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Peter the eater

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Posts posted by Peter the eater

  1. This is really interesting and useful stuff. I've been visiting the Bovine Myology site for a year or two and there's always so much more to learn. While browsing through some of the graphs I had a (possibly stupid) idea:

    Instead of shoving limbs and carcass through the band saw the traditional butcher way, why not excise individual muscles from the cow's body. Cut through the origin and insertion points and remove for consumption. I realize some muscles are too small or irregular in shape but there must be some culinary advantage in having an entire intact muscle to work with.

    Aren't some muscles - like tenderloin or backstrap - cut out this way? Would it be practical to treat a shoulder this way?

    I spoke to a butcher today who had done something similar with a veal calf's leg. He brought the limb to a Veterinary College for a lab where the students simply took the whole thing apart from hip to hoof to study the gross anatomy. Nobody ate their homework but we figured it would be one way to isolate pure red meat without the connective tissue and gristly bits.

  2. I was reading the salt discussion here and someone mentioned the metallic taste of iodized salt.  Since I'm looking to buy some salt by the case, I figured I find out if there really is a difference in taste.

    That makes sense. I agree the iodine taste can well be described as metallic, but I say this having drank water that was purified using those little iodine tablets from the trekking store -- not something I've detected from table salt.

    This discussion reminds me how hard it can be to translate flavour into words accurately and articulately. Kinda like the Eskimos and their fifty different words for snow . . . not really, urban myth . . . but you get the point.

  3. Come over to my house.  I make a damn fine sausage roll.  I can't, however, make pork pie.  I may finally get around to it this winter, though.  As soon as it cools down a bit more...

    That's a lovely thought Rona, but you appear to be twelve time zones ahead so don't worry.

    I would like someone to characterize for me: 1. a great pork pie and 2. a great sausage roll.

  4. Pork pies are things of beauty, as are sausage rolls. Curiously it's very easy to find a good pork pie and impossible to find a good sausage roll.

    Now you've got me wondering if I've ever had a truly good sausage roll.

  5. If you have a choice - which do you buy/use?  I don't remember what I grew up with, but I usually buy iodized.  I don't know why - any thoughts?

    Can you taste a difference? I can tell low sodium salt that's half KCl but I don't think I can detect iodine -- not in the levels one gets from iodized table salt.

  6. Is it wrong to like pork pie? I try not to think of what's in them when i eat them, especially the origin of the meat. Does this undermine me as a foodie? I do find there is a gap in the market for high quality versions of snacks of this kind, spare the odd deli pork pie.

    What's not to like about pork in pie form?

    The best ones I've had were in the UK, although the British Butcher at Pete's Frootique here in Halifax are pretty damn good. The key is to get one fresh out of the oven. Day-old cold chicken or beef pies are fine -- pork pies not so much.

  7. Today is cold and grey, and it's raining. It might be a good day to make some beef stew. Does anyone have a good recipe that they'd care to share?

    Recipes are helpful, but good beef stew is very forgiving regarding times, temps and ingredients. I like the use-what-you-got stews this time of year. Try an inexpensive beef blade roast (or a pork shoulder) slice it into 1" slabs and sear on the gas grill for a few minutes. Cube the meat before going into the slow cooker along with all the other good stuff. I usually prefer this way to meat browning on the stove, and it requires no extra oil.

  8. I hang my head with shame and admit that I hate brown rice. Seems most of the world does too . . . .

    It's just like bread. A loaf can be highly virtuous with all the grains and outer layers intact, but a steamy soft slice white as snow is unbeatable. I wonder what the breakfast diner stats are for white versus brown toast.

    Same goes for pasta -- I'd rather sprinkle wheat germ into the sauce than go with whole grain noodles.

    Wild rice is not brown rice, but there are many places in the Americas where it's central to the diet.

  9. Lampreys aren't eels, not even closely related.

    Right you are, lamprey aren't even really fish. Eels and lamprey are slender aquatic chordates belonging to totally different Classes.

    If a creature swims in the ocean its bound to have a zillion different names depending who you ask. I suspect the quote's author was calling on an archaic use of the word.

    I think highly of the much maligned eel, but the lamprey I know living in Lake Ontario are quite hideous. I've caught salmon there with lamprey attached that were almost twice as long as the host. That's like me with a 500lb 12' leech sucking my blood. :sad:

  10. Hot smoke and eat cold?

    That's the way its usually done here. I posted a few smoked eel pictures here on post #2. Unless you catch them yourself fresh eels are hard to come by. I had them fresh many years ago -- a bit like catfish.

    Home many do you have? Don't forget King Henry I of England never recovered from a 12th century eel bender:

    Henry found it expedient to spent an equal amount of time in both his realms but, on 1st August 1135, he left England for the last time. An eclipse the next day was seen as a bad omen and by December, the King was dead. He apparently had a great love of lampreys (eels), despite their disagreeing with him intensely. He had been ordered not to eat them by his physician, but, at his hunting lodge at St Denis-le-Fermont, near Gisors, the monarch decided he fancied some for supper. A severe case of ptomaine poisoning ensued, of which gluttonous King Henry died.
    -David Nash Ford's Royal Berkshire History Website
  11. I'm skeptical about that machine. I suppose having one would keep the coffee grinder free of peanut residue.

    The smoothest peanut butter is not made by spinning blades but by pressure. From experience I can tell you that if enough pressure is placed on a bunch of peanuts they will go from solid to liquid in the blink of an eye. Velvety smoooth.

  12. How unfortunate. I'd die in a world without onions.

    Garlic's okay though? I wonder what onions have that garlic lacks in terms of bladder irritants.

    A family member had something that sounds similar but she went back to normal after giving up her "big three vices": booze, smokes and coffee.

  13. I get a Tim Horton's coffee twice a month which is probably less than the provincial average. It's decent and consistent coffee but I rarely get the other stuff.

    As a grad student in the early 90's I went all the time. I recall they sold something called a fudge buster and a long john 8" which still makes me snicker. Surely someone could come up with more appetizing names for these bake goods.

  14. We've got tons here, too -- wild and seedy with great flavour but not much sweetness. My suggestion:

    500 ml berries

    250 ml sugar

    750 ml vodka

    Put everything into a big glass jug with a lid, stir once a week and drink at Christmas.

  15. Basil quality is the most important factor, I find.

    This time of year I can grab just enough deep green leaves from the plant outside and then use the mortar & pestle for that night's dinner. If it's the end of season and time to make a big batch for the winter, I'll use the food processor and freeze cubes. I'm really into purple pesto this year.

  16. As if there already weren't enough reasons to visit Canada's Ocean Playground, here's what the official certificate looks like:

    gallery_42214_5579_14116.jpg

    Note the four dandy dudes drinking and smiling. They're actors from the 1970's recreating the very first Order of Good Cheer which included a play called "Le Théâtre de Neptune en la Nouvelle-France" -- believed to be the first theatrical event in North America, written by Marc Lescarbot and performed by his fellow settlers at the Habitation in 1606.

  17. I've never made paprika but I've done the dry & grind with many veggies and a Ronco dehydrator. I've tasted home-made paprika that was also smoked -- very nice.

    I imagine it's a lot harder to powderize dry bell peppers with a mortar & pestle than it is with an electric grinder -- unless it's a tiny batch. I've dried sliced hot peppers to the point where they simply crumbled into the jar. I'd get them as dessicated as possible before the grind.

    Your horses must have flowing flaxen manes and tails?

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