Chef Fowke

I am such an idiot! We talked about wines.... Why did I forget to talk to him about egullet? Actually, as a side note a really exciting thing did happen when he was at the Restaurant: As Robert Mondavi was leaving he came upon our morning pre-shift of all our servers and cooks. At the 15 minute meeting we talk about the specials of the day, up and coming events, VIP's, complaints from the previous shift, etc. Mr. Mondavi listened in and was really impressed; he became visually pleased and politely interrupted the meeting. He began to talk about the restaurant industry and what differentiated great restaurants from bankrupt restaurants. The best quote of his 20-minute talk was: 'if you want to be successful in this business you need not only to use your brain but your heart. It is the hardest thing in the world to do but it is imperative to learn to you both in unison when serving the public and running a restaurant.' I have never heard truer words. Now back to pastrami. The plate should arrive this week. I hope to be able to produce a great piece of meet for under $10 a pound.

hey, I was really impressed that Robert Mondavi was in my restaurant the same day we ate the smoked meat experiment....no one commented! Maybe only I was impressed.

I see that I am jumping into the middle of something here. If we can all just go back a few pages I do have a photo to follow up on a few comments I made about trussing a bird. Finally my wife bought me a chicken to truss! Oh how I trussed that chicken. This is what I meant by opening up the chicken by trussing the legs down. I made a mistake by not photographing the chicken when it was raw. It sat 3 inches longer on the cooking board before I cooked it. From the photo you can see the evenly browning of all the skin. The wings protect the breast from cooking to fast by blocking the heat from the top. I just tasted the chicken. It was a 4lbs bird that cooked at 390f for 55 minutes in a convection oven brushed with olive oil, sea salt, black pepper and rosemary. WOW, for a seafood chef I did well. It is great. The trussing really helps to even out the cooking and allows the thighs to cook at the same speed as the breast.

Sorry, I am working on a 21inch and it looks great. I will edit the pictures in the next 24 hours so they fit better. I was up most of last night trying to figure out how to upload the pictures to my webspace. I was pleased that I managed that, I didn't even consider the size and formatting of the photos.

I had to! He was going for the last piece of smoked meat.... To tell you the truth, that’s how they pull a tooth in the wild wild west of Canada. Here is a better picture of the meat. You can see the marbling better! The meat was so good!

Three weeks of work and the meat is ready. The colour and fat content were absolutely amazing. The flavour was a little smokier then I remember the meat being at Schwartz’s but definitely not unappealing and I probably would give this meat a higher grade (in my humble opion) then the Schwartz’s meat because of it. The project was a success. I worked online with the Sous Chefs (annual night out for the Chef de Parties so the Sous Chefs had to cook) tonight and I steamed off 5lbs of pastrami for there dinner at midnight. Four of us ate five pounds of smoked meats, two loaves of Canadian rye bread, 1/2 a bottle of deli mustard and a little beer! The cooking technique for this project was very simple. The difficulty in making GREAT smoked meat/pastrami is the time and space needed. I could never offer this product at this quality in my restaurant (that’s not to say we do not use the best....) The absolute necessity to provide a completely sterile environment for the meat during curing was a huge expense. Then letting the inventory age for a minimum of three weeks taking up a whole 3 foot by 3-foot shelf is very expensive for any busy restaurant. I must reiterate, and I have a sandwich wrapped in my fridge right now (that will probably be eaten before I post this thread) this pastrami was the best I have ever tried. When I figure out the cost it is astronomical. A $3.85/lbs piece of raw meat ended up costing $13.86 a pound when you take into account 15% shrinkage while brining/smoking, $11.25 for the brine/sat peter, $14.84 for the smoking chips, storage, labour, electricity, trim, etc. If a restaurant had a food cost of 33% (very high) that one-pound sandwich (using this recipe) sold at Kratz would cost the customer in excess of $42. It has become clear why most North American delis purchase their pastrami rather then produce it in-house. It is also clear why the dry brining process is more popular then the wet-brine. We will start dry brining the plate/navel this week and update this thread with the results soon. The meat just out of the steamer (three hours) Dinner for the Sous Chefs (Sous Chefs drinking beer? Unheard of!) This was the best night, in five years, working at Joe's. Look at all the kitchen managers and no employees. It was absolute kaos! The food has never looked better and the fun factor was huge. (just bragging...Mondavi was in this week and I spent a couple of hours with him. It looks like he was admiring the smoked meat, but he wasn't)

It is on my wife's list tomorrow. She is going to buy a whole chicken for me at Lonsdale Quay. I will truss it and take a photo. Really, once you see this you will not eat chicken any other way. Lots of crispy skin and no more over cooked breast. :

I find it easier to put an egg into the water and add the kosher salt until the egg floats.

OK, I haven't set up the energy balance differential equation to examine the thermodynamics of this thing but: 1) The thigh takes the longest to cook 2) Trussing the bird decreases the surface area of the thigh/leg. How could trussing it make it cook more evenly? Please offer some scientific explanation, not heresay. Simple, the thighs are not tucked and tied as in the traditional way of Trussing. The maximum amount of area of the thigh is exposed to the heat source to help with an even cooking. To make it clearer...the final trussed bird looks like it is lying on its back with its arms crossed over its head and it legs s t r e t c h e d out and crossed. If the traditional trussed bird is 12 inches long this trussing method produces a bird stretched to 16 - 18 inches. If I had a chicken in my hand right now I would truss it and take a photo...(coming soon! Maybe tomorrow night).

When tying the chicken the string starts forward of the wings (one turn around each wing) and is pulled tight around the neck and back around under the thighs. The string is then wrapped up, around and down between the chicken legs. It is tied off around the lower drumstick making a very long and thin chicken. I hope that makes sense....

Hmmmm, lets not give up on trussing so quickly. There lives a very old lady (probably dead now or pushing 100) in Bordeaux who believes in trussing chickens for good reason. She trusses the wings backwards and up over the breast of the bird. The legs are tied to stick straight out. The look of the bird when it is finished is very long and almost all one thickness from neck to tip of the leg. This allows an even cooking with a maximum amount of exposure to crisp the skin She used to laugh at the British about (among other things) how they trussed their birds to be fat and compact (just like the average Brit she would say). This works extremely well on quails, pheasants and Guinea fowl

For $89us you could just fry the bird at home in your backyard.

I had a little taste when it came out of the smoker..... Full photos and tasting notes on Monday night: midnight pacific standard time!

The meat is in the smoker! It is a great day. I wish I could send you all a sample of the smell in the kitchen. It is truly a beautiful thing

I used whole garlic in the wet brine. I have read recipes that call for the meat being rubbed with whole garlic before the crust is applies and smoked.

I coated the beef tonight with a very aromatic crust (I initially started cracking all the ingredients by hand! It only took five minutes until I grabbed a coffee grinder to complete the job ). 70% black peppercorns 20% coriander seeds 5 % white peppercorns 5% mustard seed 10 bay leaves (pulverized) 5 Serrano peppers (pulverized) The meat is now under 100lbs of weight (strip loins for the weekend) getting compressed. Tomorrow I will smoke the brisket for 6 hours or until it reaches 160f. I will then press it until Tuesday. It will then steam it for 3 hours and I will do the initial tasting (with photos). I have already picked out the rye bread from my local Lebanese baker. I have yet to be able to procure a plate. The non-existent Mad Cow scare has made it impossible to find different cuts of beef in this province. As soon as it is available I will do a dry cure and test the complexities of the pastrami with this

It takes time to cure beef. A lot of time. I have been very good and not looked at the meat everyday. I did check it today and we are almost ready to smoke the brisket.... The colour is a beautiful pink. The saltpeter worked. I tasted a corner and the salt is strong but not over-powering. I am going to take the meat out tomorrow, rinse it and soak it in fresh water for 24 hours. It will then be pressed with the peppercorn/coriander on Saturday and I will smoke it for 6 - 8 hours (internal temperature of 160f). Monday will be the day of truth. I will steam it... I will apologize now for not having photos of the different stages of this process. I bought a very, very expensive digital camera from Fuji in the spring and it has spent most of its time in the shop getting 'adjusted'/fixed. I pick it up tomorrow and I will start taking some photos. I have some friends standing by for Tuesday tasting (Fat guy; I will figure out a way to get you a piece to sample). What are the criteria we are going to judge the meat by? Should we all agree on twenty points that need to be present in a great piece of pastrami? I will do the first tasting with my 'foodie' friends and we will critic the meat. From here I will go back to the drawing board and develop a new recipe for the next batch. I will open the tasting to the eGullet public for this tasting in early October.

I can be free at anytime. Set a date and time and I will be there.

This is full of great information! Thanks for the link.

Sorry to disagree: chemical compound, NaNO3, a colorless, odorless crystalline compound that closely resembles potassium nitrate (saltpeter or niter) in appearance and chemical properties. It is soluble in water, alcohol, and liquid ammonia. Sodium nitrate is also called soda niter or Chile saltpeter. It is found naturally in large deposits in arid regions of Chile, Peru, Argentina, and Bolivia as caliche, a crude, impure nitrate rock or gravel. Natural deposits are the major source of sodium nitrate; it is also obtained in small amounts as a byproduct of chlorine production by the nitrosyl chloride process, in which sodium chloride (common salt) is reacted with nitric acid. Sodium nitrate is used in making potassium nitrate, fertilizers, and explosives. It was formerly an important raw material for the production of nitric acid. chemical compound, KNO3, occurring as colorless, prismatic crystals or as a white powder; it is found pure in nature as the mineral saltpeter (or niter). It is slightly soluble in cold water and very soluble in hot water. When it decomposes (on heating) it releases oxygen. Potassium nitrate is prepared commercially by the reaction of potassium chloride with sodium nitrate. It has been used extensively in the manufacture of gunpowder since about the 12th cent.; it is also used in explosives, fireworks, matches, and fertilizers, and as a preservative in foods (especially meats). It is sometimes used in medicine as a diuretic. Great detail. I am truly impressed! This is not meant to be demeaning, but... both have the same chemical reaction in the tenderizing of protein.

Just got home from work and it is really late. Thank you for the feedback! It is great. I apologize for the point form. I cannot wait to sleep, tomorrow is a big day. Howie is in town from New York and I am going to tour him around the markets and docks. 1. Wife is at cottage with camera. She is back soon and I will photograph everything. 2. Yes, salt peter and sodium nitrate are the same. 3. The navel is coming, I called it the plate. I will be dry brining it. 4. I choose the wet brine because of personal experience. I spent the last month researching brines for pastrami and no two where the same. I picked and choose what I thought was the best. 5. The coriander/peppercorn ratio will be increased in the dry rub before smoking. You are probably right about dry-aging the beef for a few days before smoking. 6. I will make sure to weight the pastrami when it comes out of the brine. 7. I will not be rotating the brine. I am working under completely sterile conditions so I will not have a problem with bacteria. I will get photos posted ASAP!

Rocket (arugula) and porcini oil in a orzo salad. Make sure the tomatoes are room temperature! So many times I order a tomato based salad in a restaurant and they come out cold! The first thing I learned in France is (after they stopped abusing me for not being French) was that tomatoes should always be room temperature and rarely should they be cooked. as well....I recently had a tomato rubbed with Dijon, sea salt and fresh horseradish. It was great.

Okay, i am in....and I am going to bring a Sous Chef for protection... Is it official? We meet at 4:00pm?

The first two pieces of brisket are in the brine. The point and the round. I am using a wet brine (recipe follows) to cure these samples. The plate will not arrive for 7 to 10 days. No one is butchering animals locally and all the plates on the market have been ground. When the plate arrives I will dry brine it. In three weeks we will smoke all three samples at the same time. Steaming will happen the next day then we will go live on the internet in our taste testing of the meat. We still need to develop a scientific method for the actual tasting. Any suggestions on criteria. Taste is so subjective. We need more measurable factors to rate. Maybe a fat-o-meter, etc. Here is the wet cure: • 16 litres water • kosher salt (added to water until and egg floated) • 1lbs fresh thyme • ¼ lbs black peppercorns • ¼ lbs fresh garlic cloves, whole • ½ cup coriander seeds • 8 bay leaves • 2 tbls juniper berries • 2 lemons (cut in half) • ½ cup salt peter The meat is sealed in the container for three weeks. Before it is smoked the meat will be thoroughly washed and soaked in clean water for 24 hours. The meat will then be dried and rubbed with a 95% cracked black pepper, 5% coriander seed mix.

The meat has arrived! Tomorrow Jason and I will start curing the beef. In three weeks we will have a finished product.