how to finish a chicken...

[Sarah]

I often have chicken stock ice cubes in my martinis. It's quite sublime.

Why not?  There's that drink made with beef bouillon, after all.  The bull shot, I believe.

[Andy]

Absolutely.  Packaged stock is mere salty water by comparison. 

For me and, I'm sure, for erika, making stock from scratch isn't a new habit acquired since the economy went south.  I've been doing it all my cooking life (which began at age 7, when I made a blueberry cake with streusel topping).  Of course, my mother grew up during the first Great Depression, so I learned such frugality at her knee.

I think you mean grandmother.

[Sarah]

You forget my great age, sonny.

[erika]

I actually just started... but in the last six months I turned over a new leaf as far as my meals are concerned. Although I liked to cook and had been doing it since around 7 years old, I was eating a lot of prepared or frozen foods and I was buying my lunch. I started cooking almost everything from scratch. So the stock is generally new, but so rewarding. And the nice side-effect is that I've saved a lot of money.*





*which I spend on my cable bill every month.

[Sarah]

Question, erika:  When you make crab cakes, do you bread them?  Or do you just put bread crumbs in the mixture?

[erika]

Ah. No breadcrumbs in the MD style. Two slices of white bread, no crusts, soaked in a bit of milk. Blend those into the mixture. That's for about 1lb of crab meat. (JUMBO LUMP!)

[Sarah]

Ah.  Different from the recipes I found.  I used panko (homemade), both in the mixture and, lightly, on the outside because the patties were so wet.  I also used shrimp.

[Denim Gremlin]

You forget my great age, sonny.

bullshit. you're obviously some sort of time traveler.

[ericluxury]

I never was a chicken roaster until about 2 months ago when my friend step-by-step guided me through it and it's easy and incredibly delicious. That its cheaper is a bonus, but if it cost the same, it'd still be a more delicious way to eat chicken (and know that the chicken didn't have the most horrific life possible pre-cooked).
So the way my friend does it (and me too), is to zest two lemons, mix them with kosher salt and then spread that on top of the chicken. Also to put some butter under the skin. Then squeeze the lemons and stuff them in the chicken. And roasting it with beets and onions in the pan.
That's a delicious way to cook it.

What are others? I can follow directions pretty well but I am very uncreative as a cook because I am pretty inexperienced and my family was so bland about food.

[Sarah]

I like slipping herbs under the skin and sticking carrot, celery, onion, and herbs in the body and neck cavities.  (Of course, I first slather the bird with butter inside and out.)  I also strew carrot, celery, onion, and herbs on the bottom of the roasting pan and set the chicken on top.  They caramelize and add a lot of flavor to the gravy.

[JonFromMaplewood]

Huzzah to Erika for bringing the phrases "carcass bag" and "jumbo lump" into my life.

[Fido]

TE, consider your knuckles rapped.

What, have you become a nun, Sarah? Hitting boys' knuckles with your ruler?

I'm just reeling after watching five minutes of Lisa Lampanelli on HBO. Couldn't handle another minute of her. Now, anything mildly objectionable seems completely benign.

[iAmBaronVonTito]

admittedly, i spend most of my time on this board and reading the goner records board, but one of the things i love about the goner board is the food forum- good places to eat, recipes, etc.

not to be a copycat, but i think we should throw that on the FOT board.  we talk about food a lot, throwing recipes around and i dont know...seems like a good idea.  and i steal half the recipes from this board anyway (with due credit, of course).

[franks.]

admittedly, i spend most of my time on this board and reading the goner records board, but one of the things i love about the goner board is the food forum- good places to eat, recipes, etc.

not to be a copycat, but i think we should throw that on the FOT board.  we talk about food a lot, throwing recipes around and i dont know...seems like a good idea.  and i steal half the recipes from this board anyway (with due credit, of course).

I was in charge of the turkey at Thanksgiving this year because since I watch Food Channel my mom thinks I know how to cook or something. But so having almost no idea what I was doing, I discovered two things. The first is that if you rub the turkey with duck fat, the duck fat creates a sealant that keeps the skin crispy but the meat very soft and moist. And then at some point I fucked up and threw out all of the onions, garlic, and turkey juices that I was using the baste the thing because I misread a recipe. So I called my friend who is a cook and he told me to dump a bottle of stout beer in and use that to baste the turkey. In the end, that gave the skin a nice dark color and flavor. Recommended!

[erika]

I like to take a whole head of garlic, whack off just a little of the top of it (not where the bulbs are held together at the stem, but at the top) so you reveal part of the cloves.

Stuff that into your chicken's butt.

Rub the bird with a little olive oil and another sliced garlic clove. Then sprinkle salt, pepper and a little cumin on it. When you're done roasting the bird you get yummy roasted garlic cloves to eat along with it! Yay.