Chelseabun

Hi Tinyragebaking, welcome to EGullet. I lurked for a long time before joining too! I am looking forward to reading your posts. Regards.

I have rhubarb growing in the garden so make it from fresh during the summer months. However, it needs to be sweetened well to make it palatable LoL. I only mentioned deep fried turkey as it would give me an opportunity to build an Alton Brown style 'turkey derrick' LoL complete with flashing warning light on top! With regard to the Pilgrim Fathers - is that what thanksgiving is about or is it about other things? You are being thankful for the harvest or thankful that you have food or thankful that you are American? I'm guessing partially patriotic and partially religious? Or is it about family and friends or community and sharing food? I'm from the UK so only hear about it through the media.

Hi Patrick, Welcome to Egullet. Sounds like you will find the forums very useful. Regards

You could add Rhubarb pie to the list? That's always been a favourite of mine from way back! Is it true that the Pilgrim Fathers got the idea of Thanksgiving from their time in Leiden (Netherlands) before making the journey on the Mayflower? We certainly don't have a thanksgiving tradition in the UK but if i were to make a thanksgiving dinner it would have to have lots of pumpkin and i recon a deep fried turkey!!

I use the glass turntable from an old microwave oven. Not a professional solution but it does rotate very smoothly, can carry a reasonably heavy cake and was cheap (free)!

I considered doing this when I was learning my primal cuts. When you see butchers demonstrating a hog breakdown, they always seem to go too fast. At home, I am assuming you can take your time and get the cuts exactly how you want them. Your stainless steel table looks perfect for the job but might be a bit on the small side for Bovine LoL

Welcome jpebbs! Where is PDX? Is that Portland? Cooking is a worthwile career in many ways. The dishpit is the best place to start !

@Asadus @Bethesdabakers Dont you two need to connect (in a business sense) Micro bakery + Chocolateir. That would work for me!

I think it was the plant near Bristol (UK) that was closed. The Bournville factory was not the only site Cadbury owned. I think they also have a large plant in Ireland too? Asadus; I found a great little patisserie with an amazing selection of artisan chocolates in Calais (of all places). I think the French patisseries in general do a good job on the chocolatier front.

Its not very vigorous. Its on day four and has had two feeds. It might be some time before I am baking with this starter.

Its a kind of exhibition adjacent to the original factory in Bournville, Birmingham UK. They charge about £15 ($25) entry. It covers the history of Cadbury (from their perspective) and the chocolate manufacturing process. I've been there once, it was ok. Not something I would go out of my way to do again but people who live in and around Birmingham seem to rate it highly. It might be similar to Hershey's chocolate world?

Hello and welcome from Lincolnshire UK ! Have you been to Cadbury World?

Many thanks. These are great links. I now understand. My konbu is on order (since last week) and is the wel-pac konbu (also sold by the Japan Centre) but it my take some time to arrive. I tried an Asian supermarket earlier today. I was able to buy some Wakame (ready for when my Konbu finally arrives). They also sold the dried Bonito flakes but i am wanting vegetarian dashi only. For the same reason, i might not have any luck with Miso soup in Japanese restaurants (containing fish).

Have you tried making dashi from other seaweeds? From my experiement, the dashi seemed to be subtle compared to the miso paste that was then added. The Wikipedia entry on Dash mentions 'Shitake Dashi'. Do you know what this is used for and could it have been a better substitute for my Miso soup?

I have a question regarding Dashi and wondering if anyone could help me please? I made Miso soup yesterday and i think it came out ok but i had a few issues with my Dashi. I wanted the Dashi to be vegetarian, so deliberately left out the Bonito flakes but my main problem was obtaining kelp or kanbu locally. For my Dashi, i replaced the kelp with Nori. I think this was ok but this was the first time i have tried Miso soup so have nothing to reference the taste against. Strangely enough, my local supermarket sells fresh Samphire (another type of seaweed), would i have been better to substitute that for the Kelp. Here is the video i made of my (vegan) Miso Soup: http://youtu.be/KnF0DNXa3Jk

Many thanks CatPoet, I found the Quorn vegetarian bacon product in my local Asda. I had to look for it because it was not in a section of the freezer where I could easily find it. You also commented on using Marmite and liquid smoke. I have adapted this to use as a marinate for the store purchased Quorn bacon so as to 'upgrade' the flavour. http://youtu.be/PoPuviK266U Please let me know what you think?

In Britain, we love our tea. Drinking tea is very popular here. I don't think too many people drink de-caf tea though. However, de-caf coffee is relatively common. Back in the 1990's I used to drink de-caf tea regularly. I liked it a lot and found it to be a good drink (with milk). I used to buy it in loose leaf form not teabags. So, for me de-caf tea is legit. However de-caf tea disappeared from the supermarkets for a while and I never went back to it.

Many thanks. I have tried this and it has a lot of promise. I used Shitaki mushrooms sliced very thinly and toasted sesame oil. Mine came out too salty and slightly over cooked but it is amazing how much like bacon they taste!

I believe there are a few Trader Joes in the UK. None are near me though (that I have noticed). Its always the same that our favourite lines get discontinued. I wish they would stick with the lines that work. I seem to be lucky with meat free sausages stock in my local supermarkets. I even make 'toad in the hole' with them. I don't know if you are familiar with that recipe, but it is basically sausages cooked in batter (not cake batter LoL)

Yep I totally agree. Celebrating vegetables in all their diversity is better than fooling around with meat imitations (meatations?). Only, I just want to see where I can go with a fake bacon. Surprisingly, as well as meat free sausages there is also a meat free Haggis (that I definitely prefer to the meat original). yes, I've not gone down the beans or nuts route yet. I seem to be eating a lot more eggs though. Its not that I don't like them, in fact I love beans and nuts (and pulses too) - its just that I havn't especially gone out of my way to cook with them (more than I would normally have done). Maybe I'm wrong. Should I be going out of my way to eat certain foods since I no longer eat meat (even if it was mainly lots of processed and fast foods)?

I've never seen it. I'm going to search for it though. Thanks for letting me know.

Does anyone have a recipe for Fake Bacon please? I have been vegetarian now for about 3 months. So far it is going very well and I am looking to widen my range of recipes without meat. I am not sure that going down the path of making imitation meets is the best approach but I do enjoy vegetarian soy based sausages and mince (ground beef) - So perhaps an imitation bacon will be good too. If you have any favourite recipes for fake bacon that you wish to share, that would be appreciated. Regards

The additives used in China and elsewhere are not readily available here in the West. They are also corrosive and it may be preferable to omit them from your food (some of the chemicals added are effective drain cleaners). It may not be possible to produce hand pulled noodles easily without the additives but that does not mean anybody should try. I have largely given up making hand pulled noodles - but I had a lot of fun experimenting.

In the past, I always used my National rice cooker. However nowadays I cook it in a pan on the stove top. There doesn't seem to be any difference except you have to manually judge the heat control, switch it off when done and it does not have a keep warm function. Apart from that the rice tastes pretty much the same. I did try to use a pressure cooker but found I over cooked the rice very easily. When cooking rice I use a small amount of salt and oil for flavour. You can add spices at this stage too for biryani.

I would agree that the large brewers/distillers would probably rather sell us white dog at $50 a bottle than have a multitude of amateurs distilling it at home for their private consumption. Yes, our economy needs more start ups. That includes distillers and brewers too. Big companies don't provide the employment we need, its the small companies that do that. I would suggest that White dog does not need the maturation and storage time so would be ideal for start up distillers. It seems there is a growing market for it - but maybe not at $50 a bottle. For me, I would be happy if I could just distill it for myself in my own premises. I don't see that being possible for some time though.