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Cold Meat


Fat Guy

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I'm a big fan of cold meat. By that I mean cooked meat that has been cooled, as opposed to charcuterie type stuff (of which I'm also a fan) or raw meat (yes I'm a fan of that too). I love most any meat cold, but beef is probably my favorite. Actually, maybe it's pork. No, fried chicken. That's my favorite. Cold fried chicken. Roasted chicken is good too, though.

One of my former bosses was so enamored of cold chicken that he would call his wife in the morning from the office and ask her if they could have cold chicken for dinner. She would cook the chicken right then and refrigerate it for the afternoon so it would be cold by the time he got home.

Okay, so I've established that I like cold meat and that one former employer liked cold meat. I believe many others also enjoy cold meat. So the question is: Why? What makes cold meat so good?

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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Well cold chicken is better then warm chicken because the disgusting flavor of warm chicken has vanished :biggrin:.

Cold steak is terrific. Especially if it is leftovers from Peter Luger or a place that broils a good NY strip. It's something about the marbled fat coagulating and sort of getting to be a foie gras or butter consistancy. Sliced thin (go to Petak's) it makes a terrific lunch.

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Gordon did you mean to post that on the slicing thread?

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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Definitely something to do with the texture. Also, flavours of marinade, etc, seem to have permeated it more by that point.

And once it's sat around enough to get cold, it's done a lot of "resting". :wink:

I love cold fish as well. In fact I have an urge to rush home in a big hurry and cook up some fish and then... leave it in the fridge and eat it tomorrow morning!

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Cold red-cooked chicken, with any of the following dipping sauces: sesame oil, minced scallions, Chinese black vinegar and shredded ginger; salt, pepper, gomasio and ground dried orange peel; mushroom (or other type) soy sauce, chili oil, minced garlic and shredded pickled ginger.

And of course, there's cold jellyfish and cold beef tendon with chili paste. :smile:

SA

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I also like some good thick homemade mayonnaise with my cold chicken, pork and beef. In the summer we'll often cook meat especially to be eaten cold. This is different from cooking enough so that you have leftovers, this is cooking meat and setting it aside to be eaten cold by itself with some mayonaisse, with a garnish, in a sandwich or as part of a composed salad. I'd add cold fish as well.

I think I've also mentioned the appeal I've found of some cold goat cheeses. The have the quality of ice cream, or maybe of some new savory ice cream. As with cold meats, at first you notice a flavor loss, and then you find flavors you didn't find in the warm meat.

Robert Buxbaum

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Recent WorldTable posts include: comments about reporting on Michelin stars in The NY Times, the NJ proposal to ban foie gras, Michael Ruhlman's comments in blogs about the NJ proposal and Bill Buford's New Yorker article on the Food Network.

My mailbox is full. You may contact me via worldtable.com.

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Fat Guy, check this out:

The night before, buy a beautiful leg of lamb and have it butterflied. Marinate it with chopped fresh organic garlic, lots of chopped fresh rosemary, a couple of handfulls of dried lavender buds, fruity olive oil, cracked black pepper and fleur de sel.

grill it rare, with the outside edges medium rare.

have it for dinner with white beans with fresh thyme and sage, eggplant and tomato gratin, and maybe some other green like wilted beet greens with currants, red onion and fresh mint.

THEN: (here's the best part)

The next day it's even better, the cold lamb, that is, when you eat it open faced on a La Brea bakery baguette with fresh, soft, young goat cheese, arrugula, and either fresh figs or fig balsamic vinaigrette.

OR: I especially like cold lamb sprinkled with fleur de sel, just by itself on the plate, with something hot on the side like roasted cauliflower soup drizzled with white truffle oil, or an eggplant roasted whole, then split open and sprinkled with a vinaigrette

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We all love cold meat, too. I'm thinking that part of the appeal is the texture. My child with disabilities has some oral motor sensory issues, and texture is as huge a component as taste when it comes to what she will and won't eat. She won't eat meat when it is served the first time around, but will when it's served the second time around -- cold. As I was devouring a piece of cold chicken this noon, I noticed that it had melded into a much more texturally homogenous piece than it had been when it was served originally (roasted). It is interesting to watch her eat -- she rolls the food around in her mouth to check out how it feels before she concentrates on the taste. I've also noticed that someone mentioned adding crunchy salt, which does provide a nice textural contrast. Interesting, too, that I don't think anyone has mentioned mixing the cold meat with other ingredients -- rather, they prefer to serve it on the side.

Susan Fahning aka "snowangel"
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I do not like cold meat (except turkey sliced and chicken breat sliced- no cold bones or fat). I am not crazy about meat to begin with. The worst to me is cold lamb (yuck). The lamb flavor is too strong. Cold fish or seafood are great I think. I think that it is the texture that is so unpleasant to me about cold chicken. I notice the fat and tendons etc... more. Then again, I don't like fried chicken at all! I pull off the skin and the breading before I eat it. I feel the same about meat loaf (hot or cold)- none for me!

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Cold meat tastes wonderful because you're usually too hungry to heat it up. Amost anything you choose to eat when you're very hungry tastes terrific. The operative word here is choose.

Kitchen Kutie

"I've had jutht about enough outta you!"--Daffy Duck

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By "cold" do we mean "chilled", as in right from the refrigerator? Or cold as in room temperature or a bit less?

"I've caught you Richardson, stuffing spit-backs in your vile maw. 'Let tomorrow's omelets go empty,' is that your fucking attitude?" -E. B. Farnum

"Behold, I teach you the ubermunch. The ubermunch is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the ubermunch shall be the meaning of the earth!" -Fritzy N.

"It's okay to like celery more than yogurt, but it's not okay to think that batter is yogurt."

Serving fine and fresh gratuitous comments since Oct 5 2001, 09:53 PM

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By "cold" do we mean "chilled", as in right from the refrigerator? Or cold as in room temperature or a bit less?

It depends on the meat used, I think.

Chicken - fridge cold

Steak - a few minutes out of the fridge

Sausage - either

Turkey - fridge

Lamb - room temp

Pork - hmmm. Somewhere between, I think.

Meatloaf - fridge cold if you must. with cold ketchup.

Jon Lurie, aka "jhlurie"

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