jeniac42

I really want to make some Mexican-style chorizo soon (well, the kind you get in your tacos at a taqueria). I can't decide between that and kielbasa and bratwurst. I've got tomorrow off from work, so I feel a sausage-making is in the works.

Had a Chimay Blue on Tuesday night, which will probably mark the end of the Belgian beerfest for a while because now I've got to save my money for this semester's tuition payments....

Well, the boiling wasn't so much of a technical problem as a philosophical one. I couldn't manage to convince Eric that it wasn't actually at a full, rolling boil. We know for next time, though. I do have a question, though: How high can you crank the burner up without being in danger of burning the wort? Eric's stove is no great shakes so I suspect we could just turn it all the way up, but we were both concerned because of the (perceived) high sugar content in the wort. We should be bottling pretty shortly and we want to get another batch going right away, so I'm on a mission to find a good beginner beer from ingredients. I've seen so many now I'm starting to go cross-eyed. I might leave that part to Eric (I'm trying to convince him to sign up here) and work on a bratwurst recipe to serve at the upcoming Beer Tasting Party.

Well, the beer is in the fermenter now. Since we were both doing this for the first time, it caused a few disagreements, but I think it'll turn out OK.... It was Eric's present, so he really did all the work for this. First he sanitized everything. Then he boiled the extract and the extra malt together with 1.5 gallons of water per the advice in a book (Complete Joy of Homebrewing perhaps?). It's my opinion that it never actually reached a full, rolling boil, but it was at least simmering for 45 minutes. Then we poured it into the fermenter and added cold water to make 5 gallons of liquid. It cooled down pretty fast so we put the yeast in, applied the lid and the airlock, and went to bed. This morning I woke up because I heard a sound that I thought meant a cat was about to cough a hairball up on me, but it was just the airlock bubbling away (there's some water in it, again per the instructions in the book). We're not sure how we'll know when to bottle it. The book says 14 days; I've also read 6-7 and anywhere in between. Room temperature in here is usually about 64F at this time of year. The bubbling currently is about every five seconds. Thanks again for all the advice! I'll update again when we bottle it....

Thanks for the advice, Chris. I'm trying to get a copy of the R&P book but so far I have had no luck. This weekend I might try a fresh kielbasa to use up the rest of the (now-frozen) pork butt. Edited to add that just now I am eating some storebought summer sausage, cheddar cheese, spicy mustard, and crackers - one of my favorite ways to use sausage.

Thanks for the advice. We're definitely brewing tomorrow night so I'll let you know how that goes. In the meantime, a friend pointed me to this software for the Mac which looks like it might be really useful.

Yeah, basically that kit came with the brewing equipment. The guy at the brewshop said that it wouldn't be great but that it would get something fermenting and done quickly for that initial satisfaction. He gave light spraymalt to use instead of regular sugar and a different packet of yeast to replace the one in the kit. So we've got that at least. The kit is a Munton's Nut Brown Ale, for what that's worth. After this we'll be using our own ingredients.

We should be starting the brewing process tomorrow evening. We were going to do it on Monday, but by the time we got back from the family gathering we were both too tired. I have a question, though. The kit is a hopped extract, which is a liquid. Its directions do not instruct us to boil it - it says simply to put it in the fermenter, add boiling water, then the extra malt or sugar, then cold water, then just put the yeast on top. Should we ignore that and boil it anyway?

Yesterday I had to work, so after work we went to the bar and had: Golden Carolus Grand Cru Emperor - VERY caramely, almost no hop flavor at all; one of our friends, who will not drink beer because of the bitterness, said she might drink this Trappistes Rochefort, #8, I think - also really good, although I can't think of a way to describe it. Alas, Christmas is over, so the last remaining excuse to consume prodigious quantities of Belgian ales is the New Year.... I actually got complimented by my boyfriend last night because apparently other girls have been unwilling to drink Belgian ales?! Amazing.

Well, I did manage to get some pork fat. I'm not sure it was back fat, because the guys at the Giant Eagle butcher's counter just threw it together for me. At least there was no charge.... I would say for a first attempt it went pretty well. I forgot to put the knife blade in the grinder initially and could NOT figure out why the meat was just getting stuck to the back of the grinding disc. Oops. After that it seemed to go fine, though. As for stuffing the sausage into casings... man, putting the casing onto the sausage horn is just... well, no comment. I tied the end first as suggested in one or another of the books I've read since Friday, and it immediately filled with air when I turned the mixer's motor on. I untied it and placed the end of the casing even with the end of the horn and waited for the meat to start flowing, and then it was all OK. I had Eric feeding the sausage mixture into the hopper, and it seemed really difficult to keep a steady flow going. Like it was taking a really long time somehow to shove it all down in there. Any suggestions? I used the Kentucky-Style Pork Sausage recipe from Bruce Aidell's cookbook, minus the nutmeg and plus a little brown sugar. I found the seasoning to be a little on the bland side for me; next time I'd use more sage, maybe a little more sugar, and definitely more cayenne and black pepper. Also, the size of casing that I got (the only size that was available) was far too large for normal breakfast sausage. Still, since the sausage itself is a little underseasoned, I think it'll make for decent sandwiches - it's about the right size for that. Photos! First we have the spice mix (salt, brown sugar, black pepper, cayenne pepper, sage, coriander), the casing being soaked, and the newly instituted sausage notebook: Also the grinder attachment on the KitchenAid, because it looks exciting: The meat mixture: The links, minus the one that split and was thrown back into the loose sausage bowl: And finally, a cooked piece with some bread.

Eric and I exchanged gifts yesterday, and I gave him the homebrewing equipment. I really thought he'd caught on to me somehow, because he's spent the past week talking about how much he wants to learn to brew in 2006. Perfect gift! The first beer he'll be making is just a nut brown ale that came in a kit. The guy at the supply shop gave me an extra packet of yeast and extra malt and his phone number in case we had any questions. I can't wait to help with the brewing process.... Believe it or not, Eric's present to me was a meat grinder, sausage stuffer, and a few books about making sausage. So we'll be alllll set for good times in the coming year, don'tcha think?

Thanks for the helpful replies. I think after the New Year I'll be visiting the Penn Brewery. Eric and I went to the Sharp Edge brewpub the other night and acquired/drank: Sierra Nevada Celebration - I really liked this beer, and thought it went well with my hamburger Allagash Abbey (XXX?) - very creamy and delicious Duvel - Eric's favorite beer, and I really like it too. Affligem Noel - a little too alcoholic-tasting for me at first, but it got better. Imagine that! Delerium Noel - I liked this as much as I like the other Delerium ales I've had. I'll take pictures of the bottles and put them up here sometime soon....

On Thursday night I had the Sierra Nevada Celebration on draught. It was really delicious, and I'd have picked up a sixer but the prices for carryout at that bar are ridiculously high. Oh well. Yesterday my boyfriend and I celebrated Christmas together, and we had Affligem Noel and Delerium Noel. I didn't like the Affligem at first - it tasted quite alcoholic - but halfway through the first glass I started to really enjoy it. We saved the Delerium until a few hours later and drank it with dinner - a gorgeous ribeye steak. I like the Delerium ales.

I wanted to participate in this cookoff anyway, and was planning to use my Cuisinart and my knives to "grind" the meat... but would you believe, my wonderful boyfriend got me the KitchenAid meat grinder and sausage stuffing attachments for Christmas! (We exchanged our gifts yesterday...) I got him homebrewing equipment so it'll be Oktoberfest all year for us in 2006.... Today I went to the Strip in Pittsburgh to try to buy ingredients to make some kind of sausage. I got a nice pork butt and hog casings, but NOBODY had any pork fat available at all. I'm going to try calling a few other grocery stores in the area to see what I can find. Tonight will be the maiden voyage for the grinder and the stuffer. Here's hoping it turns out OK!

I love the no-bake cookies mentioned upthread. I can't really think of many other back-of-the-package recipes that haven't already been mentioned, at least not offhand.

I can get both Hop Devil and Hop Wallop on tap at a couple of places around here. I'm not sure if that makes it more likely to get a better beer or not. I might be going out tonight and if the bar has Hop Wallop I'll definitely give it a try and let you know what I think of it!

I like the Victory Hop Devil when I'm in the mood for something that is (to me at least) quite bitter. I haven't tried the Hop Wallop yet because I'm afraid I might not be able to drink it. Still, during the summer I drank quite a lot of the Hop Devil. I think I've had the Rogue Dead Guy but I'm not sure. I know I enjoyed whichever Rogue beer it was I drank.... I'm so useful, I know!

Ooh, I forgot about takikomi-gohan day. I might be able to participate later in the week but with Christmas coming up things are very hectic for me right now....

I'm making a fusion vinaigrette sauce for cold poached salmon (sake norimake for Americans who won't eat raw fish), with truffle oil, ginger, chives, and toasted sesame seeds, so I want the flavor but not the color. I thought that "light" soy sauce meant reduced sodium rather than lighter in color. Kikkoman's "light" soy sauce looks pretty much as dark as the regular. ← I think Jason was referring to "usukuchi shouyu" (薄口しょうゆ） as opposed to the low-sodium soy sauce. From what I can tell, it seems that usukuchi shouyu is made with amazake and apparently has a higher sodium level than regular soy sauce. One of my favorite foodbloggers, Obachan, talks about it here. Could you ask your grocer if they could get shiro shouyu for you? The label for the bottles I have seen says 白しょうゆ - if you put that into google image search you'll find lots of pictures.

Tonight my boyfriend came home with a Dogfish Head Chicory Stout. I am enjoying it quite a bit. It's fairly sweet. Is there, like, a Beer 101 Book for Idiots who Know Nothing about Beer? I really am sort of in the dark even about the various types of beer (although I think I like stouts and hefe-weizens).

Ooh. I'll have to see if I can find some of these Christmas ales. The last beer I drank was, I'm quite positive, a Straub... cheap and not really too offensive. I think in the New Year one of my projects will be to learn more about beer, because my knowledge in that area is quite lacking.

Thanks very much for the advice! I'm reading through John Palmer's book online and I have to say it seems like the kind of stuff that would make a lot more sense were I actually following the steps instead of just reading about it. I will be sure to update with further information after the holidays, if applicable....

Wow. Another very impressive pictorial. Now that it's winter break from school and I'll have some free time, I'm going to have to try some of these dishes. I don't think I'll be trying anything with live crabs, though. I'm afraid of injuring myself, but the real reason is that it just seems like it would be too messy to clean up after such an endeavor in my home kitchen. Sometimes I really miss the giant prep tables we had in the restaurant....

I'm thinking of buying a homebrewing kit for my boyfriend as a Christmas gift. SHHH! I guess I'd better hope he doesn't see this, and if he does: THERE ARE OTHER POSSIBLE GIFTS, YOU KNOW! Anyway. I don't know a whole heck of a lot about homebrewing beyond what I've found on eGullet and a few other linked sites. I imagine that with the kit I will get one of the prehopped extracts, or at least it sounds that way from its description. Is there anything else in particular that I should examine with regards to the kit, to make sure it's quality? And as far as bottles, we already drink a lot of good old Straub, which comes in big bottles. I think I'd rather reuse them than have to cart them back to the distributor (and I think it's $1 deposit on the case, so that's pretty cheap).

Drunk food for me usually ends up being "throw together whatever is in the fridge, regardless of its appropriateness or lack thereof".