Not everything I do or read about merits a full post, so here are a few items that were in my “worth a mention” pile:
I have a theory about the McRib sandwich, which has recently been re-introduced for a limited time. It’s not good enough to be a permanent menu item, so they bring it back every now and then and wait for nostalgia to be overtaken by “hey this kinda sucks.” At that point the sandwich disappears, Brigadoon-like, to reappear after everyone has forgotten about it.
Ryan Adams, of the awesome Nose to Tail at Home blog, had a better idea: rather than eat faux pork (or whatever the McRib’s “meat” may be), why not try the real thing? He reverse engineered a McRib (photo above) and published the recipe. I might just give it a try soon, if only to stop He Who Will Not Be Ignored’s pleas for the McDonald’s version.
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Harvard University has finally caught up and posted most of the videos from the Science and Coking Public Lectures on their YouTube page. I have added the full lecture videos to my posts about the lectures by Grant Achatz and Jose Adrés, but you can watch the rest of the series, including the introductory lecture featuring Ferran Adrià and Harold McGee.
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I mentioned it last year, but it’s worth repeating: Mark Bittman has an exhaustive list of things to prepare before the turkey goes in the oven, worth checking out if you’re hosting a big dinner next week.
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Having failed at various cooking projects, there are some foods whose preparation I am happy to leave to the pros: baguettes, croissants, ramen noodles, and pumpkin pie, among others. If you haven’t read it before, I urge you to read my pumpkin pie post, if for no other reason than as an object lesson in good intentions gone bad. As for me, I placed my pie order at Petsi’s weeks ago.
After eating four McRibs to ensure the recipe was right, I’ve gotta agree with your theory.