jmolinari

Note to self: when scaling pastrami recipe to use 1.58kg of boneless short ribs, realize the water scales too (duh) and this wont fit in a 1 gallon vac bag. Good thing i had a 2 gallon zip bag and they seem to sink so they should brine cure with no problems....phew! close one. I guess when i cook them sous vide i should scale the brine i use to cook them in from 1kg to 1.58kg or does it no longer matter? I guess it would since everything (smoke flavor etc.) will dilute differently...

You shouldn't need to jaccard a ribeye; it's a pretty tender piece of meat already. If you want "smoky" flavor I'd consider using liquid smoke rather than boiling the alcohol off scotch. Costco ribeye's are pre-jaccarded. It's only noticeable if you look at the fat cap.

How about the fact that the salt levels in Ruhlman's Charcuterie for Soppressata is downright dangerous? 1.7%? That is well below any and ALL accepted minimums of 2.5-3% for cured meats. How about that his recipe for Coppa is just wrong. It's not a "variation" on coppa. It's wrong. Coppa is not chunks of shoulder. WRONG. Or that he tells people to use 1/4 pack of starter culture for a 5 lb batch of salame, where it would be more than enough for 50 or 75 lbs of it?

Correct, i didn't marinate for 12 hrs...the the meat flavor wasn't a problem. It was great. The main issue was with the garlic and ginger which i believe MC states to "slice thinly"

I made "modernist" Kung Pao. the only "modernist" thing about it is the addition of baking soda to increase the pH to increase the browning. I can't say it was any better than just following Fuchsia Dunlop's recipe (on which this is based anyhow). I didn't marinate the meat for 12 hrs as stated i did just 25 minutes. I did have an issue with using garlic and ginger slices instead of mincing it. It wasn't very pleasant eating the pieces. So, next time i'll just stick to Fuchsia's recipe (forget all the measuring) but add the baking soda for better browning.

yes, cure #1 since you won't be aging it for long term i would not use #2.

I printed the index without any issues. Printed it front and back and had it sprial bound. Quite useful.

The new torch tips is interesting, but much more expensive than buying MAPP or MAP/Pro gas...i'm just wondering about the food safety of it...

Bacon is traditionally cold smoked. Charcuterie calls out hot smoking for the simple fact that it's much easier to do at home. It'll work well. Just make sure to use nitrites as it'll be in a room temp. zone for quite a few hours.

Can anyone comment on the food safety aspect of MAPP gas vs. propane, or better yet the new Map/Pro (MAPP is discontinued)...any research citing would be good too. Using it to blowtorch food is a little concerning from what i've read (for MAPP).

That's exactly my issue. I'm reading through the volumes and there is too much info to jump around and do recipes right now....

At pH below 4.8, ascorbic acid can break down under anaerobic conditions and react with nitrites to form 3-deoxypentosulose and a variety of unidentified reactive compounds. Here is a link to a review article by Adams on food additive-additive interactions from 1997. Thanks. Very interesting n

hey guys, wondering if anyone here can help clarify a question i posted in another thread: page 2-155 has a table for cure ingredients. Listed on there is vitamin C, ascorbic acid. This is often added to cured meats for to reduce nitrosamine formation and as an antioxidant. MC points out that "dangerous reactions" can be caused when used with nitrates/nitrites at pH below 4.8 This seems very vague to me. I'd like to understand this better. What dangerous reactions are cause? I ask b/c ascorbic is sometimes added to salame which is a fermented product, which may at times, ferment to as low as 4.8....

ah..makes sense...that's a lot of $

why not cancel with B&N? It doesn't seem like they are earning your money. screw them

just dont look at it too much or you'll put scratches in the brushed finish.... i agree..stainless is not a good surface, especially for stovetops. Our fridge is "titanium" which looks like stainless but doesn't show fingerprints and is magnetic. I do realize it's not titanium.

I was going to say "it works on the protein so it should work"...but that's just my theory...

Page 2-155 has a table for cure ingredients. Listed on there is vitamin C, ascorbic acid. this is often added to cured meats for to reduce nitrosamine formation and as an antioxidant. MC points out that "dangerous reactions" can be caused when used with nitrates/nitrites at pH below 4.8 This seems very vague to me. I'd like to understand this better. What dangerous reactions are cause? I ask b/c ascorbic is sometimes added to salame which is a fermented product, which may at times, ferment to as low as 4.8....

I'm still trying to work out an efficient system. What are you using for your electronic notes? Right now i'm just writing the recipe title and the page numnber (X-XXX) in a list...but i think a excel spreadsheet maintained in "the cloud" that has an additional column with what type of course it is (app, entree, dessert) would be useful...and maybe a complexity rating so you can filter by each thing...and maybe a column with the protein used "fish, beef, chicken"....

So you post-it note the recipes that sound interesting while you read and then flick through those notes to find fun stuff to make? got it.. i'm kind of doing that with electronic notes... except i haven't even made anything yet thanks

How are you guys tracking/compiling/choosing items to make as you go through MC? I've been reading through it, i'm about 1/2 thru volume 2 and 1/2 thru volume 3...there are recipes interspersed throughout, but unless i jot them down i'm sure i won't remember that they sounded interesting. I guess what i'm asking is, how are you deciding what to make and creating menus from MC? There is so much information over so many books that it would seem hard to keep it all straight. I haven't even opened books 4 and 5 so that may be why i'm having some troubles.

I use a Pro-Q for cold smoking in my WSM. The WSM wasn't built for cold smoking. And i agree..keeping the WSM under 200 is tough

good question avaserfi...there is in fact cure in the brine, so cold smoking might work too. Though it might ahve to be longer? Is the adsorbtion rate of smoke higher at higher temperatures? Guess it depends on the humidity too

Hrm, ok i'll try...how come?

Cool, thanks Chris. I'll try to keep it around 200-220 on my WSM