Beware free meat!  Hmmm, no.  Be wary of free meat!  Aaaaaa, no that’s not quite it either. Beware green meat!  Yes, of course but that’s another story.  Be thoughtful of free meat preparation? Yeah, that’s close enough.

No matter who you are, where you’ve come from or where you might end up, at some point you’re going to have to be a creative soul when it comes to meals coupled with a severe lack of income.  So, when your buddy says to you, “Hey Biggles, I have a huge freezer full of meat, do you want some?  I bought a half a beef.” It’s best if you smile, nod and thank them very much for their kind offer. Even though, when deep down inside, you’re shaking in your boots because you have no idea how that cow made it in there, how long it’s been in the freezer and how the gosh did some nitwit seal it up. Sealing meat well for the freezer ain’t no easy feat my good people.

The Meathenge Labs’s freezer ultimately ended up with a little over a hundred pounds of assorted frozen meaty packages, some large and some small.  Mostly beef particles, but a few were labelled with Lamb.  There were two 5 pound beef slabs labelled London Broil, one of which made it in to today’s post.  The previous one I grilled over mesquite and pecan wood, was good enough.  But I accidentally let it run to 135 to 140 degrees, was pretty chewy.  Sure it tasted darned fine, but darned that beef if it isn’t so fussy.  Not like pork!

Honestly, sometimes I really don’t have it in me to fuss over a beef steak and pull when it reaches 125 or so.  It’s far easier for me to braise it for hours in the oven submersed in aromatics, tubers and fungi of some distinction.  Crazy, I know.  But that’s how I roll.  Yo.

As I was standing in front of the open freezer door, 5 pound frozen brick of beefy London Broil in my meat-hook sized fangers, I was wondering.  “Can I pot-roast a London Broil?”

Armed with free meat, 3 days defrosting in the fridge, I was ready to find out.  Floured, salted and browned the meat in a cast iron dutch.  Browned off 16 ounces of quartered mushrooms, then sliced onion, flattened tons of fresh garlic, fresh rosemary and enough beef broth to cover.  Install in to 300 degree oven, rack on bottom for 5 hours.  Lid on for 3 or so hours, remove to reduce as needed or wanted.

Uh, yeah.  Apparently one can use a London Broil for pot roast.  And you know what brother?  Or sister, it was darned tasty.

xo, Biggles

Editor’s Note: I made no effort to do any googlizing to see if anyone else had used a london broil for pot roast.  I have absolutely no interest in what anyone else has done in the past.  For me, every day is a new adventure and I adore reinventing the wheel.

Was pretty much cooking for myself last night, Tiny E’s consumption of food really doesn’t amount to what most of us call a meal. I had time, I had pork chops and if I ruined them it wouldn’t ruin anyone’s evening. I wondered what it’d be like to put the center cut chops in to the oven at 250 degrees until they reach 190 degrees (pully aparty).
I used a glass casserole dish with a chrome rack installed, this would keep the meat up and out with the heat able to get all around. Marinated with kosher salt, preheat oven to 250 degrees.
2 hours later, at 190 degrees internal temperature I had a real piece of shit for dinner. The loin portion of the chop didn’t have enough fat to keep it moist. While I had no temperature spikes, the fat was gone! And, considering the method used, there was no browning, no flavors. It was dry, flat tasting pork that just didn’t deliver.
“But Biggles! I see browning !!!” says you. Heh, just because I ruined dinner doesn’t mean I didn’t have fun. I grabbed the propane torch and browned it myself!
It looks a heck of a lot better than it was. Don’t do it.
Biggles

No it ain’t! Last week my main flashcard went MIA, missing in action. Sure I have a few more, but there were a few posts on there and wasn’t able to do my job here in The Lab. I found it! So, hopefully within a few days I’ll get that together with some words and share my Pot of White Beans simmered with Pork Ribs. But until then, thought I would share this high-roast chicken I made the other day. Salt and a 450 degree oven, ain’t that somethin’? But Biggles, breast meat is always dry and tasteless. Not this time pally boy, it was moist and full of more chickenny flavor than I had expected.
I bought the chicken last week from Omar at Joya de Ceren here in Richmond. I didn’t ask where he got it, but it is surely not from grower you’d find at your local mega mart. Check out that leg and wing meat, it’s lean. This bird was able to get about, flapping an’ runnin’. And you know what? Raw it smells different, has a smell, rich and gamey. Even the fancy Rosie or Rocky Jr.’s don’t have this. And after it’s cooked, far more chickenny flavors. And at a $1.39 a pound for entero pollo? Count me in. Thank you Omar!
Okay, so you have a pot of beans recipe comin’. Guess what’s in the oven? Just now? Am working on a Roast Chicken Chile Verde, all dedicated to Chilebrown of Mad Meat Genius. We’ll see how that turns out, I used no recipe. Since it’s cooked in a clay cooker along with a whole chicken, the liquid proportions are WAY down. In fact, I used less than a cup and am thinking maybe no broth could be the way to go. Plus, I cut up everything in a small dice and whizzed the tomatillos. Everything must be cut small to cook in the allotted hour or so that it takes to cook the chicken. I put a foil lined cookie tray on the bottom of the oven, just in case. I think it’s going to spew some liquid, it’s amazing how much liquid using a clay pot retains.
That’s it for now, roger dodge and over and under.
xo, Biggles
Joya de Ceren
12545 San Pablo Ave
Richmond California
(510) 235-5315

I can remember days when I just this high, I Iook back and they were pretty darned fine. All except for … art. This could be music, drawing, painting and/or dancing. I have 4 internal metronomes all going at once, all at a different rate. When I play the drums or a stringed instrument, both hands do the same thing. If I attempt to split the strummins? My brain splits in half, fall over and I curl up in to a little ball. As I got older, I got smarter and started using rulers to draw, anything. I still have some of those in the garage somewheres. Drawing trees with a ruler is dumb, just in case you wanted to know. By the time I was in high school I’d pretty much given up on this whole art thing, done and over with says me.
Towards the end of high school I discovered cooking and photography, That is to say, I’d been doing those things for years, but realized that as I got older and better, my food and photography didn’t suck as much as it used to.
For today’s entry, there is no recipe, no procedure you can follow. It’s pure art, feel it, study, listen, poke & prod. You have to become one with your beef roast, zen that s.o.b. until you own its soul. MmmMMm, beef soul.
When you’ve spent many years studying your chosen form of art, you know the rules and your ways as second nature. The best part though? Is when you can break those rules, and have a masterpiece presented. This, my good people is just that. I broke one of the all-time huge rules of cooking roasts, don’t put a frozen hunk of meat in the oven.

Continue reading →