jsolomon

Oh, no. Have you dumped me before? Lectins are typically a storage protein in seeds that plants make hard to digest and allergenic. For instance, peanuts have a protein called Ara h 2 (conglutin) that is undigested by any of the enzymes in your stomach and has several antibody binding sites on the protein. The moral I take from this is humans make good fertilizer (if you're a plant). Many plants seem to take this sort of strategy. Journal of Clinical Allergy and Immunology is a good place to start if you want to look at lectins from another light. I guess that the appropriate way to help your friend is to find meats that are in her comfort zone. For instance, someone who eats :ahem: high on the hog, may fall off the wagon for foie gras; whereas someone who eats a bit closer to the trotters may fall off for a Slim Jim. I'd still bet on bacon. Or, Barbara Kafka's roast chicken is also quite heavenly.

And, beef futures and prices have fallen accordingly. My family in cattle country, Nebraska, are all wishing they bought some short futures last week. They're also counting their lucky stars that they don't own cattle anymore.

I would second slkinsey's Turkey Two Ways. I'm also looking into making turkey ham with someone's idea I saw a few weeks back for Coke Cured Ham.

Googling seems to bring up several appropriate sites. Best of luck with a difficult jonesing.

I will start by saying that typically grains (and nuts, especially peanuts) are much more allergenic than meats. Yes, there are huge examples on both sides, but from some research I have done, typically they are more allergenic. That being said, if your friend is worried about a reaction, then she should start eating small amounts of meat. Lean is most likely better as her gall bladder may not have caught up to large amounts of grease. Then again, it may have. But, if she's generally in good health and does not suffer from an irritable digestive tract, I can't foresee any great harm in having her eat what she feels like. So, I would say something that really helps bacon stand out like the BLT that has already been suggested or Spaghette alla carbonara. Even a simple salad with bacon bits could be enough to start your friend on the road to recovery. I usually break my significant others in with feeding them heart. But, I'm slightly cracked.

I would be more tempted to use green coffee beans. There are two places in town that roast their own coffee in "bulk" (more than 5 pounds at a time). One can be smelled from the University where I attended until quite recently. The other can be smelled from my domicile. Roasting coffee smells unlike any other. Heavenly. Heavenly. I would try to smoke some ham with it attempting to capture some red-eye gravy magic.

Actually, my best luck with cast iron has come from allowing the sticky residue to form. On a molecular level, what you are trying to do IS to break the bonds in the oil so that 1: carbon atoms fill the gaps between the iron atoms on the surface making a smoother harder surface 2: providing a good place for the oil to attach. My understanding is that you are actually chemically attaching the grease to the surface. You are creating a real chemical bond between the oil and the pan. The way you need to do this is either heat up the oil to the smoke point (quick method) and cool it in room temperature air with good ventilation [read on the stove under the hood] or heat it for a longer time at a lower temperature. 350 for an hour with a good covering of crisco will provide a great amount of seasoning. Best of luck with your great cooking utensil!

A dish a moved-on SO called tomato alfredo This is made best in one pan. 1/4 pound spicy italian sausage 1 box frozen spinach, or good amount of fresh 1 small can tomato paste 4 cloves garlic 1/2 cup good cream 1/2 cup butter 1/2 cup + some good parmesan cheese Good amount of fresh black pepper Salt to taste Crumble sausage. Mince garlic. Grate cheese. Cook/brown/sear sausage. Save some of the drippings. Put tomato paste in the drippings and give it some color over medium-high heat. Set those aside. Put cream in pan and deglaze. Place garlic, salt, and pepper in cream and simmer momentarily. Put in butter and parm. Whisk until smooth. Place spinach and tomato-sausage mixture in pot. Heat through. Serve over good pasta. Would probably work well on pizza, too. My SO at the time didn't eat very much at all. This is the ONLY thing I have ever made that she went back for seconds and subsequent thirds.

Did you lose to burr and the nut that holds it in to the frame? I would assume that, then, then, it would be difficult to find, and probably not worth your time. Losing a pepper mill is a very dark time, indeed. Best of luck with procuring a replacement!

Fungi Perfecti sell more than just shitake logs. I have been interested in their "Espresso Oyster" for several months because I drink so much coffee that I should be able to support it for quite a while (and I have an old aquarium in dry dock that would make a great terrarium to grow them in). They have many types of indoor kits and outdoor kits. I've been curious to try their wares for nearly a year, but haven't had the cash flow. Alas and alack.

Not taking this food in the normal route, but I have found that grinding horseradish root to mix with white vinegar for use as a condiment is spectacular for clearing the sinuses. Also one of my cure-alls for general lack of pep is anything with enough chile/tabasco/chili/pepper that it is too hot to eat closed-mouth genteel fashion. If it makes my eyes water and make me gasp, it's just hot enough. Especially good with 2-minute eggs and cheese. As for hangovers... biscuits and gravy at the roadhouse down, er, hem, the road. Salt and grease and starch. Mudder Nature's sponge. I'm fortunate to never have had prednisone... toxic stuff. When I finish with my MD I hope I am as frightened of using that stuff as I currently am.

Well, yes and no. A filter does not perform the same through all liquids, otherwise we would be filtering our water with purolator or fram oil filters, which we don't. To my knowledge, that is. So, I think that if the liquorfilter works like a brita, you would not have quite as satisfactory results simply using a brita. However, I'm anxious to be proven wrong (but I trust my digestive tract and drink my water plain from the tap). It sort of reminds me of the old legend that you could "renature" denatured alcohol by dumping it through a loaf of bread. You can't. Edit to fix a brain-fart on liquids.

Mixing it with something acidic, sweet, and salty all at once, a la bloody mary's?

I would tend to say that it is going to be a wine clip. The types of filters I know of that can do something like that are either going to peeter out much before 100L of hooch, be too slow at gravity drive to give you any satisfaction at all, or the first part will be much better, but then all of your uberplonk will be driven off the filter at some point before 100L and will come off more concentrated than before. I'll run it by my chromatography professor and see if he has any opinions.

OKAY, lady, just drop the fruitcake. I said, DROP THE FRUITCAKE!!!

Flavored coffees. Irish cream is meant to come from a bottle and then directly into a shot glass in the bottom of a Guinness, not a pre-ground bean. And calling it Creme de Eirland doesn't make it any better.

Crepes used to be "morning after" food for me... kind of like dinner, a movie, and four hours of begging was "night before". But, alas, new S.O. now. The new one doesn't even appreciate homemade hot cocoa... she says it isn't sweet enough! What sorts of things do people do with savory crepes? I've done the strawberries and creme fraiche. Even better is stewed sweetened rhubarb with sweetened creme fraiche or sweetened sour cream. Also quite delightful is grilled peaches. But, I haven't grasped what one puts with a savory crepe (and I await your answers!).

a floor?

I would suggest that if you added a fine dice of raw onion at the end--2 Tbsp or so--you get get much of the onion flavor, but it would retain the freshness. I've always equated the flavor of completely cooked off onion as a flavor in things that were stewed, etc, for a long time simply because onions take a while to cook off in my life of 20-30 minute meals. Finishing with some fresh extra virgin olive oil and cracked black pepper and/or lemon juice would probably also lift the "fresh" of the flavor. Caveat: I am not a chef. I anxiously await other opinions too. My fave, though, is one my S.O. doesn't like. Cook down approx .5 pound of diced tomatoes in ~3-4 Tbsp butter with a little salt and 2-3 Tsp cracked black pepper. Top fresh pasta with this and some choppped parsley. That says fresh to me!

I always thought the protocol was to ask "can I have something legal that will take away the pain?"

With apologies to Schielke... From the skulls of my defeated enemies. According to the USDA here USDA Dairy guidelines, on page 11, it states that "Light Whipping Cream", which is the only mention of whipping cream, is between 30% and 36% butterfat. "Heavy Cream" is more than 36% butterfat. So, the caveat is, if you're buying US produced/marketed/sold cream, this is what the guidelines are. Outside the US, individual kilometerage may vary. Edit to place a curious comma and stolen gag.

What, no S or G?

Actually, a few days before I stumbled across that episode, I was wondering the same thing myself: how smoking something using [green] coffee beans would taste. However, in my experience with Turkey is you can get a decent smokiness in it even simply grilling over charcoal with appropriate smoke producing wood, even at high heat. I used to cook boned turkey halves on a grill in roughly 60 minutes, and all I did was bone them off the bird and butterfly the breasts. It worked like a charm. The smoke flavor was quite discernible and pleasant. As for smoking with coffee beans, I, too, am curious.

So... I do a fair amount of grilling over charcoal. In one year, I have nearly worn out a chimney for starting charcoal. Looking at the bloody thing warm up (and roasting many a marshmallow during January in it) I came to the conclusion that this might be a good start for hand-roasting coffee. Has anyone had any experience roasting over a charcoal fire? Over any non-petroleum-based flame? If/when I get this going, I'll attempt to be sure and post some pictures and experiences.

F.G., You could one-up the variac crowd, and for not much more than a 20 amp variac get a PID, like people use to hack the Rancilio's, and instead of programming it for one temperature, give it a ramp/sink program to run your roaster. Same process, only digitally controlled instead of... well, um, uh... digitally controlled. Or, hell, get a motor driven variac and control it from your pc's serial port. Damn... I have too many ideas and not enough time or money