Smithy

Over in this topic about Alton Brown, a brand-new (to me) concept popped up: vinegar powder. @weinoo noted that Wylie Dufresne had been making and using it for quite some time, but I'd never heard of it before today. Bless her, @blue_dolphin posted a link to an article about it, with a recipe. The article, in Taste, is Vinegar: Now in Powder Form. The recipe is for Salt and Vinegar String Beans, excerpted with permission from the Superiority Burger Cookbook. Well. I liked the idea of ordering vinegar powder, but I liked even better the idea of taking stale bread, soaking it in vinegar, drying it in a low oven, then grinding it. I especially liked it because I had half of loaf of once-excellent sourdough that has languished in a bag atop the refrigerator, waiting to become bread crumbs. I liked it even better because of the recipe for Salt and Vinegar String Beans. I love summer green beans, and I had just bought a couple of pounds. How low should the oven temperature be, and for how long? I didn't know, and the article didn't say. Which vinegar might be best? It sounded like cook's choice, although the recipe in question called for malt vinegar. I divvied up the bread loaf into 4 sections for taste comparisons: malt vinegar, white wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar and red wine vinegar. "Low oven" is pretty vague. Once the bread was well-soaked I pulled it apart and spread it onto carefully-segregated baking sheets. Two small pans' worth (the red wine vinegar and apple cider vinegar) went into my Cuisinart Steam Oven using convection bake mode. After 2 hours at 150F they were barely drying. I turned the bread, gave it another 2 hours at 175F, and then again another 2 hours. In the meantime, the breads from the other two vinegars went onto standard baking sheets in my standard oven, at 200F of convective baking. That process took around 2 hours. Note to self: in future, use 200F and use the higher air flow of the larger oven. The top picture is of the original stale bread portions, getting their bath. The bottom picture is of the dried bread crumbs. They'll meet the food processor on another day, to be ground into smithereens and give interesting taste notes to foods. I'm looking forward to trying the green bean recipe in the next day or two. Who else has tried this? Got any successes, failures or insights to report?

Me three. I finally fished (ha) mine out of the toolbox where they'd been stashed so they'll be readily available near the kitchen. eta: Oh wait, mine is a hemostat. Same idea for this purpose, though not for its original use.

Good to see you here! Thanks for the compliments...and please come back more often!

Glad you like the tajin! The dinner looks great. I didn't time the blanching, but I think it was on the order of 2 minutes, maybe 3...just until the corn was barely cooked and had taken on a brighter color and firmer flesh. I had a big bowl of ice water waiting to stop the cooking as soon as I pulled the corn out of the boiling water.

The cut corn kernels are now spread out on cookie sheets and freezing. There is a definite textural difference between the kernels that came off the blanched ears and the kernels that came off the blanched-and-then-frozen ears. If there's a significant visual difference between the two batches that I can pick up with a camera, I'll post that later. Right now it can be felt more than seen. The blanched, then frozen, then thawed ears yielded corn kernels that were mushy (soft) and lost a lot of their juices. Those kernels were difficult to cut off the ears (but impossible after the ears were frozen, as noted above) and a lot of the corn "meat" stayed on the ears. The cobs should have a lot to give corn stock. The kernels remind me of creamed corn. The kernels that were cut off the cobs after the cobs were blanched kept much more of their structural integrity. I know from experience that they'll freeze well and make good provender for later. Note to @ElsieD: the reason we have taken to blanching the corn before freezing is that when I simply cut the corn kernels off the cobs and then froze the kernels, without blanching, the resulting product was tough even after being cooked later on.

Welcome! What sorts of things do you especially like to cook? Any big learning projects going on at present?

Thanks for the information. I hope you are on the mend and able to try it soon.

You're all making me wonder whether I still have that potato ricer I never used! Did I give it away, or is it in some box somewhere?

It makes sense to me that the chickens' diet, general health and possibly breed would affect the shell strength, but I haven't kept records to test the idea. I'd like to know what others have observed.

I learned about flat-surface cracking from a friend who'd been trained as a chef, way back in the '80's, and have never looked back. The reason Dean gave me was that an edge could drive the shell into the egg, with possible contamination as a result. At one time I was proficient enough that I could hold an egg in each hand, crack each on the counter, and open each with the hand that was holding it...simultaneously. I don't remember the last time I felt the need to hurry (or was it showing off, even to myself?) that much, though. Maybe I'll try it and see how much of a mess I make, now that I'm out of practice 🙂

The leftovers made enough for 3 meals for 2 of us. On the left: that meat is tender! and still juicy! On the right: with the sauce added from the pot. We'll need to cook potatoes or rice to soak up that juice. As rotuts says, "yum yum". Our samples of the leftovers didn't indicate overcookedness after all, so maybe it was just our tiredness and general crankiness that led us to think so last night. Still, having to hustle it along at the end didn't help. Next time we'll cook at a slightly higher temperature, and start it earlier in the day.

This peach conversation is right in time with a NYTimes article about the Masumoto family farm in the Central Valley, which led me to their cookbook, which is for sale (autographed) from their store, and from Amazon, Powell's books, and many other shops...and which Amazon advises me I bought in Kindle format nearly 3 years ago. As usual the NYT hides their stuff behind a paywall, but for those who can see it -- or maybe there's a way around that wall -- go check out "The Peaches Are Sweet, but Growing Them Isn't" by Miriam Pawel, in the NYTimes. Published Aug. 24, updated Aug. 25, 2019.

"HOT" mangosteens: spicy hot, recently-heated hot, or very-popular-at-least-they-want-you-to-think-so hot? (I assume they aren't stolen-hot. )

It looks good: eggs and tomatoes are a good combination in my book. What makes the eggs Chinese-style?

I had no idea! Add my thanks to ElsieD's!

If there's a link to this recipe / concept just a few posts up, please kick me in private...but post a link anyway. Peach icebox pie? Baked? Please give more detail. It looks wonderful.

I'd call tonight's dinner a qualified success. We used the set-it-and-forget-it philosophy to spend time on chores we did not want to do as well as a bicycle ride that we did want to do. At some point after 8 hours of slow cooking we could see a temperature stratification: meat at the bottom of the pot was around 150 - 160; meat at the top was around 125 - 140. My darling removed all the meat from the pot and restacked the ribs to invert the lot. An hour later, the ribs that had previously registered in the 150 - 160F range were down into the 120 - 130F range, whereas the ribs from the original top layer were heating up. I still don't understand how this could have happened, but there it is: it appears that heat transmission isn't great from the bottom of the pot, where the heat element is, to the rest of the pot, unless there's a generous amount of liquid (in this case, BBQ sauce) to fill in gaps and transmit heat. The meat seemed tender at all levels, but there were questions about the desired temperature and the food safety implications. (Much to my surprise, he was the one worried about food safety.) We discussed options: add more liquid for better heat transmission; crank up the temperature setting; try pressure-cooking to finish. We turned the Custom Temperature up to 175 (roughly the low-level Slow Cooker setting, but who's counting) for 10 or 20 minutes, then lost patience/faith in the process. We sealed the IP and set it to Pressure Cook on High for 10 minutes. At about the time it reached full pressure, it announced that it was burning. I turned off the program, and let it all cool down naturally. Top pic: the contents of the pot. Bottom pic: our dinners. (Never mind pretty plating, we were tired and hungry.) Some of the meat was almost overdone. All of it was tender; most of it was juicy, but the drier segments made us think that it was slighly overcooked. Was this better than our recent country-style-rib attempts? Yes. Was this better than memory serves from 20 years ago and many frustrations since? Well, no...but maybe it came close. Will we try it again this way next time? No: we'll either up the slow-cooker temperature from the outset, start the cooker earlier for a much longer time, or pressure-cook (or steam) it first.

This phrase still surprises me after 2 or 3 readings. The sweet corn up here in northern Minnesota is just coming into its own, and much of it is being schlepped up from the middle and southern parts of the state. I keep thinking that those of you farther south in the USA would have sweet corn later in the season than this! Does it have to do with the particular variety you plant?

Oh, @kayb - I absolutely believe (and trust) you on this. Braising something in barbecue sauce does not a barbecue make. I appreciate your ideas about the use of the slow cooker. Thank you!

Thanks, rotuts, I think. If this works out right, the meat flavor WILL stay with the meat. If it doesn't, then we'll try another time/temp combination. I'm thinking that a very quick pressure cook before starting the slow-cook mode might be a good idea, but that would be one step too many for my darling. IMO most BBQ sauce is a transgression precisely because it masks the meat flavor. I commented on that last night, here. This Jack Daniels has a good taste to both of us, and doesn't necessarily overwhelm the meat, so we're both happy with it when we get the texture and donneness right. Sometimes when I'm doing short ribs or spareribs, I put my food down...BBQ sauce can be added at the table, thankyewverymuch, at the whim of the diner. Not before! Or at least leave it off my half of the meat!

My DH is firmly in the "set it and forget it" school of cookery. If it takes more than 2 steps or 3 ingredients, he won't cook it although he'll usually love it if someone else takes the trouble. When we first met, one of his favorite dinners was country-style ribs, stuffed into a Crock Pot, smothered with barbecue sauce, and cooked on low for 8 - 12 hours. In the meantime he went to work, came home, went for an afternoon run, had a nap, had some pre-dinner beer, or did whatever else he pleased until dinner time. Anything, except mess with the food. That was over 20 years ago. We brought identical Crock Pots to the marriage, right down to the color: the 3-quart model with the heat wiring embedded in the ceramic liner, the kind you couldn't immerse in water because the liner wouldn't come out. I thought mine a pain to clean and didn't use it much. He loved his and used it for the kind of cooking that fit his lifestyle. I gave mine away when we combined households. He gave his to his daughter when we got a 6-qt pot with a removable liner as a wedding present. Country-style ribs haven't been the same since. They tend to come out overcooked in the large Crock Pot. I bought a smaller unit for our trailer. They overcooked in that one. His daughter has since cleared out her collection of Crock Pots in a move, so his was beyond retrieval. I bought another 3-quart, liner-can't-be-removed model at a garage sale. I think it's the same model (except for the color) that we each had; he doesn't; after 22 years it's difficult to prove. Either way, it runs too hot and overcooks the ribs. We know that the pork itself has changed in the intervening time because most pork is leaner than it used to be. Is our trouble due to the meat, or the cooking equipment? We haven't known. We've tried low temps, shorter time periods, power controllers...and he has continued to be disappointed. Still, we have persisted. Today, we're trying out the IP Ultra for this purpose. Unfortunately we don't know what temperature corresponds to those long-gone original pots. Perusal of my various cookbooks suggests that 155F for a long enough time will be the right temperature for the ribs we bought yesterday. I don't like most barbecue sauces, but Jack Daniels #7 is one we can both get behind. The prep: open the package, pack the ribs tightly into the pot's liner, pour enough BBQ sauce to fill the spaces, load into the Ultra Pot. I walked him through the procedure for programming and starting the pot. We chose a Custom Temperature of 155F, and told it to run for 12 hours. By that time we'll be ready to eat (whether the meat is ready or not) so we don't have to worry about turning off the "Keep Warm" setting. He did all the programming, and knows that every time he takes the lid off to check and then replaces the lid he'll have to push the little button to reopen the valve. We'll probably leave the lid off and put a silicone lid on instead to allow a thermometer. "Wow," he exclaimed, "this pot is exactly what we've been looking for!" I'll report on the results later.

With that mix of seasonings it makes sense that some time to sit and mingle would improve the flavors. Whether that would still happen in the freezer, I don't know. Maybe the time it takes for the mixture to cool down on its way to freezing is enough?

Amen! @Shelby, how did you treat those beans? I probably shouldn't entertain the idea of canning more than next weekend's salsa, and maybe some chokecherry jelly this week, but I'm tempted.

I can now report that cutting the kernels off a blanched ear of corn is child's play, but trying to do so with a blanched and then frozen ear of corn is a fool's errand. Maybe with an electric meat knife it could have been done, but I didn't try it. The ears I chose to freeze are now thawing in the refrigerator so I can collect the kernels. I'll report later on whether there's a textural difference. On another note: for those of you who like the combination of chili and lime on corn, tajin classico seasoning is a pretty nice addition to the pantry. I found this during our travels last winter. First I tried a cute little sample bottle of it, and later bought a full-sized bottle. It adds a delightful kick to sweet buttered corn. I think it's essentially the flavor combination Kim Shook mentioned here (see her restaurant photo) and Katie Meadow here, although both include other ingredients such as cotijo. Tajin seems to be getting a broad distribution, so keep an eye out for it in your grocery stores.

This appealing before-and-after picture shows the product we tried for dinner last night. My DH loves all things pork (well, maybe not offal) and he was jonesing for ribs yesterday while we are the the grocery store. The package in the top pic contained baby back ribs, already smoked, cooked, and slathered in BBQ sauce. Heat at 400F for 25 minutes, and serve. I had my doubts, given my skepticism about most barbecue sauces, and prefer doing my own rubs and long cooks. Nonetheless, this was convenience food on a busy day, and I was game to try it. The bottom pic shows the finished product. It looked better on the plate! We both thought it slightly overdone, which could have been operator error rather than the producer's error; I may have given it a bit too much time. He loved it despite the borderline overdonness: it was tender, and he never met a BBQ sauce he didn't like. I thought the sauce was overwhelming, and not in a good way. It was way too sweet, tasted mostly of ketchup, and I really couldn't tell whether the meat was smoked. I'm not sure I could tell it was pork! So no, I wouldn't get that particular product again. If I could find it already smoked and cooked but without the sauce, I might. It was convenient, but so is a grilled cheese sandwich. On another note: I'm getting tired of corn on the cob, simply buttered, his summer favorite vegetable. A generous sprinkling of tajin seasoning, a chili-and-lime condiment, brightened it up and changed the tune for me. It probably wouldn't make a convert of liuzhou, but this little bottle that I picked up during last spring's travels has been a delightful discovery for me.