Jonathon As a former KCBS judge, I was not thrilled with the criteria used for KCBS judging… And this would be why I am a former judge… I would much prefer if the contestants entered what they would feed their family and friends…

Jonathon Either add gluten to you dough recipe or start with bread flour instead of all purpose flour…

Spray it with food grade silicone before using it…

calldoctoday Thanks, and same to you… Started off pretty darn’d good with back bacon biscuits… and will finish up even better once the pork chops are smoked and the Italian Bread has risen!

Has anybody ever tried baking bread in their smoker?

I did a loaf of hawaiian bread last night… we sliced it up and ate half the loaf while it was still warm, finished it off for breakfast as french toast…

Joe Hell Apparently there is a different name for a pork brisket… This is pig production country, but I’ve never heard of it nor as the farmer that I’ve been buying pigs from…

twilliams Looks like they flattened out during the aging process… I age in Umai bags, and I truss the roast every inch or so with rubber bands to hold it’s shape.

Tex_77 @s-a-m I have used mayo or mustard at various times, both are great for getting spices to adhere to the meat, I am not as thrilled with the crust… What develops is actually very good, but I find it to be too thin…

Tex_77 I don’t have any secrets, The baking problems you have require a solution based on your local environment… My suggestion would be to do as I did, find a professional baker in your area that has figured out the recipe modifications necessary for your locale… Probably more difficult will be finding a baker that is willing to share his/her techniques…

Jonathon When I moved to NC from PA I opened a pizzeria and had a the same issue attempting to make a decent pizza dough… The problem is the difference in atmospherics between various areas of the country… This includes everything from relative humidity to elevation…

I wish I could take credit for figuring out the answer to the problem, but it was actually a buddy that was a professional baker that also had moved from the NYC/Philly metro area.

His solution consisted of modifying the dough recipe, changing the oil/water ratio, as well as tweaking the yeast content…

While I do some baking, I am not sufficiently versed in the chemistry to be able to suggest specific modification ratios… besides, you are going to have to find a solution based on your local atmospheric conditions…

Jonathon and blackbetty61 I dry brined for 5 days, the fish tightened up nicely, then cold smoked for 8 hours (maintained 40 degree temp in smoker), then let it sit in the fridge for 24-36 hrs… It looked nice and dry till I sliced the salmon for final vac packaging… Once sliced it started releasing oil still in the fish

The fish is on a dri-lok pad, and an aluminized piece of cardboard, you can see the streams where the oil is being pulled out of the fish during the vac process, and in the 2nd photo you can see how much leached into the backing cardboard…

I make a fair amount of Lox (cured, smoked salmon), and have come across a great source of Chilean Salmon. Although it works great, I find it is extremely greasy / oily as compared to Norwegian Salmon… Does anyone have a suggestion to extract some of the oil from the fish during the curing process?

Tex_77 I toasted the rice in the oven… mixed about a cup of white rice with about 2.5 Tbs of veggie oil then spread on a pan and set in the oven at 350 till the majority of the rice was lightly browned, random pieces were darker…

Then tossed the rice in the Instant Pot with a cup of water… apparently more water is necessary when toasting the rice…

Joe Hell Ok, toasted rice was a MAJOR FAIL… Maybe I toasted too much, but it was not what I would call “tasty”… also, after toasting the rice required an additional 20-25% water be added during the cook process…

TomKat1962 Wow… nice mixer… and sold for $452… Now I wonder how much shipping would cost…

Joe Hell How big a Hobart Mixer are you looking for?

johnsbrewhouse Uncle Ben’s used to make a rice (back in the late '70s) that I absolutly loved that had a “popcorn” taste… I will have to try it this week and see if it recreates what they used to sell…

Deepwoodsbutcher Thanks, I don’t have a high pressure spray, and I have found that even using your technique there are still grease smears or bits of meat that do not just wash off without being physically touched… I picked up a small kitchen scrub brush, the bristles are 1/2" longer than the radius of the blade, so I should be able to clean between the blades efficiently…

Question for you and Jonathon , is there a larger model jerky slicer that has a wider intake throat to make the 1/4" thick strips wider…

Also, I have been using eye of the round as well as london broil to make my beef jerky… I have been cutting so that my strips are across the grain making them more tender… I was just wondering about your thoughts about using the entire round, or using a peeled knuckle to get more longer meat strips, but still cutting across the grain before slicing in the jerky slicer…

Jonathon Sorry I did not reply sooner, but I spoke with Nina @ Weston just before you posted your response… They have no good method for cleaning the slicer, she suggested a broom, same as you did… As for the cuber, it uses the same base assembly, but are just different blades… I have not checked, but I assume since you have the slicer blades, you also have the cuber blades…

In the mean time, I have put a few dings into the slicer blades I have… I am going to attempt attaching a single blade chucked into either a dremmel tool, or something like it to spin the blade, then using a standard knife sharpener, attempt to sharpen / straighten the edge…

Jonathon
Thanks for the reply, I have the single pedestal tenderizer. I will find a whisk broom and give that a try…