JAZ

Raisins. Blue cheese. Evil foods.

Actually, one theory holds that a taste for spices (all kinds, not just the "hot" ones) arose because of their ability to kill pathogens in food. Because, when you think about it, using spices cover the taste of toxic food is not a viable evolutionary strategy.

Nowadays, supermarket meat is presalted-pumped up with a saline solution which is supposed to make dry, flavorless meat tender and juicy. They claim they're doing this because the customer is demanding it, insists on paying meat dollars for water? One effect is to make meat broth and stock already too salty to concentrate as I like. I wonder what people who are on a salt-restricted diet are expected to do, pay 4X as much to have boutique meat shipped to them? Meat like this is, in effect, pre-brined. As Dave explains in his great eGCI course on brining, you're paying for extra water when you buy meat like this. But having tried it, I have to say that it does what it claims to -- that is, meat treated this way did cook up very moist and flavorful. I'd still rather brine meat myself, but for cooks who don't know how or don't have the time, I don't think it's a bad idea.

Only 40 to 50 percent of the white population, and 65 to 70% of the black population (I couldn't find numbers for other groups) are salt-sensitive. I'm not qualified to advise you on the crucial medical aspects of diet, but it might be worth your while to find out if you're really in the sensitive group. Dave, you mean 40-50% (and 65-70%) of the people with high blood pressure are salt sensitive, don't you? Not those percentages of the general population?

I'm teaching a hands-on cooking class/party that was bid on in an auction. The hosts of the party want to hold it on Feb 13, so they were thinking of aphrodisiac foods. My problem is that most things I can think of to make are either out of season, prohibitively expensive, or too complex for the time frame. My constraints are: 1) Everything has to be able to be made in about an hour and a half. 2) My food costs will be covered, but I can't go in for wildly expensive ingredients (no caviar, no lobster, no foie gras). 3) Nothing should be terribly difficult to make. Some of these people will be cooks, but some will likely be new to the kitchen. 4) Although the format is for small plates and appetizers, these people will want enough food to fill them up. So far, I'm thinking about something with wild mushrooms (maybe in puffed pastry) and grilled shrimp with a chile-based rub. For dessert, I thought I'd have them make a strawberry-champagne sorbet served in chocolate cups. But I need two more dishes. Maybe something with artichoke hearts or avocados? I'm not sure. Any ideas would be most appreciated.

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.