Random Food Questions Thread - Page 404

The vanilla tasting set is worth getting if you ever place an order for anything, if only to see how different they can be.

How long do they usually take to ship? Kind of need it soon.

My next question will be which type does Pacaud use, or does he not specify? (AEK, I will take you up on the offer to borrow the book next week).

Well, if they aren't on vacation, they can ship for delivery within a week. I don't think he specifies which kind, but my book is currently loaned out to somebody.

Bourbon (Madagascar I think). A lot of it.

I think they were coming back sometime at the end of last week or start of this week (some day in the teens). But you should really just call Lior at la Boite and ask him. He worked for Roellinger for a while and can probably get you comparable stuff.
Edited by ehkay - 1/23/13 at 10:51am

OK, great. Thanks.

How much do European (Bretagne) turbots usually weigh? There's a ** restaurant in Berlin that's knwon for their turbot. They only buy 10kg+ turbots which, so they say, are very rare. Truth? (the dish is quite steep too; 90€ for a center piece of said turbot, "Parisian pea something", lardo and lavender beurre blanc)
They also make hommard à la presse. 145€ per person.

Most of the ones I saw at fishmarkets were like 2 kg. 10 kg+ is indeed very rare. I think below 1.5 they are considered turbotin, but not really sure of the exact cutoff, if there is one.

I just read an article and in it they reccomend storing eggs at room temp along with carrots and bell peppers. Does anyone do this? I know that overseas no one keeps eggs in the fridge (at least in the West Bank).

I don't because I buy them refrigerated so I keep them that way. However, I believe all my friends that keep chickens keep them on the counter.

i refrigerate but i know folks who go room temp. the big thing is storing them away from anything with a strong smell (except truffles).

from what i understand in the us eggs are power washed which strips the protective coating. i think they're supposed to last a week outside the fridge?

In Germany, they are sold at room temperature. Then there's a "keep stored in the fridge from ... on" (usually 7-10 days later) and "shelf life until ... when kept in the fridge". I always put them in the fridge when I return home from shopping.

Do they really pre-wash eggs in the US? Seems like a terrible idea since the natural protection is stripped off. However, if they get washed, there shouldn't be many cases of salmonella (since I undertand that it's caused by the shell -- or rather egg white/yolk that touches the shell -- in 95% of the cases). So, whenever you use fresh eggs (tiramisù, cocktails, whatever) and you've got bleach at hand, it shouldn't be the worst idea to wash them in it (right before you use the eggs, not much in advance).

I buy local/free range... no washing... but the USDA requires the store to refrigerate.

While we're at it, how is milk in the US usually treated? Over here, all milk sold in supermarkets is pasteurized.
There's the regular pasteurized stuff, IIRC 30 seconds at 72°C or something. Shelf life is about a week. And the extended shelf life (ESL) milk, three seconds at 120°C (wiki) which has a shelf life of three weeks. (and, of course, the dreadful dead milk)
Over the past few years, ESL milk has pretty much replaced the regular pasteurized one. I prefer the regular one and don't need it homogenised. Unfortunately, it's become very hard to find and other than some organic ones, I know of only one milk that you can regularly find in supermarkets that doesn't have ESL.

I got some Himalayan pink salt for Christmas. It's in pretty huge crystals, too big to eat as-is. What's the best way to grind them or otherwise break them down for optimal flavor, texture, mouth feel? Apologies if I'm using bad terminology or whatever, I don't know much about salts, other than I had some fancy Australian salt in Sydney once that was really interesting in my mouth (no homo).