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Howdy folks, just today I finally had my dsl line setup after being in the new place for a month and a half (Qwest is the most incompetent company still in business. It took them 4 weeks, 4 weeks! to get our address right!). So now I've been able to upload the final picture of cross sections of the centerfold sausages. Here it is: If you click on this link, you'll be sent to my album where you can see the full size. That's a link to the full album, this image is the 7th; if you click on View : index you can get there faster. Then just click on the image itself. As I mentioned above (or maybe not), the centerfold links weren't quite cooked enough, I'd say 75%. They were smokey enough, but just not cooked enough. Better luck next time I guess! But since I've finally been able to load up a bunch of pictures, I'll take this opportunity to post some of them from my Christmas vacation. First the Christmas Prime Rib: The Menominie river where last year a body without a head or hands was found a la Sopranos (the head was found later, but not the hands): And for Big Bear (when are you coming back!?!?!):

I'd bake brownies too, special or otherwise.

That doesn't surprise me in the least. Of course you could say that particular liquor control guy worked for any state and I'd believe that kind of action. Did he need a payoff?

Thanks for all of the support guys! I've just ordered my sausage stuffer from Northern Tools and it should arrive within 10 to 14 business days. Similar ones on eBay were selling for $40 to $50 but it's only $24.99 there. I've been participating at a bbq chat site where the folks really know their grinders and stuffers. They mentioned that this stuffer (pictured above and listed for a much higher price at Allied Kenco) probably won't suit my needs if I'm regularly making 30 lb batches, but if it really stinks, I can just turn around and sell it on eBay for more than I paid for it. I still need to get a real meat grinder but I think I can live with a Kitchen Aid until I can save up the $250 to $350 for a decent grinder to get the truly authentic Polish kielbasa. Until then, I'll be getting my cold smoker up and running. Now that I'm moved in and the Holidays are over, I can concentrate more time on my smoking! I'm really excited about being able to smoke 10 to 20 pounds of sausage at the same time and even making my own bacon! Just to let everyone know, my mother recently told me it was her mother's father that was so famous for his sausage, not what I said in earlier entries.

I am also of the opinion that if we privatized alcohol sales, we'd get cheaper prices and better service. WHAT DO WE WANT! Privatized alchol sales! WHEN DO WE WANT IT? NOW!

Blood oranges, bleeding with sweet, sweet blood (orange) juice.

I went to the Cash and Carry in Ballard and somehow got out of there without buying the potato french fry slicer for $175. They have some really cool stuff there! Unfortunately they don't have brisket nor a huge selection of meat there so I had to resort to Freddy's for 'que inspiration. But to give Freddy's a huge tip of the hat, they had a turducken! But it was spelled "TUR-DUC-HEN." Sure enough, it was a partially boned turkey stuffed with a boneless duck and a boneless chicken with some type of cornbread stuffing. If y'all are interested, I left it where I found it, next to the frozen turkeys. There was no price on it so I don't know how expensive it is.

Utah has some pretty messed up laws. In the bar, you can't have more than one drink in front of you and you can't order another one until you've finished the current one. Remember what I said about the one drink? It also means you can't order a double. When my old roomate flew threw Salt Lake City, he actually *sobered* up drinking at the bar.

I smoked up a turducken last month and it turned out great. When my folks overnight my camera cable I'll post a couple of pics. I found an online meat shop that has something ridiculous, check it out at the bottom, a "Fowl De' Cochon."

For elaborate meals, I'll plan things out but rarely do I use a timer except to remind me to check the fire every once in a while. Since mostly what I cook is meat, I go by temperature, not time.

I was up to no good last night and now I'm paying for it. Man, my head is swimming, but at least I have great memories of the home made creme brulee. But that was before we polished off the SoCo, the Canadian Woods, the Famous Grouse AND the Black Velvet. LOTS of dead soldiers on the field this morning. I just remembered the other rant about the liquor stores, they can't sell ICE! WTF?!?! What a pain! Why can't I just have ONE place to do all of my pre-drinking tasks? At least in Texas there are drive through margarita joints so you can get started before you get home.

So they pull it off of the smoker early? Given enough time on the smoker, brisket can be just as tender and juicy as prime rib. I'm guessing this is a local preference for corned beef brisket.

Really Nice, do you put your stock in the jars to save them? I'd imagine a lot of the stock would go into the device if you use a bag.

I recently picked up a foodsaver and although I think it's really cool, all I've done is vacuum seal meat that I've smoked so I can mail it across the country. But so far I haven't used it to seal anything else. Maybe when I get a job, I can start buying in bulk again! btw, I just adore PFI and I have a really hard time buying cheese anywhere else, let alone bulk spices.

I sincerely hope that they do away with the LCB. Every time I leave the state I'm constantly reminded that it's better elsewhere. Why, I was just in Michigan where they have liquor in the liquor stores, the grocery stores and even the convenience stores!!! And all for about 25% less than here! But the state taxes on liquor are for a completely different and more irksome thread.

Sweet! I can't wait to check it out.

Follow me to Hooters! Yes, they do deep fry the wings at Hooters and I have direct experience and they're pretty good but ask for all drums. Actually I'm not about to go to Hooters, but I saw the above there on a bumper of an old pos pickup and obviously, looked on it with envy as I was not going to Hooters.

Kielbasa Diary, Second Attempt 12/16/02 On my birthday I received a wonderful care package from my Grandparents containing fantastic Grandma cookies and a package of authentic Polish kielbasa from a Polish deli outside of Detroit. Although my Grandpa professes not to know anything about cooking, he says that this sausage is at least as good as the old family kielbasa. I’m sure as a child that I had some of the old kielbasa but I was in diapers so when I tried some of the authentic stuff, I was truly tasting real kielbasa for the first time and I have to say that not only was absolutely fantastic and it changed how I perceive sausage. First and foremost, like I mentioned in my earlier diaries, the real stuff is chewy with large chunks of beef. It’s not a texture that you have to work against per se, but it certainly holds its own. As for taste, it’s nothing but pork fat, garlic, pepper and salt. When eaten cold (it is fully cooked by the way) there is little smokiness but when you heat them up in a skillet like I did, the smoke flavors really come out. What really had me enamored with the authentic sausage though was its texture; it found a middle ground between bologna that is omnipresent in American sausages and beef jerky, which no one wants in a sausage. A picture of it is below As you can see there are veins of pork fat between the chunks of meat, along with specks of pepper. If I had to guess, it isn’t freshly ground pepper. Also notice that the skin of the sausage is slightly wrinkled. All in all, it’s a good looking and a wonderfully tasting sausage that I hope to best eventually. So that brings us to my next attempt at making authentic kielbasa. Obviously I only used the coarse grinding plates on the Kitchen Aid grinder attachment as I was looking for the chewiest sausage I can make and that includes when I ground the back fat: In the first recipe I used a ratio of 4 to 1 of pork to beef, this time I doubled the amount of beef however, for some odd reason I bought ground beef. Next time I’ll buy cuts of beef and grind them myself for complete control. In this recipe I used three heads of garlic for a little under 10 lbs of sausage and a lot more pepper that I ground in my coffee grinder. You can see the garlic and the pepper in the turquoise bowl above next to the grinder. After I ground the pork, I mixed everything in my tub below: That was the final step before stuffing the meat into links. At this point I fried up a sample on the skillet where I realized that I over salted. This is because I forgot to pick up Kosher salt when I was picking up supplies and all I had left was sea salt with a finer grain. Since I didn’t feel like going out again for more meat, I lived with it since they weren’t as over-salted as the previous batch. If you recall the first diary, the links before they were smoked were orange from the paprika, this time the links have a more natural look to them. In the picture below they have a more natural look to them. You can also see a distinct difference from the ones on top from the ones on the bottom. Unfortunately, the large stuffing nozzle broke so I decided to display adaptability and use the small stuffing nozzle. The problem though is it’s more difficult to push all that meat through the smaller opening and the result is meat that has already been through the grinder (and not yet out the nozzle) is held against the grinder and is ground even more and you end up with a finely ground sausage. It tasted just the same but it wasn’t as chewy as the first sausages. In the picture below you can the texture difference: Here are the finely ground links on the smoker: Here is the coarsely ground kielbasa after it left the smoker: It really isn't fair to just show the centerfold sausages because the first batch that went on the smoker (the finely ground ones) came off looking horrible. Most of the fat had rendered out and was swimming between the meat and the casing, almost comical it was! Anyway, depending on when and which sausages were eaten, the flavor varied. Fresh off the smoker, they were a little salty but very flavorful. They were smokier and in general more intense than the authentic links. Texture wise I still have a long way to go, obviously the finely ground links weren’t even close, but even the coarse links were more like a bratwurst. Most importantly though, they smelled like kielbasa. After I flew out to my folks in Upper Michigan and opened up one of my packages my Mom said: “I feel like a little girl! This is exactly how my grandmother’s house smelled!” That was all well and good for her, but not for my father. He is very sensitive to garlic and when we got in the car at the airport, the first thing he wished for was some mints because I “had just awful breath. Have you been chewing on cloves of garlic the whole plane ride?” Even the next morning he complained that he could still smell it. Of course I found this to be quite funny because I couldn’t smell a trace of garlic. The way kielbasa was prepared around my mother most of her life was just to boil it and that’s what we did the first time. This leeched most of the flavor out (except for the garlic) as well as drying out the sausage. Later on we made omelets with the coarsely ground kielbasas and I just fried the slices in a pan. These were much better but even the coarsely ground links weren’t coarse enough to match the authentic kielbasa. All of the sausage was well received and what surprised me was some people asked for more garlic! Now that I have a basic recipe for kielbasa, it’s time to work on making it authentic and for that I’m going to need some equipment changes. That’s why I’m buying this: This way I won’t have any problems stuffing and I can do it by myself whereas the Kitchen Aid requires two people and if everything isn’t sharp will pose a myriad of hassles. After I get the stuffer, I’m going to buy my own electric meat grinder. I’m not sure which one to get right now, but I do know I want large grind plates to give me very coarse meat. Having dedicated equipment will also make it easier to make larger batches that I’m sure will make eGulleters happy since I can ship more of them across the country. To get back to my birthday care package, my Grandmother wrote a beautiful letter reminiscing about the old days and including a story about the tradition Polish Easter soup: “One of our traditional dishes with Easter soup, baked ham, hard boiled eggs and horse radish. Polish rye bread and butter in the shape of a lamb. These items comprised the Easter basket that was blessed at church on Easter Saturday. I remember taking you and your basket of Easter candy – mainly chocolate – to the service in East Lansing (Michigan) when you were three. When the priest finished his brief service – of course we all walked up to the altar for the blessing and on returning to our seats you spoke out ‘can we eat now!’” The soup is a favorite of mine and very easy to make. The day before, boil a couple of pounds of kielbasa for an hour. Remove and put the kielbasa water in the refrigerator to let the fat harden. The next day remove the fat and reheat. Slowly add a 16oz package of sour cream, an egg mixed with a tablespoon of flour, a teaspoon of horseradish and a ¼ cup of white wine vinegar. At the table add back sliced kielbasa, hard boiled eggs (one or two per person) and slices of baked ham. I remember one year when I was young I thought I wasn’t going to get enough soup and crying my eyes out. Everyone was very nice and gave me enough and since the soup is so heavy, I couldn’t even finish it. Before I finish I’d like to point out that the coolest and best grocery store that ever existed is in Seattle and its name is Uwajimaya. They have great produce with a heavy bent on standard Asian staples like bok choy, shiso and durian (to name but a handful), a fantastic seafood department where I buy everything I need for making sushi, the biggest ramen aisle I’ve ever seen, a food court with Chinese, Korean and Japanese staples, a book store, and an area for kitchen items like the really cool rice cookers that cost a fortune but tuck in you at night, guard the house and file your taxes. This is all well and good, and there are other great grocery stores in Seattle that have most or all of the above and then some. So what makes Uwajimaya the best? On a Monday when all of the butcher shops that I know of are closed, Uwajimaya is open and they have sausage casings. I am forever in love and in debt to them. << Previous Installment

If I'm makin' bacon just for myself and/or for my betrothed, I absolutely love my cast iron and a cast-iron bacon press: It does an excellent job of keeping the bacon pressed against the skillet so it doesn't curl up and thus the ends are better rendered and makes for a more consistent piece of bacon. Circular versions are also available. If you're makin' bacon for groups of 4 or more though, the oven is the best way. Evenly cooked and very easy to do. Also, it frees up the stove for eggs, pancakes, etc. Ben, I keep my bacon fat in a jar in the fridge and I've never had to worry about it spoiling.

Great news folks. I was concerned about Cougar's welfare so I shot out an email to them, here's their prompt response: Colonel, Thanks for your email and your concern about the welfare of our company. While the last 2 years has been difficult, economy wise, we are in decent shape and not in danger of folding as so many companies have. We have been displaced from our location of 7 years by King County, who is demolishing our building in a few weeks to expand their bus barn. We are relocating to the Magnolia Fisherman's Terminal area of Seattle tomorrow and are looking forward to it. The auction being held on Tuesday is merely selling surplus equipment. We have many items that we are replacing at the new site and many others that we just don't need any more. I appreciate your kind words and support and I promise that we will strive to merit your accolades for quality and customer service for years to come. Sincerely, David Saulnier - President Cougar Mountain Baking Company www.cougar-mountain.com (206) 467-5044 ext. 201 ----- Original Message ----- From: Herr Colonel To: comments@cougar-mountain.com Sent: Thursday, January 02, 2003 11:02 PM Subject: Recent Internet Auction I recently found a link to an internet auction selling what looks to be your cookie production infrastructure: http://www.murphyauctions.net/cougarmountain.html I certainly hope not! I love your cookies and have done so for the last couple of years since I've moved back to Seattle. The last year you have given me great pleasure when I leave a Mariner's game and I see your "Hit it here" sign. Please tell me that Cougar Mountain isn't going under! Sincerely, Herr Colonel

NOOOOoooooo! But they've been a mainstay of my pothead friends!!! WHAT WILL THEY DO!?!?!? Has anyone thought of the Seattle potheads? Honestly though, I've really liked their cookies, and I hope this is just an attempt at raising more capital to buy bigger equipment (yes, I know I'm not living in reality).

We call that the Gooooood Morning Burger.

For large cuts of meat (like the prime rib I roasted for Christmas) I find the digital thermometer indisposable. Likewise all poultry. When I sautee meat though I go by touch and sight. When I'm not sure how to cook a specific piece of meat, I'll buy a whole bunch of them and over the course of a week, try cooking them in different styles and with different sauces. My last experiment was with inch thick pork chops. I sautee, baked and what I finally determined to be the preferable way was to heat a cast iron pan in the oven at 500 F and cook at 4 to 5 minutes a side. I didn't use a thermometer, just the old cut and see what it is method.

I wish I could help you LainerX, being Polish myself, I would love to get some authentic Polish items like kielbasa! My Grandfather recently sent me some authentic Polish kielbasa and it was mind blowing! Luckily now that I know what it is supposed to taste like, I can now make it myself. Had you posted this earlier, I could have made you some kielbasa as well! Unfortunately though, I had some equipment problems and 2/3 of the batch was ground too finely but the taste was pretty close. When my mother smelled the bag I brought for Christmas she said "Oh my word! It reminds me of when I was a little girl! My Grandparents house smelled JUST LIKE THIS!" If you come to Nightscotsman's party on New Year's Eve, I'll be bringing some of my kielbasa if you'd like to try it. Good luck finding your ingredients!

I know that the Hale's brewery in Ballard is completely smoke free. I also know that the big smoker in the back is used about once a week to smoke all of their salmon, pork and turkey on their menu. If you don't want to drink their beer there, you can take it with you in a keg or by the gallon. Yeah!