jackal10

You need a burst of superhot steam at the very beginning of the bake - pour a cup or two of water into a hot preheated cast iron pan, for example (care!). After a few minutes it will have evaporated. After that anymore is pointless. Commercial ovens have a vent to let out the steam towards the end of the bake. Maybe you are not baking for long enough, or too hot for the size of loaf. I bake a boule for about 40 minutes at 220C..

I suspect this has to do with the price of the oysters. Similarly the replacement of natives with portugese is economic. Its been a long time since they were so cheap that the 19th century apprentices petitioned not to be served them anymore. I've seen a sign in a pub saying " A dozen oysters and Guiness if you are wenching", but this was a modern faux Irish pub

Much easier to cut off the top and then scoop out the seeds, and then the flesh before baking. In fact don't bake the shell at all. If you bake it it goes soft and is much harder to use as a tureen. Follow the Ultimate Universal Thick Vegetable Soup Recipe. I like, in addition to the pumpkin, some leek, and maybe a little truffle oil.. Serve in the shell. For pumpkin pie I find it easier to start with baked butternut squash. The flesh is denser and the pulp needs less boiling.

I've never understood these stinless steel lined copper pans. Seems to me you get the disadvantages of both. The stainless doesn't conduct the heat well, and is "sticky" when frying, and the copper is hell to clean. If you want a proper copper pan get a real one. - 3mm copper walls. http://www.cuisine-french.com/ have a wide range, about half the prices you quoted. Be warned: They are very heavy The handles get hot. They very quickly lose that showroom gleam You can't use them with induction The base is not that flat for a flattop or other contact heat source They need re-tinning at least once a year If you get them too hot - sugar boiling, for example - the tin lining melts. That's why sugar pans are unlined. That said, they cook like a dream. The nicest pan I had was a copper pan silver plated inside, originally intended for use in the room as a chafing dish.

What do you want to know about oysters? In the UK there are two main varieties grown: natives, with a smooth shell, which are only in season when ther is an "R" in the month, and Portugese, with a spiny shell that are coarser, grow faster and hence cheaper and can be eaten any time. Brittany has many different varieties Myself I prefer Natives, preferably raw, although with a little Tabasco and Shallot vinegar.

The denigration of butter as "unhealthy" is a nice example of the current climate of fear. Following the teaching of Leo Strauss and other neo-conservatives, politicians and others have stopped promising better tomorrows and extolling postive benefits, as such promises are mostly discredited by a cynical public. Instead they preach fear of today, and exagerate the threats. This gives them power. Leo Strauss even suggested that lies about the threat are legitimate, so as to lead the mass of people to a "higher truth". In this By persuading us that butter is bad, margerine is promoted. Strike a blow for individual liberty! Eat more butter! Tastes good too! It is a sad day where our choices are defined not by which tastes better, but by which we believe does less harm to ourselves (never mind the planet, the farmer etc), especially where that belief is artificial. Taste, at least we can determine by our own senses..

Heavens, they will be saying carbs are bad and fat is good next! I believe there is some evidence that fat protects from some forms of cancer. There is quite a lot of evidence that fat is only an indirect rather than direct contributor to heart atatcks and other cardio-vascular disease. Certainly the stress induced by following a diet is not good for you. Of course,all the gunk they put in margerine is distinctly doubtful

Don't know about London, but at Colchester go to the Company Shed at West Mersea. West Mersea is quite a way outside colchester, but its where the famous oysterns come from. Drive along the sea front/marina and you will come to this shack selling the best oysters you will ever have, with a few tables to eat them at. IMHO there aren't any original oyster pubs left in London, unlike eel and pie shops. Oysters are now upmarket, even though supermarkets sell them, and so are sold in gastro-pubs and the like. Harrods Food Hall has (or had) an Oyster bar, near the Sushi Bar. More likely to get good oysters at a traditional sea-food restaurant, like Wheelers, or Manzi's. I remember being taken to Wheelers, maybe twenty years ago by my old Professor, and then master of my College, whose lunch consisted of two dozen native oysters, a bottle of first growth Chablis, and a large cigar. A man of sound judgement...

Retard the loaves. Put the dough in the baskets into the fridge for between 12 and 24 hours...the cold dough will also be stiffer and handle easier. Steam as soon as the loaves are in the oven to gelatanise the starch on the outside of the loaves.

Treat it like stock from a keeping point of view. Freezes well (in ice trays) Great spread on toast with salt, especially as the food police disapprove Also support the chopped liver, roast potato and Kneidlach suggestions.

I think he wants to serve it cold... I'd hate something crisp and sharp with the soft lobster and vanilla cream. I'd keep thinking I had got a bit of shell

For ****'s sake! If its a brulee, the go with the caramel topping. Might work with lobster anyway, but I doubt it. Are you going to serve it cold? Otherwise its a gratin, and gratin are topped with breadcrumbs or with cheese or just brown the top the cream sauce with your handy blowtorch.

Yes, unless the people you invite are used to drinking hard liquor in the middle of the afternoon... 3 to 4pm would be ideal for a glass of Madeira with a slice of seedcake...then open a bottle of champagne or two with the nibbles and to add the jollity that champagne always does. If people need it stronger or sweeter add some kir or brandy to their glass for a Champagne cocktail

How cold is the weather? A glass of mulled wine or mulled Port (a Bishop) is welcome if its cold. I hot, what is wrong with a good champagne or a Manzanilla sherry? I recently had kir royale made with a good sparkler and creme du peche - yummy, but not really a pre-dinner drink I've never been a fan of spirit based drinks before dinner. They are only for those who drink water for the rest of the evening. Restaurants serve mixed drinks because they can charge more for them, and because (at least in the UK) the laws about fair measures don't apply if there are three or more mixed ingredients

Straight from the comfort thread: Tomato Soup Mac and cheese or grilled cheese or stuffed potatoes Pudding - chocolate something...

Campbells??? Has to be Heinz Tomato Soup, in a mug, with extra butter stirred in, and a big hunk of my crusty organic wholemeal sourdough for dipping.

Depends which diet religion you follow. Believing fat is bad is rather out of date. Some think (with justification) that fat is good and prevents cancer. Some think that refined and hugh glycenic arbs are the killers. Chloresterol and lipids are only indirectly linked to cardio-vascular illness. Ther is recent work that shows platelet aggregation to be an immune response to a common infection, and not linked to chloresterol at all. Taking 75mg asprin a day blocks the aggregation mechanism.

I wouldn't bother to skin the tomatoes. Peeling green tomatoes is tough anyway.

This is but part of a much older recipe and tradition. Goose stuffed with boned birds date to at least the 13th century. The following appears in the 13th-century Arabo- Andalusian _Manuscrito Anonimo_, and is reprinted in Cariadoc's Collection, volume II: Roast Calf, which was made for the Sayyid Abu-L-'Ala in Ceuta Take a young, plump ram, skinned and cleaned; open it deeply between the thighs and carefully take out all the entrails that are in its belly. Then put in the interior a stuffed goose and into its belly a stuffed hen and in the belly of the hen a stuffed pigeon and in the belly of the pigeon a stuffed thrush and in the belly of this a small bird, stuffed or fried, all this stuffed and sprinkled with the sauce described for stuffing; sew up this opening and place the ram in a hot tannur and leave it until it is browned and ready; sprinkle it with that sauce and then place it in the body cavity of a calf which has been prepared clean; sew it up and place it in the hot tannur and leave it until it is done and browned; then take it out and present it. Other sources (although I can't find them now) then stuff the calf into a camel... Claudia Roden, in A Book of Middle Eastern Food says: "The lamb can also be boned before it is stuffed. I have seen baby lambs served at weddings, made to look like miniature camels, their boneless backs shaped into a hump." There are also many 15th century recipes for multiple stuffings. Of course Turkey was not introduced into England before the late sixteenth century and became a popular Christmas dish by about 1650. King George II was said to have kept about 3000 turkeys in the grounds of Richmond park to feed to friends at Christmas. It seems logical that it might have replaced the goose that we see above had been stuffed this way for at least four hunderd years before that, and be served stuffed with boned out birds for grand feasts

Heat the pineapple (bring to the boil and cool) first to destroy the enzyme that eats the gelatine

Raffles; also the restaurant at the top of Raffles tower. I was taken to a high end chinese restaurant just across the street from Raffles. OK, but not amazing. P.S. Good article on electronic passports

Golden Beet seeds are now (at least in the UK) in most seed catalogues, often as an "heirloom" variety. I grow them They are beginning to be grown in commercialy as well, so expect them in the better supermarkets soon

I' go with the breadcrumbs with parsley and garlic. Fried egg on top for a la Holstein Anchovies and capers optional

Freeze the tomatos, then collect the water as they thaw in a strainer.

It means you didn't overcook it as much as I did, or were more patient and ccoked it at lower temperature...