GOJIRA

I just got the book The Art of French Pastry by Jacquy Pfeiffer and am confused about the size tart ring that hes asking for. He calls for a 9" tart ring in his tart recipes but makes no reference to height. I've seen tart rings in 3/4" to 1" in height. So I went to check the tart rings from Matfer which he recommends. Okay...seems their tart rings are 3/4" in height. But then I run into another issue. Turns out they dont sell 9" tart rings. The closest to 9" is 9.5" if I were to go down the stainless steel route or 8.75" if I went the tin route. It now appears that he rounded the size of the tart ring if he indeed uses Matfer. He does mention that he highly recommends stainless steel or galvanized metal which makes me think he actually means 9.5". Which one should I go for? A sample recipe would be his chocolate tart which would consist of 350 grams of pate sablee to line the tart ring and 160 g dark chocolate couverture (2.6 oz), 50 g eggs (1 extra large egg), 75 g milk (3/8 cup), 150 g heavy cream (2/3 cup). Im leaning towards the 9.5" due to his stainless steel recommendation but at the same time, I would be annoyed if this wasn't the case and I would be left with a shorter tart with a disproportionate crust. But if I went the 8.75" route, theres the risk of overfilling.

Love the Gramercy Tavern and was fortunate enough to have met Michael Anthony while grocery shopping at the Union Square Greenmarket. Just curious. Did you follow the measurements for the spices? I tried this the other day. While it smelled amazing it just felt a bit overspiced. I did upp the recipe by 2/3 and changed the ground meat. Instead I used 12 oz beef sirloin, 12 oz. chuck, 8 oz. pork butt, and 8 oz. veal shoulder and weighed it before and after grinding. (The meatballs at the restaurant uses a beef, pork, veal combo as well. not sure why they changed it in the book. So I used the meatball template I've had success with from Thomas Keller) I used some garlic confit I had in the fridge and made the garlic puree the way I normally do (garlic confit was a cup of garlic and 2 cups oil cooked gently over medium low heat for 40 minutes. And I just pureed some of that garlic for the puree). I dont think my other adjustments would really affect it but just wanted some additional insight before I try this one again. btw...anything else you've cooked and loved from the book? Going to make the lamb shoulder tomorrow.

Since you're in NYC, try the bacon from Flying Pigs Farm at the Union Square Greenmarket. Their pork belly is the best so its no surprise their bacon is equally amazing. All of their pork is so much different than what I get from what I get from the butcher.