Heartsurgeon

you could glue the skin back with activa after you treat it with your pickling solution. the flesh could be cooked sous vide.

well i tried the 20% whole wheat substitution..bleech.... maybe it's me, but whole wheat tastes like saw dust (at least what i imagine sawdust to taste like) i also don't care to have cardboard colored bread products..unappealing i'm gonna try 10% and 5 % by weight whole wheat. It may end up that the taste and texture improves as the whole wheat decreases......back to basics eh?

New place.. Ombu Restaurant fabulous burger (this is not a burger place). Upscale dining, nice decor, nice service. food is decent (just opened).

i agree fully with the deep slash... but in order to benefit fully from the slash (max oven rise), i found that adding some flour into the slash keeps the cut from gluing itself back together as it rises, the added oven rise is phenomenal..

well, i'm tweaking the recipe again. now i've substituted 200 gms of the all purpose flour with whole wheat... we will see what it does to the bread.

i use to dip my knife in water as well, the problem with that approach is that the blade still gets sticky, and the gash can still stick back together. This is even more of a problem as the dough gets wetter. that's the beauty of putting a liberal amount of flour over the slash line, prior to slashing. the flour falls (or can be nudged) into the slash, and this prevents the freshly cut edges from sealing up as the dough expands when the oven heat generates steam inside the boule. you will be amazed by how much more your oven rise will be if you gets some flour down into the slashed area. on the boules shown, it looks like the slash sealed shut on one (minimal rise), while the second boule had a more effective slash, with greater rise.

Yeah Baby! Now your gonna get hooked on making bread (watch your waistline..carbs..) You should slash JUST before going in the oven. Very important to put flour on the boule just before you slash so that the knife doesn't stick, and the gash doesn't "heal" shut..makes a big difference. Slash deep, and try to slash an X shape, your boule will rise symmetrically. Every little tweak makes a difference. flouring the "slash" line just before you slash, and pushing a small amount of the flour into the slash line, as well as slashing deeply, has made a big difference in the oven rise i get. You should be able to get significantly more lift to your bread with a tweaked slash. i use a small, razor sharp teflon coated blade that i use only for bread slashing (i hide it from the family so they don't use it) ( Kuhn Rikon Paring Knife Nonstick , about $10). if you haven't, get yourself some powdered malt from King Arthur, and the breadiness flavor willl be much improved. love those blisters on the bread, great looking crumb. with the correct slashing/flouring you will get a lots more loft in your bread.

picked up 2 tips for non-standard use of a crock pot for thanksgiving, make you mashed spuds ahead of time and keep them in a covered crock pot on warm/low setting!! Toasty hot spuds at service guaranteed. this one is even better... after thanksgiving (or any meal than generates a carcass) take the turkey carcass, hack it up, stick it in the crock pot with some veggies and water...the next day, strain off your flawless stock!!

as i indicated, i usually wait 1 week before i use the dough. it allows the first rise time to complete (usually takes 3-4 days in the fridge), and allows the flavor to develop. I don't claim to understand it, but the prolonged rise time in the fridge somehow acts to allow the gluten to "align" and mimic the effects of kneading. I have not baked off the bread after an overnight rise in the fridge. I HAVE baked off bread after an overnite rise at room temp, and that works (no knead). look forward to hearing your results.

if you follow the formula exactly, it works great. you need a scale to weigh your ingredients (bread formulas are typically reported in ratios based upon weight). small changes in water will have big effects on the consistency of the dough. also, the flour itself is crucial. the formula is for King Arthur unbleached all purpose flour. In my experience, each flour I've tried has had a different consistency (using the same formula). That's why you want to pick one flour and stick with it, and tweak the hydration until you get the result you want (the wetter the dough the better, as long as you are able to shape the dough) formulas are in ratios for example 75% hydration (which is what i like) means, by weight, water equal to 75% of the weight of the flour used. 1000 gms of flour 750 gms of water. bread flours are typically mixed from 65-82% hydration. more water, bigger holes/better crumb, more oven rise more water, harder to shape the dough. i noticed a difference in managing the dough by reducing the hydration from 80% down to 75% ( found 82% unmanagable). according to what you made.. 3 cups of water = 720 ml 7 cups of flour = 770 gms flour your hydration is 93%. get a scale (accurate to 1-2 gms ), get some KA flour, try it again. i didn't check your salt/yeast levels, but again, weigh them out, skip the measuring spoons/cups, you'll be happier in the long run (you will get much more consistent results, and you will be able to make small changes in your formula and get EXACTLY the kind of bread you want). DONT GIVE UP! its just to easy and tasty.. p.s. i do all my baking on weekends...i mix up a batch of dough, and don't use it until the following weekend..flavor improves..

Technivorm i bought one for the wife... built like a tank dirt simple to operate makes fabulous coffee besides, it looks odd.. what's not to like!!

I was expecting that the chefestants would have to slaughter and butcher their protein!!

monkey (a.k.a. "Bush Meat") - bleech!!!!!!!!!!! i would be worried about infectious diseases being acquired (particularly from the bush meat).

Jmahl did you make one large boule or did you make small ones? i have been told that adding some whole wheat (like you did) increases the depth of the bread flavor. geez, now I'm going to have to try your modification...... to many variations, not enough time!!

take the duck legs/thighs off all the birds. coat the flesh side with kosher salt/thyme mixture for 8-12 hours. rinse off the salt/thyme. use a vacumn sealer to bag all the legs with a couple sticks of butter. no vacumn sealer? use a baggie (stick all the stuff in the baggie, lower the baggie under water to push out all the air around the duck, and then seal the baggie shut. get a crockpot full of water at 180-190 degrees (use the lowest setting to keep the temp fairly stable at 180 degrees). put the baggie in the crock pot (keep it underwater with a small plate) for 8 hours.... after 8 hours, take the legs out carefully (they may fall apart)..if they stay intact, you can crisp the skin up by briefly searing the skin in a hot skillet. be prepared for the best duck you've ever tasted (sous vide duck confit!) if your duck legs are fatty enough, you can leave out the sticks of butter. i have done with turkey legs as well (12 hours on those), and the result is fantastic. it's so good, you'll lose interest in the breast meat!!

i just lop a hunk off- eye ball it (plum size)..magically works out to 2 batches of 12 mini-buns. i found it very difficult to handle on large, wet boule. and when i slashed the large wet boule, i have boule-ooze laterally that made it really difficult to move the boule into the oven. the sucker would stick to my peel something fierce to boot.. finally, the family would devour/deface the bread before i had any for breakfast the next day (p.o'd about that). with the mini-buns, i get to apportion out a certain number of buns per household occupant... that way i get my share at least!

i am gearing up to sous vide a brisket following a salt/herb rub/rest, along with some duck fat..... hoping it's a religous experience....

i should add..i use a pizza stone in the oven i run my oven on convection bake i for the bread to make "mini-boules" - i get about 24 out of 1 batch of dough i form then in hand (about the size of a plum), place them on a silpat sprinkled with corn meal. i dust them with flour at the end of the rise period, and slash them with an X using a really sharp teflon coated knife. i transfer them from the silpat to the baking stone using a non-stick spatula. i went to the mini-boules, because the big boule was just to runny and loose, and was not managable (couldn't easily get it into the oven without having it ooze all over the place. i use the silpat + corn meal because i had problems with the boules sticking to what ever surface i let themn rise on. finally, the non stick knife and the non-stick spatula complete my tools use to transfer the little mini-boules to the oven. they are still fairly soft and sticky. how anyone works with 80%+ hydrate dough..i have no idea. the mini-boules also let me apportion the bread amongst the family members...a single big loaf just gets eaten up and i don't see any of it. with the mini-boules, each family member is allotted a fix number of boules they can consume....just don't touch mine!! you need to find a system that works for you..the technical problems i had was in physically handling the wet dough.. my answer was to reduce hydration (which reduced the crumb). to counter that, i increased rise time to 2 hours. i also reduced the size of the boule.. to counter stickiness, i got the teflon coated paring knife to slash the bread (then run about $10.00), and a non-stick spatula to transfer the boules to the pizza stone. to increase yuminess, i tried different kinds of malt..found the mix that i liked. good luck..you may find what works for your circumstances may be different, or you prefer a different bread than i do. lemme know how it turns out.

you should get a scale if your serious about making bread. i started out with a wet bread formula 1000 gms flour 820 gms water 25 gms salt 12 gms yeats the bread was hard to control (floppy) and tasted salty i reduced the salt, and did a series of experiments adjusting hydration down to see how it would effect the crumb and crust. ended up with a nice crust, nice salt level, and wet enough to have great crumb, but managable to handle (no runny/floppy). ended up at 1000 flour 750 water 20 salt 12 yeast. still craved a real "bready" flavor...noted that my favorite store bought breads had "malt" added.... got some malt from K.A. ended up with adding 20 gms of malt... increased the second rise to 2 hours to maximize the crumb... voila! my personal best bread recipe.. if you don't have a scale, the variablity of your ingredients (as measured) will kill your ability to fine tune and reproducibly make your bread.

fleischman's instant yeast 2 pounds for less than $5.00 at Sam's Club. i've tried all sorts of different yeasts and i can't tell any difference between them. this stuff is cheap and plentiful. i keep this stuff in a vacuum sealed container in the fridge

go to Sam's club or costco (if you don't belong, get a friend to take you, Sam's has free single day passes sometimes) you can get a gigantic sack of rice (50 lbs) for $20.00, that's a lot of meals you can buy 50 pounds of flour from your local miller (use google maps to find a miller near you) for about $15.00 (last time i checked)...that's a lot of bread. some of the local grocery stores sell "scraps" of lamb and beef trimmings for less than a buck a pound..slow cooked, the meat is fabulous, and you can make stock from the bones. similarly, large bags of pasta and beans can be had. buy in bulk, then use seasonings, ingenuity to create diversity in your meals. consider your local foodbank, church, and finally foodstamps. lots of leftovers can be added to pasta or rice, to create a new hot dish or cold salad..you can toss anything on a pizza!! finally, when weather permits, become a gardener...you can grow plenty of food with diligence, home made compost, and even seeds from the vegies, beans, fruits, and such that you already eat.

don't cook much...and it should be low/zero fat. she won;t have much of an appetite, and eating small amounts of food is typically recommended. make a flavorful broth and some jello and that should do it..seriously... forget the olive oil, or any oil for that matter..it will make her sicker..

most "modern" crockpots are useless for sous vide on the high setting.. your best bet is the "low" setting, or even the "warm" setting, which is a setting some crock pots switch over to after the cooking cycle is complete. i have 2 slow-cookers (aka crock pots) one ia all-clad behemoth, which i sous vided by turkey legs (major tastety goodness).. the all clad runs at 187 degrees on the low setting... i have a smaller, hamilton beach slow cooker, which can be set as low as 145 degrees. in order to get lower temps on a crock pot, you'll need a "PID" controller, and a really dumb crock pot (no auto temp controll, just on/off). The PID controller adds a feedback loop and a thermistor to turn your crock pot into a temperature regulated bath (see the big sous vide thread for details). when i used the crock pot, it was for 8-10 hours of cooking, and i partially filled it with hot water from the tap, and had a kettle of boiling water available to top off the crock pot once the cold turkey legs went in the cooker. The water temp was not exactly 180 degrees (the target), but i was close enough so the crock pot could maintain the water temp at a safe (high) level, so as not to promote bacterial growth.

i add this link The Blumeburger only to establish the outer-limit of the "best" hamburger envelope... and no, i have not tried it (although i am looking into grinding the recommended selection of meats, to make the burger patty)

i started with a digital thermometer and a crock-pot. had simply amazing results with confit duck and turkey legs, even though the crock pot temps were not exactly "right". i got a foodsaver vac system at Costco, which i used for several years packaging meat for freezing, before i ever used it for sous vide. yes, I plan on getting a immersion circulatory, but you certainly don't need one if you want to start trying sous vide. i would buy a digital thermometer and a foodsaver system initially (they are useful for way more than sous vide). you can start with a big pot of water and manually adjust the water temp for short term sous vide cooking (less than a couple of hours). for long term sous vide, a crock pot will certainly work, with some fiddling. when your hooked, get a water circulator.