• Hi all and welcome to TheWoodHaven2 brought into the 21st Century, kicking and screaming! We all have Alasdair to thank for the vast bulk of the heavy lifting to get us here, no more so than me because he's taken away a huge burden of responsibility from my shoulders and brought us to this new shiny home, with all your previous content (hopefully) still intact! Please peruse and feed back. There is still plenty to do, like changing the colour scheme, adding the banner graphic, tweaking the odd setting here and there so I have added a new thread in the 'Technical Issues, Bugs and Feature Requests' forum for you to add any issues you find, any missing settings or just anything you'd like to see added/removed from the feature set that Xenforo offers. We will get to everything over the coming weeks so please be patient, but add anything at all to the thread I mention above and we promise to get to them over the next few days/weeks/months. In the meantime, please enjoy!

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    Fish recipes

    I know what you mean. If I ever did a trip to India, I think I’d end up craving a simple barbecued steak by the end. There’s something to be said for letting the main ingredient shine, rather than smothering it with strong flavours. That said, with all this fish about, some variety might be in...
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    Fish recipes

    There’s a good local boat here that comes in and sells direct to the public. Sadly, all they’re used to supplying is skinless, vac-packed fillets, mainly cod and haddock. I’m apparently the only weirdo wanting whole, ‘interesting’ fish. After quite a few weeks of cajoling, they’ve started...
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    Fitting windows into a shiplap wall

    The best I can do is another pic just after the machines were moved in. You can see the green shiplap through the ‘horse windows’. Thanks for the advice. I’ll do a drawing to confirm.
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    Fitting windows into a shiplap wall

    Here’s a pic from when I first moved some machines in, to give an idea: The inner lining is 11mm OSB, then 95x45mm studs, then 15x137mm shiplap. I’m quite happy making some simple swinging windows in a frame, but not sure how to do the opening correctly, so that water doesn’t cause problems...
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    Apple Sequoia ‘trashgrade’

    All I wanted (before the printer accidentally brutally threw itself against the wall) was a circuit diagram printout for a DC brake I was playing with in the workshop. I ended up tracing it from the screen. It’s just things like that, the occasional diagram, postage label or official document...
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    Apple Sequoia ‘trashgrade’

    Talking of disruptive updates, this is my HP printer after a firmware update. It effectively bricked it because I wasn’t subscribed to their now-compulsory Instant Ink programme. After three hours trying to reverse or circumvent it, just to print one page, I retained enough self control to...
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    Tools to solve a common problem

    Same here regarding the weight gain, sadly. For me, it’s too much ale because, having recently moved here, I’ve now finally re-established the microbrewery* and am making up for lost time. * with a batch size of only 19L, it’s probably a femtobrewery, or something. Apologies for the thread...
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    Tools to solve a common problem

    Never thought of staining antler. I use it for tool handles sometimes, because it’s comfortable and tough. Would a normal oak stain work? What, uisge beatha, the water of life? Surely not!
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    Tools to solve a common problem

    A public thank-you note to @BentonTool who very kindly posted me an antler tamper, made by him, all the way from Benton, Pennsylvania to Nairn, Scotland: Pictured alongside is the utilitarian ‘pipe tool’ that works, but isn’t a joy to use like a handmade item. Pipe is a Peterson bent rustic...
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    Tools to solve a common problem

    I like the corncob pipe, and antler tamper! They remind me of my neuroscience lecturer, who used to smoke pipes in his office. No tamper, just a calloused finger end, and a white computer keyboard which was stained black and brown all over from the tar. I enjoy the occasional pipe. There’s...
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    Mower madness

    What cleaning fluid do you use for carbs? I’ve got a cheapie 15L ultrasonic cleaner, which has proved useful. Very good for derusting in something like evaporust - it seems to allow the fluid to get right down to base metal quickly, by knocking the treated layers away. Heater also helps.
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    Pork scratchings theory

    Some progress. This one was finished with a minute or two under the grill on max, and flavoured with sweet pimenton:
  13. G

    Pork scratchings theory

    Now, my wife’s late uncle was a chef in HK, and it’s coming back to me that for siu yuk he would ‘shallow parboil’ the belly piece, skin down, in a wok for just a minute or so. He could then prick the holes with just a bunch of toothpicks. He told us to get one of those needle tools for extra...
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    Pork scratchings theory

    Will do. I’m not there yet - although that joint looked the part, after cooking and resting the skin was quite soft. A blast in the air fryer both sides crisped it up, but it was still very chewy in the middle, like crisps laminated to a piece of leather. Meat was nicer cooked on the trivet...
  15. G

    Pork scratchings theory

    It’s looking pretty good after the 20 min sizzle. No wire rack to fit, so on a trivet of carrots.
  16. G

    Pork scratchings theory

    That looks nice. I’ve tried a MAPP gas torch but found it very easy to overdo. Skin wasn’t properly dried, though.
  17. G

    Pork scratchings theory

    That sounds like a good technique, too. Only problems are: A) I’ve banged on so much about how it’s a gimmick that burns the top and undercooks the rest it’s hard to backtrack B) it’s a bit small C) we may not always have it So, I’m aiming to nail it using a conventional oven.
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    Pork scratchings theory

    Oui, Chef!
  19. G

    Pork scratchings theory

    This bit for tonight was scored, scalded, dried and salted yesterday evening, and is sitting open in the fridge. Metal dish this time :pDark stuff is 5-spice on the meat. There’s quite a bit of brine forming. Should I rinse this off at some point? Adrian’s comment about temperatures makes me...
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    Pork scratchings theory

    Tonight’s pork belly* obviously had to skip the drying step, but the other half is drying away in the fridge. After the 160 long cook, then 20 min rest, the skin was still quite soft so it went into the air fryer (its only earthly use, as far as I can see) and came out nice and crackly after 10...
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