The General Chat Thread

Faith wrote: »

Went to view a rental property today. Very small bedrooms, probably couldn't fit a king bed in the master bedroom. But the kitchen is HUGE, with brand new, top-of-the-line appliances and so much storage space. Cooking is more important than sleeping, right?

Yes! Well, I'm not sure I could handle not having a king, but I'd take a small bedroom if I could have a decent kitchen. Ours is a grand size but whoever designed it obviously didn't realise that you need counter space and storage. I'm becoming increasingly frustrated with it. I frequently sit on the floor of the kitchen sulking because I've run out of room on the counters. Go for the huge, lovely kitchen!

Hi everyone!

Long time no post..

Reading this this morning and knew a few people who would like it - check out the picture of the kitchen too

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/21/dining/julia-child-provence-kitchen-la-pitchoune.html?contentCollection=weekendreads&_r=0

I asked about a BBQ rib recipe the other day, here, and the Mods moved it to BBQ and Grilling, but this question is definitely suited to here.
After all, I DIDN'T barbecue the ribs; I did them in the oven.
Anyway, I need your help.

I did the ribs yesterday (this Hairy Bikers recipe: http://goodfood.uktv.co.uk/recipe/slow-cooked-bbq-ribs/)

I know the recipe was for 2kg of ribs. Mine were just 1kg, so I halved all the ingredients and cooked them in the oven at 160c fan for 3 hours with the dry rub, and then 1 hour with the BBQ sauce on top.

Thing is, the ribs were crispy and tasted overdone. They weren't a bit juicy and were a bit dry.
The only saving grace was the sauce which was lovely.
My friend and I both agreed that the sauce had turned out perfectly, but where did I go wrong?

I know some people might say I should have cooked them longer BUT I really don't see how they would have become juicy; the meat was cooked and fell apart from the bones but the meat itself was dry and crispy.

Should I have halved the cooking time just as I halved the ingredients?
I am doing the ribs again next week and I'd really like them to be juicy.
Can someone advise me?

the beer revolu wrote: »

Sounds like you cooked at too high a temp. Were they covered for the first part? (should be imo)

Edit 160 sounds OK if covered

No I only covered them for the hour that they had sauce on; so, the last hour.

I think the temperature was too high. I'd have gone for 140 in my fan oven.

No real difference between an oven and BBQ'ing with indirect heat. I probably would have done them at a slightly lower temp, and also covered. For Rib meat should give easily, but it should not be sliding off the bone either.

Malari wrote: »

Anyone got a recipe for Danish pastry, or possibly cinnamon swirl? Judging by GBBO, Danish pastries can be any sort of twirls, lattices, pinwheels, etc, but what I call a Danish (swirl with sultanas in the layers and topped with white icing but not full of cinnamon) seems to be called cinnamon swirls in a lot of recipes! Halp! :pac:

Hey, from trying to make nice danishes myself, I think a Danish pastry is probably quite similar to a puff pastry, while most cinnamon swirl recipes use something akin to a brioche pastry. I have used this easy cinnamon roll recipe from Minimalist Baker at http://minimalistbaker.com/the-worlds-easiest-cinnamon-rolls/ and you could sub in dairy for non-dairy if you are not a vegan, with the exception of the milk, which you might need to scald- maybe someone else could provide you with some more guidance on that!

Malari wrote: »

Thanks, I actually hit upon that recipe when I was searching and dismissed it because of the vegan ingredient references Would you use strong flour here rather than all-purpose, which I think is self-raising?

I'm definitely thinking more of the puff pastry style danishes, but this would be a good start for now.

All purpose flour isn't self raising flour, it would just be labelled as plain flour in the shop usually. I would think that you could choose the flour based on what texture you would like. If you would like light, fluffy cake-y texture go for all purpose. If you would like a firmer, bready texture, go for strong flour. I made mine with all purpose. A note on the above recipe, my dough didnt rise so well, and I think I would activate the yeast in the milk & sugar mixture only for 10 mins, and then add the butter and salt in once the yeast was activated. Even though it didnt rise, the flavour was good, but the rolls were a bit dense!