The Food and Drink Thread

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It's also a delicious snack food!
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Last night I made the driest, crumbliest burger patties I ever have. A bit of googling suggests that I should have used meat with a higher fat content. 20% is ideal and I know I've had good results with 10% before. Last night was 5% and it was effectively meat-dust. I'll make a mental note for next time.
 
Last night I made the driest, crumbliest burger patties I ever have. A bit of googling suggests that I should have used meat with a higher fat content. 20% is ideal and I know I've had good results with 10% before. Last night was 5% and it was effectively meat-dust. I'll make a mental note for next time.

I recommend using "chuck" which is generally 20% fat. Not only do they not fall apart so easy but they really do taste better too.

If you have 93% lean or higher, a dollop of bacon fat mixed into the meat will help with dryness.
20% is the common sense advice but 10-15% can work just as well. Under 10% you are in danger of flaky patties.

Bacon fat helps and it’s amazing, but does not taste the same as delicious beef tallow so YMMV.

Technically you can go 10% and under but that requires next-level grilling or frying skills. I favor a cast-iron pan. Use plenty of fat, ideally animal fat (rendered bacon fat works great), make sure it’s hotter than hell and pretty much just sear your burger. You might have to melt the cheese on a separate pan, or with a torch if you’re feeling frisky (I don’t have one).

Chuck is a great choice and you can blend in other cuts for extra flavor — tri-tip, flank steak and even beef ribs are popular here.

PS. Love me a crumbly burger (not dry). I always ask the butcher to grind it as coarse as possible (most places here in Brazil take any piece of beef to be ground twice through the grinder. I ask for a coarse grind by taking it only once).
 
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You can collect beef tallow from the trimmings off your steaks. People tend to want leaner edges for their steaks nowadays, so you can take that extra fat from your high quality meat cut and save it. When ready you rend it on very low heat with the lid on; the steam helps evenly rend and provides that satisfying hiss as the steam condenses and drips back down into the hot fat. i.e. If your range is Heat 1 thru 10, rend on Heat 1 (or 2) for 30 min per visual check/turn, rend for hour+ until the fat strips are shriveled browned chicharrons.

Tallow was traditionally the rendered fat attached from bovine kidneys (known as suet), but nowadays that is harder to find. Tallow and lard are pretty resistant to oxidation, so their shelf life is pretty good, longer in the cold, and tend to have decent to excellent high heat tolerance, so great for frying. With spare saturated animal fat on your side you can do quite a bit. In fact this low & slow rending process can be done for beef, pork, and chicken, so you can get tallow, lard, and schmaltz.

Extra lean 90%+ tends to be miserable ground meat, in my experience, and you pay more for the insult. But I understand the concern about old rancid fat in cheaper ground mixtures, too. If you have a clean and working meat grinder those extra steak trimmings work great with lean meats, like round. That said rending removes the fat from any tendons and sinew too, which gets rid of any stringy chewy bits in a ground meat mixture, and some people love that smoother chew. Also rendered fat works great in making your own pemmican, salves, balms, etc. Basically you can do more things with rendered fat.

(You can get schmaltz from your bird skin. Most people don't eat bird skin nowadays, so you can peel it off before serving and render that too. You can do it after the dish is cooked and they you'll have a flavored schmaltz. The crunchy skin afterwards, gribenes, is basically another form of fried skin goodness.)
 
I'm picturing you dressed in a pioneer outfit and smoking a pipe while you explain that.
 
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I think I'm going to give Birria a go this week. I do love traditional Mexican cooking. I just need to figure out what to replace the toasted Guajillo and Ancho pepper with, since I know neither will be available in my local store.
 
Tonight I volunteered to serve hor'dourves for a fundraiser. Here are two of the things I helped with:

A piece of smoked trout on a circle of rye bread with pickled onions, radish sprouts and lemon zest. Also seen is a Vegan meatball, with vegan cream cheese, a cucumber and raspberry sauce:
IMG_20211004_192526211.jpg

Pictured here is some sort of supposedly Brazilian slaw, I'm not really sure what was in it beside cherry tomatoes. Perhaps T The Butcher can shed some light?
IMG_20211004_174852211.jpg
 
Tonight I volunteered to serve hor'dourves for a fundraiser. Here are two of the things I helped with:

A piece of smoked trout on a circle of rye bread with pickled onions, radish sprouts and lemon zest. Also seen is a Vegan meatball, with vegan cream cheese, a cucumber and raspberry sauce:
View attachment 36403

Pictured here is some sort of supposedly Brazilian slaw, I'm not really sure what was in it beside cherry tomatoes. Perhaps T The Butcher can shed some light?
View attachment 36404
I have no idea what that is. I make good old-fashioned American cole slaw (been doing it a lot since I got serious about dieting — I sub mayo for full-fat unsweetened yoghurt) and it’s a bit of a novelty down here. Cabbage is not big on the Brazilian diet and its most common use that I saw growing up was in soup.
 
Just out of scientific curiosity, what you expect the meat of a vegan to be like compared to, say, beef?
Really they compare more to pork. Long Pork.
In all seriousness they actually tasted like regular meatballs, just a bit dry.

Just like my mother used to make. The yolk comes on later, doesn't it? But careful, if you ever do her Zuckerkuchen I'll consider myself adopted.
I believe we've already added the egg today we proof it and bake it.

I have no idea what that is. I make good old-fashioned American cole slaw (been doing it a lot since I got serious about dieting — I sub mayo for full-fat unsweetened yoghurt) and it’s a bit of a novelty down here. Cabbage is not big on the Brazilian diet and its most common use that I saw growing up was in soup.
I figured it wasn't Brazilian. The cooks who did it were not particularly innovative. The other 2 booths were supposed to do Swedish (The aforementioned Vegan Meatballs had Swedish Fish candies added to them) and Japanese, which had actual Japanese cuisine.
 
So, another dinner/movie party on Saturday-- Santo: the Fury of the Karate Masters.

The menu:

Filipino Spaghetti
Hot Italian Sausage (ground) plus sliced hot dogs (shamefully domestic and disappointingly unpink)
Two bottles of Jufran's Hot and Spicy banana sauce
Can of diced tomatoes and habanero peppers
An extra can of sweetened condensed milk

So I'm doubling down on both the spicy and the sweet.

Creamed Spinach
30 oz of fresh baby spinach, chopped, plus a 15 oz can of crushed pineapple
Half a pound of thick-cut hickory smoked bacon
half a cup of diced yellow onion because i am too lazy to a chop a white onion

chop the bacon, fry it good
add spinach, pineapple and onion
sautee until onion is translucent
drain and transfer to saucepan
add 2 cups heavy whipping cream
stir in 4 tbsp of black pepper
make very hot for melting cheesiness

two cups italian cheese blend (parmesan, fontina, asiago, mozz)
two cups of authentic feta (probably not really authentic)

add cheese slowly, stirring constantly until all is melted to readiness
 
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