Jensen

Dearest Maman, Please adopt me instead of all these others. I'm sure I have something unique and desirable to recommend myself over them and, given time, I'm equally sure we well both come to realise exactly what that something is. All I need is a chance ... Your loving daughter, Jen

Um, what does that mean in your dialect? Not what you're thinking ... It's a cross between "keeping a stiff upper lip" and "hang in there, baby". (Although, as he and V. are newlyweds, perhaps your definition would be equally applicable )

Great blog, thanks for sharing with us Um you do know that way back in the beginning, the wish "break a leg" was for good luck. No body expected you to go above and beyond and do the real thing Hope it's better soon. Yikes! I hope I didn't jinx you! Personally, I think it's just a "travelling to the east coast of North America" thing. The last time I was out there, I ended up hurting myself too. Keep your pecker up and remember my motto: "Better living through chemistry!"

Those are ground cherries, also known as "cossack pineapples". I love them! Taste like a cross between a tomato and a pineapple. Did you buy them, or just take the photo at the market? I think they taste like a cross between a gooseberry and a lychee. I bought them. And I'm eating them. They are also called "cape gooseberries". I first had them in Germany and loved them so much that I had to ask what they were. No one knew the English name for them though so I went for quite a while just calling them "Physalis". They are related to the tomatillo.

I bet it would be really tasty to use a gingerbread like Aachener printen. It's hard, like a biscotti, and usually has to be softened before it can be eaten.

I use one of my Calphalon pans ... the 6-quart chef's skillet. As for serving accompaniments, I've made it both with homemade noodles (not spaetzle, just egg noodles) and mashed potatoes.

Get thee to a bigger beer store! I used a light Belgian ale the first time I made it and a dark Belgian abbey beer the second time (found at Whole Foods by the bottle). It makes a difference!

I've used a recipe from Saveur a few times with great success. I checked their website and it's not online but I can tell you that it is in the November 2003 issue (#62). The ingredients are similar to the JoC version but how they're treated is not. The onions are carmelised over low heat for rather a long time. I think that is the key to the depth of flavour that results. If you'd like the recipe and don't have that issue and/or want to save a trip to the library, send me a PM. I don't mind sharing it but I won't post it (copyright, you know).

Well, my experiment with using frozen starter was not an unqualified success. As I wrote earlier, the bit I'd frozen seemed to have separated upon thawing. I spooned off most of the whey and used it anyway. At first, I thought it wasn't going to work at all but then it did get going. I took it out of the incubator after 6 hours or so. It had produced a lot of whey and the protein clumps were "bigger" than usual, leaving the yogurt a little grainy. I thought I'd drain some of the whey off to make it a better consistency so left it in my "yogurt cheesemaker" overnight. Now, whenever I've used this before, the end result has never been too thick. I've always attributed this to the fact that the curd isn't weighted in any way. Imagine my surprise when I checked the strained yogurt and found something with the consistency of stiff ricotta or even queso fresco (fresca? I never learned Spanish...)! It's great as a cheese product but not so great as a yogurt product. I guess I'll stick with using the store-bought starter yogurts (I've been using Brown Cow and it works great). And along the yogurt/cheese line of thought ... does anyone know if Minigo is available in the US? I've never seen it here but maybe there's some other name for it or a similar product made by someone other than Yoplait?

Is that the same article that says sheep's milk has the highest amount of protein (when compared to cow's or goat's milk)? If so, then the graininess might be due to bigger protein lumps ... that, in turn, would suggest to me that one shouldn't add protein in the way of dry milk powder. Although it would give a firmer product, it might also exacerbate the grittiness problem. My challenge for the day will be to make yogurt using starter that I saved from another batch and froze. I thawed it out yesterday and it looks like it separated in the process. I'm not terribly hopeful of success for this experiment but I'm going to try it anyway. Will report back with results.

It is if they use a grinding wheel in the machine shop! At least he was a good machinist, the surface is still smooth.

I shall cling to that thought whenever I remember what it used to look like (and feel like, and cook like). <sob, gasp, gurgle> That's kind of what I was hoping lots of you would say (and heartfelt thanks to you all for supporting me in this, my darkest hour ). I'm going to give it a go. I feel like it just might work. Also, thanks for the seasoning link, Dave ... I will check 'em out. cheers, jen

I shudder when I even think of this ... When she emigrated from England, my great-grandmother brought a wonderful cast iron griddle with her. I have no idea how old it was at that time but she emigrated over 100 years ago. My great-aunt "rescued" it when Granny was going to throw it out and then my mum "rescued" it when my auntie was going to toss it. In turn, I "rescued" it from my mum's housecleaning. It was in wonderful condition until my beloved decided to "clean" it. In his defense, I should say that he was a machinist at the time and, as anyone who knows machinists will attest, in their view, shiny metal is always better than not-shiny metal. Let's just say he "cleaned" away 100 years of patina to get to that shiny metal. Sigh. Even though this happened almost 10 years ago, I've resisted tossing the griddle out. Although the patina is gone, the underlying metal that made it such a great cooking surface remains, right? Recently, I thought that, if I were to season it by rubbing it with lard and then popping it in the oven whenever I used that, it might just build up a pale shadow of the incredible patina it once had. I'd be willing to do this, even if it took several years of living in my oven. Does anyone have any experience with this sort of "cleaning" and, will my thoughts have any effect on the shiny new surface?

I posted further up in this thread about various things I've found out in my yogurt-making adventures. There are lots of interesting tidbits posted by many yogurt-making people in this thread; check 'em out! Tartness is dictated by how long you allow the culture to incubate. It seems to me that the Salton maker (which I also use) recommends a long time for incubation. Cut that back to 4 to 6 hours. Creaminess is due to fat content. Use whole milk. You might want to consider straining your end product instead of using agar. This is probably just a personal bugaboo for me but, as my educational background includes undergraduate studies in Microbiology, I can't help but associate agar with culturing bacteria in petri dishes. Blech...

I just dumped my last batch out ... I made it before my trip to the spa and so what was left was over 10 days old. I found that there was some definite "cheese-like" substances down at the bottom of the container. Naturally, I thought of you ... I wonder if some of the larger protein clumps precipitate out, settle to the bottom, and continue to "clump up". I know I don't have the skin problem as, when I put my pot in the ice water bath for cooling, I stir it frequently. (I'm impatient and I know that stirring something will help it cool faster.) There is always the possibility that some of the culture remains active at lower temperatures and the acidification of the product continues at a slower rate. In my readings on yogurt (btw, great article in the SF Chronicle about yogurt), I seem to recall that there are more than just L. bulgaris and S. whateveris in most yogurts; however, only those two are required to be in it. Maybe the continued culturing is a byproduct of another bacteria??? I'll be starting my new batch today too (after brunch and the Woody Guthrie review in Nevada City!).

It could be worse ... he could have said "break a leg"! I'm looking forward to your blog!

I'm with Fat Guy ... I've always thought it to be part of the regular schtick. I don't even think they look at the tray before asking; I'm sure they're just trying to find out if they need to come back unnecessarily.

I would think running the containers through the dishwasher would get you pretty darn close to sterile (at least, that's what I keep telling myself). Also, an ice water bath cools the milk quite quickly. I've seen the same variation in the answers to the "boil the milk" question and my experience is the same as yours...the best results seem to come about when the milk is brought to a boil (but not much beyond it). Do you have a temperature probe and a hold function on your microwave? I wonder if using those two features for heating the milk in the microwave and holding it at 100 degrees or so (Celsius or whatever it is in Fahrenheit ... my "bilingualism" in measures escapes me at the moment) would have any affect. Quick, someone with that sort of microwave ... go make some yogurt!

And one more cool site about yogurt production, protein:whey ratios, and even electron microscopy images of yogurt. The link to "Grittiness" deals with spreadable cheese curd but it might also apply to yogurt. If the grittiness is caused by "protein clumps", perhaps holding the milk at the "just at a boil" stage for a while might deal with it?

Dang, and you were my last best hope, especially after that masterly stroke with pulling the URL out of a hat! Well, never say never ... I did wander off to google to see if I could find anything out. And guess what? I found a cool report on a project studying the Effect of Milk Composition on the Quality of Fresh Fermented Dairy Products. As far as the whey production goes, this bit is particularly interesting: According to the report summary, syneresis "refers to the tendency of the yogurt to whey-off during storage". So, increasing the fat content would result in less production of whey. And now I'm off to read the entire report ...

You've moved beyond my knowledge of the subject ... I have no idea.

And here's my serious (but not necessarily well-thought out...it's a visceral one) response ... I have to confess--ExtraMSG, your comment about "cheap groceries" annoyed me. A lot of discussion has taken place here (i.e., on eGullet) about the effect that wide-scale food distribution methods and the animal husbandry and the agricultural practices required to support that distribution model have on the food supply. Genetically-modified crops, BSE, avian flu epidemics...I could go on. WalMart's marketing method is part and parcel of that entire system. And that's just the food-related effect. What about the environmental ones (as Chris pointed out with his comment about traffic and its impact on the community)? What about the economic ones (with behemoths like WalMart driving local businesses into bankruptcy because they simply cannot compete)? At some point, we all just have to say no. Good for Inglewood for being among the first to do so.

Unless it's an IKEA store ...

In case anyone else was wondering: The History of Chutney

I'd always thought chutney was a Raj thing ... now I'm curious. I'll have to go fire up Google. I've made chutneys too but no one else in the house will eat them (their lack of taste, not the chutneys').