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technogypsy

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Posts posted by technogypsy

  1. I got my copy of Salumi by Ruhlman and Polycn Friday. I'm been reading and planning since... Thing like if I find a large lump of marble can I turn a cask out of it. With the exception of a few questions - how much airflow does one's drying box need? - it's very well done.

    I guess I need to go kill or trap a feral hog next week... There's so much there to try.

    Kevin

  2. I'm not home so I can't check the book, but its time/temperature no? So I would think you could move the temperature up a bit and cook it shorter. The relationship tables are in some book, maybe Modernist Cuisine, but I am not sure.

  3. Being a hunter, and having worked on a farm, I agree with the trend. Some observations -

    Lamb to me tastes like mutton at about 60 pounds dressed weight. I buy small ones at the local Indo-Pak grocery.

    Deer - Bucks are stronger tasting than does at any age. Younger is always more tender and milder. So meat hunting I shoot Bambi's mom, not Bambi... (I hate that movie. The book is okay but I really hate Disney. Talking food - why?). Under 2 years, I can't taste a difference. Proper handling of the meat seems to be more important than age or sex overall (ice it as fast as possible). Same for Elk and Moose.

    Wild Hogs - under 200 pounds - as they get huge, the flavor becomes nasty. Sows again taste better than boars, unless they are under 100 pounds where it doesn't matter.

    Bison - don't notice a difference in flavor with age or sex but, oh my, are bulls tougher than cows. Amazingly so. Liver is surprisingly good from both.

    Small game - younger and smaller rather than older. I stopped eating 'dillos when I found they carry leprosy - tasty thro - and rabbits can carry some nasty crap so I tend to buy those. I haven't eaten enough guinea pig to know.

    Birds - most of our roosters are killed young when they start getting aggressive. Guinea fowl - no difference to me. Wild birds - I ain't a good enough wing shot to know. Only ever ate one peacock.

  4. We use organ meats from most of what we hunt. No Braiiiiiins thro. For lamb hearts, as they have been tender in my experience, we slice them thin, roll in crushed cumin seed, and stir fry in hot chili oil.

  5. I do draw the line at this! :laugh:

    But it's so sparkly.... How can you say no?

    I've been making rilletes (sp) at home for a bit now and canning them and I've never got one as good as the Underwood Deviled Ham. But then again, I like Spam and eggs.

    I've canned venison and bison for storage and wondered about trying beef as some old timers in West Texas told me that that was the origin of the the chicken fried steak. Meat was canned in lard and the breading/frying was done to decrease it. I knew a few old farmers who still canned meat from when electricity wasn't around. (Parts of Texas didn't get power until the Johnson presidency or later.) I've also had canned or pickled lamb in Northern China. Since it was cooked with lots of little red peppers so the flavor was a bit hidden.

    Kevin

  6. I still think you get the best at a speciality Greek-Mideastern Market or making it yourself. However, the plain Dannon is excellent, especially now with berries in season and the fig tree bearing. It's nice and sour, giving a good contrast to fruit. Never tried the pre-fruited version.

  7. The kitchen has become for me an extension of the shop. I buy the same type of rasps and mircoplaners for wood work and just get an extra for the kitchen. We use saws, chisels, hammers, plastic pipe, for all sorts of kitchen chores and have ever used a flatter hammer and anvil to flatten meat - wrap the meat in plastic and set the flatter on top and hit. It started for us when thee goddess stole a mircoplaner for cheese and a carving mallet I turned for driving a cleaver thru bone.

    We also use the burners from our gas forge to brown meat after sous vide. Works much better than a torch.

    Kevin

  8. Okay this is a plea for help based on what I'm reading in Modernist Cuisine. Each year for Easter (Pascha), we make this cream cheese thing that's also called a Pascha. The recipe follows. Each year it sets randomly and other people in our area have the same experience. Some old timers think something changed as processed cheese have replaced homemade. The year I made my own farmer's cheese and cream cheese it worked well but I'm not organized enough to do that every year? Couldn't we use one of the main thickeners discussed in Modernist Cuisine to get the silly thing to set up right? It should be like a stiff cream cheese or hard ice cream consistency when its at RT. Mine is a puddle...a tasy puddle but still a puddle. I'm just not sure where to start. The term "Information Overload" comes to mind.

    Here's the recipe:

    8-oz pks. Cream Cheese

    1/2 pint cottage cheese or farmer's cheese

    1/4 pound sweet butter

    1/4 cup confectionery sugar

    3/4 cup granulated sugar

    cheesecloth

    clean flower pot about 6" in diameter.

    With a mixer or food processor, blend the cottage cheese until it is smooth. Add the cream cheese and butter and blend until smooth. Add the two types of sugar and blend smooth. Add raisins, sliver almonds, candied fruits as desires. Line the flowerpot with three layers of damp cheesecloth. Pour in mixture. Put a weight on top (10 pounds is good) and let sit in the refrigerator until no more drainage is seen (at least 2 days). Remove from mold and unwrap cloth. Make an XB on it in sugared almonds. Serve with Pascha bread.

    Any advice?

    Kevin

  9. I am.

    I'm baking the bread pascha made by Lemkos, a dry outer white bread surrounding a inner sweet yellow bread. It's baked like a Russian kulich in a coffee can so it's tall. We made nit and poppyseed rolls yesterday as well as the Artos, a chickpea flour bread kept on the altar during Bright Week.

    I made the siret cheese-custard Wednesday as well as the Pascha cheese thingy you spread on the bread.

    Kevin

  10. The science is interesting but less clear than anyone admits. In lieu of hard unequivocal evidence, I'm sticking with Paracelsus' dictum: "All things are poison, and nothing is without poison; only the dose permits something not to be poisonous." As hard as I know only lead (and maybe some nasty radioactive beasties)hasn't been found to have a non-effects level (and I'm not positive of that.

    Kevin

  11. I have a copy in Denton, Texas. That's about an hour closer to Oklahoma, or as we prefer Occupied Northern Texas, from Dallas. A home cook but with a professional interest (chemist) in that my employer makes instruments for food science.

    It was kinda cool to see a PolySci chiller and a rotovac in a kitchen. Mine are all covered with interesting chemicals.

    Kevin

  12. Anything uncooked in India... the last time I violated that was not good.

    Brussels Sprouts.... I can't cover them with enough cheese sauce to stop the gag reflex

    I'd prefer to skip things like natto, bear gall, fish intestines, etc but with the business travel I do, it's impossible. I actually hate Brussels sprouts worse.

  13. The Central Markets in both Plano and Fort Worth carry it and will always order it for you. There are also folks who raise and sell them locally - they also have frozen ones. Then there is always the grasslands with a .22LR.

  14. We bought our annual bison last week and with it, I got the parts...kidneys, heart, sweetbreads, fries, and liver. I pretty much know what to do with the rest of them (steak and kidney pie, bison fries, stir fried heart with boy choy, etc) but I got a lot of liver and no one here likes it but me. So anyone got ideas for recipes? I was thinking of a pate or something..

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