@Mike Goetzke ,

If you brine your own or use one of the supermarket packages of stuff floating in liquid than looks grossly like what you would see surrounding your strawberries on a shortcake, make sure to take that meat out and soak in in plain water for a few hours to seep some salt out.  You will be cooking it without surrounding water to leach it out and this will achieve this for you.  Brining recipes are not designed commercially or otherwise for the absence of water to dilute the salty taste.

Sous vide will probably leave any fat veins, well lets just say gross, so go healthier and avoid those.

After cooking remember to place back in the fridge in the bag and let the meat reabsorb the juices pressed out.

I am waiting for the sales on pre-brined next week.  I cleaned out the freezer and tossed anything looking like the abominable snowman inside a plastic bag into the trash can to see if they would come alive so as to make room.

Peter

My mom had a very large chest freezes for years.  I think she bought it around 1947 and had for over 50 years. I think she still had food from the first day and the darned thing, once it got full, the food never seemed to disappear more than 6 inches below the top.  Finally, I decided she had to get rid of the contents.  By that time, it could no longer be classified as food.

I got my son to come with his backhoe and together with one of my crew, we started pulling stuff out and into a wheelbarrow. While my son was digging a hole, Scott and I were wheeling chunks out for buriel. Almost all of the packages were ‘honey combed” they had been in the freezer so long. My mom was hovering close by as the two of us were prying out those honeycombs and throwing into the wheelbarrow. Mom would, every now and then, grab a package that she could still see the label on and “save” it.  Finally, as we got within a couple of feet from the bottom, we could no longer pry packages apart. They had been thru too many thaws from power loss. They had thawed and frozen together.  So, we just hooked a chain to the freezer, dragged it to the garage door and my son hooked on with his loader and we buried the entire freezer. I went to Sears and bought Mom a new freezer.  Definitely not the size chest we had buried, but a very small freezer, the size for a camper vehicle. By that time, Mom did not have too much time left. By the time we finally put her in a “home” she only had a few packages on the shelves.

Tinker

Great thread.

I'm away from my kitchen for almost a year now. I cook every night, just simple things

@GoingMyWay, fantastic meals, great preparation and presentation. I brine my own corned beef, you should try it some time.

I mentioned chocolate chip cookies in my first post in this thread. Cocoa, white chocolate chips cookies. The sheet on the left is baked to be chewy, the way my wife likes them, the sheet on the right is baked crispier, the way I like them.

Tom

Great thread.

I'm away from my kitchen for almost a year now. I cook every night, just simple things

@GoingMyWay, fantastic meals, great preparation and presentation. I brine my own corned beef, you should try it some time.

I mentioned chocolate chip cookies in my first post in this thread. Cocoa, white chocolate chips cookies. The sheet on the left is baked to be chewy, the way my wife likes them, the sheet on the right is baked crispier, the way I like them.

Tom

Thanks Tom.

Do you buy a plain brisket and then brine it yourself?  I've found that buying brisket is very expensive, especially compared to the price of ready made corned beef when it goes on sale around St. Patrick's Day.

Those cookies look great!  Do you have a recipe for them?  I was just thinking that macadamia nuts might be good in there (though I think they're pretty expensive).  Do you just take the chewy cookies out early so they remain chewy or do you cook them at a different temperature?  I prefer chewy cookies myself.  I really like the chewy white chocolate macadamia nut cookies from Subway.  Those cookies are what made me say macadamia nut cookies might be good in your chocolate cookies.

Well tonight's meal was sushi but last evening's meal was more note worthy.

Akaushi tenderloin and fresh asparagus with a tarragon sherry vinaigrette. The asparagus were small and tender and it was the perfect overture for starting a healthy spring cooking regimen.

In the upcoming weeks there will be among other spring/early summer options, fresh morels, fiddlehead ferns, young tender asparagus, vidalia onions, spring garlic and ramps.  Now's the time to anticipate your spring cooking adventure.

If I had thought a bit more about last evening's meal, I should have sliced the tenderloin a lot thinner and then wraped it around a small bunch of asparagus like a bow on a package. The presentation would have been a lot more fun and then drizzle some tarragon sherry vinaigrette on the package. Nice...oh well there's always next time.    That's how you learn...that's how you grow.

(Attachment Link)

Was the sushi homemade or from a restaurant?

This is the season for the thin/tender asparagus.

Thanks for the reminder about all the goodies we can find at the farmer's market!  The farmer's market that we always go to opens the last Saturday of April.  We're looking forward to its return.  Last year we bought ramps and morels.  Fiddleheads are harder to find around here.  Giant used to carry them, but the last couple of times I bought them at Wegmans.

Your tenderloin is perfectly cooked!  Is that just chopped up hard boiled egg on the asparagus?

I was going to ask if the egg had been grated.  I should have realized it had been run through a strainer.  I forgot that's how my wife did the egg on her Korean potato salad.

Last night I grilled brats, wings, and pork chops.  I try to avoid reposting a meal that I've already posted, but I think this is the first time I've grilled pork chops.  This is also the first time cooking the wings whole.  I normally break them down, but I was feeling lazy and also wanted to see how the whole wing turned out.  It took longer to cook - about 30/35 minutes versus 15/20 minutes when cut up.

Oh interesting.  All the grocery stores around here have big displays of the corned beef in both point and flat for St. Patrick's Day.  How much do you pay for your brisket?

Walnuts sound good.

I've never heard of taking the tray out and letting them cool for a bit and then finish baking.  That sounds like a good idea.  Is that a common technique when making cookies?  I like to make chocolate chip cookies using the Pillsbury cookie dough log you buy in the refrigerator section of the grocery store.  For chewier cookies, I just take them out when they still look a little under cooked.  I really like to bake them until they're golden brown and fully cooked and then eat them right out of the oven still warm.

That looks good.  I should try making it with regular spaghetti sometime.  I don't care much for thin pasta.

Tonight's dinner was liver and onions with fried potatoes.

Awesome! A lot of people really turn up their noses at the sound of liver. I've liked it from when I was a child surprisingly enough.

Lately we had been trying bacon and then cooking the liver in the bacon fat and garnishing with the crispy bacon. This time we were trying to be "healthier"and not cook in bacon fat and also eat the bacon.

@GoingMyWay,

The cookie recipe you asked for. The optional leavening will give you a little more rise. Had to type it out, moms cookbook is fading fast.

1 cup butter-softened (leave out about an hour)

2/3rds cup white sugar

2/3rds cup brown sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract (high quality)

2-1/4 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder (optional)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 2/3 cups white chocolate chips

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; stir into the creamed mixture. Fold in the white chocolate chips. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Preheat oven to 375, bake for 10 minutes.

Allow to cool on sheet for 5 minutes, move to cooling racks

Tom

@GoingMyWay,

The cookie recipe you asked for. The optional leavening will give you a little more rise. Had to type it out, moms cookbook is fading fast.

1 cup butter-softened (leave out about an hour)

2/3rds cup white sugar

2/3rds cup brown sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract (high quality)

2-1/4 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder (optional)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 2/3 cups white chocolate chips

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; stir into the creamed mixture. Fold in the white chocolate chips. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Preheat oven to 375, bake for 10 minutes.

Allow to cool on sheet for 5 minutes, move to cooling racks

Tom

Thanks Tom!  Thanks for finding the recipe, typing it up, and sharing!  I've typed up some of my grandparents old recipes to make sure they are saved electronically so the recipe isn't lost forever.  Thanks to @Cheese, I use the Paprika App to store and manage most of my recipes (I'm still have a bunch of recipes to type up and input).

When I was living on my uncle's farm, when we butchered a calf, the liver was the first meal. I think it was still warm as it hit the pan. when a deer was brought home from a hunt, the liver was always cooked, almost, before it cooled off. My cousin always prepared it very tasty. I loved liver in those days. When I moved back with my mom, i lost my taste for liver. she always over cooked it to be very dry and tasteless ....... and greasy. And then, I got married. I regained my taste for liver. Even tho it was always "store bought," my wife does an excellent job. This is one guy who has never bugged his wife that "Mom always did it a better way." I still like liver.  And meat loaf. My wife cooks the best meat loaf I have ever eaten. Those are two meals that when i tell people my wife does the best job of cooking, I often get some negative looks and replies.
Tinker

I forgot to mention that we always use calves liver when making liver and onions.  It's much more tender than beef liver.

Does your wife have a secret recipe for the meatloaf?  I always liked my grandmother's meatloaf because of its simplicity.  It was basically ground beef, bread crumbs, chopped onion, Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, salt and pepper, and 1 egg.  Ironically I believe the recipe came from a microwave oven cookbook they had.  The meatloaf was cooked in a glass pyrex loaf pan in the microwave.  I've tried to replicate the recipe/cooking, but it hasn't quite come out the same.  I don't remember the microwave power setting or cook time.  Though I wanna say it was like 30 minutes at 50% power.  The ends always came out rather overcooked, which was my grandmother's favorite part.  The leftovers made great meatloaf sandwiches the next day!

Wow that's a lot of recipes!  I only have 53 so far.

While I like my steaks cooked medium rare, I prefer my liver fully cooked through.  I don't find the calves liver to be very tough and chewy.  I guess liver does have a kind of distinct, possibly organy or metallic taste to it.  I think soaking it in milk might help (I think I've heard/read that it works, but I've never tried since the taste doesn't bother me)?

I made a beef heart "steak" a few years ago.  I think I soaked that in vinegar to help take out some of the taste.  I actually liked it.  I also served it with cooked up onions.  The beef heart is very inexpensive.  The only downside is it's kind of a chore to cut out all of the veins/arteries/ventricles/connective tissue.

I tried making kidneys (can't remember if they were beef or pork) about 7-8 years ago.  I was so excited when I bought them because I was thinking this is so cheap for a "big piece of protein."  Now kidneys have a very distinct and terrible taste!  I followed the instructions for cleaning them, but they still did not taste good at all! 

A mixture of beef, pork, and veal!  That's a little too fancy for me .  Do you buy each meat individually or do you buy a pre-packaged "meatloaf/meatball" mix?  I think most of the pre-made mixes I've seen don't use equal portions - I wanna say it's more beef than pork and veal?

My wife kicked me out of the kitchen 53 years ago today. Well, maybe she waited a couple of days. I really don't have a clue to how she cooks liver or meatloaf. Both always come out tender, juicy and tasty.  I never have to use any spices, ketchup, mustard or any thing else to fortify or hide the flavors. Her meatloaf is made from beef, pork and veal and it is never over cooked. It falls apart when cut with a fork. I love the leftovers, not for sandwiches, but just slice off a big chunk for lunch and eat it plain. She adds onions and a few other vegetables to the mix. Not much, if any, bread. That is why it falls apart, but it is juicy and tasty.
Tinker

When I'm home, my wife is banished from the kitchen. I grew up with a mom who cooked for the nuns at the orphanage she was raised in from the age of 10 until she left at 18. My wife has become a much better cook over the last 42 years.

By the way I can set a full formal table, and know what each piece of flatware and its placement means. When I'm home,  home all are dinners are served with a 5 pieces flatware setting.

I have a killer meatloaf recipe.....

Tom

I am one of those readers.  I enjoy this thread, although I don’t fancy myself a good cook.  I have a very limited range.  Meatloaf and sloppy joes are solid.  Lefse tastes perfect, but I haven’t been successful in rolling it out perfectly round.  My Swedish potato sausage and fresh walleye tacos are excellent (in my opinion).  However it pales in comparison to what I see posted here.

My one daughter (she’s 10) has taken an interest in cooking and I am trying learn and be supportive for her.  She can handle the lefse fairly well and enjoys making the spicy mayo and cabbage slaw for the fish tacos.  She doesn’t do too well with meat yet, too gross in her eyes, especially when I pull out the grinder to make sausage.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Cheese said, “This is a woodworking forum and the eats section has more hits than the saw blade section.”

I’m no gourmet but I can say that compared to the delicious looking dishes you guys have posted, saw blades taste flat.

Cheese said, “This is a woodworking forum and the eats section has more hits than the saw blade section.”

I’m no gourmet but I can say that compared to the delicious looking dishes you guys have posted, saw blades taste flat.

Yes, but even with no extra seasoning, they are sharp.
Tinker