The good Doctor Reverend Biggles raises his hands, bends his head towards the heavens and draws forth the roast’s true form!
Praise thine meat! Look what you’ve done for us! Time for 24 hours of marination oh heavenly body.
Bless you my child!
When you are tired and hollow of tummy
Go to the beef roasts we know
And bury your sorrows in eating well.
Dr. Reverend Biggles
Author Archives: admin
Jerky Review – Garden Valley’s Natural Beef Jerkey – Original
Editor’s Note (that’s me, eh): There’s going to be a few of these jerky reviews and am going to use the intro from the first one, for all. So, if the first part seems a little redundant, it’s because it is, foo.
A few weeks ago the fine people at Jerky.com sent Meathenge Labs a load of jerky for our consideration. MmMmmm, Review Jerky! I smell a party comin’.
A meeting of the minds were scheduled for a mid Saturday get together. These would be, Cookie & Cranky of I’m Mad and I Eat, Chilebrown and Ms. Goofy of Mad Meat Genius, Zoomie of Zoomie Station, Sourdough Monkey Wrangler & his monkeys (even if for a few moments to share some home brew) and a good friend.
If you so choose, please visit for a few snapshots of the afternoon.
Here’s the new stuff, you knob.
This jerky shows up about twice as thick as the last batch and not quite as dry (this is neither good nor bad, just different). The meat can be cut with your teeth fairly easily. As you can see the texture is quite smooth compared to the last one. It’s a very subtle, meaty little jerky, sweet with a little smoky and finishes fairly clean. The ingredient list is quite short and doesn’t include all kinds of wacky language or preservatives (read here: I knew what was in there). Chomp!
Thank you so much Jerky.com for your care package, we enjoyed the afternoon greatly.
Biggles
Book Review: The Best Barbecue on Earth by Rick Browne
Some things set me off more than others, elderly drivers being cautious does not set me off. Meandering motorists with cell phones glued to the side of their heads sends me in to a fury. Oh and don’t even remotely attempt to say anything about that hands-free crap. It isn’t the fact that you’re holding your hand to your head that distracts you, it’s the damned conversation. Moron. I’ve been reading studies for years about hands-free versus hand-held. The studies have been done from the Federal level, state level, universities and even The Myth Busters. Ah heck, the state of New York went hands-free years ago and they showed no drop in cell phone related collisions. Get it?
Here’s another little tidbit you’re not going to like, Americans are not the originators of Barbecue. OoOoOoOoOo, there, I said it. Ain’t you fuming now?
Rick Browne has sent forth this small tome to take us in to Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, England, France (yeah right), Germany, Guadeloupe, Hong Kong, Ireland, Jamaica, Japan, Korea, Mexico (oh yeah baby), Morocco, Portugal, Scotland, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Tahiti & Figi, Thailand, Turkey, United States and Uruguay. Phew!
Ten Speed Press published it so you know the layout, photographs, text is all superb. I like this book and hopefully some day real soon I’ll get to cook something from it, oh yeah.
So, to sum it all up, this is a good read and a solid performer for recipes from all over the world. I like the book and would be happy if I found it as a gift for this holiday season coming up. Take care and happy fire making,
Biggles
Jerky Review – Buffalo Bill’s Western Cut Beef Jerky
A few weeks ago the fine people at Jerky.com sent Meathenge Labs a load of jerky for our consideration. MmMmmm, Review Jerky! I smell a party comin’.
A meeting of the minds were scheduled for a mid Saturday get together. These would be, Cookie & Cranky of I’m Mad and I Eat, Chilebrown and Ms. Goofy of Mad Meat Genius, Zoomie of Zoomie Station, Sourdough Monkey Wrangler & his monkeys (even if for a few moments to share some home brew) and a good friend.
If you so choose, please visit for a few snapshots of the afternoon.
This jerky is quite thin & chewy, broad pieces that can be easily torn for a mowful. The pepper is clearly visible and is the second flavor that rolls in. The first is the sweetness from the brown sugar, the pepper gets brighter and lingers for a while. The meat flavor is quite light and the chew is of an appropriate length, not going on for minutes nor does it disappear quickly. If you’re a fan of some sweet with a back of pepper, this is for you!
Thank you so much Jerky.com for your care package, we enjoyed the afternoon greatly.
Biggles
a little pork roast snack treat
A little pork roast I snagged at the Fatted Calf store last weekend.
Cheers!
Sing Ob La Di Ob La Da !
Last evening I found myself taking out the trash, it’s what I do, and saw this. Um, do you have any idea how fast I moved to get my camera? Nope, faster than that. And, I’ve had this song in my head for a few days, maybe this will help to change muh tunes.
These are exactly the colors that I saw with my eyeballs, zactly.
Everyone knows this tune, pull it up in your head and sing along! Ready? Go!
Desmond has a barrow in the market place
Molly is the singer in a band
Desmond says to Molly girl I like your face
And Molly says this as she takes him by the hand
Obladi oblada life goes on bra
Lala how the life goes on
Obladi oblada life goes on bra
Lala how the life goes on
Desmond takes a trolly to the jewellers store
Buys a twenty carat golden ring
Takes it back to Molly waiting at the door
And as he gives it to her she begins to sing
In a couple of years they have built
A home sweet home
With a couple of kids running in the yard
Of Desmond and Molly Jones
Happy ever after in the market place
Molly lets the children lend a hand
Desmond stays at home and does his pretty face
And in the evening she’s a singer with the band
And if you want some fun, take obladi blada
Lyrics by John Lennon & Paul McCartney
Recorded by The Beatles and sung in my head by me
Biggles
Fatted Calf – The Store
Over a year ago I stopped posting the weekly Fatted Calf Newsletter. If you ain’t hip to their newsletter, it’s a weekly note to let everyone know what’s going on in their world and the upcoming menu for the Berkeley & Ferry Plaza Farmer’s Markets. It was something I did out of inspiration, love and devotion. But it was time to move on, times change. The only thing that didn’t change is their love & devotion for all things meat.
If you’ve been lucky enough to sample any of their meaty gifts, you know of what I speak. I fondly remember showing up each Saturday in Berkeley to see what was new, rely on what’s a family standard and to enjoy the market in general. Nearly each week Taylor and/or Toponia had cooked up something special for all, like a kid in a candy store I was! I thought I’d seen just about everything they had to offer over the years. And speaking of years, I triple dog dare you to use the search function here at Meathenge and type in newsletter. There’s about 4.5 years worth of posts, pretty crazy.
Earlier this year Fatted Calf opened up their new shop at the new Oxbow Market in Napa. I’ve been more than a few times and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Again, I thought I’d seen it all.
Jlee and I sped up early this last Saturday morning for another visit and to check out a small gun shop, just for fun. I found a cool wrist-rocket I knew the boys would enjoy, but guess what I found at the fancy charcuterie masters shop? That’s right, hands down the most badass salumi sammich of all time! Nabbed that one big time! I don’t know how many different kinds of hand-made pieces of meat were in there, but it was tremendous. The depth of flavor all delivered with a fresh made tapanade with a little more extra virgin all nestled in a wonderfully toothsome sammich roll. Luckily, Toponia was there and we got to hang out a bit and talk about stuff. The weather was cool, overcast with a chance of rain. Her eyes lit up and she reached behind the counter and produced a gratin! A hot, beautiful, steaming gratin that is! As with many items they have for sale, tasting each thing is a huge part of the experience. Floopf the spoon heavily laden with gratin went in to my mowf (I still have the spoon in my pocket, use it for flinging coffee beans at employees). A rich blend of delicious, gooey cheese, finished with some bright tangy version to finish. There’s pasta in there! There’s onions in there! “I’ll take 1 pound please.”
These are two things you cannot get at the markets, you have to visit their locale in Napa. You’ll probably have to drive, but go. Now. It’s worth it, every minute you spend behind the wheel embiggening your carbon footprint is worth it. I have no idea what it cost me, I don’t care. I’m going again and again.
Biggles
ps – Check out the pork belly roulade, the gratin and the sandwiches there, see?
Playing with meat
Am I terribly busy? Yes. Am I cooking much? No, duh!
Sunday at noon on a fancy, bright, crisp November day found Biggles racing through the store so he could spend some quality time in the meat section. The powers that be tossed some money out and decided to remodel our local largish grocery store. Ya know, it’s funny where the money goes. You’d think they’d hire some people with brains in their heads, nope.
… oh no. I feel a rant coming on and it wasn’t planned. I started off with me in the meat department and just about flew in to a rage about the new doors. OH sure, they’re new and quiet and fast. But, you see, before, you could have 1 person leaving and 1 person arriving. The new door allows only 1 at a time through it. Oh, ghod and the flood of prepared foods! Holy crap! …
Gah, didn’t mean to do that. What I meant to say was that I’d finally, at last, found myself in the meat department. Was looking for some pork spares or loin ribs on sale, gotta pinch that penny baby. Nope, still 15 dollars for a rack of anything. But, for a 1.67 a pound the pork shoulder roasts were selling briskly. Mr. Butcher man said he’d refilled the bin 3 times already and it was only noon!
Yoink. Just like that, for the fun of it.
Raced home, kosher salted it and left it resting on the counter for an hour. Preheat oven to 300, bottom rack. Cast iron skillet with a trivet in the bottom. I think it was nearly 3 hours later when the roast got to 190 and I pulled the sucker.
The textures and flavors were excellent, very porky. It’s a good solid performer, that salt stuff. However, without the smoker, I was missing a dimension of something I wanted. This could easily be taken care of … with … oh something, GRAVY !!! Minced onion in the fat, add flour & stir, add chicken broth and simmer.
Toot toot, here comes the Beaver Valley Express, next stop? Gravy Town.
xo, Biggles
Sunday Sunset – Ith pretty
Ya know, I took this Sunday evening, last night. Was kinda shocked it came out so crazy vivid, so decided to post it! I had some sort of little poem to delight, and then? AND THEN ??? My goddam internet connection died.
Oh man did that suck, I was quite displeased. I mean, what the hell good is a computer without an internet in it? So, all I have to share at this point is the stunning sunset grabbed with my old D200 with a 70-300 VR.
Happy bloody Monday,
Biggles
There’s a non-meat product in my smoker !!!
Pretty, huh?
I know I’m behind the times, people have been tossing nearly every food product on the grill or in the smoker since the beginning. Yeah well, not me. I know this might sound a little odd, but I enjoy the contrast of the heavily smoked meat product, then the lesser beings (peasant food) to be cooked elsewhere, by others. Understand?
Luckily, Sunday morning found me at the local whatever mart shopping for the coming week’s food. Wanted to grab a few racks of ribs so Zoomie could get her fill. I ain’t payin’ no 18 dollars for a damned slab of pork spares, so it was the country style for me. Almost 8 dollars for a huge mound of fleshy goodness, I picked the one with more fat in it.
I’m not sure what happened or why. But I wanted to go back to the lousy produce section and find me some citrus or a pineapple to toss in the smoker as well. As you can see, the p-apple made it in!
I sat and pondered the unfriendly feeling thing for a while. How to slice? Extra virgin? Salt? Chile pepper? Thin slices and get juice everywhere? Peel? Cut it’s head off? I just love cutting the heads off of things. I opted for the simple approach, cut in half lengthwise and use some kosher salt on the inside. I knew the smoky goodness would not penetrate through the thick halves, but didn’t want to deal with all these fussy little slices falling all over the place.
It was pretty fricken good, for a fruit. Warm, smoky on the outside, tender on the inside. The heat had broken down something molecular on the inside and tenderized the little dear. Slurp! Guess what? It was excellent cold the next day too. Slurrrphah !!!
Biggles
ps – I don’t know how long it was in there, maybe a few hours or more, not less.
I do apologize
How much does it suck to have a blog’s post say something timely, and have that specific time (such as Friday) come and go by days?
A lot.
Which is why I’m posting this, it’s not fricken Friday anymore you bone! The boys and I visited good friends up in Calistoga this last weekend, great time. Here we have fresh corn over mesquite in a hole in the ground.
More to come …
Your friend in meat, happy friday everyone!
Dang, where’d that week go? Yeah, I dunno either. I haven’t spent much time in the kitchen, nor at the grill. Sure tore it up last weekend though! Here’s Saturday at Chilebrown’s celebrating his new sauce, The Good Reverend Dr. Biggles’ Bucktooth Revenge BBQ sauce.
Oddly enough, I meant to stop by last Friday too. Creepy E gifted me an older electric skillet and I did up some pork chops! Here’s last week’s Friday in Meat that you never saw.
And, to make the pot that much sweeter, this just in from a Meathenge fan, Snowbuggie.
The Pig
In England once there lived a big
And wonderfully clever pig.
To everybody it was plain
That Piggy had a massive brain.
He worked out sums inside his head,
There was no book he hadn’t read.
He knew what made an airplane fly,
He knew how engines worked and why.
He knew all this, but in the end
One question drove him round the bend:
He simply couldn’t puzzle out
What LIFE was really all about.
What was the reason for his birth?
Why was he placed upon this earth?
His giant brain went round and round.
Alas, no answer could be found.
Till suddenly one wondrous night.
All in a flash he saw the light.
He jumped up like a ballet dancer
And yelled, “By gum, I’ve got the answer!”
“They want my bacon slice by slice
“To sell at a tremendous price!
“They want my tender juicy chops
“To put in all the butcher’s shops!
“They want my pork to make a roast”
And that’s the part’ll cost the most!”
They want my sausages in strings!
“They even want my chitterlings!
“The butcher’s shop! The carving knife!
“That is the reason for my life!”
Such thoughts as these are not designed
To give a pig great piece of mind.
Next morning, in comes Farmer Bland,
A pail of pigswill in his hand,
And piggy with a mighty roar,
Bashes the farmer to the floor…
Now comes the rather grizzly bit
So let’s not make too much of it,
Except that you must understand
That Piggy did eat Farmer Bland,
He ate him up from head to toe,
Chewing the pieces nice and slow.
It took an hour to reach the feet,
Because there was so much to eat,
And when he finished, Pig, of course,
Felt absolutely no remorse.
Slowly he scratched his brainy head
And with a little smile he said,
“I had a fairly powerful hunch
“That he might have me for his lunch.
“And so, because I feared the worst,
“I thought I’d better eat him first.”
The Pig by Roald Dahl
xo, Biggles
Has the battery gone south in your gidget? Are you sure?
Not too terribly long ago one of my camera batteries stopped holding a charge, or couldn’t accept one. It pissed me off because the darned thing was only 3 months old. “That’s what I get for buying a 3rd party battery,” said the Biggles.
I saved it so I could dispose of it properly, I figure there’s enough nitwits tossing such things in to our landfill. 2 days out I remembered a trick taught to me by a long since disappeared friend and technical guru. I was fussing with a full height floppy drive, when they only held 360k worth of data, attempting to get the beast to transfer that all important data. It wasn’t working. He came over, looked at the drive, closed one eye, looked at me and said, “Pull off the ribbon cable, take this pencil and clean the contacts on the drive with the eraser.”
I did the same with my camera battery, charged right up! That was months ago with many charges since. So, the next time your battery doesn’t want to cooperate, try cleaning the contacts.
Biggles
Ith Pretty
For the year of 2008, as many know, I just mowed my garden with a 6.75 hp, gas powered mower. I didn’t/don’t have the time and the water rationing put the lid on the coffin. So what! Throughout this year I’ve received fruits, vegetables and root things from tons of nice people. Pears, zucchinis, bacon, maters, apples, garlic …, uh and others.
Ain’t gifts just the best?
Biggles
ps – Didn’t have enough dumb words to fill the space, really wanted to share the pretty garlic that Big D gifted me the other day. Ith Pretty.
Rub a dub, dub. I’m done with rubs, I have a new love, yay!
I’m no different from many people who grill or smoke their food, often. I’ve got a pantry filled with chile powders, herbs and spices that all go in to any rub I care to make at any given meal. I’ve got versions I like better than others and sometimes just like to strip it down to the basics and enjoy the meat & smoke.
Yeah well, when I was at the Fatted Calf Picnic this year Taylor used 1 ingredient for his dry rub and I’ve been experimenting ever since. Even took some slabs of babybacks to a food blogger picnic a few weekends ago. So far, I’m at 100% approval rating for this ingredient.
Care to come see?