JohnRichardson

I have a Forschner slicing knife that still has the factory edge, and an edge pro I'm learning to use. I've been using 20 degrees on my chef's knife (wusthof). Should I do the magic marker trick and just try and figure out what angle it has, or is there a recommended angle for slicing meat? I also gather that a meat slicer can take a bit more polish than a tomato slicer.

For what it is worth, I made the caramel ice cream from this book on Saturday and it may be the best ice cream I've ever eaten. I made it as written except I tasted the custard and thought it could use more salt so I upped the salt from 3/4 tsp to 1 tsp. Let me say that is very surprising for a Keller recipe, usually they're heavy on the salt although rarely too much so... I'm using diamond kosher which is what's used in the book so it's not a measurement issue. Divided the just-frozen-to-soft-serve-consistency ice cream in half and froze half straight and the other half had some crushed salted caramel (from a david lebovitz recipe; 1/2 cup sugar dry caramelized on low to dark amber and poured onto lightly oiled foil to harden with 3/4 tsp sea salt) mixed in. A scoop of each was a delicious contrast. So far everything I've made (this, the chicken pot pie, the chocolate chip cookies, the scallops, the brined stuffed pork loin, the chicken soup, the fried chicken (a year or so ago pre-book after eating at ad hoc) and the cauliflower soup) has been outstanding.

A field report... I made the chicken soup with dumplings. The final result was pretty awesome, although it pained me to use an entire batch of chicken stock in one dish. 4 quarts of my stock needed a little more roux than what the recipe calls for to match the texture of the pictures (and yes, it came to a full simmer) and a light stock would have been better (mine was from leftover roast carcasses and such so it was semi-dark), and I forgot chives so subbed parsley for color. But the dumplings themselves were a revelation, easily the best dumplings I've ever had, Period. I've never made pate a choux so I was surprised how easy it was. Take away: My everyday recipe is probably going to change to use these dumplings, except screw the quenelles, they'll be either piped & cut like parisian gnocchi, or just scooped blobs. And I just might do the throw out the vegetables thing because the peeled blanched celery was really good, but I'll probably start with about a quart of stock and 2 quarts of water and simmer a whole browned chicken in that instead of using stock + roasted chicken (and 4 quarts of liquid was too much for the amount of "chunks" specified, it could have been a bit more chunky). I also found myself thinking about what an appetizer sized portion with one large dumpling and a poached egg might be like.

I think I asked this once before but might have been misunderstood (before meaning years ago). Why is the FC cake baked in a tube pan (the kind that leaves a hole in the middle)? And do you fill that hole with filling, or end up with a cake that is shaped like a stack of pineapple rings? A picture of the finished cake would be helpful. When I've made it, I just did 2 9" pans, and split into 4 layers.

I'm in Chicago, and this was an unnamed variety of pie pumpkin from a farmer at the Green City Market. 2 of them made enough puree for 2 servings of soup and 2 pies, total. Trader Joe's has those fairytale pumpkins you mention, I may grab one of those but I figured farmers market pumpkins would be better.

I just did this a couple weeks ago. To me, it was almost a different animal than pumpkin pie from canned. It was delicious, but I'm not sure which I prefer. I have 3c in the freezer I'm saving for thanksgiving, but people at "work" have requested I make one for a potluck before then so I may get to do it again. I roasted mine at 375 until soft w/o seasoning or oil, about 1.5 hours, and pureed in a food processor (I put the seeds & guts in a pot with a bit of water to make quasi pumpkin stock to use as a pureeing liquid, which is how I make butternut squash puree for soup). Didn't think to reduce or dry via straining. Texture was fine, not watery or anything. if I did it again, I'd consider whizzing the pie filling in a blender then straining through a chinois. I usually do that with my squash soup, but the base puree is too thick for my blender, and straight from the food processor won't force through the chinois. I didn't really notice that the filling was anything but smooth, but I know from the soup that it's the different between smooth and velvet. I'd also probably add a bit of molasses, becuase it was a very light color. I've done the molasses thing before and love it, but I was trying a new recipe and wanted it unaltered (from Tartine).

This is a great thread. For me: #1: The Bread Baker's Apprentice. This was the first "serious" cookbook I bought, and I was still very much a neophyte at that point. Barbecue (true barbecue, 250 degrees, wood fire, dry rubs, all that jazz) was about the only thing I knew how to cook beyond one or two recipes from my mom (carrot cake, chili). Weight measures, the expoundings upon theory and practice, all of the information, the stuff about sourdough... I've made about 40% of the breads in here, and it without a doubt got me started as a serious cook. Ironically, I don't eat much bread any more (Health reasons, I'm basically following something like the paleo diet 80% of the time). #2: The Professional Chef. I don't know that I've made a single recipe from here and frankly most of them look sort of cafeteria-ish, but I've read most of it at least twice. And their thing on roast chicken with jus lie (or maybe it was pork, don't remember) is the foundation for the ol' thanksgiving turkey and gravy. #3: Bourdain's Les Halles cookbook. This book is where I learned the basic idea behind stocks and sauces. I'd made stock before, but I only knew to use it as a soup base or for making thanksgiving gravy. The whole stock reduction / deglaze / monter au buerre thing was quite the revelation. As was "how to roast a damn chicken, numbnuts". Coq au vin from here was the most ambitious thing I'd made to that point. And it may be the best thing I've ever made, subsequent attempts were not as good as I remember that first one being, sadly. #4: The French Laundry Cookbook. It's aspirational, and I've had a couple of disasters from this one (goat cheese never-formed-a-mousse, English pea puree on the walls soup), but it's bad ass. And if nothing else, I no longer see straining things as a pain in the ass, it's automatic. See also Big Pot Blanching. #5: Tartine. This one got me into real cakes. I still haven't made a 100% perfect genoise, but I got about 95% of it last try. And their strawberry bavarian cake is the best cake I've eaten, much less made. And thanks to making a whole lot of gallettes this summer with farmer's market fruit, I'm starting to get the hang of pie crust. The last 3-4 pies I've made have been OMG good, and the pumpkin pie I made a few weeks ago was perfect in every way, even in terms of appearance, having a gorgeous ruffle and not a single patch or crack I think it boils down to "don't be scared to knead it a bit" and "don't be afraid to put in too much water" and "don't be afraid of cutting the fat too small". All the recipes out there advising caution and terror on these points did me a great disservice and resulted in crust with big hunks of butter that wasn't fully hydrated, that wasn't mixed properly, and that basically turned into a crumbly broken mess or else required me to add so much extra water that it shrank, got tough, etc.

My first impression is that the whole "dumbed down" thing is perhaps spin more than intent... It's definitely simplified compared to TFL or Bouchon, but it still seems like every effort is made to extract flavor and refine. You'll still need cheesecloth and a strainer or two, and as an example there are soup recipes that call for cooking 9 different vegetables separately and then combining at the end. Personally, unless I'm cooking for a dinner party or special occasion or just want to try a specific recipe I usually reach for those books for general ideas and techniques but don't do the full on preparation and definitely don't plate/compose per those books. The recipes in ad hoc seem to be at that level, what a good home cook would make for a meal at home based on inspiration from the Bouchon or French Laundry cookbook. Plusses: more useful pictures and illustrations not just food porn, more process pics than finished results or raw ingredients... For example, I've read Keller's description of how to truss a chicken three times now, but this is the first time it's included pictures... I was doing it right, but that was more from just "okay, what works" than it was from reading the method in Bouchon/TFL and actually understanding it... And I see a lot of things in here I'll probably be making. I want to try the chicken & dumplings ASAP, I'd have never thought of doing a spiced parisian gnocchi as dumplings. And I've already made the fried chicken after seeing the recipe elsewhere... And the section on salads is beautiful. Minuses: A few too many photos of TK... There's TK smelling the garlic, (on the back cover, and that may be the lamest author photo ever) TK goofing around with a peppermill or salt (although I guess I should be proud that we have the same peppermills?), a few extreme closeups of TK making funny faces at the camera... You get the idea, although I've been trying to figure out what kind of watch he's wearing because I like it And whoever said it was reminiscent of good eats is onto something, there's a general cheesy factor here that wasn't present in the other books, but it seems like an add on, not like they tried to come up with an excuse to use a drill to stir something or decided to frost a cake on a record player turntable or whatever. But the photos mostly add value and I like that there are more pictures of the process and less of "look at this wonderfully composed plate" or "look at these dead birds and rabbits on a table". A lot of overlap with the other books (e.g., ice cream, pasta dough, roasting/brining, the brioche recipe, etc.), but not too much. Worth buying I'd say. I have a somewhat similar book, "Staffmeals from Chanterelle" and I see myself using this one more.

Yep. A staple, growing up. My mom was from western Tennessee, and a pretty good cook when she felt like it although in later years she started cooking at a nursing home and generally lost all motivation for cooking at home, or at least in cooking from scratch, and everything became a series of shortcuts unless it was a special occaison. Sadly, I have exactly none of her recipes since she did everything by feel, and I didn't get into cooking until much later... Her version included the skin & bones unless I whined hard enough about it, or when I was older and picked them out for her. I remembered somewhat liking them but haven't had 'em in at least 15 years, so about a year ago I decided to make something similar. My version basically included canned salmon, egg, some minced cornichons, salt & pepper, panko, and possibly some minced celery and onion. I coated them with dijon mustard and panko, and pan fried them. I typically served mine on top of a simple green salad topped with a poached egg, or as a sort of burger. It became a regular during-the-week meal for a while, but I haven't made them in a while. It sounds kind of good, maybe it's time to make them again.

I'm looking at my new copy of the Herme chocolate book, and am a bit confused about the chocolate. Most of the recipes either call for bittersweet, specified as valrhona guanaja, or milk specified as valrhona jivara. The jivara and guanaja are hard to find, and super expensive. Le noir amer 71% is much easier to find and much more reasonable, and there is a 40% milk that seems to be the same packaging as le noir amer that is in the same price range and packaging. What is the difference? Can I sub 71% noir amer for 70% guanaja and the 40% milk for 40% jivara? The only way to buy the jivara/guanaja at a reasonable price is to spend about $75 for a 3 kg block, which is nuts for a home cook. I found the cocoa for about $10 a pound which seems like a reasonable price and plan to order that immediately.

Interesting. I prepare it in what I assume is the "normal" way, I whip egg whites to soft peaks, then add soft-ball temp syrup and whip to stiff peaks. I wouldn't think hot sugar syrup and plastic would mix, I melted a trashcan once with a batch that I overshot soft ball temp on I dunno. The DLX is appealing for the way it kneads bread and such, and the egg whipping design seems pretty ingenious. But OTOH, the all metal construction of the bowl and whips for the KA seems more sensible, and I've heard great things about KA's customer service. What I really want is to find a deal on a hobart n-50. There are a couple on the bay right now, but no clue how high they'll go and I'm not quite ready to buy yet (moving in February).

Not to reply to my own post, but I think I've ruled out the electrolux and the currently available bosch machines, a plastic bowl for whipping whites just isn't going to cut it for marshmallows or italian meringue... Next question: Is the kitchen aid "commercial" machine so expensive just becuase of NSF and commercial UL certifications, or is it actually beefed up over the "professional" 5 or 6? I'm not crazy about the white, but everything else in the kitchen is stainless except the countertop which is black so I think I could live with it, and I doubt it'd be stored on the coutertop anyway. The power rating is worse than the commercial, but that doesn't really mean anything. I notice it has the non-dishwasher safe hook, paddle, and whisk.

That is the flour that I used. It's a little coarser than would be ideal, I put the almond meal & powdered sugar into a food processor and hit it with 6-8 5 second pulses. Next time I'm going to do even more, and try a finer sifter, because it still came out a little chunky, and after the batter gets to the point where everything is incorporated, I'm goign to intentionally stir it a bit more, these don't have the right shine and weren't quite flat enough. But night and day over my last attempt, and they had feet and texture. The food coloring idea is not a bad one, although I prefer not to add any. Just moving to a better cocoa would probably get me there, this was the hershey's "special dark" which was all I could find at the regular market where I bought all the ingredients except the almond flour, which I bought ahead of time at whole foods (I made these at a friend's house as my contribution to several different cookie types that we made). I wish hershey's still made their european style, which was actually quite good. Once I have a bigger kitchen and a stand mixer (< 3 months) I'll try this again. I've made italian meringues and even buttercream before with a hand mixer but a stand mixer certainly makes it easier.

I'm eying a stand mixer some time soon. I had a delonghi/kenwood 7 qt. a few years ago and sold it. It strained on heavy doughs, and had a hard time with small quantities of egg whites, etc., and I just didn't have room for it. I think the only thing I made in it that it truly seemed suited for was marshmallows, and cake/cookie recipes with the paddle. The electrolux sounds prety awesome for bread, but one big drawback to it would be the plastic bowl for whipping egg whites. i'm guessing that means an italian meringue (made with 235 degree sugar syrup) is out of the question with such a setup, and I use that as the base for a lot of things (it's my standard meringue, or for buttercream, or for macrons, and don't marshmallows also involve soft ball temp syrup?)... Plastic and hot syrup wouldn't seem to mix. I'm thinking that if the whipper setup used all metal, it would be just about perfect.

I'm going to revive this thread. I made these yesterday since you can't buy a decent one in Chicago, at least not without buying them in bulk via special order. I used the calculations from upthread (500g TPT, processed and sifted, 250 g sugar, 187 g egg whites, and I added 30g cocoa to the dry ingredients and filled with a dark ganache made from 7 oz 71% valhrona, 2 1/2 tbs butter, and 7 fl. oz of cream) The cocoa needed to be a better quality, or perhaps more of it, becuase the color wasn't the beautiful chocolate color, it had a grayish tinge to it. But other than that, and the fact that I think I needed to deflate just a bit more becuase the first few were very fluffy, these were pretty good. About 15 minutes at 325, and I found the batch on parchment was much better than the two batches on silpats, the silpat batches didn't quite stick, but required some care to release, the parchment batch was almost sliding around on the parchment. Texture wise, they were just about perfect: crispy, chewy, delicate. Next time I'm going to make a template and shoot for 2" macs, these were about 2 3/4 to 3", which is a touch too big. And I'm going to process the dry ingredients longer, there were still some almond chunks, even after sifting... Maybe a finer sifter. But not bad for a 2nd attempt, my first batch was undercooked, irregular, and ugly. And since I made them without a stand mixer, I rememberd the meringue being a PITA. With a stand mixer, it's easy.

Yeah, but that stuff has so much sugar in it it's probably sterile My mom's directions for making it were "add powdered sugar until your mixer bogs down".

This. The cupcakes were fabulous. The texture of the buttercream was amazing, and very soft and workable after they sat on my desk for 4 hours (fridge overnight plus 0 degree trunk for 25 minutes), so I think that it was just too cold and I broke it. Next time, since I now know it's room-temp safe for a while, I won't even think about refrigerating it unless I have leftovers or am making it a day+ in advance. thanks for all the advice! I don't know why people act like this is a major PITA to make, it really isn't (aside from stupidly refrigerating it). I don't even have a stand mixer, just used an el cheapo hand mixer and a SS mixing bowl, and poured the sugar directly out of the saucepan while mixing with the other hand. Easier than adding hot syrup to a stand mixer (I used to have one, and made marshmallows a couple of times and it was a pain to hit the right spot with the sugar)

I did not. It looked broken and lost about half its volume. I figured it was ruined like broken mayo. Maybe I should have tried that, but didn't want to have to clean the beaters again if I needed to whip more whites anyway I found the demo that someone did of italian buttercream on here. 2 things with mine that were different, 1 I had 2x the sugar that they did but the same amount of butter and eggs (my eggs were huge so 4 is probably the new 5), and 2 they whipped to firm peaks and I did soft. Next time I'm doing that and cutting back on the sugar. Plus, I think I needed to beat more toward the end and maybe warm it a bit, the butter started to kind of sieze up a bit, so I just stopped, and whipped a bit more and called it a day but a little warmth and I probably could have emulsified more buttah.

Yes, it was Italian. I've heard it's more stable and I'm comfortable with italian meringue so that's what I went with. The graininess didn't come into play until it was refrigerated, so I don't think it was crystallization, but it might be, I suppose. Now that I think of it, there was a little sugar residue in the saucepan. It seemed like it broke like mayo does when you screw it up, but only after I stirred it. My guess is that it was just too cold and I should have let it warm for another half hour or so, and not tried to stir it. It reminded me of cream cheese frosting that was cold, and that responds well to stirring so I didn't think it through. next time I'll leave it at room temp instead of refrigerating it, but I was concerned with it melting or something, the kitchen wasn't exactly cool. Swiss is when you whip the egg whites in a bain?

So I made a chocolate cake last night and wanted to have real buttercream frosting for it. Having never made it before, and having read articles about it that make it sound like a cross between a souffle and hollandaise as far as difficulty and peril, I made it early and refrigerated it, since it supposedly stores well for weeks. Not that hard. I think my recipe was 2c sugar 1/2c water cooked to soft ball, and slowly added to 4 egg whites whipped to soft peaks, then whipped on low until about body temp, then 1 # of butter, cut into about 1/2 tbs pats was incorporated a piece at a time and then about 2 tsp of vanilla extract was added. OMG this was good. Light, smooth, rich, buttery, etc. But here's the problem. When I took it out of the fridge a few hours later to frost the cake, or actually, the cupcakes it was like a rock so I let is sit for about an hour at room temp to soften, and it was still really hard to work with and seemed kind of grainy. I tried to stir it and it broke and collapsed to about 1/2 its volume. What happened? Fortunately I had gotten enough butter and eggs to make 2 or 3 batches, anticipating problems and I whipped up another batch, again having no problems with the recipe. Hopefully at least one of my cow-orkers will appreciate my efforts today at the potluck. But I'm curious what you would need to do to use refrigerated/stored buttercream, since that seems to be at least part of the appeal, making a big batch and storing it.

I thought about starting a new thread but decided not to. Here is what I made last night to go with the MU/OU game. I haven't tried to make a chili in ages because to be honest, I'm a bit intimidated by working with hot peppers. I make a mean jerk paste that uses 6 or 7 habs, but I feel like I know what I'm doing there. Dried chiles, not so much. The last time I tried to make a "real" chili 3 or 4 years ago it turned out bitter and nasty becuase I burned the chiles while toasting, and this kind of turned me off of messing with them, although since then I think my skills have improved immensely, so I was ready to tackle it again. Plus, I'm motivated because every friday in the winter at work we have a chili potluck, and my turn is coming up and frankly most of the dishes brought in so far suck, although another developer has been talking his up, and since he's a big fan of the "blazing" heat level at the thai place around the block, I'm moderately excited to try his next week. Otoh, he used fresh habaneros which to me seems like the wrong flavor for chili. So far all I've brought in is southern cornbread. Anyway, recipe and thoughts follow. This was basically a combination of a bunch of different recipes that I've been reading and thinking about, based on what sounded good and what sounded bad. This was amazing, although I'm boosting the number of peppers next time because it wasn't as hot as I'd like. I'm hoping for something around the level of hot but not insane thai food. By the time you're done your scalp should be tingling and you might be sweating a bit, but you shouldn't feel sick or anything. This is a very greasy recipe, but I intentionally loaded up on the grease, knowing from braising experience that it would separate and be easy to remove and I figured the thick grease layer on top while it's braising is a good thing. I'm sure there's a way to write this more briefly and simply, but here goes: active prep time: about an hour. Total cooking time: 4 hours. 2 lbs chuck, 1/2-3/4" dice, moderately trimmed of fat (imprecisely diced on purpose, for range of textures) 1.5 lbs ground beef, 80/20. 1/2 lb bacon, chopped into 1/2 x 1/4 pieces (ideally, if not just get the thickest strips you can find and cut into 1/2" pieces. I got a packet of what was labled as "for seasoning" it looked like scraps but was thick enough) extra bacon fat, just in case things are leaner than you expect. 3 medium onions, medium dice 6 cloves garlic, 3 minced, 3 smashed and roughly chopped. 5 fresh jalapeno chiles 2 poblano chiles 7 dried de arbol chiles 3 chipotles en adobo + 1 tbs adobo sauce 1 dried new mexico chile 1 dried ancho chile 2 tsp mexican oregano leaves 1 1/2 Tbs tsp cumin seeds 1/2 tsp cocoa powder 1 tsp Medaglia D'Oro instant espresso (I'm not convinced these last two do anything, but I figured that they might be nice in the background and I don't detect anything off, and a chili recipe has to have a secret, so here is mine) 1 packet Sazon sin Annato (I used Knorr brand. It has msg. I don't care, so do most things you eat that aren't prepared at home from staples. You could probably leave it out and just add extra salt, and I might try it just to see how it turns out) 3 bay leaves salt & pepper to taste 1/4 cup super-concentrated beef or chicken stock (I used 3 frozen cubes of about a 8:1 reduction of homeade stock). You could probably use 1 cup of broth or 2-3 bouillon cubes if you must. If you use bouillon, I'd probably leave out the sazon packet. 2 cans rotel 3 cans pinto beans, drained and rinsed 3 bottles good dark beer, not too hoppy. I used Boulevard Bully Porter. If using broth, I'd probably reduce to 2, because the thickness level was really good 1 quart tomato juice. Method: stem and seed and halve lengthwise fresh peppers, and blister under broiler until charred, then put in bowl w/ plastic wrap for 10 minutes to soften. Peel, and dice into approx 1/4". Stem and seed and halve lengthwise dried peppers, and toast briefly in dry cast iron skillet, moving continuously. Chop roughly then add to food processor with a bit of tomato juice and the chipotles and adobo. Let sit 10 minutes then puree until smooth. I suppose one could make a big batch of this and freeze it. I probably used 3/4 cup of paste? toast cumin, add mexican oregano, and grind fine. In a large heavy dutch oven, brown bacon, and remove and drain, reserving fat. Brown chuck in fat, adding additional fat or peanut oil if necessary. Remove and drain. Brown ground beef (I just put it on high, stirred it around for a bit until it was grey, then let it go until the drippings went clear and the water cooked off and it was nice and brown/sticky on the bottom, then stirred a bit to brown the rest. I crumbled it up pretty fine because I wanted it to sort of disappear into the background). Remove and drain. Reserve 2-3 tbs of fat, and sweat onions with cumin, oregano, and sazon for 10 minutes. Add garlic and cook until fragrant. Add chili paste, cocoa, and instant espresso and cook 1 minute over high heat, stirring continuously. Add beer and deglaze, scraping up any brown bits, and bring to boil, simmer 5 minutes, then add remaining ingredients ECXEPT THE BEANS. Simmer 3 hours, covered, in 250 degree oven. Remove from oven, degrease (I had about a cup of angry red grease. Tempting to fry potatoes in it or something, but I'm guessing it's not super high quality) as desired, add drained and rinsed beans, adjust salt to taste, and return to a simmer, then rest for at least 3 hours, or cool and refrigerate. Reheat for service, optionally thickening with a few tbs of masa harina. This was fabulous. Meaty, rich, deep, spicy but not super hot (next time I'm doing 10 de arbol, 3 new mex, and 2 ancho. I want it to be hot enough that I don't reach for the tabasco). This morning's breakfast was a 3 farm-fresh-egg sweet potato and cheddar omelette covered with chili and topped with crumbled cotija and sour cream. I'm still really full and contemplating a nap. When I make this again for the potluck in 2 weeks I might take pictures of the mise and the prep.

Hits: Turkey (pastured turkey from Troque Farms near kansas city, brined with a bastardization of alton brown's Good Eats Roast Turkey brine, and the one in Bouchon and air-dryed for about 18 hours) Cauliflower Gratin from Bouchon Rolls (supposedly the recipe from Lambert's Cafe, a midwest staple, which is my go-to for soft dinner rolls) Gravy. OMG it was pretty, a beautiful color. I started the turkey at 500 and finished at 375, and every time I opened the oven to check temp, add foil to the breast, rotate, etc, I added a ladle or two of stock, which all contributed to fond Cranberry chutney. basically just cranberry sauce with some sauteed shallots and garlic, and a bit of crushed red pepper. Subtle, but very tasty. Misses: The dressing was a little dry, although tasty The sweet potato dish was bland and ugly, and the streussel topping went from uncooked to burned without ever stopping at browned. Goat Cheese Mousse from TFL, as part of the relish tray / cheese tray to keep people from gnawing at the walls since I wanted thanksgiving dinner but everyone else is used to thanksgiving lunch. Too rich, not all that tasty, and it didn't really work like the recipe said.

OMG, I tried the herme cream (with slight modifications) yesterday. I've made alton's version before and thought it was yummy, but this was even better. I made a 1 1/3 batch, and to try and make it a bit thicker, since I was using it as lemon meringue pie filling, I used yolks instead of whole eggs + 1/3 the number of yolks as whole eggs. My recipe was 6 egg yolks + 2 eggs, 1 cup of lemon juice, zest of 4 lemons, 14 ounces of butter and 1 1/3 cups of sugar. Standard method, double boiler to measured 180 degrees, strained and blended once at 140 to incorporate butter in soft chunks and for 4 minutes after incorporation. I think it's way way way too ridiculously rich for pie filling but the texture was perfect for pie; the cut edges around the missing wedges are still standing after 12 hours and it's the most amazingly smooth creamy lemony thing ever. I'll bet in a tart or tartlet it would be perfect. Tangential to the issue of lemon cream, from a technical standpoint as a pie this is my best effort yet. The meringue is non-weepingly non-soggily flawless (Italian; 6 whites and 3/4 of that by weight in sugar cooked to soft ball and blended into soft-peaked whites then taken to stiff glossy peaks, then browned under the broiler after topping the pie) and it's the best crust I've ever made. The crust was RLB's cream cheese crust from her website, which is much easier when you have a food processor and can easily work with frozen butter Doubt I'll use the the proc much for anything else once the novelty wears off, but even if it was a $200 pie crust mixer it might be worth it to me. This was tender, flaky, flavorful, and very easy to roll out/transfer/crimp. Shrunk a little becuase I didn't let it rest enough after crimping it, just froze it for 20 mins and blind-baked due to time constraints, and I probably took the weights out a bit too soon. But the cream, A+ would make again.

Well the results were... OK. Flavor was good. Not too sour, although a hint. Not sure if I like that with pizza or not. Great extensibility in the dough, it was very easy to work with and easy to stretch thin without tearing, but that may or may not have had anything to do with the leavening/building. However, I didnt' get the nice crackly crispness. Could have been that my stone was on the bottom shelf (where I bake bread) instead of the floor (where I bake pizza) becuase I'd just finished a loaf of bread, or could have been the dough. I have 3 balls in the freezer, maybe I'll try them next with the stone on the floor and see what happens. I think I'll probably stick with commercial yeast from now on though. This is good but I don't think it's "better", and I can skip a day or so depending on how well-fed my culture is. OTOH, this is the only thing, other than thanksgiving rolls, that I regularly use yeast for

Anyone have any luck using their starter to make pizza dough without tame yeast? After a recent trip to paris and visits to poilane and gosselin and also a new wood-fired pizza place near work, I'm inspired to start baking again. I've revived Hooch (my starter) and made a barm for the BBA pain poilane, and made a few extra ounces to play with, I'm thinking of trying a naturally leavened pizza dough. I usually use the "pizza neapolitana" recipe from BBA, more-or-less (same percentages, but I do a bulk ferment and then retard instead of mix-shape-refrigerate, because I don't get consistent results that way). My plan is to make a firm starter from my mother starter comprising 20% of the total flour, which I believe is 20 1/4 ounces, so 4 ounces of flour and however much water, ferment that for 8 hours, then subtract the water & flour used from the formula and mix the final dough, ferment that for 8 hours, then treat it like pain levain with a cool-ish (70F, to hopefully limit the sour) bulk fermentation for about 5 hours and a few stretch-and-folds before dividing and retarding/freezing. Any issues I'm likely to have or suggestions?