jackal10

Airing cupboard? Over a pilot light? Picnic cool box and a big pan of hot water inside If you want to be more sophisticated, then a low wattage lamp bulb and a thermostat.

Depends what sort of crust you want. For 12-24 hours or so I just cover with a cloth. The slight drying gives a crisper crust. For longer term retardation I would put them in a loose plastic bacg.

Its the same as with sourdough. Throw the nearly proofed douch, couche and all into the fridge. The support from the couche is important. Personally I bake from cold.

Like anything in the catering trade: location, location, location. What attracts people to a wine bar is the other people. The atmosphere is key to get in the right clientele to get the ball rolling. However be prepared to have deep pockets, as its a fashion business, and it takes time to establish, and equally you can go out of fashion. Wine is also - heavy - high value - disappears easily do make sure you have your purchasing and stock control well organised.

Hard to tell what is wrong without knowing what you are doing exactly, but there might be several possibilities a) Something is killing the yeast. Are you using high chlorine tap water, for example? b) Too high a temperature. If the dough gets above abut 100F at any time the yeast will start to die c) Not fermenting or proving long enough, or too cold. Needs to be at 85F (dough temperature). I'd 1. Let the sponge sit until it was well bubbly 2. Let the bulk fermentation stage run until when you cut into the dough with a sharp knife you can begin to see little bubbles. As a first approximation try doubling your fermentation time 3. Prove overnight in the fridge. Lets have lots of details and pictures, and the experts here can try and help.

The ones I grow aren't harder than potaoes. More knobbly, perhaps, but that depends on variety. They tend to fall to pieces when boiled. Keep them in acidulated water when peeling to prevent blackening. They are delicious roast, or puree, or pureed into soup, tasting almost smoky. You can use the puree as the basis of many dishes - souflee for example.

Thanks. I missed it. Why is the format different to the rest of eG? Couldn't the same top bar navigation be used? Also I'd like the ability to upload more than one picture, for example to have image tags in the method. Sometimes its very useful to be able to show the method pictorially. Please don't take this as negative criticisms, but as suggestions for improvements. I think its a wonderful facility and apprecuate the hard work

Welcome back! Much missed. Just wish there was the usual header bar, so that there was a shortcut back from recipe gullet to eG, and to "view new posts ec"

I mostly use mine for lighting the stove, and for browning the tops of gratins, or the outside of meats to be long slow cooked.

I tried to access it but all I got was a message saying I should become a Society Donor. Thankyou, but I am already...

I'm not expert, but the irradiated food I've had tastes slightly burnt to me. Not as bad as, say, UHT milk, but a definite flavour. I'm don't think I buy the disposal point. Irradiation is a wide spread industrial process, used, for example to sterilise medical supplies. Many hazardous processes and wastes are used in food production, sometimes with bad results (Coke's Indian bottling plant, for example). I doubt if irradiating food would add to the hazard. What worries me more are the "unknown unknowns". Irradiation is an energetic process, and can cause biological changes. What those effects of ingesting irradiated food are in the long term is unknown.

Often. The new silicone rubber muffin moulds make release and cleanup easy.

Your grigne (grins - the slashes) look OK, but they've not opened very far. This suggests that the bread may be a little overproved in the last stage, or that the slash is not deep enough.

I'm still interested in the psychology of why people tip, especially large amounts. I gave some possible reasons above. I think its to do with boosting their own egos, or to impress, rather than as reward. Maybe its somehow its to do with guilt, perhaps at being waited on, or at the sensual pleasure of food...

You are confusing percentages and absolute amounts. Leaving $2 extra is $2 less for you and $2 more for your server, whatever the percentage. Whether that £2 is best spent on your server, or on better ingredients or keeping alive someone in a third world country, is your choice. I would rather there was not a societal compulsion where to spend it. Personally I would rather it spent on better ingredients. I think that would have most effect on my dining pleasure. In a $100 meal it represents about 10% of the raw ingredient cost.

Tipping is evil and morally wrong. Waitstaff should be paid a decent wage, and menu prices should be honest and include the service element. Just because tipping is widespread in some cultures doesn't make it right. The system is broken, and by tipping you continue to support a bad system. Why do people tip big? Showing their wealth in front of their date/friends? Ugly Buying better service. Unlikely, since the tip is after the meal Gratitude? The wait person is just doing their job Trying to build a personal relationship with the waitperson? Personal relationships built on money exchange are usually called prostitution. Buy respect from the waitperson? Money doesn't buy respect Boost their fragile ego? Charity for the poor waitron? Not nice either, and there are better (and tax-deductible) charity causes. Maybe we should start a "Waitstaff benefit" charity, that would allow tax free tipping, and support the poor waitstaff...

Must it be Port> Berry Bros have, for example a 1945 Armagnac

a) remove meat and rack it was sitting on. Keep warm b) Put pan on heat on top of stove so it smoking hot c) Pour in batter (hear the sizzle) d) Put in hot oven for half an hour The yorkshire will pick up the pan juices, roast onions, mirepoix or whatever and be all the better for it. If you don't remove the meat rack it will get stuck in the yorkshire and make portioning difficult

It sounds like a kibbutz or moshav system. However I can't help but wonder if its a cunning scheme that allows the property developer to build higher density housing by making many of the faciliies communal.

I use Heston Blumenthal's recipe: http://www.ukgourmet.com/chocfondant.html It differs form the normal by using only egg white, not yolk, which gives a cleaner, deeper flavour. Very versatile; can double for molten chocolate cake, and if you whip the white can also be used mousse, flourless sponge, roulade etc.

Try a batch this way: Why not shape at say 5pm, then retard in bannetons or the like. Bake directly from the retarder at, say 6am. I prefer the crust from doughs retarded this way. Not sure this helps with your other doughs, but maybe you could also make those the night before and retard. Baking is a tough life...anything that helps get another couple of hours sleep must be worth it...

Braise with onion and bacon

I have the UK edition. I guess the novel and exciting stuff is common to all editions, but the poor translation and editing is the English edition.

My copy arrived today. Its big and heavy. I agree about the copy editing - and the translation is inconsistent "parmesan ribbons" in one place and "parmesan lace" in anothers as translation of pamensan dentille. Also some of the photos don't seem to correspond exactly to the recipe, and have more or less components than are described in the text. The devil is in the detail. There is much that is novel and exciting here, but its in the fine detail of the dishes or garnishes, or in details of the preparation and completely missed by the index, and not pointed out by any remarks. It really needs a companion volume of commentary. Ignoring the sea of truffles, there is much wisdom and techniques that can be applied more generally, but how to find them?

Do you retard the bread? Make it like you normally do, but at a more civilised hour, up to the point where its shaped and part proofed. You can then put it in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours, and then take it out and bake at your leisure. Some people prefer to let it warm up to room temperature before baking, but I prefer to bake from cold. You may need to adjust the proof times a little. You can also retard at other stages, if it suits your schedule better.