What’s cooking

[niveker 0]

1 hour ago, MuskyFlyGuy said:

a big pan of lasagna

Si mangia bene, Tom.  The only thing you're missing is a crusty loaf of sourdough like I made last week-end.  

[MuskyFlyGuy 0]

Oh, does that look good. I can smell it all the way here. 

[niveker 0]

Perfect weather in New England for a sourdough loaf. 

[cencalfly 0]

On 3/23/2024 at 8:56 AM, niveker said:

Perfect weather in New England for a sourdough loaf. 

That's a good looking loaf.  Good oven spring.  How was the crumb?

[niveker 0]

On 3/25/2024 at 11:38 PM, cencalfly said:

How was the crumb?

Thank you.  It was perfect, week before I made a loaf for my daughter home on Spring break, and let it proof too long.  This one more than made up for it.  

[SilverCreek 0]

My brother-in-law, John is a retired professional baker and he ran the largest commercial bakery on the East Coast which baked all the Langendorf and Entenmann's baked goods for New York City.

I gave him a copy of the original No-Knead-Bread recipe developed by Jim Lahey of the Sullivan Street Bakery in NYC which was first appeared in the New York Times. He called it the best home-made bread recipe he had ever tried. 

Original No-Knead Bread recipe.

https://bittmanproject.com/recipe/no-knead-bread/

There are now many versions of it including faster wait times but the original is the one we still use.

 

Here are the 3 versions all published by the NYT over the years

 

Recipe: Original No-Knead Bread 

Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery 

Time: About 1 1/2 hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising 

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting

1/4 teaspoon instant yeast 

1 1/4 teaspoons salt 

Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed. 

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees. 

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes. 

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger. 

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.  

Yield: One  1 1/2 pound loaf. 

 

Speedy No-Knead Bread

Time: About 1 hour, plus 4 1/2 hours’ resting 

3 cups bread flour

1 packet ( 1/4 ounce) instant yeast 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
Oil as needed. 

1. Combine flour, yeast and salt in a
large bowl. Add 1 1/2 cups water and
stir until blended; dough will be shaggy. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest about 4 hours at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees. 

2. Lightly oil a work surface and place dough on it; fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest 30 minutes more. 

3. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8- quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under dough and put it into pot, seam side up. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. 

4. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack. 

Yield: 1 big loaf.

 

Fast No-Knead Whole Wheat Bread

Time: About 1 hour, plus 5 hours’ resting (October 8, 2008) 

2 cups whole wheat flour 

1/2 cup whole rye flour 

1/2 cup coarse cornmeal 

1 teaspoon instant yeast 

1 1/2 teaspoons salt 

Oil as needed. 

1. Combine flours, cornmeal, yeast and salt in a large bowl. Add 1 1/2 cups water and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest about 4 hours at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees. 

2. Oil a standard loaf pan (8 or 9 inches by 4 inches; nonstick works well). Lightly oil your hands and shape dough into a rough rectangle. Put it in pan, pressing it out to the edges. Brush top with a little more oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest 1 hour more. 

3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake bread about 45 minutes, or until loaf reaches an internal temperature of 210 degrees. Remove bread from pan and cool on a rack. 

Yield: 1 loaf. 

 

[DFoster 0]

Charred Coffee rubbed steak-   Over apple wood with charcoal.  Served with roasted beets.

My coffee rub is- equal parts ground coffee, coarse sea salt and coarse black pepper.  Adding coarse garlic won't hurt.  Brush the steak with olive oil and coat liberally.

 

 

[niveker 0]

On 3/29/2024 at 9:36 AM, SilverCreek said:

No-Knead Bread recipe

Those look like good recipes - sourdoughs are pretty easy simple, but like fly tying and fly fishing we can make them as complicated as we want.   I 've never kneaded my sour doughs and only occasionally will knead my yeast doughs.

 

Looks like a feast DF!

[DFoster 0]

We had a family party on Sunday-  Fired up the smoker for the first time this year.  I make my own BBQ sauce and rubs, Iike fly tying it's a labor of love.  Baby backs, meatloaf, brisket and a pork butt slow smoked with apple wood and charcoal.

 

[cencalfly 0]

4 hours ago, DFoster said:

We had a family party on Sunday-  Fired up the smoker for the first time this year.  I make my own BBQ sauce and rubs, Iike fly tying it's a labor of love.  Baby backs, meatloaf, brisket and a pork butt slow smoked with apple wood and charcoal.

You done got me all fired up now!   Now that looks tasty and so good. Motivation! Never thought of smoking a meatloaf.  I'd bet any day that is great.  When can you start shipping that across the Country?

I too make my own BBQ sauce and rubs.  I would sometimes use Mclintocks BBQ sauce. It used to be very local from San Luis Obispo, CA. Their original restaurant in downtown SLO is one of the best. They opened another restaurant in Pismo Beach. Although local fame kind of made it pedestrian.  I'm more of the original F. Mclintocks Saloon kind of person :). The BBQ sauce is still good and can be used in a pinch.

I got a cherry pie going in the oven this morning.  Made the pie crust dough and pitted the cherries yesterday. Time to assemble and bake.  Tonight is standing rib roast for dinner.  Man I'm getting fat. A piece of pie and some cold cream at the top milk (https://www.strausfamilycreamery.com/products/milk-and-cream/organic-cream-top-whole-milk/) as dessert is to die for. Literally :).  My wife is going to rue the I day I retired.  We have a lot of cherry orchards around here so they're fresh. Next is peach pie with peaches from Masumoto farms https://www.masumoto.com/ . They're just down the road from us.

Edited Tuesday at 04:35 PM by cencalfly
my spelling is not good

[cencalfly 0]

On 2/1/2024 at 10:18 AM, niveker said:

Si mangia bene, Tom.  The only thing you're missing is a crusty loaf of sourdough like I made last week-end.  

I must of missed this but dang that looks good.

[flytire 0]

4 hours ago, DFoster said:

We had a family party on Sunday-  Fired up the smoker for the first time this year.  I make my own BBQ sauce and rubs, Iike fly tying it's a labor of love.  Baby backs, meatloaf, brisket and a pork butt slow smoked with apple wood and charcoal.

you didnt invite squatch?

 

[cencalfly 0]

Sorry Norm but Squatch could be what's on the menu in the pacific northwest :).  https://www.homesteadwa.com/items/the-squatch.  Never said we're right in the mind.

Nonetheless Squatch rules and should be always invited. 

[DFoster 0]

2 hours ago, flytire said:

you didnt invite squatch?

 

 

Sorry Norm the few pounds of meat I cooked wouldn't have been much of a meal for a Squatch.  😁

[DFoster 0]

2 hours ago, cencalfly said:

You done got me all fired up now!   Now that looks tasty and so good. Motivation! Never thought of smoking a meatloaf.  I'd bet any day that is great.  When can you start shipping that across the Country?

I too make my own BBQ sauce and rubs.  I would sometimes use Mclintocks BBQ sauce. It used to be very local from San Luis Obispo, CA. Their original restaurant in downtown SLO is one of the best. They opened another restaurant in Pismo Beach. Although local fame kind of made it pedestrian.  I'm more of the original F. Mclintocks Saloon kind of person :). The BBQ sauce is still good and can be used in a pinch.

I got a cherry pie going in the oven this morning.  Made the pie crust dough and pitted the cherries yesterday. Time to assemble and bake.  Tonight is standing rib roast for dinner.  Man I'm getting fat. A piece of pie and some cold cream at the top milk (https://www.strausfamilycreamery.com/products/milk-and-cream/organic-cream-top-whole-milk/) as dessert is to die for. Literally :).  My wife is going to rue the I day I retired.  We have a lot of cherry orchards around here so they're fresh. Next is peach pie with peaches from Masumoto farms https://www.masumoto.com/ . They're just down the road from us.

Thank you for your kind words- 

My wife came up with the idea of putting a meatloaf in the smoker. I'm not saying she was the first one to ever do it but I certainly had never thought of it.  I usually do a smoke for our family on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend.  One year we found out that morning that we were having an unexpected additional family for dinner.  As you know Brisket takes forever in a smoker if you want it tender.  What we had was in the smoker and had already been cooking for 6 hours.  She was afraid we wouldn't have enough and going out and getting more food wasn't feasible with all the prep we were doing.  What we did have was plenty of hamburger and she suggested making a meat loaf.  I remember thinking "oh that can't be bad".  It's fast, simple and It comes out fantastic in the smoker.  Just make your favorite meatloaf, cover with your favorite BBQ sauce and smoke it uncovered in a foil pan.  It usually only takes 2 1/2 to 3 hours to cook if you run at the typical 225 - 250 temps. I hope you try it.