WAFFLE-LY GOOD SAUSAGE

You talk about delicious, this sausage is just a wonderful weekend morning breakfast item.   Or for that matter, any morning.  A great tasting sweet sausage. 

I went to our favorite grocer and purchased one pound of ground pork.  Be sure it is ground pork with nothing added such as salt, spices or other flavorings.  Just pork.  I had all the other ingredients needed already here at home and I bet you do too.  

I placed the ground pork in a large enough container that I would be able to mix all the ingredients together without much trouble.  

And after breaking the ground pork up some as you see above, I added all the other ingredients. as you see below.

As you can see, I cut the waffles up into very small pieces (smaller than your little fingernail). The salt and pepper have been added along with the maple syrup and now it is time to get your hands in there to get a good mix of all the ingredients.  Plastic gloves would be good to wear if available but if not, then be sure to give your hands a good washing.  

After a good mixing of the meat, spices and syrup, form your Waffle-ly Good sausage into a log shape and place it on a sheet of plastic wrap approximately 15 inches long as seen below. 

Now fold one of the long sides of the wrap over the sausage log and roll it up so that it looks like this.

Now grab the two ends of plastic,  lift the log off your table and  twirl the sausage around and around until you have tighten the plastic wrap so that your sausage looks like this;

And now for an important tip.  Place the wrapped sausage into your freezer for approximately 2 hours.  This will help firm up the outside (crust) of you sausage log and will make it easier to slice into approximately 1/2 inch patties.

And now you are ready to enjoy a very tasty sausage patty.  Or place in a small freezer bag and freeze your patties for a week or two.  

• 1 Pound Ground Pork
• 1.5 ounces  Waffles (I used Belgian but you can use your favorite)
• 1.5 ounces  Maple Syrup (use your quality favorite)
• 1/2 TB  Table Salt
• 1/2 tsp  Ground Black Pepper

And don"t forget a container for mixing and the plastic wrap.  

CORNED BEEF BRISKET

I'm getting ready for St. Patrick's Day that is just around the corner.  So I thought I could make my own and I must admit the it tasted pretty good.  Even my wife said that it was very good.  In addition to that, the neighbors happened over just as it was finish cooking, so I gave them a slice or two and got a "very good" review.  Comment was made that it is very good, nice and moist.  So, I guess I did a good job.  

I started by going to our favorite grocer and purchased a whole trimmed brisket.  It had approximately 1/2 inch of fat on the top with very little fat on the other side.  I left the fat on it but you could trim it if you want too.  I did cut most of the fat off after it was cooked.  

I put it in the following brine;

 1 gallon water                                                                                                                                                    9 ounces salt                                                                                                                                                        5 ounces brown sugar                                                                                                                                    6 ounces pickling spice                                                                                                                                    2.7 ounces prague powder no. 1                                                                                                                    2 ounces minced garlic

Both the prague powder and pickling spice were purchased from SausageMaker.com.  thru OUR STORE

I mixed all this together in a food grade plastic container and it looked like this;

I was really excited as I placed this container of brine and brisket in the refrigerator.  Everyday, I looked at it and stirred it around to make sure all the the spices continued to get mixed.  I really don't know for sure that this is necessary, but it made me feel good. On the third day, I turned the brisket over in the brine.  And then on the sixth day, I removed it and I cut it in half to give you a look at what it looked like after it was cured in this brine.

Notice the dark rich red color of this cured beef.  After it is cooked it looks like the picture at the top of this blog.  

The whole brisket weighed 5.8 pound.  I "eyeballed" it and cut it approximately in half.  One half went into a sealed container and back into the frig.   After wiping most of the pickling spices off the other half it went into the covered crock pot (slow cooker) along with

                                1/2 medium size head of cabbage cut into five pieces                                                                              2 large cooking onions cut each into six pieces                                                                                          6 small red potatoes cut in half

Turned the slow cooker on high for approximately 4 hours                                                           Then turned it down to low for approximately 2 hours                                                                         As I put a fork in it, the brisket started to separate easily.    Between 160-165° F internal. 

Using a spatula and a fork I pulled it out of the cooker and let it rest covered with a clean cloth on a cutting board for approximately 10 minutes while I spooned the cabbage, onions and potatoes into a big bowl. Remember that each slow cooker may vary so you may need slightly more or less time.  

I then sliced the brisket across the grain approximately 1/2 inch thick and served on a plate with a side of the veggies and I added some good horseradish sauce.  UMM UMM GOOD

This was well worth me making it myself.  I've had other corned beef that was commercially produced and this is definitely a far more superior product for me and our family. 

RAINBOW (iridescent) MEAT

It has been brought to my attention by some customers I know shopping at the same supermarket I do that some of the meat in the meat case has a shiny, iridescent appearance.  They pointed out to me a package of fresh cut eye of round steaks that were on display and had a greenish/yellowish cast to part of the steak.  Almost "rainbow" like.  See the beef eye of round picture above as an example.  

This greenish cast was a little shiny but as I would turn the package at different angles the greenish/yellowish cast would change shades of green.  Again, rainbow like.  Iridescent was the way we three decided was the best way to describe this.  

The two customers asked, "Is it spoiled?"  It's not brown or black -- but iridescent.  It's not a moldy green color, but a shiny green tint that changes as you look at it from different angles when I turned the package.  

No, I told these young ladies, it is not spoiled.  It is the way the light that hits the meat fibers and  is reflected off the meat and splits into various colors. Many of us have seen this  but we did not know what it was and we assumed that there is something wrong with the meat.  

When light hits the meat fibers it splits into colors that resemble a rainbow.  A good comparison would be if you look at a DVD with light shining on it.  As you move the DVD to different angles you will notice that the DVD changes color.  Almost "rainbow" like.  This is called "diffraction grating" .  That is as scientific as we need to get for now. 

We had to move the eye of round steak around several times to get the picture you see above.  And the flash from the camera also helped show more of the diffracting. In other words, it was not something that just jumped out at us.  Knowing that, you may have bought some of this beef in the past and consumed it without even realizing it was iridescent.  

The cells and fibers that that make up this muscle have formed in such a way during the time that the animal was growing that they cause the light to diffract, thus forming the "rainbow".  

This iridescence is not in all meats, however, I have seen it most often in the beef eye of round steak or roast that these two young ladies were looking at.  It is also visible from time to time in the beef brisket and I have seen it in a beef chuck roast.  And sometimes you might notice it in a whole muscle ham or even a cooked beef roast that you might purchase from your favorite deli.  On a rare occasion, I have noticed it in a leg of lamb.   Have you noticed that most of the cuts I have mentioned are from the hind leg?  I, along with many other even more scientific people than myself, can not explain this but maybe it has something to do with the fact that the hind legs are used quite a bit so those muscles, because of the work they do to propel the animal forward have a tendency to have muscle fibers  gather in such a way.  

Trying to keep it simple, I am not going to dive any deeper into the scientific aspect of this.  Let's just realize that this iridescent meat is safe to eat.  Again, it is just the way the light reflects off of the muscle fibers.   Now I'm not saying that any piece of meat that has a tint on green is safe, but don't be alarmed if you are looking at a package of meat and it seems have a small section of the surface area iridescent.  If you have any questions at all concerning the safety of the package you are looking at then don't purchase it.

I hope this helps you feel more knowledgeable when purchasing meat from you favorite meat shop.  After I explained this to these two customers, they were satisfied that the package of eye of round steaks they were questioning were indeed safe to purchase.  

Let's Make Buying Beef Simple

When we are at the grocery store standing in front of the meat counter and wondering what to have for dinner ---  all the different cuts of beef displayed confuse us so we just buy a package of ground meat and walk --- run -- away from this meat confusion.

Our intent with this writing is to help remove that confusion.   We plan to provide you with enough information that will allow you to walk the total meat case with confidence and purchase what you want and not just settle for "whatever".

THE FIRST IMPRESSION

Take a look around the total meat department.  Is it really clean, neat and does not have a lot of clutter?  Are the employees neatly dressed with hair covering and wearing plastic gloves?  Are you comfortable purchasing meat here?  You decide.

WHAT IS QUALITY BEEF

There are several definitions of the word quality.  The United Stated Department Of Agriculture  (USDA) has helped you by applying standards to beef.  These standards are assigned as different grades.  The top three grades are the ones you will most likely, and should find at least one of these at your local grocer or meat shop.  If there are no signs or labels telling you which one or ones are at your store -- then ask them. The age of the animal and the amount of marbling (intramuscular fat) are the two major factors that determine the grade assigned by the USDA grader.  For our discussion today, the top three grades are all close to within the same age group. Marbling is the major difference.  The top three grades are;

USDA PRIME -- has the most marbling of all the grades.  Most of this grade of beef is served at white table cloth restaurants.  This one will cost the most.

USDA CHOICE -- has a little less marbling than USDA Prime.  This is the most common beef sold at retail establishments. More than half the beef grades fall into this grade.

USDA SELECT -- Has less marbling than USDA Choice.  This beef will not have as much flavor as the other two grades.  Of the three grades, this one should be least expensive.

WHAT IS MARBLING

We have a love/hate relationship with this thing called marbling.  We love the flavor it adds to the beef but we are not fond of the calories it might add.  Marbling is the small flecks of fat within the muscle tissue.  This fat imparts flavor and juiciness in our beef and we all crave that flavor.  We may like the appearance of an all lean cut with little to no marbling but we really want that juicy flavor that those little flecks of fat impart.

Now that we know a little about the beef grades -- ask you grocer or meat person the grade of beef that they offer for sale.  Remember that USDA Prime will cost you more than USDA Choice while USDA Select will normally cost you the least.  This cost information is based on normal market pricing.  However, your particular store may run specials, so you will have to determine what you want.

YOU DECIDE 

Back in the good old days we might go to the local grocer or corner meat shop and tell "butch" behind the counter what we wanted.  He would pick out a good beef cut, maybe make a cooking suggestion and we would be on our way home knowing that the dinner we were about to prepare would be great -- cause "butch" had good quality meats and he knew what you wanted.

Today, we are not sure what we want, let alone how to buy it or maybe we are not sure how to cook it.  So, what should we look for when making our beef purchase. And -- where is "butch"?

EYE APPEAL IS  BUY APPEAL -- FIRST IMPRESSIONS -- WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR?

You will want to look for a cut of beef that is bright red in color.  Look for those flecks of fat within that bright red muscle.

Look for that muscle to be moist in appearance.  Drying may start on the edges so pay attention to these.  Don't buy a drying out piece of meat.

Dark spots or a cut that is dark all over might mean the meat cutting area may have a sanitation issue.  On the other hand, some cuts like the sirloin and the filet mignon have a tendency to turn dark faster than other cut and not because of any sanitation issue.  Because of the leanness and structure the muscle fibers these two cuts have a tendency to lose their bright red color a lot quicker than other beef cuts. I have seen these cuts lose their "luster" within 6 or 7 hours after cutting.  Nothing wrong with these cuts that would make them turn from bright red but just the muscle structure. These would still be considered "fresh cut" but bottom line, be cautious of meat that is not a bright red color and moist in appearance.  After all you worked hard for that money you are about to spend.

SO WHAT'S FOR DINNER

We are on our way home from that hard day at work and need to stop at your market for dinner and guess what --- you have no idea what you are going to have.  To help you decide you should think about a cooking method.   The cooking method is determined by where the cut comes from.  Meaning, from what section of the animal did the cut come from?

Let's keep this simple.

Generally speaking, as we look at the diagram of the beef above, the front end (chuck, brisket and shank) and the back end (round and shank) will require a moist heat or require a marinade that will tenderize these muscles.  Why?  Because this beef animal weighs over 1,000 pound and these front shoulders and hind legs carry this heavy weight around and are almost constantly in motion as the animal walks .  It takes a lot of muscle to do this.

The more these muscles work,  the thicker the muscle fibers become and the less tender these muscles become.  A moist cooking method and/or a marinade helps reduce the thickness of these muscle fibers and thus the meat becomes more tender.  Let's continue to keep it simple and know that moist heat and/or marinade work on the end cuts to make them more tender.

Let's list a few of the cuts from these two areas.  Looking at the diagram above we see the round as one of those areas that would get a lot of work.  From this hind leg (round) we might see in our meat case the following that can be displayed as steaks or as a roast:

Full cut round, top round, bottom round or eye of round

Referring to the list above, we see the front end consists of the chuck and brisket.  Some of the cuts we might find displayed in your meat case would be:

chuck steak/roast, shoulder steaks/roasts, brisket roast

I have listed a few of the names of the cuts that you might find in your meat case from these less tender but very flavorful cuts.

Now remember that for the most part these cuts will need moist heat and a little longer to cook than the middle meats such as Rib eyes, strips,  t-bones or porterhouse steaks.  So, if you are in a hurry, please try to avoid these "end cuts" from the chuck and round.  However, remember these are normally less expensive cuts so a little planning on your part will save you some money.  And remember these will have some great flavor.

If you need proof of this, a foolproof cooking method would be to purchase a chuck roast and place in your crock pot with some onions, carrots, and potatoes and some broth or water.  Let cook until meat is fork tender and enjoy.

Other moist cooking methods would be braising, steaming/stewing, or simmering.  All require the use of some form of liquid.

Remember, we are trying to keep this simple.

Not all the end cuts need cooked in a crock pot as some such as the roasts from the round could be cooked in the over but I would recommend cooking at a low temperature (250°F), placed on a rack on a cookie sheet and covered.  Put a half a cup of water in the cookie sheet. This low temperature will require more time to cook the roast but will have less tendency to dry out the meat.

Can you remember from science class the temperature that water boils?  212° F is the boiling point of water so I ask you ---  why crank the oven up to a high temperature and boil all the moisture out of the meat? So let's keep the temperature low for a moist and tender piece of meat.

Now lets take a few minutes and talk about what is commonly called the middle meats.  After all, when you look at the diagram above, we have already talked about two ends of the animal -- the round and the chuck, so the items that are the rib, the short loin, the sirloin and the tenderloin are what are called the middle meats -- between the two ends.  They are located on either side of the backbone.  These muscles do not get the work that the end muscles do, so they will be more tender.

So our cooking method for these less worked muscles can be a dry heating method.  Roasting, broiling, grilling, or even pan frying are considered some dry cooking methods.

When you are standing in front of your meat case, some of the names on the packages from these cuts are;

Rib eye steak or roast, strip steak, tenderloin steak, t-bone steak and porterhouse steak, sirloin steak

The rib eye steak or roast is one that may have a little more marbling and has great flavor.  The rib eye muscle is a continuation of the same muscle that is in the chuck.

The strip steak is a continuation of the same muscle as the rib eye.  As you look at the diagram above it is located in the short loin section.

The tenderloin is underneath the strip and sirloin sections but has part of the vertebra separating it from the strip/sirloin.  Remember, we are going to keep this simple -- so just remember that this tenderloin muscle does very little work and is rated as the most tender muscle in the beef animal.  This is reflected in the price.

The T-Bone and Porterhouse come from the short loin.  They are made up of the strip and the tenderloin along with the vertebrae bones.  This bone is in the shape of a T -- thus T-Bone steak. Told you we would keep it simple.  The only difference between a t-bone and a porterhouse is size of the tenderloin.  A good rule of thumb is that if the tenderloin is smaller than a golf ball, then it will be a T-Bone.  If bigger than a golf ball, then it will be a Porterhouse.  Technically it is 1 1/4 in. is the measurement that differentiates the two.  But really, the muscles are the same.

Sirloin steaks are as you can see from the diagram located as the hip area.  This muscle does a little more work the the other middle meat muscles and may not be as tender as, let's say the rib eye.

 Remember that where the piece of meat comes from determines the cooking method.

Remember the names of the end cuts as on the diagram above and plan your cooking method accordingly.  Just because the label makes reference to steak.

I hope you will enjoy only the freshest, most flavorful meat after reading this!

Bacon, Egg and Pancake all in one bite -- or two

Sunday Morning Breakfast

I woke up early one Sunday morning and sat on the couch to watch some TV and just to think.

After fixing this breakfast my wife told me I should sleep more and spend less time thinking.  But, she did like it.

I sprayed a muffin pan with cooking spray and then placed a slice of homemade bacon in a circle on the side of each section of the pan. You can put small cuts in the bacon slice to help it form the circle of the pan.  Put this in a 350 degrees preheated oven for about 30 minutes.

While this was cooking I got the pancake batter and eggs ready. I removed the muffin pan from the oven and took the bacon out of each section and placed on a paper towel while I drained the grease from the pan.  Then I circled each bacon slice inside each section of the pan like before.  Put about two spoonfuls of pancake batter in each section of the pan and place back in the oven for about 6 minutes.  Check yours as each oven is different and the pancakes don't have to be done.

Now, remove the pan from oven and pour the scrambled eggs into each pan to the top.  Two scrambled was enough for the three on one side of the pan.. The other side I broke one egg per section.  Then I place the pan back into the oven and turned the temperature up to 375.  In about 8 minutes the scrambled ones were done while the whole eggs took another couple of minutes.  .

When I do these again, I will add some pancake syrup to the pancake batter.

But, they were very good and really can be eaten on a plate or just grab it and go.  Let cool and microwave for tomorrow’s breakfast as you head out the door for work.

Bacon, egg, and pancake all in one bite -- or two..  It just doesn't get any better than that.  

Smoking Turkey Breasts

Our local grocer had a great buy on some frozen turkey breasts so I thought I would purchase a few and do some smoking.    And I must say they turned out delicious and I learned a little trick that I will be passing on to you.

Stopping at a local grocery store on Monday I purchased three frozen whole turkey breasts (bone-in). I brought them home and placed them in our refrigerator that we have in our garage.

On Wednesday I mixed up the brine.  The brine I used consisted of water, salt, cure, and brown sugar as the main ingredients.  See the picture for all the dry ingredients.

I used a cooler to mix the brine and the turkey breasts.  I did make sure it was clean.

Now that all the ingredients are mixed in the water and and most have dissolved completely, we need to add the turkey breasts to the mixture.  Remember to wash your hands and anything else the raw turkey may touch.

When adding the turkey breasts to the brine mixture I noticed that they were not completely thawed --- but that's OK. Remember the brine is high in salt and we all use salt to melt ice.  In addition to the salt the temperature on the tap water we used was probably around 65 or 70° F  . So that alone will help finish the thaw.

On Thursday we mixed about 12 oz. of honey from a jar with about 24 oz. of brine.  You don't need to be exact just about a two to one ratio will work.  Whatever is left over will be poured back into the brine. So we pumped each side of the breasts with a mixture of honey and brine. See pictures below.

Put them back into the brine solution until Saturday morning.  At this time I removed the breasts from the brine and let soak in plain water for about 15 minutes. This just helps remove some of the excess salt from the outside. Then it's smoke time.

.

I used hickory and apple wood for smoking. You can use whatever you prefer.  I got the pit good and hot and then let the fire die down to almost out but there were still plenty of hot embers.

Roll the smoker over the pit and about 4 1/2 hours later  --  165° F  internal temperature.  Your time may vary but just make sure the internal temperature is 165° F.

Remember, keep the temperatures of the smokehouse below 210° F. This makes for a little longer cooking time but remember -- you are smoking the meat.

And now for the tip I promised you - I removed the skin from one of the turkey breast before smoking. This allowed the smoke to penetrate the meat and no noticeable drying out.  Note the one on the right in the picture has the skin removed.

After removing from the smokehouse we placed one the kitchen for about a half an hour.  We then placed in the refrigerator for the night.

I must say, they turned out pretty good.  We removed the bones and passed out to some neighbors who agreed with me -- they were delicious.

Stuffed Pork Pinwheels for a Special Occasion

Boneless Stuffed Pinwheel Pork Chops or Roast

DSC_0294

So you are having company this weekend and you want to impress them with a delicious pork chop stuffed with wild rice and mushrooms.  But, instead of the traditional pocket style of stuffed pork chop, let’s make a pinwheel style stuffed chop.

We went to our local major grocery chain store in  town and picked out a boneless half pork loin.  To make this the whole boneless pork loin is cut into a rib half and a loin half.  I prefer the loin half for making these stuffed chops but either half will work.

After removing the pork loin from it’s packaging I placed it on our cutting board and  began to cut this oval piece of meat into a piece of meat that will be totally flat as seen above.  Here's how to do it:

To start, refer to the picture above with the knife starting to make the first cut.  We will want to continue to make this cut the full length of the loin.  Notice that we stated at the thicker side of the loin and not at the thinner or tail of the loin. And as you see in the picture below, you will want to make your first cut about a third of the way down from the top.

Try to make long smooth cuts.  This may be a challenge at first but with more practice using the knife you will become proficient at this.  

And now that you have the top third of the pork loin cut “almost” off but not removed, lets take a look at the picture below for what yours should look like.

Now we will want to turn the loin 180 degrees as you will be starting to cut the other 2/3’s as seen below.

Now might be a good time to mention that a good sharp knife is worth the investment.  And be sure to store this knife in a safe place so as not to get it knocked around by other utensils in the drawer.

As i mentioned earlier, we turned the loin so that the thicker portion can now begin to it cut as you see in the above picture.  In the two pictures below you see that the once oval boneless pork loin is becoming a flat piece of meat.

We were able to purchase a wild rice with mushroom stuffing at the store and followed the instructions to re hydrate it.   However, you can use your own favorite stuffing.  As you see below we have our prepared stuffing next to our flattened pork loin in preparation for stuffing.

So our next step is to put a layer of stuffing on top of the meat.  If you noticed we have always had the part of the pork loin with the fat covering down on the cutting table.  We will discuss this more in a bit.

Next, we need to place a layer of our stuffing at about ½ in. over the whole area.

Be sure to gently press the stuffing to make it a little more compact before our next step of rolling into a pinwheel.  This just helps keep the stuffing together with the meat as you begin to roll.

And now the rolling begins.  Earlier we mentioned that the fat side of the pork loin was down.  We will leave it down but we will start the rolling with the other end. This end is lean meat on both sides.  The reason for this, is that we want to have the fat on the outside.  This not only makes for a nicer appearance but helps the meat maintain it moisture while cooking.

In the picture above we are starting to roll the pork loin into a pinwheel.  

Take your time and be sure to roll it firmly and evenly from end to end.  And don’t be upset when some of the stuffing spills out of the end.  You can just stuff it back in.

Now that you have it completely rolled and it looks like a log, let’s tie it together.  I like to use the butchers slip knot but really any type of knot will work.  Even if you want to tie the strings like you tie your shoes -- that will work.  The goal is to place several strings approximately 1 inch apart the length of the pork loin.  Why one inch?  Well, that is the thickness of the chops I like.  So, you can really tie them any distance apart you want.  The key here is to try and get your strings even distance apart.  This makes for all chops to be the same thickness.  

Ok, you now have a few different options as to what you may want to cut.  You can leave the whole thing as a roast, cut it into two or maybe three roasts, and cut some chops off and have both chops and roast(s).  At this point it is whatever you want.

Can you freeze it? The answer is yes.

So, now lets make some chops and a nice roast that we plan to serve some guests for dinner tomorrow night.

I am going to make my first cut off a nice roast.  About a third of the whole loin will be what we need for dinner.  The rest,, I will cut in between the strings to make my pork chops.  

Just a couple of tips when cutting any meat but especially when cutting this stuffed and tied loin.

First, let your knife do the work.  Don’t force the knife through the meat.  Slice the meat.

And second, try to make as few slices as possible.  This allows for a nice smooth cut of meat and one that is even in thickness.  This will take practice so don’t be discouraged -- keep going.

And now that we have all our cuts, lets wrap them up, call it a day and get ready for some good eats.

Italian Chicken Sausage with Red Bell Peppers

Today I made sweet Italian Chicken Sausage, a recipe that I teach in one of our classes,  and everyone that tried it loved it.

This sausage would be delicious cooked any way, but here's two delicious ways you can try yourself.

I gave some to my neighbor, who cooked it as you would most any sausage link and made a sandwich on a bun with some mayo.  It sounded delicious to me and he said "best ever".

I cooked ours in a skillet, starting with about 1/4 inch of water. I turned the heat to medium high, covered the skillet for about 2 minutes.  This helped "steam" the sausage and  make the casing tender.  After we took the cover off we continued cooking on  medium high, letting the water evaporate and turning the sausage as it began to brown.  I like to keep it a nice and even brown color on both sides while making sure that the internal temperature reaches 165° .

While the sausage was cooking I boiled some pasta and heated up some pasta sauce. Once the spaghetti was done and the sauce was warm, I removed the sausage from the skillet and sliced it on the bias.

I mixed the pasta, sauce, and sliced sausage, and topped it with some Parmesan cheese and fresh parsley. And it was amazing.

Want to learn how to make this delicious chicken sausage?  You can have fun learning to make a simple, healthy sausage on your own or with your friends and family. 

 To learn how to make this sausage from your own kitchen, sign up for one of our classes.

STEAKS WITH VEINS

Recommend not purchasing these if you invite me for dinner.   

I recently received a very nice present of some boneless beef strip steaks.  Now, before I go any further, I am very grateful to have received these delicious steaks.  We grilled some the other day and they had good flavor and were tender.  

However, several of the steaks were what is in the industry commonly called "vein steaks".

As you can see in the picture above there are two boneless strip steaks.  Both were part of  our present. These could have  been cut from the same whole boneless strip.  The steak on top is a steak that was cut more toward the rib end while the steak on the bottom is cut more from the sirloin end.   

As you can see from the picture diagram below, the short loin is in between the rib and the sirloin.  The strip comes from this short loin.  And as previously mentioned,  these steaks were cut from opposite ends of the strip.  

The arrow in the bottom picture of the steaks is pointing to connective tissue (gristle) that is called "the vein".  A vein of gristle running between two different muscles. The bottom muscle (below the arrow and gristle) is a continuation of the same muscle that you see in the steak on the top. The muscle on top of the gristle (vein) is the start of the muscle that will become the sirloin steak.  

These two muscles are held together by this connective tissue.  As the live animal continues to move, these two muscles will move independently of each other but held together by this connective tissue.   Thus, the connective tissue will become thicker over time

This "gristle" is very difficult to chew. In fact, I would say it is for the most part it is not at all palatable.  Not only that, but the two muscles involved here, because of their location in the animal and their use as the animal walks or moves, have a tendency to be a little less tender as, let's say, a center cut strip steak.

Now, don't get me wrong, this steak would be good.  It can be prepared the same as you would any other strip steak without the "vein"  However, if I am going to buy a boneless strip steak, and the store is charging me the same price for the center cut as they are for the vein steak, then I will purchase the center cut.

The store would have to discount that vein steak more than a $1.00 per pound before I would even consider purchasing this as a steak.   The store can remove the gristle and fat and use the lean cuts for a stir fry or some other cut.  

If we were going to have company or were planning to give some steaks as a gift, this vein steak would not be purchased by me.   

And I first stated, please don't ask me for dinner and serve me a vein steak.  I would think that you didn't care about me.  

Hope this provides you with some knowledge to help you make better meat purchases.  

Natural Turkey Lunchmeat

With the growing interest in natural foods, I thought I would show you how I make my own natural turkey lunch meat. I must admit that it turned out very good. As you can see in the above picture I made a tasty sandwich with it, some lettuce and onion on a ciabatta bun.

Our research and development team strongly suggests that I make this one again and again. A couple of them said that most of it was consumed as they were trying to make a sandwich.   

I started by going to our local grocer and purchased a bone in natural turkey breast and some bone in turkey thighs.  I removed all the bones and skin as I kept the thigh meat separate from the breast meat.  I could have bought the boneless breast but by boning it out myself I saved a couple of bucks. 

My goal was to have about 3 pound of boneless thighs and 2 pound of boneless breast meat. However, I ended up with about equal amounts of both.    

I have always used Prague Powder (pink salt) to cure the meat but this time I purchased some Celery Juice Powder.

Most green vegetables are high in Sodium Nitrate. The pink salt is mostly just regular salt (table) with Sodium Nitrite added and then colored pink.  We need it colored so that we don't get it mixed up with the regular salt used in the formula. Celery juice powder is defined by the government as a natural product.  The natural bacteria that occur in meat will break the nitrate into nitrite.  In addition to changing the color of the meat, Sodium Nitrite prevents Botulism. This was the main purpose of cure (prague powder).  Don't know about you but I like preventing botulism.  

This homemade lunch meat is a great, healthy alternative to fatty store-bought lunch meat, and tastes better, too.  This has been proven by many positive comments coming from our extensive Research and Development  --- our local neighbors. 

I cut the turkey, keeping the thigh meat separate from the breast meat, up into pieces that would go into the grinder.  I then weighed all the dry spices and mixed them together.  I estimated  the amount of spices that I needed to add to each cut of turkey. I then mixed the meat and spices, still keeping the thigh meat and breast meat separate.  

I covered the container of meat and put in the frig overnight.  This allows the salt to start to act on the proteins and it allows the normal bacteria in the meat to react with the celery juice powder turning the nitrate to nitrite. 

The next evening  I brought the meat out of the refrigerator and ground each separately through the three holed grinder plate.  I then ground just the thigh meat through the 1/8 in. grinder plate and now mix the thigh meat and the larger chunks of breast meat with the turkey broth and honey.  

Once I had a real good mix,  I used a meatloaf pan sprayed with a quick release spray and I placed the meat in this pan.  I put about 1/4 of the total amount of meat in the pan and firmly pressed it down several times to try and get most of the air out of the meat mixture.  This is mainly for aesthetic purposes. Not to worry, you will have some air pockets as you slice the finished product.  No real harm done.

Once all the meat is in the pan, wet your hands and smooth the top of you loaf with your wet hands.  You may have to re-wet your hands several time and keep smoothing the top until you get it the way you want it.  You are after a nice smooth uniform top so that it has a nice uniform look after it is cooked.  

Then I was ready to put the loaf in the oven.  I like our oven set at 250° F.  and with that it will take about 3 3/4 hour.  I also put the loaf pan on a cookie sheet to catch what little bit of drippings you may have.   

However, each oven is slightly different, the thickness of your pan may be more or less than the one I used and finally, the meat temperature is probably different.  

So, with that being said, please make sure you use an thermometer. The center of the loaf should be 165° F.  Once you get to 165, remove from oven and place on counter for about a half hour.  It will continue to cook and that is OK.  

After about a half hour, remove the loaf from the pan. Place on a plate or any thing so that you can put in the refrigerator.  I like to get most of the heat out of the loaf and then wrap it with wax paper or some paper type product to prevent it from drying out too much.  Place wrapped loaf back in frig overnight.  

Next day, remove from refrigerator, slice and enjoy the best natural turkey lunch meat you have ever had.   In fact, one of the key members of our R and D department said the this turkey combined with some of the Best Bacon Ever made an amazing club sandwich. 

To get the recipe for this tasty treat, click on our recipe page.

Have the FRESHEST Boneless Pork Chops and SAVE

 

Several of our local grocers will advertise the half boneless pork loin at a  reduced retail. If you ask they will cut it up for you, but I prefer cutting them myself so that make sure I get the correct thickness of every chop.  And as you will see, we will get more than just chops from this boneless half pork loin.

The picture above shows two half boneless pork loins that we purchased from two different retailers.  As you notice the one on the left has some more fat on what we will call the thin end or the tail.  In the industry this is called a strap on pork loin. 

Just remember that some retailers will sell this pork loin with the strap on and this should cost you less per pound than the other pork loin without the fatter tail portion.

OK, let’s pick a pork loin and start cutting it the way we want to.  For today I am choosing the half boneless pork loin with the tail or strap on.  

First I am going to remove this tail.  You can use your fingers to find the natural seam that separates the lean meat from the fat and then use your knife as you see above to separate the fat from the lean.  Slowly working your knife down that seam so that you remove only the fat and none of the lean -- soon to be pork chop meat.

Now remember, the other pork loin did not have this fat tail and it looked like the one we now have here.  The fat tail portion can be used later for making sausage by adding it to some leaner pork, but for now we will just discard it and concentrate on the pork loin.

Let’s start by making our first cut from the end that most resembles the pork chop.  I like my pork chops about an inch thick.  

And now continue to cut boneless pork chops remembering to make smooth continuous cuts.

We want to avoid using the knife as we would a saw.  This will take a little practice but I know you can do it.

We can cut all this boneless pork loin into pork chops but not today as I feel like some boneless country style ribs.  These will be great for grilling or with some sauerkraut.

As you see in the picture below, we have cut 6 pork chops and have saved approximately a 5 - 6 inch piece that we will make into our country style ribs.  And just for future reference this piece would also make a very nice pork roast -- but not today.  Today it’s boneless country style ribs.

Let’s set these pork chops aside for now. I’ll cover them on a plate and place in the refrigerator to keep them cold.  They will be dinner tonight.

So now let’s make some country style ribs. Let’s take the piece you have left over and continue to cut what would be 1 ½ - 2 inch pork chops.

Now lay this chop down and cut in half as you see in picture below.

Continue doing this and we will end up with great ribs as seen in above picture. 

You’ve done it.  You have cut your half boneless pork loin into boneless pork chops and boneless country style ribs.

Now, let’s eat.

The Freshest of Burgers

DSC_0246

So, you want the freshest hamburgers you can get.  And you want to make sure you are serving a quality meat product to your family or guests. So here's how to make delicious and cost-effective hamburgers that everyone will enjoy. 

Our local grocery had a sale on chuck roasts, so we bought two nice size roasts that weighed about 3 pounds each.

 As you can see they are well marbled (specs of fat through out the muscle) roasts and would be great as roasts but not today.  We are planning steaks and hamburgers.  Yep, that’s right - steaks from a roast.

The chuck roast comes from the front shoulder of the beef animal and is made up of many muscles. One of the muscles is the same muscle that makes up the rib eye steak.  Most all of us love a good beef rib eye steak.  Well this “chuck eye”  is the same flavorful muscle except it is a little smaller and is still quite tender.

As you can see in the picture below it doesn't take much to remove this chuck eye from the roast.  We pull with our hands as there is a natural seam between this chuck eye and the other muscles of the roast.  We do have to do some cutting and in just a few minutes we have removed the chuck eye.

Our next step is to cut this chuck eye into two steaks. When I purchased our roasts I looked for ones that were at least two inches thick.  This made our chuck eye two inches so that when we cut it in half we will have two steaks that are one inch thick.  Perfect for the grill or the broiler.

So once the chuck eye has been removed we turn it up as you see in the picture below which will allow us to slice it into two individual steaks.

Now remember we had two roasts, thus two chuck eyes that made the 4 chuck eye steaks you see here.  These will broil up nicely for Sunday dinner.  We will just need a little minced garlic on them about two hours prior to cooking and then some salt and pepper.  We want to enjoy that great beef flavor these have to offer so we hold back on the spices.

Next we need to cut the rest of our roasts up into small enough pieces that they will fit into our Kitchen Aid grinder.

As you see by our next picture we have our steaks cut, our meat chunked just right for our grinder and we removed a little bit of fat as we were cutting up our chunks. So now, let’s grind.

We will grind the meat two times.  This mixes the lean and fat better.  Our first grind will be through our more coarse grinder plate, the one on the left.  The one on the right is our fine grinder plate and we’ll use it for our second grind.  The grinder knife, pictures in the middle will be used for both grinds.  

The secret to grinding is to make sure that you constantly keep meat moving through the grinder as both the knife and the plate are metal that are in contact with each other.  And the grinder on the knife is going round and round on the grinder plate.  Metal rubbing metal causes heat.  So keep the meat moving to avoid this heat build up.

As you see in our next picture there is a noticeable difference in our first grind and then the second.  

The one on the right has been ground two times.  This product looks so lean that one might think it is ground round but we all know it is ground chuck.

As I mentioned earlier, the steaks are for Sunday dinner but its Saturday night and that means it’s hamburger night.  Fresh tastes best and this freshly ground chuck really has a very fresh beef flavor.

We had ours with bacon we cured and smoked last weekend.  It was delicious.

And now for the second best part -- Saving money

Remember, we bought these roasts on sale.  They cost us $18.88.

We got 3 ¾ lb. ground chuck and 1 lb. 15 oz. of steaks.

If we would have gone to the market and bought the steaks and the ground chuck (that looked like ground round) we would have spent $26.86.  So we saved $7.98.

And we had a lot of fun making a quality product for our family.

If you have any questions, comment below!

BEST BACON EVER

Yep, that's right.  After many tasters, and many, many breakfasts, we have come to a final conclusion. This truly has to be the Best Bacon Ever. 

This cross section of individuals consisted of  four different neighbors, two work associates, and a family member.  A total of sixteen people ranging in age from 7 to 64 all agreed that this  was amazing bacon.  It was somewhat humorous and flattering all at the same time as I heard back from three of the tasters within 24 hours of receiving the bacon,  and the first words they said were "Best Bacon Ever".  

So, what did I do to make the big success?

I started with a nice fresh pork belly. Freshness is of the utmost importance. As you can see by the picture below, I trimmed the belly up to help making the ends and sides more straight, what I trimmed off consisted of more fat than lean.  I will freeze these trimmed off pieces to be used later in some other product.  

I gave the belly a once over looking for and removing anything like extra little pieces of fat that can be easily pulled off or maybe even some small pieces of bone cartilage that might still be there from the spare ribs.  And then I was ready to put the belly into the brine.  

I made the brine about an hour before I started trimming up the belly.  Following is my brine recipe.  This allowed time for all the ingredients to dissolve and I would mix them up periodically to  help them dissolve.

• one gallon cold tap water
• nine (9) ounces salt (regular table salt)
• four (4) ounces dark brown sugar
• 2.7 ounces prague powder no. 1 (pink salt)
• sixteen (16) ounces Maple Syrup

 I like the dark brown sugar as it has some more molasses flavor, but you can use the light brown if that is what you have.  This holds true for the maple syrup also, just make sure that you are using a good quality syrup.  

You see here the belly in the tub of brine on Wednesday.  I put the tub in my refrigerator and each day I stirred up the brine as I turned the belly over.

And then on Saturday afternoon I took the belly out of the brine and rinsed it and I hung it in my smokehouse to start to warm it up and also to start to dry out.  Smoke penetrates meat better if the product is dry.   

As you can see, my smoke house is one that I wheel over our patio fire pit once I get the fire where I want it.  It does require more attention as it lacks a lot of controls that your smoke house may have, such as when the wind kicks up a bit, I will lose several degrees in the smoke house but it doesn't take long until it is right back on track and I'm back to smoking.  

So, after the bacon hung for about 45 minutes, I wheeled the smokehouse over the fire pit.  I used hickory wood and got really good smoke on the belly.  I kept the temperature of the house between 190° and 200°. I have a bucket of water handy so that if the fire gets too hot, I use my cupped hands to put water on the fire. It does require more attention, but I still have a good time smoking.   

About three hours later I removed the bacon at 140°.  I had placed a couple sheets of butcher paper over my counter, and  I placed the bacon on it and then proceeded to rub the whole bacon with a special rub of my own invention.  I then wrapped the bacon up in the paper and put it in a plastic bag for about one hour.  During this time the bacon continued to cook but more importantly the sweet rub melted and adhered to the bacon.  I then removed the bacon from the plastic bag and placed it, wrapped, in the refrigerator until the next morning.  Just in time for Sunday morning breakfast.   

How I Spent My Winter Vacation

It is January in Ohio and I decided to take a week of vacation from my job.  I needed to get away and get a few "little" things done around the house.  I had a great week, but the highlight was Saturday. A work associate and I were talking one day about the processing of hogs. She invited me to her family's farm so that I could help them process a few hogs they had been raising the past few months. 

My wife and I drove 2 hours Saturday morning and, after a cup of coffee and a delicious slice of Texas sheet cake, started cutting up fresh pork. 

As seen in picture above the first hog has just finished being skinned and is in the process of being split in half.  Bet you didn't know that a sawzall had multiple uses --- it saws pork.  Yes, it was totally cleaned before processing.   And might I add -- it works quite well.

As you can see that saw did a great job of splitting the hog in half, then removing the shoulder between the 3rd and 4th rib.  Then we separated the loin from the belly section, after removing the ham section.  Then we took it over to a table, where knives would finish the work.

We started on the shoulder by separating the picnic from the butt.  We boned out the picnic section for sausage and left butt portion whole as they wanted to use this for smoked pulled pork for a summer picnic.                                                                                                                                                                                          

Removing that leaf fat from the inside of the belly section took two of us, which made for light work.  We then removed the spare ribs from the belly.  The belly is the bacon and it is also called fresh side.  I have heard from several folks that they don't want to eat pork belly, but later in the conversation, I might ask if they like bacon and they are quick to reply with a resounding YES.  When I explain that bacon is made from pork belly I hear "Oh, I guess I do like pork belly".   

In the picture above we are cutting the spare ribs. After that we cut the belly into 3 pieces, wrapped them in freezer paper so that after a month or so in the freezer they will cure it and smoke it for some great home cured bacon.  All in all, it was a wonderful end to my vacation.