Pig - - Page 29

by BS

The Truth About Bacon

I have a confession: I rarely cook bacon.

I know, I know, I talk a lot of shit about bacon. And I stand by my oft-stated position that it lies among god’s greatest creations. I’m fully on board with the food blogosphere’s complete obsession with all things bacon. Whether it’s bacon salad, bacon cocktails, bacon wallets, or just plain bacon ridiculousness, I’m in. There’s something about this greasy, salty, over-the-top, wholly American food that is just so fun to blog about. But I have to admit, I blog bacon much more often than I actually eat it.

Growing up, bacon breakfasts were reserved for special occasions, or just a surprise best Sunday morning ever. Hence, bacon never made it into the roster of things that I regularly buy. Sure, I pass it in the supermarket all the time and have the urge to grab a pack or two of the good stuff, but I always feel it’s just too unhealthy to actually have bacon in my house and cook it every day. And don’t talk to me about turkey bacon, tofu bacon or tempeh bacon. NO.

So I generally reserve bacon consumption for eating out. Consequentially, I have become literarlly incapable of reading the word “bacon” on a menu and not ordering the encompassing item. My favorite diners and lunch spots might serve great burgers, salads, or pasta dishes, but I wouldn’t know, because I simply cannot pass up a good BLT.

But I’m thinking if I’m going to be a good food blogger, I really should know how to cook bacon dishes better myself. Not just bacon and eggs, but bacon-based french onion soup and all that good stuff. So my early New Years resolution is to cook more bacon. On that note, I have three questions for you all:

by BS

Spuds + Pork = Crazy Delicious

It’s soup day on the Simmer! Well it’s cold as hell so why not? Thanks to all you commenters who gave me a whole bunch of great ideas for how to use up my leftover pork pieces, I decided to give soup a chance.

Let me first say that I have never before made a successful soup. A few years ago, early on in my experimental cooking days, I tried to make potato soup and it came out brown and lumpy. I’m not even quite sure how it got that way but can you get any less appetizing than that? So needless to say, there were more than a few times throughout the planning and production of this meal that I was quite certain it was going to end up filed as a Friday Fuck Up, but through some miracle of god, cream, and bacon, it came out OK. Thus, I am allowed to post it on a Tuesday.

So I started out making a stock out of the leftover pork bone. Following all your advice, and a little online research, I soaked the bone in cold water for a couple of hours, then roasted it in the oven (I think this was a good idea because it made my house smell glorious). Then I put the bone in a saucepan with half a chopped onion and a few cloves of garlic, filled it with water, brought to a boil, and then covered and let it simmer for about three hours…

in Pig / Recipe 4 comments

by BS

Endless Menus: A Meat Lover’s Thanksgiving

T-minus 10 days, people! Turkey day is almost upon us, and if we know our readers at all, you’re still nursing Halloween hangovers/post-Election giddiness and haven’t even begun to plan for the big feast.

So lucky for you, ES has come up with four delicious menus to guide you along. Now let’s be honest, there are enough effing sites on the Internet telling you how to brine a turkey and mash potatoes. And you probably know how to do all that shit anyway. But what about people who don’t want to do the same damn thing every year, who get sick of the same old sides, and don’t think adding rosemary to the stuffing counts as “mixing it up.” This one’s for you folks. Introducing Endless Menus.

One thing that’s always bothered me about Thanksgiving is that it doesn’t have nearly enough meat in it. For a celebration that claims to be the most American of holidays, it sure doesn’t include much of our favorite food group, does it? I mean, a giant bird and some vegetables? What country are you people living in? That’s not the America I know and love. For a truly pilgrim-loving Thanksgiving, toss the yams this year and cook up A Meat Lover’s Thanksgiving:

The Bird: Turkey Galantine

Yeah, yeah, yeah, you think you’re pretty badass for your annual turducken fry, dontcha? Big deal. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out how to stuff a duck in a chicken in a turkey. Why don’t you try stuffing ham, pork, veal, tongue, truffles, nuts, and three eggs up that hole? Then you can talk. None other than James A. Beard himself brings us this retro recipe, which calls for stuffing so many effing things in that bird that you actually have to take out all the bones, and much of the turkey meat. He even pulls the turkey breasts out, marinates them in cognac, and then stuffs those fuckers back in. Now that’s a badass bird. (Photo: MizD)

The Inside: Spam Stuffing

Sausage stuffing? No, no, no, people Don’t you read the paper? Spam is in this year! And there’s no better way to spice up your stuffing than with the South Pacific treat. Gingerjoy says: “Your guests will be surprised that the tasty flavor actually comes from this ‘mystery meat.’ Yeeeeeeeaaah. We can’t say for sure if that is good surprised or bad surprised, but we think we have an idea. Apologies to ninjapoodles for using your stock stuffing photo, but there is no known documentation of actual Spam Stuffing.

The Spuds: Bacon Mashed Potatoes

We’ve said it once, we’ll say it again, and we won’t stop saying it until we keel over face down in a pool of our own grease: There is nothing bacon can’t improve. And while mashed potatoes were pretty goshdarn good to begin with, the golden rule holds true here. It turns out quite a few folks have thought of this, but we’re particularly partial to Bon Appetit’s Bacon and Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes, because hey, you’re putting bacon in it, why not go for buttermilk too? A little lard couldn’t hurt anyone either. (Photo: Incase Design)

More meat-y menu ideas after the J.

in Bacon / Cheese / Fowl / Holiday / Pig / Veggie 8 comments

by gansie

One Night at the Piano Bar

So DAD GANSIE and my mom go to this hotel piano bar every Friday night. Nicky plays the keyboard and sings duets with other patrons. Mostly songs from the 40s and 50s, I think. My dad brings bags and bags of candy to give to all the older ladies and my mom hides in embarrassment. My parents have become close with the regulars, including Nicky and his wife, Julie.

Julie cooks! And Julie enters tons of cooking contests. I forget how much she’s won, but I think it’s impressive. She’s in another contest now – “Cooking with Smithfield” and DAD GANSIE asks that the ES community vote for Julie’s Chile-Cheese Stuffed Pork Chops with Ginger-Jalepeno Glaze.

So, listed to DAD GANSIE and go vote for Julie. After the jump is her take on this crazy sounding glaze.

in Contests / Pig 2 comments

by BS

Slow Cook, Taste It Easy

So Alex got me this sweet crock pot for my birthday this summer, and I’ve been waiting months for a perfect cold Sunday to kick back and cook up some BBQ pulled pork.

Now before anyone gets all up in my face and yells that this is not BBQ at all (I’m looking at you, Tim), let it be known that I fully understand this is not BBQ at all, but merely a city kid’s indoor imitation of it. You might even call it cheating, but you had better not, because it took me 12 effing hours.

I searched around quickly for this, but the basic recipes (here, here, here) are all pretty much the same, with the only main argument about how long you should cook it for. So I went out to the supermarket and bought a giant pork shoulder, which surprisingly cost about 8 bucks – pretty great considering I’ve got a good 10+ meals coming out of this. The shoulder was so big that I actually had to chop it up a bit to get it to fit in the slow cooker.

Now, ya’ll might yell at me again ’bout this, but as much as I love pulled pork, I’m not a huge fan of the sauce. I often find traditional BBQ sauce too ketchup-y, and you know how we feel about ketchup. So instead I whipped up my own semi-hot sauce: Sriracha, white wine vinegar, worcestershire sauce, garlic, sugar, salt and pepper.

So I poured the sauce on my pork shoulder, set the thing on low and let it cook there for eight hours! I am not the most patient chef ever, to say the least, so as you can imagine I was a little antsy all day. I checked it after 8 hours, and, as one of the recipes recommended, at that point began to remove the fat. I felt like a pretty hardcore butcher chopping off fat. The meat tasted good, but not quite as tender as I wanted, so I put it back on to simmer for another four hours. This of course meant I didn’t even get to eat it for dinner that night, but I was determined to get this one right…

in Cheese / Pig / Recipe / Sandwich 23 comments

by BS

Who Cooked It Better: Thanksgiving Turkeys

We know, we know, Halloween isn’t even over yet. But for serious foodies, it’s time to start thinking about the bigger picture. One of the best parts of fall is waiting for our November issues of the food mags to arrive, and seeing what kind of ridiculous, over-the-top spins they suggest we put on turkey this year. I mean, come on, it’s turkey. Everyone does it the same, right? Wrong! Check out what Gourmet and Bon Appetit have in store for your bacon-addled, fruit-enhanced T-Day this year:

On the left is Gourmet’s entry: Plum-glazed roast turkey with spinach, bacon, and cashew stuffing, and plum gravy. Yes, that’s right, Gourmet managed to turn “roast turkey” into a full 13 words. Since one of those words is bacon, we’re intrigued. On the other hand, the plum jam/Chinese five spice glaze sounds a little intense for good ol’ turkey. Check out the full recipe here.

Bon App, meanwhile, keeps it to a mere five words this year with their roast heritage turkey with cider gravy. But don’t worry, they incorporate the B-word in the form of bacon, dijon, and herb butter slipped under the bird’s skin. Mmmm. The rest of it is way more traditional, with a cider gravy base and an apple-veggie dressing. Points for restraining themselves. Although, like Gourmet, no explanation for why there has to be random fruit on the serving platter. Full recipe over this-a-way.

So, which fancy-pants advice will you be following this November?

[poll id=”26″]

in Bacon / Fowl / Holiday / Pig / Recipe 5 comments

by BS

Pine Nut Finalist Number One

The moment all you pignoli nuts have been waiting for is finally here: The results of the Endless Simmer Pine Nut Cooking Contest! Our judges have whittled down the numerous entries, but as usual, we just can’t make up our minds (our our bellies).

So we’re turning it over to you to decide which of our entrants should be crowned the Pine Nut Champion, walk away with a free subscription to La Cucina Italiana magazine, and earn a spot in the Endless Eaters Hall of Fame. We will present the finalists day-by-day and ask you to vote starting later this week.

OK, I’ll stop jabbering on and focus on that tasty photo above that I know you’ve all been drooling over while skimming the last two paragraphs.

Our first finalist is Lisa, the lovely blogger behind Dish-trict. Lisa takes on bacon-wrapped dates, which Brit told us about last week, and kicks them up a serious notch. (Sorry, Brit, but she used pine nuts!)

Lisa starts us out with some biographical info….

in Bacon / Cheese / Contests / Endless Bacon / Pig / Recipe 11 comments