So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[Stearmen]

That will explain it, they've got a lot of catching up to do.

No thanks!

 

[Stearmen]

You do? In my 55 years as a Californian on this rock I've never heard anyone use the word "polecat" in any context except in a movie or television show.

California is geographically West, but culturally, it'a whole other planet!

 

[Stearmen]

It was a favorite of pulp-western writers ninety years ago. "Yuh consarned mangy polecat, reach for your irons!"

Actually, I should add, that the word has morphed again. If you here it, it usually used as a chide between friends, as when one of your friends grabs the last tortilla chip, some one will say "you mangy polecat," then every one at the table laughs.

 

[Stearmen]

The best apples I have ever had were off my apple tree. Unfortunately, the squirrels, raccoons and birds have discovered how good they are. I did not get to eat one this year!

 

[Zombie_61]

California is geographically West, but culturally, it'a whole other planet!

"California is like a bowl of granola--what ain't fruits and nuts is flakes."
Gallagher

 

[Lean'n'mean]

An apple is supposed to be astringent .

No it ain't. I like all my fruit sweet. I can just about eat a ripe orange as is but a grapefruit's gotta have a ton of sugar on it. The apples I use the most are 'Golden Delicious' & 'Reine des Reinettes' as I do a fair amount of cooking with apples & these two varieties hold up well.................For me, the best modern day eating apple is 'Fuji'...... firm, crunchy, flavorsome & sweet.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

The best apples I have ever had were off my apple tree. Unfortunately, the squirrels, raccoons and birds have discovered how good they are. I did not get to eat one this year!

Wildlife always take a certain percentage of any fruit I grow.....I just consider that they are taking their fair share though last year they took our share as well, especially of the grapes.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

I used to enjoy corn on the cob as a kid.

Today the corn on the markets is very sweet.
It’s like biting into a piece of chocolate candy that’s
so rich, you can hardly breathe.
I don’t enjoy it anymore.

It's all G.M. now anyway unless otherwise stated.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

Corn is naturally sweet and when fresh has a high sugar content. This quickly turns to starch so the best corn is right off the stalk. I've been places where, when the corn is ready for picking, they got the water boiling before picking the corn, then they (usually the kids) ran to the kitchen, shucking the husks and silk and dropping the corn into the water the moment it was cleaned. There would be melted butter, salt and pepper standing by. Pure ambrosia. They'd plant rows a day apart so that for a couple of weeks in fall they'd have corn at peak freshness. The high sugar content of fresh corn is the reason it could be used for making whiskey.

 

[Fading Fast]

Corn is naturally sweet and when fresh has a high sugar content. This quickly turns to starch so the best corn is right off the stalk. I've been places where, when the corn is ready for picking, they got the water boiling before picking the corn, then they (usually the kids) ran to the kitchen, shucking the husks and silk and dropping the corn into the water the moment it was cleaned. There would be melted butter, salt and pepper standing by. Pure ambrosia. They'd plant rows a day apart so that for a couple of weeks in fall they'd have corn at peak freshness. The high sugar content of fresh corn is the reason it could be used for making whiskey.

I love everything about this post: boiling the water before picking, the image of the kids racing into the kitchen with the freshly picked corn, the simplicity of perfect ingredients - corn, butter salt, pepper - the day-after-day planting and the moonshine connection.

 

[2jakes]

I remember the corn on the cob
with butter & salt as very delicious
natural corn flavor.
The corn today is super sweet.

Perhaps I was eating "field corn"
or corn that was fed to the hogs.
I don't know.

I'm aware that our taste buds will
change over a period of time as
we grow older.

I hated onions as a kid.

Today, I can enjoy it on a thick
steak when it's cooking.

I still won't bite into an onion,
but can appreciate that it enhances the flavor.
Same thing if the meat is cooked
with wood.

Some would say that a good steak
doesn't require much else.
Also if it's prepared rare, medium
or well done.
This being a matter of personal
choice.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Steak? Fry it in worcestershire sauce.

 

[2jakes]

Steak? Fry it in worcestershire sauce.

My dear Lizzie,
Please elaborate.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Fry. As in fry. Melt some butter in a frying pan, throw the steak in when it's hot enough, and douse it in worcestershire sauce. Flip it over when its done enough on one side, douse that side in worcestershire sauce, let it fry a few minutes longer, and eat it.

We didn't have steak very often, but that's the only way it was ever done in my family.

 

[Fading Fast]

Methinks Lizzie is telling us how she prefers her steak prepared.

I've taken cr*p my entire life (and it's worse now that eating meat practically raw is the norm) for liking my steak medium well. Despite all the disparagement and comments about "destroying the taste," a truly "medium well" done steak (char outside, well done on the edges going toward pink but no blood in the center) has a series of flavor that is effected by the quality and cut of the meat.

My girlfriend's dad - 6'7" 250lbs, a serious guy, Navy man, saw action in Korea, corporate executive, certainly isn't predisposed to liking any of his daughter's boyfriends - and I bonded over a mutual preference for our meat cooked medium well. Helped a lot in the early years of the relationship.

 

[2jakes]

Fry. As in fry. Melt some butter in a frying pan, throw the steak in when it's hot enough, and douse it in worcestershire sauce. Flip it over when its done enough on one side, douse that side in worcestershire sauce, let it fry a few minutes longer, and eat it.

We didn't have steak very often, but that's the only way it was ever done in my family.

How do you keep the butter from burning?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Throw the cold steak on top of it just as it starts to sizzle. You don't want to use more than a small chip of butter -- just enough to keep the meat from sticking to the pan. And you don't want to have the heat on "High" -- medium-high is fine.

 

[Hercule]

Re Corn o' cob

It seems that any more corn varieties are getting sweeter and sweeter. I remember visiting my folks in CT a few years back and they served the latest local fad variety, something called "candy corn," and it was ridiculously sweet. I simply couldn't eat it. As a kid and growing up I remember the old butter and sugar variety being sweet-ish, but not like this. Actually, now that I think about it, all I do remember about the taste of corn on the cob from way back when, is butter and salt, and LOTS of it!. I recently made a batch of succotash and my wife thought I put sugar in it. Nope no sugar, though it was probably my fault for not cooking the salt pork right, thus tempering the sweetness of the corn.

 

[HudsonHawk]

I love everything about this post: boiling the water before picking, the image of the kids racing into the kitchen with the freshly picked corn, the simplicity of perfect ingredients - corn, butter salt, pepper - the day-after-day planting and the moonshine connection.

Kind of like eating fish...nothing is as good as a fish that was swimming 10 minutes ago. I'm not sure I could ever live more than an hour from the ocean.

As for steak...grilled...get your grill hot. I mean hot. I mean like nuclear fireball hot. Throw the steak on it. Don't touch it. Flip it once. Nice char marks on the outside, inside red starting to get warm.

 

[Trenchfriend]

How would be a steak, fried in classic sunflower-oil? Did anyone tried it?