polack
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Posts posted by polack
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Yes its smoking in my outdoor pizza/bread brick oven. The trick is to put a line of sawdust down and light it with a cook's blowtorch so it just smolders, and doesn't heat the oven. I use cherry and oak sawdust from a local joinery shop. A heap of sawdust around the inside edge about 3 inches wide smolders for about 24 hours - you can see it int he first smoking picture.
Jackal,
I'm also envious of the oven but for bread making. I have a smoker that will do about 120 rings of sausage but i'm going to have to build the oven.
Polack
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Also, the nice thing about dextrose is that it doesn't make the end product as sweet as sugar would, while providing the same properties, as jsolomon points out.
Dextrose is 70% sugar and will also add the tang to the dry cured product
Polack
Not to pick a nit, but dextrose is 100% sugar, is it just slightly less sweet than some other sugars. Fructose, Dextrose (d-glucose or invert sugar), glucose (l-glucose), and sucrose all have different sweetnesses, but are all 100% sugar.
An equal weight of each will add an equal tang to the dry-cured product.
You are right, it should have read 70% as sweet as sugar.
Polack
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I hung the salami in one of what was meant to be a garage, but is now mostly full of junk, while the cars sit outside, for 5 days. They are more brown than red. Is that right?
They are in the smoker now. I intend to mature them for about a month after smoking.
I think you are right, and the flies got to the bacon before smoking. Next time I'll cover in muslin, or dry in the fridge. The bits I rescued were excellent and made a wonderful quiche.
Jackal,
When I make sopresatta, I stuf them into beef bungs that I turn inside out and let the fat from the casing dry from the outside air. If you stuff the bung with the fat against the meet there's a chance of your product spoiling. Now when these are cured after about 2 months, they to look brown on the outside but once you slice it you will find a darl mahogany color on the inside.
Polack
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My ten year old supply of saltpeter is finally finished, and I can't find a store that sells it. The original came from a drug store, but they don't bother with it now.
Is there a type of store I should go to, or gostraight to the online sources?
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Right there in Bufallo is Sausage Making' s store, I believe the site is www.sausagemaking.com. They have all the needs for sausage making. I'm pretty sure that salt peter and I know instacure 1 and 2 loses it's potentcy after a period of time.
Polack
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Forgot to ask, anyone with opinions on use of dextrose in dry-cured sausage? What does it do, how does it help (ie. role in curing process rather than flavour)? Cheers,
Tom
The dextrose provides an energy source for the bacteria that do the actual curing. Their action turns the dextrose into lactic acid which subsequently raises the acid level (lowering the pH).
So you need the dextrose both as a fuel for them, and as a raw material for the manufacture of the acid that actually does the curing.
Also, the nice thing about dextrose is that it doesn't make the end product as sweet as sugar would, while providing the same properties, as jsolomon points out.
Dextrose is 70% sugar and will also add the tang to the dry cured product
Polack
Ian
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I didn't read all the posts to see if Rytek Kutek's sauasge making book is a point of reference. I have found it to be a very good starter book for making all types of sausage, fresh, smoked, semi-cured and cured. I used quite a few pointers and of course doctored or made my own recipes for the sausage making. As far as dry curing I waited for cool weather to come before I dry cured, and in a pinch I've used an old non frost free frig. to do some dry curing.
Polack
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If your unimpressed with quarry tiles, and some that you find in the "home depots" are a bit thin for my likeing, try seeing if any of the quarrys in your area will cut you a piece of soapstone to fit your oven. its a bit more expensive but its usually sold in thicker pieces than quarry tile and i like that.
Bakerboy, I live in N.E. Pa and have been looking for a piece of soapstone to make a griddle for my gas stove. Should you have an insight of where I can get one please let me know.
Polack
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I used Nancy Silverton's recipe, and with the help of Jackal, Boulak, and a few more people, I've made some of the best bread me and my family have ever eaten. She uses 1lb of grapes, stems and all in cheese cloth, with one cup of flour and one cup of water. The grapes are squashed and added to ingredients for 10 days in a closed container. After 10 days the grapes are removed and the starter is strained. You could make bread at this point or you could start feeding it 3 times a day to make larger quantities of bread. Let me tell you it works very good with excellent results.
Polack
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you can cure your salami's in humid conditions just to start the process but it will have to go into a drier area to finish or it will just not cure safely and end up rotting out on you.
If you have an old working refrigerator that's not frost free, you can dry cure in it. You want to have the temp. around 40 to 50 F when dry curing.
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When I was a kid my aunt would stuff sausage casings with the same ingredients as you would in making pierogi's, potato and cheese. She would then fry it in bacon greese or pork fat, delicious.
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I knew the Jackal would get into this thread, it's his passion and does very well with it. I used his advice and am reaping the rewards every time I bake bread. I too wait about 20 minutes, after the first knead, before I put the salt to it. When I tried my first loaf I was adding not only my starter, but a tsp of dry yeast and that definitely kept the sour flavor out.
Polack
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I too used Nancy's recipe and make some of the best bread that I've tasted. When I first started I also didn't have the sour taste like like you mentioned so I asked the people on this site for help. I ran a thread on sourdough starter and here's what some of the answers were for the sour flavor. Let your starter set in a temp. of 85F and let your starter sit a longer period of time without feeding it should make the taste more tart. If you could find that thread, you will find some very good pointers from Jackal, Boulack, and a few others that will get you streightened out. I know when I bake my bread the top crust will get somewhat distorted, good and crispy, and very chewey. I don't know if you stretch and fold but that's one thing Jackal mentioned and I do it 3 to 4 times when I'm proofing the dough.
Polack
I forgot to mention that I put a small cast iron pan in the oven and when I put the loaves in to bake on the stone, I put the water in the pan, shut the oven door and don't open it until the bread is baked. My oven is set at 400F and it takes roughly 45 minutes for them to bake.
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I too used Nancy's recipe and make some of the best bread that I've tasted. When I first started I also didn't have the sour taste like like you mentioned so I asked the people on this site for help. I ran a thread on sourdough starter and here's what some of the answers were for the sour flavor. Let your starter set in a temp. of 85F and let your starter sit a longer period of time without feeding it should make the taste more tart. If you could find that thread, you will find some very good pointers from Jackal, Boulack, and a few others that will get you streightened out. I know when I bake my bread the top crust will get somewhat distorted, good and crispy, and very chewey. I don't know if you stretch and fold but that's one thing Jackal mentioned and I do it 3 to 4 times when I'm proofing the dough.
Polack
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Cold smoking is exactly what it says, smoke with no temperature. This is usually accomplished with a smoke generator. Quite a few large kielbasi producers cold smoke and then steam the product to get to temp., usually 160F. This process takes probably 1 1/2 hours, with little to no shrinkage, thus chiching money in their pocket.
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Excellent though it may be, these are different dishes to
I pint/600ml milk (as andiesenji mentioned, no responsibility is taken for skimmed milk)
2 oz/50g pudding rice
Large knob of best butter
2Tbs sugar
Sprinkle nutmeg
Put all into an oven proof dish. Leave in a low oven (150C/300F) for 2 hours, or overnight in the bottom oven of the Aga until golden brown, or leave even longer until golden all through
The skin is the best bit...
Jackal, that was about the same recipe my mom used. She would also use raisens and bake it in the oven until the top was browned. I liked it when it sat on the stove to be at room temp. or out of the frig. Also it was real thick and if you wanted liquid you had to put the milk to it. One other thing was she made it in a bigger glass dish that was desert for the day and a little of the next day.
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Any opinions on a (Sears) Kenmore stand mixer? My mom is looking to buy her first stand mixer, and saw a KA advertised on sale at Sears. I think the KA motor is approx 325 w. Next to it was a Kenmore model, cheaper price, with approx 600 w motor. She came away empty handed but full of questions. I'd love to pass on any eGullet advice to her.
From what I understand is that kitchenaid was bought out by Sears. I don't know what the mixer looks like but if it's true she'll still have the same company. To add to the conversation, I was at a house sale a couple of weeks ago and the person running it showed me an N50 kithenaid made by Hobart, now that's a machine.
Polack
I forgot to mention that he paid $50. for it. So there are deals to be had if you look long enough.
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Any opinions on a (Sears) Kenmore stand mixer? My mom is looking to buy her first stand mixer, and saw a KA advertised on sale at Sears. I think the KA motor is approx 325 w. Next to it was a Kenmore model, cheaper price, with approx 600 w motor. She came away empty handed but full of questions. I'd love to pass on any eGullet advice to her.
From what I understand is that kitchenaid was bought out by Sears. I don't know what the mixer looks like but if it's true she'll still have the same company. To add to the conversation, I was at a house sale a couple of weeks ago and the person running it showed me an N50 kithenaid made by Hobart, now that's a machine.
Polack
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Spotted this "today-only" sale on Amazon for a KitchenAid K5SS. Plus, if you use promotion code FEBRUARYKHBB, you'll get another $25 off. Free shipping, if you're not in a hurry.
I paid more for mine going on 15 years ago. If I remember right it was around $269.
Polack
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Allthough my Mother was an excellent cook, especially with what she had, I couldn't get the liver and onions down right. The gravy and mashed potatoes were excellent but the liver was a no-no with me.
Polack
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Thanks, Polack!
What kind of burner are you using?
I picked up a dual burner stove from Cabela's for about $40. In the smaller smoker I never used two burners to hold heat, all I had to do was keep it on a low flame and it held pretty steady. Matter of fact I would go for hours at a time without having to worry about a temp. problem. The old smoker had about 1" of insulation, while the new smoker is setting with about 2". The best thing about the smoker I got was that it was free with the exception of the pipe and vent, that was about $10 to $15.
I have pictures on my daughters camera, if I can figure out how to post them I'll get them on.
Polack
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For a good 15+ years I was using a ss refrigerator that was the size of a large beer meister. I was able to smoke around 30 rings of kielbasi at a time with no problem whatsoever. All I did was cut a six inch hole in the top and mounted some stove pipe, with a flapper, for a vent. I then cut a 2" hole in the bottom and put a vent plate in it to create a draft. Drilled about a 1" hole in the side for the bottle gas hose, and a small hole in the door for a long stemmed thermometer to be installed and I was good to go. I would start the smoker and let it get up to about 130F for an hour and then crank it up to 160F and add the wood chips. This worked perfect until I needed a bigger smoker and I went to a large ss refrig that is capable of doing 160+rings.
Polack
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Just was in the company of some people that imigrated from Poland a few years ago and they pronounced it Ga wum kee. As for us we call them piggies and you better get out of the way when they hit the table. My wife makes them with a tomato sauce, my aunt does it with tomato sauce with sour cream, and some other reletives with saurkraut. The best meat filling for me is ground pork and beaf with the rice.
Polack
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I would definitely have to say how the wonderful world of computers, television, and other forms of media, has opened the eyes of people that are interested in satisfying their friends and reletives with their cooking skills. Hey, 15 years ago it was lucky to have just a few cooking shows on TV, and they were on PBS on Saturday afternoon. Today there's TV channels dedicated soley to cooking and better still there's sites like this that can answer a cooking question in a heart beat. Yeh, to me it opened up a new world of cooking when you can communicate with people with the same interests.
Polack
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All I want to know is, for that price where's the engines and wheels?
Rice Pudding
in Pastry & Baking
Posted
Would like a good recipe for baked rice pudding.
Polack