Mallet
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Posts posted by Mallet
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Moose is delicious. Very similar to grass-fed beef, but generally more intense. Hopefully it will have been properly butchered. In my neck of the woods very often the majority of the carcass is simply ground up (a total waste IMHO), and the rest made in super thin (1/2in) steaks, leaving you with relatively few options.
Being game, it will be quite lean (little to no marbling), so on any of the grilling cuts medium-rare is the rule. Personally, I think moose tartare is a near-transcendental experience. FYI, moose can carry disease (e.g.: trichnosis, tapeworms), so freezing the meat for a few weeks (perhaps more on really big pieces) is highly recommended. As stated above, any braise should work well, but I favour rich/fatty braises with moose because it's so lean that it has a tendency to dry out.
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The real reason I take the rubber bands off is because that's the way I was taught to do it, but I'll also offer the following made-up reasons. 1) I feel like I can smell rubber in the boiling water: whether or not any of this makes it to the lobster is questionable, I admit. 2) Occasionally when I've seen lobster boiled with the bands on the outline of the band is visible as a discoloration on the shell. It's unsightly.
FL = french laundry. Pour boiling water onto live lobsters (1 cup vinegar per gallon of water, no salt), let steep for 2 min. Remove claws and steep them for a further 5 min. De-shell and extract the meat from the lobsters (bodies are saved for stock, eggs on females (which are a dark green when raw) can be wrapped in plastic wrap and poached. The lobster meat is then poached in beurre monté for about 6 min. I just vacuum-seal the lobster with butter and poach at for 6min to save on butter. It's delicious.
edited to add LINK to rubber band 'taste test'
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We often cook our lobster in seawater (unless I do it FL-style). Also, we normally take the rubber bands off first
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No salt in the kitchen (medical reasons excluded)...
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Agreed. The skin is the best part! see pictures here.
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Another note: a pig this size has a lot of thermal mass. I pulled the one I cooked out of the cold room the evening before and left it out (wrapped) overnight: it was still very cold the next morning, nowhere near room temperature. You might not have time to get a very effective brine, but I'm not expert on that. You could always sprinkle salt on afterwards (not as blasphemous as it might sound).
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I had no idea they're supposed to taste good! Everyone I know says they're terrible and bony. Probably that nasty habit of assuming pests taste bad. I should know better by now.
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Wow. Nothing for months -- but I definitely use my Momofuku cookbook regularly. This week, for example, I snooped around trying to find ideas for a pork rib marinade (more on that later) and made a few pickles (cuke, daikon, shiitake) using the basic pickle recipe.
But I found the topic in order to report that the watermelon rind pickle is to die for.
That's quite timely, since I've been eating massive quantities of watermelons for the past 2 weeks.
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That's unfortunate, given the mega population declines. American eel are already endangered here in Ontario.
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As far as drying goes, do you use a rinsing aid? We have a Samsung dishwasher that was a bit lame on the drying front until we started using a rinsing agent: it made a big difference.
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Canada goose legs are perfect for pressure-cooking: they get really tender (like good confit). The breasts I essentially treat like beef.
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Why does she keep pointing at me?
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That plate is outrageous! You've made my day.
Indeed.
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Followed by the inevitable "meat sweats" ...
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sjemac, do you hang all the geese you shoot or do you first inspect and sort based on level of damage? For example, I would be fairly hesitant to hang a gut-shot bird for a week.
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Cooked my first wood duck yesterday, oh boy was it ever good! Up to now my only experience with waterfowl has been with mallards and black duck, geese (canada+snow), and divers (long-tailed duck and scaup).This wood duck was definitely a cut above: as juicy as any chicken I've had, less beefy than mallard, with a touch of gaminess.
I simply seared it in olive oil before putting it in the oven at 425 for ~10min on a bed of beet greens.
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Cool link! Are you cooking the tail or the flapper?
I think some sort of pickle would be pretty tasty with the meat (beets? pearl onions?).
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We didn't replicate the epic nature of past game dinners this year (it was a busy one). Fortunately, hunting season is upon us again: time for everyone to come out of the weeds!
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I've been known to skip the bread and just eat tomatoes and mayo...
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Pork is also an excellent addition to ground game (e.g: venison), which lacks the fat to make a truly great burger on its own.
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Constantly wiping down with vinegar might prevent proper drying, but then again if your chamber is too dry it could also prevent case hardening.
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We are not forced to take PETA's arguments on an all-or-nothing basis. The videos posted in the OP are (in my opinion) rightly provocative, and should provoke a desire to improve the conditions in those farms.
This is a definite improvement (and isn't some idyllic setting) (the link posted by jk1002 isn't working for me, for all I know this could be the same video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kh_wJnQmETE
Keeping ducks confined in battery-type cages is simply not necessary. Obviously simply banning those cages would not appease PETA, but that's their problem, not mine. I certainly don't support a blanket ban on foie gras, but at the same time I think the industry must be sent a message that certain practices will not be tolerated.
It's possible to condemn PETA's overall agenda (I certainly do), while granting that certain practices should stop. Unfortunately, when the movement to continue producing foie gras becomes a license to allow all sorts of cruelty, I have a hard time support either side.
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Banning battery-type operations, whether it be from foie gras or for eggs, is a far step removed from the cessation of meat-eating. I certainly would not want to reject what I consider a perfectly valid argument (that that specific type of production is needlessly cruel) for no other reason than the fact that I disagree with their overall agenda. That locks us into a ideaological battle, which I find profoundly distasteful.
If you are willing to condone factory farming, then that's a separate discussion. If you don't, then you simply must accept that criticizing the production of foie gras in factory farms is perfectly legitimate. Criticism can be used to improve a system. After all, if all foie gras was produced in idyllic little family farms, with free range geese/poultry rushing to the gaveur for their feed, we would hardly be having this discussion.
Lobster Boil
in Eastern Canada: Cooking & Baking
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I've got into many an argument about lobster boiling times....