McDuff

Swill is a word I often use. I used to work with a guy who came in every afternoon and would kick the 5 gal pail of cooling soup and say, "What's this swill?" Like the word, bandy it around. Use all the cake flour you want. My personal philosophy does not include the use of artificial colors or any unnatural ingredients, which is what I consider a flour blasted with chlorine to be.

Yeah, I love that fresh chemical smell that emanates from a freshly opened bag of cake flour. The gaseous chlorine quality to it..didn't you ever notice it? I prefer to think that a deft hand with the ap flour works too. I can't use cake flour at work, and won't use it at home. We're starting to get in some new products from an outfit called Pearl River Pastry and one of them lists unbleached unbromated cake flour, does such a thing exist? Even the King Arthur catalog says their cake flour is bleached.

We had a customer freaking out in a place I worked at, insisting that there were fingernails in the cheese on his onion soup. Turned out that the shredder attachment on the Hobart was broken and we were using the plastic food stomper for the meat grinder to push the cheese through and it was getting shredded when it hit the whirling disc. My daughter once got the nozzle attachment to the coke machine from McD's in her drink. They were pretty blase about it.

I think this will work. But I wouldn't use cake flour. It's swill.

Bob Pekar, Bob Zielinski, or Martha Crawford?

I would say that you really need to spend some time getting these recipes turned into formulas. That is, measure out the ingredients onto a scale several times each to see what the variation is, which I can guarantee is going to be there for 72 cups of flour, and average them out. Then, you need to compare the weights with similar formulas to see if your percentages are close to something that has been proven to work. For instance is your baking powder 8% or 5%? Is your salt 4% or 2%? A quick look at something like Wayne Gisslen's baking book ought to give you an idea of what percentages you're aiming for. In that second recipe, why are you not mixing the eggs and sugar, then the oil? Whip the eggs and sugar till thick, then drizzle in the oil. This gives a nice base for folding everything else in. Add 1/3 of the dry, then 1/2 the wet, and so on till it's done. I would do the same thing with the first recipe, only after whipping the eggs and sugar, stir in the applesauce. Then fold in the dry alternately with the wet. And how long does it take said night baker to measure out 72 cups of carrots?

I grew up in eastern mass and wgbh tv was something big in a certain socioeconomic class. I remember being served roast suckling pig at one dinner party the family got invited to in the early 60's and vichysoisse at another. It's hard to underestimate the impact Julia had locally to Boston and Cambridge. We were about 30 miles away. This is what I made..I think they're called Pomme cocotte, glazed baby carrots, organic green peas, napoleon of red and gold beet and summer squash, crimini mushrooms provencal, and grilled loin lamb chops. Dessert was creme brulee.

I have used the Moist and Majestic Honey Cake in Jewish Holiday Baking, but I cut back a little on the leavening as it tends to sink. I've made hundreds of individuals of that recipe, one tends to do that working at a Jewish country club.

treacle tart

I haven't baked these in months.......but I don't recall them being rubbery.........I think you hit the nail on the head, you probably over baked abit. Think a little butter might tenderize them? A couple of TB per recipe, possibly a cup per sheet pan, and can one use frozen lemon juice.

I made the base recipe today and found that, while lemony and tasty, they were a bit rubbery. Did I perhaps overbake them? I actually did forget them, but not to the point where they were more than a mottled brown on the top. My big boss called my boss today and asked if there was a way I could spend a day a week doing R & D. Wouldn't that be nice? We settled on my redoing the formula book we all use so that it's actually useful, and making up a 5 day program to train someone to turn out the stuff that's in it.

Is this freezeable? I'm not liking the one I make at work anymore. It's a #10 can of sweetened condensed milk, only a cup of juice, some butter and sugar. Glazed with powdered sugar and lemon juice. Gooey and sweet. I'm looking for tart and perky.

And don't forget to let us know when you're feeling better......

I spent a lot of time looking at one of the sites mentioned here, Brian's Brick Oven Folly. I figured if that guy could do it, so could I, especially since mine is as close to a fence and not too far from the house. I followed The Bread Builder's a little more closely, but I think he mentions that he bought the plans for his oven and it did not include the thermal break around the hearth slab, and he used red brick where I went for the firebrick. But I found that site with all the pix to be very helpful. And you don't need any masonry experience. I had none. All you need is patience and a willingness to learn from your mistakes.

If I remember from baking formula technology, you can freeze a flour bound pastry cream, or an arrowroot bound pastry cream, but not a cornstarch thickened pastry cream. Something to do with long chain amylopectins or something. The pastry cream we use at work comes in frozen in 18 lb tubs and is as good as anything I can make and I give a silent prayer of thanks every time I open one that I don't have to make it.

Join the brick-oven group at yahoo, as there is serious discussion of those two brand names, as well as a wealth of info on building your own, which is what I did. It cost less than $1000 bucks and is well within the reach of anybody who is somewhat handy and highly motivated.

That seems like a lot of sugar for four egg yolks. Wouldn't be the first or only misprint in a cookbook. That much sugar would almost choke the yolk's ability to dissolve it. You could add a couple of tb of water, or liquor, or coffee, to help it dissolve. Then you would basically be making a sabayon.

You basically have a broken emulsion of almost equal parts of chocolate and cream. Maybe the fat to liquid thing is out of whack. I'd would heat up about another cup of cream and add it bit by bit, whisking seriously as I did that.

Deep-fry it. Chef at cc I worked at used to make it that way and it was addictive.

Here's a formula for cakes using Nutex. Makes a fairly nice cake, if you like that kind of thing. I remember having the folder from Proctor and Gamble in my hand recently as I was cleaning the cellar. But I'm going to have to dig for it. whole eggs 3 lb 5 oz liquid shortening 1 lb 4 oz Nutex milk 1 lb vanilla 2 oz sugar 2 lb 8 oz cake flour 2 lb baking powder 2.25 oz salt .75 oz Put all liquid ingredients in mixer bowl. Sift all dry ingredients. Place dry on wet, mix on low for 30 seconds to moisten. Whip 4 minutes on high, scrape down, mix 3 minutes on medium. Scale 1 lb 7 oz to a 9" pan, 350 till golden brown. All purpose flour will work, won't be as tender, but don't try it with high gluten.

No I don't think you can substitute one for one. Is sweetex a hi ratio shortening? I think sweetex is made by proctor and gamble, which makes Nutex, a liquid hi ratio shortening. I have that formula at least, and somewhere I have a folder that has a bunch of formulas that proctor and gamble sent me using sweetex and nutex.

Thank you for that explanation. I've always been squeamish about adding raw garlic cloves to anything that's going to sit around. The Joy of Pickling says that one can ferment cucumbers at up to 80 degrees. It's hotter than that right now, so as I mentioned, I moved the jar into the cellar. It all of a sudden started developing this white scum, it wasn't there from the first day. The jar was picture perfect the first couple of days, but as stuff is starting to happen, it's getting murky. Smells like pickles though. I also made the bread and butter pickles from that book, and since the type is so damn small, realized I added 1/4 cup sugar instead of 1/2. She says she doesn't like a cloying pickle and I would definitely not describe these as overly sweet. I already cracked open a jar because I made the Levy rye the other day and went out and got pastrami, swiss, sauerkraut and russian dressing and made a sandwich out of all that for three nights running, with the pickles on the side, and one night, oven roasted french fries.

I just noticed in the jar of dill pickles I have fermenting that the garlic cloves are starting to get a bluish tinge. I have a saucer right side up on top of the grape leaves and cut a cork from a wine bottle that fits into the recessed knob on the lid of this jar so that when I put the top on, the cork pushes the saucer into the brine and keeps things submerged. It also sort of self-skims the whitish yeast that has started to collect on top. I started these a week ago Friday. But I don't know about the bluish garlic. Is it no good? Should I take it out? I also started some sauerkraut and boy is that bubbling away. It's kind of warm and muggy here in eastern MA, so I have this stuff in the cellar where it's a little cooler.

It turned out that this batch of product was nfg. We've been using some newer units this past week and getting much better results.

I had Chef Hitz for advanced tortes at Johnson & Wales. Good class. I spent years reading myself to sleep looking at pastry books, fantasizing about this and that, and the day he told us we were going to make croquant I nearly had a psychosexual accident in the lab. I've always felt I was better with the yeasted doughs than say, classic fondant glazed petit fours. I had no idea he had the bread background.