Well, Ralph says the “treasures” are pretty much done with. He’s been cleaning out the family stronghold for the last few months. The other day he loaded me up with a box full of cookbooks, menus and little food/wine related pamphlets from a kitchen cupboard seldom used. How seldom? There was nothing newer than the early 1960’s in it.
Here’s a freebie from Graham’s Market in Hollister. It’s a recipe book with mostly meat related recipes. Gramma and the boys moved up here in about 1946 or so, the book is before that some time. Clearly the image of the woman holding meat with that hair-do is a giveway. But check out that phone number. When was the last time you said, “Give me a call sometime. Here’s my number, let me write that down so you don’t forget. That’d be, phone number 73.”
Are you ready to test your Meat Knowledge?
Author Archives: admin
Minestrone Soup – A response to Autumn’s breezy coolness
While I was dredging chunks of brisket through the smoky gravy on Saturday, I had a vision of the leftover brisket lolling about in a soup. Minestrone soup to be exact. I just love homemade soup, especially if it includes tomatoes and brisket. It’s perfect for the changing seasons, all rich and yummy. Minestrone doesn’t have a set recipe, since it’s traditionally made with seasonal vegetables. I wanted to start off on the right foot, even if it’s usually planted firmly in my mouth. Instead of digging through my cookbooks, I decided to see what Elise had going on. I lucked out, she did have a nice recipe and it looked good even in print. Thank you Simply Recipes, you just made my afternoon that much easier.
I had 2 pounds of brisket ready to go Sunday morning, my meez was in place. Are you ready?
Lenspen – superior new cleaning system for your camera’s glass
I was perusing the net a few weeks ago and ran across a mention of Lenspen. I’ve had problems cleaning pork fat off my camera lenses for the last however many years and decided to give it a try. Jeez, it was only 15 bux, what the hell?
Fatted Calf for the Holidays – Plan today for tomorrow’s feast!
Okay, first things first. What you see above and below is Fatted Calf’s Heritage Pork Shoulder Roast stuffed with Greens and Walnuts. Actually, there’s garlic and fresh ground pepper in there too. We had this last night for dinner and it was an unexpected delight. I know, I know, it’s Fatted Calf. I’ve been eating FC’s stuff for more than a few years and even today I’m receiving something I haven’t exactly had before. The pork roast itself was extra flavorful and the stuffing’s love had made its way in and around the roast. Of couse topping it with pancetta twizzles helped a bit too, eh. Here’s what it looked like before it went in to the oven.
Okay, so that’s the meat. Now it’s your turn to decide what to get for the holidays. I’ve been serving their salumi and pate for the last few years as appetizers and the huge grins and moans I hear from the living room are always welcome. Sure you can make your own, Derrick does. But I don’t have that kind of time and want to share something special with the friends and family that I love. Fatted Calf allows me to share the love without strapping my hillbilly ass to the kitchen for 3 days. You go and put a smile ont the world.
“The Fatted Calf will be at the Ferry Building Market on Tuesday, November 21 with a special holiday menu. We would appreciate all pre-orders by Friday, November 17. Thanks and Happy Thanksgiving to All!”
You all know what to do, now get with it. Please read on to their menu not written by me and place your order for Thanksgiving today.
Romancing the Brisket – A Danish Viking Smoked Sea Salt Adventure
I was standing in line at Highland Hills Farm’s stall on Saturday morning. Ted was tending to a customer who ended up spending 77 dollars on a handful of beef roasts. One of the items they passed up was a cute little brisket, a few pounds worf. Snatch and grab, I had me a brisket. This wasn’t planned, but the lure of the slow cooked beef brisket in my mowf was too much, I had to make it go.
But Biggles, how come the brisket you’re picturing here is clearly a brisket a little more than twice just 2 pounds?
Cause I switched gears mainstream, doof. What was to be a little happy meal turned quickly in to an all day affair with a pink slab of beautiful beefy love. And I’m man enough to admit when I’m smitten and on my knees pleading for more.
Come in to my parlor, got your ring ready? You’d better be able to support my brisket or you’ll have me to deal with me little mister. Beware all who enter here, it’s beefy!
Pepito’s Deli delivers chile verde heaven in Richmond
Nearly 10 years ago JLee and I would make a special trip in to Berkeley and visit Pepito’s Deli. All we wanted was a pint of their Chile Verde, a load of warm tortillas and some cheese to grate. We’d fly back to work and just stand there loading up our tortillas and slurping away. The elixir of the gods. It was always the finest we could find, wasn’t cheap though. This pint of goodness was 16 bux, worth every penny too.
Seasons passed and one day we pulled up to find it had closed. We weren’t close enough to the staff or owners to know why, but it was gone. Gone until today that is!
Kraft, Macky Cheese and … Organic? Dear Gods, I’ve lived too long.
I spotted this flyer on the side table the other day, didn’t pay much attention. Until I spotted the word Organic on it. What the HELL !?!
Does this matter? For something that has so little cheese in it that it can’t have the word Cheese in it for the Canadians? Do we care? I don’t and we have 2 boys that love the stuff.
Go save the world somewheres else, please. As JLee is fond of saying, “quiddit”.
Biggles
Does my blog look good in this? This time hosted by Spitoon Extra
It’s a little food and photography all for fun contest. We had to pick an entry from this October, I chose one with Madamoiselle Crepinette!
Please visit this link and get an eyeful of all the beautifully yummy entries!
Biggles
Wild Boar Bacon Tasting – Oh happy day !!!
The boar bacon is the one in the center there. It isn’t a great image, I took this in someone else’s kitchen on the fly.
Given the sheer volume of bacon that Chilebrown and I have on hand, we thought maybe it would be good to sit down and have a taste. The catalyst for this particular meeting was a delivery of yet another kind of bacon, Wild Boar Bacon.
It’s just that, belly bacon taken from a wild pig. I’ve always wanted to go boar hunting with someone. George used to do that while he was still in California. I asked him about tagging along one day, I really wanted to go. He said I was welcome, but I had to have a side-arm. Those wild boards are huge and can take you down in a second. That means I had to have a good sized pistol with me, one with real bullets. There are many things I can do well and being safe with something with bullets isn’t one of them. I’d come back with a hole in my foot or without one of my digits. It doesn’t scare me, it’s just a fact. Armed with this knowledge, I let others do my wild pig killin’ for me. I needs me fangers.
The wild boar came in a slab, it needed to be sliced. The texture of this bacon was wiggly. The meat was loose, not firm like standard belly bacon. The smell was light and fresh, not heavy in cure or smoke. Not gamey. Along with the wild bacon, we did Fatted Calf’s belly bacon and Morants Canadian Bacon. 3 bacons for the 2 Meat Brothers.
Each bacon got its own pan. Since wild piggies get to run around, the bacon is quite lean with a high meat to fat ratio. We could have added a little oil to the pan. All 3 cooked up just fine. The Canadian bacon was too salty and we left it for CB’s pot of chile he was going to make that day. Fatted Calf’s bacon was a fine contender, but this was Taylor’s milder version. The smoke was light, the cure was even and the cut was a standard belly cut. There were no huge wangly country slices in there with rinds and heavy smoke action.
The boar bacon had a light smoke, light cure and had the texture of a chewy beef roast. Hence, wiggly meat. It wasn’t a bad chewy, it gave way pretty quickly. But I don’t think we expected the heavy, chewy texture of the pork belly. Both CB and I enjoyed it immensely. I would absolutely love to put slices of this in my smoker for a few hours, oh yes. All in all I’d like to see more of this Wild Boar Bacon. The possibilities for it should be quite huge. I’d like to see a far heavier smoke to it along with a cure that’s on the sweet side. Just a tad mind you, just a bit. What a way to start a Saturday morning !!!
Biggles
Heritage Red Wattle Smoked Pork Chops – Fatted Calf Newsletter
Guess what? The smoky, brined pork chops are here this week! The above image is from a while back, but nearly the same product. I wanted to let ya’ll know cause I was lucky enough to work a day at the Fatted Calf stall in Berkeley a few weeks ago. There were 2 people that came up to see if we had any chops this week? Nope, and they left! While I was pretty taken aback considering what that day’s menu had to offer. I thought it was pretty cool that they wanted that specific one thing and nothing else. A Meat Shark.
Fatted Calf’s customers are generally a nice lot. I’ve seen them each week making their way up and back through the market with their sacks bulging with swag. They’re interested in what’s what and always willing to buy one new thing they haven’t tried. There was a woman and her husband or boyfriend that were clearly newbies. They asked questions about this and that. I laid it down best I could. I don’t make the stuff, so individual spices and procedures elude me from time to time. They felt bad for holding up the line, but I urged them on with juicy descriptions of the completed food stuff. I didn’t mind taking time with them because they liked hearing about the meat as much as I enjoyed talking about the meat. I know they’ll return for something new each week. I could see the twinkle of pate and sausage in her eyes.
There were a few who wanted a lean product. One poor woman wanted “lean” bacon. I presented her with 4 packages and she noted quickly, “These are NOT lean.” I deal with the public from time to time, so I smiled and dug a little deeper. It was at that moment I turned and mentioned to her, “You know this is ‘bacon’, right?” There was nothing lean enough and she left. A few hours past and while there were probably 7 customers poking about, a young woman with her “doctor” (read: Grampa) asked for something made without so much fat. Everyone within ear shot chortled. I turned around and looked at the Charcuterie sign just to make sure I was at the right stall. She left with beef jerky. See! Something for everyone!
And that’s just about where we are going to be for this coming Saturday morning. A place where you can find something for everyone, the Berkeley Farmer’s Market. Please come out and enjoy the changing seasons and fill your grocery sack with fresh goodies. Let me take you out with a pretty picture of Fatted Calf’s lamb brochettes grilled while covered with their smoky bacon.
Don’t eeeven ask me if they were any good. Cause they were, nyah. Please read on to the newsletter not written by me.
xo,
Biggles
Chowhound – Bye bye
Well, here’s my second draft. The first draft was a pretty well crafted rant about Chowhound. But I think it’s all been said before and recently by Sam and Fatemeh and a few others here in the SF Bay Area.
Suffice it to say, “Good bye Chowhound. It was fun for a while, but your lack of thoughtfulness to your posters has caused me to remove you from my bookmarks. And the grief you’ve caused to chefs and restaurant owners is unforgivable.”
Biggles
ps – It’s easy to criticize and I thought maybe I should offer up a suggestion or two. If an entry needs to be removed or edited, the poster should receive and email letting them know what’s going on and why it should be removed or edited. Offer some support, some ideas, assist your posters in becoming better at what they do. There needs to be some way the restaurant owners, cooks and chefs and/or staff can have a venue too. Why does there have to be such a gap between us and them? It doesn’t seem right. There needs to be an open communication so service and food can improve. Instead, it’s a bitter chew for the owner who can’t stand up for their establishment. Why is this important? Diners can be nitwits too and expect too much or have the concept completely wrong.
There, that sets it right for me.
Happy Hallowween !!!
Where’s your root cellar and do you have stinky garlic fangers? Meathenge Lab’s Helpful Hints
Chapter 1
Not everyone has some fancy root cellar that keeps our tubers and garlic fresh for the future. Some of us are relegated to use whatever we have handy. This could be, the floor. A bin in a pantry, under some stairs or wherever we have room. Up until semi-recently, I was among you. Today? Times have changed.
Chapter 2
How many times have you gone to bed with garlic hands? Every few hours you’re all woked up by the pungeant smell of garlic on yer hands. Need solice?
Venture within to have a little project and hint time with Biggles.
Eat your breakfast hunney, it’s the most important meal of the day.
Blah blah and double blah. I never believed that crap and neither did you. We’re 22 right? Hit the clubs all weekend, wind up in 3 different beds and get to work Monday morning at 7am with your shades on and you’re doing fine. Right? Riiight. You can do that for only so many years before your grandmother’s advice starts to kick in. Then a visit to the doctor and he takes one look at you and says, “Do you eat breakfast?”
High Roast Cauliflower – Redux
That was a most outstanding meal and I had to share it with the world. Veggies and I have been at odds for years and I think cauliflower has won my heart over. I smile when I prepare this and can’t wait for the roasty smells to start. If you search Meathenge you’ll run in to this preparation method with a few different recipes and experiments. This vegetable dish is so good you can eat it as a meal and it’s good reheated the next day. Plus it’s easy and takes no longer than 35 minutes to cook. Here we go!