Spiced and Cured Pork Shoulder

 

 

Sliced spiced pork shoulder

Slice nice an thin

Nice and dry on the outside, firm and moist in the middle and yes those are cured rabbit faces in the background

Dry for 4-7 weeks till solid to touch, no squishy give.

Hang in 60 f fridge with rh of 60-70%

Tie shoulder nice and tight. Once tied, make small pricks with a needle to remove air pockets.

Put shoulder into bung

Bung and shoulder

Wash and dry cured shoulder

Remove from bag

Firmer to touch and apparent water loss

Check for leaks

Clean and rinse out bung

Soak bung for 72 hours

Salted beef bung

Suck and Save, leaving almost all the cure behind. Cure for 10-14 days

Rub and massage the meat

Mix the dry cure mix

55% salt, 45% sugar, chili, madras curry, sichuan peppercorns, garlic

Picnic shoulder. Upper part of the shoulder, right behind the neck

Spicy Beef Tendon

My wife’s famous spicy tendon, pork, rice and kimchi bowl. Always hits the spot

Sliced spicy tendon, its a long process, but ohhh so good

Slicing

Cool completely before slicing, you can even slightly freeze to make slicing easier

Mmmm done and ready to eat

Simmer for 5-8 hours till tendon is completely tender through

Bring to a boil and turn down to a simmer

Add unwashed cured tendon, sauce, leeks and carrots to a pot of water

Special General Kleinman’s sauce, baby leeks and carrots

Fresh out of cure, brush big chunks of cure off, don’t wash

Suck and seal, let cure in fridge for 5-10 days depending on size

Massage tendon with the cure mix

Add salt and sugar to spice mix

If you dare… stick your nose it the blender and take a big whiff, 10 bucks say you will only do that once

Add all dry ingredients into vita mix or spice grinder and pulverize

Tendon, ginger, garlic, chili, sichuan pepper, and fennel seed

Beef tendon

Vadouvan Short Ribs

If serving the bone, make a small incision to free the meat from the bone

Slice meat off the bone

Remove from the bag and reserve the juices

Remove ribs from the spa and let rest for 20 minutes, resting will help the meat retain all the juices

Once the spa is up to temp add the short ribs and sous vide for 24 hours

Set the circulator at 61.5 celsius, let heat fully

Kryovac each portion individually

Orange peal

Add some fermented vadouvan curry

Season with salt and pepper

French the short rib 1-2 inches without removing any of the meat

Long cut bone-in short rib from Prather Ranch

Bacon Mayo… the new black

Bacon fat scraps

Put all scraps in a pot to render

Add water to the bacon fat

Bring to a simmer and cover

Once water has evaporated and the fat has started to melt remove the lid

Render till all fat has clarified

Strain and separate fat

I like to save the bacon scraps and use for cooking risotto

Egg yolks, bacon fat, oil, lemon juice and water

Whip all and slowly add fat

Best served cold and will break if heated

Whip and chill till thickened, mayo will fully setup if completely cooled down

Bacon mayo is great with anything and everything!

Mmmmm… Bacon

 

Salt, sugar, chili, shallot, garlic, thyme, peppercorns

Add half the water you will need, bring to boil and simmer till salt and sugar have fully dissolved

Add ice to thin out the strong brine and will also cool it down fully

Skin on Pork Belly

Add belly to a non reactive container

Cover with ice brine, refrigerate for 8 days

After the 8 day brine

Remove from brine and lightly rinse

Discard the brine

Perforated pan with a rack

Smoking chips in a foil trey

Lay the bacon on the rack while you start your smoking chips

Place the pan with the chips on a burner turn on high or start with a blow torch

Turn down the burner once the chips have started to smolder

Once the chips are burning but not on fire add the belly and keep the burner on low

Cover with a pan and let it smoke for 20 minutes on low

Keep smoking for 20 or 30 minutes more

Perfect

Remove smoked belly and transfer to a rack on a sheet trey

Cook at 285 f for 30-40 minutes or till cooked through

Nice

Hang belly in fridge for 24 hours to let all flavors melt together and settle

Bacon slab cut in half

Remove skin and save

Remove all fat, skin, scraps and then slice while very cold

Skin and scraps are great for pork and chili braised tomato sauce

Save fat for all the great things in life.

Cured Rolled Face

 

 

 

Rolled face is great strait up or with mustard and beer

Slice cold and should be eaten strait from the slicer, friction warms the fats up perfectly

Ahh, real sexy, you can see the jowls, tongues and ears

Ready to cut

Hang overnight

Real tight

Remove from bag and tie as tight as possible

Remove and let cool down before removing from bag

Sous vide for 72 hours at 66.5 c

Suck and seal

Tie as tight as possible

Wrap in a apron or cheesecloth

Roll up

Add the cured ears and tongue to the face

Add spices, thyme, microplane ginger and lemon

Lay down flesh side up and remove ears, julienne the ears and dice the tongue

Squeaky clean

Remove all hairs that have been left behind… shave, snip or torch

Unroll after the 5 days and rinse off cure

Roll the face with the tongue and cure for 5 days

Lemon, thyme, ginger and black pepper

Salt and rub the inside too

Salt heavily and massage the cure into the skin

Scrub and clean face

Homemade Hot Dogs

Keep all protein on ice and keep cold as possible at all times

Grind all the meat with a large die first

Once all is ground, hold in the freezer, do not let the farce freeze through

Next grind all the meat through a small die

When the small die grinding is complete, return all to the freezer

Chicken, Beef, Pork and Back Fat

Mix all on speed 2 with a chilled paddle and bowl, hold in freezer

Mix your emulsifiers and ice water to make an emulsifying slushy

Put your very cold protein in a robot coop or cuisenart and add slushy

**It is very important not to let the temperature rise above 60 f while pureeing

Once pureed silky smooth, store in a mixing bowl and return to the freezer

Parsley, Garlic, Thyme, Pink Salt, Paprika, White Pepper and Salt

If temp exceeds 60 f, the emulsification will break and you will have a broken greasy sausage

Always cook a small piece to check the seasoning before stuffing a sausage

24-26 mm Sheep casings

Stuff and Twist as fast as possible and keep in fridge, not the freezer

While stuffing and twisting, store in small bundles, hanging will be easier later

Hang on oven or smoker rack with wood skewers or dowels, not directly on the metal rack

Carefully put in a oven or a smoker with pan below the dogs

Oven temperature is @ 185 with smoke, cook till internal temp of the dogs is @ 146 f

Once cooked let the hot dogs chill in fridge

Dogs are ready to go once they are fully smoked and cooked through

For best results let the dogs rest and the flavors marinate overnight

Snapshot from Heaven

Emulsifying, Stuffing, Poaching and Shocking Sausage

Before emulsifying any forced meat make sure all tools are cold threw

Meat, fat, aromatics, water, cream, egg, beer, salt and spice

Add all ingredients in chilled bowl

Mix on 1 till all is emulsified

Once farce is emulsified, stop mixer, turn the dial to 2 and mix for 50 rotations

Emulsified farce

Sausage stuffer

Make sure you lube your cylinder

Carefully add your farce and try to avoid any air bubbles

Screw on the lubed piston

Make sure your piston relief valve is open to avoid any air bubbles during the stuffing

Hog casings

Slide casings onto the stuffing tube

Slide on while not twisting the casing

Leave a little bit of room to work with

Lightly start to stuff and leave slack, don’t fill all the way

Every five inches or so pinch and fold the sausage back and forth

Folding back and forth will help push the sausage back. This is key when you are by yourself

Grab the sausage were you pinched and start to twist

First twist backwards, next forward, next backwards…

Continue to go back and forth with the twisting till all casings are skin tight

When sausages are tight, fat and full, wrap them around each other

Once you have made a sausage pinwheel, go threw and quality control

Tie both ends of the sausage pinwheel

Every inch and a half prick the sausage with a sausage pricker to avoid bursts during cooking

Heavily salt any sausage poaching liquid

Have a rack on the bottom of the pot and bring to a simmer

Carefully transfer sausages into simmering water

Make sure all sausages are submerged

Turn heat fully off and cover

Poach sausages for 15 minutes

Remove cover, sausages are ready to eat

Ice bath

Transfer sausages to your ice bath

Make sure all sausages are submerged

Let sit till fully chilled through

Foie Gras Torchon

2# loab of Foie Gras

Carefully pull the loab apart

While still cold, break apart the foie being careful not to tear the large veins

Cleaned foie nuggets and the extracted veins that are garbage

Salt and pepper the cleaned foie nuggets

Cover with plastic and let foie cure for 24 hours

Red wine and balsamic vinegar

Sugar

Reduce till thickens and the flavor is sweet and sour

Pour over cleaned and cured foie

Mix till foie nuggets are fully glazed

Cheesecloth

Lay torchon mix on cheesecloth

Tie and twist tightly till foie starts to come threw

Tie torchon very tightly and let sit in fridge for 2 hours

Remove the knots and extra cheesecloth, roll into a old apron or serviette

Tie again with someone assisting you while tying the torchon as tight as possible

Go back in fridge for another 24 hours

Place the torchon into simmering water for 20 seconds

Flip and let simmer for 20 seconds more

Ice down torchon

Remove the previous serviette and roll tightly in a new apron or serviette

Tie as tight as possible and refrigerate for 24 hours

72 hours from start to finish and ready to go

Cut into any shape you want when it is fully chilled

 

Rabbit Head and Lengua Terrine

Fresh head

Start by cutting the face off below the chin were the neck was

Carefully remove the face with a sharp knife trying not to damage the fur

While removing the fur leave as much meat on the skull as possible

The fur on the tip of the ears is very fine, remove the top part of the ears

Lightly season the heads and necks, let cure overnight

Leeks, thyme, carrot, garlic, ginger bring to a simmer and maintain for 2 hours

Remove and pick the meat, tongue, brains and anything else edible

Keep skulls for decoration or Christmas presents for friends and family

Weigh the clarified Rabbit braise

Rabbit braise and gelatin

Add bloomed gelatin to the clarified Rabbit head braising liquid

Beef tongue, parsley onion and Rabbit head meat

Chanterelles mushrooms

Plastic lined terrine mold

All ingredients mixed in a bowl and slightly chilled so gelatin starts to set

Yuba lined terrine mold

Add all into mold and pound bottom on a table top to remove all air bubbles

Wrap yuba up to cover filling

Lightly press with a towel and cast iron lid, not to much weight

After terrine has been refrigerated overnight, slice with hot knife

Having the terrine wrapped in yuba really helps keep it together and adds a crunchy texture

Head and tongue terrine, brioche, mustard, and rabbit jelly

Egg White Clarification

Unclarified Rabbit braise

Egg whites are 2/3 of the eggs total weight

Whip egg whites to a soft peak

Temper warm braise into whipped egg whites

Mix both well

Put everything into deep sauce pot

Carefully bring to a light simmer, till raft starts to puff up, turn burner to low

Once raft is cooked through and settled, carefully pull raft away from the edge of pot

Let consomme rest till raft has set up a bit

Carefully pour consomme into coffee filter without the raft

Hold raft with a fine mesh spider, while passing threw filter

Clarified Rabbit braise

Corned Beef Tongue

Below is one method of corning any type of tongue, the beef tongue is very large so it needs to cure for 1 week.  You can add herbs and spices to your salt cure too.  If you are going to cook more then 1 tongue at a time you can braise them in a deep hotel pan covered in the oven.

Clean, trim and wash beef tongue

Salt and rub the tongue

Fully cover the tongue with salt so it will cure

Refrigerate the salt covered tongue for 1 week

Remove the tongue from salt

Rinse and scrub tongue lightly

Tongue, onion, garlic, ginger, soy, thyme and chili garlic paste

Cover with stock or water and simmer for 3-5 hours till cooked threw

Remove tongue from liquid once it has cooled fully in liquid

Carefully slice skin and pull away from tongue meat

Fully braised corned tongue

Portions from the fattiest part of the tongue

Seared tongue on seeded sourdough with brussels sprout leaves

Farm egg, mustard, shredded horseradish and blue cheese

Rendering Back Fat

 

Lard is something you always need on hand, especially if you are breaking down whole animals and you need to use all the fat.  Here is step by step of rendering back fat.  You can also render back fat by grinding and cooking it down in a pot with a little bit of water. 

If there is still water or impurities in your lard bring it to a simmer and let it cook till it is fully clarified.

Chunks of back fat

Grind the cold fat with a super cold grinder

Ground back fat

Bake the lard in the Cvap or a oven on low

Pull when fully rendered and fat is clear

Pass threw a chinois with a coffee filter or fry filter in it

Keep in the fridge til ready to use

Viva la Turducken!

Turducken is something I do every year for Thanksgiving.  This year I did the more traditional Turducken with the whole birds and cornbread stuffing.  I have a lot of fun with it cause I think it is really cool to stuff it into the shape of an actual turkey… but with no bones (except the leg and wing).  

I made this one for all my friends at Orson on my last supper. The turkey itself was a 25 pounder to start.   The Turducken was about 38 pounds before going into the oven.  The massive bird happly feed 25ish waiters, cooks, dishwashers, wives and we had leftovers for late night snacking.

I am sold out of Turduckens for Thanksgiving, but I am already taking orders for all your Holiday parties.  Click on the picture of the Turducken above for more info.

Turkey, Duck, Chicken

Pull the neck skin up and remove the wishbone

Dry the wishbone

Plan your attack

Cut around the skeleton cutting threw the hip joints to release the legs

Cut threw the wing joints and free the rest of the meat from the bones

Remove the thigh bones and save all the bones for stock, sauce or gravy

All snug

Deboned birds, apples, cornbread, onions, carrots, thyme, bay and chicken sausage

Corn bread chicken sausage stuffing

Once all birds are deboned… stuff the duck into the chicken. Stuff the birds with the cornbread mix

Stuff the birds into the turkey, then sew her all up, be careful not to tear the skin

Flavor injector

Inject some brine into the meat

Tempering

Half way there

Instead of covering her with foil, I like to blanket her with onions and herbs

6 hours later cooked through and resting

Browned her up in the broil before carving

Cut in half

Top view

I love America!

Carefully remove all strings

Transfer to cutting board, have towels close by

Carefully and slowly pull out thermometer probe

Slice right down the center

Separate the bird into two pieces

Side view, kale, carrots, chicken sausage, garlic and onions

Lay down flat on cutting board

Remove drumsticlk

Remove wing

Start to slice the Turducken in half inch to 1 inch slices

Carefully lay slices down to keep it all together

Make sure your knife is nice in sharp or the Turducken will fall apart

Ready to go

Suckling Pig Porchetta

 

Babe and Wilber

Here is a method of making your own Suckling Pig Porchetta.  Its real important you get the skin real crunchy!  I chose to deep fry these guys, you can also roast them in a hot oven.   

Babe and Wilber

Side view

Relaxing on the gurney

Cut threw the ribs

Cut the spine free from the scull

Remove the spine

Remove the skull

Remove the ribs

Remove the hips, leg bones and anything else you don’t want to eat

Halloween mask and cape

Face, feet in lard for confit

Half of the pig is shaped into a rectangle

Sausage inside of a sausage… farce

Rolled up in plastic and tied

All tied up

Babe and Wilber

Going into the CVap

Coming out

Resting

Cooled overnight

Middle sausage is 50% face and feet confit and 50% fresh leg and shoulder meat.

Cut into smaller pieces and tied

Suck and sealed and ready for travel

Score the porchetta to have 1 inch squares

Deep fry!

Fry it longer

Perfect

Perfectly crunchy and golden brown

A electric carving knife works best

Lightly flash the meat before it goes on the plate

Yes please