BRM

Our thanksgiving dinner this year was wild pheasant. I did a sous-vide with the breast (but a gentle poach would work well too) and a confit with the legs and thighs. Made a sauce from pheasant stock and red wine. I think the poached breasts were better. I had never cooked pheasant but had heard a lot of horror stories about tough, dry meat and over cooking which was why I went for very gentle ones. I am looking forward to trying the methods here. It was nice to have a break from turkey.

I had a dish called 'lobster corn dogs' the other day that were basically the same idea. They looked identical to jackal10's croquettes and were served on sticks. You can get anyone in Minnesota where I live to try anything if you fry it and put it on a stick.

My 2 cents. I have both a KA and a hand crank. The KA is fine for most things. I agree with what has been said about blades and suitabilty for meats with lots of silverskin. Upthread a ways we were talking about trying to get plates with larger dies for the KA (ultimately the reason I bought a hand crank). If you really get serious you can upgrade. The hand cranks have larger dies but are more work. My advise would be to start with the KA. If you outgrow it you will always have it for smaller jobs. I don't buy ground beef anymore. The KA is great for grinding beef when the wife and I want a couple of burgers, the hand crank would be overkill for that.

And another. I wonder what that's about. I race for a clubin Minneapolis that is sponsored by a local cafe. Two of our members are professional chefs. There are several chefs in town who are cyclists. Back on topic, If you are looking for ideas i had a spectacular scallop dish at Morimoto that was thinly sliced raw scallops that were drizzled with very hot sesame oil (infused with other flavors I am guessing) at tableside. Simple and really yummy, maybe the highlight of that meal.

Would these be made of the same material that woks are made of? I have several woks, one that I have had for over 15 years and it is the most non-stick pan I own. Even new non-stick pans can't match it.

I'd wager that a large number of us got pink salt and other supplies/ingredients from a place like Butcher Packer and not from someplace locally, no matter where "locally" is. You could probably find some in most major metro areas but it could take a lot of phone calls.

I am having quite good results with a small ultrasonic humidifier I purchased on Amazon and a digital timer. I put the humidifier inside and old fridge and program the timer to run the humidifier for 5 minutes every hour. Seems to work great. I will probably pick up a humidistat this winter. Anyone have suggestions on where to find one?

I've used wild rice, dried fruits (figs, apricots, cranberries, apples, etc.) and nuts with great success. The taste is especially good when wrapping the outside with bacon or other salty cured pork products like you are thinking.

There are a couple of good hamburger meat threads here's one and here's another. The interesting thing is that most of them agree that you should handle the meat as little as possible after grinding. Paddling would seem to defy that advice. But, if you liked that is what matters. Grinding my own hamburger has been one of the great side benefits of having a grinder.

I just took down a batch of pepperone that I made from the book. I used some pork and pork fat in addition to the beef that the book recommends. Its good. I think it will be really good once the sourness from the bactoferm subsides. I used quite a bit less bactoferm in this batch that in my previous one but the yeasty taste is still there, just not as much. I think it could also take a little more red pepper. I used the amount of cayenne called for in addition to some other peppers (not super hot) that I ground myself. One observation...the first batch of dried sausage i stuffed into hog casings. This batch I used beef rounds which are 1/4" to 1/2" larger diameter. Despite being larger this batch cured mush faster than the previous batch in hog casings. 12 days vs. about 22. I don't know if anyone else has noticed this..and it could just be due to a difference in the environment or something else. I've got a batch of lamb sausage hanging now. It has rosemary and a lot of garlic in it (I don't get to use much garlic because my wife doesn't tolerate it very well). Can't wait.

I checked Jane Grigson's book, Charcuterie and French Pork Cookery. She lists a brine which she refers to as an English brine and a good all-purpose one. The recipe is: 5 pints of soft or rain water 3/4 lb. sea salt 3/4 lb. granulated or brown sugar 2 oz. saltpetre She recommends a curing time of a minimum of 3 days and a maximum of 30. These proprtions seem similar to Ruhlman's. I can only guess that something happened this ham that didn't to the other one. If it has an unpleasant odor and is green then, if it were me, I would toss it. It doesn't seem worth the risk. Don't dispair, we've all ruined stuff.

The only recipe for brined ham I can find in Ruhlman's book is the American-style brown sugar glazed ham on page 93. It calls for 350 grams of kosher salt and 360 grams of brown sugar per gallon of water and a curing time of 6-8 days (1/2 day per pound). Ruhlman's recipe also calls for 42 grams of pink salt which would help with the bacterial growth. What was the other brine recipe? and how are you going to finish both?

Good point.

You can Pick em up at the thrift store for next to nothing... Bud ← I've been looking around and haven't found anything yet. It's probably not a good time of year to be looking. I've seen a few here and there but most are too big to fit in my fridge.

I was pretty sour (pun intended) on their use right after I took my finnochiona out of the curing process, but as the flavor has mellowed I am thinking that it might not be worth the risk not to use them, especially at the lower amounts that Len recommends. Doubly so if there is a type of culture that has an even less pronounced flavor than the RM-52 that I used. I have to figure out how to get the humidity up in my old refrigerator and then I am going to do some more. The second batch of dry cured I put in their hardened on the outside.

How interchangeable are pork and beef tongues? I have a good source for pork tongues and they are smaller.

Jason, I think it was you who said they noticed that the sour flavor dissipated after a few weeks. Well I am noticing that as well, to the point where I no longer think the product tastes sour at all. Now I only think it doesn't have enough fennel in it, but I couldn't tell before. I suspect the cultures that they advertise as having milder flavor will be very mild after three or four weeks post cure. By the way, I e-mailed Len Poli to ask him more about how we uses starter cultures because I was curious after reading the book and couldn't find a lot on the web that cleared it up for me. Here is part of his reply... For the good Italian flavor use Bactoferm LHP or Bactoferm F-LC. Dissolve about 1 teaspoon of dry spores in a quarter cup of bottled water and use that as a starter. The opened culture will keep (especially for home use) for over a year is kept airtight and frozen in the coldest part of the freezer. The shorter life span quoted is done so that commercial uses are guaranteed consistency in their products month after month. Those that make salami without cultures can be very successful. In fact that's the way they were made commercially up to the '80's until people kept getting infected with E.coli. Why take a chance? E. coli won't kill you (unless you've got a compromised immune system of other problem0 but you'll sure spend a long time sitting or praying to the porcelain god. Len

When there's time I also think it helps to dry marinate the cubes of beef before you grind them with red onion, diced carrot, salt, pepper and whatever else inspires you.

Here are some pics from a project I have been working on. I made the lendenspeck from Len Poli's website. Its basically a pork belly wrapped around a loin. Both are cured separately and then tied and smoked. Here's another picture. The recipe says to dry cure it for 30-40 days before eating. No way! I am eating this now! (and I will say that the photo Len had on his site did not look dry cured). The flavor was great, lightly smoky with a nice hint of juniper. It curls a lot when you fry it. Its great because Sunday morning when we had some my wife ate the loin part and I ate the rest. Kind of a Jack Spratt sorta thing (only in reverse I guess) As I posted upthread I am also in process with some dry cured sausages that are smoked with juniper branches. I tasted one and I am think that the taste will be too strong, but I will report soon.

Yes...I stewed about whether to get the KA or some other grinder and got the KA because I had a KA and it was a pretty inexpensive way to get started. I find it ok for pate because ususally you want the grind smaller. Its also good for fresh hamburger and some beginning sausage making. I think you outgrow it pretty quickly though. Its probably cheaper to buy a #10 or larger grinder from B-P or some other vendor that it is to pay a machine shop to make one or two plates with different size holes. If you know a machinst (who likes sausage!) that is a different story. If you do let us all know.

I had a busy weekend too. I made a batch of Ciauscolo from Len Poli's site that doesn't have to cure for a very long time. It also uses no starter culture and thought it might be good to try given our discussions upthread. I am also going to try the Ledenspeck from that site that looks awesome so I put those items in to cure. I am away on business the latter part of this week and first of next but will post pics when i return. Should be able to get a read on the Ciauscolo by the middle of next week.

I second this 6ppc...I tried the KA stuffer once and that was enough. The Grizzly was only about $70 and is a pleasure to use. You won't be sorry.

Well...it was great thought. Thank you for that. ...or how did this person even think of this. I find myself saying that sometimes

This is a fair point. I don't think that everything someone else cooks is better, or even good for that matter. Its important that there is some forethought and skills brought to bear.

I once made an entire Thanksgiving meal for myself. It was a long time ago and I was living alone. Once the cooking was done and everything was like I wanted it the fun part was done. I didn't need to actually eat any of it and, in fact, didn't really want to. I ended up having a pizza.