Recent content by xmascarol1

bread pan choices Even though I love this easy crusty bread, the method of cooking it in this Dutch oven is what I love. last night I made a 2 # loaf of currant bread that had milk, a little honey , a little butter,an egg, and it was a really nice dough. I baked it in the 450+ oven in the...

I have found in experimenting with different pots that the clay seems to give me a better crust and a more even bake than my aluminum Dutch oven. My cast iron Dutch oven worked really well too, but I needed that in the upstairs kitchen.

pots to use I have finally settled on my favorite pot to cook this in. My clay chicken cooker. It's perfect, makes an oblong loaf that we like for sandwiches as well as slices for the toaster. That along with using my thin silicone baking sheet to place it on and then leaving it on that and...

kefir Here's the deal on kefir. It's a soured milk that is made with a culture that grows easily at room temperature, 60-75, not like yogurt which needs to be 100-110 to develop. It comes from Eastern Europe and Russia as well as probably other places. Its use was , as with other fermented...

Recently I visited with a friend whom I hadn't seen for a year or so. She had just gotten back from 6 weeks in France, Belgium and Netherlands, where she and her husband did a lot of antiquing! She brought back a couple more bowls, as which point her husband, also a great collector but of...

baking containers for NYT bread Actually look at yard sales for one of those clay bakers for chicken. They work wonderfully, and what with using my silicone baking sheet just lifting the dough into the heated clay pot, I've had nothing but success with NYT recipe. Actually I've been using...

I find it interesting that you say your meats come out dry. What are you cooking for meats. As I mentioned above, chicken ends up in pure delicious broth, bone-in ham has plenty of juice which exudes out and the ribs I do are also juicy, I haven't had that experience. Try putting in tomatoes...

I have yet another trick I've done. Using the silicone sheet, I sprinkle it with a little cornmeal, pour the dough on it, and then take two opposite edges and bring them together and pull them up until it forms a cradle. Take a clip and hold the edges together. Then when you place the bread...

scandinavian foods The latest issue of Eating Well has a lovely section with Danish Recipes. The were great adaptations of the kinds of things I ate over there. Do make the Rutgut mit flude.

Now one more llittle trick that helps. I have those thin silicone sheets that come from the kitchen stores in 2 in a roll. I use them for all my cooking and baking sheets, and they have lasted for 4 years so far. Well, after doing the baking paper route for letting the bread rise and then...

pressure cooking After reading and posting on this thread this afternoon, I got out my pressure cooker , stirred up the Boston brown bread put it in 4 soup cans, steamed it for 15 min. and pressured it for 30 min. at 15#. We're getting ready to break into one of the four loaves. Boston brown...

squirrel Besides all of the above great recipes, Brunswick stew is not authentic unless it has several squirrel in there along with the other meats. There are many Brunswick stew recipes you could find on line .

I've had several pressure cookers over the years. Mirro at first and then big ones for canning quarts (meat) and now I got the Fagor which comes with two bottoms. It really has taken the guessing out of that little bobbing stopcock. I used to use mine a lot more 40 years ago, but then...

with a little orange I make mine like that too but my favorite variation is to add a splash of orange liquer (mine's homemade but use what you have as long as it's good quality) and then garnish with a homemade dark chocolate covered candied orange peel for a swizzle stick. Ohhhhhh!

yogurt making Because yogurt is a culture and you're inoculating the milk with the culture, you really only need about 1/4 cup of yogurt for a quart of milk. It's about the same as when you make creme fraiche. Just enough to get the culture of bacteria going and the right temperature.