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LinebackerU

The Pizza Lab: We Test The New and Improved KettlePizza Grill Insert

@trevt7777,

My gasket melted the very first time that I cooked a pizza on my BGE. I subsequently replaced it with a Rutland stove gasket, and it's performed flawlessly since.

The Pizza Lab: We Test The New and Improved KettlePizza Grill Insert

southeasterner,

I've got a Big Green Egg, and I use it constantly for pizza. See links for pictures. Even on the BGE it took some experience to create good pizza. These are pictures of some of my earliest successful pies; even here you can see that it was a challenge to get good browning on top without over-cooking the bottom.

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q96/fallabel/DSC04729.jpg

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q96/fallabel/DSC04739.jpg

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q96/fallabel/DSC04742.jpg

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q96/fallabel/DSC04704.jpg

What's Your Favorite Kashi Cereal?

When did Kashi stop selling predominantly-organic food? Was their product line ever organic? Did I imagine all of that?

The Urban Gardener: How Not to Kill Your Plants

@franko,

If your seedlings don't have two sets of true leaves, then they're far too small to be planted. If you've started your plants from seed, you want to see fairly stout, sturdy-looking stems with a number of leaves prior to transplant. I'm not sure if this link will work, but here's a picture of my seedlings about a week before they went outside:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10102493744677564&l=2a7f285a2a

Sfincione (Sicilian New Years Pizza with Bread Crumbs, Onions, and Caciocavallo)

Kenji,

I've had trouble with some of the Pizza Lab Sicilian pies before, but this one was absolutely fantastic!

Knead the Book: 'The Fundamental Techniques of Classic Bread Baking'

Baguette!

Seriously Delicious Holiday Giveaway: Counter Culture Coffee Subscription

Brewed in an Aeropress using the Inverted DISK method, espresso grind, 60 second steep time with 1/4 tsp of sugar.

Seriously Delicious Holiday Giveaway: Counter Culture Coffee Subscription

Aerobie Aeropress, inverted technique with a DISK filter. Black.

Dinner Tonight: Slow-Roasted Salmon with Cabbage, Bacon, and Dill

I'm cooking this now, and it smells great! One note, though: what kind of "medium saucepan" can hold a whole head of cabbage, an onion, a cup of water and 6 slices of bacon?

How to Brew Coffee in an AeroPress

I've had much better results with the DISK than with the paper filters; with the DISK you're not trapping flavor inside the paper.

I brew inverted every day, and I've never made a mess. I hate the "slowly losing water into the cup" characteristic of brewing right-side up.

I've settled into using an espresso grind and steeping for a shorter time. I feel that gives more flavor than the coarse grind and long steep.

Poll: What Cheeses Are Acceptable on Pizza?

"It depends" has to be the right answer, and it totally depends upon the crust and toppings! Goat cheese with tomato sauce? Probably not. But goat cheese with mozzarella, sage and caramelized onions? Absolutely!

Four Awesome Kenyan Coffees To Seek Out Right Now

I ordered the Kenya Kiandu from Gimme! coffee, and had my first cups of it yesterday. I've got to say, it didn't taste anything like the way it was described here (or on the bag, for that matter). There was a distinct funk (?) to the flavor, but I didn't get any of the fruitiness that it should have.

Perhaps I erred in the brewing: I made one cup in a french press and the other with my Aerobie Aeropress. Any suggestions?

Better No-Knead Bread

@doug I

I see your point, but it's not like there's any more effort involved in this version than the NYT version. This just has more salt and sits in your refrigerator for a few days. I'll grant that the cold ferment step makes the process require more forethought, but we were already waiting 24 hours with the original recipe.

Alton Brown Announces End of 'Good Eats' Series

I really love Good Eats, and have enjoyed watching it for years. I first learned to cook in college by watching AB.

However, I really felt like the show has been going downhill recently. AB stopped going to real grocery stores, and instead had fake sets for a lot of the things that used to be shot on location. Many of the characters are gone: where is W? Where's the culinary anthropologist?

More than anything, though, it seems that he's run out of ideas for shows. There have been very few "wow, I need to cook that right now" moments for me lately.

Chain Reaction: Pizza Hut's New Ultimate Cheese Lover's Pizza

@Umama,

What do you propose that they do? Cover local pizza shops in every city in America? I live in a moderately-sized town in Southern Maryland, so I really don't care about pizza places in NYC, LA, Colorado, etc. I never visit these chain restaurants either, but I do find it interesting to read about.

Once in awhile I'll read a positive fast food review on Serious Eats and it helps me to find something to eat when traveling. That's far more useful than reading about Gretchen's diner in Tom's River New Jersey.

KFC vs Lee's: Finding the Real Kentucky Fried Chicken

One correction: KFC doesn't pressure-fry their extra-crispy chicken. That stuff is just cooked in open deep fryers.

An aside: what with all of the "KFC is the best!" comments from different posters? Are they the Colonel's secret minions, spreading search-engine-optimized trash across the web?

Chain Reaction: Pizza Hut's New Ultimate Cheese Lover's Pizza

Sliced a different way, isn't this just cheesey breadsticks?

Cook the Book: Goat Mole Rojo

I made this tonight and it was good, but my chiles just weren't up to the job. I'm considering making an additional batch of chile paste (just the chiles and water) and stirring it in. The particular ones I used (a mix of 8 dried mild and "hot" New Mexico peppers) just had no heat and not a ton of flavor.

My Pie Monday: Boar Sausage, Buffalo Chicken, Deep Dish and More!

I've had (at least reasonable) success with using a springform pan to do deep dish pizza. They're cheap, nonstick, and it's extremely easy to remove the pie after it's done in the oven.

My Pie Monday: Wood Fired Pizza, Broiler Pizza, Baby Pizza!

@Caseyspizza:

You *can* use less yeast when doing a longer ferment, but you don't need to. Within reasonable limits, the yeast will just multiply up to the number that can be supported by the environment either way.

Big Green Eggers - pizza advice?

Thanks! This looks like a great resource. I've made plenty of pizza in my electric oven, so at least I've got a good base to work from. I'll keep my eyes peeled for BGE/LBE posts on pizzamaking.

Vegetarians: would you eat something cooked in a skillet...

My sister is a vegan, and I cook vegan food for her often. I've just never heard of this ludicrous idea of being afraid of decades-old carbonized animal fat.

My cast iron skillet is seasoned with vegetable oil (unless Lodge uses lard for pre-seasoning in the factory), and I only eat meat once a week, on average. It just seems that, at some point, folks are just being difficult.

Vegetarians: would you eat something cooked in a skillet...

@shasta0610:

"Different beliefs" aren't threatening. The subject of the thread is vegetarians refusing to eat from pands that have previously contained meat or meat by-products.

Nobody cares what vegetarians do in their own kitchens, but the line is drawn at refusing to eat at other people's houses because of concerns about the history of the cookware.

Vegetarians: would you eat something cooked in a skillet...

@mh330:

Agreed. The simile I'm drawing is to Teflon. Would I sit down and eat a block of Teflon? No. That doesn't mean I won't use a Teflon coated pan.

And how would a "meat allergy" manifest? Does a person who is allergic to meat have constant internal reactions to his own flesh?

Vegetarians: would you eat something cooked in a skillet...

I understand everyone has his own preferences, but where does it end? Would you eat vegetarian food which was sliced with a knife that has previously touched meat?

Big Green Eggers - pizza advice?

I just bought a Big Green Egg, and I'm looking forward to using it for all kinds of cooking: smoking, high heat sears and - most of all- pizza.

I've read various pizza posts on the egghead forums, but many people there seem fairly inexperienced with actually making pizzas. Many folks resort to buying dough from pizza parlors or Boboli because they're afraid to make their own. I'm looking for slightly better advice than that.

I plan to cook at high temperatures, so I assume I'll want a fairly high-hydration dough. I'll probably start with Kenji's Skillet-Broiler Neopolitan dough recipe and make adjustments from there. The biggest potential problem I see with pizza on the BGE is that the stone will get hotter than the surrounding air. I've got a Plate Setter and a thick stone, are there other precautions that you take?

Have you heard Alton Brown talk about adobo sauce?

On a few Good Eats episodes, AB cautions the audience about the adobo sauce in which chipotle peppers are packaged: wear gloves (it could burn your skin); don't eat it. BE CAREFUL!

...am I the only person who thinks adobo makes a good dipping sauce? There is only one brand of chipotle peppers available in my grocery store, so I suppose it's possible that this brand is very weak.

What level of caution do you use when you handle the deadly adobo?

Thanksgiving at my parents' house - the horror!

This is a bit late, but I forgot to post it last week. I've found that as I improve as a cook, I become increasingly frustrated with the way my parents cook things at their house.

It really struck me this year at Thanksgiving, as I watched them put the turkey into one of those Reynolds baking bags to...steam (?) it in the oven.

They wouldn't listen to my explanation that the bad doesn't actually hold moisture in the meat, since meat moisture correlates only to temperature. (They took the turkey out of the oven at 180 degrees...)

While the turkey was cooking, I watched my dad boil green beans for nearly 30 minutes.

Not to dump on my parents too much, since some of the food was really good. I always try to influence the cooking in a better direction by giving them good cookware as gifts, by cooking some dishes myself for holidays and by feeding them tips throughout the year. It is, however, a slow process.

Does anyone else have similar experience?

Rachel Ray's Late Night Bacon recipe

Food Network's website has reached new heights of usefulness. They've posted Rachel Ray's instructions for microwaving bacon. Don't forget the paper towels!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/late-night-bacon-recipe/index.html

Does anyone have experience with ceramic-walled grills?

I saw this ceramic grill at Lowe's the other day:

http://thebayou.com/Pages/Cypress%20Series.html

and I've also seen that a company called Big Green Egg sells something similar. Does anyone own one of these? They claim to be able to reach temperatures north of 750 degrees; to me, that screams "portable pizza oven!"

However, there's no way that I want to drop $700+ on something that isn't transcendently awesome.

Thanks

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