The food and drink forum blog thread.

[RAGER]

Gahh!!!  Need !!!

[Pissy]

It's that venison I got a couple months ago. I'll try to set some aside for my trip there in May. 

[renfield]

Kind of in a manic food craze right now. In the last 3 days I did a giant kimchi batch, an all-day bolognese, the brisket, the world's most elaborate chili, and two slabs of pork belly in a sweet and savory cure, respectively.

[renfield]

Just the perfect winter meal. Smokey, spicey, tangy. Worth the 27 hours I spent cooking it

[RAGER]

Made a little batch of kimchi this morning.



Salted scramps. Saeu jeot.

[renfield]

not enough kimchi hahaha

[RAGER]

It's only me that eats it and I've got a few of their ferments in hand too. Did a little batch of mustard seeds too.

[RAGER]

So I'm perusing a Japanese cookware website and I come across a refractometer or °Bx meter and I'm thinking huh? Then i read the first sentence "Consistency is key for a successful restaurant.". And all is clear or not clear but it's thick or not so thick. But very salty. Or is it?  For example shoyu is 15-18% °Bx meaning it's 15% salt solution. Lol.

Of course a big ramen shop would use a refractometer to achieve consistency in the ramen stocks. As would a manufacturer of all sauces in their labs. I guess I just never really thought about it as far as a restaurant using them.  Of course I'm familiar with them in brewing beer. I might still have a cheap one laying around with my old brewing stuff.

Anyways I went down a rabbit hole of brix testing in ramen stocks and tare.

[Muffin Man]

I never knew I needed one of those but now I do? Probably two kinds one for broth one for meats

[RAGER]

Definitely not meats. It's tore testing dissolved solids, viscosity, salinity, specific gravity. You have to do some math to analyze the data. Especially the old style analog ones.

[Muffin Man]

Definitely not meats. It's tore testing dissolved solids, viscosity, salinity, specific gravity. You have to do some math to analyze the data. Especially the old style analog ones.

neato! bookmarked

[renfield]

yo RAGER what else can I do with Saeu jeot besides kimchi? I always get the smallest jar they have at H mart but then I use the tablespoon or whatever for my chi, and then have no clue what to do with the rest.

I have a giant Korean cookbook I can consult, as well as the internet at large, but fuck all that I want to hear from you

[RAGER]

I don't use it for much else honestly. I've made a dip/sauce thing with it for bossam. I've used it along with doenjang in soups before or where fish sauce would work. I know there's a Korean steamed egg dish that features it. Not much help sorry.

[renfield]

No need to apologize mate, I'll let you know what my tome of Maangchi says

[RAGER]

She's the shit!  And she's goddamn adorable. Probably where I got the best dead I mentioned.

[renfield]

Bacon: CURED
In the fridge for the pellicle; tomorrow we smoke

[Pissy]

Nice. I have two bellies in the freezer I'm waiting to do the same. 

[RAGER]

I find a fan blowing lightly on the surface creates a good pellicle.

[Muffin Man]

going to hog-town in a big way there. Can you catch all the drippings? those might be delicious for working the skillet later?

[renfield]

I didn't bother with any drippings. This shit is already like 99.9% fat anyways. RIP my cholesterol



It came out good. Tastes like bacon. Not as relevatory as other smoking adventures I've undertaken. 2 of these (labeled with the pepper) were cured in a more savory cure, and are a bit too salty. The sweeter cure was right on the money.

[Pissy]

You need one if the Hobart Deli slicers that I'm trying to sell. 

Jk. The Hobarts weigh in at over 100lbs.  I got way too far over my head picking those damn things up.  The parts are insanely priced and I had no idea that they were so heavy.  I thought id be able to put one on a shelf in the pantry.  No dice. 

Looks awesome.

[RAGER]

So you hot smoked?  You gonna freeze in parcels? 

[renfield]

Hot smoked at 160, got impatient after 6 hours and brought it up to 200. Brought the meat to 150.

Continually astounded by WSM's hyperprecise temperature control.

2 of those 4 slabs went into the freezer. Between yeterday's BLTs and this morning's omelettes, we already made a huge dent in the remainder

[mortlock]

i have a couple of epic burger episodes coming up. one is uploading as im typing this and the other might get filmed tomorrow.
the Oklahoma fried onion burger ep will be up before anyone even reads this.

i cant comment on the next one yet but i will give a hint. im sure rager can figure it out. there is only 2 locations in the usa that feature this burger.

[Muffin Man]

here we have the Montreal smoked meat over fried egg & cheese. The key is the jalepeno jam underneath it all. on sesame bread - I should have lightly toasted it but was in a hurry.