The Food and Drink Thread

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E-Rocker said:
Thanks!

No smoker. I've got a charcoal grill, an oven, a slow cooker, and an air fryer.
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So, I'm not going to start an argument here, because barbecue means different things to different people, and we're not allowed to have religious arguments here on The Pub.

I'm just going to forge ahead with my advice.

IMHO: Cooking ribs in a slow cooker you will not wind up with ribs, you'll wind up with a morass of generic pork meat. You may as well throw a pork shoulder in there, you won't be able to tell the difference when you're done. For me, to really cook ribs properly, barbecue style, you want a dry heat, low and slow. That is what builds that bark that gives you that barbecue flavor. Depending on your charcoal grill, you could improvise it as a smoker.

How to Grill Over Indirect Heat on a Charcoal Grill

Throw some hickory and cherry chips on your coals as the ribs are cooking, and that will change your life.

If that seems like too much (and I totally get that) then just go with the braising method in Who Loves You Baby Back. Just so you know, as Alton noted in that episode, that is not barbecue, but it does create a magnificent rack of ribs.

You'll say, "Well, at that point, why not just throw them in the slow cooker?" So, braising is about cooking them semi-submerged in liquid. Enough liquid, but not too much. By cooking them in packets in the oven, you have just enough liquid to braise them, but not too much. You aren't drowning them. The problem with a slow cooker is that it's the wrong shape for that. In order to get that submergence correct in a slow cooker, you have to add a lot more liquid to the container, which means that your ribs just get deluged in liquid. You wind up with all of your porky goodness flowing out into the cooking liquid. Or you don't add enough liquid, and then they don't actually braise, they steam. They wind up cooked, but they don't pull any flavor from the cooking liquid.

Don't get me wrong, I love a slow cooker. But it's the wrong tool for ribs.
 
TheSaint said:
Limeade is my favorite soft drink. When I was single I used to buy the frozen concentrate and keep a gallon of it in the fridge constantly. And, mixed with a shot of tequila, it makes a decent poor-man's margarita. But, my wife thinks it's gross, and has poisoned my children's minds against me....

Tonight it's Old Fashioneds. My wife cans homemade cocktail cherries from cherries that we grow in our own backyard every year. They make the best Old Fashioneds.
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I would mix 50% limeade and 50% tequila in a pitcher during summer. Pour a glass over ice and sit outside reading and sipping.
 
Tonight it's scotch and Glayva.

So when I was living in South Africa, twenty-five years ago now, one of my friends invited me over to her parents' house for dinner. And while we were waiting for dinner to come out of the oven, her mother offered me a drink. At the time, I had just gotten into single-malt scotch, courtesy of another Scottish friend I had made there, so I asked for a scotch, single-malt if she had it. She dithered about the bar for a bit, and said, "Well, the only scotch I have is Dewar's, but here, try this." And she cut it with a shot of Glayva. And, it was like the skies opened and the angels began to sing. The entire rest of the time I lived there, I always kept a bottle of Glayva in the liquor cabinet.

Then I moved back to the States and discovered that you couldn't buy Glayva here. Nobody imported it. So for years I would regale my friends with tales of this mysterious, unobtainable, golden Nectar of the Gods. I got married, told my wife all the same tales. And then one day we were walking through BevMo in California, and they had a bottle of Glayva sitting on the shelf. Just one. Instantly bought it. Talked to the manager to find out when they were getting more, found out that one of their distributors had made a couple of cases available after a special purchase, no idea when or if they would be getting more. Never saw it again. But after just a couple of tries, my wife was also hooked. So we just kept our eyes peeled every time we went to the liquor store.

Fast forward twenty years. I'm at Total Wine last month, restocking the bar. Just happen to be walking down the liqueur aisle on my way to the checkout, and there it is. Just sitting there. Between the Drambuie and the Irish Mist. I bought two bottles, just in case. Apparently, it's going to be a regularly stocked item now. Giddy just thinking about it.
 
E-Rocker said:
I have three racks of ribs that have been sitting in my freezer since my grocery store had a "buy one, get two free" sale on them. I'm gonna cook one those racks next week. Not sure how yet. Open to suggestions.
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You should braise them and then boil them in a large pot with cabbage, onions, turnips, & potatoes. Serve a mug of the broth, a plate to cut up your meats and veggies, and with an array of sauces & pickles. Gets good flavor out of the marrow and browned ribs into the broth and gives you an opportunity to season with your own choice (such as mint sauce, hot sauce, pickled onions, pickled olives, or your very own tears of disappointment)! :eat:
 
American pizza in Melbourne, Australia.

The Chicago deep dish was basically a supercharged margherita with a buttery pie pastry. It was good, not remotely worth what we paid for it, absolutely worth trying, and not something I'm in any hurry to eat more of. We were recommended to add some chilli oil, which did enhance the flavour.

The Detroit style (which I was not convinced was really a thing until I received confirmation from some Detroit natives on the HF Red Wings subforum), was awesome. We got the quadruple pepperoni, which seemed to have just a normal amount of pepperoni, but perhaps they were comparing it to New York pizza. In any case, it was really good, and we agreed we will be back to have more of that.

We didn't bother with the New York pizza, as one of us hates thin crust, and all of us agree that a New York pizza is basically just a thin crust Australian pizza with no toppings.

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It's pretty rare for me to eat Chicago deep dish, mostly because here it's way more expensive than other pizza (though to be fair, it's also a much greater volume of food than other pizza), but that picture sure made me want some!
 
I make Chicago deep dish pizza, but only every once in a while. It's one of my wife's favorites, so I wind up making it for Mother's Day, her birthday, etc. I actually do make pizza every week, every Saturday night is pizza and movie night, but it's normal risen crust pizza, not deep dish. If I made deep dish every week we'd be big as houses.

Tonight's cocktail is a Negroni.
 
Tonight's cocktail was a highball: Vernor's ginger ale and Canadian Club. Can't be fancy every night. :wink:
 
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