Interesting article, interesting device, nice and shiny.

Like others here (particularly Jerry) cooking good pizza's is a passion of mine and I've been working at it for almost as long as Indian food. I've eaten pizza's all over the world in Italy, USA etc and I think I know what makes a good one and what doesn't.

I gave up making pizza's at home for the simple reason that to cook a thin crust pizza properly you need high heat (both top and bottom) far higher heat than you can achieve in your average domestic oven, which if you're lucky will get to about 250c or 500f. You need 700f minimum to cook the thin crust dough properly, anything lower than that and the base goes biscuity - no matter how good the base dough might be. High heat produces a crisp outside but chewy inside.

I looked at the telegraph article, interesting read, lots of fluff, smoke and mirrors - no heat output mentioned. I looked at the website, lots of fluff, sales material and shiny ovens - no heat output information. That information may well be there, at a cursory glance I haven't seen it and if it doesn't reach 700F, it aint gonna work. I just re-looked and he's saying you need 500F to cook a pizza, erm  :

I did see a pizza oven (similar to the Chadwick one) recently that did reach 700F and it was a lot less - about GBP120 from memory.

This is weird in preview the pound sign shows but when posted shows up as a ?, I've changed it to GBP now.

Quote from: Secret Santa on March 14, 2013, 10:00 PM
I absolutely have Axe and, for me, they are completely unpalatable. The flavour is nice enough if I could get over the excessive saltiness.

I agree, particularly as I'm not a big fan of salt and deliberately cut back on salt use in my cooking. Out of curiosity I just nipped down to look at the ingredients list on a pack of Knorr Lamb Stock cubes and low and behold the first ingredient listed (which is usually the largest ingredient used) is salt.

I also looked at the ingredient list on Oxo cubes (Chicken and Beef) just to confirm it's still being used and one of the ingredients listed is MSG! I don't think many people realise that Oxo cubes have MSG in them, particularly as it's not highlighted on the box as it should be in my opinion. Oxo cubes also contain a lot of salt. Maggi All Purpose Seasoning also has MSG in it.

I know some people aren't bothered about MSG as a flavour enhancer, but some people are and I think they really should highlight this.

Quote from: DalPuri on February 23, 2013, 09:02 PM...and i always thought it was a natural smokiness like wild oregano on the hills in Turkey

Fascinating videos, particularly the one on black cardamons, thanks for posting them.

Quote from: Axe on March 14, 2013, 03:30 PMWill hopefully be able to report back with more info soon, all I can say for now is that it throws an interesting light on old school practices.

I'm looking forward to hearing your conclusions on this as I'm as keen as anyone to try and replicate the flavours of yesteryear.

Quote from: fried on March 14, 2013, 05:28 PM
I've tried using both boned and deboned chicken thighs, but I do prefer deboned in a curry. I still don't really like picking up bones that are covered in sauce

You don't have to pick it up! If you cook it right all the meat falls off the chicken thigh and you can just push the bone to the side of the plate. Cooking the thigh with bone in adds a bit of extra flavour too I find.

But I understand what you're saying, some people just don't like dealing with bones and grisly bits, I don't myself really but I'm prepared to deal with it for the extra benefits it offers and the different tenderness and flavour it offers over using diced breast.

We're all different!

Quote from: DalPuri on March 14, 2013, 05:25 PM
Please tell me i'm not the only person to get the facials and sweats when thinking about or watching a hot dish being prepared?

Well not me!

But then I've never really been into fiercely hot curries, particularly not ones made hotter by simply bunging in lots more chilli powder as I'm not generally a fan of chilli powder per se, I much prefer the flavour fresh green chilli's to chilli powder.

But then my definition of hot and your definition of hot might be somewhat different. A couple of teaspoons of medium heat chilli powder and 3 or so 3 inch de-seeded fresh green chilli's roughly sliced would be about as hot as I would want to go. Call me a wuss if you like, I don't mind

I prefer the subtlety of flavour depth than fierce heat. A really good medium heat old school Bhuna would be my dish of choice every time.

Quote from: DalPuri on March 14, 2013, 05:05 PMedit: actually yes,(sort of) but it was Butter chicken in India stripped from Tandoori quarters.

Perhaps I should have asked...in standard English BIR restaurants/takeaways!

I can well understand a chicken quarter being used in say Murgh Makhani, particularly so if in India itself, but I've never heard of a standard English BIR ever using dark chicken meat in pre-marinated chicken tikka.

Quote from: fried on March 14, 2013, 04:44 PMIt is generally after the missus has deboned the chicken thighs.

Interesting, have you tried cooking them with the bone in?

I've been doing this myself recently, skinning chicken thighs on the bone and removing any excess fat but leaving the bone in. They cook much the same as if using diced breast, just seal the surface, but simmer for about an hour or so in the sauce. I usually add extra water to the base sauce for the additional simmer time. The fat, sinew and muscle in the chicken thigh breaks down and helps to thicken the sauce.

When done the meat falls off the bone really easily and makes for a nice change to diced breast which I find can sometimes be a bit dry given it doesn't contain any fat.

I've recently experimented with marinating chicken thighs in jerk seasoning and cooking this with base sauce, lime juice and scotch  bonnet peppers and sweet potatoes, again it makes a nice change and variation to the usual BIR style.

Quote from: DalPuri on March 14, 2013, 04:01 PM
Off the bone was posh and expensive. 

I agree. I can certainly remember being given the choice of on or off the bone, off the bone being more expensive.

A takeaway near me (takeaway only it wasn't a sit down restaurant) that I used to use for the simple reason that their food was probably the best of a bad bunch in the area used to use what I considered a rather dodgy practice of extorting more money for chicken breast which was clearly a hang-back from the old days.

Whenever I ordered a dish with chicken tikka in it, I was always asked if I wanted breast meat only at 50p extra. I'm sure most people simply said yes please, but I always shook my head and said no, I'll have it as it comes, (I think I even said I prefer dark meat once just to wind them up and let them know I was onto their scam) knowing full well they never used anything but breast for chicken tikka and sure enough the dish itself confirmed that.

I don't mind take-away's charging extra money for breast if it's genuine, but I don't like being ripped off for no reason. I've never heard of any restaurant ever using dark chicken meat for tikka.

Has anyone else come across this or ever known a BIR to use dark chicken meat for chicken tikka?

From memory (it's a long time ago) I can certainly remember being served a whole chicken on the bone (not just for me!) which was broken up at the table and for other dishes being given a choice of breast or thigh on the bone.

That's going back 30-40 years which I assume you'd call 'old school'. But that was in one of the better Indian restaurants of the time.