Category Archives: Food

Brisket

Food,

IMG_2026One of the things that got left behind in Florida was our grill.  It was just too big and messy, so we found it a good home (neighbors a few doors down who had just moved in).

So of course a new grill was one of the first things we wanted to get once we moved in, and Wind got me a medium BigGreenEgg for my birthday/father’s day.  Combined with a plate setter (convEGGtor, really?), I was ready to try my hand at brisket for the first time.

I started out with a small cut (3.7lbs) and this recipe/instructions.

In my hands, it went something like this:

  1. Fill the Egg with charcoal and get the fire going.
  2. All the recipes say to use dry rub, but then half of them say to use oil or mustard as a medium, which starts sounding like BBQ sauce to me.  So I whipped up a batch of Big Al’s KC BBQ sauce and used that instead.
  3. Make the classic rookie mistake of letting the Egg get too hot and try to dial it back down.  In 10 minutes while I was getting all my stuff assembled, it shot up to 400°F.  Closing the vents down to just a crack brought it down to 300°F, but it wouldn’t budge from there.
  4. Throw everything in the Egg in one big batch: two handfuls of soaked mesquite chips, plate setter, drip pan full of water, grill rack, brisket fat side down
  5. Luckily, adding the brisket and plate setter added a lot of cool thermal mass and brought the temp down to 250°F.  It did creep back up a bit, but generally stayed where I wanted it.
  6. After about 3 hours (1¼ hours per pound, minus 2 hours) the brisket had plateaued at 155°F — the fabled stall.
  7. Pull the brisket out, wrap it in foil with a splash of beer, and toss it back in for another 2 hours.
  8. Agonize over the last 3° as it slowly creeps past 197° and 198°, as the clock ticks past dinner time.
  9. Pull the brisket out at 200°F and let it rest for 15 minutes while the potatoes are boiling.
  10. Remove the foil and slice it up, quickly making some gravy from the drippings.

The brisket wound up tasting fantastic — flavorful and smoky.  The texture was decent, but it wasn’t falling-apart-tender.  And because it was wrapped, there was no “bark”.  So a good first attempt, but I’m looking forward to doing better.

Next time, I’ll start a little earlier so we’re not rushed for dinner, and keep a closer eye on the Egg as it warms up — it’s very easy to open the vents to bring the temperature up.  And if I have more time, I can remove the foil and 200°F and give it some high heat at the end.

Cigar City Brewpub

Beer, Food, , ,

We finally made it down to the Cigar City Brewpub recently.  It opened in April, and we’ve been down to Tampa a few times since then, but it didn’t work out until last weekend.

I was a little worried, since I read some pretty mixed reviews online, including complaints about lackluster food and spotty service.  As it turned out, we all enjoyed it and had no complaints.  The food menu had a lot of variety and some nice Cuban influences (we had black bean cakes and a picadillo meat loaf sandwich with yuca fries).  Everything was very tasty.

The beer menu had a handful of standards from the main brewery, but was mostly the beers brewed at the brewpub, including some special variants and one cask option (that sold out just before we got there, natch).  Wind had a light, crisp beer/cider mix (kind of like a shandy/radler), and I had a rich, spicy golden ale and (my favorite) some Beer Myth Bock, which was a lot like a sweet stout.

The atmosphere was nice and relaxed.  The decor was very typical pub — mostly dark wood and fabric, but there was enough natural light coming in to keep it from being cavelike.  They did have a couple of TVs playing sports, but luckily without sound.

We were also happy to see they had a cooler of bottles by the front door, well stocked with Cucumber Saison and Good Gourd.  I’d called all over town earlier in the week looking for Marshall Zhukov Stout and Good Gourd — and the few places that got any sold out in less than an hour, even with 1-bottle-per-customer limits.

Way, way, way off topic, but…

Food, ,

I need to think that I am not the only one who has ever asked:

Out of all the mammal options out there, what’s so special about cow’s milk that it’s practically the only kind we drink?

Maybe you phrased it differently – like “Why don’t we drink pig milk?” (followed immediately by “Why do I think it’s so disgusting to even ask that?”) or “Why do we eat sheep cheese but don’t drink sheep milk?” or “Do other cultures drink milk from other animals?” or “How do you milk a cheetah?”

Well, wonder no more – the answers to these questions, more or less, are given in this really interesting story on Slate.

 

Chocolate Ginger Crackle Cookies

Food, Recipe, , , ,

So, somewhat off-topic, but in the public interest (plus I’ve got nothing on the knitting or beer front to report)…

I started making these cookies in 1997, when I was a graduate student. They have been a solid hit with almost everyone: People who like cookies, people who don’t like cookies, people who think they are too old for cookies, children, people who think they don’t like ginger, ginger-fantatics… Plus, these cookies are consistently good enough that the obligatory “taste” cookie is really just pro-forma.

Anyway, so as I baked a batch tonight for game night (yay, game night!), I realized that I should share. The recipe is at the bottom.

First, let me say that these cookies are sweetish and a little spicy, and they go pretty well with wine (which explains why I found the recipe in Wine and Food originally).  I can’t remember what the recipe used to look like – I suspect that I have probably simplified it a lot over the years, and I know that I will adjust the amount of ginger, depending on my audience. Also, be warned – our local grocery store today informed us that candied ginger is a “seasonal” item. Seriously? In this whole “globalized” market place, we still think that anything can’t be sold any time, anywhere?

Anyway… these are refrigerator cookies and the prep always reminds me a little of peanut butter cookies and snickerdoodles. Be prepared to wait at least 2 hours between when you mix up the batter (dough? eh, never can keep those straight) and when it is ready – and then be prepared to get your hands all chocolatified as you form the dough/batter into balls.

Ingredients (makes ~24 cookies)

1c sugar
6 Tbsp butter, melted
2 eggs
1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup candied ginger, minced
1/3 cup confectioner’s sugar

Instructions

1. Beat sugar with butter, then add eggs, cocoa and vanilla until smooth and creamy

2. Add flour, baking powder and salt (you can just dump it all in together) and mix until blended (about 2 minutes with an electric mixer)

3. Stir in chocolate chips and ginger

4. Cover and refrigerate overnight (yeah, right) or at least two hours

5. Preheat the oven to 350F

6. Lightly grease your cookie sheets if they are prone to things sticking to them

7. Form dough into 1″ balls and then coat generously with the confectioner’s sugar

8. Place on the the cookie sheet with a little room to expand (about 1″ apart should be good)

9. Bake 10-12 minutes, tops should be crinkly.

Note #1: Don’t over bake! These things are just like peanut butter cookies: If they look done in the oven then they are over-done. I’ve even taken these out when they looked a tiny bit wet in the cracks, and they were fine.

Note #2: I let the cookies rest for about 30 seconds or so on the cookie sheet before I move them off to a cooling rack.

Note #3: I hope you enjoy them as much as we do!