Recipes that sabotage the cook
Well, Andrew Marvell is out there in the neighborhood, raining figs on people and threatening them with persimmons. Did I tell you about Truffle's guilty dog number with the neighbor's fig? She sneaked away from me while I was talking to a different neighbor and eventually sidled out with her head turned to attempt to hide the fig in her mouth and only gave it up reluctantly and efter I figured out what it was and returned it to her she swallowed it whole.
Anyway my neighbor brought me a bag of figs so I could run them through the dehydrator and split them with him. I was dissatisfied with the method I used last year from rthe dehydrator's cookbook, which resulted in iron-hard little shreds of fig, so I followed the one in "Putting Things By" except that I was sure that they were obviuously insane to tell me to cut the figs in half and steam them for twenty minutes so I decided to put them in the steam whole for fifteen.
Most tasteless dried figs you'll ever meet. All the flavor went into the steaming liquid, which is now designated at "fig tea." They did dry quickly, though.
Fortunately this is only the first of many batches. Next batch I will pass through the steam for five minutes with the flame off as soon as they go in the pot. The batch after that, no steam at all. And then I'll compare.
Why don't I dry them whole like you buy them in the store? Because I haven't the confidence to do that in our damper climate.
Anyway my neighbor brought me a bag of figs so I could run them through the dehydrator and split them with him. I was dissatisfied with the method I used last year from rthe dehydrator's cookbook, which resulted in iron-hard little shreds of fig, so I followed the one in "Putting Things By" except that I was sure that they were obviuously insane to tell me to cut the figs in half and steam them for twenty minutes so I decided to put them in the steam whole for fifteen.
Most tasteless dried figs you'll ever meet. All the flavor went into the steaming liquid, which is now designated at "fig tea." They did dry quickly, though.
Fortunately this is only the first of many batches. Next batch I will pass through the steam for five minutes with the flame off as soon as they go in the pot. The batch after that, no steam at all. And then I'll compare.
Why don't I dry them whole like you buy them in the store? Because I haven't the confidence to do that in our damper climate.