haresfur

I have wanted some 2 liter mason jars for fermentation for a while but getting them has been problematic due to shipping costs. So I tagged along on a trip down to Melbourne on Sunday and made it to Kitchen Warehouse, which actually has a fancy storefront for the foodies, but apparently is well set up to get things to restaurants quickly. Not without some issues because they don't know that their jars take wide mouth Ball lids (why would you make anything different?). Pretty ridiculous because the replacement lids they sell are only in a set of a band and a lid for about $7.00. Anyway I took a lid down with me, found a single jar on a clearance shelf where I could test it and decide it should work. Had to send someone into the back for Barkeepers Friend and picked up off-brand microplanes and kitchen shears. So a bit of a weird operation but a successful trip.

An idle thought, would an unglazed clay banneton work? Because I can see how you could incise more complicated designs that you can get in a coiled basket. I'm even imagining something where the banneton forms the lid for a clay baking vessel. The trouble is I don't eat much bread so it probably isn't worth the effort.

I think they suggest storing the liners in the freezer so that wouldn't take up as much space as trying to freeze the baskets. https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/blog/2023/01/25/bannetons-brotforms-proofing-baskets

King Arthur suggests the freezer, as I found out when I was googling what a banneton is

I did a little looking and it gets complicated because apparently when people say sodium citrate they generally mean tri-sodium citrate and there are mono- and di-sodium citrate, depending on how many hydrogen ions you have knocked off. So the pH gets buffered by multiple reactions. Then, if you want to look at the reactions making the stuff from citric acid and sodium bicarbonate, you get into the whole system of carbonate chemistry with carbonate, bicarbonate and carbonic acid, which is H2CO3; a water and a carbon dioxide. So there is pH buffering in that system, too. And a lot (most?) of the carbonate in water at low pH is actually CO2, not joined to a water molecule. I studied carbonate geochemistry and it is really hard to wrap your brain around. Throw in the citrate chemistry and I'm out of here. I'll buy my sodium citrate powder, thanks.

I use my IR thermometer now and then. Mainly when preheating a pan or now and then for shallow frying oil to know when to add food. It is decent for pseudo-Neapolitan pizza where you get a pan screaming hot and whack the pizza in to cook the base for a few minutes then finish under the broiler. I should use it more but usually wing it. Aside from that, it is ok at figuring out when the gas grill is heated enough and how even the heat is (for mine it is not). I did love seeing the science geek kid running around Old Faithful geyser basin at Yellowstone, measuring the different hot springs. They don't let you cook in them anymore, though. I don't think mine adjusts for emissivity, but that's not a big deal if you are using it to get consistency using the same setup or just to get ballpark temperatures.

I had raspberries planted in the garden beside the horse pen. I would have thought that the thorns would have dissuaded them, but no. I have planted butternut, zucchini, and cucumbers in that area since. Zuke haven't been very successful, never got a cuke, and the horses have had to content themselves with the butternut that grow through the fence.

I wonder what they do with it. Too good to waste Do they perhaps sell rump cap? That's basically the back part of a full tri tip. Also known as picana but they probably don't know about that. My beef guy sells the front part without the fat cap but the rump cap with the thick fat on one side.

Give your pescatarian friend a tin of sardines and call it good /joke. White anchovies are nice. Also a place I used to go to did dates stuffed with blue cheese and walnuts. Another place I used to go to had a really nice ginger sangria made with white wine.

I thought it was more for Seventh Day Adventists and Catholics who didn't eat meat on Friday.

Many people mix it with yogurt, particularly a runny one. I mostly avoid it.

Clay pot cooking is pretty niche where I live but I use a few variations. I would be interested to hear what type of pots and what type of cooking you do. I have a lidded terracotta pot that I made and generally used like a romertopf - you soak the pot and then put in a cold oven and ramp up to steam/roast the food. I have also used it on the stovetop but it has a crack that I haven't sealed yet (you can boil milk in it and it might seal the crack if it isn't too bad). I use my La Chamba earthenware pot that makes beans I prefer to the faster pressure cooker method I use. I also have one of their open pans that makes decent Spanish rice in the oven. Probably similar to the Mexican bean pots Rancho Gordo sells, except for the shape. I have a glazed stoneware bean pot that sometimes comes into service for baked beans but is usually used to store dog biscuits. Since it is not porous, the main difference from steel is heat retention. My tagine is not earthenware so not the same as traditional ones. It is an industrial high spodumene clay designed to handle stovetop cooking with minimal porosity. There are a few potters who hand-throw high-spodumene flameware but you have to know what you are doing. There are also potters around, particularly in the southwest US who make functional micaceous pots like some of the Pueblo pottery. The mica helps avoid thermal shock. Not that the Pueblo pots, aren't functional, but they command a pretty high price from collectors. Have a small sand pot I picked up in Thailand that can easily take stovetop. Not sure exactly how they are fired. Glazed on the inside. I don't use it that much but it worked out really well in the gas barbie to get a bit of smokey flavour into eggplant by putting woodchips and herbs on the flame. I don't think the terracotta tortilla warmer I made quite counts as cooking but gets a fair bit of use. Sometimes I soak it first, but usually just put a dampened cloth inside and microwave it. Oh, and I have some small terracotta pots with no lid glazed on the inside that were used to sell a brand of hummus. Mainly eye-catching, I guess. I do think they are cool and use them as small baking dishes sometimes.

Hmm, I always thought you were supposed to start potatoes in cold water, particularly prior to making chips because they pass more slowly through the lower temperature where enzymes make them fluffier. That's what I do and they don't seem to suffer.

Well I suppose that some designer instant coffee could be considered pre-brewed and do the trick. I can handle the stuff from the roasters my coffee shop uses. It's called Magic Bogan Dust.

I am getting very tired of companies trying to monetize the use of their hardware. But I can't see any value added in using their app so...

Did BLTs recently with beef bacon but didn't post. I usually avoid pork streaky bacon and use the short-cut, which I guess you would call Canadian bacon, or back bacon, or pea bacon, or something. Agree that the right tomatoes are vital. Haven't tried dehydrated ones. Found a weird recipe for a vegan bacon substitute that I want to try next. Because, why not?

Oven-cooked Santa Maria tri-tip. My beef guy insisted I buy the rump cap/picanha end which had good marbling. He was right. More or less followed Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc at Home. Changes included using Kashmiri Chiles instead of piment d'Espelette, added some smoked paprika and rosemary to the rub. Chiles are definitely past their due date . Served with parsley chimichurri from another recipe. The Chimichurri acidity really made the dish.

too many decisions

There is a story that should be true, even if it isn't, about a guy sitting on a Metro platform feeding chips to the gulls. He had attracted quite a crowd. A train pulled in and he threw the rest of the packet, closely followed by the gulls, into the train car before the door closed.

Experimenting with @Duvel emergency pizza dough. Pulled the remaining dough out of the fridge, stretched thin, and baked in a 250 degree (that's proper degrees C) fan-forced oven. I used a tray from a previous oven that doesn't quite fit, but I didn't mind if it got trashed. Sprayed the tray with rice bran oil. Bake time was 12 minutes. A perfectly serviceable thin-crust with a light golden brown on the base. I probably should have let it rise for a few minutes after shaping but wanted to see how this would turn out. I call it a successful lunch.

My father was adamant that the egg beater was the only way to whip cream, I guess so you didn't over whip. I hate those things with a passion. I'd use a whisk.

First attempt at @Duvel emergency pizza. Pepperoni and kalamata olives. I don't have a steel so cooked the base in cast iron on the hob then whacked it under the broiler. Had to throw this one back in the pan to cook some more after I cut it. The dough was very tasty. Will make again. Lessons learned: Heat the cast iron more and leave in longer, not enough char on the bottom. A bit more time under the broiler, too. Use less dough for each pizza and leave a bit less crust around the edges. Work on my shaping skills. A half recipe would be plenty for us. Does the dough freeze?

Interesting article from the ABC News site, particularly the recent diversification and the bit about students now being the core demographic. Makes me want to get down to Melbourne more often. How Chinese food in Australia has evolved with new waves of migration

I don't understand why you don't want to portion it, but ok. If your bag pressurises, then snip a corner off, release the pressure and reseal. That's what people do for fermenting in vacuum sealed bags. If a little of your bag liquid leaks out, so what? If a little of your sous vide water leaks in, so what? - assuming you start with a clean bath. Personally, I'd portion and use big zip locks, but whatever floats your boat.

I believe someone did a larger than suckling pig in a hot tub