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Jul. 2nd, 2013 08:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
camwynNo tornadoes yesterday so far as I know. All is well weather-wise. Closed the windows when I got home and left the A/C running this morning so the cats wouldn't overheat.
Called the butcher in town; they don't generally carry pork belly. My best bet seems to be to either ask at Whole Foods or to go to someone in the North End. Unless one of you guys who happens to live in the Boston area knows a farmer I can talk to, anyway. Bear in mind that I'm not likely to be able to work with more than about 3-5 pounds of meat at a time- more likely on the 3 end since I got a small grill, but I assume I can freeze anything extra until there's room for me to work with it. Alternatively, if I run across a butcher who has lamb belly for some reason, I'll be happy to work with that instead. Oh- and I need to get celery. I don't want to work with pink salt for this. I am aware that celery contains nitrites just as much as pink salt and that 'uncured' bacon still has nitrites thanks to being soaked in celery juice. This is not a health thing. This is an 'I don't feel comfortable leaving that stuff lying around the house just in case the cats find it' thing combined with an 'I don't want to deal with stuff that dyes my meat pink so that I feel better about the way it looks' thing. Apparently if you use enough celery juice in the brine you get the same effects chemically. I don't have a juicer but I have a feeling a few minutes with a submersible blender will convince the celery to give up on its dreams of structural integrity and collapse into a puddle of goo.
Beef jerky turned out pretty well this time, if a bit hotter than usual (1.5 pounds of beef for a 2 pound recipe, also some cayenne along with the dried chipotle flakes and two kinds of paprika). Brought it in to work. They love it here, and since I'm always glad to have an audience for the stuff I make, I'm good with that. I'll be writing that procedure up on Tumblr.
Probably going to stop at Whole Foods tonight and pick up some half and half and eggs. My ice cream maker bucket is in the freezer and I finished the apple mint choco ice cream the other night, so I might as well make some maple ice cream- it'll be my first stab at a recipe that requires making a custard. I've got Grade B syrup to work with, which is preferable in cooking since the taste is stronger (syrup grading isn't based on quality, it's based on opacity, from what I recall- the more maple compounds in it the stronger the taste and the less light gets through it). They don't sell grade C in stores, I don't think. It's mostly reserved for being made into flavoring. If I'm wrong, let me know.
Most of what's going on beyond that has to do with work, so I'm not gonna bore you guys with that- oh, I wanted to note that Adagio Teas has wonderful stuff and that I am very grateful for the birthday gift certificate that introduced me to them. And that if you go looking for their fandom-inspired blends (tea blends concocted by users, I think) and get the Kaidan Alenko blend from the Mass Effect line, it makes really good refrigerator iced tea. Thought you should know.
Called the butcher in town; they don't generally carry pork belly. My best bet seems to be to either ask at Whole Foods or to go to someone in the North End. Unless one of you guys who happens to live in the Boston area knows a farmer I can talk to, anyway. Bear in mind that I'm not likely to be able to work with more than about 3-5 pounds of meat at a time- more likely on the 3 end since I got a small grill, but I assume I can freeze anything extra until there's room for me to work with it. Alternatively, if I run across a butcher who has lamb belly for some reason, I'll be happy to work with that instead. Oh- and I need to get celery. I don't want to work with pink salt for this. I am aware that celery contains nitrites just as much as pink salt and that 'uncured' bacon still has nitrites thanks to being soaked in celery juice. This is not a health thing. This is an 'I don't feel comfortable leaving that stuff lying around the house just in case the cats find it' thing combined with an 'I don't want to deal with stuff that dyes my meat pink so that I feel better about the way it looks' thing. Apparently if you use enough celery juice in the brine you get the same effects chemically. I don't have a juicer but I have a feeling a few minutes with a submersible blender will convince the celery to give up on its dreams of structural integrity and collapse into a puddle of goo.
Beef jerky turned out pretty well this time, if a bit hotter than usual (1.5 pounds of beef for a 2 pound recipe, also some cayenne along with the dried chipotle flakes and two kinds of paprika). Brought it in to work. They love it here, and since I'm always glad to have an audience for the stuff I make, I'm good with that. I'll be writing that procedure up on Tumblr.
Probably going to stop at Whole Foods tonight and pick up some half and half and eggs. My ice cream maker bucket is in the freezer and I finished the apple mint choco ice cream the other night, so I might as well make some maple ice cream- it'll be my first stab at a recipe that requires making a custard. I've got Grade B syrup to work with, which is preferable in cooking since the taste is stronger (syrup grading isn't based on quality, it's based on opacity, from what I recall- the more maple compounds in it the stronger the taste and the less light gets through it). They don't sell grade C in stores, I don't think. It's mostly reserved for being made into flavoring. If I'm wrong, let me know.
Most of what's going on beyond that has to do with work, so I'm not gonna bore you guys with that- oh, I wanted to note that Adagio Teas has wonderful stuff and that I am very grateful for the birthday gift certificate that introduced me to them. And that if you go looking for their fandom-inspired blends (tea blends concocted by users, I think) and get the Kaidan Alenko blend from the Mass Effect line, it makes really good refrigerator iced tea. Thought you should know.
no subject
Date: 2013-07-02 01:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-02 01:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-02 01:32 pm (UTC)They do the sort of farm share that they list everything available every two weeks, and then you pick out what you would like to buy that cycle. It has a min cost of $50, and you can select not to participate in a cycle, if you prefer. Like, we ended up not getting anything for this week and end up normally getting things about once a month.
I like them a lot. We liked their traditional farm share box, but it was so huge, even with two vegetarians. It also had a lot of veggies that we just were never sure what to do with, so the store option that gets delivered to us from the farm where we pick out what we want is awesome. Less waste! :D