tekobo Posted September 4 Author Report Posted September 4 Simple ribs and wings cook on my "portable" KK Passed the bend test and then sauced. Wings. Naked. 5
jonj Posted September 6 Report Posted September 6 On 9/4/2025 at 1:52 AM, tekobo said: Wings. Naked. They seem to have colored slightly. Perhaps from embarrassment when the lid was unexpectedly opened? 4
tekobo Posted December 20 Author Report Posted December 20 (edited) Back in Italy to enjoy the lead up to Christmas. Cooked ribs on the 16 last night. Came out great. No pix. Used the heat shield/paving stone for the first time. It was a good call, the short distance between the fire box and the grate means I have found it difficult to genuinely cook low and slow without something to shield the bottom of the food from the fire. I am near Venice and in the home of bigoli pasta. Today I am trying three versions using a Chad Robertson recipe that uses up spent leaven. Here we are at the first stage: I am experimenting. Bigoli are made with buckwheat flour as the base. I made three variations. The first with durum wheat, the second with whole wheat flour ground from UK hard wheat grains and the third with Italian 00 flour. I followed the quantities for the recipe without thinking for the first one with durum wheat. It was too wet and I made the necessary adjustments for the second two. Will see how each extrudes, using the bigolaro, later today. KK action? Boiled meats are a speciality here and, as well as capons, they include beef short ribs. I have set the KK going and will do a nice slow cook in place of boiling and will see what the Italians think of it. Warming up now: Edited December 20 by tekobo 5
Tyrus Posted December 20 Report Posted December 20 (edited) Have KK will travel. OK, you must have a dolley to move that or the stand is on wheels. Nevertheless it's gotta be a touchy situation...I give you credit though, the effort is only outweighed by the food that comes off of it. He ain't heavy, he's my KK. Edited December 20 by Tyrus 1 1
MacKenzie Posted December 20 Report Posted December 20 @Tekobo,I hope you report back on the pasta adventure.
tekobo Posted 8 hours ago Author Report Posted 8 hours ago This experiment was a big FAIL initially. The doughs were way too wet to put through an extruder. I remembered @Syzygies once lamenting the fact that some bread recipe writers do not take account of the amount of liquid introduced by the levain. Well, without counting the liquid added by the levain, the hydration of this Chad Robertson recipe was at 45%! Waay too high. My neighbours kindly and friends kindly ate what I produced but it was substandard. I finally ended up with a very stiff dough, somewhere between 28% and 32% hydration depending on how you count the water added by wetting my hands while kneading. It was really hard work turning the lever to push the dough through the bigolaro but the result was worth it. Bigolaro action: Really simple but delicious pasta recipe called bigoli in salsa, made with just onions and chopped up anchovies. The dough was fermented for 18 hours. I think the pasta tasted better than any I had made before but I will do a side by side test without levain to see if that is just my imagination. And the KK action came in the form of roasted short ribs (should have been low and slow but I fell asleep and they cooked hot and fast instead!) 1
Syzygies Posted 2 hours ago Report Posted 2 hours ago Hi Tekobo! Let me send you a custom handle! With some reworking, your torchio can take on any powered machine. I'm gearing up to make bespoke handles from Jatoba hardwood and laser cut stainless steel. Or if you like to do your own woodworking I can send you the DXF file for fabricating the boss plate. The handle shown above is a prototype using an oak dowel. Here is my response to being asked about my bigolaro on the Rancho Gordo Bean Club Facebook group: This is a "Torchio Model B" bigolaro by Bottene. They also make the powered Lillo Due for home and restaurant use. The Model B accepts the same bronze dies, opening up a vast catalog of shapes. https://bottene.net/en/products/bigolaro/ https://pastabiz.com/torchio-hand-press.html https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torchio_da_pasta This design is one that has been in use for centuries in the Veneto region, primarly to make "bigoli" noodles. These are fat round noodles sauced with an anchovy, sardine, liver, or duck sauce. The noodle recipe is tuned for ease of extrusion through its namesake bigolaro, requiring less pressure than a powered extruder. Bigoli noodles are an obscure corner of the pasta universe. As we prefer homeground flour, we have long dismissed dried noodles, even from whole wheat, in favor of Atlas or similar (Otello is an upgrade) laminated egg noodles, or hand-formed shapes such as busiate. Shapes are nevertheless a major part of the Italian pasta experience. Pairing shapes with sauces for Italians is a profoundly deep enterprise. One cannot fully dry extruded pasta at home with the same care as an artisan factory: Varying climates is why there was an early trade in dried pasta. If someone tells you they're happy drying extruded pasta, they're telling you two things: They're happy, and they're drying extruded pasta. An Italian would not be happy; they'd find someone who can do this right. Pasta dried for part of a day is neverless a wonderful third category, that opens up the entire experience of pairing shapes with sauces. This is what most restaurants with extruders do. Pasta: The Story of a Universal Food https://www.amazon.com/Pasta-Story-Universal-Silvano-Serventi/dp/0231124422 I am thankful beyond words that Bottene chose to modify the design to accept Lillo Due dies, but we are left without guidance for how to best use dies designed for greater pressure. With a maniacal attention to detail, the "a serious bunburyist" blogger has managed to make good use of a variety of bronze dies, but even he has moved on to a powered machine. The basic problem is that a dough wet enough to extrude will come apart (gravity unwinds fusilli) and stick together. https://ibunbury.blogspot.com/2010/06/confirmed-and-secret-bunburyist.html Am I an insane mathematician, for figuring out what to do? (My hands played one, once.) https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/03/11/a-beautiful-hand People go to more trouble than I went through when a drug is involved; pasta is also worth it. People roll their eyes that we grind our own flour, but they grind their own coffee? Same thing. What I'm about to describe is not hard. I don't want to clean, or store, or lug around a heavy powered machine. I love hand tools, such the better-than-vintage woodworking tools that Lie-Nielsen makes. https://www.lie-nielsen.com I've had my bigolaro for fourteen years, but only recently has it become our daily driver, the routine way we make pasta. That was a long road. A few years ago I destroyed the boss socket in the stock handle through misguided experiments with too-stiff dough. After some hilarious failed improvisations, I learned to respect the forces involved. I fabricated replacement boss plates from 1/2" thick stainless steel using the custom parts service SendCutSend, and mounted these plates to longer wood handles with better leverage. https://sendcutsend.com What broke next? Further misguided experiments lead to howling noises that I labored through; I wanted dinner. It turns out that all grease is not the same; who knew?! If a grease doesn't publish a Tinken Load and Four-Ball Wear Test, it will simply skip town under duress, leading to a howling metal-on-metal contact that grease is supposed to prevent. I replaced my worn threaded shaft assembly, and applied a grease a factory might choose, for a radical upgrade in performance. If one makes a single modification to a stock torchio, this is it: Disassemble the threaded shaft assembly, take it outdoors to strip any incompatible grease, and lubricate it with the best grease one can source. Apply a bit more for every use. If operation isn't dead silent under extreme loads, you're doing this wrong. https://www.grainger.com/product/CRC-Extreme-Duty-Food-Grade-Grease-12G591 I also upgraded how I mount the bigolaro to the same overhang I use for clamping other kitchen tools. I slightly enlarged the holes to accept 5/16" bolts and oversized nuts, washers. Now the bigolaro is effectively fixed to the foundation of my house. Believe it or not, there was some play using a 1/4" bolt, nut, washer combination. Now, one has a device that accepts Lillo Due dies, and with 20 pounds of force at the ends of a 26" handle can extrude with more power than a Lillo Due. One cannot now simply use a Lillo Due dough recipe, because the mechanics of extrusion are different. A powered extruder uses a twist screw, while a bigolaro is a piston that compresses the dough waiting in line. Nevertheless, one is now free to work out a more flexible range of dough recipes, less likely to fall apart or stick together after extrusion. In our case we use freshly ground flour (primarily durum and Kamut) and a sourdough process that improves flavor and glycemic index. I've settled on adding 4% psyllium (the same hack factories use to make gluten-free pasta) and extruding my dough cold after an overnight fridge rest. These steps both enable and require a higher hydration; for my specific dough I like 43%. My pasta doesn't fall apart or stick together. Now that I've figured this all out, I need to write up a web site with handle plans that even an apartment dweller can assemble (e.g. order 1 1/4" square staircase balusters online). I should also offer to make handles for people. Ideally, I can convince someone who already sells pasta woodworking to make handles. Probably this constellation of ideas is overkill; after one appreciates the issues in play, one only needs to address a subset. Start with the grease, then the handle, then tweak your own dough recipe. A torchio should be in as widespread use as an Atlas crank machine, rather than in a cupboard like a twice-used rowing machine. These challenges are easily surmounted, and the results are worth the trouble. What can we do to make this practical for other people?
