The problem with using olives from the deli is that, while they're very good, many times they're packed in oil, which will leave an unattractive slick on the top of your drink. Plus, if they're packed with any herbs or whole spices, you'll get those floating around as well. And, if they have pits, you'll have to deal with that as well.

I'm not sure this is exactly what you had in mind, but in Ethnic Cuisine (originally titled The Flavor Principle Cookbook), Elizabeth Rozin describes more than thirty flavor combinations (often but not always trinities) that characterize the cuisine of various countries/regions/ethnic groups. Some of her "flavor principles": Soy + rice wine + ginger -- China Olive oil + lemon + oregano -- Greece Olive oil + garlic + basil (+ tomato) -- some parts of Italy Tomato+ peanut + chile -- West Africa Cumin + garlic + mint -- Northeast Africa Sour cream + dill/caraway -- Northern Europe Butter + wine + stock -- France It's an interesting way of approaching recipes and cooking.

We made the Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafer "cake" often while I was growing up, so I can explain the concept (never used vanilla wafers, but I iamgine the concept is the same). First, you don't really "stack" the cookies -- you place them next to each other, layered with whipped cream, so that you end up with a log shape. If you want a bigger cake, you can do two such logs side by side. Then you "frost" the whole thing with whipped cream. Then refrigerate. As the rolls sit in the fridge, the cookies absorb the moisture from the cream and soften up to become cakelike. To serve, cut the log at a fairly sharp angle, and you end up with slices with vertical stripes of cream and "cake." It's actually quite good. The version I saw in Fine Cooking used espresso powder in the whipped cream and was dusted with crushed toasted hazelnuts. It sounds really good, too.

Bottled sparkling water is what my sister, who doesn't drink, orders. Imported, usually. The servers seem to like the fact that she's paying for water. Since it seems that this situation will be going on for a while, maybe you could talk your favorite places into carrying some special beverages for you. Some of the drier non-alcoholic ciders are not bad, and Pellegrino makes some good non-alcoholic aperitif drinks, like San Bitter (similar to Campari) and Cinatto (similar to Amer Picon, I believe). I use them for non-alcoholic "cocktails" in my daytime classes, and they go over quite well.