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Heritage - Sean Brock


ChrisTaylor

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I found out about Sean Brock through his stint on Mind of a Chef. Really enjoyed his half-season and the sort of food he was turning out. His book, Heritage, recently hit shelves. My copy landed today. Yet to cook anything from it but I've already bookmarked a few recipes.

 

Early impressions:

 

  • A mixture of simple/accessible recipes and things that are slightly more complicated. So long as you can get the ingredients--and in a few cases I'm going to have to make substitutes--you'll be able to make most of these at home. After work? Maybe not. But we're in similar territory, effort-wise, to some of the preparations in Pickles, Pigs and Whiskey. I'm going to have to see if I can find someone, locally, that stocks Anson Mills products or can acquire them for me, as well as that bourbon barrel-aged soy sauce. Or someone that can send me some (altho' I expect postage will be crazy expensive).
  • A lot of what I, as a foreigner, associate with the south: Hoppin' John, fried chicken, fresh vegetables prepared simply and so on.
  • Sort of what you'd expect from a restaurant book: sexed up versions of things like hushpuppies (stuffed with ramps and crab)
  • Fried chicken fried in a mixture of lard, smoked ham fat, bacon fat and canola oil. One of many sensible ideas.
  • Some nice breakdowns of techniques: how to cook grits properly, how to smoke with some degree of precision.
  • The now-obligatory section devoted to pickling. A lot of detail here for a book that isn't specifically dedicated to preserving. The section also covers sauces and some basic charcuterie,
  • A section dedicated to beer food (boiled peanuts, pork AND chicken crackling) and cocktails. 

At first brush I really like this book.

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Chris Taylor

Host, eG Forums - ctaylor@egstaff.org

 

I've never met an animal I didn't enjoy with salt and pepper.

Melbourne
Harare, Victoria Falls and some places in between

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Home brew shops sell 'white sorghum syrup' intended for use in gluten-free beers. I would assume this is a wildly different product, in terms of flavour, to the sorghum Brock often calls for? I mean, I didn't realise until I saw Mind of a Chef that it came in syrup form (nothing about the recipe suggested adding a dry ingredient would be weird). When Edward Lee called for it in Smoke & Pickles I figured he meant the grain, which is easy enough to find locally.

 

EDIT

 

This is the product I can get: https://www.craftbrewer.com.au/shop/details.asp?PID=4962

 

I can also get this stuff. The product description, to someone that has never knowingly consumed sorghum syrup, does not make it obvious whether it's 'white' or the darker product that Brock used on television. 

Chris Taylor

Host, eG Forums - ctaylor@egstaff.org

 

I've never met an animal I didn't enjoy with salt and pepper.

Melbourne
Harare, Victoria Falls and some places in between

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Home brew shops sell 'white sorghum syrup' intended for use in gluten-free beers. I would assume this is a wildly different product, in terms of flavour, to the sorghum Brock often calls for? I mean, I didn't realise until I saw Mind of a Chef that it came in syrup form (nothing about the recipe suggested adding a dry ingredient would be weird). When Edward Lee called for it in Smoke & Pickles I figured he meant the grain, which is easy enough to find locally.

 

EDIT

 

This is the product I can get: https://www.craftbrewer.com.au/shop/details.asp?PID=4962

 

I can also get this stuff. The product description, to someone that has never knowingly consumed sorghum syrup, does not make it obvious whether it's 'white' or the darker product that Brock used on television. 

 

I suspect you are correct that the "Sorghum Extract" is not the same. I had fresh made sorghum syrup a few times many years ago. The juices had been pressed, and boiled enough to make a thin brown syrup. It was served over pancakes. Mildly sweet at that concentration, and w. a flavor that was vaguely "molasses-ey." I've had sorghum based beer once, and was not reminded of the syrup flavor I had tasted.

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