What Have You Cooked Recently?

[AnOminous]

It's a bit ambitious to put it in the past tense since I probably have about another day of tending to this thing, but I'm making a demi-glace of the remains of the turkey. The last time I made turkey stock, the disappointing results were a noxious brew, for reasons I never fully figured out, but this time, it's coming along nicely. I've just finished the phase where I take out and discard the vegetables and carcass and start reducing.

While I don't like to do this, I'm pausing the process to refrigerate it overnight, because I don't have anything proper to skim it with and I want to induce the scum and fat to rise so I can scoop it off, then start it simmering again and go get a fine-mesh skimmer or sieve or anything that I can continue doing that with.

The aroma of it is filling the house and it's delicious, but it's rather cloudy, and that's not optimal, so I want to continue the process when I'm awake and can skim it frequently. It produced very little of the frothy scum that you usually can easily skim off, but the cloudiness means it's still in there.

 

[Kermit Jizz]

I cooked some chicken feet. Simple spice blend of cumin, garlic, onion powder, paprika. Browned the skin and simmered in a tomato sauce for an hour.

Tasted pretty good, kind of like fatty wings. Doesn't hold up well in the fridge for more than a day or two, skin turns jelloy.

 

[Candlelight Desolation]

Alligator meat for the first time. It tastes like a cross between seafood and chicken. It's okay, but I wouldn't eat it again after I'm done with the rest of it in my freezer.

 

[Splinters RCVD ✞]

Alligator meat for the first time. It tastes like a cross between seafood and chicken. It's okay, but I wouldn't eat it again after I'm done with the rest of it in my freezer.

Wow, exotic and new. Do you have pictures?

 

[AnOminous]

Alligator meat for the first time. It tastes like a cross between seafood and chicken. It's okay, but I wouldn't eat it again after I'm done with the rest of it in my freezer.

I think it makes a good spicy andouille style sausage if it isn't too gamy. One of the best side dishes I ever had was in a dive bar and was sliced sausage served in a hot skillet in sizzling honey. Good enough to burn your mouth for. It wasn't all alligator but a blend of alligator with the usual andouille ingredients.

Also the turkey demi-glace has entered its final reduction stage. I broke down and went and bought a fine-mesh strainer because my other methods weren't cutting it. I wanted to get just a skimmer, but the mesh on those was coarser than the mesh on the full strainer I got. I'm glad I spent more, though, because I could use this to pour the stock between two stockpots. After about six passes, it finally passes cleanly through the mesh without leaving anything behind, and the stock is clear, well, clear enough.

I probably have another 12 hours or so to go.

 

[Sprocket]

Alligator meat for the first time. It tastes like a cross between seafood and chicken. It's okay, but I wouldn't eat it again after I'm done with the rest of it in my freezer.

I've had alligator before at a restaurant on an alligator farm. Tasted like fish and mud. Would not recommend.

 

[Goyslop Muncher]

I've only had gator jerky which was mixed with pork, just tasted like pork. I've heard from somewhere that as a general rule of thumb you shouldn't eat predators because your chances of getting sick are high, no idea if that's true.

 

[Poo]

I've never tried them, but there are these things that are like rolling pins but with grooves cut in them for cutting pasta without an actual machine. Minus is they only do one size, but you can buy a set of them pretty cheaply. Last time I had a Whole Foods nearby, they had a pasta machine and you could have them make it while you waited.

Yeah, I know what you mean about the rolling pins. But like you say, the size of the pass is the whole point of the process. If I could buy it fresh made from flour I would, unfortunately it all seems to be egg noodles for some reason? Very frustrating!

Like I say, having fresh pasta is like a total change in your pallet that you can't go back from. I feel like it's a hole in the market. Like you could buy fresh pasta next to the fresh bakery produce?

 

[Goyslop Muncher]

Yeah, I know what you mean about the rolling pins. But like you say, the size of the pass is the whole point of the process. If I could buy it fresh made from flour I would, unfortunately it all seems to be egg noodles for some reason? Very frustrating!

Like I say, having fresh pasta is like a total change in your pallet that you can't go back from. I feel like it's a hole in the market. Like you could buy fresh pasta next to the fresh bakery produce?

In my local grocery store (kroger) they sell fresh pasta in the refrigerator section near the cheese. No idea if this is common. It's very good and still relatively cheap.

 

[Leapin_Lizards_98]

I made a Croque Madame for the first time a few weeks ago. Good shit. I'm not really a fan of cheese but when it's all melted together like that you can't even taste it.

 

[Helvítis Túristi]

I made a ground cherry pie, a bit too sweet and probably could have used less sugar or more underripe fruit for tartness. Still good though.

 

[veri]

i made cupcakes yo

they’re those cheap store bought mix but with yogurt instead of eggs. one has the special butter

 

[Mooger Meng]

Tomato soup. Some two or three years ago I'd had some of the canned condensed stuff and had wondered what the real thing tasted like, and finally got the witherall to try and make some myself this spring. I've gotten good enough at it that I managed to turn my brother's family around on the stuff, and his wife hates tomato soup... well, past tense, I suppose, if it's the fresh kind.
I still need to get myself to the point where I make it without canned tomatoes, though. One day.

 

[AnOminous]

I probably have another 12 hours or so to go.

And it's done. And into the freezer it goes. It had that almost magical glistening look to it, and the gelatinous sheen even at near-boiling. And now it gets to be a little bit of magic in every gravy and sauce I make for another couple months.

The great thing about an ingredient like this is you can't just buy it. I mean unless you are a retard willing to buy it for whatever fags are charging. You can bet it's a lot. Also you have no idea what they're doing in their automated pajeet process. Whatever it is, they're screwing you.

It's a ridiculous level of effort to create this stuff. That's its main downside. The main upside is the entire house is infused with the aroma of concentrated meat for a couple days.

Goddamn the result is good but is there a way of skipping literally a full day of babysitting a pot of stock skimming off scum every few minutes? Or worse, what I did, which was giving up early, then realizing it wasn't going to work and literally buying a scum-skimmer in the middle of the process, then spending a good hour de-scumming by pouring it back and forth between stock pots six times?

i made cupcakes yo

they’re those cheap store bought mix but with yogurt instead of eggs. one has the special butter
View attachment 2764867

I hope "special butter" doesn't mean what it sounds like. And that you're not feeding it to your mom.

It produced very little of the frothy scum that you usually can easily skim off, but the cloudiness means it's still in there.

Also an oddity of this effort. The stock suddenly started producing scum and opacity in the final stage. I'd always thought this was an early thing, when the carcass and other early ingredients were still in, but it suddenly started rising about 12 hours before it was done, but after the carcass and mirepoix was removed.

By that time, I had the scum skimmer and it was easily removed to get the glossy end result.

The odd thing is I'd always associated the scum stage with the funk stage where it both smells bad and generates this ugly scum. This batch had no funk stage at all and had avoided the scum stage to the point it sort of worried me.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

I've never tried them, but there are these things that are like rolling pins but with grooves cut in them for cutting pasta without an actual machine. Minus is they only do one size, but you can buy a set of them pretty cheaply. Last time I had a Whole Foods nearby, they had a pasta machine and you could have them make it while you waited.

I just bake it out with a rolling pin, flour it, roll it up (loosely) then cut desired thickness with a dough scraper, it fits easily in the hand, cuts perfectly and there's no need to worry about the fingers if cutting thin pasta fast*. Length is obviously controlled by the dough you roll up, thickness is self explanatory.

*The gotcha is that the cut pieces will melt together and form a tentacle blob that is impossible to untangle if left rolled up. It is important to shake them out into strands per 1-2" of the roll cut, just to be extra safe, they should be lightly floured and after that they're fine piling up on each other in a bowl.

One of my favorites from homemade pasta experiments is a veeery thin tagliatelle, it sucks up flavor very well when swishing it through the frying pan.

For anyone thinking of trying their hand at pasta I'd say one egg = one person when served with something nice.

Another hot tip for beginners that haven't baked much in general: do to not excessively knead it with your arms, hands or wrists when doing the heavy kneading. Instead use a bit of core strength and your legs to rock back and forth, lean into your palms and put your body weight behind it, hands and wrist will only be used to rotate and flip it, you can knead it like that forever without getting tired.


I haven't cooked it yet but I'm thinking of making a stroganoff using the uneven ends of chunk of ribeye that I bought. Maybe with pasta, it suddenly sounds so good.

 

[TheGreatDodongus]

Tomato soup. Some two or three years ago I'd had some of the canned condensed stuff and had wondered what the real thing tasted like, and finally got the witherall to try and make some myself this spring. I've gotten good enough at it that I managed to turn my brother's family around on the stuff, and his wife hates tomato soup... well, past tense, I suppose, if it's the fresh kind.
I still need to get myself to the point where I make it without canned tomatoes, though. One day.

Unless you're growing your own, or it's Summer and your local grocer has some nice heirlooms, stick to canned. Otherwise you're just going to expend more effort for a mediocre, watery disappointment.

Been cooking a lot recently. Here's some chicken and gravy with cauliflower mash I made last night:

And some Torta di Riso I made from a Chef John recipe a few days back. Not bad:

 

[AnOminous]

Another hot tip for beginners that haven't baked much in general: do to not excessively knead it with your arms, hands or wrists when doing the heavy kneading. Instead use a bit of core strength and your legs to rock back and forth, lean into your palms and put your body weight behind it, hands and wrist will only be used to rotate and flip it, you can knead it like that forever without getting tired.

This is a hugely good tip and thanks. Arms getting blown out? A thing of the past.

Also, a couple days later, I have about 30 cubes of pure goodness.

If I ever do this again, I want to spend it to get a Fort Knox level of this final product. Someone could steal my car, or my computer, or my phone, but I will rip them to shreds with my teeth if they try to steal my demi-glace.

 

[Robert w'E'd Leef]

I made a simple stroganoff with leftover venison from Thanksgiving. I cut up the venison, diced an onion, and cooked both plus the egg noodles in a sauce of beef stock, white cooking wine, sour cream, worcestershire sauce, and cream of mushroom. Pretty damn good, next time I'll try it with chicken and I'll add some bella mushrooms and garlic.

 

[Mooger Meng]

Unless you're growing your own, or it's Summer and your local grocer has some nice heirlooms, stick to canned. Otherwise you're just going to expend more effort for a mediocre, watery disappointment.

Been cooking a lot recently. Here's some chicken and gravy with cauliflower mash I made last night:

And some Torta di Riso I made from a Chef John recipe a few days back. Not bad:

Thanks for the heads up. My city boy ass isn't very knowledgeable about the intricacies of fresh veg.
Chef John has such an odd cadence to his voice, but the stuff he makes looks amazing and his videos seem like they're easy to follow and fairly descriptive. I should probably try and do one of his simpler recipes at some point, just so I don't freak out trying to make them.

 

[Kahr CW9]

I made this absolutely vile looking slop because chimken hindquarters are on sale. Bought ten pounds of voluptuous chicken leggies for the freezer and two more for the pot. Classic rice/broccoli/aromatics with seared boner-in chicken absolutely demolished in my Instant Pot.
It tastes fantastic though.