[Mike Nolan]

Back in the 60's and 70's, nearly all meat, and a lot of poultry and fish, were often cooked to the point where they were nearly inedible. I remember when the guidelines were to cook turkey to at least 175 degrees.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 9 months ago by Mike Nolan.

[Mike Nolan]

Report on Rye Bites (Ginsberg pps 225-226):

This recipe makes 24 small rolls, about 1 1/4 ounces each after baking (36 grams). They're about 1.75 inches in diameter with a height of about 2/3 of an inch. They would probably make good slider buns if you make your sliders fairly small.

The dough was a little damp, so I wound up adding just a little more rye flour to get it to clean the bowl. They were easy to shape, and rose reasonably well. The bottoms may have gotten a little overbaked, even though I had them on the top rack in the oven, as recommended. Next time I might double sheet pan them.

This is probably the fastest recipe in the Ginsberg book, from start to finish was about 1 hour and 45 minutes. The absence of a bulk rise didn't seem to affect the final product, which was fairly light, though with a tight crumb. I've shown them sliced both horizontally and vertically.

They're a very mild rye roll, maybe almost too mild. A touch of ground caraway might give them a little more zing. I think they'd be good with a little cheese spread on them or with some corned beef; my wife thinks they'd be good with some apple butter. In other words, they're not going to be the star of the dish, but they'll complement a lot of things, making them versatile.

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[Mike Nolan]

If she's posting, there's a pretty good chance her power is back on.

We're having a lavash pizza for supper tonight.

[Mike Nolan]

I don't remember any school lunches that used mutton, I know they had US Government surplus butter, cheese, flour and peanut butter.

[Mike Nolan]

I'm making Rye Bites from Ginsberg's book today. This has to be the fastest recipe in the book, less than two hours start to finish. They're pretty small, 42 grams each before baking. I'll be interested to see how much they rise and how soft they are with so little time for the yeast to grow.

[Mike Nolan]

I think the only thing I've ever made with lamb was some gyros meat. The cafeterias at Northwestern served mutton every now and then, it was not a big hit with students and was usually referred to as mystery meat, along with some vaguely pork-like product.

[Mike Nolan]

I'm not likely to make this recipe either, because my wife won't eat lamb.

Finding lamb shoulder might be a challenge, too, though I suspect Fareway Meat might be able to get it if they don't have it on hand. They have a lot of things in the back that there isn't space for in the display cabinet, like several types of veal.

[Mike Nolan]

Lemon zest is pretty light, but I don't think I've ever weighed it.

I've got a scale that measures in tenths of a gram that I use for measuring amounts under 15 grams, and I've got another scale that measures in 0.001 gram increments that I've only used in the kitchen a few times, though that's where I store it. (I used it to measure how much overlap there is in a lattice pie crust for an article on pie crusts I've been working on, inspired by an article PJ Hamel wrote several years ago.)

I have no trouble believing that the anise seed would be a more overpowering odor than baker's ammonia, I use it very sparingly.

[Mike Nolan]

I don't remember where I read about using cocoa instead of flour for a chocolate cake, I've been doing it for years, I like that it doesn't mess with the color and it adds just a hint of dark unsweetened cocoa taste to the cake, which helps cut through all the sugar in the frosting. A similar concept is to use sugar instead of flour for a white cake, I think Cass mentioned that back on the old KAF forum some time back.

There are a couple of gluten-free people at my wife's office, so I will often make a larger Texas Chocolate sheet cake (at least 9 x 13) using wheat flour and a smaller one using gluten-free flour, usually with a little xanthan gum. The same frosting goes on both. It is hard to tell the difference between the two just by taste. I think the GF one needs to be baked a few minutes longer.

[Mike Nolan]

This post has the link to the recipe I use plus my modifications to it.

Texas Chocolate Sheet Cake

I start making the frosting while the cake is baking, but I wait a few minutes before pouring it on. The surface of the cake is usually between 140F and 150F when I pour the icing on. The icing is also warm, probably in the 120 degree range.

Pouring a warm heavy icing on a hot cake compresses the cake a bit, which makes it fudgier.

The frosting should be thick but still more or less pourable while warm, though you will need to scrape the pan. If you taste it and it tastes like old fashioned home-made fudge, you've done it right! It'll harden up in the pan as it cools.

[Mike Nolan]

I started using other spices as replacements for garlic a number of years ago, and I've been expanding their use as replacements for salt.

Some spices have been more successful than others. Savory turns out to be too pungent or bitter. In addition to marjoram, I use a lot of bay leaf, thyme and basil these days, but you have to add basil towards the end because it gets bitter if cooked too much.

I've been using a bit more ginger lately, too.

[Mike Nolan]

Not a book I'm familiar with, but I see Amazon has used copies for under $10 with shipping. May not be the same edition as the one you had, though. At over 1300 pages, it's a big book!

I've bought too many books in the last six months, I need to break myself of that habit, there are several I haven't even opened yet.

[Mike Nolan]

We had spaghetti tonight. I made pasta 2 nights in a row, but today's batch didn't come together quickly, I'm not sure what I did different from last night. It was crumbly for the first several passes through the pasta rollers, so I guess it needed a little more water, but it felt damper than yesterday's batch.

[Mike Nolan]

I've gotten lazy with spaghetti. I take a can of Hunts Traditional or Mushroom sauce (the only two without garlic as a listed ingredient) and I add a can of petite diced tomatoes (no salt added preferred) and a can of mushroom ends and pieces.

If I'm feeling energetic (or hungry) I'll make meatballs and cook them in the sauce first, but it is also good if I just brown some ground beef and throw it in the sauce, and a little less greasy since I drain the ground beef after cooking it.

It is fairly traditional to put a little red wine in marinara, so red wine vinegar actually makes some sense. I don't see that the quantity being used is going to have a material impact on acidity. I like using marjoram in tomato sauces, I think it is an underused and underappreciated spice, and of course I leave out the garlic, but I add onion.

[Mike Nolan]

I'm pretty sure this is his buns recipe, it was derived from the Old Milwaukee recipe in Ginsberg's book: Rye Bread/Buns

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