Jon Savage

The knife arrived today - since I'm going to cube 5 pounds of pork butt to make sausage in a short while that will be a good test. --edit I'm sold. Diced 5 lbs semi frozen pork butt in less than 10 minutes. Yikes that thing is sharp. Be afraid, Very afraid.

I usually just put em in the pans right after shaping them, the little bit of bench flour seems to suffice assuming there is not gobs and gobs of it. FYI depending on your oven these may be done sooner than you think, mine get rotated 180 in the oven after 10 minutes and are done in 18-20 minutes total baking time.

I've been getting what I think are pretty good results w/ the perforated baguette pans straight on the rack, no stone.

You can do that but the result won't be the same.

Cuban Rum. Cuban Coffee. Even a Cuban cigar should you be so inclined.

Well the pancetta seemed done after the better part of two weeks. Just had a couple of slices raw while doing prep for spaghetti carbonara. Very, very tasty indeed seems almost a pity to cook it. Three bellies almost finished curing - will put them in the smoker Friday 'cos you can never have enough bacon.

My pet peeve.... Cell phones / Blackberries during a meal. Thought about this @ a business lunch today... 5 of us - I muted my phone when we went to lunch and generally ignore the crackberry 'cos if my phone is not vibrating then nothing can be too urgent right? Nope... the others were taking calls & checking email all through the lunch.... arrgh.... can't they stop for an hour? Take "urgent" calls away from the table? I was embarrassed by this to be honest.

I'm envious of your kitchen and really enjoying the blog. Thanks for doing this.

I'm with you. I do have a source for fatback, going to try some lardo soon.

I think it has something to do with the water turning to steam. Also even a damp rag (see I called it a rag) will likely be more compressible than a dry one meaning among other things that there is less air in it which likely also degrades its ability to insulate.

I'm pretty sure you had a version of semmelknoedel. The recipe linked to above is about right, you can also add a few ounces of diced bacon to make speckknoedel. A favorite of mine, I need to make some again.

I chickened out and ordered the F-RM-52, I wonder if using less than 1/4 cup for a 5 pound batch as some did upthread helped reduce the sourness.

I'm with you, I just eyeball until it looks right and drive on

I'm placing my first order for casings and Bactoferm today. I was wondering whether anyone had tried Bactoferm T-SPX instead of the F-RM-52 called for in the book since many seemed to feel that the F-RM-52 was too sour.

I've got a bunch of white terry shop towels that I use/abuse in this fashion. Works for me

Well if you feed it and it gets nice and frothy then it will at least leaven. If it seems active then just bake a loaf or two - that will give you some idea of how it will work out. Don't forget that most wild yeast/sourdough cultures need more time to rise than commercial yeast . . . plenty of HOWTOS upthread. Heck you are probably discarding enough starter when you feed to make bread already Enjoy!

Yep. Tojiro DP 240mm Gyuto Item #F-808 this described as stainless w/ carbon core. Excited, can't wait until it gets here. Thanks for the recommendations.

I have a silver smoker been using it for several years and have been *very* happy with it.

Thanks Ann - Yours looks great as well. My starter is a youngster as well, maybe 2.5 years old but going strong. That dough had been retarding in the fridge for the better part of a week. Couple more loaves and I need to make another batch for next week.

Today's bread. Probably needed one more 180 rotation, our oven is not the best in the world.

Season and grill the steak as usual. Artichokes stuffed with panko crumbs and seafood medley. Grilled cantaloupe with ice cream. ← Starter - Artichoke w/ Aoli Main - Sauteed steak + sauce from pan deglazed w/ sherry & butter to bind + seafood risotto Dessert- Canteloupe and cheese plate --Are other ingredients allowed???

Good question - had they comped us a drink or an amuse or even provided decent service perhaps in some way acknowledged the fubar we might have been back. @ over $100/head it was simply inexcusable. I was going over our taxes today and saw that bill.... Still cranky almost a year later. That place was great in every respect for the first couple of years.

On the flipside we had a reservation for 5 @ Fora here in Long Beach last year for 5- they had overbooked (sadly I used to like that place). We arrived @ the appointed time - they said 15 minutes... Over an hour later we were seated, after having a pint @ the pub (unconnected to Fora) next door. For me paying for that that dinner represented several days work. F' them we have not been back since. Cancellations @ the last moment are a bad deal for the restaurant. Overbooking gone awry in my case anyway = never coming back there.

--Note I PM'd this to hummingbirdkiss but decided to post it anyway hoping it might be of help to others; if it is too redundant then (a helpful mod) can delete. Here's my process (simple 'cos I hate complication). Flour + generous amount of starter/sponge (I use about 2.5 cups of *active* starter, don't make a sponge at all, my starter is about 50% water) and enough water to hydrate to about 60-70% (lower is easier to manage, higher gets better holes). NO SALT at this point. Knead in kitchenaid for 2-3 minutes until all hydrated. Let sit covered for 20 minutes to an hour. Add salt (appropriate amount for the size of your batch). Knead for 7-12 minutes in kitchenaid. Better to under work than over knead. Retard in a ziploc in the fridge for at east 24 hours but up to a week is OK (I usually do about a gallon ziplocs worth each batch). Baking day: 8-12 hours prior take as much dough as you want to use out, hand knead just a little to make a nice ball. Place in a *lightly* oiled bowl covered @ room temp (assuming 65ish). It probably won't exactly double more likely will spread out esp. when using a wet dough. Gently remove from bowl, on to floured bench - divide if need be, then gently fold to add surface tension, shape as desired, place seam down on peel (if using a baking stone) or on to a cookie sheet or baguette form (a little corn meal is good on the sheet or peel). Cover with a damp towel. Allow to rest @ room temp while oven pre heats (1/2 hour or so for me). Pre heat oven as hot as it gets (550 in my case). Score loaves. Place in oven. Throw a bit of hot water on the sides and floor of oven as well to generate steam. Add a little more water after a minute. Reduce heat to 450, for baguette check for evenness after 10 minutes rotate front to back if needed, boule same deal after 20 minutes. Baguette are done when internal temp is 205, boule @ 180-185 degrees. baguette take about 20 minutes boule 30-40 minutes in our oven. If you don't want to splash water on the floor/walls of your oven a sheet pan or cast iron pan in the preheated oven works for this. All of the above loosely adapted from several methods in the Bread Baker's apprentice. I can't believe how much my bread improved after reading that book. It took my bread from good to "artisinal" according to my wife. Really empowering once you get the ratios and a little bit of the science behind the process. We usually bake every other day or so. I hope you won't give up.

Smoked our first bacon last night, making some for breakfast ATM - had to sneak a piece WOW. The duck prosciutto did not last long either. I'm well and truly hooked.