Deus Mortus

Thanks, that helps!

Well the way I see it, almond lacks gluten, which is necessary for chewiness, puff pastry largely lacks this, going more for crisp. It won't be perfect, but it might just be good enough. That said I burned my hand on a scalding pan yesterday, so I won't be baking until the bandages are off. Is there a place where you can find this info easily? I have found some nutritional data sites, but none tell how much fiber is in the products, if they even have entries about some of the obscurer foods like almond meal.

You might want to keep in mind that almonds are a bit over 21% carbohydrate, and half of that is in the form of sugars or starches. Well damn, I did not know that, it's better than flour, but I'll have to keep that in mind when I want to stay under 20g of carbs per day. Thanks for that, I totally missed that.

That looks pretty good, however I haven't been able to get my hands on flax meal yet, is there anyway to substitute for it? I suppose I should also see about importing some splenda, for whatever readon all the sweeteners here in Holland contain carbs.

I have recently started dieting again, because, well I like eating good food and it shows. However in a twist on previous attempts to lose weight, I have decided on a ketosis diet, which means, no carbs at all. Now i got some almond flour to experiment with, but I figured I would check around here and see if anyone has already done some testing with the stuff, or perhaps that there are other ways to get some baked goods without carbs. Currently I mostly want the ability to make something like crackers (which seems doable), make some rough puff pastry (which I think I should be able to do) and see if I can make bread and pizzacrusts with the stuff (though that might not be possible). I'll update the topic when I get around to testing, but in the mean time, I would love to hear if anyone here has any experience with this.

I'll have to try that next time, in the end I went with the Alton Brown method of braising and then broiling, I really liked the way the glaze came together, though I wasn't really a fan of the old bay and onion powder in the cry rub. I did try a small two rib piece with only salt and pepper and I have to say it was pretty good!

Oh sweet lord Carolyn, that sounds great, but I think ribs is already pushing the bounds of my diet, so while deep fried ribs sound great (like really really, I'm tempted to break my diet great). I think I'll have to save that recipe until I lose these extra pounds. I am however a bit surprised that you braise them after frying, is there any reason for that?

I've actually steamed lamb chops like that before (though with added white wine instead of vinegar), might be worth experimenting with when I have a bit bigger budget and can afford to ruin a few cuts.

I'll try that! I can order it, but no it won't be in tomorrow. I'll need to remember to order it next time to have in my pantry though.

It's a completely different product: it's like comparing a smoked pork shoulder to a pan-fried pork chop. Both have their own merits. If you like the taste of pork ribs (as opposed to just the taste of BBQ seasoning, etc.) then yes, you can make great-tasting ribs in the oven. Hell, you can go ahead and season them up as for BBQ if you want, you're just missing the smoke flavor. Different, but still tasty. I have had some good ribs from an oven in germany, but never without any seasonings, I have two racks here right now for tomorrow, so I'm definitely trying the salt and pepper on one of them. Any good idea's for the dry rub? My dry rub is mostly flavors that reinforce the smoke flavor, so on their own they probably won't work very well. Sounds good, but I'm really in the mood for the primal joy of gnawing some meat of some bones, but I'll reserve the idea for another time, because it sounds great.

Hmm I've actually never had ribs without seasonings, does it really stack up to a well marinated rack?

Well I was planning on buying some liquid smoke later on (I'm waiting for the webshop who sells them to restock their smoked shallots), but I'm fine going with just a marinade or rub to get some taste on the meat. I didn't expect to be able to get some real smoke flavor without a smoker. BBQ really isn't that popular in the Netherlands, while we have enough people firing up a charcoal grill in the summer, we don't have a culture of well done BBQ and as such any BBQ we can get from restaurants is generally really bad, greasy, under seasoned crap.

Lately I have been getting an increased hankering for some quality ribs, but sadly I find myself without a backyard to make my normal smoked ribs recipe, nor a good BBQ place to get some. So what recipes and tricks do you have for making the perfect spareribs or baby back ribs in the oven?

That´s good to know, I haven´t had much practice with baking breads yet, but I´m getting pretty excited about making my first starter. I doubt I´ll go months without baking any new breads, but it seems like this is a good way to create a backup in case the one in the fridge dies. Is there anything you need to look out for when defrosting it? That is more or less what I'm doing now, but I'm a sucker for the smell of bread baking and lovely warm bread to munch on!

Well, I didn't think it would be so easy, I figured the yeast would die, guess I'll get started! Though while I am on this tangent, can you also freeze a starter? That might just mean I will never buy bread again!