Jump to content

Bill Klapp

participating member
  • Posts

    831
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by Bill Klapp

  1. 7 loaves of white bread, available for a dollar when I was a child there in the 50s!  

     

    BUT SERIOUSLY...as an Oak Hill native (a small town of 5,000 or so 17 miles from the metropolis that is Beckley!) in the south-central part of the state, I offer you pinto beans cooked with a ham hock, kale cooked the same way and doused with apple cider vinegar when serving, corn on the cob, pickled ramps, pickled pig's feet, cornbread, fried chicken, yeast rolls, potato salad, country ham and biscuits, venison when family or friends shot deer (too often!), fresh fruit pies, whole smoked hams sold in butcher paper with no water added and my personal favorite, fried bologna sandwiches, cream cheese sandwiches, the WV hot dog with "everything"-mustard, onions, chili and slaw! The drive-in/curb service phenomenon, along with drive-in movies, were, and no doubt remain, huge in semi-rural WV, and many favorite childhood memories revolve around stopping at the Pete and Bob's or King Tut drive-ins in Beckley and eating in the dark in the back seat of a Buick with your siblings or cousins.  (Oak Hill had The Mountaineer and Top Hat drive-ins, but they were not to compare to the Beckley legends, where you could get exotic things like a ham-and-cheese sandwich called the Long John and fried fish sandwiches!  I was a returning adult in the 70s before Oak Hill saw its first McDonald's...)

    • Like 2
  2. Shel will go forward, but one more thought for him...I would serve the finished product at room temperature to get the most bang for your mushroom buck...

    A worthwhile thought. We'll see how the experiment goes. OTOH, I often prefer subtle flavors. Having my taste buds clobbered bite after bite with intense flavor is, to me, somewhat overwhelming and can become tiring.

    Doesn't sound like maple-flavored mushrooms figure to be subtle, but I have not had them...

    • Like 1
  3. Although I've never tried a mushroom panna cotta (I tend to like mine traditional), you could try infusing the cream with the mushrooms (dried ones would probably give more intense results). Cream has a tendency to mute flavours, so your best bet if you want the mushrooms to be in evidence might be to use them in a sweet version of a duxelles, served over a traditional panna cotta, instead of trying to flavour the panna cotta with them.

    You make an important point that I did not, which is that cream does, in fact, mute flavors, so much so that it can be used (where appropriate) to correct oversalted food. When mentioning the creamed mushrooms above, I was thinking, but did not say, a DASH of cream does the trick there without interfering with the delicate mushroom flavors. In particular, chilling or freezing cream intensifies the muting effect, which is why most gelato is ice milk rather than ice cream. Shel will go forward, but one more thought for him...I would serve the finished product at room temperature to get the most bang for your mushroom buck...

  4. You are too literal by half. I said "probably" should have another name. I am all for experimentation, but I find too much of it in American restaurants is screwing around with originals that start and end the day better. Admittedly, I come at things from a different angle these days. The Italian way is prime ingredients simply prepared to enhance the inherent qualities of the ingredients. When a single appetizer has a 5-line description of the 8 ingredients it contains, describing where every one came from and the conditions under which each was grown or harvested, I fear that the chef has lost his or her way and the point of the exercise. I pick on panna cotta (and not Shel) as one of those simple, perfect things that is often experimented with, but rarely, if ever, improved...

  5. Actually, your best bet is probably cream had directly from a mom-and-pop dairy rather than anything proporting to be "European". You are right about the difference in commercial dairy products, but the difference is not so great when you leave the world of ultra-pasteurization and go artisanal.

    You are free, of course, to do whatever you want with cream, and there is no doubt that cream and fruit are delicious together. Now and again, you see a few fresh berries used in the plating of panna cotta here. However, you are right that monkeying with panna cotta, even when the result is tasty, creates something that probably should have another name. For my taste, there is far more fertile ground for experimentation...

    P.S. Fish gelatine in your panna cotta, not Knox...

    • Like 1
  6. An afterthought: savory mushrooms and cream obviously go together well. A dish like creamed wild mushrooms served over toast points, while a little old-fashioned, can be stunning. Since you are looking at "dessert" mushrooms, if you still want to try cream, maybe you could swap out the toast points for something sweet underneath, like a buttery and not-too-sweet pound cake. My best thought may be this: something that plays the maple nature of the mushroom to best advantage is probably going to be something akin to French toast or waffles, with an eggy bread component. Thus, how about the flan/sformato or nice, eggy DESSERT CREPES filled with your mushrooms, sauteed with or without a little cream? Or even serving the sauteed mushrooms on French toast?

  7. I am guessing that these would be better used in another recipe. Maple syrup flavored panna cotta does not sound very appealing. The beauty of panna cotta is that it is just that..."cooked cream", with a modest amount of sugar and just enough gelatine to make it set. Personally, I think that the American habit of adding all manner of flavorings and fruits invariably detracts from the genuine item. Even a semi-savory panna cotta seems to me a bad idea. Flans (sformatini in Italian) seem better choices in both cases, as the addition of eggs figures to compliment both the maple syrup and mushroom aspects of this particular mushroom, while I am not sure that cream alone will...

  8. Nutella mixed with whipped cream makes an easy cake filling, and I also use it in a similar manner to flavour buttercream. It actually goes really well with carrot cakes, and apple/cinnamon cakes, where it is a complimentary flavour. When you pair it with chocolate it can become a bit of a sweetness overload.

    I don't like eating nutella straight or as a spread though. I used to live by a market that had a chocolate stall that sold slabs of Callebaut gianduja by weight. My guilty pleasure was buying a block of a few hundred grams and biting it off in chunks...

    Who makes "high-end" gianduja - is there an Amadei or Valrhona for gianduja? I ate a lot of the stuff in Perugia and thought it was delicious but I'm not sure who the manufacturer was.

    Book a vacation to Turin, which is Italy's chocolate capital and the home of gianduja. You can sample dozens of high-end, artisanal types, as well as artisanal spreads...

  9. I haven't read the thread linked above, which might mention it, but if you like nutella you'll like the gianduja spread made by Guido Gubbino imported by Zingerman's.

    If you're one of the ones who does a jar or two of Nutella a year, it might be worth the splurge.

    I was eating Nutella every day during a recent trip to Italy -- they provide it in the hotel breakfast rooms everywhere in a little packet much like jelly is served up here. Got quite addicted. But hated it when I got back home -- the imported version is pumped full of a lot more chemicals than the European version.

    I recommend either buying it at an import store, or getting the primo stuff from Zingerman's. The difference is remarkable. You'll probably combust and leave burned shoes behind.

    Lindacakes, that is Guido Gobbino, arguably Italy's best chocolatier, and his spread is not to be mentioned in the same breath (or price range!) with Nutella. Peyrano, another legendary Turin-based chocolatier, also makes a chocolate hazelnut spread that will cause spontaneous combustion...

  10. Pizza would be my best idea!!

    I think you can cure it like Colonnato ( sp ) a good Italian Lardo.

    http://slice.seriouseats.com/archives/2011/02/how-to-make-otto-enoteca-pizzerias-lardo-pizza-mario-batali.html

    That's "Colonnata", but great work, Paul. Lardo melted over a very thin pizza crust with nothing else on it (usually called "foccaccia" in the pizzerias that serve it here, but it is made from the house pizza dough and just rolled thinner) is a common starter in pizzerias here, and great stuff. The lardo used is almost invariably the rosemary-scented Colonnata, but lardo is also cured plain and with any number of other herbs, depending upon local recipes. If you have guests who are squeamish about eating pure lard (which is actually better for you than butter, as animal fats go), the foccaccia is the way to break them in. Also, wrapping it around a good breadstick will work for you. Lastly, it is often found with streaks of lean meat in it also, short of the typical bacon mix of lean to fat, so do not hesitate to use a chunk with a little lean on it. One caution: I have no idea whether trichinosis is less of an issue with a fresh pig such as yours, but we are liberal about eating raw and undercooked pork products here because, unlike North America, trichinosis is all but unknown here. I also have no idea if the curing process for lardo would eliminate that concern anyway, but for Steve's sake, I hope so! (Actually, I see that an average of 11 cases a year are reported to the CDC, and some of those involve bear and other game, so I suspect that trichinosis no largely longer exists in the U.S., either.)

    • Like 1
  11. Nobody suggested that the glove law should be applied differently to different classes of establishments. Read what I wrote again. What was implied is that well-managed places with reputations to uphold are more likely to meet or exceed health standards and are more likely to self-enforce. Tri2Cook, while we cannot judge the cleanliness habits of any individual employee, but we can judge the compliance of any given establishment with applicable health laws (a manner of public record, as well as conspicuous public display and even regular media reportage in most states), which seems to me radically more important than wearing gloves (which themselves will no doubt not be employed as required and will end up carrying some of the same things that bare hands presently do), and surely more important than the cleanliness habits of any given employee. Well, except for Typhoid Mary, of course... :)

  12. How many of us use disposable gloves for food handling in the home? (My guess: damn near nobody.) For those who do not use gloves in the kitchen, how often do you wash your hands after going to the bathroom (my guess: closing in on 100%) and during meal preparation (my guess: 10 times per meal, even if only rinsing sometimes)? How many times have family members contracted hepatitis, typhoid fever or other serious illnesses as a result of your cooking that were NOT directly attributable to the proverbial "bad clams" or some other food-borne problem? You catch my drift. I get that the lower one goes on the food chain (or chain food, perhaps), the greater the risk may be of all of the above, but it also seems to me that such places are easily avoidable and that they may well be breeding grounds for other health and sanitation issues that would best be dealt with by hiring more restaurant inspectors rather than wasting time and money with marginally enforceable or effectively unenforceable new laws. My guess is that people wash their hands in The French Laundry kitchen, and may even wear disposable gloves without a law requiring it when appropriate. Seems to me that establishments most in need of such a measure are at the same time the least likely to comply...

    • Like 1
  13. Gloves on their hands?

    Seems to me that some people have way too much time on their hands. And do nothing but sit around and come up with ways to interfere in everyone's life.

    Dear Lord, from these arrogant, know-it-all, do-gooder meddlers please deliver me.

    :hmmm:

    .

    +10. When California is having its state pension money stolen by bankstahs, or getting ripped off for billions in energy costs by the former crooks at Enron (rolling blackouts, too, as I recall!), or teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, does anyone in its electorate or government ever look at saving the money wasted on stupid crap like this as a way to balance the budget? They saved an imperiled populace from eating politically incorrect foie gras a while back, but could not seem to do anything about the Bittman bacterial chickens that were attempting to kill people a while back, as I recall...

    Food law generally works in favour of your economy because it means other countries can be confident in your food exports (being produced to a safe standard). In my oppinion one of the best single contributions the U.S. had made to the world was the development of HACCP. Think how many millions if not billions of people have been saved from food poisening and how standardised global food hygiene based on HACCP has boosted food business globally. Consumers need to be confident in the safety of their food. Just look at China and the problems they faced with milk contamination. Your politicians are only doing what they think is in the best interest. The single use glove law might not achievev its objective however.

    No argument about the first part of your post, but the last sentence sums up the latest effort. I do not see any logical connection between the two. The glove law is utterly impossible to enforce, and not likely to make a dent in the wonderful world of germs and bacteria. For those extremely sensitive to such things, I fear that this is the wrong planet for them! :)

  14. Gloves on their hands?

    Seems to me that some people have way too much time on their hands. And do nothing but sit around and come up with ways to interfere in everyone's life.

    Dear Lord, from these arrogant, know-it-all, do-gooder meddlers please deliver me.

    :hmmm:

    .

    +10. When California is having its state pension money stolen by bankstahs, or getting ripped off for billions in energy costs by the former crooks at Enron (rolling blackouts, too, as I recall!), or teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, does anyone in its electorate or government ever look at saving the money wasted on stupid crap like this as a way to balance the budget? They saved an imperiled populace from eating politically incorrect foie gras a while back, but could not seem to do anything about the Bittman bacterial chickens that were attempting to kill people a while back, as I recall...

    • Like 2
  15. Panna cotta. No fruit, no runny caramel sauce, just the panna cotta.

    A source for some Sicilian ingredients that might play a starring role in your new enterprise:

    www.dalfredo.it

    I do not think that this is the place for the Bronte green-brown pistachio paste mentioned above that is used for gelato, but the sweet pistachio spread from these guys is one of the best things that I ever put in my mouth. Also, I believe that if you search "Bronte pistacchio", you will turn up a bunch of potential sources for the paste...

    I agree about panettone, but you can probably import better than you can make. It is, however, seasonal in Italy, so maybe you would want to make it year-round in Russia!

  16. I am having a hard time even finding a vendor for the Electrolux in Italy, probably because it is being sold as a "professional" item here, and not on Amazon. The shortcomings pointed out above are enough to keep me away from it for $2,000+ I get to that point and I can start fantasizing about a Zanussi professional model the size of a refrigerator. Those actually do work. And you can run a small bakery out of your home! Seriously, it is disappointing that Cuisinart made a toaster oven on steroids for $300 and seems to have turned out a good product, just too small. It is possible that the quality of the Cuisinart's performance could be tied to the small size, and that is where the Electrolux gets into trouble. With all of the activity in the sous vide circulator space, one would hope for the same thing with combi ovens, but unless the Cuisinart is popular enough to spawn competitors, I do not see it happening...

  17. Listen to these people, Shel. Either use imprecise recipes that call for cups, or use weight. For serious baking, there is NO chance that you will get the best results by measuring. The weather on any given day can destroy your dough, so measuring cups with a potential 25% weight variance can do much worse. Ounces vs. metric is no big deal. There is at least a fixed conversion possibility there...

    • Like 3
  18. Onion rye bread, the more onions the better, with real butter. Hey, if it's gonna kill me, I'll go fat and happy!

    Reminds me of a old burger that went by various names, the best-known being the "patty melt", I believe...two slices of rye grilled in butter and a burger with melted Swiss and sauteed onions. Your onion rye sounds much healthier!

    • Like 1
  19. There's a type of "Italian bread" in northern New Jersey that comes pre-sliced and sold in plastic bags that makes the very best toast. It is mildly chewy and just very faintly sour but not enough to notice unless you're looking for it. I've tried to find this kind of bread elsewhere but no success. Next time I'm in Jersey I'm going to look up the place that makes it and see if I can get more info on what it is.

    There is some artisanal bread in Toronto that makes delicious toast, too -- but we're comparing $10 loaves to $2 loaves of Jersey bread. Budget plays a role in toast decisions.

    And that would be my second choice! Found in south Jersey, too. It is the legendary style of bread that makes hoagies and cheesesteaks what they are, but in its own right, the bread has a lot of pure, yeasty flavor and aroma without the teeth-breaking, gum-raking consistency of more "serious" breads. After years of searching, I found the identical (more or less) bread in a local bakery here, traveling under the name "monaca" (which means "nun"...go figure). Crisp crust, light, airy but doughy and yeasty interior, with an aroma that will fill a large car. I am told that it differs from the rather dismal "pane commune" here only in that it is given extra time to rise. I am not sure why it never occurred to anybody to make all white "Italian" bread in that style, but the answer appears to be that some Italians in this neck of the woods like to wipe up sauces with bread that is stale before you get it home!

    Seriously?! Someone else knows and loves this bread?! And your description of it is exactly right. :)

    To know it is to love it. When I was a kid, I used to do a number on it not unlike the licking the frosting out of an Oreo thing...rip out the center and eat it in compressed bread balls, then eat the crust separately! I am not proud of it, but I did it. Repeatedly. Into young adulthood. Back in the day in the greater Philadelphia area, you used to be able to find a lunch meat called lunch roll, which came in domestic and imported versions. The best imported version was a high-end precursor of today's ubiquitous honey ham. Nothing, NOTHING, not even the hoagies and cheesesteaks of my youth, compared to a couple of slices (or better, a jagged chunk ripped from the loaf) of that bread filled with lunch roll. Nothing else. Jambon beurre without the beurre. Ah, the good old days!

    • Like 2
×
×
  • Create New...