Post facto

[desperance]

I can't really be hungry, for lo: I have had lunch. Ham and mustard on ciabatta, with a pickle on the side.

The ciabatta's good, I think: perhaps as good as what they sell under that name in Fenwick's, tho' certainly not, nowhere near as good as the artisan-baker's at the Cafe Royal. Which is my criterion. Next time I might try a different recipe, if there is a significant variation; I don't know enough to know whether the fall-short is due to recipe or technique or equipment. Experiment will help to pin it down, and I certainly do want to do this again. Despite the truly-awfulness of handling this particular dough.

Meantime, tho': hungry. Bah.

[thinks: my own ciabatta, my own ham. Perhaps I should make my own mustard? I know the principle, I have the seeds. And the pestle and mortar, because where's the fun in a food processor...?]

[ETA: I just found a recipe that says, inter alia, "Stir yeasted water again, then measure one-half teaspoon into the flour mixture. (Throw the rest away; the point of this step is not to proof the yeast but to measure 1/384 teaspoon yeast.)" Heh...]

[ETA 2: Another recipe says "This is one dough that simply can't be kneaded by hand; it's just too sticky." Which is a lovely thing to read, when you have yourself been wondering whether you could bear to do it in a machine next time; but it does at the same time raise the inevitable question, so what did people do before there were machines? Besides, I have proved, it can be kneaded by hand. It's just revolting.]

Comments

[danjite.livejournal.com]

Actually, I wanted to hear about the my own ham part. Yes, yes- I assume the meat came from the butcher, but I want to know about the Chazzification from pork to ham.

Tell a good tale and I might speak of raelfleisch...

[lagilman]

Really good bread makes me more hungry than before. I don't know why. I think my taste buds take my stomach hostage and refuse to allow it outgoing calls until they get more of what they like.

Hi, my name is LAG, and I'm a carbaholic...

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Yup, that. 'Zackly.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Alas, in honesty it's only half my ham; I don't buy fresh pork and salt it. (Let alone going - forgive me! - the whole hog, and raising a pig myself...)

I do buy whole or half gammons from the butcher, soak 'em overnight, cook 'em and glaze 'em myself. I used to do it once a year, for Xmas; I still do that, and everyone gets ham as a gift, only these days I do it at other times also, 'cos I do love ham.

I am a man who simmers, rather than roasts or bakes; I have huge stockpots and I'm willing to use them. 25 minutes per pound, plus 25 minutes, less a bit. More or less, give or take. Then I cut the rind off, leaving as much of the fat as possible, and glaze with a mixture of whatever, that usually includes dark sugar, redcurrant jelly or maybe Cumberland sauce, lots of dry mustard; slam it in a hot oven for twenty minutes, basting often as the glaze melts and runs off. Allow to cool, fight off cats, and there you go.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

I wonder if they used dough hooks or similar? Or rolling pins? Or maybe there were specially trained cats....