deltadoc

I decided to order two cases. 12 1/2 L bottles per case. Money back guarantee and I've known this distributor for quite a while. All of his meat, etc. has been top quality. $5 delivery charge. I figure I can't go wrong. Found out this same oil is selling at the Wedge for $19/bottle, I'm getting it for $12. doc

I've got a chance to buy a couple of cases of this EVOO. Here is what the flyer says: Holy Creations Olive Oil Straight from the Holy Land of Palistine (The Gaza Strip). This is a very unique high quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil. The olives are hand picked and then carried via mule to be hand pressed via Old World practices. Technology is not available to these farmers - just painstaking hard work. All of this olive oil is Fair Trade, Cold Pressed, and Organic. The price is about $12 per 500 ml bottle. Of all I've read about EVOO, I've never heard about EVOO from the Gaza Strip. Does anyone know how this EVOO measures up to EVOO from Spain or Italy? It's kind of pricey and from a restaurant supply place with a reputation for outstanding quality gourmet meat and items like this from time to time. So I'm hoping someone can fill me in on this. Tx, doc

There picture of a roasting pan looks exactly like my All Clad roasting pan. Their instructions stated to roast the mirepoix in some of the fat from browning the bones. I used Wayne Gisslen's roasting temperature of 400F, while the CIA recommends 425-450. I was making enough for 44 lbs of bones, while Gisslen's method calls for 10-12 lbs of bones, and the CIA method calls for 6-8 lbs of bones. So I had 2 kg of finely diced onion, 1 kg of finely diced celery, and 1 kg of finely diced carrot. Stirring every 30 minutes, it took over 5 hours at 400 F in a Thermalgard new oven in Roast mode (top and bottom burner going). Anyway my point was that onions do take a long time to brown! I'm now turning 6 quarts of veal stock into 4 qts. of Espagnole sauce. This called for 500 g of diced onion and 250 g each of carrot and celery. On the cooktop, the browning went much faster. Obviously a smaller amount of mirepoix, and using only 250 g of tomato puree, and a sachet of only parsley stems, thyme and 1/2 bay leaf. And now I've added 4 qts more of veal stock to the 4 qts of Espagnole sauce reducing it into 3.6 qts of demi-glace per Escoffier. doc

I think it said in my post that the mirepoix was at 400F. It was in the roasting pan in the oven at 400F just like the bones before it were browning in. doc

So I'm making stock yesterday, and started simmering 44 lbs of browned bones in two stock pots. In the meantime, instead of following Wayne Gisslen's method of adding the tomato product, sachet and mirepoix all at once and simmering for 6-8 hours, I tried the CIA's method of simmering for about 5 hours then adding the browned mirepoix and sachet. They say, it takes about 15-20 minutes to brown the onions in the mirepoix, then 1-2 minutes of browning the tomato paste in the mirepoix and then adding it to the stock. Well, it took 5 hours and the mirepoix (400F) was just releasing its juices and taking on a pale brownish yellow color. I decided that I can't stay up all night and dumped half of the mirepoix (before adding the paste) into the one stock pot in which I had already added 1 quart of home canned tomato puree and the sachet. For the other pot I browned the mirepoix a little more, ran out of patience and added the paste. It took about 15 minutes before the paste took on the "rusty color" and the aroma was sweet and aromatic. I added that to the other pot. It was interesting to see both stock pots next to each other. One tannish brown in color, the other (with the paste) mildly reddish brown in color. After 2-3 more hours of skimming and simmering, (the football game was on), I tasted each one separately. Equally good, but different! Tastiest stock I ever made, because I browned the mirepoix (not burned it in a skillet) more than ever before, and tried the browned paste too. Each pot got its own same sachet (black whole peppercorns, garlic cloves, whole cloves, fresh parsley stems, dried thyme and bay leaves all tied up with cheesecloth and string). So the CIA must have been having its own joke about 15-20 minutes for the mirepoix and waiting 5 hours to add it to the stock. As the mirepoix took the whole 5 hours and the stock was simmering the whole 5 hours too! So there is something to adding the mirepoix later in the stock making process, unlike Wayne Gisslen's recommended method. After years of stock making, I'm changing my technique. What great tasting stock! All for having the patience to deal with the browning of the onions in the mirepoix! BTW: There is something good afterall about Minnesota winters, which is that the garage serves as a fine refrigerator/freezer. Too late to can the stock last night. doc

My Middle Easter chef friends showed me a trick. They soak the beans over night, change the water and then simmer. During the simmering, they add a small amount of baking soda. This causes the beans to lose their skins and you can skim them right off. Also neutralizes the acid a bit in the beans making them smoother and tastier. doc

Typically, I've taken these 44lb boxes of New Zealand frozen veal bones and made a place in my refrigerator to thaw. Messy, and takes at least a week and a half before they thaw, and they take up a LOT of space! So I had a new thought, and not having ever done it this way before, I thought I'd ask if there is any reason I shouldn't just put the bones into my large pans (I do about 22 lbs of bones divided into 2 large pans 11 lbs each) and start browning them before I thaw them? I'm just wondering if the "thaw" that will occur and collect in the pans doing it this way, would some how alter the browning process, or alter the taste somehow. I usually brown my mirepoix in the pans after roasting all 44 lbs (that's 11 lbs in each pan twice). I get a lot of "goodies" in the bottom of the pans, and the mirepoix browns nicely in this bone fat residue. Opinions please? PS: For those who haven't guessed, I'm making veal stock to can, and to make Espagnole sauce as a prelude to making demi-glace ala Escoffier out of the rest. Tx, doc

I don't know where you get your eggs, but eggs have gone up like around 80% in the last 2 years. The egg industry has cut back on egg producing hens, thus increasing the price dramatically. Last I heard they are being investigated for this practice by the government. They used to be a cheap meal and maybe will be again one day. doc

Old cattle are tough. Like I said, in Iowa they retire milk cows and old breeding pigs to the pizza factory. Anyway, grinding is just a mechanical form of tenderizing. So that may be why most hamburger is ground out of tougher cuts of meat including tough old cows. I just finished mixing up 10 lbs of ground sirloin, 7.6 lbs of tenderloin strap, and 10.4 lbs of ground chuck and vacuum sealing it in 2-lb packages. They last a long time in the freezer, and without much if any air in the packages, they taste pretty much like they did when I first ground them. Also bought 10 more 1-lb packages of Kobe burgers from Venison America in Hudson wisconsin. They're having a year-end reduction sale until Jan 31, 2009. These are Certified Black Angus burgers @ 4.25 a lb, two 1/2lb burgers per sealed package. Very tasty, but I still think my blend is just a little better and definitely more expensive than $4.25/lb. doc

Venison America (www.venisonamerica.com) in Hudson Wisc is having a year end reduction sale. He has a lot of lamb products at ridiculously low prices. THis is all restaurant quality food available to the general public. Tell Steve, Roger sent you! doc

I used to go to the butcher, pick out some nice steaks and have him grind them. That is, until I met the guy who used to clean the butcher's equipment everynight. He told me that when you put in a few steaks, the capacity of the profesional grinder is so large compared to the steaks you've picked out, that the butcher has to add meat of his own choosing and/or fat he has laying around in order to get your meat out of the grinder. To check out this story, I retained the steak packages and added up the weights printed on the labels. I then weighed (on a precision laboratory scale) the actual ground up meat I had gotten back from the butcher. The difference was staggering. Less than 50% of the weight of the steaks was what I ended up with as ground meat. I confronted the butcher and THEN he tells me the exact same story as my friend did. He adds fat and other meat to get my steaks out, and he was just doing what I asked: grinding up some steaks for me. I was angry that he wouldn't point something like that out to me ahead of time. But then, that extra weight of my steaks is still in his grinder and adds weight and quality to his other ground beef. He was doubling his profit or at least increasing it at my expense. He soon went out of business. The new butcher that took over that location was part of a chain, one with an apparently good reputation. We were ordering some pork butt to grind into Italian sausage. He came back and said their pork butt was kind of off smelling, and offered to sell us a bag of scraps that they use themselves to make sausage. We bought it, took it home only to find some of the grossest looking scraps ever! So, confirmed once again, I grind everything myself as you just never know what you're getting when its already ground out of your site! doc

I've spent years trying to reproduce the excellent ground beef from our local small butcher grocery store 2 blocks from my house form back in the late 1950's/early 1960's. I think it boils down to the quality of the steer. Field grazing cattle, brought in for finishing with corn, grain and beets for about 2 months. Then off to the butcher who dry aged the meat for weeks. That meat would come out of the grinder and hold its shape like so many fat spaghetti strands made of beef. With that said, the closest I have come to making a decent blend in this day and age, is a 1:1:1 blend of filet strap (sans silver skin), prime chuck, and sirloin. Even as far back as the movie "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn", the mother had her 2 kids go next door to the small time butcher, and pick a great steak. The butcher would always ask, 'You're not going to make me grind this are you? I just made up some fine hamburger"....or something to that effect. The kids would swear they only wanted the steak, and when it was produced they promptly asked for it to be ground. Now that has always stuck in my mind and I always wonder what's "really" in the hamburger from the store!?! When I grind it myself I feel a little more confident about what I'm actually eating. But there might be some "invisible" stuff in there that only a chemist could pronounce. But ya try to do the best ya can these days. doc

Yup, AOL.Homepage shutdown at the end of October (trick or treat??) and left everyone stranded without access to year's (in some cases) of collected memories. Someone posted an archive link in this thread and someone else emailed me to publish the recipe, so here it is from the link in this thread provided by someone else! Even Blue-L's web site still points to the now defunct URL! Delta Doc's Garlic Beef Ingredients: 1/2 cup Kikkoman regular soy sauce 1/4 cup olive oil 2 whole bulbs garlic - each clove quartered and/or halved 1 onion, chopped 10 ounces beer 1 teaspoon each salt and pepper 1-1/2 cups beef stock 3-4 lb. whole sirloin tip roast Preparation: In crockpot (off), place soy sauce, olive oil, and garlic. Soak overnight. In the morning, add the chopped onion, beer, salt and pepper, beef stock, and the whole roast. Turn crockpot to LOW with vent closed (if your pot has a vent) and simmer for 8 to 10 hours until it falls apart. Serve on hard rolls (preferably rye or pumpernickel). doc

I just tried googling it again. I found it right away. Make sure that Delta and Doc's are separated by a "space", and don't use the quotation marks. So you would type in: Delta Doc's Garlic Beef Thanks for all the feedback, glad people are enjoying this! doc

Instead of knives and forks, I'd use scalpels and forcepts as tableware! That would be a big surprise and I'll bet they know how to use them too! doc

Just a thought here, as I am curious, but goose and turkey are both fowl. What would it be like if you substituted turkey fat for goose fat? doc

Try deboning the raw breasts. Cover with saran wrap or a large piece of plastic and pound them out into about 1/4" thick rectangles. Make a stuffing of bread crumbs (Panko), crimini, portabella, fennel seed (ground fresh), rosemary, S&P and some turkey stock (or chicken stock), and crispy bacon chopped roughly. Layer the stuffing (at room temperature) into the breasts and roll them up like pinwheels. Tie with several loops of string (cooking type string) or use turkey pins. Brown on all sides, put in large pan, add more turkey stock to about 3/4 the height of the "roulades". Bake until 180 internal temperature (I'm remembering the temperature by rote, check to be sure what is a good temperature for turkey). Remove the cooked roulades and tent. Make a sauce of the pan juices by adding flour and whisking (there should be plenty of fat to make a roux just by adding the flour). Add more seasoning (S&P) if required. Serve by slicing the roulades and spoon over with some of the sauce. Then, roast the rest of the carcass. Pick off all the meat when cool. Freeze and use later for sandwiches or turkey salad or whatever. Place removing carcass and bones back in the oven and roast to a nice brown. Add some mirepoix and brown that too (about 2/3 of the way into making the bones brown, or remove the browned bones and add the mirepoix to the pan). Put the bones and mirepoix in a stock pot, add cold water and a bouquet garni (or sachet d'spice) and simmer gently for about 4-5 hours. Freeze or can the resultant turkey stock ( to use during the year and for the next Thanksgiving). doc

I'm totally amazed at this thread!!!!! I only boil hot dogs, although I prefer them grilled almost black. Contrary to most people, I don't like hot dogs with natural casings because they like "pop" when you bite into them. I like the pressed casings. But then I only eat hot dogs about once every 2-3 years to get my "fringe elements" into my diet. For sausage, like Breakfast sausage or Italian sausage, I put them on the griddle, with maybe a touch of oil so they don't stick, brown good on one side, turn them over, add a ton of diced onion to the center of the sausage link (i'm using 1lb rings), and then put a pan lid over them to hold in the heat. When almost done, I cut them into cylindrical pieces and brown some more while mixing them with the onions. While I will eat them this way, I usually do this while preparing spaghetti sauce in a 20 qt pot next to the griddle. Into the sauce they go, simmer some more and then can them for sausage spaghetti sauce whenever I want it. Boiling fatty sausage in oil just seems like ateriosclerosis time to me! doc

For those who dislike the traditional onion:carrot:celery mirepoix in their stock, isn't there something called "white mirepoix" which omits the carrots and is meant for stocks like fowl and fish, rather than the heartier beef/veal stocks? doc

I think it is just a fine idea! What I want to know is, does everybody eat all of the bone-in steak (except for the bone of couse!), or do people eat around the gristly chewy chunks at the one end? Especially with porterhouse and T-bone steaks, I refuse to eat that section next to the "T" part of the bone. And I won't eat the fat strip down the one side either like on NY Steaks. Yet my mother used to take that entire strip of fat and let slide down her throat in one gulp. I used to almost lose it when she'd do that. One guy I knew would eat everything too. Apparently his grandma raised him and just said, "Its something to chew on for a while!". How do others eat their steak? Its because of my feelings about this, that I prefer tenderloin. There's almost never anything that isn't tender and easily eaten, and no bones to pay for and then throw away (they get freezer burned by the time I would save enough of the bones to make stock making worth while). No dogs at home either. doc

Using Gisslen's Professional Cooking, I just keep adding water to keep the bones covered during stock making. I brown my bones first really well. Then start with cold water and two stock pots. I brown my mirepoix about 6 hours into the stock making (for veal stock). I did some calculations on my 2nd to last stock making adventure, and 40.1 lbs of veal bones yielded 19 quarts of veal stock. Nice color, no fat. A small amount of sediment, and very gelatinous. It shakes just like jello! One thing that has always trouble me is this use of "several layers of cheesecloth" to strain the stock. I've tried it different times, and the stock just sits there and clogs the cheesecloth pretty quickly. So over the years, I've given up on the cheesecloth and use a fine mesh chinois. My stock is never eaten as is, so a bit of sediment is lost in the recipe anyways! Even the chinois clogs up, and after each filling of the chinois, after getting as much stock to go through it as I can by stirring with a wood spoon, I rinse out the chinois with fresh water, and start again until eventually all the stock has been strained this way. Then we can it all. Unfortunately, the last stock making adventure started with 44.1 lbs of New Zealand veal bones and a bunch of stock tipped over while in the chinois and hit me in the chest and stomach. Ripped off my shirt, put a dry one on, ripped off my socks, changed them too, and off to the clinic. At least 2-3 qts of stock hit me in the chest, but no scarring or blistering. One other time, just pulling two canning lids apart after they were in boiling water, left a pretty much birthmark looking scar on my chest. Go figure! I mean "Just how much boiling water can be inbetween two stuck together canning lids?"! doc

To the mathematically challenged, that 1 lb of mirepoix would equate to 1/2 lb of onions, 1/4 lb of carrots and 1/4 lb of celery. So says my Pro Chef 7 too! doc

We cook everything in large portions, and then portion it out in single servings using Foodsaver vacuum bags. Even soup can be vacuum packed if you put it into the Foodsaver pouch, let it freeze, then vacuum seal it. These pouches can be microwaved, put into boiling water, or just opened and heated up in a pan. We make pasta dishes all the time, except we undercook the pasta just a tad. That way it finishes cooking in the microwave and comes out al dente. I like the whole idea of vacuum sealing, because removing the oxygen removes that which causes decline in flavor and nutrients. It increases the time that the item can stay in the freezer, and improves the nutrition of the item when you do get around to eating it. More selection is provided becuase you don't have to make a big dish, individually portion it, and then eat it everyday before it gets freezer-burned. A larger selection that stays fresher longer is very convenient. And like most people, I bet your wife doesn't always know in advance what she wants, so having a selection will be more pleasing to her! doc

Not to throw water into your tomato paste, but I once considered making paste and then thought "What would I use it for?" Everything that calls for tomato paste essentially dilutes it back into thickened puree or juice. We bought a bushel of Roma paste tomatoes at the Farmer's market. I took 32 quarts of tomatoes, and the wife blanched them and put them through the food mill. Seeds and skins come out one slot, and puree through the other slot. I then took 18 Qts of the tomato puree, added 16 diced medium onions, 8 big sweet bell peppers diced, a cheeseclothe bag containing 4 TBSP of whole black peppercorns, whole mace, whole allspice, whole cloves, whole celery seed, 2 peeled cloves of fresh garlic, 6 bay leaves, 2 tsp of powdered mustard (from whole mustard seed), and 8 inches of 2" pieces of whole cinnamon, and boiled it down to 9 qts. That took three evenings of about 4-5 hours each. I measured the original height in the big All Clad 22 Qt pot, and continued simmering until I reached half the original measurement. Stuff was pretty thick. I then added 4 cups of packed dark brown sugar, and 8 Cups of apple cider vinegar. Salt to taste. Actually, to get the taste I wanted, I also added another Cup of white sugar. So now I have (had) 26 pints of homemade catsup (ketchup). Outstanding flavor, although not as thick as Heinz the flavor is outrageous! All the time I'm thinking how much gas I'm using to simmer for 12 hours or so, just to get 26 pints of catsup and comparing that to how much I've lost in the last 2 months in my IRA and 401(k)'s. I may be poor now, but I sure get to eat good! doc

I hated cooking at my mother's house. She had the stove rewired from 220 VAC to 110 VAC because she was convinced she'd save 1/2 the money on her electric bill. I gave her a food processor, a smaller one, since she lived alone. She never used it. It was sitting on the counter with 20 years of oily gook collected on it, and the attachements we found in a plastic sack in the cupboard. Her jars of spices were still the same ones when I was in 6th grade. I gave her a small 3-piece set of Wusthof-Trident knives. They were still wrapped in the box I gave her, with a "dying note" that they were to go back to me when she passed. I spent 3-4 hours making Julia Child's "Chicken Melon". She ate exactly 1/2 tsp of it, and broke out a can of Muscleman's Apple sauce and toasted 2 pieces of bread and ate that instead, stating "She couldn't say if she liked the Chicken Melon because I've never eaten anything like it before". (Isn't that true for everything we ever ate?) Did I mention that as a kid, we weren't allowed to toast only 1 piece of bread. "Same amount of electricity to toast 2 pieces, so don't waste it" was her constant reminder. Ah, the physics of it! When she did pass, you wouldn't believe what we found. Her refrigerator had a 6-pack of eggs that were so old, they had turned completely black, and were completely hollow. She had cheese in there that I still remember seeing when I was in 7th grade. I could go on and on, but then I'd be going off-topic. Let it be said, I hated eating there as much as I hated cooking there. doc