The Anatomy of A Burger, Part Four - The Bacon

Bacon. Pork Belly, cured and smoked. One of the most delectable flavors on the planet. I don't eat it as much as before - as I have said, Lipitor cannot do everything. But, I love it on a burger!

Using the guidance of Charcuterie, making it is relatively easy, even with a basic home grill. The only ingredient other than the belly that may not be easy to acquire is the Curing Salt. Yes, as I have mentioned before, The Sausage Maker is here in Buffalo so getting Instacure is easy. But, if you get into doing this, you'll pay the modest shipping charges and order your Curing Salt there or Butcher & Packer or someplace else. Another option is Morton's Tender Quick. Unlike the pink salts, which are interchangeable, Tender Quick is a proprietary formula including some sugar. But, 1 tablespoon per pound of meat is the accepted proportion. (They produce a guide for $5.99, but they only only ship FedEx at a cost almost twice what the pamphlet costs . . .)

As for the pork belly, well in these parts you are not likely to find it in your grocers meat case, and while our local grocery stores will special order anything for us, finding someone who knows what they are doing is often tough. The only store in which I have ever seen pork belly locally is Ni Hoowa, an oriental grocery on Sheridan Drive. However, things like that are hit and miss there, and in the weeks that formed my window for curing and smoking there was none to be had.

So I turned to one of our few remaining independent butcher shops - Valint's - the Cadillac of Meats. They didn't bat an eyelash when I asked for belly, and it arrived in a matter of days.

The preparation is simple the cure is made from Kosher Salt, Pink Salt, Maple Sugar and Maple Syrup (I prefer Grade B which can be tough to find) The latter two from Maple Glen Sugar House in Gowanda. The cure is applied liberally to all sides of the belly, after which it is placed in a bag or nonreactive container and refrigerated. Every other day it is flipped. After a week, the belly is removed, rinsed and and placed on a rack in the fridge for a day to form a pellicle. This version is hot smoked to 150º (I did it over pear tree trimmings).

After smoking, I removed the skin (I cannot wait to make baked beans with a piece!). I sliced some and saved some as a slab.

Oh, it was great!!!!!!!

Local Gems I

Like many of my comrades in the food blogosphere, the publication of Ruhlman and Polcyn's Charcuterie inspired me to make a more concerted effort in the curing and preservation of meats. Most books on the subject refer you to one of two mail order sources: Butcher & Packer or The Sausage Maker. We here in the Buffalo area are lucky, because The Sausage Maker is located at the Clinton-Bailey Market, aka the Niagara Frontier Food Terminal ( also the home of Willowbrook Farms and the US Foodservice outlets, to name a few.)

The folks there have always been extremely helpful, and I have never stopped by and not found what I needed. In fact the only sausage-making ingredient they don't have is a meat starter culture such as bactoferm - which I still get from B&P. On this trip I got some Hog Middles for Sopressata and other larger sausages, and Fermento for a batch of landjäger when the smoker gets set up.

Sometimes it's nice to live in Western New York!

Makin' Bacon, eh? Cheater's Style!

Last October I posted on the proper way to make Canadian Bacon, and 90% of the time that is how I make it. However, while I have no objection to using the grill or smoker during the Winter, energy conservation requires us to cover every door and window (save the main entrance) is covered with heavy duty plastic until Spring truly arrives. I could use the big grill, I suppose, but it would require me to walk around two townhouses, take the tarps off the grill, and . . . well, you get the idea.

So, if I need something during the depths of Winter, like say pulled pork for a Bills tailgate party, I cheat. The provenance of my particular cheat is Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby's "How to Cook Meat", and consists of adding liquid smoke (about 1/2 cup for each gallon of water) to the brine and cooking the meat in a 200° oven. Does it work? Yep. Is it as good as outdoor smoking? No, but it will do until the plastic comes down.

By The Way .

My second favorite thing to do with leftovers from St. Patrick's Day is a breakfast of Red Flannel Hash with an egg. Yum!


If there was no faith there would be no living in this world. We couldn't even eat hash with safety. - Josh Billings




Of course, you could just eat this . . .

I thought I had an appetite for destruction, but all I wanted was a club sandwich. - Matt Groening

I love sandwiches, whether or not they were invented by John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich or not. They can be on bread or toast, a bun, roll or bagel, it doesn't matter. Banh Mi, Cuban, Croque-monsieur, Panini or PB&J, I love them all. I also love flatbread wraps, but as we all know they are not sandwiches. Of them all, my favorite is the Reuben. Some may disagree, but this is my choice, and I will stick to it.

Sonny, true love is the greatest thing in the world-except for a nice MLT - mutton, lettuce and tomato sandwich, where the mutton is nice and lean and the tomato is ripe - Miracle Max

The Corned Beef is leftovers from the home cured one I did for St. Patrick's Day. The cheese is Jarlsberg, which I have mentioned is my favorite all-purpose swiss-style cheese. I am still having trouble finding my favorite sauerkraut, Strub's, so I picked a bagged, refrigerated kind. Not great, but better than canned. My biggest regret is the bread. It was store-bought from Wegman's. Not a bad product, but I spent a lot of time making my own loaf of sourdough rye - only to find out I had forgotten to add salt. It is the third or fourth time in the last two or three weeks that my wife or I have had senior moments remembering to add salt when baking!

The Thousand Island is made with Hellmann's (known as Best Foods west of the Rockies), a splash of lemon juice, a teaspoon of horseradish, two tablespoons of Weber's Hot Piccalilli Relish (my secret ingredient) and Ketchup.

The sandwich was delicious! So join me and hoist a Dr. Brown''s Cream Soda!

Reason For Hope

This article on some local makers of prosciutto is heartening on three levels. One, I am not the only one in the area trying to cure things the old fashioned way. Two, the Buffalo News chose to print it, rather than the usual Easter Butter Lamb article. Three, a new source of good pork just across the border. Yippie!

Boil three days in a deep kettle . . .

"Take two pounds of meat from the rump, boil three days in a deep kettle with the head of an axe, and, then, throw away the meat and eat the axe." - The WPA Guide to Utah (1941).

Corned Beef and Cabbage, more often referred to as a New England Boiled Dinner, is something we look forward to when St. Patrick's day rolls around, even if there isn't a jot of Irish blood in any of us. For years I had heard that Corned Beef and Cabbage was unknown as a dish in Ireland, but recent scholarship suggests that the Irish used corned beef as a substitute for their Irish bacon - unavailable in the United States. My lone, slim Irish Cookbook, by perhaps the most famous Irish cookbook author Darina Allen, contains a recipe calling for either corned beef or Irish bacon. She does indicate that it is rarely eaten in Ireland.

Despite the name "New England Boiled Dinner", and like many similarly named dishes, don't boil this. I gently simmer it with aromats: onion, garlic, and a some home-concocted pickling spice. After about 2.5 hours I added cabbage, and 10 minutes later potatoes, carrots, rutabaga, and parsnips. The beets were cooked separately, in salted water. It was great, but I am baking rye bread today for the Reuben I am really lusting for. I also need my annual red-flannel hash fix.

Cooks notes: I corned this beef (point cut brisket) in the Ruhlman/Polcyn liquid pickle. I have also had great success with a dry cure modified from Cook's Illustrated. I should also note that when I corn beef strictly for the purpose of creating a cold-cut, I steam the meat à la David Rosengarten, rather than simmer it. It gives a better consistency for slicing.

Oh, and there are no photos of the brining process. I have been battling pneumonia for 10 days and was barely able to through the brine together!

Out to Sea

Well, Thursday night was a simple Buffalo style hot dog dinner - quite nice. The weather screwed up my after birthday "Tapas" party on Friday - the power was out most of the day. But we did uncork the Galantine I made for New Year's and froze. I'm sure there were aspects that deteriorated in its stay in the freezer, but it tasted quite good.

But my real treat was a meal I had long looked forward to - a dinner alone with my wife at the recently opened Sea Bar. Don't worry - I promised not to do restaurant reviews and I am not about to start now, but nothing stops me from mentioning a venue that did something special.

Many might consider Buffalo a culinary wasteland. They would be wrong. Western New York and Southern Ontario have plenty of good food and great cooks. But, in my humble opinion the best of the best is Mike Andrzejewski. Mike has been part of the restaurant scene in Buffalo for over 30 years, starting as a busboy, and working his way to be chef at some of the area's finest eateries: including Rue Franklin, Warren's and Oliver's. He's done several events at the Beard House in NYC.

It would be presumptuous of me to claim to be Mike's friend, but the camaraderie of the culinary world at least allows me to be more than just a mere acquaintance. I first met Mike at a "Taste of the Nation" event for SOS at the Adam's Mark in 2000. Mike was happily going from station to station with jello shots - treating even a line cook with respect.

The second time was also a fund raiser. Mike was about to open his own restaurant, Tsunami, but took the time with his partner to assist at a fund raiser for the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, featuring Buffalo's own Alfred Portale. It was this event that shaped my culinary future in a couple of ways, not the least of which was Mike insisting to one of my owners that he was "Just a Cook". That has been my Mantra since.

In the fall of 2002, shortly before Fredi opened with me as chief cook and bottle washer, Trish and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary at Tsunami. Fred arranged for the champagne, Mike dazzled me with his cooking.

In August 2oo5, Mike was riding his cycle home from Tsunami when he wiped out. He spent some time in ECMC (a place I know well from my 1994 fire), and lost his leg. A lot of local cooks helped out to keep the restaurant afloat, though he ultimately let it go.
But, in the interim, with medical bills rising, some of those same cooks arranged a benefit dinner at Kleinhans Music Hall. My part was minimal, I got some local restaurants to cough up gift certificates, but I did attend as a paying customer, with Trish, Fred and Maggie. I saw many old friends, and had great eats. I didn't get a chance to talk to Mike much (his mouth was full when I got to him) but he seemed overwhelmed by the turnout - more than twice what was expected.

Last spring we found out Mike was teaching at the culinary arts program at ECC. He and his students put on a luncheon for the public which Trish and I attended with Fred. It was a lovely time, and also when I found out about the potential of working on Vine Dining - the magazine which is to come. Through work on the proto-mag, I heard that Mike was opening Sea Bar, but I didn't have a chance to get there until this past weekend.

The dining experience? Wonderful. Mike even comped us our first taste of Sparkling Sake - a delight. Sure, there can be a wait - no reservations - but it's the kind of food worth waiting for (and if you bring a cell phone, you can wait at the bar of the Trattoria Aroma next door).

My only regret: if there were ever a cook who should have an omikase offering on the menu it is Mike! I would love to just let him "do us" in the culinary sense. The place was packed, so he probably doesn't need this, but Good Luck Mike!

Why-a no chicken?

Leave it to Chico Marx to come up with the right quote.

Our annual New Year's in Hudson, Ohio (a suburb of Cleveland), is a couple of days of great food, great drink and really great friends. It is also one of the two times a year I have the need to show off. I usually do something special from the field of charcuterie - a pate, a mousse, gravlax - things of that sort.

Since I have been making my way through Charcuterie, I decided it was time to revisit the galantine - something I hadn't made since my original foray through Jacques Pepin's La Technique 25 years ago. Except for the boning (in the case of Ruhlman and Polcyn skinning then boning), it is not difficult, just time consuming. That's the main reason I don't ha

I definitely wanted something better than a battery chicken, but I knew that getting something free range was unlikely with the kids home, so I headed to Dash's, a local smaller market. They advertise an all natural "Amish Chicken". I am pretty certain it's just a marketing ploy, but I thought I'd check it out. I didn't get very far on finding out what it was - I could see the damned pop-up thermometer from 5 feet away. Next to it was a "free farmed" all vegetable fed bird, so I decided to give it a try.

Imagine my surprise, when I unwrapped the bird, to find another of those damned pop-ups! They should be illegal! In fact, that caused, the only tear while removing the skin (luckily, Pepin's advice to use a piece of skin from elsewhere to patch the tear works quite well!). In brief, the process here is to remove the skin in one piece to use as a casing, the breasts as a garnish, the dark meat and some of the other trim to make a forcemeat, and the carcass and the rest of the trim to make a stock for poaching and in my case to make an aspic after poaching.

All went pretty well. I realized when sauteeing the breasts that there was too much meat, so I continued to cook one breast for lunch and split the other one. I also had way too much forcemeat (I measured precisely in grams, including the mushrooms and pistachios I added as extra garnish), but I think the extra might make an interesting filling for ravioli.

Since I haven't done this often, my skills at getting the casing smooth weren't perfect, but it was made with love. It was slowly poached on the stove top, though I think next time I'd use the oven for better temperature control. The last two photo show the galantine removed from the stock after being in the fridge overnight: the first still in the cheesecloth, and the second mostly unwrapped.

My game plan was to reduce the poaching liquid and clarify it for an aspic glaze. But, my wife came home and and asked what it looked like when I had shingles in '79. It was and the trip was postponed. So I had a choice, and decided to freeze it. I froze it right in the pan I poached it in, submerged in the poaching liquid. Bob delGrosso doesn't think I'll be happy with the result. I agree, but I had to try!

I'll let you know!

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Staying Alive and Changes

Saturday Night Fever is the only movie I have ever walked out of, so It is easy for me to choose Bowie over the Bee Gees. But, this is not a music blog.

Staying Alive refers to the fact that the dried sausage turned out OK, and nobody had any ill effects from eating it. When we took it off the hook, some ten days earlier than it was supposed to be ready there was no sign of mold or external discoloration. The texture felt like any dry sausage I'd buy at local stores. I cut into the link, and, as you can see, the color was uniform throughout. So I tasted it. It was good. Trish tasted it. It was good. Ellie tasted it. It was good, and she asked for more. Next time, when I try something more complex, I will take Bob delGrosso's suggestion to use a humidifier in the curing room.

Changes refers to the new meat grinder attachment that my wife gave me as an anniversary present, to replace the one that broke last month. For the most part the grinder looked the same, but there were three noticeable changes. The large cutting plate was larger than the old one, giving me effectively a small, medium and large plate now (you didn't think I got rid of the parts from the old one, did you?) The old wooden pusher is gone, it is now part of that plastic wrench thing that I have never used. Bad choice. It is not solid, more of an x-shape of plastic, and ingredients end up in the open stem. What really surprised me is the knife. It is no longer of the same composition as the plates - it appears to be stamped stainless steel. It has gone from 15 grams to 8 grams in weight. I was a bit worried, but it worked well.

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The Great Sausage Experiment

I have wanted to try dry-cured sausages for a long time, and with the guidance provided by Ruhlman and Polcyn, and the inspiration of Bob delGrosso, I was pretty sure I could succeed. My biggest concern was finding the place with the best environment. The most temperature stable place in the house is the cupboard in the basement, where we store extra cooking equipment and our wine rack. But, it's also where the sump pump is, and I figured that was a prime source of bad mold.

But, I got an email from Chef delGrosso which contained sound advice, and I have his permission to reprint it here: "Listen you can probably cure in you kitchen now. Don't overthink it. Do it, and if it doesn't work, then worry about it. My basement is actually a bit too dry (rel humidity is about 40%) but I'm not freaking out -yet." Mine too, despite the sump.

So I started it last week. I didn't bother taking pictures of the grinding and mixing process, as I just did the Italian Sausage one a few weeks ago. But, what you have below is kind of a time-lapse of the last 11 days. No sign of mold at all, but the drying process seems to going too fast. I have been concerned with case-hardening, and have taken to misting twice daily.

Today, I weighed the sausages, and after only 11 days they have lost more than the 30% they are supposed to lose in 18 -20 days from 719/694 grams to 387/371 grams. So, I guess I will cut into one tomorrow.

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Egg McMutant

This was quite a change from the Eggs Benedict and Sparkler for yesterday's brunch, instead an Egg McMutant with a slice of that same Canadian Bacon and some American "cheese" accompanied by a V-8. Darn good eating, again!

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Makin' Bacon, eh?

I could have named this post "a perfect breakfast". My wife and I had our eleventh wedding anniversary last Thursday, but couldn't celebrate it until last night. This morning's brunch was Eggs Benedict and a sparkler. A note to the purists out there, I use a Yogurt "Hollandaise". Lipitor can't do it alone!

Of all of the components of this dish, perhaps the most important ingredient is the bacon. To me that is Canadian or Back Bacon - cured and smoked pork loin. Some people recommend peameal bacon, which is a pickled, uncooked loin. Some heretics even recommend a slice of ham. It's the real thing for me, preferably home made and these days that means the recipe in Ruhlman and Polcyn's Charcuterie. So, when Dash's had their three day meat sale, I bought a whole pork loin.

A boneless pork loin is fairly easy to break down. The first step is trimming any fat and silverskin. Abandoning the latter, I still ended up with a good amount of usable trim, mostly fat for use in sausages. I cut a two pound roast from the sirloin end - sometimes I divide it further for stir frying and such, but I had some in the freezer and this is a nice sized roast for a family of four. I also cut three chops from the rib end which I quick brined and grilled for dinner that night.

That left me with a 3.75 lb. piece of center cut pork loin. You don't have to tie it up, but it holds its shape better for - well for use in Eggs Benedict or an occasional egg McMutant. It then went into the brine to be refrigerated for 48 hours. One of the reasons I wanted to do it now is that the garden herbs I needed for the brine will soon be gone. In fact, there is a frost warning for tonight.

After brining, the loin was rinsed off, and placed on a rack in the fridge for 24 hours.



After the rest in the fridge, a nice tacky pellicle had formed and the time came to hot smoke the loin. As this was to be hot smoking, the fire was in the main chamber - rather than the side car (I have to work on that!). The smoke was created with chunks of pear wood gleaned from trimming my mother-in-law's tree. The aroma was fabulous, and the result perfect for today's breakfast.



One final note, the weather factored into my equation. While Buffalo gets a bad rap weather-wise, but we are approaching the time of year when the plastic sheets go up on the windows and the back door. So I was thinking about what I would do if the weather kept me from using a grill. Ruhlman and Polcyn suggest that you can just roast the loin, but that doesn't work for me. To paraphrase Trapper John McIntyre on martinis: Yeah but without smoke, a bacon just doesn't quite make it.

My answer: A lesson that was truly brought home in "How to Cook Meat". Add a half a cup of liquid smoke to the brine!

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Fun With Intestines

Bob del Grosso is a great cook and a great food blogger. He and I share a love of Ruhlman and Polcyn's masterful Charcuterie. The book is good because it is both well though out and well explained. It has information useful to both the professional and the home cook.

What has been most intriguing is Bob's recent attempts at Pancetta and my desire to work on some dry-cured meat products. We'll get to that, and Bob's advice later, but the last week or so has been filled other projects oddly all out of Charcuterie, we will get that started soon.

The fall is sausage time, as the weather has cooled enough (or not) for grinding pork products with greater safety. It is also, after a long summer of grilling, a time when I have a whole lot of trimmings - especially pork trimmings. There were scraps of meat and fat from whole pork loins used in Canadian bacon (we'll get to that next), and a whole lot of rib trimmings (The boneless brisket portion and the skirt flaps). Since they were leaner than the pork butt called for in the recipe, I adjusted the proportion of meat to fat. Everything else was just ground for use in meatloaf or meatballs.

The Photos show the progression from cubed meat to ground meat, being beaten briefly with the paddle, stuffed and portioned. The links were tightly wrapped in plastic wrap and frozen in a ziplock bag. Except for one. I cooked it up and had it on a bun with some sauteed onions and peppers and some Weber's Mustard.

Darn Good Eating!

Oh, and the last photo is the cracked housing on my KitchenAid sausage grinder. Rest well old friend!

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