cdh

Nothing close. Spam is ground ham and ham-adjacent stuff reshaped into a loaf. Basically the salty cured meat analog to American cheese. Scrapple is uncured porky bits (both offal and meat/skin kinda stuff), pork broth, and cornmeal made into a loaf. Only similarity is processing into a loaf shape.

Thanks for the rigorous testing regime! Hope Tasty addresses the issue. I wonder at the oil discrepancies... have they been too smart by half and built in the overshoot to compensate for the temp drop when the stuff to be fried gets dumped into the oil. I wonder if you'd get the right results were you to deep fry something...

Forgive the ignorance, but can a "coarse-grooved steel" actually do any damage to your knives? Have you observed blatant misuse of the offending steel in such a way that damage to the blades is inevitable? If having this thing around your knives can actually degrade them, then hell yes, tell him to take it home and not bring it back. Otherwise, your ceramic is harder than his steel... you can finish what he's started after he's done.

I concur that vacuum sealed freezer storage keeps this stuff lively. I've had some in the freezer for at least 2 years and it still works. I keep a working amount in a salt shaker, which gets vac sealed and frozen when not in use, and the remains of the bag are vac sealed in the freezer. Just used it the other day and it is still fully functional.

Made the run all the way to Princeton to visit a booze-slingin' Trader Joe's, and came back with their annual Belgian-ish strong dark from Canada, the Belgian-ish blonde (also Canadian, I think) and the Belgian Petrus with Blueberry. Today I tried the strong dark (I'll be damned if I can recall exactly how they label it... something to remind people that it only comes once a year... and I'm not going digging in my recycle bin to read the label in the dark by flashlight). Very nice beer. Unibroue did good this year. Lots of dark fruit nuances, no obnoxious yeast overexpressions, and a bit of coriander hanging out in the background to nudge those dark fruit nuances into a citrus-y kind of experience. Very tasty and an excellent deal.

On the portable induction front, I was just in Ikea the other day and noticed that they are selling a very pretty portable induction hob for $45... Looks pretty spiffy. IKEA Tillreda induction cooktop

My thinking is more that they're going to get herded off to USDA approved slaughter, so there will be less live ones prancing along the road and less dead guys rotting on the side of the road.

With the deer overpopulation only increasing, anything that gets people eating them is only going to lessen the burden on the roadkill pickup crews. They've got no predators other than cars nowadays. Will have to see where the nearest Arbys is and pay them a visit.

Thanks for the Kennedy pointer... been meaning to read her for a while.

The Beer Bible: The Essential Beer Lover's Guide is up for $1.20... US Prime member... you know the variable pricing drill at Amazon.

Yunnan black. Keemun (or Qimen). Those are appellations of common Chinese black teas. I think the FooJoy brand I see in asian markets has big yellow cube-shaped tins of those available. If you like English Breakfast tea, you've gotta go to an Indian market. There look for Assam teas. Your Asian store really doesn't have Asian market Lipton and other international brands on the shelves, just incomprehensible Asian market Asian brands that don't translate more than a word or two on the labels?

I had trouble changing out my screen... but I twittered Dave Arnold, who offered suggestions... and when they didn't succeed, he had me send it to him and personally handled getting it back in good-as-new shape. There's definitely product support behind the Searzall... after you figure out how to get in touch with them.

When I do glace to keep in the fridge I keep it in a microwave-able ramekin, with a good cm of fat on top. Spoon out however much glace you want, then toss the ramekin into the microwave and nuke til boiling... then back into the fridge where the fat layer seals it when it solidifies.

How about boiling it down to a demiglace sort of consistency and freezing ice cubes of it? That is how I deal with keeping stock I've made. Dilute it to whatever strength you think you need. Great flavor boost to chuck a cube of demiglace into most things you find yourself cooking.

Is this just very lightly roasted cacao beans processed into chocolate? Roasting coffee, the lighter the roast, the more the fruity aspects of the beans are highlighted... and generally, things that turn brown when roasted dark pass through a reddish phase on the way... the way to make a light beer turn red is to add a little bit of very darkly roasted malt...

I always add sugar to my espresso...

Go to Amazon. Along the top bar there will be a "Daily Deals" link. How exactly it will render on your machine is entirely dependent on your screen size and browser, etc... somewhere up along the top you'll see it. Can't give you exact directions. Click it. Daily Deals will present you with a big grid of stuff they're hawking. Within that grid you'll see "Kindle Deal 50 Cookbooks" or something like that. I don't think the grid populates the same way every time, so I can't tell you exactly where to look.

Is this a reference to/ripoff of the Collichio Craft restaurants? There's Craft, Craft Steak, WichCraft, etc... is Craft Salad related? Or is the owner there playing fast and loose with trademark law?

... $18 ...

Wow, expensive thread. $15 later, I think I've got everything that was interesting. I've certainly got plenty of culinary reading to do in the next few months.

You can get nice delmonico steaks for $10.99... and entirely servicable strip steaks for $8.59... the value proposition for oxtails has gone out the window.

What is causing the prices to go through the roof like this? Is there some trendy fad recipe everybody is making that I've just never heard of? Has Campbell's Soup cornered the market? I'm perplexed.

If this is induction, how did the butter get everywhere if it needed to be in a magnetic pan for the heat to get to it? You have cast iron flat butter dishes?

Everything they make is unobjectionable, but unexciting. Not worth crazy high prices. But if you're craving germanic wursts, and they're the only ready option, they'll hit the spot.

Free the sourdough!