JohnT

Okay folks, here is a question. I have been making pickled onions for years, but only in small batches of 2 or 3 kg at a time. This past week I became the proud father to 40 kg of pickling onions - thousands of the little buggers! My question is - how the hell does a person skin them quickly? Anybody worked in a pickled onion factory and wants to divulge the secret? A couple kg's I can handle, but doing this in bulk is something I have never considered or contemplated. John.

Pfeffernusse - well done cakewalk! They sound nice and spicy! By the way, I was not thinking of the American alfajores, but the original Spanish Alfajores from Medina Sidonia - no fruit, only chopped nuts, spices, honey etc. and rolled in icing sugar. Must try your Pffeffernusse one of these days. John.

Alfajores?

Not only the flour combination, but that is one huge amount of yeast - 70g fresh yeast would equate to about 30g of instant yeast which, in my humble opinion is about three times what I would use. Any thoughts of why so much yeast?

Ah, remember that it is summer in the Southern Hemisphere - favourite snack here is a bowl of finely sliced biltong or droëwors to nibble on with a well chilled glass of your favourite ale or larger. Another thought is pâté with crackers (smoked snoek (a common local fish), chicken liver, mushroom, smoked salmon or trout or even biltong) a lot to choose from and all quick to prep and have available in the fridge. You will gather that I like biltong! The pâté idea goes down well watching the sunset with a good bottle of wine. John.

Kim, you say your lemons were fresh, but were they fully ripe? What I am asking is if the skins were still green, partially green or full yellow? John

The apricot flavour is very subtle, but should just come through in flavour. Some recipes I have come across in modern books have cut the apricot jam right down and a person then does not detect any flavour of it. The recipe I use was from an old government publication in the late 50's and uses a bit more of the apricot jam. The toffee flavour you detected is from the sauce, made out of cream, butter and sugar and water, which you use to soak the cake after baking. Another ingredient that is missing from most modern Malva recipes is vinegar - it needs about a tablespoon as the last ingredient to activate the baking soda to get a good rise and help cut some of the sweetness.I do not do any desserts for Codfathers - they are way too far from me. I mainly service a few restaurants in the cities northern suburbs. If you want, I can post the recipe, but am not too sure where to post it. A bit of guidance on that would be appreciated. This morning was another production run of Old Cape Brandy Pudding, also an old Cape Dutch recipe, with a cake base including dates and then soaked with a syrup of sugar, water and brandy after baking. No photographs but I will try and take some when I do another batch in a week or two. I do not know if you noticed that brandy is produced in abundance here and is fairly low in price - some of it very good and some, well, not so good! You can get a good bottle for $10 or $11. John.

I cannot comment on frozen cream cheese, but can pass comment on frozen cream. Firstly, I purchase cream from two different sources - the first one which I shall call cream A, I purchase simply because it is cheaper than the second one which I shall call cream B. Cream A claims to be cream from cows milk with a stabiliser added. What the stabiliser is, I have no idea as it is not specified on the packaging. I have tried freezing this cream and then defrosting and trying to whip it, but with no success. It whips perfectly if fresh. Cream B claims to be 100% cream from cows milk - no stabilisers or other additives. It is far more "cream" in colour than cream A, which is pure white. It freezes well and when I defrost it, I give the bottle a good shake, pour it into my stand mixer bowl and give it a normal whisk. Is thickens and holds just like it was fresh cream whipped. It is not "grainy" as I have noted in some comments on the Internet. So, if I am purchasing for immediate use, I purchase cream A, which is a No Name Brand from a local supermarket chain and far cheaper than I can get from my local bulk supplier. If my normal supplier is having a special on cream B, which is fully labeled as to contents and source, I often bulk buy and freeze for later use with no problem when it comes to whipping it. Just my 2c worth, remembering that I am not in the chemically enhanced US. John.

If you want each item with a different name, the only method would be engraving, either with a rotary engraving machine or laser engraving, as mentioned in the posts above. However, if you are looking at your logo etc. being applied to the gifts, on a curved surface, screen printing will not work properly. The only way to do this is get somebody with a tampon printer (sometimes called tampoprinting) to do it, which does very fine printing on curved surfaces. It can be done in multiple colours. You can also have foil printing done on the item - however, the foil is quite delicate and will suffer from abrasion very quickly. John.

Franci, thanks for your explanation. I had never seen or heard of tigelle before Brindisi and never after leaving, until your post. The stones Mario was using could have been terracotta, I do not know as I never wanted to venture into the subject after my first clash with him and his weapon of choice. They were served warm but there was no pesto, just the best cold cuts I have ever tasted - the flavour intensity was tremendous, something I have never experienced other than in Italy. Also, the city of Brindisi was remarkable with all its marble paving and buildings. I do not know if Mario and his wife were from the area or not, but they cooked the most brilliant meals and also made the best pizza I have ever tasted, ultra thin base with minimal topping, but with incredible intense flavour from the toppings. John.

Tigelle - My Near-Death Experience About eight years ago I was delivering a sailing catamaran from South Africa to Croatia and after rounding the Foot of Italy we hit a severe storm and I made the decision to seek shelter and headed for the closest port, which was Brindisi. At the marina was a small restaurant and I and my crew went to explore what we could get to eat. It had a pizza brick oven and whilst sitting having glass of superb red wine, I watched the chef and owner baking small flat breads between two flat stones he had removed from the oven. The owner could speak a smattering of English and I commented to him that I had never seen English muffins baked that way. The guy went absolutely nuts, shouting "englees muffin, englees muffin, this tigelle you idiot, no englees muffin". He then went into the enclosed kitchen an returned seconds later with a rather large butchers style knife, shouting in Italian about tigelle and waving the knife at me - I thought my days were about to end! His wife then appeared out of the kitchen shouting at him whilst he kept shouting at her "englees muffin" with the arms waving and the knife still clutched in his hand whilst gabbling away in Italian. Anyway, he eventually disappeared into the kitchen with a basket of his freshly baked tigelle and a few minutes later his wife returned with plates of tigelle and cured meats, salads and more wine, saying "Tigelle - eat, Mario cross with you because you call his tigelle englees muffin, dis tigelle! Well, we stayed in Brindisi for six days and had "Tigelle", cured meats, salads and red wine for lunch every day. They tasted and looked exactly like English muffins to me - just baked between two hot stones! I gave his wife a large tuna we had caught the morning before we entered the port and the six days of lunch were on the house. Fortunately Mario calmed down and we ended being good friends. Sorry Franci, they were delicious, but were just like English muffins. Yours also look superb! Did you bake them between stones or use another method? John

I live in the southern tip of Africa and we do not have a Thanksgiving day. However, I do know the reason for the Thanksgiving celebration, but have no idea why, in North America, the traditional meal is a turkey. Can anybody enlighten me? Sorry if the question is a bit off topic. John.

Ha, thanks Shelby, this is the first time I have heard of or see that. Here our pizza boxes are so thick you can sit on them and not squash the contents! No need for introducing plastic chairs to support the box.

What on earth is the little plastic chair? John

I have been baking quite a few egg yolk based desserts of late and have built up quite a lot of egg whites in the freezer - so, the humble meringue was whipped up the other evening and spent an hour and a half at 90°C (convection oven) then the oven switched off and the piped casings left overnight. My sample: meringue casing, a dollop of cream and a red glacé cherry that has been marinating in brandy for about six months. Then I had an order from a local restaurant for Malva Puddings, an old fashioned South African pudding from the old Dutch trek farmers of the 1800's. Really a simple apricot jam flavoured sponge cake soaked in a rich sweet creamy sauce. Baked in dariole moulds for portion size and one in its foil container whilst being packed. These are served warm, normally with a portion of ice cream - very sweet and rich, but delicious!

I am not a candy person, but have you read http://forums.egullet.org/topic/92495-confectionery-101/?p=1282055 - it may have some info for you.

So Brooks, it is now a month since you set the challenge, so I pose the question(s): Where is the report-back? How did the cake turn out? Where are the photo's? John.

mrk, I have no idea where you are in the world but in South Africa we have no such thing as "all purpose" flour. All we get in the white range is cake flour or bread flour either bleached or stone ground. Wherever a recipe calls for AP flour, I just use cake flour on a 1 to 1 basis and never have a problem. Do us all a favour and add your location to your profile - it is nice to know where people are when reading their posts and helps when a recipe is posted so that we can convert it. John.

I am really surprised that they are not more available in the US. Peppadews are freely available in all main South African supermarkets and I remember trying my first ones about 30 years ago. They make them in "mild" and "hot". They originate from the old South African province of the Transvaal, which was broken up into smaller regions in the mid 1990's and is now called Limpopo Province. It is a registered name. They also make a number of other pepper (chilli) products and pickled onions, all under the Peppadew trade name.

This question shows the reason for recipes to always be given in weight, and not volume. As it was given by the OP, it means "measure 4 ½ cups of the sugar THEN sift it". Do what JNW says - weigh the sugar after measuring and change your volume in your recipe to reflect the weight for future use - you will then always be correct without any deliberation. By the way Kim, your saved recipe you pointed to just says "sugar", not "confectioners sugar". Maybe you should correct that as well. Hope they turn out well and are appreciated by your guest.

My father was one for experimenting and eating offal as he claimed it was the best parts of the animal. As a kid I grew up eating kidneys, livers, hearts, brains, tripe, tongue and oxtail. My mother would quietly go visiting on these occasions. The best offal meal I remember were sheep brains on toast, creamy and delicious! He also made fantastic brawn from scratch, using pigs trotters, a pigs head and cuts from other animals - all natural gelatine from the ingredients. Unfortunately, he never had a written recipe for any of his dishes and that knowledge was lost when he passed away in the late 70's. However, I still cook a mean oxtail stew and a tripe and onion dish when I find the offal at my local butcher. I have gone off eating kidneys, liver and most of the other offal due to my partner, like my mother, disappearing when the suggestion of an offal dish is brought up, other than tripe and onions or oxtail stew - pity, but that is life! Nearly forgot, I quite often cook up chicken livers peri-peri, delicious with fresh baguette to soak up the sauce! Ready in under 10 minutes. Another method of cooking in South Africa is what is called "potjiekos", basically translated meaning "pot food", which is cooked in a three-legged cast iron pot over a fire. These pots are very common here and are obtainable everywhere. They resemble the pots depicted in cartoons where the "savages" were busy cooking up their latest meal of one missionary. Well, they come in all sizes, with a single number 4 or 5 pot big enough to cook a meal to serve about 20 people. One quite popular "potjiekos" dish is curried "pens en pootjies", which means tripe and small trotters. It is a dish that is cooked over a small fire for about 7 hours. It has always appeared to me to be quite a strange ritual as the female guests tend to gather in the house chatting about, well, what woman folk chat about, whilst having a glass or two of wine and making a salad or two, whilst the males normally gather around the fire, getting drunk and mostly talking about sport at first and later utter crap. As long as they feed the small fire with a bit of wood every now and again, things normally turn out okay and a good meal of tripe and trotters can be enjoyed.

You could be partially correct except I have never heard it associated with bread and butter pudding. I think the word "diplomat" looks like it is used to denote something "superior". I was taught it was simply CP with whipped cream folded in. Having done a search on the www, it appears that crème légère is the French term but most non-French nations tend to use the diplomat crème term. I was taught by a Swiss PC in the mid 70's and he called it diplomat crème.

Okay, Shelby appears to have received some good advice and ideas for meals to freeze. I spent quite a few months developing recipes for frozen meals and found that mostly, potatoe, in its cooked form, does not freeze and then defrost well, which has been mentioned in a number of the posts. One thing I have found is some sauces weap or split, leaving water residue. I found using some Guar Gum solves this problem but does have a slightly different mouthfeel than a dish without it. One question I wish to pose is: What is the weight of your portioned meals? This interests me as I did quite a bit of research with a few doctors and nutritionists when developing my meals and it would be interesting to see what is the recommended weight across the big pond that divides Africa and the Americas. John.

Diplomat Cream or Crème Diplomat

Good Grief Smithy, how on earth could you post such a concoction of ingredients! I am going to drool all night in my sleep until I can get to my butcher in the morning and obtain some bradwurst. Then to the fruit and veg market for the rest of the ingredients. Gives me good idea on replacing the brown onion gravy in one of the dishes I cook - a twist on the British bangers and mash with brown onion sauce, now soon to be an "apple, onion and cider sauce"! Need to see how that sauce freezes and if it splits when defrosted and heated.