Mayhaw Man

Let me chime in with a "great work". This has been truly enjoyable.

It's a miracle that you even remembered where you were. Thank God for credit card statements. I would have lost some of the best evenings of my life if not for AmEX's detailed billing methods.

Could you do it the way wineries do? Add eggwhites and shells? Beer Carolyn. We're making beer, dammit. Not Cowboy Coffee. And carageenan is Gaelic for irish moss (I think anyway, hell, until this very moment I had really never thought about it-it is a coagulent made from Carrageenan moss and other red type algaes) Gaelic is one of the world's most inscrutable languages-I used to listen to the public radio equivelant of NPR in Ireland for the Hurling Matches being broadcast in Gaelic. I didn't understand a word, but they were a riot!

Just in case you were wondering. My mama is fine, all of the medical stuff is great and she feels good (in a low salt, low cal kinda way). In fact, she feels so good that she is off to Alaska for a couple of weeks. Good for her, says I. Thanks for all of your good wishes. Brooks

You can live on this for years. I have done it. The Italians are clearly an old and civilized people. It beats the Atkins Diet by a mile, but the long term effects can be a bit rough.

What about fining? The meads that I have enjoyed the most seem to be almost crystal clear. Is that a result of the addition of some kind of fining material (carrageenan for example) or just the way that it naturally works out?

Bob, Have you ever used alt yeast? It is extremely alcohol tolerant and behaves much like lager yeast as the end of fermentation is reached (i.e. it goes dormant and sinks to the bottom of the fermenter). Wyeast has several excellent strains available for homebrewers. Let us know if there are any outstanding recipes that you come across at the meeting this weekend. I think I see a project brewing here. Perhaps if we get started in September we could all have some ready (or at least getting there) by the holidays. Do people carbonate mead, or is it basically a still product? I know that the classic is pretty much still, but I was wondering more about the modern interpretations? Do you find that the type of honey used affects the flavor? Some honeys are so strongly flavored I would think that some of that would make it through the process.

I will pm you with the secret location and the appropriate gatecodes and passwords.

For those of you following along I have moved this topic from Cocktails and Spirits to Beer. While technically not a beer, it is, in fact, a fermented, undistilled beverage and is a semi popular project for many homebrewers. Which brings me to my next point: Has anyone ever brewed any Mead at home? How did it turn out and what did you use for the raw ingredients?

I love Wasabi Peas! They are good by themselves or mixed in with other stuff, like spinach salad for example. They also fit well in my tackle box, so I can enjoy them on the boat. Great stuff, those little wasabi peas.

And as far as the sink goes, I have made up my mind-but there is some hunting to be done. We are going to go the antique sink route. I don't know if I can find on e to show you on the net, but I will try. What I am doing is looking in the salvage yards/restoration places for a large, two basin with a drain board on one side. They are very common and not hard to find. I will have it reporcelained and that will be my new sink! I can do all of this for a couple of hundred bucks and get EXACTLY what I want instead of buying new and spending more than I want to get something I am only marginally happy with. Besides, it will fit the age and style of my kitchen better than most of the ones that I keep looking at over and over again while trying to convince myself that they are worth the money.

Plans are for planners. I am a spontaneous kinda guy. Ask my shrink, she'll tell you. "Plans? What Plans? We don't have no stinking plans!"

By frequenting this website one can assume that you are a above average, discernining individual and one can also quite naturally assume that your friends are as well. Or maybe not. My friends are mostly moronic misfits, but they drink well (and alot, but that's another issue ). Taking a little bigger sampling will ALWAYS give you a different answer. For exampe, there are over a hundred Bud and Bud Light taps in the Superdome. There are 6 Abita taps (all, not coincidentally located near the exits for the pricier seats). There is always a line for the Bud, but you can generally walk right up and get an Amber or a Turbodog. Now the Dome buys all beer at the same price per 1/2 bbl. They don't care what they sell as long as they sell it. They have given the nod to good beer fans by putting in a few taps of interesting brew, but they know better than to do some kind fo massive switch. They keep what the average fan wants (and, in fact, needs-if they are a long suffering fan of what is historically the worst team in the NFL-even though they sell out every week-we are dumb but very loyal fans ) and what they can sell.

Mead is, pretty much without argument, the oldest fermented beverage known to man. Think about it. Honey (which, even in it's purest state-and it is basically antiseptic-has a certain amount of airborne yeasts in it) , watered down, will spontaneously ferment. The resulting liquid will taste a great deal like whatever flower that the bees have been working on. Man figured this out a very, very long time before the Summarians figured out that stale bread, when thrown into a vessel and left for a while, can be turned into a beverage fit for a God. In The History of Food, the stunningly detailed and really informative (also as dry as toast) volume on the origins of the things we eat and how we came to eat them, there is an excellent explanation of the history of mead. I used to judge mead in homebrewing competitions, and I can safely say that anybody can make the stuff but very few can make it well. In fact, it is very rare to find one that you really want to have another belt of. BUT, when you do find one it can be a very refreshing and delicious beverage.

Laundry should be moved by this weekend, and I should have a swell cad drawing of the layout at about the same time. I have selected this refrigerator. I can't see the advantage of two doors (especially considering the price differential and besides, I think that I like the one door better). I also need an ice machine, any recs? Needs to make 20 lbs per day plus and can't cost over $1200. I am going to build in my current O'K and Merritt Stove (scroll to # 4) as I love it.(I would post photos of mine, but it is currently in a storage room). I am designing the kitchen where I can eventually add a seperate ELECTRIC ELCTRONICALLY CONTROLLED SPACE SHUTTLE OF AN OVEN, but as I just wrote school tuition checks and some for all of this other kitchen stuff that is more of a pressing matter, I will wait until I am a bit more flush for the oven. But, for those of you following along, here is the order of what has to happen 1) Move Laundry Room 2) Put down new floor 3) Wire walls for new appliances and then repair the same walls , make the roof match and wire roof for lighting (I am joining two rooms and one of them has a really beautiful faux finish (my wife does this, among many other things, as part of her livlihood) so I think that we might do it all the way across). Adjust plumbing to fit appliances (piece of cake, as my house is 3 feet off of the ground). 4) Install new appliances 5) SLOWLY, bring in the new cabinets between now and the Holidays (cabinet guy is a friend and is doing them as he can). Top priority currently is to get the one finished to handle the sink and dishwasher unit. That part of the counter is going to have a 14 foot long section on cypress bartop that my son and I are going to rework into a thing of beauty. The cabinets are of yellow pine construction with cypress fronts. They will very likely be finished somehow, but that is not my dept. 6) Have a big meal for all of the many friends who are helping out in one way or another with this project (not completely selflessly you understand, I feed alot of people on a regular basis and this project is messing them up as well-the freeloaders ) I will try to post some photos of where I stand on Wednesday.

Antique heart pine (it will match the rest of the house). Last forever, looks great. Just sand it down every ten years or so and you are good to go. Hopefully by the end of the week I will be able to post a progress report. We got held up moving a breaker box (a subpanel, but still a pain) and could not move the laundry gear until we got that done. Happily we are nicely air conditioned at this point, so I can't complain much.

It was also being made within sight of the Tecate Brewery Brewstacks. We were made to feel remarkably unwelcome by the local officials (most of whom had an interest in Tecate Beer, if only free beer or family members employed there). Only an intervention by some other "officials" from Mexico City and Mexicali prevented some really annoying occurrences like no deliveries, no lights and no water (all of these things happened several times until things got "straightened out" with the "Local Officials". It was a really crazy time.

It is, as Johnnyd alludes, ultimately about money. Beer, in and of itself is relatively cheap to make. Grain prices, worldwide, are pretty stagnant and have been for years. The only major price fluctuations seen in beer over the last 25 years or so have had as much to do with energy than with labor or raw ingredients (and there is advertising, as well. Which, for someone like AB or Miller in the US, can be HALF of the total profit of the company-ads drive sales directly, not indirectly-spend a ton of money on Saturday and beer sales are up on Sunday). Beer is made with malted barley and other cereals (in the us, this often means rice) and the barley must be malted before it is useful for brewing. Malting is simply toasting the barley after it has been soaked in water. It is dried/toasted quickly as close as possible to the point where the endosperm is about to pop out of the seed. This is the point where the seed has the highest percentage of fermentables and so the closer you get it to perfect, the more yield you get per pound. I takes a lot of gas to malt barley. Same thing with brewing, gas fires the boilers. Then the stuff has to be delivered. Gas and diesel run the delivery trucks. All of this adds up to a ton of gas usage, and adds quite a bit to the cost of that glass of beer. My point here is that breweries, in order to make more full flavored products, will have to add more ingredients to their base to make them taste more full/better. They are not going to do this for a couple of reasons 1) The brand that they have built up has some consumer loyalty and big breweries desire that more than anything else. 2) More ingredients cost more money and that means less to the bottom line 3) The average drinker of these products (please understand that this means damn near everybody drinking big brewery products) like them the way they are. If they did not, the consumer would drive brands like Abita, Full Sail, and Bell's on to greater things. THe demand is not there. That is not to say that there is not SOME demand, but not enough to spur the big breweries to change their ways. Their goal is to achieve the highest sales at the lowest cost while building brand loyalty among their core demographic (sorry, I don't mean to use sales talk, but it is useful here) and to that end, they are willing to spend whatever it takes-to a point. Clearly some money needs to be fed back to the stockholders-but unlike other businesses, beer is not exactly the most profitable stuff to make. Beer producers have a much lower profit point than many other producers of beverages and other foodstuffs. Volume is the way to make money, not high prices. So they will stick with the lighter type beers because they are substancially cheaper to make, and when you are going to make 50 million barrels or so of beer, and make very, very little per bbl. profit, ingredient costs count.

You know, I have been thinking about this and have decided that this is a regional thing, but not really a single region, more like county by county or (in my case) parish by parish. I cannot think of a single place where I live that I would, automatically get sweet tea-on the other hand, I can drive 45 minutes east of here, to Hattiesburg, MS and I would get nothing but. now that is not to say that everywhere in MS serves sweet tea automatically, because I know a good bit about Jackson, Vicksburg, Greenville, and Natchez, and the places that I can think of off hand are about an even split. So I think that IMPLYING that it is automatically served is stereotypical, because that is what many writers from both inside and outside of the region do. Waffle House has both kinds, and so do virtually all restaurants I visit, with the exception (most of the time) of very small BBQ joints and fish houses-they will occasionally only have sweet. Some areas drink all sweet, some drink both. That is a similar thing implying that every RC ever consumed went along with the purchase of a moon pie, like some kind of sugar laden combo meal-or that everybody who ever drank a Dr Pepper shoved a sleeve of Tom's Roasted Peanuts into the bottle (although I will say I kind of like the salty sweetness that results, but it has been about thirty years since I have done it)-or that gumbo HAS to have okra (it absolutely does not, and in some case it is wrong to add it-well, maybe not wrong, just not right. We are not all the same here, even though we often get painted that way. Sometimes we do paint stereotypes as self portraits for fun and profit, sometimes we get painted that way by others. None of us really care, as long as you call us when it's time for dinner.

I suppose that the primary difference is that The Cajachina is made with plywood, as were the ones that we were originally using. They did not hold up very well, as plywood is glued together and the combination of the heat and the moisture tended to make them fall apart after a few uses. You could build one out of good hardwood for cheaper than either of these places, if you were handy and had the tools (of course, using that premise, I suppose that you could build your own rocketship, so what do I know? )

No. You could build one very easily if you are reasonably handy and have a set of tin snips. Cypress works well, as would any hardwood that resists rot. I would be glad to send you measurements and photos if you decide that you want to do it.

Ihave to wait until I get home to post the recipe, but for those of you with The Cotton Country Collection (a really great cookbook), look for Lemon Loves. This is a shortbread style square with a lemon topping much like ruthcooks describes. You might notice the name on the recipe. Yes, that is my mom . Those things are really good. I will put the recipe in late this afternoon.

First of all, about the boats. We have lots of them and this is a very big empty lake (except on major holidays). It is a great place for trying to permanently damage your offspring by throwing them off of whatever they choose to ride at 40 mph. Nothing like seeing the ones that you love roll across the water like rag dolls. THere is nothing like momentarily worrying about a possible trip to the hospital only to pull up to the kid and have him BEG for another turn. Now to the pigs These guys (my fil and his buddies the doctors) have a butcher in Calhoun, LA who provides them with fresh pork to order. The guy also makes a whole range of sausages that fall into the artisinal category (including, FIFI, REAL HOT LINKS-FAT RED FIERY BOMBS OF PORK AND PEPPER_They are delicious) and some of them are way out there but really good (example-chicken, pork, and cheddar sausage-really strange and really good). He brines the pig the night before pickup and then it is taken home. The paste is made up and both shoved under the skin and injected with a giant syringe (once again-good to have doctors-they actually understand the injection thing-I learned alot this weekend). The pig is then put into a large igloo and held until basically room temp. Apparently putting one on when it is very cold makes the whole process go awry. About one large bag of charcoal is lit on top and when it JUST turns to grey, the coals are spread out evenly over the top and that's it. 2 hours of leisurely waiting. (I should add that chips or whole chunks can be put into a box inside that allows the chips to smoke (heavily) but not burn, although that was not the focus of this particular project. Herbs and strong flavors from the herbs were the focus here. The design of the box allows for very little ventilation. There is some, so the meat does not steam, but not much more ventilation than that. THe nice thing about this is that IF you are going for a smoke type cook, the smoke flavor is very concentrated. THe meat is turned after two hours and more charcoal is laid on top, about half of the amount that was originally used. At 4 hours, the pig is opened up and the top is screened so that the pig and the oven can cool down a bit. The skin is removed and cubed for cracklins, or it can be rendered for some tasty smoky lard. The rest of the meat is cut off of the bone and panned. Bones can be saved for stock or given to dogs as delicious meaty treats. Ears and tails always go to the animals (the ones with four legs, the other two legged kind just stand around and pick while the meat cutters perform their tasks-the tenderloins never make it into the house for some reason ). The meat is incredibly moist, but not the least bit greasy, and picks up the flavors really well. I cannot reccomend this method highly enough for those of you that don't have access to rental companies that rent giant pits or who don't have the space or wherewithall to build a pit or cooking device. Those guys that build these things are glad to ship them wherever you want them. Some of their models have legs, but we prefer the ones that don't have them because they are much easier to transport and carry by hand. Clean up is easy, just scrub the wood or pressure wash (the best method) and you are done.

I posted this stuff over in the cooking forum, as that is probably where it should go for the miximum number of readers. Go have a look. These things are becomeing the "big deal" for tailgating. Think about it: "Hey Boudreaux! We're having crawfish and burgers at the tailgate on Saturday." Comeux replies to Boudreaux in a smirking manner, " Biiiiiiiiig deal, Bubba. We're cooking a hog! Chicks dig it! Nobody boils crawfish at tailgates anymore. Get with it, boy!"

NOTE TO ALL OF YOU BARBEQUE NUTS. THIS IS NOT, IN ANY WAY, WHOLE HOG BBQ IN THE ED MITCHELL STYLE, OR EVEN THE VARMINT STYLE-THIS IS YET ANOTHER WAY TO COOK OUR FRIEND PORKY. NO HATE MAIL PLEASE. AT LEAST UNTIL YOU FALL FOR MY EVIL PLAN AND TRY THIS YOURSELF. THEN YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO HATE (BUT OF COURSE, YOU WILL BE IN LOVE WITH THIS AND WILL HAVE FORGOTTEN ALL ABOUT BROOKS, THE BBQ HERETIC). Anyway, enough of that. There was a gathering of my wife's family this weekend. It is a very large and close group of brothers sisters and first cousins who were all raised as brothers and sisters. Lots of people and lots of kids. Lots of work. Lots of fun! A quick run through of the menu and on to the pig THursday Night- Smoked Brisket (perfect, thank you very much) Cheese Grits Lady Peas Butter Lettuce, Grapefruit and Avacodo Salad w/ poppyseed vingarrette Friday Lunch Lexington Chicken Spaghetti (look in the Cotton Country-great for large #'s and made with Schmaltz!) French Bread Green Salad Friday Night Shrimp and Crawfish Stew Spinach Salad (with lots of bits including Wasabi Peas!) Bread Pudding with Bourbon Sauce Saturday Lunch Taco (made with beef tenderoin grilled to medium rare/rare perfection) Every Taco addition we could think up and have on hand Peach Cobbler for Dessert Saturday Night Whole Hog (microwave style) Dirty Rice (more of the same pig, nothing left but the oink!) More Spinach Salad (big spinach sale at Sam's! ) Sunday Morning Grits and Grillades Pancakes Bisquits Sunday Lunch What? Are you kidding me? Let em eat McDonalds! Now for the pig thing A Cajun Microwave is basically a big wooden box that is lined with sheet metal and has a grating setup in the bottom of it. A fire of charcoal is started on top and once the coals are just turning white, they are spread to a layer of one deep on the top and the pig is put inside. The top is put on and after 2 hours coals are added and the pig is turned. Two more hours the top is removed and a screen is put on to as the pig needs to rest after that time in the hot box, before the orthopedic surgeons come to do a little autopsy. Basically. That's it. Now for the details with photos and some links: Now for the details. The pig was about 55 pounds. It was brined and then the skin was lifted and it was crammed full of herbs of various sorts that had been made into a paste with butter and olive oil-rosemary, thyme, basil, oregano being the base of the dry herbs. The thing was crammed full of the stuff as you can kind of see from this photo (I did no closeups-next time-I was too busy pulling around fearless adolescents on various water towing devices -one amn, two man, and four man tubes, hydroslides, skis, wakeboards, etc.) That's my father in law and my wifes cousin (I do not have a good enough version of photo shop to dampen the glare from that tacky LSU shirt. What can I say? You can pick your nose, but you can't pick your family ) as the move the pig towards the box. Ready to go. The top with the hot coals will go on momentarily. The beer drinking and lying will commence shortly afterwards. About 4 and a half hours later, it is cooked and cooling! Ready to eat! Bullet (the best dog in the world) is hoping that the table breaks Cousin/Dr. Sid goes to work (note about those implements-they are REALLY cool. Sid raises Arabians and his farrier made the knives. They are hammered from the remains of a couple of old rasps (for those of you from the big city, that is a large file that is used to trim and file horses hooves). They are attached to deer horn handles and are remarkably well suited for this process-one should always have a surgeon or two to cut up hogs. They are very good at it!) Still Life with Porky's Head (#1 of a Series) We ate every bite. The skin was cubed and fried into delicious (and probably heartstoppingly dangerous) cracklings, and the ears and a few big bones went to a couple of lucky labs and a goofy bull terrier. They were very happy dogs. The device that we were using is a custom made hybrid of the one that you see on this website. He builds them out of cypress and now that we have done it a few times (actually, some of my wife's family does this all the time-horse shows, weekend get togethers, etc.). They are also great for roasting ducks or stuffed chickens, whole geese, misbehaving children, etc. The meat comes out tender and unbelievably juicy. Really delicious. Anyway, besides that, the rest of my worldview this weekend looked something like this: