The food and drink thread

[Catoptric]

Something called the "French Taco," that isn't a euphemism (it's more of a panini using tortillas, or a bit like some quesadillas that wrap up into the center.)

https://en.petitchef.com/recipes/main-d ... id-1573725

The main emphasis seems to be to offset two tortillas and wrap them up to cook with a panini grill. I would attempt this with a grill skillet if I ever get around to it (though I would probably just opt for a regular quesadilla. . .) Though it becomes very obvious why they do it this way, because of all the liquidy crap they put into it (cheese, sour cream, ketchup, mayonnaise. . . And they have the audacity to use wheat tortilla in the recipe???) Obviously a panini grill would be the ideal candidate, because you can't really cook it folded up when flipping it over (unless you just grill one side, and perhaps use something to weigh or press down on the top of it while it cooks.)


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While talking about the topic (thread.)



Their target audience:

Plywood Palace, dive bar in Wisconsin.
https://www.tiktok.com/@wiscodivebarrev ... svo6w&_r=1


This was the "canceled" followup.


A little too similar to Pisswasser ("This is Pisswasser, this is beer") with a little different take.


The fact they would do this knowingly to their own branding wasn't setting any particular trend in the right direction and seemed more about getting noticed and forcing people's life to be held at gunpoint with their own firing, than any ethical responsibility of a virtue-signaling narcissist that had no intention of understanding their own target audience (market research 101?)



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Some of the Asian markets seem to have an unusual supply of fish.

The US Is a Dumping Ground for Illegal Seafood. Some Lawmakers Want to Clean Up the Market
https://civileats.com/2022/06/13/the-us ... he-market/

[HighlyIrregular]

I had a slice of rainbow cake from a pizzeria and I got to see the box the whole cake came in. It said Italian rainbow cake and had nice graphics. I Couldn't find it online. It was round with three layers, red, white and green. I was looking forward to reading the ingredients and nutrition info. I wonder if it's only sold to businesses, but I expected to find it anyway. It was good, but the jelly or whatever they use to join the layers wasn't nearly as thick as in the rainbow cookies I used to eat. The cake was good but a good rainbow cookie may be a little better. You can get a bigger bite of chocolate with the cake.

Also had an eggplant parm hero which was good. It was made the way I'm used to even two states away from NY.

[HighlyIrregular]

I know the bag ruins the photo a little, but here's a whole wheat and oat bread I baked (red whole wheat and rolled oats), recipe adapted from Google's chatbot Bard, I had to add extra flour and was still too sticky to kneed normally so instead of adding even more I folded it with a scraper. Then I read that high moisture breads are sometimes folded instead of kneeded. I added less sugar than the recipe called for. Maybe that affected the yeast. It came out good enough but I'll use a loaf pan next time.

Back story: I couldn't find bread I wanted so I bought bread making stuff, then I found that Arnold makes a whole grain bread that I like, so I bought Arnold so I could delay making bread, used it up, then made my own. Mine is probably healthier. I think it's darker. I haven't made this kind of bread in maybe 30 years.

[Catoptric]

I know the bag ruins the photo a little, but here's a whole wheat and oat bread I baked (red whole wheat and rolled oats), recipe adapted from Google's chatbot Bard, I had to add extra flour and was still too sticky to kneed normally so instead of adding even more I folded it with a scraper. Then I read that high moisture breads are sometimes folded instead of kneeded. I added less sugar than the recipe called for. Maybe that affected the yeast. It came out good enough but I'll use a loaf pan next time.

Back story: I couldn't find bread I wanted so I bought bread making stuff, then I found that Arnold makes a whole grain bread that I like, so I bought Arnold so I could delay making bread, used it up, then made my own. Mine is probably healthier. I think it's darker. I haven't made this kind of bread in maybe 30 years.

It's often suggested to let it dry on oven rack (once the oven cools) for at least an hour prior to storing it. I also cut bread into slices to help it to cool (mostly to lose moisture) otherwise it will mold much quicker.

Though I don't often freeze bread, I will often resort to making "English" (American) muffins using a basic bread recipe (mostly 1/3rd sourdough slurry and water to 2/3rd flour mixed with fine granulated salt which helps to use a mortar and pestle) and then flattening both sides with cornmeal and a rolling pin, using a round whiskey tumbler type of glass to make cut-outs (and I suggest bend the dough into circular edges to make even cutouts without dough spiking off like you might see when making gingerbread cookies,) and cooking both sides on a skillet while trying not to immediately brown but rather flip them after a crust develops until the center becomes hollow from expanding, then let cool sufficiently to cut into (usually after having cooked the 3-4 cup mixture, the first 3-4 pieces will tend to be cool enough, and some suggest using a fork to tear into the sides, though I just use a sharp knife,) and prefer to cook the centers to then ensure they don't stick as much after cooling and then freeze in a double bag (a metalic bag used for dry tea, which is good for freezers, but also another plastic bag to keep moisture out.)

I used to do more Dutch oven bread (about 500 Fahrenheit with the lid on without preheating the Dutch oven; just the oven temp,) but I would rather resort to using the 'English Muffins' in place of hamburger buns, etc. I just stopped buying store-bought bread mostly because I rarely use any kind of bread outside of pizzas (which I also stopped buying.

Occasionally the bread is superior to store-bought if done right, but it can take a lot of trial and error (and it's far easier to mess up for some simple reason if not familiar with the ingredients being used in terms of water and gluten ratios, how to knead/fold the bread, protein rests, or how long the flour has been kept especially wheat flour.)

I'm not sure baking actually saves money (it probably doesn't just from the resources perspective, even if you don't see the time invested as somehow having a figurative monetary value,) but it is a neat way to understand the history of civilization and what all comprises of how society evolved and maintains a sense of understanding of bread/grains, etc. (though it probably is mostly just because most store-bought bread is also crap and involves a bunch of funky ingredients like bird feathers. . . which admitted does have some nutritional fortification, but too often people would rather just be an entitled consumer rather than understand things from the production side of things; most often people just don't want to have a reason to not feel critical of themselves because they never try to learn about things and see it as a learning process to develop from, probably because too often the environments people grow up in are invalidating and only see things from a sensory/consumer mindset rather than try to understand it intellectually.)

I look at cooking as somewhat anti-consumer (service industry,) even if what I produce is not consistent enough to ever be monetized, but it also is just another way to look at resources from the basic standard of ingredients perspective, rather then assuming that people need to head out to the store to buy something like naan bread, etc. which I also highly suggest messing with (use yogurt as well as a combination of yeast and baking powder (less-so if using baking soda,) and I believe you can also use melted butter (or ghee) in the dough but not when cooking it on the skillet, and it might be best to not use ghee if using (preferably "Greek" yogurt.)

I still buy flour tortillas out of habit since I know of no sensible way to have tortillas sitting in a bag for 3 months. . .)

[HighlyIrregular]

It's often suggested to let it dry on oven rack (once the oven cools) for at least an hour prior to storing it. I also cut bread into slices to help it to cool (mostly to lose moisture) otherwise it will mold much quicker.

I would have but it was bedtime. I might have let it sit out in a paper bag overnight but I didn't have any. I wiped most of the condensation from the bag in the morning. I did cut it a bit though.

gluten

I almost bought gluten but after some research I decided not to. I already drink milk with my lactose intolerance. I don't need any more gastric issues. Xanthan gum is a possibility. I figured out that Bard halved the yeast I needed, so the most important thing is to add more yeast. It was good enough for me as is though, but I'd make it sweeter and less brittle for someone other than me.

I'm not sure baking actually saves money (it probably doesn't just from the resources perspective, even if you don't see the time invested as somehow having a figurative monetary value,)

Aside from time, I think it does for me. Arnold 100% whole wheat bread costs $5.29. I don't know the weight but say it's 2 lbs. 2 lbs of my hard red whole wheat flour costs about $2.50 when I buy a 5 lb bag.

[Madrigal]

I just want to show off this pristine 1970s edition of Joy of Cooking I got on Amazon.

Been trying out some recipes, some have been good but I'm sometimes having some trouble with proportions.

They really do have a lot of butter and fat btw. I should have made a diary recording my experiences but I can still start now. So far I liked Coq au Vin and Sweet and Sour Pork. West African Beef Stew and Chicken a la Campagne need some tinkering with, I think I messed up the proportions there. I'll try another one this weekend.

[Madrigal]

So the last one I made from 1970s Joy of Cooking was Beef Bourgignon and it was nice, however, I had to use a substitution. It requires salted ham, which I'm not going to get in this country in any shape or form, so I used bacon instead (removing some excess fat from the bacon for health reasons). The final result didn't have enough flavor so I put a maggi beef cube in it and that fixed it instantly. Maybe the lack of flavor was because I hadn't used the ham as instructed, but I was wondering why it didn't require any stock, which I would have made beforehand if it had been in the recipe.

[Catoptric]

Some seem to use beer instead of wine for the beef (but also, some of these recipes resemble stews or a soup, instead of a beef roast?)

Sauerbraten (Beef battered in flour and cooked with onions, wine, and gravy incorporating Gingersnap cookies)
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/22136 ... uerbraten/

Gingersnap Cookies
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/10365 ... p-cookies/



I was looking into whether I should be using beer to marinade beef jerky (because you don't want to not marinade using something with water for at least 8 hours as otherwise it gets pretty nasty, though I also find that mine tends to take longer to dry properly, so I might not be removing enough liquid prior to dehydrating; though that's a different subject.) I probably need to also throw it into the oven at a higher temp, just to make it safer, though also, acidity is something to try and achieve as well (so a wine, vinegar, etc.)

It seems the idea of using Dr. Pepper is pretty strong for ribs, though I think it must be the corn syrup crap that they like best, and if I was them I would just use brown sugar and molasses, along with sherry vinegar.)
https://pitmaster.amazingribs.com/forum ... -with-beer

But yeah, regular dehydrators are simply not "safe" enough by themselves, and need a heat treatment.
https://ohioline.osu.edu/factsheet/hyg-5362


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I might as well add this link, it's basically the only brewing supplies store that exists in North Texas (it seems they close or switch over to only selling to pro brewers, but also this one seemed to open at just the wrong time as others were leaving the consumer market.)
https://northtexashomebrew.com/



A goal is to make this (though true tallow/suet is hard to find, and people want to confuse the crap with greasy fat which they then feed to birds as a waste product, which ends up killing the birds when winter doesn't jive with their greasy plumage for insulation. . .)

[starjots]

Been making them this way and they are pretty great...

[HighlyIrregular]

The beer-like smell coming from my home baked bread probably wasn't too much yeast. It was the applesauce. I never saw applesauce used in store bought bread. I advise against it. It probably shortens the shelf life of the bread. I omitted the applesauce and it smells good for the first time.