Chris Hennes

OK, I'm already looking forward to next week's pastry challenge: that should challenge them! I don't think any of them are pastry chefs...

Here is my first contribution to the cook-off: Hungarian Paprika Sausages, step-by-step From M. Ruhlman and B. Polcyn, Charcuterie For this sausage I am using a Niman Ranch pork shoulder and pork back fat, and supermarket beef chuck. The two trays of meat are because one is just pork, and is being used for hot-smoked andouille sausages, which I made at the same time I was making these. The Hungarian Paprika sausage is characterized by a very heavy dose of Hungarian Hot Paprika (shocking! ) as well as quite a bit of ground white pepper and dry milk powder for moistness. It will later be cold smoked a dry-cured for three days. I use a KitchenAid stand mixer attachment to grind the meat into a bowl set in ice, using the coarse plate. The back fat is ground separately using the fine plate. I have been working really hard to keep things very cold since I made a batch of Italian sausage that broke. The texture of that was very off-putting. Next the ingredients are put in the mixer bowl and mixed on medium speed for a couple minutes to combine, slowly adding ice water to keep things cold and lubricated. This amount of mix was a little more than comfortably fit into the bowl of this six quart mixer: I should have done it in two batches once I realized that. Too large a batch caused the meat to overheat a little bit, and the final texture suffered for it. After all that ice, and I still screw it up... Next, before stuffing, I checked the seasoning by frying up a small piece. My first reaction was OMG PAPRIKA!! I have never tasted that intense a paprika flavor, and I'm not entirely certain I like it. Hopefully that will calm down a bit after smoking and aging. The salt content was spot on, so no adjustments were necessary. Next I got ready to stuff the mix into natural hog casings using a vertical stuffer. I have the stuffer attachment to the stand mixer, but I hate it with a passion. This is much cleaner, faster and easier. The stuffer I have holds about five pounds of sausage. It doesn't have a quick-release, but I can live without that. Some day I want to bolt it down to a counter, but I probably shouldn't do that in my apartment . The stuffing only takes about five minutes with this stuffer, and it would go much, much faster if it was bolted down. I overstuffed the links, since this mix was firmer than I am used to. This resulted in some casing ruptures when I twisted the links off. Once the casing was stuffed the next step was to twist off links. I started making them 10" links as recommended by the book, but eventually lapsed without thinking into a shorter, more "normal" sausage length of around 7". After allowing a pellicle (dry skin) to form overnight in the refrigerator I cold-smoked the sausages for four hours over hickory. You can see the cold-smoker setup on ImageGullet. On the left is right after cold-smoking, and on the right is after a three-day cure. The cure was supposed to be at around 60 degrees F, but I don't have anywhere that temperature at this time of year, so it was quite a bit cooler than that. I don't know how much the flavor suffered for it. The sausages are pretty tasty, though they end up a little dry due to the improper mixing early on. I'm not terribly fond of the flavor here: I used a very high-quality paprika, but I'm just not thrilled with that flavor. In my opinion the hot-smoked Andouille sausages are considerably tastier, though again, I am not quite right on the recipe for these due to the low curing temperature. Has anyone else tried this type of sausage and care to comment? How would the low-temperature cure affect the final flavor?

Double-smoked Pepper Bacon, step-by-step Ratios from M. Ruhlman and B. Polcyn, Charcuterie, first edition For this batch of bacon (my third) I am using a half of a Niman Ranch pork belly, skin left on, cured using a recipe based on the one found in Charcuterie. I am making a savory bacon this time around, so no maple syrup, and two bay leaves and a healthy dose of black pepper added. This is all ground up in the spice grinder and applied to the belly. I then wrapped the belly in plastic wrap, put it in a 2-gallon Ziploc bag, and put in the the bottom of my fridge for seven days, turning it over each day to redistribute the brine. On the last day I took it out, rinsed it off, and put in on a rack in the fridge to develop a pellicle for better smoking. I smoked the bacon in two stages: first, a cold-smoke for about 6 hours, using hickory. I was smoking some sausage at the same time, since the smoking chamber is plenty big for both. The smoker is right outside the door to my deck, so I run a thermometer inside to keep track of the smoker temp. It was about 50 degrees F outside, which is about the temperature the cold-smoking chamber maintained throughout. The next day I smoked the belly again, this time hot, over mesquite (because I ran out of hickory!). The next step is to remove the skin, which is best done when the bacon is still very hot out of the smoker. I used a paring knife to get it started, but if you do it while the belly is still piping hot, the skin should just pull right off. Of course, this will hurt since it's still hot, but sometimes we have to make sacrifices for bacon . It is worth it... Next, after cooling the bacon in the fridge overnight, I sliced the bacon on my Hobart 110 and packaged it up. I like to use the Reynolds Handi-vac system for this. If you pre-wrap the slices in plastic wrap before vacuum sealing them, you can put two meals worth of bacon in one bag and freeze it. When you want one, it is easy to remove just one since the plastic wrap keeps them separate in the freezer. You can use fewer bags this way. Finally, a taste-test is required before packing up for the night... . This is very smokey, savory bacon, perfect for BLTs, which is its intended use. Man, I love bacon.

If it helps any, it is basically one of these.

The wire cake cutter thing - brilliant. I've had major struggles with wires - the best is the little metal pieces that hold IV bags - but they slip. ← It worked really well: I had previously tried taping a piece of wire across the bowl, but it kept getting in the way: this rests nicely wherever you lay it, just from gravity, is easy to grab onto and move around, and is dishwasher safe, besides. I think it cost like $5, and it paid for itself on this one project!

So if this reporter called Andrew at Le Cirque, does that mean he was booted and is now back at work? ← My understanding is that the show finished filming some time ago: I think all the contestants are back to real life now.

PB&Js, step-by-step 1st edition, p. 284 Note: I posted these images over in my foodblog, but without any explanation. I thought that over here on the confections thread maybe people could learn from my mistakes, and might like a little more explanation of the construction of the pbjs, if you haven't made them yourself. The images should show up two per line: if they don't (and you have a big enough monitor!) you can expand your browser window until they do. I used sugar-free applesauce that I reduced 50% (by weight) as the "apple compote," as suggested up-thread here. The raspberry puree is just frozen raspberries, thawed and pushed through a strainer (which gets rid of most, but not all, of the seeds---to get rid of all maybe a second straining through a chinois was in order, but the seeds didn't seem to bother anyone.) I used the wet-hand trick suggested by Kerry Beal to scoop out the glucose, which worked wonderfully. Following the instructions in Greweling, the various ingredients are added in different quantities at different temperatures, which I attempted to follow to the letter. You add the sugar in two steps, and the glucose in two separate steps. Not that big a deal, but it requires that you pay a little more attention, and get a couple more bowls dirty. I may have slightly undercooked the jelly in the end, by around 1 degree F, but it was hard to tell for sure. I am making a half batch, so I set up a frame that is 8" x 9" (half the area of the 12" x 12" frame in the book). It turned out that the amount of jelly this made did not quite fill the frame all the way up. I am not sure why, but in the future I think I will make a 2/3 batch to make sure I get a perfectly even layer of jelly, even if it means a little waste in the end. I use hollow aluminum bars, and they are thus lightweight. The silpat under them has enough friction to keep the lower ones in place, as long as I don't grease it. Greweling, however, recommends the use of greased parchment. This decision will come back to bite me a bit. Yes, that is snowman-themed tape holding the top frame to the bottom... you got a problem with that? I let the jelly set overnight. The next evening I made the gianduja, which is quite straightforward, requiring only two ingredients: peanut butter and milk chocolate. I made a 2/3 batch of this to make up for the missing jelly. I like peanut butter better anyway . Greweling calls for tempered chocolate in this: I do not know if this is like in a ganache, where it is not strictly necessary, or if in a gianduja you really need tempered chocolate. Nevertheless, I tempered it using the seeding method, and checked the temper by letting it set on a spoon before adding in the peanut butter. After the chocolate is tempered and at 88 degrees F, I added the peanut butter and stirred to combine. Then I dumped the mixture out on my counter to table it. You are supposed to do this on a marble slab, but my marble is only 12" x 12", which is not really large enough to do this comfortably. In the end, my regular countertop seemed to work fine. I worked it for around five minutes, until it was 76 degrees, which was room temperature at the time, and as cool as it was going to go. Then I scooped it back into the bowl. The gianduja was poured on top of the jelly layer and smoothed out. There was a bit of excess from making a 2/3 batch, but not as much as I expected. I need to double-check my measurements on the frame size, I guess... After letting the gianduja layer set overnight (which was more than enough time), the next step was to pre-coat the bottom of the confection with a thin chocolate layer: this makes dipping later much easier since you will have a firm side to rest against the fork. I prefer to pre-bottom with the frame still on to get a nice clean edge on it, and avoid making a mess of the sides. Once the pre-bottom has set up (10-20 minutes since I used tempered chocolate) I flipped the whole thing over so the jelly layer was on top. Time to remove the silpat that I decided not to grease. Uh-oh... I was in panic mode at this point, since an inordinate amount of jelly was coming off with the silpat. In the end it was OK, the jelly layer was just a bit thinner than the peanut butter layer. Next time I will have to try to grease the silpat but keep the oil away from the frame, or something. Next step: the real fun begins. First we have to cut apart the block into evenly-sized pieces. if you have a guitar, no big deal. Well, I don't have one, what I have is a drywall knife I picked up a Lowes . Not quite as slick, but it costs a lot less! The trick with the jelly, which is really sticky, is to clean the knife well between cuts, and to leave it wet after cleaning. This helps the jelly release from in with minimal distortion. I did this in two steps: all the horizontal cuts, then waited a few hours, then all the perpendicular cuts. I used a speed-square (the bright orange thing) to measure out the 1/2" x 1" rectangles. Oh, and I toasted up some peanut halves for garnish. Finally, we are almost done. Only a few hours of hand dipping to go!! This sequence shows the dipping technique I use, which I learned from the folks upthread here. The real trick is to drop the confection in so the pre-coated side lands up (or to push it over so it is on top) and then to push down on the edge nearest to you, causing the candy to roll through the chocolate and flip up onto the dipping fork. It's like some kind of magic when it works, which is actually most of the time. Thanks to everyone here who helped me learn how to do that! I then tap the dipped confection lightly against the surface of the melted chocolate, pulling it up quickly, to get the surface tension in the chocolate to draw some of the coating off the candy, resulting in a thinner layer, with no "foot." I also use one of the wire cake-cutter things propped against the bowl to scrape the bottom of the chocolate before placing it on the parchment to set up. Finally, after letting the coating set up for a minute on each one, I added a peanut half to the top for garnish, et voila! Greweling's PB & Js, which taste disturbingly like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. One final word to anyone who is reading this because they are thinking of learning to make chocolates, but haven't taken the plunge yet. This may look like an impossible mountain to scale from where you are now, but everyone on this thread has been incredibly generous with their advice to me: I have only been doing this since Christmas, and I think I've gotten a lot more comfortable with the hand-dipping thing. There are a lot of steps to confections, but each individual step is relatively simple. Jump in! The water's fine!

I think they were worried about being called out for doing "just" a bowl of soup: founded or not, there is the impression that soup is easy. I suspect they figured that there was no way they were going to wow the judges with a soup. And honestly, despite Chef Tom's claim to the contrary, I would not be surprised if they had gotten zinged for "taking the easy route" unless it was one hell of a good soup. Of course one can make great soups: but is a soup going to win in a head-to-head battle? Not so sure...

Wow, lists of what's in the freezer! Brilliant! I hope you don't mind if I steal that from you...

Wow, nice work on getting that list. Serious TC dedication, here (both of you!). Interesting stuff: I think I could do the maple syrup, the bacon, the chocolate, and the cheeses, but the others, probably not with any consistency. 12/15 is damned impressive if you ask me.

I'm resurrecting this old thread because I had several people on my recent foodblog comment about how much they liked CI, an opinion that I obviously shared, based on the number of recipes I prepared last week from their magazine . So I was a little surprised to pull up this thread and see the number of negative impressions (customer service aside: I cannot speak to that, except to say that if the service is crappy, then that sucks!). My take on CI is that first, when I am looking for a basic recipe they are a great place to start: their obsessive research and documentation is handy, even if I don't agree with the final product. Secondly, my "hit rate" with CI recipes is much higher than with most of my cookbooks, easily on par with Fine Cooking, and probably around 75%. Third, especially when making things I am unfamiliar with, I find the baseline provided by CI to be much more useful than a recipe from a standard cookbook, due to the inclusion of the "why"'s in the articles. As an amateur cook who badly wants to improve, the attention to detail is welcome. I ignore Kimball's editorials, which I find insufferable, and I only tolerate the tone of the articles, but in the end I maintain my subscription, year after year, and will likely continue to do so for the foreseeable future (though I consider the November issue a lost cause... ).

Is that what is meant by "meltaway"? I thought (based on the description in Greweling) that a meltaway was a firm texture that sort of dissolved quickly when you ate it, and that when using invertase you ended up with what was referred to as a "liquid center." Am I totally off-base here?

I have the second edition of the book, and haven't really seen the third yet (though it's on my wishlist). I have not tried any of the charcuterie, but I have made several of the more appetizer-like items in there, all of which turned out quite well. In particular there was a recipe for a composed crab salad that tasted great, and plated up beautifully using a ring mold (it had several brightly-colored layers that looked very "pro" on the plate). There was also a recipe for a chicken-salad-stuffed profiterole that was a big hit at parties last year: they were like little bite-sized chicken sandwiches on particularly tasty, crusty bread. One of the other things I like about the CIA books are the more conceptual passages: more of a "how do I think about putting together a composed salad, or a sandwhich, or a charcuterie tray?" Those are very helpful to amateur's like me, who want to have a great dinner party, but have no idea where to begin.

Lest you all think I eat nothing but wonderful, wholesome, made-from-scratch food: dinner tonight was fish sticks and leftover potato salad and cole slaw from yesterday's BBQ.

That strikes me as a mighty fine line: if you can tell what is good on a plate, you ought to be able to tell what is good in a glass. And if the stuff in the glass complements, or better yet enhances, what is on the plate, then I think it is a valuable addition. Yes, I have seen it done poorly. But when well-executed, the "wee-drink-on-a-plate" is not a bad idea, in and of itself. I dislike the idea of deciding to only judge the food, and regarding the drink as purely secondary. If they are both in front of you, judge them together.

Yeah, I used the apple pectin from l'Epicerie. I am still a little intimidated by the jellies, so I tried to follow the recipe to the letter. She likes them. I was a little surprised that no one at the BBQ could guess the flavor, though. Once I told them they were not surprised, and agreed that the flavor was uncannily like the sandwich, but without the suggestion they couldn't quite place them. It was sort of like a blind taste test... fun .

Yes, it is: there are some advanced recipes in there, but it starts off pretty simple. It is the book I learned from, and I am by no means an expert (and certainly wasn't when I started!). Also, there is a very helpful thread on the book over here. Yes, that is my primary reference. It is far and away the best confections book I have seen for the novice confectioner. Again, helpful eGullet folks congregate over here.

I basically used the recipe from Ruhlman and Polcyn's Charcuterie---I'm afraid I don't have it on me at the moment. I added a ground bay leaf and a lot of black pepper, and left out the maple syrup.

Good Morning, Kim! I can't believe I tricked you all into believing my kitchen is clean! I'm looking forward to reading your blog this week, I'm sure you will do great.

Ah, sorry to mislead! That is a "stock" photo of the device as originally assembled... it is not quite so clean anymore! And alas, I cannot claim the ingenuity for myself: I saw something similar on the internet somewhere and was inspired. First, the patty is to check the seasoning before you stuff it (obviously once stuffed you're stuck with it). You can sorta check flavor, but since the smoke changes everything, it is mostly just to make sure the salt is right. Regarding hot versus cold smoking, there are two main differences: cold-smoked foods can be smoked for much longer since there is no danger in overcooking them. For example, a cold-smoke Andouille sausage could be smoked for 24-48 hours: they are heavily, heavily smoke-flavored. The second is texture: it is not so much that the texture changes due to the cold-smoking, but that cold-smoked sausage is usually denser, although I suppose this is not universally true. And naturally, next time I am in Philly I will probably make my way to Chick's... On that note, I present my last set of photos: a nightcap, and a pleasant end to a fun week. A Negroni: Cheers!

The smoker I am using has no temperature control, but when last I measured it it was at about 250 F. It was a little cool today, so it was probably a few degrees below that. Once I started getting reliable results out of the thing I stopped measuring the temperature of the smoker, and just used a probe thermometer in the meat. I brought the meat up to 160 F in the smoker over 6 hours, then finished it wrapped in foil in a 350 degree oven to keep things moist. I brought it up to 200 degrees F before serving. I generally prefer 204 F but I was getting impatient (I had timed things wrong---the butt was a little larger than I usually do).

lol, thanks for the catch. Fixed now.

And the final food items of the foodblog (there will undoubtedly be a nightcap, of course)... First, finishing off the cole slaw: I also made a French potato salad: these are the leftovers (I didn't get an image while it was fresh, but I swear those herbs were green at one time!) And finally, last but certainly not least, the pork, beginning with the sauces... Next, a vinegar and mustard-based sauce that might be found in mid-South Carolina: A vinegar and ketchup-based sauce based on what might be found in Western South Carolina: Unfortunately, I was surrounded by a pack of rabid graduate students at the time the butt came out of the smoker, so I did not get an image of it. This is what was left after the onslaught subsided and the hordes were sated: I was, however, able to scrape together just enough leftovers to get two shots of the finished pulled-pork sandwiches: Everyone raved about the BBQ. I was a little nervous when one of them said she was from North Carolina, right after I finished explaining that I was doing a "Carolina-style" BBQ. I've never even been there, so Cook's Illustrated better not fail me! She would see right through my sham "BBQ"! Alas, she said that it was "just like what they had at home." High praise, I would say . Thanks, CI: you came through for me again .

Have no fear, it's coming... but first, the last sausage post: the cold-smoked Hungarian Paprika sausages were finished off in the cold smoker while the pork was smoking in the hot chamber. Technically these aren't quite done yet: they need to age for three days first, but here is the nearly-finished sausage, after four hours in the cold smoker:

They had no particular purpose, I just like making things. I usually send them into my wife's office. Today at the BBQ people ate their way through about half of them, so only about 70 left . I am just sizing the images on my computer so they are small (250 pixels wide) and the using the IMG tags with no spaces between the end of one and the beginning of the other. This just kinda lines them up. I make a few stir-fry type things that she really likes, and tacos are a perennial favorite. that's what comes to mind at the moment... OK, the deal is this: I built a new lid for the hot smoker that pipes the smoke over into the rubbermaid box. So the rubbermaid only gets the smoke in it, none of the heat, and is the "cold smoking chamber," if you will. And the tomatoes were pretty mediocre, though I doctored them up as best I could. Oh well... summer is just around the corner. My last guests just departed: the BBQ was a tremendous success, and the pork and PB&Js were a hit. Pork and chocolate, together at last . I guess it's time to start posting the remaining photos before my blog comes to a close. Thank you all for your kind words and supporting comments. I hope to see you all at next week's foodblog!