col klink

See ya in a wee bit folks!

Is it too late to join this foray? If not, I'm in (Batgrrrl can't make though).

So what's the official word on cow tipping? Is it really an myth to lure idiot city-folk into the pasture for some hazing?

Whatever it's called, it's really freakin' ugly. I'll eat it, but I won't eat it whole!

All right folks, I just remembered a post back in the day about the logistics of raising goats (to later eat). The thread can be found here (click me now!) The website I direct people to sells goats and emu chicks but now they're selling laying hens Muscovy ducks. They also give tips on the care of Sonoran gopher snake. Here are the cute little edible duckies! Going back to the goats, I initially wanted Pee Wee, but upon further inspection, I have a hankerin' for Pactches!

I don't know much about getting home-grown beef, but the best resource in Seattle for pork is The Butcher Shop in Ballard on the corner of 20th and 65th NW. They usually have spare ribs, loins and shoulders always in stock. Anything else you need they order. They have a good relationship with a relatively local farm and you can get suckling pig to whole pig, whole legs and pork fat. If you'd like, they'll even cure a ham for you and then you can smoke it! Really damn tasty. If anyone would like to split a cow or pig, let me know! As for poultry, Central Market carries whole and piece organic free-range chickens that I hear are very tasty. They also have fresh duck! All the time!!!! I would love though to find a place that had chickens running around out back and you can choose them yourself. That would be ideal. My great grandparents in Detroit had a grocery store (with liquor! Yeah Michigan!) where you could select your fresh chicken whilst it still ran and great grandma would chase it down, kill it and dress it. Guess I'm living in the wrong day and age (or the wrong area).

Good idea! Mario Batali loves to use caul fat and as soon as I find some, I'm going to have a fun time cooking.

My favorite ankimo dish was called a "hamburger" by my favorite sushi chef. He took a large scallop and sliced it in half to serve as the "bun." A slice of prepared ankimo served as the "meat." That was topped with flying fish roe and it was absolutely decadent. I can also vouch for the combo of ponzu and ankimo served on a bed of seaweed salad. Of course, there aren't too many ways I don't like ankimo!

I'm jealous!

So what is the ratio you guys are using for your simple syrup? I've been using a 1:1 ratio.

You're two most important tools (beside the Weber) are the digital meat thermometer (Blood Bath and Beyond, $20) and the charcoal chimney (Amazon, currently on sale for $12.99): The day before brine your shoulder in a brine solution of 1 cup kosher salt to 1 gallon of water. It'll result in a juicier, tastier pork roast. 8 to 24 hours will be quite sufficient to brine it. You can experiment with all sort of water soluable additives like sugar (brown), hot sauce and vinegars, but after smoking, you won't taste any of it so don't bother with the work or expense. I've stopped adding vinegars to my brines because they will add a small rubbery texture to the meat. On the day of, start off with about a 1/3 to 1/2 chimney of coals and place on one side and the pork on the other. It's easier to start with less and add more hot coals later than trying to cool down the Weber. Like Ron Johnson mentioned, put something underneath the pork to catch drippings. You can place an inch of water or sand in the tray to act as heat ballast. Before you put the shoulder on, you might want to check how hot the Weber gets from that much coal and play around with the vents and amounts of coal to get the temp right. The ideal temp is 225 F but if it's between 200 to 250, you'll be just fine. If it gets too hot, you can crack open the lid but make sure to close the bottom vents. If you don't, you create a stronger draft which will only get your coals burning hotter. But keep this in mind in the event your fire starts to die down and you don't want to add any more coals. Of course I always do this when I'm finished on the Weber to burn as much of the coals as possible so it's easier to clean out the next you use it but I leave the open part above the coals for a stronger draft. To take temperature readings, use your digital thermometer and place the temp probe on the grate where your shoulder will be/is or drop in through the top vent. For maximum smoke effect, have the open (or partially open) bottom vent under the coals and the top vent opposite, above the shoulder so the air comes up through the smouldering wood and crosses the Weber going around the shoulder. When it's time to add new coals, start them up in the chimney and when they're ready, have somebody else lift the food and you dump the coals. It's possible to do it yourself, but it's a pain in the tukhes. And remember, if your Weber isn't smoking, you aren't adding flavor to the pork and you need to add more wood. After you pull your pork, make sure to taste it before you add your sauce so you can get an idea of how smokey it is. The most flavorful bits are going to be exterior pieces and if you've smoked it well, you'll have a beautiful pink ring around the edge as proof. You shouldn't need to mop your shoulder because it's already 20% fat and most of that will render and moisten the meat as it slowly cooks over the 4 to 6 hours it will probably need to smoke. Don't be too concerned if the final result is not as smokey as you were hoping, more than likely whatever sauce you use will be the dominent flavor of the sandwich. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't smoke it, the sandwich will be far better than if you just oven roasted it. Good luck!

You can find wood chips for smoking at any store that carries bbq equipment or even just charcoal briquets. There are several grocery store chains in Seattle that carry chips, so they shouldn't be too hard to find. Go with whatever you find. One thing that people haven't mentioned yet is that your pork shoulder will be "pulled pork" above 195 to 200 degrees F. You can even let it get up to 210 and it's still great. For your sauce, you'll want something that's tart or acidic to cut through all of that precious, juicy, perfect pork fat. I'm a big fan of mustard and vinegar based 'que sauces, spiced up with your hot sauce of choice and a little bit of brown sugar. Them's good vittles (actually spelled victuals).

I typicall like to eat around 7 to 8, but on occasion (like last night) won't eat until 9 due to whatever. I'm rather flexible when I eat and if I'm cooking an elaborate meal that for some reason won't be ready until later, it's not a problem. But that's usually because I'm tasting throughout the entire process! When I was working though dinner was closer to between 6 and 7 rather than later.

Interesting, after some rumination, I didn't think it was strong enough. My next batch of velvet flanarem syrup with be only 2:1 simple syrup to marinated rum or even 1:1. Yeah, it'll probably be 1:1. So, the few folks who have tried it, do you think it's better before dinner or after (since it can be a little sweet)?

Check it out folks! It finally came!!! Yeah! So here's the deal, I'm going to make some sausage but I don't know how much to make. I know Jason, Awbrig, Dave, Varmint and Kim would like some, would anyone else like some too? Let me know how much you'd like via PM along with your shipping address. When the allotment of 30 lbs have been spoken for, I'll let everyone know here and start on a list for the next batch. It's going to cost me somewhere around $3/lb to make it and around $4 to $6 to ship priority via USPS and will arrive between 2 and 3 days later. There are no preservatives except for salt. I will vacuum seal and then freeze them before shipping. This time of year it will be cold during shipping and should arrive safely. Here are the ingredients: pork shoulder beef (not sure which cut, but I'm leaning towards brisket, suggestions are welcome) pork back fat garlic salt ground pepper I should mention that if anyone has professional experience shipping smoked meat products and knows of a safer or more cost effective way to ship, please let me know! I can already tell that there is going to be some issues with the stuffer as the tolerances of cast iron aren't very precise. I'm currently devising a ring to go around the plunger but haven't come up with anything. I'm not worried because the new stuffer should be much easier to use. Yeah! New toys!

You can treat it like an American bacon (though it is jowl and not belly fat). I'd make candy out of it.

A little late, but Wednesday night I pan seared frenched duck breasts in duck fat with roasted baby reds (in duck fat, yeah!) and roasted broccoli. The breasts were served on top of a fresh rhubarb, maple and duck stock sauce.

Sorry Ben, Coolranch got it right. Rodeo guy: What's your name? Pee Wee: (grogy) I don't remember. Rodeo guy: Where'ya from? Pee Wee: (still grogy) I don't remember. Rodeo guy: Is there anything you do remember? Pee Wee: (still grogy) I remember . . . . . the Alamo . . . Texans emphatically cheer edit: that episode of the Pimpsons didn't suck that badly, I was mixing it up with the John Goodman episode where he's the leader of a biker gang that kidnaps marge. THAT episode sucked.

That's what we used last night. Props to Nightscotsman for the all of the practice work on flaming the orange peels. That was sweet! The night before when I was zesting limes for the rum, I tried flaming lime peels but it wasn't really anything to speak of just a couple of pops. But orange peel, BOOM! Made me feel like Beavis, fire! fire! fire! OK mamster, I'll concede it's a girly drink. It's a color other than brown and it's pretty orangey (that is fruity). BUT, it's a really complicated sissy drink, unlike any other. I'd be proud to order it in a biker bar full of Satan's Helpers.

I can vouch for the drinkability of the above.

My smoked turkey usually goes over very well. People who hate turkey, love my smoked turkey but probably because they've always had overcooked turkey. I've had people pass up smoked goose and duck as well as deep fried turkey and duck for my smoked turkey, usually leaving me without any leftovers. It's quite easy to do, brine the bird for a day or two and smoke it to 155 F. Let it rest than carve. Actually, I've have more people gush about my smoked corned beef brisket than anything else, even when I've smoked all of the life out of it and I'd prefer to feed it to a dog. Boggles my mind. This is even easier than the turkey, take out of bag and smoke for 3 to 6 hours depending on size.

I'm no expert either, but when my buddy and I made it he added onions and green pepper. I'm sure there are hundreds of recipes floating out there for chorizo, I was just curious.

Dave, doesn't chorizo usually have minced onions and green peppers?

I bought a skillet two months ago and it's almost perfectly seasoned. Of course I've been frying up a lot bacon and just last night I rendered a good deal of duck fat and then sauteed the breasts. I love my skillet! By the way, Martha did two bits on cast iron skillets this morning, the first of which she went over seasoning and the second was a pear skillet pie. Never before had I noticed how bad the editing and directing was on her show, they kept on cutting her off in the middle of a sentence!

Sissy cocktail? That was not the first thing I thought of when I read the recipe. I think DeGroff did an excellent job of mixing fruit flavors in a drink and still have it be not a "girl drink" to quote Kids in the Hall. Girl drinks or "sissy drinks" look like Windex, or have parasols and fruit wedges other than lemon or lime. Oh, and any drink with coconut milk is a sissy drink. Of course my Velvet Falernum is still marinating so I haven't tried it yet . . .