Recipe: Bacon-Wrapped Meatloaf

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An end piece of Bacon-Wrapped Meatloaf, with the requisite greens.

Meatloaf is fun to make. Take some ground meat, throw in some bread or cracker crumbs, some chopped onions, and some other spices. You can then bake it as a loaf, grill it as burgers, or bake off individually-formed servings for buffets or catering. It’s simple, filling, and satisfying, and different versions go well with a large number of sides.

At Mary’s request I’ve recently been focused on variations on Bacon-Wrapped Meatloaf. Her boss was going to have surgery and I, turning into my mother and doing what she would have done, offered to cook a few meals to get the boss and her family through about the first week. My selections were my Chicken Noodle Soup, a simple BBQ pulled pork from a slow-cooked shoulder (along with the necessary buns), and a good meatloaf. While I was putting the meatloaf together, that’s when Mary suggested wrapping it in bacon.

Because of the size of the family, that first meatloaf weighed just over six pounds. There were two lbs each of ground beef, sausage, and bacon, along with half a box of saltines, eight eggs, and the seasonings.

I’ve since settled on one lb each for the basic recipe, while ensuring the recipe itself is truly scalable for larger needs. But there are a huge number of possible variations.

Choice of meats can vary, but pork and veal seem to be one of the standard combinations. Groceries sometimes sell that combination on a foam tray, while others add beef as a third meat in the same package. Combining beef with lamb would give a good flavor, with the beef needing a higher fat content to give a good juiciness. Combining goat or other meats with beef would be interesting as well. Ground turkey or chicken? Sure, if you’re into that kind of thing.

The basic recipe presented here, outside of the bacon wrapping, is rather generalized. Change the meats, change the spices, use applewood or hardwood smoked bacon, wrap it in prosciutto if you’d like … Whatever. Be creative.

The trick, though, is to slow-cook the loaf, particularly if it gets rather large through scaling the recipe. At some point though, making multiple smaller loaves makes more sense.

Just have fun with it. I certainly do.


Bacon-Wrapped Meatloaf
Ingredients
1 lb sliced bacon
1 lb ground beef, 80/20
1 lb sausage
4 eggs
1/4 lb (1 sleeve) saltine crackers
1 medium onion
3 Tbsp Worchestershire sauce
2 Tbsp salt
2 Tbsp ground black pepper
2 Tbsp granulated garlic
2 Tbsp smoked paprika
1 Tbsp ground mustard

Add all but the bacon, onion, and crackers to a medium mixing bowl. Peel and coarse-chop the onion and add it to the bowl. Put the crackers into a gallon plastic food bag, and roll with a rolling pin till the crackers are fine crumbs. Add the cracker crumbs to the mixing bowl. Don’t mix what’s in the bowl yet, just set it aside.

Preheat an oven to 250F. Grease a small cooking rack and set it in a roasting pan, deep casserole, or enamel pot. Lay two slces of bacon next to each other in the middle of the rack.Lay the other slices perpendicular to the first two, five on each side, side-by-side, with the inside end at the far side of the first two slices. If you have more than these twelve slices of bacon, add four more slices, two on each end, to extend the length of original two slices.

Use your hands (with food-handling gloves if desired) to fully mix the meat mixture. Form it into a loaf, which will be about 7 inches long and just over 3 inches in diameter. Lay the loaf in the middle of the bacon over the first two slices. Then, pick up the rest of the bacon piece-by-piece and fully wrap the loaf.

Cover the meatloaf, and bake in the 250F oven for three hours or until a meat thermometer inserted into the center of the loaf reads 160F. Then go ahead and bake it for one more hour to crisp the bacon.

Remove the loaf from the oven and allow it to rest before slicing with a serrated knife and serving.

Recipe: Authentic Florida Rum Runners

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Our bartenders for this development: Bree, Kim, and Mary.

A habit we’ve started getting into the past couple years is vacationing on the east coast of Florida. As I write this, I’m sitting in a beautiful little duplex on the Indian River in Ft. Pierce. We had come here just over a year ago and fell in love with St. Lucie County and the surrounding area, along with really appreciating the people here, both the locals and those who are also habitual visitors. Arriving here from Michigan again last week, the duplex made us feel as though we had come home. Because of this feeling, we’re already making plans to come back next year as well.

The duplex is owned by our friends Kim and Bill. Kim and my wife Mary had gone to high school together, and Kim and Bill rent the duplex out to various people throughout the year while living in their own home up the river. Built in the 1950s or early 60s, this quaint little duplex is simple, with hurricane-resistant concrete block walls covered with stucco, and poured terrazo floors. But the couple has really warmed up the interior with just the right furnishings that give it that strong feeling of home.


On The Edge Bar & Grill, as seen from the Ft. Pierce Inlet, April 12, 2016.

On our first full day here last April Kim had driven us up the road a piece to the On The Edge Bar & Grill for lunch. Located on the north end of South Hutchinson Island along the Ft. Pierce Inlet that allows for boating and small ship access (Coast Guard cutters, heavy barges, small cruise liners, deep-sea fishing vessels, etc.) to the two-mile-wide Indian River, the restaurant is open-air with two levels.


My Hoisen-Glazed Yellowfin Tuna at On The Edge Bar & Grill on May 9, 2017: Sushi-grade Ahi Tuna seared rare, with hoisin glaze and wasabi mayo, topped with a seaweed salad and served with sides of wasabi mashed potatoes and grean beans.

The food at the restaurant is seriously good, especially the seafood. From their Facebook page:

“All of the fish served at On the Edge Bar & Grill is fresh, locally caught & never frozen. Our Mahi-Mahi, Swordfish, and Tuna, in particular, are caught in deep water, approximately 150 miles offshore to the northeast of Fort Pierce. These fishing boats consume about $6,000 in fuel for a round trip that can last up to 3 days.

If you don’t understand why fresh seafood can be expensive, read that again. But also understand the prices on the menu at On The Edge are extremely reasonable, and are actually comparable to those at better seafood restaurants in places like Toledo and Ann Arbor. The seafood at On The Edge is better though, and worth the trip.

It was at On The Edge during that lunch with Kim that Mary had her first-ever Rum Runner. Legend has it that the Rum Runner was first developed at a place called the Holiday Tiki Bar in Islamorada (“ah-lah-mor-ah-dah”) sometime in the 1950s when there was “an excess of rum and certain liqueurs that needed to be moved before the arrival of more inventory.” This makies sense, as a lot of dishes, from casseroles, to “Chef’s specials”, to Polish paczki for Fat Tuesday, were created this way and always will be.


Some of the Rum Runners from our trip here in April 2016.

Throughout our travels here over the past couple years, from here at the duplex through the 220 miles to Mile 0 at the southern end of US 1 in Key West 90 miles north of Cuba, Mary, Bree and I have tried quite a few Rum Runners at various establishments. There are apparently countless variations: One bar here in Ft. Pierce also has a package liquor store, and they specifically told me they use the Ron Corina 151 dark rum in their version, and sold me a bottle. This made for a Rum Runner that was far too strong, and not at all like Mary is used to.

In trying all those other Rum Runners though, the flavor profile we appreciate most goes right back to On The Edge. We ate there again yesterday evening with a friend of Bree’s from high school who lives down here now and came to visit. The Rum Runners were, to our taste buds of course, absolutely perfect.


Shish Kebab party! May 7, 2017, Ft. Pierce, Florida

A couple evenings ago we hosted a shish kebab party for Kim, Bill and their two sons. Bree and I prepped chicken thigh meat, 51/60 p&d shrimp, as well as fresh veggies from the renowned Ft. Pierce Farmer’s Market. People made up their own kebabs on bamboo skewers, which I then grilled for them, serving with chips and hummus. One of the neighbor families also showed up, which was a good thing as Bree and I had prepped a lot of food!

Between us we had also put together the rather expensive list of ingredients needed for Rum Runners, as laid out on the Florida Keys Guide web site. Restaurants and bars with larger liqueur inventories will certainly be able to have most of this on-hand for various beverages. It does get a bit unwieldly for two or three people, but if you regularly enjoy Rum Runners this shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

Bree, Kim and Mary put together the Rum Runners, and the flavor was extremely close to what On The Edge serves. Yup, it made for a fun evening!

The ingredient list below is fairly specific. This combination comes quite close to what On The Edge is doing, but we make no claim to it being exactly the same. Make substitutions as is necessary or as you see fit. Your own recipe may be completely different. Amd that’s alright.

Authentic Florida Rum Runners
Add one ounce of each of the following to a glass, or add multiples of one ounce each to a pitcher, and stir well:

Add one cup ice to each glass, and serve.
If the frozen slush version is desired, pour the completed drink with ice into a blender and run until the desired consistency is reached.

Home Cooking vs. Fancy Cuisines, plus ca. 1923 Toledo Public School Recipes

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At QQ Kitchen in Toledo, a serving of Tong Soo Yo — Deep-fried pork loin with Napa cabbage, Wood Ear, Cucumber, Pineapple, Green Onion and Carrots, in a Korean Sweet and Sour Glaze. A beautiful and accessible “home-style” dish.

It was March 1983 when Sony’s Compact Disc audio player hit the U.S. market, after first being made available in Japan the previous October. Dr. Toshitada Doi’s development of the digital audio system would continue from Sony with recordable CDs, along with the related DVD format and recordable versions of those as well. CDs have since become less available with the advent of the mp3 file format, giving rise to the iPod and smartphone-based mp3 player apps.

Movies have followed suit. When Lucas directed “Star Wars II: Attack Of The Clones” for its 2002 release, it was one of the first feature films shot using all-digital cameras. These were the Sony HDW-F900, which were then modified for Panavision to become the HD-900F camera system. The finished film was only converted to film for distribution in theaters. Since then, films have become all-digital, from the Red EPIC cameras currently used in production, through completely-digital editing, to digital 4k projection systems in theaters, not using a single frame of Kodak film stock along the way.

But some things haven’t changed in the “digital era” since 1982. Electric guitarists understand this. The best sound for their instruments are still processed via vacuum tubes, and many popular guitar amps and amplification heads for speaker stacks use, strangely-enough, old Russian military audio tubes in their designs. The Russian 6L6 medium-power tube (20 – 25W outpout), known as a “Groove Tube”, has been used in popular amplifier brands such as Fender since the 1960s. A matched pair of 6L6 tubes runs about 60 bucks.

Lately, these things have begun to revert back their previous forms. Vinyl albums are making a comeback, and there are numerous turntables for analog amplifier use which also have USB ports to transfer the music into a digital system if desired. And “Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens”, released in December 2015, was shot entirely on film stock, with the effects shop at Industrial Light & Magic returning to the use of miniature models for many of their sequences.

What Does This Have To Do With Cooking?
Quite simply, even with the popularity of eReaders such as the Kindle, cookbooks have not successfully made the transition to digital formats. People still want physical cookbooks and publishers have obliged, developing new presentation styles and tapping solid, honest cooks and chefs for content.

For a while it seemed as though cooking in the U.S. was itself headed in the wrong direction. After TV dinners became popular, frozen and processed foods were all the rage, and every home kitchen gained a microwave on its counter or above its electric range. Basic tastes really didn’t change though, and with Food Network and other cooking channels showing up people realized they wanted to “really” cook once again.

But a split happened, a dichotomy of sorts, pitting home cooks against restaurant-style cooking, which in many ways followed what Food Network and others were producing.

“Worst Cooks In America”
This show is a prime example of what’s wrong with a lot of the programming on Food Network today. The competitors are people who can’t even cook their family a decent meal. But instead of taking them through what used to be considered a Home Economics cooking class, they teach them restaurant techniques, finishing with a “restaurant-style meal”. In recent ads a competitor is berated for not knowing the difference between a scallion and a shallot, neither of which many home cooks have ever even heard of. Meanwhile, the competitor’s family probably wants meatloaf, fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, grilled pork chops, pancakes with bacon … The basics. Nothing requiring scallions, shallots, or a wrapping of caul fat. (No, you likely don’t know what that is either, but it’s taught on the show.) What the families want is what’s important to everyday cooks in their own kitchens.

What these families want to eat is how normal people eat. The concepts of the “training” in the show certainly don’t reflect this.

Fortunately, some of the few actual cooking programs on the network are largely unscripted and present honest home cooking. Nancy Fuller is excellent in this regard in her show “Farmhouse Rules”, as is Damaris Phillips in “Southern At Heart”. Celebs Trisha Yearwood and Valerie Bertinelli also offer unpretentious dishes in shows taped in their home kitchens.

Most of the rest of the network’s programming, however, has drifted considerably far from the concepts presented in these few shows.

At the same time, Americans’ affinity for burgers spawned the excellent Sonic and Five Guys burger chains. Local burger joints have begun cooking butter burgers and topping burgers with slow-cooked pork belly and locally-smoked bacon. And home cooks began to learn that a 50/50 blend of ground sirloin and chuck made for the best-tasting burgers from their own grills.

This has happened in other areas of cooking as well, burgers are simply a good example. But it then becomes apparent some well-known “trending” statements about cooking simply aren’t true.

Bocuse d’Or 2017

The offifical photo of part of team USA’s winning creations from the 2017 Bocuse d’Or, “Presentation On A Tray”.

Yesterday, January 25, 2017, Team USA won the prestigious Bocuse d’Or competition hosted in Lyon, France. This was the 30th anniversary of the Bocuse d’Or, and it was also Team USA’s first-ever win. It really is one Hell of an accomplishment.

No, I have no desire to detract from what Team USA has accomplished. They worked long and hard to get the win, and that hard work is no joke.

But as beautiful as the above-pictured Team USA dish is, I couldn’t make head nor tail of what it was. No one I’ve shown it to have been able to either, chefs included. Someone said “Well, the individual dishes look like oyster shells, so those must be some kind of oyster.”

Nope.

“Those things on top … Prickly pear?”

Nope.

It’s chicken and crayfish. I kid you not. Here’s the official description of this particular event, lifted from the Bocuse d’Or web site:

THEME ON A TRAY
5 hours and 35 minutes, not a second more: that’s the time allotted to prepare a recipe using the imposed main product. Top quality meat or extra fresh fish, the recipe imagined using these superb products will be presented ‘à la française’ on a tray.

SURPRISE, HERITAGE AND PRODUCTS
2017 has a big surprise in store for its fans but more importantly for the participants. As for the presentation on a tray, the Bocuse d’Or will proudly state its Lyon and French identity. To celebrate its 30 years of existence the participants will work with ‘Bresse chicken and shellfish’ based on an interpretation of the famous Lyon recipe for ‘Chicken and crayfish’.

My friend who’d originally reposted the above photo of the reinterpreted “Bresse Chicken and Shellfish” took issue with my lack of appreciation of the dish:

“The appeal is the creativity, the artistry, the innovation. Like the haute couture that influences what we wear (as Meryl Streep described in The Devil Wears Prada), these techniques trickle down. It’s fascinating to watch, like an art show meets the Olympics!”

Sorry, but haute couture has never influenced what I wear. I might wear a suit for a special event, and my wife does make me wear khakis on occasion. But I’m normally in jeans with a t-shirt or flannel shirt. And there’s likewise no real innovaion here either … Fads maybe, aka temporary “trends” … But the reality is that people, carnivores of course, will still gravitate toward steaks, fried chicken, broiled or grilled fish, pulled or grilled pork, stout sausages … and burgers. This plate will fade into history, and people in 2117 will still be ordering medium rare steak grilled over open flame. That’s the reality of how people really want to eat.


As pretty as food really needs to be: Seared Ahi Tuna at 12A Buoy in Ft. Pierce, Florida.

Once in a while, I don’t mind if food is pretty, especially if it’s a surprise in what’s an affordable ($21) dish. We were visiting friends in Ft. Pierce, Florida, in April 2016 and they suggested a late lunch at a place called the 12A Buoy. We were seated outside about 20 feet from the Indian River, an estuary that runs more than 100 miles along the eastern coast of Florida. I ordered the seared Ahi tuna in toasted sesame seeds. I was not expecting what’s in the above photo, especially at that price, but we took that pic immediately after the dish hit the table.

It’s a great presentation, downright pretty, and I can tell exactly what it is.

Which brings up other issues I have with Food Network programming. In the competition show “Chopped” chefs are expected to transform the ingredients in the various baskets. If they don’t do so, they’re berated for it and, in many instances, “chopped” in that round for not transforming items. They’re also expected to include some kind of sauce to just about evry dish they create.

These particular requirements show complete disregard for the following phrases I’ve learned and understood elsewhere:

  • Ingredients need to not only be respected, but showcased as well.
  • Not everything needs a sauce, a concept which is more French than is necessary.

These two phrases fly in the face of what many believe, but they hold true more often than not. Take a look at the images in this post. No sauces (except the barbecue sauce on the ribs), not even with the Bocuse d’Or tray presentation. But the Bocuse d’Or tray presention is the only one that can’t be identified by looking at it.

One of most odd competition shows recently was “Battle Of The Grandmas”. Transformation was part of the show, for example, “Using everything you’d use for Green Bean Casserole, create a dish that’s not Green Bean Casserole.” That’s entirely unnecessary. Have each of them make their Green Bean Casserole, and see whose is the favorite. Transformation shouldn’t be part of the equation for grandmas, as it doesn’t respect the women and their skills as they are.

Home-Ec Cooking Courses vs. “Culinary Classes”

Two historical public school Home Economics cookbooks from my collection.

The bottom hardcover book in the above pic, the 527-page “Experiences With Foods” published in 1956, includes photos illustrating the process for making yeast breads. The top book is the 1923 “Home Economics Cook Book for Elementary Grades” published in 1923 by Toledo Public Schools. The pages shown are those describing how to select a chicken, using flame to remove pin feathers, then finding and removing the birds’ innards piece-by-piece as birds were purchased unprocessed at the time.

I remember Home Ec cooking classes in middle school. There were multiple home kitchens in that room. We were put together in groups of two or three students, and taught how to cook different dishes, like simple pancakes from scratch, eggs, and burgers. I don’t recall what the textbook was, but given the time period it could very well have been the 1956 textbook in the above image.

Cooking is making a comeback as an available course in middle and high school levels. But in too many cases, this is a culinary course intended as a starting block for a professional career, not a home cooking course. These are indeed two separate concepts, the latter being too seldom not taught at home.

Every student needs to learn how to cook at home, much in the same way as they need to know how to write and execute a grocery shopping list, clean a home kitchen, balance a checkbook, do laundry, change the oil in a car or at least know how to check the various fluid levels … simple everyday skills that are sorely missing in today’s eucation.


How people actually cook at home: Hickory-smoked barbecued spare ribs with collard greens and cornbread.

I grew up on the kind of food in the above pic, as did my kids, and many other people we know. This is how people eat. And there’s nothing here from any competition whatsoever. Instead, this is nothing but old-school techniques, like most home cooking.

Steak and potatoes has remained steak and potatoes. Meanwhile, David Chang has brought ramen forward to be respected using old-school techniques, Kin Khao in San Fransisco received a Michelin star with her family’s authentic Thai recipes about eighteen months after opening, farm-style and southern kitchen cooking shows are popular … People are rediscovering real food and real cooking from non-French influences. That’s what’s accessible and possible for everyday cooks, regardless of what trend followers want to believe.

Cultural Respect: Respecting the Ingredients

Lengua Tacos, lengua meaning tongue, in this case beef tongue, at Esmeralda’s in Monticello, Indiana.

Respecting ingredients, showcasing some items while contrasting them with others, making certain parts of a meal shine … This is what real cooking is all about. Other cultures have been doing this for millenia. It can be found every day in what we call “ethnic” restaurants in authentic pockets of those cultures throughout the U.S. They also exist in more rural areas as well, showcasing local game and historical preparations unique to those areas. These communities are where honest and historical cooking exists today. And they’re making a comeback, just like vinyl, just like real film stock …

Just like what used to be called Home Economics.

We need to continue to encourage this comeback. It’s the only thing that makes sense.

Recipes from the 1923 Toledo Public Schools Cookbook

Baked Apple
Wash and core sour apples, beginning at the blossom end. With a sharp pointed knife remove the stem. Score the apple near the top, by cutting a ring completely around the apple. Fill the cavity with sugar (1/2 tbsp. to the apple). A wedge of lemon may be placed in the top of the cavity. Nutmeg or cinnamon may be used in place of the lemon. When apples are at their best, do not use any flavoring. Place the apples in a baking dish, cover the bottom with boiling water, and bake in a hot oven until soft, basting often with the syrup in the dish. Test with a pointed knife. Serve hot or cold with the syrup, with or without cream.

Oyster Soup
1 qt. milk
2 tsp. salt
Pepper to taste
1/2 pt. oysters
2 tbsp. butter

Clean the oysters. Heat the milk. Boil and skim the oyster liquor till clear, and add to the milk. Add oysters, and cook till the edges curl and the oysters are plump, but do not boil. Add butter and seasoning and serve at once. If the soup has to stand before being served, make the soup, but do not add the oysters until just a few minutes before serving.

Ham Kentucky Style
Select a piece of ham one inch thick. Sprinkle 1/2 tsp. dry mustard in the bottom of a pan, then a little brown sugar, and a little pepper, put in the meat, cover with brown sugar and add milk to come 1/4 of the way up the side of the meat. Cover and bake 1/2 hr. or until tender.

Boston Baked Beans
1 pt. beans
1/4 tsp. soda
1 tsp. salt 1 small onion
1/4 c. molasses
1/4 tsp. mustard
1/4 lb. salt pork

Pick over, wash beans and soak over night in cold water. Drain, add soda and cover again with cold water. Boil 20 minutes, or until the outside skin cracks. Cook the pork 20 minutes, saving the water in which it was cooked. Put the onion and pork in the bottom of the bean jar. Fill with beans and pour over them the molasses, with which the seasoning has been rnixed. Cover with the water in which the pork was cooked, and bake slowly for 5 or 6 hrs. Cover while baking and add boiling water as needed. Brown sugar may be used instead of molasses.

Swiss Steak
2 lbs. round steak 1 to 1-1/2 in. thick
1 c. flour
1/2 onion
1 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. fat

Pound the steak with flour and add salt. Brown onion in the fat in the frying pan. Add meat and brown on both sides. Barely cover with water and bake from 1-1/2 to 2 hrs. or until tender. Peppers, tomatoes, onions, peas or mushrooms may be added. Reduce liquor to make a thick brown sauce to pour over the meat.

Cracking The Code: Perfectly-Crisp Fried Chicken

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The above image isn’t perfect in any manner, but the chicken was downright amazing.

Over the years, I’ve tried lots of other peoples’ techniques in making my own fried chicken. Back in a college dorm in 1983 a young man attempted to teach me his family’s method for pan-frying chicken, which was a complete failure for me. Too crispy on the outside to the point of being burnt, while still being bloody near the bone … I know now the oil was too hot. Later attempts resulted in soggy coatings, which is normally a combination of oil being too cool, along with putting a lid on the skillet as I had seen others do, which creates condensation.

Whenever I’m frying chicken in restaurants, it normally includes some kind of “cheat”, i.e., starting with par-fried pieces. I could do this at home as those same pieces are sold at local food service supply shops. The other method involves the pressure fryer, which was invented by Col. Harlan Sanders himself. (No joke, look it up.) But home pressure fryers don’t exist, and using a pressure cooker as Sanders did in his earlier work did is inherenty dangerous, as he described in detail in his autobiography. So I won’t go there at home.

But restaurant chicken generally has a batter that’s almost brittle, and the chicken itself in many instances really isn’t cooked nicely enough for me.

Something’s always been missing.

I have an ideal when it comes to fried chicken. The skin on the chicken itself should be crisp, the batter lightly fried and golden brown, and the chicken cooked all the way through, to the point where it has a nice “bite” while simultaneously almost falling off the bone.

That was the whole point of this experiment.


The fried chicken at Zehnder’s in Frankenmuth, Michigan, on November 12, 2016.

Just a few days before receiving my pacemaker a couple months back, Mary and I enjoyed the all-you-can-eat chicken dinner at Zehnder’s in Frankenmuth, Michigan. The restaurant seats 1,500 people at a time, and with their volume they are constantly rated as the independently-owned restaurant serving the most “covers” or individual meals in the U.S. annually, generally around 950,000 meals per year.

Coincidentally, they also serve fried chicken that’s almost exactly my ideal fried chicken.

Biting into my first piece two months ago, it hit me: It’s not the overall recipe or equipment that’s the trick.

It’s the technique as a whole.

I’m not saying this is Zehnder’s actual technique, but in my mind it seems a distinct possibility.


A frying thermometer from an outdoor fryer clipped to my 8-quart pot.

Holding that single bite of chicken in my mouth, three thoughts collided:

  • Getting chicken done to the point where it’s cooked all the way through, to the point where it has a nice “bite” while simultaneously almost falling off the bone, requires slow-roasting.
  • Slow-roasting chicken with the skin on results in a fairly crisp skin.
  • Getting the batter on fried chicken a light golden brown while still getting crisp skin requires relatively quick frying.

The technique then becomes simple:

  • Slow-roast the chicken to about 165F internal temperature.
  • Then, batter and fry the chicken, just till the outside is done.

That’s it, really. Cook it twice, but for different reasons.

Here’s the full technique. I only describe a dry dredge here, but you can also use your favorite wet batter to get the ridges of a classic southern fried chicken, too.

Crisp Fried Chicken Technique

Ingredients
Chicken pieces
Frying oil (Wesson works well)
All-purpose flour
Seasoning (personal taste)
Buttermilk (optional)

Equipment
Roasting pan, or sheet pan, with strainer
Meat thermometer
8 quart steel pot or larger
Frying thermometer
Tongs
Bowl (for dredging)

If desired, soak the chicken pieces in buttermilk for 24 hours.

Preheat an oven to 275F. Remove the chicken pieces from the buutermilk and pat them dry. Roast the chicken in the oven till a meat thermometer tests for an internal temperature of 165F (about two hours or so, which will vary depending on the oven.) Remove the chicken from the oven and allow it to drain.

Clip the frying thermometer to the pot and add about 3″ of oil. (This is deep frying, not pan frying.) Heat the oil to a temperature of 350F. Add the flour to the bowl and season it with salt, pepper, garlic, marjoram, and/or any other herbs and spices you’d like. While the chicken is still hot, dredge each piece individually in the flour mixture and gently add it to the oil. Make sure you don’t crowd the oil. (I only fried four pieces of chicken at a time.) The chicken will float when it is almost done frying, and will only require maybe four minutes for each piece. Use a pair of tongs to remove the chicken from the oil and set aside on a strainer to drain and finish crisping.

Allow the oil to cool completely before disposing it.

That’s it. It’s actually really simple. It does create a huge mess, though, so be ready to bribe the kids to clean up the kitchen afterward.

Recipe: Gene Sloan’s Summer Sausage Spread

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This past Monday, the day after Christmas 2016, over on the quite popular recipe for Ground Bologna Sandwich Spread, reader Gene Sloan left the following comment:

Here is my experience….I was going to slice some Beef Summer Sausage in my food processor. What happened was i put the slicing cutter in backwards and instead of slices, I got slivers. So I had 8oz of slivered or rough ground sausage. Do not wanting it go to waste I found this Bologna sandwich spread. But I changed the meat, and instead of Mayonnaise, I used cream cheese. And I added chopped black olives. I know it isn’t technically the same. It is however, very delicious!

Not only did it sound good, I felt the concept needed to be a recipe in itself. After picking up a few things and working out some amounts, along with a simple adition for smoother consistency, I ended up with the following spread. It’s rather rich but is extremely good, satisfying even one of the kids who dove right in with a handful of crackers. Happy New Year, enjoy!

Gene Sloan’s Summer Sausage Spread
2 lb Summer Sasage
2 8oz packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup Kalamata olives, chopped
1 cup onion, chopped
8 oz whole milk (adjust as needed)

Cut the summer sausage into chunks and chop in a food processor to a desired size. (Smaller pieces will give a smoother final consistency.) Transfer the meat to a mixing bowl, add the cream cheese and use the back of a spoon to cream together. Fold in the olives and onion and mix well. Add enough whole milk and mix until the desired consistency is reached. Serve on crackers with cheese, vegetable pieces, and other toppings.

Taco Casserole: Reworking Americanized Mexican Recipes

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A completed serving of Taco Casserole, without any of the optional toppings.

Two summers ago when I was Kitchen Manager at the Skyroom at Indiana Beach I had the pleasure of spending a lot of time with a man we called Chuey. Jesus Valdes Dominguez lived outside Mexico City, but during that summer and the twenty preceding summers he traveled to the Skyroom to work in the kitchen for the entire season.


Chuey doing the prep to roast a couple 50 lb hogs in July of 2015. He cut them into halves so they’d fit into the tall but narrow roasting ovens.

I was hired on that summer solely as Kitchen Manager. I’ve become quite good at organizing professional kitchens, getting the ordering systems right, building spreadsheets for monthly inventories, making sure things at least make a little bit of sense. … All the technical reasons I was called out-of-the-blue by a former supervisor and brought on-board in the spring of 2015. But there were longtime cooks there who always called me “Chef”, and Chuey was one of those cooks. Of course, he’s one of the many excellent cooks I’ve known throught my life whom I’ve learned a lot from. But in his case, it’s his sense of humor that stands out as one of his best traits.

July 25, 2015, 4:00 a.m.: More than 2,000 to cater for today. Dragged my ass out of bed an hour ago, tried to focus my eyeballs to continue an online discussion on coneys, downed two cups of coffee before slowly lumbering to the restaurant 200 feet from my cottage … The sound of rapidly running feet behind me, I glanced back to see a figure flying toward me, I’m scared witless … 43-year-old Chuey goes flying by and races up the eighteen steps to the door … before he’s had his first cup of strong Mexican coffee. Laughing maniacally at the door he bellows “Chef, Chuey mucho loco!!!” Yup, he done be cray-cray …

Later in the summer, as my health started to take another tumble (I finally received a much-needed pacemaker on November 15, 2016) Chuey took it upon himself to make sure I was taken care of in regards to meals. Regardless of how busy he was, regardless of what I had going on, he would throw another serving of his own meals of authentic Mexican cuisine together, wrap the second serving in film, place it on my desk, and demand I take the time to eat.

Chuey: “Chef, you go eat!”
Me: “We’re behind, I gotta get this done!”
Chuey: “No Chef, you get sick later …” [points at me] “I tell your wife!!!”
Dammit …

I’m experienced enough in running professional kitchens to know when to let cooks thrive. If they’re under my supervision, and they want to do something unique, and it’s possible to let them go off-menu, I’m more than happy to let them go. Our first experiment with pork belly was to rub it with a mix of brown sugar, salt, pepper, garlic, and a lot of herbs, let it sit for 24 hours, sear it on the flattop, then cook it for 3-1/2 hours in a 50/50 brine of chicken stock and Budweiser at 225F. It was like butter when it was done and had amazing flavor. That we cut it up for a high-end Pork & Beans for the Father’s Day buffet just made it more fun. Jenelle Solomon from Jamaica, a Chef in her own right without accepting the title, later took more of the pork belly, mixed together her own jerk seasoning rub for it, let it sit overnight again, then cut and grilled individual slabs for sandwiches for another buffet. Letting excellent cooks be creative helps everyone learn, and as none of us had attempted pork belly prior to this and that we all felt good about the results is what counts in recipe and menu item development.


Jenelle Solomon, grilling off slabs of Jamaican Jerk Pork Belly, July 5, 2015.

I learned more about what real Mexican food is about from Chuey than he probably realizes. There are specific packaged ingredients available here in the U.S. that Mexican families use on a regular basis. You just have to find them. Believe me, that’s not difficult to do. Many larger grocery stores carry the right products in a special “ethnic” section, but there are enough real Mexican groceries around that it’s even simpler to go to one and find what Mexican families are using in their own kitchens. You’ll likely pay less there for the same items, too. In Monticello, Indiana, that Mexican grocery is actually inside Esmeralda’s, an authentic Mexican restaurant Chuey himself ate at. That’s where he would pick up the ingredients for his own meals in the Skyroom, and would later share with me. (In nearby Monon, Indiana, the grocery was also attached to a Mexican restaurant next door, and had its own butcher shop and fishmonger as well.) So I learned rapidly what worked for him, and what he would turn his nose up at.


The Bronner’s staff cookbook and its Taco Lasagna, along with the write-up for the resulting Taco Casserole.

I’ve been an avid collector of cookbooks for quite some time now, and have more than 400. The past few years I’ve gotten rather picky about which cookbooks I’ll add to the collection. One category of cookbooks to be particularly picky about is that of the “fundraiser” cookbooks, generally published by local organizations by the ubiquitous Morris Press Cookbooks for the past umpteen yea … er, since 1933. The majority of these cookbooks have, unfortunately, become rehashes of one another. But at the same time, businesses use Morris Press to publish their own “staff” cookbooks. These collections are rather well curated, especially when the business wants to stay within a target audience or occasion. The two staff cookbooks from Bronner’s CHRISTmas Wonderland in Frankenmuth, Michigan, “Bronner’s Flavorful Favorites“, one from 2005 and the other from 2008, are excellent examples of this. I added these two cookbooks to my collection about a month ago, and have really enjoyed browsing the holiday-specific recipes.

Quite a few of the recipes in the Bronner’s cookbooks are intended for family gatherings through the holidays. One in particular caught my eye, the Taco Lasagna in Book 2 as submitted by Bronner’s staffer Rebecca Fowler. Our family as a whole loves Mexican food, to the point where I keep the large foodservice container of taco seasoning in the pantry. The kids and grandkids come to visit us almost every weekend, and large recipes are necessary on a regular basis anymore. So the Taco Lasagna became something to seriously consider.

But as I looked at Ms. Fowler’s recipe my mind took the leap: How would my good man Chuey make this? What changes would I need to make to make it palatable for him if he were here? To raise the level of authenticity?

Hoping not to offend Ms. Fowler in what I’m certain is a seriously nice dish, I immediately knew calling it a “lasagna” wasn’t something Chuey would have agreed with. He made his own lasagna for the restaurant in a very specific manner, and had for years. He begged me to get him the right lasagna, an uncooked pasta sheet that had never been dried, which took me a good month to find. He then proceeded to make his own sauce and meat mixture from scratch, used all the right Italian cheeses, and par-baked the batches while finishing servings individually. His lasagna would put most others to shame. Pasta-maker Barilla, founded in 1877, agrees with him. In their now-out-of-print book “I Love Pasta: An Itallian Love Story in 100 Recipes” from their Academia Barilla, the Barilla family members wrote about how the pasta was mentioned in ancient Greek and Roman descriptions of cooking. The end the paragraph with “There is also an industrial version with curled edges”, referring specifically to what most westerners are used to seeing and cooking.

Chuey would have made this baked dish for a buffet, meaning we would call it a “casserole” on the menu.

Chuey never used ground beef spiced with taco seasoning in the dishes he made for him and I. He always used pork chorizo, generally the mild variety. The real thing is made with salivary glands, lymph nodes and cheek fat, and other cuts of pork. This follows the centuries-old Central American cultures always being nose-to-tail, and is authentic, whether or not squeamish Americans want to admit it. The seasoning is correct for what Americans call “taco seasoning”, so no additional spices are necessary.


The meat mixture after simmering.

The basics of Ms. Fowler’s recipe are good, but I think Chuey would have made at least a few changes. Knowing I’m making a double batch means I can replace one of the cans of black beans with a can of Chuey’s beloved whole kernel corn. “Mexican” tomatoes are merely tomatoes with green chillies added. By splitting out the chillies I can adjust the amount of heat, the hotter the better. And no Mexican dish is right without a good bunch of chopped fresh cilantro.

About those canned vegetables: The Mexican versions of these canned goods are indeed authentic. They’re less processed than their American counterparts, have considerably fewer ingredient, and in many instances are imported from Mexico or other regions of Central America. They also taste better than what’s made in the U.S. and are used in Mexican family kitchens every day.

Finally, we’ll tweak out the process just a bit, heating the refried beans until they’re smooth so they’re easier to spread, draining the tomatoes and chillies so the resulting casserole holds together and the tortillas don’t get soggy, adding the possibility of greasing the casserole dishes with lard, and adding optional toppings.

The end result had people going back for seconds and thirds. Really, it’s that good. And all kinds of variations are possible. Give this a shot. Your family will be glad you did.

Taco Casserole

Ingredients
2 lb El Mexicano raw Pork Chorizo, mild
1 cup Onion, chopped
1 can Herdez or La Preferida Black Beans, drained & rinsed
1 can Corn, whole kernel, drained
2 cans La Victoria Diced Green Chillies, drained
2 cans Petite Diced Tomatoes, drained
2 cans Herdez or La Preferida Refried Beans
2 cups Cilantro, fresh, chopped
6 cups Mexican Cheese Blend, finely shredded
12 8″ La Banderita Flour Tortillas
Sour Cream for topping (optional)
2 cups Mexican Cheese Blend, finely shredded, for topping (optional)
Herdez or La Preferida Salsa, for topping (optional)

In a high-wall skillet over medium heat, cook the chorizo and onion for about 15 minutes, until the meat has crumbled completely. (With good chorizo, it will not change color.) Place a stack of paper towel or a lint-free cloth on a plate. Transfer the cooked meat to the plate and allow the oil to drain. Using a slotted spoon, gently transfer the meat back to the skillet. Add the black beans, corn, shillies and tomatoes. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes. (The corn should still have a nice crunch.) Remove from the heat.

Dump the two cans of refried beans into a sauce pan, stirring occasionally, and heat just until smooth. Remove from the heat. (This allows for the refried beans to be used more easily in the next step.)

Use lard or vegetable shortening (lard is preferable) to grease two 13″ x 9″ x 2″ glass casserole dishes. Lay two tortillas in each one. On the tortillas in each dish, spread one-quarter of the refried beans, followed by one-quarter of the meat mixture, one-quarter of the cilantro, and one cup of the shredded cheese. Top each with two more tortillas, and then build a second layer identical to the first. Top with the remaining tortillas and one more cup of cheese each. Cover each dish with aluminum foil, being sure to “tent” the foil upward in the midle so it isn’t contacting the top layer of cheese.

Bake at 350F for 30 minutes. Let set for 5 minutes before serving. Top each serving with sour cream, more shredded cheese, salsa, or other optional toppings.

Notes:

  • Play around with the ingredients. Increase or decrease the seasonings to taste, use hot chorizo if you’d like, or even top each serving with a fried egg. The possibilities are endless.
  • Replacing the chorizo with cubes of slow-cooked beef tongue seasoned with taco seasoning would make for another authentic version, as would using pulled pork or chunks of slow-cooked pork belly seasoned in the same manner.
  • This makes a lot of Taco Casserole. You can also do the assembly in the same size foil casserole pans, cover with foil, then freeze immediately to cook at a later date.

Deviled Eggs, and Getting Those Eggs Right

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A dozen hard-boiled eggs, prepared using the following technique.

It’s the day before Thanksgiving 2016. Personally, I’m looking forward to all the deviled eggs at the various get-togethers over the next month or so. I’m seriously addicted to hard-boiled eggs, and if there are deviled eggs in the vicinity you’d better hide them from me. I’ll eat eight halves before I’ll even consider stopping.

It might take a couple more halves before I finally stop eating the things.

One of the more oft-asked questions is “What’s the best way to cook hard-boiled eggs?” There are a lot of different answers out there, some using vinegar, some barely boiling the eggs once the water starts rolling then letting them rest in the hot water off the stove for an additional time, others suggesting using sous vide (that is, if you can afford the equipment.)

Some folks also say it’s impossible to hard-boil eggs at altitudes greater than 10,000 feet above sea level. I have yet to be able to vouch for this.

I learned quite a bit from a Greek I worked for from 1983 – 84 by the name of Gus Pappas. A Vincent Price doppelganger, Gus used the restaurant kitchen’s commercial steamer to steam a few dozen eggs at a time to hard-boiled in 12 minutes flat at low pressure. He’d then immediately place them in a running-cold water bath to stop the cooking process, and have us peel them five minutes later. They were great for salads and such, and the yolks never turned green. If you have a presure cooker, you can use this same process with a steamer basket with water underneath.

Gus was the one to explain the following process to me, which has worked for me every time since. The claim of “you have to use the freshest eggs” doesn’t seem to apply here. They still come out perfect every time.

Basic Deviled Eggs

Ingredients
1 dozen eggs
Mayonnaise
Yellow mustard
Salt, iodized
Black pepper, ground
Paprika, smoked

  1. Place a dozen chilled eggs in the bottom of a short pot wide enough to allow the eggs to remain in a single layer.
    Add cold water to about a half-inch inch above the tops of the eggs.
  2. Place the pot on a burner on the stove, and set the burner to High.
    When the water begins to actually boil, lower the heat to about 90% and set a timer for 20 minutes.
  3. Walk away.
  4. When the timer goes off, remove the pot from the heat. Gently dump most of the hot water down the drain and set the pot with the eggs into the sink.
  5. Run cold water into the pot and walk away for five minutes while it continues to run. This stops the eggs from cooking themselves all the way to the center.
  6. Stop the running water and walk away for five more minutes.
    Return and shell the eggs, being sure to rinse excess shell and membrane off in the chilled water in the pot before placing them off to the side.
  7. Cut each egg in half, removing the halved yolks and placing them in a small mixing bowl. Place the halves of the whites into a presentation platter.
  8. Add mayonnaise and a small bit of yellow mustard to the yolks and stir until smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste, stirring as you go.
    Spoon or pipe the smoothed yolk mixture into the halved whites.
  9. Top with sprinkles of smoked paprika.

The American Food Wuss, and a Recipe for Fried Chicken Gizzards and Livers

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Our grandson “Bubba”, just over a year old, sucking on the head of a baby octopus at the Teppanyaki Grill in Lafayette, Indiana.

I’m sure a lot of people will look at the above image and blanch at it, doing a double-take, even a spit-take, gagging, wondering out loud “Who gave that poor child a baby octopus? That’s disgraceful, I really need to say something!”

What the above image says more than anything else is simply this: Food fears, feelings of revulsion and disgust at certain foods, is obviously taught and learned. It’s not an inherent thing whatsoever. When we’re little, young, and not yet revulsion-impaired, we’ll eat pretty-much anything.

Giving Bubba that whole baby octopus was so much fun, because it totally grossed out his mommy, who looked at me and exclaimed “Dad!!!”

The real issue isn’t giving a small child a whole baby octopus. The issue is the standard response from what I call The American Food Wuss.

I have to say though, our daughter is no food wuss by any means. She enjoys eel, frog legs, calamari and other “nasty bits” far more than many other people. On a trip to Parris Island in South Carolina when she was 17, we constantly searched for the best gas station fried okra that we could find. She grew up butchering rabbits, which few kids like her have any clue about anymore.

But that baby octopus threw her for a loop. She just couldn’t do it.


One of my plates at the Teppanyaki Grill in Lafayette, Indiana … Roast duck surrounded by, from bottom left, sauteed squid, spicy whole baby octopus, fried frog legs, and oysters in a sweet sauce.

Our personal food decisions are based on a developed sense of squeamishness, our wimpy minds controlling our stomachs. Corporate advertisers and their “studies” have created a large group of people who believe they have sensitivities to gluten, MSG, and even celery. Bullying by the likes of PETA get in the way of real issues related to food waste, overly-processed foods, and people and cultures who don’t have enough food, or either not enough water or unsafe water. We’re a young country with too much arrogance, our government acting like know-it-alls, with policies that are based on special interests instead of actual, honest knowledge, while the rest of the civilized world enjoys haggis, raw milk, foie gras, and other “banned” real foods.

We can do better. We just don’t want to, and don’t care enough to change.


A pair of Flint-Style Coneys at Mega Coney Island in Fenton, using the ground beef heart base from Abbott’s Meats, spiced by the restaurant’s cooks, and served on Koegel Coneys.

At the American and Lafayette Coney Islands in downtown Detroit, coneys have been served since bout 1917. We won’t get into who was first or any of that nonsense, but the Greek family behind the two shops have always made their juicy sauce with ground beef heart. In 1924 Macedonian Simion Brayan started serving his coneys in Flint (seen above) with a dry topping of spiced ground beef heart, topped with yellow mustard and minced sweet onion. Todoroff’s in Jackson had been serving coneys since 1914, switching to less-expensive ground beef heart in the early 1940s to save on costs.

I’ve been enjoying Flint Coneys since I was 7. But in many cases, if I tell someone there’s beef heart on any of the above-mentioned coney types, they stop eating them.

Nothing physical changed, not taste, texture, etc. Only their perception of the dish changed, suddenly and supposedly making the Flint Coney, in some way, inedible.

Seriously.


My one-time personal nemesis, Steak Tartare, as made by Chef Tad Cousino.

At one point I had my own personal revulsion. Even though I always enjoy my steaks and burgers medium rare, cooked to 145 degrees and nice and pink on the inside, I had stated many times I would never eat Steak Tartare. Steak Tartare is a raw ground beef preparation of French origin, topped with a raw egg, with capers and onions, eaten with toast or crackers. The idea of eating raw beef was repulsive, even though I’d basically been eating it for some time.

And then the unthinkable happened. I was sitting in the Frog Leg Inn in Erie, Michigan, where my son and I had been talking with Chef Tad about their web site, when he came from the kitchen and motioned us over. He placed the above serving of Steak Tartare in front of us, very proudly, saying he’d made it by request and wanted us to have some.

That was it. There was no turning back.

Aaron and I tried it … and absolutely loved it. Our fears were unfounded. Not only did it taste amazing, but through the coming weeks it became clear we weren’t going to become ill, either.

So much for what had turned out to be irrational fears.


Lengua Tacos, lengua meaning “tongue”, this made with beef tongue, which I enjoyed at Esmerelda’s in Monticello, Indiana, on August 5, 2015.

In thinking back on my up-bringing it has become quite apparent my dad got me interested in what’s now known as “adventurous eating” from an early age. I don’t think dad ever knew beef heart was the main ingredient in his favorite coney topping. Dad passed away in December 2008, shortly after I’d learned the fact myself, and I don’t believe I ever told him. But he was the one who took us to Palace Coney Island in Genesee Valley Shopping Center when it opened in 1970, and with mom would bring me frozen heart-based sauce from Angelo’s when I lived on the east coast. He would make me sandwiches made with Koegel’s Head Cheese, which I didn’t understand till recently as well. And even though he preferred his steaks and burgers well done and said he disliked melted cheese because of the texture, he later developed a liking for Chinese buffets and would try just about anything.

With my own kids I had a certain rule: They weren’t allowed to say they didn’t like a particular food unless they had Actually.Tried.It. Once they had tried it, then it was alright. But irrational fears weren’t allowed. Of course, I have never considered eyeballs, gizzards, bull testicles or dried insects to be anything they would absolutely have to try. But they’ve enjoyed blood tongue sausage, grilled calves liver, eel, squid, octopus, and have butchered and eaten rabbits they’ve raised themselves, so they’re more likely to try what may be considered more adventurous dishes anyway.


My kind of meat case, at Stanley’s Market in Toledo in January 2016. The pig’s head is a staple in Polish and other cultures, particularly for the cheek meat, ears, and for making head cheese. The whole head goes for $20.

All over this country are pockets of other cultures that we consider to be a bit strange. Just in the southern Great Lakes region there’s the Mexican community east of Adrian, Michigan, and another in White County, Indiana. There are various Chinatowns in the larger cities, with other Asian and Mexican pockets in smaller cities such as Toledo, Ohio, Ann Arbor, Michigan, Lafayette, Indiana, and as far north as Grand Forks, North Dakota. Greeks and Poles are heavily represented throughout the Midwest, and the largest Muslim community in the United States is located in Dearborn, Michigan.

These are the places to find authentic cultural restaurants to help you get over your fears. Have some oxtail soup, some tacos made with beef tongue. Don’t just have the calamari, but try the squid tentacles as well. Menudo is made by hand at many of the authentic Mexican restaurants, and the tripe is cooked properly so it’s not chewy and gamey.

Soul food is a staple in the Detroit area, also referred to as Motown. Fried chicken gizzards are available in just about every soul food restaurant in the area. The preparation is so popular there’s also a GizzardFest in Potterville, Michigan, normally in early June. The Pit Stop Pantry, in a gas station between Monticello and Monon, Indiana, offers both of their popular fried gizzards and livers to travelers and truck drivers. And in Deerfield, Michigan, the first Saturday after St. Patrick’s Day, show up at the Testicle Festival for freshly cleaned-and-fried bull testicles.


A serving of Korean Hot Spicy Squid at QQ Kitchen in Toledo, which Ryan and I enjoyed for his 19th birthday on February 15, 2016.

What’s also important about these pockets of other cultures are the grocery stores and other shops that provide the families from those countries with what they need on a daily basis. For example, stinky tofu is available in Asian grocery stores if you’re into those kinds of dishes. 50 lb bags of Jasmine rice will be stacked toward the front, reach-ins will have the preserved products known as hundred-year-old eggs, jars of odd (to us) pickled vegetables will line the shelves, and freezers will contain seafood you’ve likely never seen before.

Mexican grocers will have meat cases containing different types of tripe for Menudo, beef tongue and heart, oxtail, and raw pig tails and ears. Muslim stores will have raw lamb of all varieties, some of which can be eaten raw as tartare, and the testicles of lambs and goats for various snack dishes. And Greek and other Mediterranean shops will have hearts, livers, kidneys, calves brains and a slew of other meats that the American Food Wuss should try.


Left: Ryan with his first squirrel, which he hunted in January 2015, and brined and fried for us. The meat was beautifully sweet and tender.

There really isn’t much difference between some of the common hunting game in the U.S. and many of the dishes served around the world. My kids have had rabbit, with one hunting squirrel and cooking it for us. Many organizations in southeast Michigan offer muskrat dinners in the Lenten season as the muskrat are approved as a fish by the local Catholic diocese. Game dinners are common throughout the entire midwest, with dinner ranging from ostrich and alligator to fried smelt, squirrel, wild boar, rattlesnake, bear, and even kangaroo.

“Nose-to-tail” is how the world eats. It’s nothing new. And you’re probably not too far away from enjoying some serious delectable dishes that only your brain is stopping you from trying. Stop being the American Food Wuss. Get out there and eat for real.


The freshly-fried chicken gizzards and chicken livers at the Pit Stop Pantry, a gas station located between Monticello and Monon, Indiana, as served to me on June 15, 2015.

Fried Chicken Gizzards and Livers

Ingredients
1 lb raw chicken gizzards
or 1 lb raw chicken livers
Buttermilk
1/2 cup corn meal
2 cups flour, all purpose
salt
pepper
1/2 gallon shortening, liquid or solid, or lard (not vegetable oil)

Drain the gizzards or liver in a colander. Pour the buttermilk into a glass dish and add the meat, ensuring the meat is completely covered. Refrigerate 24 hours.

In a large heavy pot or 3″ deep skillet, heat the oil to 350F (measured ith a thermometer), ensuring there is enough room above the oil to prevent overflow when the meat is added. Mix the flour and corn meal. Add the salt and pepper to taste, mixing completely. (Sifting together mixes it better and ensures better distribution on the met.)

To cook, shake the excess buttermilk from the meat, coat it with the flour mixture, and add it to the hot oil, making sure the meat isn’t crowded. Fry for 5 minutes or until the coating is a crisp golden brown. (With a meat thermometer, the inside temperature should be 155F.) Remove to paper towel or lint-free cloth to drain before serving.

On Food Waste, and the So-Called “Expiration Dates” of Food

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date_label_sign

For some interesting information take a look at this article which reads, in part, “[D]espite what the labels may suggest, the food is safe. The date printed on packaging clues consumers into when the product is at its best, peak flavor … The flavor or quality may start to degrade over time, but food safety isn’t an issue.” — Dave

There are many causes of food waste. “Expiration dates” on food and food products are probably one of the more serious culprits. If you subscribe to these things, you need to take another look at what’s really going on.

One of the local papers here reprints restaurant inspections via the county Health Department. Entries like this have a tendency to catch my eye:

Refrigerated ready-to-eat food held refrigerated for more than 24 hours was not properly date marked. Items in the cooler not date marked. To prevent food borne illness, refrigerated, ready-to-eat food held at a temperature of 41 degrees or below for more than 24 hours should be clearly marked at the time of preparation or the time the original container is opened to indicate the date or day that is a maximum of seven days by which the food should be consumed, sold, or discarded. The day the food is prepared or opened is day one.

Of course, the embellishment of the findings from two sentences into a whole paragraph is always completely ridiculous. But then again, so is the concept of expiration dates in regards to food.

Back in May of 2015 during a ServSafe course, before looking at the supplied book for the course, my classmates and I discussed the concept mentioned in this inspection at length. Some admitted to putting the preparation date on labels as a matter of habit. But we decided that was incorrect, as someone might look at that date the following day, assume it was the day the item was supposed to be pitched, and do just that.

It turned out the 6th edition of the ServSafe Manager course guide is kinda specific on this subject, on page 5.9:

Ready-to-eat TCS [time and temperature control for safety] food can be stored for only seven days if it is held at 41F or lower. The count begins on the day that the food was prepared or a commercial container was opened. For example, a food handler that prepared and stored potato salad on October 1 would write a discard date of October 7 on the label.

Ignoring the fact that “41F and lower” in the above paragraph also includes temperatures that freeze the food, which makes the dates useless, there are also the paragraphs that follow the above paragraph in the book:

Operations have a variety of systems for date marking. Some write the day or date the food was prepped on the label. Others write the use-by day or date on the label … Sometimes, commercially-processed food will have a use-by date that is less than seven days from the date the container is opened. In this case, the container should be marked with this use-by date as long as the date is based on food safety … When combining food in a dish with different use-by dates, the discard date of the dish should be based on the earliest prepared food.

Ok, I have a question, which would be … WTF???

Here’s a simple fact: Federal regulations require a “use-by” date on the product label of infant formula under FDA inspection. Baby formula is the ONLY food product the FDA says there must be dates on. The FDA site and regulations are full of phrases such as this one regarding eggs: “When a ‘sell-by’ date appears on a carton bearing the USDA grade shield, the code date may not exceed 45 days from the date of pack.” Notice that it’s a suggestion that the date be there. It’s not a requirement. There are countless other examples of this ambiguity within the FDA.

On all kinds of food products, both for commercial/restaurant use and consumer consumption, there are various types of dates. Supposedly, they go like this:

  • Sell By – Could be the shelf life on a store shelf, or even the shelf life after purchase. No one really knows.
  • Best By – A guess as to when the product will be at its peak quality. Doesn’t really apply to things like salt, which are already millenia-old products, but is still on some packaging.
  • Use By – Another phrase meaning “Best By”, which is another guess.
  • Freeze By – Again, it’s “Best By”, but for something that can be frozen.
  • Expires On – Eat it one day after this date, and we’re sure you’ll expire, too.

When you go grocery shopping I’m sure you’re probably checking some dates. You’re most likely actively looking for dates on containers in the dairy section and, in some cases, in the bread aisle. Without realizing it, when you look through various items for the ones you want in the produce section, you’re inadvertently “checking dates” as you either want what’s most fresh or, for something like bananas or tomatoes, something that will be ripe enough soon.

But do you check dates on canned goods, on bottles of dressings, jars of peanut butter, jams and jellies, or dry goods such as flour, sugar, cereals or cake mixes? Probably not. We have an expectation that these types of products will be good for some time, especially canned goods.

Some people assert canned goods would be fine after a nuclear blast, which I have serious doubts about.

Here’s a simple set of facts: There are far too many variables in product distribution for any date to be accurate. The transportation and storage chain for many food items has to be considered in the development of any kind of “expiration date”, which is completely impossible. Think about, say, a piece of fruit or a vegetable that’s picked in California and is on its way to Michigan. The pickers pick all day long and place them, sometimes tossing them, into a collection truck. We don’t know what the temperature or humidity might be there. The item then goes to a temp-and-humidity-controlled processing and packing plant where they’re cleaned, the good ones are selected by hand or machine, and they’re packed into their case size. They’re then loaded into other trucks, again with temp and humidity unknown (I’ve seen some recent trucks that are still simple boxes with extra refrigeration units tacked on) and transported to distribution centers for grocer or restaurant wholesalers. They’re then stored in well-regulated areas again, until another distribution takes place to wherever you purchase or consume them. In some cases, the truck is open for long periods at other restaurants before it’s off-loaded at the restaurant you eat at. If you buy them, how do you store them? In fact, what’s the temperature of your own refrigerator? You likely don’t even know.

There are a couple extremes to consider. When ordering from a supplier for a restaurant, you might get #2 breaking avocados for your Cobb salad. “Breaking” means they should be about two days out from ripening when you get them. But warehouse workers may be too busy to keep track of the ripeness of avocados under their care. So when a restaurant receives them, they might be immediately ripe and need to be used right away. They’re obviously not going to last seven days, regardless of how you mark them. That fresh guacamole you decided to make from them might end up too brown and sour to eat after two or three days.

One of the other extremes is the ubiquitous five gallon pail of hamburger dill pickle chips. No one, and I mean no one, dates those things. But very few places in a given area will go through one of these buckets in a week. I’ve seen them last at least a couple months, even when they’re not always resealed properly in the walk-in cooler. And even then, the pickle chips are perfectly edible, crisp, and safe.

Based on experience, I’d give pickled vegetables four or five months under good conditions, maybe even longer.

One of the other issues with that five-gallon pickle bucket, in some cases, is the unavailability of smaller packaging. Knowing our operation wouldn’t go through a whole bucket at the end of the season I asked the Sysco sales rep for a one-gallon version. He stopped in his tracks, looked at me oddly, and said “You know, I don’t think we have that.” And he was right. Unless I went to a store, a smaller package just wasn’t happening.

At the end of seasonal operation, what happens to those buckets still holding maybe three-and-a-half gallons of pickles? Some are actually pitched. Other operators might divvy up the remainder and sell them to employees to take home, or even relocate said bucket to properties that are still operating.

And finally, another contributor to waste is an aversion to eating leftovers. Really? Yes, teenagers, and yes many over the age of 18, largely hate eating leftovers, as do a lot of adults. So a lot of the food in our refrigerators, especially vegetables, head to the dump on a regular basis, only because too many people would rather eat something cooked right now.

We have to stop doing that.

Expiration dates on food is probably one of the largest contributors to the 40%, 133 billion pounds, or $165 billion dollars worth, of food wasted every year in the U.S. When deciding to throw food away, do yourself and the world a favor and don’t go by “expiration dates”. Use common sense. Eat the leftovers. Use your nose, your taste buds, and your brain. Transport and store your food properly. Listen to this guy. Just make good decisions.

Starting now.

Chef Buddha’s Recipe: Skyroom Hoosier Chicken & Noodles, Indiana Beach, Monticello, Indiana

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A batch of Hoosier Chicken & Noodles in the Skyroom Kitchen at Indiana Beach Amusement Resort, Monticello, Indiana, made by Chef Buddha on June 14, 2015.

The summer of 2015 was … odd for me. Back in 1979 I’d spent the summer cooking at a YMCA camp in Irons, Michigan, and had a hackuva time up there. I was fresh out of high school and on my own for the first time, cooking three meals a day for kids out of central Chicago. To say there were problems was an understatement, but those ten weeks were still a lot of fun. I never thought I’d do such a thing again.

So it was strange this past May 6th for me, a 53-year-old man, to head out at 7 in the morning to drive five hours to an amusement park in central Indiana, driving away from my wife, kids and grandkids, to what was supposed to be only a 100-day position running a 50-year-old restaurant at the park. Getting there at noon, there was a Sysco truck waiting, along with the people I’d spend the whole summer with. We spent the next eight hours putting things away and starting prep for the Mother’s Day Brunch on the 10th.

Things rarely slowed down in Monticello after that.


The Skyroom dining room on the morning of August 16, 2015.

The Skyroom Restaurant at Indiana Beach Amusement Resort had an elegance over its five decades, serving Shrimp Cocktail, Prime Rib, Steaks, Salmon, Cobb Salads, even a Chateaubriand for Two. The various Chefs over the years would do Luau buffets with whole roast pig, Pasta Nights with fresh pasta dishes being made at an impromptu station in the glass-walled dining room overlooking the park, and many other special events. By the time I got there this past May tastes had, of course, changed. Diners don’t select dishes like Chateaubriand at amusement parks anymore, and we served fewer Shrimp Cocktails than ever. We still did some Pasta Nights and Luaus, but more burgers, steaks and salmon. The porkchops were alright, but when we ended up with some seriously nicer ones for a special they did better. The Skyroom has more of a “pub” feel now, which is fine. It’s still a great place to eat.

As the location is an amusement park people would come from all over to work there. Of course the locals and college kids came and went as staff, but there was an international program as well, pulling in staff from Jordan, Romania, and many other countries. Our own Jenelle Solomon, a vegetarian from St. Elizabeth, “the bread basket of Jamaica”, was there for her fifth season, grilling the best salmon and steaks anyone had ever tasted while honestly never trying them herself. Jesus “Chewy” Dominguez had come up from outside Mexico City for his 21st season this summer, and could cook up just about anything you asked him to. When he made Cream of Mushroom Soup this summer for the first time ever, just guessing the recipe while using fresh mushrooms and heavy cream with 36% milkfat, the result was astonishing.

But the real backbone of the Skyroom, the man who was there for most of the restaurant’s existence so far, was Chef Buddha. Robert M. “Buddha” White had started working at Indiana Beach out on the piers at the tender age of 13. This was his 47th year at the park, most of them spent moving up through the ranks in the Skyroom until he was appropriately named as Chef. But that’s not all he did … He was also a county Sheriff’s Deputy for 34 of those years, along with being SWAT Team Commander, while spending every summer at the Skyroom. To say he was a proud and hard worker is an extreme understatement.

When I first met Chef Buddha in May I watched as the entire staff, those who had been there many years themselves, treated him like gold. I instantly understood the serious respect he had earned over the years from everyone around him. And when my wife showed up for her first of many visits to the park on May 22nd, Chef Buddha took the time to sit down with her in the dining room for a long and friendly chat.

One of the things I’d heard many times from Chef Buddha was that he had wished he and I had met earlier. We shared lot of similar interests and, as he was only six years my senior, a lot of common experiences outside of our work areas. And as I’ve developed a keen interest as an amateur food historian, he told me it was nice to have someone to discuss the Skyroom’s history with.

Early in the 2015 season I’d heard about an older special, the Sunday Hoosier Chicken & Noodles, that was apparently last served during the 2008 season. On June 5th I asked Chef Buddha about this dish. He replied it was in his head, and had simply never been written down. The Spackman’s had founded the park in 1926, and the Sunday Hoosier Chicken & Noodles special was a Spackman family recipe that was then tweaked by Chef Buddha and an earlier Chef Dave via discussions, nothing more. So I promptly asked for it. As you can see in the above photo, he wrote it down, taking over an hour to cover an entire page with the details.

After writing the recipe down for me, Chef Buddha told us Tom Spackman had the following policy: “You only serve peas on Sunday, and you’d better have peas on Sunday, and you only serve peas with this dish.” It turns out Sunday Hoosier Chicken & Noodles had defined Sunday in the older iterations of the Skyroom. It’s the kind of tradition the Skyroom’s caretakers and diners had drifted away from over the years. Without realizing it, I was just as guilty as any of them. Unfortunately, it’s doubtful those days will return.

As he was becoming quite ill, we saw less and less of Chef Buddha as the season went on, and by mid-August he had stopped coming to the Skyroom. In late September I received a text from his phone, a photo sent by his longtime girlfriend Kathy, showing them getting married on September 20th. We lost Chef Buddha to cancer on October 3rd. I was in Grand Forks, North Dakota, when Kathy sent me the news that morning. I cried like a baby.

When I think about it, I realize I had only known Chef Buddha for a couple of months. It’s amazing the kind of impact some people can have on your life over a very short period of time. There are people I proudly say are more like family to me. Chef Buddha is near the top of that list.

My wife and I have discussed my getting a Buddha figurine for the fireplace, with it wearing a Chef’s toque. It seems only fitting.

Merry Christmas, Chef Buddha. I’ll see ya’ later.

Sunday Hoosier Chicken & Noodles Special
Chef Robert M. “Buddha” White, June 5, 2015

Ingredients
5 lb ½” diced white chicken
1-1/2 gal 2% milk
4-1/2 qt 36% heavy cream
Extra wide egg noodles (aka “butter noodles”)
Fresh basil
½ lb cornstarch
Chicken base to taste
Cold water
Peas, frozen
Mashed potatoes, hot
Chicken gravy, hot

Method: Thaw and heat the diced chicken in a 4″ full-size hotel pan. Sprinkle chopped fresh basil over the chicken and set aside. Also, make a slurry with the cornstarch and cold water and set aside as well.

Combine the milk and cream in a heavy-bottom pot. Add enough chicken base to get a golden color and good chicken flavor. While stirring often, cook over medium-high heat to just before boiling. Slowly add the slurry while constantly whisking until thickened. Remove from heat immediately.

Pour the thickened cream sauce over the chicken, cover with plastic film and foil, and keep hot in the steam table. Also cook the green peas al dente and keep them hot separately. Cook egg noodles (aka “butter noodles”) to 80%, drain, rinse with cold water, and keep cold.

To Serve: Rejuvenate noodles in pasta pot. Place scoop of hot mashed potatoes at one end of an oval plate, off-center. Ladle heated chicken gravy over potatoes. Put egg noodles on plate diagonally, and ladle the chicken mixture over the noodles. Serve with green peas on end of the plate next to the mashed potatoes.

Buffet Style: Prepare cream sauce and egg noodles as described. Cook green peas till al dente. Combine cream sauce, noodles and green peas. Present on buffet in 4″ full-size hotel pan.