What's cooking? part 4

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http://i.imgur.com/zfS7g9L.png
plop

that was a v failed attempt at motion lines

oh ok, then you should be ok with that for crockpot pulled pork!

I use shoulder or butt roast for pulled pork - just roast the loin. Personally, I like pork roasted low and slow, 300 or so until it gets to 140. Then if it's got enough external fat, crisp it up under the broiler or with a torch.

A center-cut pork loin might truly be my favorite piece of meat to cook (and you know how much I love beef so that's saying something).

I line the bottom of a deep roasting pan with diced yellow potatoes and smear the loin with a paste of mashed garlic, mustard, rosemary, s/p, olive oil, and stick it on top of the layer of potatoes. Roast that sucker. About like 20 mins from the end I add a diced apple or two and toss it with the potatoes to get everything coated with pork juice.

That plus some garlic spinach? Dinner for days.

i made steak and eggs (with brussels sprouts)

i haven't cooked much beef before. it was a thin cut, but i was surprised at how fast it was done - seemingly faster than bacon, even though it was a thicker cut than yr average skinny little strip of bacon. it seemed to take less time than the eggs!

I will try that w the apple! I just have to improvise a roasting pan :-(

do you have a skillet? works just as well

or dollar store disposable jobbie

^^^

Oh I use either a metal or pyrex-thingy rectangular pan, it's not special. The same kind of thing you'd make brownies in.

Making up apple butter today - steamed and sauced 25 lbs of apples (plus a pound of dates). I've got another 12 lbs or so to do, probably Tuesday when I can work from home. Then spice it up and cook it down over the long weekend, with the goal to get it all canned by next Sunday.

do you give it as gifts or is this for your own use? that's loads of apple butter!

For gifting, mostly. I think it will cook down to around 8 quarts or so. I also want to make bitters this year, but that will be a totally new thing so could massively backfire!

I whacked a chicken in a pot and made tomato white bean & arugula chicken soup plus 6C of broth to freeze plus several cups of pulled cooked chx for later recipes, and froze the carcass for future stock. Feeling accomplished tbh. XD

oh I have a couple 9x12's but no wire rack but there are ways to improvise.

You don't need a wire rack! You don't even want one! The potatoes are holding up the meat and we WANT them to get all juicy.

oh! yes

I smoked a beef brisket, and am finally figuring out the right timeline for these longish smokes. Put the meat on in the afternoon, smoke for a few hours, foil it, drop the heat back a bit and let it finish overnight, pull it and let it rest an hour or two in the morning. Voila, brisket or pulled pork for lunch.

Yeah we do brisket for about 14 hours!

Brisket brisket brisket
Easily one of the most appealing sounding meat words

My impression after 3 pork shoulders and 2 beef briskets is that beef sucks up the smoke much more efficiently. I need to dial back the smoke time on the next one. Also, less black pepper in the rub.

Seriously, which of the following things sounds appetizing:

Beef
Pork
Brisket
Ham
Chicken

Chicken is the only word that comes close and it's not that close.

I've never made or eaten brisket btw.

A brisket a tasket a green and yellow basket I wrote a letter to my love and on the way I fell face-first into an entire smoker of delicious beef just lying there on the sidewalk.

No seriously someone is smoking something down the street from me and whatever it is, I want it.

Time to meet the neighbors! Bring pie and they will give you all of the smoked meats.

Speaking of pie, I had really exceptionally good pie at a little old-school diner joint in Tuscon, so good that I went back the next day for more. Usually I can claim that the crust is not as good as mine (or my mom's or grandmother's), but in this case they NAILED it. Bonus points for offering rhubarb pie, which is my favorite (or perhaps second to sour cherry pie).

How come you're so apheared of cake and yet you have awesome pie crust skillz?

Classic pie crust is really the only baking I do, and only because I grew up watching the technique executed by masters!

Sooooo...she's afraid to put flour and eggs and oil in a bowl together but she'll tackle one of the hardest kinds of pastry this side of a croissant. Typical.

Yeah, that's silly!

:)

My diced up butter is chilling in the freezer right now.

I'm getting psyched up to make my annual butter rolls. I don't really enjoy making them bc so MESSY but they're a tradition/request.

!!! How do you shape them?

i was gonna link to a picture but flickr has an annoying new system that i can't figure out yet
the dough is rolled, folded, frozen, rolled, folded, frozen, then rolled and cut into slices, then baked
they wind up really flaky and light
i should really get working on that, haven't started :-/

That sounds like an enormous amount of work! I'm about to add water to my dough and make it into big cold disks and let it rest in the fridge while I peel a mountain of apples. Listening to Bach variations just because.

pumpkin pie has a shiny new red ceramic pie dish, pretty happy with it

dunno about this peanut butter pie. it was just for lols though so no thang if it doesnt get over

Whipped the previously caramelized yams into submission earlier this morning and just took a no-joke chocolate cake out of the oven. Debating making ganache with the extra-dark ghee I made by mistake, which has a deep caramel flavor, or just dusting the cake with powdered sugar.

Can of tomatoes with use by date of feb 2013. Yay or nay?

Sniff test

xp
Open, smell. If no bad odor, taste. If no bad taste, use.

Hmm. My pie dough is sadly glutinous. I'll have to try the half vodka trick next time.

No dents or bulges in the can and you should be fine with the tomatoes, especially if you're cooking them.

There's a dent

I don't think the seal was broken tho

Don't do it bro

Think abt how fucking old those tomatoes are

They're cooking :-(

rip

my gumbo is simmering, rolls are done, rigatoni is cooked for rig/cheese, do i get to drink yet y/n

y!!