jackal10

Change your doctor, or get a second opinion. That diet must be just a fad. I could understand giving up something you are allergic to, or carbs, or fats, but just to stick to wholemeal? Makes no sense If you need to get fibre up have a daily bowl of bran cereal and go back to eating white bread, flour and rice. The stress in following such a daft diet must be more damaging than any benefits, in my view.

Dunno about definitions but there are 100+ approved short-form recipes on the egCI Thick Soup thread

No. The bean flour makes the gluten link more, and degrades an enzyme that attacks the linkages. Effectively it makes it stronger. Gluten development is mostly by hydration, governed by time in the presence of water. Other than stirring, kneading has little extra effect, Gosselin, for example makes his baguette a la ancienne by mixing just the flour and the water, and leaving them cool overnight.

Primarily the bean flour, like Vitamin C, oxidises an enzyme present in fresh flour that degrades the gluten; bean flour also contains some gum to increase dough stability, extra protein and possibly assorted yeast nutrients. It may also change the taste and colour some. 2T is about 4% - a significant amount. From http://www.faqs.org/faqs/food/sourdough/faq/section-4.html

I grow those chillis, and the larger version "Thai Dragon". They are atomic. I believe they are the second hottest chili known to man. They make Habernero and Scotch Bonnet seem mild. Do not try eating them straight, at risk of severe injury. Handle with extreme caution (gloves, eye mask etc). I find half a chilli in a gallon pot too much.

Professor Saintsbury (Notes on a Cellar Book, 1920 advises 3 parts rum 2 parts brandy 1 part lemon juice 6 parts hot water Sugar to taste The old rhyme goes 1 of sour (lemon juice) 2 of sweet (sugar syrup) 3 of strong (rum) 4 of weak (water or soda)

How about a variation on Summer Pudding? Put the fruit in a saucepan with some sugar (quite a lot if you like it sweet), and maybe some lemon juice, heat until the juice starts to run Line a pudding basin with bread (Wonderloaf works fine). Pour in the fruit, put on a bread lid, and then put on a suacer that just fits, and weight the lot (tins or anothe basin full of water. Leave in fridge until cold. Turn out, decorate, serve with thick cream... The bread turns to a wonderful soggy treat... The famous attorneys are Sue, Grabbit and Run

I've not tried it but I expect that cooking at 250 in the oven will work, but take a long time to brown, and while delicious may not be the same as chateau cooked on the stovetop. Toss them in butter over high heat first to initiate browning. 300F might be a better oven temperature, above the temperature where Maillard browning speeds up (285F). Why not try and let us know the results. Chateua potatos are not oven roast. The browning comes from frying/contact grilling rather than from air temperature, so that is why they are usually cooked in a covered pan on the stovetop. Dropping them in the deep fat fryer is only for low end operations...

To my surprise, my local supermarket was selling Xanthan gum intended as a gluten substitute for home-made gluten free bread. Does anyone have any experience of its use for high-end cuisine, I mean apart from a low-carb or gluten free substitute? I know it is used, for example, as a stabiliser for many emulsion type salad dressings. I expect it can be used for foams, instead of gelatine, but I have no idea as to proportion. I know also it widely used commercially, often with locust bean or guar gum, or with kanjac. It also is used as a stabiliser in paint and cosmetics. Anyone with experience of commercial formulations?

or half dry and store in oil or make tomato paste fom the half-dried tomatoes

Part baked; about 2/3rd of the cooking normal time. After the rise, and the structure is set but before its completly brown.

Thank heaven it was nothing more serious...you could have fallen off the roof Slow down. Take a day off and relax...get some sleep and some serious pampering. Don't even feel guilty about it. You'll go back with twice the energy and efficiency, and more than make up for the time you took off. You are the bakery. You need maintenance as well. Its no good if the buidings finished, but you are broken....

Went to a stuning tasting hosted by Cambridge Wine Merchants with five members of the Bernkasteler Ring, one of the oldest and most famous organizations dedicated to the continuous improvement and promotion of fine Mosel wines present in person They included J.P. Reinert Carl Schmitt-Wagner von Beulwitz von Bastgen Martin Kerpen The 2003's are amazing. Full, but balanced, with wonderful flavours. Mybe ten years before they are at their peak, but they will last. The Wehlener Sonnenuhr Auslese was particularly impressive, and Martin Kerpen said that the TBA is still fermenting, having started at 260!

Groundnut is another name for peanut.

Err... I got my first email identifier in 1965, as part of the CTSS project. I was a summer intern at the MIT AI lab, and the stuff was being developed...happy days. CTSS was the"Compatible Time Sharing System", and one of the first to develop an email system, and led on to many modern operating systems. The hackers (in the correct and polite sense) in the AI lab developed ITS (the Incompatible Timesharing System), that went on to be developed by DEC, and at least some of the ideas still live in Linux and Emacs... Give these guys a break. I thought it was a fantastic article, witty, some original ideas and well researched, with a good feeling for the food. It inspired me to take dehydration more seriously. Can we get back to talking about the food please?

They are a delight to use and maintain. The patina is mant to be there, but not the bright orange rust. Cutting acid foods is no problem. Just don't put them in a dishwaher - the detergents are far too aggresive. Keep a steel on hand - you will soon learn to feel when the blade needs touching up, and a couple of strokes each side is all it take Enjoy!

Not sure I believe the formula. On basic physics second law of thermodynamics I would expect the rate of heat transfer to be proportional to the temperature difference between the yolk and the water, leading to a log function, rather than that exponential in the middle. Putting in some values, assuming water temperature of 75C, desired yolk temperature of 73C and a 50mm egg, and initital temperature t0 of 4C (fridge temperature) I get 16 minutes. That seems much too short to me. I am also not sure about the quoted temperatures for coagulation. Yolks I've measured coagulate around 62C not 73C. Coagulation is not just dependent on temperature, but alao on the time at that temperature. For example eggs held at 63C for 10 hours come out set but creamy...

Fromage Forte Liptauer (not really stinky, but strong) Glad someone mentioned Esrom - now almost unobtainable in the UK

I've heard three reasons for adding stock slowly to risotto a) Tradition b) Texture: You need to keep the texture fairly thick so that the rice grains rub against each other as you stir, shedding starch into the liquid c) Control of hydrocolloid chain length: Starch, when heated, forms long chain molecules trapping and gelling all available liquid - think of making a bechamel (white sauce) or a veloute, where it is easier to make a lump-free sauce by adding all the liquid at once. By adding a little liquid, the starch gells that, then adding more and stirring breaks up the gell, and you get a creamier result. I don't believe the temperature difference is significant.

Salt doesn't kill the yeast, except in high enough concentrations to dehydrate it, and then it would be so salty as not to be easily edible (Marmite, maybe). What salt does is jam the amalyse reaction that breaks starch down into the sort of sugars that the yeast can feed on. So adding salt to normal flour will reduce the rise, and it is why many bread recipies leave the dough for half an hour between adding the yeast and adding the flour, so that enough sugars can be produced. However many bread flours, or sweet recipes, and instant yeasts have enough amalyse (often as diastatic malt) or sugars to overcome the usual amount of salt, so for many domestic recipes it doesn't matter.

ME!! Lou: some dispatches and hints from the gastronomic front-line would be great! I thought the article excellent. I'm inspired to try some more dehydrations..

After Asparagus and Strwberries, comes Samphire Greengages off the tree, then Damsons, then Victorias, then its apple season Not forgetting the Glorious 12th, and ths start of the game season...

I've not found dehydration a problem - maybe for the outside slice but not beyond that. SInce the moisture is not squeezed out from the cells, the meat stays moist. Also a gigot is surrounded by fat, which acts as a seal. The restaurant answer is sous-vide, sealing the meat in a plastic bag, once browned. Since the temperature is low, the plastic does not melt.However I use a convection oven, but if your oven is not vented I can't see it being a problem.

As an exoeriment I tried cooking a standing rib roast for 24hours at 60C/140F. The result was amazingly tender. I thought it perhaps even too tender, loosing some of its essential nature and becoming almost like felt in texture, My dining companion loved it, however. It may be better with other meats, pulled pork for example or brisket...

Forks are a comparatively recent invention. Before that you had a knife, and you used the point to spear food to carry it to the mouth. Forks replaced that. Originally with two prongs, then three, now four.Since in the English tradition a fork is thus primarily a spearing instrument, not a shovel or a spoon, you use it tines down. It is regarded as bad, or at least juvenile, to use a fork like a spoon. Use a spoon for that. Some faddish people lay their forks tines down on the table, so that people can see the hallmark on the back to show it is real silver. This is as vulgar as inspecting the hallmark, or even the makers mark on the bottom of the plates. Even more vulgar are those who use hallmark the face or bowl so that the hallmark is visible when in use or laid the correct way. I suppose you can have cutlery hallmarked on the wrong side and then laid upside down, but that is just perverse.