ChezGiven

'The CT diet, eating for 40, drinking for 2' I'm confused now, sure TS already said happy birthday and CT said congrats for about the pending new arrival. Let no one say this forum is full of demented old bastards. Anyway, today's the day for the roast pork. Setting up the tripod and the buttered slice this morning.

You already said congrats CT, I said it on here just after my 40th. Cheers anyway lads, due at the end of Feb.

Today's 'most politically correct post ever' was brought to you by Monkey's Fist.

I like that logic, our lass is up the duff so i am 'drinking for 2'.

Wives calling them home could be considered boiler trouble.

Got you. 30g of flour is a bit more than a tablespoon though. For one reason or another i am good at estimating the weight of powder quantities. I just checked and 30g is about 4 tablespoons.

Duck confit tonight by the way, its from the best supplier in south west. Special treat so opened a 2005 Margaux. Get in.

Savoy cabbage! I think we are good here. I was thinking dauphinoise too but was also thinking keep it simple with only one oven, might need flexibility with temperature late on for the pork. For potatoes I was thinking sauté instead with a bit of garlic. Not sure yet. That sauce and creamy cabbage together?

Excellent. I will source some artisanal cider from Normandy and leave the white lightning, for the guests. At the start there you've got onions browning in butter and then you add 30g of flour, whisk until 'foaming'? I would have thought that amount of flour and butter would lump together? How do you mean foaming?

Couple of hours? I was planning 30 to 45 minutes at 250c then down to 130c for a few hours.

Ha! We do green beans a bit like that but just with shallots and piment espelette (mild basque chills). Garlic and lemon sounds lush.

Not available here, already had a look at his site for this and that recipe is on there. The meat cooking / crackling instructions are pretty basic, its more about the sides which do sound lush. The one with red onion, red cabbage and jam sounds lush.

Just added @ you as i forgot one of the culinary masters of TT! Need to think about the whole thing, side dishes, apple sauce the lot. Anyway, as that article says there are 7 (seven!) main schools of thought. I need personal experience and advice here.

@@Brock Manson @@Ausman @@Ant @@Monkeys Fist Going to do some roast pork, probably this friday for 5 or 6 people. Had a right faff on making sure i got the right cut due to differences in cuts / terminology etc (have a look here if you're interested http://brunetteabicyclette.com/2012/03/14/buying-meat-in-france-le-porc/ ) Spoke to my butcher, mentioned the word 'crackling', he doesnt speak a word of English but his eyes lit up as he knew what i wanted. Its the 'pallette' which is basically the middle shoulder or 'blade'. None of the people i will be cooking for have had a roast pork with crackling before, i want to slow cook it for a few hours which i will have the time to do as i am working from home on friday. Bramley apples are going to be impossible to find, so need to think about that too. Advice, tips etc. I want the crackling to be top notch but not being practiced in the art, i need to pull it off first time.

This would be epic. Please make it happen.

Hmm. Dont get it for music, the best remote for my music is the iPod app on my phone. The best quality music in the house (from an audio perspective) is on vinyl. It might be possible to pipe the vinyl round the house but it would be kind of stupid as you have to physically change the music. For films and that, if i am going to watch a film, i'll make a few drinks, sort some snacks out, get the lighting right and settle in. Not sure why i'd want that piped round a house. Not convinced it isnt anything other than an end in itself for techies. Sounds very expensive for very little added utility.

Why?

When I moved to London in 98 I was on an academic research salary of £18k a year, the same salary as one of the lads in that article. All my mates were earning tons more than me or were living rent free. We used to go out to clubs etc and being young and reckless I would get fucked, withdraw money thinking 'fuck it' and then run out of money at the end of the month. There was a pay day lender at the bottom of Kilburn High Road and when I realised I couldn't borrow money off mates to sort myself out, I went there. At the time it was probably stupid but I had faith in myself and faith in my future. I only did it a few times and it was, stupidly, just for going out and getting fucked but it was worth it because it gave me the freedom to do what I wanted. Admittedly my future was bright at the time so the risks of longer term problems was probably low but i can see how you could get into a viscious cycle. For me it served its purpose at that period in my life and I guess I am lucky I was not in a dead end or whatever.

I do most of the cooking but she knows her way around a kitchen too, learned a lot from me to be fair. I think it was in for about 15-20 mins, it was a relatively small piece but very rare. When we do a 'cote' on the bone, it'll be 4 times that size and go in for about the same time. Proper lush like that.

Only stipulation, the thread has to have nerd in the title.

He sat your mates Grandad on his knee?

Was roast beef for us today too and since it was our lass cooking it her preferred method was to get the beef to write the oven a letter. May as well have done the amount of time it spent in there.

Never tried to make it but had it in restaurants a couple of times with chicken.