col klink

When they first came out (what, like 5 years ago?) I loved the mocha but it quickly became too sweet. Luckily the regular is perfect. Unfortunately at my cafeteria at work they only carry the *low-fat* versions of every flavor which means they taste utterly disgusting.

Pre-ground meat isn't the best idea. Most commercial sausage has been ground too finely and thus you loose a lot of what makes an artisanal sausage good (i.e. texture, besides flavor). Besides, you can usually find larger cuts of meat for less per pound (or kg) than pre-ground meat. Not only that, you have the satisfaction of having a better idea of what the hell is in your sausage. I also add what I call "adjunct" fat. Legally (in most jurisdictions) a sausage cannot be more than 50% fat and nor should you want your sausage to contain that must fat. However, let's say you're making a susage out of pork shoulder which is 20% fat and low and behold it's almost too lean. Usually most people use pork as an adjunct to whatever meat they're using to add more juiciness which is especially true of venison sausage. But even when I was making kielbasa which was pork and lean beef, but mostly pork, I shot for a fat content of 30% to 40%. Anything less, regardless of how you cooked it, would've ended up dry. Maybe not on everyone's scale, but certainly on mine. In my book a sausage should be plump, i.e. juices should be flowing and bites shouldn't take moisture from you or require a sauce to be esculent.

Yeah, I felt bad for the guy. Everytime I went in there it was empty and twice I was even in there on a saturday night. The chef there was nice to customers for the most part but you could tell he was stressed out and often he would have skirmishes with the staff. It's too bad, it was nice having a sushi restaurant to go to before/after M's games. Anywho, there's a new kaiten sushi joint on the Ave and 50th in the U District called Sushi Express that isn't half bad. On my recent tour I hit it a couple of times. I've found kaiten styles in Seattle to be on the lower end of the spectrum of quality and diversity and Sushi Express wouldn't be any different. Except they charge a little more than the low-cost sushi joints. I for one would prefer to go to Kozue in Wallingford where interesting, quality sushi will meet with a light impact on your wallet. I've only been there for lunch but make sure to sit at the bar and make nice because the chefs are cool and love to hand out little treats on the dl. I know that Musashi's down the block gets a much bigger lunch crowd because of how inexpensive it is (though what fish they do have is good) but you'll get better sushi and better service at the former location of Ai. They still remembered us from a year prior when my wife and I dropped in on way out of town for our honeymoon!

This is definitely pimp. Thanks for the pics!

I have the Smokin' Pro from Chargriller and I swear by it. Though only rarely have I used it for actual grilling. I prefer to smoke in mine with hardwood logs -- it makes far less of a mess than charcoal. What doesn't burn you can burn again and the ashes are good for your garden unlike whatever the hell is left over from burning coals. But you can easily do both, though grilling is far easier than smoking. To give you an idea of what you have to do to smoke with both a bullet and the above smoker, read my Smoking Meat at Home course. I also talk about how to use a standard Weber kettle for smoking. For the best flavor versus expenditure of energy, the buttet is your best. Though you can't really grill with it on a consistant basis. As for electrical smokers, there's just no "love" in what you smoke. In real BBQ, you can taste the "love". The Smokin' Pro has it, the bullet has it and electric smokers for the most part don't. <insert appropriate "love" joke here>. Of course, I do have to admit the possibility that the meat I've tried that's been smoked in an electric was just in the wrong hands and that in the right hands could be just as good. Though experience would lead me to believe otherwise.

When I soak my onions in water, I usually add some vinegar too.

Yup, sear to finish. It adds a nice touch. However, it's not that simple to do in an offset smoker unless you also grill with it and have an easy supply of charcoal on hand and more importantly -- a chimney. That way you can start the coals outside of the smoker and keep the smoker temp low until you need the heat. It's not something I ordinarily do unless I'm on cooking on a Weber and there's easy access to below the grill. I've never done it with my smoker because there are four seperate grates and the times where I'm smoking large roasts that could use the grilling it would be too much of a headache (as opposed to spending hours around the smoker tending the fire, but then I'm not doing any lifting that could endanger the meat).

NulloModo, the choice of the grill versus the smoker depends on two things. Your experience and your cut of beef. Is your cut more like the prime rib in the pics or the sirloin roasts? If feel confident in your smoking ability on the smoker (and don't mind babysitting the smoker -- I don't unless it's raining) and your roast is more like the sirloins, I'd use the smoker. Otherwise the grill. As to probing, you don't have to probe often because you can leave the probe in roast. But you should *check* the temp often. And yes, put the probe in the center of the meat not touching any bones. However, on large roasts you may want to check the outside portions every once and a while. With hot smoking at 225 F and lower, you're cooking at a lower temperature than typical roasting in an oven so you don't have to worry so much about piercing the meat and having all of the juices running out the side so don't be afraid of overpuncturing. edit: You can score the fat if you'd like because the end appearance would be better (the fat will shrink more than the muscle) but it isn't necessary. It's not like it's duck breast where the goal is to render the fat for flavor and as well as there's an OVERABUNDANCE of beautiful, magnificent holy fat. If you don't render the fat under the skin the skin will be very tough. This isn't the case with the loin roasts I've seen.

I *love* smoking large cuts of beef. The larger the better (within reason, I don't have the room for 1/2 a cow or even a 1/4 cow ). Contrary to what's been said here, wesza not withstanding, smoking can be great for a beef loin. As long as you can hold a low temp in the smoker and duly rotate your roast you can have an amazing piece of beef. But it's going to take a good deal of work with the smoker in your possesion. I'm guessing that your roast is around 6 lbs or larger in which case the smoker is the best thing for it. Ideally the largest width will be at least 4" or 5". However if it's smaller, it might not be worth the effort. I mention a lot of work because if you're using hardwood logs to fuel the fire there is a temperature differential throughout the barrel and the potential for a flare-up is pretty high -- not so much with charchoal in the fire box. Keep the fire as low as possible for the longest period of time -- this gives you a smokier end product. And rotate the roast every 15 minutes so one side is not more cooked than another. This is more important with a roast that is coming off at a particular temperature (125 F) than something like a pork shoulder roast which is ideally smoked until it falls apart and can't help but not be really smokey. To prep I'd just rub with kosher salt (table salt is really fine grained and I always end up adding too much salt, though with a large roast like this it isn't so much an issue) and pepper. Though I do like the idea of crushing garlic and mixing it with olive oil for the rub. Wesza says to form a crust at a high temp then let it slowly cook in the oven and finish in a smoker. I don't recomend this if you want a smokey flavor. If you want a grilled flavor it's fine to finish on the grill but you're not going to get a smokey roast this way. By searing the exterior of the roast you're sealing the interior of the roast from getting any smoke flavor. The trick is to sear right before serving. If the roast reaches 125 F before you're ready to sit down, cover with tin foil and let rest. 20 minutes before you're ready to eat, have your smoker or grill really hot and sear on all sides but not blackened -- it shouldn't take too long, less than 5 minutes. Otherwise you risk overcooking the interior. With a large roast like this you can still please the whole crowd -- both the folk who love their beef blood rare as well as the well-done meat crime advocates. Save the middle for the lovers and the ends to the haters. With long roasts like a loin, it's a heck of a lot easier to use a standard weber. You won't get as smokey as with a hardwood fire but you don't have worry nearly as much. For cutting your teeth on smoking or with a $150 prime rib roast that you don't want to leave to chance the Weber is fantastic. Last October MatthewB, Guajolote and I smoked a magnificent prime rib roast on a Weber and it was some of the best beef I've ever had. The technique is to place smaller fires on either side of the kettle for even cooking with the roast in the middle thuswise: Granted later on one of the fires went out but everything worked fine, I just put the roast as far away from the fire as possible: The Weber is easier to use in this instance because the roast is so long instead of more of a blimp shape. The roast in the pictures wouldn't be able to fit on my smoker unless it was parallel with the barrel meaning one end of the roast would very close to the fire and thus very susceptible to overcooking without a lot of babysitting. Here's a sirloin roast I've smoked (blob like compared to rib roast, the two in front). And here's a cross section of the sirloin (for reference, that's a 10" slicer in front of it): So remember, your temp probe is your best friend in a roast like this. Turn often, poke and prod the roast to make sure that each side is being evenly cooked and pull at 125. Sear to finish and give yourself 15 to 20 minutes of resting before carving.

Another tip. For spreading the rice on the nori, evenly distribute the rice in a line across the width of the nori before completely spreading the rice out. It's a lot easier that way than starting in one spot and does a better job of not smearing the rice.

Very nice tutorial origamicrane. As for your rice recipe, do you add the seasoning to the rice and water before cooking? I don't know why it wouldn't work but I've never seen it done that way. The only reason I haven't tried that is that once I found a recipe for rice that worked, I treated it as sacrosant: 460 g short grain rice (I've used cal-rose and kokuhu) 2 1/2 cups water Eunny, I use a variation of your method when I'm having trouble with the nori sticking -- I smoosh a grain of rice on the nori and spread in the troublesome spot. It works like a charm and you can't tell I've used a "glue". I've also let rolls sit for a minute or two as well which greatly help the nori set. For a clean cut, make sure your knife is very clean and recently lubricated with water. I usually keep a bowl of water for my hands and a seperate tall glass to dip my knife in.

Inch thick chuck eye steaks totally kick ass -- they're more flavorful and almost as tender ribeyes. I'm awlfully jealous. My birthday is in December which nearly always happens to very cold at my family's cabin. My track record for visiting the cabin in the summer though is much better: 28 of the 30 summers of my life I've made the trip. Now that I'm within easy driving distance (~5 hrs), I most assuredly won't miss a summer.

You won't get any flak from me -- it's definitely substanded compared to every other meat he sells. And there just happens to be a perfectly reasonable explanation for this -- it's the only meat in the shop Dino doesn't cure himself. That's why when it's on the board it's listed as ADP prosciutto (or some nonsense starting with A). Hopefully now with the adopt a proscuitto program he'll start curing his own. Although I have my doubts as to whether it'll compare favorably with proscuitto di parma since, as I understand it, there making hams there like they've had for centuries and hanging them in the wide open and the pigs have strict local diets. I don't know about Dino's local pigs, but I know for a fact that those hog legs are curing in his new facilities. That's not to say that these proscuittos won't be good, hell, they'll be great but they might not be ethereal.

For old time's sake my wife and I dropped in to City Kitchens and again, I walked out with a new knife. They currently have open stock tonkatsu knives for 1/2 off. I picked up a Messermeister that's quite attractive and a joy to use for only $49. There was a Henckles for only $35.

I haven't been to Smitty's but I have been to Kreuz's and I can easily see the pit hitting 500 or 600 F is you're close to the fire. I've never run my smoker that hot (I can come close to 400) because I'd risk charring the brisket. If you don't have a lot of fat, you'll want to wrap it in foil at some point. I talk at length about brisket (and turkey) in my Smoking Course.

I rarely have a problem with my kosher salt not dissolving. If you do, try heating the water up a little. Just make sure not to make the water too hot otherwise you'll end up cooking the meat before you want to. Busboy, the only time do I notice a difference in texture from a brine is when there is an acid present and especially if it's been brined for a long time. Lightly seasoning your chicken with a saline solution should not turn it into a rubber band. My tried and true recipe is very simple: 1 gallon of water 1 cup of kosher salt. You can use pickling salt, but go with 1/2 cup versus a whole cup. There was a difference between Morton's and Diamond Crystal but it wasn't dramatic enough to change the amount. I think the equivalent of table salt is 1/4 cup. Somewhere on this forum I did a weight comparison but I haven't been able to find it. Once you find a particular volume switch to weighing the salt. That way you can use any salt you'd like and you won't have to worry about over/under brining. Honestly, what you're doing and what you think has been brined is really off of what we're doing here. I routinely hear "this is the best chicken (or turkey) I've ever had" from people who've never had a brined bird. Not only that, I've been to fantastic restaurants where I've thought "hey, this chicken isn't half bad -- this dish would be perfect if they only brined it."

This is a fantastic idea. I can't wait for it to get above freezing here in Minnesota to try it out!

Hey, you're not the only one enjoying CR sockeye, I picked up a 1/2 fillet here in the shities for $12/lb. Though I have to admit, it was missing some flavor. Maybe it was the extra 6 hour flight?

Who the *$#& cares? All I needed to see was the food menu. And something tells me if I made reservations my wife and I won't get the same menu. Brad, thank you so much -- I just figured out what my wife and I are doing for our first anniversary.

Mashiko is now open for lunch on Sundays: Wow, I just checked the website and they're now open every day of the week!

Thanks for the link Snowangel, that's a great read. slbunge, a very warm thanks for the leads. I've been toying with the idea of doing a cheese trip throughout Wisconsin and Minnesota, a la visiting vinyards, but didn't know where to go! Dry-aged, grass-fed lamb? slbunge, you're my new hero.

No, I haven't even heard of Hope butter. However, I have been in a dreamland because the Wedge Co-op has Plugra. How do they compare?

Here in the Heartland, the heart of America's diary production, you'd think that there's be more cheeses than just cheddar, jack and monty jack. Oh my bad, I forgot shelf stable "parmesan" cheese product. With all of this milk, how come we're not seeing great cheese like you do in Eurorpe? (I will grant that we haven't been making cheese for nearly as long as the old world nor are they as inclinded to mass production). But on a brighter side, I have actually found an artisanal cheese maker outside of Duluth, MN which has a really good product. As white-bread as gouda is, Green Pastures Dairy of Carlton, MN makes their different flavors of gouda with raw milk -- like all of their cheeses -- and it has a sharp bite and a semi-hard texture, almost like an asiago. So where did I find this cheese? At the Duluth Farmer's Market which recently opened and they're open Wednesday and Saturday mornings from 7 am (I think) to noon o'clock (I know). So far there is no produce, only plants, and a single cheese maker who also sells nitrite-free sausages. Unfortunately you're not going to find a soft, stinky toe-jam cheese from them but I really wanted to try their aged gouda which was touted as harder and more dry than the samples he had on hand. So who are the other artisanal cheese makers in the Midwest? We are they so hard to find? Why must mid-westerners stuff their face with flavorless domestic mozzarella?

Ooh! I was just taken out to lunch at Applebees in Shakopee! My generous guests were too squeamish for sushi.

. . . freeze cream cheese. My cream cheese now has a chalky texture though it doesn't necessarily taste bad, it's nowhere near as good. Who knew?