Chris Hennes

It's not as complicated as it sounds . I pop it in the freezer and once it gets the point where it is a bit stiff, but not rock solid, it's ready to go. You don't have to be super-precise about it, the important thing is that it's very cold. When it's at the optimum temperature the meat strips have some bend to them, but not too much, and they tend to be "crunchy" at the outer layer (because the very outer layer is, in fact, frozen solid, but the interior is a little softer). I think the long checklist is very handy, if a little intimidating. Sausage is something that any cook can make with a little equipment (I didn't own a grinder or stuffer before going into this, so some up-front investment was required. You could start with a small batch of Mexican Chorizo in your food processor if you want to get going without the expenditure). The important thing, as might be gathered from a glance through the checklist, is to keep everything COLD. If it starts to warm up, take a timeout, chill it down, and be patient.

I view this as one of the strengths of these knives: I love the look of Kramer's Damascus knives, but I am worried my ability to care for the steel he uses. I would far prefer a knife with a more advanced steel: I am not particularly well-versed in steel types, but from what I gather, the SG2 core these use is comparable to a VG-10 steel (although the SG2 is a sintered product). You are right about the profile, though of course that will be a personal decision. I'm not sure even using one for a few minutes in a store will make up my mind on this matter. It generally takes me a little while of working with a new knife to develop a "feel" for it, and my initial reaction isn't always long-lived . Thanks for the warning about the appearance, too: I guess I'll have to hunt one down in person.

Yes and yes. What would you like to know? ← How obvious is it that they are replicas? I assume at that price they are still incredibly good knives, but I'd hate to order one and find out it looks or feels like a cheap knock-off. Any feelings on how they compare to the "real deal"? My hope is that Kramer would not let Shun put his name on them if they weren't awesome, but you never know...

Chris, that looks great. Could you explain what you mean by Equipment Prep #6? Is this just making sure you have enough mixer bowls, or what?

Anyone out there doing the dry-curing thing want to take a stab at that last set of steps? I haven't done any yet (my guanciale is currently occupying my entire curing chamber) so I'd just be quoting from Ruhlman. Any tips/tricks for dry-curing that should be on the list?

I was on Bob Kramer's website today and noticed a link to these: Shun Bob Kramer Series Chef's Knife. From the description: They look stunning, and much as I'd love to own a Kramer original, these have a strong appeal both in easy availability and the SG2 core. Has anyone seen one of these in person, or know anything about them? ETA: At $340 they are far cheaper than a "true" Damascus blade made by Kramer himself, and more inline with what he charges for his standard carbon-steel blades. A hell of a lot of money for a knife, but not bad for a piece of functional sculpture.

I would heartily second this statement. For me the point of buying a whole pig is to butcher it yourself, it's great fun. ← While I agree that is true to get the full benefit of buying a whole hog (if you value the act of cutting it up yourself, of course), my position is a little different: I am simply have no other reasonably-priced source for high-quality pork (the alternative is Niman Ranch). For me, the fact that I get a whole hog is almost incidental: the point is to get high-quality pork. So even without the skin I am getting a good deal here.

It seems to maintain the set temp to within about 7 or 8 degrees F. This is probably dependent on exterior temp, wind, etc., but it's within the acceptable range for me. If I decide to PID it would only be for amusement, not for any practical benefit.

Fleshing that out a bit, to start out I am thinking: Assemble all ingredients (should go without saying, but I must admit to failing to do this and getting bitten on occasion) Put grinder parts in freezer Thaw meat if necessary Slice into long thin strips to facilitate grinding Assemble spice mixture Distribute mixture over meat (Optional) Refrigerate overnight to allow flavors to meld Lay meat out on tray and freeze until very cold, even crunchy, but not frozen solid Rinse casings and start soaking in tepid water Set up grinding station with bowl set in ice Feed meat strips through grinder into bowl Check temperature - should be under 30 degrees F. If it's not, spread on a sheet and put in the freezer until it is. Divide into portions your stand mixer can take. Leave unmixed in fridge/freezer while mixing. Set up mixing station with mixer bowl surrounded by ice Mix each batch on medium speed 60 seconds Check temperature - should be under 35 degrees F. If it's not, chill until it is under 30 before mixing more (if needed). Refrigerate entire batch while frying up small test article Check and adjust seasoning Set up stuffing station with a wet tray to receive the links Stuff casings Twist into links (If smoking) Hang to dry/develop a pellicle for a couple hours (If smoking) Set up smoking rig and get it going if it needs a pre-heat (If smoking) Insert meat thermometer in one of the sausages at the center of your rig (If hot-smoking) Smoke until sausages reach 150 F (If cold-smoking) Set up method for keeping smoker cool (ice in bowl, etc.) (If cold-smoking) Smoke for desired time (If dry-curing) ... Some steps here

I just finished a batch of the Hot-Smoked Andouille from Ruhlman's book, and over here Chris Amirault pointed out that I forgot one of my own tricks! I thought it might be a good idea to come up with some sort of sausage-making "checklist" that one could follow to make sure that nothing gets forgotten about. There are a lot of steps to these endeavors, and it would be pretty handy for me.

Yeah. It only takes a couple smokes to give them a nice "patina" of smokey haze: I've got some bacon in right now, I would bet that after these two long smokes it won't be so shiny anymore . And the readout is definitely nice: you can see how long you've been smoking, how long the oven has been on, what the current temp is, and what the set temp is. I add a cheap digital meat thermometer to give me the meat temperature, and I'm set. You can see the details of this particular sausage adventure here (it's an unmodified recipe from Charcuterie by Ruhlman and Polcyn): Hot-Smoked Andouille. ETA: As for the link-to-link contact --- there is not much at all, actually. The biggest problem here is that I was impatient, and rather than try to track down some butcher's twine (which I seem to have misplaced during my recent cross-country move) I just laid the sausages on the shelves. I had intended to hang them, of course. So they are not the most attractive sausages, displaying a prominent grid pattern on the bottoms.

I forgot... I had the bowl set in ice when I ground into it, but once I got thinking about doing two smaller batches to make it easier on the mixer, I forgot about my earlier "tricks." Over here on the general Sausage-Making topic I've started to put together a sausage-making checklist. Come on over and help out!

I've been using my new Northern Industrial grinder for a couple weeks now, and one of the nicest things about it to me is the all-metal construction of the hopper: This is not just an advantage for toughness: because the metal conducts heat so much better than the plastic of the KitchenAid, if you chill it way down (mine was -10 degrees F when I pulled it out of the freezer) it pulls heat away from the meat very quickly and works like a big heat sink, keeping everything very, very cold.

I used my Bradley Digital Smoker for the first time yesterday to make some Hot-Smoked Andouille: All in all, the device is great, but it has one flaw that is very annoying. They must have gotten a deal on cheap LCD displays, because the one on there is a piece of crap. At night everything is fine and it looks really cool with its little smoking animation, but when the sun shines on it it is almost completely illegible. Very annoying to lean over and try to shield it with one hand while running it with another. I really like the ability to set the oven temperature independently of the smoker, something my previous Brinkman lacked. It let me really smoke the heck out of the Andouille, even though it was a hot smoke (I ran it at 170 degrees, which it held to within around 7-8 degrees pretty well, if its temp readout is to be believed).

I had forgotten how good those Andouille were: I have a couple new toys that needed breaking in, so I had another go at the Hot-Smoked Andouille as well. I am using one of the three five-pound bags of trim from the hog I just bought so I've got a little more fat than usual, but not that much: most of the trim seemed to be regular meat. Here's the first new toy: This is the Northern Industrial grinder that gets all the raves over on the Meat Grinders topic. It does a nice job with the grind, and fast to boot: Everything is still properly chilled at this point (the meat was refrigerated overnight with the seasonings, then put in the freezer for three hours before grinding). Next, in an attempt to keep things cooler, I did the mixing in two batches: Temp check after mixing for 60 seconds shows that the meat temp has risen to 38 degrees F: getting warm, but still acceptable. This is where it is easy to screw up, though: 60 seconds is not very long, and things heated up considerably during that mix. Keep your eye on the temperature during this process! I put it all in the refrigerator and did a seasoning check: This is my current stuffing setup: I have a couple QuickGrip clamps that I am using to secure the stuffer to the table. This ended up working really well. I had dreamed of doing a more permanent install of the stuffer, but I don't think that will be necessary after all. Here the casing is stuffed (I'm using the 32-35mm hog casings from Butcher & Packer), trying not to over-fill, which I have historically had trouble with. I think I slightly underfilled them this time: Twisted into 6-inch links and left to develop a pellicle for an hour: Finally, my next new toy: the Bradley Digital Smoker, as discussed over in the smoker topic: I smoked the sausages for five hours at 170 degrees F, but I wanted to get to bed, so at that point I turned it up to 200 F to go from the 140 F they were at up to 150 F. They are still pleny smokey: Pretty good definition, and they taste great:

I guess I don't really see the harm in trying it. Of course, I think we all anticipate the final result, but if your boss is dead-set on giving it a shot, why not just do a side-by-side comparison? My guess is that the 100% butter product will come out well ahead of the competition, and then you've got your "ammo." And if in some products there is no real difference, then what's the real harm? Save some money, no quality loss: win-win.

I can't say whether it is "the best" since it's the only one I've got, but I find her fresh cheese recipes quite reliable, and they mostly hew to traditional ways of making the products, or at least discuss the divergences. My biggest tip for you is one you've just discovered for yourself: don't use expensive milk on recipes you have never made before . If fresh cheese is all you are looking for, though, the Carroll book is going to be overkill for you, since a lot of it discusses aged cheese. I have yet to make one successfully, in three tries, but I haven't given up just yet.

I also go through massive quantities of paper towel: I wipe up drips as I go, and also use it to wipe the tines of the dipping fork off. I find that using paper towel makes me less likely to try to "conserve" my cloth towel supply (I mean, I only own like 100 of them... ) so I end up being neater. I also try to keep my work area very compact, so that I don't have to move far with dipped chocolates, for example. I have a rolling cart that I sometimes use so I can work in a sort of U-shaped area and all I have to do is turn my body, no real motion.

Well, the timing could have been better (like a couple weeks ago would have been nice!!), but today Serious Eats linked to a video of Chris Cosentino boning out a pig's head. Man, I really wish my head had been skin-on now. His technique is really nice.

The book I have, "Home Cheese Making" by Ricki Carroll, has two recipes for "ricotta" -- one of them is called "Whole-Milk Ricotta" and says this: In this recipe she heats the whole milk with citric acid to between 185 and 195, stirring frequently. As soon as the curds and whey separate the pot is removed from the heat and sits for ten minutes. Then it is ladled through butter muslin. She says you should get 1.5-2 pounds from a gallon of whole milk. Her traditional recipe calls for heating the whey and cider vinegar to 200F and yields 1 cup from 2 gallons of fresh whey.

To be honest, I'd never considered what the bottoms look like, except foot-free. I don't know how patchy they are (though of course I pre-coat them before dipping, so they are well-covered with at least one layer of chocolate).

I just ran across this post on Michael Ruhlman's blog about the forthcoming book by Chef Grant Achatz: "Alinea" (book website here). It looks like an incredible tome, especially at the current price, so naturally I pre-ordered it, but I kinda doubt I will be cooking anything out of it. It looks to me more like a book of art, purchased in the same way one might purchase a book on Michelangelo. I've never eaten at Alinea, but I get the feeling that the recipes are going to be a bit out of my league. Is anyone else looking forward to this one?

Was there anything in particular different about it? Was this the article that began with the author talking about how easy she (he?) thought this would be, and then it turned out much more difficult? I don't have the issue handy, unfortunately, so I can't compare it to my other ricotta recipes.

I'll keep coming as long as Rob's cooking us 12-course dinners! The Chile Fest itself was not that thrilling (typical small-town festival thing) and I have good access to chiles here in Oklahoma, but dinner was the obvious highlight of the event, and well worth the dozen-hour drive.

I left that detail off because it is highly dependent on the thickness of your bacon (and I think the fat content as well). Really thick-cut bacon could go maybe six hours, but pushing it to eight you might want to turn the temp down, though I think that getting the bacon up to 200 degrees is important for good texture. Not that I have tested that theory...