Steve Irby

I try to use lean bacon and the meat glue helps in the finishing process which is browning the roll in oil. I've certainly had better luck when using it. Here's a photo of a ready to serve tenderloin roulade from 2022.

It's turkey time again! I had a 24# butterball turkey in the freezer that was competing for storage space with the sausage that I made at the first of the year. I solved that issue by roasting the legs and thighs and prepped the breast and tenderloins for the circulator. One breast half was seasoned with Cavender's Greek Seasoning, kosher salt, lemon slices, rosemary, sage and olive oil. The second breast half was seasoned with a mystery green spice blend that my sister brought back from Istanbul. The fragrance and flavor is similar to a spice blend from Spicewalla that includes curry leaf, fenugreek, dill, tamarind, cumin, coriander, onion, garlic and S&P. I added orange and lemon slices along with a little olive oil. The tenderloins were seasoned with Tony Chacere's and Cavenders seasoning blends, dusted with transglutaminase, and bacon wrapped. I cooked the batch at 141 for 4 hours plus. The breast halves were a little less than 3 lbs and the tenderloin was 1.75 lbs. I split the breast lengthwise and resealed after chilling. I also cooked two 8 oz pork steaks for about 2 hours

I went to the farmers market to buy turnip greens this morning and spotted this robiola in the cheese counter. The cheese smelled great thru the paper and it had right kind of squishy feel. I've decided to take a chance and brought a piece home. OMG it was perfect. The producer is Boxcarr Handmade Cheese in Cedar Grove NC. The price came out to be about $19/lb which is a bargain for artisanal cheese. Served with a sourdough bread from Craft Bakery.

@patti Thanks, it's a bit of production but we get to enjoy the results for the coming year. I ordered the correct size horn for the sheep casing that I have on hand so I'll be ready for the next batch.

We had some pretty cold weather forecast for the Florida Panhandle so I decided to devote NYE and NY to sausage production. I prepared my spice formulations on NYE and mixed them with the requisite ratios of pork shoulder, belly and fat. I prepared two different formulation for a total of 12 kg of sausage. On NY day I ground and linked up the sausages. I prepared the Salsiccia di cipolla (sausage with onion) in hog casing with no problems. The second batch of Nürnberger Bratwurst in sheep casing was beset with technical problems. My sausage horn was sized for larger sheep casing and I ordered a smaller casing. It was struggle to get the casing on the horn and more of a struggle to have it feed smoothly. I also had air pockets in the stuffer which further complicated matters. I finally called it quits and bulked out the last three pounds. I grilled a few of the culls and the taste and textures are very good.

I usually start the day with a smoothie but decided to give the blender a day off. I had a few odds and ends in the refrigerator that became a tortilla de patatas-ish breakfast. The filling was leftover potato pave, red onion and yellow pepper sauteed in butter and tomato infused olive oil. I topped the two egg dish with labneh and semi-dried tomatoes.

Ajax (my dog) and I really enjoyed an extra fatty pork steak for lunch today. I bought four at BJ's a few days ago and grilled them today. The trim, or lack thereof , was just like the good old days! Served with potato pave and avocado drizzled with picual olive oil.

Last nights dinner and todays lunch. Okra based gumbo with smoked turkey, Conecuh sausage, shrimp and blue crabs.

The last of the home corned brisket served as corned beef hash.

A neighbor that cooks? Most certainly!

I started dessert prep earlier in the week with the intention of making a raspberry tart. However the week got away from me and the raspberries were getting soft. The raspberries are now in the freezer destined for smoothies and have been replaced by strawberries and blackberries. Here's a few desserts that will be given to the neighbors. The fruits are glazed with homemade pear preserve syrup. I ate one blackberry tart for QA/QC purposes and it was delicious.

The cod and clam tasted fine in the sauce but the off flavors were evident in the jonah crab, scallops and shrimp. They had that kind of "gray" flavor from being stored improperly.

I'm sorry to have to call this dish "not ready for primetime cioppino". The sauce was great but the shrimp, crab and scallops had an off flavor and the clams were kind of anorexic. It turned out to be a pretty expensive photo op☹️

I split a couple of dozen raw ersters (9th Ward phonetic spelling) with Charlie "Boudreaux" Irby. Actually I ran him off after three since they were running a little small and I was pretty hungry.

Lunch was meat and three as it is often referred to by us southerners. The meat was pineapple and brown sugar seasoned venison sausage from a deer that my nephew shot. It was processed by a small seasonal butcher in Causeyville MS. The string beans and creamed corn came from the freezer from produce that I put up this summer. The au gratin potatoes were prepared from trim that I had leftover from preparing T Keller's potato pave. I'm going to start my nap after one more bite of the corn!