Mottmott
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I confess to not having tasted baby food since my kids were babies.
I was feeding my aging cats baby food meats during their last years, but was never tempted to taste it. It was odd, though. Sometimes they'd "refuse" a jar.
It made me wonder if some of these jars might be "off." I think I'd never feed the stuff to babies, but just grind my own. -
I often use Patrick O'Connell's recipe for brining fowl. It includes a wide variety of herbs, spices, honey, etc. that are brought to a boil, allowed to cool, then used to marinate the bird. I find it gives a wonderful flavor and vary what spices I use according to what's cooking - or what's available.
Birds roasted this way have been met with wild enthusiasm from my guests. If I were going to use the fowl in a dish with its own flavors and aromas, I would probably modify the brining to be less complex to not compete with the rest of the recipie.
Can you provide a link, or more information? I'm not certain that this meets the definiton of brining.
As the delegated SSB for this lesson, I think it's crucial that we not use brining and marinating as if they were interchageable. They're not.
This is not to deny that it's very good, of course. In fact, it sounds terrific.
My bad, I should have said "brine," not "marinate." The recipe is below, both attributed and paraphrased, so it should be legal.
BRINED CHICKEN from Patrick O’Connell,
found in NYT 12-22-99
serves 4-5; Time: 1 hour 15 minutes, plus overnight brining
My notes: This recipe imparts a wonderful taste to the fowl; used on both chicken and Turkey. Time must be adjusted for the size of the bird. Used on parts do not follow timing here or it becomes too salty. For the turkey (fresh, organic, free range), I multiplied the recipe and used a picnic cooler which I left outdoors in the chill Fall air. Worked fine.
BRINE:
½ cup kosher salt
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 cup honey
3 sprigs each parsley, dill, thyme, tarragon, sage
1 sprig rosemary
1 Tbs mustard seeds
1 Tbs fennel seeds
1 cinnamon stick
2 large bay leaves
4 cloves
½ Tbs juniper berries
½ Tbs cardamom pods
1 Tbs black peppercorns
1 lemon, halved and squeezed lightly
3 star anise
½ Tbs whole allspice
CHICKEN:
3-4 lb chicken
1 cup sliced carrots
1 cup sliced celery
1 cup sliced onion
2 Tbs butter, melted
1. Large stockpot or roasting pan that holds chicken in one piece: bring 1 gallon to a boil; remove from heat, add all brine ingredients, stir. Cool to room temperature. (Of course you can substitute a ziplock for the pan once the brine cools.)
2. Add chicken to pan. Cover, refrigerate overnight.
From here you can substitute your own favorite way of roasting the bird, but I give you O'Connell's instructions for completeness:
3. Drain chicken well, discard brine. Cut off and discard wing tips. Preheat oven to 350f. Roasting pan: place carrot, celery, onion. Place chicken on top of veggies. Brush chicken with melted butter.
4. Roast chicken til thigh joint temperature reaches 150f, about 1 hour. Baste with pan juices at least every 15 minutes. Watch carefully to avoid burning. If parts become well browned, cover with foil. When chicken is done remove from oven. Allow it to rest at least 10 minutes before carving. (depends on size of bird, of course)
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I often use Patrick O'Connell's recipe for brining fowl. It includes a wide variety of herbs, spices, honey, etc. that are brought to a boil, allowed to cool, then used to marinate the bird. I find it gives a wonderful flavor and vary what spices I use according to what's cooking - or what's available.
Birds roasted this way have been met with wild enthusiasm from my guests. If I were going to use the fowl in a dish with its own flavors and aromas, I would probably modify the brining to be less complex to not compete with the rest of the recipie.
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The Cooking of South-West France by Paula Wolfert - Other than MAFC, Vol. 1, the book I have used the most.
Funny, but I've just come from the kitchen where I was doing the first stage of her Daube de Boeuf a la Gasconne for Sunday night's dinner, marinating the meat and veggies in wine. Tell me it's worth having run all over town for the ingredients yesterday in addition to the cooking itself (the pig's foot was the most fun to find).
The most memorable stew I've ever had was the Catalon stew from Wolfert's World of Food. Now I often use the technique of roasting vegetables separately to add to braised foods at the end of various recipes. I also like the technique that's in this Daube of using some of the vegetables pureed to thicken the dish before serving.
But with all that, I can't say than these or any other cookbooks are my favorites. The beauty of cookbooks is that they demonstrate so many ways to approach cooking even within a particular national cuisine.
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Sunday has become iffy for me. I jammed my foot and have trouble walking. It's getting better and hopefully by Sunday I'll be okay. The amazing part is that I don't remember doing it!
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The bread tastes mighty good despite its less than perfect bottom, though it cleaned up pretty well). I'll try some of the suggestions later this week. Each of my 2 boys have families, so I'll have to bake multiple loaves now that I know I can get such wonderful results!
Jack and Dan, you' ve been very generous in guiding guiding us all through this process (with me first whimpering and now crowing with joy). I will toast you and praise you as I sip wine and nibble on bread and cheese, fruit, nuts, a hearty bowl of soup. I've made yeast bread some years ago, but this is on another plane. We have some pretty good artisan bakers in Philly, but it tastes so much better made at home.
I''m also grateful to all the others who have shared their knowledge and experience. I'm not sure that I would ever have gotten into sourdough without this cyberclass. I've learned from everyone's posts and the answers to their questions. I'll incorporate some of the suggestions in my next batch. When I make freeform tarts on the stone I usually start at 475 or so, then reduce the heat with good results, the bottom of the tart just beginning to get dark. And if that doesn't do it, I'll take FoodMan's suggestion and raise the bread to a higher shelf. Also, I think I'll use Formerlygrueldelux's adopted trick of using a heating pad in the oven with my starter as I ususally keep my house on the cool side when nature cooperates.
Life is good.
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Thanks FoodMan, The odd thing is that most of the blackening seemed to occur in the beginning!
Of all the problems I might have had, this is one I didn't expect. I use the stone all the time to make pizzas, scones, pies (it does wonders for the bottom crust!) and when doing the latter I do frequently raise them for part of the baking - partly to be sure that the tops are baked enough.Iwill raise the stone on my next try and see what that does. I think I'll probably do another loaf later in the next couple days.
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I just took out my first ever loaf of sourdough bread (sorry, no digital camera yet). It looks good, smells good.
The only problem is that the bottom is too blackened and will need scraping off. I baked the cold loaf in a 550f oven with a thick pizza stone on the floor after letting it heat up a couple hours. I spritzed some water in a couple times. It took only a little more than 30 minutes (Internal temp of 210).
Any suggestions? Lower the temp for next time? Raise the stone to the bottom shelf? Leave the dough out longer before baking? Should I have had the loaf on a baking sheet instead of placing it directly on the stone? Should I not have used some cornmeal on the board I use to move the loaf into the oven?
Oh, and if not too off topic: what would a really good digital camera be? I've resisted getting one because I know their resolution is not as good as my old fashioned Olympus. (But then, I'm still a black and white freak who likes to potter in the dark room.)
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Just carry on. When you take the bowl out of the fridge, the starter will be cold and asleep.
Wake it up by leaving it in a warm place for about 4 hours and feeding it (equal amounts of flour and water).
It should respond by being bubbly. Save some, and make the bread with the rest.
Oh yes, and this brings up another question. When you refresh a starter that has been refrigerated, do you just add some flour and water to the batch or do you do the 1 cup each flour, water, starter, disposing of the remaining starter?
I've been reading about starters in the Silverton book which is sufficiently different from the information here as to have left me more, not less, confused.
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Questions regarding the use of a baking stone in a home oven:
1) Is it better to put the stone on a rack in the lower part of the oven or to put it on the floor of the oven itself?
I'm waiting for the answer to that, too. I have my starter up and bubbling and am planning to take the next step.
Another question: Regarding the starter itself (now that it is fully active, resting in the fridge): I know that I must refresh it before using it, but how often must it be refreshed WHILE stored in the fridge? And if I go away on an extended vacation is to be stored in the freezer? Or must it be passed on to someone who will feed it occasionally, like the cat?
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I do it all: mitts, folded towel, and sometimes mitt and towel when moving something particularly hot and/or heavy. Also, it's good to have mitts/potholders around when others use your kitchen.
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Hi Jack, it's good to know you keep us in your heart wherever you go.
But I thought vacations were to escape one's everyday every day.My second refresher, incubated in the oven, is more lively than the first. I'll repeat it today. I'll do some cooking to warm up the kitchen.
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The last thing I want a pastry che,f who's capable of making an excellent short crust and pastry cream, to do, is to make a tarte with anything but the best possible fruit.
I agree, but when I have dessert at a restaurant, I like to try something more than I can have at home, something that shows the hand of the PC.
Dessert at home is often a piece of fruit. This summer I've been reveling in the wonderfully perfumed white peaches from Jersey. Alas the most recent were not as wonderful. (I suspect they're cleaning the last of the crop off the trees too early.)
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Less and less of them less and less often. As I think has been observed before on eGullet, you tend to internalize recipes and methods.
Ditto
What I will often do is to use several cookbooks as a reference for a dish I want to make, then wing it to suit my own taste.
The last recipes I followed exactly were from Vongerichten and Kunz. Paula Wolfert's Catalan Stew is another recipe I have followed exactly several times as it was sooo good.
The exception is baking cakes, where I always follow a recipe. (Most recently Herme's chocolate/ginger/apricot pound cake and a rose geranium pound cake from the web.)
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I have a problem with my starter. I fed it yesterday and while it is slightly active, it has only a few bubbles here and there - nothing like the picture indicates it should be. The ambient temperature is around 71f. Is that the problem? Without a pilot in the oven, I'm considering putting a pot of warm water in the oven to raise the temperature and letting the starter sit there.
Is the room temperature the problem? Or did I wait too long to feed it. (I was out of town when it arrived, so it's lived refrigerated and untouched til now.)
Should I just begin a new starter?
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Philadelphia - Northern Spies when I can get them. In good years they have a wonderful perfume. They're good both for eating and baking.
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Ruth, Lemon oil is a kitchen blessing and I make it all the time. (Try it on a salad of assorted tomatoes, too.) It's so simple. Just heat up a little olive oil with some lemon peel in it. My question is whether there's something better about commercially produced lemon oil? There are so many things I can't make at home that I am loath to add yet another bottle of something to my cupboard when I can make it in small amounts as needed.
I confess that I'm a condiment addict.
There are (even without lemon oil) so many bottles and jars of condiments and spices in my cupboards and fridge that I hardly have room for food. 
Just yesterday I bought a "backup" bottle of Banyuls vinegar as the one I'm working on is getting low. -
What's so special about the lemon infused oils you buy? Is this another convenience product that saves you from having to do it yourself? Or is it done better than you can do for yourself? It's always seemed so easy to do at home.
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And don't forget to join a gym as counterweight to all the excellent suggestions above.
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I don't care for sets of china all in one pattern. Instead I find wonderful old china in consignment shops, auction houses, etc. I may find 8 dinner plates in one pattern and soup plates in another. I find it gives a more interesting look to the set table than using only one pattern for all the dishes. If I had more time, I'd work at getting individual plates and bowls to coordinate with each other.
But if you are after all one brand/pattern, you can still sometimes find wonderful sets at the same sources. I've seen beautiful sets at $2-300. You might also check out outlets such as Dansk, Doulton, etc. I recently found wonderful mugs at the latter's outlet at $.99/each.
Another reasonable source is restaurant supply houses.
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Claire, if you have time, I find that refrigerating the shell whether baked blind or filled after forming and before baking makes it better, flakier. When it's a really wet filling or custard I "seal" the bottom against the moisture with egg white or a fruit glaze and may omit chilling it after filling.
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...WOW, if you're going to this much trouble, why not just make the real thing:The stuff in the can is good, but it's a totally different animal to dulce de leche, we call it telegoo (don't know why..)
I'd buy one of these first
Wow! if that thing works it might be worth its space. Does it?
If so, what do you call it, and do you have a web address?
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If you want to test the difference between European style butter such as plugra and "regular" butter, then make a pate brise or other pastry where butter is a critical element in the final texture as well as taste. When you start adding sugar, chocolate, nuts, etc., you have more elements impacting on the result. I've noticed for example even a professionally made filled croissant or pastry is often not as texturally satisfying as a plain one.
I try to elevate my home efforts to compete in quality with what the best local bakeries make. Making a good tart at home is significantly less expensive than buying one at $15-25. If I'm doing the work to make one it's well worth an extra .25/ .50 (1 or 2 crust) per tart in my quest to do a better tart than I can buy.
At some time I think I'll try comparing a plugra dough with one made with an upscale European butter from Normandy. I worry though, that they may not be as fresh as their price may keep them languishing on the shelf longer (US )
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cj doesn't mention what sort of pan he uses. Would a nonstick pan impede a successful reduction, perhaps?
I don't use them to saute so have no personal experience with them. I have read, however, that they are not good at creating a satisfactory fond. Would that influence results?
Bourgeat
in Kitchen Consumer
Posted
Suvir, congrats on the additions to your batterie de cuisine. I'm all envy. Most of my copper dates from the tin age.
I wonder if I could impose on you (or anyone else with a mind to help out) to WEIGH your fry pan and saute pans? None of the web sites give that information which is becoming increasingly useful to me as my joints become less so. I have a 9" Bourgeat evasee that I love, but I worry about the ease of handling anything larger/heavier.
My most recent addition has been a 10" LC sauciere which is ok but I don't love and it discourages me from adding LC saute or fry pans. Only concern about the weight keeps me from ordering some copper today.
About the cleaning of copper. It needn't be a big deal. First, develop a love of patina. Second, Barkeepers will keep copper looking fresh.