hehe, I get the most satisfaction when I cook something that tastes gourmet and costs only pennies.Cal, your thrift is going to be your undoing!
My bad. Stopped doing it when I found out the osmosis can have it's effect.
Hold on there pardner! No teflon spray. No teflon at all.
Silicone spray that has dried before using the disks. I will take some pics and show you.
Start with a floor drain.
Add a piece of wood between the drain cover and and the bottom disk to keep the disk from bowing.
Insert bottom metal disk. This has been sprayed and allowed to dry.
Insert the sleeve. This allows for extraction.
Add your sawdust and starch mixture.
Add the top disk. This has also been sprayed and allowed to dry.
Insert the ram into the sleeve. The ram is just the right length for pressing after the mixture is added to the chamber.
Place into vice and press.
Remove the drain and use the ram to push out the puck.
Put them on a rack to dry.
Add a piece of wood between the drain cover and and the bottom disk to keep the disk from bowing.
Insert bottom metal disk. This has been sprayed and allowed to dry.
Insert the sleeve. This allows for extraction.
Add your sawdust and starch mixture.
Add the top disk. This has also been sprayed and allowed to dry.
Insert the ram into the sleeve. The ram is just the right length for pressing after the mixture is added to the chamber.
Place into vice and press.
Remove the drain and use the ram to push out the puck.
Put them on a rack to dry.
Attachments
Did you mean Manchego, a Spanish cheese,often served with olive oil and a sprinkling of salt.
When we lived in Guadix behind the Snowy mountains in Andaluz the town had a food fair, a couple of years before we left Spain for France, you bought a book of tickets to sample the different offerings. What a shame that the restaurants did'nt serve any of the dishes we tried, nowadays everything comes with chips. On the other side of the dry river there was a goats cheese set of stalls, all selling cheeses made from the Murciano-Granadino black goats.
I think there were six stalls and the first five were the normal kind of goat cheese, nice but a bit bland, the the sixth was something else. It was a father and son operation who looked very hippy like and very spaced out like they had had a couple of bongs before setting up.
The cheeses were completely different from all he others,they were round and top and bottom were flat and they had been covered in rosemary needles. I handed over my tickets and the father cut two portions. The colour was a lovely yellow/orange and was served with some bread. The taste was a wonderful explosion, strong and completely different from any goats cheese we had ever tasted, it came with a glass of a good full bodied red wine. As I ate it I could imagine grating it over so many dishes, you would only need a little as with a Roquefort, even though I had a mouthful of bread and cheese I indicated that I wanted two of them, I had to be quick because they were disappearing before my eyes. They had also made an incredible creme fraise with garlic and parsley. I had raced home to tell my friend Paco who had a car paint and repair shop next to our apartment block to get down there fast. He was lucky and he came back with the same as us, by 10.30 in the morning they had sold out their entire stock that was supposed to last for the three day fair.
The next year when the fair was on we were in France checking out where we wanted to live so Paco bought for us. There's a saying 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' . All they had to do the second year was make the same but a lot more of it. I can't describe what they had done but enough to say that the cheeses we took to France when we moved were full of maggots and the sad excuse they had made for creme fraise was 'yuk'.
These idiots had a world class product they could have exported to London,Paris indeed to any foodie capital in Europe and they could have charged what they wanted.
When or if the virus has been defeated (fingers x/ed) we want to pay a visit back to Guadix to see our friends and hunt down the location of these cheese makers,it's somewhere near Jaen, maybe they have banged their heads against a wall and let a little daylight in. I love a good cheese and this was something special - vamos a ver.
Bob, you are such a mountainman.
Since I traded in my saddle and chaps for sandals and a Hawaiian shirt, I now play the city slicker. I live in a townhouse complex and that means respect to others. This Bradley smoker is ideal for that but I didn't realize how ticked off I was going to be about these bisquettes. It is not a good thing for a fellow with low level patience so I am looking at other ways. If you are not familiar with the Bradley system, I will post some pics and maybe you and I can put our heads together. The thing is Bob, I can't make these things on rainy days or they will fall apart as I go from the shop to my place, so I am wasting good weather days making them.
I remember well the days of the larger smoker when I was in my house but now I have to work within the confines. Maybe that mountain sized brain of yours can be put to use for this.
In the meantime I am somewhat distracted as every time I turn around someone else close decides to head to the other side without giving us warning.
But I digress.
Since I traded in my saddle and chaps for sandals and a Hawaiian shirt, I now play the city slicker. I live in a townhouse complex and that means respect to others. This Bradley smoker is ideal for that but I didn't realize how ticked off I was going to be about these bisquettes. It is not a good thing for a fellow with low level patience so I am looking at other ways. If you are not familiar with the Bradley system, I will post some pics and maybe you and I can put our heads together. The thing is Bob, I can't make these things on rainy days or they will fall apart as I go from the shop to my place, so I am wasting good weather days making them.
I remember well the days of the larger smoker when I was in my house but now I have to work within the confines. Maybe that mountain sized brain of yours can be put to use for this.
In the meantime I am somewhat distracted as every time I turn around someone else close decides to head to the other side without giving us warning.
But I digress.
Ahhhh.....there is something nice about being an hour away from the nearest Walmart!
What if you cooked down the same species of sawdust into a pasty goo and then mixed it with the puck material.....doing away with the starch?
Just spitballing........I’ve never cooked down sawdust before don’t know if it’s even possible in a small batch like that.
Edit.....Or better yet maybe cook down some clean paper into goo to bind the wood chips?
What if you cooked down the same species of sawdust into a pasty goo and then mixed it with the puck material.....doing away with the starch?
Just spitballing........I’ve never cooked down sawdust before don’t know if it’s even possible in a small batch like that.
Edit.....Or better yet maybe cook down some clean paper into goo to bind the wood chips?
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Cal, around here someplace I have some 3/4" thick solid Teflon sheet, drops from a project at work. I think they are big enough to get a couple of circles big enough to use as rams for your project, no spraying/drying needed.
If you would like to try that (they might add up to too much thickness for your fixture) I could send some your way. It's not hard to cut, you might be able to make a single circle and bandsaw it into two thinner circles.
If you would like to try that (they might add up to too much thickness for your fixture) I could send some your way. It's not hard to cut, you might be able to make a single circle and bandsaw it into two thinner circles.
Thanks very much for that offer JR. You are right though, they would be too thick if even if cut in half. It's not the depth inside the sleeve that's the problem, it's the distance the vice jaws open. As it sits there is about 1/4" clearance after I have added the sawdust mixture. And that's after i push the ram down a bit by hand.
I was actually hoping to use multiple disks inside the sleeve to make more than one biscuit at a time but that's a no go.
I was actually hoping to use multiple disks inside the sleeve to make more than one biscuit at a time but that's a no go.
Yes, Manchego from Spain.
I picked up a plastic cutting board and used a hole-saw to cut circular sections for my cheese press.
Something like that might work as well.
I have been thinking about getting a Green mountain smoker. One of the guys who comes to Happy Acres brings one to do the pork butts, ribs, etc and it is quite a nice unit. It uses pellets instead of pucks.
I picked up a plastic cutting board and used a hole-saw to cut circular sections for my cheese press.
Something like that might work as well.
I have been thinking about getting a Green mountain smoker. One of the guys who comes to Happy Acres brings one to do the pork butts, ribs, etc and it is quite a nice unit. It uses pellets instead of pucks.
Cal I still think you need to find a way to apply heat as well as pressure. I have no idea how you can do that without specialized equipment. Maybe request a tour of the Bradley facilities?
I also am resistant to get locked in to a proprietary format, even pellets make me uncomfortable. I like lumps of charcoal and/or chunks if wood. I wish I had a better supply of the latter.
Meanwhile I have a small piece of beef brisket (about 1.2Kg) that I want to smoke, but I can't decide exactly what I am trying to make. I intend to brine it, perhaps in 2 stages (wet and dry) like a Montreal smoked meat. I am making the brine now. Some folks say that adding flavours like onions, herbs, etc to a brine accomplishes nothing, but OTOH people have been marinating meat to add flavour forever. So I am simmering some onion, leek, carrot, celery, thyme, rosemary, bay leaf, cloves, garlic, and peppercorns in about a liter of water, probably for a couple of hours. Then I will add salt and sugar, strain and chill over night. I moved the meat from the freezer to the fridge, and sometime tomorrow will start to brine the meat.
My vague plan is to dry off the meat after a few days, and cover it with a rub of salt, pepper, sugar, coriander seeds, and leave that wrapped up in the fridge for a few days, then smoke it. Willbprovide pics when appropriate.
I also am resistant to get locked in to a proprietary format, even pellets make me uncomfortable. I like lumps of charcoal and/or chunks if wood. I wish I had a better supply of the latter.
Meanwhile I have a small piece of beef brisket (about 1.2Kg) that I want to smoke, but I can't decide exactly what I am trying to make. I intend to brine it, perhaps in 2 stages (wet and dry) like a Montreal smoked meat. I am making the brine now. Some folks say that adding flavours like onions, herbs, etc to a brine accomplishes nothing, but OTOH people have been marinating meat to add flavour forever. So I am simmering some onion, leek, carrot, celery, thyme, rosemary, bay leaf, cloves, garlic, and peppercorns in about a liter of water, probably for a couple of hours. Then I will add salt and sugar, strain and chill over night. I moved the meat from the freezer to the fridge, and sometime tomorrow will start to brine the meat.
My vague plan is to dry off the meat after a few days, and cover it with a rub of salt, pepper, sugar, coriander seeds, and leave that wrapped up in the fridge for a few days, then smoke it. Willbprovide pics when appropriate.
Again, It has to be as thin as 16ga. metal or it won't fit in the vice.
AFAIK, Bradley is the only one that uses pucks. It's a local company so I wanted to support them.
I am not sure how to do that either.
Your brisket idea sounds good. My next batch will be the speedy method of brining it in the immersion cooker for about 12 hours and then cold smoking for another 12 or so.
Worked well with the chicken legs. I served them cold with a cutting board and a paring knife to do the whittling.
That's not a quaker, but a puritan.
I had the rest of my shepheards pie today, but it didn't please me at all. Too bland and too "compact".
...many things.
I think I will cut some more disks and shorten the ram to allow for multiple pucks, then deal with the fact I can no longer use the ram to eject the pucks from the sleeve. This seems easy enough. Now it's a matter of how many pucks and still get the pressure needed. It's either two, or if I am lucky, three. That would be nice. The vice is not big.
Other than that, it needs a redesign. A dozen pucks at a time is doable but I'm not sure other than a pipe clamp and very smooth cylinder how to do it at this point. Especially the pressure release part to rid you of excess glue as you clamp. Besides a pipe clamp can't really offer the pressure needed.
On the way!
I bought a pack of "lövbiff" ("leafed beef" = thinly sliced beef) yesterday. I will slice some of it and make a "pseudo-Chinese" dish with onion, mushrooms, soy sauce and noodles. Ought to get me a small bottle of wine maybe.
The rest of the beef will end in the fridge. A perfect dish is to make the beef into rolls filled with prunes or whatever", fry them and serve with a rich gravy made of heavy (40%) cream
.