June 2004 Archives

One of the most frequent fears I hear from people is the one where you show up at the Super Market and don't know what cut of meat to purchase.
Sometimes the lead butcher tries to help by installing stickers that say, BBQ or Grilling or Pot Roast. Okay, that helps to some degree. But what if you don't have a grill or smoker ready and you want something juicy?

Ham, it isn't just for holidays anymore. I picked myself up a brined ham (needs cooking) this last Saturday from the Fatted Calf, just a little one. Not the 9 pound beast like last time, this one was about 2 pounds. Perfect size for a little snack treat. And a wondeful luscious treat it was.

Well, here we are. Summer. In this part of the world that means cloudy mornings and foggy late afternoons broken up by wind & racoons. Mid day though you can expect a spell of nice sparkly warm weather. Wouldn't it be nice to have something that gets you up and going and yet isn't steaming hot? Yes, it would be nice. For quite some time now The Blue Bottle Coffee Company has had their New Orleans Style Iced Coffee at their stall in the Berkeley Farmer's Market on Saturdays. Well, I have a gift for you, from them, right now.

This week Globey tries his turn at a cured meat slice

Saturday, along with assembliges of bunk beds, rendered me some really spectacular meats. The little 2 lb ham roast and the Hock & Simmered Bean Experiment I'll share with you tomorrow. Right now I'd like to show you some Saucisson Sec.

Today's lunch makes about 2 decent meals this week. For me, that's a pretty good ratio. Most of the time it is some dumb sandwich or something equally manky, grey or dripping something you wouldn't normally ingest. Today I decided to go somewhere different, even if it is the same type of food, Mexican.

Hey, here is a post-note: The weiners were right on. Home made looking and very rich with yummy snappy snaps. Very nice.


This week the Fatted Calf brings us all kinds of goodies to our Saturday Farmer's Market. Our special this week are their own savory, garlicky pork and beef doggies, lightly smoked with a nice, snappy casing. Sign me up for a few, eh. Another offering they have is Glace de Viande (meat jello). A nice addition to soups, sauces & reductions of some sort or another.
A point of interest might be Mortadella and Crepinettes with Morels. I don't see it listed, but see if Taylor has any of his Rabbit Pate available. What a tasty smooth happiness that was. Oh my and you know what else? I see Ham and the Hocks I missed from last week !!! One should arrive somewhat early. I am to understand he sold out of many things quite quickly last week. Yay.

I know I missed last week, I hope to see you there. (I think I'll bring my special cloth meat bags to assist me in leaving without looking like a freak, this time).

I write to you today with the lingering flavors of Rick's smoked Hot Italian Sausages. He smokes something each week, last week it was 75 pounds of assorted hunks. This he tells me, was gone within 24 hours or so. That's without a Meat Alert. Dang.

Mile High Biscuits

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I believe this marks about 15 Cook's Illustrated magazines I've received so far. And this recipe is the first of anything I've found of any use out of that rag. I know I know, many people just 'love' to rave about it for one reason or another. Each issue I find a handful of things that make me see red. I'm willing to put down the boxing gloves for a moment because my wife and I are suckers for biscuits and this issue had a recipe worth taking a look at. Yum.

Introducing Shelly & Amelia, MeatHenge's new ace reporters. Please let's give them a helloooo. Helllooo.

Credit for images & article are theirs.

It's Sunday in the city. It's hot, for once, and everyone has come out of the woodwork for the Giant's game on Father's Day. We are headed to Sadie's Flying Elephant to review the weekly Sunday afternoon barbecue, and we pass the Hotel Utah, a recently reopened landmark, of sorts, for those who have been around the City awhile. What should we see? nay smell? outside? A big, glorious grill, with meat stacked as high as the SoMa condos, smoking as high as an Oakland fire. "Oh to be there!" we cry. But alas, we're on a mission from Biggles.

Not more than 3 minutes before the Newsletter arrived in my inbox, I remarked that the Fatted Calf Newsletter was late. I almost gave them a call, "whar's muh newsletter foo?"
I read through the introductory paragraph pretty quickly, all I was interested in was to see if there was a special and what the Crepinettes were made of this week. I was not let down.
First came the special brined, cold smoked ham steaks. You don't eeven want to miss this one. A month ago or so he sold these 9 pound hams, sure they were amazing hunks of ham leg. But you had to buy 9 pounds of ham leg, which left most people out of the loop. This time he was nice enough to make something Snack Size (probably a few pounds each, maybe a tad less) so we can all have a taste. In a few months when the holidays come by we'll know what to expect for our Holiday Ham selection.
This week he has Pork Crepinettes with Pistachios, Duck Liver and Marsala. Okay, so I'm not too hip to livers. And usually would pass, but so far there isn't one thing Taylor's made that I haven't enjoyed. So, I will be getting a package and I'll let you know how it goes. Keep in mind he's got Mortadella this week too, amazing stuff. So yummy.

Ever have one of those days you find yourself running maybe five to six million errands? Today was one of those, zippy yet you never really get anywhere. One of those errands took me past Jones' BBQ on San Pablo Dam Road in El Sobrante. I'm almost glad I took the time to stop.

Impromptu Bread Meal

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Last night we all arrived home a little later than normal. We had about an hour or so to put something together, no big deal. Well, it turns out that my wife met someone at the boy scouts summer camp that had a minivan FILLED with artisan day old loaves of bread. SCORE.
As you can probably guess, we don't abide by the Atkins 'eat no fuel' diet and had no problem devouring a entire loaf of bread for dinner. What made it easier to choke down was a layer of read butter, fresh 'maters, fresh parsely, some pesto, fresh crushed purply garlic, pebrella, fresh mozzarella, fresh parmesan, salt & pepper to finish. Make melty & toasty in oven. Serve.

This last Saturday I left the Farmer's Market with a noticeable skip in my step. Sure I had my pockets full of meat and my one kidney was doing double time to get rid of the Blue Bottle Coffee's New Orleans style iced coffee. This time was different. This time I got to SELL SAUSAGE !!!

Clearly Fatted Calf's Newsletter that included MeatHenge was one of the best, up until yesterday. This weeks newsletter goes on about a wedding in which Taylor and his wife Toponia stuff up an entire pig for a pit fire. There were two problems I found with this right off. First, we aren't invited to this wedding. Okay there are 3 things a bit off. Second, we weren't going to get any and Third, there were no pictures to SEE.

HOOYAH there are some happenings about town today. I know over the past year I've mentioned Rick's Quality Meats of El Cerrito a few times. He, back then, was smoking meats out of the backyard smoker I sold him (he modified it considerably to make it more efficient). This means he was only able to do a dozen half chickens or so at a time. They were usually pre-sold, if not they were gone that day. Times have changed for Rick.


This last Saturday I picked up a handful of Crepinettes from The Fatted Calf. Sure I could have walked away with some Toulouse, Rosso or Chorizo or even some breakfast patty sausage. But I've been down those roads more than a few times and it seems as though Taylor changes the ingredients of the Crepinettes from week to week. As much as I detest change, this one is fine by me. We all need a little a meat flavor merry-go-round with either pork or duck or both.
With my pockets filled, I headed up to visit Jan at the Blue Bottle Coffee Company stall. Her helper was there and it wasn't too busy (like the first time in months she'd had time to do something other than drip coffee), so we sped back to get her some meat. The first thing she went for was the Mortadella. Hey, I like mortadella. I didn't get any. HEY TAYLOR, ME TOO !!! Both Jan and I got mortadella. I felt like skipping to my truck, I had a new treat.

MeatHenge Labs grows

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MeatHenge Labs has grown another room. Not so good for the rainy season, but just fine for the other three. Count yourself lucky if you have some kind of shade in your back/side yard for the summer. Ours is a wide open area with sun for all. Which may be fine for tomatoes & flowers, but for humans it really burns. Now we have wide open shade, delish.


Am told it is officially summer, spring is gone. The Farmer's Market over the last month has really grown, when compared to over the winter (der). I enjoy seeing the changes because it gets continually better and better. Now is a great time to go see what is available. Don't lose your mind though, you have to be wise in your Shopping Fu just as you do at the local grocery chain. For instance, the peaches (many vendors have them now) are charging $3.50 + a pound for the orbes of wonder. Yeah, they're really good. But $3.50 a pound is too damned much, sorry. Last week I bought some wonderful 5 seed crusty bread, baked that morning. It was absolutely delightful, if you don't mind paying $4.50 a loaf. I did find someone who reminded me of Ted Nugent at a little card table sharpening knives for $5 bux a piece. Tomorrow I'm going to take my poultry shears and a few cooks knives in for a touch up. He uses a stone only, no wheels. This is a good thing, one doesn't want to take too much metal off the poor blades. Anyway, if you have the time take an hour or so and check out your local Farmer's Market, please do. And speaking of which, here is Fatted Calf's weekly newsletter (MORE CREPINETTES !!!!!!!!! YEEEHAW);

pre-thought side note: Coming soon will be a picture of my new awning for outdoor living. It is almost complete, I just need to purchase and lash down the bamboo roof and what-not. It is 10' x 20.8' and will give us a great space to be. Yay for us.

As far as parties go, meat or otherwise. What pops in to your mind when someone says Memorial Day? That's right, people everywhere, drinks a-flowing and great food as far as the eye can see. I know you expect no less of MeatHenge Labs. Yeah well, we were tired and enjoying the fact we didn't have to deal with acres of friends and/or family. It was really nice to spend a few days just puttering about doing what we wanted, when we wanted. This, and yelling at the children, breaking up fits and fights.
Early Sunday morning I was driving around in my truck for no good reason and the radio told me to go buy some Luscious & Meat Pork Ribs on Sale, $1.99 a lb. Rarely do I buy Grocery Store meat, rarely. I was weak and sped over to get myself one of two packages left. They looked just fine and didn't smell all manky. I had something 'to do' on Monday.

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