Norm Matthews

Yesterdays left over bread made todays sandwiches.

Dinner is over. Here is how the rib roast looked when cut into.

A very good friend sent me some rye flour from King Arthur and I made the recipe on the back of the package, baguette style. Kids both work at Country Kitchen until 9pm and I'll have this standing rib roast ready for them, pulled at 135º, salad with dressing made with olive oil, sherry vinegar, salt, pepper and malt powder. Sauce made with sour cream= (heavy cream and vinegar) and horseradish. Meat is currently resting -covered- for the 30 minutes or so until they get home.

I had to go out of town and the place I went has a popular chain Italian restaurant named after a fruit orchard. I went early so I could eat there and still have time to do some antique shopping before keeping my appointment. I ordered Chicken Parmesan. They were busy and the food took a very long time. By the time it came, I barely had time to eat before getting to the other place. The chicken was burnt on the bottom. I only took one bite and noticed it. I called the waiter. He offered to take it back but there was no time for that. I told him I didn't want to call the manager. He took the food away. I was sort of filled on the salad and bread sticks anyway. Then the bill came and the chicken was on the tab. THEN I wanted to see the manager. Everything was straightened out in the end.

nikkib thank you.

I have baked bread and pizza before on a baking stone in the gas grill but both my tanks are empty and it is like 27º outside. Once I heated one side of the grill and not the other and the stone broke because it was heated unevenly. Your way should help keep that from happening again. BTW the brackets arrived today.

Menu yesterday (company) Cuban steak with chimmichuri sauce. Louisiana shrimp with dipping sauces, French bread, corn and bean salad, broiled tomatoes, stuffed mushrooms and fried sweet potatoes. I didn't take pictures last night but here are pictures of the same dished I prepared on earlier dates. Cassie made the rice. Not pictured are some fried sweet potatoes. broiled tomatoes and the broth from the shrimp used for dipping.

Menu today (company) Cuban steak with chimmichuri sauce. Louisiana shrimp with dipping sauces, toasted French bread, corn and bean salad, broiled tomatoes, stuffed mushrooms and fried sweet potatoes. It is all still cooking so no pictures.

Perhaps 'appalled' was too strong a word. i was just shaking my head at the suggestion of brining a pork butt then adding liquid smoke when neither were really needed. Well and properly smoked pork shoulder (butt) is delicious without either being necessary. Oven slow cooked with a BBQ sauce added is good too.

I have already said that I really like the mayacoba beans. If you like navy beans, you will like these better, in my opinion.

I would be shocked to learn that paper towel are not food safe. I think they are. I have used them as strainers in a pinch too. I have also used paper coffee filters, metal coffee filters and cheese cloth lined sieves and colanders.

The whole gist of what I was attempting to say is that brining is not really necessary for pork shoulder that is properly smoked because of fat content and that real smoke is preferable to bottled smoke, in my opinion. BR I didn't name the individual because I didn't have his permission to do so, not because I was trying to manulipate anything. Since he posted in a public forum, I guess I can give you the link to the "anonymous individual" and some of the discussion that followed. I think you are finding an excuse to put down the topic and jumping to your own conclusions by taking an individual statement and dismissing it by associating it with equally broad vague statements about research and the press. However, I agree that it is unfortunate that the press tends to comment- sometimes wrongly- on the synopsis of the research instead of publishing the whole technical aspects of testing, hypotheses, methods, procedures and results but that is an unfortunate fact of life. . Here is a discussion with the original person 'not named above" with a lay panel about the article. http://forums.cooking.com/showthread.php?t=8113&highlight=liquid+smoke Here are a couple of excerpts. Originally Posted by Norm Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't liquid smoke made with natural smoke just like any other smoked product such as chipotle peppers? Yes, Norm, but in manufacturing more of the nasties tend to be included than you'd deposit on food smoked naturally, requiring filtering and such in the liquid form. Therein lies the problem- having to remove components, and how well it is accomplished. __________________ The process for distilling LS tends to increase the benzo/benzine forms is what I read..and those are the worst.

I have ordered those brackets. Going to give it a try when the weather is nicer and I've got my tanks filled.

Cold smoking is an entirely different thing. It does not really cook the meat per se.

Kansas City and Southern style BBQ ribs are done when they flop when picked up and you can tear the end bone off with a little effort. The meat should come off the bone with a little tug. If it is falling off the bone then it is over cooked.

I will try to help as much as I can. I have been smoking meat for 25+ years. First you want some smoke. Use dry hard wood. Apple it best in my opinion but hickory is good too. If you have a charcoal burner, use chunks of dry wood. Don't use water soaked wood chips. Wet chips give you white smoke which is just steam. Moisture is good but it isn't smoke and you want smoke. Put the wood to the side so it smolders. You know you have got good smoke if it is blue or even if you can just smell smoke. Gray smoke is bad. Regulate the heat by using the air vents. More air means more heat. Never close the vents all the way. You want to keep the heat under 300º F. This means slow cooking for a long time, not fast cooking. Fast hot heat is what competition BBQers call grilling, not BBQ. It is best for steaks, hamburger and sausages. For BBQ, everyone I know uses rubs, not marinade and don't slather it with sauce until it is almost done, then just enough to cook it in, not to make a messy end product. Watch the meat with the sauce closely so it does not burn. Beef and Pork ribs generally take 4 or 5 hours. Pork shoulder roasts aka Boston Butt, around 5 to 6 hours and beef brisket can take 8 to 12 hours and sometimes even more depending on how big is the chunk of meat. Don'lt know about kangaroo. Rabbit can be cooked either on the grill or in the BBQ. It partly depends on how old the rabbit was. Turkey is not something you should try right away. Get some experience with beef and pork first. Bread can be baked in a charcoal or gas oven over indirect at about 400º. It is very tasty. Using quarry tiles or a baking stone is a good idea, just be sure the stone is heated slowly and evenly. Pizza is good on the grill too. I usually wrap vegetables in foil and cook for a few minutes over direct heat. There is a lot more to it but I hope that is enough to get you started.

I don't doubt it, Norm. Some people in the south do add a bit of flour and a few people do make the cake-like stuff that is like Marie Callendar's but where I grew up it was made without flour. White flour was reserved for biscuits, dumplings, cakes, flapjacks and etc. My grandfather owned a grist mill and farmers from all around the area brought their corn to be ground. I ate at the homes of neighboring farmers and at church socials &etc., and no one I knew made cornbread with flour or sugar. (My dad's family has been in Kentucky since the late 1700s, before it became a state, emigrating there from North Carolina and Virginia.) I don't think Johnny cake originated in New England (Rhode Island in particular where it is very popular), there is a history of it, then called Journey cake, in South Carolina in 1739 and it is one of the recipes in The Carolina Housewife in 1851. A note about that here. The corn dish that certainly did originate in the New England area was Indian Pudding, sweetened with maple syrup. I think it is interesting to speculate about how foods migrated from colony to colony during our early history. It's also interesting that all over this continent the native peoples raised beans, corn and squash together, the "three sisters" plants and in combination these provide a complete amino acid chain as a fairly good substitute for meat proteins. I don't doubt anything you say. As I said before, I don't want to argue or open a debate, especially about a subject that is ancillary to the main topic but my maternal great grandfather and grandfather were both dirt poor Southern farmers. My grandfather lost the farm during the 30's and the family became itinerate cotton pickers. I have eaten cornbread in homes in Missouri, Arkansas and Mississippi and never had it except as a quick bread with wheat flour and baking powder/soda added, but no sugar usually. I just don't feel that it is entirely accurate to say "Real southern cornbread is just cornmeal, salt, baking soda, eggs and buttermilk. No wheat flour, no sugar."

Yes, LindaK, That is the article. I was shown that by a guy who is moderator at http://www.smoked-meat.com/ and at http://forums.cooking.com/?icid=CKTABCOMMTY and is himself a professional at smoking, participating in BBQ contests both as a participant and as a qualified (KCBC) judge and is a maker and seller of BBQ rubs, brines and smoked meats.

Yum djyee 100 I used to own a Korean restaurant andI love Galbi but I never heard it called Bulglabi before. I have heard it called Gwaeji-galbi and the way it is cut in your picture, some Koreans refer to it as LA Galbi because that is the way they found it when they first emigrated to California and could not get it cut between the bones like it was in their homeland.

In my opinion heidih has the best way to go. As a long time smoker am appalled at some or the advice given here. http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2010/0...-may-be-toxic/

It soaked in water at room temperature for about 18 hours, then the water was changed and it simmered in water for 5 hours, then cooled in that liquid for another 15 hours. After it is cut, it should be reheated in simmering water again but I used apple cider as kayb suggested and it was still rather salty. That is just the nature of country cured ham.

Not wanting to get off topic or start an argument, but my mom was a Southerner from the git go and grew up poor to boot. Her family always made cornbread with white flour added. When I think of corn bread without any flour, I think of Johnny cake which originated in New England, not the south.

Oh yum kayb. but I'd need a couple gallons of it for a 15 lb. ham. But the ham is salty. Maybe I can simmer individual slices in apple cider. We get some that was pressed at Louisburg, Ks. that is very good. I have some in the fridge now. Lunch is waiting!

This is the one I usually get. Every year I tell myself that this is the last one, at least for a while but then I get another one every time. Here is a Heritage Ham source. http://store.heritagefoodsusa.com/smoked-heritage-ham-bone-in---one-16-lb-roast-p65.aspx

Country cured ham, three days in the cooking, let alone who knows how long it took to cure. It is a Missouri cure. Don't ask me exactly what that means, I just know it is hickory smoked and sugar cured. First step is to scrub it with a bristle brush under cold running water After scrubbed, soak in cool water at room temperature 12 hours- overnight Then change water and simmer 20 minutes per pound (5+ hours) at 250 degrees. When finished cooking, I covered with a blanket and let cool in cooking liquid- overnight. It was still hot the next morning When cool enough to handle this morning, removed from liquid, twisted off end bones, and removed skin and fat. At this point fat could be left on andit could be glazed and baked but it is fully cooked now and it isn't necessary. this one was very lean and had almost no fat so I sliced it into steaks for dinner today. The rest for later. some sliced for dinner, the rest sliced, chopped or what ever for sandwiches, ham salad, the freezer, etc.