dougal
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Posts posted by dougal
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... I'd like to get into it, but I'm not sure exactly where I should be looking. ...
Where?
Well those areas (postcodes) where you don't require a license to "keep" Signals are likely to closely correlate to the areas with the 'problem'.
That list is here -
http://www.defra.gov.uk/marine/pdf/freshwater/licreq.pdf
Leeds (for CalumC)? Not on the list, so its not one of the most infested areas.
Hence, I'd particularly suggest that you make sure you can identify the difference between the Signal and the endangered native.
Legally, IIRC, traps are referred to as "fixed engines" - and that's what you do require a license for.
I believe a slightly 'whiffy' fish head is supposed to make good bait for a trap.
Its an offence to let loose (alive) any of the critters you might happen to catch. And they are escapologists, hence the problem in the first place.
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....really late to the party?
DUH. Putting a dimmer switch on my crock pot means I can hold a gallon of milk between 88-91 degrees for HOURS, flawlessly.
I am doing the happy homegrown organic fresh sheep's milk mozzerella out of my crock pot cheese dance, can you see me?
Nice idea, but do check the wattage!!!
Most lamp dimmers don't handle much wattage (power).
Most heater elements are higher wattage than most domestic lighting setups.
If you hook up a high wattage heater to a low-rated dimmer, you'll melt something in the dimmer -- or MUCH worse. And its mains electricity.
Play safely - check the wattages first!
ADDED -- All that said, crockpots ("slow cookers" in England) would have about the lowest wattage heater in the house (apart from the seed tray warmer!)
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I'll admit to having its baby brother -
http://www.anolon.com/cs/Satellite/Product...DetailEcomm.htm
It has a nice very 'grippy' handle, the dimples work sometimes, and its a light, slim, broad blade. And it comes with a nice plastic clip-on protective sheath.
But the steel is not very special.
Maybe I'll rediscover its charms after the Edge Pro has had a chance to work some magic!
The Victorinox (Forschner) knives do have an established "better than you'd expect for the price" reputation.
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Haven't some places just increased the portion size by 2.5% ?
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It's been a couple of months since the BeaterBlades were mentioned on this thread. Has anyone bought one? Tried one? Liked it?
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Any comments on the BeaterBlade?
http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...dpost&p=1621415
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... I'd heard abou this place and the emphasis they place on trying to source ingredients locally ...
Thornback ray with cockles, brown butter and sherry vinegar was another great piece of fish and the accompanying sauce buttery and slightly sweet was very good.
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We found The Sportsman last summer it was great, glad to hear they are keeping up the standard. Yes have found skate listed on menus as ray, I looked into it and they are the same.
Well, the nomenclature is a bit muddled, but its the other way round -- hopefully most of what you are sold in the UK as 'skate' would be be either Thornback or Blond Ray.
Thornback Ray (Raja Clavata) is local to the Thames estuary, just over the seawall from the Sportsman, as of course are the cockles, if not the sherry vinegar! Locally at least, that Ray should be a sustainable fishery.
The true Skate (Raja Batis) is a deep-water fish, and potentially grows to enormous size, historically as much as 200 lb, though that simply doesn't happen any more. Since the Skate is endangered through overfishing, one hopes that much of what is sold as "skate" is actually ray. And "skate" is actually used as a general catch-all name for the Rajaformae - which include the Thornback Ray!
Kudos to Mr Harris for using a local, more sustainable fish - and accurately naming it on the menu!
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I think I've posted this link before, but it should do no harm to bring it to attention again.
This site sells parts for KA mixers, and offers a free download of a service manual.
http://www.mendingshed.com/kitaidparts.html
I don't 'do' KA, and have never dealt with them.
However, I have the impression that the KA mixers are DIY-fixable, if the parts can be sourced.
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I'm debating which Apex kit to get. Kit 2 gets me a small ceramic hone plus an instructional DVD. The hone seems like it would be awkward to use since it doesn't have a real handle on it. I would think I would be better off with the hone the sell that does include a handle. But I'm sure the DVD would come in handy.
Would it be better to buy Kit 1, then add in the DVD and the 12" ceramic hone?
Ask EdgePro nicely, and they'll likely swap the hones for the (either $5 or $10) difference in item prices. I don't know whether the longer one, (12" plus handle), would fit inside the Apex carrybag. I'm sure they'd tell you!
The hone is important, though its used very very lightly (almost no contact force) and very very little (just a few seconds.) And the basic one is perfectly functional, if not very pretty.
If you go for anything other than kit 1, the DVD is really in for nothing. Its well worth seeing, but maybe not twice! Its like a longer version of the website video, taking more trouble to explain the stroke action, and showing things like how gently to use the hone.
I'm glad that I have the coarse stone. I've actually used it on all my old knives to establish a proper edge shape. But unless I do a serious mischief to the blade, I'd hope not to have to use it again on those knives.
I haven't tried to use the polish tapes. Maybe I'm not obsessive enough! But I do use the Ultra Fine stone (as a light polish) to finish. Kit3 brings the coarse and ultra fine stones and (on balance) for $2 the polish tapes.
Therefore, IF your knives are currently in reasonable shape, AND you aren't after a very fine finish -- which I think is an unlikely combo -- THEN Kit 2 would do you. But I think the other two stones are worth having.
Incidentally, I'd echo the earlier comments about 'soft' steel in more economical knives. Its 'easier' to cut, less effort to remove metal. But that makes it actually a more difficult skill, requiring a lighter touch, to achieve a good edge on the softer steel. Its easy to feel the burr all along the blade, but then hard to lose it! But even for the softer steel, I used the coarse stone to tolerably quickly cut the basic shape.
And you can feel and (I think) hear the difference in how the stone cuts the softer steel.
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Here's an excerpt from my blog post about a recent meal at The River Cafe. ......
Rose Gray and Judy Rodgers did something wonderful for the British food and restaurant industry in opening The River Café. ...
Wrong café !
Judy Rodgers, Zuni, San Francisco. Ruth(ie) Rogers, River, London.
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Specific gravity. (Strictly speaking, density ought to have units, like grams per cc {where water is 1.0 g/cc}, whereas the s.g. is the ratio of the material's density to the density of water and hence independent of units.) Bit sloppy of me, sorry!Some bakers would say that this density/sg, 1.0, was somewhat underproofed.
Just wondering, what does sg stand for there?
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Thanks Chris.
Now, to source something like that, retail, over here!
Better than cooking oil...
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Hi, could we go back to this statement please --Another traditional trick is to put a small lump of dough in a glass of water. When it floats its ready.
I'm not sure I understand... The lump of dough is put aside when the bread is shaped, yes? Is it placed immediately into the water, or not until the large loaf appears to be proofed? If the lump does not float, is it left in the water, or put back on the counter to rise longer?
This sounds like such an easy method. Thanks for any info you can add.
At the stage of (scaling and) shaping (just before proofing), a small scrap of dough (maybe the size of a walnut) is kept aside. Its kept at the same temperature as the loaf or loaves. When you think the dough is nearly proofed, pop the little piece into a glass or jug of water. When it floats, its an indication some people use that the dough is 'proofed'. As long as the water isn't very different to the proofing temperature, I think the dough piece would normally be left in the water. If yours falls apart, try something different next time!
The test piece should be discarded after it has bobbed up to the surface!
Some bakers would say that this density/sg, 1.0, was somewhat underproofed. But its erring (if it is) on the right side!
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Just to catch up and tidy the odd loose end...
The Electrolux DLX grinder attachment (English English: "mincer") is a treasure.
Its a chunky thing. The same near-industrial size as the NT that is eulogised a few times upthread.
It makes every other mixer attachment grinder I've seen look like a toy.
And it works. Oh yes. Beautifully. Total absence of fuss.
Love it!
I'm just about to bite the bullet and get the coarse plate. I thought it (plus foreign shipping & handling, etc) was expensive. But the cutter seems to be made by Zico - and they don't do cheap.
The only downside seems to be the double plate location notches. This prevents getting 3rd party plates - for example coarser than the coarsest (6mm) offered by Electrolux.
A question. What do you folks do about oiling the plates and cutter before storing the grinder kit away between sessions?
I think we are dealing with very high carbon, very rust-prone steels. How do you protect them?
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I recently got an Apex.
Its a tool that enables me to produce a damn good edge.
I doubt that I could ever approach that precision freehand.
I suppose some might say that it "de-skills" the process.
A few serious enthusiasts might be able to do better freehand. I rather doubt that I could.
Its not absolutely instant gratification. You need to use it carefully, with a bit of deliberation.
But it gets you to the zen of the edge several months (if not years) faster.
The tool doesn't do the whole job.
It just steadies your hand.
Up to you what you do then.
Its more expensive than any of my knives.
But now they are sharp knives.
And can be resharpened whenever needed.
Unless you've been bitten by the 'learn a totally manual skill' bug, I'd suggest that anyone might consider getting one - instead of getting yet another knife. Make the most of what you've got!
I'm impressed by the thought behind the product. Its a pretty elegantly subtle bit of engineering design.
Does Ben really sign every one?
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Pretty much as others have said.
Start them frying, stir well.
Turn down low, cover and leave for a long time, stirring when you remember.
Once everything is as soft as you want, remove the lid and turn the heat up just a little, so you can drive off the excess moisture that has cooked out of the onions. Now stir at least every 5 minutes. If you want to force the pace, turn it up higher and stir constantly until things are brown enough, or you get either too hungry or too bored!
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The reason the doufeu is appealing to me is that it has all-metal handles integrated into the casting of the piece. ... They're also pretty cool looking.
The handles look very like a design from a range Le Creuset introduced maybe 6 or 7 years back.
IIRC it was supposed to introduce a system approach with mix and match possibilities.
There was some sort of 'system' name ... ???
No idea if it reached the US. No longer available in the UK. Maybe not popular. Maybe worth seeking out.
ADDED
Still no memory of the name they gave to that handle style...
... meanwhile, in France, the Cocotte Actuelle est arrivée -- with funky big metal handles (sensible for oven gloves), and a single (metal) knob lid featuring 'doufeu' dimples to distribute the condensation.
http://www.lecreuset.fr/actualites/sept200...te_actuelle.htm
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The doufeu design and concept has been around since before Staub even existed as a company.
Is this thread connected with Le Creuset's current US promotion of their Doufeu's "75th anniversary" ???
http://www.lecreuset.com/en-us/Promotions/...th-Anniversary/
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I have a Ford diesel truck and I just cannot bring myself to pour homemade fuel into it. I will pass this post along to my husband, Professor Flubber, and let him think about it. Maybe we could experiement with the tractor, which is a poc anyway and if it died, well, good, because then I can get a real dang tractor and stop dinking around with this one.
Let Google be your friend
for example: http://vegetableoils.blogspot.com/ (Virginia-based)
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The drain is a bad place for it.
It will compost, but the risk is attracting vermin.
It goes on a garden bonfire, and oil-burning stoves can be modified to use it.
In winter, wild bird feeding is a good idea.
But way better than sending it to landfill would be to make biodiesel from it, or pass it to someone that else that makes the stuff. Some local producers collect used oil from restaurants and take-aways. Here's one USA example (in Houston of all places) http://www.summitrecyclers.com/wvo_recycling.html Some may operate "drop off" schemes where non-bulk quantities can be accumulated for economical collection.
"Waste vegetable oil" itself, after progressively finer filtering and de-watering can be used as diesel fuel substitute/additive, even without the biodiesel conversion. This however is very dependent on the diesel injector design. Older, more agricultural designs fare better. Mercedes diesels over about a dozen years old are probably favourite! Using cleaned WVO as diesel fuel is best as a summer thing - cold, it doesn't flow so well and is a pain to start. Hence the marketing of 'conversions' that start the vehicle on fossil diesel, before changing over to WVO once the engine is warm, which in turn facilitates the preheating of the WVO so that it flows better through the injectors.
Making biodiesel from WVO is a much more benign process than ploughing up rainforest to make way for palm oil plantations.
http://www.greenhealthwatch.com/newsstorie...estructive.html
And its so much better than tipping an asset, quite literally, "down the drain".
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As the above linked 2005 thread notes, its not new. The product has been on sale in Europe for ages. But any question of design priority is for others to dispute.
The basic concept of any stovetop-intended casserole is to act as a reflux condenser, that is to say using a cool lid to condense the vapours and return them to the cooking brew.
The idea is to prevent the water (and arguably the aromatics) from 'boiling off'.
The cooler the lid, the more effective the condenser.
The Tagine (with various spellings) is a traditional design of an air-cooled condenser.
You lose that effect if you use a Tagine inside an oven! It loses one of its usp's and becomes just another casserole.
The Le Creuset "Doufeu" takes the idea two stages further than the Tagine, making provision for exaggerating the condensation by allowing more cooling (from ice or cool water), and returning the condensate distributed across the centre of the pan, rather than simply having it run down the outside. The latter makes particular sense for the intended stovetop use because the centre of the base is likely to be hotter than the sides, and so more in need of re-hydration.
As a specific stovetop casserole, I'm sure its excellent - more capacious and much easier to store than a tagine - if less theatrical! Le Creuset offer both.
If I didn't already have a couple of Le Creuset casseroles, yes, I'd be tempted by a Doufeu at a good price.
But from where I am today, there are other priorities for space and money.
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Not a lot of discussion about extruders here. So far, most people say the KA extruder sucks, and the Kenwood attachment is fine. Anybody else have a standalone extruder they can recommend??
Just to remark that the bronze-die Kenwood extruder (Model A910 or AT910) is relatively new.
There has long been a plastic Kenwood pasta extruder (the A936 or AT936), which is, I guess, no better or worse than the plastic KA bit. And, naturally, its much cheaper than the bronze-die one.
I'm not even sure that the plastic one has been discontinued, some (UK) retailers are still offering it.
Just beware if shopping for THE Kenwood pasta extruder ...
While the A910 is on my list of discretionary toys, its not at the top yet!
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True, but in old times the pig was butchered in winter, when it was cold outside, for this exact reason. It gave the meats time to cure/dry in the cold before summer arrived.
I thought January was Winter for Chris in Oklahoma!
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Of course, cooler would be safer.
However, in a former but not very far-off time, brining was the means of storage. Before refrigeration was as ubiquitous as it is today, meat (and especially pork) was brined in an environment that was simply kept as cool as practically convenient.
Mrs Grigson, in her classic 'Charcuterie' describes brining as the routine simple storage of pork in rural France as little as fifty years ago. IIRC the brine itself needed replacement every month or so...
I'm certain that inspectors would insist on chilled brine for any commercial operation, but for hundreds (more likely thousands) of years, people brined pork without refrigeration and somehow (mostly) survived!
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Just ordered the extra precision. I think it will work great for a fermentation chamber for salamis and in cheesemaking. excited about the possibilities.
As for the the circulation bubbler, any insight into this. I'm assuming an aqauirium pump and something that can withstand high temps for an aerator?
Hmm, not sure where you are going regarding the cheesemaking ...
These units have an output for a HEATER --- ONLY.
You cannot just plug in a cooler!
The logic needs to be reversed. Or connection to the other terminal of a 'changeover' relay - which these things don't have; they use plain SSRs, not changeovers.
I'd also suggest that the precision involved is way greater than needed for cheese or curing sausage.
Check the big sv thread regarding bubblers, etc. I'd use silicone tube, to a couple of 'stones' and seek out a specially quiet pump. They tend to be a bit noisy.
ADDED: the point about any bubbler or circulation enhancer is to even out the temperature differences within the bath - its a bit pointless having a 0.1 degree controller and 2 or 3 degrees variation within the bath.
The Roquefort Tax
in France: Cooking & Baking
Posted
I still find it amusing that importation of different cheese types into the USA is controlled (permitted or banned) under the Bioterrorism Act.
http://www.agobservatory.org/headlines.cfm?refID=31428
Maybe some legislators do have a sense of humour!