tekobo

Wow. I really enjoyed reading the Anson Mills article. Tangentially, the article reminded me that I really miss Italy. The Husband and I would laugh about the fact that a meal wasn't a meal for an Italian unless they had eaten some bread and would wonder how so many of them stayed so elegantly slim. And now I realise how much I miss breaking bread with my Italian friends. We have stayed in touch through the crisis by the magic of Whatsapp. In the words of Vera Lynn, "We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when, but I know we'll meet again, some sunny day". No war here thank goodness, just a virulent virus. Stay safe!

Ha. My misplaced anxiety is about using yeast. I feel like I would be straying from developing my sourdough craft. HOWEVER I love baguettes and @Pequod's (brioche) buns have got me drooling. Another rule to be broken. Soon. @Syzygies what do you call farro? At first I was reluctant to buy yet another grain and then, when I asked at my local whole food shop, they had no idea what farro was and had to look it up. From what I have read spelt, einkorn and emmer are all sometimes called farro. The good news is I won't have to buy any different grains but it would be helpful to know if you Americans have a different/specific meaning when you say farro. Welcome to the thread Sue! Hope to hear from you again soon. Keen to know what you meant about my "spelt seedling" pack from Austria. I did try to sprout them but had zero success so they are definitely not for making sprouts. If they are pre-sprouted it might be the equivalent of malted grain but I really don't know and the company never answered my email enquiry.

I think the smoker accessory is great. You need the right pellets to keep it alight but once you get that right you can set and forget it. I still use the smoke pot, usually for low and slow cooks because I don't think the pull through is as good on those cooks but others may have a different experience.

I suspect no breaking down is needed. Once you see one KK it is hard not to want another in your life. You could emulate @Pequod's set up or you could go wild and pick another colour. We await your decision, with bated breath.

Thanks for reminding me that I had a free source of fruit wood that could be turned into smoking chips @Basher. So far so good, here are the chips from our apple tree trimmings. Will turn over periodically to help them dry out and, eventually, will see how they work in the smoke pot. Keen to see how @Adventureman82 gets on with making pellets.

Really good to see the soapstone performing so well for you @coolpapabill. I never thought that would be a "thing" but it turns out it's a very good thing.

Yum!

I agree, it looks lovely. Congratulations!

Welcome @Christinelynn and @Wingman505. Glad that you are on the right side of the pebble v tile debate even though you didn't join me in the cobalt blue pool. Olive and gold is an acceptable alternative. I look forward to seeing your KK and your cooks.

Yes, I was surprised to count up the days from when I put the meat in to age and to find that I had managed to wait 78 whole days before breaking into it. Guessing we will be at the outer limits when we try the second steak at about 90 days. Looking forward to it. I invested a lot in time but the meat didn't cost very much so I won't be afraid to dump it in the bin if it looks or smells wrong.

I would love to and will put that on the post-lockdown list. Ironically, I am closer to Napoli than San Francisco. Will see which I make it to first.

You were living your life and it rolled past on your screen like yesterday's old news. 😜 Glad you like it. Yes @Basher et al, the steak was very tasty. The Husband says we don't have that shiraz but we had something else that was nice. You said that the steak would cost a lot round your neck of the woods. Well, it did here too. Buying the ager wasn't cheap so that steak must be one of the most expensive I've ever eaten! Maybe in a few years when I have aged more salami and eaten many more aged steaks I will be able to justify it on cost. At the moment I justify it based on the sheer pleasure I get from experimenting and eating the results without dying. In this case the steak smelled very fresh and clean when it was broken out. I scraped a little surface mould off in a couple of locations but it was remarkably perky for a piece of meat that had been sitting around for that long.

Thanks @ckreef. Good to see how you set up the wood stack inside the grill. Up to now, my focus has been on getting as much coal as hot as possible as fast as possible so that I can get on with cooking. It will be fun to slow down, build a wood fire, wait for it to burn down and then start cooking. An Argentinian BBQ book that we have talks about wine and salads filling the time before the meat is ready. That may be why they take so much time to set up!

My method for cleaning out is similar to @Basher's - shake basket down, take it and deflector out and I just use a small brush and pan to sweep up and I don't even bother with a vacuum cleaner now. If you did use a shop vac it would avoid the inevitable dust at this stage. I too dump my "coals" in from the bag but they are cocoshell briquettes and they produce no dust at all. No flavour at all either. You could add flavour with a smoker or smoke pot or with hand placed charcoal on top of the briquettes to avoid the dust. Good luck!

I am glad your pizzas were tasty. It is always good to get a result when it has taken a few days to get to the point of actually cooking your food! Full disclosure: I am not a good or regular pizza maker but the method that you describe sounds a little complicated. Others recommend using the steel on the upper rack and cooking your pizza on that for the whole time. When I have made pizza in the past that has worked and it was stressful enough getting the dough on and off once without trying to swap between a stone and a steel during the cook

Yay. Great cook. I took your advice about using wood on the Argentinian barbecue and I have just ordered a load of logs - small and large - to try out the concept. The Husband was telling me that the Argentinians light up the wood in the morning for cooking on embers in the afternoon. Is that the sort of timeline that you work to or do you have a cheat that I can also use?

I missed this post earlier. Very funny. Yes, boxy bread with fewer holes does have its advantages.

Here is the follow up to my post about coating two fore rib chops in cow fat and leaving them in the ager for a while. We ate one a couple of days ago after 78 days of aging. Delicious. Tasted of blue cheese.

You guys were talking about European loaf tins with lids. I went and hunted mine out. I found out that it is called a Pullman bread pan. I The recipe that I have made in it is for a sandwich type loaf. I think it keeps things nice and square and the top flat but, having said that, the mix never rises to hit the lid.

I made another sprouted loaf using buckwheat. Here is the sprouted grain after 3-4 days. There were more sprouts than I needed to make two loaves but I didn't think to scale up the recipe to make an extra small loaf. Bakers percentages would have made that very easy. Next time. I did take @Pequod's advice about beeswax paper and bought this from amazon with the bonus bread bag. https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0845PRTXX/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 The beeswax works really well for keeping these moist loaves for at least a week. Tried the bread out yesterday afternoon. I am just loving the moist, nutty flavour of these breads. Have no fear, the empty glass problem was fixed straight after I took this photo.

Hi, I've got the spit and I think it is probably more flexible for different sizes of joints and chicken than a cradle would be.

That sounds really good. Keen to see pix when you get the chance.

Wot @jonj said. I tried all sorts of chemicals to get the marks off my dark grout and, in the end, I followed advice from Dennis on another thread which said to reapply the grout. I just used the grout straight from the tube, rubbed it over with my finger, waited for it to dry and rubbed the dried grout off the tiles. Very easy and it gets rid of those unsightly white marks.

Thinking that I could lay out on a shelf in the greenhouse in the summer and see how dry the chips get. No hurry, could wait a year if necessary. It's just a fun side project.

Hey there @coolpapabill. What happened with the soapstone? Did I miss the unveiling? I am very interested to hear how this worked out.