Mike Nolan

Forum Replies Created

Viewing 15 posts - 166 through 180 (of 7,560 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • in reply to: What are you Baking the Week of February 9, 2025? #45537
    Mike Nolan
    Keymaster

      A baking steel kept on the lowest level will be a bit hotter than the ambient air temperature in your oven, and has greater thermal capacity, so putting a cold raw pizza on top of it doesn't cool it down as much. The challenge is to keep the bottom from getting too done before the cheese has properly melted on top. King Arthur recommends 475 for the keto friendly pizza mix and that has been working well for me.

      Commercial pizza ovens are usually set at temperatures above what home ovens can do, IMHO the baking steel comes about as close as you can get to commercial baking results. I think the Modernist Pizza books came to pretty much the same conclusion, though I haven't read them.

      A couple seasons ago I tried doing some pizzas on my outdoor gas grill, which can get to temperatures of 750 or higher. I haven't tried putting my baking steel in the gas grill yet, though. King Arthur's series on pizzas on the grill recommended pre-cooking the dough, flipping it over, putting the ingredients on the now-baked side and then putting it back on the grill to finish. That was kind of a messy operation, getting a round pizza was challenging.

      Jeffrey Steingarten wrote a series of articles on home pizza attempts (for the NY Times, I think) that were quite funny, he literally came close to burning his house down rigging his home oven to try to cook a pizza on the 'self-cleaning' cycle.

      in reply to: Egg Prices #45534
      Mike Nolan
      Keymaster

        You never find the old egg laying hens in the grocery store, so I wonder what happens to them. Maybe they're used for canned soup and pet food.

        Considering how little chicken meat there is in a bowl of Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup, that chicken must be going into animal feeds. I know Alpo has a big plant in Crete NE that gets daily deliveries from beef and poultry operations.

        in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of February 9, 2025? #45533
        Mike Nolan
        Keymaster

          I felt good enough this evening that I had leftover pizza for supper rather than chicken noodle soup. I'm not sure if this covid case has affected my taste buds.

          in reply to: Egg Prices #45532
          Mike Nolan
          Keymaster

            Our local paper has story about thieves stealing hundreds of eggs from a cafe in Seattle, complete with video of a white panel van pulling up, two people bringing out several stacks of egg crates in several trips, getting back into the van and pulling away.

            I keep thinking of the Monty Python segment: Your Lupins or your Life!

            in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of February 9, 2025? #45505
            Mike Nolan
            Keymaster

              Not mild, unfortunately, I tested positive for COVID this evening.

              in reply to: We have tomatoes on the hydroponic garden! #45503
              Mike Nolan
              Keymaster

                I spotted a couple more pea-sized tomatoes today, I'm going to keep a log of what I pick, though I'm not really sure if the first one was a Better Bush or Defiant, kind of hard to trace the vines in the middle of that jungle.The first 6 I spotted are now bigger than a ping pong ball but I don't really expect them to show signs of ripening for another few weeks.

                in reply to: What are you Baking the Week of January 26, 2025? #45502
                Mike Nolan
                Keymaster

                  Peter Reinhart's marbled rye bread also use shortening, he says it gives a softness other fats don't.

                  in reply to: We have tomatoes on the hydroponic garden! #45493
                  Mike Nolan
                  Keymaster

                    We wound up using the tomato in tacos. Although it was fully red, Diane thought it could have stood another day or two of ripening, that's part of the learning curve. But it smelled and tasted like a tomato.

                    in reply to: We have tomatoes on the hydroponic garden! #45487
                    Mike Nolan
                    Keymaster

                      I'm hoping this is the first of many, otherwise these will be really expensive tomatoes!

                      in reply to: We have tomatoes on the hydroponic garden! #45484
                      Mike Nolan
                      Keymaster

                        I picked a lovely 2.15 ounce tomato this afternoon, not sure yet how we're going to use it.

                        in reply to: We have tomatoes on the hydroponic garden! #45477
                        Mike Nolan
                        Keymaster

                          Found several more tiny tomatoes and a couple of not-so-tiny ones, including this one hiding in the forest:

                          IMG_1214

                          Attachments:
                          You must be logged in to view attached files.
                          in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of February 2, 2025? #45475
                          Mike Nolan
                          Keymaster

                            It was pizza night here.

                            in reply to: Egg Prices #45473
                            Mike Nolan
                            Keymaster

                              I'm seeing reports that wholesale prices for eggs in the midwest are running $7.03 a dozen. Ouch!

                              in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of February 2, 2025? #45472
                              Mike Nolan
                              Keymaster

                                We had a rotisserie chicken before going to see Moulin Rouge the Musical tonight. Great show!

                                in reply to: Egg Prices #45458
                                Mike Nolan
                                Keymaster

                                  If I'm reading the news right, both Mexico and Canada have been given a 30 day pause on tariffs in return for some promises on other issues (Mexico will try to deal with fentanyl smuggling), so it may be more of a negotiating tactic.

                                Viewing 15 posts - 166 through 180 (of 7,560 total)