davepolaschek

Wood. Food. More.

This is the description of how Alton Brown recommends to butterfly a chicken. I don’t entirely agree with it, as it’s pretty easy to end up with some breast-meat that’s underdone, but if you don’t mind overcooking the dark meat, it works pretty well. The classic technique is what I use. Originally written January 2006.

Ingredients

  • One broiler/fryer chicken – roughly three pounds

Directions

  • Wash chicken, remove giblets and pat dry.
  • Place the chicken on its side on a cutting board, and use a pair of shears or a boning knife to remove the spine from the chicken.
  • Flip the chicken so it’s breast-up and cut out the keelbone, which is also known as the breastbone.
  • Press the bird flat, like a butterfly.
  • When cooking the bird on a grill, start it skin-side down and place a couple bricks (wrapped in tin-foil) on the bird to keep it flat. Cook for 12 minutes.
  • Flip bird, put the bricks back on, and cook for another 15 minutes or so, until done.
  • Let chicken rest for at least ten minutes before serving.

Preparation time: 2-3 minutes

#recipe #technique

Discuss... Reply to this in the fediverse: @davepolaschek@writing.exchange

This is the description of how Jacques Pépin recommends to butterfly a chicken (its technique #145 in Complete Techniques). I find it works better for me than Alton Brown's method, but I skip the steps to secure the leg. I originally wrote this in January of 2006.

Ingredients

  • One broiler/fryer chicken – roughly three pounds

Directions

  • Wash chicken, remove giblets, and pat dry.
  • Place chicken on its side on a cutting board, and cut through the backbone on one side of the neck with a sturdy knife.
  • Pull the chicken open and separate the backbone by cutting on the other side of the neck bone, down to the tail.
  • Place the chicken skin-side down, and flatten it with a meat-pounder.
  • Remove the shoulder bones that stick up by cutting at the joint.
  • Remove the rib cage from each side of the chicken.
  • (optional) Make a small cut at the joint which separates the thigh from the drumstick. Don't cut all the way through, but you can cut down to the bone.
  • (optional) Cut a hole through the skin between the point of the breast and the thigh.
  • (optional) Push the tip of the drumstick through the hole to secure the leg.
  • Cook on a grill or in a broiler about 15 minutes per side (at 450F).

Preparation time: 5 minutes

#recipe #technique

Discuss... Reply to this in the fediverse: @davepolaschek@writing.exchange

A fairly simple breakfast sausage mix. This is based on AB’s Breakfast Sausage, with a few tweaks I made along the way to make it work better with the ingredients I had on hand, my schedule, and my taste-buds. Since you can’t taste it until after it’s ground and cooked, this is the kind of recipe where keeping notes is extra-handy.

Ingredients

  • 2 pounds pork butt (2½-3 with bone) cut into ½ to ¾ inch cubes
  • 1 tbsp kosher salt (AB calls for 2tsp, but at that level I had to salt the patties, which led to a much higher salt level overall)
  • 1½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 tsp dried sage (I’ve doubled this and liked the results)
  • 2 tsp dried thyme
  • ½ tsp finely chopped rosemary
  • ½ tsp grated nutmeg
  • 1 tsp red pepper flakes
  • 1 tbsp brown sugar
  • (Optional) ½ pound pork fat, if you got a really lean pork-butt

special equipment

  • meat grinder

directions

  • Chop, grind, and otherwise prepare spices. Dump them into a 1 gallon zip-top freezer bag.
  • Cube meat, dropping it into the bag. If the meat is really lean (less than 20% fat), add up to ½ pound of pork fat. Getting the lean/fat ratio right might require some experience, but an untrimmed pork butt is about right. If your butcher trims it, asking him for extra pork-fat and explaining that you’re grinding your own sausage will help him help you get the ratio right.
  • Mix everything in the bag thoroughly. You want to get some spice coating every cube of meat.
  • Refrigerate meat and spices at least an hour, preferably overnight.
  • Grind meat with coarse blade of grinder.
  • Put meat back into zip-top and chill for a half-hour in freezer, or for an hour or two in the fridge. The goal here is to get the fat to firm up again. If the fat melts during second batch of grinding, you haven’t chilled things enough.
  • Grind meat with fine blade of grinder.
  • Package for storage. I use one quart zip-top bags, putting about ¾ pound in each.

This recipe will give you about two pounds of finished breakfast sausage. It’ll keep for about a week in the fridge, or for a few months in the freezer. Cook it just like you would the factory-made stuff, except with more mouth-watering good smells from the pan.

#recipe #mains #sausage

Discuss... Reply to this in the fediverse: @davepolaschek@writing.exchange

These are a relatively quick to make, crowd-pleasing use of venison. The barbecue sauce and egg keeps even the leanest meat from tasting too dry, and the soup mix and bread crumbs keep them from being too wet to shape. Originally written August 2008.

Ingredients

  • 3 pounds ground venison (or beef)
  • 2 packets dry onion soup mix
  • 2 extra-large or 3 large eggs
  • ½ Cup barbecue sauce
  • approx. 1 Cup bread crumbs

Directions

  • In a large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients but the bread crumbs, working as little as possible to get an even mixture.
  • Once all the other ingredients are mixed, add just enough bread crumbs that the mixture “holds together.”
  • Roll into approximately 1 inch (2.5cm) balls and cook, refrigerate or freeze for later use.
  • To cook, put on a grill and turn every couple minutes. Fresh meatballs will take as little as 5 minutes on a hot grill. Frozen might take a half-hour on a very slow grill or 15 minutes on medium heat.

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 5-20 minutes

Feeds a couple dozen as an appetizer or eight as a main course

Note that all the work for these is in the preparation. As long as you roll meatballs about an inch in diameter, they'll cook fast on the grill. Just turn them over when the bottom side gets done. Two or three turns should suffice to get them completely cooked.

If you're going to freeze meatballs, spread them in a single layer on the biggest sheet-pan that will fit in your freezer and pop them in for at least a half-hour before transferring them to a zip-top bag for long-term storage. They'll freeze more quickly that way, which makes for better flavor when they're thawed and cooked.

#recipe #main #appetizer

Discuss... Reply to this in the fediverse: @davepolaschek@writing.exchange

My friend Duckmilk gave me this tortilla recipe. Seems to work!

Ingredients

  • 3 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder + a pinch of baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons sugar (4 if making sopapillas)
  • ½ cup lard (lard makes it much more flavorful)
  • 1 cup warm water (add more if necessary)

Technique

For technique, this recipe for tortillas seems right, and this one for sopaipillas looks good.

Comments

I knead the lard in by hand cause I can feel the texture better. Same with the water.

I pinch a ball of dough off about 1 ½” diameter, roll it in my hand and mash it fairly flat.

It is okay to let the dough sit longer than 10 minutes because that will let the gluten relax.

I also roll the tortillas more like 1/8” because they are more flexible that way. Sopas are thicker, because you want them to puff up in the oil.

I have a well-seasoned comal and I do not grease it beforehand, the lard in the tortillas will take care of that. If you do have a comal, you can use a cast iron skillet. You can use the same skillet to pan-fry the sopaipillas.

#recipe

Discuss... Reply to this in the fediverse: @davepolaschek@writing.exchange

Another type of grain filling is when you’re finishing and have some small imperfections, either from tear-out or from pores in the wood. Ideally, you fix as many of these problems as possible before applying any finish, but sometimes things don’t work out perfectly. This is also basically the method used in French Polishing (though that uses rottenstone rather than sandpaper as the abrasive).

Note that all of the pictures here show about 1 square inch of surface (2.5 cm square), so you can get an idea of the scale of things.

Some minor tear out near the center of a bowl

In a Russian olive bowl I’m working on, I had a tiny bit of tear-out near the center of the bowl, as shown above. This wasn’t obvious until I got some shellac on the bowl. I’m going to fill this using shellac and a bit of sanding dust (which is probably going to be mostly shellac, as well, but will include some wood dust).

A circular scratch pattern with some dust

First I sand very lightly with 400 grit sandpaper. Finer will work, but will take longer. Coarser will leave visible scratches. I try to sand across the depressions, so sanding dust will be deposited in them, but I’ll also use a circular motion when I’m starting because it’s quicker and lets me see what direction will work best.

Then I put a drop of oil (I use tung oil, but linseed oil will work, too) and 4-5 drops of shellac on a piece of folded up cloth. Old t-shirts work great.

The shellac I use is roughly a one-and-a-half pound cut. That is, I dissolve about 2 oz of shellac flakes in 12 oz of alcohol. You can use a heavier cut, but don’t go any lighter.

T shirt with shellac and oil on it.

I rub this mixture onto the sanded area, also working across the tear-out. If you go with the direction of the tear-out, the cloth will tend to pull the dust back out, which is not what you want. You also don’t want to rub enough that the new shellac starts dissolving and removing previous layers of shellac. The idea is to build up the shellac, filling the voids. The oil is there mostly so that the partially cured shellac doesn’t “grab” your pad and get messed up as you’re adding a new layer on top of it (and partially dissolving the previous top layer). A little lubrication goes a long way towards making things work smoothly.

You can also see that the weave of the t-shirt has gotten filled with shellac. I typically use a fresh piece of t-shirt each session, because once the shellac is dried in the fabric, it won’t flex to follow the contours of the surface. You don’t want it dipping into every hollow, since you’re trying to fill those, but you don’t want it stiff as a board, either.

The wood after the first bit of grain filling

This is a fairly slow process. But each iteration you can see a little progress.

Sanding dust filling the voids again

And at some point, the dust is almost entirely filling the voids, and not sitting on the surface. That means you’re getting close. The dust will compact as it gets wet, leaving a smaller void, but the results can look pretty darned good.

Grain filled almost completely

My take is that this is almost good enough. I think I’m going to varnish this bowl, which will flatten out the finish a little more, so maybe one more bit of sanding will do the trick. But I’m going to let the shellac cure for a while and then look at it and see. That will also give time for the little bit of oil present to cure, which will make for a tougher finish.

#technique #woodworking

Discuss... Reply to this in the fediverse: @davepolaschek@writing.exchange

Not really posole, but it’s in the same family. And the recipe I started with was a posole-like soup that people from northern New Mexico would recognize. Anyway, it’s been changed, but we like it.

Serves: 4-6

Time: 6-8 hours

Active Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 C chicos
  • 4 C chicken stock
  • 1 Tbsp cooking oil or bacon grease
  • 1 pound beef stew meat, cut into ½-¾ inch cubes
  • ½ Tbsp ground ancho chile powder
  • ½ Tbsp ground Chimayo chile powder
  • ½ Tbsp onion powder
  • Salt and black pepper
  • 15oz can diced tomatoes
  • 1 bag frozen peas and carrots mix

Directions

  • Place chicos and chicken stock into a 4.5 quart crock pot.
  • Cook on high for 1 hour, then low for 3 hours, stirring occasionally.
  • Season beef with salt and pepper, and sprinkle with chile powders.
  • Brown beef in a medium skillet with about a tablespoon of oil or bacon fat.
  • Add beef, tomatoes, and onion powder to the crock pot.
  • Deglaze skillet with a can of water, then add to the crock pot.
  • Continue to cook on low for an hour or more.
  • 1 hour before serving time, add peas and carrots and stir. Add salt to taste.
  • Serve with sour cream, soft tortillas and maybe some cilantro or purslane.

#recipe #soup #posole #stew

Discuss... Reply to this in the fediverse: @davepolaschek@writing.exchange

When you bake a meatloaf and want to glaze the top (which we almost always do), this is the stuff. Came from an ancient and yellowed Betty Crocker Cookbook, but they did half this recipe, which is nothing like enough for a standard loaf-pan-sized meatloaf. We often do twice this recipe, but we’re not like the other children.

Ingredients

  • ½ C ketchup
  • 4 Tbsp brown sugar
  • 2 tsp ground yellow mustard seeds

Directions

  • Grind mustard seeds
  • Combine ingredients and mix thoroughly
  • Paint onto top of meatloaf a couple times while it’s baking, and again as you slice and serve the meatloaf.

#recipe #sauce

Discuss... Reply to this in the fediverse: @davepolaschek@writing.exchange

Based upon this simplified peasant bread recipe, this works fine for me at 6900 feet altitude, though my scale told me 512 grams of flour was about 3¼ cups, rather than the 4 called for in the recipe. My version therefore uses a mix of units. If you have a kitchen scale, you should be fine. If not, you’ll need to use your judgement.

Note also that I’ve cut the original recipe in half.

Round loaf of bread on a cooling rack

Ingredients

  • 2C flour – I use 256 grams, which with the flours I use is more like 1½ cups
  • 1 tsp kosher salt
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 1 tsp instant yeast
  • 1 C lukewarm water

For greasing the bowl:

  • 1 Tbsp butter

Special Equipment

  • Pyrex 1 quart glass oven-safe mixing bowl

Directions

  • Put all the dry ingredients in a medium mixing bowl. 2 quart capacity or better will give you room to stir. Don’t mix the yeast and salt (put them on different sides of the bowl).
  • Add a cup of lukewarm water and mix with a fork until everything is pretty uniform.
  • Cover with plastic wrap (if in a dry climate) or a tea towel, set in a warm area, and let rise until it has doubled in volume. About 90 minutes does the trick here in Santa Fe, but might take longer at sea level.
  • Grease the Pyrex bowl with about a tablespoon of butter.
  • Using a fork, pull the dough loose from the sides of the mixing bowl, and fold it on itself so it loses most of the air (punch it down). Scoop it into the greased baking bowl and set it (uncovered) near the oven.
  • Bread dough in a greased bowl
  • Begin preheating the oven to 425F.
  • When the oven is ready, and the bread dough has risen to the edge of the bowl or slightly above, pop it into the oven for 15 minutes at 425F.
  • Turn the oven down to 375F and bake the bread for 15-17 minutes more.
  • When the bread is done, dump it from the bowl onto a cooling rack.
  • If the crust looks underdone, put the bread in the 375F oven (out of the bowl) for up to another 5 minutes.
  • Let the bread cool for at least 10 minutes before cutting into it.
  • Enjoy!

Above, I don’t specify what type of flour. I’ve made this with at least 1 cup of bread flour every time, but the remainder of the flour has been corn, rice, and rye (so far). They’ve all turned out well, though the rye needed a little extra water to be the right consistency. Feel free to experiment! It’s a small batch, and goes pretty quickly. I could see making a loaf of this every day if I didn’t have so many other hobbies.

#recipe #bread

Discuss... Reply to this in the fediverse: @davepolaschek@writing.exchange

Small chokecherry bowl, top view

This is a smaller chokecherry bowl, turned from the other half of the trunk that made the larger bowl.

Rough turned in early January, I finished it the second week in February 2024. Bowls seem to go very quickly, but then I think of the time I spent fussing over the finish on this one, and suddenly they’re not as quick any more.

#bowl #project #woodturning

Discuss... Reply to this in the fediverse: @davepolaschek@writing.exchange

Enter your email to subscribe to updates.