Jon Savage

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.

Awwwww... Sorry to hear that. I had high hopes for your bread today.

As far as i know the steam helps oven spring & crust texture/development , no reason to do away with the olive oil even if you do choose to add a little steam to the process.

That looks good, seems you are well on your way to getting the bread to work the way you like it. One additional question: Are you introducing some steam to the process during the first few minutes of baking?

I'd say that is a bit of an understatement on both counts. Nothing like a little vintage Bourdain to start the day though. I do enjoy reading Ruhlman's blog and am indebted to him as a reference to egullet in one of his books led me here in the first place.

We have several of these in the same price range. Been using them for years and they sharpen up nicely. Used one yesterday (a longish sushi knife) and the duck prosciutto was almost see through.

One of the challenges of making sourdough is figuring out what your culture's needs are- ambient in my kitchen is around 60F and dough needs at least 12 hours to rise using my culture - up to 24 hours is fine as well. In contrast to others I do everything (except for retarding in the fridge) at ambient temps. I applaud your persistence and look forward to reading about your success.

Ordered this mixer on Tues, it came Thurs. I made a 1/4 batch of monster cookies ( 1/2 of my huge recipe would fit but I wasn't sure). Boy was that fun. Now I need to find more cool recipes and things to do with this mixer. With my arthritis I should have bought this a long, long time ago. Woohoo! ← Hey I'm glad you like it. We use ours primarily for bread & pasta dough. Oh - the meat grinder attachment is cool as well.

I heard an interview w/ him on NPR yesterday... Sheesh. clicky

I use 5-600 grams starter to 1KG flour, some salt, adding 4-600 ml water. The resulting dough goes into a galllon ziploc in the fridge and provides bread and pizza for the week as needed. I refresh the starter and leave it on the counter for 1/2 day or so and put it back in the reefer before it peaks. I don't really use commercial yeast at all anymore. hummingbirdkiss - how did the last go round work out? I thinkl you'll find that it is well worth the effort once you get it working.

A simple (sourdough) pizza w/ a touch of marinara, fresh mozz and thinly sliced garlic sausage we made last weekend. Gotta love the gallon bag of retarding dough in the fridge - useful that is.

I too am a big adherent of the little white terry towels from Costo (Home Depot Wherever). I have 2 smallish knives from Ikea (6" and 8") same general shape as a chef's knife that came bundled with a couple delron (blue!) cutting boards maybe 10 years ago. Cost like 6 bucks total. Stainless unfortunately. On the other hand these have been my go to knives since I got them - take a nice edge and do what I need them to do. Long since discontinued ; no idea how the current crop of Ikea knives are. Still these rock - every year or so I consider buying a high end chef's knife but why bother? I also enjoy cast iron cookware immensely - hate caphalon for some reason or other. Then there is the endless supply of varied and sundry Pyrex that seems to get left @ our house after party's. Good stuff. Oh... a $1 plastic bowl (maybe 1/2 gallon) I bought at Ikea in oh.... 1985 or so. And then there is the myriad of tiny bowls we buy from the Japanese Costco type place near here- great for mise en place. They have nifty knives there as well and we have several. Don't get me started on the $20 rice cooker from the Cambodian market...

Sliced a block of lard held in my hand I remember thinking as I was slicing into it that this was not the brightest idea in the world. Dinner prep resumed several hours (and some sutures later). It has been 20 years since then.... thankfully I still have not managed to top that one.

I think hollandaise (already a classic pairing with the asparagus) would compliment the crap cakes as well. As for the main perhaps a nice paella?

Both your bacon and pancetta look just awesome. I'll have to wait a while for my stuff to finish curing . Our duck prosciutto should be ready in a few days; I'm thinking it might be a nice addition to a simple pizza. Looks like tasso is next on the list for us.

Nieman's seems out ATM - checked there earlier today. The Cambodian butcher was also in search of fat

Late to the party here (story of my life). The garlic sausage was/is awesome- just scored a couple of bellies (go Cambodian market) curing now -- 1 X bacon 1 X pancetta . OK fatback sources anyone?? Seriously jonesing for lardo.... None since my last trip to Italy in October. Thx

In a word Bacon - too many different kinds though to be able to pinpoint which variety he used in the first course. Flavors range from mild to smokey to sweet to spicey depending on country/region it came from. Mostly N. Italy, Austria, Switzerland and Germany.

It should work just fine - A friend of mine bought that same one a few weeks ago and he has been making *lots* of bread with it.

I just wait until I have a couple pounds of ripe Cayenne in the garden- They go into my smoker (an offset cheap char broil model) for as long as it takes for the peppers to dry. I usually just use lump mesquite charcoal but have used oak flooring scraps as well. I usually do this while smoking a roast or the like. This takes several hours @ 150 degrees. Once the peppers are dry I grind them using an old coffee grinder. Same process works well for habaneros or jalapenos as well although they need to be split prior to smoking.

Wow Maggi. Vegeta. Both blasts from the past; I lived in Austria for 8 1/2 years and my ex loved the former while her grandfather (from Hungary) swore by the latter. My favoured not so secret weapon is smoked Cayenne pepper from my garden. Imagine ground chipotle only brighter. I love that stuff. A little bit goes a long way.

This thread has certainly been an inspiration to me. I'd been eyeballing the book for longer than I care to admit. The book arrived Friday afternoon, yesterday morning was spent looking for fatback (no joy alas) but the duck prosciutto has been started and I made a batch of garlic sausage as well yesterday (slightly tweaked it by adding more garlic, fresh rosemary and a habanero). I don't have casings yet so made several 1/2 pound logs. I made a smallish terrine of it as well- cooked to internal temp of 150, chilled and sliced thin. Wow. I'm hooked.