My Blog

[howellhandmade]

I’ve no idea how many here have been aware of my new(ish) website, www.howellhandmade.com, but starting the end of May I began posting a weekly blog entry. Many of them have nothing to do with pipes, but some of them were written specifically to help novice pipe smokers and may, tangentially, help novice pipe carvers.

For instance:

https://www.howellhandmade.com/post/the-bends

and

https://www.howellhandmade.com/post/hot-air

Experienced carvers will no doubt disagree with me on some points, perhaps violently, but that’s the way it goes. In any case, it’s something to read, and if nothing else there’s a killer cornbread recipe a couple of months back. The more experienced you are, the more you will recognize various characters and travails. I post a new one every Wednesday morning, and if you care to subscribe I make no other use of the contact list than notifying members of new blog posts.

Jack

[LatakiaLover]

Extra very special double cool.

Highly recommended, guys. Not just info, but entertainingly presented and well written. An oasis in the Great Internet Desert.

[LatakiaLover]

Cornbread? Did someone say cornbread?

-----

DRY INGREDIENTS:

Thoroughly mix in a large-ish bowl

--- 3/4 cup AP flour
--- 2.5 tsp baking powder
--- 1.5 TB white sugar
--- .75 to 1.0 tsp fine sea salt (less and it'll be flat, more will be too salty... I shoot for 7/8 tsp --- what the old cookbooks call a "scant" teaspoon)
--- 1.25 cups cornmeal --- divided as 1/3 cup "grocery store" type (Aunt Jemimah, Quaker, etc) and the remainder (2/3 cup + 1/4 cup) Bob's Red Mill stone ground medium
--- 1 tsp Bob's Red Mill coarse cornmeal (some is essential for that special texture, but too much is like eating sand. And it doesn't TAKE much. Experiment with caution)


WET INGREDIENTS:

In another, smaller mixing bowl, blend the following with a whisk

--- 2.5 TB melted butter
--- 1 egg
--- 2 TB chopped pickled Jalapeno slices (chop into cubes about 3/16" on a side... finer just adds overall heat, and more coarse makes the "sparks" too spread out when eating)
--- 1 cup whole milk + 2/3 of a quarter cup (sounds fussy, but it doesn't take much either way for the batter's consistency to be wrong)

NOTE: put the melted butter into the milk first to avoid cooking the egg


METHOD:

--- pre-heat oven to 425

--- when hot, put a dry 10" cast iron skillet on a middle rack and close the door

--- After 10 minutes exactly, remove and set the pan on the stove top, close the oven door, and "paint" the inside of the pan with a stick of butter until well coated

--- Pour the wet bowl into the dry bowl and whisk ONLY 5-6 TURNS, then, with a rubber spatula, scrape-scoop-flip the remaining still-dry ingredients on the bottom and along the sides of the bowl (what escaped the whisk) back into the center of the bowl using a quick up-and-over motion, and give the entire bowl 1 or 2 more cranks with the spatula to assure everything's wet. DO NOT OVERMIX. If it doesn't look uniformly mixed that's OK... wet is all that counts, uniform distribution doesn't matter.

--- Immediately pour & scrape the "batter lava" into the hot skillet, and put it back in the oven

--- Rotate the pan 180-degrees after twenty minutes, then remove after ten more (30 minutes total baking time)

--- No need to set or rest. Can be eaten immediately. Just cut into wedges, split the wedges horizontally (separate top and bottom), and slather with butter

--- Consume with great happiness, enjoying the physical proof that some things can still be made as good as they ever were, 21st century be damned.


NOTE --- the ten minute heat-soak time will vary some according to room temp, oven temp variation, the thickness of your pan, etc. Also, some people prefer a heavier or lighter crust. Experimention is the only way to get a consistent bullseye.

[caskwith]

Cornbread, awful stuff, the only thing I ate in the US that I didn't enjoy.

[LatakiaLover]

That's because you didn't have the good stuff.

Like every other kind of food or drink, the spectrum runs from excreable to devine.

EDIT: except for black pudding, jellied eels, and faggots, that is. That's 100% shite.

[howellhandmade]

George, your recipe does not include bacon cracklings. My dad used to say he was in college before he learned that “damn yankee” was two words.

Thanks for the endorsement, though.

Anyway, I call attention to today’s blog post only because it shows the techniqe of using a flat surface as reference for a curved surface, which I use to make sure various shapes haven’t gotten unbalanced. Maybe you have a good eye, but there’s never any harm in verifying it.

https://www.howellhandmade.com/post/the-commission

And an older post that you will know from the title whether you will find interesting or not:

https://www.howellhandmade.com/post/the-billiard

[Sasquatch]

I just want to say, I violently disagree with every single word you've written.


Just because Ernie's not here for me to shit on.

[howellhandmade]

Sorry, Sasquatch, I said, “EXPERIENCED pipe makers may disagree with me . . .”

I also disbelieve that you’ve read every single word I’ve written. Nobody has that kind of free time.

[Sasquatch]

LOL touché!

I can violently disagree in principle, though, I think? Save myself some time? This is a post-truth world now, "alternative facts" are just as good.

[caskwith]

That's because you didn't have the good stuff.

Like every other kind of food or drink, the spectrum runs from excreable to devine.

I had it about 6 times in the US, in different restaurants and homemade, they were all awful. I tried making it at home myself following several different recipes, again all awful.

[Sasquatch]

Chris, fwiw, British people don't get to call anyone else's food "awful". It just can't be a thing. When the best recipe you have going is beef fat and flour, your country's cuisine is more than a little suspect.

[LatakiaLover]

Chris, fwiw, British people don't get to call anyone else's food "awful". It just can't be a thing. When the best recipe you have going is beef fat and flour, your country's cuisine is more than a little suspect.

Complete with pics:

https://www.foodbeast.com/news/14-awful ... -american/

[UnderShade]

Hey now... Spotted dick ain't half bad if you have it with 2 pork faggots.

[LatakiaLover]

I bet Jack regrets having started this thread about now...

[Sasquatch]

LOL he shoulda knowed better.

[DocAitch]

This is well worth reading. One post and I am hooked.
DocAitch

[caskwith]

Ya'll just well jelly of our.......jellied eels.