THE SDN RECIPE THREAD!

[Surlethe]

You know, just two weeks ago I would have read this thread and nodded silently at what Enigma said. But just last Friday, I had a fucking awesome medium rare steak, and now I am a complete convert. Well-done steaks suck.

[Phantasee]

I'm not the biggest fan of steak, partly because I grew up eating well-done steaks. I've had some medium-rare steaks, and they were pretty good, but I will continue my quest of finding the best ribs in town. I realize that's kinda weird, living in Alberta, and all, but god damn it, I love ribs.

So far I can recommend/warn you guys about these places: Montana's Front Porch at the Edmonton International Airport: Pretty good ribs. Tom Goodchild's Moose Factory: Pretty lame. Not juicy at all. Also: the Moose Factory is a steak house, but it is awful at steak as well.

[Darth Wong]

I usually go to Canyon Creek Chop House when I feel like a steak. That's a chain around here; I don't know how far out it goes. They're pretty reasonable on price, unlike some of the really fancy places. Filet Mignon is only $30.

[The Spartan]

All this talk of overcooked meat is bringing back my childhood. My mother refused to eat any meat that wasn't, in her words, dead. So my dad overcooked every goddamn thing. I remember there were days we had steak where my mom was raving about how good it was and yet I couldn't eat it because I couldn't chew it enough not to gag on it when I swallowed. Or pork chops that were like cardboard.

Then when I was living at home after college I would do some of the cooking and my mom would be amazed at how tender and juicy meat I cooked came out and kept asking me how it was always so tender and juicy. She could not get it through her head that the trick was to not over cook the damn chicken breast not some secret marinade or or eldritch technique or mystic incantation or whatever.

[Mr. Coffee]

See, what you need to find is a good butcher shop and buy a good grill.

[Darth Wong]

See, what you need to find is a good butcher shop and buy a good grill.

That's another good way to go, although I just like the atmosphere of eating a steak in a decent steak house. They can also do prime rib.

[Count Chocula]

...but I will continue my quest of finding the best ribs in town. I realize that's kinda weird, living in Alberta, and all, but god damn it, I love ribs.

If you want to roll your own ribs, here's the dead-easy bachelor way to make a great rack:

• Get a rack of pork ribs from your local butcher or a place like Sam's Club (yeah, they've got pretty good ribs);
• Put the ribs in a stock pot full of water. You could add beer if you want, but I stick with the H2O (see below for the reason0;
• Heat the water to boiling, and let the ribs boil for ten minutes;
• Turn off the heat and let the ribs cool to room temperature;
• Drain the water, slather the sauce of your choice over the ribs (I like Sweet Baby Ray's), and grill for 3-4 minutes per side.

It's easy, requires minimal attention, gives you time to make your salad, taters and whatnot, and yields delicious juicy ribs every time.

[Enigma]

Have you tried eating shoe leather? It sounds like it would suit your palate.

Don't know about you but I do not equate thoroughly cooked meat to charred lump\leather. You can have a thoroughly cooked meat and still be tender and juicy.

Yes, you can, if you braise it. That's how you turn a tough, chewy cut like chuck into delicious pot roast. I have no problem with well-done beef. My objection is well-done steak, which is just a waste. You're cooking out all the flavor. Sure, a fatty cut will remain moist thanks to all the rendered fat in it, but that's not the same thing.

What cuts do you usually use for steak?

Don't know really. My inlaws would probably know but I do know that the delicious steak I had tonight was what my father-in-law calls it a rib steak. Tasty. :)

[RedImperator]

Don't know about you but I do not equate thoroughly cooked meat to charred lump\leather. You can have a thoroughly cooked meat and still be tender and juicy.

Yes, you can, if you braise it. That's how you turn a tough, chewy cut like chuck into delicious pot roast. I have no problem with well-done beef. My objection is well-done steak, which is just a waste. You're cooking out all the flavor. Sure, a fatty cut will remain moist thanks to all the rendered fat in it, but that's not the same thing.

What cuts do you usually use for steak?

Don't know really. My inlaws would probably know but I do know that the delicious steak I had tonight was what my father-in-law calls it a rib steak. Tasty.

If it's ribeye, that would explain how it's edible after being cooked well-done. Ribeye is very fatty (fattier than I prefer, though that's of no consequence), so it will survive a cooking process that would reduce porterhouse or sirloin to shoe leather.

[Enigma]

Don't know really. My inlaws would probably know but I do know that the delicious steak I had tonight was what my father-in-law calls it a rib steak. Tasty. :)

If it's ribeye, that would explain how it's edible after being cooked well-done. Ribeye is very fatty (fattier than I prefer, though that's of no consequence), so it will survive a cooking process that would reduce porterhouse or sirloin to shoe leather.

All I know is that the steaks no matter the kind, are still tasty and juicy when it is no longer pink in any way. Just because I do not like my meat pink doesn't mean it is the same as eating lumps of coal.

[Logical Mike]

...but I will continue my quest of finding the best ribs in town. I realize that's kinda weird, living in Alberta, and all, but god damn it, I love ribs.

If you want to roll your own ribs, here's the dead-easy bachelor way to make a great rack:

• Get a rack of pork ribs from your local butcher or a place like Sam's Club (yeah, they've got pretty good ribs);
• Put the ribs in a stock pot full of water. You could add beer if you want, but I stick with the H2O (see below for the reason0;
• Heat the water to boiling, and let the ribs boil for ten minutes;
• Turn off the heat and let the ribs cool to room temperature;
• Drain the water, slather sauce of your choice over the ribs (I like Sweet Baby Ray's), and grill for 3-4 minutes per side.

It's easy, requires minimal attention, gives you time to make your salad, taters and whatnot, and yields delicious juicy ribs every time.

No, just no to all of this, it's insane, unless you like boiled meat (yuck)

I concur it MUST be pork ribs, but there you go this way
Take the ribs and dryrub them with your choice of spices
Rap in foil, put in oven on 250, let cook for 3-5 hours
Uncover, slather in WARMED BBQ (I like either Carolina style or KC masterpiece actually) sauce of choice, place on grill for 4 minutes a side
Place corn on cob on grill 3 minutes a side
Ensure you have baked some cornbread
Serve with COTC, Cornbread, and French Fries/Oven browned potatos

Get fork because this shit's gonna fall off the bone.

Win.

[Darth Wong]

Chocula's method does have the advantage of being ridiculously fast and easy. I guess the concern is that you will lose too much flavour into the water that way. Having never tried it, I'd be curious just how murky the water is after this ten minute boiling session.

[SCRawl]

My preferred rib cooking method takes very little effort, but quite a bit of time -- several hours in the slow-cooker. I just set it up in the morning, and by dinner time they're ready. By the end, very little of the meat will actually be on the bones.

I concur with the cornbread suggestion, but I hate making it. I have an excellent skillet cornbread recipe, but every time I make it, and take the (extremely hot) skillet out of the oven, I end up unconsciously grabbing for the handle, which is, you know, fucking hot. "Scream like a girl" roughly sums up my reaction.

[Simplicius]

It's only parboiling; it's not as if the final product will be tender at the cost of being grey and waterlogged. You could even season the water and get around not being able to do a dry rub.

Steaming is also worth consideration. When we'd do short ribs at work they'd spend some time in the steamer as well as in the oven, and the end result was ribs so tender that the meat would be falling off the bone before anyone ever touched it.

[Isolder74]

My Recipe for Yellow Cake(modified version of a recipe by Alton Brown)

1 box(2 pounds) of cake flour
3 3/4 cup sugar
1 pound of butter
7 eggs
3 1/4 cups milk
9 tsp baking powder
3 tsp vanilla or other flavoring
3/4 tsp salt

Pre-heat oven to 350 F

Put the sugar into a food processor with the mince blade and turn on for one minute. Meanwhile cream the room temperature butter with a mixer on medium. Combine and sift together the flour, salt and baking powder onto a flexible cutting board. When fine add the sugar slowly to the butter and beat until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time. Slow the mixer and carefully add half of the flour mixer making it slowly faster until all the flour is gone in the bowl. Add slowly on high half the milk and vanillia. Slow mix in the rest of the flour as before. Beat in the rest of the milk. Makes 2 13 x 9 cakes or 4 9/8 inch round cakes with usually a dozen cupcakes left over. Bake 13 x 9 cakes 30 - 40 mins, 2 round cakes for 20 - 25 mins, cup cakes for 20 mins. To be sure check center of cake with a toothpick if it comes out clean the cake is done.

Note: you can fill 2 1 1/2 quart pyrex bowls 3/4 full to make a round cake or 2 domes(now you know my turkey's secret). They bake for about 45 mins, start checking at 40.

Cool, sculpt and frost. One trick i use after sculpting a cake is to make cofenctionser's glaze and glaze the cake over and let it sit for about an hour before frosting.

Buttercream Frosting

2 sticks of butter
1 tsp of vanilla(2 x if you want big flavor)
2 pounds of powdered sugar
1 1/2 cups milk

Beat the room temperature butter and work in the vanilla. Slowly sift in the sugar. Add in the milk a bit at a time until you have the constancy you want(varies by the weather).

[Count Chocula]

Chocula's method does have the advantage of being ridiculously fast and easy. I guess the concern is that you will lose too much flavour into the water that way. Having never tried it, I'd be curious just how murky the water is after this ten minute boiling session.

After a 10-minute boil, the water's about 40% occluded...mainly from the fat and excess skin sloughing off the ribs, which coincidentally yields leaner, yummier ribs! And, if you're of a mind, also makes a good soup stock.

Logical Mike's recipe is a good way to go if you have the time; I used to do ribs in the oven but MAN I got fed up with the whole cook 3-5 hour routine. The oven also warms up my kitchen more than the cook pot, the hood vent gets the heat outside better from the stove. But...KC Masterpiece?!? Give Baby Ray's a chance. You won't regret it. The parboil technique, as Simplicius alluded to, cooks the puerco without turning it into gray goo. Try it technique once, especially in the summer when you don't want to add BTUs to your living area, and I bet you'll be a convert. Native Southerners aren't all dumb, especially when it comes to food. I larn from 'em whar ah ken.

Oh vent: the 49-slide voice-over script is 90% done (in between posts here...) now to record them on no sleep. Good thing I brewed a pot of coffee.

[RedImperator]

Maybe we could split all the meat-related discussion into its own thread. This is valuable advice.

Speaking of ribs, does anybody have a good recipe for hush puppies to go with them? I love hush puppies, but I can't find anyone around here who makes good ones, and I don't feel like driving to North Carolina to get them.

[Edi]

Maybe we could split all the meat-related discussion into its own thread. This is valuable advice.

Speaking of ribs, does anybody have a good recipe for hush puppies to go with them? I love hush puppies, but I can't find anyone around here who makes good ones, and I don't feel like driving to North Carolina to get them.

Done.

Damn, two whole pages out of the Venting thread? Low level of bitching on the board in general, that is...

[Shroom Man 777]

This is awesome. We can totally move this to OT too so we can talk about delicious meats for all to see and hear. I am so gonna try out medium rare steak thanks to all you guys talking about fine fooderies and foodulums.

It's awesome that this thread got split because of all the food-talk, but there is a random post by The Spartan on page one talking about how pus is oozing out of a gangrenous leprosy sore on his hand or something.

[Isolder74]

core temp hot enough to kill bacteria, is all you need, and there are ways of sealing in the flavour. Or just do it the Japanese/Mongolian way and get your beef from a good healthy homogenous source.

The notion that searing the meat "seals in" anything is a myth. You can't seriously believe that burning the surface of the meat will actually create a watertight seal; it's one of those oft-repeated ideas that falls apart the moment you look seriously at it. People just think it seals in the flavour because it creates an interesting flavour in the seared region itself.

Indeed since the heat damages cell walls in the surface of the meat that means that the water in those cells will simply pour out. You do have to admit that the seared steak sure looks so much tastier.

Alton Brown attacked this one and stomped it good.

[Isolder74]

Oh and I think this might be something worth moving over into the Off Topic forum where it will get more visibility.

[The Spartan]

On the Alton Brown note, his pan seared rib-eye technique isn't a bad way to cook a steak if, for whatever reason, a grill is impractical. Though it does require that you buy a cast iron pan.

I tried it with some thick filet mignons. I had to fine tune it a bit but in the end the steaks were moist and tasty.

[Isolder74]

On the Alton Brown note, his pan seared rib-eye technique isn't a bad way to cook a steak if, for whatever reason, a grill is impractical. Though it does require that you buy a cast iron pan.

The Cast Iron pan is well worth it. It works great for more then just steak. Best recomendation for getting one, head to the nearest thrift store or yard sale and look for one. You might even get it for peanuts.

[Edi]

This is awesome. We can totally move this to OT too so we can talk about delicious meats for all to see and hear. I am so gonna try out medium rare steak thanks to all you guys talking about fine fooderies and foodulums.

It's awesome that this thread got split because of all the food-talk, but there is a random post by The Spartan on page one talking about how pus is oozing out of a gangrenous leprosy sore on his hand or something.

Moves to OT and Spartan's post sent back to Venting.

[The Spartan]

The Cast Iron pan is well worth it. It works great for more then just steak. Best recomendation for getting one, head to the nearest thrift store or yard sale and look for one. You might even get it for peanuts.

I've got one word for you: cornbread.

I make some mighty fine cornbread and I can't do it without my cast iron skillet.