29 replies to this topic

[legant]

With caffeine and nicotine at hand, I've been staring at the computer screen, trying to come up with something… anything… to describe why I had asked Ferment Everything to write the December blog. Was it because of the home brewery? Or, the cooking for a crowd he does so effortlessly? Or, the smoker in his basement? (He smokes pork, people! Minds out of the street!) Or, was I trying to curry favor so I would be invited over for dinner?

Yup… all of the above. But take a look at some of his posts. Fer chris'sakes! He makes his own cheese! The man is a Jack-of-All-Trades! Yet, he seems to wing it. So, it comes as no surprise that his blog will focus on "stuff." That's all I know folks: stuff. [However, I am privy to Thursday's entry. And, let's just say, I'm hoping for an invite. FE: call me! 202-456-1414]

Ferment Everything will be documenting his cooking and dining and eating experiences today until Friday.

[ferment everything]

Howdy, campers!

Sadly, no brewing this week (I have an imperial stout in the fermenter that is being a pain in the ass), so my blogz will mostly be cooking-related. And I haven't made cheese in about a year, so the focus will mostly be on pork, beef, and chicken I think the idea of blogging has always interested me, but I much prefer the community-based way of reporting the ridiculous things I make, mostly because the feedback loop seems much tighter here (as compared to blog "comments"). Also, several of my ideas have come either directly or indirectly from this board, so it makes sense to report on the successes and failures so others can learn from them and/or tell me what I did wrong

Ok, next post will be actual content, I promise.

[ferment everything]

Yesterday was a great day.

I woke up, shook off the hangover from the previous night, and tried to figure out what the plan was. I hacked up 8 pounds of chicken necks and backs ($1/lb at Whole Foods) with a cleaver. I don't use my cleaver very often, but even a once-a-year use is worth the price I paid for it. So satisfying. I put them in a pot of cold water and turned it on medium heat.

I wrote up a small grocery list and headed to Safeway (it's about a 5 minute walk to Safeway, and a 15 minute walk to WF, so I frequently do Safeway when I'm feeling lazy or I want to save some $). Picked up aromatics for the stock and some sandwich-stuffs, and headed back home. Tossed the aromatics in and kicked the heat up to high to bring it up to a simmer. Made a pastrami/chedder/mustard sandwich with some honey white bread for lunch.

Once the stock came to a simmer, I turned the heat down to low and did a few rounds of skimming. Once I was happy with the heat level and fairly confident that it would stay at a simmer, I went and played some racquetball at the Y. Stopped off at Whole Foods on the way home, picked up a 3.5lb brisket, some celery root, and some beer. Got home, skimmed the stock again, then prepared the brine for the brisket (the brisket is destined to be pastrami) and peeled and chopped the celery root.

Cut some slices of guanciale and put them in the oven to bake.

When they were done, pulled them out, and used the rendered fat to sauté some garlic for a minute. Dumped in the celery root pieces, and strained off enough of the not-quite-done chicken stock to cover the celery root.

Brought the pot to a boil, boiled for 15 minutes, til the roots were tender. When done, put the solids through the mini-prep food processor (this took ~4 batches) and, once all solids are pureed, mix in enough of the broth to bring it to a soupy consistency. Added a slice of the cooked guanciale, served with some of that honey white bread toast. The stock simmered for another hour or so, then I strained out the solids and put the pot outside to cool overnight.

With the cooking done for the day, my buddy J and I proceeded to break out the mandolin and banjo, and our band (we are called Banjolina Jolie) learned a new song. Until you have heard "Since U Been Gone" on the mandolin, you haven't lived.

We drank some good beer (Moylan's Hopsickle, Weyerbacher Winter), a Sparks each, then took a case of Schlitz to a fancy house party in Cleveland Park.

Yesterday was a great day. Full set of Pictures

ETA: now with thumbnails inline!

[Pat]

I put them in a pot of cold water and turned it on medium heat. I wrote up a small grocery list and headed to Safeway (it's about a 5 minute walk to Safeway, and a 15 minute walk to WF, so I frequently do Safeway when I'm feeling lazy or I want to save some $). Picked up aromatics for the stock and some sandwich-stuffs, and headed back home. Tossed the aromatics in and kicked the heat up to high to bring it up to a simmer. Made a pastrami/chedder/mustard sandwich with some honey white bread for lunch. Once the stock came to a simmer, I turned the heat down to low and did a few rounds of skimming. Once I was happy with the heat level and fairly confident that it would stay at a simmer, I went and played some racquetball at the Y.

I'm looking forward to your blog a whole lot and I'm not your mother, but you leave food cooking on the stove when you go out? . I'm reluctant even to have a crockpot on, but stock simmering on the stove?

[Heather]

What a terrific sounding day. Tell us what got you started "making stuff?"

P.S. I leave food on the stove too.

[DameEdna]

I'm looking forward to your blog a whole lot and I'm not your mother, but you leave food cooking on the stove when you go out? . I'm reluctant even to have a crockpot on, but stock simmering on the stove?

I don't know, but FE probably has a webcam and temperature monitor connected to a cell
phone texting gadget to let him know ... "Everything fine, carry on!" or maybe just " ".

[hillvalley]

Howdy, campers!

Sadly, no brewing this week (I have an imperial stout in the fermenter that is being a pain in the ass), so my blogz will mostly be cooking-related. And I haven't made cheese in about a year, so the focus will mostly be on pork, beef, and chicken I think the idea of blogging has always interested me, but I much prefer the community-based way of reporting the ridiculous things I make, mostly because the feedback loop seems much tighter here (as compared to blog "comments"). Also, several of my ideas have come either directly or indirectly from this board, so it makes sense to report on the successes and failures so others can learn from them and/or tell me what I did wrong

Ok, next post will be actual content, I promise.

Can you explain what it means when your fementers are being a pain in the ass? In my world fermenters are 6th grade boys.

Cut some slices of guanciale and put them in the oven to bake. When they were done, pulled them out, and used the rendered fat to sauté some garlic for a minute. Dumped in the celery root pieces, and strained off enough of the not-quite-done chicken stock to cover the celery root. Brought the pot to a boil, boiled for 15 minutes, til the roots were tender. When done, put the solids through the mini-prep food processor (this took ~4 batches) and, once all solids are pureed, mix in enough of the broth to bring it to a soupy consistency.
Yesterday was a great day... Pictures

How did you get in Tom Power's brain and figure out how to make a home made version of his soup? Could you taste the guanicale? It sounds perfect for a rainy, blah night.

[ferment everything]

I'm looking forward to your blog a whole lot and I'm not your mother, but you leave food cooking on the stove when you go out? . I'm reluctant even to have a crockpot on, but stock simmering on the stove?

Funny you should say that. My mom said the exact same thing when I called her on my way to the gym

[ferment everything]

I don't know, but FE probably has a webcam and temperature monitor connected to a cell
phone texting gadget to let him know ... "Everything fine, carry on!" or maybe just " ".

During the semester when I lived with shogun, I was having problems with extra-vigorous fermentations causing the fermenter airlock to blow off. It was a particularly nerdy apartment, and I fit in pretty well by rigging up a webcam to monitor the top of the fermenter so I could have call and have somebody replace it if it blew off. I have since learned of the joy that is a blowoff tube and such shenanigans have been relegated to the "humorous stories of incredible nerddom" category.

[ferment everything]

What a terrific sounding day. Tell us what got you started "making stuff?"

P.S. I leave food on the stove too.

It all started in college: a buddy had a "Mr. Beer" setup and I thought to myself "this is awesome, I should do this". I "brewed" for a year or so in that, then bought an actual setup from morebeer.com (I still use them for the majority of my equipment and ingredients). I'm not sure exactly when the cheese started in, but it was inspired by a general fascination with fermentation. It wasn't until shogun brought me to my first DR.com picnic that I started thinking in terms of other fermented/cured/etc foods.

The current pork kick can be blamed on Nathan Anda, David Ober, and Fergus Henderson (in that order). I had my first guanciale at a Stone beer dinner at Tallula, when I first tasted Nathan's guanciale. I stopped by Cedarbrook the next sunday and David said he could get me some jowls. Fergus's "The Whole Beast" got me interested in the random bits of the pig that nobody else wants David has provided what he legally can, and I got the rest through other sources who prefer to remain nameless

[ferment everything]

Can you explain what it means when your fementers are being a pain in the ass? In my world fermenters are 6th grade boys.

How did you get in Tom Power's brain and figure out how to make a home made version of his soup? Could you taste the guanicale? It sounds perfect for a rainy, blah night.

The stout has been in the fermenter for a month now. It has stalled out at 11.5% abv. The target was 13%. I ordered a vial of an alcohol-tolerant yeast strain and dumped it in, but I apparently should have made a starter, as it's still stuck. A few days ago I ordered another vial and some dry malt extract to make a starter with, and hopefully this infusion of happy yeast will kick-start things. It's way too sweet for drinking at this point. Very annoying, as 11% is about as high as I've ever gotten a beer to go, and I'd really like to push the envelope a bit more on the booze front.

The celery root soup was actually inspired by a girl I dated in the spring, whose celery root soup was awesome. Don't believe I've had the Corduroy version, but if it's anything like the rest of his soups...damn. The guanciale fat was more of a subtle flavor addition, much more of a backseat flavor-wise to the celery root and chicken stock. Although that one little chunk of guanciale was delicious after taking a quick bath in the soup.

Ok, done with Q/A for tonight. Will have some sort of post tomorrow about today's festivities.

[ferment everything]

Woke up Sunday morning and headed to the Dupont farmer's market. Picked up some apple cider (for brining a pork belly for bacon) and, on a whim, a small jar of oysters ($7).

Lunch was leftover celeriac soup and the oysters. I had no lemons, so I tried using an orange for the citrus. Not recommended. They weren't very good oysters to begin with, and the orange did nothing to help the situation. Should've gone and picked up some cocktail sauce and horseradish.

Next, I cooked up a brine for the pork belly: maple syrup, salt, sugar, apple cider, and water.

Cooled the brine and put the belly in it, then moved on to making one of my favorite memory/smell association things: clove oranges. Growing up in Texas, this is something we did every year around this time. All you do is press the cloves into the orange and enjoy the resulting mingled scent. We would hang them inside cloth to let the aroma slowly escape, but I don't have little cute swaths of cloth, so it gets to live on top of the deep-fryer

I checked on the stock, and although there was a layer of fat that had sorta settled up to the top, it was defiantly not solid. Transferred to the beer fridge (co-mingling! watch out!) to hopefully firm up a bit more. (anybody have any idea about this?)

At this point, I ran out of time, despite having several cleaning tasks left on my plate. Time to go bartend. I read a bit of Joel Salatin's "Everything I want to do is Illegal" on the metro ride out, then called my parents on the walk from Braddock to Rustico. Sundays have been slow recently, and this one was no exception. Did a whole bunch of stocking bottled beers, had a couple at the bar (Witkap-Pater Abbey Single, Alvinne Gaspar), then got a ride home after we closed up. Sleep.

Full set of normal-size pictures is here: Clickity

[DanCole42]

I checked on the stock, and although there was a layer of fat that had sorta settled up to the top, it was defiantly not solid. Transferred to the beer fridge (co-mingling! watch out!) to hopefully firm up a bit more. (anybody have any idea about this?)

Transfer everything to a much narrower container. It's easier to pick out an inch of solid fat than it is a millimeter of floating, broken fat.

[ferment everything]

Transfer everything to a much narrower container. It's easier to pick out an inch of solid fat than it is a millimeter of floating, broken fat.

Turns out all it really needed was a full day in the fridge. A narrower container would have surely helped (it was still a pain to extract) but much more doable than the first impression indicated.

Yesterday I woke up at 9:45, looked at the clock, and realized that I had set my alarm for 8pm. I scampered out the door, made it to work by 10:30. Lunch was a surprisingly good pastrami reuben from Casey's Coffee. Left work around 6 and picked up my new toy

The torch will be for lighting up the cold smoker on thursday (and maybe creme brulee in the future?). Dinner part 1 was a grilled cheese that I forgot about and thus, completely burnt on the George Foreman. Thankfully, George doesn't completely char things, even when they're left unattended for a good twenty minutes. Oh, and some raisins.

I got some cleaning done, cleaned out the tap lines, hooked up the CO2 (I had lent it to a friend).

Skimmed the fat off the chicken stock, and put 6 ice cube trays of the stuff in the freezer. After they freeze, I'll put 'em in ziplock bags and use them sporadically for sauces and the like.

I rewarded myself for getting so much done with a taste of the barleywine that I brewed back in May. It has matured nicely.

Headed over to Cafe St. Ex, met up with a couple friends for a couple beers and dinner part 2 (escargot "poppers" - little fried escargot that were seriously delicious).

Walked down the block to the Black Cat to see Le Loup, one of my favorite new DC bands.

Left there, went and tasted some tasty beverages with a few beverage enthusiasts at a bar, then back to my place, where we drank homebrew (i have three taps on at the moment: a rare occurance) and discussed beer, pork, music, and all that is right and good with the world.

ETA: link to full page of pics here

[DonRocks]

then back to my place, where we drank homebrew (i have three taps on at the moment: a rare occurance) and discussed beer, pork, music, and all that is right and good with the world.

And you're going to host a dr.com ferment-everything beer tasting ... when, exactly?

[ferment everything]

And you're going to host a dr.com ferment-everything beer tasting ... when, exactly?

You apparently missed this. I believe approximately 3 board members showed up. It's hardly a wagyu tasting

[ferment everything]

Yesterday was a Hanukkah dinner at a friends place (latkes! kugel! brisket!). Went home and played some mandolin, drank a couple homebrews, watched the british Office Christmas Special, and passed out. And tonight is another Rustico shift, so interesting posts will resume tomorrow, when I'm taking the day off from work to cook all day

[ferment everything]

Things are going well, but dinner is still 4.5 hours away, so plenty of time for things to go wrong Having a few friends over for dinner. The planned menu:

Bacon- and guanciale-wrapped figs with a radish/mustard/bacon palate-cleanser at the end
Rolled pig's spleen (from Fergus Henderson "The Whole Beast")
Dried salted pig's liver, radishes, and boiled eggs (also from Fergus)
Collard greens cooked with either bacon or guanciale (can't decide!)

Woke up around 10 (taking the day off from work = awesome) and got to work. First on the list: take the belly out of the brine and establish a pellicle on the pork belly. I removed the belly and patted it down with paper towls, then set it up on a rack over a sheet pan, with a fan turned on, pointed at it.

Went shopping (both a safeway run and a WF run) and came back to actually start this thing up. First had to clean out the brew kettle for use in the cold smoker (I used it to deep-fry a turkey a couple weeks ago and had slacked off on cleaning out the oil)

Once I drained out the oil, I cleaned out the kettle (pain in the ass) and started attaching the cold smoker. I had to slightly modify the thing to make the output tube a bit longer so that I could property attach the washer/nut on the inside, but it worked.

Of course, I realized as I was assembling that despite the aquarium pump's assurances that it took "2A" batteries, it actually required D batteries. Another Safeway trip. Came back and finally got everything going (I threw in some pecans to see how they'd fare in the hickory smoke)

Loaded up a handful of hickory pellets into the cold smoking chamber, and lit them with the aforementioned propane torch. Loaded up another few handfuls on top of the now-burning pellets, and off we go.

Boiled some eggs, made a grilled cheese for lunch, and assembled some guanciale-wrapped figs

Took the spleen out, and to my surprise, it's in 3 pieces (is it maybe 3 spleens?)! I was expecting one large rectangular piece, but oh well. I'll make it work.

Trimmed off some of the fat, put back in the fridge, and decided to take a little break.

More pics from phase 1 here. Will post tomorrow about the actual conclusion of the meal.

[jparrott]

Yum.

[synaesthesia]

Yum.

Ditto. I smell like bacon. Four most seductive words in the English language.

[ferment everything]

After I took my break, I remembered that I was planning on making a yeast starter to try and get the imperial stout to dry out a bit. I mixed some dry malt extract with some water and brought that to a boil on the stove.

When it had boiled for ~15 minutes, I took it off the heat, covered it with foil, and threw it in the freezer to cool down. The bacon, having smoked for 3.5 hours, was pulled out. It had an unappealing layer of smoke residue gunk on the top, which I patted down with paper towels. I attribute this to the fact that a couple of times, as I was tweaking the aquarium pump output level, I lapsed in paying attention and the smoker ran out of wood pellets. having to fire up a new batch of pellets both times probably didn't help the ash levels.

Laid out some sage leaves on each of the spleens and layed a thick slice of bacon on top of each.

Rolled, skewered.

Submerged in chicken stock and thrown into a 350F oven for 1.5 hours

At this point I emptied the ice cube trays of chicken stock into a ziplock bag and took the remaining chicken stock in the big cauldron and loaded it into the ice cube trays. On the left is the yeast starter, on the right is the baggie of stock cubes.

Cut up a red onion and a sweet white onion, and chopped some parsley. Since space is at a premium in my kitchen, I often do things like stack the prep bowls.

Separated the radishes from their greens (I was happily surprised that the radishes I bought at WF came with happy-looking greens still attached)

I prepared the rest of the figs wrapped with bacon, cooked up some guanciale and some bacon in the oven (grease for the collards) and when that was done, threw the figs in the oven and started cooking the collards. The salad was prepared with the radish greens, sweet onion, parsley, capers, vinegarette, and a couple pieces of seared cured liver. I forgot to take a picture while there was still liver on the plate, and I also forgot to add the boiled egg (which sat in the fridge until I discovered it after dinner). So it goes

The figs finished. I was partial to the black mission figs and guanciale combo. The radish and mustard were a nice thing to have after all the fat and fig.

(more in another post, it wont let me post that many images in a single post)

[ferment everything]

There was eggnog, there was champagne, there was wine, there was beer, it was good.

After a little break, the spleen was sliced...

and served with collard greens, red onion, and okra pickles. and it was delicious. a texture and flavor not unlike liver, with an extra level of slight funk (gaminess? not sure).

Anyway, that concludes my blogging, as most of this weekend will be spent either drinking, giving people drinks, or cleaning up the apartment after last night's dinner. It's been real.

[legant]

Eric ~ before you sign off, a lot of questions. There were a lot of words and techniques that were new to me:

• Guanciale: I know this is a pork product. Is this a specific part of the jowl, that you sliced off? Or, is something you had cured previously?
• Pellicle: Huh? Google was no help here.
• Although I can never imagine having a cold smoker, you mentioned modifying the output tube. Is the smoke funneled out through this tube (rather than escaping through the top)? What's the cup thing, just over the edge of the counter? How does the cold smoker actually work?
• Were the pecans used to flavor the pork? Whole, in-the-shell pecans, right?
• Say more about the spleen. All you did was layer it with sage and bacon, roll and skewer, and bake in stock (braise?) for 1.5h? Did you sear it before it went into the oven? Did you cover the pan while in the oven? There's a layer of white in your picture; is that a layer of fat? What did the final product taste like liver? Or, was it the texture of liver? How much did the spleen cost?
• And… how did you know you got it right? Had you had this dish before? And… what was the reaction of your guests?

FYI: The thread will remain open until Sunday, allowing for follow-up questions and answers.

Thanks again, Eric, for blogging this week. Granted, there are some things I would never "try at home"… I won't be rushing to buy "the whole beast"… but it has been a learning experience. And, yes: I'm still waiting for that dinner invitation. I just figured the line was busy – good reason, huh, to get call-waiting – when you called previously.

[ferment everything]

• Guanciale is something I've been curing for the last few months. Cedarbrook gets me jowls, I put them in a cure (sugar, salt, some fresh herbs, sometimes garlic, peppercorns, juniper berries) for a week or so, then dry them in the curing fridge. The texture is like bacon, but the flavor is like a richer, unsmoked bacon, made more complex by the drying time, where the flavors intensify and funkify I tend to cook it like I do bacon, but I've eaten it raw too. I like guanciale alot.
• Pellicle - Essentially, as the sugar and salt dry on the surface of the thing to be smoked, they form a slightly sticky ("tacky" is frequently used) surface that allows the smoke particles to more easily adhere to the meat.
• See this post about the cold smoker (with diagramz!) The heat is generated in the bottom of the small container, and the smoke is funnelled through the small output tube into the big smoking chamber.
• There was so much ash on the pecans that I didn't end up using them. I think i should have added them later in the process so that they got only an hour or so of smoke. They were pecan halves...I wouldn't imagine shells would absorbe too much flavor.
• The spleen was not seared. Simply skewered and baked in stock (uncovered). The white on top of the liquid was fat from the chicken stock (I wasn't able to remove the fat layer entirely). The texture was a bit chewier than liver, but the flavor was like a slightly less punchy liver with more gamy complexity. Don't know quite how to describe it.
• I've never been to St. John where the recipe is served, so I've got no idea if I actually "got it right". Everybody seemed to like it (there were no empty plates and lots of discussion about how good it tasted), and that's enough for me

You know, I called you. For some reason I just had your number in my phone as 867-5309 and I didn't know what area code you were in!

[DameEdna]

• The spleen was not seared. Simply skewered and baked in stock (uncovered). The white on top of the liquid was fat from the chicken stock (I wasn't able to remove the fat layer entirely). The texture was a bit chewier than liver, but the flavor was like a slightly less punchy liver with more gamy complexity. Don't know quite how to describe it.

Not related to "vented spleen", I take it ... something of a Washington specialty.

[goldenticket]

Thanks for doing this blog Eric! I'm always fascinated by whatever concoctions you've got brewing, bubbling, aging, or fermenting away. I was sorry to hear that you haven't made any cheese in such a long time - I really enjoyed the different types you've brought to picnics in the past. Do you think you'll go back to cheese at some point or have meats and beer got your attention for now? Can you talk a little bit about making cheese - what kinds you tried, how long (and how) you aged them, the supplies needed, etc.

Not sure if I'm up for trying spleen, but I'm glad I know what one looks like

[ferment everything]

Thanks for doing this blog Eric! I'm always fascinated by whatever concoctions you've got brewing, bubbling, aging, or fermenting away. I was sorry to hear that you haven't made any cheese in such a long time - I really enjoyed the different types you've brought to picnics in the past. Do you think you'll go back to cheese at some point or have meats and beer got your attention for now? Can you talk a little bit about making cheese - what kinds you tried, how long (and how) you aged them, the supplies needed, etc.

Not sure if I'm up for trying spleen, but I'm glad I know what one looks like

For now the cheesemaking is on extended hiatus. Two reasons:
1) I lost my milk provider (the guy who used to come to the Dupont farmer's market)
2) Sundays used to be my cheesemaking days, and I have since started bartending sunday nights. Since cheesemaking is an all-day event, I decided to take a break until a time when I have whole days available again.

When I was making cheese, I dabbled in a few fresh cheese varieties, but I primarily focused on gouda. I was generally aging them for 2-4 months depending on my patience. I bought one of Jack Schmidling's cheese presses to assist with the gouda...you can do it with a mold and weights but it's a huge pain in the ass. Aside from a press, all you really need is some rennet and some bacterial culture (usually mesophilic for the cheese I was making). I bought most of my equipment and ingredients from http://cheesemaking.com/ (with the exception of the press).

[mdt]

This has got to be the Blog Of The Year!

[zoramargolis]

Eric, you are an inspiration. Since you haven't taken me up on my offer to adopt you, can I introduce you to my gorgeous almost 18-year-old daughter? Being your MIL would work for me, too.

[ferment everything]

Eric, you are an inspiration. Since you haven't taken me up on my offer to adopt you, can I introduce you to my gorgeous almost 18-year-old daughter? Being your MIL would work for me, too.

Hahaha. I think there might be a problem with the age difference there . Not to mention that whole VeggieTeen vs avid omnivore thing