Stone

Where should I look to find wood? Can I just go to a lumber yard and get scraps of untreated wood? Will they have hickory, maple, cheery, alder, etc? How much rain is too much? If I'm expecting some periods of heavy rain, should I not smoke overnight?

Where should I look to find wood? Can I just go to a lumber yard and get scraps of untreated wood? Will they have hickory, maple, cheery, alder, etc?

Unfortunately, I've had to learn a bit about the dairy industry lately. Although it varies by area, i.e., California v. Wisconsin v. Upstate New York (as if there's a dairy industry left there), often there will be a few processing plants that purchase and process milk from a large number of suppliers. They ship the product (fluid milk/cream, condensed, cheese, butter, non-fat dry milk powder, etc.) under their customer's brands (or their own). The manufacturing process is specified by each customer. Although they same plant may make high-end and low end butter, it does not mean that there's no difference between the two.

Gary Danko Restaurant in SF uses Challenge butter. Comparing that with the homemade organic butter at French Laundry and whatever was served at Fifth Floor, I'd say that Challenge won. It was fresh, and wonderfully creamy. Challenge makes a few "types", I'm not sure which this was. I thought French Laundry's organic butter tasted oily.

Do you wrap it in foil during the cook?

If your fiance's dietary restriction is not for health reasons, I assume you can add a good dollop of schmaltz.

Non-stick or regular pans? Milk from Happy Cows or Pissed Off Cows? What altitude are you at? Do you watch the pot, or don't you?

Sorry, I thought this was about something else.

For what it's worth, the Food TV segment agrees that the dish is named after the Goddess Diana.

A Food TV show just had this on the list of top 5 flaming foods. Can't help with the recipe though.

I did this again last weekend. Used an 8qt stock pot instead of the wok. I figured that I'd have better temperature stability. The first batch, I got the temp up to 300 and put in the wings. Quick drop to 250, and stabilized there. Not good. I put the lid on the pot (although I think I read you're not supposed to do that when deep frying), and got the temp up to the 350-380 range. That's a good sizzle. The next batch I started at 380. There was a much smaller drop, and a much faster recovery. I'm still not a fan of Franks hot sauce.

I've documented a number of my problems with thermometers. Between my probe, oven and a Taylor analog, I get three very different readings. A Smug Engineering Bastard suggested trying them all in boiling water (duh, it's the only thing I can accurate know the temperature of). They agreed in the water, but still disagreed elsewhere. It's not easy.

There was a FoodTV show on SF this weekend that did a spot on the Aidell's sausage guy. They told all about how he decided one day to make great sausage, and how he still makes the best. They also featured Cowgirl Creamery goat cheese. (And one more item that I can't remember.)

I have mine up on the roof. It's a silver-painted tar-like substance. The first time I smoked, I put a foil roasting pan full of water under the smoker. The water barely went beyond warm. The next times I didn't put anything underneath -- there was no discoloration or anything under the WSB. I think you're safe. However, the smoker will drop bits of coal, etc., which will make small burn marks in wood. For that reason, you probably want to put something underneath, but I don't think it needs to be very thick. By the way, I just bought a Polder dual-sensor thermometer. The probe has a sensor on the pointy end, for registering meat temp, and another sensor on the top of the probe (where the lead is attached) to measure oven temp. Assuming it works, it seems like a solution to many problems.

(I am a little disappointed that there haven't been any Scott and Laci Peterson jokes.)

I don't necessarily agree with the decision, but there's always going to be trade offs. If the food court were filled with Niman ranch and it's equivalents, trust me, the SF antidisestablishmentarians would be all aflutter about corporate domination. As I always say, if you can't please everyone, you might was well try to please me.

Doesn't anybody want to have dinner with me?

WHY? Well, color and flavor may necessarily go hand in hand, but the best wing-sauces I've had had a deeper color. The worst are simply Louisiana hot sauce (or similar) ladled over the wings.

When I was in Chiang Mai, I went to a small place called, simply, Vegetarian Restaurant. It's in the Bible (i.e., Lonely Planet), near the prison. They had the best spring rolls I've every had. They tried to explain to my how to make it, but the language barrier couldn't be overcome. All I could get was that it ws a mixture of about half and half taro and mushroom.

I stopped by a place tonight to check out some brisket prices. (Yes, I think I need therapy.) Picked up some frozen chicken wings while I was there. Defrosted them in the wave (Sharp Halfpint did a great job of defrosting without cooking at all). Deep fried in left-over peanut oil until crispy. It takes a while. Don't rush it. I mixed some Franks hot sauce (about a cup and half) with a half stick of butter. Too much butter -- maybe margerine would have been better. About a T of hot cayenne and a good amount of black pepper. Damn good. The sauce wasn't very hot though. Gotta use less butter next time. Maybe more cayenne. Need to find a way to get rid of the glowing red color -- the best buffalo wing sauce I've had is browner. Maybe a little roux? Probably not.

I'm willing to test a recipe or two for you. Lurie -- there's a grewsome meat grinder incident on www.rotten.com. But I warn you all -- it's really, really disturbing.

I was hoping for a recipe.

Due to a fortuitous Ebay screw up, I find myself with a hand crank meat grinder (Eastmen #10), and a sausage stuffer that looks like a proctologist's dream. It's supposed to rain all weekend. What should I do with my new toys?

I got them at a fish place called "Seafood Store" or Seafood something. Clement between 9th and 10th on the south side. They have pretty fresh fish at pretty good prices. My friends have bought tuna and salmon there for sushi -- no deaths yet. I didn't see cleaned and cracked.

Maggie -- If you get divorced, call me. ASAP.