jackal10

Mybe its the UK climate, or breed of goose, but all the ones I've had are much more like a large chicken or turkey liver than the barely held together fat of FG. Taste is great, but the texture is quite different. Makes a wonderful pate or terrine, and killer chopped liver though,

Gingerbread house Marron glace

They certainly exist. I have some from 1978 in my cellar, made by Ridge Vineyards. They are a little like a light fruity port. Usually labelled "Late Harvest High Residual Sugar " or "Essence" or some such.

SMOKED BACON in the chowder

Blaclberry and APPLE PUREE

I cooked them with BRANDY

Yes, the surface may be at searing heat, but meat does not conduct well, so say at one inch depth the stick will be at (and maintained at) just the right temperature to breed bugs. Since the meat has been handled (sliced or ground) bugs will be present. Although the searing heat will kill most bugs, it won;t affect the toxins they leave behind. Acid will help, but you are relying on the vendors making the marinade properly and their general hygiene.

I don't know, but the following may help; "1920" is a brand of cognac, though I believe is is part of the Ricard/Domencq, rather than Moet/Hennessey/Krug/Luis Vuitton empire, but still sold today. There is a famous advertising poster from 1920 "Cognac Jacquard" by Camille Bouchet, featuring a peacock on the left hand side, which may be your J. The registered at Stationers Hall and Patent Office would be regeristing the label design and trade mark. Three stars is cooking brandy, I'm afraid. You did not say how full the bottle was, which is a hint as to its conditon. I suspect its not that old, but the label design used the famous image...

Argh!! These imitations are a great mistake. Trifle is, and must be: Sponge (genoese) soaked in sherry. Swiss roll is acceptable provided it is the sort without creme, and looks nice in a glass dish. Not Lady fingers - those are for charlotte. Raspberries. Tinned or frozen or even jam are better than fresh. Strawberries are a mistake and go mushy. Any other fruit is a travesty. Custard, Birds Eye, made thick. Whipped Cream As to decoration opinion is divided and family tradition comes in. Most agree on glace cherries, Glace Angelica available. Some allow chocolate curls. I like hundreds and thousands, but the colours melt into the cream. Silver balls are too flash, and crunchy.

Mailing list: http://www.moleculargastronomy.org/ but its pretty quiet.

Salt pigs don't keep the salt particularly dry. You just think they do. They have a big hole in the top so it doesn't matter if the salt clumps a bit, and you keep it next to the stove, where its warm...

Please can someone explain to me why Shwarma and its relatives are not biological nightmares? The meat on the skewer has been ground and handled so is anything but sterile. Although the outside is grilled, the inside must get warm and at some depth be the ideal temperature for the bugs to multiply. Round here, the same skewer revolves most of the day (week?) giving plenty of time.

What#s a "Bretonne Far Tart"?

Thsi would have been a fine Norfolk Treacle Tart also known as Walpole House Tart. Very fine it would have been too. Its like a normal treacle tart but with a treacle custard instead of breadcrumbs. http://norfolkdumpling.blogspot.com/2006/0...and-and-st.html However I got distracted and left it in the oven for far too long. The top was black. That was the bottom. Its is surprisingly delicious, but unpreseantable. Why do the burnt bits taste so good?

In the marke today I found some Chinese black truffles Tuber sinensis. http://www.sinohost.com/yunnan_pages/mushr...esetruffle.html While affordable, they are only faintly perfumed, but with a little truffle oil and some brandy wonders can occur. Given a large amount of cheap truffles what would the best way to cook them? Plain roast as a vegetable? A turkey "stuffed spherical with truffles" after the fashion of Brillat Savarin?

Truffled There are cheap ($25/kg) Chinese truffles around this time of year here, so CHINESE BLACK TRUFFLE

1. Menus usually alternate large and small dishes. 2. Not sure about the pork dumplings, especially if you follow with pasta 3. Why stop at desert. Its good for meals to have a long tail so that people can sit round sippong delcious desert wines, port ot other after dinner drinks, nibbling.. 4. Some cold, pre assembled dishes will make your life easier 5. Hot sour soup, and balsamic vinegar dressing are hell on wine, as is chocolate, but maybe you are trying to make the wine choices hard. 6. You are putting too much in each course. For example salad and bruscetta are really two different courses. In fact I'd lose the bruschetta. 7, No fish course? I've put possible additional courses in brackets Charcuterie (large) (oysters) Consomme (small) Pasta (Gnocchi with thyme butter) (large) Salad (no vinegar) (small) Main (since its italian style maybe veal, or slow cooked lamb, or an italian chicken such as piccata or parmigan (large) Sorbet (small) Hot sweet (e.g beignets) (large) Cold sweet (Tiramisu? Zabaglione?) (small) (savoury or cheese, fruit) (large) Coffee, chocolates, tatlets etc (small)

Calamansi reminds me of CALAMARI

http://www.brotformen.de/

Raisins, currents, sultanas, breadcrumbs, eggs, booze, suet, brown sugar...and last Sunday was Stir Up Sunday,,, CHRISTMAS PUDDING

Ate at Restarant Eleven last night. Maybe a bad night but dissapointing, sort of faded. Heart was in the right place, all the trimmings but lots of details wrong. Main fault was long waits between courses - half an hour or so, and the restaurant was not full. Nice bread, not made in house, and served cold and a little dry. I had a poached egg with ratte potato puree (over processed and gluey) with fresh white Alba truffles, then poached baccalao (salt cod) on underdone and tasteless blini ( no detectable sour or buckwheat) with miniscule caviar. All the food was to my taste over salted - I guess the chef smokes. We drank a rose cava and a white Dao, both chilled to within an inch of their lives - the sort of mistake a restaurant of this caliber should not make. There was a truffle tasting menu at 168 EU

Black pudding (blood sausage) is part of a ful on english breakfast: Bacon, fried egg, sausage, tomato, mushrooms, fried potatoes, baked beans, fried bread so.... BACON!!!

and you might want to make a starter sponge with, say 30% of the flour: Sponge: 150g flour 75g water 1g yeast Rough mix and Ferment 12 hours at 70F Dough: All the sponge 350g flour 325g water 10g salt Rough mix; put in oiled bowl and fold sides to middle every half hour for 2 hours; then shape and prove for 2 hours or overnight in the fridge; bake in a hot casserole (edit I'm guessing the timings - it depends on your yeast and the temperature. For sourdough its 12 hours for the sponge and 4 hours from mixing to baking the dough. Yeast will go 3-4 times quicker. Go by feel, and underprove rather than overprove.

Matcha tea? spiced Chai - go well with pears. or Herb tea, like ginger or peppermint? What form are the pears in? Fresh, demi-sec, dried, candied? Pears poached in red wine with chocolate sauce and matcha ice cream...

They are cabbage family. They are varieties of the cabbage family, like kale or cavalero nero that are grown for their leaves, or even sprout tops, but broccoli isn't one. Broccoli rabe is a version of the young leaves and flower buds of rape. If in the UK you were sold broccoli leaves, I suspect that is what they are - leaves of purple sprouting broccoli. I would expect then to be a bit coarse and stringy but perfectly edible, which is why I would shred finely. You might need to strip the leafy bit from the ribs and cook separately depending how tough the ribs are. Should not need to blanch/squeeze, but like all leaves they will have a lot of moisture. The thick stems of broccoli are delicious. Peel or cut off the outside stringy bits to leave the pale green core, cube and cook lightly to give jade green cubes. I never have enough except as a garnish. Cream or white sauce would go well...