Syzygies

The one thing an enclosure (Dutch oven, steel bowl) won't do is deliver a massive slam of initial heat, as the steam condenses on the dough. Ask me how I know: After a few drinks with the neighbors, I got careless and threw in water ungloved. (I usually use ice with the KK to buy time, but I'm using the upper grill for Moroccan bread, leaving me plenty of room to land water on my cast iron skillet and chains.) The hand in question isn't so bad (I didn't have to skip my pottery wheel class today), but discretion suggests not posting a picture.

I'm a proud owner of 1/4" (wife friendly) and 1/2" (wonderful overkill) round Baking Steels. 3/8" is in hindsight the sweet spot. After my recent trip to Morocco, I've gone all in on clay cookware. There, they treat them like woks, and when they crack after a year of the inevitable heat stress, restaurants just go down the street and buy ten more for a song. I decided to get some heat diffusers to use on my gas range, to protect and extend my clay cookware lifespans. I remember the commonly available heat diffusers stateside as total jokes. What I wanted was smaller versions of a Baking Steel, which I found on eBay: eBay 3/8" A36 discs from carbon steel plate The quality is very nearly that of a Baking Steel. The edges don't draw blood. There's a mild burr one could remove, where the circle cut stopped; one could remove this or ignore it. Most importantly for anyone who has Googled the hassles in removing the surface coating from steel plates available in standard channels: These don't appear to be coated at all. I sanded with 600 grit black sandpaper, scrubbed with Barkeeper's Friend, rinsed completely, and then seasoned with thin coats of lard over a high flame. This is roughly the Baking Steel method; they use flaxseed oil, popularized by a famous blog post back in the day. The original use was for cast iron pans, that have a texture that holds the polymerized flaxseed oil in place. I found that it flaked off smoother surfaces like woks, unless one simulated actual restaurant use by introducing food starches with the oil. Lard is just easier, and the traditional Asian approach. (As a mathematician I can fight well above my weight class by religiously classifying other people's modes of thought. Logic can be a crippling disease. The reasoning here, "Gee Willikers! Seasoning works because the oil polymerizes! I'll just figure out which oil polymerizes the most, and use that, ignoring any other details of the thousands of years of practice figured out by civilization!" is questionable. A good comparison would be discovering that THC is an active ingredient in cannabis, ignoring the hundreds of minor compounds that create an entourage effect, giving different strains recognizably different effects. Here, nothing seasons a pan like lending it to a busy restaurant for a week. The various food starches are the entourage effect.) One must do something even for a heat diffuser, as carbon steel rusts, and direct flame is a harsh environment. For use in larger sizes as an actual griddle, of course one seasons. Of course, a copper disc just thick enough to not warp would perform much better than my 1/4" thick carbon steel. Aluminum performs 3x worse than copper, while carbon steel performs 8x worse than copper. Copper would even look nice; it's just expensive. Aluminum is the way to go for a heat diffuser, if one doesn't mind the look of aluminum.

For outdoor use in my KK "yard oven" I stick to my sawed off skillet filled with SS chain. It works. For my indoor oven in NYC, as it happens I bought a 2" thick aluminum disk off eBay that just fits under my round Baking Steel. This does a terrific job of evening out heat for a uniform browning on, say, buckwheat crepes. For extra steam thermal mass, I decided to store it under the chain in my cast iron skillet. It just fit, when cold. Anyone see where this is going? I replaced the shattered cast iron skillet with this: Vollrath Company 68369 Bake/Roast Pan (I love their bowls). Won't rust, but I now need more thermal mass. One can buy scrap aluminum plate very thick in odd sizes on eBay; that's my plan when I return to NYC next fall. The rule one needs to follow here is to have enough thermal mass to make enough steam. There's no getting around the physics. Here are my own notes from my "bread" folder: I use a cast iron skillet filled with stainless steel chain, in both an outdoor ceramic barbecue and two indoor ovens. I add 350g to 400g water at the start of a bake, and there's a noticeable difference. I've made many dozens of loaves, and I can't imagine working without lots of steam. Scale matters. That much water is enough is enough to displace the air in an oven several times over, so of course one observes steam escaping. The steam that remains in the oven has the desired effect. Part of the Bouchon Bakery explanation for this technique goes: "The water prevents the crust from setting and keeps the exterior supple and cool longer..." I doubt this explanation. The 540 calories it takes to convert a gram of water to steam is released to the landing site, on any surface in the oven that's not already above the boiling point of water. That would be the bread, and with enough steam to fill the oven several times over, there is plenty of available energy to snap the surface of the loaf to the boiling point of water while keeping it wet. This delays a crust forming, while the loaf expands. Putting a loaf in a cast iron pot works for different reasons, and the results are visibly good but not identical. I have yet to find a good resource written by a physicist that confirms this explanation, but it matches my empirical observations. While there is steam, the bread crust is pinned to 212 F and kept wet, despite the cool interior of the dough. When the steam subsides, the crust stays hot and wet; it takes a great deal of energy to convert water back to steam, so any drying is likely hot evaporation. I'd worry more about how much steam, and less about how long the steam lasts. Steam that briefly overwhelms the bread (350g to 400g, not less) quickly conditions the loaf for ideal oven spring and crust. Give me 30 seconds that looks like it should blow the door open, over eight minutes of a damp towel slowly drying. Scale matters. Here is a review of the physics behind creating steam in a hot oven: It takes 80 calories to thaw a gram of ice, 100 calories to bring that gram to the boiling point, and a whopping 540 calories to then turn that gram of water to steam. By weight, steel holds about 13% as much heat energy as water. So it takes a total of 720 calories per gram of ice, or 590 calories per gram of hot water, to create steam. Each pound of preheated steel stores 454 * 0.13 calories per degree centigrade above boiling. So one computes the total calories needed for a quantity of water, and divides by the calories provided per pound of steel. For example, to convert 350g of ice to steam, one needs (grams ice)×720÷((Fahrenheit−212)×(5÷9)×0.13×454) = 32 lbs steel at 450 F This spreadsheet makes these calculations for other water, temperature combinations:

That's by accident, not by tidy impulse. The KK survives high temps better than other brands, but it's not an ideal habit to get into. For example, I need to replace my main gasket. Was it the high temps? The liberal use of steam as a bread oven? Who knows; I'm not the easiest owner.

The classic magnum quote is "A difficult size. Too much for one, not enough for two." Of course, an argon tank renders the question moot: The wine drinks the next day like you just opened it. Shown is a "40" tank, which costs the same as a "20" for refills, but lasts twice as long. Our "20" lasted a year and a half. "Argon" as in "Did you argon the wine, honey?" has become a verb around here. If one prefers systems vetted by the consumer supply chain, there's always Coravin or other systems. Look at the size of their cartridge, and look again at the size of my tank. Huh. Reminds me of the Thomas Keller recommendation to use 350ml of water for steam, rather than 10ml of water from a plant spritzer. Someone is confused about scale, here, but I don't think it's me.

The best smen there was certainly aged, but very clean in fragrance. Its scent was roughly blue cheese, which Jeff Koehler recommends mixed with butter to approximate the taste.

Oh, I crave a set of donabe pots. The best source I know is Toiro Kitchen, as recommended by Donabe: Classic and Modern Japanese Clay Pot Cooking. From what I've seen, donabes are very advanced to make. Either decades of practice, or use mold supports while spinning. Of course, there's a contemporary world of pottery merged with 3D printing now, either for slip casting or to directly fire the 3D results. This is in its infancy, but I'd like to have a traditional formulation.

Pottery takes lots of practice. One hears music, or eats food, and it's gone. Pottery needs people willing to pay postage, or else I'm going to end up with a clay pot graveyard in the corner of my garden. Just describe what you want, and don't expect it to last forever in use till I move to mica clay. In Morocco they use high flames, expect everything to eventually crack, and go out and spend another $2.

I'm just back from a terrific two weeks in Morocco, keen on new ideas for using my KK. Tangia is a specialty of Marrakech. The pot shown has a two quart volume, but is intended for only a half kilo of meat. The idea is that others will handle the pot, not knowing the contents, but trusting that the pot can be placed at an angle. For example, the top photo shows tangias being reheated over charcoal for serving, at stall 97 in Jemaa el-Fnaa square in the Marrakech medina. A typical recipe that fits nicely, if one isn't going to tip the pot shown (two quarts capacity), is: 4 cloves crushed garlic, 1/4 preserved lemon seeded and finely chopped, 1/2 tsp ginger, 1/2 tsp ground cumin, 1/4 tsp turmeric, pinch saffron, 1 Tb butter, 1 1/2 Tb olive oil, salt and pepper, 800g beef (chuck roast from the end that becomes rib eye?), 1/2 bunch tied cilantro, 3/4 cup water. Mix all but the cilantro and water, marinate in the fridge overnight (I vacuum packed), then add the rest and cook all day till melting and sauce reduced. One will surely need to adjust the water to one's technique. Tangia is traditionally made by men. The idea is that they own the pot (or they buy a new one for $2). A butcher that provides the beef or lamb will also include the rest of the recipe, in a matter of seconds. One then takes the pot to a bathhouse, where for 10 cents the person handling the bathhouse fire will also tend these pots in the ashes for the day. This is in the same spirit as the communal ovens I saw everywhere (and where I baked the bread from one of my classes), except at a lower temperature. My KK was still 200 F from last night's chicken. It was easy to add more lump charcoal in a pile against one side, set the guru to 275 F for now (to turn down once the pot heats), and leave this for tonight's dinner. In the footsteps of Dennis our spiritual leader, who teaches us by example the confidence to embrace life and see everything through to its logical conclusion, I'm signed up for pottery classes nearby in Concord, CA. If one isn't going to tip a tangia, one would prefer a modified form to use in a KK. There are many other shapes I'd need to commission if I didn't learn how to make them. Earthenware in the KK is a great way to invoke the holy trinity that birthed our species of food, clay, and fire. After learning partially glazed earthenware I hope to move to New Mexico mica clay, which is close to indestructible. This is the same clay as La Chamba pots, or Moroccan Souss tagines. The Pueblo people of New Mexico perfected this form of pottery, and the clay is available now.

There was a lot of Italian migration to Australia, and some backwash. I'm most aware of Calabrians, but Padova, why not?

Our Fogo charcoal arrived, and I used a chimney's worth in my KK to first grill burgers on a baking steel, then to roast a Spanish potato, onion, salt, black pepper, pimenton mixture in a cazuela with the residual fire. Like pool; always have a plan for what to do with the white ball next. The Fogo did spark, especially when I fanned the fire with a Milwaukee M18 blower tool. Fun to watch, but no need for a welding helmet. Very dense, not very smoky at all, hotter perhaps than other fuels. No objectionable flavors at all, and a very mild pleasant flavor imparted to the potato mixture. More like "Of course we cook with fire!" than "Can you pick out those hickory notes?" (I'm notoriously fussy, the guy who came up with the cast iron smoke pot whose wife won't let him use smoke any other way now.) As I mainly wanted to cook outside, I like this subtle profile. Recommended? Yes. I prefer coffee charcoal from Dennis but we can't get that. Worth the price? Depends on your other options. Worth a try. Of course we cook with fire!

Fogo Charcoal

A contender for our favorite use of sous vide is to cook plain peeled, quartered potatoes sous vide > 85 C for 75 to 90 minutes starting cold. Then dry on a rack, perhaps involving a fan. Then pan fry with attitude in ghee. My intuition runs against using fat in the sous vide step. They certainly won't dry the same. Have you tried this both ways? I see how this could be your best opportunity to introduce fat, using an air cooker later. For anyone not using an air cooker, one should at least ask the question. Tonight I made Niçoise Stockfish, and the recipe called for cooked potatoes. I did this, making a second packet at the same time to chill in the fridge for a different meal. (Ok, I misread the recipe.)

It depends on the wrench. If the curve matches the grate, then nothing else comes close. (Old-timers will confirm I try everything.) If the curve is more square, this isn't your tool.

Looks spot on to me, from my time in Georgia.

I have perhaps eight in two kitchens, and I always choose best fit. I do like the 4 qt as a good starter.

Are the aluminum foil ear muffs so the United States CIA can't hear their thoughts about being roasted?

Wine? That's interesting. I've used distilled water before. I've kept some batches and discarded some batches where there's a bit of mold. On one hand I don't believe there's a health risk. I can imagine I can taste the difference, but this could be psychological. What I certainly would bet a massive sum on is this: By the time one sees a bit of visible mold on top, there are mold spores that would show up under a microscope, throughout the mixture.

I love fermenting hot sauce; I've been doing it for years. I do struggle with the ideal technique. You don't get mold, exposing the jar contents to air filtered through cheesecloth? I've always used some sort of one-way fermentation valve, like making beer. Now I have an argon tank (for saving part bottles of wine), I'm curious if a layer of argon is as easy/effective as those who use a layer of oil.

Good eye! I totally missed the lighter fluid, looking through the photos.

"Cracking" grains is a separate problem; one can buy dedicated devices. Or improvise, e.g. an industrial blender or a Thai mortar and pestle. I like to get the grain size down on something like corn, whatever they say. Or, were I to dare using just the KoMo, I'd do two passes, starting very coarse. My first grain mill was completely manual. Enough flour for pasta required twenty minutes and a shower. I keep it for exactly problems like turning corn into polenta. A related problem: If one cooks with turmeric, there are actually several varieties available dried e.g. at Kalustyan's. North India favors one, the south favors another. There is a spectacular difference grinding turmeric in a spice grinder, even to save months at a time. However, one needs to smash the turmeric down to a manageable size or it destroys the grinder. I use a mortar and pestle (and find pieces 30 feet away).

I've had a burger every day since. I just ruined another dish I used to be able to eat out. "Chopped" is a misnomer. At first I'd slice as far as I could, then some final mincing with a chopping motion. I've come to think of even that as mashing the meat. After slicing along all three axis, one can wad together the meat and slice another pass or two, as if slicing salumi. No thwacking the knife on the board, all careful drawing the knife past the meat. It is worth a try. Nevertheless, one of my favorite scenes from "Being John Malkovitch" is the documentary clip where Sean Penn struggles with whether he should follow John into puppetry. Being John Malkovich (10/11) Movie CLIP - John Malkovich Becomes a Puppeteer

I've been aware most of my life of the idea that the best "ground" meat is hand chopped, and I classified this as a bit over the top. While I'm no stranger to "over the top" (we grind our own flour, well worth it), I'd been blocking out this idea out of some misguided sense of self preservation. Nevertheless, I do have some amazing (Shapton Glass) sharpening stones for my knives. On Sunday, I bought a 3 1/2 rolled beef roast from one of my favorite butchers. A non-standard name, but the end they cut me was from near where rib eye steaks come from. I cleaned it up completely, removing all fat that wasn't marbling, saving 2 1/2 lbs of "steaks". These I cooked sous vide, then finished over coffee charcoal from Dennis, then sliced against the grain keeping the four distinct cuts in separate piles. It was a contender for the best steak of my life. Aside from the discarded fat and tissue, I salvaged bits of meat to make one hand chopped burger. It too was amazing. Remember that one simply needs a burger to hold together as it cooks; the juices congeal, so this takes less than one would think. In comparison, any grinder (even working with partially frozen chunks and a prechilled grinder) makes a massacre of the meat. Hand chopping has a lightness impossible to realize with any grinder. My protocol, moving forward, will be to plan for burgers and steaks, from one purchase of a hunk of beef. We were at a ranch party near Mariposa, CA two weeks ago where they served rib eye steaks to 80 people. How much reinforcement does it take for the idea to stick that ribeye steak is two cuts, and one is actually spectacularly better than the other? This was a big enough pile of meat served for anyone who wanted to get this idea straight. The dream scenario would be to rob this cut for steak night, and hand cut the rest into great burgers.

About 110,000. My mechanic is awesome, he's hoping for 200,000 despite it being German, but I don't drive that much.

Here's my 2000 VW GTI VR6, back when it was new (and I was newer). Still driving it...