Jump to content

bigwino

participating member
  • Posts

    201
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by bigwino

  1. For those that are still searching for a vertical stuffer, Northern Tool is out of there's with a "more than 30 day" backorder. I did find another identical unit on Amazon by Grizzly for $60! Ordered it yesterday. Here's the link
  2. The Stew Leonard's in Yonkers has dry aged beef. I'm not sure if the other two do, but maybe they can get it for you from Yonkers.
  3. Taleggio, Epoisses and the like are sometimes referred to as having "stinky feet" characteristics. I absolutely love all the stinky cheeses, so I guess I'm in. I adore ramps, too, so I guess I have a pretty strong foot food fetish. My friends and I all refer to the smell as "dank undercarriage." Seems more vivid than stinky feet.
  4. Should be applicable to all the "Filene's Clearance Stores". They are: Location City/State Burlington Mall Burlington, MA Cape Cod Mall Hyannis, MA Capetown Plaza - home/furniture Hyannis, MA Chestnut Hill Newton, MA Crossgates Mall Albany, NY Crystal Mall Waterford, CT Danbury Fair Mall Danbury, CT Downtown Boston Boston, MA Maine Mall - main Portland, ME Maine Mall - men's/home Portland, ME Natick Mall Framingham, MA Northshore Mall Peabody, MA Pheasant Lane Nashua, NH Rockingham Park Mall Salem, NH Southshore Plaza Braintree, MA Trumbull Shopping Park Trumbull, CT Warwick Mall Warwick, RI Westgate Mall Brockton, MA
  5. All, If it gets too much to bear, drive down to Boston and go to Number 9 Park. Sit at the bar and marvel at the artistry of John or Ryan. I can personally recommend their Old Fashioned (ask for an O.F.O.F.), Manhattan, Pisco Sour, Mint Julep and Ryan's Mojito. BTW, if Andy's behind the bar, wait for John or Ryan! I know it's a good distance for a cocktail, but it sounds like desperation could set in...
  6. Timh, Are the rosemary and thyme measurements for dried or fresh? Thanks
  7. Just piling on here, but I just finished using the KA stuffer attachment and am now in the market for the vertical stuffer kind. What a total PITA the KA attachment is. Useless and aggravating. So, the nice length of italian sweet sausage from Charcuterie is now mostly in patty form.
  8. Are you still seeing the shrimp in the fish market(s) in Portland? If they're not being bought at the auction, I wonder where it all goes. Please don't tell me they're all dumped back in the sea... They certainly aren't giving away 18,000 lbs. to friends! Well, if they are and they're reading this - can I be your friend?!
  9. bigwino

    Calamari

    Yup, I'd say you're using too many squid at once (which might also explain the gloppy mess - the oil is cooling down too much). You might want to use a larger pot with more oil if you want to do all of that squid at once. Sounds like you're lucky you didn't end up with a fire, too!
  10. It's not really fair to compare this to store-bought bacon, since it's better! It is stiffer when "raw" than cold smoked bacon and seems to cook considerably faster in my (so far) limited experience with it. The taste is excellent. It's far better than standard store bought stuff. Harrington's, Nodine's and the like are also excellent, IMHO. Maybe I'll have to set up a tasting and see how they compare side by side!
  11. Hi nypork, I hung the duck breasts for a total of about 9 1/2 days. They were not hard when I finished them, but were quite firm. If you look at the pic, the darkest red was pretty dry and stiff and then the lighter red is more like the consistency of standard prosciutto. It's velvety and soft, but not wet or squishy. One thing I forgot to mention before, I accidetally left my duck in the salt for about 48 hours, not the 24 called for in the recipe. It doesn't seem to have hurt the duck in any way, but thought I should mention it. Maybe the extra time was good considering the thickness of the Moulard breasts. Are you using Moulard breasts? What's the humidity where you're hanging them?
  12. Chris, my cure was similarly wet, just like Ron's. I did use the maple syrup called for in the recipe. It made for a very messy application. I put the belly in the ziploc and then put on the rub by the handful . I ended up with crusty maple rub up to mid forearm. It was worth whatever mess was made. Did you use extra maple sugar instead? Or, were you going for a different curing flavor? Ron, the only difference in our cure was the maple syrup. I used #2 very dark amber from Trader Joes. I'm guessing it's the difference in the smoke.
  13. bigwino

    per "se"

    Unfortunately, it's like some sort of punctuation Avian Flu. The problem is "everywhere." From Per Se-level fine dining down to mid market family joints, everyone's getting the quotation "fever." I'd love to see a Jeffery Steingarten article on it. I think his comments would be priceless and cutting.
  14. Ron, that's a great job of photojournalism. The bacon looks terrific. It's interesting how much lighter your bacon turned out than mine. I would've expected it to be darker given the long smoking time. Maybe it's the difference in apple vs. cherry smoke? Are you keeping the skin? I've held on to it and think I might add some to a batch of baked beans to see what they'd do to it. How's the pancetta coming along?
  15. Since I keep my wines down there, I like to know what the environment is like. I actually have two temp/humidity monitors. Nothing sexy, just stuff I bought at Radio Shack for cheap money. They both keep highs and lows, so I can see what the story is at any moment as well as the fluctuations. I've been paying attention to them much more closely since I started hanging meat amongst the vino!
  16. I'm hanging the pancetta in my basement. I put a cross country ski across my wine racks and hung it off of that. The basement maintains a nice 50 degree temp and 50% humidity at this time of year. I did the duck prosciutto in the same space. I'll have to either figure out another option or not do any dry curing in the warmer months, when it gets into the low 60s down there. Not optimal for wine, probably a bad idea for cured raw meats. Next on the list is to source some local heirloom breed hogs for future projects.
  17. I've been a busy little charcutier! What fun this experiment has been so far. I can't wait to dig further into the book. I started with the duck prosciutto. Incredibly simple and really delicious. I used Moulard breasts from Hudson Valley Foie Gras, so they're on the large and fatty side. A couple of images: The family munched on some prosciutto just now and reviews were mixed. The fattiness threw off the 5 y/o and my wife. My 3 y/o and I loved it. I'm going to use some for a fig and prosciutto pizza tonight. Yum! Then I moved on to the bacon and pancetta recipes. Here are the bellies. One naked, waiting for the pancetta treatment, one in the cure for the bacon. The bacon cure went much faster than the pancetta cure. I've no idea why they reacted so differently, but the pancetta was considerably less firm after 8 days. I decided to go ahead and start the drying process tonight since it seemed that it was about as firm as it was going to get. I smoked the bacon yesterday after the 24 hours of drying. It took some time to get up to temp, but I ran a fairly constant 200 degrees using an upright smoker with charcoal and apple wood chips. It took me about five hours to get to 150 degrees internal temp. I was very pleased with the look when it came out: It cooked up nicely, though I found it was a bit more sensitive to burning than normal bacon. The rest of the family decreed that we won't be buying bacon (even Harrington's) anymore. Last, but hopefully not least, I hung the pancetta to dry tonight: Whew! Lots of fun over the last couple of days. I think sausages are next...
  18. Ummm, little help over here? The pancetta is on day eight of the cure and it's distinctly less firm than the bacon at the same stage of cure. The firmness hasn't changed in the last day or so, so I'm not inclined to continue the cure any longer unless I change something. So, any thoughts? Am I OK to do the drying/hanging? Should I add more salt and let it go a few more days? Thanks for any help. -Paul
  19. Ron, I'm glad to hear we're having the same experience. My bacon is firmer than the pancetta, but I started it earlier. I'm leaving them to cure an extra day each since they're a little thick. I'm smoking on Saturday and also taking down the duck prosciutto that's drying in the basement. I'll post pics when things are more or less done, too. Good luck (to us all)!
  20. I'm a few days ahead of you -- 2 bellies curing since last Friday evening -- one as bacon, one as pancetta. If all goes well, I'll be smoking the bacon belly over applewood this Sunday. I'm still trying to figure out exactly where I'm going to hang the pancetta. =R= ← I'm doing exactly the same thing. Two bellies in the basement fridge making me hungry and excited. One interesting thing (maybe problem) that I've noticed. The bacon has thrown off quite a bit more liquid than the pancetta. Five days in, the bacon is pretty much swimming in liquid in the ziploc. Five days in and the pancetta is more or less just moist. Are you seeing something similar? I'm reasonably confident that I measured the ingredients correctly. I wonder if the differences in the curing ingredients explains the difference. Or, maybe the lack of skin on the pancetta? Anyone have any thoughts?
  21. The easiest one (for me): A vegetarian. I've always made a point of taking a prospective girlfriend out for sushi early in the relationship. No to sushi, no to her. Atrocious table manners are a bad sign, too.
  22. Another sad story, this time from the Boston Globe. Shrimp Season Turning Into a Bust
  23. "Skimping on Shrimp" - Numbers replinished, but fishermen still shun the shellfish. -Interesting story in today's Newburyport Daily News about the sorry market for these little delicacies. Skimping on Shrimp FYI - for those people looking for them in NE Mass, you can get them at the Yankee Fishermen's Cooperative in Seabrook, NH for $1.25/lb - no minimum.
  24. New Year's Eve dinner in Portland with four little kids - the Chowder House on Commercial. Nothing exciting, for sure, but everyone had plenty to eat and it all tasted pretty good. My wife had the largest fried scallops I've ever seen. I do so wish that they didn't feel the need to take their tasty chowders and turn them into wallpaper paste! Thickened doesn't need to mean spreadable like peanut butter, does it? After finding Duckfat closed on New Year's Day (says on the front "Open 7 days a week" - except TODAY!) we were forced to look elsewhere. We ended up at Mim's Brasserie which was a nice surprise. Helpful service, nice environment and good food. Tasty Bloody Mary. My wife and I each had French Onion Soup which was good, though perhaps a little thin in flavor. The other grownups had Eggs Benedict, which looked quite good. My older son had their Pain Perdu w/pecan syrup - not a hit. Sickeningly sweet. Our younger one had fish chowder, which was quickly devoured. Definitely looking to return to Mim's. How are their dinner dishes?
×
×
  • Create New...