I love eating oysters,and I've certainly shucked many many oysters in my life.how do YOU shuck an oyster? And do you prefer shucked,or unshucked.I prefer mine unshucked.

I answered a post about someone wanting to go out to eat on Thanksgiving day.Some peeps agreed with what I was saying,and some were haters.What do you think about going out to eat on a holiday such as Thanksgiving or Christmas?Personally I think both holidays are better spent with families,at home.Let the hating begin!

Hi all, I have a Solis Maestro coffee grinder.I want to make some homemade pastrami,and need some really coarse grind black pepper for the recipe.Can I grind the peppercorns in a coffee grinder,or will it ruin the grinder?

I'm not sure I'm believing what I'm seeing here http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/38268129/ns/today-foodwine/?gt1=43001

Hi all, I like to bake and decorate cakes,and make my own icing.So I'm looking at buying a stand mixer,and am leaning towards the KA Professional 600 6 quart mixer.Any reviews,obversations,recommendations will be appreciated.Thanks

Hi fellow "foodies"....lmao.....sorry,I just hadda slip the word "foodie" in there....so.....hopefully we'll be moving into a much bigger house within a month.....and it has a huge kitchen....officially designated as "my room". Already I'm thinking about hanging a pot rack from the ceiling.How many of you guys actually have a pot rack,and for those that do,do you actually use it to hang everyday pots n pans,or do ya's just use it to show off your "good" pots n pans.I guess my question would be "is it worth the time,money and trouble to hang a pot rack", or just stash 'em all in some of the many cabinets there? Thanks...

Ok, I could have googled this and gotten an answer,but I value everyone's opinion on here, much more than googling. I've never eaten gefilte fish,and have always wanted to try it.I found a large jar of it on sale for $1.25 and couldn't pass it up.How does everyone on here serve/eat gefilte fish? room temp? Chilled?With condiments? I'm dying to try this,but I want an "authentic" experience. Thanks in advance !

OK. I'm a butcher in a large grocery store in central Florida. Today at work, the demo lady had a table with Rachel Ray dog food, an opened bag with a plateful on her table. I see 2 things wrong here.

#1: Rachel Ray shilling dog food? Maybe leftovers from 30 minute meals?

#2: A damn plateful of dry dog food on her demo table ... a customer only read the "Rachel Ray" part of her sign, walked up and took a small handful of dog food, thinking it was "people" food and ate it. I was laughing my ass off all day.

Years ago,my SIL used to make a caramel icing that she would cook in a saucepan and then,I thought,she would just pour it over a cake,where it would kinda harden.Not quite crunchy,but not at all soft.All the recipes I looked up said to cook the icing,then put it in a mixing bown and beat it.Anyone familiar with the pouring method?

Hi Fellow SE'rs, I just had some serious oral surgery and have to eat my food pureed for a while.

So I think life will be a lot easier with a stick blender. Any recommendations? I'll be pureeing cooked meat, vegetables and some fruit. Thanks in advance.

I was reading here a few weeks ago about an All-Clad sale. I think it was in the northeastern US, kinda far for me to go, and I seem to remember someone saying that Tramontina fry pans were a very close second to All-Clad.

I bought a 12" Tramontina skillet yesterday and sauteed a few small steaks in it at medium-high heat, then deglazed the pan with a few tablespoons of room-temp wine.

After dinner I washed the pan out, after it had cooled down, and I noticed this morning that the freakin' thing had warped! Anyone else had this problem?

In hindsight I guess I shoulda just broke down and bought the All-Clad.

OK,to start off,I'm a hamburger purist.No turkey burgers,no boca burgers,just plain beef on a roll,with whatever condiments you like. Tonight I made,IMHO,one of the best burgers I've ever eaten.At least from a purist's view.I'm always experimenting with different cuts of meat,freshly ground.So....today at work I had some tri-tip meat that just looked too good to pass up.I diced up the meat,along with some fat,and ground it only ONCE.With the fat I had added,it made the chop meat about 85-90% lean,which I was a little leary about,since I usualy like mine about 80% lean.Took the chop meat home,heated up a cast iron skillet on high,disconnected my smoke alarms,and very,very gently patted the mean into 1/3 lb balls.Dropped them into the hot skillet and smashed them down only once.Sprinkled a lot of kosher salt on them and once they had a nice crust on the bottom,I flipped them,put the top of the hamburger roll on top of each burger,to steam the roll,and pulled them off the pan at medium rare.I was gonna put some Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce on them,but after the first meaty bite,they were so damn good plain,nice beefy flavor annd a nice crunchy crust,that I decided not to put anything else on them and ruin the "beefiness' of the burger.Sorry to ramble here,but they were so good I hadda share.How do you like your burgers?

Now that we're on the topic of apple pies, I'm craving a good Caramel Apple Pie. Most recipe's I find just used a jar of caramel on the top of the pie after its cooked. Sounds kinda generic to me. Anyone have a good recipe?

Here's an update for anyone that answered my 2 wedding cake posts a few weeks ago. My daughters wedding was a total success and her cake went over really well.She was totally impressed with it and that was all that mattered to me.It was white cake with raspberry filling and indydebi's buttercream icing.The icing crusted over very well,so I wasn't worried about it melting in the florida heat.There are a few pics of the cake on my website.Please take a look and let me know what you think.

http://www.mattthebutcher.com/

i saw a pic of ChonQing Dry Spicy Chicken and would love to try it at an authentic Schezhuan restaurant so I know I'm getting the real thing !Anyone have any suggestions in Tampa or Orlando or even north of them?

ok....i just made a swiss meringue buttercream icing....kinda a little practice for the big cake....i thought it was way too buttery i used 4 egg whites,1 c sugar,3 sticks butter,1 tsp vanilla and 1/4 tsp cream of tartar....any siggestions as to what i can add to this icing to cut the "butteriness"?.....thanks in advance

My daughter's getting married in about a month and I volunteered to make her cake. This cake has to be freakin' PERFECT. I need a fail safe recipe for good decorating icing. I live in florida (hot all the time) and it's hard to find a good buttercream that doesn't melt, unless I use the all veg shortening an 10x powdered sugar icing which ends up tasting like sugary grease. Any suggestions?

We've talked about knives on here before,but i was wonderin how everyone likes to sharpen them?.....i have 3 forschner knives...an 8" and a 10 " chefs knife and an 8"breaking knife...the breaking knife i usually use at work....meat cutter....i use a steel every time i use any knife....but when they need serious sharpening i take them to work and use the 3 sided whetstone......but only the mediun stone...i never let my knives get to where i need the coarse stone an find the fine stone only polishes the blade...what about you guys?

ok...i've seen on here where people have commented on gross reataurant patrons, but whats the grossest thing you've ever seen a restaurant employee do?....once i ordered a take out pizza....the guy makes the crust....puts on the sauce.....scratches his head with both hands an then puts the cheese on the pizza....needless to say i got my money back and never returned.....

.....i'm an assistant meat manager at a large grocery store and i want to start a food blog where i can give people tips on how to cook meat and also how to save $ when they're shopping for meat an i'm tryin to think of a catchy name for my blog....any ideas?

do you know any links where to buy it online ?

i want to buy a non stick fry pan but dont know which is better ? stainless.....aluminium or carbon steel ? and i certainly dont want to spend $200 bucks either....any recommendations ?