fifi

Klink's rub looks mighty tasty. What does sumac taste like? I have never used it, or been able to find it for that matter. I like to use those big 2 gallon zipper bags to rub the rub in on the meat. If I think about it, I put the rub on the night before. Winesonoma . . . I have had trouble with the Brinkman pan, too. I picked one up at my local sporting goods store and they had it mismarked. I ended up with the other pan and it doesn't fit. By the time I figured that out, I had long since lost the receipt so I have to start over for this year.

I always use a rub on brisket. I don't always use a rub on pork. I have no idea why. I enourage you to cut the beast in half. That is what I do to fit a whole monster in the WSM. Also, you will find that the flat portion of the brisket will need to come off sooner. I only have one probe thermometer so I put that in the flat to start. Do not be tempted to take it off too soon. That is the most common mistake. You will get a pretty long temperature stall at about 170 F. I find that a typical brisket gets really yummy when it gets past the stall and intrepidly climbs to 190-200. Then I switch the thermometer to the point and wait until it is done. Buy lots of beer. You are looking at at least 12 hours or more at the ideal temp of 225 F at the grate. I have had big ones take 16 hours, and that in the bullet where I don't have to take the lid off to tend the fire. Put a pan of water under it. When I was using the kettle, I used those disposable foil pans. The water is there to help maintain a stable temperature, not for moisture. This discussion is for the bullet but can certainly be adapted to the kettle.

Heads up folks . . . This looks like The Perfect Thing for cooking over charcoal. Looks like it would be handy for a lot of things. The grate is adjustable and swings out. Lodge has a similar thing though pricier.

I want a machine where you throw in a head of garlic at one end and perfect 1/16th inch diced garlic comes out the other. I know such a thing exists. How else do they make those jars of diced garlic? I want to know how it works.

I think Malawry's experience is a good example of why you rarely see pan fried chicken in restaurants. It just takes too much attention. The thought of pan frying chicken for 34 makes me shudder.

I have probably posted this several times elsewhere. Aunt Minnie was my Grandma's sister that came to visit at the family "compound" in Houston on the shores of White Oak Bayou. In the thirties, she was a wealthy widow that owned a good part of the town of Brookshire, a railroad town. Part of her holdings was the hotel and restaurant. She supplied goodies to the Southern Pacific trains passing through to California and Florida. I have always surmised that she is "stirring the pot," in more ways than one, for St. Peter.

Thanks for my GulleyLaugh of the day. Aunt Minnie was a third (at least) generation Texan.

My great aunt Minnie always added chicken feet to the stock she made for chicken and dumplings when she could get them. One of my earliest kitchen memories was standing on a chair looking into the big pot of bubbling stock and having a chicken foot rise up out of the bubbling brew. I giggled for hours. And, her chicken and dumplings had the most silky texture known to man.

Duh! How could I have forgotten about chimichurri? We have a restaurant here, Churrasco's, that serves steak with chimichurri as their signature dish. It is so good.

Well . . . my oven was a cheap builder's model. When I get my really good ones, I'm having the service guy out from day one. I am getting pretty paranoid about appliances, thermometers and any such measuring devices' accuracy. I am going to order a set of certified laboratory thermometers and be done with it.

I, for one, will be deleting the cilantro. I am one of those folks that thinks it tastes like soap, not "bright, fresh and green." Nope, gray, sludgy soap. I pick it off of my pad thai when I order it at restaurants or ask them not to put it on there in the first place.

Among friends and acquaintances with new ovens, this seems to be a common problem. I do recall that I had to fiddle with calibrating the oven when I moved into the house. I was able to do it myself after *gasp* reading the manual. Is it some kind of oven manufacturer's rule? Do they take an oath . . . "I will never ship an oven that is calibrated."

I don't always add mint to my tabouli. It kind of depends upon the quality of parsley that I have and the availability of mint. For some stupid reason, we have had trouble growing mint at my sister's house. At any rate, I find that the mint can quickly overrun the parsley so I use it sparingly when I do. The parsley/lemon/garlic combo seems to be pervasive. I wonder if it originated in the near east with the traditional taboulis and got transferred into the parsley sauces of French cuisine.

The first thing that comes to mind where parsley is, or should be, the main star is tabouli salad. Too many versions that I see at restaurants here don't use enough parsley so I generally make my own. I am also that rare bird, the tomater hater, so I leave that out of my portion. I find tabouli one of those recipes that I enjoy ravaging. I have been known to add finely diced preserved lemon and some other oddments. But it always has to have the parsley as the main ingredient.

Heh heh . . . this sounds sorta like gumbo. Everybody makes it differently. Everybody uses different ingredients. Everybody has a trick up their sleeve. And with all of that . . . Everybody knows what it is. And, though pad thai is pad thai in a way, it is probably never really the same. And, can we say that the ingredients are somewhat . . . um . . . flexible? Is this one of those dishes where, beyond the basics (sort of like gumbo) that the intent is to use what you have? I am just trying to wrap my head around the character of the dish. I have eaten it at restaurants and tried it a couple of times long ago but I never really thought about it a lot. (Mine wasn't that great. I think I didn't know what I was doing with the noodles.) Perfect for a cook-off.

That link is just too funny. I just use the Hellman's mayonesa instead of regular mayonaise wherever. I don't really get a screaming taste of lime. It seems to be a bit tarter and "cleaner" tasting or something.

Piperdown has added two inspired ideas here. When I make the chicken drumlets for the fishing trip, I think I will use sriracha instead of the Tabasco. We all love that stuff. I wonder what would happen if I seasoned the flour with some ground ginger? OK . . . This is getting nuts. (Still sounds good, though.) I think I have heard of adding onion to the buttermilk but I haven't tried it. Frying those things up is truly inspired. The heat would kill anything. There probably isn't much in the way of baddies in there anyway. The buttermilk bugs and the acidity will probably take care of those.

This practice is not without peril. I may have reported this before but, we are on page 33 after all. I had family visiting and one evening we broiled fish filets. After serving, the broiler pan went back into the oven and was promptly forgotten for the next three days as other excursions intervened. On about the fourth day, there was this "whiffage" in the kitchen that was noticed at breakfast. OMG! What a mess. It was so bad that we were sure that we would never forget that mistake. Wrong. We did it again about a year later at my sister's house.

I have the same problem as Kristin. I have been known so save some in the freezer for a small batch of specialty stock. Now I am wondering about whizzing some up in a neutral oil and freezing to use as sauce seasoning later. Still, if you used up those huge hanks of fronds that way you could be knee deep in fennel pesto in no time. Could you make a pretty green cream of fennel soup with them? I will await more ideas with great interest.

Heads up on the ". . . Rosemary & Porcini" recipe. My sister did some venison forelegs using basically my shortcut version. This recipe is now pronounced excellent for game.

I could go for Pad Thai. I have never ventured into that one. I have a similar problem with rice noodles. Susan . . . Fried chicken is absolutely perfect for cabin trekking. We have a fishing trip coming up and I am considering putting a batch in the cooler for that along with eggplant gratin pressed sandwiches to get the veggies into the menu. I am actually thinking of frying wing drumsticks. They would make just the right size snack that you can finish up quickly when that big redfish hits the bait.

Boy am I curious about the fat temperatures. I don't think I have ever heard of that. I do know that the smoke point of fats change as they break down, getting lower. But I haven't heard of temperature stability problems. That doesn't mean that it doesn't happen. Does the heat capacity change? I dunno. I have always saved my Crisco in a coffee can in the fridge, just like Aunt Minnie did and don't recall having problems. Well, truth be known, if I had problems I would have probably attributed that to something else, like my legendary inattentiveness. I was glad to hear that you found 325 ideal. That is my thinking as well. I will have to see what happens with my saved Crisco next time around. I don't know that my test will mean much since I had temperature control problems with this electric coil range the first time around.

Lily Mae’s Chicken Serves 4 as Main Dish. A fantastic cook and housekeeper that worked for friends for many years prepared this recipe. She would prepare really large pans of this for large parties. (They had a commercial style kitchen at the big house north of Lake Pontchartrain.) The good news is that the quantity can be varied depending upon how big your pans and ovens are. It can also be downsized for a more normal crowd. It was always served with rice. To demonstrate how this recipe works, I will go through it for about 8 thighs in a medium size Dutch oven. Chicken pieces: Your choice: My favorite is thighs, skinless or not. If you use breast, cut in half so the pieces are not too big. I wouldn’t use all breast. You need the flavor from the thighs. I don’t care for the texture of braised chicken skin so I often do this with skinless thighs but that is a personal preference. The chicken 8 thighs, skinless or not The sauce 1 part olive oil, extra virgin not necessary 1 part fresh squeezed lemon juice 2 parts dry white wine 2 whole heads of garlic, peeled or not Salt and pepper the chicken to taste. You want it pretty salty. Heat 1 cup oil in the pot and brown the chicken over medium to medium high heat. Add 1 cup lemon juice and 2 cups white wine. The sauce should pretty much cover the chicken. If it doesn’t (depending upon the size of the chicken pieces) just make up a little more and add. Add 20 or more garlic cloves. Sometimes I don’t bother with all of that garlic peeling. Just cut the whole heads of garlic in half. You can pick out the husks later. Put the uncovered pan into a 325 degree F oven. Baste and turn the chicken about every 20 minutes. A bulb baster is great for this. This will take an hour or more. When the chicken is falling off the bone tender and the sauce has reduced a bit, it is ready. Notes: For really large quantities you can skip the browning and cook at a lower temperature for a longer time and some browning will happen. I think that is what she did for the big crowds. For variations, you can add herbs of choice, diced preserved lemon, capers, or olives. I have also braised this dish in a covered clay pot at 250 degrees F for 2 to 2 ½ hours. The sauce texture is wonderful with this method. A single serving from that method is what is in the picture. My discussion of this recipe in eGullet Culinary Institute (eGCI) is here. We have discussed this type of braising in general in the eGCI here. Keywords: Main Dish, Easy, Chicken, Lunch, Dinner ( RG1171 )

Lily Mae’s Chicken Serves 4 as Main Dish. A fantastic cook and housekeeper that worked for friends for many years prepared this recipe. She would prepare really large pans of this for large parties. (They had a commercial style kitchen at the big house north of Lake Pontchartrain.) The good news is that the quantity can be varied depending upon how big your pans and ovens are. It can also be downsized for a more normal crowd. It was always served with rice. To demonstrate how this recipe works, I will go through it for about 8 thighs in a medium size Dutch oven. Chicken pieces: Your choice: My favorite is thighs, skinless or not. If you use breast, cut in half so the pieces are not too big. I wouldn’t use all breast. You need the flavor from the thighs. I don’t care for the texture of braised chicken skin so I often do this with skinless thighs but that is a personal preference. The chicken 8 thighs, skinless or not The sauce 1 part olive oil, extra virgin not necessary 1 part fresh squeezed lemon juice 2 parts dry white wine 2 whole heads of garlic, peeled or not Salt and pepper the chicken to taste. You want it pretty salty. Heat 1 cup oil in the pot and brown the chicken over medium to medium high heat. Add 1 cup lemon juice and 2 cups white wine. The sauce should pretty much cover the chicken. If it doesn’t (depending upon the size of the chicken pieces) just make up a little more and add. Add 20 or more garlic cloves. Sometimes I don’t bother with all of that garlic peeling. Just cut the whole heads of garlic in half. You can pick out the husks later. Put the uncovered pan into a 325 degree F oven. Baste and turn the chicken about every 20 minutes. A bulb baster is great for this. This will take an hour or more. When the chicken is falling off the bone tender and the sauce has reduced a bit, it is ready. Notes: For really large quantities you can skip the browning and cook at a lower temperature for a longer time and some browning will happen. I think that is what she did for the big crowds. For variations, you can add herbs of choice, diced preserved lemon, capers, or olives. I have also braised this dish in a covered clay pot at 250 degrees F for 2 to 2 ½ hours. The sauce texture is wonderful with this method. A single serving from that method is what is in the picture. My discussion of this recipe in eGullet Culinary Institute (eGCI) is here. We have discussed this type of braising in general in the eGCI here. Keywords: Main Dish, Easy, Chicken, Lunch, Dinner ( RG1171 )

I got a bean pot because I didn't have a pot of any type of that shape in my arsenal. I think the casseroles are a nice compromise and would be quite useful. I have the little two cup size for individual servings. The saute pans are probably more limited due to the shallow depth. One other thing . . . the photos of the casseroles on the site look like they are oval. They are round. I think that is a distortion of the picture or something. I would suggest you call them in case that is important to you.