Blether

Hi, Mike. I've always been intrigued by the expression "the camera loves [someone]". What does it mean, do you think ? Is it that someone is just very watchable and would be were it in the theatre, at another table in a restaurant, there in his home letting you watch him cook ? Or do you think it's some chemistry that's somehow specific to recorded images ? Or something else ? David Ross, do you have a view on this ?

Witty sarcasm, eh ? I should give that a try sometime. BTW If Wikioracle is to be believed, James Beard started in 1946 and Marguerite Patten in 1947, so that's the competition from the UK discounted. I can remember watching The Galloping Gourmet myself back in the early 70's / late 60's. He was good, though ol' Fanny Craddock had her moments too. (ETA, Special for SobaAddict70: hey, what's with the hating on fuzzy peach ?)

Heh. Thanks for the lesson. You know, I'm surprised at how painstaking folk can be over their whisky and yet specify water as 'water'. It's a cross-over thought with the 'free samples' topic, but just this week I was in Tokyu Hands the very day after the teevee announced that Tokyo tap water wasn't recommended for drinking. Their was a rep on the floor trying to sell (office-style) water cooler/dispensers and offering free samples. I tried some and it was so utterly devoid of taste I didn't like it. "It's really gentle, isn't it ?" she says. Me: "Yes..." Whenever I'm back in the "old country" (two different clicks there, just for fun) one of the things I relish is the delicious tap water piped from the local rural reservoir. (There was something of a hubristic micro-parochial uproar when we heard the supply was being switched to the next reservoir over, and that replacement source was the Glen Turret dam. Go figure). Tokyo tap water, by comparison ? Yuch. How did it take the newscasters so long to figure it out ?! And Tokyo's is better than East London's in the 80's - that stuff came out of the tap full of fibrous white grimsbies that looked like nothing more than the remnants of blitzed toilet paper. I only accept the real thing

I like Coke in mine. There has been enough eG discussion about 'perfected', consistent quality mass-market products, and Coke is one of the totems. I'd have posted more quickly, but it took till tonight to confirm the ratio well enough to write it down: I've been pouring it at about 2:1 Coke:whisky. If you're a regular eG whisky follower, you'll be bored of my recommendations of Teacher's (smooth) and The Famous Grouse (more characterful, Scotland's biggest-selling whisky domestically, and by cheerful happenstance for me, the local whisky where I come from). I also said in another thread that of the Malt Whisky Society's bottlings at a recent formal-wear do, I liked Glen Scotia, Craigellachie and Caol Isla in my Coke over ice, in that order, splitting it about 3:1 or 4:1. My notes don't show details of the specific bottlings, but with branding and the way the market is, I suspect whiskies under the same labels will give the better part of the same result. I'd have more detail in memory, but when we got to the nijikai (after-party) in a Roppongi bar it was me that was dealing with the exploding ex-82nd-airborne security-guard - me with a broken hand that precluded the quick solution - so most of the things I have written down afterwards are the names of police officers and witnesses and the like.

In my experience, no. It's always much better after a long slow rise (5 or 6 hours at 20C-ish room temp) as opposed to a minimum one-time "double in volume", but I see slowing it down in fridge & freezer as a (big !) convenience rather than a flavour step. I've not noticed a difference in flavour between the three, all other factors being equal.

That looks great, Jeff. Nice hand with the toppings. How was it to eat ?

Round ? I threw that out of scope very quickly

I bought a jar of wheatcrack wheatgerm for a certain project (Kretschmer brand, net wt 12oz, retail ~12 dollars. Really. Alternative sources in Japan most welcome). I've not used / cooked with the stuff before and a first taste suggested nothing more than Weetabix. What's the difference between wheatgerm & Weetabix ? How is wheatgerm produced - how and at what part of the milling process is it isolated, what other processing does it enjoy, if any ? Are there any suggested substitutions ? How would Weetabix, bashed up, be ? Later I'll happily say what the project is, but I'd like to get a bead on wheatgerm by itself first, if you don't mind.

- like my authentic toast Sounds like a hydration issue / hydration consistency across different flours ? Unless it's too much or too little dough development. I don't know that there's such a thing as 'stretches too easily', not the way I like my pizza. I keep my pizza dough pucks each in its own wee oiled plastic bag. Once a puck's proofed, I drop flour on top of the dough and use that barrier to turn it out onto one hand, flour the other side and I'm good to hand-shape with no sticking, the excess flour simply dropping off (in my kitchen: dropping the flour into the sink) before shaping. Loose & highly-developed as it is, my dough is impossible to handle without the flour. Even oiled it sticks mercilessly. What's your approach ?

Wow. That is a lot of development ! Thanks for the details. I haven't gone with bread today, but I did do a wee meat project in honour of Anglo-Scottish co-operation... to be posted over the weekend after baking off, maybe in its own topic.

That looks excellent. Are you not yet ready to share what your variation was this time ? I wanted to ask to, what sort of ambient temperature was involved in the 12-hour rise ?

Why would you ? The microwave is an elegant solution to simple steaming/boiling of vegetables. It's far more efficient, in these energy-straitened times, than boiling a pan of water. It saves water if you're in a desert area. And I say the results lose nothing.

Cool. I'll be interested to see how it goes. (Funny how he says "golden brown" but in the pictures the edge is all burned, eh ? But don't tell anyone I said so ).

Hey, if they're going to push the lovey-dovey stuff, I say, give us the goods.

Weinoo, are you hoping to hear predictions of where the mainstream trend will go, or are you a producer looking for ideas ? I give you: "Hot Times in the Kitchen, with newcomer Melanie Melon" (Vivid Video, 2011).

Can this not be preserved for room-temp jar storage in the same way as Indian curry paste ? Viz: add the required amount of vinegar, fry in plenty of oil till the moisture's driven off ? That's how I do my Indian curry paste. Huge cost saving over bought-in-a-jar. freedom to vary the paste / make as many brands as you care to. Free your curries from all tasting the same because of being tied to the few varieties available retail. Keeps forever, unlike curry powder. (Sorry. I don't mean to push a pin into the bubble of inspiration !)

Of course ! Now that you mention it, the two chutneys I made up last February (!) featured canned tomatoes. At ~90cents a can, that's almost do-able. Thanks for sharing your formula.

A brilliant strategy Boning poultry. Yes !!!

Hi, Katie. 'Bonito' is the same as 'katsuo' is the same as 'skipjack'. I think I remember 'albacore' is the same thing ? Yes, skipjack is a smaller fish lower down the food chain; unlike other large tuna 'ranched' in the Mediterranean, I think it's (worldwide) exclusively wild-caught.

Oof. Like the US, an oven - gas or electric - is a standard fitment in UK kitchens. I think the continental tradition of enamelled cast-iron owes a lot to the historical scarcity of fitted ovens in Italy & France - and here in Japan even now they are still only to be found in high-end residences. I don't have a convection/mw. Mine is electric/mw. No fan. Either way, I'd be lost without it. Looking at it, my National NE-JI is 14.4" x 8.9" x 14.6" internally (It supports two shelf-levels, like Andie's), and takes up - eyeballing it - about 1/7 the space of a traditional 'cooker' - counter-height unit with 4-ring hob, grill (broiler) and oven of maybe twice that size. It's no bigger than a microwave-only unit. It's easy to clean, and spill-capable like Andie's, and I bought it in 1995. I've noticed in the shops lately that on the current market, interior space this big or bigger is now a common feature, not the very rare exception it was when I blew 1,100 bucks on mine, which not only was at the top of the in-space range, but fits that space into a super-small external size, relative to other products from the time.

Nice.

Rogue's Gallery: Bread as described Morning rolls based on the same core approach More rolls, like it says Creative and original garnish idea

Well, I won't write detail about ingredient ratios. I use a very simple flour/water/salt/yeast and I tend to like higher-side hydration. I put a tablespoon of good olive oil into a loaf made from 400g of flour, for flavour and a little more keeping power. I haven't made a point of trying leaving it out, but I'd be surprised if it has much influence on whether the loaf has stellar flavour or not. 18 hours does sound like a lot - but is that 'outside' as in outdoors, in the NY climate ? In which case, very much ballpark, depending on the season. Proofing time for me tends to be around 5 - 6 hours at my 20C-or-thereabouts room temp, no knock-downs. A standard breadmaking text might well call it overproofed, but I've learned the point to stop it before it's too far gone for me. I rely on a breadmaker for a lot of my daily bread, and for 'hand-made' kneaded loaves I cheat by using it to knead dough for hand-baked loaves and for pizza, just cancelling the breadmaker cycle when I want to stop it. When I do all-breadmaker bread, I'll add a little sugar sometimes to get a higher rise. As I expect you know, the sugar gives the yeast a fast start both at releasing gas and multiplying, so you get to any given level of raise in a shorter time. I don't get to alter the programming on the maker, and the cycles are pretty short. For your hand-made loaves, I think you're right to question the amount of yeast you use. I like about 1/4tsp, again for 400g of flour, or less if I have the time / feel patient. I believe less is more, flavourwise, having experimented with it quite a lot. How much flour do you use 1/4tsp with ? I suspect your yeast ratio is already like or less than mine. Lastly, flour. I had found a favourite brand, Haruyutaka, here in Japan, with an 11.3% gluten content, soft for a bread flour. It made such delicious bread - a featherlight long-rise loaf from this, some fresh butter and a cup of coffee and I was happy. Then last year it was discontinued and disappeared from the market. I don't know the details and I'd be happy even now to find I'm wrong about that (are you listening, helenjp ?!). I'm still in the process of testing for a replacement - I have - just a moment - 4 different white bread flours in stock. My working hypothesis is that it's the weaker flours at about this level that have the flavour. I tried a couple of ultra-strong flours (for the Japan market, that is - the range seems lower here than in North America) at about 13% against the Haruyutaka, but they were nowhere. The second best was minori-no-oka, good flavour too but not as good as the Haruyutaka. I'd be really interested to hear about your own trials. I can even feel the conversation pulling me towards the loaf tins already.

The one I improvised decades ago and stuck with for years went: tuna, pour off the oil or water; mayo, seed-y moutarde de meaux, white wine vinegar, garlic salt, ground black pepper, Lea & Perrins. A bit of the oil added back in, maybe. Recently I like to use grated onion, and generally to follow the will o' the wisp at the time for the seasonings, but I've pretty much always used mayo. I too like some of the new thoughts I've read in this thread.

Now that's what I'm talking about . Yes, that's a beauty