dougal

More info than you probably want here - http://www.cider.org.uk/frameset.htm I've made perfectly pleasantly drinkable cider from supermarket (filtered) juice, homebrewing wine yeast and a little extra sugar. Using a teaspoonful of the pectolytic enzyme (£1, say $1.50, for a tub, maybe half a cupful), gave subsequent batches a haze-free result. Just make sure the juice is preservative-free. You need a container that you can seal with a bubbler vent, to keep misc stray stuff out, and allow the CO2 to escape, while retaining a blanket of CO2 above the liquid surface (to reduce oxidation). A Demijon is usual. However, if you fancy casting your fate to the wind, a clean bucket with a cover might suffice. You should even get a result with Baker's yeast - but it will limit the alcohol content. A bit of flexible tube will allow you to syphon the cider from fermentation vessel to bottles - big plastic lemonade/soda bottles are fine - while leaving the yeast sediment behind. As the link above demonstrates, much refinement is possible. Traditional scrumpy-making can be as simple as squeezing crushed apples and leaving the juice well alone in a barrel for a couple of months. The natural yeasts do their work. A dead rat in the barrel is entirely optional ... Yes, cider is indeed just fermented (rotten) apple juice. (But similarly, wine is just rotten grape juice.) Made with care, it should taste pleasant. (Though some are 'dry' to the point of sharpness.) But made or stored carelessly, cider certainly can go unpleasantly "off". One thing that the French go in for is cider made from single varieties of apple. In the UK one can easily buy single variety non-alcoholic juice, but not single variety cider. The blend of apples is part of the recipe! (And most of the proper 'cider' apple varieties are not at all pleasantly edible. My local tipple is http://www.biddendenvineyards.com/ciders.shtml A very pleasantly refined taste. Wicked potency. As to a 'scrumpy' that honestly IS pleasant, I'd suggest 'Old Rosie' http://www.westons-cider.co.uk/home.aspx?LevelxID=66

A full 'controller' solution certainly ain't cheap. Or necessary. But a thermometer and humidity meter can be VERY cheap. And it would allow you to take sensible control actions based on data, not assumptions. Have you heard the saying "To assume risks making an ass out of u and me" ? Especially when starting out, it helps not to have to depend on experience. In the context of a charcuterie-making habit, $6 is hardly a large investment. It'll pay back very quickly. And please don't make the mistake of thinking that palatable, safe, meat-curing is "natural" and somehow bound to always work if left to look after itself.

A microwave with grill and fan oven capability adds great versatility for little extra cost, and almost no extra space. "Combination" use may be quicker for baked potatoes or frozen pizza, but its the ability to have a 'normal' fan oven and a 'normal' grill (in the space of the microwave) that is the real benefit.

Its well worth getting yourself a cheap digital thermometer + 'hygrometer' (humidity meter) with max/min recording on both parameters. Its much more accurate than guesswork. And these can be VERY cheap, as long as you don't mind going to the thing to read it. (Remote readout comes more expensive!) A couple of seconds (literally) on eBay found this one, costing less than $6. Delivered! http://cgi.ebay.com/Digital-Temperature-Humidity-Meter-Thermometer-193_W0QQitemZ230312188398QQ Chris, don't scare the poor fellow! Its the 14 pages of THIS thread he's worried about, not the 100+ of the other one!

I've only thumbed through Christmas. Didn't buy it. But having bought Feast in a Charity Shop, I'm actually rather impressed. I should state that I really don't like TV-Nigella, but find her writing both sensible and thoughtful. (How to Eat is a bloody good book, and Domestic Goddess is a super home cake book.) Feast is ostensibly about lifting food beyond the humdrum, making it suitable for special occasions. However, its only on reading through the thing that the subtext emerges of food as an affirmation of life, and celebrating that. Remembering that it was written in the aftermath of the death of her first husband lifts it way beyond the realm of recipe books. I think it counts as a 'good book'. If you like Nigella's territory, maybe take a look at Nigel Slater's "Appetite". (Don't be put off him by the IMHO somewhat egocentric Kitchen Diaries.) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Appetite-What-You-Want-Today/dp/1841154709/ In Appetite, the focus is entirely on delivering the primal attractiveness of the edibility of the food. Brilliant title.

You would be absolutely correct in stating that Margueritte Patten is not "excessively trendy".

Marguerite Patten is now aged 94. http://www.celebritychefsuk.com/chefs.asp?id=17 She certainly isn't "trendy". But she does specialise particularly in slightly nostalgic British home cooking. (See the Bio link above) Have you considered the Roux Brothers classic "Patisserie"? http://www.amazon.co.uk/Roux-Brothers-Patisserie-Albert/dp/0316905593/ And for a NZ book and author, how do you regard Dean Brettschneider's original "Baker"? http://www.amazon.co.uk/Baker-International-Australian-Zealand-Professionals/dp/1877178799/ I've not seen his later "Global Baker", but I do find the earlier work interesting, concentrating on commercial artisanal producers and their signature products, but with a solid technical discussion prefacing the producers' section. I gather that "Global" adds pacific-fusion tweaks to many classics, so it might meet your interest in escaping 'homely baking'.

Yes, a (more or less) food-safe box is not a major problem. Apart from durability, loading convenience, weather-proofing, hygiene and capacity, the main design significance of the type of box is the degree to which it is insulated - which impacts on the temperature range achievable - and its materials' safe temperatures. (Plastic fridge interiors would not be recommended for hot smoking and BBQ work!) Control of temperature and smoke is more difficult than finding a box! And control requires more continuity of attention (and skill) when heat and smoke come from the same source! These problems are compounded, the smaller one's smoker. I find the use of a controlled (forced - not fire-dependant) draught to be a major advance in managing a small smoker.

I gather that you have an electrically heatable metal box. My suggestion is that you control the temperature via the electric heater, a thermostat of some sort, and a temperature probe suited to measuring air/gas temperature. You don't need a PID, but they are pretty cheap and can take proper air/gas probes. Auber sell appropriate probes, PIDs and also SSRs to actually switch the current to the heater. And they offer a fully-built controller as well, if you'd rather pay than do the electro-tinkering. http://www.auberins.com/ A much cruder (and cheaper) thermostatic control would certainly be possible! For smoke, the easy pro/commercial thing to do would be to hang a Bradley smoke generator off your box. I understand that these can actually handle amazingly large (walk-in) smoke boxes (or rather garden-shed-sized smokehouses). But you are pretty well tied to using their proprietary smoke-fuel. http://www.bradleysmoker.co.uk/products/smoker/smoke_generator.php However, real smoke can be controllably generated in a tiny "offset" firebox. A tightly controlled supply of air is the essential element to keeping a tiny 'fire' smouldering steadily. And a cheap aquarium air pump provides just such a controlled air supply. You should get the general idea from studying the videos on http://porkypas.spaces.live.com/ A small generator can produce steady and cool smoke for a matter of hours between sawdust/woodchip refills. Otherwise, the alternative is a much larger fire, more fuel usage and more (uncontrolled) heat. I have been pleasantly surprised at how well a tin-can lashup performs with the aquarium pump!

Dinnae fret yersel, laddie. Fried, batter-coated chocolate bars would be a late 20th century addition to the national culinary traditions.

You might care to start with Lady Clark of Tiilypronie http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cookery-Tillypronie-Southover-Historic-Housekeeping/dp/1870962109

Weighing can give you more precise repeatability of your own efforts. However, converting and then weighing cannot take you closer to the original writer's intention. UNLESS, he/she was forced to convert an original weight specification to volume for publication, AND you happen to use the exact same table/app/database to convert back! However, even then, rounding-off errors are going to throw your accuracy out.

In English English, it is terribly simple. Juice is what comes out of the fruit. It contains (very very very nearly) zero alcohol. "Apple Juice" would usually be expected to be filtered, so that wouldn't be remarked upon. However, "cloudy" (or unfiltered) product would always be described as such - usually to justify a higher price! Ferment the juice, and you get cider, which contains alcohol 2% by volume or more (sometimes much more). Depending on the amount of residual sugar after fermentation, the cider could be sweet or dry (or in-between - 'medium'). Hence, "sweet cider" refers to a sweet-tasting but alcoholic drink in the UK. Similarly, depending on the apple varieties used, juice might be sweet or dry. However, the term "hard cider" is not known/used over here. But some rustically-made cider is accurately disparaged as "rough". In the south-west of England, cider's heartland, the local product is often referred to as "scrumpy". Some, but not all, scrumpy is very rough indeed ...

Shaun, the liquid difficulty is not with a domestic machine, as such. The difficulty is with liquids and a basic full-auto machine, with no manual control whatsoever. With an auto-only machine, freezing of liquids/sauces/etc is required. But domestic machines with manual control options are just fine. And the more options, the more control, the better. I'm still delighted with my clearance-priced FoodSaver V2860.

Just some notes amplifying Tino27's comments. "Steam". Yes use hot, or better boiling, water. NEVER ice. Ice produces visible fog - which the gullible think of as the "steam" that you want. BUT if you can see it, it must be below the boiling point of water (212F/100C at sea level). You'd like the water vapour to be at oven temperature. And at that temperature, its invisible. Because, at oven temperature it is in the form of real vapour, rather than a mist of tiny droplets of liquid water (which cannot exist above 212F/100C, sea level, standard air pressure). So rejoice, don't worry, if you "can't see it" -- that doesn't automatically mean that it has left the building. "Instant-mix yeast". Its great stuff. But, if you can, avoid "bread machine" yeasts loaded with 'improvers'. (Check the ingredients listing carefully - ascorbic/ascorbate/VitaminC is benign, and stearate is what makes it mix instantly - anything else is unfortunate.) And be sure to use LESS of it than you might with "active dried". About 1/4 less. (Regardless of what the US yeast manufacturers say.) For storage, there's no need whatsoever to keep instant mix yeast in the freezer. Its storage enemy is dampness. Freezing and defrosting tends to produce condensation. Which is bad. So store it cool (that's to say not hot), but more importantly, SEALED and DRY. You can keep your working supply (maybe a month's worth) in a small sealed jar (or snap-lock box) in the fridge, with your stockpile in a different jar (so it only gets opened occasionally). A FoodSaver (or similar VacPac) bag is ideal for the stockpile, but not so practical for your 'using' supply. "Time". Fermentation time is an essential ingredient of good bread. But like any other ingredient, an excess is counter-productive. Bread dough goes flabby and flat with excess fermentation. Fermentation time and temperature are related (in a very non-linear way). But yes, longer (and cooler) gives more flavour. And if you use a bit less yeast, fermentation will take longer at a particular temperature, resulting in even more flavour - and incidentally, bread that goes stale more slowly! And that takes you towards biga, poolish and sponge methods. To see where this thinking ultimately leads, read (but don't necessarily live by) Reinhart's Whole Grain book. Enjoy!

When you make a different SIZED cake, you need to tweak the baking time and temperature to allow the heat to get the different distance to the middle before the outside burns. And if you mess with the time and temperature, you might very well need to mess with the raising agent. (Sadly I have no rules of thumb - but I'd welcome any!) HOWEVER, devlin, you are making cookies. Presumably, standard sized - just three times as many of the things. Being same-sized, no messing with the baking time and temperature. So, just keep the raising agent in the standard proportion.

There's an interesting comparative piece today on The Guardian's website. (and there's plenty subsequent commentary) Comparing the (roast potato) commandments of Heston, Hugh F-W, Delia and Nigella (with the odd reference to Jamie). And applying each recipe to three different varieties of potato... Sort of Celebrity Cook-Off. http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2009/dec/17/best-roast-potato-recipe

Can't help directly with equivalents, but Maris Piper is the most common UK-grown potato variety. (Its in no way exotic!) It is probably the variety that is used for most of the supermarket frozen oven-ready "chips" (fries). Its a good all-rounder. Fairly floury, but a little firmer than varieties like King Edward that are chosen for baking to a soft, falling-apart (almost self-ricing) interior. Something else to consider is that British "chips" tend to be bigger (in cross-section) than US fries. (Think of almost half an inch by half an inch, instead of less than a quarter of an inch square.) This means that the 'crumb' of the chip becomes important - its not all about the crust. That has knock-on effects for variety choice and cooking detail. Its partly because Blumenthal goes so thick that he par-boils before two fryings -- in order to be sure of cooking the centre to softness.

Well Paul, when you fancy a shot at softer AND crispier, have a go at the parboiling and 'distressing' (or Blumenthal's dusting with flour).

It depends on what potato variety you are using and what result you are aiming for. By parboiling, drying and gently distressing floury potatoes, you can produce a very soft interior within a crunchy crust. And, if you cut the potato so that the pieces have at least one flat side to sit on, and you baste but avoid turning the potato over, then you can get a third distinct texture on the base. You'll get to somewhere rather different if you use a firm ("waxy") potato rather than a floury one, and if you leave them whole or slice them into coins you can get to places that you won't with a floury potato - but you are actually heading for what in the UK would be called "game chips" rather than "roast potatoes". The business with twice cooking floury potatoes is commonly encountered with "fries" (or 'chips' as they are known in English). Bourdain's (Les Halles) method insists on two phases. And floury potatoes. But Blumenthal reckons on three phases of cooking for perfection. (parboiling and two fryings) Its all about getting the inside and outside to completely different and seemingly incompatible places. And the exact same logic applies to roast potatoes as does to fries.

Well, "Up to a point, Lord Copper..." Yes, there is a VERY tiny sliver of the market for VERY expensive cookbooks. But consider what that market is, and who might be buying them. IMHO, most of these very expensive books are produced as high-end 'art books' as souvenirs for very high-end restaurants. These restaurants are very expensive and their souvenirs simply can't let the image down. Hence they are indeed expensively produced - using the best available materials, technology, etc. Just like the restaurant's product. They are often rather ostentatiously obvious - such as being on physically large pages and with gold/silver page edging, etc. This market segment is both tiny and mainly for coffee-table decoration to signpost that the owner eats at the most expensive restaurants. Its only a tiny fraction of this tiny market that is accounted for by rival chefs and restauranteurs hoping to learn a few tricks. It would be a mistake to think that its the Intellectual Property contained therein that determines the selling price of Ducasse's Grand Livre and Blumenthal's Big Fat Duck Cookbook. Both are currently available in the UK at prices EXACTLY in line with mainstream hardback cookbooks (£26 to £16 roughly, and multiply by about 1.6 to convert to US $). And containing exactly the same IP as the mega expensive ones. These normal-priced editions are also normal-sized and they aren't ostentatiously presented - but they provide hard and incontrovertible evidence that it is NOT the IP justifying the price. Its just an exclusive product for that sliver of the market demanding ostentatious exclusivity. Krug? The '98 Clos du Mesnil?

I'm not sure that s-v would be helpful. The idea is to get a dry, floury and in my case (following Nigel Slater, and I suspect Delia), a roughened surface. After a decent boiling, then draining and 'distressing' them, the potatoes (and pan) should still have enough stored heat to dry the potatoes' outside surfaces. You aren't going to end up in the same neighbourhood going s-v and quenching them. The choice of potato, however, could make a big difference. You want floury, but you don't want to boil it so long that it becomes structurally crumbly. So, its better if the variety is not too floury ...

Meyer lemons supposedly grow well indoors if outdoors is unsuited - but - maybe a good point, maybe not, my experience was that you then needed good climate control (or OCD) to look after the thing! From the early posts, my reading was that a Fast Response thermometer (exactly like a Thermapen) should go down well. (But do beware the thermometer terminology "instant read" - it does NOT imply fast response.)

That's the idea! Drain the par-boiled (or boiled) peeled potatoes, leave them a couple of minutes, shake them about in the pan, and leave them a little longer. This should produce a roughened, dryish, floury surface. Blumenthal goes for a more controlled effect by dusting them with actual flour. (Does he use potato flour?) Being essentially cooked already, the actual roasting can be quite quick -- making the start-to-finish time much shorter than for an entirely oven-based process. Not that I would necessarily advocate it, but the prep boiling stage could be done well in advance of the a la minute roasting -- reducing the pressure on the kitchen. People also assure me that almost-done roast potatoes freeze very well, and thawed to room temperature, finish well with about 15 minutes in the oven. Different people have different ideas of a 'good' roast potato. Mine include the idea that it has a distinct (flat, thickened) base and a thinner crusted curved top - not that it be cooked evenly on all sides. The contrast is part of the interest. This idea is developed with those cock's comb roast potatoes looking a little like the Sydney Opera House. Three or four (almost parallel) knife cuts into the curved top of the boiled (halved or quartered) potato, produces the raised fan. Its a little like slashing a loaf of bread before baking it ... Don't know what these should be called - roasted, its not quite a true Hasselback potato. Anyway, with roasting peeled, pre-boiled, cut, floury potatoes and basting with hot fat, you can raise a nice soufflé cock's comb. And you don't want to alter the potatoes' orientation during cooking - same side up! Baste only, don't tumble!

Depends what you mean by "sharp". If its properly sharp, bumping into the blade accidentally will accelerate the learning process. The second time blood spurts everywhere, he'll feel more stupid than in pain. (You barely feel the actual cutting ...) Personally, I've learned not to hurry when towel drying food processor cutting discs! How does he handle razor blades? On the other hand, if its only "slightly sharper than the really blunt ones", it hardly matters because 1/ its probably not dangerous, and 2/ there's no edge there to protect from further damage.