I just got back from Rick’s Quality Meats in El Cerrito and he’s smoking 10 chicken halfs. He brined them in an Apple / Cherry Mixture. I’ve had it once before and it is well worth the effort. They’ll be ready after 4pm today and certainly by tomorrow, that’s when I’m going to go get mines. Remember, sometime on January 13th head over and get in line.
Rick’s Quality Meats
510.233.9390
1600 Liberty Street
El Cerrito, CA 94530
Author Archives: Biggles
Bar Foods
Yesterday I was invited out to a sports bar in Pleasant Hill somewheres to watch Greenbay battle Philidelphia. I don’t get out much so it was really nice to get out and do something a tad different on a Sunday. The company was great, the food was just fine (plenty of fries) and the beer was cold. Although it would have been nice to have the Packers win for Ed’s 40th birthday, oh well.
Happy 40th ED !!!
Rosso Sausage Dinner
Aside from the salami and some Mexican Chorizo, Fatted Calf’s Rosso Sausage was another yummy yum yum that I picked up yesterday morning. Imagine this treat at your dinner table. It was quite tasty, a lot like a traditional Italian Sausage. I didn’t find any fennel (I don’t care either way, I just noticed it is all) and you could taste a bit of the red wine.
All in all is was a very nice sausage experience. My wife found them a bit salty and yet both plates were cleaned.
Fatted Calf Salami
A few weeks back I made a journey into Berkeley to visit a new charcuterie, Fatted Calf. They hang out at the Farmer’s Market there selling fresh meat products. Well, with the holidays and bad weather it’s been tough getting a hold of them and the meat love packages.
I scored big time today.
I showed up fairly early and they weren’t there. That sucked. So Eli and I went up and visited Jan while she was working the Blue Bottle Coffee stall. We hung out for a bit then decided to see if Taylor and Kim had showed up. They had, and it felt like xmas all over again. My eyeballs were shaking as I went over the menu asking questions about the sausages and so forth. They were in a good mood and as they were loading up my order, Kim tossed in a salami and said “here, you try this”.
And I did. Take a look at the picture again. The reason there is just a little nub of meat there is cause I ate it. Before my camera got to it. As I’m writing this … there is none left.
I’m telling you. Give them a call or go by the Farmer’s Market in Berkeley from 10am (give or take a few) to 3pm (or when they sell out).
Fatted Calf Charcuterie
Taylor / Kim
958 Illinois Street
San Francisco, CA 94107
v 510.301.9279
f 510.653.4327
www.fattedcalf.com
Can you find the two German blades?
Do you think you know your stuff? Can you pick the two German blades here? I’ll give you a hint, one is French.
If you’d like to try, please leave a comment. I’ll let you know the end of next week.
Warm & Happy Frittata
Okay, so sometimes I may get a little carried away with the whole meat thing. I’ll be the first one to admit it. I enjoy lighting fires and cooking meat, get over it. The problem with Meat Blinders securely fastened to your head is that you forget other yummy things. It’s been many years since I whipped up a frittata (Italian Broiled Omelette Thing) and while leafing through one of Jeff Smith’s cookbooks I ran across a recipe for one. Not that it amounted to much, but it reached out to me. Off I went …
New Years Breakfast – Egg-in-a-Hole
You bet it’s a little white trashy, but oh so yummy. I was up and ready for the day by 7:30 New Years Day and realized I had no breakfast meat. Kinda sucks, but one tries to be big about such things. We’re adults right? You bet. I stuck my nose into the Cheerios box, a few cabinets and then the fridge. Sure I could have had a nice cheese omelette with some chives er something. Then it hit me, if you don’t have breakfast meat, HAVE AN EGG-IN-A-HOLE !!!! That, salt & pepper with hot sauce and I’m set ’till noon.
Happy New Year ya’ll.
Canadian Pork Pie – Tourti
For this holiday’s meal my wife was kind enough to offer a few of these tourti
Xmas 2003 Barbecue Meat
MeatHenge hosted the meal this year, sort of at the last moment. We had considered not doing much else other than relaxing and doing what we felt like (watching dvd’s). At the semi-last moment we decided to cook and invite. My wife wanted to do a Canadian Pork Pie (tourti
Christmas Socks
Okay, so admissions to MeatHenge have been sparse to say the least. Most cooking web sites are hunkering down and sending forth everything to bear so everyone has a nice holiday meal. And it seems many cooking web logs are doing the reverse. We’re tired, over worked and ready for some rest.
Clearly we are digging for content, and speaking of content … I would think most of you are getting nice new socks for gifts! Go now and have a close look at your existing sock family to see if you can toss them. Maybe you don’t know what needs to be tossed and what needs to be retained. Looky here, these need to be tossed.
Happy Bagel
Yeah, I dunno man. That bagel looks like it’s up to something.
Fatted Calf Charcuterie
This last week I heard a juicy rumor. A butcher had left Cafe Rouge a few years back and had started his own charcuterie. Saturday at 11am found me at the Berkeley Farmer’s Market searching for Fatted Calf.
Meat Storage
Yeah yeah, you all know what to do. Buy your meat in those cute little plastic wrapped foam containers and toss it into the freezer. Simple, easy and a waste of perfectly good meat. Remember pal, that animal gave up it’s life (probably not without a fight) so it could feed you. Pay a little respect won’t you?
Freezers are for a few things. Ice Cream comes to mind right away. Maybe frozen grape juice, chicken parts for stock and ice cubes. Please keep your fresh meat out of the damn freezer. I know it’s handy to come home, pull out a pound of some ground meat and toss it into a skillet for god knows what. The next time you do that, pay attention to what you end up with. Pay attention to what that meat looks like while it is whistling away in your skillet, frozen like a brick. Take note and next time try it fresh. Next time roast your chicken from a FRESH chicken, not FRESH frozen. Foo. Notice and take note. I believe you’ll find with a little more effort and time at the butcher your dinners will improve.
If you need to keep your pork chop, beef roast or bacon a few extra days, re-wrap it in aluminum foil. MAKE SURE YOUR HANDS ARE CLEAN. Foil will give you at least ONE extra day in the fridge, which could mean the difference between a nice steak dinner or Lucky Charms & skim milk.
Fun with Frying
Against most everyone’s advice (especially my doctor’s), I still like to fry food. OH sure, using less oil in the pan is better for you, but can you possibly get a decent crispy brown pork chop without much oil? Mebe.
A month ago, give or take, I purchased some fancy Calphalon commerical 11″ fry pan (non-stick). I figured I should have at least 1 or 2 non-stick rigs in my arsenal. Well, I was wrong. My pork chops looked as though they’d been microwaved. Nasty to say the least. So I gave it to my uncle, he’s not a snob.
Since I feel right at home cooking with cast iron, I had no problem going back to using it for my chops. I can also say that my cast iron is pretty damned well seasoned, by that I mean I can fry an egg with no added fat and NOT have it stick. Anyhoo, I’ve been playing with getting an even brown crust on my chops with very little fat. And by taking a look at the picture above, you’ll see it’s pretty darned close. I melted just a little bit of Lard in the pre-heated cast iron and wiped it with a paper towel. Truly, not much fat in pan. I turned up the heat a bit more, tossed in the chop with a bacon press on top. I left the press on top for the full cooking time, maybe 6 minutes a side or so. Look! That’s nice lookin’ and not all greasy!
Not enough leavenings for gravy, but this is supposed to be somewhat healthier for you, eh? This and a vegie or salad is well worth the price of admission.
Kale Soup – Almost No Meat
Yes, that’s right. Glory be! THERE’S NO MEAT !!!! Not only that, it’s spiffy good.
