Whatcha Cooking today?

[Uncle_Feist]

It was 3° here this morning and them cool temp's make me want a big breakfast!

My stick to your ribs breakfast always begins with biscuits. This mornings biscuits were made with fresh leaf lard and butter, about half and half of each, and buttermilk for the liquid. Leaf lard makes a decadent biscuit with a fluffy melt away interior, and the steam from the flakes of grated butter adds flavor and keeps the biscuits moist as they rise in the heat. I highly recommend giving them a try if you can get your hands on some leaf lard.



Served them biscuits up with some fresh ground sausage, sausage gravy, eggs and Kennebec taters fried in lard.

[worth1]

@Uncle_Feist
I watched some fool through away the kidney fat/leaf lard on YouTube the other day while collecting fat to render.

[Uncle_Feist]

@worth1 They should have been taken out and horse whipped!

[worth1]

@worth1 They should have been taken out and horse whipped!

I had to replay it 3 times to make sure I saw it.
Where do they get these experts.

[Uncle_Feist]

For dinner I warmed up some leftover old fashioned hamburger vegetable soup from yesterday. Baked a fresh pan of Texas Gourdseed cornbread to go along with it, and washed it down with a glass of ice cold sweet milk!

[Uncle_Feist]

@worth1 They should have been taken out and horse whipped!

I had to replay it 3 times to make sure I saw it.
Where do they get these experts.

My daddy called em the blind leading the blind.

[worth1]

I have a big kettle of tender brisket vegetable soup in the garage ready to warm up.
I had pasta and my meatballs last night.

[pepperhead212]

I made a Creole type dish, based on the Jambalaya recipe I use, but used 1¼ c whole oats, instead of white rice. And the seafood I used, instead of shrimp, was canned salmon - something I get dirt cheap, from Ocean State Job Lot every few months, and they have a 20% off food for elderly, early every Monday. Most of the salmon I use in salads, but I broke it up into large chunks, and added it late, to heat through.

I started it like any Creole dish, with an onion, stalk of celery, and a green bell pepper, diced up, and cooked in a little olive oil, adding last some garlic, dried thyme, ground cloves, and powdered bay leaf, along with a little hot pepper, and cooking the spices about 3 minutes last. I added a half pound of diced up ham, cooked that 3-4 minutes, then added about 8 oz of thawed tomato paste, 1/2 c white vermouth, 2½ c water (I drained the salmon into this), then 1¼ c oat groats. I was ready to add some salt, then I thought of fish sauce! Why not use this, I though? Took about 1½ tb to get the saltiness I wanted, but it needed more heat, so I added some crushed morita flakes, to get a little more heat, as well as smoke! I simmered it 40 min, then another 10 min, before it got thicker, before stirring in the chunks of salmon, and cooking 4 minutes longer.
The onion, celery, bell pepper, and garlic, cooked with the spices, and the ham added last. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Creole type dish, based on the Jambalaya recipe I always use, but with oat groats, in place of rice. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

2 cans of salmon steaks by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Salmon steaks, broken up into large chunks, to be added at the end, to heat just a few minutes. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

After stirring the salmon into the oats, to cook 4 more minutes. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished dish, oats cooking 54 minutes total. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[worth1]

I picked up another brisket yesterday to do something with.
My idea is to separate the flat muscle from the point muscle and grind it up.
The point muscle will be made into corned beef because St Patrick's day is just around the corner.

Next I got some lasagna to make lasagna out of my meatball sauce.
With it I got the correct cheese.
The Pork roast I bought needs to be ground up for something.
Probably sausage.

Last night I had fried fish and French fries.
And this morning for breakfast I had fried fish leftovers.

[karstopography]

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Ground up about 80 grams of guajillo, ancho, pasilla, de arbol, California and a few other assorted sweet and spicy types for a spicy paprika. Heat level is below cayenne, but there’s definitely a punch of heat in there along with fruity, tobacco and raisin flavors.

Plan is to use some tonight for homemade chili con carne.

The 8 gram packet is ground Aji Lemon Drop. I don’t know what I will do with that.

[worth1]

@karstopography
The lemon drop would make an interesting hot curry powder.

[karstopography]

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The chili was good. Used frozen tomatoes from the garden instead of canned diced. Used frozen peppers from garden instead of store bought ones. The paprika was on the threshold of being too hot, I loved it, my wife was choking! Actually, she loved it too, but, yes it was spicy.

[worth1]

Got up early and started the adventure again.
All the flat removed and ran through grinder twice.
Once through some big half inch plates and then through the 6mm plate.
Here's the big plate grind.
Also making smash burger sliders for a tase test.
On toasted brioche slider buns.
Meat patty 2.5 ounces.
Mayonnaise and dill pickle.

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[worth1]

I'm going to step up on my soapbox here for a minute.
First.
These burgers were the bomb.
How could they not be.
Next if you want the best burger you can possibly have don't buy the ground chuck or whatever meat in the plastic chubs.
The reason being is it's over worked.
Buy the stuff that's packaged in the trays if you can.
Better to grind your own but we all can't do that.
Another option is to select some meat at the store and ask if they will grind it.
I prefer my own simply because I can eat it at any cooked temperature I want.

Don't knead the meat and mix a bunch of stuff in it and or over work it.
Not only does this kill the flavor of the beef but it also makes the meat tough and rubbery.
Especially salt.
This is what causes the meat to strink up and turn into a ball.
It causes the patty to cup up.
Work the meat only enough to get it flat and that's it.
The 6mm or 7/64 plate in my opinion is the best.
You want the meat to break off when you bite it not be a disk that's hard to come apart.
That's what's common in all fast food burgers and one of the reasons they're horrible.
Don't try to make monster meat patties or hamburgers nobody can eat.
That's just eye candy that isn't practical.
Don't over cook the meat.
Follow these simple instructions and your guests will be amazed at how good they are.
I've spent years making mistakes and figuring out the reasons and how to avoid them.

[worth1]

3 pounds of brisket fat and point meat trimmings.
8 pounds of pork butt ran through a 20MM grinding plate.
It's around 5/8 not 1/2 like I said earlier.
It's going to be some sort of cured sausage in links.
11 pounds total.
Not even really for sure yet.
It's going to get mixed and then stuffed tomorrow.

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[worth1]

Homemade spice mix made.
Ingredients are.
2 teaspoons + insta cure #1.
12 teaspoons salt.
6 teaspoons sugar.
10 teaspoons of freshly ground black pepper.
4 teaspoons really hot ground red pepper from India.
4 teaspoons garlic powder.
4 teaspoons ground mustard.
12 teaspoons whole mustard seeds.
Measurements approximate except for the salt and insta cure.
All mixed up in a sheet pan put back in bowl and off to the refrigerator.

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[worth1]

Meatball lasagna ready to cover and go in the oven.

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[worth1]

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[karstopography]

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Pecans toasted in cast iron skillet with unsalted butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger. Yummy.

[worth1]

I got up and ran the meat through an 8mm plate.
Then ran a test through the 4.5 mm plate for a complete mix and did a test patty.
I can't think of anything else it needs.
I'll run and stuff with a 6mm plate.

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