jmcgrath

140C doesn't make sense. Did you mean 40C? Since you used curing salt, I assume you were cold smoking. Sausage casings will get tough is you cook at too high of a temperature for too long. Jim

I recently made this for a dinner at my sportsmen's club. I mostly used Julia's recipe scaled up to feed 80. 60 pounds of beef chuck tenders, a case of Ravenswood Zin, five pounds each of carrots and yellow onions, three pounds of sliced mushrooms, etc., etc. I browned everything on hotel pans in our commercial ovens, deglazed with some of the Zin, and then moved everything into two large stock pots. I added the remaining Zin and then topped off with beef stock. I simmered everything for a few hours, moved the pots to our walk-in cooler and went home for the night. The pots went back on the range-top at three the next afternoon, for dinner at 6:30. Towards the end, I thickened with beurre manie. I served it with a mixed green salad, egg noodles, and warm rolls. I didn't blanch the bacon, and couldn't find enough pearl onions to make it worthwhile using them. The most labor intensive part of the prep was peeling the silver skin from the chuck tenders. Jim

Welcome to Concord. I moved here from Cambridge 15 years ago and I'm still suffering from culture shock. The Colonial Inn is a must try, not so much for the food, as for the antiquity. The food is okay. Or, hang out in its lounge and listen to a jazz band while munching on an excellent burger. Chang An has very good Cantonese style food, but don't expect to find anything spicy. La Provence is great for lunch and people watching. I only ate at Serafina once and was not impressed. The Walden Grill has had its ups and downs. Right now, I'd say the food is good but not great. I'm more likely to go to Waltham or Maynard for dinner. West Concord is a shoppers delight. Twin Seafood, West Concord five and ten, West Concord Supermarket, Concord Teacakes, and Nashoba Brook Bakery are only a few examples. I greatly prefer Verrill Farms to Arena for produce. That should get you started. Jim

It's a really fun night for chileheads. I still remember the night I was slurping the noodles and one whiplashed into my eye. I was blind for the next half hour, but recovered and kept eating. Ring of Fire is a good reason to take the next morning off Jim

Coming from the midwest, you have probably never had decent seafood. Start there. Most of our beef comes from the midwest, so expect to pay double or triple what you are used to. Be prepared for price shock about everything. Jim

I'll add a few thoughts. Cherry has a wonderful flavor, but can over-darken meat if used to excess. I prefer Pecan to Hickory. Both woods impart similar flavor, but Hickory has a sharper bite. Either rack on a WSM works fine. Okay, you are using an offset, but WSMs were discussed in the thread. The bottom rack on my WSM runs about 25F cooler, so I run my top rack at 250F. Timing in the Epicurious directions seems short. I plan on about six hours for spares and five for baby backs at 225F. The top rack at 250F will take about 30 minutes less. When the meat has pulled back from the bone about 1/4" they are about done. St. Louis ribs are more of a way of trimming spares that they are a way of cooking them. The belly flap is removed. Temperature should be measured at the cooking grate. A thermometer stuck in the top of a cooker is going to read high, and you will be cooking at too low of a grate temperature. If you want to baste, a 50/50 mix of apple cider vinegar and apple cider concentrate in a spray bottle works well. It will caramelize slightly and give your meat a beautiful tan. For a finishing glaze, 1/3 each of honey, your favorite barbecue sauce, and Jack Daniels, simmered for a bit to thicken will work. Jim

I don't know what edition you have, but the Fifth has quite a number of one or two portion recipes. It's just as difficult to convert up to forty or eighty potrions. Jim

I don't think you will accomplish anything if you do that. Hardwood charcoal adds very little flavor. Those of us who grill with charcoal use wood chunks for flavor. Wood chips in a smoker box or foil packet is the best solution if you cook with gas. Jim

What's the problem with pectin? Is it a Kosher issue? if not, use pectin and forget the apples. Sterilize both the jars and lids. It is necessary to go through the whole boiling method, but sugar is not required. It depends on whether you want a strawberry spread or strawberry jam. If you want jam, use the recommended amount of sugar. Jim

Baby peas have such a delicate flavor that almost anything you do to them is going to produce negative results. They are already blanched as part of the freezing process so just a brief saute in salted butter to warm them through should be all you need. I think your flavoring ideas are good, but they will work much better with more assertively flavored vegetables. Brussel sprouts immediately jumps to mind. Edited to add an example of an assertively flavored vegetable. Jim

I make crepes in a small cast iron fry pan and it works just fine. Because of the heavier weight, it took some practice to get the batter swirled across the bottom evenly. Jim

Grind the pepper into a small bowl in advance, then season both sides of the meat in a single step. It would be even better if you used food handling gloves. Latex is more common, but vinyl is available if you have a latex allergy. The gloves are very inexpensive compared to the increase in food safety they provide. Jim

Tammy, thank you so much for your advice. I don't have the time and price constraints you had to deal with. Further comments at the end. In my experience, I've tended towards making several pots of whatever it is I'm making, rather than trying to do one ultra large one. This means that things like bouquet garni can actually just be doubled or tripled or whatever per pot. It also reduces cooking time, as bigger pots of food take much longer to cook. So if Julia's recipe serves 6-8 and you need to cook enough for 80 then you need 10-12 batches. I'd do three or four pots. Doing them individually like that makes it much easier for the home cook who just does occasional bulk cooking - you don't have to make as many modifications that way. I think frozen pearl onions would be preferable to canned. Re. box wine - I know that people like the Black Box Chardonnay - I don't know if Black Box makes a red. Do you have a Trader Joe's near you? You'd probably get better quality wine buying some $3.99 or $4.99 bottles from TJ's without a huge increase in cost. The quality of beef burgundy is largely at the whim of the wine you make it with - better wine makes it better, so buy the best that will work in your budget. (I have a friend who made BB from the leftovers of a mid to high end Burgundy tasting, and he said it was incredible.) Just the usual advice I give everyone - everything takes longer, so be sure to alot yourself plenty of time. Especially for something like BB which needs long slow cooking. I just looked at that recipe, and it's saying to check after 40 minutes?! That's crazy! Expect more like 2 1/2 - 3 hours to get truly tender wonderful beef. Maybe longer because you're doing triple or quad batches. ← We charge members $12, so I'm looking on a budget at around $900. After costing things out, I think I can afford a $100 dollar case of plonk wine out of that, with a few bottles left over for the cooks. We do dinners every other week and I've been an assistant cook a number of times. I can do the mise a day in advance if I can find a cold spot enough to keep things. We have a walk-in beer keg cooler that I could use, but that may not be cold enough. I could even do the cooking the day in advance to let the flavors meld. The mushrooms and pearl onions would go in during the reheat. And, I'm going with fresh pearl onions. What are assistant cooks for anyway? I'll be cooking in foil covered roasting pans to maximize surface area exposed to the heat, but even with that 40 minutes is just crazy. It will also make serving much easier. I'll do a tray per table, seven or eight trays, and let people help themselves. Thanks again, Jim

Cooking for 80 I haven't made Beef Bourguignon since the '60s, so when I signed up to do a dinner at my club I thought it would be fairly simple but interesting. Around 80 people, mostly hungry males so I estimate 40 pounds of boneless beef. This JC recipe looks good but Google produces hundreds of variations. Anyone have other recommendations? I think I will be able to scale things okay except for the herb bouquet. I need to go from a bouquet to ounces of herbs. Any suggestions? Julia's recipe serves six to eight regular people. For the pearl onions, I'm planning to use canned just because of the sheer volume. Any strong objections? I'll probably use fresh mushrooms. Julia recommends zinfandel or Chianti. I'm probably go with four liter boxes. I don't expect anyone here to admit they drink wine from a box, but If you heard of a reliable brand from a trusted friend, I would appreciate advice. I have two commercial ovens and a full commercial kitchen to work with, so I don't expect any problems with that aspect. The dinner will be in June, so I have plenty of time to plan. Any "gotchas" to look out for? Jim

I don't remember the plastic thingy being in the instructions. It is used to support the impeller thingy when a cutting disk isn't in place. Look how the tabs of the grinding disk fit into the body of the grinder. The plastic thingy fits into the same slots when a grinding disk isn't in place, as when you are stuffing. I think it will be obvious once you look how things fit together. Edited to add one more thing: Silver skin really clogs up the KA grinder, especially when using the finer grinding disk. Plan on disassembling several times midstream unless you trim carefully. Jim

There is a small winged plastic thing who's use isn't obvious. It's a placeholder to replace the cutter when you are stuffing. I just noticed upthread that someone called it the die. Jim

Many fruit orchards will give away their prunings or sell them at a nominal cost. They are more usable than split logs in most smokers. Jim

It's not so much the source as it is the grade. A lot of people prefer medium-amber even though the lighter grades are more expensive. The sap gets progressively darker over the course of the season's run. Syrup from places that use wood-fired evaporators may have a slightly different taste, but that is most likely only available locally. Jim

We had a slightly diffferent rule. The second most senior person pays and the most senior person signs off on the expense report. Jim

That may be true, but the Patent Office can be clueless at times. This may be an "urban legend", but I read that someone had patented the "hton" and "ntoh" software algorithms. That's about as basic as "1 + 1 + 2". Then there's "Ringnet", but don't get me started on that. Jim

Aonther riff would be to get the rotissary insert for the Weber 22 1/2" kettle, assuming you have that kettle. Jim

Several people, including me, have already told you that you have to do it by feel. Temperature probes give an approximation, but only that. Why do you have a problem with a physical test? Jim

Brining, absolutely, and I cook to 165F in the thigh. As Mizduccky said, joints may be a bit red. Cooking the breast to 180F is a good way to ruin a meal. I have a link to the latest USDA or is it ServSave guidelines around here somewhere. It's probably on an older computer that's not booted up right now. I'll look around in the morning. Jim

Here's what's available at Verrill Farm in Concord, MA by month. They may be a few weeks behind what's available in NYC, but it should be close. In addition, it's an interesting web site to explore. My only relationship with them is that I'm a very happy customer. Jim

The reason many people have problems with basil is that they plant it too early. You need to wait until the soil has really warmed up, say early to mid-Summer depending on your location. Don't bother with nursery plants. It grows from seed very well. Keep the plants well trimmed and they will really bush out. Jim