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Peter the eater

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Posts posted by Peter the eater

  1. I just stemmed and pitted 5lbs of very ripe sweet cherries with a pair of 4-year-olds. I won't do that again, at least not indoors.

    Actually, you've just solved a life-long mystery for me. Now I FINALLY know why most of our preparation for preserving was done outside when we were kids. I always thought it had something to do with the heat, but you post made me remember my brother and I nearly covered with cherry guts from head to toe after a visit to the pick-your-own place...well, there was more 5kg to pit, even after we'd taken out a pickers' payment.

    Once-inside-is-enough Kitchen Feats would be a good topic title. Cherry pits and juicy fragment were all over the kitchen, and my kids were feasting like a pair of preschool vampires.

  2. Your methods 2 and 3 are basically the same.

    Only if you consider that a fine razor cut is physically the same as a hack with a blunt knife.

    "2. Stab it repeatedly with a fork" and "3. Pass it through a jaccard" are the similar in concept but the results are quite different, in my experience.

  3. No matter where you are in Nova Scotia, it's impossible to get more than forty miles away from the ocean

    Exactly two years ago -- weird, and still true.

    Later this month there's a big seafood festival in town at the Cunard Centre -- lots of fish, mollusks, wine, chefs, etc. On a lark I filled out a form to compete in the oyster-shucking competition.

    Now that I've done some egg-timer practicing, chatted with the competition, and actually read the rules, I realize it can't end well for me. I've got some technique but nowhere near the speed that comes with years of repetition. Snowball's chance.

    Here's some more good reading.

  4. Just grind it after blanching the outside surface to kill bacteria. Forget the stupid jaccarding. Do you have a grinder or processor? Do you have a pot big enough to boil some water? Yes? Then you have enough to blanch, grind your own, and be safe from bacteria. Take the opportunity to add some flavorings (spices, fats) and enjoy.

    Ray

    Why is jaccarding stupid?

  5. Chicken Cordon Bleu?

    For weeks I've been whacking away at the six-plus kg log of Larsen's Ham in my fridge. I flattened a pair of homegrown chicken breasts, sprinkled liberally with generic Swiss cheese, and stuffed with ham. Into the fish cage and onto the grill, it was not at all bad.

    I certainly wasn't trying to revive a classic, but this episode reminded me of how many recipes we-all have stuffed away in our brains. There really aren't many truly original dishes. Maybe when a new ingredient comes about, or when a technology transfers over to the kitchen.

    101_4897.jpg

  6. I love ribeyes and filets, but noticed that chuckeye steaks had all the flavor I was wanting but the tenderness was not there.

    IndyRob, this is what I'm talking about.

    Right, chop up the chuckeye and put it into a food processor to break down the fibers and distribute the fat. Now, pack the meat paste into a ring and chill.

    Impressive experiments -- this one sounds like a farce, as in farcemeat/forcemeat.

    Micro Lardon. Painstakingly cutting small threads along the fiber and then laying those out with small threads of fat, then use transglutaminase as a glue and cinching the whole thing in a sort of corset and chilling.

    I wonder about ways to improve marbling. Maybe there's a jaccard-like machine where each blade is a syringe that injects "liquid lardons" into the meat?

  7. You should leave flavorful out of the title...most cheap pieces of beef are the most flavorful.

    Yes ChickenStu, that's exactly what I thought after the initial post. Still, the ultimate goal is enhanced eating experience. What can a home cook do to that 16oz slab to make it special?

  8. For tough cuts, I prefere the sous vide method which combines the benefits of braising and marinating, still giving a medium rare product. I use a hot butane torch to give a quick crust or you can use a pre-heated cast iron pan.

    That makes sense. My sv gear is low-rent: a FoodSaver vac, a big stock pot with a thermometer and an electric stove. Remarkably, it can hold 58+/-2C all day and night. The torch is a good finisher, and so is the hot gas grill.

  9. There's pressure cooking, but I guess that's probably a variant of braising. It does, however, take less time.

    I've never done beef in a pressure cooker. I think my mother used to do roasts that way years ago. I wonder how increased pressure affects meat texture during cooking -- it does means water gets super-hot and stays liquid beyond the normal 212F boiling point.

    Speaking of pressure, I've got a small acrylic container for marinating with a special feature: once the meat and marinade is sealed in the clear rigid container, you pull up a plunger and lock it in place with a twist. The idea is to increase the volume of the container thereby lowering the air pressure inside. You can see the meat expand a bit which allows the marinade to penetrate better, or so the instructions say. I haven't used it enough to know if it really works.

  10. A cow is a whole animal, there are no "cheap cuts".....

    There are, however, cuts that are ideal for grilling or sauteing, cuts that are ideal for roasting, and cuts that are ideal for braising, or a combination of smoking and long moist heat methods, and the umm..."economical" cuts fall under this category.

    I appreciate all the bits from nose to tail, I'm just looking for ideas to deal with an inexpensive steak. Smoking beef certainly preserves it and adds flavor, but does it affect tenderness? Probably.

  11. My all-time favorite sandwich -- the BLAT:

    Bacon, lettuce, avocado, tomato.

    The acronym may be obscene but the concept is excellent. I had an undergrad roomie who made BMW's: baloney and Miracle Whip.

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