food

An Egg-cellent Drying Rack?

~ joelshaw@sbcglobal.net ~ Leave a comment

There is quite the online debate about washing fresh eggs versus leaving them unwashed. I sometimes find “nastiness” (most polite term I can think of) on eggs when I retrieve them from the nest box. I feel the “nastiness” should be rinsed off, but there is also something called a “bloom” protecting the eggs. Some feel the bloom should be retained at the expense of the “nastiness”. I personally don’t want the blooming “nastiness” in the fridge, so I rinse the eggs.

Debate aside, I needed a way to dry the eggs after rinsing and before storage. I searched the intergoogles and found all sorts of egg stands, but I couldn’t find one that exactly met my needs:

  • Open to allow the surface of the eggs to dry
  • Minimal points of contact to allow water to drip off of the eggs
  • Something to catch the water so it doesn’t make a mess

 

I finally settle on the design shown to the left that uses about $1.50 worth of materials. It is simply a couple 2×4’s with some holes and a few dowels glued through them. It comfortably holds 4 eggs, uncomfortably holds 5, and can accommodate 6 in a bind. The width is matched to a paper towel which is used to catch the drips and can be disposed of after several uses. It has also been stained and painted with polyurethane for sanitary purposes.

In retrospect, I wish I had made the stand a few inches wider and fitted to some sort of drip tray. I might save up another $1.50 to make a better one if I get more chickens or time.

Pizza! Propane! Pepperoni! and Science?

~ joelshaw@sbcglobal.net ~ Leave a comment

During my time on this planet, I have picked up a number of things:

  • The Earth is probably not flat
  • It is likely that man once landed on the moon
  • 2+2 is mostly 4
  • Pizza is the best foodKIMG Renamed (81)

While the first few items are debatable, the 4th item is a well established scientific fact.

 

 

I typically prefer the simplicity of getting pizza from a local purveyor, but I also like to tinker with making it at home. Knowing that that dedicated pizza ovens at restaurants go to 700+ degrees Fahrenheit , I’ve toyed with the idea of modifying the controls of my kitchen oven to get to those levels. While I have used a thermocouple to measure the oven temperature during a cleaning cycle at well over 900 degrees F, the insurance companies and sensibility frown at such behavior. I decided to take it outside.

I once got distracted while my propane grill was heating up, and I left it on high for a bit too long. When I got back, I noticed a burning smell and that the temperature gauge was maxed out. This made me curious about two things:

  • How hot did it get
  • How hot could it get

I couldn’t figure out the former, but I could definitely figure out the latter. I made an enclosure with some bricks and got it to about 1050 F. It took a small optimized (open on the bottom) enclosure to get to that temperature, but I figured a pizza sized enclosure could get to an ambient temperature of at least 700 F.

I initially attempted using a piece of granite (a drop from a countertop manufacturer) set on bricks as the top of the oven and another rectangular granite drop as the cooking surface. I really thought that the granite would crack and all would be for naught. It  did not crack, but as a cooking surface it acted too much as an insulator. The heat went around it rather than heating the cooking surface.

For my next attempt I bought a round pizza stone from Wal-Mart for about 8 bucks, cut it to fit with an abrasive masonry blade, and tried it out.  I don’t know if it was the round geometry letting more heat by or if it was the thermal conductivity of the pizza stone, but it worked great.KIMG0117

 

Shown above is the last iteration. It has bricks supporting the granite drop for the top of the oven and the pizza stone as the cooking surface. It maintains about 750 – 850 F and will evenly cook a pizzas in about 4-5 minutes after heating up for about 20 minutes.

I still want to make a wood-fired pizza oven sometime in the future, but I don’t know when that will happen. The design is still being over thought and over engineered.

Let’s Mix Things Up

~ joelshaw@sbcglobal.net ~ Leave a comment

KIMG0063For some reason, I have been fascinated with KitchenAid mixers since I was a little kid. I think it is because my parents had a large Hobart mixer at their restaurant, and I thought the smaller home edition was novel. Or more likely, they have gears, mechanical attachments, and a motor… three of the things that are dearest to my heart.

I bought one a while ago from Craigslist, and it leaked oil the first time we tried to use it. After getting over the initial horror of oil dripping into the dip we were concocting, I read up and found out this problem is fairly common. KIMG0064The grease they used breaks down over time and becomes a combination of a cakey substance and a fairly thin oil which drips from the case. I disassembled it, replaced the grease with Food Grade Machinery Grease, and all was good. This was about a year ago, and there has not been another drop of oil.

Tonight I was at a good friend’s house, and she mentioned she was having the same problem. She was even thinking about getting a new KitchenAid. I brought it home, did the same procedure, and it is now as good as new. I am posting this as a public service announcement. Don’t throw out your KitchenAid mixer if it drips oil! It is a fairly simple fix.KIMG0065

I included some pictures of the inside in case you’re curious. I know that I was. I didn’t include a picture, but it also has an interesting electromechanical governor system that adjusts the power delivered to the motor to maintain the selected speed under varying load conditions.

A couple more things:

  • Yes, the pictured mixer is purple.
  • No, it is not mine. Mine is much more masculine.