It was an example. Anyway I will leave you experts to it.

Kenji does pastries too.

Here he is on pie crust, if you want something to evaluate:

https://sweets.seriouseats.com/2011/...sy-recipe.html

My guess is that it's stuff that pros already know.

I'm kind of an outsider here on what you guys mean by "home cooking". All I know is if one wants to maximize health they need to cook at home as much as possible, like it or not. I realize this prescription is not realistic for many people, nevertheless it's the truth. Let's face it, likely all of us live in a toxic, obesogenic environment. The minute we leave the house our options boil down to restaurants trying to maximize profit based on the salt, sugar, and fat model. The only way to battle this sad fact of reality is to create an anti-obesogenic environment at home.

Good to know that my decision to never learn to cook was totally justified! Up until reading this thread it was one of those lingering regrets that I had.

It's actually the oil that I usually cut in half; generally I'll do that as a default in SE recipes even if I haven't made it before. I make it as is otherwise at least once before tweaking further.

ILP,

This isn't your containment thread.

Renton,

If you can read, you can cook; anyone that remains proudly ignorant of such a basic human task confuses me.

I was kidding

You must be tons of fun at parties.

I used to make crostata dough, which is essentially pie dough, once ortwice a week. I only used my hands, never a mixer or food processor. Using your hands is the best way to feel the dough coming together so you can learn when it's mixed enough. And I wouldn't be caught dead using shortening.

Well yeah, in the time it takes to make the crust the flour can't absorb much humidity. But when the flour has been sitting on a shelf in a warehouse or supermarket in a paper sack for who knows how long, it can absorb humidity there. I remember a Cook's Illustrated article where they put two bags of flour in a humid room and a dry room for a few days or weeks, and they found the flour in the humid room was like 3-4% heavier from moisture.

Interesting technique though. Definitely sounds easier than mixing by hand. I might have to try it.

It seems like the main advantage of shortening is that it's easier to work with for amateurs, so it makes sense that someone like you wouldn't use it.


Out of curiosity, what do you think of his vodka in the dough trick?

I've never used vodka for pie dough. The idea behind it is that the alcohol will evaporate in the oven faster than water, so you won't have a problem with the dough being too wet. But I've never had that problem. When there's soggy spots on a pie crust after it comes out of the oven it usually means there was too much moisture in the filling not the crust. I'm generally a firm believer in precooking fruit fillings to cook out excess moisture before filling/baking the crust.

Red beans and rice tonight; obviously a simple recipe, but I made a few modifications. I browned sliced andouille in the Dutch oven first, then reserved it to add later and used the leftover fat and a bit of extra vegetable oil to sweat the mirepoix. I added a ham shank when the recipe called for a smoked pork product, then pulled it after an hour, let it rest, and picked the meat. Ham + andouille went back in at the end. Been a while since I've made this, and I'd forgotten how good it is - pretty easy weekend recipe that can generate a ton of food for the week.

We do a similar one at chez Melkerson. Red beans and rice are great. My wife orders these fancylad beans online which have a great flavor and consistency. Also you can never have enough sausage in there, imo. We double what the recipe calls for and that's just about right.

Let's get this going again. Not sure if I've posted this before, but here's a simple recipe that the family loves:

https://www.geniuskitchen.com/recipe...chicken-262793

Generally we use all bone in thighs; I usually make black beans with it as per the previously posted recipe, but the wifeacore is cooking tonight, so I think it'll just be rice and veggies (I also just finished off a gigantic pot of frijoles charros from the 500, so I'm a bit beaned out anyway).

Nice filter coffee - this is my favourite recipe of all time:
Although there are many approaches that work, this one is my current favourite. I use a Hario V60. It is from Hoffman's Coffe Atlas book - there are loads of other V60 techniques out there.

Buy decent beans, freshly roasted. I currently use Square Mile roasters, and I used Monmouth before that

Make sure you have a decent grinder. Pre- ground is better than a bad grinder, but it degrades over time. Consistency of grind size is the key. I use a decent quality hand grinder - make sure your grinder has burrs not a blade.

Grind the following coffee just before making the brew. I use 64 grams per litre of water - the quantity depends on how strong you like your coffee. I use digital scales to weigh it. Most sources seem to recommend 60g per litre as a starting point.

Grind the coffee medium fine. If you're not happy with the resulting brew, adjust the grind next time.

I use Volvic as my water. London tap water is crap. Bottled water is not ideal, though, so I may change approach at some point. Maybe I need a reverse osmosis machine. Hoffman recommends going to your favourite coffee shop with a bottle, and askin for some of their water.

For more details about water for coffee, watch this:


Add the filter paper to the he V60, and rinse with hot water. Place over a container on the scales, and add the beans to the filter.

Boil the kettle, and wait 30 seconds. Add enough water to cover the beans - this is usually around 2x the weight of the beans, but exact measurement is not critical. Give it a stir.

Leave it for exactly 30 seconds. There will be a lot of bubbling as the beans "bloom" - they give up their dissolved CO2.

Slowly add the rest if the water up to the desired volume. I use 250 grams per cup. Give it a quick stir, first one way then the other.

The coffee filters through. For 1 cup, it takes around 3 minutes total. If your time is significantly different, you may want to adjust the grind.

Enjoy your coffee.

rt,

Do you just standardize the cooling times for your kettles to get the correct temp or did you buy one of those fancy temp maintaining kettles? I think I'm too much of a derp to manage to actually correctly fill, wait, pour on a regular basis.

I'm an aeropress guy, but I've been tempted to get into the V60 game. BTW the Hario grinder I have is hot trash. Don't get it.

https://www.hario.jp/seihin/productd...oduct=MSCS-2TB

Is the one.

The cooling time is a complete guess - I don't have a fancy kettle. I am thinking of getting one, as it will eliminate a source of variability.

I use this grinder:
https://prima-coffee.com/equipment/knock/feld2

There are some reviews of decent grinders, including one similar to mine, here:


My grinder works OK for filter. I think it's not ideal for expresso, but I don't have an exoresso machine. It's not huge capacity - 30 grams is close to the limit.

Aeropress is one of the few methods I've not tried. I should get one for comparison.

I don't own an espresso machine either so not worried about that. I'm kind of at a mid point where I don't like the effort anymore, so I may just get an automatic grinder and then an automatic kettle so I can just mash buttons instead of doing actual work.

Or I may just keep descending and end up just dumping Yuban directly into my cup.

Great post tho! Will have look at where to acquire a V60 that isn't at an insane markup.

It seems that my proposed recipe may be the same as the Scott Rao one:

https://www.scottrao.com/blog/2017/9/14/v60-video

He also advocated swirling the v60 at 1 minute 45. I tried that today, and it worked well - the bed was very flat at the end.

I think this approach give better results than pour overs I"ve had in coffee shops.