Meathenge’s very own recipe featured above! The Bean Experiment. A rich & wonderful pot of beans anyone can make. So good everyone had 3 helpings.
I know it may not seem busy around here, what with the posting slowing a degree or nine. Meathenge has been working furiously behind the scenes for family & friends. Last Saturday we hosted a birthday party for my father and a celebration for my sister finding a new job. I began the meal by choosing Fatted Calf’s Spalla Ripiene, a stuffed pork shoulder. I figured along with 6 of Fatted C’s Guinea Fowl Crepinettes, Guinea Fowl Pate and Pepperoni, we’d be set. Nope.
As I was perusing the meat section at our local super market I noticed one of the young butchers attempting to find a place for a lone pork shoulder. I already had one, a really bitchen’ one. Ah hell, one more can’t hurt. Besides, smoking just one pork shoulder is a waste of smoky goodness. So I bought it.
Author Archives: Biggles
Fatted Calf Newsletter – Big Meaty Goings On
Last nights cross rib beef roast stuffed with bright peppery spices, slivered garlic & freshy fresh rosemary.
I’m confused (if you know me, this isn’t all that tough to do). I’ll let you read the newsletter fer yerself. I din’t know there’s a Tuesday Berkeley Farmers Market, but you can special order the Hoffman Farms Quail stuffed with Boudin Blanc & stewed chestnuts for Thanksgiving. Contact Fatted Calf immediately and have yours reserved. The Boudin Blanc sausage is really special for several reasons. First off, I like it more than the Toulouse (and I LOVE the toulouse sausage) and second, they don’t make it that often. That combined with the little juicy warm quails is a match made in heaven. Meat Heaven.
Okay, for this week you’ll want a few of the Guinea Fowl Crepinettes with Cippolini Onion and Prunes. I’ll probably get about 6, I can hardly wait. I got a Red Wine Salami last week and it was the best ever, quite lean and full of rich flavor that warmed your palate ever so slightly. Not too long ago I tried the Pepperoni, get one of those too. American pepperoni most of us are used to comes on the top of nasty pizzas and is so oily & salty you wouldn’t dare eat it alone. Well, this pepperoni is really different. Sure it has the spicy flavors, but it resembles a high class salami. So, don’t let the name steer you clear. As you make your way down the list to the last, “Other Meaty Goodies” you’ll see that every last one of those you could take home tonight and enjoy. The Pate, Tonno, Hocks and the Duck Demi, man that Demi Glace is wonderful. A rich yummy additive to sauces & cousous that can’t be beat. Easy too, when you buy it from Taylor. OH! I almost forgot, pick up a nice slab of the pancetta. You’ll need that to add zing to your tomato based sauces, zing to gravy, zing to roasts & zing added under the skin and over the breast meat of your roasting fowl.
Oh my, I just realized it is only Wednesday. This newsletter usually only shows up Thursday or Friday morning. We’ve got a few days until Saturday morning, oh man. CURSES !!! … I’m sitting at my keyboard staring blankly, I don’t feel good now. I need to take a day off and go home and fry bacon just for the fragrance until Saturday morning. It’s the only way.
Xo Xo
Today’s ramblings brought to you by, Blue Bottle Coffee Co.’s 3 African blend in a press-pot coffee maker thingy. Woot! Woot!
Lodge Cast Iron Goes Enamel
Hooyah it is a darned slow week. I’m truly not inspired for much of anything and you know what? I don’t care. Relax I say. Sit down and think about stuff. And speaking of thinking & reading, I was perusing the tv guide this last weekend and ran across a new cooking show, Camp Fire Cafe.
Robert Crumb’s Favorite Macaroni Casserole
Yeesh, what a long and winding road it’s been over the last day. On Thursday (yesterday) I stayed home to look after one of the chillins, which made sense because I had and have a nasty head cold. Okay, so Senior Biggles is home, what should he do? Cook.
This sounded like a perfect day to try something out of Dana Crumb & Shery Cohen’s Cookbook. And I have to say, some of the recipes are a bit dated, but the content is right there. From diet advice to offering really nice vegetarian alternatives to the main recipe, very thoughtful.
OH crap, who am I trying to kid, it’s just a really cool book by a really cool group of people and the pictures are fun to look at. That being said, I wanted to try, “Robert Crumb’s Favorite Macaroni Casserole.”
Fatted Calf Newsletter – Quail Prevails
Thanks to Big D for the garlic you see above, juicy juicy.
Sing Hay! For the Quail with Mushroom Sausage. Boy, talk about a little happy meal package. 1 per person and off you go. I’m still going to fire up the smoker, even though it’s 50 degrees out. I suppose I could try the oven in the house, but I don’t want to. Not the same. Unless you have a gas grill, then it is the same.
Last weekend at the market it rained, you know? Wet. You bet. I believe it was one of the most enjoyable markets ever, except for a few in August, but I can’t go in to that right now. Last Saturday was really nice, only the hard core market goers were there. The proprietors looked extra happy to see people coming & going. And I have to say the mood amoung the public was really good, all smiles. The sellers had their fancy stalls all bound up for winter and the tables turned opposite sides so one could walk IN to the stall and get out of the weather. Fresh warm breads, fancy oils, bristling green vegies, hot coffee and Taylor out there WITH NO SIDES ON HIS STALL. Brrrrrr. Wide open he was and pulling the coolers closer in to the center I found him. He was all smiles though and I walked away with Hocks & Andouille. Not before he accidentally dumped a quart of water down my back, thank goodness for rain gear, eh? This week it will be quail and and more hocks. Gotta love them hocks. Here’s the deal, you read the newsletter and go to the market rain er shine.
C&O Railroad Split Pea Soup – Circa 1940s / 1950s
Earlier this month I was perusing some new food blogs. I’m always amazed at how many are up and running, how many are derelict and how many new food blogs are popping up on a monthly basis. Some interest me and some I pass over. It isn’t personal, but I just don’t care much about vegetable technology tossed over … whatever it was. One caught my eye, there was a recipe from the C&O (Chesapeake and Ohio) Railroad during the 1940s & 1950s. The first ingredient was and IS, lard. Okay, you got me. I’m interested. I’m piqued. Thank you Karen from Let’s Play Restaurant! for putting this up. Split Pea Soup? Didn’t interest me until I saw the Lard.
Ham Hock time of year – Fatted Calf News
Welp, it ain’t summer no more. We’ve just been through our first rain storm of the year and the nights are getting nippy. Plus there’s flippen condensation on the windows of my truck every morning. Makes it darned hard to SEE, even if you hose it off.
I suppose it’s time to keep the fires burning and toss that huge pot of beans on to the stove. Fatted Calf has provided us some fancy Ham Hock action. I’ll surely grab myself at least 2. One for split pea soup and one for some BEANS !!!! Hey, maybe some black eyed peas, yes. It’s all becoming clear to me now, all clear. I’ve got my Meat Goggles on and am ready for action. (Don’t forget to pick up some Andouille too).
onward …
MeatHenge’s Fried Chicken Stew
Yes, it is exactly that. Fried Chicken stew and it must be about the most hillbilly thing I’ve done in quite some time. It doesn’t match my country fried pork ribs, but it still ranks pretty darned high. Read on if’n you’re interested, if not, I understand.
Beautiful Meat Photograph 15a / 9 27b
Here is Fatted Calf’s Red Wine Salametti. This is a pure meat product, lean and the most tasty of all. I like the part when you remove the casing and the powder launches in to the air. It is beautiful.
I received 2, one for me and one for a friend.
How would this look as a holiday card? Treeemendous.
Inexpensive Kitchen Gadgets
This last Friday Big D and myself headed out to Oakland to East Bay Restaurant Supply. It was an impromptu adventure born from the sheer need to leave the company compound. I have some other photographs that I took and up until yesterday evening, I would have used them. I believe however, this really ties it all in together.
Beef Onglet – Prather Ranch Delivers Flavors
A few days ago, early in the morning, at work, before coffee, Meathead walked in and handed me a bag with some bloody meat in it. He assured me it was a cut of beef and the label said, Onglet. Since it was from Prather Ranch I figured it must be okay. They gots all that fancy Certified Organic meat. I thanked him & my sister for the gift and ran back to my computer to google “what the HELL is a beef onglet?”
Fatted Calf – a 2nd chance at the Spalla Ripiene !
Featured above is the Fatted Calf Ham roast from last week. Succulent beyond compare, not like that precooked waffly bowed ham you’re used to.
Taylor works very hard to bring us new and different meaty meat treats on a weekly basis. Mostly this is great because each week is a wonderful surprise, a surprise that usually will render you an awesome meal along with rich gravy (I’m on the new Gravy Diet). And sometimes it’s tough because that special roast or crepinette isn’t there the following week. This time though he brought us back the Spalla Ripiene- Pork shoulder stuffed with garlic, greens & walnuts 2-3lbs each. This roast just isn’t some pork shoulder stuffed with stuff. This is a Niman Ranch pork shoulder roast stuffed with certified organic ingredients. And dangit, there is excellent flavor from one side to the other.
As I made my way down the list, under Pates, Confits & Terrines I see the Hoffman Farm’s Guinea Fowl Terrine. I had half a dozen slices of that a while back and I’ll need 2 of those. Pates & Terrines seem to be pretty much the same thing, except the Terrine is cooked & served in the same container. When unmolded it becomes a pate. Either way this one tends to be of the chunky style pate and one of my favorites.
Then down a bit further I see a Red Wine Salametti, I don’t know what it is specifically and google didn’t give anything quickly enough, so it’ll be a surprise.
Saturday will be good, I can see that from here.
onward …
John Bell’s Southern Fried Chicken – Attempt #3
Earlier this year, March 15th’s Entry to be exact, marked my quest to reproduce John Bell’s Southern Fried Chicken. This is a specific piece of chicken I’m looking for. I can sharpen my own blades, when I’m not busy and I can fry chicken with the best of them. But I am unable to make fried chicken like John’s. This is the 3rd episode within a string of however many it takes to get it done. And brother, (or sister, sorry)I got darned close this time.
Professional Knife Sharpening
After years of sharpening my own knives I decided to see if someone else could do it better or at least not screw it up. This isn’t to say I’m not able to get an edge I can live with from my stones & steels. I’ve always wondered if they could do better? Or worse? A co-worker took their knives to a local guy and it came back with a VERY shiny edge, about 1/2″ up. That may be okay for a high-carbon blade, but it would ruin the look of my old carbon steel blades. I held back for a while.
Fatted Calf News – Hot Pimenton Crepinettes
Fatted C’s Pancetta & smooshed garlic on bamboo cutting board (thank you Mr. Meathead)
I cain’t speak for you, but this weather/season change has got me befaddled. Usually October is our warmest part of the year and it just ain’t comin’ up that way. No sir, which is why it is time for some roasts. It’s time for roasts, such as pot roasts, pork loin roasts and ham roasts. Tee hee, guess what? Fatted Calf has fresh smoked hams this week. I know Emil was looking for them last week and accidentally bypassed the pork shoulder roasts. Now he can get what he needs, a little ham love. I also see they have some fancy Pork Crepinettes with Hot Pimenton and Orange, I’ll need a few of those. Oh look, Toscano Salami !! Papa love this one. I would love another hunk of Pate, but ain’t sure I should be eating an entire loaf each week. Ah well, what ya gonna do.
Read on …