Search Results for '("C'

[Mike Nolan]

I"m not sure what 'USDA Approved' means.

The beef grades you are likely to see in the store are (in decreasing order), per the USDA
(see USDA link):
Prime
Choice
Select
Standard
Commercial

Prime has the most marbling, but I actually prefer Choice.

Meat that is not labeled for grade is most likely Standard, sometimes Commercial.

Utility, Cutter and Canner grades are the other 3 grades for human consumption, but you're not likely to see them in any stores. Ground beef and processed meats (sausages) may include meat from those grades.

After all the fuss a couple years ago about Lean Fine Textured Beef or Boneless Lean Beef Trimmings (aka 'pink slime'), you may still see them in some ground beef. If it says 'from trim', I'm not sure if that means BLBT, you might want to ask.

[navlys]

I bought a few ribeye steaks on sale. I didn't realize until too late that they were not USDA Choice but USDA approved. Anyway I grilled 2 and they were tough. So I decided to slice the other 2 (spiced) steaks on the diagonal and stir fry with onions and peppers and then added some TJ's souvlaki sauce and they turned out to be fabulous. Just ask my husband.

[BakerAunt]

Ginsberg says part of it was practical--a way to "recycle" unsold bread. He says that some countries have laws limiting the amount of old bread that bakers can use in dough. He does say that "chemically the gelatinized starches that make up the bulk of stale bread bind water far more effectively than raw flour, tightening the crumb of the finished loaves and reducing the notorious tendency of some rye breads to crumple at the slightest touch" (p. 46). He seems to suggest that any type of bread can be used, since the amount (no more than 10%) is small enough not to affect taste.

[BakerAunt]

Tuesday morning I made a batch of my Cherry Granola (recipe on this site). Most of the last batch that I made for our Florida trip was eaten by my (I don't eat coconut) husband. Go figure.

In the afternoon, I again baked the Salty Rye Rolls (Sigteboller) from Stanley Ginsberg's The Rye Baker, which I first tried a couple of weeks ago. Mine do not seem as dark as the ones in the picture, and I don't think that it is a matter of baking them longer. I'm wondering if KAF's medium rye flour is not quite the same as the medium rye flour he has. I was able to slash these with my lame, but I'm still having trouble getting a deep enough slash of 1/4 to 1/2 inch. They still smell delicious and will go well with leftover soup tonight and as small sandwich buns.

[Mike Nolan]

It's still something of a 'cheat' because it's using a dark substance (or in this case, two of them) to color the bread rather than baking it until it naturally turns darker.

[Mike Nolan]

I've seen a pastry cross done a few times, never tried it myself, let us know what works best. I've always wondered if they were stenciled on.

I'm thinking this year I may use the pastry glaze on them and then pipe on the crosses. The glaze should keep them from drying out so much. (The whole wheat ones dry out quickly.)

[Mike Nolan]

We gave away our canning pot a few years back. I've got a 24 quart stock pot that would probably handle all the way up to half-gallon jars, though USDA recommends against canning most things in them.

I prefer to freeze most things, it heats up the kitchen (and the cook) less. I'm still working through the tomato sauce I made last summer, good thing I didn't add salt to any of it.

I've got canned pickles left from several years ago, but I can't eat them any more. :sigh:

[Mike Nolan]

Well, it was for a good cause, the ag grad student winter fund-raiser. I sampled the other chilis, most were quite a bit spicier (even the ones labeled 'mild'), and also a lot more watery. Mine has lots of tomatoes, beans and tomato juice, my wife's mother used to call it 'tomato soup'.

[BakerAunt]

I also got into canning jams and blueberry pie filling a few years back. No canning happened this summer, as we arrived too late for most of the fruits, and my canning supplies were buried. I've since found them, and I am looking forward to jams this summer--as long as the weather does not yo-yo and a freeze kill the developing fruit.

In the meantime, we are still finishing the last jars of jam from 2016.

Wonky, you are so fortunate to have kitchen time with your sister! My sisters live too far away for that. Your story also makes me think that perhaps I should consider trying to can some fruit this year.

Once canning season starts for 2018 (maybe it already has for Wonky!), let's start a dedicated canning thread.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 2 months ago by BakerAunt.

[luvpyrpom]

This week was more focused on Chinese dishes for the New Year - red bean dessert, roasted salmon w/Brussels sprouts, deep fried tofu w/Buddha's Delight, ham steak w/petite green beans, tapioca pudding, beef smokies w/BBQ sauce, ham sandwich, homemade chau siu (Chinese barbecue pork).

I love reading about the different ways of roasting meats. I love making pot roast but now my mother doesn't like to eat the meat as much. I haven't cooked pork tenderloin for a long time - I remember my mother using it to make sweet and sour pork as a child.

[Mike Nolan]

I spent much of the afternoon working on the chili and cinnamon rolls yesterday.

For the cinnamon rolls I added some sugar and vanilla to the 'Holland American' recipe, I used a brown sugar, butter and cinnamon paste filling, and I glazed them with a simple pastry glaze (confectioners sugar, water and lemon juice), which I heated to make it easier to brush on.

I spread the filling on with my fingers, messy but effective.

I wound up dividing the dough into 2 parts, each half filled two 24-mini-muffin trays. I baked them one at a time, so trays 2 and 4 got a longer rise, and I think that helped them turn out better, next time I'll let them all rise longer before they go in the oven.

The first batch didn't come out of the pan well, I think I let them cool too much and they stuck down, so the other 3 batches I took out right after glazing them.

I rolled the first half of the dough out to about 24 x 16 on a silpat, that turned out to be too thick, so I rolled the second one out to about 30 x 9 on the countertop, and after rolling it up I rolled it a bit more so it was more like 40 inches long by the time I started to cut it. I think next time I might roll it out to 48 inches so each roll is cut one inch thick.

The brown sugar, butter and cinnamon mixture produces a butterscotch/cinnamon filling which is very tasty. (White sugar would produce a caramel filling, but the presence of the molasses in the brown sugar makes it technically a butterscotch.)

By the time I got done, I was too tired to clean the pans and start on the banana muffins, so I'll probably do that tonight.

[Mike Nolan]

Most iodized salts have some kind of dessicant in them to keep them from clumping. (I think kosher salts do not.) My mother always put rice in the salt shaker, too.

If you think about it, nearly all salt is 'sea salt'. 🙂 I like the look of the pink Hawaiian salt, but I can't say I could taste any difference in it.

I assume it's possible to have too much iodine in one's diet as well as too little, but you don't find much about that online. There may be other thyroid issues that would lead to a need to avoid iodized salt.

[wonky]

I was reading a blog re focaccia On the KA website, and it was mentioned to use non-iodized salt (in the comment section) I always use iodized salt, so was wondering what you mostly used, and why.

• This topic was modified 8 years, 2 months ago by wonky.

[BakerAunt]

Beans--specifically brown lentils from Bob's Red Mill--are on our menu for this evening. Here's a link to the recipe:

Jane Brody’s Favorite Lentil Soup

Jane Brody's cookbooks are favorites of mine, although right now they are still somewhere among the boxes. I followed this recipe except that I added a stalk of chopped celery, I used sliced carrots, since I only have baby carrots and did not want to bother grating them, and I added 1/2 cup of pearl barley. I also only used one, not two onions. (I've only recently been able to get my husband to eat onions in soup; it works as long as I saute them first.) I do not have parsley, so I could not add it. I used homemade turkey stock from the freezer.

As always, I started the soup on my regular stove, then moved it to the wood stove. I'll add a note after dinner about how we like it.

Note: It's delicious. I will definitely make it again.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 2 months ago by BakerAunt.

[Mike Nolan]

I"m making a large batch of mini-cinnamon rolls today, using the dough recipe from the Holland-American Cruise Line recipe (from the old KAF BC) but with a different filling and using a basic pastry glaze (powdered sugar, water and a little lemon juice.)

I'll also be making banana muffins, because I have a bunch of ripe bananas to use up.