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Fathers’ Day, Bistecca alla Fiorentina
I don’t have a formal bucket list, but if I did, at the top would be a visit to Panzano, so I could experience eating the beef of Dario Cecchini, arguably the world’s greatest butcher. I first read about Dario in the Bill Buford book Heat, and later saw segments of a couple of different cooking shows (Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations, and David Rocco’s Dolce Vita) that featured his butcher shop and restaurant. Traditionally, Bistecca alla Fiorentina is a thick, bone-in porterhouse made from an Italian cattle breed, the Chianina, which is the largest breed of cattle in the world. Due to a lack of supply of Chianina beef in Italy,…
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Food Road Trip; Portland, Maine in Summer
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Rendering Leaf Lard or Beef Suet
I’ve been using processed lard in my Vodka Pie Crust Recipe for several years because I get a more flaky crust than I do when using butter or shortening. But store bought lard is partially hydrogenated to extend its shelf life. Using commercially available lard simply is not as good as using lard that you render yourself. And when we’re talking lard, we’re talking about leaf lard, which comes from the fat that surrounds the kidneys of the pig. Kettle-rendered Leaf lard, sold in metal buckets, was a kitchen staple in the first half of the 20th century, and was most likely your grandmother’s (or great-grandmother’s) fat of choice when making…
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Apple Picking in Northern New England
It’s the time of the year when New England apple orchards put out their ‘pick your own’ signs and New Englanders pack up their families on the weekend and go in search of the ultimate apple picking experience. Here’s an admittedly arbitrary sampling of orchards to visit in New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, and Massachusetts. New Hampshire Alyson’s Apple Orchard (Walpole, NH) is a can’t miss picking destination in New Hampshire’s Connecticut River Valley. Their pick-your-own orchards are open until Halloween and they also have a very nice farm stand. During the fall they have several events, including a Chili Contest, Pumpkin Carving Demonstrations, an Heirloom Apple Tasting, and a Halloween Costume Contest.…
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Dave’s Chili Con Carne
Chili, for most Americans, contains beans. This is a little odd, because as anyone who has been to a Chili competition can tell you, fillers such as beans, pasta, or rice are simply not allowed. This is pretty much consistent no matter what organization is running the competition. My recipe adheres to the rules; not a bean nor a scrap of pasta to be found. If you haven’t tried making a traditional homemade Chili, this recipe is a great place to start. As written, it has just enough heat for you to notice, but not enough to make you suffer any life-threatening physical maladies. Let me know what you think!
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Maple Syrup Season in New Hampshire
It’s maple syrup season here in New England, and for the past few weeks, sugarhouses have been busy, boiling down maple sap to create maple syrup. You really don’t see sap buckets on the trees like the ones shown in the photograph on the left anymore. About the only place you can find those are in antique shops. That’s because the process of collecting sap has been streamlined over the years. Look carefully into the woods and the evidence is unmistakable: plastic tubing snaking from tree to tree, terminating in large, sealed plastic containers that can hold many gallons of sap. It takes about forty gallons of sap to make one…
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Homemade Griddle Cake (Pancake) Mix
Ingredients Basic Mix: 5 cups all purpose flour 2 Tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 cup granulated sugar 2 teaspoons Salt Additional Ingredients: 1 cup milk 1 egg, beaten 2 Tablespoons margarine, melted Making the Dry Griddle Cake Mix Mix together the basic mix ingredients and store in an airtight container for later use. Making the Griddle Cakes To 1 1/2 cups of the dry mix (above), add the egg and milk and mix together. Then gradually mix in the margarine until the batter is smooth. To bake, spoon a ladle of batter onto a hot, lightly greased griddle. Turn when the top of the griddle cake develops tiny bubbles.…
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A Better Refrigerator Magnet
First, I must confess. Refrigerator magnets are overused, and the flat expanses of the sides and doors of refrigerators suffer the consequences, becoming nothing more than bulletin boards of hopeless, cluttered kitsch. Nevertheless, most of these inexpensive little doo-dads fall (no pun intended) well short of their purpose. The magnets themselves simply aren’t strong enough to hold up anything heavier than a sparrow’s fart. I’m one of those people who often keep several of my recipes stuck to the side of my fridge, partly for meal planning and partly as a reminder to myself regarding what to put on my shopping list. And most magnets will only hold 2-3 pieces of…
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You call that a knife?
One at a time over the years, as I could afford them, I have slowly put together a quality collection of kitchen knives. I couldn’t do without my bread slider or my paring knife, but in my collection, this one, the Wusthof Classic Hollow-Ground Santuko, is without a doubt the most versatile. It has a number of features that make it my go-to knife. It’s edge, which is less curved than a traditional chef’s knife, simplifies chopping. Also, the hollow-ground blade helps whatever is being sliced (particularly things like tomatoes and cucumbers) to slide off the blade more easily than would otherwise be the case. For me, the lack of a…
