Loquitur

Re: Nueske's Meats / Usinger's Meats I found the reviews and I'd say they are right on considering people have differing sensitivities to salt. I think that $5.00 shipping offer is on again today!!

Re: Nueske's Meats / Usinger's Meats The hash was really, really good. I did not think it was too salty but then again, I expect corned beef hash to be somewhat salty. My guess is that if you didn't think the ham was too salty you probably won't think the corned beef is too salty. The texture was different from any other corned beef hash I've done, which I didn't know quite what to make of at first, but it cooked up beautifully. It comes packaged in a plastic tube and the instructions said to slice it into patties and fry them. That's a new way to have hash for me and I was willing to give it a go. But in removing the packaging I could see that I would not be able to slice it without being majorly aggravated because the mass was somewhat dry and I couldn't keep it packed together. So I crumbled it into a large frying pan with my hands and it came out tender and flavorful on the inside and brown and crispy on the exterior in no time at all - I would say less than 10 min total. We were very pleased and will order it again next time they have that great shipping deal. Where are the reviews you mentioned you were reading?

Re: Murray's Cheese Shop That Humboldt Fog looks so interesting with the different textures and ash. Murray's carries it and ages it in its caves beneath the streets of NYC so I can get it. I can't wait to try it!! I know we have some good cheesemakers around locally but I don't see their prodcuts in the stores or seasonal farmer's markets I frequent. But now I'm inspired to seek them out.

Re: Nueske's Meats / Usinger's Meats Did some bacon, corned beef hash and weiners over the past couple of days - all top rate. I vaguely recognize the packaging so I think my produce/butcher market not too far away carries it!!

Re: I cooked all weekend! Dave: What's your location?

Re: Murray's Cheese Shop Lucky you, Tony. We have some local artisanal cheese producers in my area which my small market carries but I haven't been impressed yet. We also have Coach farms but its hard to classify them in the same category considering that Mario Batali married into the family and they have a wide national distribution.

Re: Nueske's Meats / Usinger's Meats My Nueske shipment arrived today. That $5.00 shipping was a killer deal considering it came Fed Ex in a styrofoam box inside a cardboard box with air bubble packs and solid frozen ice packs. Can't wait to try it this weekend!!!

Re: Murray's Cheese Shop I'm with Tony on the Saint Agur - its my favorite blue and probably my favorite of any kind of cheese considering I can buy it locally. It's not as sharp or salty as many of them and I noticed the igourmet customer reviews cite several instances where a person who doesn't generally like blues loves it. The only way I can think to describe it is to say that eating it is a two step experience. First you have this incredibly unctuous texture and as you savor that, an instant later, the delectable flavors come through and encompass your taste buds. I can't help but close my eyes, throw my head back and think "this is unbelievable"!!! It would be my hors d'oeuvre if I were going to the electric chair and ordering my last meal. If you get a chance to try it I'd like to know what you think. I noticed on the Top Chef TV show in a recent episode that one of the chefs chose it as part of an appetizer and the judges really liked it.

Re: Murray's Cheese Shop I started a wish list at igourmet and have the Parmigiano Reggiano Stravecchio at the top. My "go to" grating cheese is Locatelli Pecorino Romano which I can buy at the local small grocery store. It's pretty good. I use lots of it so I grate 8 oz at a time in the Cuisinart with the fine grating disk. While I have it out I chop half a bunch of parsley, a couple of cloves of garlic and a jalapeno pepper or two and mix it all together with the cheese and store it in a food saver vacuum container. It keeps surprisingly well and goes good on about anything. We also like the cheese at room temp and have it as a snack with a cocktail. I prefer it on a thin slice of a baguette but my husband likes more crunch so I buy those small plain toasts with no salt or flavoring for him. Do you guys like the blue family? The Saint Agur is really nice.

Re: Murray's Cheese Shop I sure hope Murray's sends me some aged gouda, like you buy from igourmet.com, soon!! A catering shop in my small village used to carry one - I don't remember the brand but it was a deep golden color and would crumble no matter how carefully you tried to slice it. It's unbelievable how different this cheese was from what they sell in a supermarket as "Gouda". But they sold the business at least 5 years ago and the new owner's eliminated the cheese section. My husband and I really loved that cheese and we haven't had it since. Thanks for posting the igourmet site. Lots of good looking stuff there and your experience is all the credibility we need to order from them. Do you or your wife ever cook with the cheese? I normally don't but just last night was looking to use up a good sized piece of Gorgonzola Dolce - about 5 oz. I looked around for recipes and finally decided on the following: Steep a sprig of rosemary in simmering heavy cream until reduced by 1/3. Take off the heat, remove the rosemary and melt the cheese in the cream, whisking the whole time. Season to taste. Pour over cooked gnocchi in a buttered casserole dish. Top with a mixture of panko and grated pecorino romano, moistened with melted butter. Bake, uncovered, for a half hour at 375. Best served as a side dish - its absolutely wonderful but rich, rich, rich!!!!!

Anybody here love cheese/charcuterie? My husband gave me the most incredible Christmas gift this year which is the cheese club and the meat club from from Murray's Cheese in NYC, a world class shop. I will get a shipment once a month for a year of cheese and charcuterie, the first of which recently arrived consisting of the imported French cheeses Brebirousse D'Argental, Bargkass and Petit Billy and a week later, the charcuterie consisting of Duck Breast Prosciutto and Wild Boar Salami. The Murray clubs are pricey but sooo worth it in my mind considering you have top experts making choices for the club members and shipping to your home. Everything I have received has been sublime, not to mention unavailable in my local shops. But the Brebirousse D'Argental cheese is truly to die for so if you get a chance to pick it up, don't hesitate!! Susan

Re: Christmas Pork I had never heard of Pappy Van Winkle until these posts and then last night I was watching the TV show Justified on my DVR and there they were talking about it!!

Re: Nueske's Meats / Usinger's Meats Thanks for the lead, DJ. Just ordered bacon, weiners and corned beef hash from Nueske's. My husband is going to think he died and went to heaven!! I also took a quick look at Usinger's - very reasonably priced items. Will try an order there next time.

Re: Any guesses? SLu: It looks like the plate is on top of the Spam - quite an interesting perspective!!

Re: My new cook area ! Madmedik - Funny thing - I have the same ceramic piece of the bronzed mask holding the cigar. Your new cooking area with the appliances is truly spectacular - lucky you!!!! I look out at my patio where my KK is located from my desk and its full or snow and ice. I'm soooo jealous!!

Re: Pulled Beef (chuck roast) Cook - Video Love the video, Larry. I had some drop outs on the audio but that is probably on my end. That was great bark you got on that roast despite the foil - pretty amazing!! I don't doubt it tasted as good as it looks. Susan

Re: I was robbed again.. ;-( So sorry to hear about this horrible event. It's frightening to think that your home was violated this way while your wife and children were asleep. Thank God no one was injured. Hope your recovery goes smoothly.

Re: Ribeye Roast cook Eggary: I did it indirect with the KK shaped heat deflector. The only cooks I've done on the KK in the past couple of months were my Thanksgiving turkey, tenderloins for my sister's party and this rib roast and I was on the tail end of a bag of Royal Oak charcoal I opened for the turkey. It's been outside in a bin subject to the elements for a while and I wasn't inclined to play around with it in the darkness with the icy conditions. I probably just had some small damp pieces in there since I normally don't have any problem with KK temps. That Yorkshire Pudding was the biggest stroke of beginner's luck I've had in ages. It was the first time I made it but I spent several hours reading recipes and tips about it beforehand so I had a definite plan going in. After it was in the oven for a while I glanced in the window and all I could see was a wall of brown crust. My picture doesn't do any justice to the height of the rim. My husband was very impressed!! Here is my concocted recipe if anyone wants to try it. 3 eggs at room temp 1 scant cup flour, sifted 1 scant cup milk at room temp (I forgot to buy whole milk so I used 2% plus a splash of heavy cream) 1/2 t salt Drippings from the roast. Most of the recipes called for 1/4 cup but I used all the drippings since I cooked the roast in the same pan and didn't want to deal with measuring hot grease. Beat the eggs with a whisk. Combine the flour and salt and whisk in the milk. Whisk in the beaten eggs. Rest at room temp for at least an hour. Whisk again just before baking. Heat pan with drippings in preheated 450 oven until hot. Add batter to hot pan and put back in oven. Bake 15-20 min without opening the door. This was very convenient for me since I was already cooking the roast at 450. Note: It appears to be important that you use an appropriately sized pan for the pudding recipe. This one works with a 9 or 10" pie tin or 8x8 or 9x9 square pan. If you are using something larger such as a a 9x13 roasting pan, you need more ingredients. If you do a google search for Yorkshire Pudding with the size of your pan, you will get the ingredients for the right volume of batter. I can't wait to make this whole menu again - probably for Valentine's Day. I will pull the roast at 110 and see what happens.

Re: Ribeye Roast cook These bones were rubbed with a cut clove of garlic, sprinkled with worcestershire sauce, spread with Dijon mustard, rolled in panko crumbs, sprinkled with olive oil and baked at 400 for about a half hour. I got to have both of them since my husband doesn't do bones. They were fantastic but very, very rich. I will definitely do them again.

Re: Ribeye Roast cook Below are some pics of my husband's birthday dinner, which is also New Year's Eve, with a 2 bone standing rib roast. It was 4.6 lbs and I did the Molly Stevens high temp method which is to cook it the whole time at 450 and pull at 115. I started it on the KK but finished it in the oven because I was having trouble keeping the temp up after I loaded the roast on the grill. I think my charcoal was compromised by being outside in a plastic bin for a couple of months. It was cold and icy on my patio and starting to get dark so I decided to bail after about 20 minutes. It came out pretty good but I need to tweak it a little bit. We loved the well done inch or so rim of the roast but the interior wasn't as rare as we would have liked. I was hoping for mk1's degree of doneness shown above which he also pulled at 115. I think the main difference is that cooking at the high temperature caused more carryover cooking than his cook at 325. So next time I'm going to go with the 450 temp to get the variation in the degree of doneness around the edge where its fatty and crispy and highly seasoned but pull at 110 for a rare center. I have no idea why this roast has such a rosy hue. I seasoned it very simply with olive oil, salt and pepper and didn't use any smoke wood in the KK for the time it was there. I was also concerned that the high temp would burn the drippings I wanted for the Yorkshire Pudding so I had my mushroom butter ready just in case. As you can see, the drippings were fine.

Re: Burgundy Mushrooms Sure. I made the burgundy mushrooms as stated in the recipe above with the exception of removing the butter after 8 hours, substituting thyme for the dill and using 6 bouillon cubes instead of 8 without any additional salt or pepper. I had 3/4 of the recipe leftover for the soup. I cut a 2.5 lb chuck roast into 3/4" cubes and browned them in two batches in a large Dutch oven in olive oil and some reserved mushroom butter and then set the beef aside. Then I sauteed 3 diced carrots, 1 diced parsnip, 2 chopped onions, 4 sliced stalks of celery and 1 chopped jalapeno pepper with ribs and seeds in the same Dutch oven in two batches in the beef drippings and more mushroom butter. Then I put all the beef and veg back into the Dutch oven and added the mushrooms, which I sliced super chunky, with all the gravy and 3 quarts of water. I simmered it for a few hours, uncovered, and then added a heaping half cup of barley. Once the barley was tender, I adjusted the seasoning a little to taste and it was done. It makes a big pot and the longer its in the frig the better it gets. It reminded me of a cross between a beef bourguignon and vegetable beef soup. The burgundy mushroom recipe is on the foodnetwork.com site and is rated 4 stars out of 5 with 59 reviews but the reviews are almost all for 5 stars with just a couple rating it 1 star, one of the 1 star complaints being the "butter slick". If you are home all day its not that troublesome and if you aren't crazy about them on their own, I'm sure you'll love the soup!!

Re: Burgundy Mushrooms I got a lot of good use out of them but wouldn't make them again. I prefer a traditional duxelle reduced twice with red wine which takes a fraction of the time it takes to make those mushrooms. When I made them, the 1/2 lb butter in the recipe wasn't integrating with the sauce and just floating on top no matter how much I tried to stir it in so after 8 hours of cooking, I removed the mushrooms, put the liquid thru a fat separator cup and then put the mushrooms back on in the sauce without the butter for the final hour. But I saved the butter and used it sauteing various things over the holiday which was very flavorful. I sliced some of the mushrooms and used them as a layer in my Christmas Wellingtons, which was fine. And the rest of it, including all the sauce, I used for a big pot of beef, barley and mushroom soup, which also used up a chuck roast lanquishing in my freezer. The soup was excellent. I just didn't like the mushrooms much on their own. I felt they were too intense, like a sauce which has been reduced too far and needs to be reconstituted. Then again, I may have caused that by removing the butter. Also, I used a 25 year old cream colored Chantal stock pot for the recipe, which was in perfect condition, and this cook seriously stained the interior and I don't know whether I will ever get it out. I never considered that the wine would do that. I totally agree that the cook made my house smell wonderful all day long and I'm honestly glad I tried it. I check out both greeneggers.com and the official BGE forum a couple of times a week. I don't post but there are always lots of new pictures from the members, which I totally enjoy, and I do find some good recipes, ceramic grill tips and general cooking ideas from time to time.

Re: Burgundy Mushrooms I'm interested to know what you think of them, Eggary. I made them last week after the rave reviews on the BGE board.

Re: Ribeye Roast cook Eggary: I think that's right. I did a low temp reverse sear rib roast last year starting the high temp on the sear grill at 115 for just a minute or two a side and my roast ended up way overcooked for my taste - up to 138 which I didn't anticipate. The experts on this board recommended I start the high temp sear at 105 on the main grill where I could monitor the temp. You're keeping an eye on it so you should be fine.

Re: First cook on KK - RIBS - Need advice It doesn't look like the meat has pulled back from the bones enough. Next time raise the temp to 250 and cook them on the main grill level.