Food & Drink

KARNUT · May 29, 2023

My favorite at home is a local family owned. They serve all the favorites. My favorite from them is fried shrimp and a loaded bake potato. A few family Mexican and Chinese all good. Pizza and Italian a New York transplant. Of course barbecue is well represented. A monthly trip to Waco through Hearn TX a family restaurant that has the best catfish I’ve ever had. We limit ourselves to once a week out for our waistline. All the chains are represented around us. My wife’s a great cook, and enjoys cooking. But she gets that once a week break.

Grumpy Bear · June 5, 2023

Sticker Shock

A new restaurant opened recently. Third in a local budding business. Most upscale of the three we are told. Staff says a personal designer we involved in the layout. Cruisin it's called. Car place. Hoods on the walls and diamond plate for the bar. Atmosphere galore. Food...not so much. Prices about par for the type. Way too much setting, not enough delivery and at a cost...whew....

We have just started going back to dine in, so my point of reference is not a fade but a sharp demarcation. Prices have literally doubled. My income did not. Quality is down a good quarter and service is, for the most part, unchanged. Most of the places we have gone have changed ownership but not staff. A few a total do-overs and some are just boarded up.

Guess I got spoiled to my own cooking and when I muff one at home it doesn't cost me a day's pay nor sit me on the pot for the next twelve hours. :crackup: Back to eating in more often.

Grumpy Bear · June 15, 2023

Iowa Chop

The Porterhouse of Pork

On 5/22/2023 at 8:01 AM, Grumpy Bear said:

Pork Loin Bone In Chop

PBS Americas Test Kitchen had this method of pan frying a New York Strip that I tried on notoriously flavorless Yorkshire hog. You need a cut at least an inch thick for this and a good nonstick skillet.

Pat dry with a paper towel.

Salt liberally on both sides. (Nothing else but salt)

Wrap back in butcher paper and/or cellophane.

Refrigerate for 45 minutes but up to 24 hours. (I find overnight is best.)

Unwrap and pat dry both sides with a paper towel again. Salt will make it release some moisture.

Place the chop in a DRY, COLD skillet. NO OIL.

Place the skillet on the stove on medium HIGH for two minutes.

Flip the chop with tongs and turn heat down to medium. Another two minutes. Use a timer.

Turn every two minutes and start checking internal temperature at about 8 minutes or twice on each side.

If you like it a bit pink stop at 140 F. If you like it white 160F. Something in between? Two minutes per side.

(Use a rapid response thermometer)

Remove from skillet and let it rest on the cutting board tented in foil while you finish up your sides but at least 10 minutes.

Bone, season with flake salt and carve/serve.

Notes:

At the end of four minutes, you're going to think this looks awful. It will be notebook paper white. Keep going. I will build color as it caramelizes the fats. Tis the reason you need a slice at least an inch thick so it isn't dry as bone on the inside by the time it gets color or sheet white by the time the inside is at temp. If the cut is more than 2 inches (Iowa Chop) you will need to oven finish to get the internal temp without killing the outside. Inch to inch and a half is perfect.

If you have a glass top electric turn on the heat for about two minutes before you place the pan on it. I have one and they heat up more slowly than straight electric of gas.

This method cooks the meat evenly from both sides like baking and like baking adds zero extra fat but browns like frying. Zero splatter. Very moist, tender and guess what? Yorky has some flavor, who knew?

Try this as written before experimenting with other spices. Yorkshire does have some flavor after all. It just requires you to coax it out of the flesh.

If you cannot resist and are a pepper lover, wait to about the eight-minute mark to season with COARSE black pepper. It will burn if you do it to early or grind it to fine. Heat releases the peppers oils. Burnt is awful tasting.

If you're a garlic person. Rub the cooked pork with a roasted garlic clove when you put it on the board to rest and before the final salt seasoning. In the skillet it will burn even the oils. If you use raw garlic, it will taste like you're eating at Chili's.

I liked this so well I made the 100 mile plus trip to Kilgus Farms and bought a few packages of their Berkshire pork. And a shoulder roast. No need to waste a trip, right?

Hope ya all like this.

Same procedure as above but with an oven finish. 375 F for 10 minutes. At 2" thick it never gets to 140 in the center by the time the crust is fully formed. 10 minutes in the over gave a high 150 F center and a fully rendered fat band. Tasty stuff. I'll try 325 F nest time. I like a hint of pink.

I carved off a few slices and passed them to neighbors for their opinion. Got lots of smiles and a few questions about what I used as a rub to get such flavor. Salt and pepper :dunno:

Still haven't tried this with a Berkshire but I have two it the freezer waiting their turn.

Grumpy Bear · June 17, 2023

Top Sirloin Butt

Coulotte Steak

Prep and cook as I have the pork chops, so I won't repeat here.

There are plenty of recipes for this cut with lots of herbs and seasoning but I wanted to know the meat first before playing with the flavor. I learned a few things.

Even thickness is really important, and beef responds to salt differently than pork in taste. This was good but almost over salted and one end over cooked. 140 F one end and 155 F the other. Not to ruination but medium well/well instead of medium. This cut is also half the price of a Strip Steak and 90% of the flavor.

Nice beefy flavor with a great texture and great mouth feel. Smells heavenly as the crust builds. I really liked this with salt and pepper only. 5-minute rest and juicy-juicy-juicy.

OnTheReel · June 17, 2023

Tonight we had pulled pork sandwiches. I smoked this pork shoulder all day with mesquite.

Speaking of butt, I usually use butt but Aldi was sold out. Still came out great. Hard to make a better meal for less money.

Grumpy Bear · June 18, 2023

2 hours ago, OnTheReel said:

Tonight we had pulled pork sandwiches. I smoked this pork shoulder all day with mesquite.

I LOVE mesquite. When I lived in El Paso I just went to the outskirts of town and harvested some.

OnTheReel · June 18, 2023

I stock mesquite and apple. Have no use for the rest!

Grumpy Bear · June 18, 2023

17 minutes ago, OnTheReel said:

I stock mesquite and apple. Have no use for the rest!

No Hickory?

OnTheReel · June 18, 2023

39 minutes ago, Grumpy Bear said:

No Hickory?

Not against it but honestly don’t think I’ve ever used it. Guess it kinda splits the difference between the strong mesquite and the mild fruit woods.

Grumpy Bear · June 29, 2023

Ice!

Who would 'a thought? Our neighborhood has a community well. Rock hard water. 35 grain plus hard. We have a softener and an iron breaker, and the well manager treats with Clorine and whatever else the state requires.

My day ends with two fingers Kentucky Bourbon over a few cubes, and I had no idea how much the ice altered the taste of the drink until tonight. We had an RO unit added for drinking water and the ice maker in the fridge yesterday and so last night I emptied the cube dispenser and started anew. You can bypass the fridge filter to and save a hundred plus a year.

WOW! When you buy RO water from a treatment company, they add back some calcium and magnesium to 'flavor' the water. A point of use RO does not. This ice then is tasteless and pure. You would not believe how much taste ice imparts to your night cap. You would not believe how much minerals cloud water and what residue it leaves in the bottom of your glass. The ice is not crystal clear, but it is far clearer than non-RO waters. Perfectly clear ice has more to do with the way it freezes than what's in it. That's another topic.

Great source of water for your trucks cooling system too. Battery if you still do lead/acid. :dunno:

KARNUT · June 29, 2023

6 hours ago, Grumpy Bear said:

Ice!

Who would 'a thought? Our neighborhood has a community well. Rock hard water. 35 grain plus hard. We have a softener and an iron breaker, and the well manager treats with Clorine and whatever else the state requires.

My day ends with two fingers Kentucky Bourbon over a few cubes, and I had no idea how much the ice altered the taste of the drink until tonight. We had an RO unit added for drinking water and the ice maker in the fridge yesterday and so last night I emptied the cube dispenser and started anew. You can bypass the fridge filter to and save a hundred plus a year.

WOW! When you buy RO water from a treatment company, they add back some calcium and magnesium to 'flavor' the water. A point of use RO does not. This ice then is tasteless and pure. You would not believe how much taste ice imparts to your night cap. You would not believe how much minerals cloud water and what residue it leaves in the bottom of your glass. The ice is not crystal clear, but it is far clearer than non-RO waters. Perfectly clear ice has more to do with the way it freezes than what's in it. That's another topic.

Great source of water for your trucks cooling system too. Battery if you still do lead/acid.

I get my water through the refrigerator filtration. It gets the chlorine taste out. I still get white residue on my coffee pot. A friend of mine instead of using ice puts her whisky in the freezer. I don’t use ice, just a splash of water. Or nothing.

Grumpy Bear · June 29, 2023

1 hour ago, KARNUT said:

I get my water through the refrigerator filtration. It gets the chlorine taste out. I still get white residue on my coffee pot. A friend of mine instead of using ice puts her whisky in the freezer. I don’t use ice, just a splash of water. Or nothing.

Reverse Osmosis takes it 'all' out. Going to make our first batch of Ice Tea from it today.

OnTheReel · July 2, 2023

Did some jerky in it’s simplest form. Top round, sliced ~1/4”, seasoned with garlic salt and black pepper, cured overnight. Then smoked and dehydrated for around 6 hours. Haven’t touched the store bought jerky in years. It’s not even close.

Grumpy Bear · July 17, 2023

I'm kind of an Avocado junkie.

Recently I've had a good supply of perfectly ripe fruits. My neighbor grows a variety of pepper plants and has been supplying me with a few very nice Melrose Peppers. I took one and capped, cleaned, seeded and veined one then minced it into oblivion. The aroma as the oil released was wonderful. They are something like a green bell but without the bitterness and a hint of pepperiness. A little acid from lemon juice. Some EVOO and seasoning, salt and pepper and I had a nice new twist on this fruit. No basil. No garlic. A dusting of dried onion powder. L

I got an unusually nice store-bought commercial tomato somehow. More flavor than it should have had. Slice that up.

A shmear of the avocado on some sundried Roma artisan bread, no butter please, with tomato and a bit of the best Pastrami I've tasted in quite some time. Saw it in Imboden's deli counter slice so thin you could read a Gutenberg Bible through it. Easy though. It's salty enough to hide all that avocado wonderful.

The heck with a picture, GULP.

Did you know that soaking a thinning sliced red onion in ice water for thirty minutes takes that nasty acidic bite out of it? America's Test Kitchen tip.

Grumpy Bear · July 19, 2023

Chuao Honeycomb Chocolate

This a 60% cocoa with honey caramelized to a crunch and blended with some honeycomb. 80 grams to a package. This is nice with a bourbon nightcap. They say it's two servings. I just had a square per evening. Lasted awhile. 95% fair trade. We picked up a package at our run to Mineral Point Wisconsin.

ChuaoChocolatier.com.