jsolomon

Real winter grillers grill like this.

I've done what Abra has done. Heck, the first time I asked for it, I got 12 pounds, free! Trimmings are also nice in that you have less fabrication to do before you render it.

I hope they keep in the "They're ruminants, goddammit" about cows. Perfect line. Simply perfect.

Bourdain, Thanks for doing what you do. I don't understand how you walked instead of being carried away from Uzbekistan. When are you going to do the gut-bomb greaseball tour of Nebraska?

I have had a privileged existence from the view of many on eGullet. When I was living with my parents, I knew my poultry, pork, and beef. I helped raise them from fledgling, calf, and piglet, to chicken, steer, and gilt. We also have wild turkeys in the area. I don't know if you've seen a wild turkey, but they are homely, homely birds. But, I digress. From my farm kid vantage point growing up, when you have a producer who believes in his or her product enough to show you pictures through the production (and you are not a commercial packer, etc), you are dealing with a producer who has high expectations of the quality of his or her product, and is not ashamed to show you how he or she attempts to attain their quality. Buy from those people. They work hard to earn your business, and turn out a great product.

The kettle grill I used to have would perform admirably until about 10F, so that's usually when I stop grilling. Tonight it was 14F when I started grilling. I put on a butterflied pork loin that I had brined last night and a bread pudding. With a full load from the chimney, I had the thermometer reading 500F. I haven't checked the accuracy of the thermometer, but once it gets above 350 or so, it is good and hot and working nicely as a grill. 32 minutes and the pork was cooked through and delicious. 35 minutes on a far side of the grill for the bread pudding. Oh, the grill is an offset smoker. I put the charcoal just under the chimney in the main barrel for the grilling today. Worked like a charm. edit to add: grilling was done shirtless and shoeless, too.

Heh. If there is a barbed wire fence with one strand that isn't twisted with barbs, and someone pisses on it in my neck of the woods... well, suffice it to say the judge would 1: throw the case out of court, and 2: cite the fool for trespassing. And, everyone in the coffee shop would have a good chuckle over the incident for at least six months to come. I have seen it happen.

I hate to be the one to broach the topic, but since most everyone on eG knows that I am certainly not the most politically correct, tactful, or self-censored member of eG, I would like to go on the record as saying two things. 1: Showing an abattoir at work on broadcast TV is incorrect. It is, by its nature, sensationalist and ought be quashed at the highest levels with extreme prejudice. 2: I would like to see, on broadcast TV, an animal rearing/fabrication for food episode (or episodes) on some legitimate cooking shows. What does that entail? Well, something about ducks or chickens, and butchering them. Perhaps sheep. Maybe some simple fish butchering. Certainly not a whole series, but perhaps two or three shows. Home butchering is certainly not beyond most television owners' abilities. Perhaps it is beyond some of their storage means, and beyond some of their aesthetic comfort zones. But, I find it hardly difficult than the gratuitous violence I already see on my idiot box. It certainly can't be much more graphic than the NOVA episode about childbirth. edit: spelling bee champion's downfall

My recommendation is to go to a kitchen/bathroom fixture store and ask what they would suggest to clean stained porcelain with. You'll likely hear Bon Ami, or Barkeeper's Friend. Both are pretty good cleaners. Alternately, a paste of salt, baking soda, and hydrogen peroxide should work somewhat. It's too bad you can't get stronger than 3% hydrogen peroxide without paperwork hoops. Muriatic acid from the concrete cleaner aisle should also work, but be careful with it. It's strong stuff. You could also use drain cleaner strength sulfuric acid. Some places you can find that, some you can't. Be VERY SUPER ULTRA careful when using that. Rubber gloves, safety goggles--a face shield would be better. It'll spit at you if you add water to it. I'm not shitting you. Edit to strengthen safety warning.

I'm torn between the hollowing and just roasting, so here's my suggestion. Split them into two groups. One group, split in half and steam until cooked through. Take a divot out of the split ones. Cool. Then coat with either olive oil or butter and salt. Roast til they color. Fill the divot with interesting things. Onion confit, mushroom pate`, sausage, sawmill gravy, redeye gravy... The other half, split into half or quarter, and roast with olive oil or butter and salt and pepper. Serve with creme fraiche and other things to dip with.

Can someone please explain the "plain" thing to me? I have only met one infant who did not like Indian curries when offered to them. So, what happens between infancy and school-age that makes this go haywire? I do agree with you, SuzySushi, that the school menu doesn't look horrible. But, if the school is planning on attacking obesity at a young age, it really should use a multi-pronged attack.

Umm, uhh, ahh, you can't electrocute something that's dead. Source: Dictionary.comThere are methods of using electricity to tenderize meat. I am not sure how widespread it is. When I read a couple of papers about it, it seemed like it was something aimed at lesser grades of beef.

I would be concerned about introducing surface contamination into the meat via the jaccard method. Granted, there wouldn't be great growth conditions, but you would contaminate into the meat. I would suggest trying and reporting, though. Don't hold the meat at temperature for more than 2 hours before service. Sous vide would also be out on jaccarded meat.

From Wikipedia Further info: Ebay search on "pid controller"

I'm getting married in May and am catering the reception myself (well, not the cake). People have a choice between gumbo, pork sandwiches, cake, or all of the above. There will be good coffee (purchased from a local coffee roaster) and good beer (purchased from a local microbrewer). I do have a couple of vegetarian/nothing-that-walks-on-land friends so I will probably poach a couple of fish, too. Maybe sardines...

If y'all folks wanted to kibitz about some of these places in person, I'd be up for that sometime.

I can agree with Jack on both accounts. The commercial smoked salmon I've had is really quite comparable to what I've had that family has similarly smoked. Home-prepared bacon, though... I need to scare upthis post. Pay attention to the wine mentioned at the end of the post. Home-prepared bacon is good enough to warrant breaking that out.

I also read in either the Lincoln Journal Star or the Omaha World Herald that there is an oyster bar, or a bar with oyster specials on Wednesdays somewhere west of 120th. This was in the past two weeks, but google, journalstar.com and omaha.com are all failing me. Snekse, is there a reason you listed Pink Poodle twice? Oh, also, I don't know if you have tried the Brazen Head, but the last time I went there, I ordered apple mango chutney to go with my pork chops, and got apple sauce. Their happy hour beer specials were reasonable, though.

In 2006, I will eat larb I will make a couple batches of beer/wine I will find a real butcher in the area. I will learn how to consistently cook soups I will teach my fiance how to make brownies NOT from a box I will read anything written by Anthony Bourdain This is the year I will try sea salt I will taste for salt the way my fiance likes it I will use more stocks I will give 110%? I need to cook with less cream and butter. We need to eat more vegetables and fruits. My kids had better not be conceived. ←

Don't forget to fry some plantains, while you're at it!

My parents and I cold-smoke using a cast-off double sink and a cardboard box. We up-end the sink and use one side's drain to route the smoke to the second side where it cools further and then a piece of dryer hose into a cardboard box. For the fire, we just have an old cast-iron skillet to hold the burning wood. It works best when used on dry dirt or cement. Which, my parents' farm has plenty of.

I made one a while back from rhubarb sauce, dry mustard, and ground pepper. It was quite different, but very enjoyable.

I would suggest thinking of it like cranberry juice, since the flavor of tart cherries and cranberries are more similar than cherries to citrus. Gin and vodka are naturals. Try adding it to a wine spritzer. Can someone come up with a rum suggestion?

American schools have been offering less and less physical education/training in the last few years because of budget cuts, and an increased thrust to teach kids information. "No Child Left Behind" is one of the most current acts which requires schools to teach up to certain testable standards (and IMHO is a horrible implementation)--and is a laughably funded mandate. How does this affect schools budgets? Well, money to fund those mandates comes out of PE and food budgets, either directly or indirectly. So, we end up teaching kids about the 50 states' capitals and not about how to cook. Nor do we provide good food examples in the lunch rooms.

I, too, thank you, Kalypso. I do not knock lunch servers at schools, because I know how hard the ones that served me worked, and what they had to work with. 20 years ago, they were doing a bang-up job. Now, do to slightly changed regulations, the school I went to has to cater in food because the kitchen can't cut it, and they can't afford a new kitchen and/or more staff. I do have to agree with SuziSushi on the tofu issue. That is ludicrous to say that plant protein (and tofu is a complete protein) isn't equivalent. There are many areas where I see the difficulty the USDA is up against with the school lunch program, and every time I see something more about it, they are being reactionary and adding more stringent regulations which make it more difficult for the individual schools to turn out a quality product at a good price that fulfills needs and comforts. It makes me quite sad. That is one reason I am pushing for upheaval with the USDA food lunch program. It's old enough and poorly cared for enough that it is strictly reactionary and can only give unfunded mandates. It also seems to be working on very old assumptions which don't work in modern America--especially with the changes in our understandings of nutrition. Of course, none of this absolves the parents of any responsibility, but both environments foster each other.