Food! Glorious Food! -- The Outdoor and Cheese Mite Edition

[lsanderson]

Summer Seafood Boils Take On Local Flavor
By KIM SEVERSON
Recipes: Frogmore Stew | Lowcountry Pickled Coleslaw | Strawberry Peach Sangria | More Dishes to Cook Outdoors

A Chef and Her Bluefish
By APRIL BLOOMFIELD
Recipes: Smoked Bluefish Salad | More Bluefish Dishes

The Magic of Hobo Packs
By JOHN WILLOUGHBY and CHRIS SCHLESINGER
Recipes: Sweet Potato and Apple Hobo Pack

Campfire Cooking: Roasts on a Stick
By STEVEN RINELLA

Egg-in-a-Hole for Camping or the Comfort of Home
Recipes for Health
By MARTHA ROSE SHULMAN
Recipes: Egg-in-a-Hole | More Egg Dishes

An Old-World Dinner Pairs Barolo and Roasted Goat
By ERIC ASIMOV

Outdoor Wine Glasses, and a Bottle for the Picnic
By ERIC ASIMOV


For a Better Steak, Cook Directly on Charcoal
By MATT LEE and TED LEE
Recipes: Coffee-Chile Dry Rub | More Steaks

Pinto Beans and Bacon: The Quintessential Cowboy Meal
By DAVID TANIS

Recipes: Simple Pinto Beans With Bacon | More Beans

Trust Me. Butter Is Better.
By MARK BITTMAN

When Taste Is a Trade Issue
By JACK EWING

Fish Poisoning More Common Than Believed

How Snobbery Helped Take The Spice Out Of European Cooking
By MAANVI SINGH

Comments

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

I confess to taking many opportinities to be snotty towards the NYT (food page or other), and enjoying doing so. "kosher salt" -- is AFAIK, ordinary salt in larger crystals than commercially common. After they've dissolved, there is no difference whatsoever. And I don't happen to know any Jews who'd be Picky about the kind of salt added to a dish that contains (pork-) bacon.

Personally, I generally prefer frijoles Peruvano (Peruvian beans) over pintos, because the skins cook much more tender while the beans retain some sense of identity. And I can think of no culinary reason for the messy job of chopping the bacon _after_ the dish has been cooked, rather than before.

(I note that frijoles peruvanos were considerably less common than pintos back in the early Cowboy Days, but they're now only slightly more expensive -- I suspect they have a somewhat-lower yield per acre -- and appear to sell better than the pintos at my local Hispanic markets.)

Oh, and the writer didn't even mention that tossing a ham-bone in for the beans to cook with would be appreaciated by most cowboys, few of whom observed kashruth.

It's unlikely that I'll ever cook a big batch of beans again in my life -- I live alone, cook for one, and expect to move into an Assisted-living facility in a few months, where I'm unlike to have access to even a microwave, so I'm working at taking the big cast-iron dutch-oven to the GoodWill. But if I did, I'd leave out the cayenne pepper, because Me.

NaCl

[lsanderson.livejournal.com]

Kosher is less dense than salt crystals, so I'll agree with you, but you gotta adjust if you switch.