new innovations
i thought about buying a coffee maker, but told myself that because i had already bought a wine decanter i would not be allowed to. this is when i remembered that decanters were originally for the purpose of keeping sediment out of one's glass.

so i found that if you mix hot water and coffee ground in a wine decanter and wait for it to steep, then you pour off brewed coffee and the grounds will stay at the bottom of the decanter.

the decanter can do it all.
- posted by Jesse @ 1:34 PM 2 comments

 
some theoretical aspects of making bread at home
this is the first time that i went to the trouble of using a spray bottle to create steam in the oven. i get a thin and brittle crust that started to crack on its own as it was removed from the oven. also better oven spring and a lighter crumb with larger bubbles.

- posted by Jesse @ 1:22 PM 3 comments

 
nitrosamine




this is a bacon made by following a recipe from fuchsia dunlop's book. it is a chinese bacon, but i suspect you can make a normal unspiced bacon, the kind for breakfast plates, by omitting the spices.

you seal a pork belly in a plastic bag with curing salt, which is sold in most grocery stores, and let it sit for a week. then you hang it to dry, then you smoke it. you can smoke it in a pot or wok by lining it with foil and putting flour sugar and sawdust or groundnut chaffs, placing the meat on a rack and covering it.

this bacon is saltier, dryer, more saltpetrous and more flavorful than bacon from a grocery store.
- posted by Jesse @ 7:20 PM 0 comments

 
pork2
in this case, it is to bone a pork shoulder and make ground pork of some of it. to make ground pork, you beat it with the back of the cleaver, and pick out the fibers as they get loosened.

i am also attempting a bacon smoking technique given in that book, and should tell more about it soon.

- posted by Jesse @ 9:17 PM 0 comments

 
pork1
for me, a cleaver is becoming an important tool. i am reading fuchsia dunlop's book on sichuan cooking, land of plenty. it explains different uses of a cleaver, and how to maintain it properly.

- posted by Jesse @ 9:17 PM 0 comments