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Peter the eater

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Posts posted by Peter the eater

  1. Pork Belly

    Best part of a pig? Possibly. Almost all the pork bellies produced here get processed and sold as bacon. My butcher says the only people who ask him for fresh whole bellies are "from away".

    I've got a lovely one-kilogram slab to cook for dinner tonight. We had our turkeys weeks ago as Canadian Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday in October. Jour de l'Action de Grâce, as they say in French Canada.

    Pretty sure pork bellies count as traditional food everywhere there are men with pigs. I'm struggling to resist all my "from away" pantry items like star anise, cinnamon, Szechuan pepper, etc.

    Pictures to follow . . .

  2. I haven't tried them all, not even close, but the last few years we've raised a handful of Broad Breasted Whites from chicks from the Co-op with outstanding flavour, and I'm a dark meat guy. Nurture is as important as nature, in my experience.

  3. What do you want?

    I'm working on a house design with an L-shaped kitchen counter that has a split-level entry behind one wall. We're going to cut a 12" diameter hole in the counter at the elbow, and have an organics bin below that can be accessed from the entry. To empty the green bin, the corner cabinet opens from the back through the wall with a door 4' off the ground right by the backyard door.

  4. It's actually quite real, and not uncommon. I work as a professional taster, and part of my job is identifying and rating the intensity of bitter taste(along with the other 4 tastes) in various things. Some of my colleagues simply can't do it, and my boss knows to toss their data, when it comes to bitter/sour, and we've all been highly trained.

    That's as impressive as it is fascinating. How does one qualify and excel at a job like that? Whenever I think my tongue and brain cells are firing together with cosmic clarity I read or hear words to set me right.

  5. They look great breast of lamb is a favourite cut of mine, be it as part of a lancashire hotpot or breadcrumbed ste menhould stylee. Are they tender after an hour? Ive got to ask as usually mine get 2 hours minimum in the oven.

    edited cos i cant spell

    The cut I used was labeled flank which I believe means the thin slabs behind the breast toward the rear legs. If a tiny person were to saddle-up on a lamb, its where the spurs would make contact. It was about three-quarters ribs -- definitely a cut that requires long and low moist heat. This piece simmered in a smoky brine for two hours on the stove top, then marinaded for two hours, then roasted for another hour. A longer roast time at a lower temp may have made it a bit more tender, but nobody complained.

  6. Here are the photos.

    This particular chunk of meat was under $5 and served as the entrée for 3 adults. The mint and parsnips are from my own garden, greens from the market, so all things considered it's a pretty frugal plate.

    I like the manageable size of these ribs as compared to pork and beef which tend to be a big scale production. As long as the meat is moist inside with a crunchy coat I'm happy. Maybe I'll try a dry rub next.

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  7. Lamb Ribs

    In 1975, when I was a child, my future father-in-law imported some 3000 head of North Country Cheviots from Scotland to Cape Breton. He no longer raises sheep for a few reasons, but mostly it was the coyotes. They're everywhere these days. Fortunately, there are a few local farmers successfully raising NC Chevs. I pulled some lamb ribs out of the freezer this morning.

    Here's the sequence:

    • frozen flanks go into a brine with saltpetre and liquid smoke
    • simmer/poach at 100C for two hours
    • marinade in oil, vinegar, mint and garlic
    • roast covered for an hour at 150C
    • serve with parsnip puree and bitter greens

    I like that it's just one pot for the meat -- defrost, brine, simmer, marinade and roast. Photos after dinner.

  8. Bourdain I think visited quimet Et quimet in Barcelona, a tiny place that is a master of bocadillos (open face sandwiches) made almost totally with canned seafood. There are a number of clips of his stuff on YouTube but I ended up carrying home a dozen jars of canned seafood from squid To ridiculously prices baby eels (angulas or elvers) home after eating there.

    That's the place - we'll be there next week!

    Lucky you! Please ask your server/chef/proprietor there what makes their canned seafood so deliciously different, and how they select what gets served.

  9. I try to avoid most canned seafood products from Asia as I don't think (in general) the quality measure up to the Spanish, Italian or wild product from the US.

    When I started this topic, I gathered up all my cans of seafood for a group photo -- see post #5. I was surprised to learn they were ALL from Asia. I switched from SE Asian frozen shrimp to the Atlantic kind over a year ago because of all the bad press. I hadn't considered other products in cans.

  10. My 1960's hand-me-down Larousse has often made me yelp "you crazy French bastards".

    Is there any good reason for frying in lard?

    Fresh pickerel from The Bay of Quinte, Ontario. Good lard makes clear bubbles and a well-battered fish golden.

  11. The very best canned seafood, however, is canned wahoo. Easily purchaseable in Hawaii, and you have to know a Hawaiian to get your hands on some.

    I just Googled wahoo (a phrase that wouldn't have meant much to me ten years ago) and want to know what one does with it. Treat like mackerel?

  12. These days I rarely get an empty nest. When alone I go for the things my family isn't keen on. Blue cheese and Porto, weird stuff from the fish monger, offal. So I don't feel like a sad bachelor, my rules are 1. don't eat over the sink, and 2. wear pants.

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