MD/DC/VA Golfers - Twelve Monkeys Mental Divergence

[dcmidnight]

JFC

https://twitter.com/Acosta/status/1238197952407113728]

[tungstenplug]

.

Edited February 26, 2023 by tungstenplug

[gsrjc]

No school. 3/16-3/27

[aiyyer]

Hope MCG Golf keeps the courses open.

[dcmidnight]

Picked up the short ribs from the butcher last night and dropped them in the cooker - 48 hour cook, will be done Saturday afternoon and its already making me hungry. He also had freshly made crabcakes which were delicious, very little filler in them. Cooked them in the skillet with just a little butter to really crisp up the top and bottom. So good. Paired with a St Archer Gold light - wife bought them and it actually wasnt bad. Wouldnt have been my first choice since I'd never heard of it but not bad.

hashtag FridayFoodWRX

[ALTSean]

Do you have a butcher you like? I think we're in the same general area of NOVA.

 

#butcherWRX

 

[dcmidnight]

Springfield Butcher - only place I go. Actually started going there when I lived in Arlington so maybe going on 20 years. Old school place. Couple big cases of meat, one small seafood one. In the fridges you can get some other random stuff, a lot of venison, duck, rabbit, local eggs and produce - that kind of thing. Its a little pricier than going to Giant or Safeway but IMO its very worth it. If you get on their mailing list they are almost always sending out Groupons.

[TheCityGame]

There's a "minor" debate among Baltimoreans whether to fry or broil crab cakes.

My technique : both. I get oil going in a frying pan nice and hot, plop them in for a few minutes and then slide that bad boy under the broiler. The advantage is that you don't need to flip them, and I make them pretty loose so they can actually be tough to flip. I've also done them on my griddle.

Short ribs are a fave. Lots of things to do with them, but I love them all juicy with buttery mashed potatoes and green beans.

I put together a loaf of sourdough last night, let it proof overnight, loafed it up, and put it in the fridge this morning for second rise. Will eat for supper with meat and cheese and jam. I've gone through a couple of sourdough phases before and given up, but this time it seems to be sticking. I've kept the starter going for a couple of months now, got a good book on it, been working on a few different techniques, improved my equipment a little.

 

 

[dcmidnight]

Hmm, never thought of broiling them, sounds really good though I will definitely try that. It is definitely a challenge to flip them bc when you get the first side blackened up, the body of the cake itself is still pretty mushy.

[ALTSean]

I'll have to check them out. Thanks!

[Kent01putt]

Fry or Boil is always the way to go. There is no debate I have ever heard of. But this why you never get crabs or crab cakes out of the Maryland area.

 

[SullGolf]

City what do you have going on the sourdough front. I've been in a phase recently. I tried twice making my own starter and failed. Finally just bought a King Arthur starter and have had it working a few weeks. Had some mixed success on actual loafs. First one was good, last one not so much.

[dcmidnight]

And there it is.

No Masters.

Wah wahhh.

[tungstenplug]

 

[GooseHook]

Re: crab cakes, I'm 100% in the broil camp. Party due to the contrast in textures that result but also because I prefer to make them with minimal filler. If you try to take an 8-ouncer filled with mostly lump and fry it, it might fall apart.

I've got two prime ribeyes in the freezer, I'm thinking those need to take an Anova bath this evening.

[TheCityGame]

Thanks for asking. I didn't realize how much of this process I've internalized. . .Starter (the "levain" if ur fancy). . .

My starter has been going for a while. If I keep it on the counter, I feed it every day. If I put it in the fridge, every 3/4 days. I knew I was making bread yesterday, so I took it out tuesday and fed it tuesday and wednesday. I'm not anal about feeding it. I take a bunch out, add a heaping 1/4 cup of AP flour and a level 1/4 cup of water. If it's too soggy, more flour. if it's too dry, more water. (side note : I saw a guy on youTube pan fry his discarded starter with chives and spices. I've tried this. It's good, but it's hard to cook through. You're basically eating raw starter, but it's good. I made some with bacon, chives and dipped it in sour cream for a get together. it went fast.)

I got good starter info at The Clever Carrot. And a good basic recipe. Bread Mixing :

If you're going to test and repeat, it's absolutely essential to use "weights" not dry measures and you go by "percentages". So 1000g of flour, mix with 780g of water. (this is "78% hydration". the water here is a variable that you can alter while keeping flour the same.). the breadmakers today tell you to mix these two together and let them sit for 30 minutes before adding salt and starter (the autolyse phase. I don't really know if it makes a different. It's a variable to test). now, 22g salt, and starter. Mix together by hand.

Side note : the amount of starter here is something I don't pay much attention to (and it will probably bite me someday). Most recipes keep closer track of the flour/water ratio in the starter and then the amount of starter in the recipe. I don't -- I'm not a commercial bakery. I actually will alter my hydration percentage to account for whether my starter is wetter or pastier. I usually go with 76% hydration with a wet starter. This dough will be way wetter than seems right.

Side note : I use 500g of flour and corresponding amount of water, so 390g for 78% hydration. 11g NaCl. I'll actually do like 425g of bread flour, 75g of whole wheat. For pizza dough, I used 1000g of 00 flour. Next time I'm going to mix 00 and bread flour in different proportions. I used 100g of whole wheat and Spelt for one loaf. Again, these are "test" variables. Bread rising :

A) first rise in glass bowl at room temp overnight, then put in banneton in morning. Second rise in fridge until an hour out from baking in the evening.

B) first rise in glass bowl fridge overnight, then put in banneton in morning. Second rise at room temp.

In both cases, during first rise, I "fold" the loaf a few times. Just stretch and then fold over, once in each cardinal direction. This "builds structure" so your dough stays "tighter". If your house is warm, the room temp rise can be shorter. My kitchen is pretty cool. If you need a faster rise, in the oven with the oven light on accelerates it. Bread cooking :

THEY tell you to go way higher and way darker than you think you should. I agree with this.

I pre-heat a dutch oven (I have a la crueset I got for my wedding) at 475 for 30 minutes. Plop the loaf in, slice top, cover pot, and cook for 25. Turn over down to 400, uncover, cook for 25-ish minutes. Let cool on a rack or tilted against a wall for an hour.

That's it. Tonight, I'm going to cook at a higher temp in both stages as a "test". Mine hasn't gotten dark enough.

 

this is a banneton. . .it keeps your dough contained while it rises. Flour the heck out of it. I usually put the dough right on the wicker. This loaf, I'm putting it on the "linen" that comes with it.

it makes your bread look like this. . .After I dumped dough in dutch oven I sliced the top.

I've watched a lot of youTube videos and I have the book by Ken Forkish "Flour Water Salt Yeast". Forkish has a lot of youtube videos and you'll get recommendations along the side.

The book is OK. I think the recipes are a bit hard to follow (schedule wise and process wise), but the sections where he writes up his general process and talks about the learning process are good. It presents a good "framework" for learning how to make the bread and what's going on with it all. He has a section on how "time and temperature" are ingredients.

 

[aiyyer]

 

Postponed for now.

[dsc123]

I've started building a sourdough starter for pizza. I got some italian strain that's supposed to be good for pizza. There's so much information out there on how to make and maintain a starter, and its all different. I've been as confused as hell. How to store it? How to feed it? When to feed it? When is it ready? Its all so dependent on time, temperature, vitality, etc., But I've got my first dough balls with my sourdough culture fermenting now. We'll see how it goes tonight.

 

I've been on a pizza making kick for a while. Your typical NY transplant, I'm disgusted by the lack of decent pizza so after I perfected steak last year I began a quest to perfect my own pizza. I started trying to make NY style and eventually got it to come out really good. But the size limit of the home oven really kills it for me. It throws off the crust to ... other part ... ratio. Just not the same.

So I've moved onto neopolitan. The problem is that it has to cook super hot. Like 900F hot. So I got a thing for my weber charcoal grill so I could make wood fires to cook it. I had to do a bunch of mods to make it work well. It was pretty cool, but really inconsistent and kind of a pain.

So last month I got one of these ovens that can use propane or wood. In just the last few years, decent pizza ovens have come down from the $2000 price point to like $300. https://ooni.com/products/ooni-karu I've used it twice so far and its pretty awesome.

 

 

 

 

[eagle1997]

about to go to the liquor store and stock up. if i don't make it back alive, it's been nice knowing you guys.

[TheCityGame]

"THEY SAY" that your starter eventually will be composed of the wild yeast in your environs, not matter what you start it with. I don't know how true that is.

I've been making pizza for a long time.

Like any bread, there are so many variables.

E.g. . .I tried to make some with my starter. 100% 00 flour. It was too chewy and did't crust up enough on the bottom. So, the "too chewy". . .could be that I did the second rise in the fridge and took it out too close to bake time. Could be that I used 100% 00. Could be that I stretched it and tightened it too much.

Didn't crust up enough. . .could be the flour, could be the hydration level, could be the temperature of the oven.

Change one variable and everything else could change.

I've had good luck over the years with my oven at 500, pizza stone near bottom, and a pretty normal quick-rise recipe. I can get the crust crusty, melt the cheese, cook the ingredients enough. But, I'm working with this new starter for a while. I'll dial it in. I think lower hydration would have helped with chewiness and crustiness, and a longer room temp rise. It's a science, but it's also experience, and art and feel.

I've done pizza on my gas grill and my Kamado grill (now gone). If I get the grill to 650º, there is no way to melt all the cheese and cook the ingredients without burning the crust. A commercial wood oven might be 600º, but it's an ambient heat and is different than just jacking up the coals 8 inches beneath the stone.

 

[GooseHook]

My boss' boss flew last night from Bermuda->JFK-> BWI, and came in to the office because he just thinks it's all good. My boss called COVID a boogeyman . I really hope we're living in a simulation because these people are making my brain explode. My alcohol consumption in recent times has not been healthy.

 

Annd just got an invite for a conference call. I think we're shutting down backoffice reporting for a month. Gotta make a box wine and bourbon run this afternoon.

[eagle1997]

my local was surprisingly easy to get in and out of. who knows how long that will last.

washed hands 6x today already.

 

[Gmen1204]

My wife flies back from Atlanta late tonight then is leaving tomorrow night for San Diego.I personally think all of this is blown way out of proportion.But on a lighter note I was suppose to be at a FOP Bull and Oyster roast next Saturday but that has been cancelled so might be able to play in tourney now.If spots are available.

[dcmidnight]

Full Draftkings refund from the Players. Withdrawing everything - no sports to play on.

Full Bovada refund. Cashout - no sports to bet on.

Refund from Airbnb and car rental for The Masters

 

Legit cannot wait to barge into 2nd Swing tomorrow.

[thechief16]

All VA schools closed for minimum 2 weeks

[Sterling_247]

It's sad that you knew that before me when I'm neck deep in this stuff for FCPS.

Update: FCPS will be closed through spring break (4/12). It'll be sent out to the community this afternoon.

[thechief16]

Yeah. Came from the Gov., so don't blame your chain of command. Also, I'm a news/twitter junkie.

[GooseHook]

I don't think it's blown out of proportion, this is highly virulent and everyone is susceptible to it (novel). The measures taken at this point, if they work to contain spread, would look like an overreaction in retrospect. If we don't do enough right now, the spread could hit the healthcare system way too hard. Everyone's focusing on mortality rates but there is a MUCH higher hospitalization rate that our hospitals can't handle at that kind of scale.

[eagle1997]

100% agree. Having it appear as a complete overreaction would be a ginormous success. Hoping for that.

We'll also be able to see what happens when a country does not take immediate action in comparison (GB&I).

[thechief16]

Lolz. Zac Blair just announced on IG that the new plan is for the Buck Club to be a 36 hole facility -- 18 pubic, 18 private. He hasn't even found a way to get started on the first 18, and it's been, what , 2 years?

What a joke.

 

But I still love the logos and concepts and will still buy everything TBC branded I can get my hands on. 8 hats and counting....