hhawk

Is pastrami smoked?

At Schnack we try to give credit where do; we are of course making very simple food so there isn't any presentation level to it…. Which is a debate in of itself (is there only 1 way to present a great recipe?). Our Beer Milk shake we created ourselves but then found ref. as far back as Steinbeck’s' Canary Row. Our Mac N' Cheese is based on a published recipe in some weekend newspaper "magazine" from Home, and then redone to fit our needs. We offer a Camellia Grill Chili Cheese Omelet and have always said so.

Daniel, Great pictures.. Harry from Schnack here.. the bread "roll" is from Caputo's on Court St. We are happy to make it on White, Wheat or Rye (toasted or not); just have to ask. We put it on the Roll because it's hmm a bit big (it's called the massive Jubilat BLT). The bacon is from Jubilat on 5th ave in Brooklyn. Cherrywood smoked and then boiled. We slice it and griddle it. /hawk

Myself and a friend will be driving through most of Ohio, using the Stern book, Holly's web site and a few other odds and ends as a guide. Yes we will be spending a week driving around Ohio looking for food :) Seemed like a good idea at the time.. Open to any suggestions for food or lodging; and yes although we expect to visit Cleveland and Toledo we hope to avoid most of the bigger cities..

I did this yesterday.. I needed up w/ two foil pans one single pan and two pans doubled together. Very interesting results which I'll post when we are told too... I had to keep on removing them from the oven so that I could get the instant read to read the right temp (and not the temp of the oven..) Oh, and the results were tasty. I used red wine instead of the beer I was planning and some salt and pepper..

a few th0ings.. re: my extra credit work.. 1) 20 lbs of Short Ribs yielded 15 pieces 2) I braised for about two hours @350 (F) We ran the special today and sold out by 11pm... Everyone thought it was yummy :)

For the record, then, I'm going to be using Sam Adams Beer as my liquid. I will be placing one bone in each pan of equal weight. I will be placing 1 or 2 pieces of meat in each pan of equal total weight and also equal measurement(s); equal being within 1/2 oz. For the segment requiring a particular liquid I will use a semi dry red wine, the name I can't recall; I believe from Austria or Germany. I do have some 1834 Madeira but that would be a waste.. I'll be cooking Lab one on Sunday PM and then the rest of the labs on the same day as everyone else (i'm off on Mondays and I will not have access to everything I need...). FYI, I was considering seperating the bone from the meat and roasting it prior to braising but I will save that for some other "event." 1) Two would be the minimum, and four would be preferable 2) Please keep your notes in any format that is useful to you and where the text can be cut-and-pasted into an eG Forums post 3) On Monday evening, as per the schedule, we will create a topic onto which you can place a summary of your notes (aka a "lab report"). You can upload your photos to ImageGullet and insert those images into your lab report. Exactly right. 0) Yes 1) You can brown all 6 faces of the rectangular prism that is a short rib, or you can (as I did) brown the 4 main faces and not the two "ends." So long as you do it the same for each. 3) I'm going to do it together, but you could do it separately too, for "extra credit" 4) Yes, if that is your preference and you do it uniformly, though you might want to save the bones for stock 5) Stock, wine and water are recommended, but you could use other liquids so long as you maintain uniformity in the relevant comparisons (e.g., if comparing vessels, you use the same liquid in each vessel). On the day when we do liquid comparisons, however, it will be more important to use stock, wine and water (plus aromatic vegetables where the instructions, to be posted Monday, will indicate) 6) I won't be seasoning, but you can if that's your preference; again, just be sure to do the same thing to each sample. Thanks for all these great questions. I think they will help others. ←

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In preparing for this Lab I purchased two 15 pound cyro packs of Short Ribs. I reserved one package for the lab; the other package I did a dry (ok! W E T run) and they are now @ Schnack on Special... It was helpful for me for if I had not, I wouldn't really understand what questions to ask. --- For extra credit, here is what I did... I cut the ribs (in the cryo pack the ribs are still attached) into "one" rib "strips." I browned in oil and our special seasoning salt (salt, pepper, other spices). I browned every side/end, etc. including (briefly) the bone side. I browned in the braising pan. I'm using 15 lbs here; I added 120 oz. of Sam Adams Beer and about 80 oz of water plus 3 lbs of mushrooms. I braised for about 3 hours, reserved the liquid and the meat. The meat was tender and had shrunk by about 1/2; maybe more. I reduced the reserved liquid by 1/2 in a sauce pan and cooled over night. About 1/2 way through the reduction, I removed and reserved the mushrooms. This morning I de-fatted the liquid reserving about 3-4 oz of fat. I made a roux with 1/2 cup of SR Flour and the reserved "beef" fat I added 3 tablespoons of oil to the roux as it seems too "tight" I added the roux to the remaining liquid which had on the stove top reducing and warming (in a large roasting pan). The pan covers two burners both set on Med. flame. I sliced the mushroom in 1/2 and added back to the liquid/roux mixture. I added 2 cups of Sour Cream. At each stage of adding roux or Sour cream I wisked. I added NO other seasoning other than that used to brown the meat. I reduced liquid into a nice sauce. We are serving today for $7, 1 rib (5 to 8 oz), the mushroom sauce and some garlic Mashed Pot. FYI, sampled some of the mushroom sauce to my early AM French Fry eating customers so they could dip their fries in it.. It was well recieved.

The instructions are very clear in the overview and on a conceptual level but i'm still confused on the precise methods, etc. 1) Is there a min. # of vessels 2) Is there a word doc or other form or format that we are to keep our records in? 3) Is there a section of the web site to upload pictures, etc? If I had to make a summary of my understanding, it would be 1) Use two of more vessels of the type displayed 2) For each vessel prepare the same weight of meat 3) In the cooking vessels (or skillet) brown each sample of meat in as much as the same way as possible; e.g., same weights/quant. of fat, etc. 4) In each vessel place 1/2 inch of the same liquid 5) Place in 325 degree (F) oven and take temp reading every 1/2 hour 6) take pictures if possible 7) Stop when fork tender 8) Taste small amount from each vessel 9) From each vessel reserve 3 equal pieces in some container along with some of the liquid (stored seperately). My questions... 0) I would like to braise in a heavy Alum. Roasting pan and a light-weight disposable "tin" pan (a full depth stream pan sized pan). Is that ok? 1) When Browning are we going to brown each side? each end? etc? The cooked samples in your picture are still a bit red esp. on the ends. 2) If we are using bone-in meat, are we going to weight the bone and the meat seperately or together? 3) Is there a min. weight of meat to reserve? 4) Is it ok to discard the bone(s) for the reheating experiment(s)? (e.g., not reserve the bone?) 5) Is there a list of acceptable liquids? or is it just Stock, Wine, Water? 6) You don't mention seasoning; is lab one salt/pepper free? or not?

You mention different liquids. Are we going try anything truly wacky like Coca Cola? The last few days i've been running pork ribs braised with RC Cola and Garlic, S&P.

Schnack and myself are big fans of DogFish in general and specifically in their PUNKin Ale.. Made with Pumpkin but not named that way... We use it in one of our famous Beer MilkShakes, a few ounces of Punkin Ale and some vanilla ice cream and you have some thing that tastes a bit like Egg Nog only not as rich and as sweet and in my opinion, much more drinkable.