Toliver

Not too hungry...just a grilled Velveeta (sorry...no real cheese in the house) sandwich, using whole wheat bread slathered with Plugra that had been mixed with minced garlic & hot pepper flakes. Thinly sliced sour dills inserted after grilling. Trader Joe's Salt & Vinegar potato chips on the side along with a Gordon Biersch Blonde Bock.

This may sound like a stupid question but will your class be tailored to address just smoking and smoking issues? Or will it encompass more topics than that (grilling vs. barbecuing, direct heat vs/ indirect heat, marinades, brines or rubs, etc). If it doesn't, I hope there will be a barbecue/grilling class at eGCI (=Mark? jmcgrath?, et al). I think if you're able to gather up and incorporate the info in your past posts/threads, that would be a great start (or even a class!). Like I mentioned before, your "minute-by-minute" smoking post was great. Something along the lines like you've been posting about what cuts of meat are better suited for smoking and which aren't, what happens to the meats at certain temps and why that's important, does the type of wood/briquette used really make a difference, using rubs, marinades or mop sauces (or are they even neccesary?), how much time is involved, why kind of equipment do you need, how is cold smoking different than regular smoking, the importance of letting meat rest, and on & on. I am sure there are many more smoking topics that other eGulleteers can come up with. col, I am looking forward to the class!

Yikes! I wasn't aware of that. My TJ's offers only the silver wrapped Plugra. Guess I should check out some of the upscale grocery stores in my town to try and find the red wrapped kind. Thanks for mentioning this.

It looks delicious! Thanks for doing a taste-test and posting the results. This is one of the reasons why I find eGullet to be so invaluable. Doing a taste-test for Plugra sure beats doing a taste-test for fake chocolate bars, eh? (Darn it, I can't find that thread!)

col klink, Are you doing an eGCI class on smoking/bbq-ing or pork in general? The reason I ask is because I think it's exactly this kind of info that would be great to have at one "click" and would benefit all eGulleteers. Your posts, some scattered over a handful of different threads, offer some great insight and very practical "how to" information. If you could gather up all your info, it would make a great eGCI class. I've suggested in another thread (tanabutler has too) that there should be some sort of repository for this kind information on eGullet (outside of eGCI or perhaps part of it). It would be a kind of one-stop shop where everything you would want to know about different subjects would be gathered, instead of having 5 or 6 eGullet windows open trying to follow a thread ("See Jim Dixon's brining method on the 'roast chicken thread' "...and so on). If your great thread that you posted with step-by-step smoking (with pictures) could be combined with your other informative pork/smoking posts, it would be a tremendous read. Or is this a pipe dream?

I noticed that in the video clip. It was a little deceptive since both pots were already heated. I would have liked to have seen how long it takes to bring a pot of cold water to a boil sitting on the center "hot" ring. Also, how does the fuel usage compare to a 4- or 5-burner stove? I imagine getting the center ring up to 750 degrees would take a lot of gas. Would this mean, thanks to a high utility bill, I couldn't afford to cook every night of the week? I'd pass....

I agree. I like to go to pottery stores that sell old restaurant (that have gone out of business) "leftovers". I've even been able to score some platters and serving dishes with restaurant names on them. Nothing I have matches and I think it looks great.

A box of Velveeta.

I am shedding tears over the condition of your formerly beautiful wood floor.

Great course! I look forward to trying your recipes. Drying chiles: My brother uses a Mr. Coffee dehydrator to dry his crops. Then he grinds batches of peppers into flakes to give out as presents. The flakes rock! He also keeps some of the dried peppers whole to rehydrate for cooking. As long as they've been able to dry without the presence of moisture, they'll be okay. Otherwise you have to watch out for mildew/mold. A cure for the burn: The "dairy" cure does nothing for me. It's supposed to counteract the capsaicin but, for me, it's temporary at best. It always seems to return. I think the "heat" in a chile burn is from some sort of capsaicin oils. They get absorbed into your skin, lips, mouth, etc. which is why there is lingering pain with hot chiles. There have been two cures that have worked for me, though. The first came from a woman who hailed from Acapulco. She said a spoonful of sugar does the trick. That worked for me. Let it sit in your mouth for a short bit then "swish" it around. Then spit or swallow. The second cure I stumbled on and it is a kind of freaky sensation. Next time you have a chile "burn" in your mouth, take a big drink of a hot liquid (coffee, soup, etc). Obviously, it can't be hot enough that you scorch your mouth, but hot enough to lift the capsaicin oils in your mouth and drain them away. Let me forewarn you, it is a very weird sensation when you drink that first gulp of hot liquid, but it definitely works. I think both cures work (for me, at least) because they both remove the lingering capsaicin oils in your mouth. The sugar absorbing the oils & the hot liquid "melting" the oils away.

Awww...you say that as if it's a bad thing.

Doing a web search, one site said they are seasonal: "On the eastern coast of the USA, Nabisco Mallomars (Northeastern USA) are very popular and also the oldest known example of marshmallow biscuits; the first cookies were sold in New York City in 1913. Today, New York City consumes 70% of all the Mallomars purchased. [ ] Because they are made with dark chocolate, Mallomars are not available from April to September, since they melt easily in the heat of summer..." Maybe you can't find them because they may not be in season, yet. Who knew? You should read the article since they also mention other similar cookies. Those others may be sold in your area and may be a (poor) substitute until you can get the real thing. Also, you can ask your supermarket manager if they carry them or can they order some. If they're available, that's one way of getting them in stock. Stock up and freeze them for the summer months. I didn't see them listed on the Nabisco web site either but they may be available only in certain regions of the country, too. If you have a serious "jones" for them, here's a place where you can order them online. I have never ordered from them so I can't vouch for the site. I would just be cautious about ordering them during a warm time of year.

Southern/Central California - Used to love green Pippins when I was a kid. They were so tart and crisp with just a little sweetness at the end of the taste. Today you can't find them anywhere in the supermarkets. All you see nowadays are the lame tame green Granny Smiths. They aren't anywhere near as tart as the Pippins were. That really changed the sweet/tart yin-yang of my mom's apple pie. As for red apples, I encountered one too many mealy ones as a kid to ever trust them again. That being said, two years ago I discovered organic Pink Ladies at my Farmer's Market. Crisp and sweet. Yellow apples? [jinmyo]Gah![/jinmyo]

Thanks, col klink! I was hoping you were around... The supermarket did have shoulders next to the butts , but for some unknown reason I completely passed them up when I saw the poor fat-less condition of the butts they were offering. Chalk it up to "trim-shock". Looking back, the shoulder with the bone-in probably would have been a more flavorful choice. There's always next weekend (and changing supermarkets would be a "good thing", too). I don't know what those butchers were thinking or how they can justify selling them. I just can't believe they would screw up so many butts like that. There's nothin' worse than a dry butt. I'm thinking some butcher trainee f'd-up so they were trying to make it look like they did it on purpose. Grrrrrrrrrr.....

Thanks MatthewB, Then I was right to pass up the trimmed butts. This irks me, nonetheless, because I had a hankering for some good butt!

Yesterday I was in my local supermarket and was perusing the pork butts only to find all of them had these large stickers on their respective plastic wrappings declaring they were "Extra Trimmed!". Sure enough, from what I could see, all of the butts had been trimmed of most of their fat, leaving about an 1/8th of an inch at its thickest. What little fat that was left on them seemed mighty sparse and this confused the heck outta me. Is a trimmed pork butt a good thing? The butchers in this supermarket obviously thought so. I have always heard otherwise. My thinking is that the moist, tender richness of the pork butt comes from the fat and if it's trimmed, like these were, they wouldn't be tender and they wouldn't have the flavor they should have then if they had the fat left on. So what's the word on pork butt fat? Did the butchers ruin a "good thing" (a la Martha)?

There are other posters on the board who are much more qualified to answer this (and hopefully they will weigh in with comments) but I would say do NOT refrigerate the meat and then try to pull it. If you do refrigerate it, you will find the meat (actually, the grain of the meat) will be stuck back together. The object of cooking pork to pull is to get it to that stage where everything that bonds it together starts to break down, making the pulling apart easier...so do it while the meat is warm/hot. And try to find some big ass forks, too...should make the pulling go faster.

This isn't in the same league as "real" restaurants, but the Buca di Beppo chain of Italian restaurants usually has a kitchen table. It's supposed to be one of the most popular tables (my guess is the "Pope" table comes in second). It really can't compare to a "real" restaurant though since Buca is supposed to be more of an entertaining experience than a dining experience. Part of the schtick is that the kitchen staff (faux italian-type "New Yawkers" with attitude) are supposed to toss insults over to those dining at the kitchen table. I can't imaging having to work the line and entertain the customers at the same time...

fifi, I checked with my mom this weekend and she says she learned to add the "secret ingredient" (celery seed) to her potato salad from her older sister, Mary, who raised her after their parents died. Most of my mom's recipes, from potato salad to meatloaf (with strips of bacon on top...Mmmm) were learned from Aunt Mary. My mom then reminded me that she adds celery seed to her cole slaw, too, which I've already posted about. I also asked her where she thought Aunt Mary got her recipe for potato salad from and my mom said she probably made it up. They were poor so she didn't get it from a cookbook (couldn't afford it). Mom said Aunt Mary usually added whatever was on hand to what she was making at the time. It is possible Aunt Mary could have learned it from their mom but not likely. My grandmother came over from the Old Country (Bohemia) and I don't think potatoes figured too prominently in that area's cuisine (egg noodles were probably more like it). Hope this helps...

They each probably thought the other had finished it off, not even thinking that you may have done it. Sweet.

I'm writing it now. Whoo-hoo! I thought I missed it for sure. I am looking forward to it. I enjoyed your "Cream Sauces" class. It's nice knowing that when I was growing up I was eating a "real" cheese sauce based upon the Béchamel ("Hey, Mom WAS a good cook afterall!"). And thanks for mentioning the brown sauces in your lesson. I haven't gone through the Stock class yet and so I missed the "Stock Based Sauces" class, as well. Guess I have some catching up to do!

Not bad form at all. As long as presentation isn't a perogative, it tastes good and you can escape the tears, I say "Whack away!" I found out the hard way that even something as mild as green onion/scallions can cause you to tear up if you chop up enough of them. DOH!

I didn't realize how good I had it with my mom until I started reading this thread! Now if you had a thread on trying to talk your mom through a software installation over the phone, then I would have something to vent about! Speaking of knives, my mom is in the process of shipping her 47 year old set of Cutco knives off to the factory for sharpening and replacing broken tips, etc. She never would have thought to do it on her own but a Cutco sales rep foolishly called her trying to sell her a new set. My brothers and I have bought her new knives but she still sticks with her Cutco's. Go figure... Edited to add: Fifi, I agree this is a little odd. But I guess it depends on the relationship you've had with your mom and how that translates into the kitchen. Too bad eGullet can't get a group discount on counseling!

Alas, yes, they have both gone to Candy Bar Heaven. You can catch a glimpse of the Caravelle wrapper here, though I'm sure that's poor consolation for you. Edited to add: here's another Caravelle wrapper...looks like it's from later years. The Milkshake (I remember it, too!) is on the list of discontinued food items from our youth found here. I was saddened to see Sugar Mommas on the list.

That's a possibility. My mom did get her Swiss Steak recipe from the recipe book that came with her Presto Pressure Cooker that she received as a wedding present in the mid-'50's. I know her cooking "bible", another wedding present, was the 1953 Better Homes & Garden New Cookbook (which I just replaced with a copy I found on eBay last Christmas). I will have to check with her to find out whether it was a recipe handed down from her older sister or if she got it out of a cookbook.