When I was a lad, we used to make thes out of an old chip shop oil drum, over a put, and covered with mud. Backed bean tins to make a chinmey at the back of the pit really made the fire roar ......
Rick
You mean someone tried to bake on the first firing???
Cor!
Yes, we intend having a clay lining which will frit on the first firing.
That shouldn't happen either, perhaps the baker wasn't experienced in bread-making?
Not just length, apparently, but position. We've got a fireclay elbow and a long straight length which will probably be utilised.
Thanks, Peter, you've confirmed what I suspected. I wonder what the stone was, I can't remember what's round Richmond.
Mary
The one the oven plate I've e-mailed you about was used until 1980 !
It doesn't surprise me. After all, the one we're building won't be able to be used until the C21st!
Mary
And what did you bake in it?
Mary
Not quite - they had this rather naive view that the level of shrapnel would fall if they added bread. It didn't.
I suspect it was wholly or partially due to the addition of beer (not to the bread). It did make really good pizza and chuppatis though.
B&**%y heavy that's for sure. My main job was to help carry the bits of old building to new construction. Most of the stuff around there is Limestone or Sandstone but these were more like granite in weight and hardness (sufficiently so that I remember them years later!!).
Mary, have you any experience of smoked fish? My wife maintains that un-dyed smoked haddock, as can be found in your local supermarket, or farmers market, needs to be cooked the same amount that a piece of raw cod does. She got this info from one of the day time cooking progs on TV. I was always under the impression that the smoking cooked it and all I have to do is warm it up, but she has come up with this hot smoked/cold smoked thing and I have no knowledge about it.
Just found this on the web.
" Method: Cut the haddock filets into large chunks keeping the skin on. Cover with milk in a pan and bring to a gentle simmer. Remove pan from heat and let it sit until haddock is cooked."
How do I tell it is cooked? The fish I buy flakes as I put it in a pan. However, the above method is what I think I should do with it, but there again wife disagrees :-)
Sorry to mention this in an otherwise very interesting thread.
I did think of going to one of the food news groups, but you look like you have the experience to answer this.
Thanks in advance
Dave
Oh yes, and smoking our own foods is another project - if we live that long!
She's right, sorry!
Hot smoking is done over a smoking fire, fairly close to the heat. The food IS cooked as well as acquiring a flavour. I'm not so keen on hot smoked fish, it can get hard.
Cold smoking is done over a cool smoky fire, the food is suspended quite a long way from the heat so that it just acquires the flavour of the smoke and some colour. To my palate that's the best kind of smoking, the food retains its own flavour as well as the smoke.
There's an abomination in a spray can by which colour and flavour are applied to the outside of the food, transforming it into something like a garden gate. I once bought some 'smoked' garlic at the Ludlow Food Festival. Only the outer skin was coloured, it had been sprayed - and irregularly at that. I was furious.
I've never understood why fish should be cooked in milk but if you like it fair enough, the milk can be used to make a sauce. I prefer to do it in just a little water, or steam the fish or wrap it in buttered foil and cook it in the oven while cooking something else. There must be lots of ways, we tend to stick to the ones we like and are confident with.
The flesh will become opaque. It only takes minutes and even if it's not cooked right through it won't do you any harm.
Well, try her method and try your own.
A fish with large flakes, such as haddock - and which has already been processed for skinning, filleting, smoking, is very delicate. It does tend to break easily, it's best to avoid handling it at all. But breaking isn't a real problem, as Spouse says, it saves him having to cut it.
Nothing like laziness carried out well!
No, I'll talk about food for ever.
Oh, you were apologising to everyone else >
Well, I'm old enough :-)
You can always mail me.
Mary
Then pop in the microwave and nuke it.
IMHO much better than poaching.
Well, you have to have a microwave but the word 'nuke' is quite telling, I believe. I wouldn't be at all keen on such a, to me, violent method of cooking anything.
Mary
That was what I thought, too, years ago. But then I tried a microwave, and found that it is absolutely superb at gently cooking delicate fish, without the risk of it drying out or breaking up.
Sheila
I'm lost for words.
Make the most of it!
AH! That could explain a lot :-)
Full of British grit!
Yup - I use it for most vegetables too - less washing up than steaming.
Since I haven't tried it I believe you :-)
Mary
Microwaves do actually cook some foods better than the "traditional" methods.
My favourites are fish and frozen peas. Both taste much better.
Often Sunday lunch, the full roast beaf, jam rolly polly, etc ... Never tried bread The chinmey heat was hot enough to do the veges on
Rick
We have quite a good smoke house in Fleetwood, just up the coast, so I will not venture down that route.
In the past I have put the fish into a shallow amount of water in a pan and brought the temperature up to boil and left the fish until it felt hot to touch. Cooking any more and you start to see the white protein come out of the flesh.
If as you say, it only takes a few minutes, I was on the right track with my pan of water.
Having seen the response to my question, I'm not sure if that would be a good idea. I noticed a preference for microwaves in cooking in other replies. I tend to agree with most, but the cooking of potatoes in one leaves them with a funny taste to my palette
Many thanks for your answer Mary, it is much appreciated.
Dave
It depends on your 'traditions'.
Frozen peas???
Never touch 'em. They ARE far better than they were in the 1950s (I've been subjected to them) but still don't compare with freshly picked garden peas.
Mary
Use it! We have nothing like that. I believe in supporting good local food producers so if we did have one I'd use it.
Yes.
Huh? What did I say?
I've only had 'baked' potatoes cooked in a microwave, a pale imitation of the real thing.
Mind you, I've never been able to reproduce, in a domestic oven, the wonderful baked potatoes cooked in fire embers. I'm hoping that the bread oven might come close.
But you don't think that mailing me would be a good idea?
Mary
You haven't put a cupful in the microwave! Don't add any water it ruins peas. A couple of minutes should do it.
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