Low on the Hog

Cooked Coppa: Fauxppa?

2011-12-29T21:46:00.000-06:00

Traditional Coppa is an Italian dry-cured and air-dried ham-style whole muscle that is thinly sliced and enjoyed by itself or perhaps on a sandwich. The muscle is traditionally located in the neck, starting in the shoulder and running to the head. The term coppa actually means nape in Italian. When I ordered a whole skin-on shoulder I was excited to find the coppa muscle almost entirely in-tact. I hopped on the chance to make a version I had recently learned about, but unlike the traditional method, this one uses a brine instead of a dry-cure and is slowly poached instead of air-dried. Otherwise, all of the techniques are the same.

The shoulder I received was larger than a typical commodity shoulder that arrives two in a vac-packed bag. This was again from Slagel Family Farms and included the front end of the rib cage and the neck bone. The piece I would trim out for this coppa would include the butt end of the loin.

The left top image shows the whole piece I received. On that picture, the piece I want to remove is the top right between the bone and skin, as it tapers from back to front. In the top right image I removed the bones and the desired muscle is exposed. The bottom left image shows the muscle once removed and the shoulder that remains. The last picture shows the removed muscle to use as a single cleaned piece.

I then made and chilled a brine of cure no. 2, salt, sugar, bay, fennel seeds and black peppercorns. I brined the coppa for a week. Once it came out of the brine I dried it off and rubbed it with a blend of fennel, black peppercorns and paprika. It was then stuffed into a medium beef bung. You can see the bung above partially filled with water so you can visualize its size. They come salt packed so the usual soak and rinse method is employed here. As the picture shows, you can easily fit your arm into the bung.

Once it was rubbed and stuffed I squeezed out as much excess air as possible and tied it off at the top. I then poached it in simmering salted water for an hour. I left the boning knife next to the cutting board for a size reference above.

After it cam out of the poaching liquid I used a sausage pricker to get the remaining air-pockets. I then hung it dry out the wet skin. It stayed in a well-ventilated cool place for about 72 hours.

After the brief drying period it was moved into the refrigerator to hang until use. Once you are ready to slice, simply remove/peel the dried bung from the coppa. After that you slice it fairly thin and enjoy as you wish. Slice it as close to shaving while maintaining whole slices. I laid my slices out on a platter (shown at top) and offered small rolls and a spicy mustard.

Sausage Porn, old enticing photos!

2011-12-14T20:21:00.001-06:00

One of my favorite things from my brief stint in culinary school was the option to take electives. While most college students find this a fun benefit, it was exceedingly so for me in culinary school (as if tennis didn't measure up during my B.A.!). Some of my favorites included Fermentation, Cheese Making and Cuisines of China. But without question my favorite was Chef Pierre's Sausage Making Class. This was an evening class and it led up to the holiday break. It was one night a week and we made some damn good encased meats. Each class we made 2-3 types of sausage per pair of students. I took my camera in one class towards the end of the quarter. Here are some noteworthy photos!

A rack going into the smoker/cooker.

Cooked Sausages: Kielbasa, Linguica, Andouille, Cotto, Boudin Noir and Leberkase

More Cooked Sausages: Saucisson de Lyon, Bockwurst, Braunsweiger, Scrapple

Raw sausages: Merguez, Bratwurst, Boudin Blanc, Greek Lukanika and Bangers

More Raw Sausages: Vermouth Chicken, Sun-dried Tomato Chicken and Thai Sausage.

Classmate Nate holding our 10+ lb. Cotto Salami. Being fully matured college students we took every opportunity to make jokes about stuffing our bung (holes). He and I did a few of the large format sausages.

Our 25+ pound Mortadella. I screwed it up after the class. I misunderstood which cooler it was supposed to go into and it ended up spoiling and molding over the holiday break. Talk about feeling bad! It was a beauty until I put it in the drying cooler for 2 weeks!

The last day of class we had a dinner and invited all those important people in the school to come by and PIG OUT! Ha, I know. We made traditional accompaniments to most of the sausages. You know, cabbages, potatoes, etc. The school garde manger kitchen was nice. It had an Enviro-Pak smoker, electric feed sausage stuffers, vertical stuffers, combi ovens, and the now infamous fermentation room! Many of the recipes we did were directly from Rytek Kutas' book Great Sausage Recipes as it was our "handbook."

Lardo, my first attempt!

2011-09-03T14:45:00.005-05:00

I vaguely remember the first time I heard of lardo. I was familiar with Lard, but why add the O at the end? It was a Mario Batali show he used to do with a friend of his. They were visiting an area known for their lardo production. It featured the large stone "boxes" that held the salt cure. Big fat chunks of the fat off of the back of the hogs would cure in them for months before they were removed. I will admit it sounded pretty weird, but tasty. I finally got to try some a few years later here in Chicago, but for some reason I don't recall where it was. I liked it, a lot. Salty, some herb, and lots of porkiness.

Now you can find it in a few different forms, but only one how it was first described by Batali. The Purple Pig does it in a more restaurant friendly way, still fatback, and still salt cured. They served it sliced thin on warm toast, just as I love it. Old Town Social does a whipped lard version that too is served with warm toast. Likewise for Rootstock. I recently had my first mangalitsa lardo, down in St. Louis, the traditional way from Salume Beddu, the best one I've tried.

I liked it so much that I too wanted to try my hand at it. The trouble was I couldn't find any fatback I deemed worth the effort. The stuff they use at the Purple Pig is pretty thin, seldom more than an inch. This is true of what I had seen from my favorite pig farmer LouisJohn Slagel. But one time, not too long ago, I mentioned I'd love a thick chunk if he ever came across some in his USDA plant. One day I got that call I hadn't really expected. He had processed a Gloucestershire from another natural farmer and he saved the fatback for me. It was an inch thick on the thinner end and almost two inches thick at the other. I had it the next week!

Like every other type of cured anything else, there are many variations on how to do it. This is my version. I made a salt cure of basic things: the basic (salt) cure from Charcuterie, minced garlic, coarse black pepper, chopped bay leaves and chopped thyme. First I removed the skin. Next I rubbed this mixture all over the fatback, and as usual, stuck it into a vacuum sealed bag. You could simply leave it, covered, in a dish similar to the one pictured above or in a zip-lock style bag. I then put it the bottom drawer of our fridge and left it for about 6 weeks. If you don't vacuum seal it, be sure to flip it every so often, every couple days.

After the curing time I removed it from the bag and rinsed it well to remove the remaining cure and herbs. Doing this can leave a wet feel to the exterior. Even if the exterior remains pretty dry, I recommend leaving it to air-dry for a bit. I got busy and left mine in the fridge for almost 3 weeks. This was too much, a few days should be plenty. It leaves a nice texture and makes it easy to handle. By having left it to dry for too long as I did, it left a layer of toughness. I pretty much had to trim this layer off of the top before I sliced down and through to get the desired thin strips that simply melt into the warm grilled toast! The seasoning was great, not too much of anything. The herbs were noticeable but not overwhelming, and pork flavor was allowed to shine as the star.

To enjoy this, it is best sliced thinly and eaten on toast as I have mentioned. Thin enough that it pretty much melts into the toast. We made a little platter with some piquillo peppers and pickled veggies, always nice to cut some of the fat.

Duck "Proscuitto"/Ham/Dry-cured breast.

2011-08-31T10:26:00.005-05:00

One of the first recipes I tackled in the earlier part of the last decade was the duck "proscuitto" from the Charcuterie book. My first attempt was nice, but not great. It was rather salty in taste and a bit chewy in texture. I would later realize that this was from over curing the rather small breasts that I was barely able to find back then. I had only attempted this recipe one other time since then, while I was still in culinary school several years ago. Some of my classmates really enjoyed it and others found it much like I had found the first attempts, too salty and with a bizarre texture, though I had actually improved the latest batch since the earlier pieces. So when I first jumped on this Charcutepalooza endeavor I was excited to see that the only challenge I had missed, was a familiar one, the wonderful Duck Proscuitto. Since I was a late-comer we were required to complete this challenge sometime before the end of the Year of Meat.

The only two places I had found duck breasts around Chicago had been small frozen ones at Whole Foods or as part of a whole Pekin Duck from Slagel Farms. I called on a colleague, Rob Levitt at Butcher & Larder and he told me he had a nice pair in the case as we spoke. They came from a local farm called Gunthorp Farms. I picked them up and had them trimmed and seasoned the next day. I had to trim around them for neatness and to remove a couple extra flaps of fat*. I decided to try them two different ways. By this I would use the standard salt rub but like I did with the Asian Bacon I would add some more fun floavorings. For this I did a Basque rub with smoked paprika and piment d'esplette. The other version was a Provençal take with garlic powder and herbs de provence. I rubbed the trimmed breasts in half of the mixture I made and vacuum sealed each breast for about a week until they both had firmed up to the touch. Be sure to choose a dry and kinda cool area to hang these. I used our pantry. Places like above the stove/fridge are warm and would be bad. A little ventilation would be nice too for drying purposes. *I rendered out the trimmed fat and kept it in the fridge until I could put it to good use!

After I took the breasts out of the pouches I rinsed them well and gave them another coating of the spice mixtures, minus anymore salt. I then wrapped them well in cheesecloth and hung them to dry for another week or so. At this point I was waiting for a firmer, but still slightly giving texture. In the past I had waited for too firm of a texture which is why they were too rubbery. You will have to use judgement and eventually some experience to nail this part!

The fat from the breasts was rather thick, but I really like this aspect. That being said you will see that even in ambient room temperatures some of that fat slowly rendered out and was soaked up by the cheesecloth. I had to occasionally wipe it up from below where they hung to dry. But after their hanging time the looked great! You can see some of that extra fat on the cutting-board and how it caused the labels to bleed a bit.

For maximum enjoyment, slice the breasts as this as possible across the short width. If it turns out a bit tough, the thin-ness will help out immensely until you get the curing art down. As I have mentioned in the past, my favorite way to eat any dry-cured meats is pretty much on its own. To enjoy these I made some homemade crackers and put it on a platter with some dilly pickled green beans, some aged gouda and jalepeno-apple jelly. They were both really tasty. The first time I tried them I was leaning towards preferring the Basque (euskal) version. Then oddly, the second time I really enjoyed the Provençal more. This pretty much swapped back-and-forth until it was all gone! You can try pretty much any spice/herb combos you might see fit. Just be sure not too over-salt by adding more salt after the curing phase.

A Fermented Sausage Challenge, Finocchiona

2011-05-15T23:42:00.014-05:00

Growing up I would say I knew of 3 sausages: Hot Dogs (of the Oscar Mayer type), Polish Sausage/Kielbasa (again of the Eckrich/Oscar Mayer type) and Salami. A bit later came Bratwurst. I will admit I knew of Bologna, but never really got into it. That is still the case. Many years later I have really gotten into encased meats, and even the un-cased ones. I received my KitchenAid grinder attachment for Christmas in 2002 and began making my own. Then it was mostly different versions of brats. In 2005 I picked up Charcuterie and made several of the recipes over then next few months. Some were successes (breakfast, brat) and others not so much (peperone, chorizo). Since then I would say that I have down the fresh sausage techniques and could even judge a sausage just on the recipe alone. What I have failed to master thus far has been the fermented sausages. So when I saw the new challenge for Charcutepalooza, I decided to tackle a fermented sausage once again.

The 2 most important differences of a fermented sausage past all the important steps for ANY sausage are: proper fermentation (time/temperature/culture/humidity/pH) and drying (time/temperature/humidity/air circulation). Of all these challenges in making a nice final project, my trouble has consistently been the humidity. This isn't saying I haven't screwed the others up! I've over fermented and created a sausage that was too tangy/sour (time/culture). I've fermented at too high of a temperature and rendered out some of the fat. I've tried to dry in an area with bad air and got lots of bad mold. But of all these, the humidity control has been my nemesis.

That was until I finally said "no more." I created a large chamber in which I can control the humidity, temperature and air circulation. And guess what! I did it the same week the new challenge from Charcutepalooza was announced, sausage. I read the details and saw the options and decided to do something different than the chorizo and merguez. I love both of these dearly but I wanted to give my new chamber a run so I decided on a style I have loved for a couple years now, the Italian dried sausage, Finocchiona. I read once that it was once told a thief stole a piece of Finocchiona and was chased. He hid the sausage in a field of fennel. When he came back to retrieve it the sausage had taken on the taste of the fennel. Obviously the main flavor components include fennel. I have some excellent seeds from Scott at Sausage Debauchery and also used a good amount of Black peppercorns plus red wine, garlic, white pepper and other small touches. I got the recipe base from the book The Art of Fermented Sausages which is a nice read if you're into numbers, graphs and details. I increased the amount of black peepercorns in hopes of getting a close replication of my favorite Finocchiona, the Batali version from Salumi in Seattle.

As I always do I started with ground pork shoulder from Slagel Farms. I mixed all the meat, cure and seasonings the night before. The next day when I was ready to stuff I added the culture after reviving it in some distilled water. And the casing began. I decided to use a standard bratwurst sized casing since I knew I had limited drying time to make the post deadline. As Rebecca helped my load and feed the meat into the KitchenAid attachment things went well. Then about the third link I noticed the farce came out looking like bratwurst, NOT GOOD. This is a properly textured sausage, not an emulsified one. Since I had to be to work in less than an hour I had to act fast. I got on the phone with Rob at Butcher & Larder and asked him to bail me out. He offered his hand-crank vertical stuffer. Awesome, but I don't have enough time by the time I get there. Everything went into the freezer until we could head over there. When I walked in he sent me over to a former culinary schoolmate whom he had asked to help me out by stuffing them for me. I got them back later that night and they looked great. Same size I had started making, great looking farce (not smeared by mediocre equipment) and perfectly stuffed. Thanks Rob!

That night they went into the chamber set at 75% relative humidity at 80˚ F. They stayed in there for 3 days with steady air-ciculation. After that I decreased the temperature (end of fermentation) but left the humidity the same. After a week I decreased the humidity down to 70% and then a week later dropped it again to 65%. The weight loss was aided by the smaller size of the sausage and by keeping the sausages in a slightly lower humidity than if I had another week to complete the project. I was happy in that it worked perfectly and no flavor was sacrificed by the slightly quicker drying. It is normally during this time that the flavors of the pork truly get to shine. I will admit that due to a very hectic work schedule this week my humidifier went dry for what I figure was a day or two towards the very end. This caused the casing to dry a tad bit which means it peels off easily. Only a minor flaw.

When I finally cut into one I was immediately excited. Beside the slight porky scent that has taken over the corner of our apartment nearest the office/curing room, the Finocchiona smells fabulous. Your get the tang immediately then the pork, fennel and pepper almost simultaneously, in that order. The texture is nice. I think it could stand to dry a few more days and it would only get better, but I don't know if it will last that long! Again, like with most items like this, I like to simply eat it straight, or maybe with some bread, pickled somethings and some cheese. Oh, did I mention the New Holland Brewing beer Charkoota Rye, Smoked Dopplebock Lager? Nice pairing!

Brined, Rubbed & Smoked Pork Rack

2011-04-15T11:32:00.003-05:00

It might be funny to announce that about eight or nine years ago I gave up on eating pork (I should note that this excluded bacon and ham). It was the chops, shoulder steaks and other boring, white, dry and tasteless stuff. It wasn't any political move, a statement or anything of that nature. I had simply had enough of the crap. It was never juicy, tasty or good when unadorned. My mother was a busy woman and had never put much effort into going beyond the basic stuff that her mother had done: salt, pepper and a bottled sauce (A1 my favorite, BBQ, etc). But in 2003 I gained my first education on what CAN be done with pork. I saw marinades, brines and aggressive seasoning bring an aspect to the other, more boring white meat, that I had not experienced. The following year I spent most of a year in Western France and got to experience even more ways of treating this fabulous meat to give me an even larger repertoire of tastiness.

One of those best techniques I picked up was t brining. And I now almost always brine any whole muscle or large pieces of pork that I use. Belly when roasting, shoulder when smoking, tenderloin when pan roasting, etc. So when this months Charcutepalooza challenge was announced I knew it was going to be tasty, and juicy. We had to brine and hot smoke a pork loin or shoulder. I knew the easiest thing would have been to do a BBQ style shoulder. But I do those fairly regularly on my own. So I decided to do the loin approach. But even that sounded a little simple for this challenge.

I started flipping through some books for inspiration and came across a roasted pork shoulder effort from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall in his River Cottage Meat Book. It looked great and I could smell it in the book. I read his technique and decided I could make this work for my plans with the loin I wanted to do. Interestingly Hugh credits this recipe to Nigella Lawson who says she owes it to the Cottage Cafe cookbook. Regardless, my inspiration evolved from Hugh's version.

I got ahold of my favorite hog farmer LouisJohn at Slagel Family Farms and ordered me up a 6-rib skin-on pork loin rack. He delivers to the city on Wednesdays so Tuesday night I made my brine and cooled it down for the following night. I included the usual salt and sugar, but added some bay leaves, toasted coriander, black peppercorns, pink peppercorns and some Templeton Rye Whiskey. I left the loin in the brine for three days. On the third day I took it out and patted it dry. Next I scored the skin and fat layer ½" or so deep in strips about ⅓" to ½" wide. I then made a paste of minced garlic, grated ginger, Banyuls vinegar, coriander, grains of paradise, black peppercorn, juniper and a touch of allspice. This was all pounded together in my mortar & pestle. Next we rubbed onto and into the top and sides of the rack, being sure to get some into those grooves of skin & fat.

Next I flashed the whole thing in a 400˚ oven for about 25 minutes to really get some crispiness started on the skin. After that it went into the smoker at 275˚ for around 3 hours, until the internal pork temperature hit 140˚. The smoke level was about medium the whole time using hickory chips. As you can see above, the smoking added just a bit more color to the already flashed (left) loin once it came out (right). We had to wait a bit for our dinner guests to arrive so it rested a good half-hour. When they arrived I again flashed it in the 400˚ oven for another 20 minutes to crisp up the skin before we carved it.

I then simply ran my knife through the fat layer along the top of the loin to remove what I ended up calling the "pork skin fries" seen on the left above. This left enough skin on the actual loin to enjoy with the chops but still plenty on the crunchy skin strips as well!

I carved this beauty into 4 nice sized chops and we had one huge double chop remaining. Even after the long rest there was so much juice left in the bad-boys that you can see the huge puddle forming just behind the cutting board. And you'll easily notice too that these are no dry chops.

We roasted some new potatoes with some of the fat that rendered out during the original flash at the beginning of this process and finished them with salt, pepper and some lemon zest. Rebecca made a great simple mixed greens salad with Banyuls vinaigrette. We passed around the bowl of pork skin fries at the table. It was funny to hear all the crunching randomly as the person not involved in the current conversation was surely chomping down on one of these!

The salt seasoning from the brine was all these guys needed as far as saltiness. The paste we rubbed on added some more spice and flavor to the overall piece, and especially so for the fries. Because of this nothing else was needed, like a sauce. The smoke was perfect. It was neither overwhelming nor underwhelming. It made me happy to eat and just as much so to hear a comment specific to the fact it was just right. Sometimes you never know how much is enough until it's too late. I ate the left over chop a couple days later and it still packed all the juiciness that it had the first day. If only mom had known these types of tricks when she was still cooking for me!

Drinking is Getting Hard: Hard Cider pt. 2

2011-04-04T16:25:00.001-05:00

This past week marked the point at which, based on my readings, it seemed safe to bottle the 5.5 gallons of Hard Apple Ciders I started at the end of last year (original post). The first three I made were from an organic cider out of Michigan that I had purchased at Whole Foods here in Chicago. I started these the last week of October, first week of November and the end of November. In the photo below they are the three on the right. I didn't add anything to the first one, but to the second, I added the sediment from another hard cider, and third was sediment from a Belgian Gueuze. As you can see, they are also the clearest of the 6. The remaining three versions were made from ciders purchased at Chicago's Green City Market. They were started the first week of December. The furthest left was from Grandpa's Mill, while the inner two left were from Seedling Farms. They have not cleared up as much as the other 3, though they are about a month behind in the process. I added some sediment to one of the Seedling batches. To understand why sediment was added, refer to the original post.

You can see how the solids in the various ciders have settled down to the bottom in the bottles. For my intents and purposes, I chose to leave this behind when bottling. I decided to simply use priming sugar for the carbonation of these ciders. Originally I wanted to try some variations such as honey or even agave, but since there were already so many variations amongst the 6 attempts I decided to see first how these turned out on their own. Each of the gallons gave me ten or eleven bottles of cider. They will stay in the bottles for one more month to finish up their fermentation before I crack any open to see what successes and failures I had.

I will say that the tastings I did at bottling time didn't leave me with a lot of hope for some of these. The two I made from the seedling Farms both have similar qualities to the sauerkraut we made recently. This made sense when I thought how all 6 versions relied mostly on wild yeasts for their fermentation, just like the sauerkrauts we do at home. Also, the 2 I did with a Belgian beer sediment had a funky woody end to them. The first two, also the clearest, left me with the highest hopes, but they were also a little flat in overall flavor. Maybe the carbonation will perk them up. All of them had a bit more sour than I was expecting. Be sure to stay posted about the final tasting in about a month for a side by side comparison!

Corning Beef for Pastrami

2011-03-15T19:07:00.009-05:00

Once again a post has come about by the graces of a little free-time, a great source for local and natural meats and some nudging from that large group of fellow Charcutepalooza participants. And by a happy coincidence I was able to use a fresh beef brisket I had ordered from Slagel Farms for the third challenge of the Year of Meat. March’s challenge was to corn some beef. The verb to corn simply means to preserve with salt. It comes from the fact that the best salt to do this with in the past was a course grained salt that at some point actually looked a bit like corn.

I’ve been doing my own corned beef for some years now, including the version I did last year for St. Patrick’s Day here, so I wanted to try something new: Pastrami. I’ve mentioned my fair skin and red hair before, so you can be sure corned beef is on my menu this time each year. My brisket order came in at 9.5 lb, which was enough for my beloved corned beef, with plenty leftover for me to try something new. The pastrami recipe varies from the corned beef in three places:

- the brine

- the spice mixture on the pastrami

- the smoking of the pastrami versus braising of the corned beef

The pastrami recipe adds brown sugar but the length of brine is shortened by 2 days. It is rubbed down at the end of the brine, after being rinsed, with a 1:1 mixture of black pepper and coriander. And finally the meat is cold smoked then slow roasted in the oven to cook it through.

As I like to do the first time I make something I stuck completely to the Charcuterie recipes for this project. I did however make only ¼ of the brine recipe because I intended to brine in a large bag as opposed to a huge container. Doing so is simply cost and space effective. I was a little weary of the amount of coriander in the rub, but stuck with the original plan. And to be honest, it was perfect. I roughly chopped the two ingredients in my spice mill, though I would go finer next time so that it adhered better to the brisket. Once the brisket came out of the brine it was rinsed, patted dry then immediately rubbed. I then let it sit uncovered overnight in the fridge to form a pellicle for better smoking results.

The next day I fired up the cold smoker and smoked it for 3 hours with moderate applewood application. In the end, I think more smoke would have been nicer. From the smoker it went directly into the oven at 175˚ F until the internal temp reached 150˚ F. Since this was all done with the flat end of the brisket, no pressing was required for a solid sliceable piece.

While I could have come up with something more off-the-wall, I like deli meats for what they are, but Rebecca isn’t so keen on mounded sandwiches. So we decided to do a flatbread based on a more traditional sandwich idea. I created a rye flatbread recipe lightly scattered with toasted caraway and rolled them into a simple pizza shaped dough and fully baked them. While that was going on I made a rather cheesy mornay with smoked gruyere and whole grain mustard which became our sauce and spread perfectly over the flatbread. We then covered it generously with the thinly sliced pastrami and topped it all off with some homemade sauerkraut that was started when we originally ordered the brisket. It all went back into the oven to knock the chill off. We then washed it all down with some tasty cold altbier as we watched a movie!

Rye Flatbread

1 ¼ C A/P Flour

¾ C Rye Flour

1 lg. Egg, whisked

4 t Caraway Seed, toasted and chopped

2 T Oil, neutral

2 t Salt

½ C Water

Combine all ingredients but water in food processor and pulse until it looks mealy. Slowly add in water while pulsing until it begins to come together, without over mixing it. Remove from processor and make it into a ball. Divide it into 3 pieces and form small discs. Wrap them in plastic and cool at least an hour in the fridge. When ready to use, lightly dust work surface with flour and roll out into desired shape and size, not less than ⅛” thick. Put it on a floured pan at 350˚ 8-18 minutes until done.

Mustard Mornay

2 T Butter

3 T A/P Flour

¾ C Milk

8 oz. Cheese, grated (I prefer Cheddar, swiss would be good too)

2 T Whole Grain Mustard

½ t Salt

Make a roux by melting butter in a small sauce pan and whisking in flour. Continue to stir over medium-low heat for 3 minutes until flour is cooked. Add in ½ cup milk and stir until it thickens, being sure to work out any clumps. Add in cheese and stir often until it melts into a thick but spreadable consistency. Use remaining milk if needed to thin. Stir in mustard and season to taste with salt.

Sauerkraut

2 heads Cabbage

2 T Salt

2 t Caraway Seed, toasted

6 pc. Juniper Berry

Core and slice cabbage as thin as you can get it. I prefer a mandolin for this. Toss well with salt and spices and put into a tall food-safe plastic or ceramic container. Stir every hour for about 3-4 hours until enough liquid is released to cover cabbage. Cover the cabbage and its liquid with a flat object like a plate that is just smaller than the container. Place a plastic wrapped heavy container on top of the plate to press the cabbage and keep it submerged. I simply use an old 2-liter bottle filled with water. Check every couple days and remove any scum that forms on top of water/plate. Taste the cabbage every week to note its progression and decide when it is right for you. Some prefer it more sour than others. Ours went just over 3 three weeks.

Basic Dry Cure, Asian Bacon

2011-02-15T10:47:00.001-06:00

The Basic Dry Cure was one of the first recipes out of Charcuterie that I attacked once I placed my first order for curing salts and such from Butcher & Packer in Detroit, back in 2006. Since then I have made "bacon" many times. Lately I started doing variations of flavoring along with the basic dry cure. The largest variety I tried was back in the jowl post. So when the challenge was posted last month I decided that I would try to improve upon some of those ideas. We talked about which one showed the most potential for deliciousness and have it still be fairly easy for some of our readers to be able to replicate themselves at home. So we decided to have another go at an Asian Bacon.

On top of out-doing ourselves with the Asian Jowl, we wanted to come up with a great usage of the bacon that was also fun, interesting and flat-out tasty. So we figured that with so many versions of the good old hamburger going on out there, this would be a great topping for an Asian Burger.

The Charcuterie book recipe calls for three ingredients in its basic dry cure: salt, sugar/dextrose and pink salt. For this variation we changed only one thing in the dry cure itself, the sugar. We chose to split the sugar options into half white sugar and half dark brown sugar. That took care of the curing part, but we wanted to add in some more flavor. Much like what we did with that jowl, we simply added some homemade 5-spice to the cure. Since we weren't cooking it sous-vide this time, we knew the spice had to be big enough during the cure. We went with a nearly 1:1 cure to flavoring ratio, using barely a touch more cure than flavoring. It looked like too much 5-spice, but we knew we wanted that flavor imparted nicely.

After our liberal application of the flavored cure, we placed the belly into a vacuum-sealed bag and placed in it the fridge. It didn't need to be flipped since the bag keeps it in constant contact with the cure and added flavoring, which helps immensely. It cured for 8 days until it showed some firmness throughout but not too much resistance. At that point it was rinsed off and placed back into the fridge for a few hours to form a pellicule.

Another thing we wanted to do differently this time was to actually smoke it. Since we wanted a bacon, not just a salted belly, it was a must-do. But did we want to use a wood? Almost immediately I thought it would be a nice touch to keep with the Asian theme and smoke with some tea. After reading about a bit, I came up with a smoke recipe:

1/4 C green tea
1/4 C white rice
2 t allspice, whole
5 pc. star anise, whole
1 T dried orange zest
2 t cinnamon stick flakes
1 t black peppercorns
1 t pink peppercorns

Since we only had one-third of a Slagel Farms belly (usually nicely balanced lean/fat) and the smoke blend was small, we thought that our stove-top smoker would be ideal for this application. I pulsed the smoke blend in the spice mill a few times and spread half of it out over the hot-spot in the smoker. I placed the heat on medium-low. Once the smoke started I placed the belly inside with a probe thermometer. About 5 minutes later smoke began to bellow. After about 30 minutes I refreshed the smoke blend and flipped over the belly. About another 30 minutes later I added around 1 T of Alder smoke flakes just to add a hint of wood smoke and by the time it had burned out the internal temperature hit my target of 155˚F. It came out and immediately went into the fridge again.

The next day we took it out and sliced it. That was when the tasty part began! We grabbed some Slagel Farms ground beef, a couple seeded rolls from Whole Foods, I whipped up some Sambal Oelek aioli (1 egg yolk, 3/4 C oil, 2 T Sambal Oelek, 1 clove garlic and 1/2 t Dijon) and sliced up the last of our miso pickled cucumbers our friend Steve gave us. We also made up a quick cucumber salad as a side. All this added up to a juicy and flavorful Asian inspired burger. The bacon tasted so nice. The 5-spice was perfectly present without being overbearing. The smokiness, which had worried me the night before when smoking was actually perfect. It wasn't harsh and you could even pick up on some of the spices in the smoke blend. It was quite different from the smoother and more familiar wood smoke but this new twist definitely gives you something to think about next time you want to make some bacon at home.

Charcutepalooza: The Year of Meat, a needed nudge.

2011-02-15T10:29:00.000-06:00

Having been in a motorcycle accident that has caused regular discomfort to my leg, spending additional time standing about in a kitchen outside of work hasn't sounded fun, lately. Add to that a new job that has me working evenings--the part of the day I had dedicated to my blog-work--and it seems clear why our posts have been few and far between. But for some reason, when a couple eager-beaver bloggers get together and create an outlet for the sharing of ideas, concerns, sources and experiences all based on Charcuterie, I can't walk away (pun intended). That outlet has become Charcutepalooza. Organized by Mrs. Wheelbarrow (Cathy) and The Yummy Mummy (Kim), it has grown from an idea to get fellow bloggers to try their hand at homemade charcuterie to a group of bloggers nearing 300 total (the list of them is here) all wanting to try it out and share their experiences on their various blogs. The daily banter can be found on Twitter using the hash tag #charcutepalooza

Weighing in on the whole thing is the co-author of the official handbook of this "event," Michael Ruhlman, whose book with Brian Polcyn, Charcuterie, is often found referenced here on Low on the Hog. Most of you already know of him. If not, his site is chock full of great stuff.

Another well-respected and very versed aid on this journey has become Bob del Grosso. An avid meat man himself, he is also a former instructor of most-things-meat at The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park. His blog A Hunger Artist has been linked from here for a while now. He has particpated in some live question/answer sessions already to help out those in need of some experienced know-how.

One thing I love about this experience is that it asks that the participants "use humanely raised meat, sourced as close to home as possible." We already follow this rule whenever possible and we're so happy to see this being asked of the participants as well. We will continue to use Slagel Family Farms products whenever possible, but will surely have to supplement our supplies from other places. We'll be sure to inform you of those sources!

Another great thing about this exchange is finding a single source of other people as interested as we are in charcuterie. Rebecca was excited to see several participants with whom she was already familiar from her daily recipe searches and blog reads. She was so impressed that she informed me that I would need to step it up a bit in such great company! I happily obliged and have asked her to increase her involvement in creative direction and some much needed editing of my long-windedness and loss of focus. We are hoping too that some like-minded bloggers might look to us as a reliable source beyond the charcutepalooza posts.

So if you were wondering what all this Charcutepalooza business was, now you know. And We'd love to send out a huge Welcome! to the fellow participants who might become regular readers of ours here at Low on the Hog!

Drinking is Getting Hard: Hooked on Hard Cider

2010-12-09T19:37:00.003-06:00

Way back when I was in Culinary School, I took an elective class on Fermentation. One suggested read was Sandor Katz's Wild Fermentation. I quickly picked it up and have tried only a couple recipes from it (tempeh, mead). But recently I decided that with so much delicious apple cider coming into Chicago from Michigan, I wanted to try my hand at a homemade Hard Cider. The recipe is really only quite simple instructions, so I doubt it would violate any legal grounds to simply explain it in my words:

Grab a gallon of fresh cider, without any preservatives or any over-modifying procedures. All ciders sold around here are pasteurized. Many contain preservatives. So look for those with one ingredient, apple cider. I found Hy's Cider from Romeo, Michigan at Whole Foods for $5.99 a gallon. I had a couple old empty "Louisiana Hot Sauce" jugs so I washed and sanitized one well. I then poured the cider into the jug and covered the opening with some cheesecloth for a couple days while storing it in my pantry at 65˚.

While Wild Fermentation said that some "boil-over" would occur, the inner-bubbling never got that exciting and nothing left the top of the jug. Once the main fermentation bubbles subsided, I took the jug and replaced the cheesecloth with a stopper and air-lock. This allows the released gases to escape but prevents other bad things from getting inside (bugs, too much wild yeast, etc).

As you can see at this point about a week later, the sediment from the cider had settled to the bottom of the jug. The airlock was releasing about every five minutes and things had well slowed. I began to get more excited about this simple procedure and had picked up another gallon of cider to start another batch. Rebecca was curious as to how our attempts might end up tasting, so I also picked up a bottle of Crispin's Cider. We drank it that night and I had an idea. I have read plenty about "inoculating" beers with the residue left in the bottom of other beers, so I decided to add the little bit left from the Crispin's into the newest batch of cider. Unlike the first batch, the second batch was bubbling away in 2 days, and it was going wild! It had boiled over as Katz had mention in his book, and it bubbled that way for days. Because of this, I changed the cheesecloth every 2 days and also kept clean the outside of the jugs.

So this got me excited about the next trip to WF and how I wanted to do the next batch. Or should I say, what sediment I wanted to add to it. I only had a growler from Goose Island so only a half gallon would fit. This time I grabbed a Belgian Gueuze, know for it's sour and yeasty tastes. Again, within a couple days the growler was boiling over. Even after the first batch our pantry took on this yeasty, cidery, delicious smell and every time we entered we were reminded of what hopes we had for the future! So much so that we have added another 3 gallons to the experiment. This time we went with two different ciders but only added sediment to one. We bought one gallon of Grandpa's Mill Cider from Coloma, Michigan and two gallons of Seedling Farms Cider from Southhaven, Michigan. We added sediment from Ommegang's Biere de Mars with its Brettanomyces strain (a yeast used in beer making also know for it's unique flavors) in hopes of something exciting.

Since we don't have much room to store any more gallon jugs or growlers, this should likely be the end of this season's cider-making. Unfortunately it is a long process, though little effort is involved as you can see. About 4 months after the date I poured the ciders into their jugs, I will bottle them. Being a home-brewer I have all I need for that: sanitizer, bottle-capper, bottling hose, siphoning wand and caps & bottles. I will bottle them leaving behind most of that very visible residue and allow them to age about another month in the bottle before we will crack them open and do the first tasting, right around my birthday. Notes will definitely be posted here for you to enjoy. We wanted to post this now though, while cider is still available so you might venture as well in this realm!

UPDATE 02/07/11

It's been two months since the last batch went into the fermentation jugs and things look pretty good. All 5 gallon jugs are pretty clear. I can't see through the .5 gal. growler bottle but I feel good assuming it looks as good as the rest. Pretty soon I'll buy some more bottles and some priming sugars and bottle them for their last rest before I start drinking them some time around mid-April.

For control purposes I am going to bottle each one 3 months after it went into the jugs. I am considering using different forms of priming sugars (powdered, honey, etc) but I am still unsure. I might keep it simple to eliminate too many variables. Stay tuned!

Link to Part 2

Latest Leg of the Journey

2010-12-01T21:31:00.006-06:00

So if you follow my tweets, you already know what I was up to today. Otherwise: I went by the new pick-up point here in Chicago for Slagel Farms meats, Chicago's Downtown Farmstand on Randolph (a great source for locally/regionally sourced products). I picked up my Easter ham. After a 9 hour day in the kitchen that should have been plenty. But since I still needed the goods by which to brine that 25 pound hunk of natural porky goodness, I stopped at Whole Foods. Whew, just getting there wore me out. So I stopped at the bar inside WF and grabbed a tasty Goose Island Bourbon County Stout to warm me back up and relieve some soreness. I picked up the goods I needed to make my version of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's Cider cure for the ham. I also grabbed some extra cider for another version (number 4) of hard cider that I am excited about since finding a nice local cider. It is fairly easy to make, I only hope that it turns out as well as I imagine it will! (hope to post more on this soon)

(Scotch Olives filled w/ homemade sausage on right at Bristol!)

As I write this I am eating quite low on the hog, er, cow. As a child I loved taco night with my mom. A pound of ground beef, a McCormick's spice packet, some cheese and tortilla shells. Tonight that's what I am enjoying since I have to fend for myself as Rebecca is in New Orleans on business (oh how horrible, I know. <20deg here right now)! I switched it up a bit by adding some Adobo sauce from the chipotles I included in my first batch on 'nduja long ago! Let's just say Sandra Lee would be proud.

Otherwise, beer brewing is about the only thing I have been up to. Luckily it doesn't take much being on the feet to do so. 2 weekends ago we brewed a German Altbier with some Munich hops. and This weekend we brewed some Dunkelweisen. Did I mention that the last hefeweisen yeast I used I turned out being allergic to it? Swollen tongue and loss of tasting capacity noticed after a few beers in the same week!

So I know nothing here was exciting to read. But I am hoping that it has sparked some intrgue and curiosity about what is to come once I have the time/stamina to complete and write about it. I did have some great charcuterie once again at Old Town Social here in Chicago. I took some pictures and notes about the tasty stuff they're offering right now. Most notably: Braunschweiger! Until then, I have a picture or two to whet your appetites!

(Fegato, rabbit liver mousse, at Spiaggia Cafe, AWESOME!)

So I lied.

2010-11-20T11:50:00.001-06:00

While we did not lie about being alive, we were wrong about getting to some posting in the near future surrounding that September post. The kitchen at the new apartment is pretty much unpacked. The pantry is stocked. And we bought a work table that serves as a kitchen island, providing plenty of cooking space. So once I can find a day that my leg isn't sore from being on it all day, and I just happen to have the goods I need to get something done, I hope to post something. I have started a batch of Hard Cider. That only takes 5 minutes of standing, so I'll try to document that soon to whet your appetite for more fun stuff. I'm thinking of a pig's tail project too, in hopes I can complete most of it on a day off. We've picked up a couple new cookbooks to for inspiration. So please, stay tuned. We hope to get going on another project once it is feasible!

(some housemade soprasetta fermenting @ a local hot-spot)

Yes, I am still alive!

2010-09-21T13:35:00.001-05:00

Though I thought during my hospitalization that I would never again have such a long time without any posts, I have again slipped. I finally got back to work after my motorcycle accident, though it is a new job. Rebecca and I have also found a new, larger place to live and are in the process of moving in two weeks. So with the moving, I haven't really the capacity to start anything that would be safe to be moved a few miles at move time. I am however mentally scheming as to how I might be able to create a space dedicated to my meat pursuits in the new place. So if you are kind enough to bear with me, good things are sure to follow. In the meantime, I will try to post more about the things that have already taken place though I have not yet written about them (pig-roast for example)!

Until then, check out the Facebook page I created for Low on the Hog, it can be found here ...

http://www.facebook.com/LOWontheHOG

or by clicking on the badge in the right column, towards the bottom!

Getting cheeky, or What I did with 5 jowls

2010-08-10T18:57:00.001-05:00

On a recent trip to the farm and processing plant of Slagel Family Farms and Slagel Family Meats, I picked up a bag of jowls: five in all. During the drive back I thought about my plan of attack. I hadn't done much since the 'nduja and bresaola I started long before the wedding, so I had a few ideas, to say the least. At some point I realized that I was in no way committed to a single idea. Do I need 5 whole cheeks of any one style anyway?

My ideas on the road started to turn into solid plans. After mentally running through my stock of herbs and spices, I decided to use a different internationally inspired cure for each jowl: Asian, Spanish, Italian, French and American. And I would smoke a few at the end.

(Asian Jowl after cooking)

I used Ruhlman/Polcyn's basic dry cure of kosher salt, sugar and pink salt (cure #1) along with the following ingredient list for each style:

Asian: soy sauce, 5-spice, garlic, togarashi, white pepper
Spanish: hot paprika, garlic, black pepper, cayenne, guajillo powder
Italian: garlic, nutmeg, bay leaf, juniper berry, thyme, black pepper, brown sugar
French: herbes de provence, marc de gascogne (liqueur), black pepper, garlic, piment d'espelette
American: maple syrup, black pepper

The final ratio of flavorings to cure was about 9:10 (a little more cure than flavor) so I made sure to add the mixture liberally. Then I vacuum packed them and left them to cure in the fridge for about nine days. Since some of the jowls were thicker, the extra couple days were needed but didn't adversely affect the smaller ones. If you aren't sure of how long to cure this type of meat, check out the bacon post for explanation.

(After 9 days curing in a sous-vide environment)

Depending on what you have available, there are a few options to cook these. I could have hot smoked them all at 155˚ and basically have spiced and herbed jowl bacon. I could have cooked them sous-vide at 155˚ for about 48hrs (borrowing a friend's circulator). I could have let the cure be enough to cook and air-dried them. I could have ... ok, you get the idea.

I decided, instead, to give them a good rinse in cold water and re-vacuum-pack them. I added nothing to any of the bags except more liqueur in the French and more syrup in the American. I did toss around the idea of using more of the cure/spice mix in the cooking bag. I chose not to for a couple reasons: after a week in a salt cure adding more salt might result in it being over-salty; too much nitrate/nitrite might not really be that necessary; and not doing so would help me better gage the flavor levels of the original cure mixes. I knew the fat and juices that rendered out in the beginning would be more than enough to keep the meat moist during the sous-vide cooking. As for the cooking part I chose my home sous-vide method of bringing the pot of water to a boil, drop in the bags of protein and place the pot into my pre-heated 170˚ oven. I left them in for 48hrs. I know the normal bacon temp reaches 155˚ when smoking, but I can't set my oven below 170˚ and since I didn't want to smoke all five, this made more sense.

Once they came out of the bath I immediately pressed them with plenty of weight and let them cool in the fridge overnight. This helps with the texture of belly and jowl with the alternating layers of fat and lean. At the end I wanted to give some smoke to the American and Spanish versions so I threw them in the cold smoker with some hickory and mesquite and hit them strong for an hour. To prep for the smoke I let them hang in the fridge to form the pellicule for a couple hours before smoking them.

(Spanish Jowl after smoking session)

As you can see, there is a higher concentration of fat here vs. in a belly where there is obvious fat/lean/fat layering. Even the lean layers of these cheeks have some fat. This is because of the different make-up of the jowls. And with my slow and low sous-vide method of cooking, the texture is even more enticing. Now the fun part begins. How I am going to use 5 different versions of cured jowls?

Review of recent goodies!

2010-07-27T15:41:00.000-05:00

As it is about 12 weeks since my motorcycle accident, my leg is finally allowing me to get around fairly well. I can run errands and sit comfortably in most normal situations (I could barely get comfortable sitting in a restaurant chair for even a short meal). I have even gotten back into the home kitchen, too, and I hope to get back to some home meat-curing with some regularity. Thanks for bearing with me while I posted more reviews and great finds in a consecutive manner than I ever planned during the inception of "the Hog." I'm hoping now to get back to some of my own stuff for you all to enjoy and hopefully learn something from.

Some of the last things I had worked on before the accident were actually a couple items I had made for the wedding to use on a meat and cheese platter after the dinner had cleared. These items included some 'nduja, beef bresaola, pickles and some jalapeno jelly. Of course 4 weeks to the day before the wedding I had my accident. But with a ton of help from my wife Rebecca and our good friends Henning & Emily, everything was finished successfully and was thoroughly enjoyed by our party-goers! We were even able to knock-out some homemade favors for our guests like more jalapeno jelly, a smoky spice rub and some dill-pickled green beans.

I decided to have the meats and cheeses put out after the main courses had been finished, allowing a bit of grazing for those that wanted to munch for the remaining few hours. We had some great cheeses: Herbed Chevre, an English Cheddar brought from London by my new sister-in-law, a Spanish Manchego and a domestic Blue. We added some accouterments like dill pickles, giardineira, bread and the jelly. Our meat plate was accented by some mustard and more bread.

---- 'nduja pic up very soon, promise! -----

The meats were a hit! I am sure the cheeses were too, but since most of the guests seemed to know that we created these items ourselves, they were quite happy to voice their enjoyment with Rebecca and I. My favorite story was about the male guest who had already gotten into his car to leave. When his wife made it to the car and told him the sausages had arrived, he came back and stayed stationed at the table for a good amount of time before finally giving in to tiredness.

The 'nduja was labeled with a sign that said it was pretty spicy, but it didn't seem to deter many. The heat was undeniable. For only having 20% pepper content, it sure didn't lack that back-of-the-throat burn. While Calabrians are known to average about 30% pepper content, my mere 20% didn't leave many searching for the heat. The texture was a bit more meaty than creamy. This was because I was going for some more tooth and included pork shoulder in my mix, 50% to be exact. The texture also wasn't quite as spreadable as its creamier version, but with the addition of some extra virgin olive oil, it took on all the spreadability you would need, without compromising any of the sausage's great qualities. After the addition of the oil, it took on a texture much like the inside of a Slim-Jim style meat-stick, spreadable but somewhat toothsome. A couple of the sausages had started some molding on the outside but it was minimal and of the good quality. On some of the links I did find some hold had grown on the inside in the space left at the ends between the knots and the tips of the shrunken farce. But it simply scraped that off and ate away!

The bresaola was, in all honesty, my biggest surprise. It was my third attempt after the first two I did simultaneously not so long ago. While the first two were quite tasty, I wanted something more of a hybrid of the two. So I took the components that gave the most favorable attributes from my first round and created this newest version. Not being able to keep a close on the drying myself (I was still in the hospital), Emily did a great job of taking pictures and keeping me updated and then following my directions to correct any troubles. They took on more mold growth than I expected since we had taken good measures to control the environment in their "drying room" that they had graciously allowed me to create in their condo. Luckily, none of the mold was bad, and all the good stuff leant a great old-world taste when it covered my eye-of-the-round.

For the wedding I instructed the caterer to slice it as thin as possible for it's presentation. To my horror, I found it cut into rough chunks. They were small enough to eat but I was afraid it was going to be tough to eat. But when I took my first bite I was shocked by it not being too chewy to enjoy. But what surprised me even more was its fabulous taste. You got the herbs, the wine, the spices and the great addition of the heavy molding. I was smart to keep one piece of the bresaola to enjoy once we got back. And after the additional 2 months of waiting, it was even better. Though it was quite dry the flavors had improved and intensified beyond expectation! We enjoyed this in the traditional manner, sliced thinly and plated with arugula, parmesan, lemon juice and white truffle oil. It didn't last long!

Though our meat and cheese table varied in comparison in size and variety to that of our good friends Monica and Christian, ours most definitely had the homemade and unique qualities we were going for. Monica is of Polish descent and they had a little hut-like stand at their reception that was full of sausages, meat-sticks, potato cakes and other Polish delicacies! For some reason I hadn't even compared the two until now, but I have realized that EVERY wedding should have some version of a meat/cheese/delicacy table.

And for good measure, I wanted to throw out a picture of one of the two pizzas we have been making at home quite a bit. This is the somewhat standard yet quite delicious Arugula and Proscuitto topped pizza, served on a mozzarella and tomato sauce pizza (bought crust). I sliced my homemade ham on the slicer loaned to us by Art from Pleasanthouse fame. The same slicer helped with the bresaola in the above photo! Though not pictured here, we also love to do a pizza with my 'nduja mixed in with the tomato sauce and topped with mozzarella. It's almost like a pepperoni pizza that packs some heat!

Great Find: Charcuterie: The Dining Room at Biltmore Asheville, NC

2010-07-15T09:26:00.003-05:00

For our last night in Asheville, we decided to stay close to home and have dinner at the Dining Room at the Inn.

(The view during the pre-dinner cocktail)

We had mentioned to the concierge that we were celebrating our honeymoon, so after a pre-dinner cocktail in the bar (me: gin & tonic, Rebecca: Biltmore champagne), we luckily scored a seat by the window overlooking the lush Blue Ridge Mountains. The menu was local and refined, with plenty of charcuterie to please my palette: bison carpaccio, venison bresaola, duck proscuitto, pancetta. I noticed chorizo on a dish we didn't order, so I asked our server if I could try a tiny bite, which led to a lengthy explanation of my love for and experience with charcuterie.

Before long our first plate arrived. But what is this? We didn't order that! Apparently, the chef was excited about feeding a fellow passionate meat-curer, so he threw together this plate of "proscuittos" with accoutrements. The left was his pork-belly proscuitto that was aged for 23 days. It had a great pork flavor that melted nicely in our mouths. In the middle, the 21 day aged duck proscuitto, had a clean flavor and the texture was perfect, avoiding the sometimes unpleasant chewiness that I've had too often with other duck prosciuttos. Last, but absolutely not least, was the the lamb proscuitto. The lamb flavor was intensified to bring out the deliciousness of the young animal, but not overly concentrated as to give off the impression that it was older than it really was. This is something I have found offensive in other similar attempts. This was hands-down Rebecca's favorite, while I always have a hard time not putting pork-belly at the top of my list.

(3 proscuittos in order: pork-belly, duck and lamb)

Speaking of the belly, we had already ordered the warm starter of the house cured pork-belly. Served with orange infused sweet potato puree, pickled ramps and a banyul sauce, it was everything you'd want and much more than you'd expect. It had a great amount of fat, but enough lean to satisfy even Rebecca. As good as it was, the whole dish was absolutely greater than the sum of its parts. The balance of sweet and succulent savory with great acidity from the ramps left you making sure you got a little of everything in each bite.

Onto the bison carpaccio and venison bresaola. Both local, both delicious, and both prepared perfectly. The venison, which was a special that night, seemed a bit leaner and a touch more gamey than the bison. Unlike the chef's plate we received earlier, where the focus was on the meat itself, these latter two came as composed dishes with accompaniments, complete with the perfect balance of acidic, sweet and salty notes.

(a dark shot of the house cured bacon)

Overall, I was particularly impressed with how the chef integrated charcuterie into many of the dishes, even when they weren't the main actors. Our chevre salad came with a bit of duck prosciutto and we noticed throughout the menu smatterings of charcuterie tucked into main and side dishes.

I'd like to tell you all the intricate flavors and nuances of each amazing dish. I'd like to even tell you everything we actually ate. But, unfortunately, it's not the focus of my blog and furthermore, we were mesmerized with the room, the view, each other, and the same delicious wine we enjoyed when I proposed to Rebecca. The whole night was a smorgasbord of charcuterie and local flavors.

But I never got to try the chorizo... A reason to return!

Great Find: Bar-B-Que: 12 Bones Smokehouse Asheville, NC

2010-07-02T10:43:00.001-05:00

(continued from my Asheville post)

While we had a great BBQ lunch the day before, I couldn't leave Asheville without another taste. In asking for recommendations, 12 Bones Smokehouse came up repeatedly as being "the best." It usually... ok, always... came with this warning: "The line is always long, but it moves pretty quickly, don't worry." (Probably due in part to President Obama's recent visit there). So we decided to check it out.

Sure enough, at 11:15, there was already a line down one side of the building. It was off the beaten path in an area called the River Arts District, but that wasn't keeping many away. Luckily, the line did move quickly. At the register was one person taking the order and another taking the loot. This place had much more of a typical BBQ joint feel to it. Goofy signs alongside nostalgic advertising, an un-sided Morton shed offering covered outdoor seating, and of course, photos of the current President during his recent visits.

Of course, I wanted to try EVERYTHING. They didn't offer a sampler platter of meats, but they did offer all the meats as sides. So we went that route: ribs with brown sugar glaze, chopped beef brisket, pulled chicken, pulled pork, cornbread, jalapeno cheese grits, mac & cheese and, whew, a tomato cucumber salad.

The ribs were tender, flavorful and gone immediately. Raw onion slices accompanied the chopped beef, which provided the perfect crunch and freshness to contrast the smokiness. The pulled chicken and pork, while both delicious, moist and tender, were slightly better when dipped in sauce. Onto the sides: creamy, cheesy, perfectly seasoned mac & cheese (better than I've ever made at home, I hate to admit), the moistest, most flavorful cornbread imaginable, jalapeno cheese grits that were just shy of being too spicy, but softened by the creaminess and a tomato cucumber salad to provide our necessary vegetables (per Rebecca's request). Meat chatter aside, we would consider returning solely for the sides.

Butchering A Pig, a video tutorial from legourmet.tv

2010-06-27T11:53:00.004-05:00

For those of you interested in breaking down a side of pork, I recently ran across this great video tutorial. If you can handle a nice Canadian accent, this guy does a great job of covering everything from whole side to primals, all the way down to country ribs and bone-in chops! Be ready for a commitment if you watch the whole series of videos. Some are under 2 minutes, some over 5, but there are 12 videos in all! Well worth the time.

If you want to see a full screen version, click on the youtube logo. From there you can also find 9 more videos in the series. For all 12, go to Le Gourmet. Enjoy!

Great Find: Bar-B-Que: Luella's Asheville, NC

2010-06-21T15:25:00.003-05:00

(a continuation from my Asheville post)

Luella's Bar-B-Que came up in one of the online articles I found during an initial search for good eats in Asheville. It caught my attention, not because of its locally sourced FtT concept (Product of Buncombe Co.), but because they use the same pig drawing in their logo that I use for the LotH tweets. So after reading through the menu it instantly made it on the list. But it was the only BBQ on the must-see list. The bellman at the Inn hadn't even heard of it when we asked. Should we worry? Naw.

Luella's is conveniently (for us) located on the same main drag that runs by the front of the Biltmore Estate, just about 2 miles further North. No sweat. We went for lunch on Thursday. The decor is slightly more put together than most BBQ joints, but in a fun way that two (one former) graphic artists enjoyed and appreciated. It was clean, appropriate, but not too busy. We ordered and shared the 3 meat combo option. It came with the choice of 2 sides. We added on some spice rubbed sweet potato chips and washed it all down with some local brews: Highland Brewing Gaelic Ale (left) and the French Broad Brewery Wee Heavy-Er Scotch Ale (right). They had a few sauces in bottles as should every pork pickin' place!

Rebecca found a mustard based sauce with an appropriate amount of added sweetness. She stuck to that one while I used various sauces on the meats (the sweet-mustard, a thin vinegar with some heat sauce and a thicker and tangy-er sauce with what seemed to be a bit of tomato in it) but loved the jalapeno hot sauce with the sweet potato chips (right of photo). Being the type that would almost always order a variety and share, we did just that. We got the 3 meat combo and chose the chopped pork, pulled chicken and smoked andouille sausage. We chose collared greens and a spicy vinegar slaw as sides. The pork had a slight vinegary taste to it which was great. I wasn't sure if it was from a moppng during cooking or if they added some after cooking. But whichever it was, it was tasty just as it was, though I did try some bites with more of the various sauces. The chicken did come in its own tangy sauce, and needed nothing more added to it. It was juicy and tasty and Rebecca loved it even more than I did. I loved the andouille quite a bit, but I am partial to smoked sausages. It was perfectly smokey and quite moist for having been double cooked. In retrospect, we both wish we had room to try some of their ribs.

Being from central IL myself, I have only recently fallen in love with braised greens. And the ones being offered up at Luella's are some of the only ones I've tried outside of the Land of Lincoln. They were great with small chunks of porkiness studded throughout. I tend to make mine a bit more acidic with vinegar, but they don't seem to find it as necessary (they use less), and they're doing just fine with their version! Rebecca wanted to try the spicy vinegar slaw. It too was quite tasty. Lucky for me, for someone who isn't to keen on mayonnaise, it was deliciously absent of the slaw killer! Upon finishing our lunch I happily felt that this was easily the best restaurant BBQ I remember eating.

The dining room had filled up a bit throughout our lunch, but it was never as busy as it seemed it should have been for the quality of their product. The were a few sales at the carry-out counter, a pair of older ladies, a very happy family with 2 little girls and few groups of businessmen. Much like I had mentioned about Asheville supporting their local sources, Luella's boasts in their motto that it is a product of Buncombe County. So why isn't this place busier? I think I had seen an older address of their's in a review, so perhaps their move was more recent. Regardless, next time you're anywhere near Asheville with room in your stomach, head over and fill it up with some Luella's. And if you're not up for a local beer, have some Cheer Wine like I did (after my beer), for my first time.

Great Find: Cities: Bar-B-Que & Beer in Asheville, NC

2010-06-15T17:11:00.003-05:00

So when the news finally settled in that injuries sustained in my recent motorcycle accident (read more here) would prevent me from just about any flight, let alone a three-legged one from Atlanta to Chicago to Madrid to Barcelona, a second plan for a honeymoon, a back-up if you will, had to be made. Rebecca thought that plan should include a whole lot of nothing in case I was still somewhat immobile. And what does her mind translate that meaning? Sitting around on the veranda reading while sipping cocktails. And who am I to argue with that? As a child she had visited Asheville, NC to see the Biltmore Estate and found online that the Inn on Biltmore Estate had a large veranda with a view of the Blue Ridge Mountains. I had seen History Channel shows on the place and it intrigued me quite a bit, so why not? I was more interested though by the fact that I had heard of some great BBQ and eating down in Asheville. The BBQ part was almost a given in the Carolinas, but my uncle had recently sent me an article about the ten most surprising food cities as rated by a magazine, that included his beloved Pueblo, CO. Also on the the list was Wichita, KS (Rebecca's one-time home) and Asheville, NC, touted as a leader in the farm-to-table movement and also a city big on beer (recently named BeerCity USA). So sign me up!

In Chicago, those that do their best to abide by the Farm-to-Table philosophy proudly tell you so in their various ways, be it on the menu, in an interview with the chef, or by the high-priced PR firm's press releases. Asheville seems to follow suit. But the big difference is the ratio of those offering FtT cuisine far outnumber those in Chicago. It almost seems inverted: for 1 of every 20 Chicago places might boast it, it seemed like 20 in Asheville boasted it for every 1 that didn't! I am certain that this is skewed by the fact we went primarily to a more tourist geared neighborhood and researched online. But you do the same, and you'll see what I am saying!

The main area of the more reviewed restaurants was a downtown area full of little shops, a couple fine art galleries, a few, well, no, a LOT of hippies. This caught me off guard a bit. Granted the first night we parked outside a head-shop to grab dinner a few doors down. But the next day as we returned in search of some of the several brew-pubs, we noticed an even larger number of our dreadlocked, patchouli oil scented, tie-died friends. Later thinking and conversing with a local it made me wonder, which came first, the Asheville hippie or the earth conscious happenings found all around from dining to general living? After thinking that, everything else seemed less surprising.

Though we enjoyed some pretty good food on the Estate itself, such as those at The Bistro and The Dining Room, and snacks like delicious ice cream from The Creamery, they don't really fit the LotH approach. Nor did the delicious Indian meal the first night at Mela. Instead I will post about two great BBQ meals enjoyed in Asheville at Luella's Bar-B-Que and 12 Bones Smokehouse. Two great meals worth checking back in to read about! OK, I might write a little something about the great charcuterie the Chef de Cuisine Dave from the Dining Room sent out for us to enjoy!

(jump to my Luella's review here or 12 Bones here)

Great Find: GastroBrewery: Revolution Brewing Chicago

2010-06-08T16:11:00.002-05:00

Every once in a while, when out running errands, I'll remember that there are a lot of places in Chicago that I have been wanting to check out. And on rare occasion, I might actually be in the area of one of those places when I think about it. This was the case a couple weeks before my motorcycle accident when I found myself near the Logan Square neighborhood in Chicago. I wasn't real sure what the menu was like, but regardless, I was in the mood for a good mid-day beer on my Sunday (Monday). So I made a slight detour to the fairly recently opened and well received Revolution Brewing Company.

The menu turned out to be a decent mixture of fun pub-grub and some more traditional things like burgers and sandwiches. A couple entrees and pizzas round this out. But two things grabbed my attention rather quickly and nothing else swayed me away from them. I love a good beer-cheese soup. Rebecca and I have spent lots of time trying to find one, any, in Chicago and have never suceeded. So to see one with a home-made brew and local cheese, it took NO effort on my bartendresses part to get things rolling. And let me tell you, it is great. I am not a fan of sour cream or lots of thyme, but my first bite (slurp) led to me eventually wanting to lick the bowl clean!

That other item that I knew I'd be trying was the plate of house-made sausage and ham. I was a bit hesitant once I was told that the ham was a ham salad. I am not a fan of many white sauces, this includes mayonnaise, sour cream and ranch type sauces. But I braved it and was quite pleased. The ham used and been cured and cooked in house. I feel bad admitting it, bud I can't, for the life of me, remember exactly what the other sausages were. I know for a fact that one was a peppered beef-bourbon sausage. I ate here the same week I went into the hospital, and well, I can blame it on the pain drugs! I want to say that one was a Thuringer or knockwurst, two of my favorites. This one had great taste but the texture was slightly, just slightly, dry. The other wants to be remembered in my head as duck, but I can't swear by it. I feel my credibility slipping here with this lapse in memory, sorry. But I do remember the texture on this one was spot on as was everything else about it. The garnishes were perfect, a grainy mustard, cornichons and some dark rye bread. The only other thing on the menu I had wished I had room for was the bacon-fat popcorn. But that just means I need to go back soon for some more grub and beer! The beers I enjoyed most that day, in a build your-own tasting were the Workingman Mild and the Bottom Up Belgian Wit.

Great Find: GastroPub: Old Town Social Chicago

2010-05-31T10:55:00.003-05:00

Recently I hit the legal age to run for the position of Commander in Chief. But instead of beginning a campaign for 2012, I went out to celebrate with Rebecca and our good friends Art and Chelsea (of Pleasant House fame). Old Town Social in the Old Town neighborhood of Chicago has been on my list of places to check out for some time. I recently mentioned them in my Chicago Charcuterie posts here and here. I had enjoyed some of their charcuterie at some local festivals, but had never been into the place.

As some of our favorite friends with whom to dine, these two were down with ordering a bunch of share-able items. It's actually pretty easy at OTS, because the menu is quite geared for sharing. We opted for the cheese platter, the charcuterie platter and the accoutrement platter. One thing I would have liked to be a bit different with these would have been the ability to select the items on the platters. Many places offer the choice to build your own when it comes to platters, but OTS has all three of their platters pre-selected. This isn't horrible, especially when one can be indecisive (like me), but tonight, I was in the mood to select!

The charcuterie platter was great. It came with Finnochionna, Pepperone, Summer Sausage, Lardo and Mortadella. Every single one of these was executed perfectly. Textures, tastes, scents and moisture content nailed to the T. While items like this can be found across the city in high-end grocery stores, every single one of these was executed in house. Somehow Chef Jared Van Camp has gotten clearance from the infamous health department to do these goodies in the traditional way in a Chicago kitchen.

Our cheese platter was chocked full of goodness as well. It included Avondale Truckle Cheddar (c), Ader Kase Reserve Blue (c), Meadow Creek Dairy Grayson (c) and Zamorano (s). Again, each was a great selection of locally sourced dairyland deliciousness. I would like to have seen more than 2 of 12 cheeses not being a cow's milk. But they were tasty! Our "bar snack" accoutrements were 5 again preselected servings of marinated olives, awesome smoked almonds, a crunchy spiced chickpea, a somewhat runny but tasty piccalilli and some nice house-made pickles. Besides the 3 platters we also enjoyed: my always loved snack of deep-fried house-made pickles (top photo); a dish of asparagus, goat cheese, ramps and ham vinaigrette; frites w/ aioli; and even a nice and simple dessert of pecan pie.

The one thing I will surely be saving room for on my next visit is going to be the pork belly sandwich. It is currently served with a cider glaze, apple and blue cheese cole slaw and a chili aioli. The beer list here is quite extensive and the menu does a great job of describing and organizing the brews. The service was decent. We had a waitress who was working her first night solo. She did pretty well under the circumstances. We, a table of culinarians, found it funny when she described the lardo as "italian butter." We were amused!

Goodbye Ronald, hello homemade breakfast sausage!

2010-05-24T10:41:00.002-05:00

I don't do fast food too often. My developed tastes and increased conscience have led me away from a one-time big-hitter in my culinary repertoire. But lately not many box restaurants can pull me in. The biggest winner for a long time has been Arby's. I just love their juicy roast beef sandwiches. My fave is still the Bacon, Beef and Cheddar. And I may never want to give it up. Especially when you pair it with their curly fries with more cheese sauce and a Mt. Dew. The only other thing that calls my name regularly is a sausage and cheese biscuit for breakfast from McD's. and at a buck, it so easy. So I decided to just start making these myself at home every week and microwaving one or two every morning. So sorry Ronald, the only thing you have left for me is your fries on special occasions!

I had about 2 pounds of pork scraps left from the latest 'nduja batch, so I ground it up on the smallest KitchenAid die. Unfortunately I think my KA stand mixer may have been telling it is ready to move on as is it ground slower and slower through the 2# of meat. God I hope not. Anyway, here is my ingredient list:

2 # pork, ground
1 T salt
1 t black pepper
1/2 t white pepper
1/2 t sage, dried
1/4 t ginger, dried
1/4 t thyme, dried
1/4 t crushed red pepper flakes
2 garlic cloves, minced

I put on some latex gloves and got in and mixed the ingredients really well by hand. I imagine you could use the mixer paddle if you wanted, but with such a small batch it seemed unnecessary to me. I then formed patties a little bigger than my biscuits (Pillsbury, sorry avid bakers!) and cooked them away in my non-stick. I didn't have any cheese at home at the time, but it was just fine since these sausages came out so well. They are a touch herbal, but not in a bad way. If you aren't big on herbs, you might want to lay of the amount of the two at your discretion. The heat is there in a nice way. I might increase just a touch of ginger the next time, though it isn't needed, I just love the stuff!

*I did breakfast patties instead of links, but if I had done links I would have added about 1/2 C cold water in at the mixing point to help with the texture to be stuffed into links. Also, if you have fresh herbs instead of dried, be sure to follow the general rule of 2-3X the dried amount for fresh. i.e. 1/4 t dried would be 1/2-3/4 t fresh. This is because the dried version is a much more concentrated version.

Bresaola, official wedding version.

2010-05-16T21:09:00.001-05:00

Since the time restraints hit me harder than expected for the charcuterie for the wedding, I needed to choose wisely that which was going to grace the cheese and charcuterie table after the main courses were cleared at our May wedding. I had already done 30# of 'nduja that was well on its way to deliciousness. So I wanted something quick (less than a month), whole muscle (eye of the round) and something I was familiar with as to not take on too much in such short time. So I decided to redo the bresaola as a hybrid of the last versions I did here LotH. I was able to grab two pieces at about three pounds each. I did some basic trimming of the exterior to remove any silver-skin and tough spots. Then I split the two pieces down the center end-to-end so they could cure quickly and evenly.

I wanted to incorporate all the great things from both versions I made previously and leave out those that didn't seem a positive contribution. So for this version I gathered up some white wine, black peppercorns, juniper berries, bay leaves, fresh rosemary, minced garlic, lemon zest, orange zest, cure #2, salt and sugar. I cannot give the exact recipe at this moment because I am in the hospital while the recipe is at home, but I will included it later.

I put the peppercorns, juniper berries, bay leaves and rosemary into my spice grinder until it formed a chunky paste. I then added everything but the white wine together, mixed it well and generously covered each of the four pieces of round. Once I had used ALL of the cure I placed two pieces of the round into one of two Foodsaver bags and added half the wine to each bag. I then carefully vacuum sealed each bag trying not to suck out any of the wine itself. I dated these and put them in the back of the fridge. Every couple days if I remembered I would turn over the bag and squeeze the contents around to mix and coat well inside. Thanks to the vacuum seal though the meat was always in contact with the cure.

After two weeks of hanging around in the fridge these guys had began to firm up just right. Much like how bread gets firm/hard as it gets older, meat begins to firm up as it cures, but not as quickly, or as firm. It does take a bit of experience to start to know when enough is enough, but this is the only way to gain that experience. I would say that the meat should be half as flexible as when you first out it into the cure. But you always want to check the thickest part for this comparison.

Two weeks was just right for these pieces so out of the cure they went. They received a nice rinse in cold water and were then patted dry with paper-towels. Next each piece was wrapped in cheesecloth and tied at each end. We then weighed and noted the weight of each piece. They then joined their future co-stars for a drying period in the room. The remaining three weeks before the wedding should be perfect!

After a couple days in the room these already started picking up some of that pesky white mold. We wiped it down with a 4:1 water to vinegar solution. We left them in the fridge to quickly re-dry the surface. We re-wrapped in fresh cheesecloth and placed them back on the rack for more drying. We'll keep a close eye on these to monitor mold and weight-loss.

A bump in the road.

2010-05-12T13:25:00.001-05:00

When I started this blog I told myself that I must keep up to date with it. I didn't want to be another blog that got some people excited only to start to whimper off and fall into the rare-poster category. Some weeks I have had as many as three posts, but never less than a post a week. Not long ago I was even nervous about having a week post and ended up posting one or two more times that week. But last week was the first, and I hope last, time I didn't post at least that one time. And although some say excuses are for the weak, I'd say I have a pretty damned good one!

Three Saturdays ago I was on my way to work on my motorcycle and had an accident with a car. Since then I have been in the hospital on the mend, focussing primarily on being ready for our wedding on May 29. I fractured my right femur in three places near the top. The swelling and pressure was so bad in my thigh that they were required to perform a fasciotomy to relieve the pressure. And since then I have had to graft some skin to cover the fasciotomy site. A little over two weeks until the big day and I can barely walk with the aid of a walker or crutches. Add to that the fact my insurance company refuses to send me to acute-rehabilitation, and things are looking a little dismal!

To add to the strangeness of this all, one week before this accident I was driving my lovely Triumph home from work at 1am. I saw a lady maneuvering out of a a parallel space and moved to the left lane to give her room. She had plenty, but apparently I failed to note her intentions of making an illegal U-turn from that spot. Luckily my riding experience allowed me to put the bike down safely and walk away with only a bruised and sprained wrist. But my bike wasn't so lucky.

After a week of thinking about what to do about my transportation situation (my bike is my everyday driver, cold, wet, just not icy) I picked up another, older, slower and louder motorcycle on that unfortunate Saturday. Seems it wasn't quite loud enough to be heard by that man in the Lexus. It also seems he has lied to everyone about what he did so his insurance company has of course denied my claim.

On the upside, there are three people who have really stepped up to help out LotH. Luckily I was in a place for each of my various projects that my injuries have not left them to die. Rebecca, my fiancée, and Emily & Henning, the couple who own the room have seemingly happily taken on some new responsibilities. After Henning finished boring out the dowel-rod holes in the rack, the three of them filled it up with 32 'nduja sausages to begin their final drying stage. Rebecca had to bring these over from our apartment, solo. About a week later she had to determine the level of cure on the bresaola, rinse, dry, wrap, weigh and transport 6 pounds of eye-of-the-round over to the room. Once everything arrives over there, E&H have taken charge of photographing and weighing the projects and keeping me up-to-date from my very comfortable yet very-restrictive hospital bed.

While the Rehearsal Dinner Pig Roast and the Wedding are continuing as planned for the most part. The Honeymoon to Northern Spain has unfortunately been cancelled, or perhaps only postponed. We have decided to grab a couple nights of fun immediately following the big day, in Asheville, N.C. We'll be staying at the Inn on the Biltmore Estate and dining out as much as I can handle in culinarily rich Asheville. I hear they might have some good BBQ down there too! We will happily take any suggestions anyone might have, and we will surely let you all know what we find.

Round 2 'Nduja update.

2010-05-11T17:04:00.002-05:00

So after the four days of fermentation in my chamber (oven) it was time to get some smoke onto these 32 'nduja monsters. The pH had dropped below 5.0 in the first 24 hours after stuffing and fermentation began, and was down to 4.6 in less than 48 hours so I felt good about food safety. I did a week straight of daily smoking with hickory wood. Because I don't have a cold smoker I simply waited for the full blast of smoke from my propane smoker to hit and threw these guys in and killed the gas, in two rounds, for 15-20 minutes a day. Everyday before I smoked them I cooled them down in my fridge for an hour beforehand and returned them for another hour to cool back down slightly. Each day our apartment smelled like the best smoky Slim-Jims you've never eaten. This was great for me, Rebecca wasn't so excited! After the week and a half of fermentation and smoking it was time to see their new home, my recently built drying rack at Emily and Henning's.

At the point they had arrived at the room, they had already lost 15% of their weight. The room has stayed pretty much at 67˚ the whole time as our testing showed us beforehand. I have set the humidifier at 67% humidity and the sausage continued to lose weight a bit more quickly than expected. Only a couple smaller white mold spots have formed. We have redirected the humidifier spray to see if this helps.

In the week and a half since they've been in the room they've lost more weight, just about hitting my desired 30% total. I had originally shot for 30% but I have decided to let these ride to 35%. They have a great give when they're squeezed and are still spreadable so I'd like to let the flavor continue to develop. I have increased the humidity to 70% so they don't lose more weight than desired. I will have to keep an eye on this though as I don't want more mold to start on this normally mold-free delicacy. Also, at this point they have some company in the room from some other wedding day charcuterie. Less than two weeks for the final verdict for the wedding round!

Equipment: home-made custom drying rack.

2010-04-26T16:46:00.003-05:00

When I finally found a place to do my drying in a more controlled manner, I wanted to have a versatile drying rack for whatever I may decide to do. It also needed to fit into the "long-closet" type of room I was being allowed to use. So I was able to get a general idea to size, shape and placement of the to-be-built rack. I drew up a nice drawing using the skills I acquired in my High School drafting classes, back when you still used pencil and paper to make said drawings. Then off I went to Home Depot to grab up the supplies. It all came to about $80 with tax.

I wanted to be able to dry anything from small sausages to full hams, but had to keep it under 2 feet deep. I wanted to use dowels to hang the meats from, either strung up, or directly on them (i.e. polish sausages). I also wanted to keep it neat and not leave my kind friends' closet a mess or attract unwanted guests with floor drippings. So I designed this to hold a commercial sheet tray on the bottom. It's easily removed and cleaned. Once I got to my friends' place and showed them the plans, we checked it against the space. To increase the ease of passage to the things in the back of this space, I reduced this by 3 inches in depth. It will still easily hold the sheet tray, it just doesn't nestle down perfectly into the base, no biggie.

In order to attach the dowel rods, I had several options. I could have cut a notch in the top of each 2X4 and simply set each dowel into the notch. I could have purchased a metal "strap" the size of the dowel and attached it with screws. But I decided on a method that allows multiple formats and offers ease of removal so the hanging of the meats is that much easier.

With this set-up, you can slide the dowel rod (5/8") into a hole (3/4") drilled into the back bar. You slide it in past the flush point and swing the front end of the dowel up to the whole drilled directly across from the back hole and slide the dowel forward into the whole, flush.

By using this technique, I can hang everything on the dowel and easily install it onto the rack. There is no standing in the drying room hanging each item. The narrowness bares little impact on the installation of the goods. And in general, it is much neater in appearance. All of which are very good aspects of this design. I am coating the dowel rods in a chopping block mineral oil. This keeps it safe for the meats to come in full contact with the rods.

Once the rack is loaded up, I'll be sure to post another picture!

Round 2: Kinda quick 'Nduja

2010-04-21T02:23:00.007-05:00

As part of our culinary offerings for our wedding in May, I am getting to do a cheese and charcuterie table. I have to admit that I am a bit pressed for time in preparing the things I am offering, so I have to take the 6 week time-frame into account. I do think that this might be just enough time for a decent 'nduja, a quick version. You might have read about the lack of success with my first attempt. It was far from notable with it having over-dried and having a bizarre graininess. But as I eluded to in that last post, I have a couple fixes that I am banking on working out. Most importantly, my friends Emily and Henning (the same couple for whom I prepared the pulled shoulder) have recently moved. It just so happens that they have a room seemingly ideal for some charcuterie drying! And being a meat lover, Henning is happily accepting my offer of products in payment for his space and occasional tending to the goods (checking temperature, weight and refilling humidifier)!

Instead of beating a dead horse, I'll quickly remind you what wasn't right with the last batch: dry, grainy and it was rather mildly-porky in taste. So I changed the meat composition, peppers, added a controlled drying process, improved the pork quality and fermented this batch. And thus far they are looking much better, though I felt the last batch held good potential at the start. Since I wanted a large enough batch to give to friends as well as offer at the wedding, I ended up with a 24 pound batch, that should yield around 16 pounds in final product! The composition of this batch is:

3 parts Shoulder
2 parts fatback
1 part belly
9% hot pepper puree
9% sweet pepper puree
9% hot pepper powder
4.5% sweet pepper powder
Bactoferm™ F-RM-52 as directed (6g for my recipe)
.1 % cure #2
1% salt

These percentages are of the total weight of the meat products. The total pepper percentage might seem high, but since the puree is about half the concentration of the powder it is actually closer to 20%. I went with a fast acting starter culture (F-RM-52) since my drying time is limited before the wedding. I could have added some dextrose the help increase the fermentation, but I didn't want it too sour, so I didn't go for it this time. The pork came from Slagel, the peppers from Sausage Debauchery and the Bactoferm™, curing salt and casings from Butcher & Packer.

I ground the meat (I am a supporter of the "long strip" school that allows the meat to feed itself into the grinder) and fatback using the usual rules of chilling everything as cold as you can (meat, grinder, bowls, etc). I thought about chilling the pepper puree but realized since this wasn't going back in a fridge, it might be overkill. I am lucky to work in a professional, large kitchen. I was able to bring everything in and use the commercial space with much more ease than at home. I had access to a huge ice machine, an enormous stand mixer for mixing the farce, a commercial KitchenAid grinder (a bit faster than the one at home) and a 10# Dick brand sausage stuffer. I am also very lucky to have a fiancée who loves being in the kitchen. Rebecca was my sous-chef for all of this.

After grinding the protein/fat, I chilled it back down. I then assembled the stand mixer and alternated adding the ground proteins, the various forms of peppers, the salts and the culture (it required being mixed with 2% of the meat's weight in distilled water for 30 minutes prior). It mixed until everything seemed uniformly mixed, less than 3 minutes!

Then in 3 batches we were able to stuff the sausages into a medium sized (40-45mm) beef middle casing. I did these in roughly foot-long links, only tying the beginning and end of each section. It yielded roughly 32 pieces between 8-14 oz. each, depending on the varying width of the casing.

After this we went home to finish the more repetitious task of tying them off. At home I was able to better size these. I would tie off the open end and re-squeeze everything to an appropriate length. The tie was something new for me. The last batch left me worrying about the tie slipping off after all the weight was lost. I found a description of a butterfly process of tying that I think will fix this. I am not certain that I understood the text description, but here is how I tied them:

First I cut a small (3/4") split in the open end. I then slipped the two wings through the two opening of the the knot you see to the left.

This is how it should look. It is important that the lose strings are actually behind the loop in this step.

Pull these taught around the end and back under in the same direction they were headed.

Bring the twine back over the top and do a simple knot like the first step in tying your shoe.

Tie another knot in the opposite direction, leaving you with a double knot, that is tied behind the first loop, away from the end. And there you have it. This should allow for drying of the casing without allowing the slippage of the knot off the sausage end.

After this they all went into my oven. I have placed a cord with a lightbulb (100w) on it's end into the lower broiler. This raises the internal temperature to 83˚f, the median temperature (65˚ min. and 100˚ max) for this starter culture. I switch the racks inside so that the slight variations in temperature at different internal levels is not over-fermenting the top while it under-ferments the bottom. I also included large container of water to allow for adequate humidity at this stage, though it isn't controlled tightly. They will stay in here for 4 days. The pH at this point was about 5.4, and I'll check it 24 hours to be sure it dropped below 5, the safe level.

Next, the smoking and drying begins...

An egg-ceptional lunch, hamburgers in the BGE!

2010-04-15T13:44:00.001-05:00

Spring seems to have physically arrived here in Chicago. And along with this I dusted off the Big Green Egg and moved it to its Summer-long home on the communal space between our coach-house and the front-house. Thanks to our fairly moist basement, it had started to grow some small spots of white mold on the interior. So a quick fire-up at 500˚ inside killed it quickly. I scrubbed it down later (after lunch) to remove any visible signs of the unwelcome visitor.

I picked up a bag of Cowboy Lump Charcoal from Home Depot, 20oz. of stewing beef and a couple fresh baked rolls (one sesame/one cheddar). At home I ground and mixed the beef with some Pickapeppa sauce, fresh black pepper, garlic powder and crushed red pepper. I formed 2 huge (see the picture below) patties that would fit nicely onto the rolls. One got bagged up for the next day. The other was seasoned with more black pepper (I am a fiend) and sea salt (I never salt ahead, it pulls out too much moisture if not used soon).

Onto the grill grate it went, directly over the flame for a nice crust. I follow the rule to close the lid for anything thicker than your hand. Since was just under, open it stayed. A few minutes on each side and out it came at a medium-rare. I tend to like my burgers away from home at least medium, but since I ground this myself, the medium-rare was nice.

I also toasted the bun and cooked off a couple slices of some bacon, all in the egg. I topped it off with some miso-pickles from my friend Steve, and a combo of yellow and dijon mustards.

This was incredibly juicy and flavorful. I swear I could taste some Spring sprinkled on it. Maybe it was something in my head since it has been fairly nice out here in the Windy City. But if this is any sign of the warm days ahead, keep an eye out for some more meaty posts!

Chicago Charcuterie update

2010-04-15T00:37:00.001-05:00

Well, the word is in, and I was kind of surprised. The Publican ended up taking home the Gold in the Time Out Chicago Readers' Choice Awards for Best Charcuterie Program. In saying that I was surprised is in no way saying it was unmerited! Cured meats aside, it is all done in-house and they switch it up nicely with some regularity.

But some other nominees in that category didn't go home empty-handed. Jared Van Camp of Old Town Social took home the trophy for Best New Chef. The Purple Pig grabbed up the Best Late Night Menu category.

I am not sure what it says for being the big dog in town, but the only nomination for one of Paul Kahan's restaurants that didn't win was for Most in Demand Dish. The Publican's Pork Rinds lost out to, oh wait, Pork Belly Tacos at his other place, Big Star! Personally, I voted once for each of these, love 'em both! Once again, my favorite sausage shack won an award, Most Worth the Wait at Hot Doug's was no surprise. My second home showed up twice on the ballot but failed to take home any prizes. Wait 'til next year guys!

For the full list of results, click here! Congratulations to all the nominees and winners.

Some hunger-inducing reading: Smithfield, Parma and Spain

2010-04-14T01:10:00.000-05:00

In preparation of Easter it seemed I came across a lot of good reads about ham. I have been a little busy with wedding prep and work to get a post worthy of you, so I am offering a couple good reads to amuse you in the mean time.

The Wonders of Ham
A nice story comparing the country hams of Virginia and Parma, Italy. Informative!

Jamon
A great travel log in Spain eating some great sounding delights! Honeymoon here we come!

The Meat District
An article on the Meat District in London where I recently spent some time staging and dining. More than just ham!

(Smithfield Market from the balcony of Smith's, London)

I also just got news that a neighbor is going to allow me to use his garage rooftop as an urban garden. I have a great friend and also a newer acquaintance very versed is such things from whom I am looking forward to drawing on their knowledge. Pickle buckets, PVC and ladders are all in my future. Does this type of thing interest you? If so I might post things as I move along. But if you guys are just looking for meat, meat and more meat, I understand that too!

But worry not my friends, packages have been received and plans are in order for the next post. I'll give you a teaser, it involves a fiery Calabrian sausage I've attempted before!

Something sweet: Jalepeno Jelly

2010-04-05T12:28:00.002-05:00

Believe it or not, I've made something not meaty. I will admit I do it fairly regularly. But since this is a preserve and it's done in an artisanal way, I thought it merited being shared with you guys. I love preserving. I know it's not very manly, but it helps offset all the extra testosterone built up from my smoking and braising! In my past posts I have talked a lot about my growing up and why I like meat so much. But I haven't yet talked about my paternal grandfather, Grampa Joe. We was an airplane mechanic in the Army Air Corps, was part of The Civilian Conservation Corps under FDR's New Deal, and even later worked for the postal system with my maternal grandfather. But two of the biggest things I remember him for now, and always will, are his hobbies. He was an avid carpenter/handy man. He is the one I credit for my ability to build, fix and create. He had a huge "wood shed" with all the necessary power-tools and he was always more than happy to take me out there and show me how to do something. I would look forward to having a reason to have him teach me a different technique or use a tool I had not yet seen. I took advantage of this when ever I had the chance.

But it was his other hobby that I think most other people cherish most in their memories. He was an avid gardener. Their property on the west side of town was over an acre, and at one point it seemed that half of it was a garden. I imagine his green thumb came from his time with the CCC. These young men made our National Parks what they are today, beautiful, safe and accessible. And this definitely carried over into his later years. Unfortunately for me, I was never really into gardening or eating vegetables. I remember my cousin would come over and head straight to the tomato plants, grab one, come inside and devour it with a little salt. I preferred to use the garden as a back drop to my target practice with grampa's pellet gun he'd let me use. As he grew older the garden grew smaller and the dust in the tool shed got thicker.

But as I have mentioned in the past, I have since learned how to make vegetables so much more enjoyable than anyone was showing me as a child. So much so that now I dream of having a garden someday soon. In my mind it would be a french potager, a seasonal garden that is planned out to be able to plant and change the items according to their season to get the most for your space and time. But until then, I just keep practicing making the most of mother nature's gifts for us. Preserving has been a favorite of mine. Making an abundant product to last year-round so it doesn't waste, and to taste delicious in the middle of it's "off-season!" So when I went to the grocery store a couple months ago and saw all the granny smith apples, I knew it was time for some jalepeno jelly.

Grab yourself the following:

5 # Granny Smith Apples
5 ea Jalapeno peppers
2 ea Serrano peppers
1 ea Red Bell pepper
3.5 C White vinegar
3.5 C Water
5 C Granulated Sugar

the equivalent of 6 C of canning jars, already properly processed according to your local needs.

1. Chop the apples up into medium sized chunks (1/2" - 3/4"), including the core and skin (the pectin that causes the "jellification" come from the cores). Place them in a non-reactive pot with the chopped up serranos and bell peppers. Cover it all with the vinegar and water and cook over medium heat until the apples are falling apart. If the liquid doesn't cover the fruit after it starts cooking and with regular stirring, you can add some water, but this shouldn't be needed too often

2. Once everything is tender smash it all up a bit more with a potato masher or large spoon.

3. Place the mashed goods into a finer-mesh colander and allow it to release it's liquids. Resist the temptation to force it through manually or else it will cloud up your jelly. This can last several hours.

4. Measure the juice and put it into a non-reactive pot. Add about 2/3 C of sugar for every cup of juice. For a sweeter version you can add up to a cup per cup, but it's pretty sweet.

5. Bring this mixture to a soft boil (about 220˚) and skim the scum off the top as needed. Place a plate in your freezer. Reduce by about 1/3.

6. Seed and cut your jalapeno peppers into a small dice of about 1/8" square as it reduces.

7. Using the frozen plate, place a small dot of the jelly onto the plate. Wait about 30 seconds and run your finger through it. If your finger goes smoothly through it, reduce further. If the jelly wrinkles as you pass your finger through, it is at the right place.

8. Take 1 cup of the jelly and place it in a small pot with the jalapenos and cook over medium heat for about 2 minutes. This helps keep the jalapeno juices from diluting the mixture at the top of the jars after processing.

9. Evenly distribute the diced jalapeno mixture into the bottom of the jars. Pour the jelly into the jars to just within 1/4" of the top. Process these according to your local standards (depending on elevation, etc).

This stuff is best with a nice triple cream cheese on a cracker. It's great on crackers, biscuits and even a ham sandwich. Store it in a cool place and it should last for months if you can leave it alone that long! Keep it in the fridge once you open it,

Let me explain!

2010-03-31T10:53:00.001-05:00

I guess there are a couple things I would like to air out for everyone. Perhaps no one has even noticed or questioned them, but I'd feel better to let you all know a few things!

I am happy to share recipes. If it is a recipe that I assembled myself I will usually put it in the post. If it is something I got from a published book, I will not publish it on my website, but will always happily credit the author who put the time into their publication and link directly to it in hopes you'll make the wise investment and buy one of these great resources. Either way though, I would likely send you a recipe via email if you request it, and again urge you to buy the book!

My name is Darrin McCowan. I have no problem telling the world who I am, but again I don't feel like putting too much info out there until I see a need for everyone with internet access to know everything about me. Heck, if you read my intro posts, you might know more than many of my friends!

I work at a HUGE new (12/09) restaurant in Chicago. While I'd love to tell the world to check it out, I would not want anyone to tie responsibility of what I do here to the restaurant. Again, I am hiding nothing, just being pre-cautious! I work the Fish station one night a week, and I head-up the lounge kitchen and do charcuterie and special prep projects the rest of the week.

I do the majority of the photography myself. I studied photography out of high-school so I know how to work a camera. I do struggle a bit with trying to incorporate creativity AND documentation while doing these projects, in a usually hurried manner. My fiancée Rebecca helps with the styling when I actually complete a task while she is home. She is a graphic designer by trade, for a medium restaurant empire here in Chicago. When she helps out, it comes through in the photos as she has recently become quite interested in food-styling, how perfect! Perhaps someday we'll have quite the production like Donna and Michael Ruhlman. I am a trained graphic designer too, but you wouldn't guess that by the lack of design of this site!

Rebecca and I are marrying this coming Memorial Day weekend. We are breaking the bank and heading to Spain for 10 days for our honeymoon. While I cannot guarantee regular posting while abroad, I do assure plenty of meaty stories to follow our time there eating everything but the squeal (a great book by the way, click here.) We might drink some wine, beer and cider too ;-) We are also having a pig roast for the rehearsal dinner, which I am almost as excited for as the wedding, go figure. I will surely be documenting that experience, being led by Marty "the pig man."

That's about all I can think of right now that you, my few readers, may have questioned. So thanks for stopping by. Thanks for all the comments you are about to leave too, since that's the only way I really know that anyone really reads anything here!

Darrin

(the photo at top is of some of the rare breed beef offered in London at Smith's of Smithfield the night I staged there)

(edited 05/11)

Crispy strips of smoked Belly, a.k.a. Bacon

2010-03-30T12:59:00.002-05:00

One of the most common things I hear from the few vegetarian friends I have is that of all the meaty deliciousness they left behind, it's bacon that they miss the most. I can see this. I am not so understanding of those meat eaters out there who claim to enjoy non-pork bacon though. Turkey bacon in particular. I understand curing something besides pork, but slicing it thin and calling it bacon doesn't do it for me. I have had, and enjoyed, beef fry, a kosher beef preparation very similar to bacon, but at least they aren't calling it beef bacon. I have read about lamb bacon and again question the use of the name. But who am I to say what other people can and can't call their creations. I just know that I would look at it with discern if anything but pork carried the sacred name (I know, sacred, a bit strong). But since I am sure you've already read my introduction post, you know how I feel about my bacon. It was one of the few meats I had with some regularity as a child, and will never want to live without it.

So that being said should make it no surprise that I enjoy making my own bacon at home. I can control the quality of the pork, the thickness of the slices (thin, thick, lardon slices), the additional flavorings (maple, black pepper, etc), the amount of smoke and type of smoke used (applewood, hickory, etc) and if I want to cold smoke it or hot smoke it.

I use the basic dry cure from the Charcuterie book every time, the dextrose version. It calls for curing with the skin on, but it isn't imperative as long as you don't over cure it since the skin slows down the cure a bit. You can tell best by the feel of the firmness. It should feel like a medium well done steak when the bacon has reached the proper firmness. Starting to get somewhat firm, but not so firm that it doesn't give when you pick it up. As usual, I cure mine in a Foodsaver bag so I don't have to worry about flipping it regularly. I added some fresh ground black pepper to this batch. As everything of late, I purchased my belly from Slagel Family Farms and picked it up from Mado here in Chicago. This four pound piece cured for eight days. After the cure I took it out of the bag and rinsed it under cold water, but not rubbing it as to knock off the pepper. I then set it on a rack for good circulation and let it rest in the fridge overnight to form a pellicule for better smoke adhesion.

I did a fully cooked hot smoke for this round. I used a light (short) smoke with hickory in my gas smoker at 400˚. It was about 45 minutes until the internal temperature reached 145˚. The smoke blast lasted about 20-30 minutes and was fairly light. I did this so that the purity of the pork flavor could shine through more than the smoke on this batch, and it worked perfectly. As soon as it came out of the smoker it went back on the (cleaned) rack and back into the fridge overnight. Again, it went in to work with me and hit the slicer for an even thick slice.

The dextrose in this cure tends to cause a darker ring around the edge of the bacon when it cooks. I like this because it gets crispy without getting bitter. You do have to be careful of this though because it will get bitter if it is burned. Cook this on a medium heat and resist the temptation to turn the heat up. This belly had a great fat distribution and left the bacon tender even with a good amount of fat rendered in the pan, which of course you save for later use!

In the past I have done a cold smoke method both with my indoor stovetop smoker and my outdoor gas smoker. Both of which I simply place the bacon over a tray of ice and put it in just as the smoke blast hits its peak. I keep the internal temperature below 80˚ and like the hot smoke, get it straight into the fridge after it comes out of the smoker. You can see the difference in appearance when comparing the above sliced photo (hot smoked) with the photo below (cold smoked).

This is another recipe you can personalize all you want. You can change up the sweetener: brown sugar, molasses, cane sugar, etc. You can add herbs and /or seasonings. You can change the wood you smoke with: apple, cherry, oak, walnut, hickory, etc. You can adjust the level of smoke and the method (hot or cold). The only limits are your imagination and understanding of the processes.

The Leprechaun's pot of Corned Beef Brisket

2010-03-22T12:33:00.008-05:00

Like most Americans, I am a mutt, a crossbreed, a cornucopia of mostly European bloodlines. But I can say that from both sides of my family I have a good amount of Irish, Scotch-Irish, even Kentucky Irish (one of the many sources for the term Rednecks). Throw in some French, German and Crow Indian and you have the whole me. My middle name is Patrick and my family name starts with a Mc as if the above didn't help or my pasty white skin and red-headed/freckled past wasn't enough to give me a good reason to prepare the Mid-March Feast of Corned Beef. But you don't have to walk with a shillelagh or kiss the Blarney Stone to make this treat at home from scratch. It does take a week from start to finish though, so be sure to plan ahead if you want this for the big "everybody's got some Irish in 'em" day.

I personally used a sous-vide method and will describe that, but I will also let you know what to do if you don't have a vacuum sealer since a decent zip-lock will work too. But first you'll need the following:

5 # Beef Brisket (you can larger or smaller, but adjust the amount of spices accordingly)

1 t Black peppercorns

1 t Coriander seeds

1 t Mustard seeds

5 ea. Bay leaves, crumbled

10 ea. Allspice

4 ea. Cardamom pods, smashed

8 ea. Juniper berries

1 C Kosher salt

3/4 C Brown sugar

1 t Curing salt #1 (optional to preserve pink color)

One the first day you'll need to create the brine. Assemble all the items from the second section above. Put all of these items into a pot with 2 quarts of water and bring to a boil. Once it reaches a boil allow it to steep for about 30 minutes. After the 30 minutes you can add in 2 more quarts of ice water to cool it down. Once the brine has cooled completely place the brisket into a container that will allow it to be submerged by the brine. I used a roasting pan for my long flat brisket. Pour the brine over the brisket (this brisket was again from Slagel Family Farm), making sure it is completely covered. If not, you can add a little more cold water. I used a lid from a pot to keep the brisket submerged as it tried to float to the top. Cover the container and place it in the fridge for 5 days, turning it over every day or two.

After its brining period, you want to remove the brisket and set it aside. First you need to strain all the pickling spices out of the brine by draining the brine through a strainer fine enough to catch the spices. Reserve the spices and rinse the brisket three times in a cold change of water. Since my brisket was so large, I split it into two pieces and put each piece into a separate Foodsaver bag. I then split the spices that I strained into the two bags. I added about a half of an ice tray of ice ice cubes to each bag and sealed them. I used ice because the Foodsaver unit would actually suck plain water out if I had simply added water, but it works fine if the water is in solid ice form. If you are going to use the zip-lock method here, you can simply use water, but get out as much air as you can when closing the bag, it is a very important step. Next I got a large pot and placed the bags inside. I then filled the pot with water and placed it on the stove covered. I turned the oven to 170˚, my lowest possible setting. I heated the pot with the brisket bags on the stove until it just started to boil, only a few bubbles visible. I then placed it in the oven. I let it cook sous-vide for 48 hours. My oven tends to turn itself off after a few hours so I would regularly check it and reset it so this wouldn't happen.

Corned Beef & Cabbage:

After the long 48 hours had passed, I had to start thinking about the 2 different preparations. The first was the Corned Beef and Cabbage dish. I seared off some white cabbage (a quarter cabbage per person) that I had cut into 8 wedges, some russet potatoes and some fat carrot slices. I did this over high heat in a cast iron skillet with a little corn oil. I then strained the hot juices from the brisket bag through a strainer again, this time discarding the spices. At this point you need to check the saltiness of the liquid and make any adjustments. If it is salty, you will need to add water to it so your vegetables aren't over salted. This liquid then went into the cast iron skillet with the seared veggies, just over half the depth of the veggies, not to cover. I simmered them for about 20 minutes, turning half way through, until all the veggies were done. If something is finished before the rest, take them out so they don't over cook.

Just before the veggies finished, I sliced the brisket to my liking, thick or thin is your preference. I poured the Guinness so it had cascaded by the time the veggies were ready, and I plated the meat. Once the veggies finished onto the plate they went.

Corned Beef sandwich:

The next preparation was the sliced corned beef for sandwiches. Go back to point where I took the sous-vide bags out of the oven. I took the more solid end of the brisket and placed it, still in the bag, onto a small tray. I then filled a wide flat-bottomed container with cold water and placed it onto the bag o' brisket. It immediately went into the fridge until the next day. This is done to press the very tender brisket into a more firm shape so it can be sliced thin.

The next day I took it to work and threw it on the slicer. This can easily be done at home to what ever thickness you prefer with a simply sharp knife. I like uniformity and speed, so I cheated! I bought some dark rye and some english cloth-bound cheddar to make some sandwiches. I lightly buttered the rye and put some sliced cheddar onto each piece. I quickly heated up the corned beef in a sauté pan. I then put the meat onto the bread and toasted the whole thing to a crispy perfection, obviously flipping half-way through. I grabbed a homemade pickle spear and stuffed myself silly!

Corned Beef Hash:

What do you do with all that scrap if there is some left over after the first two preparations? Hash it is! Chop up all the scraps into a medium sized dice and add it to some diced potatoes and onions that you have browned off in a skillet/sauté pan. Season it up with some salt and pepper and you are sure to not have a sign of anything corned left in your kitchen, unless you insist upon talking about your green clovers, blue diamonds and purple horseshoes in a bad Irish accent, but I guess that's more corny than corned!

Chew on This

2010-03-16T10:18:00.011-05:00

Ever since I was a little kid there has been a place in my heart, and belly, for the chewy goodness of beef jerky. Whether it was the simple stuff in the plastic zip-locks at the grocery store or the clever use of the scraps they used for the shredded jerky that they packaged into the "chewing tobacco" dip cans found on the counters of gas stations across Illinois, I gobbled it up. Even at a young age I appreciated the history of salting and drying meat to save for later. While I personally never had to worry about storing the meat from a whole buffalo during a long and arduous journey, the lore of it intrigued me. And so did the taste. Until the late 90s I had only ever had a beef jerky. But while living in hunter-central Wisconsin I had my first venison jerky and loved the mild gaminess of it. Unfortunately I haven't had it since.

There was a turning point for me earlier in that decade when I found a jerky recipe in the "How To" section of a Maxim Magazine. I had never considered that it could be made at home. I guess I bought into that "slabs of meat drying in the plains over a wooden rack" idea a little too much. Thanks Jack Link. But the idea was exciting and frugal for me. I could make this stuff at home and not have to pay a ridiculous amount of money for such little product. So before I knew it I was making the good stuff a couple times a year, and it never lasted long. Not because it spoiled, but because I devoured it! I remember it being a combination of soy sauce, worcestershire sauce, sugar and hickory liquid smoke (and of course a couple other little things). It was oven dried at the lowest setting over night. I don't recall what cut it called for in the recipe, but it ended up being only slightly cheaper than buying the stuff in the bag. But like we often feel when we create something delicious, I did it myself!

When I bought my Gardenmaster Dehydrator I immediately set out to create some more delicious jerky. After digging through my stack of recipes I was unable to find that old torn-out page from Maxim. But there is no shortage of recipes online. I was surprised to see how many of them also included those same main four ingredients. Others included various seasonings, teriyaki sauce, barbecue sauce, ketchup, etc. So out of curiosity I inspected the labels of some of the brands I grew up eating to see what created the flavor I was most familiar with. And to no surprise, there they were again. While I imagine my Crow indian ancestors were not fermenting soy beans like their friends across the Pacific or creating an anchovy based sauce like their future enemies across the Atlantic, I am confident that the sugar/sweetener and smoke were available to them. But I enjoy the flavors added by these more recently available items, so why not use them?!

My basic marinade consists of those same things, 2 parts soy sauce, 1 part worcestershire, 1 part light brown sugar and black pepper. The total amount depends on how much meat you're doing. For the 10 pounds I did for this post I used a cup per "part" and it was just enough. I simply mix the ingredients and give it a little time for the sugar to start to dissolve. If you want to add some smokiness, remember that liquid smoke packs quite a punch so don't over-do it. I don't like to use the stuff. In nicer weather I'll throw the mostly dehydrated jerky into the outdoor locker-smoker for about 45 minutes to finish off the drying while adding some "dried by the fire" effect, and it's great.

I like to use a less expensive cut for my jerky, so I usually use inside round or top round. I saw my grocer had inside round, presliced (just thick enough) on sale for $1.99/lb so I grabbed 10lbs. It is important to choose a lean cut without much connective tissue. The fat isn't always a bad thing though. Fat tends to go rancid after a while. But since I like fat and my jerky never lasts long enough for anything to go bad or rancid, I tend to be OK with a little fat. The connective tissues can be troublesome though. Jerky is meant to be, well, jerky. But grisly and over-chewiness because of connective tissues is off-putting and kinda gross. So avoid this for sure. I have the meat sliced seemingly thick at about 1/4". You can go a little thinner for a shorter drying time but you have to watch it closer. It also marinates quicker if you go thinner. It is nice to consider if you are less patient or don't have a dehydrator and use the oven. One important thing about the slicing of the meat is to ask them to slice it with the grain. This gives you the long tearable stands and contributes to the desired chewiness.

Marinate the meat for at least 12 hours in a non-metal container. Zip-lock style bags work well too. I will get in the meat and mix it up with my hands to insure an even distribution of the marinade. I also will occasionally put a paper-towel over the top layer to keep it in contact with the marinade, as I did in this batch that had just enough marinade. Since I have only 4 trays for my dehydrator, the last batch stays in the marinade for almost twice as long as the first while it waits for its turn! After about 24 hours though it has absorbed about all it can take on flavor-wise and it's just staying moist at this point.

For my dehydrator, I set the temp at 125˚ for about 5-6 hours for the 1/4" slices. You want the meat to be dried and chewy, but not inedible. This might be tricky for some. You want it to give when you try to flex/bend it, without cracking. If you go too thin on the slicing this happens much easier. In this post the meat was a little under the 1/4" so I went for about 3.25 hours and it was perfect. If you don't have a dehydrator, you can do this in your oven, paying attention to its progress. Set your oven to its lowest setting, usually between 175-200˚. Lay out the meat on a sheet tray, preferably with some sort of drying rack on it to allow better evaporation. When I did this in my oven back in the day I did it at 175˚ overnight, about 8-10 hours. But since each oven varies as well as the thickness of your cut, you'll have to be able to make judgement on this method just like the dehydrator method. Again, dry but not too dry as that it cracks when you try to fold it.

A few variations or fun things to do when making jerky come from the seasoning. In the past I have added curry powder, BBQ spices, fresh cracked black pepper, togarashi & sesame seeds, and a whole plethora of fun or ethnic seasonings. I do this at one of two phases, depending on its form. All of the dry things except the Japanese items can be added either into the marinade or directly onto the meat once on the dehydrator trays. I do the togarashi & sesame seeds after the marinade. I also prefer to do the cracked pepper after the marinade for a fresher taste.

I tend to place these immediately into a zip-lock bag out of the dehydrator. It prevents them from getting any drier. The 10lbs. batch gave me four rounds in the dehydrator, each round filling 2 quart-sized zip-lock bags.

Meat butter on bread, or Roasted Bone Marrow and Parsley Salad

2010-03-08T13:34:00.001-06:00

Since you are on a blog that focuses on charcuterie and other meaty items, it is likely that you've been around the web once or twice reading protein enriched writings. And it is also probably safe to assume that since you are media savvy and like smart-alec cooks telling stories that you are at least familiar with Anthony Bourdain. And since you likely have at one point been entertained by his musings, you have probably read his thoughts on Chef Fergus Henderson and that little restaurant he runs across the pond, St John. Well I certainly had when I was living in Toulouse, France and decided to be the ultimate tourist and visit Dublin for St. Patrick's Day. But being on a budget I had to go about it in an affordable way, and by affordable I mean budget airlines and cheap lodging. The budget airline took me from Toulouse to Dublin, via London. But the connecting flight was the following day each way. So I found myself having some time to kill in a city I had yet to visit, except of course, during lay-overs.

But after having read so much praise from Bourdain and so many other lesser known food-writers out there, I was very eager to give St John my sparse coin. After reading nothing but positive reviews and deciding that I could almost afford a lunch there after the horrible exchange rate, I set out that morning to eat nose to tail. And of course I had to have the oft written about signature starter of Roasted Bone Marrow with Parsley Salad. I had never eaten bone marrow, and usually avoided that part of the steaks that included a slice of bone when younger. But the descriptions I had been reading tantalized my taste buds.

My lunch that day was fantastic. Of course I started with the marrow, then had a braised oxtail main course and even had room for the eccles cake and lancashire cheese. I also picked up the UK version of his book Nose to Tail Eating. I was unaware however that the entire time I was dining, the chef was too, behind me with his father. Upon learning this I asked if it would be bothersome to meet the man. The waitress informed me he was OK with it and I spoke briefly with him and his father. I told him I appreciated all the French wines he offered from the region I was living in France, his father told me a story from his short time he visited Illinois and Mr. Henderson even ended up sending over a digestif before I headed out after he signed my copy of his book.

When I got back to France I started noticing how easy it was to find veal marrow bones at the various marchés I frequented. So I began enjoying this fabulous dish in my tiny apartment kitchen somewhat regularly. After getting back to the US and moving to Chicago I was occasionally surprised by seeing some version of a roasted marrow dish pop up on a restaurant menu. There was even one at my current job when we first opened. After trying a couple sources I found a good and reliable product from Slagel Family Farms downstate. I made this at home for the first time in the US for a New Year's Day dinner last year and I think it was officially the favorite dish of the night. And the best part is, it's not only richly delicious, but fairly simple to create at home. And at under $3/lb., it's quite affordable.

If you aren't sure where to find the bones, try a real butcher, or even an ethnic meat purveyor. They are available as beef marrow bones or occasionally as veal marrow bones. It is important to be sure how they are cut though. Most places sell these for use in stocks so they are cut in large pieces and often include a joint section. I use cross-cut pieces 3-4" tall. Some places I have eaten use a split-cut bone, almost like a canoe that completely exposes the marrow but is 4-5" long.

When I get these home the first thing I do is soak them a day or two in a salt water solution. Not too salty (it should taste like the sea), but enough salt to help pull out the blood. You can see the difference in the first photo and the second photo. In the second photo I have a pair of bones that have been cleaned after the soak on the left and a pair uncleaned after the soak on the right. The uncleaned are noticeably whiter than those in the first photo and the cleaned ones are even more white. I did some cleaned and others not cleaned to show you the difference in appearance after roasting. Cleaned or not, it is your preference as cleaning these can be a pain in the butt, even after the soaking. You pretty much use the back side of a knife and scrape the bones bare.

I roast these for about 20 -30 minutes at 400˚. It is important to keep an eye on them. It is entirely possible to actually render all the delicious marrow out of the bone and onto your roasting tray. This can happen to skinnier pieces as the fatter ones are still not yet done, so be mindful of this. You want the center of the marrow to be soft and spreadable, but not liquified. Don't be afraid to scoop some out to check until you've gained the experience to make a proper judgement without doing so.

While these are roasting a grab a couple shallots and slice them thinly. I pick about half a cup of parsley leaves and rough chop them. And I rough chop about 2 tablespoons of capers. A simple lemon juice and olive oil vinaigrette is used to dress all these things when I mix them together and season it with salt and pepper. I slice some baguette rounds and throw them in the oven as the bones finish roasting. And a small salt dish with some coarse salt of your liking (Malden here) is all you need. Well, almost. You will need a slightly "smaller than most" knife to get inside the bones to get every last morsel of goodness out and to spread it on the toast. A little salad and a sprinkling of salt and you have a delicious snack or start to a great meal!

* a trick I learned early on when I did accidentally render out too much from the bones was that you can actually save that liquid in the roasting pan and let it cool slightly (room temp.) and spread it on just like the marrow left in the bones.

You've got the brains, I've got the brawn.

2010-02-26T11:06:00.000-06:00

When working in the second restaurant during my stage in France, I had my first experience with fromage de tête, what we Americans call head-cheese, or as I learned later while staging in London, the Brits call brawn. I now see some humor too in the Pet Shop Boys song (Opportunities) that mentions, much like the title here, brains and brawn, but in a much different sense. My Apple dictionary might help explain...

brawn |brôn|
noun1 physical strength in contrast to intelligence :commando work required as much brain as brawn.2 Brit. meat from a pig's or calf's head that is cooked and pressed in a pot with jelly.I will admit that the first bite was quite off-putting many years ago. It was rather indescribable at the time. It was like pork times 100, an unusual pork taste times 100. It was served with a sauce ravigote (mustard, vinegar, shallot and capers). But less than a week later I was found snacking on the scraps every time I had to slice it for service. So when I made my last batch of Bath Chaps I picked the remaining meat morsels and decided to make a mini-brawn.

I had about 40qts of stock/cooking liquid left from the cooking of the whole head I used for my chaps. I strained it and put it back on to reduce much further. I added two pig trotters I had picked up with the head. I had picked about 1 loose quart of remaining meat. I then shreaded/pulled the meat into smaller strips as opposed to fat chunks. Once I reduced the liquid down quite a bit, to about 8 quarts, I set aside 1qt that I seasoned and added about 2T of white balsamic vinegar. I then tossed the meat in about 2T of chopped parsley. Since my terrine holds about 4lbs. of meat, I deemed it way too big to use. Instead I lined a 2qt. pot with plastic wrap and found another pot that would fit nicely just inside. I then placed the meats inside the larger pot and poured the slightly cooled liquid in to just cover the meat. I covered the bottom of the second pot in plastic and placed it inside the other pot to slightly press the brawn. It went back into the fridge for several hours to set.

A few hours later I pulled the plastic out that lined the large pot and with it came the round brawn. I could tell right away that I hadn't reduced the liquid far enough. So I warmed the whole thing enough to re-liquify the stock. I then disposed of this already seasoned batch and further reduced the remaining 7qts down to about 3. I then started the whole potting process over again, using a touch less salt and a bit more vinegar. The next day when I un-potted it, it was nice. The taste was much like that first French version I had. This tends to be served in slices about 1/4-1/2" thick. To avoid an overpowering porkiness I might consider adding gelatin in the future and reducing it less.

This is a great product for those of you that love the flavor of pork. It can be quite strong when done in this manner, but you're tasting nothing but pure pork flavor. This dish is normally done with the meat from the entire head, while I used everything but the jowls and tongue since I used those for the Bath Chaps. Like so many cold pork preparations, it is nice with some toast and mustard and maybe a little green salad with a vinaigrette.

Tough choice in Chicago Charcuterie.

2010-02-22T10:32:00.003-06:00

One of the hardest times I tend to have when ordering charcuterie is simply deciding what I want to enjoy. Do I stick with an old favorite like chorizo? Do I try a twist on something I am kinda familiar with like a lamb lomo? Or do I go completely off the path and get something I have never even heard of like a Catalonian vic fuet? If it is affordable and offered I usually opt for a pre-selected collection on a "platter/board" of some sort. But that isn't always an option. Sometimes I might pick one from the first two categories just listed and ask the server to pick a third for me, kinda leaving just a tiny element of surprise.

But then I had to throw all my methods of operation to the wind recently when I was forced to select only one thing from a charcuterie list. I guess the only good point was the fact that instead of ten things to choose from, there were only five. This was made more difficult though by the simple fact that all five offerings were great choices. I had eaten all five before, so going for the one that was new wasn't an option. Another important thing to consider was the fact that I wasn't simply choosing between a type of charcuterie, but rather an entire charcuterie "program" from five of Chicago's best pig-loving hot-spots. I was excited to see this category while I was clicking away on the website for the TimeOut Chicago Eat Out Awards reader's poll. But when I saw the list I was suddenly overwhelmed and felt like a grandparent being asked to choose a favorite grandchild. And it wasn't made easier by having a juvenile delinquent or murderer as an option.

*In knowing the laws of Chicago's Dept. of Health and requirement of HACCP certification for even the most simple curing, I am going to falsely assume that any non-fresh/cured/dried charcuterie was obtained elsewhere, though much consideration was given to it.
*All writing here reflects the current menu available on each restaurant's website, or of the menu at the time I visited.

The first choice offers a very straight forward and large selection, classical and done that way it has been for a long time. A large choice of dried salumi, a cured loin, a non-dried salume, a paté, a rillette, a liver mousse and even a "cold-cut." The restaurant places a good emphasis on their charcuterie section, and it is far from being simply a trend at Old Town Social. This is the only one of the options at which I have not eaten. I have however enjoyed some of Jared Van Camp's charcuterie at various off-site events and look forward to going in to eat.

The word about the next joint on the list had spread like wildfire throughout Chicago's pork-centric foodie world. But it seemed like forever for it to arrive. The chef was well known and rightfully respected as a master of the pig, so it was appropriate for his next place to be a European beer-hall with lots of pork on the menu. And for charcuterie, it offers a slightly different grouping. It has three types of Aged hams and a meat section with a choice of several main courses, but more importantly for this arena, a rillette and a charcuterie plate. This weeks plate includes a meat pie (paté en croute), head cheese, a galantine and some cured meats. The second choice is the highly touted Publican from Paul Kahan et al.

The third option in this poll is a husband and wife owned and operated place. While I have the chef's blog linked from my "blogs" section, he doesn't update too often. But seeing that he offers (butchery/cooking) classes and runs a rather popular and wonderfully delicious restaurant, I can't blame the guy! I am sure that while the selection is small, every bit is made in house, without a doubt. This week there are three charcuterie choices: a chicken liver paté, a cicciloi and a rillette. Again, everything here is surely made in house, which is why the selection is small but well done by Rob Leavitt at Mado.

The fourth place on the poll is the only one I have written about here on the Hog. They have an even larger selection than the first place. A nice list of what they call cured meats, and another of smears. The first is clearly salumi and some ham, while the second consists of a spreadable approach. This includes a fresh mortadella, a rillette and a paté. It is the Mediterranean influenced Purple Pig from the Bannos father/son team. I will add that they are only place in town I have seen and enjoyed the beloved 'nduja! I will admit that I have been here the most, mostly because it's open late, right by work, delicious and affordable!

Last, but far from least is a place at which I have only dined once, but have recently made plans to return to. Like the previous place, it has a rather small selection in comparison to the rest of the gang, but it too seems to all be homemade. And they bring a nice variety of approaches too, not limiting things a a simple section. There is of course the charcuterie board offering a chicken liver paté, a black pudding and a smoked brisket. But I really like how they have taken charcuterie elements outside of the box and are currently offer a goat merguez, a goat liver sausage and even a scotch olive filled with pork sausage. Chris Pandel has brought a great variety of styles of charcuterie to The Bristol. He also loves him some offal if you're interested!

Aside from the great procured and house cured meaty deliciousness, all of these places do a great job of preparing some excellent accoutrements. All of the things that not only taste great, but offer a refreshening of the palate. You'll always find things like pickled vegetables, preserved fruits, spicy mustards and plenty of breads or crackers to spread the love on, and these aren't just after thoughts at these places.

When I sit and smoke my pipe and dream, I see a restaurant that embodies so many of the aspects that these establishments have. I would even say that I would use parts of each of them as a model for my place. To be fair, voting for any one of these places is a great choice. But since you can only vote for one I hope that my 2¢ may help. I won't tell you who I chose. I will say it was the place that to me seemed to do things a little differently while maintaining the integrity of charcuterie as a whole. Good luck choosing and even more so, go check these places out, vote with your patronage!

Tongue-in-Cheek cuisine.

2010-02-19T10:42:00.002-06:00

The English seem to have found a slightly more appealing way to name what some might consider some less-desirable seeming food objects. Brawn fills in for head-cheese, a terrine shaped dish made from the meat of a pigs head that is set in a sort of meat-jelly resulting from the head's cooking process. Or within the same category, take the English term offal, pronounced perhaps without coincidence the same as awful. It is a way of saying variety meats, fifth quarter, organ meats or simply innards. And since I am a little less hesitant than most to try things of this nature, when I was offered some Bath Chaps during a recent stage in a London kitchen, I jumped at the chance to give them a taste. As I learned as I took my first bite, Bath Chaps are a preparation of the pigs jowls, or cheeks, that have been brined, poached, often rolled up with the poached tongue, sliced and pan fried. And let me tell you, they are fabulous. Nice visible layers of fat and lean with a little bit of skin and tongue.

As you can see in the photo, this one from my dinner at Hereford Road in London's Notting Hill neighborhood, that it almost resembles a cross between pancetta and fried bacon, only sliced thicker. Both places I enjoyed this, Hereford Road and St. John Bread & Wine served their version with a small green salad with a mustardy vinaigrette.

I brought the head home and brined it in a standard brine of salt, sugar, peppercorns, bay leaves, cloves, juniper berries and water. I let it exchange all its juices for the flavored brine for 4 days. Then I poached it for about 4 hours in a low simmering bath of onion, celery, carrots, leeks, garlic, peppercorns, thyme and water. The meat started to release from the bone after about 4 hours (it was a soft simmer at most). The next part was the second hardest, getting the hot and heavy head out of the large pot. I did this by putting on 4 latex gloves and grabbing my sturdy chinese spider to lift it out as I carried it by its snout. Whew, that was tricky!

Next I carefully followed the bone structure with my boning knife to remove, in two intact pieces, the 2 jowls/cheeks from the hot, slippery and delicate head. Then I removed and peeled the tongue after a quick dip in cold water to sort of set the skin. I halved the tongue and put these four pieces back into the warm liquid to keep them pliable while I picked the rest of the meat off of the head to use in a mini-brawn.

The hardest of all of this was next. I took a warm jowl and tongue out of the warm liquid and set it together in a way that I could almost wrap the jowl around the tongue. I then used plastic wrap to pull it all together and form the conical shape that Bath Chaps keep. It was rather tricky because the tongue kept wanting to slide out of the fat end and the jowl was so thick that it wouldn't completely seal in the tongue down the seam either. But after a couple layers of plastic I got it into a shape I liked and put it in the fridge to set. Then I did it again with the other side!

The next day I unwrapped one to see how well it held its conical shape. They looked great. I would have loved it if both the jowls had completely enclosed the tongue, but only one did, though this had little impact on anything but aesthetics. Many of the recipes that I have seen include a step of covering the cones in mustard and bread crumbs before pan frying. But I simply put just a touch of oil in an already hot pan to fry these and sprinkled a touch of salt onto the chaps. Just long enough to crisp up everything on each side without drying the tongue out is all you need.

The final pieces looked great. As the skin tightened upon cooking the slices pulled apart slightly. I ate them with a grainy mustard, no salad this time! Definitely worth the effort to put these delicious discs of goodness together.

Project Revisited: Air Dried Ham

2010-02-12T10:29:00.007-06:00

During the Fall after returning home from my second stay in France I decided to get a little more serious about my cooking plans. At a local farmer's market I saw a pig farmer hocking his wares and asked if he'd sell me a half a pig. He did so happily and I picked it up a week later from the slaughterhouse in Chenoa, IL. I wanted it in part to practice some butchery, in part to get a lot of meat for less, and in part because I wanted to try to dry a ham, much like those I saw in that first charcuterie shop I wrote about here.

As I mentioned before, it was my first venture into this, so I wasn't looking for an acorn finished wild breed. This was a standard central IL mix, fed 85% corn and 15% soy, but raised just up the road. It came in at about 90#. I weighed out the main cuts and recorded them at:

Ham: 24.5#

Butt: 15#

Jowl: 1.3#

Belly: 8#

Ribs: 2.5#

Skin: 5.5#

These weights included the skin on. I made dried chorizo and bratwurst from the shoulder. I made good bacon and bad pancetta from the belly and jowl. The ribs were good on the BBQ one day. Lots of pork chops and a tenderloin were simple preparations. All the charcuterie preparations were from the Charcuterie book, as usual, except the brats.

But The first project I got to after breaking this down into storable sizes was the dried ham. I already had the ingredients: green ham, salt, and lot of time. I removed the aitch bone, covered the ham in about a pound of kosher salt, put it into a plastic storage tray, covered it in plastic, pressed it with weights on top of a cookie sheet and put it into the fridge. Every few days I would knock off what little salt was left, rinse out the plastic tray and re-apply more salt, turning the ham each time. This went on for a month.

After a month I rinsed off all the salt and applied a thin layer of lard to the entire ham. It was hung to begin its long slumber in a spot in my basement averaging about 65˚. About a week later I noticed some dark spots forming on the skin under the lard so I cleaned them off and re-larded. A week later I noticed the same thing again so i simply removed all the lard and re-salted the ham again for another 2 weeks. I had some trouble with mold on my pancetta that was curing in the basement too, so I decided to move the stuff out of the basement to a less moist place. Again covered in lard it hung in a temperature controlled room (55-60˚) for 6 months. I didn't really know to pay attention to the weight at this phase in my exploration. So I took it down and put it back in the fridge for almost another year.

I think it only stayed there that long because I had moved to Chicago and hadn't gotten home sooner to bring it back. But once I did I was quite impressed with the ham, and myself. It wasn't as dark in color or as rich in flavor as those famous and expensive european versions, but it was rather tasty. It had a nice nuttiness and a fair amount of fattiness. The pork flavor was nice and clean and was accented by the saltiness. The texture wasn't what I had hoped for in tenderness, but it was in no way off-puting. I took some in to my culinary classes and even the French charcuterie instructor was impressed that I had done this and how well it came out. My chefs at work liked it just as much. It made its way into Christmas Gift Baskets, onto anti-pasti boards, and some is still making it onto our homemade arugula-proscuitto pizzas (almost 3 years later).

In the future I will know what steps to change, choose a better quality ham and track the weight loss. But for the first round this ham was a definite success. Some of these same things would apply to the pancetta failure that came from the same pig. But since then everything has been part of the learning process!

From across the room.

2010-02-08T23:01:00.006-06:00

My maternal grandfather was a cook in the US Army. I never really asked him anything about it while he was alive. He'd occasionally make a crack about peeling potatoes, but that was all I really remember about him relating to food except for a few things I knew he loved to eat. He loved the fried catfish at Barney's, the BBQ at the Caboose, Buffalo Wings at Schooners (who doesn't love these?!), the Fried Chicken from the Grand Hotel and fried livers and gizzards, but I don't remember where he got those. But he didn't cook much at home. I do remember loving his huge batches of hamburger hash cooked up in an ancient seeming cast-iron skillet, something I always pictured him cooking for the ranks back during The War. Since I spent a lot of time at their place during the summers, there are two very distinct foods that always accompanied his quart of Busch as he swore at Andre Dawson or cheered on Ryne Sandburg (OK, we all know it was mostly swearing as any die-hard Cubs fan does, a lot). They were salted, roasted-in-the-shell peanuts and pork rinds. If you heard a bag being opened in the kitchen, you knew a small snack was at hand. But unless you were paying attention you didn't know which it was until Charlie took his first bite. And if it was pork rinds, you knew it from across the room.

These bizarrely shaped super-crunchy curls of deliciousness always intrigued me.
"What is a rind?"
"What part does it come from?"
"This can't really be the skin."

These days, when you buy a bag at the store a lot of them come with a small packet of hot-sauce. Clearly an influence of our central American population and their treatment of the "chicharron," though this wasn't the case back when I first started eating them. But as with so many things that once just had its place, the crispy bits of often discarded deliciousness, pork rinds seem to have been moved to a new status. Being seen on pork-centric and gastro-pub menus across the country, they are perhaps almost, chic? But I assure you, that with his white t-shirt and fatigue pants driving down the street in a woody-station-wagon, Charlie was not looking to set any trends!

But being the combo D.I.Y./culinarian that I am, I have learned to make crispy rinds at home. One fact I must add though is it has been quite a journey to master these. Actually, I have had to edit this post 3 times before publishing just because when I thought that last batch was perfect, I wanted it better. Since I buy all my belly whole, I always keep the skin, like when I made the New Year Paté. So start with a section of skin from which you have removed as much of the remaining fat and meat as you can. This piece is a little over a square foot. For sake of pot size, I cut this down into quarters and put it in a small stock pot filled with cold water. Bring this up to a soft boil and boil it for an hour. Be careful not to over-cook it (rolling boil) as to allow the skin itself to start breaking down, this makes the next step a PAIN!

Leave the sections in the warm water and work with them one at a time. You are going to take a sharp knife and remove the remaining fat that has not rendered off. The left picture is an untouched piece, while the right has been cleaned. I do this as I would remove skin from a fish. I leave the skin side down and hold the piece flat while I separate, in one piece, the layer of fat. Don't be afraid to take off too much, this is hard to do, unless you cut through the skin. Others have told me they simply scrape the fat off with the knife. I have found this makes it way too easy to tear the skin, but if it's easier for you then go with that method. (One could easily save the removed layer of fat and add into your next batch of Trotter Gear, or anything that would benefit from it)

As I finish each section I cut them into small pieces, roughly about a square inch. Sometimes I always go square, sometime I try to make them look a bit less perfect. I have even cut them into long strips of 1/4" by 2" just for fun (they almost cook up like a curly pig's tail shape). I then lay them out on trays of my Nesco Gardenmaster dehydrator. Each tray can hold about a square foot of skin. I dehydrate them for about 18 hours at 145˚. The picture above on the left is before dehydrating while the right is after. At this point you can see how well you did removing all the fat from the skin. If there is any fat left on, when you fry the pieces they will actually curl around the fat side of the skin and prevent it from poofing up as desired.

The next step is where you see how well you did. Heat up some frying oil to 400˚. If at home, give yourself room in your frying vessel because these expand about 4 times their starting size and need to remain fairly submerged in the oil. I'd use a large pot about 1/3 full and work in smaller batches. As with anything fried, it is best to season the items as soon as they come out of the oil so the seasoning adheres better. And this is where you can personalize the rinds. Simple things like fine salt, more adventurous things like powdered cheese, nutritional yeast or smoked paprika are all great ways to accent these treats!

Pulling your leg, err, butt.

2010-02-01T10:11:00.001-06:00

Some friends of ours recently made the purchase of their first home. Unfortunately it came with an electric range/oven. So Rebecca came up with the idea that since it won't be installed for two weeks that we make them some food as a house warming gift. They have a lot of work ahead of them, unpacking, putting together 2 trips worth of Ikea furniture, etc. And since they both have full-time gigs, they will be plenty busy. One of the many things we have decided to make was some pulled pork. Henning, the husband, is a German born, French (Alsatian) raised meat lover, so this was my gift for him in a way!

I started with a 7# shoulder piece and split it in half, kinda following the split that was started from removing the bone. I brined it overnight with salt, maple syrup, mixed peppercorns, yellow and black mustard seeds. The next day I made a dry rub of hot italian powdered peppers, sweet paprika, garlic powder, salt, fresh black pepper, ground clove, ground guajillo pepper and onion powder. After patting the shoulder dry I liberally rubbed the spices in and let it hang out for 30 minutes.

Since it is below freezing here in Chicago, and also because I can, I smoked this in my kitchen in my Cameron's Stove-top smoker. I used oak and cherry flakes for this shoulder. One has the option of putting a liquid in a tray in the bottom of this smoker to add moisture, and some flavor. But since I like a nice bark I left this tray dry. Since the Cameron's only has about 3" clearance, I ended up tenting the top of the smoker with foil instead of sliding the cover back on. Being that it is still a tight quarter, the meat doesn't get a super dry bark since it almost steams from the moisture coming out of the meat onto the hot tray, but that is added flavor. Also be sure to put the fatty side up whenever smoking. This allows it to baste itself as the fat slowly renders out, and down.

Since slow and low is the key to moist, falling apart butt, I started this over med-high heat to get the smoke going then dropped down medium-low once the smoke started. And after that I didn't touch it for 3 hours. You could hear the sizzle as the moisture started to hit the empty tray, but it soon disappeared as the tray filled up with the pork juices and they started to evaporate to fill the chamber with porkiness. It is a good sign when the pork almost falls apart as you remove it from the smoker. I let it rest for about 10 minutes before I started to pull it. It was still quite hot, even through 2 pairs of latex gloves, but it was so tender that it didn't take long to pull it all. I removed anything that wouldn't feel pleasant in the mouth like some of the inter-muscular tissues. I also removed any fat that I couldn't squeeze through my fingers.

In the end there was almost 3 quarts of pulled meat. Once a sauce is added it would easily be 3 quarts. Now I just need to decide on a sauce. Where is that Jamison book?

'Nduja update.

2010-01-25T11:57:00.003-06:00

So, yesterday I finally gave in and had to try one of the small tester pieces of the first 'nduja batch. It had started out at 170g and was at 100g when I finally cut it open. All of the pieces are at the 40% loss point. So I took them off the drying rack and put them in an unsealed plastic bag with room for some air circulation. While I want to stop/slow down the weight loss, I want them to remain untouched to prevent bad growth. I am leaving them at the 60˚ temp to continue to promote some internal maturation.

When I sliced it open and took that first whiff it was smokey, peppery and a little porky. I knew right away that the fat content was too low. While it wasn't firm in any way, it also wasn't spreadable. I peeled off the casing, which was pretty easy, and took a bite. Not very porky. This is likely because of the fact I used "commodity" pork from the carniceria and because it hasn't had enough time to develop its flavors through aging. The heat took a second to hit me, but it did on the back of the palate after a few seconds. It wasn't as hot as I had expected though. Another aspect that wasn't as prevalent past the first smell was the smoke. I thought that with the chipotle purée and 4 smoke sessions it might be too smokey, but it was only barely smokey. And the last thing that disappointed me was the occasional "sandiness" from what I am assuming was the paprika powder. I thought I had mixed everything well, but maybe I hadn't. I guess it sounds like this was bad, but it wasn't. It is still quite tasty, but just not as I had expected and aimed for. I am going to let these continue their affinage and have some every now and then. But in the meantime, I am going to get started on the next batch, with some changes!

As for the texture, to get a more spreadable version and also a more consistent product I think I will use a less fatty muscle (shoulder perhaps) and add some blanched fat back so I can maintain a more consistent ratio. And hopefully I can get it better on the next try. I am thinking about a 2:1 muscle to fat ratio. I would also like to get ahold of some better quality pork that will give a better pork flavor. There is still some hope for this in my first batch, but time will tell. As for the heat and sandiness, I have a one time fix for both. I have ordered and received some authentic calabrian pepper sauces from Scott at the sausage debauchery on his eBay store. I also ordered the powdered versions, which I will try in another batch after a long mixing time to avoid said sandiness. And as far as the smoke, I will not use the chipotles (I have the real thing now!) and do the 7 days of smoking as proscribed by Len Poli. I kinda really love smoking, so this might be the most fun part of this whole process! But before I do any of this over again, I must get a drying chamber put together. I lost too much weight too fast with this and the bresaola, not allowing good aging. This can also wreak havoc on fermented sausages. Which reminds me, I'd also like to add some starter culture (induces fermentation) into this next batch. It lacks at this point any acidity. Depending on what size casings I go with and my chamber, I will use bactoferm F-RM-52 (fast, higher acidity, what I should have used here), T-SPX (light acidity, shorter aging) or F-LC (acidity depends greatly on fermentation temp.).

Last night I used the first sausage to make a great pizza sauce. I roasted some red bell peppers and puréed them with the remaining sausage and used this as my sauce instead of a tomato sauce. It was pretty damn good, some heat, a touch of smoke and lots of peppery goodness!

Bresaola update.

2010-01-21T11:13:00.003-06:00

Well, my first project that was birthed and finished on Low on the Hog has happened. The bresaola comparison is now complete. Neither piece came out perfectly, but that is why I do this, to learn what I can "get away with" with my less-than-ideal conditions, to compare and to eat some great things. And I must say that all three happened.

And the end of my last post on this project I thought it would take another week to reach my weight loss goal 40% on the two pieces. Actually it only took 3 more days. The Charcuterie version hit it easily while the Beef version got pulled at 38%, basically because it was getting too hard. I had also mentioned that the Beef version had taken on some white mold. I am still not 100% certain that this was actually the case. The more I looked at it the more I began to think that it was simply salt residue. There were a couple spots that looked more like mold, so maybe it was just a combination.

Just to be sure, I made a salt water solution and wiped down the Beef version and threw it in the fridge for a couple hours to dry it off. And after doing that it looked even more saturated in an outer layer of salt. When I sliced the bresaola in half it was interesting. On left, the Charcuterie version looked just as you hoped it would. A beautiful rich rosy color, even and moist. While the Beef version had a definite dark ring and more ruby center color that was much more constricted in size. They both still smelled very much like their cure, herbal for the the first version and red wine & garlic for the second.

Last night I took them into work to use the slicer for the best results. Taste-wise the Charcuterie version tasted exactly as it smelled, heavy on the rosemary, but in every way you would expect. Nice salt, good, though slightly chewy texture. The Beef version, which has lost its rosy center since I sliced it last night, was a bit more firm, but not really chewy. It is though quite salty. This seems to back up the idea of the exterior color coming from being over-saturated in salt. I do like the red wine and garlic flavors of this version though. In my next preparation I am going to try to find a happy medium. I will lay off the rosemary a bit while also figuring in a wet part of the cure to incorporate that extra flavor, but definitely without the extra salt. Now to figure out which cure goes first, I'm thinking the dry cure. I am also in the process of finding a concealed drying chamber (fridge) so I can slow down the drying (controlling humidity) to promote more flavor maturation inside my meats before they lose all their weight.

Another beast, Bresaola

2010-01-15T11:06:00.004-06:00

So, it doesn't come from low on the hog, or from any part of the hog for that matter, but Bresaola is a delicious Italian cured meat, made from beef. I used the eye of round. I picked up a piece a little over 3# and cleaned it up to just under the 3# weight. At this point I had been trying to decide which of the 2 recipes I had narrowed it down to I was going to use. But in knowing that a single 3# piece was a bit thick I decided to split the eye down the center and try a version of each.

The two recipes I was trying to decide between were those of the Charcuterie book by Polcyn/Ruhlman and the one of Beef from Torode. In the past when researching recipes I tended to find a chunk of recipes that were quite similar baring only slight differences. For things like charcuterie the differences might be specific cuts of proteins, times of processing, spices & seasonings or slight variations in these things. But these two recipes are quite different. The Charcuterie recipe is what I expected when I started thinking about this project. A highly herbed and spiced dry cure followed by a few weeks of drying. But the Beef recipe was quite a surprise. It was a wet cure, or what some might call a brine or even a marinade. These two later styles are normally followed by cooking though.

The Charcuterie recipe includes salt, sugar, cure #2, pepper, rosemary, thyme and juniper. The cure is applied at 2 points. One at the beginning of the cure and the rest is applied a week later for a total curing time of 2 weeks. Like most cures that require lots of flipping or attention, I tend to use my trusty Foodsaver™ to vacuum-pack the items to keep the cure in constant contact all over the meat.

The wet cure of the Beef version was almost more intriguing because it was less expected. It was a one-time cure for two weeks, untouched. It included salt, red & white wines, rosemary, bay, garlic, black pepper, dry red chilies and orange zest. This is kind of nice that it doesn't require any type of curing salt which makes it nice for home adventurers. But since I have plenty of #1 and #2 at home they never slow me down when it's called for in a recipe. I also vacuum packed this and did just what the recipe said, "throw it in the back of the refrigerator for two weeks."

Since this was my first bresaola venture I became quite excited to try two versions and am still anxiously awaiting the chance to taste and compare. They both finished their cure at the same time, after two weeks. They had both already started to firm up a bit and by the end of the second week they were rather firm. The dry cured version had a nice herbal aroma that can still be smelled just by walking over to my drying spot. The wet version took on a rich ruby color from the wine and has me quite curious about how the interior is colored. It actually acquired a slight twist from the position it was in while curing. I rinsed both pieces off in cold water and let them temper on the counter for 3 hours. Next I wrapped them in cheesecloth, labeled them and weighed each piece. The first recipe calls for a 3 week drying period while the second only says 2 weeks. I am looking for a 40% weight loss on these so I will go by weight rather than time, though I will definitely note the time it takes. I will also note that my "split down the middle" actually left the Charcuterie recipe with a slightly larger piece as is visible in the photo, it wasn't a result of the different cures. The Beef version has firmed up noticeably more than the other.

After 8 days they are both coming along nicely. The Charcuterie version has deepened in color to just lighter than what the Beef version looked like out of the cure. It has lost about 35% of its weight already and should be at 40% in about a week, a week ahead of schedule. It has a nice firm feel on the exterior but with a slight squeeze it gives and lets you know the center is nice and tender. The Beef version has lost 33%, but I could hurt someone by hitting them with it. It is super firm with only the slightest give in the center. It has become even darker in color, almost looking black. It has also started to form a few tiny patches of very thin white mold. It's nothing to worry about yet though. A couple days ago I increased the humidity in my drying area. While I don't really have a way to measure it, it seems to have slowed the weight loss down nicely. These and my 'nduja were losing weight faster than a sorority girl trying to fit into that bikini for Spring Break. I have been shopping around for a fridge to set up a concealed drying environment to better control the humidity. Besides, come Summer my drying corner won't be sitting at such a perfect temperature.

Great Find: Restaurant: The Purple Pig Chicago

2010-01-11T11:59:00.006-06:00

Several months ago I had read in a local media outlet that a new Mediterranean influenced place was opening up and that it was going to focus on "cheese, swine & wine." A few weeks later I saw a job posting on craigslist and even submitted a resume. But I never heard back. It wasn't the first time nor will it be the last. But I still kept waiting for the place to open. It would continue to get press always saying it would be opening soon. And finally last week it did.

All of the media outlets talked about the 3 "heavy-hitters" involved in The Purple Pig; a Chicago restaurateur: Scott Harris, another Chicago restaurateur/chef: Jimmy Bannos Sr., and an unnamed "well-known Chicago chef." That first chef's son, Jimmy Bannos Jr., who has worked in some great NYC kitchens, would be running the kitchen here.

So last night, to celebrate our 2nd anniversary of dating, my fiancée and I thought it would be a perfect choice. So we shot over to 500 N. Michigan Ave. We had been told by someone else that it was in a business building, but even when walking into the lobby of that address, it almost seemed like we made a mistake. The concierge of the building quickly assured us we were right and sent us down the hall on the left. Through a wooden door with a large Purple Pig logo'ed glass pane, which reminded me of doors in my old junior high. We had found the spot.

The place wasn't as big I had imagined, but it is well designed and almost cozy. Light colored woodwork, subway tiles, decorative tiles, communal high-top tables, some shorter tables and a counter wrapping around the open kitchen that occupies the northwest corner. We were quickly sat, given an option of a high-top or not, and opted for the first. We were sat next to a family that was having such a good time that they were yelling to each other. It wasn't loud in the restaurant, though they seemed to find it necessary to yell. You could tell they were loving it too! Our server Kyle assured us they had just ordered desserts, so all was good.

I quickly decided that I would be willing to eat just about everything on the menu. And being that I have a tendency to over-order, I left the ordering to my lovely date. I may have helped with a suggestion or two, but she did quite well. We had the pork fried almonds with rosemary and garlic to start. They were delicious skin on almonds that were slowly cooked in lard with lots of whole garlic cloves, rosemary and maybe even some thyme. She was surprised by the softer texture of the nuts. It was perfect to enjoy with our drinks, a glass of Cava for the lady and some Dopplebock for myself.

Next up was the rapini with whipped ricotta. It was good. A creamy ricotta with lemon over some nicely cooked rapini with just a hint of that delicious bitterness. Just a pinch of salt would have made this a better. We followed that with some Catalonian Fuet, an air-dried Spanish sausage with a perfect ratio of fat to meat that came out sliced on a small wooden plate. While my fiancée thought it should come with some bread, mustard or something pickled (like we enjoy at home, see paté) I assured her it was delicious and delicate enough to enjoy solo!

Out next was the pork neck rillette with mostarda. This, I would say, was the deal on the menu. Quite a prtion for the $6 price. Perfectly executed pork rillette served with thick crusty toasted country bread, mostarda and some salt for sprinkling, which wasn't that necessary. We also got a choice of 3 cheeses. I requested the Mahon Curado and asked Kyle to choose two others for us. And out came the Mahon Curado, with a great peppery bite about half-way through and a touch of smoke it seemed. The Prairie Breeze cheddar from Milton, IA, was the best surprise of the cheeses, smooth, creamy and nicely sharp. Last was a wedge of the triple cream Délice de Bourgogne, quite soft and cream-tastic, yes, cream-tastic!

Our only selection from the Plancha section was the Pork Blade Steak with 'nduja & honey. It was a seared piece of pork blade over a smear of 'nduja and topped to the side with an arugula, parmesan and lemon juice salad (always a winner in my book). The pork was tender and had a perfect amount of the natural fat left on. The 'nduja was a bit sweeter than what I have had in the past, but man was it great, a nice accoutrement for the entire dish, including that awesome salad.

Since it was a celebration meal we of course opted for not only dessert but some cordials as well. We ordered up some soft serve, an olive oil ice cream topped with a dash of more olive oil and the gianduja chocolate (what a resemblance in name to that calabrian sausage!) garnished with hazelnuts. Both were quite nice and a perfect finish to the great meal. We enjoyed a glass of Tuaca and another of what I think Kyle said was St. James, an almost port like cordial that was chilled and slightly sweet. With our meal, I should add, we enjoyed a delicious 2007 Barbera d'Asti. It was nicely fruity, big enough to cut through some of the fatty items but not to big to overpower the more delicate things.

The Purple Pig was a great expereince. I announced happily that we'd be back, regularly. It isn't too far from the restaurant at which I work and the Pig serves well past our closing time. There was a lot on the menu I wanted to try and simply didn't have room for, so this too assures my return. And for a Michigan Ave. address, the prices are pretty good, even for a cook's budget. Now to just talk them into an industry benefit/discount! The service was quite good. Kyle didn't know it all, but he also never acted like he did. He would always get a correct answer instead of trying to BS us. Both Jimmies came by often to check in on our experience and even struck up conversations when they knew I was in the industry. Jimmy Sr. even sent me home with a little something for my next batch of 'nduja!

On the 'nduja train

2010-01-06T12:04:00.015-06:00

This past fall I visited London with my now fiancée. One of the places we visited was the Borough Market. I found some great things to eat there and others to take home. Things like the hundred great English cheeses at Neal's Yard Dairy, the bacon sandwiches at the Northfield Farm stall (who's display case is my profile photo), the mouthwatering menu from Roast, beautiful jars of pickles and preserves (with noteworthy packaging) from England Preserves and last but far from least, the Calabrian spreadable salumi called 'nduja. I came across the website for Boccalone, Chris Cosentino's pork goodies shop, which offers his version online. So I figured that if Chris can do it, I can at least give it a shot. So after some recipe research online I came across a couple recipes, and surprisingly, a lot of other people who are looking for some 'nduja, who are making 'nduja or who are writing about 'nduja. So alas, I am not alone.

In short, 'nduja, pronounced in my poor phonetics, en 'dew yuh, bares a name resemblance to the French sausage Andouille. But aside from including pork tripe it bares little similarities. It is closer to the Cajun version with its heat. The meat generally consists of pork and it often includes some 5th quarter offerings like tripe and a good amount of fat which helps keep it spreadable, a main characteristic. It is richly red, an attribute that comes from its other main ingredient, red peppers. There is a combination of both rather spicy peppers and fairly sweet peppers. Recipes offered either pepper in a powdered or a puréed form. This spice is obvious as soon as you take your first bite and will stick with you through the last! As noted in some of the readings I found, finding these Calabrian peppers right now is a bit tricky. Maybe it is because of the growing popularity stateside for this treat. Another Illinois based pork-nerd, Larbo, over at This Little Piggy notes a couple sources and several more posts on this spicy topic.

It was actually a combination of one of Larbo's recipes and another of Len Poli that led to my first recipe. When I make a recipe I do one of two things every time. Mostly, especially with cured/fermented or otherwise sensitive items, I follow a recipe exactly and use it as a building block for my house of knowledge. The other thing I tend to do is find several recipes and pick and choose items/ideas from them and build my own. When I do this I am usually using the ingredients as suggestions and the directions as just that, directions. It was in this latter form that I have created my 'nduja. In part because I am anxious to get this started, in part because I don't want to have to source authentic Calabrian peppers and in part because it's always more fun for me to put my own stamp on something!

So for this round of n'duja I changed the imported Calabrian Hot Pepper purée to Chipotle purée. And again, instead of trying to order and wait for the same imported sweet peppers, I simply used a sweet paprika. As far as the meat, I stuck to good old pork belly, not too lean or all fat. I also included salt, dextrose powder, and cure #2. I ground it 3 times. First I ground just the belly through the large plate of my Kitchenaid. After that I added in the dry ingredients and they all went for a ride through the small plate of the grinder. They had so much fun I figured I'd send them through one more time. I was happy with the texture at this point. It still had some rather small pieces but wasn't an actual purée, something I was very set on not allowing. I am not sure how much this will change in the next month of drying, but it looked promising.

Next I stuffed the farce into some beef middles. I was expecting something a bit bigger when I ordered them. These are about 43mm in diameter on average. The good news is they should lose their weight a little faster! The 5# recipe I did left me with 6 pieces about a foot long averaging 12oz. and 3 smaller test pieces at 6oz. each.

After stuffing them (left) I let them form a pellicule in the fridge overnight (right). This allows the immediate surface moisture to dry up a bit and often gives it a barely tacky touch, to which smoke adheres quite well. The next day I labelled and weighed the sausages and cold smoked them for about 30 minutes. I was distracted slightly by my honey-do list and missed the peak of my hickory smoke blast but I am not worried because I will repeat this smoking step every-other-day for a week, for a total of 4 smokings. I could smoke it daily if I wanted, but with the chipotles it might be overkill!

New Year Paté

2010-01-05T13:57:00.011-06:00

So I guess it's about time for an actual post about some charcuterie! This past weekend was time for our now annual New Years Day Dinner. We have our 2 "best couples" over for a celebration of the New Year. Since I work in the restaurant industry it works out pretty well to do this on New Years Day since most restaurants are closed. And though I like to try to keep things new each year, I really wanted to do another terrine. Last years terrine was pork belly, duck innards and pistachios. It was done in the standard French method and turned out quite nice. This year I wanted it a bit more American. So I substituted some things in ingredients but stuck with the same technique, which always turns out quite well. "How so?" you might ask!

I started with a 5# skin on pork belly and a single pork tenderloin, a little over a pound. On the first day I cleaned and trimmed the tenderloin so it would be a consistent shape down the center of the terrine. I then brined it overnight with salt, black pepper, brown sugar, Templeton Rye Whiskey, crushed red peppers and some allspice.

The next day I cold-smoked the loin with some oak and threw it back in the fridge. I then removed the skin from the belly (which I saved for rinds later), cut half of the remaining 2# into strips to feed into the grinder (small grind), and left the other 2# in large pieces and threw it in the freezer to set a bit. I then ground the strips of pork. Once the large pieces in the freezer had started to set I took it out and cut it into a medium dice, nice and uniform for aesthetics. I then mixed the two belly products, some Rye macerated currants, salt, pink salt (#1), black pepper, herbs de provence, paté spice, white wine, more Templeton Rye, garlic and shallots. It all then went back into the fridge. I try to buy belly with a good amount of both fat and meat so I don't have to add any additional fat back.

I then lined my terrine with plastic wrap and then caul fat. Next I filled the terrine with the farce, about 1/3 of the way, being sure to fill in the corners of the terrine and pack it well. Once it was 1/3 full I took the tenderloin out, patted it dry and laid it down the center of the terrine. I then filled in the sides and end around the tenderloin, again being sure to fill in all spaces. Once the tenderloin was covered I continued to fill the terrine OVER the top. It almost looked like it would end up looking like a muffin popping over the top. This is an actual desired effect for my terrines, and it also allows room for shrinkage from fat and moisture lost in the cooking. This left me with a little extra farce so I made 2 little bonus patés that you see in the image here.

My oven was preheated to 300˚. I then closed the caul fat over the top of the paté firmly, but not enough to tear it. I closed the plastic wrap over that and then wrapped the whole terrine in heavy duty aluminum with the closure at the top. The terrine went into a roasting pan and into the oven. I then filled the roasting pan with hot water to about 2/3 the way up the side of the terrine. I inserted a probe thermometer into the very center of the paté and closed the oven door.

Around 2 hours later it had reached the desired temperature of 152˚. It came out of the oven and out of the foil. With a knife I pierced the plastic wrap in each corner and then placed a cardboard cut-out the size of the terrine (wrapped in plastic) with some canned foods and more weight on top to help form a firm paté. I left it to press and cool in the refrigerator until the next day. I then unwrapped it and sliced it right down the middle to admire its beauty!

An interesting note is that once I cut it open I noticed an unusual ring in the tenderloin. Some might guess it a smoke ring but I am certain that it was the reaction of the raw loin being next to the farce that contained pink salt. The pink salt from the farce seems to have absorbed into the loin during cooking. The center of the loin has the color you would expect from being fully cooked, while the outer ring is still rosy. For the dinner we served it sliced and plated with some crusty sourdough bread, dilly beans and moutarde de Banyuls.

Relevant experiences

2009-12-29T13:41:00.001-06:00

Since my return from my first stay in France, about which you read in my first two posts, I spent some more time in Europe. During a second period in France, as an English teaching assistant, I spent 4 months working for free in a pair of restaurants in the South of France. This "stage," as it is called in the restaurant industry, led to a change in my plans for life. I returned to the US, moved past my former career plans as a graphic designer, and enrolled in culinary school. Being 31 at that time I felt I needed a jump-start in my experience and knowledge to try to catch up on time lost. So I moved to Chicago and began my life as a professional cook. I completed 3 of 5 quarters at a good culinary school. I took all the required classes and a good number of extra electives. Classes like cheeses, fermentation, wine & spirits, sausage making and even Chinese Cuisine helped me learn beyond the knife skills and product ID foundations. I got a job during my internship and ended up not going back to school.

Beside the cost of the classes, the conflicting schedules of the required monetary income and the education wasn't very accommodating. But I was fortunate to be working at a highly regarded restaurant that helped me increase my knowledge in the charcuterie world. And through the excitement and interest exhibited through this I was eventually the go-to guy for charcuterie items like terrines, as well as some pickled goodies to accompany them. A few weeks ago I left said restaurant to go to a new place. Though my current role is poissonier, the fish guy, I have been told I will soon be filling the new position of charcutier. Since it is a new restaurant and the menu is still under some review and changes there is not quite the need for a FT charcutier, so I fill the split responsibilities of both jobs. A couple sausages, some foie gras, and lots of mise en place for the fish station plus cooking during service. But when I am home, I am still stuffing casings, mincing meats and smoking bellies. I just can't get enough of the stuff!

Why Low? part 2.

2009-12-27T02:05:00.006-06:00

This charcuterie shop was more of a specialty foods type of shop. It offered imported items from Italy like dry pastas, canned San Marzanos and a vast array of anchovies. It had a sweets section with lots of imported goodies. It had some various liquor bottles. It had a lot. Then I reached the front corner of the shop exposed to the outside by two walls of glass. Facing the inside of the store towards me was two long display cases of prepared foods. But it wasn't potato salad and macaroni & cheese. It was their charcuterie offerings including pork rillettes, salmon rillettes, chicken rillettes and duck rillettes.

But even though it was those rillettes that drew me there, it was all the pork based items that amazed and intrigued me. Patés (at least 6 kinds), fresh sausages, dried sausages, smoked sausages, smoked slab belly, lardons, city ham (jambon de paris) and lots of dried hams. At this point I was familiar with and fond of proscuitto. But to see so many others versions, only identifiable to me by there tags, sparked my interest even more. Proscuitto de San Daniel, Jambon de Bayonne, Jamón Ibérico, Jamón Serrano, Pata Negra, Bellota and more I can't even remember. These were all in the leg form, still on the bone and with the hoof still attached (except the proscuitto). They were sitting in these wood based cradles that held them in a position to be carefully shaved by hand to order. Those yet to be carved hung in the windows with their labels and their prices, always by the kilo, some hitting over €150 /kilo.

A couple months later while imbibing at a cidreria in Madrid I met a spaniard who enjoyed practicing his English so I asked what the difference was between the Ibérico ham and the Pata Negra, aside from the three-times-higher price on the Pata Negra. He simply said that the Pata Negra pigs are treated better than the farmers family. Unfortunately my time spent in Europe was under a budget, and while I would love to tell stories of Pata Negra sandwiches washed down with vintage wines and locally made ciders, I only had one opportunity to try the stuff. It was truly melt-in-your-mouth soft with an unbelievable nuttiness that I can't wait to try again. But I won't dwell on that! Mostly I enjoyed a serrano plate when I could. It simply means "mountain ham."

Back in France I did see that Paté de Campagne was rather affordable, and much to my delight, quite tasty. Especially with some fresh baguette and something vinagery like cornichons and/or mustard! I avoided reading the ingredients when offered, mostly because I was still somewhat picky and figured "why ruin a good thing?" I would go to the butcher or charcutier and try various sausages, patés, rillettes or whatever seemed interesting and affordable. While my friends were eating Chez McDo, I was grabbing a city ham and cheese crepe from the creperie or a paté baguette from the sandwich shop. When I wanted something hot I'd regularly grab a doner kebab, a Turkish type of gyro made from lamb and beef, shaved into a pita. But at least it wasn't McDonalds!

When I got back to the U.S., and after I caught up on most of my old favorites (chicken wings, fat steaks and the likes) I started to crave what I had enjoyed back in Europe. Some things could be found to a certain extent. Patés showing up at the French restaurants, dried hams at the super expensive specialty shops, or true bratwurst at the local German fest were always a nice find. But it was only occasional, not always fresh and almost always expensive.

I had begun to start researching recipes, techniques and histories online, in books and through other likeminded people. I learned that others were interested in, had experience with or were simply hungry to learn like I had been. And knowing that I wouldn't be stuck with lots of unused product in the freezer, I began to try things out myself. My first sausage to go through my KitchenAid attachment was a brat. My first cure was a bacon made from the belly of a locally bought pig. And my first big project was a dried ham, again from a local pig. The products I was using weren't anything special. It was fresh at least. It was central IL pork, raised on Corn/Soy feed, likely injected or fed some sort of medicine or hormones. But I couldn't afford to buy top quality products just to have to throw it away when something went wrong, kinda like my first moldy batch of pancetta.

A few years later I am still experimenting with variations of recipes I have already done, mastering some already successful items, buying recipe books like they're going out of style (some are out of print!), searching out others with a similar passion and quite simply loving every minute of it. So I figured why keep it all to myself and those who see me all the time? That's why I have decided to start documenting, photographing and sharing my adventures with all of you. Perhaps you never thought of a certain technique, perhaps you tried something I did and got a similar/better/worse result, perhaps you are googling at home and accidentally entered "pork" instead of "porn" or maybe, just maybe, you are just like me. Whatever the reason, thanks for stopping by. Sit back, click, and bon appetit.

Why Low? part 1.

2009-12-22T13:40:00.004-06:00

So what happened when a latch-key child of a single, 2 job having, mid-western mother had to to fend for himself when hunger set in? It pretty much depended on the supply in the fridge. I was a huge fan of hot-dogs. I imagine I ate over a pack a week in my prime. After all, they were easy enough, boiled in water. Then in the mid 80s that microwave thing came out and made things so much easier. They were always covered in mustard, never ketchup. From time to time white bread had to fill in for the lack of proper hotdog buns. Sometimes I would put dill pickle slices on them too, but I usually let it ride with just the mustard.

Ahhhh, mustard. When the selection in the fridge was more minimal it was hard to beat a yellow mustard on white-bread sandwich. Bologna and Budig style dried beef sandwiches always pleased. Again, mustard with the bologna or butter with the beef. Or I guess back then it was margarine.

When times were a little better things like steak, bacon and pork chops might show up. When I say steak, I am talking the thin cut tough pieces (round, blade, etc) that mom could afford, but wasn't very versed in rendering them very tender. To make them better I was always lucky when she kept the supply of A1 Steaksauce full.

And the bacon, THE BACON! I have always loved it crispy. I didn't get to do the bacon myself until much later. After all, hot pan, hot oil, somewhat expensive product (for us). But I love it crispy so much that my mom would occasionally burn it. But waste not, down it went (within some limits)!

That leaves the pork chops. Much like the steaks, I imagine my mom was buying the cheap stuff and didn't really take into consideration there might be a better way to cook it than well-done in a fry-pan. While the cut is always the loin, the quality clearly wasn't the same from pig to pig. These too were often quite tough, usually salty and like the steaks, needed a heavy dose of A1 (what can I say, I loved the sweet vinegar taste)!

My love affair with vegetables was short lived. Mom says I'd eat some when I was little (too young to form an opinion). But since I can remember I just didn't like 'em. Coming from the Corn-Belt, it would be impossible to not enjoy a buttery ear of sweet-corn, but that was all I actually enjoyed. Peas and green beans would actually turn my stomach at the dinner table at grandma's. The vegetables were seldom fresh. Corn aside, I can't really remember many vegetables that didn't come from a can. And that being said, I now understand why I never enjoyed things from the ground. That does exclude those tasty pickled cucumbers, both from the store and grandma's back yard!

Another meat I enjoyed greatly as a child was ham. Sliced on a sandwich was the usual suspect, but holidays meant a baked ham. My aunt would always remind me each year that she did it just for me. Though everyone enjoyed some, she said it to please the pickiest eater in the family.

My culinary tastes didn't change too much through my high-school years. I worked at a philly-style steak sandwich shop at the mall for about 3 years. I'd add cooked onions and mushrooms to my otherwise plain meat-n-cheese sandwich on a rare occasion, but not too often. In college I started to enjoy some finer things in the culinary world. My mom always cooked steaks medium-rare so my introduction to beef carpaccio was quite pleasurable. I learned that there were fish items outside of frozen shrimp and fish-sticks. I even began eating sushi regularly. I slowly began a love-affair, like many men, with the open fire. Steaks, burgers and even my old veggie crutch, corn, tasted better with some grill caramelization.

But aside from hot-dogs, ham and a marinated loin, pork had come to disappoint me. I was used to dry, bland and mediocre meat. But hey, there was plenty of other things to eat, even for me, the pickiest eater in the family. But what happens when you take a fairly picky eater out of their comfort zone? I studied French in Jr. high and High school. So it seemed smart to continue it in college. It eventually became a minor and then a second major. And with that came an opportunity I never had before, to go abroad.

The first thing I remember being grabbed by was something I had no idea what it was. I was at a nicer french restaurant (no stars, but you don't need a Michelin rating to be great). After I placed my order this little pot of butter came out with my fresh bread. I spread it on and took a bite. Huh? What? WOW! This butter tastes kinda meaty. It has stringy threads in it. It is fabulous! "Excusez-moi monsieur. Qu'est-ce que c'est?" He replied "Ah, c'est de ree-ette de poulet et de canard." Oh, I know those words, chicken and duck. But what is this ree-ette thing he said? After finishing a great meal of a warm goat-cheese salad, roasted chicken and chocolate mousse, I went straight home and asked my french roommate about this ree-ette. He told me about rillette and how I could find it at the specialty foods store by the foie gras in a can or from the charcutier around the corner. It was upon this first visit to the charcutier that I began my love-affair of living "Low on the Hog." This time it's by choice.