Duvel

Bump - and just as a friendly reminder: Superbowl is coming … Even Aldi Germany has jumped on the bandwagon and - befitting this topic - is offering American Chicken Wings (in two flavors, authenticity check pending) 😉 Should I take a one for the team ? And just because you might be interested what Germanys largest discounter offers for Superbowl, here the complete portfolio:

Cold front outside - comfort food inside … Italian meatballs, with tomato sauce & linguine. Little one was very happy (and me too ☺️).

I am completely incapable of wrapping my head around such a concept. I liked the idea somehow - before I tried to make it. Besides the laborious deboning process I have to say that the resulting wing “nuggets” were to dry, especially compared to their conventional counterparts. That might be due to my lack of deboning skills. But I figured that probably the texture and juiciness of the idealized deboned chicken wing that resides in my head could be far easier achieved by taking a (deboned; commercially available) chicken thigh, chopped into chunks, marinated and fried. At the end this is the beauty of the Cook-Off: feeling inspired (or gently pushed by peer pressure) to try something that usually would not make the cut, and find out whether you like it or not. And exchange with others about the results and come to their conclusion as well 🤗 Amen !

Looks great - and a nice choice of wine, too ! Please consider submitting this also into our wings Cook-Off to preserve the method for others to get inspired …

So this is my first attempt on „Buffalo wings“ (in parentheses because I‘m not sure if I follow the protocol) in it’s deboned form* First step: precook the wings as per MCAH: SV for 12h at 62 oC. Try to remove the bone while still warm. Yeah, well. The bones didn’t really „slip out“ … Those who have followed my rabbit massacre in Cook-Off #86 know that successfully separating flesh from bones is not my core skill. In this case I managed 4 flats and 3 drums and decided to return back to an ever so exciting telcon instead. It’s just not my cup of tea. Deboned wings (left, with their complete cousins, right hand side) were dried in the fridge. Meanwhile I winged the hot sauce. Frank‘s is nearly impossible to find here, so I used Tabasco family reserve (which I like a lot), augmented by Tabasco Chipotle (that I like even more), a dash of Worcestershire sauce and some garlic powder plus a healthy** dose of butter. Pretty good mixture, I have to say … Lastly, predried wings were fried, tossed in the sauce and served with celery/carrot sticks and a mixture of creme fraiche & Roquefort. Yeah … Some tater tots on the side (thanks, @btbyrd) Yummy ! I enjoyed a Bourbon while preparing and after as a digestive aid … Never ever will I try to debone a chicken wing again. Just not worth it ! *at least that was the intention … ** from my point of view. My cardiologist disagrees.

There was a „wicked sharp“ precision slicer once in history with a french name, but I can‘t remember the name. Something like „Marie Antoinette“ or related to that …

Little one had a friend over for playdate and asked for the pizza at 16.30h instead for pizza & movie night. Smart kid even asked ahead because by now he knows that the oven has to heat up the pizza steel … Salami (the most popular for all the guest kids we have) Salami & mushrooms (my little ones choice) Artichoke & ham (because that’s what I found in the fridge and to annoy @weinoo 😝) Mushroom & Mett (aka sausage, again what we had) Margherita (for me, it was enjoyed later with a G&T) All shots taken in the kitchen, because the living room was a warzone …

SV fillet of pork (61 oC, 2h, seared) with champ and a sauce made from the bag juices, tomato paste, wine and cream.

Nice, @Shelby ! Duck wings ✅ Now … who volunteers for the ostrich ?

I primarily use commercially ground pork. In the past, when I started preparing my first loaves, I ran the mince through my grinder to get a finer texture. I stopped doing that as the resulting Leberkäse from minced meat will always have a slightly coarser texture that the commercial one (in Germany it would be sold as „Grober Leberkäse“), as you just can’t reach the results of the machine used for commercially turning the meat into a uniform mass (Kutter). As long as you get a good emulsion of fat and proteins by beating the mixture properly, the mouthfeel of the Leberkäse will be great …

Our @Shelby: mistress of all things game, perfectionist in fried food and now also juggling SE Asian languages like a pro 🥳

That looks very yummy - please feel free to post your method & this great outcome directly in the Cook-Off as well 🤗

There are basically three factors you might look into: 1) Temperature (as you suggested): if you come above 10 oC the emulsion you create by viciously beating the meat mixture is prone to break. 2) Not beating enough or having too coarse minced meat. You need to get to that uniformly pink sticky mess state. The meat mixture needs to behave like a dough. 3) No phosphates. You need to use baking powder with phosphates added, because these retain the water in the mixture when it cooks … Hope this helps - PM me if we want to look into your next trial 🙂

Oooh - I forgot about those … excellent taste as always, @shain 🤗

It’s sparkling water. It makes the resulting loaf a bit fluffier (for a lack of a better work for less dense). Can you describe what issues you have with the texture ? Maybe we can troubleshoot it …

… or you make it yourself as (visually) outlined here, with the exact (written) recipe here ☺️

From my point of view there is in principle nothing wrong with that. But if they are individually covered with an ice film to keep them separated, that will melt and dilute your marinade significantly. So maybe you‘ll need to amp up the amounts …

I would suspect two issues here: 1) When you coat the frozen wings, that - per description - are ice-glaced you are not really coating the wing, but the thin film of ice covering it. This will melt first, when the wings hit the oven and thus effectively washing most, if not all of your marinate off. That would also explain the dried out „puddle“ in the second picture. 2) If then at a later point you try to coat the partially cooked wings the marinade meets the wing while the fat is rendering out, so the surface of the wing will be hydrophobic as can be, and the water-based marinade won‘t have it easy to adhere, either. From a conceptual point of view I believe that vinegar-based marinades need a bit of time to do their work denaturing the skin, so it can crisp up nicely later. So, it might not work so well as a quick or even in situ solution. However, I think it should be possible to bake from frozen. Maybe the best would be to start at a slightly lower temperature, thus gently cooking the wing first, and then giving it a blast at the end. If you could use an oil-based marinate or a „sprinkle on“ dry rub in the later cooking stage, it should do the trick. Here I feel that just the method and the material were incompatible … (and as a side note: fully agree that that green sauce is really magical)

Do you know “guided meditation” ? This is “guided hot pot“ …

Recipe, puuuleeeassse 🙏 And may I assume that went on top of some paste ?

We had a dear friend over tonight after not seeing her for quite a while due to these damn Covid restrictions. Like me she spend a couple of years in Japan as a postdoctoral researcher and I only found it befitting to make a hot pot (little ones all time favorite) to reflect this experience … Mixed hot pot (shoyu, mirin, sake / soy milk, miso, sake), with all the fixings … Warm sake. What a treat. The hot pot and the hot sake in connection with the current temperatures outside sent both my friend and me down a trip on memory lane about our life in Japan. A bit emotional … Raspberry custard mochis (little ones choice). I would have never considered these and gone with the matcha ones, but they were seriously good. He is getting pretty good in his choices 🥳 …

That is seriously impressive - kudos to you, @Steve Irby.

@Shelby, way to go - looking very much forward !!!

I think we have a dedicated thread for assigning blame, but let me say also here once again: damn all of you enablers at eGullet. However, for this particular purchase today I solemnly & solely blame @kayb 😜

I think the craze started in mid 2018, and by the beginning of 2019 the major (again Singaporean) brand had a dedicated outlet for their 3 (three !) duck egg yolk flavored products (potatoes crisps, fish skin and shrimp heads) in the most expensive mall in HK. Imagine a shop for potato crisps nestled in between Prada and Apple. I left in 2019 - I should ask whether they are still there …