jmolinari

Here is the ciabatta i make at home. Ciabatta pictures It doesn't use a preferment. I'm still working on the formula. Next batch i'll try a preferment to see if it increases the flavor. This bread is awesome as is though. SUper high hydration, which gives the nice air holes. HEre is the method, 2 variations. variation 1: 500g bread blour 475g water 2 tsp. yeast 15g salt. variation 2 has become my standard. Semolina flour adds a nice yellowish color and a lot of flavor. 350g bread flour 150g semolina flour 475-485g water 2tsp. yeast 15g salt 1. Mix til roughly combined, with the paddle, and rest for 10 min or so. Still with the paddle, beat seven bells out of the glop on medium-high (4 on a Kitchenaid) until the dough is slapping around the bowl and clearing the bottom completely. This will take about 10-15 min. 2. Tip the dough (glop) into an oiled bowl or similar, I use a cylindrical, transparent, polyethylene food container with a tight sealing lid which makes it very easy to see the progress of the rise, and leave, tightly covered, to triple. It MUST triple or this recipe will not work!. 3. Pour onto a well floured surface, shake more flour over, divide into 3 or 4 rough squares and plump,them up by sliding an angled bench knife under the dough. Shake flour, generously over the loaves and their surroundings and leave until extremely puffy and wobbly. about 45 minutes - just about right for heating the oven to flat out max. Take no prisoners. 4. Using a floured bench knife free each loaf from the counter and, gently, flip it over, pick it up,using floured hands and, gently, stretch it to about 10" long and onto a peel, Superpeel (thank you Gary) or parchment. The dough very nearly stretches under it's own weight. You must move quickly. It will look as if you've totally and permanently deflated the bread. Straight into the raging oven, down to 220 after 10 min, bake to internal temp at least 96C and you can go as high as 98C if the crust doesn't brown too quickly. You will not believe the oven spring. I baked the bread in 2 batches. The bread will pass the "thump the botttom" test long before the bread is cooked - You Have Been Warned! jason

Butting in a little bit here after i saw mention of cured meats. I make a lot of bresaola at home. I'll also be putting up some lardo in the colonnata style as well as the Arnaud style. Neither is in lombardia:) I'll post pictures when i prepare them. Both of them require about a 6 month cure. I grew up in Milan 'till i came here for college, so i'm enjoying reading this thread. If anyone wants information on bresaola or lardo shoot me a PM. jason

Mallet, i've tried that, the salted fatback has a different flavor entirely. I wouldn't use it for sausage.

Fifi, DO NOT buy that. I have one, which i used before i got my crank one, it is terrible. The meat paste sqeezes past the plunger since there is no sealing ring..it is a huge pain to use, requireing almost all your body weight to plunge it. I'll sell you mine if you really want, cheap. it is the stainless steel 5lb model. jason

This is the one i have, http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/sto...623&R=200308623 same as Sausage Maker's, onlyit costs $80 instead of $200. The crank ones are infinitely better than the push plunger models and the kitchenaid one. jason

foodman, teh amount of sugar you put in the cure is up to you. I like to have some in my bresaola cure, but not much. I don't remember how my cure recipe compares to Ruhlman's..but i can get you mine if you like. jason

Clearly, being on egullet, by "regular" bacon, i meant premium small smokehouse bacon:)

I made a pork chop sous vide a few days ago. Cooked at 145 for about 1 hour. All i put on it was some BBQ rub, as i had to throw it together quickly. It was outstanding. Juicy, flavorful and tender. jason

I was wondering the same thing. Bacon is normally cold smoked..you guys are hot smoking it, making it a piece of smoked meat..wondering how different it tasted to regular bacon jason

Chris, you need a hygrometer, it measures relative humidity. They are available just about anywhere both dial and digital. jason

Chris, add the cure #2 to the marinade. For safety sake, i would go "light" on the cure...too much cure can be dangerous. Oh, i saif 60F 50% RH pretty much as a guess. Ben makes it sound like you need to have movement of air..so maybe a big fan in the basement can help with that. when i make pancetta i dry it at about 54F and 70% RH. It could use less humidity, but i keep it at about 70% since all my other salumi require about that much. PS, i looked on amazon at that link, and funnily enough you can read the lop yuk recipe in the book free of charge.

Chris, i would thikn a cool, dry place is about 60deg. F, and about 50% RH. Regarding the salt petre, use cure #2 (since this item is dry cured), in the proportion of about 28g to 25lbs of meat. As far as the proportions of soy/sugar, it seems that the sugar and dark soy are there to counteract the over saltyness of the soy. I think this is going to be trial and error. Take good notes, and since the this is done in strips, you could make multiple trials at once, and then decide which you like more. Do one with 1:1 ratio of soy/dark soy, one with 1:2, 2:1 etc. The few times i've used alcohal in my cures for pancetta or guanciale, i've disliked the results. It gave the meat a distinct winey flavor i didn't care for. My answers don't help much, sorry. jason

If your wood was burning instead of smoldering, you develope creasote which is very bitter. Maybe that happened?

Michael, i figured that is why you said to use so much. Problem is, for me at least, at $15+shipping per package, using 1/2 of it on a 3lb batch of meat is rediculous. I've always used the appropriate amount, and i measure the acidification with a pH meter, seems to work out. I've had mine in the freezer for about 1.5 years now, i vacuum bag it after every use. jason

I noticed the same thing when i read the book. When i make my salame i use about 0.5g of bactoferm for about 5lbs of meat. I THINK you should be ok, since the amount of acidification is controlled by the amount of sugars in the sausage, which the bacteria feed on, and not the amount of bacteria added. Having said that, using 20g of bactoferm for each batch of sausage is most likely a waste. jason

I know exactly the gritty feeling you're talking about. I get it also when i buzz them in a coffee grinder. To avoid this you have to pick out the little BLACK seeds which are sometimes encased by the husk of the peppercorn. It is a pain in the ASS, but those black seeds are what causes the grittyness. jason

Cure #1 is 93.75% salt and 6.25% nitrite.

Cure #1 is 6.25% nitrite to salt. But it isn't just a mix, i believe they are dissolved together and then re-evaporated to make sur there is an even distribution of the nitrite in the salt. Otherwise you may get different amounts in different scoops, which would be dangerous. jason

I normally work with cured meats, so fat smearing is an issue for me. I mix my meat/fat mix by hand, but i was wondering if htere was a trick to mix with a paddle mixer and not have it smear... guess not. j

if you mix and knead so hard, how do yo ustop the fat from smearing?

For my curing chamber i got a humidistat which sits in the fridge, this controls an ultrasonic humidifier which also sits IN the fridge. Temp of fridge is controlled by external thermostat. I posted pics of my setup in another thread on here. Go look for it. The lightbulb in the fridge is also required to control how often the fridge cycles, drying the air. I explained it all . jason You can find information here : https://home.comcast.net/~jasonmolinari/Salame.htm

Yeah, i recall seeing Morimoto or Michiba using the same tool in the Japanese version of the show.

Aynone else see WD make tilapia noodles this past sunday on Iron Chef? It was awesome. He also had some really nice water baths! Good show Chef Dufresne! j

What happened to the replies I and Ruhlman posted to Coquus' question?

No, i don't thikn so. Rock salt is chunks about 3-4mm big. Kosher salt is flat flakes about 1mm long... jason