Illegal food

It seems that there are some types of food that are illegal in the United States - for example, you can't sell horse meat for human consumption.

Enter Illegal Chips, which allows you to taste these forbidden fruits in potato chip form.

I had not known any of that.  Of course, my tastes are more mainstream, such as Walkers Roast Chicken crisps.

I'd totally eat this

Via YARGB, here's a recipe for Peruvian Lomo Saltado. The french fries look odd but I bet it's delicious.

WWI U-boat sauerkraut soup

This was actually very interesting.  I'd eat that.

WWII Thanksgiving from the USS Iowa

The really interesting story is how the military got so much turkey to the front lines.

The amazing history of Betty Crocker

This is way more interesting than you might think.  For example, she got married.  Kind of.

Oh, and there's a recipe here for pineapple upside down cake which looks spectacular.

Dining on the Titanic

I do like this guy's vlogs.  These recipes sound yummy - even the one from 3rd class.  I'd eat that.

This one from 2nd class sounds yummy.  You'd pay big bucks for this at a good French restaurant.  At one point in my life I had a big cookbook on sauces, and I'd be shocked if it hadn't had a recipe for Sauce Lyonaise.  But ten courses at dinner?  Oof.

Yeah, I'd eat that, too.

Of course, the best was reserved for 1st class.  Oddly, this seems awfully fussy.  I don't think I'd want to make it.  I don't mind Chartreusse and I like peaches, but it seems, well, fussy.  Sort of like Edwardian First Class ...

Like I said, I like this guys videos and I'm not the only one.  Has has almost 2 million subscribers.  Check him out - he has more Titanic recipes including crew mess and cocktails.

Making Battleship Ice Cream

Specifically, World War II Navy ice cream.  It looks pretty good, and the powdered milk and powdered eggs don't look like they are inferior substitutes for the fresh ingredients.  Plus a discussion of just how important ice cream was to morale.  Pretty cool. 

Feeding the Roman Army

This is a pretty cool video about how the Roman Army in Britannia kept its soldiers fed.  There's even a recipe for Roman pork with apples that looks pretty yummy. 

If you click "Watch on Youtube" then the recipe is listed in the notes along with links for where to buy obscure ingredients like garum.

Bake like it's 1653

Via The History Blog, there's a Sweet Potato Pie recipe from 1653.  Pretty cool, although it's been updated for the modern palate.  Pretty high end ingredients for the day, so not exactly what the Pilgrims would have had at Thanksgiving, but it sounds pretty yummy.

Pulled Pork AAR

So yesterday I smoked a pork butt.  It came out really well but I thought I'd follow up.

One weirdness was the probe thermometer seemed to get stuck at 133 degrees.  After an hour without any increase in temperature I got the meat thermometer which showed 145 - 150.  So I finished using that which meant a lot of opening the grill.

Another weirdness was that the temperature stopped going up after 6 or 7 hours.  This may have been because the weather clouded over and the outside temperature dropped.  I double wrapped the pork in foil and finished it in the oven at 300 degrees.

It had a nice dark bark which was nicely but not overly smoky.  It was nice and juicy (thank you, Mr. Brine!).  I now have a bunch of containers that are in the freezer.  All in all, it was a good experience.  You would only do it on a lazy summer day when you have 8 hours to mess around with things, but it was as good BBQ as I've had down here in Florida.  Winning!

Want a smoke?

No, not tobacco (or something more potent), I'm smoking a Boston butt on my gas grill.  I'm using something like this:

 

Napoleon 67011 Stainless Steel Smoker Pipe.  It looks like there are plenty of options, but I have wood chips and a lot of the tubes are for pellets.  Might work the same, I don't know.  So far things look like they're going pretty well, but the proof of the pudding and all that.  Here are the key points for smoking on a gas grill:

1. Start normally, with a good soak in a brine.  I did 24 hours.  There are a million brine recipes - the one I had uses Sprite instead of water.  And then a good rub.

2. Only one of my four burners is on, and it's down around it's lowest setting.  I took the grates off so that I can swap the smoker tubes - when one has given its all for King and Country I swap in the other which is loaded with fresh wood chips.

3. Soak the wood chips.  Dry chips are gone in 10 minutes in a huge cloud of smoke; soaked chips last 45 minutes with wisps of smoke surrounding the meat the entire time.

4. Indirect heat, baby.  I have the far left burner on with the smoker tube on it, the butt is over on the far right hand side of the grill.

5. 250 degrees is the magic number for the grill thermometer.  Remember, that thermometer isn't very accurate, which leads us to the next item:

6. A probe thermometer will tell you when you're ready to pull the meat off.  I still have an hour or two to go, but the grill is steady at 250 and you can smell (but not see) smoke.  That's what you want.

7. Don't keep opening the grill.  As they say, if you're lookin' you;re not cookin'.

We'll see how this comes out, but it's been pretty straight forward so far.

100 years of Gummi Bears

Haribo introduced Gummi Bears 100 years ago:

The first production plant was a copper kettle in his kitchen and his first employee was his wife Gertrud. He’d make hard candies and she’d deliver them on her bicycle. In 1922, Riegel invented a new confection: the Tanzbären, or Dancing Bear. It was a soft fruit-flavored candy shaped like a bear sitting on its hind legs, inspired by the sad performing bears that were so popular at the time.

 Interesting article which includes a bit on where the name "Haribo" came from.

Indigestion

 

Burns Night

Tonight is Burns Night, where Scottish culture is celebrated across the world.  There's a quite interesting Wikipedia page on the ceremony.

The centerpiece of the feast, of course, is haggis.  It sounds gross - heart, lungs, and other "parts" in a sheep's stomach - but is actually really tasty.  Maybe it's the onions.  Twenty-five years ago I flew into Glasgow for a business meeting and asked the cabbie where I could go for a good haggis.  "To a butcher", he replied (although it sounded more like "boot-cher") is his native Glaswegian.  It's been a long time since I've had haggis.  Long time since I've worn my kilt, too.

The haggis is really the centerpiece of the feast, and is brought to the table with great ceremony.  And bagpipes.



If you (like me) are of Scottish extraction, tonight is a fine time to hoist a wee dram an hum Auld Land Syne in honor of Robbie Burns.

Overheard at Christmas

Well, it's not quite but it's a quiet day and so lots of calls to kids.  But this is the funniest thing I've heard so far today:

Instapot?  That's not some marajuana thing, is it?

Heh. For those who haven't run across it, it's not at all a marajuana thing.  Good if you have munchies, I'd think.  I so need to make my pot roast in ours ...

Now that's good eating

From ten years ago, a culinary adventure of the humorous kind.

It's not what it sounds like

Really:

Flintshire County Council has been forced to swallow dick following its ill-considered decision to rename Spotted Dick as "Spotted Richard" - a rebrand it ordered following juvenile comments from sniggering staff.
According to the BBC, the powers that be pulled Spotted Dick from the menu after "several immature comments from a few customers" at its HQ in Mold. 

Cue a furious backlash from dick lovers, including Flintshire councellor Klaus Armstrong-Braun, who'd slammed the rebrand as "ludicrous" and triumphed to the BBC: "It's a great victory for Spotted Dick and for everyone who makes it."

I was going to post all sorts of security goodness, political snark, and Deep Thinking, but really, who can resist Spotted Dick?

For American readers, Spotted Dick is an English desert. The spots are currents. Quite tasty actually, especially as the name sort of lowers expectations.

The Queen Of The World's Tiramisu

The Queen Of The World wrote this down for me to post.  It's crazy good.

Makes approximately 8 servings (2” x 2”).  I prefer to double the recipe, and use a 9” x 13” glass baking pan.  It should be prepared the day before serving, or at least in the morning for dessert that same day.  By using Splenda and low or no fat cream cheese, this is a great nearly sugar and fat free, low calorie dessert.

INGREDIENTS – MAIN

2 pkgs of lady fingers

²⁄₃ cup sifted powdered sugar

1 8oz cream cheese (tub or bar*, regular or reduced fat)

½ Tsp of unsweetened cocoa

1 ½ cups of whipped cream**

INGREDIENTS FOR THE DRIZZLE

1 cup of very hot water

2 Tbsp sugar (or Splenda)

2 Tbsp instant Espresso granules

4 Tbsp Kahlua

DIRECTIONS

     1.         Combine the powdered sugar and cream cheese in a mixer until well blended.

     2.         Gently fold in 1 cup of whipped cream

     3.         Combine hot water, sugar, Espresso, and Kahlua and stir well

     4.         In a square or rectangular baking pan (preferably glass), place 1 layer of lady fingers, cut side up

     5.         Drizzle the Espresso mixture over the lady fingers

     6.         Spread a layer of the cream cheese mixture over top

     7.         Repeat steps 4 and 5

     8.         Top with the remaining ½ cup of whipped topping

     9.         Sprinkle lightly with unsweetened cocoa

  10.         Place toothpicks to hold plastic film off of the whipped topping layer, cover, and refrigerate overnight

** - If using a cream cheese bar, set out ahead of time to allow it to soften before mixing

** - I prefer making my own whipped topping using fresh whipping cream and Splenda to sweeten.

UPDATE 26 December 2017 21:22: Edited to change original "flour" to "powdered sugar".

The Queen Of The World's Bacon wrapped green beans

The Queen Of The World made them last night.  Man, were they good.

Ingredients:
Fresh green beans
1/4 sweet onion, cut in half from top to bottom
1 Tbsp minced garlic
2 Tbsp olive oil
Bacon slices, cut in half
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Pre-heat the oven to 350°

Slice half of the sweet onion into 1/4 inch wide slivers
Chop the remaining onion

Place the olive oil, green beans, chopped onion, and garlic in a skillet and saute over medium heat until lightly browned.

Remove from heat and let cool.

Wrap 4 green beans and one sliver of onion with a piece of bacon around the middle (like a belt).  Repeat until all beans are wrapped.

Place the bundles on a rack placed on a cooking sheet (so that the bundles are not touching the sheet; we want to roast, not fry).  Bake at 350° until the bacon is golden brown.

Serve to an adoring public.

Roast Beast

The Queen Of The World did a feast fit for a king today.  Her Prime Rib was done perfectly - a true medium rare (mine is always over done).  She did bacon wrapped green beans, which is even better than it sounds.  The mashed potatoes and gravy  were more than your typical restaurant fare blast-for-the plate, and she had homemade apple pie AND homemade Tiramisu.

Lord, this was the best dinner I've had in I don't know how long.

We've done well eating healthy all year, and my waistline shows that, but today was a feast day and she made it memorable.  Boy, howdy.

If y'all are interested, I can ask if I can post some of her recipes.  I pride myself on being a pretty good cook but I'm not in her league.

Thanksgiving cooking pro tip

It seems that you don't even need to know how to cook.