technique

beef, grilling, meat, technique

Montreal Steak Rub

Grilling season has arrived! Here’s a simple and popular rub that has delicious results. Sure, you can just buy the seasoning mix, but when you have a spice cabinet that can’t fit one more jar, it’s better to just make your own mixtures. Most of the recipes I’ve seen online called for dill weed, but […]

baked entrees, squash, technique

Squash with Marmalade

This recipe was on a sticker on the cute mini-acorn squashes I got today at the store, and turned out really well (especially since I was using Melanie’s homemade marmalade): Cook acorn squash according to standard operating procedures (cut in half, remove seeds, put face down on cookie sheet in 400 degree oven for around […]

BBQ, beef, meat, technique

Hamburgers

This is not a definitive recipe or anything, but it almost always turns out excellently, and so I thought it might be useful to readers of the blog/family members as a good burger recipe. Using a lot of fresh onion in meat is a trick from Lillian. 1# Ground beef (if you use leaner beef, […]

bread, breakfast, eggs, technique

Eggs-in-a-Basket

Note: Alex had titled this “Toad-in-the-Hole”, which refers to another dish entirely. Discussion is in the comments. This is a fun recipe (technique really) that I picked up from Melanie. She also calls it “Bullseyes” – it has a ton of names – Wikipedia lists it as “Eggs in the basket” among many, many others. […]

charcuterie, pork, technique

Pig head: Part 2

Continued from here After curing the face overnight, cooking time arrived. I rolled the face up, resulting in this somewhat grim device: The cooking technique described in the video I linked to in the first post is known as sous-vide or under vacuum, whereby the meat is sealed up with its flavorings and cooked in […]

charcuterie, head, pork, technique

Pig head, part 1

Watching lots of Anthony Bourdain will definitely give you a hankering for some odd cuts, so here’s the first in what will hopefully be a series of snout-to-tail classics. Cute ain’t he? Well, not for long… Researching how to go about this, I found this very useful video. I basically copied his technique for boning […]

baked entrees, beef, meat, pork, technique

Meatloaf

This is mostly just an illustration of Lillian’s (adapted) meatloaf recipe, which is indeed pretty awesome. Whats interesting about the recipe is mostly the cooking technique, which involved forming the loaf on a rack wrapped in tinfoil, with a sheet underneath to catch the grease. A picture is worth a thousand words:As for the contents […]

meat, pork, technique

Thick-cut Pork Chops

These intimidating chops were actually pretty easy to cook. They’re called an “Iowa Chop”, and they’re just a thick-cut, bone-in, center-cut chop. I’ve discovered that the secret to juicy pork chops is to start with a cold pan and obsessively checking the temperature. I find they’re best just under 160 degrees. Pork Chops 2 1-lb. […]