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The fight we have is always about how cooked people like it. Half are happiest with it cooked medium but the (wrong) half insist on well done. This year I ended up splitting it into a two rib roast and a one rib version. Which was fine, but loses some of the drama of a big three rib piece

More expensive doesn’t necessarily mean bad value - I’ve always been very happy with the price/quality balance. But that’s quite an individual thing I guess.

We do most of our food shopping via Ocado. They have a really good selection of fresh food and are generally the best quality of the big online supermarkets. They carry speciality items from Natoora too which is useful if you want something a bit unusual. if you’re after things direct from the grower then you’ll find plenty of farmers markets I'm sure. Bristol is a great town - a real foody place with lots of really good restaurants.

@Duvel, beautiful looking spread - where to even start! That foie looks perfect and I bet is gorgeous with the pain depices. Sauternes jelly? Yes please! The main looks right up my street - proper wintery fare, the sour cream seems a great addition. Tell us more about the Balearic red though - which island/grape? Not sure I’ve had much wine from this part of the world. You have a very lucky family - happy Christmas!

Me too. Sad thing is the equivalent model to ours is now roughly three times the price it was when we bought it 😳 For this reason alone I can never move house.

We have had Miele ovens for the past ten or so years. They are absolutely brilliant mine still holds its temp within a degree or two (as measured by my ThermoWorks probe and logger). It gets super hot at the top end and will happily chug away at 25 or 30°C if that’s what you need. We've had great aftersales service from Miele too - never had an issue with the ovens but they’ve come and fixed out wine fridge and tumble drier when needed. You’re going to love it!

I feel the same about our magimix - it’s a great solid machine but it’s such a pain to get out and the clean up after I hardly touch it. A smaller one would probably suit me better for those things that the small jars on the vitamix struggle with - salsas, curry pastes etc. if I had infinite counter space I might feel differently but it’s stuck in a cupboard and rarely sees the light of day.

He did a great one when cooking a meal for then prime minister, Tony Blair. Seem to remember it was something like sea bass fillets, sliced potatoes, mushrooms and was dressed with salsa verde afterwards. Like you I’ve made it a couple of times but not in years… must fix that

We buy jarred Spanish beans all the time - absolutely love them. As you say, they’re really nice and creamy - so much better than canned beans which I usually find very chalky. Out online supermarket carries the brindisa brand - chickpeas, white beans, gigantes and lentils. They’re all lovely and really make a meal. Just wish they weren’t so expensive! About £5-6 a jar here.

We had our Christmas party last night. Pies and Puds on the menu - cheese and onion in a shortcrust case with a puff pastry top and beef and ale in a steamed suet pudding.

Lovely set of flavours - I adore the nuts/cheese/bitter leaves combo.

Seriously, take @scott123’s advice - just get a 12 or 16” gas fired ooni. Second hand if need be. If the desire for DIY brickwork is still there build a nice counter to seat it on. I’ve cooked with wood fired ovens a few times on holiday in Italy - unless you’re feeding a couple of dozen people regularly they just aren’t usable.

Very good points, @weinoo. I’d have no qualms about buying second hand versions - a quick look over and you know that they are fine. On le crueset you can buy new metal handles to replace the (??) Bakelite ones if they’ve become cracked, damaged or have gone missing; otherwise so long as the cooking surface inside looks solid you should be fine forever.

Exactly this. We’ve got three enamelled cast iron pans - two le crueset and one cheap knock off. The le crueset one’s I’ve had for twenty plus years and they are perfect, the cheap one chipped within a couple of years so now sits in a cupboard. Just take the hit on a decent brand and never buy again.

I love the commitment - having a fridge solely and specifically for drying things out… I dream of this.

Looks great, rotuts. I’ve got a set of grill grates for my indoor gas grill - love them Whats next on the menu?

In the end I ran out of time this week so had to cheat a little and use liquid smoke. I cooked it at 110°C in the oven after coating with the smoke. It actually turned out pretty well - the sous vide method has left really juicy tender meat, much better than previous salt beef attempts I’ve done using traditional methods. flavour was ok, a bit of the sweet side so I’d reduce the sugar content substantially next time. Not the most artful of pictures but you can see the colour was a nice deep red.

I guess it was always going to be the hardest part to do right - none of the predictive ones I’ve seen so far come close on this aspect. makes me wonder why though - when I look at the curves for meat I’m cooking they seem really smooth and predictable. What are the factors that stop a device from extrapolating well?

How are they doing @mgaretz? Any chance to cook with them yet?

My family are from south wales so this brings back great memories I loved my Nan’s cawl - toast spread thick with the saltiest Welsh butter and loads of brown sauce… yum. I might have to have a go at making this soon, the weather’s certainly bleak enough.

Thanks @Steve Irby, I noticed this the other day while on my laptop but now I’m back on my phone I can’t see it… does anyone know how to access it through the mobile version of the site? Can’t find it via Google either

Great, will look into this. How much regular salt do you add per kilo of meat?

Thanks @Duvel - I’m a bit of a fumbling amateur when it comes to nitrite curing so good to sense check it. I might well try a dry brine next time - do you have some proportions that you use for this technique?

here’s the recipe from chefsteps: so, ignoring all the flavourings, I make that brine to be: sugar 7.3% NaCl 4.2% (from the plain salt) + 0.625% (from the Prague powder) = 4.825% Sodium Nitrite 0.04% does that sound right?

Interesting and good to know… the stuff I’ve used is labelled as Prague powder 1, which I thought was interchangeable with insta cure 1. I was using the brine from chefsteps pastrami recipe which calls for 60g of insta cure 1 in 9000g of water. Are we saying we’d need like 10 or 15 times as much?