Eating Modernist Bacon

This post is long overdue. The bacon has been done awhile and this was the third time we've eaten it. I can say without doubt, this is the best bacon I have ever made. The only problem, I'm not sure if this deliciousness was derived from a combination of the recipe/technique or because this batch was made from the highest quality pork belly I have ever purchased. If only all of our problems were this bad....

The next mission is to try the Ruhlman bacon cure with the Modernist technique on an Adventures In Food pork belly. Challenge accepted!

Popcorn

I buy popcorn in bulk from either Hannaford or Honest Weight. Heat a pot on high, add some oil, then add the kernels, slap a lid on a shake every so often. When it's done, I mix in some butter and salt. Delicious, right?

Well last week I was flipping through a friend's copy of Cook's Illustrated. I dropped my subscription to Cook's Illustrated awhile ago for a number of reasons. I wasn't actually making any of the recipes. I hated their writing style - everything they do is not "the best" and they have proven it by updating the "the best" recipe to be "really, seriously, this time it's the best" recipe. They also write like they've invented the technique. While I have no proof, I feel confident in my assumption that they didn't invent brine. The magazine often refers to techniques and recipes that are online for a few months. A magazine at that price is should have content worthy of being saved. Two years from now when you come back to the recipe you wanted to make but never had time to cook it until this weekend...and are directed to find some online content that you may or may not have access to? Screw that. So I let the subscription lapse. And it was like a bad break up. I got a lot of letters asking me to come back. I got phone calls too. Couldn't we just be friends? It finally ended when I told a telemarketer that I didn't like the magazine and I would never buy it again. A little over the top and untrue, but the letters and phone calls stopped.


I think if I ever went back to them, it would just be online only. I hope I'm not leading them on. I'm way off track here..let's go back. Last week I was flipping through a friend's copy of Cooks Illustrated. Not even sure if it is the current issue. I think it was. One of the tips in the back was for popping corn. They recommend heating the pot, adding some oil and then dropping in a few kernels. When those few kernels pop, add the rest of the kernels, slap the lid on, give it a shake and move the pot off heat for 30 seconds. After 30 seconds, put the pot back on the heat, crack the lid and shake frequently until the popping stops.

I tried it. Dammit, it worked really well. Amazingly well. After the little pre-heating, I don't think there were any un-popped kernels at all. The popcorn came out great too. Next time you are making popcorn, give it a try.

Have you not heard?

Well uh bird bird bird. Bird is the word.is the word.

I changed plans today and picked up the turkey. I thought I'd give a Fresh Market turkey a try this year. While the turkey looks great, smells great and will hopefully taste great, I am glad I got it today for two reasons. The first is a change in my pre-cooking method. I have brined birds and also skipped brining in favor of a kosher turkey (both fresh and frozen). Earlier today I remembered that last year I read about a dry rub combination of salt and sugar. You can also read about the method at the LA Times and probably a few other places as well. Takes a few days though and I would needed to start tonight to be ready for Thursday.

The second reason I'm glad I got the turkey today is that the giblets and neck were frozen solid. It took a little bit of work to get them out as well as some ice stuck to the ribs. So much for fresh. According to a Good Eats episode I saw awhile ago, fresh turkeys can be stored at temperatures below freezing. For the center of the turkey to be this solid, this turkey had to be frozen solid. I dodged a bullet here. I doubt the center would have completely thawed in the cold storage at the store by Wednesday and if I had first seen this ice at 9 AM Thursday morning, I would have freaked. Shame on you, Fresh Market. I think I'm going to call and complain tomorrow.

Back to more fun Thanksgiving stuff. Based on some of the discussion over at the Hunger Artist, I stuck to the ratios per 1000 grams of turkey - 14 grams of salt and 7 grams of sugar. The sticker on the turkey said 19.25 pounds. I weighed what I took out of the turkey: giblets, neck, some fat, plastic pop up timer, plastic thing holding the legs and some ice. This brought my weight down to 18 pounds or about 8200 grams. So I weighed out 115 grams (8.2x14) of salt. There was some discussion on fine salt versus kosher salt. I split the difference and used half kosher and half fine sea salt. Then I added 57 grams of sugar (8.2*7). Here's the bird washed and dried.

I covered it inside and out with the salt/sugar mixture.

This turkey wasn't going to fit in any bag I had, so I covered my new super awesome huge stainless steel bowl with plastic wrap. Put the turkey in the bowl and finish the see through mummification with a little more wrap. That should do it. 

If I have some time tomorrow, I might make something charcutepalooza-ish. Most of the Thanksgiving shopping is done. House is mostly clean. Very much on pace. Still in "piece of cake" mode.

And Still More Chicken Stock

I was just about out of chicken stock. I like having 1 cup containers of stock. A little good stock tends to improve a dinner. I made a variation of my cavetelli with sausage and broccoli last week. Usually it is all tossed in a bowl. This time, I made a quick roux, thickened the chicken stock, tossed everything together with some mozzarella cheese and put it in the oven to melt. It was pretty good.

Instead of just throwing together a stock by feel, I decided to follow Ruhlman's ratio for stock. 2 parts bones, 3 parts water, and then about 20% by weight mirepoix. I had the bones from 4 chickens in the freezer weighing in at just over 6 pounds. A pint is a pound the world around...so I needed 9 pounds of water...9*16=144ouces of H2O. Into the big pot that is really a roaster and not a stock pot.

That's 11:58 in the morning-I'm not crazy enough to start making stock at midnight. Well, I am but I didn't do it. The bones thawed as the water reached a simmer. Then there is the yeeecchhh you have to get rid of.

Once the yeeech had subsided and everything was at a good simmer, the lid went on and the roaster went into a 200 degree oven. This is a great idea. It was around 1:00 when it went into the oven. After 5 hours of completely hands off simmering, I added 2 pounds of rough cut mirepoix and about a tablespoon of tomato paste.

And then back into the oven for 2 more hours. I strained it through a colander and then again through some cheesecloth. I keep an ice packed filled with water (lesson very learned) in the freezer. Once that went in, it kind of created some weird swirls.

Once cold, I put it in the fridge overnight. Skimmed a little fat off the next day and set up small packages of stock. The small ziplocks have 1 cup of stock. The containers hold about a cup and a half.

With this 3:2 ratio, the stock became viscous when cold but did not gel up. I think I was probably closer to using a 1:1 ratio earlier. The stock has a very nice flavor. There is no salt in it, I have to remember to account for that when cooking. I once made a very bland pot of soup. Nothing that couldn't be fixed with a salt shaker though. So currently there is the meat from 3 chickens in the freezer along with a little over a gallon of stock. Should last a little while.

La Technique

What attracted me to the book was that it is more about cooking techniques as opposed to a list of recipes. Lately, I have been very interested in learning how to do more in the kitchen. I subscribe to a few cooking magazines, and found the articles on "how to do something" much more interesting than "here's a list of ingredients, gather them and then mix them together in this order" recipes. It's the difference between crafting and assembling.

La Technique was out of print and re-released combine with La Method. But, again for some reason, I got it in my head that I wanted see an original. No luck at the library. So, I was off to ebay. Surprisingly, La Technique was often on the auction block. Winning bids for the original hard copy versions were in the mid $40 range plus shipping. Too expensive, especially since the reprint was $15 at Overstock.com. I kept bidding, and I eventually won a paperback copy of the book delivered to my door for a little under $20. I really enjoyed going through it and can see myself referencing it for years to come. The book is filled with great information. It covers everything from folding napkins to breaking down a leg of lamb. Plus,
Technique 110: Saucisson et Saucisse (Salami and Sausage) includes a method for tying sausage. Perhaps I won't spend an hour tying up 5 pounds of salami next time. And at some point in time, I will be able to flute a mushroom. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but someday...it's lucky Technique 13.

Here's a weird thing: whenever I am reading the book, I read it with his voice, complete with French accent, in my head. Luckily I'm not reading it out loud.