jackal10

No schmear for me, just more Lox...on an onion bagel

There is also he difference between cow and bull meat. Over here in the UK its almost all bullock - castrated bull, and by law must be slaughtered below 30 months

The amount of liquid. Stewing is cooking in liquid. Braising is more like pot roast, starting with a small amount of liquid on a bed of vegetables - more will be released as the meat cooks.

Is all US beef just beef? Here (at least in the better butchers) you can choose which breed, length of aging, and they will tell you the feed, age, provenance and history of the animal. THis is partly because of the better record keeping following the BSE scare Local Dexter, grass fed killed at 30 months and aged for 4 weeks for me.

Irish stew is different: Lamb (best end of neck, potatoes, onions only, cooked with the lid off like a hot pot so the top layer of sliced potatoes brown, For beef stew don't forget the dumlings, gotto have dumplings...

I have excellent German wines. This was not one of them: "Top Gun" was a red German wine in a bullet shaped bottle, presumably made about the time of the film. No longer made I believe. I could have kept it as a curiosity, I suppose. Other horrors are generic Liebfraumilch; if you can fin the original its wonderful, but the ocean of "Blue Nun" and equivalent are dire. In my student days I could take these to a party. Now I would be ashamed to be associated with them.

What a good challenge: Lots of ideas come to mind: Fruit cheese such as membrillo One restaurant I know serves truffled honey with cheese Other honeys and gelee Real Cheesecake Paska cheese and pineapple deep fried brie versions sweet biscuits to go with cheese, such as Digestive

Use ordinary stoned prunes. The mi cuit was just fancification Maybe move Amuse 2 to after the soup. For wine with courses 3 and 4 I'd think you want a hefty red. Lots of choices Jovals Liquors in West Warwick carry Zind Humbrecht, but at around $30 While you are there you could pick up some Ridge Zin, or they have according to their web site the superb 2000 CHATEAUNEUF-DU-PAPE (Parker 92) , a real bargain at $28, and ideal for courses 3 and 4. Vickers Liquors in Newport also carry them, as well as Ridge Lytton Springs Zin 2002 (Parker 93), but at a dollar more, Either will knock your socks off.

Yumm! I'd go more extreme: 140F/60C oven and cook to 135F/57C - about 12 hours or longer. The very long cooking times helps the collagen dissolve, giving super tender meat. If you look carefully at your photo you will see that the outer half inch or so is grey and overcooked, and the meat has lost a lot of juice into the dish. Cooking at an even lower temperature will stop the outside overcooking, and the juices escaping. You will need to sear the outside first though.

1. Check the Daube thread: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=95421&st=0 Adding red wine will make a wonderful difference. 2. Use soy instead of Worcester sauce - you are adding umani. 3. Caramelize the onions with the sugar. Remove. Saute the meat, then sprinkle in the flour. If you cook the flour first it will lose a lot of its thickening properties. 4. You need not bother to deglaze, but it does help get the solids dissolved 5. The quality of the beef stock is important. Water or wine is better than packet or chemicals. 6. Carrots? Celery or celeriac? 7. Cook on low for a long time - like 12 hours at 75C/175F - buy a digital thermometer. Its the single thing that will make your cooking better. You are cooking until the collagen in the meat starts to break down. 9. Cook the potatoes seperately and add at the end. A high end restaurant will cook all the components separately and assemble at service - see my example in the Daube thread.

I've seen some ceps this year with very large stems and small tops. I think roast shallots and home made baked beans would go well with the sausage, without overloading the carbs. For Alsace look for Rolly Gassmann (my favourite), or Zind Humbrecht, which is fairly widely distributed. You may need to go to $20, and some of the single vinyard wines will be more. Some of the Edelzwicker (mixed grape variety) wines, such as Rolly Gassmann's Terroirs des Chateau Forts are cheap and delicious, but I think not available in the US.

Amuse 1: Lop yuk and asparagus bundles Asparagus is out of season. Something else to go with the Lop yuk? Melon maybe, oysters *Angels on horseback", or mi cuit prunes ("devils on horseback")... Amuse 2: Maine shrimp, cucumber, Thai gremolata Chinese soup spoons Course 1: Ham and eggs with toast Too close to amuse 1? And do you really want palate numbing cocktail here? Course 2: Lobster tempura with two sauces Sounds good, and if you use a lightly fried tempura batter you don't overcook the lobster. Some salad would make the lobster go further. An Alsace, even a Gewurztraminer would be nice. Course 3: Mushroom noodle soup I think your cylindrical mushrooms are ceps. The white wine (Gewurztraminer?) will carry through for this course. For plating consider serving the garnishes only plated in the soup plate, with the soup either in individual jugs or poured at the table. Course 4: Roasted Toulouse sausage and grapes, mashed potatoes Nice. More winter vegetables? , For example roast shallots, parsnips, dried beans... What follows? for example a winter sorbet, then traditional Xmas pudding?

Copper has very good heat conducting properties, and stainless steel rather poor, so if you are heating over a burner you are less likely to get hot spots with a copper pan. Some modern pans have a layer of copper to help. Originally copper pans were tin lined, which melts at a comparatively low temperature (230C/450F), so sugar boiling pans were unlined. However copper is a heavy metal and is mildly poisonous, so coming into prolonged contact with food (especially acid food) would not be considered good, notwithstanding many water pipes are copper, although over time an internal layer of insoluble oxide builds up. Whipping egg whites in a copper bowl (or with a few copper coins) really does make the foam rise higher as the copper binds to compounds in the egg white.

Thanks, but I can't eat that many poached pears or wine gelee, and even if I could I prefer to start wih something I would drink (and I have plenty of cooking port or drinkable champagne) Another example: bottles of last year's Beaujolais Noveau;

This time of year there is an annual problem: what to do with dud wine, such as the bottle of barely drinkable port someone well meaning but basically ignorant has given you. Maybe its part of the seasonal present giving, or won on the school Christmas raffle or tombola, or something someone ill informed has brought to a party or a dinner. You accept them, not wanting to give offence, but then you are stuck. You could not possibly serve them to guests, nor take them elsewhere as a present, and you would have to be desperate to drink them (and have a free day following). I suppose I can pour them into the vinegar jar, but garbage in, garbage out. I'm looking at various young LBV ports; generic fizz; german wines in fancy bottles (one labled "Top Gun"); Any suggestions? Do you have similar problems?

I have a red wine vinegar crock sitting in a corner of the laundry. I just put in the ends of bottles, often sweet or fortified wine. It seems to gobble it all, and produce superb vinegar.

17 at one sitting of full size ones for me please. Hold the Tahini

170F is very well done, 170C is incinerated. Temperture/time for meat cooking is now much better understood. http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/fc01-3.html#3-4 provides authorative tables, but roughly cook most red meat to 55C for rare and 60C for medium rare and hold at temperature for at least 15 mins.

Old reislings are often wonderful. 1976 was a very hot year, but can be flabby. It will be drying off some by now. I would not have anything fatty with it, nor anything too strongly flavoured. Maybe scallops, but a wine of such finesse should be enjoyed on its own, with perhaps some dry biscuits.

BORSCHT with SOUR CREAM

Unless you grind your own, or buy "green" flour straight from the mill it will have done its ageing by the time you get it. Usually a small amount of Vitamin C (0.1%) will do it, or a mixing regime that incorporates a lot of air.

Its just heat. Unless you are reasonably skilled with a blowtorch its easy to overheat a spot and burn it, which doesn't taste as nice. I find a blowtorch like a plumbers torches or paint stripping guns with a broader heat spot easier than those miniature chefs blowtorches.

Harissa with COUS COUS

Blasting at the beginning doesn't work since the since it adsorbs moisture and goes limp in the long slow cooking period. However the browning " Maillard reaction" flavours do permeate the meat some from the intial browning, so it makes some sense to blast it at both beginning (for flavour and colour) and end (for crispness). HB achieves this from injecting with the butter the wingtips are braised and browned in.

Actually its the opposite. Flour older than about 3 weeks will make different bread than fresh flour. If you use fresh flour you will need to either modify your technique or add oxidants like Vitamin C to oxidise an enzyme that will otherwise eat the gluten.