billyhill

Just got home, will update and add a few pictures when I can. It was worth doing!

Day 1 arrival 430pm. Dinner was pulled pork bbq sandwiches, baked beans and chips. Day 2: Chorizo con Pappas breakfast tacos and eggs to order. Over easy egg in place of scrambled was a winner. Lunch: Black bean, chipotle, and cheese quesadillas. Dinner: Home made bread. Spaghetti with italian sausage and tomato sauce. Shrimp cocktail and boiled shrimp was also available. Day 3 Canadian bacon, bacon, and sausage with eggs to order. Lunch: Hot dogs and chips Dinner: Fifi's south of I 10 gumbo. I made a double batch, they ate the whole thing. I didn't even get a picture. Made 2 1/2 gallons of chili for tomorrow. Wife will make pot roast and potatoes, asparagus, and salad. I will be 70 miles offshore swordfishing. I will try and get some pictures up soon.

Home cured bacon sandwich with avocado and bruschetta style tomatoes

Steak au poivre with a touch of dijon and smashed baby Yukon golds. Apparently left the squash at the store or it would have been served with Ina Garten's squash au gratin. Steamed broccoli was no consolation

The other are smoked chicken wings. The bacon was very good. I gave my venison supplier a pound and he returned with 2 pork bellies. It is cut and weighed out and ready to start curing this afternoon.

Bacon turned out fine. 1 3/4" 7 days of curing. Smoked with apple, cherry, and maple mix. I use a little water when I cure my canadian bacon to try and even out the cure. Most is absorbed during curing. In this case, I infused the water with bay leaves. Went light on the sugar and a little maple syrup.

Its about bacon, My lack of faith bothers me. 2.5% (2.25/0.25%) salt/#1 pink salt? Or, do I need to modify my cure? I see a range of numbers. I am also alienated by most recipes having a fixed weight of pork. I like to be able to adjust and calculate. With Canadian bacon and speck, I run 5 kg at a time. 2-2.5 kg packages. I add 50 grams of water each and curing mixture to bring meat and water mixture to 2.5%. Most of the liquid is usually absorbed by the time it is cured. I usually soak the loins before smoking for an hour or 2 and hot smoke at 225-250 till 140 internal (~4-6 hours) and then SV for a few hours @150. Is this the path? The seasoning, I am comfortable with the seasoning, but... I have read Ruhlman and Polcyn, and other books, a host of websites, including this one, and have achieved paralysis by analysis. So now, I turn to my security blanket. Oh mighty egullet, help me. 10.77 lbs. Honestly, It is the only pork belly that ever spoke to me

When I discuss the Endangered Species Act with my students, I have what is hopefully, a very serious discussion about the "paupers of love" (Calvin Trilling, IIRC). Who is going to protect those that are not cute, cuddly, majestic, or marketable on a t-shirt or stuffed animal? Calves/veal are cute and cuddly. Foie gra brings with it a sense of violation people can identify with on some level. There is a lost battalion of other creatures deserving the same consideration, but endangered status/protection of any type is ultimately a political process. What is to become of the paupers of love?

Maybe not the most conventional path, but I chopped some up and combined it with Dianne Kennedy's chili colorado sauce and made nacho's for the kids. Enchilada's would work. I lean toward saucing it.

Was asked to teach carne asada today, and I will.

Its a good bunch of kids, I do not dread this trip. I love lamb, a few of them have had lamb before when I made smoked lamb nachos with leftover lamb and chili Colorado. Black beans and rice might be a good choice.

Nice

Boudin

Other than sneaking away 1 day to go deep drop fishing for swordfish and barrel fish, i plan on doing nothing other than cooking. Even if we get skunked fishing, my brother has a 9 lb chunk of sword loin in the freezer for me. I do not know if I am willing to feed that to teenagers.

Yep chili is added to the list. Pulled pork, if there are enough leftovers could repurposed into a tamale pie/casserole