[Secrets of the Butcher]

4 hours ago, SLB said:

So, I asked Santa for this book, and Santa came through! 

 

It is very interesting, and I like le Caisne's sense of humor.  There is some stuff I'd never heard of before, like the concept of resting the meat before you finish cooking it.  And I've enjoyed learning about the different breeds of beef and pork and whatnot. 

 

But there was a moment in the game section that threw me, the section at p. 97 on the Song Thrush.  He notes: 

 

"This is without a doubt the best type of thrush, but like the others, it's illegal to sell it.  The only way to eat it is to hunt it or have a hunter friend.  You don't eviscerate the thrush.  Only the gizzard, crop, and eyes are removed.  The intestines melt during cooking and give the meat a unique flavor". 

 

Although I pride myself on having no unexamined squeamish, I  admit that I had to put the book down and nearly take to the bed. 

 

Is "melt" a, uh, hunter's term? 

 

Or did I read that right, you eat the [presumably full] intestines???

 

 

 

I managed to miss that bit...thanks @SLB for sharing.  Four and twenty blackbirds baked into a pie and all of that.  I confess I thought thrush was a disease.

 

Now that I think of it I wonder how those Moroccan pigeons @BonVivant has been enjoying are prepared?

 

 

[All About Rye Whiskey (Part 2)]

9 hours ago, lindag said:

My state liquor store no longer stocks Wild Turkey Rye...I don't know why.

I was disappointed because I always used it in my hot winter drinks.

 

Obviously you didn't buy enough.  I don't think I've ever seen Wild Turkey on the rye shelves.  If I did I might well give it a try.  It hasn't gotten cold enough here yet to start going through my stash of Whistlepig.

 

Can they special order Wild Turkey for you?

 

[Riveted handles on cookware]

I am pretty much weld agnostic but I have had welds fail on cookware.  Never had a rivet fall out though.  I do not suggest screws however.  I once had a screw in my spinach in a restaurant.  Iron and all that.

 

 

[Dinner 2019]

Simple two minute steamed clams.  Lemon wedges, baguette, drawn butter.

 

 

[Dough hook not grabbing dough]

14 minutes ago, lindag said:

Since I’ve been making smaller bread recipes these last 10 years or so, I've been using my Zo bread machine for the mixing and kneading.  It's perfect for that and the cleanup is almost nothing.

 

I used to use my Zojirushi until I bought Modernist Bread.

 

[Dough hook not grabbing dough]

Other than by hand, by chamber vacuum, or by bread machine I wondering if there isn't some good alternative to the dough hook for mixing bread?

 

Food processor doesn't count.

 

[The Soup Topic (2013–)]

10 hours ago, shain said:

Lentil soup. Crispy noodles. Lemony gremolata.

 

 

 

Just checking...that isn't kale is it?

 

[Dough hook not grabbing dough]

I use the flat beater and speed 1 before autolysis.  The dough hook can't gather the stuff together.

 

[Dinner 2019]

Chicken cacciatore:

 

 

 

Bread:

 

 

 

Wine and Boursin not shown.

 

[Dough hook not grabbing dough]

6 hours ago, Chris Hennes said:

No, that's a lower hydration dough, I mix it at low speed to medium gluten development, then add the salt and mix at medium for a couple minutes more (I do the same for the sandwich bread, which I make much more often than the French Lean).

 

The proof is in the pudding.

 

 

 

Tonight I made a batch akin to French Lean Bread but I mixed for exactly 5 minutes on speed 6.  I achieved the open pearlescent crumb that so often eludes me.  The dough was neither under proofed nor over proofed.  Indeed my boule achieved so much oven spring in the CSO it burnt on the top elements.  Never before has that happened.  I'm sort of delighted actually.

 

This is not the first time I've complained MB does not give much guidance for users of the KitchenAid, which are probably a high percentage of their audience.  Not all of us have Hobarts or spiral mixers yet.

 

The problem with mixing on lower speed in the KitchenAid, as @CanadianHomeChef reports, is the hook does not properly engage the dough.

[DARTO pans]

34 minutes ago, &roid said:

 

Wil do. 

 

Interestingly I just found this video (while going through a bit of baby-induced insomnia, might as well use feeding time productively right?). She seasons using the flax seed method then tries to reduce some red wine which strips it all off. The recommendation there is that we should wait a few months of regular use before trying very acidic things. Maybe it’s just a time/use thing?

 

 

I feel her pain.

 

[DARTO pans]

12 minutes ago, &roid said:

 

That’s exactly what I’ve done. They are pretty grubby looking on arrival but I was able to get my paella pan back to a nice dark grey and my sauté pan back to a silver colour (the paella looked like it came pre-seasoned compared to the sauté pan). It only took about ten minutes for each pan with a liberal amount of BKF and a scrubbing sponge. 

 

Im halfway through seasoning with flax seed oil at the moment, hampered largely by the kitchen fitters still working on our new cabinets. Shame really as I’ve been off work this week so would have been nice to get these done and cook with them!

 

ive found doing them in the oven on its hottest setting easier and better than on the rangetop. Just takes a little longer - about three hours per coat in total, one hour heating and one to two cooling. 

 

I'm using the oven method also.  Please report back after trying a sofrito.

 

[Click and Grow]

Mine is white!

 

[Click and Grow]

6 minutes ago, FauxPas said:

How does the Click & Grow compare to the Aerogarden?

 

I'm a bit confused by all the choices at the Aerogarden site, but I didn't have a lot of time to browse there. @JoNorvelleWalker and @CanadianHomeChef, did you buy your units through the Click & Grow web site? I see they are carried on Amazon also. Do you both have the 9-pod units? Wondering what price you paid, are they sometimes on sale for a much better price? I think the 9-pod is just under $200 at both sites I looked at. 

 

There is an old thread on the Aerogarden on eG, but it's pretty dated. 

 

 

I purchased my 9-pod from amazon for $139.95.  My understanding is that Aerogarden is hydroponic which would be much less useful for me.  The Click and Grow should enable me to start transplants for this summer.  The Aerogarden seems complicated.  The Click and Grow needs no moving parts, no controls, not even an on/off switch.

 

[DARTO pans]

1 minute ago, blue_dolphin said:

 

Ah, understood.  Mine must have been more mild as there wasn't any rust.

 

 

There was no rust on mine either.  Maybe I am paranoid.

 

[Click and Grow]

2 minutes ago, CanadianHomeChef said:

Oh yes I did. I think lettuce sprouted earlier (that’s the first pic). If memory serves me right, Basil at day 3 still need a careful examination to see anything. It was barely emerging from the soil. 

 

Yes!  I had to double check mine with a magnifying glass!

 

[DARTO pans]

8 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

 

Are you re-seasoning because your pan is now sticking or are you just going by appearance?

I roasted a cauliflower that had been poached in wine in one of my paella pans.  It left cauliflower-shaped pale markings in the previously pristine black surface but I just gave it a scrub, put it on a burner to dry and added one coat of oil.  It doesn't look pristine but has retained it's non-stick properties as far as I can tell.

 

I was going by appearance.  I'm more worried about non-rust than non-stick at this point.

 

[Questions about bean varieties]

13 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

 

My understanding is that cannellini beans are in the same family as haricot and Marcellas are thin skinned cannellinis so they should work, assuming you keep in mind that the thin skins make the Marcellas rather delicate.  

If the recipe calls for a long cooking time and much mixing and it's important to you that the beans remain intact, you might want to pick something more sturdy. 

 

 

One way to find out!

 

[Click and Grow]

18 minutes ago, CanadianHomeChef said:

That's slightly faster than mine

 

I thought you said in the first post that yours had germinated on day 3?  Still I suspect it will be a while till I am making pesto.

 

[Click and Grow]

All three basil pods have germinated!  Day 3.

 

[Questions about bean varieties]

I have a Nigel Slater recipe that calls for dried haricot beans.  Google tells me that translates to navy beans.  I have no navy beans but I have pounds and pounds of Rancho Gordo products.  Could I use Marcella beans?

 

[DARTO pans]

Maybe this isn't the best thread to pursue the issue but I am still puzzled by the logic:

 

Paella is cooked in a paella.

A paella is traditionally made of carbon steel.

Tomatoes corrode carbon steel.

A paella starts with a sofrito based on tomatoes.

 

 

Putting another coat of seasoning on my poor pan.

 

 

[Click and Grow]

One of my basil pods has germinated.  That was fast.

 

[Rice Cookers]

4 hours ago, rotuts said:

one thing to think about w RiceCookers :

 

the cups indicated are smaller than USA cups

 

as noted.

 

all things being equal , if the price difference between a 5 cup and a 10 cup is acceptable to you

 

I have a 10 cup Panasonic

 

the extra space in the bowl allows platy of room for ' mix-ins ' after the rice it cooks and the gizmo warms them up !

 

ie Not-FriedRice ,  Not-Biryani  ,  Not-Rice++  etc

 

well worth it.   the gizmo @ 10 cups is not that much bigger to boot.

 

When I purchased my Zojirushi the price difference was negligible.  What I did not take into account is that the 5 cup will make half a cup of rice but the 10 cup won't make less than a cup.

 

[Dough hook not grabbing dough]

3 hours ago, Chris Hennes said:

I don't know. More than five minutes, less than ten?

 

That sounds like an awful lot of revolutions but your results are beautiful.  Do you use similar for French Lean Bread?