fifi

yeah... I was faced with making something I had never made before to fulfill a friend's craving. I came here, started a thread, got wonderful results. Who can ask for more than that. eGullet rocks! I forgot to add... I was a little dubious of dumping the hot reduction directly into the hot roux but I did what project said and dumped and just kept stirring with my wooden spatula. I was amazed. It became the smoothest sauce I had ever seen. It was absolutely silky.

elyse... When you say "do" the commercials, do you mean produce? film? be the Mikey? What? That is fascinating.

Nothing wrong with a good ol' hot dog now and again. I drink water all day long at the office. I have a really big insulated sippy cup that I carry around from stupid meeting to stupid meeting. What goes in the toaster oven tonight? After the scotch, of course.

Anytime a recipe calls for peeling and dicing a raw winter squash, pumpkin, whatever, that tells me that they have never really cooked the recipe. It is just too hard to do, and unnecessary. I always cook, at least a little, maybe nuke it, to the point I can deal with it without bodily harm. Put your peeler to rest with the appropriate requiem and don't try to do that again.

I am not a music freak, except for the 1812 overture. I play that at maximum volume on the Bose every July 4th. I am contemplating doing this dish for the daughter and son, both scallop freaks, when they are here for Christmas. I will consider the 1812 overture presentation.

snowangel, you are absolutely right. Some years are better than others. We went through some times here in Texas where the deer herds were overrunning their habitat and the meat wasn't as good and sweet. My nephew has the advantage of being invited to hunt and cook on some large ranches where they are actively trying to manage the resource within the dept of wildlife guidelines. I think we are getting better at managing the resource.

Here is how we justify the cost issues... The big pot and burner can also be used for shrimp boils, crawfish boils, crab steamings. etc. and that is with the basket deal. A shallower pan (sort of like a big frying pan) serves for fish fries. The rack is used for the turkeys. The cost of the oil is ameliorated by filtering and storing for the next time. This is a time consuming process and probably not worth it even given the high cost of peanut oil but we feel righteous doing it. Once you get comfortable with these set-ups, the opportunities for culinary fun and frivolity are endless.

"Gaminess" comes from improper handling of the carcass, either in the shot, in the field dressing, or in the butcher shop, period. Fishiness is probably a good analogy but is not quite bad enough. I really don't think that brining, marinading or any other process can adequately remove the flavor. We have tried it on various "gifts" of improperly handled deer, elk or whatever. We ended up thowing it out. If it isn't done right, it will never be right. My nephew goes for a neck or head shot (and he is a crack marksman) then field dresses with precision, always in cold weather. His venison is sublime.

Uuuuhh... Get a really big, FIREPROOF, umbrella? Seriously... I have only been present at one turkey frying session where this happened. It was only a passing light shower, not one of our Texas toad stranglers, and we literally stood by with a golf umbrella. The only issue was keeping the rain drops from plunking into the hot oil so this was ok. I have thought about the rain issue for my new place. I am planning to set up a BBQ, shrimp boil, turkey fry, fish fry area in the yard. I am thinking to size it to fit one of those temporary tent things for use on rainy days. We have enough of those here that you have to think about it. While you coud possibly move a BBQ or boiling operation under a covered patio or into the garage (with a lot of caution... you still have that big flame going on) I wouldn't THINK of doing that with turkey frying.

EEEEEEWWWW!!!!! Yeah... EEEEWWW! I'll bet that was some gamey hunk of venison. jackal10... You are one of the few that I know of that like the gamey taste. To me, it just means ill-treated venison. It is so bad, that is why there are all of those recipes out there for marinades to try to kill it. Of course, you do enough to cover up the musk (thinking you really can) and you can't tell it is venison anymore.

misgabi... This is one kind of toaster oven. Though it is a fancy one with convection. You can bake, broil, toast, defrost... they are most useful. Squeat... It's your blog and you can brag if you want to, brag if you want to. Oh, damn. Now that stupid song is stuck in my head.

My grandmother taught me that, too. I always thought it was to run off the lurking caterpillars.

Have the butcher carve out the whole backstrap. We always roast this in one glorious piece and pig out. Then we have the legs and shoulders for roasts or maybe cut up later for chile. The rest goes into venison sausage. We don't do a whole lot of marinating and all that stuff to "get rid of the wild taste". If it is properly killed, field dressed and butchered, there is no "wild taste". My nephew's venison never has that or I wouldn't even go in the house when it is cooking. That musky smell (and that is it what it is, musk) makes me gag. What you have is wonderful, sweet meat that you don't want to cover up with too much of anything, even in a chile or stew. We keep the chile really simple and not highly seasoned so the flavor of the meat comes through. If I can reach him, I will get some more specific cooking tips for you. He is the game cook.

Actually, the little white gratins did look lovely! I thought about taking a picture but I don't have any way to post pictures, so I didn't. The green asparagus off to the side of the gratins set vertically on the big white porcelain plate made for a nice composition, spare and sort of contemporary. Quite artistic, if I do say so myself. My nephew (smooth talking attorney that he is) came to the table and said... "Holy shit!" Then he took a bite of the scallops and said... "Holy Shit! umm... This is serious stuff." I think what took the recipe over the top was the reduction of the poaching liquid. The shallots, mushrooms and wine did not over-power the scallop. It just made the sauce more scallopy (new word), I mean it screamed SCALLOP. Luckily, these were very nice scallops. The acidity of the wine was a perfect foil to the richness of the sauce, especially after balancing it at the end with a couple of squeezes of lemon. The sprinkling of the gruyere was just enough. You wouldn't want gobs of cheese on this, IMHO.

I am trying to think of a way for you to play that tape back and capture it as a wav file. That would be really cool, and a new dimension for eGullet. echoing maggiethecat... These things are fascinating.

OK guys... the scallops were an absolute hit. I did the sauce without the egg yolks but with a little extra cream. I used fresh muchrooms. There were some really nice button mushrooms so I used fresh. I sprinkled the top of the gratins with a little gruyere cheese, not a lot. That was the best St. Jacques I have ever had, anywhere. The rest of the party said the same thing. Many thanks, project.

I may have to cook up a business trip there to get some. My sister is the family forager. She would freak if she could get wild fennel. We are always watching the ditches and roadsides for delectible goodies. I think I have said before that when confronted with some of her salads of chickweed, dandeloin, etc., my kids have said... "I wonder what is in here that the cat has peed on.

Hmmmm... the USDA beagles were on vacation? BTW... I love those little guys. They are amazing. It is so funny to see the look on someone's face when they do their "sit" routine and the perp knows they have been busted. But then, I am a dog freak.

asshole

Whew! glad all went well. Details... Did you inject it? Put rub on it? Was it as good as you tought it would be?

Damn. edit to add: I just googled this and apparently it is a nasty weed in California. You can order seeds but you can't ship them into California.

I am curious as to where you laid your hands on this treasure. Did you hand pick it? Does anyone know the range of where it grows in the US?

Good discussion, Bux. But, the birthday girl likes the old-fashioned St. Jacques so I am going with project's way. I will probably restrict the cheese to a light sprinkling on the top and I may leave out the egg yolk to reduce the richness. The cream has to stay, though. All this bit about formatting... I don't understand the problem. Why not just hit the add reply button instead of playing games with other text editors? Let the site software handle it and the chances of other viewers having a problem go way down. I don't find any real problem or undue restrictions doing it that way. It's a discussion thread... not a manuscript, guys.

No lid. Leaves blowing in? Hmmm... I haven't had that problem, really. I do remember one or two blowing in and we dipped it out with a spyder. I suppose you could put one of those metal splatter screens over it. You just don't want to use a lid where the steam from the cooking turkey will condense, drip back into the pot and cause all kinds of havoc. Let me know how it goes. PLEASE be sure you have the safety issues covered. I worry about beginners doing this. We learned by assisting experienced turkey friers so we weren't on our own.

It is easier to put the turkey on the rack right side up, sort of like on a beer can. It also drains a lot better that way. I wouldn't do it the other way arond because you want it to drain readily when you lift it out. No, we have never slashed the leg skin. Oil really doesn't pool anywhere under the skin. Properly done with the frying temperature maintained, the turkey is remarkably not oily or greasy.