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jmcgrath

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Everything posted by jmcgrath

  1. Yes. In addition to the Judges, there are Table Captains, Contest Representatives and other assistants. Anything not taken by the Judges is put on a leftovers table for them to sample. The general public is not invited to sample at KCBS contests. Very often, a gaggle of friends will accompany a cook team. They often get samples in the cooking area. Jim
  2. What's with the degrees Celsius cooking temperature? Isn't Costco based in the US? Is this an imported Chinese pig Jim
  3. I really like most of Beard's books, but New Fish Cookery and Beard on Bread are among my least favorite. Both seem padded with repetitious techniques Jim
  4. Yes, that and The BBQ Forum. Barbecue folks generally don't share recipes, but are usually very generous in sharing techniques. Jim
  5. jmcgrath

    Before the Feast

    Keep it very, very simple. Perhaps cheese and crackers. Please serve the cheese at room temperature. Shrimp and dip will work, but please avoid those horrid supermarket shrimp platters. You can cook the shrimp a day in advance. Whatever you serve, keep the per-person portions small. Jim
  6. Bread boxes are even more obsolete than ice boxes. Freezing works quite well as long as the bread isn't fresh out of the oven from your local bakery. Very moist slices will stick together and not be separable unless you defrost the whole loaf. Jim
  7. I haven't gotten around to the mains yet. I have a few boxes of John Cope's corn, so creamed corn is likely. I'm leaning toward roasted cauliflower, but I'm not sure how that will go over with the teenage grandchildren. They're not picky eaters and generally inhale food. Yeast rolls. A green vegetable, probably green beans or Brussels sprouts. Broccoli doesn't hold up well, and if the timing isn't perfect... Potatoes of some sort. I'm really bored with mashed or baked. Perhaps a casserole. Probably two kinds of stuffing. This is the only sore point between my GF and me. Do I really need to do something with squash? It's not that I dislike it, but I've had it for every Thanksgiving for the past 60 years. I don't eat deserts and my daughter will probably do them. Now, thinking about mains: Possibilities are smoked turkey, spiral sliced ham and bone in pork loin. Has anyone tried warming a spiral sliced ham in a WSM? It's not an issue of oven space, but I thought it might add an interesting touch. If you ever buy a bone in loin, make sure the butcher removes the chine bone. Carving is a bitch otherwise. Jim
  8. I just saw an advertisement for one in Acton, MA at the intersection of 2A and 27. I haven't had a chance to check it out yet. Jim
  9. jmcgrath

    Potato Salad

    One of my favorites is Creole Potato Salad from the Dinosaur Bar B Que cookbook. Roughly, A couple of pounds of red potatoes 4 hard cooked eggs, chopped About a half cup of minced red onion Perhaps a cup of diced celery Two teaspoons of Creole seasoning (I use Tony C's) Two teaspoons or so of kosher salt About a teaspoon of black pepper For the dressing A cup of mayonnaise A half cup of creole mustard And a teaspoon of brown sugar You can garnish this with some crumbled bacon Jim
  10. My DLC7 from 1980 is still working fine. Well... a piece of the safety interlock on the lid snapped off last year and I had to order a replacement bowl and lid. The replacement cost more than the whole original processor. Jim
  11. My 30 year old Mouli is still going strong. Perhaps quality has gone down over the years. The fine grate drum has started to dull and I guess I will also need a replacement soon. Jim
  12. Many, many years ago I had a summer job at the Campbell's plant in Camden, NJ. The tomatoes were trucked in from farms all over South Jersey. I don't know if that's still the case. Jim
  13. jmcgrath

    best maple syrup

    Small batch producers don't have the economy of scale to do anything but sell locally. At least in Vermont, sap is evaporated to a particular specific gravity and then graded on clarity. The sap run gets progressively darker over the course of the sugaring season. To use a viniculture term, there may be some terroir involved but as far as I know, no one has ever documented it. Jim
  14. Wit' Whiz? Jim Edited to explain an inside joke. "Wit'" is South Philadelphia slang for "with". "Whiz" is short for Cheez Whiz Whiz is a fairly common topping for Philly cheese steaks. Jim
  15. Cabot sells a nice sharp cheddar, presliced. Judging by how nicely it melts, I would guess that it is process cheese, but without the blandness of basic American. Jim
  16. Very like the old Horn and Hardart Automats in the US. Jim
  17. I think that CAB is a trademark, rather than a specifier of a particular breed of beef. The trademark means the beef meets certain standards. Jim
  18. A cold frame will certainly give you a start on the season, I'd guess four weeks, but perhaps even six. You won't be able to grow produce year round. It will also extend your season in the fall. Placement of the cold frame is important, but so is a thermostatically controlled venting system. You want as much sun as possible, but don't don't want to cook things on an unusually warm, sunny day. A surplus French door and some 2" x 6" planks is a good way to start. The temperature right now at Hanscom Field is 3F. Jim
  19. Chuck tenders are a great cut of meat. They usually have a lot of surface silver skin that I like to trim before cutting up the meat. Hopefully your meat guy will do that. Jim
  20. jmcgrath

    Dinner for 40

    If you don't have any restrictions about cooking with wine, Julia Child's Beef Bourguignon might be appreciated. I recently made a big batch that I served over egg noodles. You can do all of the prep work and cooking on Sunday, refrigerate overnight, and reheat the next day. Beef Chuck Tenders are going to be the cheapest type of meat. I've seen them in 20 lb. cryovac package, and one should be enough for 40 people. Jim
  21. How could everyone have missed Lobscouse & Spotted Dog by Lisa Grossman Thomas, a gastronomic companion to the Aubrey/Maturin novels? Has anyone heard from her recently? She used to be a regular poster here. Jim
  22. The remedy at the East Coast Grill is a creamsicle. Whole milk also works. Jim
  23. Examine the way in which heat transfer takes place, conduction, radiation and convection. With conduction, there is direct transfer, e.g. from your stove top burner to a frying pan to a steak. With radiation, infrared energy goes from a heat source e.g. a broiler directly to a steak. Put the steak too far away and the energy will be transferred to air rather than the steak. With convection cooking, e.g. roasting, the oven element transfers energy to the oven air and then to the roast. The more efficiently the air circulation take place, the more efficiently your roast will be heated. A high sided roasting dish will impede air circulation. Adding a fan to your oven and now calling it a convection oven improves air circulation and oven efficiency. Baking is a combination of conduction and convection. Hot air transfers energy to the sides and bottom of a baking pan from where energy is conducted to what is being baked. Hot air transfers energy directly to the top. Everything in an oven will eventually reach a steady state temperature. A glass bread pan will just take longer to do so than a metal one. I don't think that thick vs. thin makes much difference in roasting. The operant factor here is air circulation. It may be a factor in baking depending on how widely your oven temperature fluctuates. At +- 5F it's probably not going to matter. At +-15F having a big heat sink will probably help. Jim
  24. I wouldn't denigrate anyone's choice for their ideal roasting pan, but in many cases it's a question of esthetic's. Foil pans are a tool of the devil. They are just plain dangerous. Lightweight pans warp and juices collect at one end and burn at the other. Beyond that I don't think there is much difference. Circulating air/convection is the heat transfer method. and the cost of the roasting pan isn't going to make much of a difference. If you lust after and can afford a $300 pan, please go for it. Just be aware that a $50 pan will cook just as well. Jim
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