[aaronatthedoublef]

People are funny about turkey weights. When I was filling their orders last Thanksgiving people insisted on having specific weights and that they had ordered that weight. We would typically respond that we can only deliver what nature grows for us.

Maybe turkeys on farms are not supposed to 30 pounds but we have wild turkeys roaming the streets in our town and those are BIG birds! From my hunter friends who've eaten wild turkeys there is not a lot of fat on them either.

But one reason mentioned for smaller turkeys is to try to have them be a year-round option. But a six-plus pound bird is still pretty big for the average family.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks for all the pie crust/blind baking advice. I'm going to try my Pyrex this year since we're not going any place and if I have time I may buy and try a metal pie tin.

Not sure if I'll find one of BA's round, drip-catchers. I'm going to make my pie dough today which should allow me to blind bake Wednesday.

Oh, and thanks for the tip about par-cooking the pumpkin pie filling before baking. Even with foil on my crust edge it always ends up overbaked before the filling is fully cooked!

[aaronatthedoublef]

I like the look of the Norpro pie pan. It has handles! I have one of their griddles and like your pie pan it really is nonstick. I may have to try one of those.

Around here we can find brined, un-brined, organic brined and un-brined, and kosher and organic kosher, as well as fresh and frozen turkeys. Kosher are always brined.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Depending upon who you read dairy fat is not as evil as it once was and in some cases it is a good thing. I've spoken with a number of people on low/no carb diets recently and at least at the start of those you increase your fat in an effort to train your body to use fat and not store it.

I'm amazed at the number of variants of this diet and the number of people I encounter in my travels who are following one of these variations. We can still find part skim mozzarella but what we cannot find is Polly-O part skim mozzarella. It went away here when they were purchased by Kraft. We can still find Polly-O cheese sticks but not the 1 lb. blocks of cheese. It still appears to be available just not here.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks everyone for all the advice. I'm still trying to figure out what I will do and maybe I'll have a chance to make some trial crusts between now and then. Usually I make both a pumpkin and a pecan pie but I found a recipe that is pumpkin with a praline topping in Cook's Illustrated so I may make that as we're having fewer people this year.

I like BA's adding in some WW pastry flour. I've used powdered buttermilk for years because it seems to soften the crust.

Usually I use the foil pie tins but I think this year I will use the Pyrex ones we have.

And I'll lower the blind bake temps. Most of the recipes I've seen are at 350 but I'll drop that down.

And I'll use tons of pie weights!

I like the idea of a yeast crust. I'll have to try that. I did accidentally use pie dough to make pizza once. It was fragile but it tasted great.

Thanks again

[aaronatthedoublef]

Wow. I used to love Empires but I haven't had a good one in years, even from the u-pick places.

My family loves Honeycrisps which we only buy on sale because they are very spendy here. And we don't see any Winesap either. Lots of Macs, Courtlands, and Macouns. Or at the store lots of West Coast varieties like Gala and Lady Alice.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Apparently "clean as you go" means different things to different people.

I've worked in a few kitchens and bakeries both as production and as a dish or pot washer.

When I was in production "clean as you go" meant clean up your workspace. You would wipe down your work surface, move your dirty things to the dish room or pot washer, and move on to your next project. Even the last place I worked where there was overlap between production and clean tasks we would generally wait until the end of the shift to start washing the dishes and pots and pans.

That's the way I work now - I make something and put the dirty things in the sink. When I'm done, I go through the sink and put what goes in the dishwasher into the dishwasher, wash some things, and leave some things to soak until what is in them has been loosened enough to clean easily.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks. This is very timely as I was having a lengthy (and continuing) discussion about this with some colleagues.

Growing up on the south side there were plenty of tavern style pizza places but the only deep dish we knew of was on the north side. We went to Uno's once or twice as a big treat. Another rare treat was going to the Home Run Inn which was near Comiskey.

Giordano's was the first stuffed place I knew about and it arrived in 1973. If stuffed pizza existed we didn't know about it. Then a little later deep dish arrived in Hyde Park in the form of the Medici. The Medici had both tavern style and deep dish but no stuffed. The Medici still exists to this day but in a different location and not nearly as good.

Hyde Park also has a Giordano's and a number of other thin crust take out and bake at home pizza places.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks. This is very timely as I was having a lengthy (and continuing) discussion about this with some colleagues.

Growing up on the south side there were plenty of tavern style pizza places but the only deep dish we knew of was on the north side. We went to Uno's once or twice as a big treat. Another rare treat was going to the Home Run Inn which was near Comiskey.

Giordano's was the first stuffed place I knew about and it arrived in 1973. If stuffed pizza existed we didn't know about it. Then a little later deep dish arrived in Hyde Park in the form of the Medici. The Medici had both tavern style and deep dish but no stuffed. The Medici still exists to this day but in a different location and not nearly as good.

Hyde Park also has a Giordano's and a number of other thin crust take out and bake at home pizza places.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I made the Cake Bible white velvet cake. My wife used it for cupcakes for a baby shower. This was my go-to caked for my family but the last few cakes have been chocolate cakes. I brought my daughter over to the dark side and she now requests chocolate! I almost screwed these up. I forgot the baking powder when I first mixed up the batter. I had it in the fridge until my wife came home with the cupcake wrappers she wanted and for some reason I thought "darn, I forgot to add the baking powder." So I added it in and all was fine!

My wife decorated them as she and I have different views of the proportion of sugar to butter in faux butter cream and how much icing to use.

I've forgotten how much fun cake baking is!

[aaronatthedoublef]

Speaking of blue berries and science... I just found this link - a planet made of blueberriesa planet made of blueberriesa planet made of blueberries!

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks. I'm not sure what style I will make. Just starting out. I've found a few recipes but some are too fussy and I just need an extended period of time to get my brine mixed. Although one recipe I found seems to use a dry rub...

I'll let you all know what I find.

[aaronatthedoublef]

What our PBS was showing they called Season 8. It had Paul and Mary. I too was surprised by the comment about American pies in particular, and baked goods in general being too sweet. Yes we have people who make things too sweet. But there is plenty of that in the UK too!

I was disappointed with the end. The person who won was not the best baker of the season.

[aaronatthedoublef]

What will the countries that ban foods with GMOs say about manufactured meat?

[aaronatthedoublef]

Hi,

Sorry it's been a while since I've been online. I've been slammed with work. I missed you all.

Not sure where you're buying beef but here in CT and Boston grass fed beef carries a premium. It's usually about 25-30% more expensive than conventional beef. But it also depends where you buy your meat. At Whole Foods even the conventional beef is somewhat grass fed. The farmers switch to grain in the last six months because it's less expensive and this is when the cattle eat the most in their lifecycle. This isn't true of the other places around here. Costco has the least expensive beef but it's a bigger commitment than I can handle as we only have one refrigerator/freezer and we can only eat so much at one time.

As Mike points out, it's less expensive to feed cattle grain as it's more nutrient dense and you don't have to drive cattle to pasture. And cattle are dumb enough that they will eat all the grass at their feet and not move so they need cowboys to move them to different pastures. This means you need lots of land for grass fed cattle which also makes them more expensive.

I notice the taste difference more in ground beef than in steaks. My boys eat both and have not complained one way or the other. Our doctor said grass fed is supposed to be better because it lacks Omega 6s.

Your mileage may vary.

[Author]

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