Hi, I was making adobo sauce tonight for enchiladas and the recipe, like most recipes, called for discarding the water the dried chilies were soaked in. But, Kenji soaked chilies in broth and skipped discarding the soaking solution in his carne adovada recipe.

Why do some recipes ask you to discard the soaking solution? Is there a traditional reason? It seems like I'm throwing out perfectly good flavored water when I do this.

Saturday silliness. Would Kenji enjoy chopping vegetables at near zero gravity?

http://vimeo.com/41235461

Hi, I'm looking for a recipe for sauerkraut with apples where the apples are fermented with the cabbage. Someone gave me some of this once and it was really good but I can't find the recipe for it anywhere. All I can find when I search the term are recipes for sauerkraut with apples as in a pie or cake. She mentioned a specific ratio for the cabbage and apples but I don't remember what it is.

Also, my grandmother told me they used to ferment their kraut on the 'north side of the house in a barrel' during the summer. I'm hungry for homemade kraut and was wondering if someone had experience doing this on their back porch? Would you recommend it? I don't see a problem except that it will ferment a lot faster than usual and the neighbors might be a little offended.

Curse my @!!***!!! electric stove top! I was cooking a pot of pinto beans on the stove and misjudged the amount of time I had before I needed to remove them from the heat and the beans on the bottom started to burn. I didn't stir so the rest of the beans are fine. maybe a little burned tasting.

Is there a cook's secret on how to remove or 'fix' the burned flavor?

I want to make tamales but I don't have a tamale steamer. I do have a 12Q (?) stock pot that is large enough but I only have a steamer insert for a 4Q pot. I can't afford to buy a new pot with a steamer insert or new insert right now. What can I use for a steamer platform that won't leave the bottom of the tamales soaked?

Thanks.

I try to avoid buying meats that have been 'enhanced' since I don't prefer the taste and texture but sometimes an alternative isn't available or I'm low on cash and have to settle for it. When the label says "Enhanced with up to a X% solution" does it mean that X% of the weight I'm paying for is buffer? I'm assuming the solution is saline, a phosphate or carbonate buffer plus chicken or pork broth and the mysterious natural flavorings. What is in the buffer that gives the fat and meat such a strange texture? The raw fat feels slippery or slimy compared to unenhanced birds while the cooked meat has a stiff, almost rubbery texture.

The other question is why don't food manufacturers have to label the gluten content in the natural flavors. Turkeys may contain gluten because of the 'enhancement' solution but it's not on the label. I got sick eating flavored Dannon yogurt for the same reason since every flavored yogurt Dannon makes has gluten but there is no warning on the package.

Why do food manufacturers do this? Do they think is helps the flavor or is the buffer included to increase shelf life or disguise inferior quality meat?

Gloom, despair, and agony on me
Deep, dark depression, excessive misery
If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all
Gloom, despair, and agony on me (lyrics by Buck Owens and Roy Clarke)

My maters' they ain't fruitin'
Tho they bloomin' all right fine
The hummin' birds are pantin' as they rest upon the vine
And all winter for hot peppers I shall surely pine!

Gloom, despair, and agony on me
Deep, dark depression, excessive misery
If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all
Gloom, despair, and agony on me

Here in Oklahoma we've had nothing but 100 to 111 degree heat almost every day since June and my garden refuses to yield fruit even though I've been watering daily. I've asked around and apparently no one has had any luck with tomatoes. It's bad when it 'only' gets to 97F.

So rub it in, tell me about your wonderful harvest and about all of the canning your doing, salads your eating, ect.....

Sorry if someone recently posted a thread on this topic.

I have pork, growing like crazy spearmint, limes and a grill plus other ingredients. I'm looking for a marinade recipe that incorporates the spearmint plus the citrus I found one pork marinate that uses a combination of spearmint leaves, soy and hoisin sauces, molasses plus other stuff that looks good but I'm wanting something a little different. I bought limes a few months ago and went through them pretty fast then bought more and I'm really craving limes and know it pairs nicely with pork.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Help. I started eating sardines last year after reading about the last sardine cannery in the US shutting down. Last week I was watching TV on hulu mindlessly munching on sardines when I felt something with an off putting sandy, crunchy texture in my mouth. I didn't think much of it at first thinking some sand had somehow gotten into the can but I got another mouthful and realized there was a lot of this off putting something in the can. I looked and saw hundreds of little white, round balls in the dish and realized it was probably roe. I looked up "canned sardines roe" using altavista and found one article at chowhound (see: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/304187) and the author posted pictures of it on flicker but only three people replied to his/her query.

I have three cans of sardines in the pantry but now I'm a little afraid to try them. The roe was very unpleasant since I wasn't expecting it. It has a sandy, crunchy texture, not something you would seek out. However, I enjoy sardines and am wondering how often do people find roe in canned fish? Have any of ya'll ever come across this? Is this a surprise I should expect once a year or so or is it rare?

I made some chicken broth yesterday to use up all of the necks, spines and giblets I had thrown into the freezer. The broth is very good but the fat cap is a gross gray color because I had so many livers in the pot. I used some of the fat to make roux with masa harina for enchilada sauce but I can't think of anything else to do with it. It looks horrible but I hate throwing it out. I could wait a few weeks to throw it out with a clear conscience but the freezers full.Can I refine it?

I had ginger tea with a dash of ground cayenne pepper and freshly cracked black peppercorns a few mornings ago and thought it would make a good condiment on meats or as a stir fry sauce. I was thinking about making something similar to Thai sweet hot pepper sauce but I don't want it to be too sweet. Karo syrup isn't as sweet as sugar syrup and I was wondering if I should use this instead of sugar or if I need some sugar syrup or other thickening agent to give it the proper consistency. Could I use a bit of tapioca starch as a thickener since I have it on hand? Has anyone ever made something like this? Are there recipes available? I don't mind winging a recipe, it's about the only way I cook, but it would be nice to have some preliminary data before setting out.

Thanks.

This post is for AK since he wanted to know what was in Son-of-a-Gun Stew. I had tried searching for the recipe several years ago but all I could find were recipes that were basically beef vegetable stew, not the stew I remember eating at the local fireman's fundraiser. I searched after AK reposted my remark in Look Who's Talkin': Memorial Day Weekend Edition and finally found the recipe. It was hard to find since the firemen in my hometown are all gentlemen and had politely softened the name from Son-of-a-B*tch Stew. As I remember it the stew had ground heart, bits of arteries and kidney bits but I could never place the other flavors. According to the recipes I found here:
http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/texas/entry/son_of_a_bitch_stew_son_of_a_gun_stew/

or here:
http://www.hungrybrowser.com/phaedrus/m0806F04.htm

Son-of-a-Gun is made from beef heart, kidneys, thymus, liver, brain and/or possibly margut (marrow gut) seasoned with salt, pepper and green chilies. Margut is part of a nursing calf's stomach that contains partially digested milk. The stew I ate probably did not have margut but it still had very rich flavor from the kidneys and liver. I'm guessing they cooked it for at least 8 hours. I was confused about the taste since it did not have any chili powder or tomato taste and for some reason I expected this.

Anyhoo, I'm posting it here hoping Son-of-a-Gun will catch on again. It would be a shame to lose such a fabulous dish because people's tastes have changed so much. ENJOY!