My Tuesday column this past week announced that Kris Bryant is my 2014 Prospect of the Year, a piece in which I mentioned a dozen other guys, including the player with the best pro debut by a 2014 draft pick. I also held my regular Klawchat on Thursday.
I’ve been stepping up the boardgame reviews again, reviewing Valley of the Kings for Paste magazine, and Seasons and Spyrium here.
EDIT: Codito/Sage Board Games have a new iOS boardgame app bundle, which takes $1 off each of the games you haven’t bought. Tigris & Euphrates and Le Havre are both excellent, if you don’t already own them.
And now, to the links – seven this time, since I didn’t post last Saturday and had a few extras saved up:
- The most important link I’ve ever posted, I think: Leslie Morgan Steiner on why domestic violence victims don’t leave. She’s a survivor herself, and what she says will help educate people who ask this question.
- From the BBC World Service, an interview with one of the biologists who sequenced the coffee genome. That was part of a program, which you can download directly here, that also included a segment on aquaponics efforts in London and NFL cheerleaders fighting for better wages.
- From Salon, “Finally, Wall Street Gets Put on Trial.” But is that really what the case here means? Will it have any lasting effect – hell, is there even any reason to think this ruling will extend beyond this one court?
- From the NY Times, What we’re afraid to say about Ebola. I don’t know – I think people are rather duly freaked out by the whole thing, including the very scenario the author outlines.
- From Vice, We Should All Be Eating Animal Fat. This won’t convince any vegans, but he makes the case that carnivores shouldn’t be shy when it comes to the fat of the animals we eat. And yes, I do render and use fat from much of the meat I cook – both pork and poultry fats.
- From NPR, on the pleasure of bitter flavors, with a recipe for turnip ice cream.
- I tweeted this last night, but it’s worth repeating – a high school in Bucks County, PA, suspended the school paper’s student editor and faculty advisor because they refused to print the school’s team nickname, the same racist term the NFL team in Washington clings to in the face of mounting scorn and criticism. What a great way to teach kids about censorship and vulgar displays of power.
Which method do you use the render fat? I regularly roast a whole chicken and then use the carcass to make stock. This usually leaves me a good layer of solidified fat at the top of the stock once chilled. Can I just scrape this off the top of the stock and use it as is?
@wickethewok: (nice handle, BTW), I do exactly what you described every time I make stock that I’m going to use for soup/chili the following day. First item of prep when I get started is to get the stock out of the fridge, skim that fat off to saute up the veggies, then heat the stock up while I start to prep the veggies.
Re coffee – interesting what’s happening here. Due to blight there is a ton of effort to recover lost species of coffee that are perhaps growing wild in remote areas. The hope is to a. Keep the varieties and heritage alive of many of these plants b. discover disease resistant plants which can be used with coffee plants to hopefully create diverse resistant plants. starbucks for instance has a test farm they’ve purchased in Costa Rica specifically to this purpose as the disease is bad enough that some farmers are replacing their coffee crop and growing something else that’s more hardy. As the demand for coffee Continues to grow so will the efforts to save it. Very similar to the banana concerns you’ve raised before.
For the fat that accumulates at the top of poultry stock, I remove it by hand or with a cold spoon, then put it in a deep pot or saucepan and simmer it gradually to remove all of the moisture. Then I’ll put it through a fine strainer and chill it again until I need it. Otherwise, you’ll get a spattering mess when you try to use the fat/water mixture, or any solid particles (meat, blood, etc.) will burn when you heat the oil.
Ruhlman also has an e-book called The Book of Schmaltz that explains how to render chicken fat with some onions to make schmaltz, which is used in traditional Jewish cuisine but is also a pretty good substitute for duck fat.
Thanks Keith and Seth! I’ll try simmering down the removed fat and straining it an additional time when I make stock this coming week.
Isnt it amazing That Ray Rice going to be able to get a job with the
Baltimore Ravens ? But if you or I did something like this, and theres NO way i could do what he did NO WAY. we be in jail and would never get any job Ever