dougal
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Posts posted by dougal
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For non-sourdough, I use instant yeast.
Instant should be fine, if mixed with dry flour and blood-heat (not warm, not cold - utterly neutral to the touch) liquid.
Yeast isn't, in absolute terms, either "dead" or "alive". Its composed of millions, or even billions, of tiny wee beasties. The question is, how many of them are alive?
"Active dry" and slightly stale "fresh" will have a much larger proportion of dead yeast cells. (And heh, treat instant harshly and you'll kill more cells than if its treated with respect ...)
Dead yeast cells contribute a natural chemical that makes dough less strong (and more stretchable).
The longer your fermentation and proofing, the (much) weaker that stuff makes your dough.
So it rises less.
You get the same natural 'dough conditioner' chemical in wholegrain flour. Which is one of the reasons it doesn't rise as high. One "antidote" to this pesky stuff is a tiny spot of Vitamin C.
Make up a one-a-day soluble Vitamin C tablet in a glass of water. Put a tablespoonful of the solution per loaf into your dough (drink the rest), and you should notice an improvement.
All that said, I'd agree absolutely with jackal10 that you should try dramatically reducing the duration (or temperature if its 'warm') of your fermentation and proofing.
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Regarding the crystal sizing, the historic advance with the 'prague powders' was that the salts were co-deposited by rapid evaporation from solution. These days, I believe they are 'flash evaporated' under vacuum. Anyway, the result is a mix of even-sized (rather than "joined") crystals that should not segregate - become stronger/weaker in active ingredient as you go down the packet, like crisps (potato chips) and salt!
Regarding $20 eBay scales. I have a 0.01g precision scale, and a calibration weight. It is sensitive to that last decimal place. While I wouldn't trust the accuracy to the limit of its sensitivity or precision, I am happy that I can weigh out a quantity of 1g to an accuracy of at least ±5%. Whereas using even a decent kitchen scale with a 1g precision, I'd only trust a 1g measurement to ±100% ...
Cheap electronics are surprisingly effective!
I dare say such scales might be mainly used for certain dubious transactions where 'inaccuracy' might lead to immediate violence!
I bought the scale for curing, but most of its use is actually weighing out salt and yeast for bread baking! (And I use it for airmail letters too...)
I think such a scale should be a part of any modern cook's 'batterie de cuisine'; it'll certainly come in handy when I start playing with 'molecular gastronomy' chemicals!
And you can even use it for measuring premixed cures much more accurately than you could using a kitchen scale, or,
a measuring spoon ... -
I wouldn't recommend using straight sodium nitrate becuase measuring the quantities would be REALLY difficult.
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I say just bite the bullet and order the Cure #2 and #1 from online. It's better to spend $8 in shipping and to know you're going to be safe, and not give anyone nitrate poisoning.
NitrAte (sodium or potassium) is hard to measure.
Unless you have a super-accurate "pocket scale" - estimated cost $20, try eBay.
Or you can stand some wastage and have enough science background to make up a standard dilute solution that you can measure accurately enough with the tools to hand.
However - NitrAte (on its own) isn't officially liked, not just because of the measurement difficulty, but also because it requires the presence of the 'right' bacteria to achieve the cure.
And residual nitrAte is believed (by the US authorities, but not in Europe), to form potentially hazardous nitrosamines, in food cooked to frying temperature. So nitrAte (as in #2) should be reserved for stuff getting long curing/storage and ideally not to be eaten fried.
NitrIte doesn't seem to give rise to nitrosamines in the same way. And the cure happens reliably regardless of the presence or absence of the specific magic bacteria.
However, because nitrIte is SO potent (you need MUCH less of it than nitrAte), its not sold undiluted to the public.
"Pink Salt" (cure number 1, prague powder number 1) is just nitrIte diluted with salt to the extent that it is more easily measurable - and harder to use to accidental harmful excess. (The crystal size of salt and nitrite in proper cures are actually matched to prevent segregation in transport and storage.)
So, I'm reinforcing jmolinari's good advice with additional reasons.
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... The first potential problem is that the yeast is dead. In my case, this is not what is happening. I get a nice primary and secondary rise, so my yeast is alive. ...
It might be helpful to reveal what sort of yeast was being used ...
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Do you consider almost 1000 pages thick enough? How about 1080 Recipes by Simone and Ines Ortega?
When it first appeared it was heralded as "The bible of authentic Spanish cooking..." and referred to as counterpart to US Joy of Cooking and Italian Silver Spoon.
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Looks amazing! Although I will have to break my rule on not buying cookbooks where the title is the number of recipes. Quite often I find that these books are quantity over quality.
Dan
Don't break your rule before reading the eG thread on 1080.
Instead of repeating my comments, I'll link to them - and thereby the comments of others in the dedicated thread.
http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...dpost&p=1596450
Personally, I'd say that the idea of a single large book is less good for your library than a few better smaller ones, of individual virtue, perhaps dealing with, for example, regional differences in Spanish cooking. I have to say that I rather like Moro and Casa Moro, which reflect the Moorish influence in Spanish cooking.
However for anyone valuing quantity over quality, or looking for a doorstop, then 1080 must be exactly what you are looking for...
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spouse suggests that piri piri is really more South African, although it may have found its way into hotels and such in Zambia. Kapenta...he screamed with a painful look on his face, "Oh yeah, those are really nasty smelling. You eat them like popcorn. More of a snack."
The taste for chillies (and the piri-piri nomenclature) may well have originated in SA, but was well established among the local working-class (ie urban, not wealthy but not starving) some years back on the Copperbelt.
My understanding was that much Kapenta was eaten as a relish - I believe pounded to a mash with cooking oil - but this may have been a particularly Bemba thing.
While mealie meal for n'shima was usually bought by the (50kg? a hundredweight? - big!) sackful (to be carried home on the head), the other great staple requirement "cooking oil" was bought in large cans, a gallon or two at a time, and often. Now, I have to admit, I really don't know how it was consumed in such quantity, but my impression was that a lot of stuff was shallow fried or seasoned with oil.
Incidentally, "mealies" (whole maize corns) were a popular veg. Grill over a fire. And for authenticity note that it should be maize, not sweet corn.
All sorts of veg will grow in the climate. There was even a pineapple industry, strategically located quite some distance beyond the end of the road...
The finger-food snack that I recall being (quite literally) much sought-after, a seasonal delicacy and free source of protein delivered with the onset of the rains in October, was Grasshopper. Not just raw, but live. I'm told they taste like prawns, but I'm not able to confirm that.
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Piri-piri chicken. (Chicken with chillies.) Any way you like, but casseroled with tomatoes (and quite a lot of red chillies) would be fairly authentic.
Basic idea is a small amount of strongly flavoured relish into which lots and lots of n'shima can be dipped, a walnut-sized knob at a time.
Rather not do fish? Are you sure you haven't been stuck behind a truck carrying bales of unrefrigerated Kapenta, the local sun-dried fish speciality?
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I don't think the original question has yet been fully answered.
How precise DOES the temperature control really need to be?
(I don't know the relationship between Fresh Meal Solutions and Auber.)
FMS seem now to offer just one ready-to-run controller.
Auber offer that one as part of a range which offers a choice of precision.
They offer a standard (version 2) model with an accuracy of ±1°C, and a "high precision" model which offers an accuracy of ±0.2C at 65C, and a 0.1C resolution. (Quite apart from the previous choice of wattage and their range of various diy components.)
Standard: http://auberins.com/index.php?main_page=pr...&products_id=44
Extra Precision: http://auberins.com/index.php?main_page=pr...&products_id=42
Obviously, equalising temperature within the bath becomes more important for higher real precision, but with forced circulation (or at least a bubbler), is there any practical value in going the extra $50?
Incidentally, I wouldn't advise anyone to think they can drop the temperature in a thermostatically-controlled oven by opening the door... all that happens is that more heat is called up to make good the heat losses out at the door...
and the heating process in the oven is actually intensified! It was different in the very old days before thermostats ... -
And there's the old English classic "Steak and Oyster Pie" ...
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Oh experts, pray tell me how long for a boneless ham, about 5kg?
I'm guessing 60C for 12hours or so.
SInce its Xmas I will add apple juice and cloves...
I'm no expert, but I'd have thought a touch higher, maybe 63/65. (That's the sort of core peak temperature I shoot for when conventionally poaching an, admittedly rather smaller, bit of cured ham.)
Since you are cooking to equilibrium temperature and its not going to be "overcooked", I'd expect that longer wouldn't hurt - probably just render the collagen more thoroughly? Also, since he's likely a big lump compared to the size of your bath, he's going to chill the bath when he goes in, probably for some while.
Maybe worth remarking that the minimum time to attain equilibrium temperature is going to be determined by the starting temperature. The uplift from fridge temperature is half as much again as the uplift from room temperature.
There's one school of thought that the bone improves heat conduction - though I'm not sure whether this is due to the bone itself, the marrow or the bone/meat interface. Anyway, the result is that boneless would mean longer cooking.
My guess would be that 24 hours wouldn't hurt since you are going to equilibrium.
I think I'd be a bit cautious with cloves in the bag. I find them very pervasive in ordinary cooking, and suspect that long sv might enhance that property!
Isn't it more usual to stud them into the fat after skinning and before glazing the thing? And for Christmas, wouldn't some Cinnamon, Allspice, Nutmeg, Ginger, Star Anise and even Peppers add some pleasant notes?
How would dry cider and/or bramley apple sauce do in the bag with or instead of the apple juice?
Are you going to put some onion, celery and/or other herbal aromatics in the bag?
Watching Nigella on BBCtv the other night, I was a bit astonished at the anise-heavy brew she came up with for her spiced ham poaching liquor. But the smoked paprika in the glaze sounded a nice touch ...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database...ham_84672.shtml
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Martin, from an interested spectator, thanks!
...What can be done to further improve the collection?
You note (on page 5) that not all the recipes are tested, let alone optimised. It might be helpful to note the distinction between those that are fully 'de-bugged' and those where you would particularly welcome feedback. Maybe marking recipes with some graphical symbol(s) to show their status?
There are now sufficient recipes that I feel that an additional traditional-style recipe index (by ingredient/title/etc) would be worthwhile, facilitating comparison, for example between similar recipes, particularly those using different hydrocolloids - for obvious examples the various different Turkish Delights, Vinaigrettes and Ice Creams, and even to indicate the existence of plural recipes for essentially similar dishes, but using different proportions of the same hydrocolloid.
Its an amazing resource, well done!
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There's the rub, a bain marie thermostat that is accurate.
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I really know just about zero on chocolate - BUT -
The cost-concious recommendation from the massive sous-vide cooking thread
http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=116617
is to use the Auber controller (or its Canadian cousin), a taller rather than wider water bath (with a 'dumb' heater element), and preferably add an aquarium bubbler to drive a little circulation to equalise temperature within the bath...
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New to eG, but here's my contribution. ...
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... I think if my physician knew all this she would diagnose me w/ OCD, lol.
Welcome to the asylum - you'll be quite comfortable here!
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I can maybe help with some of those.
"Proper" vac pack bags are actually rather more than "plastic bags" made from just a thin sheet of (traditionally) polythene ("PE").
The better bag material is actually a laminate, so that different layers can do different jobs, rather than having one layer that must be a compromise on the various desired properties. For example one layer would be expected to be particularly 'gas-tight', (polythene isn't very).
I think there are two uses of mesh. From the link above to "meshbags" - quote "The full Nylon Mesh Liner acts as "Bone Guard" also and makes these patented bags & rolls stronger".
A second thing is that a bit of mesh, on the inside below the seal, should act as a bit of a liquid trap. I've heard of people putting a strip of kitchen paper towel inside their bags to stop a rush of liquid from wetting the area that's just about to be sealed...
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We have an old upright two-door freezer modified to run at higher temperatures. It holds temperature just fine, but after the cooler unit runs, the humidiy inside the unit spikes to near 100%. It takes a half hour or so for it to settle back down to a workable range that can be managed with a humidifier to hold at the desired point. Then, maybe ten minutes later, the cooler comes on again, and we have the same problem. ....
The things I wonder are: -
- where is the humidity sensor? (Close to a cold 'radiator'? The humidity there will be the highest, because its the coldest point.)
- how was the thing modified?
- what air movement do you have in the box?
- how do you get the moisture (water, humidity) out of your box?
You need a bit of air movement. If only to even out the humidity.
Old computer kit is a free source of small low-voltage (hence safe) fans...
Having the cold panel at the top (like most fridges), gets a little circulation going as the newly cooled air sinks... But you want to boost that (convective) air movement a little bit. Upright freezers often have 'cold shelves' which may help to cool the thing faster, BUT they don't encourage air movement, AND they inhibit hanging things...
These are reasons a fridge usually makes a better starting point than a freezer. Quite apart from any questions of design operating temperatures and the cooling machinery's operational efficiency.
Oh, and freezers are generally rather completely sealed.
You are going to put (wet) meat in this rather well sealed box. That'll raise the humidity of the air in there.
To drop the humidity (and dry the meat) you need to get rid of (or tie up) the water that you want to extract from the meat.
If your chiller is running hard enough, you'll lock up some as frost on the chiller pipes/panels. This is why normal freezers dry food.
Much more likely though, you'll just get a bit of condensation there. If you can get that condensation to drip into a gutter that drains outside the box, you'll remove the water/moisture/humidity. That's what usually happens in a fridge, and why it dries food.
But in a freezer, being run warm, you won't be freezing out any water and you won't have a drip gutter and external drain in a freezer - unless you fitted it!
Another way of controlling the humidity is with wet salt -- but you need to ensure you have enough salt to take up the moisture. See lots of previous posts.
Hence, overall, you need to have a plan for how the water gets out of the box (or at least locked up, out of the air, if its not being taken out of the box).
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Rendering fat by sous vide.
I used Keller's method from under pressure. Results can be seenHERE.
I like this method as it leaves a layer of gelled liquid at the bottom that can be used to fortify stocks and sauces. If I was rendering pork fat by SV, I would cut it into strips instead of grinding so that I could get the cracklins. I think grinding maximizes the yield though..
But with the sous vide method you wouldn't end up with all the little crackling bits - and to me that's one of the things that makes rendering your own lard worth the effort.As Kerry Beal pointed out, going sv, you'd not be cooking the meat scraps to "cracklins". To do that requires the rendering to have reached frying temperatures (150C+ ?), whereas limiting the rendering temperature to below 100C prevents that.
Frying those bits of meat is going to flavour the rendered fat.
And I think Keller would NOT want that flavour in his lard ...
My expectation is that choosing sv (or adding water to the starting brew, whether blitzed or not) is done with the intention of preventing "frying" and flavouring... The added-water route allows things to be inadvertently speeded up (higher temperature) once the water has evaporated/boiled off. Natch sv prevents that.
Is this the first use of sv to deliberately prevent flavouring?
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Just to draw attention to the fact that Keller is 'grinding' the fat, not cubing it, not blitzing it.
I'd thought that 'grinding' (UK mincing) the fat before rendering made the process comparatively quick and simple... whether or not you are rendering it in a bag.
I do hope Chris Hennes is going to give a considered final verdict on the blitz-it method!
My expectation would have been that any "meaty bits" would have been more awkward to extract if they had been blitzed to seriously tiny fragments. And they still need to be extracted, don't they?
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Grill/broil. (Much better than fried IMHO.) Best just very slightly charred!
You could serve with some herby salad, with a little yoghurty dressing and wrapped in a flatbread. Inside a Pitta even...
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My take is that smoke density does matter. But chamber size on its own, is only going to affect the rapidity of changes.
Generally, cold smoking is a long process. Using a 'thinner' smoke than is typical for hot smoking or US 'BBQ'.
I suspect that when you say 'chewy' (twice!), you are after a relatively dried result - again long smoking (and airflow) sounds to be indicated. Dry salt curing (as seen in the video) is likely to give some moisture loss. Brining isn't. Which is why its so popular for chicken and (particularly at this time of the year) turkey.
Anyway, give it a go and have fun!
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Dougal - there seems to be a discrepancy between what you are saying and Tim's method. Should I vent the box for a while to get the smoke in there and then seal it up to trap it? It seems less wasteful to filll the box with smoke and trap it there than to have it continually pumping the smoke through it. ...... Pepin's method for smoking is to introduce fairly heavy smoke (I use white oak or alder) to the chamber for about 10 minutes and then leaving the chamber closed for an hour. This is repeated twice for a total of 3 hours of smoking.
Pepin uses wood chips in a flower pot with an electric bbq starter to create the smoke. This is piped into an empty refrigerator. (I use a heating duct running into a garbage can.) The technique allows for smoking at ambient temperature.
Personally, I think that 3x 10 minutes of exposure to fresh smoke sounds a remarkably 'light' smoke.
Barely smoked at all.
For a "deep smoke" (in my understanding of that term) you'll need hours rather than minutes of smoke exposure.... I want a dry, almost chewy result with a deep smoke. ...Tim's kit was illustrated on another thread.
Its not clear how long Tim's wood smoulders after he turns off the active heating.
http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=105881
And its really good to see that Scoobadoo97's inspiration has borne fruit!
For DIY experimentation, its no bad thing to do several small, cheap tail fillets in the same batch - with variations, so that you can explore different times and strengths of salting/brining. Or smoke exposures. (Thicker fillets will need longer.)
You might be interested to note the curing and smoking times and conditions used in this video of a commercial smoking operation. (And, BTW, I think that's a cheat's way of getting a sticky pellicle!
)http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=Bh_BCI1yrfs
And doesn't the fish look lightly smoked?
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You need some flow while generating smoke.
"Smoking" is a (more or less) continuous process.
Generally, smokers/smokehouses have adjustable vents to control the flow.
It is not a matter of just fill your box with smoke, stop the smoke supply and then leave it a while for that single "fill" of smoke to work its magic.
By all means, give it a 'campaign' of even a single Bradley puck, followed by a rest before the next one. And close the vents during the 'rest' period. But you will need several such campaigns.
A single 'fill' would only give a very light (and fleeting) 'smoke'.
But it is done, I believe, in some restaurants with some cheeses - being served under the cover of a wineglass, freshly filled with smoke. Its more about presentation than anything else.
And that ain't going to work for salmon. You definitely need more than an hour of smoke supply. For 'heavily smoked', you'll need several hours.
I'd recommend Erlandson's little book. Its cheap and wise. It'd give you a good overview (and plenty specifics) of the basic territory of smoking.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Home-Smoking-Curin.../dp/0091927609/
I also like the way Ruhlman & Polcyn's Charcuterie is organised, so that you can see how (Gravadlax) plain curing equates to the curing-before-smoking.
Final point on this: Hooking the Bradley generator direct onto a cardboard box sounds to me like a means of getting the cardboard to give off smoke...
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... so I am going to funnel the cold smoke into a sealed box and trap it there for an hour before hitting it with an other smoke - is this correct? Presumably I don't need to let the old smoke escape...
No.
If your box is "sealed" there won't be any through draught.
You need airflow to carry the smoke from generator to food. (Separating them by a yard or two of expanded, flexible metal ducting gives the chance for the smoke to lose some of its heat.) You can use the standard Bradley vent adjustment to control the flow rate.
A thermometer in the inlet stream will let you monitor how cold the smoke actually is.
You should be able to run the Bradley for at least a puck or two without getting too hot. But you can just turn it off anytime and just walk away while things cool or the smoke soaks in.
If you can find/make some metal blank 'pucks' then you probably needn't even switch it off.
There's no problem using the (presumably nicely seasoned) Bradley cabinet - just don't turn on the heater!
There's no magic about a box versus the Bradley cabinet. Actually, in cold weather, the metal cabinet should likely run cooler. The idea of demounting the smoke generator is ONLY to permit cooling before putting the smoke into the food container.
Unless the 'food container' is enormous (like a garden shed, 8x4 and 6 ft high), cold smoking with a Bradley requires pre-cooling of some sort. And a metal, flexible duct is a cheap and effective means of cooling - once you've figured out a means of connecting both ends!
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... I plan on doing this outdoors and the Bradley will be demounted. I reckon the ambient temperature should be about 7-8c so I should be fine. I think I will need to fabricate a smoking chamber out of something. I wonder if a cardboard box would be okay? ...
Some aluminium ducting between the generator and Bradley 'cupboard' should do the trick. The standard internet wisdom is to include a cardboard box half way along. That'll increase the residence time, but frankly I can't see it making a major difference to the temperature of the delivered smoke.
Personally, I have used a cardboard box as a smoker cabinet, and generated cool thin smoke from a contraption based on a couple of scrap tin cans, a stainless pot scourer, a silicone bundt mould and an aquarium air pump!
Curing. If you've got solid undissolved salt, adding more is going to make precious little difference. With excess (ie undissolved) salt, its a matter of time (not quantity) variation to control how much makes its way into the fish.
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Great stuff guys - now I've got a range of cure times from one hour to twenty four...hmmmm. What to do, what to do?
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Tim - do you think that the 10 minute active smoking then waiting one hour would achievable with the Bradley system. Seems like it would be very economical with pucks. I would like a strong smoke flavour.
Proper COLD smoking involves temperatures less than about 85F (about 30C).
Not normal territory for a Bradley, but possible by de-mounting the smoke generator (I gather) and definitely easier in cold weather.
The Bradley has the reputation of generating lots of smoke, so the actual 'firing time' might well be fairly short.
Normally cold smoking is done with a rather light smoke for a long time. You can simulate that with intermittent heavier smoke.
EDIT ADDED -- I recall hearing long ago about someone getting some 'blank' Bradley pucks made up (from metal), so that by interleaving them with real pucks, he could do unattended intermittent smoking with the thing... /EDIT
ANYWAY, the point is to avoid cooking the food, at all. (And even keeping it at "room temperature" for long enough to spoil, despite the preservative actions of smoke and salt. (Heavy salt and heavy smoke with a bit of drying does preserve well (once you've got there) - but 'preserved' is not necessarily palatable without preparation for eating (soaking or whatever).
You don't want to be cold smoking chilled fish so that you get condensation on the fish. (Its supposed to be a drying process...) Watch out for that if you park part-smoked fish overnight in the fridge. But, the overnight rest, (and deciding in the morning if it needs more smoke), is a good idea.
As its not about cooking, but cumulative exposure to smoke with time for equilibration, you can easily smoke intermittently. (Also helping keep the temperature down.)
Intermittent action gives the flavour time to permeate.
And allows you to 'taste as you go' - as with other forms of 'cooking'.
Just don't eat it ALL during cooks tastings...
Give it a go, and do take notes so that next time you'll know what you'd like to change, for your personal tastes. And once you've homed in on the house style, you'll have the confidence to apply the method and times to a bigger batch.
Its pretty hard to screw up so badly that it isn't good to eat.
Which accounts for the variation in advice.
Just do it, and vary it next time to go from good to excellent to great!
Irish Mincemeat - is there such a thing?
in United Kingdom & Ireland: Cooking & Baking
Posted
Maybe with real suet and poteen as the booze?