Steve Irby

Wednesday at 02:14 AM

@Smithy This type of sausage is a fresh raw pork sausage that doesn't require a curing agent. It should be eaten within three or four days of preparing or frozen. I vacuum bag them in about 3/4 lb bags and they hold fine for a year. It's also great as a bulk sausage for patties, meat loaf, stuffing etc,.

Wednesday at 12:26 AM

I made a 3 kg batch of luganeca sausage this morning and I cooked a few links of the misfires for lunch. It been awhile since I prepared this recipe and I forgot how good it is. This the first time to use the traditional sheep casing. The formulation for the sausage includes pork shoulder, salt, parmigiano cheese, nutmeg, S&P, white wine and fresh rosemary and garlic.

Monday at 03:48 PM

9 hours ago, Smithy said:

Do you mean the curing involved the spices you named, or that's what came after the cure? More to the point...how did you cure that salmon? It looks delicious.

I started out with a nice fatty 3/4 lb skin-on belly filet. The filet was dusted with the spice blend then I added a couple of very thin slices of orange and lemon. The filet was covered with a mixture of 1/3 cup each of kosher salt and granulated sugar and vacuum bagged. The cure time was 48 hrs. Here's photo of the filet after the cure was washed off.

Monday at 03:30 AM

Home cured salmon with a spice blend from World Spice including Indian coriander, fennel seed, cumin, guajillo, cardamom seed, Indonesian cinnamon, turmeric, and cloves. Served over Kalamata olive bread and goat cheese.

January 15

A quick lunch that presented well. I bought a tray of pre-cooked tiger prawns from Sam's that had been marked down and served some over cheese grits that I had previously cooked and frozen in silicone molds. I microwaved the frozen grit pucks for a minute to defrost then browned in an olive oil and butter mix. The grits were topped with the shrimp, red onions, garlic chives, capers, oil cured olives and sun dried tomatoes that were sauteed in olive oil. Served with a simple salad dressed with olive oil and champagne vinegar.

January 14

Dinner was SV turkey breast over celeriac and potato mash with wilted spinach and carrots. The turkey was half of a turkey breast half that was divided length wise after coming out of the water bath. The breast was seasoned with Cavender's Greek Salt, lemon slices with fresh sage and rosemary. I browned the breast prior to serving and deglazed the pan with the bag juices to make a sauce.

The breast was seasoned and sealed the day prior to being cooked. I left it in the circulator for four hours at 141F.

January 13

1 hour ago, MaryIsobel said:

That looks delicious. We used to be able to buy "pork leg steaks" here which looked much like yours. They were a great combination of fat and lean. Haven't seen them for years. Are they raising pigs without legs now?

Thanks, they were pretty tasty. I'm not sure about legs but they still have shoulders🐷 I cut these steaks out of a boston butt that I was breaking down for sausage. I think the cut would be roughly equivalent to a beef chuck steak.

January 12

Another dessert in the again category. Galatorie's Sweet Potato Cheese that I made for my neighbors 98th birthday get together.

January 12

Lunch was SV pork steaks that were cooked about two hours at 141F.

January 7

2 minutes ago, Smithy said:

Very nice, @Steve Irby! I love the seasonings you describe. The mystery seasoning (and its analog) sound especially tantalizing.

One question: why the transglutamase dusting on the tenderloins? To make the bacon stick better?

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.

January 6

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

January 6

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.

January 3

@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.

January 3

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.

October 20, 2025

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.

October 19, 2025

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.

October 17, 2025

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

October 14, 2025

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

October 13, 2025

On 10/10/2025 at 5:18 PM, TdeV said:

Can I be your neighbour, @Steve Irby ?

A neighbor that cooks? Most certainly!

October 10, 2025

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.

October 10, 2025

18 hours ago, Tropicalsenior said:

We had cioppino on the menu in one restaurant where I worked. One day we were out of the wine that we usually used to make it and substituted another. The sauce still tasted fine but it gave all the seafood an off taste. Could that have been part of your problem?

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.

October 9, 2025

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☹️

October 7, 2025

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.

October 6, 2025

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!

October 3, 2025

I picked up a couple celeriac roots off the quick sale table and decided to make ravioli. I had enough puree for about six dozen so we had a nice serving for dinner and the rest were frozen. The ravioli were served with brown butter, sage, prosciutto and parmesan cheese. My camera was a little wonky and gave a yellow cast to the food with the sage leaves appearing burnt although they were lightly browned!

@Smithy I've also been enjoying tomato pies this summer. I usually make two quiche and one tomato pie per session using prepared pie shells. I place the seasoned tomato slices on a wire rack and cook at 220F for a couple of hours to get the moisture content down. I also enjoy the pan juices😋

We've had a few meals this week from a piece of smoked brisket that was hiding in the freezer. This is the last portion of the really ~~fatty~~ well marbled point.

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Posts posted by Steve Irby