What can you expect in the Food Thread on PF?

[Evo]

Maybe you should make some of these hot pickles.

Feasting on Asphalt #1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-rFHynMvJ4&mode=related&search=

 

[turbo]

Thanks! We already make "hot" versions of dill pickles and bread-and-butter pickles, and will continue to do so. My father enjoys spicy food, but he can't tolerate the jalapeno/habanero-laced pickles that we make. The pickles taste great, and they feature a "slow burn" that takes the unwary by surprise.

 

[turbo]

My wife always makes great baked beans, but last night she outdid herself. The difference is that instead of using the traditional New England yellow-eyes, soldier beans, etc, she used black turtle beans. What a nice flavor! We had some of those baked beans for breakfast this morning, with fried potatoes, left-over biscuits split and fried in butter, and pan-fried blade steaks.

 

[Evo]

Yesterday and today I was treated to zucchini, summer squash and onions drizzled with olive oil and SECRET seasonings and grilled. This is the guy at work that makes the deer jerky. He won't tell me what the seasonings are, but it's the best damned thing I've ever tasted and I thought I made the world's best summer squash. This is to die for.

 

[turbo]

Tonight's dinner (shared with thoroughly pleasant and enjoyable company) was grilled BBQ chicken, cheeseburgers, hot dogs, salad, and blackberry pie, accompanied by an assortment of home-made dill and bread-and-butter pickles and salsas of various "temperatures". We also had fresh garden vegetables (cucumbers, peppers, carrots) with dips, and roasted stuffed jalapeno poppers as appetizers. I can attest that at least one PF member can put away an impressive amount of food, including (but not limited to) some fairly "peppy" canned habanero peppers with garlic.

 

[Far Star]

Canned Hearts of Palm mixed with sweet poppy seed dressing and salmon. Makes a good pita or lettuce sandwich if stuffing the palm hearts is a little too labor intensive.

Has anyone run across an organic tea that tastes like Lipton? Try as I might I haven't found one yet.

 

[Evo]

I found my favorite cookbook! Ok, I'll make this when we have the first Evo get together.

Yorkshire Christmas Pie from Glasse "Art of Cookery" 1774

First make a good standing crust, let the wall and bottom be very thick; bone a Turkey, a Goose, a Fowl, a Partridge, and a Pigeon. Season them all very well, take half an ounce of Mace, half an ounce of Nutmeg, a quarter of an ounce of Cloves, and half an ounce of black Pepper, all beat fine together, two large spoonfuls of Salt and then mix together.

Open the Fowls all down the Back, and bone them; first the Pigeon, then the Partridge, cover them; then the Fowl, then the Goose, and then the Turkey, season them all well first, and lay them in the Crust, so as it will look only like a whole Turkey; then have a Hare ready cased, and wiped with a clean Cloth.

Cut it into Pieces; that is joint it; season it, and lay it as close as you can on one Side; on the other Side, Woodcocks, Moor Game, and what sort of wild Fowl you can get.

Season them well, and lay them close; put at least four Pounds of Butter into the Pie, then lay on your Lid, which must be a very thick one, and let it be well baked. It must have a very hot oven, and will take at least four hours.

Serves 2.

Okay, the Serves 2 was a joke. What kind of pie pan could hold all of that?

 

[Astronuc]

I found my favorite cookbook! Ok, I'll make this when we have the first Evo get together.

Looking forward to it.

Yorkshire Christmas Pie from Glasse "Art of Cookery" 1774

First make a good standing crust, let the wall and bottom be very thick; bone a Turkey, a Goose, a Fowl, a Partridge, and a Pigeon. Season them all very well, take half an ounce of Mace, half an ounce of Nutmeg, a quarter of an ounce of Cloves, and half an ounce of black Pepper, all beat fine together, two large spoonfuls of Salt and then mix together.

Open the Fowls all down the Back, and bone them; first the Pigeon, then the Partridge, cover them; then the Fowl, then the Goose, and then the Turkey, season them all well first, and lay them in the Crust, so as it will look only like a whole Turkey; then have a Hare ready cased, and wiped with a clean Cloth.

Cut it into Pieces; that is joint it; season it, and lay it as close as you can on one Side; on the other Side, Woodcocks, Moor Game, and what sort of wild Fowl you can get.

Season them well, and lay them close; put at least four Pounds of Butter into the Pie, then lay on your Lid, which must be a very thick one, and let it be well baked. It must have a very hot oven, and will take at least four hours.

Serves 2.

Okay, the Serves 2 was a joke. What kind of pie pan could hold all of that?

The kind of pie pan that can hold 4 and 20 blackbirds I imagine. I think in ye olde tymes, the pies were rather large in comparison to modern day standards.

Serves 2 - OK that'll do for me. Better make two more.

 

[turbo]

Serves 2 - OK that'll do for me. Better make two more.

If Astonuc shows up with his son, you may want to double that recipe, Evo! (and have a fall-back program for more food). These guys can tuck it in!

 

[Evo]

A pointer on calves head etiquette.

When carving a calve's head, "there is some nice fat around the ear"...a tooth in the upper jaw, called by some the sweet tooth, very full of jelly" (You must give this to your most honored guest so they may suck the jelly out of the tooth) and the eye, which may be forced from the socket by the point of a knife and divided into quarters.

"It is highly necessary that all who preside at the head of a table should be acquainted with all these particular delicacies, so that they may distribute them to their friends."

That's what I call "Good Eats".

 

[turbo]

You've got to know this stuff. When baking a large salmonid, we always bake them with the head on. If you cut off the head, you'll always lose some meat unless you are very careful, but that's not the worst of it. Under the gill flaps on either side are the jaw muscles - the most tender, sweet meat in the whole fish. I've seen grown men resort to cutting cards, rolling dice, etc for dibs on that meat.

 

[Evo]

You've got to know this stuff. When baking a large salmonid, we always bake them with the head on. If you cut off the head, you'll always lose some meat unless you are very careful, but that's not the worst of it. Under the gill flaps on either side are the jaw muscles - the most tender, sweet meat in the whole fish. I've seen grown men resort to cutting cards, rolling dice, etc for dibs on that meat.

Oh yes, I remember watching Iron Chef (Japanese) praising the jaw or cheek meat as the best part.

Have you watched the original Japanese Iron Chef? I have never learned so much about food.

 

[turbo]

Oh yes, I remember watching Iron Chef (Japanese) praising the jaw or cheek meat as the best part.

Have you watched the original Japanese Iron Chef? I have never learned so much about food.

No, I never saw that program. We don't have cable and when we did, it was always the basic "local" package since we only watch news, a couple of PBS shows, and maybe 60 Minutes. I learned how to cook (and the secrets of tasty parts of fish, fowl, and livestock) from my family members. Our clan involved even the youngest members of the family in raising, harvesting and processing vegetables, and generally, the boys were pulled into the slaughtering/butchering process pretty early. I still remember the time that I was "old" enough to be trusted with lugging a wash-pan full of pig's blood to the kitchen so the women could start making blood sausage. If you dropped a pan full of small intestine or large intestine in the dirt (sausage casings), no big deal - they would be washed off, cleaned, boiled, inverted and cleaned and boiled some more. Drop a pan of blood - woo, you don't want to face your grandmother, great aunts, etc, after that, though some of your aunts and your mother might cut you a little slack.

Blood sausage was an important source of iron for menstruating women, and unless there was a lot of it to share, the women got most of it. I'm impressed by the intuition and trial-and-error that must have gone into this, since it was a generations-old tradition.

 

[turbo]

We might be all done pickling cucumbers for the year - the cupboards are getting full and we've just started to make tomato-based salsas. Still the cucumbers continue to come, and we're picking about 10#/day, and trying to find people who want them.

 

[Astronuc]

I've got an uninhabited township all picked out for you - as long as I can come up and fly-fish the ponds there.

Get out your DeLorme Atlas and look for T2 R7 BKP WKR in the center of map 40. Also known as Misery Township. Got some of the best brook trout fishing in the country - fly-fishing only with strict limits.

I'll have to change the name.

I wonder of Mellon would sell me the MEC RR? I tried to establish a short line in NY, but the taxes and other liabilities were too great, the existing RR's didn't want competition, and the local folks think railtrails are great for tourism. The annual average income from tourism in this area was about $16K about 7 yrs ago.

 

[turbo]

You'll have to petition the state to change LOTS of names. The main ridge, the mountaintop, several ponds and a number of streams all bear that name. Then Delorme would be forced to change all their maps too.

Maybe Mellon would sell out. He's made so much money selling off rolling stock, scrapping track and deferring maintenance that he could afford to give you a good price.

 

[NateTG]

I found my favorite cookbook! Ok, I'll make this when we have the first Evo get together.

Yorkshire Christmas Pie from Glasse "Art of Cookery" 1774

...

Okay, the Serves 2 was a joke. What kind of pie pan could hold all of that?

A large one.

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tips/getAttraction.php?tip_AttractionNo==701

At 28,000 lbs of pie, assuming 1/4 turkey, and 40 lb turkeys works out to 175 turkeys... Now, to find an oven ;)

In the real world, you can probably build the pie in a roasting pan or large dutch oven.

 

[Astronuc]

Did you know . . .

that Omaha, Nebraska is the original home of the Reuben sandwich, Omaha Steaks and ConAgra Foods?

The Reuben or Reuben sandwich is a grilled or toasted sandwich made with corned beef, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, and either Russian dressing or Thousand Island dressing. It is typically made with rye bread, though originally it may have been served on pumpernickel bread, and is often served with potato salad on the side.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reuben_sandwich

I like mine with pastrami instead of corned beef. Pupernickel could be somewhat overpowering.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumpernickel

Clearly the quality of sauerkraut is a key factor.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sauerkraut

And I'm interested in variations on dressing, e.g. Ranch vs Russian vs Thousand Island.

 

[Evo]

Don't eat Hamburger Helper Beef Stroganoff. It tastes nothing like stroganoff. Why did I buy it? I could have bought a package of McCormick stroganoff seasoning, now that's pretty yummy and just as quick to fix. And you use real sour cream and sherry.

 

[Andre]

Hamburger Stroganoff? encroyable.

Stroganoff should go with chateaubriand. And don't fry the beef directly from the fridge. It should be heated slowly au-bain-marie to about 100-110F first, keeping it red. Don't boil it, the water may not be too hot to touch it. Then fry it on a hot fire 10 seconds before turning over. 60 seconds on the other side, then back 50 seconds for the other side. That's the ultimate dining experience.

 

[hypatia]

End of Summer Joe's

In olive oil, brown... Big tablespoon of corse chopped garlic, 1/2 cup chopped onion and 1/2 cup thin strips of peppers{your choice}.
To that add, two full cups off shredded summer squash{I use yellow, but any kind will work}, stir to mix, then turn to low for 10 minutes, covered.
Add one cup of crushed tomatoes, one teaspoon of cider vinegar, one teaspoon of brown mustard and one teaspoon of sugar.
Cook{reduse liquids} stirring often for 10 more minutes.
I oven toast good Keiser rolls{cut open of course}, spoon it on and eat!
It makes 6.

 

[Moonbear]

Ooh, that sounds DELICIOUS hypatia!

 

[turbo]

My sister-in-law just dropped off about 20# of sweet corn, so I know what I'll be doing for at least part of the day tomorrow (shucking, boiling, cutting, freezing), and we swapped her a bag of cucumbers. Tomorrow, I'll pick another 15-20# of green tomatoes and start prepping them for another batch of salsa to be canned on Thursday after a whole day of simmering. This is an exciting time of the year, and my wife and I are all grins when we're preserving food that you cannot possibly buy in a store for any price. If Martha Stewart showed up looking for recipes, I'd tell her to pull out her checkbook and start writing zeros until I told her to stop. If anybody here is interested, I'll gladly try to summarize what my wife and I do to produce this stuff for free. WARNING! Neither of us measure ingredients - we tend to "wing it" so quantities are loose. Of course, given the varying strengths of the flavors of the ingredients (capsicum levels in peppers, acidity of tomatoes, quality of herbs, onions, garlic, etc) you've got to be flexible and be willing to "season to taste" or else be doomed to uncertainty, mediocrity, unbalanced flavors, or just plain unpalatable stuff.

You have to taste and smell your ingredients and get a feel for what you've got to do to balance them and approach your target product. You can't easily do this by blindly following recipes (Waa! It was good last time!) or by ignoring your instincts. I think that my wife and I could make a comfortable living honing school-trained chefs into real cooks. One of my grandmothers cooked for a river-based log-drive employing many men and she could whip up a meal for 50+ people or 2 people with alacrity. She could put Emiril and or Martha to shame. Promotion does not equal real traction. They are pikers.

 

[Evo]

What a busy (food-processing) time of year! Sunday afternoon, we made a fair-sized batch of hot pepper relish - the best batch yet this year. Yesterday, my wife and I made spaghetti sauce from fresh garden tomatoes and canned a large batch of tomato-based salsa with habanero, jalapeno, and lipstick chilis - very hot and tasty. We put the left-over juice and solids from Sunday's chili relish in the salsa before we simmered it down. We also relented and put up another large batch of dill pickles yesterday, even though our cupboards are mostly full. We harvested about half of our herbs and froze dill, basil, cilantro, parsley and chives in small batches so they can be easily added to soups and sauces this winter. Last but not least, we scalded and peeled a few gallons of green tomatoes which I am simmering down today so that we can turn them into green tomato salsa and can that tonight. The house smells great.

turbo, since the slightest error in canning can cause botulism, I'm afraid you will have to send me at least 5 samples of each batch of sauces and salsas you have made so the Evo Botulism Test Lab, Inc. can make sure that you don't accidently poison yourself. UPS will be dispatching a truck to pick up samples before the end of the week.

Oh, there have also been reports of radio active corn in your area, so you have to fork over the corn as well.

No need to thank me, it's just part of the PF member protection plan.

 

[Moonbear]

turbo, since the slightest error in canning can cause botulism, I'm afraid you will have to send me at least 5 samples of each batch of sauces and salsas you have made so the Evo Botulism Test Lab, Inc. can make sure that you don't accidently poison yourself. UPS will be dispatching a truck to pick up samples before the end of the week.

Oh, there have also been reports of radio active corn in your area, so you have to fork over the corn as well.

No need to thank me, it's just part of the PF member protection plan.

So that's how the GenCo Olive Oil company is still turning a profit these days.

 

[turbo]

turbo, since the slightest error in canning can cause botulism, I'm afraid you will have to send me at least 5 samples of each batch of sauces and salsas you have made so the Evo Botulism Test Lab, Inc. can make sure that you don't accidently poison yourself. UPS will be dispatching a truck to pick up samples before the end of the week.

Oh, there have also been reports of radio active corn in your area, so you have to fork over the corn as well.

No need to thank me, it's just part of the PF member protection plan.

You POOP! My family has been surviving for a few hundred years up until now. I think that we can wing it for a while longer, as long as you don't mail us any botulism.

 

[Evo]

So that's how the GenCo Olive Oil company is still turning a profit these days.

You POOP! My family has been surviving for a few hundred years up until now. I think that we can wing it for a while longer, as long as you don't mail us any botulism.

Moonbear, I'll cut you in for half of the booty, just back me up here.

Why turbo, I'm shocked that you would suspect a PF mentor of devious tactics! I have only the deepest concern for your welfare.

Moonbear, do you think he fell for it?

He can't see this, right?

 

[Moonbear]

Moonbear, I'll cut you in for half of the booty, just back me up here.

Why turbo, I'm shocked that you would suspect a PF mentor of devious tactics! I have only the deepest concern for your welfare.

Moonbear, do you think he fell for it?

He can't see this, right?

I hear that botulism is really running rampant through Maine this year. Of course us PF Mentors are willing to take on this important task of ensuring member safety.

Yep, I think it'll work, Evo. He can't suspect anything.[/color]

 

[Ouabache]

I've always enjoyed warm homemade buttermilk biscuits topped with fruit preserves.. Only thing is, I've only followed a recipe to make them. But mine never looked like the ones I've eaten at country kitchen restaurants. I think the problem was, I didn't have a gramma to show me how it supposed to be done. Now with the help of youtube we have a surrogate gramma who can show us how.

My only change, would be to add more space between the biscuits on the pan. (I see my problem straight off was; I use a pastry cutter to work the shortening into the flour and a rolling pin to form the dough).

Next I'd like to find the proper technique to prepare sausage gravy for the biscuits

 

[turbo]

Moonbear, I'll cut you in for half of the booty, just back me up here.

Why turbo, I'm shocked that you would suspect a PF mentor of devious tactics! I have only the deepest concern for your welfare.

Moonbear, do you think he fell for it?

He can't see this, right?

You have the "deepest concern" for your belly, lady! I'm going to start storing this stuff in our safe in case you're planning a raid.