No, but when a recipe says to boil water, I get 2 tanks of hydrogen and one tank of oxygen and.... I have a friend who owns his own greenhouse here. He's a homegrown boy who incubates eggs, hatching different breeds of chickens, quails, etc. just for fun. There are always critters of one type or another around his place (including the recent addition of Icelandic chickens.) He was at some auction with his wife & daughter (junior in college) a few weeks ago and his kid bought a pair of ducks that they now keep at the shop. I hang out there sometimes (think Sam Drucker's place) and started discussing my discovery of duck fat, and I looked around first to make certain that the two new additions were not within earshot. You gotta mind your manners.
It's been a while since I've made pasta. A friend (Susan) burned up a good part of her day driving me to Richmond and back for my procedures on Wednesday, and sat for a few hours in the parking lot while I was being worked on. Of course, she refused gas money (as would have I), so I'm gonna pay her with food. She's active in the community and sometimes has a number of mouths to feed, depending on what day of the week it is and which grand kids she's got. Tomorrow I'm making her Italian bread and marinara sauce with meatballs. Tonight I made linguine noodles. This is the recipe that uses egg yolks as the only liquid. Here's what 15 egg yolks + flour gets you: I will say that making noodles is way easier than making ravioli. I got a chance to dry pasta in my food dehydrator for the first time. At first I tried separating each noodle to leave space around it, and figured I would still be working come sunrise. So I lay them out as best I could with some overlap when they came off the machine, dehydrated them for an hour to take out some of the liquid and for the shape to set, then pulled them apart where a few were stuck and arranged them so most of the surface was exposed. Then I put them back in for another hour and a half. It worked out pretty good, but they need longer to be as dry as store-bought. Next time I'll spread them out over more trays...I only used 4 of the 9 that I have. Using more probably would have made it easier. Sometimes I'm not real smart. Here's the biga (starter) that will be ready by tomorrow morning to make that bread: The bread takes about 5 hours to make, going through an initial rest and then (4) one hour rises with some manipulation after each rise. It's well worth it. In between I'll make the meatballs and the sauce. Needless to say, I would be remiss if I didn't test this for dinner tomorrow before taking it to Susan.
My early childhood memories of making fresh pasta and raviolis was my mother in my aunt's apartment which was next door, a large empty table in the middle of the kitchen with an enormous hill of flour with a crater on top. It resembled a volcano. They would put a lot of eggs in the crater a little water sometimes, then knead till the correct consistency. This dough was used to make a noodle that resembles Fettuccine, Cavatelli and ravioli . I remember them rolling it out into a rope shape, then cutting the Rope into pieces, which would be rolled using your finger into Cavatelli. They would roll the dough into a irregular sheets, add the ravioli filling at spaced intervals, cover with another sheet, these would be cut out with the open end of a glass or jar, the edges would be sealed maybe with water. They had a string across the room to hang the noodles (fettuccine). That was my memory of the old fashioned way to make raviolis and pasta. When I got married over the years me and my wife purchase the rolling machine flatten the dough into whatever thickness you want, ravioli fixture that made 12 at a the time, and a and a macaroni machine that makes the dough, and and pushed it through whatever die you want for the different type of pastas. It's been awhile since we made fresh pasta I used to make it every Sunday with the pasta machine using egg and the dough, not water. I found using egg made the better Al Dente pasta. I hope someday I'll be able to show my young grandchildren how to make fresh pasta.
Great memories. I worked for an Italian guy (Bocchino) who also had lots of stories of his mother's cooking. The closest related memory I have is my English mother making egg noodles on the kitchen table. I don't ever recall her buying a package of dried egg noodles, although she never made pasta. I guess Yorkshire Pudding and Trifle stories are off-topic As you know, pasta recipes are all over the place, especially the ratios of the different types of flours. I gathered a bunch of different info when I first started making it. I've pretty much stuck with a few that have been put forth by an Italian guy on You tube. For the noodle pasta, he uses about 15 egg yolks and around 2 1/2 cups of 00 flour (he measures by weight, and I follow that practice.) For ravioli dough it's the same amount of 00 flour, 4-5 yolks and the whites of 3-4 eggs...apparently egg white gives ravioli dough elasticity to mold around the fillings without tearing. Each of those recipes has a couple of tsp of olive oil and a little salt. I like that rich "all egg yolk" pasta for use with seafood, but I'll use a generic recipe with some AP flour and whole eggs for serving with a marinara sauce. To me, an egg yolk pasta is richer than "regular" pasta, which is not necessary with a good tomato sauce...but it really makes a big difference in a scampi or a Tuna & Canellini pasta salad. I once tried making cavatelli and orecchiette with semolina, AP flour and water (and a grooved board), but that takes practice. They did not turn out well and were too thick to dry properly. The guy in that video does everything by weight (I've followed that guidance), which led me to discover that all egg yolks--regardless of the size of the egg-- are within a gram or so of each other. I verified this on a Backyardchickens.com posting where someone else noticed the same thing. The additional volume of large eggs is 100% from the white. I'm not sure if you've noticed this in all your years of chicken experience. Perhaps yolk size is breed-dependent. On a related note, you might also enjoy a thread that Ken started titled The Incredible, Edible Egg - Egg Facts & Trivia
I wish I had paid more attention to the actual details what kind of flour, egg ratio, salt, if they use the oil etc.. The one thing we often talked about is I wish I had my grandmother's tomato sauce recipe.Her sauce was very lite,but so flavorful. Had to be made using fresh tomatoes or preserved tomatoes. As far as chicken eggs go I never got that technical I just ate them. We got a lot so we gave a lot away. I had them for about 3 years. It's a long story but the quick version is I lost all but six of my chickens to a dog pack which we call the Wolfpack which lived in the woods behind me they broke through my fence and killed my chickens. Not only did I get eggs from my chickens but they were beautiful to look at. I enjoyed my flock.
My mother would never cut loose with specifics of her Yorkshire Pudding recipe, but in all fairness I believe the ratios are consistent but the volumes are dependent on the variables (like the size of the eggs.) She would sorta explain it all by feel. Part of it was truly "You can't quantify it." The other part was personality. A friend here owns a greenhouse where the folks buy veggie plants, landscape plants, hanging plants, soil, mulch and all that kinda stuff. (He also trades in gold on the side.) When you go inside, you sometimes gotta push chickens and ducks out of the way. Right now he has just-hatched ducks, button quail, parakeets and Icelandic chickens. His main predators are fox and the hawk that sits on the power line across the street waiting for an opportune moment. The eggs he sells are from locals who bring their eggs in to the shop for him to sell. It's interesting because both he and his wife lack, uh, "organization skills." He's got stuff that will never sell because customers plain can't get to it. I've read nasty Facebook reviews because apparently some people do not understand that "duck crap on the floor" = "country atmosphere." Some of us lament the unrealized potential, but it's too easy to be an expert in someone else's life, huh?
I can see both sides of the situation, if a customer doesn't like to set up don't shop there or ask the owner tell him what you want see if you'll get it for you. The owner may not be looking to increase business maybe happy where he is. You or I would look to make it a pleasant shopping experience to increase business and get good reviews. He on the other hand knows he's got a product that maybe nobody else around has so you have no choice where to get it who knows. I remember it being a lot of work cleaning up after my chickens, I would shovel it into a wheelbarrow I'd put it on the compost pile or put it in the garden and turn it under. When I see eggs labeled "free-roaming" in my mind that's the least expensive way to raise chickens, feed especially laying pellets are costly. I remember when I was looking into purchasing the hens, one of the hatcheries had a hybrid White Leghorn that's supposedly ate less and gave you a larger egg. White leghorns are one of the varieties that produce the most eggs per year. This is bringing back another memory when I was two or three my father and my uncle opened an egg store, they also had a route delivering eggs, milk, oil, and butter. They had brown and white eggs of various sizes, cracked eggs. Had a curtain across one of the doors going to the back what is sign that says candling Department, they had a hanging bold back there to check the eggs for blood or embryo. They sold storage eggs. Sorry I'm rattling.
Go ahead and "stream of conscious." Lots of stored up memories, one triggers the other. We never had livestock of any kind...at least by the time I came around. It seems like the kind of thing my dad would do. Maybe he didn't have the time to devote to it. My friend (Eddie) has been here his entire life. I know he turns a good dollar. His business is his life, in a good way. I mentioned before it's like Sam Drucker's store. I can stop by any time and find someone to chat with. The folks around here are so nice that it doesn't take long to feel as though you're "from here," and his place is where some gather. I've dropped by during the off-season and sat there for 4 hours just talking about stuff. I'm not the only one. He also used to be on the Board of Supervisors representing my district, so he's hooked into the community at nearly every level one can be. It's a nice life for him, and for those who visit. He and I went to church together for a few years (a congregation of 5 on most Sundays, plus a couple of families that stopped in maybe once a month.) Just after I got laid off in 2014, he got this weird necrotizing foot problem. Things did not look good for a while...it's just back to normal. He had to take time away from his place because of all the critters & the chemicals. His daughter was 14 or 15 at the time and she was on summer vacation and there running the place all by herself. I was unemployed and didn't like the idea of that girl being there all by herself, so I went in and helped her out for a couple of weeks until he could return. He still talks about it. I guess I'm now part of the family. Regarding candling eggs...you gotta wait until they're incubated, right? If there's no embryo, the eggs get tossed in the trash (unless there's a use for them besides human consumption.)
I believe you would candle before incubation to separate out eggs that are fertilize. Fertilized eggs go into the incubator, the rest are sold for eating. I remember reading just layed eggs only have a dot which will become the embryo. I never candle eggs myself I never had roosters when I had my hens. You don't need roosters to have eggs. I had two Bantoms that roam the property. When we first got them we couldn't figure out where they spent their nights. Eventually we were able to spot their nighttime hideout they actually would circle under one of our trees then jump and flap until they reach the bottom limb and spend the night there.
That's pretty cool. Did someone do that for Halloween? I would try my hand at shapes, but when I watch videos of Italian women do it factory-speed while spewing the local gossip and looking at the camera, I kinda feel inadequate. I guess when you start prenatally... I do need to fire up another batch of ravioli, though. My egg lady is in Hawaii, so I got none for the next couple of weeks (I will no longer use store-bought.)
Beats me; I just stole the image from google. I found the Kitchenaid pasta extruder attachment available on their "refurb" site and I'm pondering.
I make pasta. Not nearly as much as I use to. Mostly I make egg noodles. I have made ravioli many times over the years, but not too much now. When I do, I usually make jumbo ravioli because it is easier. Years ago, I often thought about getting pasta machine but decided against it because of all the little parts that would need to be washed, oy!