slkinsey

Just because it looks fresh at the fish market doesn't mean it has never been frozen.

First, it is very likely that he is wrong about the fish never having been frozen. Second, have a look here: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=118193 and here: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=119375

Burning will definitely change the flavor. More to the point, none of the specified liquors are at or above proof. So they will not ignite unless heated.

How soon do you need it? I usually order a half-kilo of SAF from the King Arthur catalog and keep it in the freezer. Lasts me several years.

This seems like a fairly straight-forward gongonzola sauce such as the one I describe above. This would be used on most any kind of gnocchi (except not stuffed gnocchi). I have to believe that "carduta" is a mistake. There is no such word in Italian of which I am aware. It's probably supposed to be caduta meaning "fallen" (from the cheese). Another favorite gnocchi saucing I forgot is duck ragu, which is very good on gnocchi that have been made with some chestnut flour in addition.

Anne: When you know you won't be baking for several weeks, just refresh the starter (by high dilution), wait for it to show the beginning signs of activity, and bung it in the refrigerator. You can easily go two weeks between feedings this way. Also, don't ignore the convenience of using the refrigerator to slow down the rise in order to make things fit your schedule. It's not that hard to come home after work, turn on the oven for 45 minutes and put the shaped dough in there. Finally, the beauty of using the "storage starter as inoculum" technique/strategy is that you can make any kind of "starter" you want out of it. You want a stiff starter for your rye breads? Fine! Let's say, for the sake of argument, that you want this to be 100 grams of rye flour and 50 grams of water. Okay... take out 20 grams of your storage starter which you are maintaining with equal amounts of flour and water by weight. Mix that together with 90 grams of rye flour and 40 grams of water. Ferment this in a warm place until it is fully active. You now have 150 grams of fully active stiff rye starter. Go forward as usual.

If you are maintaining a very small "storage starter" it is best at around 50/50 by weight. I don't see any advantages to maintaining a stiff starter in this context, and several disadvantages.

I just noticed this. My understanding has been that this works in exactly the opposite way. The ash content in the flour works as a buffer and forestalls lowering of the dough's pH into the range at which the lactobacilli are inhibited. This results in greater total titratable acidity in the dough compared to a lower ash dough fermented to a similar pH. In the case of bread, it is the total acidity rather than just pH that produces the sour and other desirable flavors we like in sourdough breads. A good way to test this is to use your normal method, but use whole wheat flour instead of white flour. The bread will be noticably more sour than usual. This is because of the greater ash content of the whole wheat flour. Whenever I have taken measures to increase ash content, I have ended up with more sourness.

Yes, brown butter and sage is a great classic for gnocchi. Most often, it's just that: nothing more than brown butter and a few (as in 2-3 small ones) whole sage leaves cooked in the butter. The sage isn't usually eaten, it just flavors the butter.

I will say that I believe gnocchi call for butter and not olive oil.

I have adapted my sourdough baking around my work schedule. Most often I make up the dough just before I go to bed, with a very small percentage inoculum (e.g., perhaps 25 grams of 50/50 in a loaf that will eventually have 500 grams of flour and 350 grams of water total). I then let this rise overnight (in the oven with the light on if it's cold weather). It is usually quite well risen by morning. I then shape the loaves, put them into the banneton, inside a plastic bag, and then into the refrigerator. I bake when I get home from work perhaps 9.5 hours later.

Ah, I misunderstood. You wrote "I have less than 25 g refreshed start as leftover. I can . . . stir in a small quantity of water/flour and let the starter slowly refresh in the fridge" -- which I took to mean that you were adding perhaps a smaller amount to the 25 grams. You'd actually be adding something like to 50 grams each of flour and water to this in order to have a 20% inoculum, right?

You can use the "storage starter" to make a larger amount of any kind of starter you want. Let's say your recipe calls for two cups of starter. That's way more than you have in your "storage starter," right? No problem. Just mix together the amount of flour and water you would need to make two cups of starter (according to the proportions specified in the recipe you are using) and put in a tablespoon of your storage starter. This will inoculate the flour and water mixture with the microflora from your starter culture. Keep in mind that sourdough contains something like 10,000,000 to 1,000,000,000 microorganisms per gram of dough. So that tablespoon contains a lot of your starter macroorganisms. Wait for the flour/water mixture to become nice and bubbly (and you can speed this process up by putting it in the oven with the light turned on) and you now have two cups of active "starter." Now you may proceed as usual. One great advantage to this method is that it allows you to use a much wider variety of sourdough recipes. One thing I find is that sourdough recipe books often have widely different instructions for how the starter should be constituted and used. So, if you're using a Nancy Silverton recipe and you don't happen do constitute your starter exactly the way Nancy does hers, it's difficult to figure out how to make her recipes work. My way, you can make up a "one time" batch of Nancy's starter, inoculate it with your starter culture, wait for it to activate, and proceed with the recipe without any guesswork. Personally, I don't often bother with this step. I just make the dough with a very small inoculum, and let it rise for a really long time.

sanrensho: Feeding your starter by adding a small amount of flour/water to a larger amount of pre-existing starter is actually the worst possible thing you can do for both perpetuating the starter culture (this will eventually encourage other yeast and bacteria more tolerant of the low pH to take over the culture) and also for optimum growth/health characteristic of the microflora you are taking care of. You want to feed by high dilution. The amount of "new food" you put in should be equal to at least 5 times the weight of the "old starter" you hold back -- and preferably more.

I think it is best to think of your "storage starter" as though it is an envelope of yeast. Maintain the smallest amount possible. I keep mine at around 25 grams each of flour and water. When it comes time to refresh the starter, I empty out the entire jar. The small amount that remains clinging to the sides is more than enough to inoculate the fresh flour/water mixture and perpetuate the culture (in fact, this creates optimal conditions for yeast and bacterial growth). When you want to make some bread, you can then make up whatever amount of "starter" or "chef" or "biga" or "sponge" or "pre-ferment" or whatever it is that you want to have and is specified in the recipe you are using. Then just toss in a tablespoon or so of active culture from your "storage starter," wait until the new "starter" or "chef" or "biga" or "sponge" or "pre-ferment" or whatever becomes active, and proceed as regular. The tablespoon of "storage starter" is analogous to putting in a pinch of commercial yeast to make a "starter" or "chef" or "biga" or "sponge" or "pre-ferment" or whatever.

A classic would be gongonzola dolce melted and thinned with some cream or milk. I like to add just a hint of a floral grappa (grappa di moscato being a favorite for this) at the end.

To the best of my knowledge, and this is not the thread for it anyway, there is really no truly-oustanding-by-Texas-standards barbecue inside the loop in Houston.

Just as an aside, Goode Co. is not "arguably the best place in Houston." In fact, it's legitimately "arguably" the worst place in Houston. It's consistently rated at the bottom of most guides, and recently came in DAL (dead-ass last) at a Chowhound BBQ smackdown. It's awful. But like I said, just an aside... Carry on. LOL. Well, thanks for coming back around to "put me in my place" about an 18 month-old post! Just like NYC pizza or any other iconic regional food, there are bound to be fierce debates. This would be why I used the word "arguably." I would never compare Goode Co. to any of the truly outstanding Texas barbecue places. Suffice it to say, however, that once can find plenty of opinions both online and in print recommending Goode as one of the best places in town (Robb Walsh here for example). But, really, who cares? That wasn't the point.

One of the most important things to understand about sourdough is that there is no reason to maintain a starter that's any larger than around a quarter cup. All you are doing is perpetuating the culture.

You know, you're right! I'd better get one of those. Are the ones from Williams-Sonoma any good, or just overpriced? DIY is the only way to go.

Andrew, let's be honest here: What's the point of having a Pizza Mind Control Ray if you can't use it for evil?

I don't think anyone is attempting to decree what you eat. They're just expressing opinions, among them that pineapple or sauerkraut or a half-inch thick layer of miscellaneous toppings on pizza (a) aren't good, and (b) pervert what they think there is to admire about pizza. This is no different from people saying that they think well-done steak is an abomination (and if you peruse these forums, you'll see plenty of opinions expressed just that way). But, you know... no one is going to knock the fork our of your hand if you're getting ready to eat a slice of pepperoni-bacon-mushroom-pineapple-pepper-onion-ham-spinach-meatball pizza or cut into a well done USDA prime ribeye. As for anchovies, there's nothing wrong with them whatsoever. Except for the fact that most "pizza parlor" type places use crappy quality, half-rancid anchovies. In addition, I personally feel that anchovies, while delicious on a thin-crust pizza with a very light amount of good quality mozzarella (or perhaps no cheese at all), are not harmonious with the copious amounts of mediocre "pizza cheese" which weigh down most American pizzas. But really... this is a pretty light hearted thread. Other than saying that they don't agree with you, I don't gather that anyone is suggesting you shouldn't be able to eat a pepperoni-bacon-mushroom-pineapple-pepper-onion-ham-spinach-meatball "French bread pizza" if that's what you like.

These are not apt comparisons. Example comparisons closer to what people are saying here might be: Mutton does not belong in a dessert pie. This is an abomination. Pot pie should not contain kiwi fruit. This is an abomination. Ham is not the same thing as sausage. If you radically distort a recipe as to ingredients, techniques or form, you now have something different than what is described in the recipe -- so, please don't call it the same thing.

It's not a bad idea, but you're going to want to make sure you explain that on the menu. Anyone who would order sausage, onions, peppers, pepperoni, mushrooms, olives, ham and meatballs together on one pizza probably wants it piled to the sky.

Interesting. Although that would tend to fit right in with the idea that "in United States law, the official American spelling is 'whisky'; however, the historic American spelling of 'whiskey' is tolerated." Kentucky state code could be expected to use the historical local spelling.