Take it, Naked, Bacon

Five pounds of pork belly, slowly thawing out and curing.  I have committed to providing the bacon for this year's Meatfest, but since I plan for this to be incredibly delicious, I'm not sure if this specific bacon will make it there or if I'll have to make a second batch.  First world problems.

I was considering starting a corned beef this weekend, but there hasn't been a massive hipster obsession with corned beef like there has with bacon, so the internet is not drowning in recipes for it.  Really, though, bacon seemed like it was "next."  You will note that this is my third meat-based adventure: Duck Confit, Sausage, now Bacon, none of which involve fermentation.  I am taking baby-steps, since meat is a whole other ... animal compared to fermenting vegetables. Pickles, sauerkraut, and Kimchi basically can't go wrong, other than to taste bad, and can't kill you with minute amounts of unbelievably deadly neurotoxins that have no taste or smell.  This is well-salted, and I'm going to hot-smoke it, so it will end up being a fully-cooked product.

Play your cards right, and you can have some...

In truth, there is wine.

Time has passed.  Time to pass the wine from one vessel to another.  

I transferred two reds this weekend.  A Pinot Noir that's been going for a while, and a Cabernet Sauvignon that's only just coming out of primary.  The Pinot is getting there: it's starting to flatten out and clear up, and it has a really clean flavor; no lingering, syrup-y, jammy aftertaste.   

The Cabernet is still very young.  This was my first kit with grape skins, and I hope that I never try to mash them all into a carboy again. That was a mess, as was "racking" it to secondary.  A tortured ordeal, but it is done now.

So good.  So easy.  Makes me want to start more.

Beer Review: Big Wood Coffee Stout

I stopped in for an "haute dog" at the Black Sheep, and it was good.  Very good.  But that's not what this post was about.  

Among their extensive selection of libations, they had a bucket of bottles in bags.  Each bag was numbered, so you pick a number at random, and get whatever's in there.  6 doesn't usually let me down, and this time was no exception.  I pulled a Big Wood Brewing's Morning Wood Coffee Stout. 

16 oz. can, carbonated, no widget.  Definitely dark, but really more of a porter in terms of body and mouthfeel.  I'll have to google the alcohol content...  aaand... it's 5.5%, adding credence to my porter hypothesis.  It also claims to be a coffee stout, and there's some coffee roastiness in there, but I've never actually had a coffee stout that I thought tasted enough like coffee.  I would definitely recommend it to friends and stout lovers.

I think the next time I make a coffee stout, I'm going to brew 5 gallons of full-strength coffee, and use that as mash water.  Or maybe put an unholy amount of coffee in a muslin bag for the last 5 - 10 minutes of the boil.  I want a coffee stout that tastes like coffee, dammit.  I think if you made it big enough, it would taste like Irish coffee; sweet and creamy.  Oh man.

The (Belgian) Bounce is Back.

It's been about three or four weeks in bottles, and I think this one is on track.  This could be the one, you guys.  It's a lovely light color, with just the faintest haze.  The taste is good, not mind-altering yet, but it is reminiscent of that legendary first batch in the first few weeks.  Now I must leave it be as long as I can stand; three months is when the magic starts to happen.

This is a Belgian Abbey Tripel: clear and light in color, but full of aromatic flavor and fairly high in alcohol content.  A fairly warm fermentation and the addition of some sugar give this beer a kick you don't taste right away, but definitely feel.  

Confit for a King

Duck Confit.  Food of peasants and kings alike, and a preservation method designed to minimize or eliminate fermentation.  Meat is rubbed with herbs and salt, to add flavor and begin extracting water.  The salted meat is patted dry, submerged in oil (or sufficient fat from the same animal) and heated gently to cook and sterilize.  Skim any carbohydrate/protein scum, and as long as anything with any water in it is below the fat when it solidifies, it will be preserved.  Cover, set it in a cool dry place, refrigeration not required, and it should stay perfectly preserved for weeks or months.

In my case I'm covering it with olive oil, and I'm not really going to keep if for months under the fat.

I get delicious duck meat, crunchy fried skin cracklin's, and the thing that will flavor our meals for months to come: a quart and a half of rich, herb-flavored, duck fat/olive oil blend, rendered to perfection.

It's good to be king.

It's Better than Bad, It's Good!

Making sausage is so easy, you guys!

Pork: 70% lean, 30% fat according to the nice guy behind the counter at Bunzel's.  Lots of Penzy's Bavarian spice blend and a couple percent salt by weight.  Into the freezer for half an hour, then through the grinder.  Keeping the mix near freezing stops the fat from melting and stiffens everything so that it gets cut, rather than smeared through the plates.

Back for another freeze after the first grind and then through the breach again.  I wasn't ready for casings just yet, so this got formed into a loaf pan and cooked it in a water bath into:  Meat Log!

Tasty slices, delicious by themselves; or lately, fried and made into sausage, egg, and cheese "McMuffins."

Guac-Kale-Mole

Is just what it sounds like: guacamole with kale in it.  The secret ingredient is tomatillo salsa.  The non-secret ingredients are kale (it's in the name) and avocados (it's guacamole.)  It is not the best guacamole I ever had, but the taste:work:healthy ratio is great.  Next time it needs more spice, I've been eating it with hot sauce sprinkled on the top and that's pretty tasty.  

The kale is cooked (not a lot, just in a large pan with some water to blanch it) and then everything goes in the food processor, whereupon I apply the doctrine of "if it's worth blending, it's worth blending the shit out of it."