Post by jack hamilton on Jul 8, 2010 7:40:57 GMT -5
Chapter 9. Short Stories, cooking
Short Stories/Cooking
Gentlemen,
I have wanted to be able to make bread for a long time.
Pizza dough has been a speciality of mine for 35 years.
I always thought 'French bread', or 'Italian bread' was what I wanted to make,
but when I 'bought' a loaf of French or Italian bread,
it was hard as a rock in two days and had to be fed to the horses.
Which is one reason I have not gotten started in the art of bread making.
Till now.
From making pizza dough for so long,
I know from experiance the longer the dough rises
the more 'winey-yeasty' 'ie. better' it tastes,
the more 'developed' and the more complex the flavor of the dough becomes.
I am a homebrewer of 16 years
and consider 'Mein Acht Pfund Hammerbier' about my favorite beer-ale.
Bread is a process of yeast working on flour,
as Ale is a process of yeast working on Malted barley.
I finally found a recipe for bread which 'fits the bill'.
It isn't stale after a couple of days.
And is an interesting, tasty and profoundly useful bread.
deutsch Sauerteigbrot,
or German sourdough bread.
Half wheat flour and half Rye.
The crust is so heavy it doesn't let any air inside the bread to dry it out.
I made some Saturday and this is Wensday.
Four days old and I am just getting into the second of three loaves.
It is the best bread I could have hoped for.
The crust is the best part.
But for a sandwich the crust is real hard and difficult to bite into.
For dinner bread I trim the crust and butter the pieces,
cook the bread in a pan with a little salt which acts like little ball bearings
and lets the bread roll around and not stick.
Till the bread is a little toasty on one or both sides.
Serve the bread {or brot} on a plate,
and the bread alone is good enough for a meal.
It really is.
The next day too!
The crust gets eaten while I am working in the kitchen.
It would be better if a little olive oil was on it,
but I have never bothered.
One could make 'deutsch Sauertieigbrot' once a week
and eat it all week.
I just keep it in a plastic bag {not closed}
on the counter, unrefrigerated.
deutsch Sauerteigbrot
Sourdough starter...
1 1/2 oz yeast
1 qt warm water
2 tablesthingys white sugar
4 cups all purpose flour
The Bread...
8 cups Rye flour4 cups all purpose flour
2 tablespons salt
1 teasthingy sugar
2 cups warm water
Make starter and let stand 24 hours
stir and cover and let stand 24 hours more
Make dough and kneed 15-20 minutes
let rise till doubled {1-2 hours}
afert dough has risen again,
kneed 5 minutes
Make 2-3 loaves and let rise another hour
425 degrees for 45 minutes or untill browned to suit
cool before cutting.
Mein Freund from Germany said:
"German bread, like German beer,
is an art form."
I say:
"Hell, with meat and vegetables"
"I'll just have another piece of Sourdough bread
and another ale".
J. Winters von Knife
jacksknifeshop.blogspot.com/
Gentlemen,
Speaking about beans, and living cheap...
I ate beans every day last week.
Beans and tortillas.
That's all I had.
I am disabled and broke most of the time but the beans were good.
Back in the early 70's I was a music major at U.T. Austin.
I had $25. a week for food.
I would rather eat Mexican food at a restaurant 4-5 times a week,
than have home made food three times every day.
But since I was at the University of Texas and was there to learn,
I learned how to cook!
In Austin I ate Mexican food once a day and that was about it,
but since then I have become a great cook.
Once I studied hard all day till I was starving
then went to the Italian pizza place at 1:00 am but they were closed!
I drove to the pizza inn but they were closed too!
There I was, standing alone in the pizza inn parking lot,
with money in my pocket, a starving student in need of a pizza.
But there wasn't no way.
I was destined to starve all night.
I resolved right then to learn how to cook pizza.
What in life, could be more important than 'cooking one's food'
{other than getting it.}
Here I was in a university learning about 'scales and chords' on the keyboard
when 'food' was more important
and especially to me back then,
I was starving.
Remembering how my Dad would cook pizza back in the 50's.
with a box of 'chef Boy-ar-dee' pizza mix,
I went to the store the next day and bought a 'box of pizza'.
It was a strange new thing cooking food but as I like to eat good food
it was the time in my life to learn how to cook.
I was in a university to learn but they didn't teach
how to shoot a squirrel, skin it, cook it up in an acceptable, tasty fashion.
I had to learn that on my own.
I made the pizza as according to directions and it was terrible.
However, now, 35 years later,
I am an amature gourmet chef and pizza is my specialty.
I have been making pizza from scratch for 35 years.
And no ones pizza is better.
When one is a good cook, cooking makes sense and is easy.
The beans were soaked over night and crockpoted all day.
Dried New Mexico chili peppers, garlic, brown sugar, onions,
I could go on and on but I remember my Mom.
She is dead now but when I was in the third grade I asked her:
"Mom, how do you cook?"
She said:
" Men don't cook food, they get married and make their wives cook for them."
I said:
but Oh Mom, your food is so good,
I want to learn how to cook just like you do.
When in all actuality I wanted to learn how to cook food
so I didn't end up with a pregnant dog like her.
It was one of my first tactical lies but it worked!
Now,
50 years later,
I alive alone,
am a good cook.
...and I don't get pregnant doged at.
Live is good.
J. Winters von Knife
jacksknifeshop.tripod.com/
"I was in a university to learn but they didn't teach
how to shoot a squirrel, skin it, cook it up in an acceptable, tasty fashion."
Poet,
You should have gone to Texas A&M.
Pot-Bellied Stallion,
I have been told 'the same thing' by a deputy on the Sheriff's dept.
"Don't you keep in touch with any of your friends from college days"?
No, like now, I lived alone and studied music,
wasn't there to have fun but to learn how to read music,
And I did.
They were amazed with thousands of women,
and 'my college days' 'which were supposed to be the most fun times in my life',
that I lived alone and studied classical piano music 9 hours a day.
"You live on a farm, and could have gone to Texas A & M,
and met dozen of others who could have been your friends for life!"
"Jack, Friday and Saturday night your phone never rings".
"And the only two girlfriends you had back then, both lived next door to you".
"You never went out".
I said that one doesn't need to go to school to learn agriculture.
{
!!!...***...}
The Poet
J. Winters von Knife
jacksknifeshop.tripod.com/
Re: homemade pizza
Pizza Dough,
High glutin flour is $12.00 a 50 Lb sack,
from Roma wholesale resturant supply.
{used to be $8.50, 20 years ago.}
Glutin used to be in all flour,
in fact my Dad made kites when he was a kid from newspaper and sticks
with glue made from flour and water.
But flour now has all the glutin removed.
Glutin makes the dough chewy and tough.
For an average size pizza for one person,
{ie. 10".}
Half cup water in dough bowl.
Just hydrate yeast, let it sit on top of the water 15'.
Then corn oil or olive oil if you can afford it.
A good bit of oil {I don't measure it} say two tablesthingys.
Salt, sugar, and stir in flour till the dough is still wet and sticky,
{and not dried out,} as it will rise 3-4 hours.
Kneed the dough for 10 minutes by the timer,
cover with towel and shake the dough till it rolls around in the bowl every hour.
Keep covered with two doubled over towls.
When your ready to eat,
ie. drunk enough and starving turn on the oven.
When the oven is at about 480-490,
pick up dough and let gravity pull the dough down as you turn it.
Lay dough down on well oiled pan and roll it out with a clean beer bottle, I prefer green glass.
Take the pizza and fold it over and over again till it is 3/4 of a circle.
Corn meal all under it,
open and build the pizza on the wooden peal.
Sauce, cheese, veggies and spices.
Transfer to the pizza stone with the peal and set the timer
for 17-18 minutes.
One big clove of garlic,
slice and fork it all up and spread on crust.
{some times I use olive oil and make a garlic pesto}
Then sauce, I like hunts tomato sauce in a can.
Then cheese,
lots and I prefer Mexican mozzerella
and a little chedder.
Then vegetables,
Then spices,
{oregano, salt, red pepper,}
17-18'- at 500 degrees, on 'top' oven rack.
While the chef, you, drinks a couple of more brewski's.
Let pizza sit for a few minutes so when cut
the cheese stays on the pizza.
Serve with Parmesian cheese,
{as expensive of a parmesian as you can find}
pepperocini's, and Alpino spicy pizza topping,
{on the side}
Highly recommended!
www.puckeredpickle.com/ap_retail.htm
Eat pizza.
Now,
50 years later,
I alive alone,
and am a good cook.
...and I don't get 'bitcxxx' at'.
Live is good.
J. Winters von Knife
jacksknifeshop.tripod.com/
"I was in a university to learn but they didn't teach
how to shoot a squirrel, skin it, cook it up in an acceptable, tasty fashion."
Poet,
You should have gone to Texas A&M.
Pot-Bellied Stallion,
I have been told 'the same thing'
by a deputy on the Sheriff's dept.
"Don't you keep in touch with any of your friends
from college days"?
No, like now, I lived alone and studied music,
wasn't there to have fun but to learn how to read music,
And I did.
They were amazed with thousands of women,
and 'my college days' 'which were supposed to be the most fun times in my life',
that I lived alone and studied classical piano music 9 hours a day.
"You live on a farm, and could have gone to Texas A & M,
and met dozen of others who could have been your friends for life!"
"Jack, Friday and Saturday night your phone never rings".
I said that one doesn't need to go to school to learn agriculture.
{!!!...***...}
The Poet
J. Winters von Knife
jacksknifeshop.tripod.com/
Pizza
Thank you
J. Knife
Heart attack on a plate and variations.”
Basic 'Heart Attack',
is bacon, potato’s, onions,
'whatever is available,
or one is in the mood for,
with eggs on top,
covered with a 'good melting cheese',
and jalapenos.
There are infinite variations,
think… Mexican,
Italian,
no need to add meat unless pork ,
like ham, sausage.
Potato’s need grease to cook in,
so the first style could be made with bacon,
1/2 cooked, and taken out of the pan and set aside.
Leave all of the grease in the pan.
The potato’s then cooked about ¾’s done and the onions added.
Stir enough to get the potato’s and onions coated with bacon grease and the onions a bit browned,
put the bacon back in.
Potato’s cook slowly and the bacon will get over done
if the potato’s aren’t ¾ done already.
Onions taste good almost raw, but cook them enough to brown them a bit, before adding the bacon.
1. Cook the bacon half way done, take it out of the grease.
2. Do not remove any of the grease, just buy good bacon!
3. Cook the potato’s ¾ done, and then add the onions
and sliced jalapenos.
4. Brown the onions, and add the bacon back in.
5. When everything is done enough to suit, add eggs.
6. Cook till egg yokes are still very runny
because they will continue to cook after the fire is turned off.
7. Let the ‘Heart Attack’ rest 2-3 minutes with the fire off,
so that the whole thing comes out of the pan in one piece.
8. Melt cheese in a small bowl,
{a good melting cheese, like velveta, mexican white quesadia,}
{not hard cheddar}
{and maybe a drop of milk and a sthingy of butter}
and pour over the 'attack'
after it done and resting, as the egg yolks will cook faster than the cheese will melt on them,
and the eggs need to be runny at fire off.
Remember they will continue to cook in the pan
during the 2-3 minute rest.
And 'try it, you will like it'.
Heart Attack on a plate
the ‘Gourmet’ von Knife
Thank you
Home made 'charcoal'
Gentlemen,
I live on disability but love good food
and have learned how to make cooking outside cheaper.
Store bought charcoal costs $8. a bag.
but I can buy a ham for $8.
Cooking inside costs propane and the kitchen needs cleaning afterwards.
I much prefer cooking over a fire.
I have used wood but it takes too long to burn down to coals.
And doesn't last long enough to finish the meat.
I took left over fire wood and split it
and sawed it into 3" long pieces but the shorter pieces are hard to cut.
I have to hold the pieces down with my foot and the last piece is 10" long.
Today I had a better idea.
I found a hardwood limb about wrist size or smaller.
And took the skill saw and cut short pieces off of it,
as short and I could make them.
About as short as the limb is wide.
Then took a hatchet and split them till I had a bucket full of wood.
The larger pieces split two or three times
and smaller pieces not split at all.
I use it as readily as charcoal.
And today cooked chicken and it was great.
I prefer 'BBQ'ed' to 'fried' chicken.
And now don't have to buy charcoal.
You can add firewood as the fire burns down.
And this firewood doesn't produce much flame.
I would hardily recommend 'home made charcoal'.
Except it isn't charcoal.
J. Winters von Knife
Home made 'charcoal'
Given a few hours study on the internet, one can find working examples of retorts that converts unburned wood to usable charcoal. The main approach is to heat the wood to the point of burning but in a gas-tight container where the moisture and vapors extracted from the wood are allowed to exit.
Commercial charcoal is an aggregated material rather than simple charred wood, containing filler and extender materials.
Considering how easy it would be to build a personal retort for making charcoal, and the amount of free wood given away in one's region off www.craigslist.com, I'd venture to say it would be a very economical energy source with long-term prospects.
Location: Washington State
Home made 'charcoal'
Here in WA we have Alder trees growing wild everywhere. I usually cut this up into small chunks like you are saying and BBQ with them. Alder smoked meat is like "meat candy". The key to making it last is to let it dry thouroughly, then just before you use it soak it with water. This makes a cooler burn, and more smokey, which consequently makes more flavor. Make sure your chunks are no bigger than 3X3 inches. In BBQ terms this is called "natural chunk charcol", and it is actually what many "pro" BBQ cooks prefer.
Yer Cap'n
Location: My 25 Acres, Texas
Captain Wetbeard,
Thank you for the 'valuable new idea.'
I remember seeing 'wood chips soaked in water' for BBQing with.
But I have never used the technique
but now, using natural wood
'wood chunks'
rather than store bought charcoal,
'water soaked wood' would be a critical element to BBQing.
The 'water soaked' chunks would obviously burn slower,
not be too hot
and add the essential 'smokeyness too'.
This is really big!
Thank you Captain sir,
for this essential piece of BBQing knowlege.
'Lets git drunk and eat BBQ.'
'Then go coon hunting."
J. Winters von Knife
The 'water soaked wood chip' idea,
'at first hearing', was obviously a profoundly good idea and the critical 'missing link' to my BBQ'ing knowledge, overlooked for 50 years,
and like all of the greatest things I have ever learned,
simple
I realized it instantly and thanked you before I even tried it.
But now I have tried it!
Water!
Is the means to control the fire.
It's so simple, so obvious.
And I so excited about it I have to go get me a beer,
hold on........
.............Alright, it may not seem so brilliant to you,
or anyone else reading this,
but it is brilliant to me.
I never thought of it and I don't know why.
Being an amature gourmet chef anyway,
{I have been making pizza from scratch for 40 years}
{Caramelizing bbq chicken and onions on a hibatche for 40 years}
{Brewing homebrew for 15...}
What could be more obvious than water?
{I can't believe I missed it}
What could be more basic and so simple?
A fire can be controlled within a degree ot two
simply by the use of water soaked wood chips
and a little water out of the wood chip bucket too,
to 'throw, sprinkle, or drip' on the fire
with your 'hand, or a stick to cool it down.
Or to put out a flame up on one paticular wood chip...
It is perfect.
Thank you again!
I sure appreciate it...
and now I'm off 'to cook chicken'
Home made 'charcoal'
Water is overlooked in many things in cooking. While I BBQ I keep a spray bottle right next to the grill, and if the fire gets too dry, and starts to heat up too much, I spray the coals down.
Another trick to keeping your meat moist is to create a steam environment in the grill. I place a pie pan in the middle of the coal rack, and fill it half way with water for beef, or applejuice for chicken/fish. This steam keeps the meat moist, and can be a great avenue for adding unique flavors. When cooking Salmon on the BBQ I use white wine, the flavor of the wine steamed into the fish expands any herbs and seasonings I add to the fish, and gives it a unique twang, as well as keeping the fish moist, the hardest thing to do with fish on the grill.
When baking bread in the oven, I place a pie pan half filled with water on the lowest rung of racks. I put this in while the oven is preheating, then just prior to placing the raised bread in the oven, I spray the sides and top with hot water, and quickly place the bread in the oven. This makes for a crisp, and flaky crust on the bread.
The key to cooking,,,,,it's in the water.
Yer Cap'n
one can find working examples of retorts that converts unburned wood to usable charcoal. The main approach is to heat the wood to the point of burning but in a gas-tight container where the moisture and vapors extracted from the wood are allowed to exit.
Commercial charcoal is an aggregated material rather than simple charred wood, containing filler and extender materials.
Considering how easy it would be to build a personal retort for making charcoal, and the amount of free wood given away in one's region off www.craigslist.com, I'd venture to say it would be a very economical energy source with long-term prospects.
Yes, Kingsford is junk. There is a brand - Duraflame (the same people that make the fake firelogs) that make 100% natural charcoal briquettes (pulverized charcoal binded together with vegetable starch). This stuff is amazing. I cooked a 12 pound turkey with 50 briquettes, never having to add more. I tried with Kingsford and it simply didn't work. That crap burns up too fast and has all kinds of additives in it.
If I had the space and the time I would love to make my own but until then the Duraflame is a staple at my place.
Thank you
J. Winters von Knife
Coon camp... 'Tea and a Tater'
Gentlemen,
A very good, cheap and wholesome meal I used to carry
when my hounds were all alive and we would go out coon hunting, is 'Tea and a Tater.'
Two people in my life, one a therapist in rehab and the other a Lt. on the Sheriffs dept, {20 years ago} were very interested,
when I mentioned
that I would go out hunting most of the night and carry for food,
a potato and tea, and asked me to elaborate.
A long time ago...
{Once upon a time...}
I had torn my back muscles and was out of the lawn sprinkler business forever.
With no work and living out in the country alone but for my young hounds, I began trapping and hunting for fur for the money that was in it. I would go out with Cotton Joe and his sister Sue May and old Barrydog and we would hunt hard,
actually trying to earn a living.
We were serious!
The best training a man or his hounds could possibly have.
We would go out nearly every night 'on a kill'.
And for a late dinner...
real cheap...
but at the same time something real good and warm to eat out on the trail in the middle of the night...
Hot tea and a Tater.
Take a big tater...
{Here he goes again ...}
Take a big tater and skin it.
Slice it long ways in pieces finger thickness,
{narrow enough to cook well,}
and before wrapping in real thick 'quartupled over' tin foil,
add butter, garlic powder, salt and pepper, whatever...
and roll it up 'real good', put it in your pocket,
and you are good,
to be out most of the night.
When your fire burns down just throw it on the coals.
Its good enough food to last till daylight,
in order to pose for pictures
with 'your big kill of the night.'
Yeah!
When the fire burns down to coals just throw in the tater.
And the tea is just hot tea which helps even a 30 year old stay up all night while 'out on the job'.
Carry a canteen cup your canteen fits in and carry some tea bags.
Hell, sugar is good too!
Are we getting spoiled or what?
J Winters von Knife
and Sandymay
{asleep in there on our bed}
Gentlemen,
Yes, this whole thing is 'nuts'.
But let me add some more 'wisdom' ...
I heard from my best friends mother
nearly 50 years ago.
It was a cold Saturday morning,
and with no school, I was going out in the woods with Randy
to check and extend our traplines.
I walked down to Randy's house and as he was getting ready to go
I was talking to his mother.
I asked Mrs. Gibson if 'Robins and Mocking birds', 'song birds',
were any good to eat as Randy had told me
that you would cook anything he could kill,
and that he ate them.
Mrs. Gibson was from Arkansas and looked at me and replied 'matter-of-factly':
{Son, you can eat anything, meats meat}
And she turned back to attend to what she was doing at the time.
Now some things are 'better tasting' than other things,
but we ate everything.
And Rabbits, Robins and Mocking birds were not bad.
I prefered Rabbit.
And now that I am older Squirrell isn't as good as it used to be either,
its kinda tough.
But meat is meat.
You guys who say you will eat this and won't eat that
have never been hungry.
"Remember, you can eat anything!"
Meat is meat.
J. Winters von Knife
jacksknifeshop.blogspot.com/
“Coon Hunting with the Gourmet Chef”
One night Don and I were out on a hunt by my house,
just down on the creek. We had one coon
and while the dogs were finding another
we built a fire just to be warm while we skinned the coon
and waited on the dogs as we did not intend to stay out long.
I slipped off the old coon’s hide and hung it in a bush by the fire, then threw the carcass in a honeysuckle thicket.
We were in no hurry and Don had a flask of tequila.
So we sipped a few snorts and as we waited on the dogs.
As it was late and I was hungry,
I went to the honeysuckle thicket where I had thrown the carcass,
Whipped out my old skinning knife and cut half a dozen pieces of coon meat, and slipped them on a green stick.
Laid it on the coals and waited till they were well done
and then set them off the fire to cool.
We sipped some more cactus juice
and when the coon meat was cool,
pulled a piece off the stick and tried it.
It was good!
In fact it tasted fine and would have made a fine dinner
had we been able to chew it.
I was as tough of a piece of meat as I could have ever imagined.
Good tasting but tough!
And that reminds me…
A Chinese friend Jimmy who owned a restaurant in Duncanville,
tried coon meat and being from Taiwan had eaten just about everything.
He wanted to try Coon meat!
The thing back in Tiawan, where he was from was eating tigers
but they had ate them all up.
So I brought him a possum, a coon,
and odds and ends from my trap line.
Jimmy didn’t like the possum, when the Mexican cooks opened it back in the kitchen they all burst out laughing!
Jimmy came out and said,
“ Jack, that rabbit!”
And I said no jimmy, possum!
And he said “cooks say is rabbit!”
And that went on and on…
but it wasn’t good anyway,
so I brought Jimmy a Coon!
Next time I went in for a repast of my favorite dinner,
La Tzu Tzi.
He came over and said:
“Oh! Jack! I try meat of Kun! “
I said, well how did you like it?
And he said after holding his right and left jaws in his hands
and rocking his head back and forth,
Oh!
Tough!
Very tough!
It was not coon that found me an outlet for my extra trap line meat,
but Bobcat!
Jimmy loved it!
And boys, old Bobcat Conley took to selling Jimmy carcasses too!
Ted was a telephone co. retiree and had a trap line where a new lake
was built.
When they flooded the new lake
the cats down in the bottom were forced up the creeks
as the water filled the new lake.
He caught 10 cats that winter to my 3!
And said one night at the fur buyer meeting…
"Jack where did you say you sell that bobcat meat"?
I told him about old Jimmy,
I said to go to the restaurant after the people had left,
and don’t just walk in, everybody having dinner at Jimmies restaurant,
with a couple of bobcat carcasses.
Next time I saw old Ted selling fur to Al Barton the fur buyer,
he said he had been selling lots of cat carcasses to Jimmy
and they had really gotten on!
At seven dollars a carcass,
hey… you can’t go wrong!
Now Jimmy did not sell the meat to customers,
he saved that for when Grandmaw and Grandpaw came over,
as it was a delicacy.
You think they had hamburgers?
Hell no!
They had 'Mu-goo gia cat'!
J. Winters von Knife
jacksknifeshop.tripod.com/
Short Stories/Cooking
Gentlemen,
I have wanted to be able to make bread for a long time.
Pizza dough has been a speciality of mine for 35 years.
I always thought 'French bread', or 'Italian bread' was what I wanted to make,
but when I 'bought' a loaf of French or Italian bread,
it was hard as a rock in two days and had to be fed to the horses.
Which is one reason I have not gotten started in the art of bread making.
Till now.
From making pizza dough for so long,
I know from experiance the longer the dough rises
the more 'winey-yeasty' 'ie. better' it tastes,
the more 'developed' and the more complex the flavor of the dough becomes.
I am a homebrewer of 16 years
and consider 'Mein Acht Pfund Hammerbier' about my favorite beer-ale.
Bread is a process of yeast working on flour,
as Ale is a process of yeast working on Malted barley.
I finally found a recipe for bread which 'fits the bill'.
It isn't stale after a couple of days.
And is an interesting, tasty and profoundly useful bread.
deutsch Sauerteigbrot,
or German sourdough bread.
Half wheat flour and half Rye.
The crust is so heavy it doesn't let any air inside the bread to dry it out.
I made some Saturday and this is Wensday.
Four days old and I am just getting into the second of three loaves.
It is the best bread I could have hoped for.
The crust is the best part.
But for a sandwich the crust is real hard and difficult to bite into.
For dinner bread I trim the crust and butter the pieces,
cook the bread in a pan with a little salt which acts like little ball bearings
and lets the bread roll around and not stick.
Till the bread is a little toasty on one or both sides.
Serve the bread {or brot} on a plate,
and the bread alone is good enough for a meal.
It really is.
The next day too!
The crust gets eaten while I am working in the kitchen.
It would be better if a little olive oil was on it,
but I have never bothered.
One could make 'deutsch Sauertieigbrot' once a week
and eat it all week.
I just keep it in a plastic bag {not closed}
on the counter, unrefrigerated.
deutsch Sauerteigbrot
Sourdough starter...
1 1/2 oz yeast
1 qt warm water
2 tablesthingys white sugar
4 cups all purpose flour
The Bread...
8 cups Rye flour4 cups all purpose flour
2 tablespons salt
1 teasthingy sugar
2 cups warm water
Make starter and let stand 24 hours
stir and cover and let stand 24 hours more
Make dough and kneed 15-20 minutes
let rise till doubled {1-2 hours}
afert dough has risen again,
kneed 5 minutes
Make 2-3 loaves and let rise another hour
425 degrees for 45 minutes or untill browned to suit
cool before cutting.
Mein Freund from Germany said:
"German bread, like German beer,
is an art form."
I say:
"Hell, with meat and vegetables"
"I'll just have another piece of Sourdough bread
and another ale".
J. Winters von Knife
jacksknifeshop.blogspot.com/
Gentlemen,
Speaking about beans, and living cheap...
I ate beans every day last week.
Beans and tortillas.
That's all I had.
I am disabled and broke most of the time but the beans were good.
Back in the early 70's I was a music major at U.T. Austin.
I had $25. a week for food.
I would rather eat Mexican food at a restaurant 4-5 times a week,
than have home made food three times every day.
But since I was at the University of Texas and was there to learn,
I learned how to cook!
In Austin I ate Mexican food once a day and that was about it,
but since then I have become a great cook.
Once I studied hard all day till I was starving
then went to the Italian pizza place at 1:00 am but they were closed!
I drove to the pizza inn but they were closed too!
There I was, standing alone in the pizza inn parking lot,
with money in my pocket, a starving student in need of a pizza.
But there wasn't no way.
I was destined to starve all night.
I resolved right then to learn how to cook pizza.
What in life, could be more important than 'cooking one's food'
{other than getting it.}
Here I was in a university learning about 'scales and chords' on the keyboard
when 'food' was more important
and especially to me back then,
I was starving.
Remembering how my Dad would cook pizza back in the 50's.
with a box of 'chef Boy-ar-dee' pizza mix,
I went to the store the next day and bought a 'box of pizza'.
It was a strange new thing cooking food but as I like to eat good food
it was the time in my life to learn how to cook.
I was in a university to learn but they didn't teach
how to shoot a squirrel, skin it, cook it up in an acceptable, tasty fashion.
I had to learn that on my own.
I made the pizza as according to directions and it was terrible.
However, now, 35 years later,
I am an amature gourmet chef and pizza is my specialty.
I have been making pizza from scratch for 35 years.
And no ones pizza is better.
When one is a good cook, cooking makes sense and is easy.
The beans were soaked over night and crockpoted all day.
Dried New Mexico chili peppers, garlic, brown sugar, onions,
I could go on and on but I remember my Mom.
She is dead now but when I was in the third grade I asked her:
"Mom, how do you cook?"
She said:
" Men don't cook food, they get married and make their wives cook for them."
I said:
but Oh Mom, your food is so good,
I want to learn how to cook just like you do.
When in all actuality I wanted to learn how to cook food
so I didn't end up with a pregnant dog like her.
It was one of my first tactical lies but it worked!
Now,
50 years later,
I alive alone,
am a good cook.
...and I don't get pregnant doged at.
Live is good.
J. Winters von Knife
jacksknifeshop.tripod.com/
"I was in a university to learn but they didn't teach
how to shoot a squirrel, skin it, cook it up in an acceptable, tasty fashion."
Poet,
You should have gone to Texas A&M.
Pot-Bellied Stallion,
I have been told 'the same thing' by a deputy on the Sheriff's dept.
"Don't you keep in touch with any of your friends from college days"?
No, like now, I lived alone and studied music,
wasn't there to have fun but to learn how to read music,
And I did.
They were amazed with thousands of women,
and 'my college days' 'which were supposed to be the most fun times in my life',
that I lived alone and studied classical piano music 9 hours a day.
"You live on a farm, and could have gone to Texas A & M,
and met dozen of others who could have been your friends for life!"
"Jack, Friday and Saturday night your phone never rings".
"And the only two girlfriends you had back then, both lived next door to you".
"You never went out".
I said that one doesn't need to go to school to learn agriculture.
{
!!!...***...}The Poet
J. Winters von Knife
jacksknifeshop.tripod.com/
Re: homemade pizza
Pizza Dough,
High glutin flour is $12.00 a 50 Lb sack,
from Roma wholesale resturant supply.
{used to be $8.50, 20 years ago.}
Glutin used to be in all flour,
in fact my Dad made kites when he was a kid from newspaper and sticks
with glue made from flour and water.
But flour now has all the glutin removed.
Glutin makes the dough chewy and tough.
For an average size pizza for one person,
{ie. 10".}
Half cup water in dough bowl.
Just hydrate yeast, let it sit on top of the water 15'.
Then corn oil or olive oil if you can afford it.
A good bit of oil {I don't measure it} say two tablesthingys.
Salt, sugar, and stir in flour till the dough is still wet and sticky,
{and not dried out,} as it will rise 3-4 hours.
Kneed the dough for 10 minutes by the timer,
cover with towel and shake the dough till it rolls around in the bowl every hour.
Keep covered with two doubled over towls.
When your ready to eat,
ie. drunk enough and starving turn on the oven.
When the oven is at about 480-490,
pick up dough and let gravity pull the dough down as you turn it.
Lay dough down on well oiled pan and roll it out with a clean beer bottle, I prefer green glass.
Take the pizza and fold it over and over again till it is 3/4 of a circle.
Corn meal all under it,
open and build the pizza on the wooden peal.
Sauce, cheese, veggies and spices.
Transfer to the pizza stone with the peal and set the timer
for 17-18 minutes.
One big clove of garlic,
slice and fork it all up and spread on crust.
{some times I use olive oil and make a garlic pesto}
Then sauce, I like hunts tomato sauce in a can.
Then cheese,
lots and I prefer Mexican mozzerella
and a little chedder.
Then vegetables,
Then spices,
{oregano, salt, red pepper,}
17-18'- at 500 degrees, on 'top' oven rack.
While the chef, you, drinks a couple of more brewski's.
Let pizza sit for a few minutes so when cut
the cheese stays on the pizza.
Serve with Parmesian cheese,
{as expensive of a parmesian as you can find}
pepperocini's, and Alpino spicy pizza topping,
{on the side}
Highly recommended!
www.puckeredpickle.com/ap_retail.htm
Eat pizza.
Now,
50 years later,
I alive alone,
and am a good cook.
...and I don't get 'bitcxxx' at'.
Live is good.
J. Winters von Knife
jacksknifeshop.tripod.com/
"I was in a university to learn but they didn't teach
how to shoot a squirrel, skin it, cook it up in an acceptable, tasty fashion."
Poet,
You should have gone to Texas A&M.
Pot-Bellied Stallion,
I have been told 'the same thing'
by a deputy on the Sheriff's dept.
"Don't you keep in touch with any of your friends
from college days"?
No, like now, I lived alone and studied music,
wasn't there to have fun but to learn how to read music,
And I did.
They were amazed with thousands of women,
and 'my college days' 'which were supposed to be the most fun times in my life',
that I lived alone and studied classical piano music 9 hours a day.
"You live on a farm, and could have gone to Texas A & M,
and met dozen of others who could have been your friends for life!"
"Jack, Friday and Saturday night your phone never rings".
I said that one doesn't need to go to school to learn agriculture.
{
!!!...***...}The Poet
J. Winters von Knife
jacksknifeshop.tripod.com/
Pizza
Thank you
J. Knife
Heart attack on a plate and variations.”
Basic 'Heart Attack',
is bacon, potato’s, onions,
'whatever is available,
or one is in the mood for,
with eggs on top,
covered with a 'good melting cheese',
and jalapenos.
There are infinite variations,
think… Mexican,
Italian,
no need to add meat unless pork ,
like ham, sausage.
Potato’s need grease to cook in,
so the first style could be made with bacon,
1/2 cooked, and taken out of the pan and set aside.
Leave all of the grease in the pan.
The potato’s then cooked about ¾’s done and the onions added.
Stir enough to get the potato’s and onions coated with bacon grease and the onions a bit browned,
put the bacon back in.
Potato’s cook slowly and the bacon will get over done
if the potato’s aren’t ¾ done already.
Onions taste good almost raw, but cook them enough to brown them a bit, before adding the bacon.
1. Cook the bacon half way done, take it out of the grease.
2. Do not remove any of the grease, just buy good bacon!
3. Cook the potato’s ¾ done, and then add the onions
and sliced jalapenos.
4. Brown the onions, and add the bacon back in.
5. When everything is done enough to suit, add eggs.
6. Cook till egg yokes are still very runny
because they will continue to cook after the fire is turned off.
7. Let the ‘Heart Attack’ rest 2-3 minutes with the fire off,
so that the whole thing comes out of the pan in one piece.
8. Melt cheese in a small bowl,
{a good melting cheese, like velveta, mexican white quesadia,}
{not hard cheddar}
{and maybe a drop of milk and a sthingy of butter}
and pour over the 'attack'
after it done and resting, as the egg yolks will cook faster than the cheese will melt on them,
and the eggs need to be runny at fire off.
Remember they will continue to cook in the pan
during the 2-3 minute rest.
And 'try it, you will like it'.
Heart Attack on a plate
the ‘Gourmet’ von Knife
Thank you
Home made 'charcoal'
Gentlemen,
I live on disability but love good food
and have learned how to make cooking outside cheaper.
Store bought charcoal costs $8. a bag.
but I can buy a ham for $8.
Cooking inside costs propane and the kitchen needs cleaning afterwards.
I much prefer cooking over a fire.
I have used wood but it takes too long to burn down to coals.
And doesn't last long enough to finish the meat.
I took left over fire wood and split it
and sawed it into 3" long pieces but the shorter pieces are hard to cut.
I have to hold the pieces down with my foot and the last piece is 10" long.
Today I had a better idea.
I found a hardwood limb about wrist size or smaller.
And took the skill saw and cut short pieces off of it,
as short and I could make them.
About as short as the limb is wide.
Then took a hatchet and split them till I had a bucket full of wood.
The larger pieces split two or three times
and smaller pieces not split at all.
I use it as readily as charcoal.
And today cooked chicken and it was great.
I prefer 'BBQ'ed' to 'fried' chicken.
And now don't have to buy charcoal.
You can add firewood as the fire burns down.
And this firewood doesn't produce much flame.
I would hardily recommend 'home made charcoal'.
Except it isn't charcoal.
J. Winters von Knife
Home made 'charcoal'
Given a few hours study on the internet, one can find working examples of retorts that converts unburned wood to usable charcoal. The main approach is to heat the wood to the point of burning but in a gas-tight container where the moisture and vapors extracted from the wood are allowed to exit.
Commercial charcoal is an aggregated material rather than simple charred wood, containing filler and extender materials.
Considering how easy it would be to build a personal retort for making charcoal, and the amount of free wood given away in one's region off www.craigslist.com, I'd venture to say it would be a very economical energy source with long-term prospects.
Location: Washington State
Home made 'charcoal'
Here in WA we have Alder trees growing wild everywhere. I usually cut this up into small chunks like you are saying and BBQ with them. Alder smoked meat is like "meat candy". The key to making it last is to let it dry thouroughly, then just before you use it soak it with water. This makes a cooler burn, and more smokey, which consequently makes more flavor. Make sure your chunks are no bigger than 3X3 inches. In BBQ terms this is called "natural chunk charcol", and it is actually what many "pro" BBQ cooks prefer.
Yer Cap'n
Location: My 25 Acres, Texas
Captain Wetbeard,
Thank you for the 'valuable new idea.'
I remember seeing 'wood chips soaked in water' for BBQing with.
But I have never used the technique
but now, using natural wood
'wood chunks'
rather than store bought charcoal,
'water soaked wood' would be a critical element to BBQing.
The 'water soaked' chunks would obviously burn slower,
not be too hot
and add the essential 'smokeyness too'.
This is really big!
Thank you Captain sir,
for this essential piece of BBQing knowlege.
'Lets git drunk and eat BBQ.'
'Then go coon hunting."
J. Winters von Knife
The 'water soaked wood chip' idea,
'at first hearing', was obviously a profoundly good idea and the critical 'missing link' to my BBQ'ing knowledge, overlooked for 50 years,
and like all of the greatest things I have ever learned,
simple
I realized it instantly and thanked you before I even tried it.
But now I have tried it!
Water!
Is the means to control the fire.
It's so simple, so obvious.
And I so excited about it I have to go get me a beer,
hold on........
.............Alright, it may not seem so brilliant to you,
or anyone else reading this,
but it is brilliant to me.
I never thought of it and I don't know why.
Being an amature gourmet chef anyway,
{I have been making pizza from scratch for 40 years}
{Caramelizing bbq chicken and onions on a hibatche for 40 years}
{Brewing homebrew for 15...}
What could be more obvious than water?
{I can't believe I missed it}
What could be more basic and so simple?
A fire can be controlled within a degree ot two
simply by the use of water soaked wood chips
and a little water out of the wood chip bucket too,
to 'throw, sprinkle, or drip' on the fire
with your 'hand, or a stick to cool it down.
Or to put out a flame up on one paticular wood chip...
It is perfect.
Thank you again!
I sure appreciate it...
and now I'm off 'to cook chicken'
Home made 'charcoal'
Water is overlooked in many things in cooking. While I BBQ I keep a spray bottle right next to the grill, and if the fire gets too dry, and starts to heat up too much, I spray the coals down.
Another trick to keeping your meat moist is to create a steam environment in the grill. I place a pie pan in the middle of the coal rack, and fill it half way with water for beef, or applejuice for chicken/fish. This steam keeps the meat moist, and can be a great avenue for adding unique flavors. When cooking Salmon on the BBQ I use white wine, the flavor of the wine steamed into the fish expands any herbs and seasonings I add to the fish, and gives it a unique twang, as well as keeping the fish moist, the hardest thing to do with fish on the grill.
When baking bread in the oven, I place a pie pan half filled with water on the lowest rung of racks. I put this in while the oven is preheating, then just prior to placing the raised bread in the oven, I spray the sides and top with hot water, and quickly place the bread in the oven. This makes for a crisp, and flaky crust on the bread.
The key to cooking,,,,,it's in the water.
Yer Cap'n
one can find working examples of retorts that converts unburned wood to usable charcoal. The main approach is to heat the wood to the point of burning but in a gas-tight container where the moisture and vapors extracted from the wood are allowed to exit.
Commercial charcoal is an aggregated material rather than simple charred wood, containing filler and extender materials.
Considering how easy it would be to build a personal retort for making charcoal, and the amount of free wood given away in one's region off www.craigslist.com, I'd venture to say it would be a very economical energy source with long-term prospects.
Yes, Kingsford is junk. There is a brand - Duraflame (the same people that make the fake firelogs) that make 100% natural charcoal briquettes (pulverized charcoal binded together with vegetable starch). This stuff is amazing. I cooked a 12 pound turkey with 50 briquettes, never having to add more. I tried with Kingsford and it simply didn't work. That crap burns up too fast and has all kinds of additives in it.
If I had the space and the time I would love to make my own but until then the Duraflame is a staple at my place.
Thank you
J. Winters von Knife
Coon camp... 'Tea and a Tater'
Gentlemen,
A very good, cheap and wholesome meal I used to carry
when my hounds were all alive and we would go out coon hunting, is 'Tea and a Tater.'
Two people in my life, one a therapist in rehab and the other a Lt. on the Sheriffs dept, {20 years ago} were very interested,
when I mentioned
that I would go out hunting most of the night and carry for food,
a potato and tea, and asked me to elaborate.
A long time ago...
{Once upon a time...}
I had torn my back muscles and was out of the lawn sprinkler business forever.
With no work and living out in the country alone but for my young hounds, I began trapping and hunting for fur for the money that was in it. I would go out with Cotton Joe and his sister Sue May and old Barrydog and we would hunt hard,
actually trying to earn a living.
We were serious!
The best training a man or his hounds could possibly have.
We would go out nearly every night 'on a kill'.
And for a late dinner...
real cheap...
but at the same time something real good and warm to eat out on the trail in the middle of the night...
Hot tea and a Tater.
Take a big tater...
{Here he goes again ...}
Take a big tater and skin it.
Slice it long ways in pieces finger thickness,
{narrow enough to cook well,}
and before wrapping in real thick 'quartupled over' tin foil,
add butter, garlic powder, salt and pepper, whatever...
and roll it up 'real good', put it in your pocket,
and you are good,
to be out most of the night.
When your fire burns down just throw it on the coals.
Its good enough food to last till daylight,
in order to pose for pictures
with 'your big kill of the night.'
Yeah!
When the fire burns down to coals just throw in the tater.
And the tea is just hot tea which helps even a 30 year old stay up all night while 'out on the job'.
Carry a canteen cup your canteen fits in and carry some tea bags.
Hell, sugar is good too!
Are we getting spoiled or what?
J Winters von Knife
and Sandymay
{asleep in there on our bed}
Gentlemen,
Yes, this whole thing is 'nuts'.
But let me add some more 'wisdom' ...
I heard from my best friends mother
nearly 50 years ago.
It was a cold Saturday morning,
and with no school, I was going out in the woods with Randy
to check and extend our traplines.
I walked down to Randy's house and as he was getting ready to go
I was talking to his mother.
I asked Mrs. Gibson if 'Robins and Mocking birds', 'song birds',
were any good to eat as Randy had told me
that you would cook anything he could kill,
and that he ate them.
Mrs. Gibson was from Arkansas and looked at me and replied 'matter-of-factly':
{Son, you can eat anything, meats meat}
And she turned back to attend to what she was doing at the time.
Now some things are 'better tasting' than other things,
but we ate everything.
And Rabbits, Robins and Mocking birds were not bad.
I prefered Rabbit.
And now that I am older Squirrell isn't as good as it used to be either,
its kinda tough.
But meat is meat.
You guys who say you will eat this and won't eat that
have never been hungry.
"Remember, you can eat anything!"
Meat is meat.
J. Winters von Knife
jacksknifeshop.blogspot.com/
“Coon Hunting with the Gourmet Chef”
One night Don and I were out on a hunt by my house,
just down on the creek. We had one coon
and while the dogs were finding another
we built a fire just to be warm while we skinned the coon
and waited on the dogs as we did not intend to stay out long.
I slipped off the old coon’s hide and hung it in a bush by the fire, then threw the carcass in a honeysuckle thicket.
We were in no hurry and Don had a flask of tequila.
So we sipped a few snorts and as we waited on the dogs.
As it was late and I was hungry,
I went to the honeysuckle thicket where I had thrown the carcass,
Whipped out my old skinning knife and cut half a dozen pieces of coon meat, and slipped them on a green stick.
Laid it on the coals and waited till they were well done
and then set them off the fire to cool.
We sipped some more cactus juice
and when the coon meat was cool,
pulled a piece off the stick and tried it.
It was good!
In fact it tasted fine and would have made a fine dinner
had we been able to chew it.
I was as tough of a piece of meat as I could have ever imagined.
Good tasting but tough!
And that reminds me…
A Chinese friend Jimmy who owned a restaurant in Duncanville,
tried coon meat and being from Taiwan had eaten just about everything.
He wanted to try Coon meat!
The thing back in Tiawan, where he was from was eating tigers
but they had ate them all up.
So I brought him a possum, a coon,
and odds and ends from my trap line.
Jimmy didn’t like the possum, when the Mexican cooks opened it back in the kitchen they all burst out laughing!
Jimmy came out and said,
“ Jack, that rabbit!”
And I said no jimmy, possum!
And he said “cooks say is rabbit!”
And that went on and on…
but it wasn’t good anyway,
so I brought Jimmy a Coon!
Next time I went in for a repast of my favorite dinner,
La Tzu Tzi.
He came over and said:
“Oh! Jack! I try meat of Kun! “
I said, well how did you like it?
And he said after holding his right and left jaws in his hands
and rocking his head back and forth,
Oh!
Tough!
Very tough!
It was not coon that found me an outlet for my extra trap line meat,
but Bobcat!
Jimmy loved it!
And boys, old Bobcat Conley took to selling Jimmy carcasses too!
Ted was a telephone co. retiree and had a trap line where a new lake
was built.
When they flooded the new lake
the cats down in the bottom were forced up the creeks
as the water filled the new lake.
He caught 10 cats that winter to my 3!
And said one night at the fur buyer meeting…
"Jack where did you say you sell that bobcat meat"?
I told him about old Jimmy,
I said to go to the restaurant after the people had left,
and don’t just walk in, everybody having dinner at Jimmies restaurant,
with a couple of bobcat carcasses.
Next time I saw old Ted selling fur to Al Barton the fur buyer,
he said he had been selling lots of cat carcasses to Jimmy
and they had really gotten on!
At seven dollars a carcass,
hey… you can’t go wrong!
Now Jimmy did not sell the meat to customers,
he saved that for when Grandmaw and Grandpaw came over,
as it was a delicacy.
You think they had hamburgers?
Hell no!
They had 'Mu-goo gia cat'!
J. Winters von Knife
jacksknifeshop.tripod.com/