qrn

I agree to easy to foul it up...

much easier,just use canning and pickling salt(Mortons) ,covering the belly in a plastic bag in the refrig,for a week.,turn daily, amount(weight) of salt is 3.5%of the weight of the belly (need a scale that plays in grams)rest of cure is whatever you like,but anything more than 3.5%salt,is to salty ,,,then smoke/cook to 150f Bud

That is very interesting,makes me feel much better about the mess down there,,,sounds like our wine making was pretty similar, I used to help my grandfather make it back in the 40's,when ,as you say,legality was marginal... take care,,,,and thanks,, Bud

interesting wine story, while rooting around in the basement in anticipation of having a new furnace installed,I spent some time in the darkroom,where I made wine in the past,found a glass carboy with several gallons of a cabernet that I made in 1981,and several other bottled wines that I made a few years prior to that,since these things were 30 years old ,I thought I would taste em and see what they were like, they had not turned to vinegar, but were real "thin".. they were all Cabernet grape things...thenIfound the small vinegar barrel that my grandfather put his spoiled wine in for making vinegar back in the 30's and 40's,,It leaked badly .so I filled it with water and let it sit for a few days..so it would swell up and stop leaking,,,it did ,so I put some of the thin stuff from the carboy in it ,and a splash of the last vinegar that I made in it,so it would have for sure the proper stuff in it to make vinegar...put a light bulb shining on it to keep it warm, smelled it today , and its progressing well...Ah yes,guess thats a save,even though the rest is not drinkable, even though "well aged"...(room stays in low 60'sF)Ifigured this might be an interesting story of Wine ageing,in case someone else has a bunch of stuff inthe basement... Bud

we have a whole big rack of really good/sharp knives,wife is scared of them and she has 5 or 6 cheap,paringknives that she uses, that I have explicit orders to never sharpen ,,,(mine are good and sharp, so I follow the "rules") Bud

have one close by in Denver, they are good for some things, but not across the board. I get most of my cheese there, and all my pork, (Kroegers only has the pork that has alltheinjected stuff in it.)produce is also very good...(and the butchers are really sharp and helpful) Bud

good topic. I live at 5280 and have a pressure cooker that I check the temps with an IR thermometer and the only way I can get it up to 245, is to put a couple quarters on top of the pressure cap...works very well.. Bud

got a thermador,with a MicroWave attached above, and its about 15 yrs old ,has to many electronics to get to hot , so have never use the self clean feature... Bud

vac pac and freeze, I do it with fresh from the garden,every year... Bud

+1 on the meco.I have one thats probably 20 years old and I use it every so often when I dont want to fire up the Kamado, It works good, but I leave out the water in the water bath thing in it... Bud

that is what we do, I like Ny,and wife likes tenderloin, the solution is to find a T bone big enough that it has a reasonable size tenderloin,and cut the bone out and we are both happy with the result... Bud

When I want the fat for whatever use, and crispy bacon, I put a couple of slices in the bottom of a corning ware bowl,with the lid on it and microwave it for 2 minutes on high, it makes it nice andcrisp and the fat is in the bottom ready to be used,(much faster than pan fry....),and lid keeps the spatter down... Bud

Your tenderloin has not been properly trimmed. If purchased cryovaced as a 'PISMO' you will need to removed the 'chain' and the silverskin to make it edible without encountering the gristle that you did. If purchased as smaller pieces, then Krogers did nothing but cut up a 'PISMO' without trimming. Do the butchers at your local Krogers actually do butchering or is the meat they receive already cut and pre-packaged?-Dick Its not pre packaged, but they are "butchers"in name only, as you say,I am sure from the looks of all their stuff, they just slice it up and package it, without any removal of all the stuff that a real butcher would remove...most of their stuff is unidentifyable by looking at it, because of their lazyness,, Bud

I have been going round with the "butchers" at kroger over "tenderloin steak,the stuff they try to sell is nowhere near real tenderloin(takes lots of knife work to get all the gristle and fat off of it ...so I know the problem,,,, Bud

have a Thermador gas cooktop with large, heavy, cast iron grates,about 20 years old, no rust, must have gotten lucky....(or they put a good coating on them(they are black )... Bud

Yes, but if it's a Tupperware (or similar) container, you don't want to write on it repeatedly, do you? Each new time you use it to freeze something? Masking tape works great, and I've never had an issue with it coming off. You can clean the sharpie off with a touch of rubbing alcohol on a paper towel,if needed... Bud

I use a sharpie on everything,,dont use tape, just mark on whatever it is... Bud

I have a mint plant in the garden(think its Kentucky,something), stuff is so totally overwhelming, flavor wise,Ihave never found a good use for it its so powerful.. Bud

I got sick of dying a little each time I watched and just gave up. WRT the beef stroganoff I've sometimes seen it with paprika as a garnish, but it's something I tend to avoid as I hate mushrooms and the slimy buggers seems to be ubiquitous in it. The two versions I have made and enjoyed are from Darra Goldstein and Pellaprat. They are both quite similar, and neither uses paprika or mushrooms, but the Pellaprat goes a step farther and has you discard the onions once they've lent their flavour to the meat. When thinking about it, I have always viewed the Pellaprat version as the more authentic one simply because it's from an older and reliably French source. But that's sort of the problem. Tastes, ingredients and habits change over time. It's likely that the Pellaprat version was the authentic one in his corner of the world for the first half of the 20th century. If thats not how its being made today, if stroganoff automatically includes visions of mushrooms and paprika, maybe it's more appropriate to term some versions classic, and some modern (without the sort of "sousvide hamburger roll with bun soil" hideousness that made me finally turn off Masterchef). Edited to fix glaring grammar issues. looked at them and the 66 version has it as you say , but the 68 version does not even have it,,,strange.. bud...(pellaprat)

when I bake bread, I put a cast iron pan on the rack below the stone and pour a cup of water in it as I load the bread on the stone,,,makes nice crust on loaves..would probably work on meat... Bud,,

Interesting recipe, I do the pre salt couple hours before cooking , but I do the500deg.+ cook , at the beginning and then finish at 240/50 until the temp is correct, for me seems to make a more even levelcook/color in the finished product.... Bud ,

according to some things I heard/read, they wash or soak them in a chlorine solution,before they ship them, If so, it would have to be in the flesh not the peel,,( assuming they actually did it)... Bud...

The latest is the listeria on the colorado cantalope that has killed a bunch of folks, We were talking about it , and I dont think they are sure where it came from, so I assume that if it was in the soil and came thru the root system that even peeling it would not take care of it..(not sure of that conclusion)however... Bud

Yes I do that as well,but after they are well cooked/smoked,then,wrap, and put them in a little counter top oven at 200 degF for a couple hours before serving ,really helps. Bud

I will keep that in mind when I start looking thru them..(huge job, so no promises, but will keep it in mind... Bud