jupe

They work great. If there isn't enough humidity, add a bowel of salt water to the bottom, or wax yer cheese.

I have come to prefer hot water baths in the sink--i.e., pot of milk in the sink surrounded by hot water, thermometer in the sink and one in the milk. Kinda like a really, really ghetto sous vide. I've also used rings of crushed aluminum around a stove element to keep a pan elevated up from the burner. Not aluminum foil on the burner itself, but used in a way that many woks are to elevate them from the burner.

So over the past year I've been making 'ham' using pink salt, pork loins, and a combination of either honey, herbs, aromatics, or things that may just be laying around. So far this style of ham, unsmoked, cured, then finally braised, has turned into probably my favorite kind of cured meat. It's not too bad for you, since the fat content is pretty low; it's easier than tying your shoes; pork loins go on sale quite often, and the flavor is better than any store bought ham i've had. However, I have recently had a couple of ideas flavor-wise that have my mind going, but since the time/effort/cost involved I thought I would consult the wise folks here at egullet before making a potential flop. A tad bit more history below In addition to curing meats at home, I've also in the last three years become an avid bread baker. In the last six months, I've really concentrated on thin crust, small, irregular shaped pies with minimalist toppings. I love margherita pizzas, but my fav is a marg with pepperone/pancetta/soppraseta or some other cured meat. Since the holidays in the states, I have come into the possession of a whole beef loin for very, very little money. the chauteau and good filets are already cut, wrapped, and secure, but i have at least a pound of beef loin that is still relatively intact (though not pretty, that's why it didn't make a steak), so I had an idea--what about curing this remainder of beef loin with salt, pink salt, chiles, garlic, and vinegar for a slightly turbocharged 'faux pepperone' for pizza? the question I have for the members of this thread are pretty simple: do you think the resulting cured beef will taste nasty? I've also been thinking about dry curing, jerking and dehydrating, and all sorts of convoluted steps. But none of that really matters except will curing with pink salt+salt, chiles, and some strong acid taste good? Hope to hear some opinions

Wow, just today I snagged a whole tenderloin for a great deal and was contemplating curing part of it--and then i see this post on the front page of egullet. Is the internet reading my mind? With my recent experiments in curing pork tenderloin, that won't be enough time to get the salt all the way to the center, but that may not be the aim. In my experience, without weighting the loin, it takes at least four days with pork for the edges and center to approach an equilibrium. I usually cure for three or four days, rinse, correct for salt/surgar (water bath if it's too salty, a pinch or to more salt if not salty enough), and put it back in the fridge for a day or two.

Hey dougal, I'm curious--in yeasted breads, every time I've used iodized salt the rise has been much, much slower than if I use an un-iodized salt. Am I just unknowingly sabotaging myself, or is there a reason to use non-iodized salt for yeasted products? Fan of your insight as always!!

This is one of those tidbits of information that can cause more harm than good sometimes. Don't want to throw more circumstantial evidence your way, but from my experience being afraid to handle after it has been mixed has resulted in one thing, one huge giant gas bubble in the middle of the loaf. The biggest disappoint I have ever had was with loaves that seemed to rise perfectly, only to slice them and find that they are a glorified balloon. On the other side of the coin is the phrase 'punch down'. Again, this is just my opinion, but the truth lies in the middle, not either extreme. Not handling your dough much gives you huge holes (if ya got your water levels right, your heat, etc.). Handling it too much gives a tighter more uniform crumb (same caveats). So I think basically what I'm trying to say is this: don't fear your dough, respect it. Be firm, but not overbearing. You are in control, but be mindful. Kinda the same rules you use when training pets (and yes, I'm looking at my dog while i write this)

[ claps excitedly! ] I'm not laughing at all, I just know how satisfying it is and it is fantastic you got a great loaf. Most of what I know bout bread is either from this forum, Dan Lepard's website (friggan fantastic), or the BBA. But, most importantly..... ...post pics!!! p.s., my 'journal' is actually the BBA. considering the amount of dog ears, cruft, and other un-savories staining the pages, i don't think a bit of scribbling will do it any harm.

Ten years ago I brewed a Wee Heavy which turned out to really be Way To Friggan Heavy, and in a naive and misguided adventure ended up bottling some in 375 ml wine bottles and others in grolsch style bottles. I let them age for a couple months and popped one open to discover a liquid that tasted about as good as paint thinner. I was really, really bummed. Fast forward five years, and somehow through all my moves, I managed to drag this beer along with me. A friend came over from out of town, and we decided 'what the hey, let's see what has happened to it'. To my surprise, five years aging in the grolsch bottle mellowed it out completely, and to this day it is still one of the best batches I've ever made. Unfortunately the ones bottled in the wine bottles tasted really, really nasty. With that being said, I made an all grain Wee heavy two months ago, ~8.5%, and it already tastes *amazing*. I guess sometimes they are just done when they're done.

Last year my wife purchased a Golden Hop rhizome from a local nursery and planted it near our pond. It didn't do much the first year, but this year it went bananas. It has more cones than I could believe, and it's trying to take over our ten year old honeysuckle. So my question is this: anyone know if it's of any culinary value? The cones aren't mature yet, but i've tasted them compared to some Cascades I'm raising and they weren't bitter at all. If they're just decorative I'm fine with that, but if not we have so many I'd love to brew with them.

I think there is very little that brings people who cook together more strongly than learning how to bake something as deceptively simple as bread. I cannot tell you how many awful loaves I've baked, it is a lot. However, once I wrapped my head around the fundamental variables of flour, water, salt, yeast, and temperature, thinking about baking has become almost intrinsic. Not saying I'm even a good baker (or have the knowledge of someone like dougal (Hi!!)), but the journey from definitely being a bad baker to one who can bake a darn tastey baguette has been exceptionally rewarding. Don't get down on yourself, the journey is fascinating. With that being said, I do know some simple things that I did wrong time and time again: * Don't be afraid of salt. Use good quality kosher salt, and if the unbaked dough tastes slightly too salty the baked loaf will probably be perfect. If the dough doesn't taste salty, the loaf will taste flat (at least to my palate) * Don't be afraid of your oven being too hot. It's much more common to cook a loaf too cool than too hot, and some of the best loaves I've ever made had me screaming "frak! i've burned it!!!" before I tasted it * Don't be in a rush. While there are guidelines for how long things *should* take, they are just guidelines. Again, in my opinion, rising/proofing too long tastes better than too short, and baking too long tastes better than not long enough * Taste, taste taste. Taste your dough. Remember or write down what it tastes like. Taste the loaf after it was baked. Remember or write down what it tastes like. I can't tell you how many times I've been able to correct a loaf before it's gone in just from tasting the dough. Sourdough tastes sourer before it's baked. Most lean doughs taste saltier before they're baked. No knead bread and all the variants taste sweeter before they are baked. * Finally, be conscious of the truly amazing bit of alchemy you are performing. Bread is a wonder, and it amazes me how simple and complex it is. Keep baking, it's its own reward

I've made applewood smoked bacon, plainly cured bacon, and maple syrup bacon, all of which I've made with sad little bellies I can get in town or the behemoths from Nieman. The striking difference is in the consistency of flavor throughout the belly--if you slice and eat right away, even after a fourteen day cure, invariably some parts taste really porky and some parts taste really cured. Freezing it, in which it still appears to continue curing, somehow allows the flavors to blend much better imo, especially with smoked bacon.

I have a confession to make, and I hope no one here hurts me. I've made fresh bacon from the recipe in Charcuterie with bellies purchased from Nieman Ranch (they are a beautiful sight to behold), and I've learned a lesson that haunts me to this day: the bacon I've sliced, divyed up into bads, and frozen--because I can't go through a whole belly in any short amount of time--tastes better. There, I've said it, bacon I've lovingly prepared tastes better after I froze it. Please don't hit me with sticks.

there's a farm about 4 miles away from me the grows the biggest cabbages i've ever seen--i wish i had one now and a crock that could hold 20 liters thanks for all the feedback!

if the souring agents are the yeast/bacteria i think they are (brettanomyces or lactobaccilus, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brettanomyces), then i doubt you could do it in a completely anaerobic environment. i sure would like a better container and weight system though, as i'm sure it doesn't weigh enough.

I'll give the yogurt whey trick a try the next time around. I'm more than happy to experiment, since so far the worst that's happened is I just have some tasty salted cabbage afterwards

I've been trying to make some home made sauerkraut for the past couple weeks, and have only ended up with duds so far. I'm using a 5% salt brine with conventional cabbage I've shredded myself, however even waiting 3+ weeks I've yet to get any real acidification to happen. Here's how I've been trying it: * Shredded a whole head of cabbage and placed it in an overly large enameled pot * Separately made a 5% salt brine with mortons kosher salt, and a teaspoon of pickling spice * I added about twice as much brine by volume compared to the cabbage, so there was plenty of liquid * Weighted down the cabbage with a loosely fitted plate, so only a few cabbage stragglers could float to the top * affixed a loose fitted lid made out of an old aluminum pie tin * placed on top of fridge It's been a tad over three weeks, and the smell is good (it has an appealing funkyness), but it just isn't sour. also, the cabbage is still surprisingly crunchy. is this just a problem with not getting a good microbial culture going? is there something i can do to help the little critters get going? am i too impatient? am i too clean? thanks!

thanks!

I just took possession of two choice cryov sealed on-point briskets. I'm going to be dry rubbing and smoking them in the style of the very excellent smoking tutorial here on egullet (I don't have the link on this computer) the weekend of the 21st. My question is this--should I pop them in the freezer for the next six-ish days before I dry rub them, or will they be fine in a cold fridge? Is ten days in the fridge okay for a piece of beast? Thanks!

i actually miswrote that, with the addition of the other grains it ended up being 65% hydration. i am going to ratchet up the hydration a tad more, use gentler heat, and a more complex grain bill next time. the flavor of the black patent malt is pretty dominating, but if i can extract more sugar from the grain it may balance it out better.

The crumb is tighter than I was originally aiming for, but it turned out quite tasty. You can really taste the black patent malt, with it adding a smoky, almost chocolaty flavor. I'm going to do a few more experiments, since I would like to determine if the righter crumb was due to prior gelatinization of 2/5's of the flour, old yeast, or if I just didn't proof long enough.

Here is the loaf after bulk fermentation, just into proofing. The black specks are larger bits of black patent malt, and in the spirit of an oatmeal stout I've topped with oats. The lighter parts of the dough as lighter because of a light water glaze I used to keep the oats attached.

I've been doing some experimenting today with some techniques I mentioned above, and I have some results and photos already. First off, making 'flour' from specialty grains like Black Patent (http://homebrewheaven.com/black-patent-malt.htm) is quite easy. I started by grinding some by hand in a pestle and it worked great. Later I ground it with my blender and that worked just as well, and was quite quick. Here is the original black patent malt: After grinding them sifting through a metal mesh sieve, the result is a bit coarser than white flour but less coarse than some whole wheat and definitely finer than corn meal. Sorry that this pic is blurry, but I don't have a good close up lens. The smell is amazing, with biscuity/chocolately aromas and a bitter, astringent taste. It looks like making flour with malted barley is not as intimidating as I initially thought, though controlling the hull to flour ratio might be challenging with other types of grain. The second experiment I've been thinking of is taking a paste of white flour and water, and raising that to mashing temperatures (~140 F) for an hour and a half and observed the carbohydrate to sugar conversion. Because the temperatures you find making commercial flour destroys many of the enzymes needed for this to occur, I added a small amount of crushed pale malt to a flour/water paste I made. Here is the bag of pale malt: The pale malt, white flour, and water: And the crushed malt separated into hull and flour: I only added the sifted flour on the right, and not the hulls on the left. It was about two tablespoons of flour in total, added to 200g of flour and 300g of water. Then, the paste was heated to 140 F and left to sit at them temperature for 90 minutes. I saved some of the original in a small bowl at room temperature for taste and consistency comparison. It would probably be better to use a double boiler for gentler heat, but I was able to get the paste to 140 without any scorching or excessive gelatinization (which was my main fear). After 90 minutes, I had both me and my wife taste both (and I hadn't told her what I was doing). The difference between the two was eye opening. The higher temp radically changed the flavor of the paste compared to the sample I kept at room temp. It was much, much sweeter, had much less of the bland gritty taste of the original, and was the same consistency as the original. At that point, I added 300g more flour, two tablespoons of the black patent flour I just created, 10g of salt, 5g of yeast, and a tablespoon of grapeseed oil (that's the green stuff in the pic, it tastes lovely in bread). I mixed for 5 minutes on medium and did a window pane test, which confirmed that the gluten development was at least as good as my regular whole wheat bread and almost as good as the all white baguettes I've been baking. I now have the loaf in bulk fermentation, and i'm biting my fingernails in anticipation. So far the dough tastes sweeter (in a very, very pleasant way) and more complex than i've baked. Wish me luck, as I'm writing this as I'm doing it. It may be a failure, it may be overkill, but it also may be killer. I'll post results as I get them.

That is exactly what I was looking for, thank you!

The nagging question I have about enzymatic reactions at lower temperatures is two-fold: 1. Will you get an a good tasting increase in less complex sugars if you 'mash' a flour paste as higher temperatures 2. Will gluten suffer at higher temperatures Beta and alpha amalayse efficiency is highest at very specific temperatures, and it is entirely possible that 'mashing' a paste before fermentation may make the end result either too sweet, or have a dubious gluten network. Here is a chart I've used in brewing showing the correlation between beta/alpha amalayse and PH. Protease breaks up large protein molecules, which I would assume also include gluten. Alpha amalayse breaks down complex carbohydrates into small fermentable sugars, and beta amalayse breaks carbohydrates into less fermentable sugars. I guess the two things I'm concerned about with unspent grains in bread are that the hull (the tough outer layer of the grain) won't be unpalatable, and that the perceived sweetness isn't dramatically increased. It is possible that with fine milling and no mashing, that won't be an issue. Thoughts? I may try this tomorrow.

Roasted barley tastes *awesome* even before brewing. It's like grape nuts for big kids. Most home brewers I know except for two or three never taste their grains, wort, or mash, but I can't explain how truly awesome it is to know the flavors of each step and how they transition. Also, the flavor difference between types of malt is night and day. Anyone, even without a trained palate can taste the difference between amber and chocolate malt, and most people can taste a difference between brands.