News flash: I ate eggs!!!!!

[Jenise]

Bill Spohn made me.

Bill Spohn made me.

I don't think there is anything I can say to that that won't get me in trouble, so I'll remain uncharacteristically silent!

Devilled, no doubt.

Mayonnaise is next.

Congrats, I guess, Jenise. I hope that Bill plied you with good enough wines to ease the shock of the occasion.

Mark Lipton

She wouldn't budge for less than a magnum of vintage champers!

[Robin Garr]

Bill Spohn made me.

Details! What was the preparation? Or are we talking caviar here?

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=43352

[Jenise]

Mayonnaise is next.

NO.

[Jenise]

Bill Spohn made me.

Details! What was the preparation? Or are we talking caviar here?

I ate the equivalent of 2.5 eggs which, okay yeah, they were little (quail eggs), but I was responsible for putting each on my plate so technically I didn't have to eat but one to be polite, and I went further than that. The toppings were very nice. A hard-boiled egg is something that I've had a problem with in whole form because it is, after all, an egg, and a devilled egg is like a NEVER, but without loving them at all I understand what they taste like and have always been able to kind of ignore it if it shows up modestly in a potato salad or grated onto a spinach salad. It never improves the flavor of anything and I'd rather it not be there, but it's not the Waterloo an undercooked or runny yolk would be. That's where I really can't go.

And yes Mark, the Pol Roger helped a lot.

Yup - the quail eggs are a neutral base for little gobbets of flavour - in that case one was coated in za'atar, a spice/herb mix, one topped with black olive paste (and a caper) and the third with a truffle paste (and a caper). Just little flavour delivery packets.

I view other things like sweetbreads much the same way - no real contribution to flavour themselves (although the texture is important), they are really a flavour delivery vehicle for whatever you choose to prepare them with.

I shelled 48 quail eggs, which is very tedious work, but the pay off for that is that She-who-must-be-obeyed agreed to perform thyme harvesting duty for the next month (she hates that picky work and is always coming to me asking "Isn't that enough YET??").

I am now working at creating a thyme themed menu for the next 30 days.......

[Jenise]

no real contribution to flavour themselves (although the texture is important), they are really a flavour delivery vehicle for whatever you choose to prepare them with.

Oh I think there's a very definite flavour there, but it does seem that eggs get richer as one goes up in size and the quail eggs are the most delicate of the lot. That helped a lot. Also, the texture of the yolk, which is the part I really object to, is much finer. A friend of mine actually fries quail eggs to top a small baguette slice with, usually adding a thin slice of proscuitto below and sprinkling a bit of freshly grated parm on top. I'm unable to eat it, but it gets raves from everyone else.

Btw, why is thyme picking so hard?

Btw, why is thyme picking so hard?

Because the leaves are so small, I always need so much of it, and the cook has low acceptance tolerance for anything buy cleaned leaves (stems etc. are a big no no unless it is just for a bouquet garni, in which case it doesn't matter).

And yes, quail eggs fried make a nice garnish on certain types of dish, although I don't normally do that as it sort of smacks of affectation to me.

[Jenise]

Btw, why is thyme picking so hard?

Because the leaves are so small, I always need so much of it, and the cook has low acceptance tolerance for anything buy cleaned leaves (stems etc. are a big no no unless it is just for a bouquet garni, in which case it doesn't matter).

She's not picking off the leaves one at a time, is she? If you hold the stem near the top with one hand, pinch two fingers from the other and run them straight down the stem, you'll 'pick' all the leaves in one swell foop. Like a zipper. No problem getting a lot of leaves pretty quickly.

That only works for the woody protion of the stem. When you get out into the green wood, it will just pull off of the old wood, so that section needs to be dealt with more carefully.

[Jenise]

That only works for the woody protion of the stem. When you get out into the green wood, it will just pull off of the old wood, so that section needs to be dealt with more carefully.

True, some fiddling is unavoidable.