Do You Even Cook, Bro?

[Jamie]

Happy New Year folks!

And as I am from deep South Mississippi I cooked some Hopin' John (Blackeyed peas with chopped onions and a can of Rotel tomatoes and a generous amount of Tony's) to be served over rice, a can of Glory mixed greens, and a pone of Cornbread with 1/2 can cream style corn and shredded cheese mixed in.
And a turkey breast 'cause I had a couple in the freezer...Opelousas baked recipe style.
(If you don't own a Tony Chachere's Cajun Cookbook shame on you! My copy is from 1982.)

Traditional Southern New Years meal back home. (except usually chicken, I didn't have chicken...)

[Redhat]

Happy New Year folks!

And as I am from deep South Mississippi I cooked some Hopin' John (Blackeyed peas with chopped onions and a can of Rotel tomatoes and a generous amount of Tony's) to be served over rice, a can of Glory mixed greens, and a pone of Cornbread with 1/2 can cream style corn and shredded cheese mixed in.
And a turkey breast 'cause I had a couple in the freezer...Opelousas baked recipe style.
(If you don't own a Tony Chachere's Cajun Cookbook shame on you! My copy is from 1982.)

Traditional Southern New Years meal back home. (except usually chicken, I didn't have chicken...)

Black Eyed Peas w/smoked Ham Hock, Collards, Corn Bread (in a cast iron skillet), Pork Tenderloin.

[RoyGBiv]

One of my Christmas gifts was a store bought tub of bacon grease.
Been enjoying cast iron breakfast for the past week but probably should taper.
Over easy eggs with cast iron toasted Sourdough is addictive.

[Jamie]

Black Eyed Peas w/smoked Ham Hock, Collards, Corn Bread (in a cast iron skillet), Pork Tenderloin.

Ok, now my mouth is watering! Time for a late lunch


@RoyGBiv

I rendered the tallow from a brisket and the lard (24 quarts) from my daughter's hog butchering. I always save my bacon drippings.
The flavor is in the fat and I have no plans to live forever.

These live next to my stove. Mind you it'll take me a year or better to use them, but use them I will.

[RoyGBiv]

Ok, now my mouth is watering! Time for a late lunch


@RoyGBiv

I rendered the tallow from a brisket and the lard (24 quarts) from my daughter's hog butchering. I always save my bacon drippings.
The flavor is in the fat and I have no plans to live forever.

These live next to my stove. Mind you it'll take me a year or better to use them, but use them I will.

I've had meager luck collecting bacon drippings... a combination of supermarket bacon that tastes good but the drippings don't solidify well at room temp and a couple batches of better quality bacon that I was too lazy to filter.. A store bought container was just easier..

I haven't cooked a full pig since I lived in NC, 20 years ago... Plenty of Butt and Ribs, but, again, too lazy to bother with drippings... I leave them in the smoker bucket and we get the occasional trash panda stopping by for a fatty feast.

I'm with you on those collards! I love collards and mustard greens... can pass on Turnip greens, but if that's all that's available, they're ok with enough vinegar sauce. . Wife makes awesome greens...

[Jamie]

I've had meager luck collecting bacon drippings... a combination of supermarket bacon that tastes good but the drippings don't solidify well at room temp and a couple batches of better quality bacon that I was too lazy to filter.. A store bought container was just easier..



I'm with you on those collards! I love collards and mustard greens... can pass on Turnip greens, but if that's all that's available, they're ok with enough vinegar sauce. . Wife makes awesome greens...

I love greens of all types...properly cooked red-neck Southern style.

I live in the suburbs, so I only have raised garden beds (but several of them). I grow turnips and collards along with Swiss Chard every year. Great eating!
I also grow peppers and make my vinegar pepper sauce. Love that stuff.

I had no idea what I was getting myself into with the pork-lard rendering. When my daughter asked that I show her and her husband how to render the fat, I asked her how many pounds she had. She said around 10 pounds. As they have a farm about 50 miles from me I told her to just drop it off for me because it would take all day to render.

Well she obviously can't judge weight for shit. I love her. She just lacks the ability apparently...

Oh. I misspoke/typed. They were pints, not quarts.

I don't usually even use lard as I don't generally eat fried foods. But I'll cook bacon a couple of times a year just so I can strain the drippings into a jar to use for flavoring when cooking.

And that "10 pounds of pork fat? Try 60 pounds...

[UNM1136]

Been looking to do this since I got DirectTV HD this year(convienient, but missing one of my favorite features...on the plus side you can record at least 5 channels at once) ...but the website has been down for a couple weeks.

Google Tastemade. You are welcome.

Struggle Meals... Frankie seems to me and the Mrs. as a slightly gayer Zac Braff, but his recipes are pretty solid, repeatable, and somewhat simple. And Mrs. UNM1136 approves. To the point we are in almost a dozen of his recipes without a single miss.

But, for the outdoor cookers...Andrew Zimmern has a a show where he cooks wild game (I THINK it is Andrew Zimmern's Wild Game Kitchen) and all sides on an open fire...I first saw the show about 6 months ago, and it has cost me hours of sleep watching it...gimme a few hours and I will link this to the Outdoor Cooking thread...

Check out the website, and if it is on your cable/satellite provider check it out. While a new channel to me on Direct TV HD the website will get you almost all the way there.

The Chicago Girl and the Goat girl (Stephanie Izard,) has a show called The Curious Chef, has a series I am recording to watch later.

All Up In Your Grill is a show that has my interest, but no time to watch recently...

pat

[RoyGBiv]

I love corned beef and cabbage. Learned to love it from my mother, one of her favorite dishes. Especially great smothered in a good coarse-ground mustard. Unfortunately, I am the only one in my current household that feels this love, so I don't make it often. Yesterday's rain gave me the opportunity to get a head start on my St Paddy's meal.

I'm happy to make it from a supermarket pack, so, the recipe is pretty simple....

Open pack, put contents in stock pot.
INCLUDE the slimy dregs from the package. I use some beer to rinse out the package and transfer to the pot.
Dump included spice packet into pot.
Cover beef with more beer (this year was a combination of Modelo Especial and Stella, thanks to my son and his friends leaving their leftovers for me).
Add 1 packet of Lipton Onion Soup mix.
Bring to boil, simmer for 2.5 hours, flipping occasionally.
Cut a large head of cabbage into wedges. Submerge in stock. Return to boil and simmer additional 30 minutes.
Turn off heat and let stand 30 minutes before serving.

I ate some of the cabbage with grilled chicken last night. Was excellent. Looking forward to the beef today.

It's hard not to just pour a cup of the stock and drink it, it's that good (of course I did). I usually strain and pour the stock it into ice cube trays and freeze it to use later. Last time I did larger pours into disposable plastic cups, froze them and the cups peel away easy enough when you're ready to use the frozen stock.

Sent this photo to mom yesterday.

[RoyGBiv]

I love corned beef and cabbage.

Yeah baby! Was excellent.



Enjoyed this mustard too..

[Chance]

Discovered a cool site today: cooked.wiki.

Most recipes you find online aren't so much recipes as a blog post of someone's entire life history sprinkled with a vaguely-related list of ingredients at the end. Cooked.wiki strips all that stuff out and gives you a nice, formatted recipe.

How it works: append the URL of the blog post recipe to the end of cooked.wiki and voila.

Example: visiting https://www.themerchantbaker.com/bro...-glazed-bacon/ gets you one of those life stories. Copy-paste that whole URL onto the end of cooked.wiki, like: cooked.wiki/https://www.themerchantbaker.com/brown-sugar-maple-glazed-bacon/.

It's a little hit-and-miss sometimes, but it usually does a pretty good job.