The lase few weeks

[Vic.]

weather is a bit drab round here this morning but its supposed to heat up by the weekend. tomorrow I'm buying 10 racks of ribs and a couple of deboned pork shoulders . Got 2 sauces made to finish of the ribs, so i'll be busy out in the garden watching the temps and getting drunk on beer

[All Weather Griller]

Christened the clone with 8 rack of baby backs on the one shelf yesterday. Gonna get it ready for the paint job now. Nowt much else q related on I'm afraid.

[British BBQ Society]

have been hanging a large lump of beef for the last week, making another pit (hollow 9" blocks) tomorrow for some "pit beef" cooked over oak, should be great.............

[MrBlue]

we got a pork shoulder outta the freezer, thawing nicely today then giving the beast a rub up with some homemade rub, and may even try injecting with our new toy (thanks Adie ) all in preparation for the weekend smoke-a-thon - probably lob a few rib slabs on too - it's gonna be a meat fest!

[MrBlue]

what is "Pit Beef"

[Chris__M]

I was away for a month, and then for three weeks since then I have mostly been with my leg up due to an injury that thankfully only happened at the end of my break (and no, the injury is not a break!).

So that means I haven't actually had my smoker out for over 2 months - I'll be checking it for cobwebs, when I do.

I have noticed that this board has been getting very quiet at weekends, I'd presumed it was because you were all out cooking.

Not completely resting on my laurels, though. I've been spending my time indoors playing with breadmaking - I managed to bring some sourdough starter back from San Francisco, and I have been busy cloning and freezing it. My understanding is that it is difficult to maintain a true strain of sourdough in the UK, as it can get over-run with our own wild yeasts. I thought by keeping a good supply of frozen samples grown from the original, I can always revert if my starter looses its taste.

[Vic.]

dry powdered yeast is as far as my bread making skills go.

Did you try old bay seasoning when you were in the states Chris?...here a lot about it on sky food channels

[Vic.]

just getting ready to watch the spurs/madrid match now.....hope they teach those minnow munching spaniards a lesson

[Chris__M]

dry powdered yeast is as far as my bread making skills go.

I've made sourdough-type bread before from a starter I made myself - it is suprisingly easy, and the only difference in method is that it takes much longer to rise - this does mean that it is unsuitable for most bread machines. However, the San-Francisco sourdough is a fairly unique strain, with a distinctive taste, so I was quite pleased to get some to bring home.

I started off doing the whole thing by hand, but I have had some measure of success at using my bread machine to knead the dough, which is the messy bit.

I'm currently in the process of putting together some simple instructions for a friend's website, perhaps with a video. No idea when we will get around to that bit, but when we do, I'll put a link up for anyone who is interested.

Did you try old bay seasoning when you were in the states Chris?...here a lot about it on sky food channels

You can pick it up from a number of places in the UK. However, I prefer to mix and grind my spices as I use them.

[Vic.]

The only dough I make is for pizzas, do you think its worth the effort to make sourdough yeast for pizza?