Cold Smoke

Cold smoked bacon





cold smoker rig


We're heading to Columbus, and I like to bring an offering of bacon to the Buckeye.

A couple of weeks ago the New York Times had an article about Rock Star Butchers. It an annoying article about hipster foodies trying to obtain some earthy grittiness by watching some dude cut up a pig. I think you will get more enlightened (and get a better bang for your buck) by simply buying a whole chicken and cutting it up. Do it once a week for a month. Figure out how to use one bird for several meals. Seriously.

But wait a minute, one of these dudes get thirty bucks a head for a pig demo. A butcher shop charges $10,000 for an 8 week program. I gotta see what all the fuss is about.



I got some instruction books from the library and my mom talked to somebody at the Worthington farmer's market.

Put on your foodie helmets (chinstrap extra tight) we're going for a ride.


Oh and yeah it's official,



I don't have to take anymore guff.

Cheers

New Knife

MAC gets a new knife for the meat grinder

After three years, five months and two days of worrying, I finally did it. I put the knife part of my meat grinder in the sink disposal. It clinked around for five or six seconds before I realized what was going on. Well I thought it might be getting a little dull anyway. I couldn't find the part on the KitchenAid website, so I ended up calling them. No problem, nineteen bucks later and I'm back in business. Seriously if you own a KitchenAid stand mixer the Food Grinder Attachment is a great accessory.

Cheers.

Hot Dog Video Part III: Campfire Dog

In the finale, MAC and the boys go camping so that they may cook hot dogs in the proper way: Over an open fire, on a stick.

Cheers.

Hot Dog Video Part II: Enter the Smoker

But wait there's more.

Cheers.

Hot Dog Video

Wow these pictures move! My first food video.

Cheers

Italian Style from SW Ohio

Italian Sausage recipe

A couple of years back a guy named George posted a comment that included a recipe for sausage. Well I finally got around to trying it out. Here's his recipe:

George’s Italian Sausage

INGREDIENTS
9 lb pork, boneless, shoulder or butt
3 Tbsp garlic powder
4 Tbsp fennel seed, partially ground in mortar
2 Tbsp red pepper
4 tsp salt
2 tsp pepper, black, freshly ground
2 Tbsp parsley, chopped
¼ cup white wine


Nine pounds is a lot of sausage, make sure you invite a few people over to eat it. The only change I made from the above recipe was in the quantity of salt. I'm not a big salter but I like about a teaspoon (7 g) of flake salt per pound of meat. Also I never been able to put too much parsley in a recipe.

So as America's biggest sausage holiday is upon us let's take time to reflect on what makes this country great: Sausage, made by hand and shared with others.



Thanks for the recipe, George.

Cheers.