eG Cook-Off 74: Holiday Roasts

[btbyrd]

34 minutes ago, David Ross said:

I am fortunate to have one market in Spokane that sells tallow...

 

You can get the Fatworks stuff online; Amazon sells it, but the prices are insane... currently $25 for a 14oz jar. My local Whole Foods sells tallow from the company Epic (that makes jerky, pemmican, and other paleo-ish meat products) for much more reasonable prices (though they're still quite expensive). I'm currently swimming in beef fat after a round of stock making (including the meat and fat I removed from the roast above), but it's from commodity beef so it doesn't have an especially healthy fatty acid profile. I'm saving it anyway... just going to double (or triple) up on fish oil on the days I use it. Tallow-fried potatoes are a magical thing...

[chefmd]

Prime rib salted and dried overnight in the fridge, cooked 5 hrs 129 degrees sous vide, seared in cast iron pan.  It was 5 lbs, pan is 12 inches.

 

[lesliec]

Making a start, ready for tomorrow (NZ time):

 

 

No, I haven't cut my thumb off (or indeed any other body part) and wrapped it carefully for your entertainment.  This somewhat uninspiring - or disturbing - sight is a whole turkey breast wrapped around some Toulouse sausage meat, cemented with transglutaminase and secured, for now, with kitchen wrap.

 

Tomorrow, before our customary gathering of waifs and strays arrives, it will have two or three hours in a water bath followed by a blast in the oven.  I've done something vaguely similar for the last two or three years and it's been highly successful, not to say tasty.  I'll try to remember to take photos - they'll look better than this one, I promise.

[gfweb]

@lesliec Sounds great.     Ever try it without transglutaminase? I find that fowl white meat, if salted and rolled tightly, will self adhere nicely after SV.

[Jon Savage]

On 11/30/2016 at 9:59 AM, Smithy said:

My extended family has essentially abandoned roast turkey and ham in favor of prime rib, with the question of how it should be cooked.  One family branch gives it a good salt/herb rub and barbecues it over a hot gas grill; another branch smokes it.  Either way we get a good, hot, brown crust on the outside and plenty of rare meat inside, to everyone's groaning delight.

 

The question came up this year about branching out a bit.  The duck posts above have me really jonesing for duck.  If I could lay my hands on some I'd be happy to roast it for another night's family feast.  How much duck should I acquire - if I can - for, say, 10 people?

The easiest solution to the duck problem is to sautee off some duck breasts (Moulard Duck D'artagnan ) is a good choice.  That way everyone gets what they like;  feel free as to inquire as to the method I use. You also get tons of duck fat to re-use which is useful.

 

I myself will be making for the holiday season:

 Duck breast as mentioned.

Whole Duck roasted.

Standing rib roast w/ all the trimmings.

 

I'll need to go on a diet soon.

 

Ciao.

--edit Smithy of those breasts you'd need about 5 half boned breasts for that many people maybe 3 whole ducks would suffice for 10. In either case that is pretty rich fare. I know my wife & I frequently enjoy a 1/2 duck breast for shabbat between us & actually only eat about 1/2 of it which gives us another meal each later on.

Edited December 24, 2016 by Jon Savage
addendum (log)

[Smithy]

@Jon Savage and other respondents, the entire duck idea was rejected by this group, but I'm grateful for the information.  I'll serve duck at another time, with another crowd, and be pleased to have these guidelines.

[chefmd]

Five hour duck made entirely in Cuisinart Steam Oven (main oven was dedicated to making bread) and cauliflower side dish.

 

[lesliec]

Straight from the water bath, after unwrapping:

 

It probably had close to four hours at 62°C by the time I took it out.Then into the oven on 'roast' setting, which gives an initial blast, for another half an hour or so:

 

Looks nice, but I overdid it.  It wasn't dry, but wasn't as moist as I'd have liked, and it lacked taste despite the Touluse sausage.  I should have slathered it in gravy to help with both problems, but it was getting late.

 

In answer to @gfweb above, this was not the best use I've made of transglutaminase, so your suggestion of salting and a tight wrap would probably have given a better result.  I also think I needed some extra fat in there; in previous years I've had offcuts of fat from legs of Spanish ham, which causes much deliciousness, but not this year.  Must do better next time!

 

The meal overall wasn't bad, just not to my usual standard.  But we had a fun afternoon anyway.  Merry Christmas!

[rarerollingobject]

I did a ham for Christmas day - Chinese char siu-style. I double-smoked it myself, in lapsang souchong tea and brown sugar, studded with cloves and then roasted and glazed in char siu sauce, star anise and brushed with more honey to caramelise.

 

A goodly ham.

 

[rustwood]

Christmas eve we did sous vide ham ala Serious Eats -  plopped it in the cooler @ 140, right in the shrink wrap it came in.  It was super easy and very moist.  Glazed on the grill.  Of course it was not in the same league as what @rarerollingobject just posted.  On Christmas we did a 4 bone, herb encrusted prime rib sous vide as per Chefsteps and it was a winner.  It makes a very nice presentation and the crust is tasty.  I should have taken some pictures but we were so busy pulling everything together that I never even thought about it.

[David Ross]

I didn't get an attractive photo of the Christmas ham, but I will take a photo of what I'm doing this week with the leftovers--something along the lines of a pork and ham terrine.

[btbyrd]

On 12/22/2016 at 7:24 PM, btbyrd said:

My best friend was looking extra hopeful as I Frenched up my rib roast.

 

 

I'm doing the ChefSteps recipe... pre-sear, SV @ 136F, blast in the oven with an herb crust.

 

 

Update:

 

[kayb]

On 12/25/2016 at 9:12 PM, rarerollingobject said:

I did a ham for Christmas day - Chinese char siu-style. I double-smoked it myself, in lapsang souchong tea and brown sugar, studded with cloves and then roasted and glazed in char siu sauce, star anise and brushed with more honey to caramelise.

 

A goodly ham.

 

 

Oh, my, that is a lovely thing!

[helenjp]

My husband is completely mystified by the "cook large lump of meat in December" thing. I bought a whole chicken cheap on Boxing Day, and it is currently in the pressure cooker, waiting for the pressure to drop. Took some hard work to cram that thing in there (after browning and re-seasoning) along with a ceramic trivet which I think must have come from some long-dead rice-cooker, and even more work to get the pressure cooker lid shut on the last branches of rosemary (husband also likes me to reduce the rosemary to about 10% of its natural girth every fall). However, over the decades of living in Japan, I've come to quite like pot-roasted chicken. Hindle wakes in the rice cooker, pot-roasts in the pressure cooker - they are all good!

Duck - suddenly able to buy duck from Nepali stores that have sprouted around our neighborhood. They are tasty, and they DO produce such a surprising amount of fat. The size makes them much more useful for me than a pig-sized chicken, and the dark meat goes really well with all kinds of  Asian noodles.

[Anna N]

42 minutes ago, helenjp said:

My husband is completely mystified by the "cook large lump of meat in December" thing. I bought a whole chicken cheap on Boxing Day, and it is currently in the pressure cooker, waiting for the pressure to drop. Took some hard work to cram that thing in there (after browning and re-seasoning) along with a ceramic trivet which I think must have come from some long-dead rice-cooker, and even more work to get the pressure cooker lid shut on the last branches of rosemary (husband also likes me to reduce the rosemary to about 10% of its natural girth every fall). However, over the decades of living in Japan, I've come to quite like pot-roasted chicken. Hindle wakes in the rice cooker, pot-roasts in the pressure cooker - they are all good!

Duck - suddenly able to buy duck from Nepali stores that have sprouted around our neighborhood. They are tasty, and they DO produce such a surprising amount of fat. The size makes them much more useful for me than a pig-sized chicken, and the dark meat goes really well with all kinds of  Asian noodles.

What are "hindle wakes", please?  Do you have no worries about cramming things into a pressure cooker?   I have always understood that to be a no no.

[Martin Fisher]

8 hours ago, Anna N said:

What are "hindle wakes", please?

 

Source: Food and Language: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cooking 2009, edited by Richard Hosking

[Anna N]

5 minutes ago, DiggingDogFarm said:

 

Source: Food and Language: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cooking 2009, edited by Richard Hosking

Thank you. Never heard of it despite my ties to Lancashire!  Uncharacteristically neither did I attempt any research. Definitely a failure on my part.  I must mend my lazy ways. 

[quiet1]

We have a lovely beef tenderloin and a delayed plan for a festive dinner, and I can't decide how to cook it. Sear and then oven, or SV? Might try my hand at bearnaise sauce, too. (I used to make it quite successfully but I'm out of practice so I'm a little nervous.)

[MelissaH]

Our neighbors invited us next door to share their Christmas dinner, centered around a prime rib, which they made using the recipe on the cover of the current (December 2016/January 2017) issue of Fine Cooking. It was delicious, and we all loved the green sauce that accompanied it. But for me, the real highlight was the next day when we turned our share of the leftovers into a delightful stroganoff.

[chefmd]

Roasted bone in pork shoulder.

[helenjp]

Anna, regarding cramming things in, I did think hard about the wisdom of doing so, but decided that 1) there was only a cup or so of liquid at the bottom, and 2) the chicken itself was not forming a solid mass in the pressure cooker. It turned out well, and I later realized that I'd seasoned it pretty much along the lines of Claudia Roden's sofrito chicken.

Jane Grigson version of Hindle Wakes I cook them rather like this, that is, they are not roasted, but I also like less stuffing - a smaller amount of prune-intensive stuffing is better. It seems to suit small birds too.

[Anna N]

1 hour ago, helenjp said:

Anna, regarding cramming things in, I did think hard about the wisdom of doing so, but decided that 1) there was only a cup or so of liquid at the bottom, and 2) the chicken itself was not forming a solid mass in the pressure cooker. It turned out well, and I later realized that I'd seasoned it pretty much along the lines of Claudia Roden's sofrito chicken.

Jane Grigson version of Hindle Wakes I cook them rather like this, that is, they are not roasted, but I also like less stuffing - a smaller amount of prune-intensive stuffing is better. It seems to suit small birds too.

Wow. What a fascinating blog. I can see me wasting far too many hours wending my way through it. 

[Shelby]

Prime rib for us on New Year's Eve.

[Unpopular Poet]

So it has been way too long since I have been on the boards - I have missed everybody!  We are starting to try and put the pieces back together after a spur of the moment move to Iowa from the Chicagoland area.  Going to sell our house we just finished a year ago so this is our last Christmas there.  Made a wonderful chuck roast courtesy of the awesome people at ChefSteps.  It was absolutely fantastic.  Definitely my favorite of the chuck roasts I have had.  I added an extra step and glued the roast back together before tying it and it held together well out of the bath.  In some ways the french dip sandwiches I made the next day were better....

[rotuts]

@Unpopular Poet  

 

pleased you are back !

 

that looks so delicious !