fifi

but my assumption is that not all water is warm in the summer. You are correct. I suspect that the "r" lore in northern climes originates in the taste and texture things whereas the "r" lore in southern climes originates in taste, texture AND risk. When I was a kid and my family had a place on the water, we would crab, fish, shrimp and gather oysters. My dad, grandpa and uncles would never gather oysters in the summer. Well... They decided not to because when they did succumb to temptation, they would get a case of "the runs".

ah, so it's not a summer thing, or even a warm water thing, it's a reproduction thing, which happens to happen in the summer for most or all oysters? That is the taste and texture thing. Not the risk thing. It just so happens that the taste thing and the risk thing coincide in warm waters. Therefore the "r" month lore.

Great link, slbunge. I will have her try them and report back. It sounds like they might be kind of useless. We will see. It might be a day or so before I can report back. Thanks for the replies.

That is what my local oyster loving friends tell me. The summer oysters aren't all that good so why take the risk. Let the tourists take the risk.

are you still talking about 35 years ago? What has changed in 35 years is that there is more monitoring of bacterial counts where the oyster beds are. They do routinely shut down harvesting when the monitoring indicates higher counts. This can happen when you have a lot of run-off from heavy rains combined with high water temperatures. We are doing a much better job now of insuring the safety of the oysters. But it is not perfect. I have friends that are immune system compromised due to transplant rejection suppression drugs or HIV. Raw oysters are DEFINITELY off the menu. Raw oysters are a risk but many folks choose to accept that risk. So be it. I don't believe in a zero risk existence. Hell... I get food poisoning about once a year because I like things like crab meat and eat it a lot in restaurants. (You really don't want to know about crab meat.) I think that it is revenge from all of the bugs that I cooked in our autoclave years ago.

The red tide phenomenon is an entirely different thing and can be managed. Trust me... In the south, contamination is a real issue. 35 years ago I was a foods microbiologist with FDA in New Orleans. Every summer, we were chasing food poisoning cases from raw oysters. It was a real test to identify the culprits in a lot of cases. We would find huge bacterial loads. I remember one celebrated case out of Mobile Bay that we never did figure out the origin of the particular Vibrio bug involved. Sure, but is contamination a summer/winter thing? Pretty much. We didn't have nearly as many cases during the "r" months. Actually, almost none. And we were the lab that investigated any instances for the whole southeast region. The problem is the high water temperatures in our bays. At least, that was our answer. I think it was investigated further at LSU and that was the answer.

The red tide phenomenon is an entirely different thing and can be managed. Trust me... In the south, contamination is a real issue. 35 years ago I was a foods microbiologist with FDA in New Orleans. Every summer, we were chasing food poisoning cases from raw oysters. It was a real test to identify the culprits in a lot of cases. We would find huge bacterial loads. I remember one celebrated case out of Mobile Bay that we never did figure out the origin of the particular Vibrio bug involved.

i don't think the oyster bar in NYC is going to stop serving oysters during the summer. that's ridiculous. or rather, it's ridiculous to suggest that they're putting their customers at an ureasonable risk. Well... All of my comments about oysters are about Gulf Coast oysters. I am sure that where water temperatures don't get as high there is less of a problem. Also, monitoring and regulation have been improving so I would suspect that even well monitored Gulf oysters don't carry the same risk that they did a few years ago. Most of my oyster sucking friends would agree with essvee though.

Yeah, that was my first thought. My sister says this isn't a Meyer lemon. I believe her. Hell... We have grown those. This is something we haven't seen and we have been around a loooooonnngg time.

i suppose the question is: is any reputable restaurant (which is the only place i'd eat oysters), going to serve oysters that come out of 85 degree water? Apparantly some of our "reputable" restaurants have gotten a lot of people sick. There is always an investigation and most of the time the oysters are traced to Alabama or Louisana. It doesn't happen as often as it used to in the past three or four years but it still happens. I have heard that some restaurants are warning against raw oysters but will serve them if you insist. I haven't seen that so it may be an urban myth. We had some pretty high profile cases so maybe they are getting tougher on the certification.

My sister just reported that she has purchased something called "Sweet Lemons" from our local (Houston) Latin market. They are a little smaller than a tennis ball, round like a ball, smooth skinned and light yellow with some tan freckels. Does anyone know what these are? If so, what do you do with them? She hasen't tasted them yet.

Nope... butter. Real butter.

The fish and wildlife folks here in the Gulf do a good job of policing the red tide outbreaks. We haven't had many problems down here. A couple of years ago, we had some problems with folks getting into respiratory trouble on the beach. The stuff was in the salt spray in the air. The buggles sure get a lot of folks, though.

I beg to differ. In the past few years there have been some ferocious red tides, particularly down the coast towards Corpus Christi. I fly over the Gulf along the Louisiana coast fairly often. It is not unusual to see the patches of red tide off shore. They close the bays to oystering etc. if the red tide drifts toward shore. Also... Food poisoning outbreaks and hepatitis cases ramp up. Announcements and warnings are fairly common on the local news shows. Farmed or not... NO ONE should eat oysters that come out of 85 degree water. And it has nothing to do with "pollution". At those temperatures, naturally occurring buggles (like some of the vibrios or whatever they are called now) increase their population and the oysters are filter feeders, concentrating whatever is in the water.

I am not an oyster lover but I wouldn't eat a Gulf Coast oyster in the non-r months on a bet. The bays where the oyster reefs are are like a freakin' petri dish. We are talking water temperatures of 85 or more. That, plus those are the reproductive months for that type of oyster and the texture and taste is not its best.

Last holidays, I had a bunch of pecan and walnut halves left over. I didn't want them to go to waste so I decided to season them and toast them for snacks. I did the usual butter, Worchestershire, seasonings that I have used dozens of times for pecans. The walnuts had a really nasty fishy taste! The only thing I can figure is that something in the walnuts reacted with the anchovy in Worchestershire.

I do an oven fried eggplant that everyone loves and I have snuck in zucchini when they weren't looking. (Is "snuck" a real word?) Whisk together 1/4 cup cooking oil with one egg. (You can multiply this as needed.) Season some bread crumbs to your taste. Slice the vegetable about 1/4 inch thick. I usually slice zucchini on an angle to make nice sized pieces. Coat the pieces in the oil/egg mixture. Coat with the bread crumbs. Place on a baking sheet and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes, turning once. You will have to just look and judge the time as it differs depending upon how much moisture is in the vegetable. This stuff goes down like potato chips.

Am I the only one who really likes Bayless? He doesn't bother me at all, and I dig the pukka shell necklace he wears sometimes. He comes off as sincere, and he knows his stuff. I've talked to him at length in person (sat next to him on a flight to Oaxaca in '94) and he is nothing like the cheeseball personality he has on TV. I've also heard rumors that he's had plastic surgery (look at his picture in the first cookbook). OK... I just don't get it. My dork detector is pretty sensitive and I have never put Bayless in that category. Maybe I am missing something or I am just too dazzled by his skill and knowledge of my favorite cuisine. g - I hate you. Did you follow him around when you got to Oaxaca? I would hope that if I had had that opportunity that I wouldn't have become the same annoying talking-person that I hate sitting next to on airplanes. Plastic surgery? WHY??? I gotta dig out my books.

That is pretty weird but it sure doesn't beat the anchovy and pickled ginger pizza. (Actually, I don't think that anything ever could.)

Of course... I knew that!

The March/April 2003 is not the same at all. The Best Recipes version looks more "authentic" if a bit fussy. This one looks like a very basic, dumbed down version of chili. And that is how it is billed... simple to make with basic ingredients. At least the BR version is specific as to what is meant by chile powder.

Cook's Illustrated rated EKS, Terrailon and Cuisinart as tops for electronic scales. I did not see any in this link that were rated by CI. They rated based on accuracy, precision (how is that different???), and design. In the design category they looked at things like being able to see the read-out with stuff on the weighing platform.

Kit requires "1/2 cup GOOD chile powder -- (Your local supermarket brand tastes like cardboard.) " Is he suggesting that I find a spice mixture and mix my own? Or just something other than McCormicks. Are there decent comercial chili powder brands that folks recommend? And what's with the 4 beef boullioin cubes? I assume the equal amount of "Better than Boullion" or greatly reduced beef stock would be better? The "chili powder" that you buy at the supermarket is a blend that already includes the cumin etc. Look at the ingredients list. I am going to assume that he means true chile powder basis his comments about it tasting like cardboard and the fact that he is calling for cumin separately. (That may be wrong.) I buy pure chile powders. My current supply includes ancho (the main one for chili), arbol, and cascabel. I get them at my main Latin market, Fiesta in Houston because they have a high turn over and are likely to be fresh. Occasionally, I make my own by toasting the dried chiles and running them through the spice grinder. I store the powder in glass jars in the freezer. (Note that I am using the spelling with the "i" for the dish and the "e" for the pepper. I have no idea if that is correct. It has been the subject of violent debate.) edit to add: Bouillon cubes and powders are very common in Northern Mexican cuisine so it is not unexpected here. Some of the chili cook off winners also include those little cubes. Don't knock it. I don't think going upscale on that element will make a bit of difference.

Chad brought up a good point. I can't think of when I have seen consomme on the menu at a restaurant. I haven't been to the really high end places that get mentioned here so I am really curious. Does it ever show up? It seems, to my imagination, that consomme would make an amazing starter for a complex meal. Chad... You owe it to yourself to feed those kids consomme.

Chili fanatic here. There are some awesome recipes and a lot of talk about technique here: http://www.chilepepper.com/ You just need to search around. Some of the articles from the chili cook offs have good info. I just snagged that Bad Attitude recipe. I can't wait to try it. I have a very weird recipe that I got out of Southern Living a few years ago and it had cocoa powder in it. Chocolate in chili is not that weird. That combination was around before Columbus.