If you're just here for recipes, you can click away now. This post is just going to be about ingredients and technique. And whether I'm cheating or not. … [Read more...]
All-time Favorites
How To Make Good Pizza Crust
March 31, 2009 (Updated March 23, 2014) by
The last time I made pizza crust I said I'd have to try again with bread flour. The higher gluten content is supposed to make dough more stretchy and chewy, both good things when you're trying to stretch out a pizza crust without tearing it. Well, I got the bread flour, and it's true. It makes a huge difference. Check out the comparison photos at the bottom if you don't believe me. … [Read more...]
How To Make Corned Beef Pizza
March 30, 2009 (Updated March 24, 2014) by
I've never seen a meal of corned beef and cabbage that didn't generate leftovers. We've all done the basic corned beef sandwich, or maybe a Reuben. But sometimes you're not in the mood for rye. Or a sandwich. Or eating alone. And is there any food more social than pizza? So here it is. Corned beef pizza. … [Read more...]
How To Make Rye Bread
March 26, 2009 (Updated March 23, 2014) by
I learned my next lesson in bread making: Get the right ingredients. Bread flour is not the same as white flour. It's higher in gluten, the protein that makes bread chewy. Gluten also holds in the bubbles given off by the yeast, allowing the bread to rise. This rye would have been really heavy without the bread flour. It's still pretty dense, compared to commercial white bread anyway. But that's a good thing. I'll explain why below. … [Read more...]
Braised Corned Beef — a promising idea
March 23, 2009 (Updated December 3, 2016) by
As I was buying my corned beef brisket for St. Patrick's Day this year, it occurred to me that it was, after all, a brisket. And usually I would braise a brisket. Why does corned beef have to be boiled? Turns out, it probably doesn't. As a first attempt this was surprisingly good. It suggests braising may give you a much more flavorful meat. But it doesn't seem to cut any time off the normal preparation, which is what I was really hoping for. For anyone who wants to follow-up my experiment … [Read more...]
