Smithy

Shiver me timbers! Some rollickin' good guidance from all o' ye!

I know it's a ton of work, but you make it sound fun - especially since your other half is doing most of the work. The place is beautiful! I'm surprised at the landscaping plants. Are those yuccas Spanish Dagger? I thought it was a southern plant.

I just realized that International Talk Like a Pirate Day is coming up this Saturday. We'll be glamping. With family and friends. There will be a boat. Fishing. Campfire for said fish later. Grog. Food. It's already off to a good piratish start, and may need only a slight push. I bet I can get my grandson and his mates to join in on the "Arrrr mateys", and maybe some adults after the grog starts rolling. What food would help push the celebration along? Is anyone else thinking along these lines?

A Polish Harvest Festival! That would be fun. For those of us nowhere near the site, photos afterward would be welcome. Extra points if you manage to work in a celebration of Talk Like A Pirate Day while you're at it. :-D

Welcome, ElsieDee, we're glad to have you here! Come on in, make yourself at home. If you have questions about how the forums work or where to post or find something, feel free to PM a host (I am one) or post your question in the Moderation and Policy Discussion Forum. "Opportunistic vegetarian": I like that phrase. :-) Edited to add link.

Have you gone yet? If so, please tell us about it!

Very interesting! I'll be looking forward to more, also. Can you tell us more about why the sulfur discourages the wild yeast but not your desired (added) yeast strain?

Boucaneer, you may find inspiration for your hard tack in this topic: Homemade Crackers. If not, you can always start a topic on Hard Tack. Would something like our granola bars be closer to what you're after? Incidentally, I've made ice cream on a small scale by enclosing the ingredients in one well-sealed bag and enclosing that bag in a larger bag containing ice and salt, then kneading the lot. It's a low-tech, lightweight version of the ice cream 'soccer ball' ('football' to you :-D) that can be found in camping stores. If you'll have ice or another good chilling source - spare CO2 if you have it - that may be worth exploring. The above-linked ice cream topic will be a good place for further discussion.

Welcome, Alex. If you have questions about where to find things or how to navigate the forums, feel free to PM a host (I am one), or ask your question in the Moderation and Policy Discussion forum, which is where the technical questions belong. I have tremendous admiration for disaster relief operations, and understand the need for morale-boosting. Have you found the Home Made Ice Cream topic yet? If you hadn't before, now you'll have a quick link. :-) I look forward to your contributions.

The bagels look wonderful, kayb! Glad you went ahead with the project, and that it worked out so well.

I finally got around to doing this today. It really is easy. The last jar I did contains a pepper and some zuke as well as cukes. Thanks for posting this recipe, Shelby!

Here's an amusing and interesting essay - rant, some might say - by Jane Middleton. She sounds close to the end of her tether. Want to write a bestselling cookery book? Don't worry about making it any good. Do you agree? How many of the cookbooks published today are more fluff and flash than substance?

Yesterday was putter-in-the-kitchen day, and I finally made marble rye. I decided it would be unsportsmanlike not to share the flops, and was resigned to posting a bunch of comical pictures. As it turns out, I have only one half-alien: When I cut into said loaf, the bulge at the left was due to a delamination between the outer layer of dough and the interior. It didn't burn, though; just made a giant air bubble in the slice. No picture of that section, but here's the interior: Making dinner rolls with marble rye was especially fun; I loved the variety of patterns I could get depending on how I mixed the doughs and then how I wove them. Proofed rolls: Out of the oven: Out of the pan: There were no complaints at the dinner table.

In the topic Making of my own cookbook, gfron1 said: Can you tell whether they want to use it as a restaurant or as something else? Do you care? Given its central location and what I saw of its structure, it could be a candidate for a B&B, some clever shop or art gallery, artsy coffee shop, or another restaurant. With that flexibility and location in mind, I can imagine its appeal.

I'll bet if you posted your location next year you'd have at least another 150 turning up. ;-) This has been a great 'read'. Thank you very much for posting about it!

Now there's a mental image. Those pumpkins look like they're at least half the size of a healthy raccoon!

It's an addictive toast topping with a diverse variety of applications, including (we now learn) ice cream! According to Johnnybird himself the recipe is pretty flexible, with the proviso that it must include cinnamon and citrus zest. Johnnybird gives the basic recipe in this post.

Nice, blue_dolphin. It's also nice to see Valencia oranges making a comeback.

Bummer: Mark Bittman has posted his last regular column in The New York Times. In A Farewell he gives good reasons for moving on. Still, I'll miss his interesting and thought-provoking writing.

From everything I've read so far (in the last 12 hours), the calculation should include all salts, not just the sodium by weight. Here's the calculation, using your original numbers* of 6218 g meat, 3702 g water, 101 g salt and 10 g MSG: Brine concentration = total salts / (total of meat + water) = (101 + 10) g = 111 g = 0.011 = 1.1% (6218 + 3702) g 9920g *Note that in your first post you listed 101g salt, and in your most recent post you listed 110 g salt. I used 101 g salt in this calculation. If you really used 110g salt, then the calculation changes from 111g total salts to 120g total salts, and your brine is 1.2%. I apologize for adding to your confusion earlier. HTH.

It looks like you're getting some good information. Please do let us know more about your investigations, and the final resolution. Welcome to eGullet.

I went through all the calculations of the amount of sodium you have in that recipe (1.1% by mass) before I realized that I was probably off track. I think your actual question is this: Which is the correct way to calculate brine concentration? (a) percentage of sodium alone {total sodium / water mass} in your example, 1.1% (b) percentage of total salt {(sodium chloride + MSG + any other salts combined) / water mass} 3.0% in your example Have I stated the question properly? If so, these two web sites suggest that (b) is correct: you should count the total mass of salts, not just the sodium, in your brine calculation: Blog - the Meat Case ChefSteps - Equilibrium Brining Here's hoping someone with direct experience can give a definitive answer. Edit later: struck out incorrect results above to prevent years-later confusion. Calculations above did not include mass of meat in the brine calculation, and they should have. See later posts.

Now THAT makes me wish my neighbor would give me some more lurker zucchini. Maybe it isn't too late in the season yet.

Here's a cast iron pie plate, of all things, that looks like it would fit: Camp Chef True Seasoned Cast Iron Pie Pan 10". I see (now that I'm about to post) that natasha1270 had already pointed it out. So now you have 2 suggestions for that. In case it doesn't work - I can't imagine why - here are some other ideas: Here's a Lodge cast iron oval baking pan that might fit your bill: 12.5" long x 7" wide by 2.5" deep. It's still pretty small, at 1.125 qt. Lodge also make as round skillet with short handles, like this: Lodge L17SK3. If a smaller version could be found, I'd think that would be perfect. So far I haven't found the right search terms for a smaller size to fit your 13 maximum width. If you're open to enameled cast iron that may widen your options also: here, for instance, is a Mario Batali (by Dansk) 9"x9" baking dish.

Welcome, SoFraiche. It looks like you may have a lot to contribute, so jump on in as time and interest permit. I'd be interested in hearing more about your career to date. How does one get started at such an early age?