gastronaut

I couldn't make the soft opening, but my girlfriend tells me she was your first customer :-) She picked up a beautiful bone-in leg of lamb. We smeared it with a paste of garlic and herbs from the garden and olive oil, vacuum sealed it, and let it sit in the fridge for the day. In the evening, we cooked it sous vide for 3 hours at 135F, then finished it by browning briefly under the broiler. It came out tender, pink, and flavorful. I'd definitely try this again but maybe sous vide at 130F to get a bit richer pink. I look forward to visiting you myself!

I've had an EdgePro for a few years now, and probably run my knives through it a couple times a year. Just line 'em all out, grouped by their bevel (my French and German knives are less acute than Globals) and do 'em assembly line style. Puts a good edge on them. Much better than the Chef's Choice electric sharpener I used to use, and which couldn't get to the end of the heel of blades with a bolster (e.g., Sabattier). Better too than I can do by hand with stones -- I can't keep the bevel accurate through the multiple passes.

My S.O. has been making things from the Ruhlman's _Charcuterie_ and I have been a happy beneficiary. Bacon, Pancetta, lots of different sausages (about half emulsified type). This weekend a massive mortadella stuffed in natural casing, yum. As we don't have a meat slicer, slicing the Bacon is messy, even with decent knives. We found pre-cut pork bellys at H-Mart and GrandMart and they make fine bacon with the same techniques: the thickness is just right. I'm on the hook to modify an undercounter fridge with a thermostat that will sustain 50-60F temperatures she needs for longer curing.

I'm in search of Caul Fat for some home charcuterie. Anyone know of a DC area place to buy it? We asked at The Springfield Butcher, and they said "what's that?" then "we can order it for you"; not promising. :-( I can mailorder it from Niman Ranch, but can't find a shipping price and bet it's extortionate. Thanks.

Looking for a tasty ham for the holidays but not sure where to look. Would prefer organic, freerange, humanely treated, hormone-, lead paint-, and gmo-free, etc, etc. Not the southern VA dry cured (country cured), but more the fresh ham (city cure, I believe). Eastern Market only seems to have prepacked hams from Smithfield Corp, fresh and country, but they're inhumane to man and beast. Eco Friendly (Arlington and Dupont farmers market) has great pork but doesn't have hams. I've ordered half a pig from CawCawCreek (SC) in the past, very nice, old fashioned, tastey, but they also have no hams. Last year we got a delish Kurobuta ham from David Rosengarten but a screwup with the ordering has scared us away from doing that again. Any suggestions for good, tasty, hams, prefereably from happy pigs raised locally? Thanks.

I designed a 36-inch 6-burner natural gas BlueStar cooktop into our kitchen 5 years back. Very happy with it. It's hot, beefy, and I like the open (not "sealed") burners that let mishaps overflow into a catch tray. It's a cooktop, not an object of art: the cast iron burner bowls do get gunky with burned on grease and such, but they go in the dishwasher once in a while, or respond to spray-on oven cleaner a couple times a year for the worst cases. Every time I cook at friends' houses their burners seem very slow, more steaming rather than searing -- even ones with high-priced name tags. I end up having to cook in much smaller batches than I do at home. I find I use the tiny simmer burner more often than expected. Most recently I've been using it to cook fish sous vide, vacuum sealed and held at 140F for 30 minutes -- comes out wonderfully unctuous, verging on duck-confit texture and richness. I'd definitely buy it again, and would have a hard time moving somewhere that had a more wimpy cooktop. I can't think of anything I don't like about it.

We've been there 3-4 times and it's generally quite good, but IMHO many of the dishes are a bit over-worked, too much frou frou toppings and additions instead of leaving things alone. But I prefer Obelisk's pure flavors and presentations to Kincaid's overwrought concoctions. Prices are reasonable and the wine and beer (including some tasty belgians) is good. It's a little bit loud due to hard surfaces but I'll go back. I'd just prefer it if they backed off on the "toppings" and such on the dishes.