Whatcha Cooking today?

[JRinPA]

Now in comparison, a buddy took his buck to an Amish butcher shop, and they sold him some scrapple back. The real pale, plain stuff is the butcher shop scrapple. The only thing I taste is salt and meal/flour. They probably have a lot of pork stock/scrap in there as well. The package had a bunch of water separated out after one freeze/thaw. Whereas the stuff I am making is more than half actual meat and I have really zeroed in on the ratios for spices and thickeners.

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Sometimes I add in the liver as well, fried off and food processed with meat. But in this instance the liver and onions and then heart and onions were first things made with the deer. I like both variants, scrapple with liver, and without.

[MissS]

@JRinPA Thanks for the tutorial. It seems that your friends butcher took a cut of his fine buck and returned a bunch of grain and water instead.

[JRinPA]

Well that's thing about scrapple, it does use the scraps, the bones mostly, commercially it is basically bone broth with spices and thickeners. So I wouldn't call it a waste of good deer. For them it is profits added. They sold it to him for $6.50 a pan. At the cost of some bone broth and too much salt and 50 cents of thickeners. I don't know the pan size, mine are "5 lb" pans but what he gave me was not that shape.

But I would wager a lot of people would think the butcher scrapple is better than mine...some people still eat fast food after all.

They also sold him back ring bologna at $2.50 /lb that has to be 50% pork, it is so light. Very mild, eats like a hot dog, chomp chomp all gone.

[rxkeith]

today we just finished rib eyes, and roasted brussells sprouts.
these were no ordinary rib eyes. we got them from a local organic farmer.
two of them were 3 lbs. the darn things looked like roasts. the guy we bought them
from told us to do a reverse sear, which we did.
30 minutes out of the fridge. pre heat oven to 225.
in the oven for 35 to 45 minutes. they came out looking like raw meat which they were.
in the cast iron skillet, have it ready to go. cook 4 to 5 minutes each side then on to a plate
and let them rest for 15 minutes. pour some of the contents of the skillet over the steaks while
they are resting. PERFEEEEEECTION!!! some of the best steak i have had in my life.
our taste buds are singing.


keith

[worth1]

@worth1 I bet that green cardamom tastes amazing in a corned beef.
Honestly the pickled beef we have here is just salt. No spices. It's good for flavoring pea soup or boiled vegetables.

The little package they give you when you buy it is a joke.
I should have added some to the initial brine but I didn't.
Corned beef bought from the store is ridiculously expensive.

[bower]

They sell corned beef in cans here too. Many years ago, we used to buy the can and make corned beef hash with potatoes and onions. I don't recall any spicy taste at all, and it was no slice just mashed and jammed in the can. Not the same thing.

[worth1]

I had a cold can of whole beets for lunch.
Now I'm wondering what a corned beef cured with beet juice would be like.
And then cooking it in beet juice.

[Kurt]

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We get good prices,salmon at our markets is the closest to lox we can prepare from my age old Bavarian ancestors namely my omma.

[worth1]

Yesterday was cabbage and potatoes cooked in the broth leftover from the corned beef.
No meat for supper but I had a chopped ham luncheon meat sandwich for morning breakfast.

[worth1]

They sell corned beef in cans here too. Many years ago, we used to buy the can and make corned beef hash with potatoes and onions. I don't recall any spicy taste at all, and it was no slice just mashed and jammed in the can. Not the same thing.

They have corned beef hash in the can here.
I used to poke a hole in it and set it on the diesel engine exhaust manifold of the oil field rig in the morning to warm up for lunch.
Pretty greasy but I worked off the fat working outside in the cold.

[JRinPA]

We get good prices,salmon at our markets is the closest to lox we can prepare from my age old Bavarian ancestors namely my omma.

There are a few old country fish dishes that my mom made when we were little. I can't even remember the names. Both my grandmothers were still around then. Rediscovering is the closest I could get to them.

[worth1]

Yesterday for supper I had 2 small baked chicken thighs rubbed in a homemade curry powder.
1/2 each head of cauliflower and broccoli steamed in water and chili powder.
I also cooked a small kettle of Navy beans I had soaking in salt water for a few days for tonight.

[pepperhead212]

Last night, I made a dill leaf curry, with some butternut and sweet potato, and some greens. I served it with one of those WW bread sticks, in place of a flat bread on the side.

I started it in the Instant Pot, sautéeing a diced onion and about a tb of minced green Thai peppers, a few minutes, then I added about a tb of garlic and ginger, and cooked about a minute, then added about 3 c diced butternut, and 1 c diced sweet potato, 1 c chana dal, soaked about 30 minutes, 3/4 tsp turmeric, and 3 c water. I added about 1 tsp salt (more later), then set on MANUAL for 15 min, then let it release naturally. While that was cooking, I cut up the kale and bok choy greens, then steamed it with just the water on the leaves, then blended the cooled leaves with about a half cup of dill leaves, until almost smooth.

When the butternut was finished, I removed the lid, then stick blended the mix until all the cubes were gone, leaving some of the dal, for texture. Then I added the greens/dill, and let it simmer, while I prepared the tarka. I heated 2 tsp oil, and added 3/4 tsp each mustard seed and cumin. When it started crackling, I added 3 byadagi chilis, broken in half, cooked a few more seconds, added a dozen curry leaves, cut in half, and 3/4 tsp asafoetida, cooked about 10 seconds longer, then scraped this into the curry, then added a little more salt. I simmered it about 3 minutes longer, then served, with a WW bread stick, halved both ways.
The butternut, sweet potato, and chana dal, pressure cooked 15 minutes.. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The cubes and dal, stick blended, ready to stir the greens and dill purée in. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

A good amount of Russian kale and bok choy greens, ready to steam. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Greens, steamed down to about a cup, ready to blend together with the dill. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

About a half cup of dill leaves, to blend with the greens. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Green purée stirred in, and now the tarka added, to simmer about 3 minutes longer. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished curry,, with a WW bread stick, cut into quarters. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[pepperhead212]

Double post

[worth1]

Doing a sorta kinda Boston baked bean thing with my navy beans I soaked and cooked yesterday.
Usual and unusual ingredients and in the oven at 350F for a few to cook down.
I want one of those bean pots mentioned earlier in this thread.

[bower]

I bought a new roaster today to replace the old one I threw into the garbage with the stinking horror lamb.
Stainless steel oval with a lid. Rippled on the bottom but should still be okay for stovetop gravies - that's why I wanted steel.
Only $30 so I hope I don't regret it, like so many good deals. I would've preferred a rectangle but a lid is so good to have.

Big pot of chili on tonight.

[worth1]

My baked beans were a huge hit.
To the dismay of purists I added a pinch of Indian red pepper.
And a pinch was enough.
Sweet hot salty it was really good.
During research I discovered that what we call molasses today isn't what they called molasses in the past.
The Steens cane syrup is more what they called molasses back then.
I also found out how they make dark brown sugar today so I can make my own.
Basically mix dark molasses back into refined white sugar.
Any who I put bacon ends and pieces and hotdog weiners in the beans and baked them in the oven.
Best (not) Boston baked beans ever.

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[worth1]

I'm going to revisit the baked beans and use Steens cane syrup.
It's considered Molasses A in some areas from years ago.
No tomato products because that wouldn't be used that many years ago.
But powdered mustard along with black pepper was along with onions.

Been looking at old Townsends videos on baked beans.

[JRinPA]

Stinking horror lamb...well I'm glad I missed that post.

I've been doing some crock pot venison shoulders. Fawn shoulders, in fact. The first one I used a beef stew slow cooker packet, with a bunch of root vegetables. Onions, potatoes, carrots, turnips, rutabagas. And then more beef boullion since I needed a lot more water to cover them. It was okay, too much salt I thought. That was on for two days in the crock pot until it was all gone.

So this time I used Vegetable boullion. Onions, potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots. And a pack of goya MSG. That went in yesterday afternoon, had some last night, perfect. Just made biscuits cut with tallow instead of butter and eating that now with another bowl of stew.

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This is the taste I want to can for the off season. The rest of the day is going to be pressure canning stew. That will be coarse ground doe and raw packed everything, but the same spices. If I only could can two biscuits with each quart!

[JRinPA]

That is often how I make brown sugar, blackstrap molasses into sugar. About 1 tbsp per cup. That may be too much but is what I use. It has much more flavor than boxed dark brown sugar.

Michener's "Caribbean" has lot of good background on the history of sugar production. For sure, a lot has changed in the last 400 years.