Another tedious update where I torture my readers with annoying details

Dear Reader(s):  My recent attempt at saucisson sec bit it.  At the last minute, I decided to conduct my curing in a cooler where the humidity was >95%.  I did this because I feared rodents in the basement.  The run went bad.  Really, really bad.

The more I read, the more pissed I got.  Seems the 3 body problem of dry curing comes down to: humidity - around 70%, temperature - 55-60°F and air movement.  Getting all these things is tricky; any environment I tested changed drastically when the meat was tossed in, giving off a lot of moisture.

Some days later, I reported my dreadful failure to a friend at our daily coffee and brainstorming session.  He follows these efforts with great interest and provides good advice.  I was retesting spots all over the house, but was skeptical of finding the perfect environment.  My basement, during this warm early Summer is already up at a steady 68-70°F.  My friend suggested I just hang it in the basement.  Who really knows the upper limit of temperature for this curing?  The aging will just go a bit faster at higher temperature - right?   And the rodents?  He suggested I feed the cat less and make him stand guard.  I tossed my analytical gear to the side, stuffed a couple pounds worth and only used the thin (ca. 32 mm) casings giving myself a bit easier a task to dry out the sausage.  So, it wouldn't have the best final attributes, but it'll still taste good (if it doesn't kill me).

I made Ruhlman's saucisson sec recipe, no fermentation, aged 20 days at about 68-71°F, 70-85% RH and plenty of air movement.  Oh, and a spritz with a suspension of white mold.  Finished, really, really good.  But, I wait 48 hours before giving out samples.  I'm still alive at hour 1.

Firedome_2 dry run, about 1100°F steady state

    

The first Firedome pizza oven prototype progressed at glacial speed; I was pursuing the ancient fired pizza with a more common piece of equipment.  I was able to achieve around 700°F on most days.  I knew however, that a higher temperature wasn't merely a bragging right, but a hidden process variable that resulted in a better crust.  I forged onward.

The second Firedome is pictured above, the culmination of dozens of pizzas to date.  More air, better fit to the bottom and super combustion.  It was off the production line, edges polished and all in about 15 minutes.  I closed up the opening a bit, left the flange intact, and left a door on despite the fact that, when opened, it enabled much greater temperatures.  Keeping the door hinged on the dome allows one to lower the temperature if necessary.  It has come a long way.

Tonight, I took a chimney full of lit briquettes and used it to catch about 6 lbs of Trader Joe's briquettes and reached a steady state of about 1100°F for at least an hour and, at that temperature, it's trivial to charge on the fly.  Dry runs are frustrating, I didn't have any dough around, not even for a quick pita.  Could this be too hot for cooking??  I will be sure to keep both of you posted on the first real run.  I think it's a keeper and Firedome_3 should be the production model (minor modifications) and able to be fabricated in about 10 minutes.

Moo shoo pork

Busy day, desperation dinner night. Fast, reasonably healthy, different, fast are the requirements.  A glance through a fav from my goto person for good food, Martha Stewart.  Martha gave some shortcuts, I made the modifications for acceptance by a 7 year old.

Start with a huge polished aluminum fry pan.  Warm some flour tortillas in oven. Prep eggs by scrambling.  Prep boneless pork chops by cutting into strips and coating with a bit of cornstarch, s & p. Prep remaining: shred napa cabbage, thinly slice green onions, shitakes, mince ginger.  Get some veg oil, soy sauce and rice vinegar ... ready.... Go!  Oh, the kid accommodation, all cooked stuff must remain separate.

Heat and oil pan, scramble egg, put on serving tray, cook pork strips and put on serving plate, then, saute greens and shrooms and deglaze with soy and rice vinegar, cook til wilted and place on tray.  Serve dish in center with warm tortillas.  Fill tortillas, add some hoisin to these nifty little moo shoo wrappers.  Yum.

I still have all of my fingers

[lost image due to reshuffling on picasa]

Every good pizza starts at Lowe's.  I got an inexpensive corded Porter angle grinder and a couple metal cutting wheels ... like frickin' butter.  I'm only a couple cuts into it - then I had to go set up a tent for the kid's camp out/sleepover.  Maybe I'll have the kids sand down the rough edges.  In any event, we're in progress.   Keep you posted.

(Mrs. DavesBeer bravely took her finger off the SEND button for 9-1-1 to snap this shot, thanks my Love.)

Firedome_2 coming soon

For those two of you not too bored to get through the tedium that is my flatbread obsession, I made a couple observations  during the pita production to propel me into a few experiments which will inevitably lead to a new and simpler design for my Firedome pizza oven.  At the beginning of that video production, my thermocouple device was measuring 927°F with the door open and went as high as 987°F.  The entire few minutes was filmed with the door open.  I have to figure out if the top vent on the dome needs to be open or closed or if it makes a difference.  Basically, it seems that the open door really kicks up the combustion.

Because that hinged door required me to break the flanged bead of the bottom of the kettle lid, the lid fits sloppy, may be getting gaps that aren't thermally productive.  I may do away with the door; just cut in an opening big enough for a comfortable slide of the peel and big enough to increase combustion.  Dimensions of this will be a guess, but guided by a few more dry runs.  On the other side of the getting the temps up, is the rate of fuel consumption.  If I boost this thing to blast furnace temps, will I be able to cook longer than an hour?  It's looking like I might need a convenient means to do at least one charge mid cooking to get a couple hour feast in.  Not too worried about that.

Next couple weeks, I'll probably take another kettle lid as a casualty and also play around with placement of the pizza stone (it'll be placed away from the opening, not dead center), geometry of the firebricks beneath the stone which help orient the fuel properly and lots of measurements of the headspace temperatures and the cooking surface to make sure it's uniform.  Gonna be awesome!

Oh, and I'm probably going ahead with a plan with Fortin Iron Works to make a dedicated stand for this beast.  Should be a nice wrought iron simple stand; pretty much a 22" diameter and 3' high plant stand.  We sketched out one the other day and he quoted me about $100.

ps, To the locals:  I walk the alleys of C'ville all the time and I see what must be hundreds of pounds of these kettles everywhere - neglected (you bastards).  If you want, I'll take your lid and cut you an experimental design (usable on your existing bottom hemisphere).  You get a cool new pizza oven (which may not be optimal, but will be killer) and I get a data point.  Let me know if you're interested in the comments.

Pita and Polka

Lemonade, with vodka, fizzy not flat

Yesterday, I got taken in by the $2 Full Flight.  A nifty weekend marketing shtick at Weiland's Gourmet Market.  In sync with the lovely warm weather, they featured 4 sips of summer libations.  It began with a couple wheat beers and proceeded into a couple Smirnoff products.  The Tuscan Lemonade depicted here was 3rd on the agenda followed by some kind of Mojito knock off.

I don't like wheat beers much, I was just whetting my appetite and talking to the locals.  But, when I got to the Lemonade, I was ready.  Not quite the umbrella drink I imagined, this thing had a refreshing taste and a kick.  Yes, sign me up.  Hook, line, etc.  A little stronger than wine and $16 for 2L, move over asparagus.

I couldn't leave it alone though.  I wanted a fizz, it needed a fizz.  I poured some into a spare fizzy water bottle, attached my nifty Carbonator Cap and pumped about 40 psi into it from my 20 pounder in the basement brewing facility, chilled and ...

This one time I'll let you ask me about my affairs

Weekends are low 'n slow, proper fuel, execution, temperature monitoring - serious bbq.  Weekdays are a bit different.  We pull a few shortcuts which we'd rather not disclose.  Shameful shortcuts.  But this one time, I'll share.

Tonight, I knew I'd get home a bit late, so I had the game plan rehearsed:

• marinate chicken in spices and oil
• make dipping sauce: yogurt, lemon juice, scant crushed garlic, tahini, salt, mint
• chop, season and skewer vegetables 
• confession: toss Match Light into kettle with a match - whooosh (sound of the ozone escaping)
• skewer chicken (See those ultra cool saber-like Sadaf skewers?  Mediterranean Imports - the flat blade enables easier turning.)
• grill direct with the top down
• let cooked flesh rest
• eat

Not  bad for a quick meal.  Served with some short grain brown rice.

Been a busy couple weeks, once in a while, I ran into the kitchen ...

Grilled tilapia and brown rice for dinner.  I tried roasted napa cabbage as the veggie. A light sprinkle of sesame oil, salt and 450°F for 15 minutes.  Not bad, the crunchy bits were a nice contrast, but don't know if I'd do it again.  I'm in a veggie slump.  Need a Greener Grocer fix.

For the past 24 hours, my kettle's been about 225-300°F.  Cooked a butt and smoked some almonds (see below).  Had the pulled pork on homemade corn tortillas with salsa and a bit of cheddar and pintos on the side.  Absolute heaven.

Across the ravine, a resident has a cherry tree about to go ripe.  We want them ALL.  The Mrs - pies, me - dried.  I'm contemplating a deal where we take them and return to her a batch of lovely dried cherries.

Menu In Progress is a cool site.  They make special foods that appeal to me very much.  I tried their recipe for smoked almonds (linked).  The only problem is they don't last very long.  My qa effort has taken quite a toll on the final yield.

Weilands Gourmet Market has some killer melons.  Go get one while they last.

Saucisson: 18 days: White, fuzzy, cute, more firm.  I'm getting a little bit antsy waiting to see if my best run yet is my best run yet.  Maybe another 2 weeks??

Temperature probe repair (works!)

The simple Taylor probe thermometer is an inexpensive and versatile piece of equipment.  I have a bunch of them.  It's the thing labeled as TruTemp (a knockoff) on the left in the above image.  The temperature probe, not certain if it's a true thermocouple, fits a variety of devices and is capable of cold temps to about 490°F. However, these things fail a lot and are too pricey to replace; cost as much as the entire two piece unit to replace.  What happens to these, if they get immersed (for an extended) period in water, is they stop working or read consistently low or high.
Andrew, unable to remember where he saw it, recollected these probes could be reconditioned by immersing them in hot oil.  Too lazy to wade through all the noise that would attend any search including the keyword probe, I set out to investigate.

I hypothesized that maybe at the juncture of the braided wire and the metal probe, some moisture may have been sucked in upon cooling, thus altering the measurement.  I immersed the probe, including that boundary of braded metal sheath, in 300&degF vegetable oil.  For about ten minutes, I noticed a steady gurgling as water being expelled from the deepest darkest bowel of the probe (no way I'm going near Google with these terms).  Once the gurgling stopped, I removed the probe, cleaned off the oil and checked the temperature of a 70°F bath of water and ambient air temp; it was spot on (corroborated with another insta read).  The Taylor type unit lasts forever and now, I'm feeling better, because the probes are likely more robust than I knew.  Thanks Andrew for the tip.  Saves me a bunch of cash and I get to reuse my old Taylors.  I despise the throw-a-way aspect of our society.

Good run so far

I'm trying really hard to resist excessive use of the expression 'my sausage' in this post, but, you should see it!  We're about a week into a run that went the best so far, despite a few complications.  I really liked using the beef middles for stuffing, it was nice to work with a casing not so susceptible to tangling and generally irritating performance.  The big problem in this run resulted from being too conscientious of air pockets in the meat.  This will kill the cured sausage final product.  That concern manifested in overly stuffed sausage in which the casings kept bursting.  So much so, that I could not hang them without tearing the casing.  So I ended up laying them on their side atop stackable cooling racks.  They are sitting in a cooler with a slush of salt and water in the bottom and covered - about 85% relative humidity and low 60s in there now.  I sprayed them with the mold suspension and voilá.  Luxuriate in that creamy white fuzziness!  Keep you posted of further developments. About 3 weeks to go.

Another run of saucisson sec, part I

I've had limited success with Ruhlman's Charcuterie recipe for saucissson sec.  Certainly no fault of the process described in the sacred tome, just my inexperience.  Today, I'm older, wiser, have a daughter who explodes with giggly delight to help rather than hinder ... it's all coming together.  Got my environment set, large beef casings, mold and nothing better to do on the sabbath, so I decided to take my ground pork (grinding is always done on the eve of the sabbath) and stuff it into beef casings.

I finally broke down and got a piston-type stuffer.
Frankie could operate this thing no sweat!

Beef middles, ca. 62-65 mm from Butcher-Packer.com  Suggested for use
by the good people at Menu in Progress.

Rinsed the beef middles a lot with water to remove some of the smell and salt.

Stuffed the piston with the spiced pork (garlic, s&p, cure #2)
Only used about 120 grams of casings for the 5 lbs.

With Frankie at the helm, stuffing went swimmingly.  NO AIR pockets in the sausage.
Only problem is we stuffed a bit too tight.   Don't know how to regulate that.

Stuffed, sectioned into little guys (for a small meal) and sprayed with a
suspension of Mold 600.  Ruhlman (by personal communication on Twitter) said mold
could be sprayed on/inncoulated on the casing anytime.  Thanks!

Final product before curing.  Cool Huh?

Now they rest in 70-80% relative humidity and low 60s.
At the really big risk of showing this post before the final goods are in, I'm crossing
my fingers and will give updates as the mold forms, etc.  Wish me luck.

References:

Menu in progress, saucisson sec post, thanks!

Me:When do I  spray on mold?  Ruhlman: whenever you want to!
My first attempt
My dog ate it.

Snack

I'm not a big gas grill guy, but my Weber Q comes in handy. I prepped and grilled some salted and lightly oiled eggplant slices. I also had a lump o dough in the fridge. Tossed it on and voilá, pita and eggplant sandwich.  Bit of Egyptian feta on it and I'd be in heaven.  Think I know what's for dinner soon.

Grilled chicken patties, I think

zucchini side

Had an itch for some grilled meat tonight. Last night bought some chicken thighs and ground 'em up coarse. I was planning on making kefta, ground meat with spices, grilled up. I wanted to use chicken thighs for a while and this seemed a fun way to use them.

After looking through the net for kefta recipes, I gathered there may be no "recipe" for them. Some had grain (cracked wheat), some just spices, some milk, some bread crumbs... about the only consensus I found was ground meat (usually lamb or beef), spices and grilled on skewers.

A bit overwhelmed with the recipes and time running too short to check an actual book - I have a great mid eastern book I got from a friend, I tossed in the most antithetic Kashrut mixture there ever was. But, they were killer! Not one left for a pic. I served these with grilled, lightly seasoned zucchini strips, and a yogurt dip. Here's the recipe for the little nuggets from heaven.

Chicken "kefta"

Ground chicken thighs (skin and all), 300g

bulgur soaked in milk an hour, 60 g in 60 g milk

allspice, 1t

cardomon, ground, 1t

salt, 5 g

pepper

cumin, 1t

egg, 1

dried parsley, 1T

bread crumbs, ca. 1/2 C

I lightly kneeded the mixture and made silver dollar diameter sized patties and stored them in the freezer for about 10 minutes while the grill heated up. Grilled them about 1.5 minutes per side on direct heat. Let cool and served with yogurt dip (greek yogurt, lemon juice, parsely and garlic). I want more!