polack

I've been making my own sausage for close to twenty years and let me tell you there is nothing that can compare to when you do it yourself. Matter of fact I'm in the final stages of building my much larger 2nd smoker. The first smoker I have can do about 30 to 40 rings and the new one should do well over 100 rings. I usually make about 100 rings, for Thanksgiving, of fresh and smoked kielbasi combined, with the smoke being about 80 of the 100 rings, so you can see that I needed a much larger smoker. What kind of smoker are you using? A good book on sausage making is Rytek Kutec's sausage making, it has numerous recipes and good pointers on how to make different types of sausage. I would have to say his book is probably one of the best, if not the best sausage book. Polack

Just go to Google or your favorite browser and put in kentucky derby pie and you'll find a lot of info and recipe's. Polack

I want to thank everyone for their recipe's and I will try some of them in the next few weeks. Polack

Could someone please give me a good Hungarian goulash recipe? Polack

I agree that several people are mixing up spanish chorizo with mexican chorizo. Both are good; however, they are completely different. The spanish chorizo has almost no grease when cooked and the mexican chorizo swims in grease when cooked. I absolutely love the spanish chorizo. The mexican chorizo has its place also; however, it can be overbearing with all of the grease. Other than the fact that both contain paprika and meat, they are completely different. ← I made some Spanish Chorizo that I smoked and Added it to chicken, that I fried first, sliced potatoes, green peppers, onoins, garlic, tomatoes, olives, wine, and baked in the oven, at the end I put some shrimp in, results were very good.Being a Polack that makes smoked and fresh kielbasi, this was a very good change to our sausage recipes. When I make sausage I try to keep it as lean as possible without going overboard. I generally use whole pork butt that I trim and grind and then add my seasonings. I look at it this way, even though Mexican chorizo is fat laden, you can make it your way if you make it yourself, the seasonings do the trick. Polack

Holy cowmoozingies, I did it. I made my first sourdough loaf without commercial yeast, and let me say, if they taste anything like they look I'll be in seventh heaven. Right now they're cooling off and waiting for the great taste test with the homemade chuck, vegetable soup for lunch. When I first made the sourdough bread and had it in the fermenting stage I tought that it was bad because it hadn't risen like the breads I had made with commercial yeast. After getting so many good instructions by the members on this board and really reading Silverton's book in detail, I found out that I really didn''t give my dough a chance to rize before I flipped it. This time I let it ferment, with the stretching and folding, for a good five hours and then shaped them and put them in the fridge over nite, to be baked this morning. They are beautiful specimens laying on the table. Jackal I took your advice and used the cast iron frying pan with water in the oven for the steam needed, worked excellent. Boulack, as far as the Portugueese rolls, they don't really have a very crisp crust to them, the crust is there but it is not flakey, maybe because they weren't baked as long as other rolls, don't have an answer to it, maybe you experts can figure it out. Let me say I'm the happiest Polish Leprechaun on earth with my achievment today. Thanks to everyone for their help. Now I may be able to not only master sausage making but also bread baking. Polack After the cooling process I tried the bread and I have to admit this is definitely the best quality bread I ever made. The crust was hard and chewey, like I enjoy it, and the sour flavor is there with the holes. I can now taste the sourness of the bread as compared to when I used yeast along with the starter, it was not there. My only question is, when I brought the bread out of the refrigerator could I have scored the bread and put them in the oven to bake? I let them sit on the counter for two hours before I set them in the oven. Polack

The bread and rolls are lite to tan in color with the rolls being very light and with holey inside. Actually the rolls to me are much better than the batard. The bakery at the supermarket is somehow affiliated with Nancy Silvertons LaBrea bakery in Ca. It looks like all the supermarkets are now taking on chefs and bakers to help them sell their products. Boulack you're going to have to sell your name and reap some of the bennies.

If anyone would know the best way, Jackal10 will. Listen to his advice and you won't go wrong.

One way is to look at www.pbs.org/juliachild and pick Nancy Siverton or type www.pbs.org/juliachild/meet/silverton.html and you will get right there. Just sub the white flour with rye flour and you will be good to go. I have Nancy's book and she says, a lot of people use the white starter to make rye, so it's up to you. Polack

Jackal, you're the man, it seems when there's something to know about making bread you and a few other experts sure can give everyone an answer. Now would the sourdough starter be allright to use for making the broa?

McDuff, here's the ingredience for the loaf, enriched bleach flower, water, salt, yeast, centrobake deoiled licithin, absorbic acid (asvitamin c), enzymes. I would say you're right when it comes to pumping out bread, they do make quite a bit. It's a shame that there aren't many good bakeries in this area to go to anymore, it seems like the big supermarkets have taken over, not only the little stores, but also the bakeries. I could remember when I was a young lad, you had the local grocer that you shopped at, and you always had a host of bakeries that always competed against each other, claiming to have the best baked goods in town. Now it's zippo. That's why I took the hobby up of baking bread, kind of late in my life but if you want something good you have to do it yourself. Polack

I picked up a le crueset 7 qt off of Ebay that was new for around $90. To me it's no comparison to any pot in the house. You can cook anything in it, because it's enamel coated and will hold the heat very well. There's deals to be had on ebay more than anywhere else. Polack

Boulak, I ate some Price Chopper supermarkets Portuguese rolls and batard today and would like to try to duplicate the effort. The baked goods were very light in color with good crust and holey inside. Would you happen to know what they use to keep the product so light in color after being baked and would there be a recipe to be found for these items? Polack

I would say this is not the Portuguese Batard I got from Price Chopper supermarket. The bread and rolls they sell are very light and the color, when baked, is more whitish. They have excellent flavor and texture. What I need to know is how do they keep the bread so lite colored and would there be a recipe to be had? Polack

I had a loaf of Portuguese batard today that was bought from the local supermarket and it was very good. It was the size of a baguette, lite in color, and had a very holey inside texture. What I would like to know is what type of flour is used, because it's different than the flour I'm using to make it such a lite color, and would the sourdough starter be useful in making this bread? i also had the Portuguese rolls and they to were very good, they were also lite in color and very holey. Basically, any recipes for these items? Polack

It looks like I took on a hornets nest when I wanted to add a new hobby to my every day life, to bad I wasn't 30 yrs old, maybe I could have taken on a new profession. Anyway what about a good rye bread made with this starter is there a good recipe available? There used to be a Jewish bakery in the neighborhood that made some of the finest rye bread and I was wondering if it can be duplicated? This bread was very heavy and sort of moist on the inside with a very crispy crust. As for their New York Rye, It was even heavier and the crust was so hard you really had to pull hard to break it. These two ryes were the best I ever ate and haven't been able to find someone in our area that would even come close to making it as good. One last thing, my Irish bride of near 40 years is starting to give me the evil eye because I'm taking over her oven on Sunday when she's making dinner for the family. Hey I was up before 5am, got the dough mixed, had it rising while I went to church came home shaped it and had it proofing again before she started, and she says I'm stealing her stove. I'm definitely going to have to cold proof on Saturday and I'll only have the baking on Sunday. What do you think?

Well it looks like I did a whole bunch of things wrong that will have to be corrected on the next try. Right now I have a starter that's being fed and will use tomorrow morning for baking. I used tap water in it but I do have a lot of small bubles and it seems to be working A okay for the moment. I will try, on the next go around to cold proof the dough so I can have it ready for baking when I want it and not when it wants to. So much to learn and so little time. Polack

Thanks everyone on some very good knowledge and experience. The trouble with me is that I'm too impatient and expect the dough to rize in a heartbeat and have it in the oven ready for baking. In Nancy Silverton's book, she does add yeast to the recipe when she is making Rustic bread and some other breads. I guess she is not looking for the good sour flavor that is in the regular sour white bread. Anyway thanks for the info and I will try your suggestions starting tomorrow and bake day on Sunday for dinner. Polack

Jackel, Would you also use a commercial yeast in the recipe? I feed my starter for one day prior to baking and on the second day when I put my dough together I also use two teaspoons of yeast along with two cups of starter and approx. 6cups of flour to make up the recipe. Will the commercial yeast have an effect on the sour flavor? Polack

Ore, they sure look good to me. It looks like everyone has gotten you streightened out, hope you kept notes on what you did right and what you did wrong, my big problem. Anyway congrats brother they look like you want to crawl in the screen and grab a hunk. Polack

I made Nancy Silverton's sourdough starter and I have to admit it has made some of the best breads with only one problem. The problem I perceive is that, in her book she says that you will get a sour flavor and that's something I feel is missing from the bread. The crust is crispy and chewey, the bread is light and has the hole texture that I'm looking for, but to me it doesn't have that sour flavor that I'm used to when I buy the commercial sourdough bread--what can I do to rectify the perceived problem. Polack