jackal10

It's 106 miles to Chicago. We've got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses. Hit it.

Use lecithin (available at health food shops) instead of egg yolks. Cream 1tsp with water to an egg yolk like consitency, then beat in the oil...

dammit, now I'm going to have to make a red onion Tarte Tatin, served warm with salad,for a summer evening supper. Also good with fennel for the summer, Lots of roast veg make good TTs...cut the caramel with vinegar, or omit and just use the veg juices.

Yes, they were fallling apart juicy. The key is the low temperature so that they don't overcook and go mushy. Brown first, then reduce the temperature to 50C, until the mat is ast 140C, and hold it there or so. Must be at 60C for 15 mins or more to kill the bugs. The longer at that temperature the more the collagen dissolves to tenderness.

Eat the filets raw, with raw onion (optional); delicious, and seasonal

Thanks for all the suggestions...especially the one abpout trimming off the knuckle end. I wonder if I should have done the same with the end of the wings? In the end I brined overnight, then marinated in soy/garlic/chilli, browned some and then slow roast (5 hrs at 65/150F). I know they are yummy because people could not stop eating them. Still a little greasy, so napkins needed.

I need to prepare some chicken pieces for a picnic to be eaten cold, as finger food. They should not be sticky, oily or messy to eat. My current plan is to brine them overnight, then roast off long time low temperature (65C) with soy, garlic and maybe a little honey and chilli. Suggestions and comments please.

Thanks! You can read my stuff on eGCI. The oven is a AGA - lots of solid cast iron. I do find baking books intended for professional use better. "Baking, The Art and Science", Schuneman and Trey, Baker Tech Inc, ISBN 0-9693795-0 is excellent with very helpful diagrams and pictures, not only of things going right, but also various defects and how to correct them. Also good is, of course, Professer Cavel's "The Taste of Bread". And no I wouldn't move to Illinois, especially with the current politics Why not move to Europe? The environment is more benign, climate better, Gastronomy is held as a key value, and the bread is often more interesting.

As I quoted on the cricket thread: Of course, while in the Pavillion they will need something to drink...

Pea soup or pease pottage (with dried peas) Other things traditionally made with ham stock, such as persille, or aspic on terrines

Grinding up the meat and the veg will certainly make more area available. I'm less certain about grinding up the bones, as this will tend to release more calcium to give a distinct "bone taint". Also very small particle of bone are hard to filter out, and give an unpleasant texture.

Do you mean Herve This's Chocolate Chantilly? Take good chocolate with a little less than its own weight in water, melt the two together, then set it over ice and whip with an electric whisk until thick and creamy. http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,...,663413,00.html

Horseradish: Doesn't get too out of hand as we dig it each year for Passover. Also I use the young ferny tops (before the coarse leaves come) as an early salading. They are not hot at all. I imgaine (have not tried, but will) if you cut off the leaves of some of your patch (use for compost), new growth will come that you can use this way. It really won't matter that you weaken the plant a bit... Usual uses for the root: grate and make horseradish and turnip or beet chrain, horseradish potatoes. Otherwise compost. Its traditional to pinch out the tops of broad bean plants; this discourages the blackfly since you remove the young tender growth, and encourages better setting of the beans. You can use these bean tops that you pinch out as a bean-flavoured spinach: wilt in a pan with some butter or bacon

I like the recipe from Elizabeth David's "French Provincial Cooking" Wonderful texture and a fine flavour. She crushes coffee beans in a mortar before infusing in the cream. I cheat and use fresh coarse ground; I like the fine flecks of coffee bean left in the ice cream after straining theough a fine sieve. My adaptation: Mix together 4oz coffee beans, coarse ground 1 Pint cream 3 egg yolks 3 oz soft brown sugar (cassonade) strip lemon peel Gently bring to the boil, remove from heat, let get cold, strain through a fine sieve Fold in 1/4 pint heavy (double) cream lightly whipped with a tbs white sugar. Freeze and churn

From the UK (East Anglia) Now: herbs, lovage, radish, lettuce, arugula, last of the overwintered swiss chard, last of the purple sprouting broccoli, broad (fava) bean tops (like beany spinach), sorrel, horseradish, asparagus, strawberries (greenhouse), cut and come again stir-fry mix Coming soon: Currants (red, white, black), New potatoes, purple mange-tout, purple broad beans, green garlic

If I, as a food writer, accept a freebie from a restaurant or supplier - an invite to a launch party, for example, or a free meal, am I duty bound to write it up? Most food journo's I know seem to write up maybe one in ten free meals or even less, which seems to me to have an element of free-loading. I feel that if you accept the invite, you should have the intention of writing it up. If you don't intend to write, then refuse the invite. Not that foodie journos would ever freeload...

Thanks. I'm confused by cheesecake. I think the problem is that there seem to be two, if not three (or more) traditions: a) The one I grew up with: heavy, dense, baked brown on top, cream cheese and lemon, about an inch of filling. Eggs not seperated and beaten. Pastry or cracker shell. Heathens add raisins, which sink to the bottom. b) Light and fluffy, baked, eggs seperated and the white beaten stiff like a souffle. About six inches of filling - same as the heavy version but inflated with beaten egg white. c) Uncooked, but set. Mostly commercial. May have a seperate layer of fruit or chocolate. I believe version (a) to be the only true cheesecake, and there is no need to speak softly when it is cooking. I deduce you are making (b) the souffle version, which needs to be treated like any souffle.

I think the brining experiemnts was in the context of brining pork to make ham, so the brine would be the usual strength, and the meat would be ham size. I guess the dye was fluorscene (not edible). However I guess this would apply to any meat. Prof Hall's MRI results indicate very different rates of penetration along or across the muscle fibres.

I've set up www.moleculargastronomy.org which has a link to the mailing list. Actually that's all it has at present. Admission to the lsit is moderated. If you want to join the mailing list please PM or email me with a short description of yourself and your interest, mainliy to keep random spammers out.

I have to say I don't terribly care for the Reinhart books, or the Silverton. I love "Bread Builders" and Joe Ortiz's Village Baker, but the one for me is Dan Lepard's Baking with Passion.

Last year I made a Tomato Curd from a recipe sent into Farmer's Weekly sometime before 1946, the date of my collected recipes. Interesting but mild. 1lb tomatos 6 oz sugar 3 oz butter 1 lemon 2 eggs Stew the tomatos until tender, then puree and sieve. Add the butter, sugar and lemon juice, then add the well beaten eggs and stir over gentle heat until hick. Don't overcook. Put into warmed clean preserving jars.

Corn fritters with drizzled thyme honey (from the Rex Stout \Nero Wolf cookbook)

Hard winter pears - called Wardens - are a very old tradition. Medlars are a very slow growing tree, but make wonderful gnarled architectural forms.

I was asleep - it was night in the UK. Bletting is a form of fermentation. "Time is like the medlar, it is rotten before it is ripe" The fresh medlar is tough and woody. Its (I think) a member of the Rose family, but with three big seeds. You leave them in a heap to ferment (a week or so) and they get soft. A real taste of autumn - they are brown and taste "brown", like an old sherry. They are still tough to eat, beacuse there is mot much flesh to seed, but they make wonderful jam or jelly. The tree is also decorative and long lived. I have a feeling there are other foods which have to undergo this process: persimmons and tobacco come to mind..

Good thought but my oven will not cooperate at such a low temp. Best I can hope for is 170F. 170 F is probably OK, so long as you have a thermometer in the meat and watch its temperature like a hawk It will only take 3-4 hours or so to get up to 130F, which is the temperature to take it out. Double wrapping the joint in tinfoil will slow the heat adsorbtion some - brown it first. Cracking the oven door open a bit will cool the oven as well, but maybe too much.