MobyP

Does Gavroche have a website?

Very nice. (even if you don't read the guardian)

If you want view and middling food - the Oxo Tower

Shaun - we wish you best of luck. I've hopping mad I've never managed to make it up there. Damnit, I don't care if you need a zimmer frame - don't retire until I try your food! Please!

In middle of the long day that is the making of chicken stock, after you've slowly raised the temperature on the bones, and skimmed away the scum, and the pale pink proten-rich liquid turns to clear brown, and you place the mire-poix and garlic and peppercorns and thyme, rosemary and parsley, there's a moment - it lasts for around 10 minutes - when the whole lot comes up to temperature, when the fragrance suddenly blooms and fills the room with the most incredibly fragrant and floral bouquet. It is perfection.

Today's review of Club Gascon ends with a joke of such poor taste, so miserably done, I'm surprised he hasn't been fired for it.

Could someone explain how it works? I've seen it used for making ice cream (out of foie gras at the Adria demo), but I don't know the mechanics of it. Is it a jet of air which pulverizes anything in the can? Is it temperature dependent? Can it be hot or cold?

I remember you saying this before and thinking maybe you'd missed the point. Now I think maybe I did. After a while, I just want to be left alone with my knife and fork to get on with it. A man, a knife and his fork, damnit. Yes - same family of experience.

Quite near to Mt St Michel is the small town Villedieu Les Poeles - the base for the incredible Mauviel copper cookware - cheapest place in the world to buy it.

Thanks Alex. I'm still curious about that Boulud version I had at Manoir. Does anyone know the Boulud recipe?

Jacob's ladder is English - It describes the whole section from which the cuts are taken. Some will know of flanken. The diagram is US, I think. Of course, you still have to stand over them and tell them exactly how you want it cut.

It is a hassle trying to educate butchers who in turn are trying to do the same to you ("What, you don't mean the brisket?" "No I don't mean the bloody brisket I mean SHORT RIBS!") I came across some perfectly cut ones in the Nottinghill Farmer's market (the stall is also in the Marylenbone market off Moxon) under the name Pot au feu.

In England, the butchers call the cut the Jacob's Ladder, from which you can either have cut flanken (crosswise) or short (lengthwise) ribs. So - you're looking at the No1. in the Short Plate section, or the No4. in the Rib section.

I'd forgotten about this entirely (having read the book), but it precisely characterises the problem I've had with beef in the UK, be it rare breed and hung for six-weeks, or supermarket Jamie Oliver brand, or Tesco's regular - I find the flavours in this country tend far more towards the metallic and mineral, rather than the massive buttery beefy flavours of great American meat.

I agree. I've had some great home made marmalades, but Mrs. Curly's is tops.

I've never come across that organy smell described above. Organs/glands do decompose faster than muscle so they should always be as fresh as possible.

I've been looking up a lot of classical sweetbread preparations recently, and I keep noticing - from Ducasse to Sone, and Keller to Robuchon, that all of them go with a brown veal stock + red wine (or variation) type sauce. Am I the only one who thinks this seems counterintuitive? The sweeetbread is such a fantastically delicate and subtle meat, I keep thinking you'd want a white wine + chx stock or white veal stock based sauce. Possibly a sauterne. Is it just me? Wouldn't a brown sauce dominate the delicate flavour? What do people think?

Thanks Adam. Found quite a few copies of Taste of France at Amazon. Mines on the way.

I always heard you were a cruel bastard, but never an aristocratic cruel bastard! Oh the horror. Like an Ozzie Dennis Nielson. I like what you say about the age, though I'm not sure what to do about it ("Kill them smaller!") I had a lovely stuffed trotter by Boulud, but I think it must've either been a sausage skin, or some suckling pig trotsky. Or possibly suffering from porcine lana turneritis, or piglet anorexia. Let us know when you're doing your choucroute - I'd love to hear about your method. I want to do a confit pork belly and choucroute, a dish I had recently. The saurkraut cut the fatty pork marvelously. p.s. the very small amount of meat that you get from the trotters is - after braising - fantastic and sticky. It's like the pork equivalent of the chicken oyster. Wish there was more of it.

Were any of these around before the St John's roasted marrrow dish, or are they all derivative?

No - I'm always buying the things to add to my stocks etc, so I usually have a couple lying around. (From the Ginger Pig - 50p each) Lalitha - you're right about the poaching. Realised this morning that what I made was essentially a variation on a boudin blanc. The filling without the mousseline - braised pork shank, with sweetbreads and porcini - would have done well in the oven. The mousseline I should have treated with more respect. I found a boudin recipe that says poach at 80C for 20 mins. Then fry to brown the outsides. I could've done that - or steamed them. I still wonder if it's possible to get a thinner skin, though. Ramsey does basically the above, then slices it into medallions, and fries until crispy, so the skin would be less apparent. Does anyone know a technique? By the way - for anyone in the UK - Harvey Nichols meat department sold me - given no notice whatsoever - 10lbs of high quality veal bones (not just shank/knuckle), several portions of lamb sweetbbreads, and a couple of good-sized pieces of pig's caul - all at very reasonable prices. I don't know another butcher's in London who could've done that for me on a Sunday - or any other day of the week for that matter.

Okay - I finally did this dish, taking from the Keller FL, and the White recipe. Boned them - this wasn't difficult, just a question of getting used to the anatomy. Braised them - though no browning first. Mirepoix, white wine, a touch of port, chx stock @ 350F for around 3 hours (Keller does 300F for 6 hours, but the skins practically disintergrated, and were unusable without tearing. Removed, and let cool for an hour, then scraped as much of the internal fat, gristle etc off the skin, and trimmed to a mostly rectangle shape. Removed the small amount of meat from the bones, and set aside. During which: pureed 200g of chicken breast with a little taragon and an egg (White, Koffman), forced through a tamis. Placing the bowl over ice, I stirred in 225ml double cream to make a mousseline. Covered, placed in the fridge. Then: Took about a cup full of lamb sweetbreads (blanched, skinned, deveined, defatted), diced small and fried until slightly crispy. Stirred into the mousseline. Soaked a small handfull of porcini, diced. Stirred in as well. Also the pork. Placed the trotter skins on pigs caul (soaked and dried and cut to shape). Filled them like canoli (How are you supposed to do the sides? No one says. The skin is too thick to do it like a burrito). Rolled them in the caul x 3 (which also seals the edges, conveniently). Fried them to brown, then in a 325 oven for about 15 - 20 mins. Served on some lovely lentils. They were good. The filling was tasty, though I might have slightly overcooked them. The skin was incredibly soft - barely any resistence - but I found it a bit thick for my palate. Is this how they're supposed to be? Is there any way to get the skin thinner? Has anyone had them at the French Laundry? I know John Tseng had the Koffman ones - how thick was the skin?

Pretty much as above, I'd imagine. How do they differ from veal?

Alex, welcome to eGullet. I hope you'll tell us more about working in the kitchen. As I said above, I thought the food was fantastic, in execution and presentation - it was only the temp thing that was down side. And yes - I remember the taste of melted butter and toasted brown bread coming through in that ice cream. Very funny, and quite delicious.

You understand that I didn't feel rushed by the staff or place, but in the nature of so much of the cooking being luke-warm, and thus almost cold by the time I finished a dish.