Jump to content

Ian

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    369

  • Joined

  • Last visited

    Never

 Content Type 

Posts posted by Ian

    GigaBit Switch for Network (is it worth going for PoE)

    in French Satellite TV, French Internet and Telephone

    Posted

    Chancer, this may be a stupid idea, but....

    If you have an ethernet connection to each flat, and could connect one end of each to the smart router that's been mentioned, that can control access and bandwidth, could you not terminate each ethernet connection in some sort of "wifi station"?

    Something like this?

    http://store.three.co.uk/view/product/ql_catalog/threecatdevice/2566

    As I said, it's probably impractical.....

    Smoking food: tips needed!

    in French Food and Wine

    Posted

    Idun, I'm not sure we disagree.

    Hot smoking is a cooking process, with added smoking to enhance the flavour. Think of it as a more sophisticated way of barbecuing food. If you don't eat it all immediately, then yes, you can freeze it.

    On the other hand, cold smoking takes place at 30°C or less and is a process mainly for flavouring the food. Afterwards, the food may require cooking (like my bacon) or may not (like my camembert). Again, you can freeze it for later if you want. I do with both bacon and camembert.

    Where food is smoked for preservation reasons, the food still needs some form of processing first. Usually curing with salt, sometimes drying. I don't think anything is preserved purely by smoking.

    Cheers

    Smoking food: tips needed!

    in French Food and Wine

    Posted

    Loiseau, you're welcome.

    What you're doing is cold smoking. Hot smoking is using something like a barbecue with a lid (for example, a Weber). When you close the lid, you keep the smoke in as it cooks.

    Fish only needs a n hour or two of smoking. If you need to smoke something for longer, just refill the sawdust,

    Cheers

    Smoking food: tips needed!

    in French Food and Wine

    Posted

    Loiseau, it was my camemberts that were smoked - who is this guy Frank?

    I've been cold smoking for several years now. Mostly the bacon I make (and the camembert). Usually with oak, occasionally beech or apple.

    Bacon takes about 12hrs of smoking, camembert around 2-3hrs. Both need to sit for a day or two afterwards.

    Here's a summary of other possibilities - I've not tried them all, this is a collection of other people's ideas

    Cheese: 1” thick, 4-5 hours, leave to mature for hours/days

    Butter: Open, 2-3 hours

    Garlic:

    Nuts (various): Lay on pierced foil, 3-4 hours

    Or, brine overnight then 2-3 hours

    Salt: Lay on pierced foil, 4-5 hours

    Pepper Corns Lay on pierced foil, 4-5 hours

    Pigeon Breasts: Dry cure overnight for 2-3 hours

    1-2 hours, then cook

    Sausages: 4-5 hours, then cook

    Boiled Eggs: 12 hours

    Seeds (various): Brine overnight, 2 hours

    Ham (sliced): 2 hours

    Chillis: 5-6 hours

    Mushrooms: 1-2 hours, then cook

    Trout: Dry cure overnight, 12 hours

    Bananas: Halved longways, 1 hour

    Almonds: Brine for 24 hours, 2-3 hours

    Carpaccio Fillet, 1 hour

    Beetroot Cooked, skinned, 2-3 hours

    Camembert 4-5 hours

    Duck breasts 7-8 hours

    (Sorry about the lay-out - it's a cut and paste job from a document)

    You can also look at the following site - it's very good:

    http://forum.sausagemaking.org

    Good luck

    Posting cheese to Sweden?

    in French Food and Wine

    Posted

    Thanks, all.

    @Gardian, I don't want it confiscated by the Swedish Cheese Police - if they're likely to do that, I'll have to find some way of smuggling it in.

    @ Loiseau, vac packing, while odoriferously ideal, means asking le boucher for a favour - I'd prefer not to.

    @russethouse - a good idea, but I think pierre ZFP's is better, just in case they do X-ray it. Besides, the seal of a tupperware box is yet another defence.

    I'm going to ask my son to find out, definitively, if smoked cheese is a permitted import. It's the least he can do.

    Cheers

    Posting cheese to Sweden?

    in French Food and Wine

    Posted

    My son, who lives in Sweden, likes the smoked Camembert which I make, and has asked me to post him some.

    The first question is, is posting food to Sweden allowed?

    If so, what's the best way? He says that the batch he flew home with after Xmas, even though double-wrapped in plastic bags, was still "sniffable", and he thinks this could cause a problem with a postal parcel.

    I could ask my friendly butcher to vacuum pack it, I guess, but I'm not sure that the wooden boxes would stand up to that treatment.

    Any ideas?

    Cheers

    Where to rent a big (125mm) diamond core drill

    in House Renovations

    Posted

    [quote user="Théière"]Why bother stitch drilling the rest, the diamond core bit will cut quickly and cleanly through you may just need an extetion arbor[/quote]

    Well. the core drill looks like it'll only cut maybe 50mm deep - that's OK for tiles and the like, but would mean frequent clearing to drill 300-500mm.

    Hence my idea of careful stitch-drilling and making good, till I get up to the tile, then drill through from above.

    Cheers

    Where to rent a big (125mm) diamond core drill

    in House Renovations

    Posted

    Ah, as I suspected.

    I've previously rented a big angle grinder with diamond blade, subject to a charge for wear - I'd hoped there might be the same deal going for a core bit.

    Apparently not. Oh well.

    I'll have a look on ebay - I've heard that diamond cutting products (from the far east) are quite cheap. It's only for the clean hole through the tile - I can stitch-drill the cellar roof with a normal masonry drill from below.

    Thanks, everybody, for your responses.

    Where to rent a big (125mm) diamond core drill

    in House Renovations

    Posted

    As it says.

    I want to install an external air supply to my wood burning stove, to cut down on draughts. The simplest way is to tunnel down to the (largely disused) cellar underneath - probably 300-500mm?

    If that's going to work, I'll need to cut a clean hole through the tile floor, so I'll need to rent a diamond core drill. I'd also like to cut through the stone vaulted ceiling of the cellar, rather than use a hammer and chisel - don't want to bring the ceiling down - so I'd need a tungsten core drill of the same size.

    Any ideas where I can hire these?

    Thanks

    Odd practice by SNCF?

    in French Legal Issues

    Posted

    On the Monday following the fatal rail crash at Paris, a couple of weeks ago, I went onto the SNCF website to try and book tickets from Toulouse to Chateauroux for two days later. (This is the line that was involved, so I wasn't sure what, if any, service would be available.)

    Well, I was happy to find there would be the usual trains. So, I booked on the 16:40 out of Toulouse, arriving at Chateauroux at 21:15. It even gave me, as usual, the coach and seat numbers I'd booked.

    So, you can imagine how my wife felt (the ticket was for her and a friend) when she arrived at the station to find the train was cancelled. And, not cancelled that day. SNCF had not run any trains on that line since the accident. When I booked the ticket, it was for a train that didn't exist.

    Now, leaving aside the question about why SNCF didn't implement a diversion, or maybe a bus service (perhaps there were reasons why they HAD to cancel all the trains from the south of France), why did they sell me a ticket for a non-existent train? They gave her the money back, but WHY SELL IT IN THE FIRST PLACE?

    I'm trying not to judge them harshly but (1) that was fraud, selling me something that didn't exist (2) did they think at all about all the travellers who wanted to travel north on that (the only) line (3) it would have been the act of seconds to stop ticket sales for those trains AND put a notice on their website explaining why.

    My wife and her friend were lucky in that they were able to get a train to Brive, where I collected them by car. How many other travellers might not have been so lucky.

    OK, rant over. Does anybody want to comment (about SNCF, not me, please)?

    Cheers

    EDIT: this may not be the right place for this - maybe the moderators could move it.

    Citizens' Advice Bureau equivalent?

    in French Legal Issues

    Posted

    Nectarine, get your friend to involve a "Conciliateur de Justice" I think they're a service offered by the Department/State - our commune gets one for two mornings a month.

    I had a problem with an insurance company (they wouldn't accept a cancellation) and he was happy to help. He phoned them several times, and they yielded. His involvement seemed to carry some weight..

    And it's free - he wouldn't even accept a thank-you present.

    Registering UK car in France - Do I still need a CofC?

    in Driving in France

    Posted

    (Maybe I've been lucky, but most functionaires I've met have been helpful. Now could be the moment my luck runs out, though....)

    As I understand it, in order to get a Quittus Fiscal, I need to show a Bill of Sale from the garage. That won't be a problem.

    Then, I take the QF to the Prefecture, who don't normally ask to see the Bill of Sale. Is that right? However, they MAY ask, and/or they MAY be concerned that my name isn't on the V5C (as yours wasn't).

    At that stage, a Bill of Sale between Person X and me would be useful. Just to allay their concerns and make the situation clear, you understand.

    If that's the way the system works, I think I can see a way though the maze.

    Cheers

    Registering UK car in France - Do I still need a CofC?

    in Driving in France

    Posted

    Thanks for the replies, dave21478 and HoneySuckleDreams.

    I have a real Bill of Sale from the garage who sold me the car (actually a Citroen dealer, that might help), so I'm OK there. I've also got the invoice for the headlights, so that's also OK.

    But, if I was a french functionaire, I'd feel happier if I could see a link between the V5C and me. Like, for example, a bill of sale, from Person X to me. Maybe it would be better to have one of those than the actual one from the garage - that would save the sort of discussion you had, HoneySuckleDreams.

    Hmmmmm....
×
×
  • Create New...