Abra

Oh good, a blog from a place about which I know virtually nothing. I love that. Will you show us your market, and all the fruits and vegetables that are unique to your area? Give us some typical local recipes? It certainly looks gorgeous where you are!

Astounding, Ling! Hey, you do know there's a recipe out there for a Black Pearl Cake, echoing the flavors of the truffle you had, right? I haven't had an excuse to make it yet, but it's high on my list to try if I get the right audience. Did you say you're coming to Seattle soon???

Hmm, 10 hours, eh? There's a long way from 4 (mine) to 10 (theirs) and that might be a big part of it. There's no way I could stand to fiddle with a little fire of wet wood for 10 hours, though! As to the cure, the belly half was only just under 3 lbs, so I don't think the cure amount was off. I'm still mulling over the pancetta problem. For sure skinning and re-hanging are in its near future, but as to adding additional cure, or just seasoning, and whether to re-roll or just let it hang flat, I'm not sure. I'm hoping Michael Ruhlman will come and save the day by telling me definitively what to do. But I really do appreciate all of your suggestions and commiserations. Normally I have more successes to report, so I'm uncharacteristically bummed tonight.

This must not be my day. No bacongasms at my house. This is the finished cold-smoked bacon, and some eggs I had in the smoker too to see what they'd do. Not much, in case you're wondering. looks just like bacon, right? But it doesn't really "taste like bacon" to us. There were three of us tonight, and we all agreed that we want more smoke flavor, and I think it ought to have a more "cured" flavor as well. It tastes like a delicious, lightly salty, lightly sweet, lightly smoky piece of pork, but lacks that distinctive bacon flavor. I used the basic cure, and 1/4 cup of maple syrup. Perhaps we're missing the hickory flavor, having done it over applewood? But I've had applewood-smoked bacon that was really smoky, so I'm skeptical about that explanation. Nonetheless, I think I'm going to put it back in the smoker tomorrow over hickory and see if I can get it a bit more thrilling. Any other suggestions? I hate to be a bacongasm wet blanket! Thanks for the side-by-side, Bombdog. It's a surprise to me that there was so little diffference.

I have a bag of khii noo in my freezer. I'm so glad to know to call them mouse droppings, as in "honey, would you clean out the freezer for me, but be sure not to toss my mouse droppings!"

Oh crap, now I'm really in trouble! As I was wrestling the skin off the bacon, my husband said "I'm surprised, now that I see you doing that, that the pancetta doesn't have the skin removed." I say that no, the instructions don't mention the skin, but hey, now that I think of it, pancetta never has skin. So I look again, and there it is, in the ingredient list, pork belly, skin removed. Insert long string of really evil language here. Because, of course, not only is the pancetta rolled and hanging, but evidently the cure was meant to be applied to a skinless belly, and now I am so screwed. I could just cry. So yeah, I can unroll it, skin it, and re-tie it. But do I need to re-cure the side where the skin was? Bacon is cured skin-on, but then it's not rolled and hung for two weeks. I am beyond pissed off at myself for not reading more carefully. Double, triple shit!

Ok! I've had it in a 170 oven for a few minutes awaiting word from on high - thanks, guys! I'm taking it out now.

Beautiful, Megan! I've never eaten that cake, but now I really want to. So, forgive me for asking, being as how I've never seen one before, but is the uneven ruffly outer edge a characteristic of this cake, or do bakeries round off the outside somehow to make it a more uniform shape?

So, can someone tell me whether/why we need to get the bacon up to 150? After 4 hours of smoking at about 80 degrees, the bacon is, surprise, at about 80 deegrees. The fire keeps going out and I'm sick of coddling it. It's had a lot of smoke. Do I need to put it in the oven and get it up to 150, or is it good to go as is?

Holy cow, all that shopping and prep then no customers? That's really rough. Can you say more about the lecithin froth? Just stir some into the raw juice, heat it, or what? I am so making those sand dollars!

Thanks, Paula. I'll give it one more day to extract juice on its own, then top it off.

Ok, I have to admit it, my husband is a genius. When I was thinking out loud last week about what sort of contraption we could use for a curing box, since our extra fridge really needs to remain cold for food, he remembered that we have this - it's a mini-greenhouse, useful for starting seeds in cold weather. However, it never really gets warm enough here to make seed-starting a worthwhile endeavor, so it's just been a spider house for the past 5 years. After a big scrubbing, removal of the seed trays, some retrofitting with a hanging bar, and rolling and tying my cured pancetta, voila a charcuterie shed. What's especially cool is the adjustable top, so that the air flow can be controlled pretty well. That, plus propping it up a little so there's air circulation underneath, and a 12 volt muffin fan running on 3 volts, plus a pan of salted water, and my already-beloved hygrometer make me hopeful that I can get this thing right. Men are so great for doing stuff like this! There's a lot of light in the pictures, but normally the garage is pretty dark, so I think it'll be a fine environment for curing. I just have one question: Did everyone's pork belly come with nipples???? Oh, and because I know you're wondering, yes, those doorknobs are little feet. Don't ask. Oh, and on the Brinkman experiment, I have to say that I was an idiot heretofore. It has a gauge that ranges from Warm, through Ideal, to Hot. Because it never makes it up to Ideal here on the cool Puget Sound, I'd assumed that it wasn't really getting hot. But hey presto, put a thermometer in there and whaddya get? It's 270 friggin' degrees at the top of Warm! So not only is it too hot for cold smoking, it's even too hot for hot smoking. Now that was a real surprise. Of course there was no meat in there to serve as a heat sink, but I think all indications are that this is not meant to be a cold smoker. The other surprise was to open my CharGriller and find it all full of white fuzzy mold. Not cute little white fuzzy mold, but Major Ick mold. We have a flame weeder that never gets used as such, but give a man a flame weeder that roars like a 747 and permission to play with fire, and even the nastiest mold doesn't stand a chance. The smoker is now clean, but there's not 5 hours of daylight left, so I'll be smoking my bacon first thing in the morning. And just as a bonus, I fried up a little trimming of the pancetta, just to test the cure. Yum. Really.

I have a preserved lemon question. On Thursday I started a batch of preserved lemons, using the recipe in this book. I used Meyers, which is why they look so golden. Here's how they started. The instructions say to shake them every day for 30 days, and that the lemons will exude enough juice to become fully submerged after a few days. Then last night I was reading the preserved lemon recipe in Couscous and Other Good Food From Morocco, and that recipe said that the lemons should be covered with juice from the start. Here's how my lemons look this morning, after 48 hours. There's a lot more juice, but they're a long way from being completely submerged. I'm wondering about the two different techniques, whether they produce different results, and whether my lemons will really get submerged, and if it will matter. Paula, or anyone who's made these?

Elie, this doesn't answer the miniature aspect of your question, but just last night I saw that in American Boulangerie the recipe for Gateau Basque incorporates tart cherry jam right into the cake as a layer.

Great, you guys! Bombdog, I'm looking forward to your results. Pictures, too, if possible! Elie, that's perfect, and I can follow your procedure exactly. I also have a Brinkman that's been outside being used as a home for spiders, because it's never "up to temp" when I want to hot smoke. I'm going to vacuum out the bugs and stick a thermometer in there today, to see if it stays cold enough to qualify for cold-smoking.

My favorite from your Mistral dinner is that sand dollar cookie. Or was it a biscuit? That's very clever. Henry, you are now officially tied with Jamie Maw for the "prettiest friends as portrayed in a blog" award.

Lovely, Elie! Hey, since I have the CharGriller too, can you tell me more about how you kept the temp so low? Did you use only apple chips, or any other fuel? Did you ice the water bath, or what? I think I'm smoking tomorrow, weather permitting.

I'll give a different perspective. I opened my personal chef business when I was 51. It's incredibly hard work, physically, but no more so than waiting tables, I imagine. I worked hard, and worked out a lot too, in order to be strong enough. Now, at 55, I have severe tendonitis in my wrists and have had to give up my business. I'm hoping to get better without surgery, but it's not a sure thing. Had I known this might happen, would I have done the personal cheffing anyway? I'm not sure. Right now I can't cook, garden, knit, or carry anything heavy without pain. I sleep in wrist braces every night. So, my advice is to check in with your body. You only get one. I used to be a lot more macho about that than I am today.

I drink a cup or two of coffee most days, but don't suffer without it, and drink a lot of tea in between, both black and herbal. In contrast, I go nuts without vegetables. Since they're so good for me, this is an addiction I encourage. But the one thing I should do without, and seem to be hopelessly addicted to, is nut butter, every day, either peanut or cashew. I wish I knew how to get over that one!

Since I was taught, while working for the Cree nation, that potlatch was a war game, "the war without swords", I guess that would go along with culinary one upsmanship, of which I can certainly be accused. Uh, is my own weird-food collection ripe for such entertainment? I can mail all that stuff to the first person who sends me a valid postal address, and then, I win! Oh no, I lose, because where will those candlenuts be when I need them?

Mizducky, I'm not sure how long ago you were last here, but you might find Uwajimaya to be unrecognizable. They moved to a new, huge store maybe 5 years ago, just a block from the old place, but the new one is slicker 'n a smelt and has apartments upstairs. That's my dream urban location, living upstairs from Uwajimaya.

A schlop that is schlepped, now there's a concept that has linguistic utility far beyond the confines of the culinary, if such a thing can be imagined. I think it is a coastal thing. I've never heard anyone say shmear in person, or schlop for that matter. however, I myself say schlep with frightening regularity.

Smoked beer, yes! Since I'm having a bit of Laphroaig at the moment, getting into a smoking mood in preparation for smoking my first bacon, the idea of smoked beer tickles me. If I can get some really cool smoke I'm going to try some smoked cheese, a la jackal10. Just like everyone else, my bacon did exude quite a bit of liquid in the curing process, and the pancetta very little. Why is that? Mine are getting an extra day in the cure until a hanging bar can be installed in my new curing mini-shed. It's so cute, I sure hope it works! I'll post a picture as soon as it's up and running.

Margarine. Solidified oils with artificial color and flavor spread on bread. Abomination.

Beautiful, Susan! I can't wait to get mine done. It'll be curing for 2-3 more days, so I have a short wait, during which I can just salivate over the pictures on this thread.