fifi

Jello right out of the pack... YUM! I still remember doing that. Except this wasn't a lunch thing. It was something we did in the summer as a snack. We weren't prissy enough to lick our finger and stick it into the Jello. We opened the packet and stuck our tongue in the Jello. Your tongue would get all coated with the gelatin and stained with whatever color you were eating. Then the game was to go stick your purple (red, green, etc.) tongue out at the first unsuspecting family member.

BRAVO DAVE! Another triumph for science. I sure hope you keep this up. In addition to the other uses already mentioned, nothing does spaghetti squash like a microwave. It also works as well on other hard winter squash. Just poke a few holes in it with an icepick and nuke it until it begins to yield to a good squeeze. This avoids having to hack it in half, which also avoids episodes that are better reported on the "I will never again..." thread. Just don't forget to poke the holes or you will have another entry to make there.

Interesting links. But I didn't find sassafras on the "root" link. File doesn't have much of the safrole flavor. I just sniffed my bottle of Zatarain's and I don't smell much. Maybe the leaves are not banned for that reason. I agree that they are a big company and wouldn't be selling it if they thought it was a problem. But then, my bottle is not all that fresh. It is used as a thickener primarily. In fact, if you use too much or (God forbid) try to cook it in you will have slimy gumbo. Aaaah... Lab rats roasted in root beer plant leaves. Now there is an idea!

I don't think I have ever seen sassafras commercially available. We used to go get it in the woods when I was a kid. I must have drunk buckets of the stuff and I am still here. We always found it in the East Texas mixed hardwood and pine forest. It grows as a small understory tree. You might ask some naturalist types in your area if it grows there. Hunting for it makes for a fun excursion. I did an extensive search recently on the question of the safrole. We have a rampant Oja Santa (root beer plant) growing in my sister's yard. Its flavor also comes primarily from safrole. It is used in some fabulous Mexican recipes. We started using it shredded under chicken thighs baked in the oven. FABULOUS. Since we were eating the leaves in pretty big quantities like greens, I thought I had better look it up. I could find nothing on quantities that might be considered carcinogenic. That was frustrating. I think the FDA made them take sassafras out of root beer but I don't know if it is generally a no-no. If anyone has information that can put use of sassafras (or root beer plant) in proper perspective I would appreciate it. After all... too much of anything will kill you.

I just snagged a set of the stock pots at Target in Kemah (Texas, bay area). They didn't have them a couple of weeks ago. They have been getting them in only to see them fly right out so I suggest you call first. Saves on the shipping. joiei... I have a pot that I got a couple of years ago at Bed Bath & Beyond. I will swear it is the same manufacturer. It has a pasta strainer and a steamer basket and is about the same diameter as the 8 qt. but a little taller. The point is, it has the same lid design. It sits down in the lip and (probably more importantly) it has a grommeted vent hole. It doesn't have the spitting problem you are referring to.

There is a discussion thread under United States->South & Southwest called Corned Beef Cowboys that you might want to take a look at. (Sorry, I don't know how to put a link here.) There is a good recipe for the "pot of stuff" that has been cited there. In fact, I plan to do that this weekend since I haven't done the "pot of stuff" in a while. Another alternate to the crock pot or heavy pot is the Reynolds Cooking Bags. This is what I have done most often. I put it in a bag with a beer and maybe some fruit juice and extra seasonings. Put that in a baking pan and let it go at 250 for several hours. Five or six should do it, depending upon size.

The steak with green curry might taste good, but it wasn't what I went there for. I go to Ruth's Chris expecting a big chunk of unadulterated STEAK. I get stuck in the expectation.

Interesting debate. For me, the whole question revolves around my expectations. I adore Indian food and always look forward to the complex use of spices. Thai, Indonesion, etc adds the exotically herbal to the mix and that is what I expect. Understanding the ebb and flow of the use of spice in European cuisine has fascinating roots in history that are worth exploring before approaching any particular cuisine. IMHO, the celebration of an ingredient in it's purest state is yet another approach to cuisine in its own right and should not be judged in the same context as cuisines that are rooted in the use of spices. Heightened awareness of other cultures and cuisine is leading to sometimes interesting and sometimes disasterous experiments and those need to be judged purely on the final outcome... does it taste good? For that reason, I approach "fusion" with the same expectations that I would a roulette table. I have a recipe for a pork ragout, cooked with cinnamon sticks and finished with cream, that everyone loves. Does that make it Moroccan, or whatever? I doubt it, but WHO CARES! But, if Ruth's Chris rubbed my steak with a Thai curry paste before grilling, trying a fusion twist on chimmichuri technique, I would throw the sizzling platter at the chef. It's all about expectations. Altering those expectations to fit the occasion is part of the fun.

Drooling here. Can I do the corned beef in a really slow braise in my favorite LeCreuset pot? I mean like slow cooker temperature? I do this with brisket sometimes. I have a need to put something in the oven and be able to walk off and leave it and not care how long it is before I come back. Then, when I get back 5 or so hours later, I could take the brisket out and add the vegetables. Then in about 20 minutes, I have dinner. What kind of bread? I am thinking something dark and "artisnal".

I have to put in my two cents on catering to whining larval humans. I remember way back into my childhood. My mother was an enthusiastic cook and an avid gardener. My grandmother and her sister (who would come to vist, AND COOK!) were too. We didn't talk about it much. We just sat down to dinner. There was no discussion about what you were or weren't going to eat. It just NEVER CAME UP. No kiddy dinners either. I was allowed a very few intense dislikes, raw tomatoes... it is a texture thing, turnips. Food and dinner were always appreciated... "No one makes ham like you Ruthie." "Aunt Minnie, Are you going to make some of your lemon meringue pie this trip?" "Ola... These chicken and dumplin's aren't goin' to be worth a damn. The butcher didn't have any chicken feet." But it wasn't an obsession. We would have thought obsessing about bacon fat, or any other foodstuff for that matter, really odd. I just followed the same "common sense" while raising my kids. They were always allowed in the kitchen and loved to cook at grandma's house. The garden was a magic playground where the Easter Bunny's carrots grew. And if you were real quiet about it, you could sneak one out of the ground, wash it at the hose and gobble it down before grandma caught you. One year I grew snow peas and that became a real contest. Could I get enough picked for a stir fry before the little locusts stripped the vines and ate them raw? I always "lost". McDonalds was a rare "treat" that, except for the fries, wasn't really liked that much. (I never did understand my daughter's choice of fish sandwiches at McD's. It was all she would order.) They are now early 30's, great eaters and appreciaters of food, good nutritional common sense, and getting into cooking. When I run across these ditzes that let the dinner table (if they ever actually sit down at it) become a battleground of wills with their larvae, I just can't stand it. I have been around long enough to see the products of that environment grow up... and not very well at that. I know one woman (lovely little airhead) that was feeding her kids (one year old twins) Crystal Light and skimmed milk because she was afraid they would get fat!!! I told her I was going to report her to child protective services if she didn't get smart real quick. What we have now are kids that were raised on fast food and a bowl of Lucky Charms to shut them up. And these kids are having kids. I don't know how you teach that food is a part of life. How can they come to know that the preparation and consumption of food in good company is a basic expression of love? I don't think you can teach it. It has to be experienced. The sad part is... Most of them will never read stuff like this. OK... soap box is going back into the closet.

Edit of my post... Never heard of a CREDIBLE claim that Teflon was from the space program. They did devlop some ways to PROCESS Teflon into different products. I think laminating with other materials and coating of fabrics may be among those. Went to some NASA folks (I live just up the road) here to see about some quartz fiber fabric with Teflon coating for some dumb reason. Maybe some folks then make the assumption that it is a NASA spin-off. I just remeber seeing those white nose cones. I know some folks at Corning and they really did develop the high temperature material for the aerospace program but I think that may have been before NASA became the program it evolved into. Dave... You would be a great one to write about the metallurgy and heat transfer characteristics of our pots. There is so much disinformation out there.

I am in awe!!! I found the CI article. It was in the March 2000 issue. They favor electronic scales. First choice is Soehnle $125, Salter $60, and Cuisinart $70. The last two did not rate very high for accuracy but probably accurate enough for the typical cook so they were left in the top three. They focused a lot on design, ease of use, being able to see the display, etc.

Cooks Illustrated did a piece on scales some time ago. It was their usual anal retentive analysis. (which is a good thing.) I don't remember the results. I will see if I can find it and post.

Never heard that we got Teflon from the space program. Maybe you are thinking of Corning Ware.

Loved the article. In the course of my career I had the opportunity to meet Mr. Plunkett (He was retired from DuPont by then). Also Mr. Bill Gore (Goretex fame) and a couple of the other guys that worked in that lab where the PTFE was found. The sawing open of that cylinder is absolutely true. The stories they would tell about trying to deal with the new substance were sometimes hilarious. And a lot of that did occur during WWII in utmost secrecy. I have to tell you that in the course of writing a really amusing article, you managed to get the science right. Please write more.

Yeah... No go on eBay. I even called all of the outlets.

Come to think of it... my most beautiful pan is my grandmother's cast iron skillet. It is all glossy and black on the outside and black on the inside, and that is smooth as a baby's tush. Makes the best Texas corn bread in the state. Touch it with detergent and DIE!!!

Looks are important to me but I wouldn't buy something on looks alone. It has to work. I am currently in a snit because LeCreuset doesn't have the dark green anymore. I have a braising/soup/whatever and an oval French oven in green that I bought at the outlet in San Marcos about 4 years ago. I am now in need of the really bigger round oven and I can't get the green. Trying for black. That looks iffy. WHAT IS WITH THESE PEOPLE ANYWAY! I did order the gratin in white and finally got it. I have all white dishes so the color was important for serving at the table. All-Clad is cool. I don't have any but I bought sets of the Chefmate knock-offs for the kids. They love "the look" and... oh yeah... they cook good, too. I have a lot of Calphalon on the advice of my metallurgy and heat transfer experts. I like that look.

OK... I am getting intrigued. I have several 1/2 cup portions of glace de viande in the freezer. After a full weekend of lousy weather spent making this gold, now I want to use some. If I read James Peterson right, this is a good way to store smaller quantities of this stuff and then dilute as appropriate for whatever useage. Can I do this and make pho? Or did the reduction somehow change the flavor? I did use oxtails as well as neck bones. If you started from scratch with oxtails, how long do you simmer them to make a pho broth? When do you put the other flavoring stuff in? How long to simmer? So many questions... so much time.

If there is some type of valve that will let you shut off the gas supply to the stove, go close it... NOW! Like everyone has said, this is not normal and definitely NOT a good thing. Also, if you do smell gas, DO NOT flip any light switches or mess with anything electrical.

I think what you are seeing is what we used to call "burpless" cucumbers here down south. My mother grew them many moons ago before they showed up in the markets. I love the things. I am not particularly sensitive to cucumbers (burp!) but I like these a lot. They taste like a cucumber but the skin is usually tender so you don't peel them. They have only a few immature seeds and a really nice crunch. I like the texture better than your average salad cucumber. From Canada??? They don't have any sun so it is hard for me to see how even greenhouses would work. But then, they have SQUARE MILES of greenhouses in The Netherlands where they grow those perfect (and somewhat tasteless) colored bell peppers, tomatoes and those cucumbers. Go figure.

Thanks, Richard. The tomato sauce is a real test. I am thinking about that set for the kids. (I just wish they had a saute pan. Oh well... for 99 bucks, what is to complain about?) Since they live in Chicago and DC, internet shopping is the way to get the Easter Bunny hopping.

I want to return to this thread and see if any of you have actually cooked with these things. I just got back from my local Target where I took a look at them. I am impressed but a little confused. They had the copper bottom and the all stainless 3-ply. The 3-ply were a bit more expensive but I THINK they have the aluminum core all the way up the side of the pan. If you have cooked with them please say which ones. I am thinking of playing Easter Bunny to my kids. They are getting into cooking but not quite ready for an All-Clad investment. They didn't have the stock pots but I looked at them on the web site. Oooooo... My Amex card is itching. (Just what I need... More big pots!)

I am going there now. Thanks for the opinion.

I have tried a few of the mail order places. (Well, OK, three.) I used to get stuff in Lafayette at a butcher shop that I can't remember the name of but never tried their tasso. So far, none have had that elusive strange flavor. Sounds like a good excuse for a... ROAD TRIP!