UnConundrum

We like Bell and Evans. Of course, it helps that their processing plant is relatively close to us From their web site: All-Natural Diet Our chickens thrive on an all-natural diet. At Bell & Evans, our chickens are raised without antibiotics on a proper, 100% natural, all-vegetable diet fortified with vitamins and minerals. Unlike many other chicken growers, we never feed our chicken junk food like rendered meat scraps; bone, feather or fish meal; or animal fats, oils, and grease. You wouldn't eat that stuff and we don't think the chickens should either. What's more, Bell & Evans chickens are never fed growth hormones, (Federal law prohibits the use of artificial growth hormones in poultry), artificial preservatives or unnecessary and non-nutritive coloring agents. Locally-Grown Soy Beans The unique, all-natural vegetable diet that Bell & Evans chickens thrive on is key to the award-winning taste of The Excellent Chicken. Our chickens get their energy from locally-grown Extruded Soybeans and Expeller Pressed Soybeans only, enhanced with corn and amino acids for better protein balance. Why are Extruded Soybeans and Expeller Pressed Soybeans so important? Our special processing method produces soy that is richer in healthy nutrients such as lecithin, linoleic acid and Vitamin Ethan solvent-extracted meal - without releasing toxic Hexane gas into our environment. Nearly all soybean processed in the United States are processed using the Solvent Extraction process. As part of the process, these solvent extraction processing plants create and release hexane gas into the air. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) categorizes hexane as a HAP (hazardous air pollutant). Another concern is residuals from the hexane will remain in the final meal. Though solvent extraction is more economical, we believe that raising a healthier chicken and protecting our environment are more important. Vitamin Supplements We give our chickens a vitamin diet supplement that provides additional protein and fiber essential for The Excellent Chicken. In our starter feed, we add 15 times the recommended amount of Vitamin E, an antioxidant that bolsters the young chick's immune system and improves chicken quality. Throughout our chickens' lives, we give them three times the recommended vitamins, including A, D, E, and K, plus B-12, biotin, niacin, riboflavin, thiamin and more. Our feed is constantly tested to make certain of its high nutritional value.

I always use Dizzy Pig rubs. They make some really great products.

Over at the kitchen knife forum, the highly recommend the MAC bread knife which you can find HERE. I still use the white handled restaurant supply bread knives, but may give the MAC a try some day soon as I bake a lot of bread. BTW, if you need to get your knives sharpened, THIS GUY does a world class job, and will accept knives mail order. He will even repair broken tips, and sharpen Japanese style knives on water stones..... He does sharpen serrated blades too... not just the back of the knife, but the serations.

Bump. C'mon can't someone help me out?

in Montreal some of the bakeries offer squares of cake cut from a full sheet pan topped with varios fruit. one may have berries, another nectarines. the seems a little dense, but that may come from the fruit. Does anyone have a recipe, or the name for this cake? Thanks in advance

Well, I've gone as long as 8 hours on a NY Strip which I'm guessing is the same cut. If you over do it, they can get too tender, but 8 hours is well within limits, but I would consider that an extreme for a Strip steak. Give it a try once, and see if the results are to your family's liking. This way, you'll have two extremes and will be able to fine tune the time.

I use my setup every week, and often prepare things for future use by freezing. Over the weekends I go shopping and what I make depends on what looks good, but for example: 1. I'll buy a half dozen turkey breasts, season them, and process sous-vide. I'll freeze them, and my son takes them out from time to time to make sandwiches in lieu of cold cuts. Sometimes I'll slice them down FOR A MEAL 2. I'll buy a case of BOTTOM ROUNDS at Sam's or Costco, and like the turkey breasts, process and freeze. Roast beef whenever I want it. 3. I'll buy a whole NY Strip (loin) at Sam's (not sure why but I like theirs better than Costco) trim, and cut into steaks. Season and seal each in a bag and process the whole strip, and freeze. Any time we want steaks, they're ready to go. With steaks, I'll often throw them back into the sous-vide to bring them to temperature. Even right from frozen they're usually ready in a half hour. Then I'll pan fry them and make a pan sauce. 4. I'll buy several veal chops from Costco (obverse of 3, I lke their veal better than Sam's)... same as 3 5. A local farmer's market has CAB boneless short ribs for $4.19/pound. I buy some virtually every week for the upcoming week. Sometimes I'll serve just like a NY Strip..they come out equally tender, and sometimes I'll slice them down to put over a CAESAR SALAD. Last week I made BEEF POTPIE by pre-cooking the veggies and added short rib cubes. Baked the potpies for a half hour and the short rib cubes (previously cooked sous-vide) were still medium rare in the center. First time I ever had a potpie with med-rare meat BTW, sous-vide short ribs are one of my favorites. 6. I'll buy several turkey thighs or about 10 pounds of boneless skinless chicken thighs and/or breasts, seasoned different ways; sometimes with thyme, sometimes with tarragon so I always have some on hand. The breasts work well when quickly pan seared for color, and sliced over Caesar Salad like above. 7. I'll do lamb too when I come across a good deal. In other words, I keep my freezer well stocked with various proteins that were previously processed in my sous-vide system, and have reached the point where I can maintain the variety by doing two or three items a weekend. Last weekend, for example, I did some turkey tenders at 60C for a few hours, took them out, reduced the temperature to 54C and did some 1/2 pound portions of boneless short ribs for 36 hours. I'm really interested in the pre-cooking of broccoli gonna try that this weekend. Thanks for the idea.

I have a Big Green Egg, and just love it, using it often. As previously posted, they have a very active forum at http://www.biggreenegg.com/wwwboard/wwwboard.shtml. They also have very good customer service. I'm sure that if you contacted them through the web site, they'd try to help you out.

I always make mandel bread for everyone to take home after the seder. Last year it took me about 5 hours, but everyone seemed to enjoy them If you're interested, you can find my recipe HERE.

Rosengarten did a blurb recently about dissolving fried eggplant in tomato sauce, saying it's a lost Italian method. Anyone here ever try it that way?

Well, I FINALLY got my starter going and was actually able to use it today. Did a Jewish Rye which really turned out well. Thanks to everyone here for reminding me about how much I've enjoyed sourdoughs in the past. I needed the encouragement The following is the same bread, but without a flash, shows the crumb better: If you're interested, you can find the recipe and step by step pictures at http://www.recipesonrails.com/recipes/show...sh-rye-no-knead

Well, the one recipe calls for 5 Tablespoons of yeast !!!! I'm sure that's wrong. The other recipe calls for a good bit of butter; maybe they're assuming that you'll use salted butter. FWIW, the rule of thumb is that you use 2% of the weight of flour in salt. So if your flour weighs 100 grams, you'd add 2 grams of salt. The salt does control the yeast as well as add flavor. Also, with regard to the yeast, I believe the rule of thumb is 1% of the weight of the flour, and if I remember right, that's fresh yeast. To convert to instant or active dry you use 1/3 of that amount. IOW, you would use 1 gram of instant yeast for 300 grams of flour. Instant yeast does not need to be proofed, or soaked in water like the one recipe suggests. Just mix it in with the flour.

Some pre-bake pictures would help, but I'd still guess you need to build the strength of the dough by folding before you shape it.... The dough will kind-of let you know when it's folded enough by fighting back a little.

Just some random comments and maybe responses. First, as to the use of a starter, generally the ultimate flavor is controlled by temperature. The bacteria like cooler temperatures, and the yeast like warmer temps. Consequently, if you promote a cool fermentation, say 60F, the bacteria will multiply faster than the yeast, developing a stronger sour taste in the final product. Raising the temperature for fermentation to say, 75F, will promote the yeast growth and the fermentation/raising will be completed much faster, with less of the "sour" taste. As to dealing with a wet dough, unless you're up over 75%, you shouldn't have any problems. First, make sure your working surface is properly floured. Second, between the various steps of producing a dough, make sure you fold it to develop strength. Pat the dough out on a floured surface to de-gas it, and then fold 1/3 over onto itself, and then the final 1/3 over on top of the already folded 2/3.... like folding a letter to put in an envelope. Pat down, turn 90 degrees, and fold again. This should develop sufficient strength in the dough to maintain its shape. I have some pictures showing how to fold HERE. I always allow my dough to rise on a cloth (you can see this on the next to last picture in the link above). Using an intermediary board, I use the edge of the cloth to turn the dough onto that board, and use that board to turn the dough onto a peel with cornmeal. I have a 7 minute video showing some of this that you can find at the end of my baguette recipe HERE.

From what I gather, most everyone is doing a "wet" starter with almost 200% hydration (equal flour and water by measure, right?). When I attended a class up a KA, we made a "dry" culture with about 60% hydration (water weighed 60% of the flour's weight). Can anyone comment on the advantages/disadvantages of either method? In the class, the culture started in about 5 days, of course I'm sure there's a ton of yeast floating around in their bakery. I've always maintained two starters, one white and one rye, but they both moved on to the bakery in the sky some time ago. I decided to start fresh last week, and pulled out my notes from KA: 6 days into it, no signs of life. Small pleasant odor from the bacteria, but no bubbles. I usually bake bread once or twice a week, so I'd think I have a fair amount of yeast in the air as well, but.... Is a wet starter easier to get going?

I followed the other thread here on EG, and came up with a recipe (complete with pictures) that I have posted HERE

Made an olive bread based on a formula in Cooks. I made some changes, and adapted it to a no-knead method. If you're interested in the recipe, more pictures, or the no-knead method, you can find more stuff HERE

Any pan other than non-stick you heat up, then add oil/fat, allow that to heat, then add food. The goal is to stop/reduce food sticking to the pan. While I'm not a metallurgist, I believe the heat causes the metal to expand and seal small pours in the pan. The hot fat may flow easier into an crevices that remain. On a non-stick pan, you have to worry about the non-stick surface and it's inability to withstand high heats. The oil would tend to spread out the heat load and offer "some" protection to the surface.

I'm a big, BIG fan of the Big Green Egg. I was never into grilling, but I saw this thing one day at a hardware store, and couldn't figure out what it was. My wife bought one for me for Father's day, and I've been a grilling monster since. It will maintain a temperature from 180 to over 1000 as you wish. Great for smoking and/or grilling. I'm into sous vide as well, and I'll often cook something sous vide and then finish it on the BGE. I really can't say enough about it. You can find more info at www.biggreenegg.com They also have a very informative and friendly forum

Not exactly free. Lot of energy consumed to reduce 24 quarts to a cup....

While I still think Dave is the best, I'll third the edgepro system. Only problem is that I have some pretty high end knives, and I tended to scratch them from time to time with the edgepro. If you can't do water stones, the edgepro is the next best thing.

I use grape seed oil for cooking purposes. Works really well and has a relatively high smoke point. I believe it's listed as a rather healthy oil as well.

There can be several reasons why your knives are no longer getting sharp. For example, unless you thin your knife every time you sharpen (or catch up at some point), the thickness of the knife at the edge increases, affecting the quality of the edge. I highly recommend Dave at http://www.drsharpening.com/ who will accept mail order sharpening jobs. He's very familiar with most knives, and is highly respected in sharpening Japanese knives as well as German. He's acutely aware of heat/temper issues, and will even sharpen your knives on waterstones by hand if the quality of the knife justifies it.

Wasn't it discussed in the thread on storing demi that much of the gelatin in stock is broken down in making demi? I know not all, as the demi itself is quite thick, but I got the impression that demi is not a substantial source of gelatin. Is this wrong?

We stopped at Osaka too. I'd give it the nod above Zen. For $4.50 I got an Alaska roll that I thought was one of the best I've had, and they have a volcano roll that's rather different. Made with the soybean paper, asparagus, and 3 different fish. This is the first time I had a volcano that wasn't spicy, and I have a low tolerance for hot stuff, so this was right up my alley. So, I had the Alaska, Volcano, and a sweet potato roll for a total of about $22. We also had some edemamme, something that is missing from the menu at Zen. Lastly, Osaka is directly across the street from Herrells, a great homemade ice cream. My son had the chocolate pudding with hot fudge sauce, M&Ms and chocolate whipped cream...one of his favorite all time sundaes Also, we ate at the Delaney House (we stayed at the Country Inns and Suites next door). Food there was good, but nothing really special. I had a seafood appetizer which was one blakened scallop, one fried oyster, and one crab cake. For my main course I had the prime rib. It was done to my request (medium rare) and was reasonably tender. The baked potato that came with it was a little cool. My son ordered the Kansas City steak which, again was reasonably tender, but he had ordered it rare, and it came close to medium. It came with gnocchi that he really enjoyed.