Grub Hacker

Cornichon Fail!

I Purchased some fresh tarragon on Thursday in preparation to make some cornichon pickles on Saturday.  Friday night I chop the pickles and salted them to let them cure overnight.
Saturday morning I get everything out and ready and realize that my tarragon is now brownagon..

Dammit!

Off to store in town.... Out.....
Stop at another store in town... Out.....
Drive to next town over..... Out.....

WTF!  Who put the run on the tarragon?

I settle for a crappy bunch of dill and head home to make dill pickles...

Don't get me wrong, I love dill pickles.  But I have made dill pickles so many times and the whole point of making pickles this time was to make cornichons, with TARRAGON!

Here is basically the cornichon recipe, substitute dill for tarragon

Homemade Italian Beef Sandwiches

So I was at restaurant depot the other day and saw a beef knuckle roast.  I picked one up since for one, I had never seen one, and two, it was cheap.  At the time I had no clue how I was going to prepare it but figured I would let things evolve over the course of the week. This cut is lean and as it turns out has a ton of flavor and great value at 1.60 something a pound.

The timing of  Paupered Chef:Homemade Italian Beef post this week was perfect and it provided a perfect fate for this nice looking cut of meat.  I know the recipe did not call for this cut but it worked out perfectly and if you can get your hands on Beef Knuckle its worth a go.  This basically is the Paupered Chef's recipe that is doubled and tweaked a bit.

  Question O the Day

 

Have you ever bought something with no clue how you were going to prepare it?  What was it?  What inspiration did you draw from? 

 

 

Salami, Saucisson Sec and Guanciale Update

The curing closet in the basement has been working out great.  At this point I have Salami, Saucisson Sec and Guanciale in the closet and I am just about ready to take the small Salami links down at about 3 weeks hang time.  

The curing closet has been holding a steady 56-58 degrees Fahrenheit and 67-71% humidity and I have been amazed at just how well my humidifier has held these humidity levels. I think the humidifier was purchased at home depot some years ago and has a simple LCD screen read out with twin tanks.  I would imagine that this setup could run my curing closet for a good month and a half on full tanks.  

  

Review: Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking and Curing

 

  

      

 

Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking and Curing

   

If you have not picked this book up and have any interest in making fresh or dried sausages, pates, smoked foods and other cured things I would drop everything and run out and pick this up.  Charcuterie has a huge volume of wonderful, diverse charcuterie recipes.  Some of the sections include fresh sausages, smoking, pates and other cured things like pickles, vegetables and kraut.  This book reads very well and  is choked full of great recipes with easy to follow instructions and should appeal to both amateur and the experienced.

In the past, much information on charcuterie as a whole has been very limited and spread across many different sources.  Michael and Brian do a wonderful job explaining each process and technique which demystifies the entire process of salting, curing, smoking, and emulsifying.

  

Also, I am sure my girlfriend has been dreading buying me Charcuterie since as of late John and I have been making a ton of items from this great book with many long nights working on recipes with nothing to show for or feed our better halves... Doh!

Charcuterie: Amazon Link

Build: Sausage Fermentation Box

We had a big dilemma while making salami over the weekend.  How to keep the sausages at both 85 degrees Fahrenheit and high humidity?  Seeing as my basement is always at 55 degrees and my upstairs never gets above 65 I realized we needed to get a bit creative.

Digital temperature controller from my Sous Vide machine, old heat lamp from when I had my ducks and an old wood box in my basement and we had a nicely controlled sausage fermentation chamber.

 
Sausage Fermentation Box

Large Box
Ranco or similar digital temperature controller
Cheap Clamp on Light
Heat Lamp
String

You could make this in any type of large box that can safely hold water pans, lights and sausages.  I happened to have a pretty big old wood box that worked perfectly for this purpose.

Sausage box setup with Salamis, running at 85 degrees Fahrenheit

 

 Close up of probe and Sausage-  Sausages are wrapped in paper towels and sprayed down with distilled water twice a day to maintain high humidity levels.

   

Weekend Charcuterie Part 1

We kind of went crazy with all things cured this past weekend.  Some things I have pictures of, some things I don't... :/  I do not want to violate any copyright laws so I am limited with the recipes that I can post.  I will post the recipes that I have created or modified far enough from their original state.

Things that were made:

Sauerkraut
Duck Prosciutto
Fennel and Coriander Cured Copper River Salmon
Gravlax Cured Wild Salmon
Vanilla Maple Cured Bacon
Guanciale
Saucisson of Pork Tenderloin
Saucisson Sec Dry Cured Sausage
Tuscan Salami

Review: Country Bob's All Purpose Sauce

Country Bob's All Purpose Sauce

I have recently had the pleasure of trying a sauce that I had not previously heard about, Country Bob's All Purpose Sauce.  Since I was going to a super bowl party I figured there would be no better judge of a sauce then a house full of hungry people. 

The best way I can describe Country Bob's is a cross between a steak sauce and a BBQ sauce.  Many people that do not normally like steak sauce such as A1 with its high worcestershire sauce and vinegar contents, will like this sauce for its smooth, slightly sweet finish with tamer flavors.  Although this sauce is not extremely complex, it strikes a good balance and is sure to please a wide range of tastes.  This sauce was tried on many things including fries, jalapeno poppers and even venison tenderloin and I heard rave reviews from all on the flavor of the sauce.

Country Bob's Sauces

Seth

Bacon Wrapped Loin

I saw my buddy wrap a deer loin this way over the weekend and I really thought it was a very clean,  effective way to wrap a loin/tenderloin in bacon.   This method can be used with any loin such as pork, beef or deer.  I do not normally season the loin much before wrapping as the bacon provides a good amount salt.  The loin can be rubbed with BBQ rub if you like but with this deer loin we did not want to muddle with the pure deer flavors.

Bacon Wrapped Deer Loin

1 Deer loin/tenderloin
Package of favorite bacon
BBQ Rub (Optional)

Wrap Deer with bacon as shown below
Cook at 275-300 on the smoker until internal temprature reaches 128.
Pull and rest for 10-12 mintues, temprature will continue to rise to 132-136

FIrst lay out bacon with a slight overlap as shown in picture

Then wrap and toothpick as shown

Seth

Cuttings of Marquette's from the Vineyard

We worked in the vineyard the other day taking cuttings of the new grape varietal, Marquette.  This grape holds some of the greatest promise for cold weather vineyards and I have VERY high hopes for the wine that this grape will produce.  We started with about 20 vines of this varietal and getting more from any source has been next to impossible so we have been taking cuttings in order to propagate our own.

Info on Marquette

Marquette Grapes

Here is a shot of the vineyard in winter.  Trellises go up in srping!

Seth