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Food Thread: Pizza! Sourdough Starter! (Hint, Hint, Hint!)

Look at that! Even the geeks over at The Book Thread can cook! "Perfessor" Squirrel sent this along as evidence!

It looks tasty, especially the large quantity of pepperoni, which is the one thing that will get me to violate my rules against piling on the toppings.

And it is proof that pizza is not difficult. In fact, it's pretty damned easy to make. Once you figure out how to move it into the oven, pizza is one of the simplest and quickest meals you can make.

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There is a huge amount of arrant nonsense on the internet with respect to sourdough starter. Do this or you will fail! Do that or you will fail! Nope. It's pretty tough stuff... not nearly as fragile and finicky as the internet bakers of the world would have you believe.

I have discovered that the frenetic and obsessive admonitions to FEED FEED FEED your starter are mostly bullsh*t. I have started using just the barest bit of starter, left over from my previous use, as the base for the next batch. No more than a teaspoon of starter, that I leave in the container in the refrigerator. I add 50 grams of water to dissolve it completely, then 50 grams of flour. I cover it, stick it in the warmest place in the house (the boiler room) for 24 hours, and voila! Fantastic, lively, active starter.

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Oooh! Scotch Eggs! And some interesting history too!

Hey, CBD - I enjoy lurking on your food thread. Martini Farmer inspired me last weekend to try this (actually he inspired me to find a place to buy them, as we know a Scottish fellow who serves them at dinners at his house on occasion and I suspect they are ready-made). As it turned out I couldn't find anyone who shipped it to the US so I ended up making them tonight (the baked variety) and they turned out pretty good. The recipe is theoretically easy but the assembly is tricky!

I found out in the process of my search that they aren't even Scottish but were introduced in London by the Fortnum & Mason store in 1738. "Scotch"refers to the process of "scotching" or mincing the pork that goes around the eggs.

-- "wifey of ShainS"

Very interesting.

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One of the drivers of the hysteria over bourbon is the insanity of American liquor laws. When prohibition was repealed, for reasons that I suspect were mostly grafting and corrupt, we got a byzantine set of rules about how booze gets made, distributed, redistributed, and finally sold.

It's nuts. And difficult to navigate for all involved, including small producers like Frey Ranch. They make good bourbon, but until last weekend I had never even seen a bottle of it! But I was in a different state, and of course I went booze shopping (it's one of my favorite pastimes), and was very pleased to find this bottle.

It was delicious! I only had a couple of days, so I had to leave the third I didn't drink with my niece, who promises that it will be there when I return!

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I love stuff like Chicken Enchilada Soup. They tend to be easy to make, freeze well, and are immensely pleasing on a cold day when you just don't feel like cooking.

But...canned enchilada sauce? Really?

Make it yourself.

The canned stuff like sauces are usually salty, boring, expensive, and not worth using. Spend five more minutes and make something from scratch.

Harrumph!

Now get off my lawn.

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I saw this at a burger joint in an airport. The tide is indeed turning.

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[Hat Tip: Misanthropic Humanitarian]
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What the hell happened to all the vegetables? And send me garlic that isn't grown in heavy metals and human waste in China, well-marbled hanger steaks and elk chops to: cbd dot aoshq at gmail dot com.

Who are those poor deluded souls We know who shake their Manhattans! These are the same people who drink fine bourbon with coke, and probably shake red wine with ice too.

$1,200 for a bottle of bourbon is just stupid, insulting, and a ghastly affront to most people's palates and wallets. I think the sweet spot is $40-$60 for excellent and interesting bottles, and bumping that to $100 gets you an incremental improvement in quality, but nothing mind-blowing. More than that and I think you are paying for hype and rarity, which may look good in your liquor cabinet, but doesn't translate to more quality in the bottle.

The problem...or the solution...is to buy lots of bourbon, take tasting notes, and eventually arrive at your favorites! It should take forty of fifty years, but it is worth it!