jackal10

I liked his Grace "For what we are about to recieve may G-d be truely thankful" I'm sure it was not deliberate, but it seemed apt... It was one of those moments when you thought "what did he say just then? Did he really say that?"

Looking forward to this one!

The tardy guest gets the cold shoulder...

The apple is quite a dark red, fairly large. The variety is Norfolk Beefing, aka Norfolk Beaufin, Catshead Beaufin Noted in 1698 Used also to make dried apple rings. Joan Morgan in the "New Book of Apples" describes it as "Used early in the season for cooking, but by spring sweet enough to eat. Cooked keeps shape, quite rich taste....Apple has rather tough dry flesh and tough skin which allows the apple to be baked without bursting" She mentions that Biffins were baked for 24 hours at the lowest oven setting, so the dehydration theory might be right. I only have one this year as its a young tree, so I can't experiment that much.

It ends up as small pieces of fat in the pastry, soft enough to roll and that melt over the long cooking and give it texture

Many old boiled pudding recipes call for shredded suet. Rare good ballast for an empty stomach. You can't make really good dumplings without suet. Essential for Christmas pudding Beefsteak puddings (not pies) and their variants - steak and kidney, steak and oyster. To quote Dickens (in Dr Marigold) "I knocked up a beefsteak pudding for one, with two kidneys, a dozen oysters and a couple of mushrooms thrown in. It's a pudding to put a man in good humour with everything, except the two bottom buttons of his waistcoat" Also essential for roly poly, either savoury, such as bacon and leek ("dead leg or boiled baby"), or sweet such as jam Treacle pudding goes without saying Plum Duff, and any number more...

Good question. I'm not sure the science is well known, since very few commercial bakeries ferment cold. Artisan bakers just find that it works. As I said dough is a complex system. My belief (and its only a belief, I would be interested in any research) is that what happens during cold fermentation is somewhat different, besides selecting for cold tolerant organisms. What I think is happening is that the enzyme activity is less affected by the cold, and so more fermentable sugars are being produced That means that when the dough warms up, either in a subsequent warm proof phase of during the first part of the bake the yeast can be much more active. There is also another effect, mostly seen during retardation after the final proof. Here, besides the interior of the loaf continuing to ferment for a couple of hours while it cools down, I think the most important effect is the slight drying of the outside, leading to a different crust formation. The presence of fine bubbles on the crust after baking usually indicates retardation.

Does anyone know the time/temperature for cooking apples? Any experiences cooking them sous-vide? I'm trying to reproduce the ancient dish of Biffins where a particular variety of apple was slow baked A recipe of 1882 on how to cook Biffins advises ‘..Choose Norfolk Biffins with the clearest most blemish free rinds, then lay them on clean straw on baking wire and cover well with more straw. Set them in a very slow oven for four to five hours. Draw them out and press them very gently, otherwise their skins will burst. Return them now to the oven for another hour, then press them again. When cold, rub them over with clarified sugar.’ (http://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/documents/FruitGroupNewsletter03.pdf ) The article adds A successful trade developed each year around Christmas between London fruiterers and Norwich bakers, who cooked the Biffins in their cooling bread-ovens, weighted down with an iron plate to expel excess air. They were mentioned in Dickens "A Christmas Carol" "Norfolk Biffins, squab and swarthy, setting off the yellow of oranges and lemons, and in the great compactness of their juicy persons, urgently entreating and beseeching to be carried home in paper bags and eaten after dinner", and in his story "The Holly Tree" "“I think a Norfolk biffin would rouse her, Cobbs. She is very fond of them.” Boots withdrew in search of the required restorative, and when he brought it in, the gentleman handed it to the lady, and fed her with a spoon" Biffins, or beefings, have very tough skins, which allows them t be baked whole, and then preserved cold. Apparently when cooked this way they are "creamy with hints of cinnamon and nutmeg". I have the right variety of apple, but my dilemma is how to cook. If I cook at sous-vide temperatures, I suspect, as Nathan remarked, I will just end up warm raw apple. The bread oven reference indicates quite hot, which I also doubt, since I think they would burst if they boil. Help!

Yumm!

Suet is the fat from round the kidneys. To use its easiest to chop fine, or to pass through a mincer with a little flour to stop sticking. If you render it it becomes lard or dripping which is not the same at alll.

The things I do for eGullet. Here is how I bone and stuff a shoulder of lamb. It may not be the best way, but it works for me. Take one full shoulder of lamb: I've drawn on roughly where the bones are: the flat shoulder blade (scapula), the upper arm and the lower arm. Note the projection of the equivalent of the elbow. The top of the shoulderblade has a ridge rubbing down it. The other side. Using a sharp small boning knife (this one is a my favourite full carbon steel "au carbonne" Sabatier) start at the flat side of the scapula, where it meets the edge of the joint. Roll back the meat like a sock. The top side has a ridge of bone running along it. Soon you will reach the shoulder and have to turn though a right angle. Continue down the upper arm, Its worth remembering that the muscle bundles are attached by cartilage at the top and bottom of the bones, co cutting round the end of the bone beneath the joint frees them. Getting round the elbow is a bit tricky, you can just give up and cut it off, and stuff the spare meat inside. Pretty soon you will have it done. Tidy up and cut off any hard bits of sinew of large pieces of fat. Since its going to be stuffed and rolled it is pretty forgiving, and doesn't mater if it looks a mess at this stage. Just don't cut yourself. You might like to trim off the tough outer skin as well. Stuff with your favourite forcemeat. This is sausagemeat plus softened onion plus parsley plus pepper. Tie up into a neat shape. Some people tie into a round pillow shape, but I find that awkward to carve. The stuffing when it cooks and sets will hold everything together, and you can use it to fill any inadvertent holes. Ready for the oven. Shoulder is quite tough meat, with lots of connective tissue, so long and slow does it. I'd recommend about 8 hours at around 75C/160F aiming for an internal temperature of 60C/140F. Failing that bung it in a hot oven for two hours, and then let it sit in a warm place for half an hour. Lamb is pretty forgiving stuff. Lots of uses for leftovers, if any. Shepherds pie, Irish stew, mince and used in a lasagna to name a few.

Hmm...there are many issues here, and ones that relate to wider debates about identity in the world. You may not have noticed, but we are in the middle of a battle about who owns your identity and can say what you can and cannot do - and I don't just mean on eGullet, but in a wider sense. I have some professional interest in this area. Who says who you are? Is it the government, who issues your passport/identity card/drivers license and collects taxes? Is it your bank or Visa or credit card company who say what you can buy or not? Is it Microsoft, or your ISP who gate your access to cyberspace, and controls your email name? The libertarian answer is that you have multiple identities, each certified by a different authority for different purposes. There was a famous talk by Stephen Kent about ten years ago entitled "let a thousand CA (certification authorities) bloom". Its one of the ways privacy and liberty is maintained in our society, and why such programs as the CIA's TIA (Total or Terrorism Information Awareness) program run by the Admiral John Poindexter that proposed to collect and collate complete information on US citizens, including phone logs, credit card transactions, drivers plate recognition, library book acesses etc ran into Congressional trouble. Incidentally, for the paranoid, versions of this program are still funded under different names, such as NIMD: Novel Intelligence from Massive Data and Matrix: Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange and by IC-ARDA the Intelligence Community Advanced Research and Development Activity. Why is this bad? Do you want, for example, to be denied access to healthcare because you have unpaid parking tickets, or have surfed to a porn site, or your name is confused with some felon? Extreme perhaps, but possible if government information is centralised. Your bank, for example has no business to certify who you are and your age for the purpose of, say, buying wine, just as your wine merchant should not authenticate access to your bank account - don't laugh, this is not that extreme as setting up a new bank account under the money laundering laws now requires production of a utility company bill to authenticate place of residence. This is a long way to say that iconic and multiple names are useful. It also reflects real life. I had an elderly aunt who called me "Jackie" and has a quite different impression of me to others. Woe betide anyone else who calls me that. Online I have multiple personalities - professional, family, foodie etc. I originally used "jackal10" here since I wanted to be cautious and avoid the dreaded spam (jackal is from my initials Jack A L..., and the 10 is for uniqueness), and because it does not relate to my professional identity. I've stayed with it so my posts are traceable. Feel free to call me Jack (but not Jackie). I'd be happy to change to a more real name if continuity can be maintained. To quote Lewis Carroll from "Hunting of the Snark" He would answer to "Hi!" or to any loud cry, Such as "Fry me!" or "Fritter my wig!" To "What-you-may-call-um!" or "What-was-his-name!" But especially "Thing-um-a-jig!" While, for those who preferred a more forcible word, He had different names from these: His intimate friends called him "Candle-ends", And his enemies "Toasted-cheese"

The science is here: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=27634 Sourdough is a complex system. The yeast, the lactobacillus and the underlying enzyme activity splitting the starch into sugars all have different rate changes with temperature. By changing temperature you are rather crudely selecting the composition of the culture. (after Ganzle) 30C/86F gives optimum growth for the yeast, and near optimum for the lactobacillus. Its actually quite a narrow region for optimal peformance. A bit cooler and the growth of the lactobacillus slows and you get less flavoursome bread. Warmer and the yeast growth slows, and the bread doesn't rise as well or if fermented longer gets much sourer. The starter composition changes as well. If you are culturing a new starter, keeping it at the optimum temperature for sourdough growth helps select the bugs you want. Obviously you can culture and prove at different temperatures, but the bread will be... different.

Thirty seconds? You lot are sluggish. In thirty seconds its long gone round here...

Its not the caffine, but all the other junk in there. Sugars, sweeteners, phosphoric acid etc. Drink coffee... There is a strong correlation between fizzy drink consumption and obesity, and hence diabetes etc

REAL Programmers don't eat quiche. They like Twinkies, Coke and delivered palate-scorching Szechwan food. Oh and lukewarm pizza in cardboard boxes REAL Programmers don't bring brown bag lunches. If the vending machine sells it, they eat it. If the machine doesn't sell it, they don't eat it. Real Programmers turn coffee into code ...

If its not real Champagne I like a Cava like Frexinet. Mass produced but reliable, despite the recent unrest. Pretty bottle too. www.winesearcher.com gives several sources in FL at around $10/bottle. $15 in Magnum.

I may be finally getting some understanding and beginning to be able to reliably turn out a decent baguette. At Dan Lepard's suggestion I scaled back the water a bit, to around 67% hydration, and now have a much more managable dough. For 1Kg dough Starter 100g soft flour 100g water 30g clef (mother starter) Ferment for 12 hours at 30C The sponge is very well developed with lots of acidity and flavour Dough Al the starter sponge above 500g soft flour (9% protein) 300g water cold 12 g salt 5g Vitamin C Whizz in a strong food processor for 2 mins. Put into a lightly oiled basin, covered, in the fridge for 24-48 hours. I believe there is lots of enzyme activity and slow fermentation Shape, and put into a couche - about 4 hours at room temperature Can retard after 2 hours. Bake with lots of bottom heat. Steam for the first 30 seconds. My moulding still leaves something to be desired. However note the super-thin cell walls. You can only get this degree of development by using high intensity mixing.

No pix - I'll take some next time. Basically follow the bones round with a sharp boning knife. The blade bone is flat one side but has a ridge on the other. You end up sort of with two pockets, one from each bone. Good idea to take the tough skin off as well.

Champagne (or a sparkler like Cava), It is a wedding, Not sure anything would stand up to Blue cheese, Crab cakes AND Bourbon glazed pork. Not sure I would either! Maybe a Gewurztraminer (e.g. Columbia Valley) for a white or a hefty Zin, like Ridge Geyserville 2002 for a red. Do you want a sweet wine with the desert as well, or just serve Port, brandy and liquer after?

or a vegetable puree...carrot, or zucchini or broccoli, with or without cheese

One I prepared earlier (actually a turducken): http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...dpost&p=1012812 Smoked overnight at about 30C/140F.

Sherry or even better, madeira. You could consider a white port. Champage, of course, goes with anything

In which case you are restricted to starch thickened sauces, but there are many classic ones of these that go well with chicken, and where the Allium can be omitted. For example: Supreme (veloute with cream) Albufera (supreme with meat glaze and peppers) Allemande (supreme with chopped eggs) Anglais (with mushroom and parsley) Aurore (with tomato) etc etc or a brown sauce like Madiera If you are feeling generous Sauce Financiere: brown sauce, Madiera, cream, truffle. If less generous substitute the truffles with mushrooms and truffle oil...

I agree. What is wrong with the traditional flaming Christmas Pudding and brandy butter with mince tarts to fill in any spaces? Do you mean Desert or Pudding? Dessert is served after pudding If you want to follow French tradition for Revillon (Christmas Eve) serve the Thirteen Desserts: The thirteen are: "Les quatres mendiants" or four beggars, representing the four holy orders: Almonds for the Carmelites Figs for the Franciscans Raisins for the Dominicans Walnuts for the Augustines Four plates of fruit: Apples Pears Tangerines Grapes or Melon Black Nougat (evil) White Nougat (good) Pate des Coings (Membrillo - Quince cheese) Pompe a l'huile (sweet olive oil bread) Dates Also a Buche de Noel (Christmas log) Other desert traditions are spice cookies, gingerbreads, chestnuts (for example a Mont Blanc) and, in our house a trifle. Trifle is beloved by all, and as spectavualr as you want to make it...