Chocolate & Zucchini

RE: Ground Beef Safety?

gingerpale — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 17:14:47 GMT

I'm reminded of Alton Brown's "Burger of the Gods"--

8 ounces chuck, trimmed, cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes
8 ounces sirloin, trimmed, cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Directions
In separate batches, pulse the chuck and the sirloin in a food processor 10 times. Combine the chuck, sirloin, and kosher salt in a large bowl. Form the meat into 5-ounce patties.

RE: Jude Law / Hamlet

madameshawshank — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 05:29:17 GMT

Maybe maybe maybe...

In early January I'll get to see Lars Eidinger play Hamlet. Berlin's Schaubuhne company is coming to Sydney.

Check it on youtube...I can't seem to copy/paste the link..

And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.

RE: Ground Beef Safety?

Deste — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:19:26 GMT

Never say never, but it's gotten to the point where I just don't buy meat very much anymore, and when I do, I generally will pay more at the farmers market.

This is especially the case when it comes to sausage and ground meats.

I live in an area (Mid-Atlantic USA) where there are lots of inexpensive sources for meat, i.e., stores catering to Asian, Latino/a and African populations and I've never heard of families getting sick or dying because of the inexpensive meats they buy there.

However, I am also swayed by arguments about the more humane ways small, independent local operations raise pasture-grazing animals that are destined for our stoves and our tables.

As for grinding your own meat, I've done it in a food processor and know it does improve the flavor when making a time-consuming ragu. (I saved some to make a hamburger, once, and it really was better, too, but I rarely eat burgers at home.)

I also find the ground bison I purchase from local farmers more flavorful than ground beef.

RE: Ground Beef Safety?

swan — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:09:35 GMT

wow, I'm impressed. Im I the only one who just happily buys the supermarkets (okay, an upmarket supermarket - and I have no good butcher here) or the supermarket's Butcher's ground beef and cook with it?
(here in HK it's american or australian and always prefrozen. Nothing to be done about that)
I never leave it pink though - I make pastasauces or meatballs or stirfry it, so it's allways well-done. And I do consider that safe. And it's tasty enough. Probably not the highest quality - but not bad at all!

or am I making a mistake here?

(well, no room or energy anyway to do the home grinding-thing, but oh - guys, I do admire you!)

RE: Ground Beef Safety?

KYHeirloomer — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:16:59 GMT

To address the original question, I always grind my own meat.

No, it's not through fear of contamination. On that issue I agree with Dory. Rather, I grind my own as a form of quality control. I mean, who knows what's going into that pre-ground stuff? What cuts (i.e., scraps)? What grade? And how long have they been sitting around, both before and after grinding?

Then there's the matter of not getting ground meats that I want. Ground lamb is all but impossible to find, around here. And when it is it is pre-frozen New Zealand lamb. Veal? I would never trust somebody else's ground veal. At what that stuff costs, I'm sure there aren't any real cuts used for it. Etc.

We do a lot of game here, as well. Who's going to grind my venison if I don't do it myself? On another thread we discussed my seafood lollipops. You think there's a commercial source of ground fish & seafood? Maybe the catfood factory, but nowheres I shop.

Given the relatively low cost of meat grinders, and the kind of control one gives me, there's just no other option IMO.

RE: Ground Beef Safety?

dory — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:02:21 GMT

At ages 7 and 18 I have at least one very old girl. It must be all of the hamburger she is not eating (lol)! Actually, though, I agree with you David. We are not a very hamburger eating household, perhaps because my husband is South American. However, I think that like the threat of kidnapping that seems to have all parents terrorized, the threat of food borne illness is, I think, exaggerated. I think we should be reasonably cautious, and buy our food--especially meat from careful sources, but at the same time we should not ruin our lives with panic. That said, the interview I heard on the radio about the meat packing industry was so gruesome that I will wait until the memory fades before serving hamburger to my family.

Dory

RE: Secret recipes: why?

hbw — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:38:31 GMT

Fine. Fine! Bake with half cornflour and half normal wheat; the cornflour is so fine that every sponge, choux bun and muffin feels silky smooth on the tongue. I have a killer (and painstakingly adapted) recipe for rum cake which, if I dig it out, I may post though really I want to store it in a sturdy padlocked chest on a remote beach under an X.

It's competitive edge that does it for me, and a pinch of romanticism over any future generations that I may bring forth and who will share my enthusiasm for patisserie and to whom I will surely have little else to bequeath!

RE: Mastering the Art of French Cooking vs. I Know How to Cook

harpospeaking — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:57:38 GMT

I actually did the very thing I said I wouldn't do and bought both books. Thanks to a generous coupon from my local Borders bookstore, I snagged Julia Child's Mastering for about the same price as Amazon's.

I Know How to Cook is very much the French version of the Silver Spoon. I like to use it to study French cooking and the French use of ingredients. There's a very neutral tone to the recipes, ingredient lists are short and the recipe instructions are brief paragraphs as well. It's a lot like an encyclopedia of French cooking. If you have an ingredient and you want to know the French way of preparing that ingredient, I Know How to Cook is the book you need.

Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking emphasizes instruction and technique and was probably meant to demystify the art of French restaurant cooking for the average American homemaker. It probably enabled the trend of bringing restaurant style dishes into everyday homes. What I love about Mastering the Art of French Cooking is Julia Child's writing. Her personality and her you-can-do-it tone are the real highlights of this book. I probably won't cook a good portion of the recipes in it, but it will make me appreciate the preparation of certain French dishes more. Just knowing a little bit about technique will also make you appreciate these dishes even more.

Just a side note --- in comparing these two books, I wonder if, culturally speaking, Americans are more apt to try and recreate a dish they eat in a restaurant whereas with French home cooks, there seems to be a divide between the simplicity of meals cooked at home and the more elaborate ones enjoyed in restaurants. The very fact that Julia Child wrote a book to demystify French restaurant cooking for the average American homemaker touches on this subject.

What do you think?

RE: Mastering the Art of French Cooking vs. I Know How to Cook

David — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:09:07 GMT

Oh my i can't believe I have to buy yet another cookbook! (not that I mind actually lol) This sounds delightful--and speaks my own language. Thanks for the link!

RE: Ground Beef Safety?

David — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:03:01 GMT

Dory you have very odd dogs!!!! lol

I cannot recall anyone I've known getting ill from eating ground beef. I've read the articles of outbreaks of e. coli infected meat frequently, almost always sourced in the U.S. and tonnes of food is destroyed. I personally don't concern myself with the issue and consistently prefer my hamburgers pink and juicy. I'll take the risk. Truthfully though most of my beef is currently purchased from a farmwomen a few miles from my house, but that has not always been the case by any stretch. I guess I just resign myself to the idea that there isn't anything in life without a certain degree of risk, but I would have to consider the meat issue pretty darned low risk. I say Barbeque on!!!

Back to the dogs, mine love their morning snack of bits of bread tossed to them outside---but 2 of them refuse to eat white bread, it's gotta be grainy or they aren't interested!