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00:04Cook's Country is about more than just getting dinner on the table.
00:09We're also fascinated by the people and stories behind the dishes.
00:14We go inside kitchens in every corner of the country to learn how real people cook.
00:20And we look back through time to see how history influences the way we eat today.
00:25We bring that inspiration back to our test kitchen so we can share it with you.
00:31This is Cook's Country.
00:37Today on Cook's Country, Brian visits Wisconsin and makes Julia his version of Supper Club Chicken Cordon Bleu.
00:45And Christy makes Cornish pasties.
00:48That's all right here on Cook's Country.
01:02America's Dairy State, Wisconsin, is known far and wide for its fried cheese curds, frozen custard, and butter burgers.
01:10But it's also home to some of the most elite slow dining experiences around.
01:14With over 250 supper clubs across the state, these establishments invite you to step back in time.
01:20When dining out was about relaxing and enjoying the meal, while appreciating the atmosphere, your company, and of course, the
01:28food.
01:29One hour north of Madison, Wisconsin, deep in the woods of Mirror Lake State Park, you'll find Ishnalla Supper Club.
01:36A Wisconsin institution since 1953.
01:41Bob Prosser started at Ishnalla as a busboy when he was just 16 years old.
01:45Hello, welcome.
01:4620 years later, he became the owner.
01:50Supper club started in the post-prohibition era.
01:52They offered a way for patrons to unwind from the stresses of the work week in a casual atmosphere with
01:57a festive evening of drinks, a menu of steakhouse classics, and live entertainment.
02:02Bob and his son, Michael, are committed to honoring the long-standing tradition of Wisconsin supper clubs.
02:08You've got first-timers, people who've been coming here for years, birthdays, anniversaries.
02:12Supper clubs are really all about the community, aren't they?
02:14Without question.
02:16While menus vary across establishments, there's one constant across all Wisconsin supper clubs, and that's the brandy old-fashioned.
02:24How many of these do you sell a year?
02:25108,500.
02:26Are you ready to go with it?
02:28Oh, I know the numbers.
02:29The bars are buzzing and the tables are filling up, and while the menu at Ishnalla hasn't changed in 70
02:34years, the flavors are still exciting.
02:37Look at that.
02:42This is, uh, this is funny.
02:44It's wow.
02:45It's very wow.
02:4624-ounce ribeye.
02:48It's got at least 45 days' age, which makes it more tender and flavorful.
02:54And then you've got your lobster tails, obviously.
02:56Those are some pretty big boys.
02:59While Bob continues to preserve a vintage supper club in the woods, a couple in Madison have created a contemporary
03:05supper club in the city.
03:06I think there's a few different aspects of supper clubs that we both really loved.
03:12The sense of generosity, the sense of hospitality.
03:15Fire Rolls straight for two.
03:17Joe and Shanna Poppich are both native Midwesterners.
03:20The Harvey House is their love letter to the history and magic of Wisconsin supper clubs.
03:25The menu is inspired by old-school supper club classics and iconic Wisconsin dishes.
03:31But there's a fine dining mentality behind every dish.
03:35Some of their menu offerings include charcoal grilled ribeye steak, dinner plate-sized chicken schnitzel, chopped wedge salads, and something
03:43I rarely see on menus these days, chicken cordon bleu.
03:48Popular during the 1960s and 70s, it was a dish often served at banquets.
03:52It was also a common frozen dinner staple.
03:56The best part was cutting into the crispy, breaded chicken to reveal the melty, cheesy center.
04:02We're taking chicken, but we're going to use the leg quarter of the chicken, which has way more flavor to
04:08me than our breast does.
04:10We're going to use a good Wisconsin ham, but we're also going to throw in some prosciutto and then a
04:15Grand Cru Gruyere that's also from Wisconsin.
04:19Joe starts by rolling the prosciutto and ham around the Gruyere.
04:23And then he stuffs it into the partially deboned chicken leg.
04:26Then he sous-vides the chicken until it's fully cooked, guaranteeing moist, tender chicken.
04:32Joe then dredges the chicken in a mixture of egg whites and cornstarch before coating it in panko.
04:38Finally, the chicken is lightly fried until golden brown.
04:42Then the only thing left to do is tuck in.
04:45Wow.
04:46All right, here it goes.
04:52Good.
04:53Crunchy on the outside.
04:54You get that smoky Wisconsin ham.
04:57And the chicken is cooked absolutely perfectly.
04:59It's super tender.
05:00And that egg white, cornstarch slurry, it's just like a light, thin coating.
05:04You get some of the bigger chunks of panko.
05:06Yeah.
05:06Along with that fine powder panko.
05:08There's like so much going on in here.
05:10Yep.
05:10It's like each bite has got its own identity.
05:13Right.
05:13Its own flavor profile.
05:15And it's chicken corn on blue.
05:17Yeah, like I've never had before.
05:18You know, it's amazing.
05:20Heading to America's heartland to meet the stewards of Wisconsin's culinary landscape,
05:24I developed a deeper appreciation for the hospitality and tradition of the Badger State.
05:30Old school, new school, whichever supper club you choose,
05:35they're sure to be a brandy old-fashioned waiting for you at the bar
05:37and a delicious evening to follow.
05:42Oh, that's good, huh?
05:50You know, the thing that really struck me about those supper clubs
05:54is that there was a sense of community.
05:57Yeah, supper clubs really are one of the best pieces of dining in Wisconsin, you know?
06:01And the thing that these supper clubs, Ishtenala and Harvard House,
06:04are both really doing well, is bringing back these classic dishes,
06:08especially cordon bleu.
06:09We're going to get started with our cordon bleu today.
06:11And the best part of the cordon bleu is, of course, that healthy, cheesy center.
06:15Yep.
06:15So we have a six-ounce block of Gruyere cheese.
06:18We're going to cut that into batons.
06:19I like it.
06:20So it's going to be two by half-inch batons.
06:23These are eight batons of Gruyere.
06:26So now we're going to make our little ham packets
06:29that go inside the cordon bleu.
06:31So we have a nice, smoky, black forest ham.
06:34We're going to lay that down.
06:35Take a nice, salty, funky piece of prosciutto here.
06:37So we're going to roll this up almost like a burrito style.
06:40So we're going to fold over once
06:42and then go in on the sides.
06:44Oh, wow.
06:44Yeah, this is going to help keep it from oozing out of the sides.
06:47And we have our ham packets all done.
06:49Nice to done.
06:50Now it's time to bone out our chicken thighs.
06:52Okay.
06:52So what we're going to do, I'm just going to use a paring knife.
06:54You can use a bony knife if you like,
06:56but I'm just going to make some small incisions
06:58on either side of the bone.
07:00Okay, that's just going to give me access underneath the bone.
07:04So just kind of slide my knife right up underneath there.
07:07Mm-hmm.
07:08Okay.
07:09And then I'll just kind of use the knife and scrape the bone down
07:12and then pull the bone so you expose that knuckle
07:16and just cut and remove.
07:18And now we'll just go back because, you know, it's not a perfect cut.
07:21Sometimes you have a little bit of cartilage,
07:23so we'll just trim off that cartilage.
07:24But we want to take care to not trim away any of this excess skin.
07:27That's going to be our friend here.
07:29Now we're just going to pound these to an even quarter inch thickness.
07:31I'll put some plastic wrap over top.
07:32You can see there's some undulation here.
07:34We just want to even it out so when they roll,
07:36there's not a lot of big pockets of meat.
07:40So we have a little bit of lemon zest.
07:42We have two teaspoons of zest that will cover all eight of these.
07:45We'll do a little bit of thyme.
07:47Again, this is two teaspoons of thyme.
07:48We'll carry across all eight of these chicken thighs.
07:51Then a little bit of salt.
07:52We're not going crazy with the amount of salt here
07:54because keep in mind that ham is pretty salty.
07:56The cheese is pretty salty.
07:57And then finally, a little bit of black pepper.
07:59And we pour a ham and cheese packet right there
08:02and we'll just give it a quick turn until we get seam side down.
08:05That looks good.
08:07And now we're going to want to really tighten these packets up.
08:09And the best way to do that is in some plastic wrap.
08:12So I have a sheet of plastic wrap here.
08:14We're just going to wrap the plastic wrap around this once
08:18and then twist it all the way up.
08:19And you just want to roll it on the counter
08:21so you twist the edges nice and tight.
08:23Wow.
08:24Like that.
08:24That is perfection.
08:25Tuck them underneath themselves.
08:27So we'll just repeat that with the rest of these chicken thighs
08:29and all this filling.
08:30And then we'll throw those in the refrigerator
08:32for at least four hours or up to 24 hours.
08:35Now we're going to make our panko crust for the cordon bleu.
08:37And what Joe did at the restaurant,
08:39I thought was really interesting.
08:40He was using a typical Japanese panko breadcrumb,
08:44which is a coarse, ultra-crunchy breadcrumb.
08:46But he ground half of it to make a fine powder
08:49to get in those nooks and crannies of the chicken
08:51while also maintaining some of the coarse texture.
08:54Oh, that's clever.
08:55So we're going to throw two cups of panko
08:57into the food processor here.
08:58So we're going to process this for 15 seconds
09:00until we get it nice and fine.
09:06And then we're going to put it nice and fine.
09:07And you can see that's nice and fine,
09:09almost like a coarse sand.
09:11We're adding it to two cups of panko straight from the box,
09:14still coarse.
09:15Even ratio.
09:16Yep.
09:16And we're just going to give that a mix.
09:18All right.
09:19So just nice and even like that.
09:21Okay.
09:23And then we can slide that up here.
09:25We have three large egg whites here.
09:28Into that we're going to add nine tablespoons of cornstarch.
09:31So that's about three tablespoons per egg white.
09:34Okay.
09:34Okay.
09:34We'll just slowly whisk this together.
09:36So look at this.
09:37It's like nice and sticky.
09:41Look at those perfect pieces of chicken.
09:43Yeah.
09:44So this is our cordon bleu that has been removed from the plastic wrap.
09:48It's been refrigerated for 24 hours.
09:49So it's nice and tight and it's holding that shape.
09:52So we're going to dunk them into our egg white mixture.
09:56We'll let the excess drip off and then we'll go right into our panko.
10:00I always use one hand to get dirty.
10:02The other hand, I try to keep as clean as possible.
10:04It doesn't always work.
10:05The great thing about using this nine by 13 pans,
10:07you can give it a shake like this,
10:08kind of works on that panko over top of it.
10:10It's all about the shake.
10:11Once that's all coated, we'll just shake off any excess.
10:15And we'll put that right up here and we'll just repeat.
10:17And we'll do this until all of them are coated.
10:19The important thing here is after you've coated them all,
10:22you want to put them in the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes or up to two hours.
10:26Because that really helps the panko harden.
10:28Now we're finally ready to fry our cordon bleu.
10:31So I have two quarts of vegetable oil here.
10:33It's heated 350 degrees.
10:34And we're just going to drop our chilled cordon bleu packets in there.
10:38Look how sturdy those are.
10:40Yeah.
10:41And they're just going to fry for two minutes just to get color on the outside.
10:43And then they're going to go into the oven.
10:46All right.
10:46It's been two minutes.
10:47You can see these are nice and golden brown.
10:49That's exactly what we're looking for.
10:51They'll definitely darken up in the oven a little bit.
10:53We're just trying to get that initial bump of color going here and to form that crust.
10:57So we'll just drop them onto a wire rack inside of a sheet pan.
11:01As they bake, the air will circulate around them.
11:04All right.
11:04So we're back up to 350.
11:05We're going to drop the remaining four cordon bleu into the oil.
11:11All right.
11:11So these are all set and ready for the oven.
11:13So we're going to throw them into a 350 degree oven.
11:15The rack is set to the middle position.
11:17We're going to let them go to 30 to 35 minutes until they hit 175 degrees.
11:21We're going to make our sauce for the chicken cordon bleu.
11:24And it's called a sous-bisse, which is basically an onion flavored bechamel.
11:28Old school.
11:28Old school stuff.
11:29So we have three tablespoons of butter melted down here over medium low heat.
11:33And to that, we're going to add a half cup of finely chopped onion.
11:37And a half teaspoon of kosher salt.
11:40And we're going to throw a lid on this and let it cook for 10 minutes, giving it the occasional
11:44stir.
11:45So those look gorgeous, don't they?
11:46Got a little bit more color.
11:48Oh, yeah.
11:48So we're looking for 175 degrees.
11:51We want to attempt through the side of the cordon bleu and make sure we get the meat and not
11:54the cheese close to the center.
11:56176.
11:57That's right where we want to be.
11:58On point.
11:59So while that chicken rests for a few minutes, we're going to go ahead and finish up our sous-bisse.
12:04These onions have sweated down nicely.
12:06You can see they're nice and softened.
12:08So we're going to add to that a tablespoon of all-purpose flour.
12:11This is going to be the base for our roux.
12:13We're just going to whisk that in there and let it cook for a minute just to drive off that
12:17raw flour flavor.
12:19All right, now that's cooked for a minute.
12:21We're going to add a cup of whole milk.
12:26And we'll just whisk that to combine.
12:28So we're going to turn up the heat to medium-high because we want to bring this to a quick
12:31boil.
12:32Okay, you can see it as the sauce begins to come to a boil right on the edges there.
12:36That's where that pot is the hottest.
12:37You automatically start to see it thicken a little bit.
12:39Oh, yeah.
12:39So we want to make sure that boil comes all the way through the sauce so it gets into the
12:43center.
12:43That way you know the entire sauce is thickened, not just the edges.
12:46Just push it into the corners on occasion and make sure none of the flour is sitting there burning.
12:50Okay, so that is about as thick as it's going to get.
12:53Just whisk it to combine.
12:55And now we're going to finish the sauce off the heat.
12:57With a little bit of sour cream.
12:59Do you mind adding that sour cream?
13:00Oh, I'd be happy to.
13:01So this is a quarter cup of sour cream.
13:04Just whisk that in.
13:05And then we're going to add a little bit of pepper.
13:08A little bit of nutmeg.
13:11And a little touch of salt.
13:15Just whisk that in.
13:17And then our sauce is good to go.
13:19All right, so the way I like to plate this is by first putting a little bit of sauce on
13:22the bottom of the plate.
13:24And then we're going to put the cordon bleu on top of it.
13:26And then we'll pick out a really nice cordon bleu for you.
13:30All right, and that is it.
13:31We're ready to dig in.
13:32What a looker.
13:33I just gave you the appetizer portion.
13:35I'm going to cut in a little bit further in.
13:37I'm going to go right through the middle.
13:38The center for that cheese.
13:40Yeah.
13:42Oh.
13:44Yeah.
13:44It's still juicy.
13:45The cheese is melting, but it's not oozing all over the place.
13:49Right away, I could smell the lemon too.
13:51Yeah.
13:52And the thyme.
13:53This first one's a big bite.
14:01I mean, it is the ultimate chicken cordon bleu.
14:04The chicken is juicy and flavorful.
14:07That's a good soubise.
14:08I mean, it's modernized with the sour cream.
14:11It sort of gives it a little acidity.
14:12It's rich, and it goes perfectly with the cordon bleu.
14:15You get a little bit of tanginess.
14:17It kind of echoes some of the lemon flavor.
14:19It cuts through the richness of the cheese and the ham and everything.
14:21You know, chicken thighs are already a little bit rich anyway.
14:24Brian, this is incredible.
14:27Thank you so much.
14:28If you want to make the ultimate cordon bleu, start by boning out chicken thighs,
14:33then stuff them with ham, prosciutto, and gruyere.
14:36Shape the chicken into tidy cylinders using plastic wrap,
14:39then fry them until golden and finish in the oven.
14:43From Cook's Country, with special thanks to Chef Joe Popich and everyone at the Harvey House,
14:48an incredible recipe for Supper Club Chicken Cordon Bleu.
14:59Back in the mid-1800s, Michigan's Upper Peninsula went through kind of a copper boom.
15:05Now, immigrants from all over the world came looking for work,
15:08including those from Cornwall, England.
15:10And the Cornish brought their huge, meat-filled, handheld pies with them down into the mines.
15:16Now, no hard hat necessary today.
15:18Christy's going to make it a lot easier on us, and we're going to make pasties at home.
15:23We are.
15:24Yeah.
15:24So, we're going to start with a really wonderful, rich, supple dough that's just perfect for all kinds of savory
15:31tarts and pies.
15:32Great.
15:32And the key to that is starting with sour cream.
15:34Okay.
15:35So, I have two-thirds of a cup of sour cream here, and I'm going to add one large egg.
15:40By mixing the sour cream and the egg together, we have a lot of moisture, but not a lot of
15:46water.
15:46So, it's going to incorporate in the dough a lot more easily, and we're not going to get a tough
15:50dough.
15:51Nice.
15:52I have three cups of all-purpose flour.
15:55That's 15 ounces.
15:56And I'm going to add one and three-quarter teaspoons of salt.
16:00Okay.
16:00That sounds like a lot, but we want this to be nice and savory to balance the filling.
16:04Got it.
16:05We're just going to process this for a few seconds to make sure it's nice and combined.
16:10Now we need to add some butter.
16:12Okay.
16:12I have 16 tablespoons of unsalted butter.
16:16I'm going to give this about 10 pulses.
16:19I'm looking for the butter to break down, but still be in pea-sized pieces.
16:23Okay.
16:24So, we can still see some pieces in there.
16:27Now, we'll add some of our liquid ingredients, but I'm only going to add about half of this right now.
16:33And we just want to combine this, so we'll pulse it about five times.
16:36Okay.
16:39Now we'll add the other half of the sour cream mixture.
16:42All right.
16:43Now we want this fully combined.
16:44This is going to be about 15 more pulses.
16:50That's great.
16:50So, you can see we have some good clumps going on.
16:53I'm going to flour my counter just a little bit, and we'll transfer it out.
16:58So, we'll just bring this all together.
17:00We want about a six-inch disc, which is perfect.
17:05And we'll just wrap this in some plastic wrap.
17:07All right.
17:08So, we did work the gluten.
17:09We want to give it a chance to rest, so we'll put it in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.
17:14Bridget, it's time to start on the filling.
17:16Great.
17:16So, I have a tablespoon of unsalted butter melting in my 10-inch skillet over medium heat.
17:22I'm going to add one finely chopped onion.
17:24Okay.
17:26I'm going to add a quarter teaspoon of table salt.
17:28Okay.
17:29We'll cook this until the onions have softened.
17:32It'll take about five minutes.
17:35So, rutabaga is a great root vegetable.
17:38We only need 10 ounces, so I'm going to cut this in half.
17:41Okay.
17:43So, we're going to peel this.
17:46Now, I want to cut this into half-inch pieces.
17:49Now, let's get back to the onions.
17:51Nice and softened.
17:52I turned my heat down a little bit.
17:54So, now I'm going to add a tablespoon of minced thyme, fresh thyme, and two garlic cloves that I've minced.
18:03And we'll just cook these until we can start to smell them, you know, about 30 seconds.
18:09I think we're good here.
18:11Okay.
18:11Now, I am going to turn off my heat, and we'll just let this cool for about five minutes while
18:15we get the rest of our ingredients ready.
18:17Great.
18:17So, the star of this meat pie is beef.
18:23Mm-hmm.
18:23We're actually using skirt steak.
18:25So, this is one and a quarter pounds of skirt steak, which is just gorgeous.
18:30It sure is.
18:31And I'm just going to trim it a little bit.
18:33So, we're going to cut this also into half-inch pieces.
18:36Okay.
18:37Now, we're all ready to mix everything together.
18:40We have our skirt steak fully prepped.
18:44We have our cooled onion mixture.
18:46Smells so good.
18:48It does.
18:49Now, our rutabaga.
18:50And then we have another hearty root vegetable.
18:54We've got some russet potatoes.
18:55So, this is 10 ounces of russet potato that I've also peeled and cut into half-inch pieces.
19:00So, I have two teaspoons of table salt and three-quarters of a teaspoon of pepper.
19:05Okay.
19:07And we'll give this a mix.
19:09So, we've got a quarter cup of all-purpose flour.
19:11We'll scatter that over everything.
19:13All right.
19:14So, that looks pretty well combined.
19:16I don't see any dry bits of flour.
19:19I'm going to measure kind of heaping cups of the filling.
19:22Now, we're portioned.
19:24We're going to clean up, and then we can start rolling out our pastry.
19:27Fabulous.
19:27Bridget, our dough's been chilling for 30 minutes.
19:30Nice and firm.
19:31Yes.
19:31And so, it's time to get started working with it.
19:34Great.
19:34So, I'm going to try to cut this into six perfect portions, but we can also pop it on the
19:40scale
19:41just to double-check our math.
19:43So, we have about five ounces each.
19:46So, this is for you.
19:47Oh, okay.
19:48Great.
19:48We'll do these one at a time, and I'll keep the rest kind of covered.
19:52Let's move over here.
19:53Great.
19:54Now, I'd like to kind of take my wedge and just kind of smush it a little bit
20:00until I have more or less an oval shape.
20:03Now, I'll take some bench flour.
20:04Now, we want to roll these into a 10 by 8 inch oval.
20:08Okay.
20:09I just like to keep moving it around.
20:11We don't want to go less than an eighth of an inch thick.
20:14Because we do need to still pick this up and transport it.
20:18So, now that we've got our dough rolled out, we can take a serving of our filling
20:24and plop it right in the middle.
20:28Mm-mm-mm.
20:30Now, we'll take some water.
20:32Okay.
20:33And you can use a brush if you want, or you can just use your fingers.
20:36And we're just going to run along the outside.
20:38All right.
20:39Now, we're going to take the shorter side, and we're going to fold it over and meet the other side.
20:46And then go ahead and press the dough together.
20:50And you can try to press out any excess air, too.
20:53So, then once we have it sealed, we can take your pari knife, or if you have a pizza roller
20:59or a pastry cutter, and we're just going to trim it.
21:03Okay, now that we have sealed, we're going to crimp.
21:07All right.
21:07A fork is a great crimp.
21:09It's one of the easier crimps to do.
21:11And that's what we're going to do here.
21:14Doesn't it look pretty?
21:15Looks lovely.
21:16I've rimmed baking sheet that I've lined with some parchment paper.
21:19And we're going to very carefully and gently pick up our pasties.
21:25Perfect.
21:26But we're going to scooch it up a little bit.
21:28So, we'll have two rows of three when we finish these.
21:32Look what we did.
21:33These look positively professional.
21:35So, I'm just going to cut a one-inch vent on the top of each of the pasties.
21:38Okay.
21:39And we're going to add an egg wash.
21:41I have one large egg, and I'm going to add two teaspoons of water just to loosen it up
21:46and use my favorite tiny little whisk.
21:50And now we brush our happy little meat pies.
21:54The oven's heated to 375 degrees.
21:57And we're going to bake these until they're golden brown and until the filling starts to bubble
22:03and come out of the vent a little bit.
22:04That's going to take about 45 minutes.
22:07And we're going to rotate them halfway through baking.
22:09They look so good.
22:11And you can see that the filling is kind of bubbling in the vents.
22:16That's good.
22:16All right.
22:17So, I'm just going to transfer these to a wire rack because we want them to cool.
22:22I mean, these looked adorable going into the oven.
22:24They look even better now.
22:25Now, we have to give these 10 minutes to cool, and then we can sample.
22:29You've been so patient.
22:30I've kept watch this entire time of those pasties.
22:34Well, I'm not even going to ask if I can serve you.
22:38All right.
22:39Instructions for how to eat pasty.
22:41Well, it is a hand pie.
22:42All right.
22:43I want to see what's in there, so I'm just going to cut it right down the middle so I
22:46can
22:46really get a good view.
22:48Look at that.
22:49Now, the vegetables inside there are super tender.
22:52It's really holding together.
22:53It's cohesive.
22:54But I've got to tell you, there's a rich gravy in there.
22:59The beef is succulent, perfectly cooked.
23:03Now, I see this red concoction here.
23:05So, traditionally, it is sometimes served with ketchup.
23:08So, add a little pizzazz.
23:11These are the perfect pasties.
23:13You're the pastie queen.
23:14Thanks, Bridget.
23:15Queen of the prom.
23:17Thank you, Christy.
23:18So, you don't need to travel to Michigan to make a fantastic pastie.
23:22It starts at home, and here's how.
23:24Make a dough with sour cream and butter for an easy, flaky crust.
23:29Cut skirt steak and vegetables into evenly-sized pieces for even cooking.
23:33And crimp tightly to seal the pasties and prevent leaking.
23:37So, all the way from Cornwall to Michigan, from Cook's Country to your kitchen, it's Cornish
23:43Pasties.
23:43You can get this wonderful recipe and all the recipes from this season, along with select
23:49episodes and product reviews.
23:50And you'll find them all on our website, cookscountry.com slash TV.
23:56Yum, yum, yum.
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