u/Honest_Wrap2198

picked up a lodge dutch oven about two months ago mostly because it was on sale and i have a problem with kitchen gear. retirement does that. anyway decided to do carnitas last sunday, low and slow, the whole thing. spent more time reading about it than actually cooking it, which is very on brand for me.

the meat was fine. great actually. what went sideways was the sear at the beginning. got the dutch oven too hot trying to get a good crust on the pork shoulder, and when i added the first batch the fond built up fast and some of it crossed the line from fond to burnt. not disaster level but noticeable in the final flavor. slightly bitter underneath the orange and cumin.

backed off the heat for the second batch and it was noticeably better. which i probably should have figured out before ruining the first one, but here we are.

question is whether people are searing in the dutch oven itself or using a separate skillet for that part and transferring. because the dutch oven holds heat so aggressively that controlling it feels like trying to reason with a teenager. i have experience with both and neither is going well.

spent a long time dismissing barleywine as too much. too boozy, too sweet, too serious for a tuesday afternoon. ordered one by accident at some point because i misread the board and then just kept ordering it on purpose after that.

the problem now is it's almost impossible to describe to someone who hasn't had a good one. tried explaining it to a friend who drinks light lagers and watched her face go completely blank. gave up halfway through.

what i find interesting is how differently they read depending on the brewery. some lean into that thick caramel thing and you kind of chew through it. others pull it drier and you forget how much alcohol just happened. the English versions tend to suit me better but i've been surprised by American ones more than i expected

the aging thing is something i haven't done much with. bought a couple bottles thinking i'd be patient about it. was not patient. drank them too soon and now i have no data.

curious whether people in here actually cellar these or if that's more aspirational than practical for most folks. also whether there's a particular brewery doing the English style that's worth hunting down right now. not looking for the obvious answers

spent 34 years telling teenagers what time it was. now nobody cares what time it is and i still feel guilty sitting at a taproom at 2pm on a tuesday.

anyway. been making a slow project out of visiting smaller regional breweries, the ones without merch walls and food trucks blocking the entrance. mostly looking for something interesting on the English ale side, malty and lowkey, not another hazy that tastes like a fruit cup.

the problem is walking in without a plan. i show up, stare at the board too long, panic, order something safe. retired teacher behavior honestly. so now i do a little homework first, just look at what they have on their site if they post it, narrow it down to two options before i walk through the door.

thing is some of the best finds have been ones i almost skipped because the name sounded like a marketing intern named it at 11pm

curious whether other people have a process for this or just wing it every time. and do you tend to ask the bartender for a rec or does that feel like giving up. i go back and forth on it depending on the crowd

spent 35 years grading papers and now apparently my fulltime job is perfecting cast iron pizza. this is what retirement looks like, kids.

tried my third attempt last weekend. lodge 12 inch, preheated in the oven at 500, dough from the local brewery taproom that sells it on weekends. that part was good. everything else was a cautionary tale.

pulled the pan out to add toppings and set it on a dish towel out of habit. the dish towel. the one that was slightly damp. you can imagine.

beyond the mild chaos, the crust came out decent but the bottom was pale where i wanted it dark and crispy. the top was fine. pepperoni, good cheese, no complaints there. just the bottom not cooperating.

so i moved the rack lower and preheated the pan longer the next time around. but i want to know if people are starting on the stovetop first and then moving to the oven, or just going oven the whole way. because my approach is clearly not there yet and i have a lot of free time to keep failing at this.