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Bacon Dashi with Potatoes and Clams

Written on May 9, 2010 by Mr. Stephenson in Fish and seafood, Japanese, Meat, Mr Stephenson, everyday cooking

I was in “The Good Egg” at the market the other day picking out a Japanese Cookbook for a birthday gift for Mr. Duess. Of course, the lovely young lady at the cash knew him and knew of our bacon exploits (Mr. Duess works in the neighbourhood and his tales of our bacon making have spread like wildfire). Word gets around in this city quite quickly it would seem.

I spoke with her at some length about how I’ve been digging into the Japanese cooking and how much I was excited by the simple but fabulous Dashi – a quick broth made from kombu seaweed and usually bonito flakes. There is a satisfying meatiness, a delicate smokyness, a lovely sea taste to the whole thing. It can be used to make soups, braises, sauces – in fact its usefulness is similar to chicken stock but it tastes nothing like chicken stock. Its something entirely different and takes your dishes to a totally new place.

With great excitement, the woman behind the counter pointed me toward the momofuku cookbook, and in particular a recipe for BACON DASHI. %#$&-ing %#$& !! A broth made from bacon. You will be mine bacon dashi!

While I have yet to purchase the book, I did make the dashi and a great little dish with it.

The bacon dashi is a piece of cake: half pound of good quality bacon – I used our S&D special home made bacon of course, 8ish inches of Kombu seaweed, 2 liters of water and 20-30 minutes of simmering on the stove. Its a revelation. It has the smokiness of the bonito and that glutamatey sea taste from the kombu. The fish flavour of the bonito, however, is replaced with a fabulous porkiness. This would be a appropriate moment to say…um wicked… this is really something else.

On to the dish – clams and potatoes in bacon dashi. I read this recipe from a blog posting on Momofuku for two in which Steph cooks her way through the Momofuku cookbook. Her account of customizing the recipe to avoid what she saw as an obscene coupling of the open clams with fingerling potatoes is super entertaining and her photos of the dish are really fab.

Once the bacon dashi is made, you simply cook your clams in the broth, add your cooked potatoes, sprinkle with some chopped, fried bacon and there you have it. Neither I, nor Mrs. Stephenson could stop thinking about it for days after. I would put this on the highly recommended list.

Corso Italia and Pici

Written on May 1, 2010 by Mr. Stephenson in Mr Stephenson, Sauces, everyday cooking, italian

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Well spring has sprung and I, for one, am excited about the summer cooking season. Mrs. Stephenson and I are moving to a new part of the city – Corso Italia, or Old Little Italy in our fair city of Toronto. One of the main reasons we love the neighborhood is the food. The restaurants are unassuming, friendly and quite amazing. Not fancy, just good. The bakeries and the grocers are also very down to earth and you’ve never seen better Italian groceries that you see there..places like Dianna’s and Tre Marie bakery were reasons to make the trip up there and now just around the corner to what will be our new place.

Also, on the new place list, is our excitement about having a shop space and nice big back yard. This means a few things: salami curing chamber, cold smoker, and all round fabrication shenanigans.

In honor of our new, Little Italy destination, I’m posting a nice dish that we made – Pici with a roasted tomato sauce. I was insporied by one of the best meals of our Italian trip a couple years back. In Cortona I ordered the same thing in a tiny hole in the wall place and it was the best meal I had the entire trip – simple, extraordinarily flavourful, and clean. You could not ask for more.

I started the meal with an arugala sald with cornmeal cursted king oyster mushrooms. Again very simple – cut mushrooms tossed in olive oil and cornmeal with a touch of salt, roasted in the oven.

Making the sauce for the Pici is super simple:

• cut and toss some tomatoes and garlic (a few cloves – how much do you like it?) in olive oil and a touch of salt

• roast the oven for 45-1h at 400-450, until the skins start to brown

• blend (I use a hand blender…super simple, you could also use a food mill if you’re looking for rustic texture)

• reduce on the stove on low for an hour or so

• season – salt, pepper, herbs (I did mine with a hand full of fresh basil…awesome!)

Thats it. Really good, really simple. Perfect for spring, though It’ll be even better when we get the field tomatoes going!

The hand of meat

Written on April 6, 2010 by Mr. Stephenson in Articles, Meat, Mr Stephenson, everyday cooking

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Knowing that I love all things meat, Mrs. Stephenson graciously passed this link on to me. Not technically about heritage cooking techniques unless one considers cannibalism as a heritage food tradition. Gruesome, yes, but likely very tasty.

Check out the aptly named “not martha” post and very thorough documentation.

Pre Spring Pancetta

Written on March 7, 2010 by Mr. Stephenson in Curing, Meat, Mr Stephenson

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We’ve been a touch neglectful in our reports this winter. Meh, winter. The time changed today and that signals that spring is around the corner. What better way to celebrate than to get a little pancetta action going on. Here’s a lovely Berkshire belly that Mr. Duess sourced from his new neighbourhood butcher in Kensington market. Its all tied up and clothed to hang in my drafty drafty kitchen cupboard. Take that Mr. Duess!

Well, now its ready for the drafty cupboard. Cheesecloth keeps it contained but still open to the air.

Cured and tied. Ready for the drafty cupboard.

Chris and Hiroko’s Yakiniku Extraveganza

Written on November 9, 2009 by Mr. Stephenson in BBQ and Fire, Japanese, Meat, Mr Stephenson, Purveyors, Recipes, Sauces, Vegetables and fruits, fire cooking

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Chris and Hiroko’s wedding was lovely and a lot of fun. We had the pleasure of spending a bunch of time with them and a group of their close friends. It was a quick but excellent trip. We arrived in Vancouver on Thursday and spent Friday and Saturday afternoon prepping for the reception meal.

Ton Toro! It makes excellent rocket fuel when cooked over an open flame.

We planned the BBQ around three different meats: flanken or korean cut ribs (1/4 inch thick), pork belly, and chicken thigh. Hiroko brought some amazing ingredients from Japan, Windsor meats (at Main and King Edward in Vancouver) did not disappoint with the quality of their meat, and we did manage to find a hibachi which we used along with a gas grill for some of the meats.

We put a lot of effort into the sauces. Japanese BBQ is all about the quality of the meat and dipping sauces. I took the opportunity to dig into a bit of history and bunch of different flavours. The array of Japanese sauces, up to this point, had been a bit of a mystery to me. I always love a good ponzu or sweet miso sauce but, other than a number of early experiments, I’ve not sat down to really work through the flavors in any systematic way to be able to taste my way through them from scratch.

To the internet! “yakiniku+sauce” Mr. Google-san. I found a lot of stuff: some history, some more history that contradicts the other history (yah!), some good pictures, and some recipes that looked pretty good along with some that looked awful (I will leave these to the imagination). Looking at the research, it really does turn out that the tasty and ubiquitous Teriyaki is just one flavour among many that one can pair up with the grilled meats.

I started with two apparently traditional Yakuniku sauce recipes that I found. I certainly make no pretense of doing a traditional Yakiniku, but I did want to try to start with something that would be at least recognizable as a Yakiniku flavour. I’m not sure if it was because I was using a dark soy sauce and too much salt, but I found that the sauces were very very salty so made some adjustments to taste by adding more mirin, fruit and white wine. We used pear in the soy sauce based sauce for the rib marinade and a salt, onion, lemon, sesame marinade for the pork belly. Now I know that this is by no means a traditional Yakiniku marinade, but I though that a sweet apple/miso sauce would be nice for the chicken. Again I thought that it was way too salty so in the end I winged it. Check out the Yakiniku marinade recipes posting for an approximation of the sauces that I made. Sheree, as always, upped the game with clear feedback, a sense of direction and talked me off the edge of the cliff more than a few times.

A couple afternoon's worth of sauce making.

The plan was to use these sauces for marinade and dipping but I also wanted to make a few more sauces for variation. I ended up settling on ponzu, mustard/wasabi soy, chili vinegar/soy, and ginger soy sauces. This would give guests a range of flavors to experiment with for the various meats and vegetables we were going to be grilling up. The marinade, by the way, was used for a short amount of time, about 45 minutes, as I did not want to overpower the meat.

One of the best Japanese food websites I came across was justhungry.com . In it, Makiko, has put together a very clear survey of Japanese ingredients and cooking techniques from the perspective of personal favorite dishes and family recipes. She provides a brief and charming overview of the essential flavours used in soy based Japanese dipping sauces and where they are used. As Makiko encourages, these are the basics and one can modulate the proportions of the ingredients to personal taste. This is what I’m always looking for when learning something new – the cornerstone elements, structures and permission to mess about. For your reference, I’ve posted a little summary. If you’re interested in Japanese cooking, I would encourage you to check out Makiko’s site.

Dashi turned out to be a crucial ingredient for thinning some of these sauces out a touch. Rather than using wine, mirin or vinegar to cut the salt of the soysauce, I used dashi which is a broth made from various flavour packed ingredients. I made what is called Kombu (a seaweed) and Katsuobushi (bonito flake) dashi. This is a light but very robust broth that is packed with umami. You can, infact, see natural glutamate crystals on the surface of the kombu, and the bonito has a fabulously meaty aroma.

Chris and Hiroko after the wedding near Kts beach

Chris and Hirko near Kits Beach after the wedding.

With all this talk of Yakiniku, we can’t forget about the reason that we were there in Vancouver – Chris and Hiroko’s wedding! It was quite simply gorgeous. The weather did not really co-operate – we had a bit of a Vancouver fall day (um…rainy and chilly) so instead the planned beach wedding, we all met at the wedding commissioner’s home in Kitsilano. It turned out to be a lovely character home a stone’s throw from Kits beach. Chris and Hiroko looked dashing and the ceremony was to the point and elegant – growing together and taking care of each other was the message. It was touching seeing the two of them tie the knot.

After the wedding Sheree and I went to Chris’s best friend, Colin’s, place to prepare for the reception. It was three hours of mad sauce making, meat, and veg prep. We ended up enlisting the help of a few guests to finish up some of the skewering for the vegetables and the most excellent Ton Toro (pork belly).

Chris’s friend Rachel brought a tremendous set of appetizers including steamed wheat/spelt chinese style buns filled with veg, tofu and some chilies, an amazing artichoke dip with baguette and a lovely vegetable platter. We had a few moments to sample her good work and to pause and mill about as everyone arrived…and then it was go-time.

The cooking arrangement for the evening was an extraordinarily large gas grill – you could easily fit a lamb on this thing – and a little hibachi. I wanted to get some decent coals going on the hibachi for a good wood-cooked flavour, so I loaded it up with natural charcoal and added a half dozen 3″ chunks of oak wood for flavour. I figured that this would be a great place to do the ribs. I thought I would use the gas grill for the veg and the pork belly – being bit concerned that the pork belly would light on fire over the coals.

Just before the pork-belly-rocket experiment.

It was dark outside and there was no patio light so Colin was good enough to lend me his headlamp. It was a perfect BBQ nerd moment: fabulous meat, coals, gas grill, lots of guests, a giant beer, leather jacket, headlamp. Check and check.

I started with a quick run of ribs and chicken and they received good feedback from the party floor which was encouraging to say the least. I started up some of the pork belly on the gas grill, closed the lid and then tended to the ribs on the hibachi. Within a couple of minutes, flames were shooting out of the BBQ like a rocket – kind of a rookie mistake I realize. It was just a touch entertaining as I quietly moved the BBQ away from the outside wall and quietly asked for the fire extinguisher - just in case. Pork belly would make an excellent rocket fuel. After about 10 minutes they had burnt themselves out. When I opened up the bbq, there was one tiny, sad little black pork nugget the size of a quarter and hard as a rock. Next round, I resolved to leave the cover open and to move the slices of pork belly around a bunch to avoid another bacon-jet experience. These ones, with the revised cooking method, turned out great and were exceptional with the mustard soysauce and the ponzu.

An array of tasty treats. Veg, Chicken and Ton Toro in the foreground. Flanken cut ribs on the hibachi in the background.

Vegetable-wise, we did up a bunch of grilled peppers, shitake mushrooms, some roasted garlic, and a corn/shitake mushroom mix in a foil pouch. All of these we splashed on a simple combo of soy sauce, rice vinegar, vegetable oil, and a touch of sesame oil – super simple but a really magic combo of flavours that supported the veg well.

It took about an hour and a half to get everything grilled up. Sheree kept things moving into the party and also brought back some nibbles to share. The feedback from the guests was really great – they were experimenting with different meat/sauce combos and sending back reports of their favorites. This is what I was hoping for. The Japanese contingent were especially digging the apple miso sauce. One of Hirko’s friends said it reminded her of that sauce at a restaurant at home. She asked for the recipe which was the best compliment I could have received.

The evening continued: a few speeches, a stellar slideshow by Colin telling the history of Chris and Hirko’s relationship, some emailed words from our mom who could not attend, and a hilarious party game conducted by Akiko in which we all drew out the answer to a series of questions about Chris and Hiroko’s favorite body parts. The evening then moved on to dancing (Colin actually did the worm), drinking beer poured directly from from a minikeg on high, and – finally- a traditional cocktail fueled shoulder punching match between Chris and I which got a little out of hand and ended up with Colin receiving an accidental jab to the mouth (sorry Colin).

It was a great night and the Yakiniku was the perfect meal. It was casual, easy to eat, tasty and a just the right amount of special. I hope that it helped make the evening a memorable one for Chris, Hiroko and all the guests. It was certainly a real pleasure to prepare and, based on this evening, I think that I will definitely make it again.

Soy Based Dipping Sauces Overview

Written on November 9, 2009 by Mr. Stephenson in Japanese, Mr Stephenson, Sauces, Spices

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This is a summary of japanese soy based dipping sauces. I’m summarizing from Makkiko’s most excellent justhungry.com japanese food blog. Go there…its phenomenal and much more indepth.

Qasabi Jo-yu: Wasabi and soy sauce – raw fish, sushi

Sho-ga Jo-yu: Ginger and soy sauce – used for oily raw fish like mackerel, and bonito.

Ninniku Jo-yu: Garlic + soy sauce – used sometimes for meat.

Karashi Jo-yu: Reconstituted mustard powder and soy sauce – this was revelation for me – Makiko reports that this is a very popular combination that is used for things ranging from steamed pork buns to meats. As suggested we used an English mustard powder, Keens, and a touch of wasabi and it was THE BOMB!

Not sure what its called but: Chili and soy sauce – gyoza dumplings and we put it on the meat..mmmm.

Su-jo-yu: Vinegar and soy sauce – used for many things, cuts the greasiness of fatty dishes. We did not make this but I know it from eating Japanese.

Ponzu: Citrus juice – yuzu, lime, lemon – and soy sauce – used for many things. We used some dashi in this to cut the saltiness a bit.

Tsuyu: Dashi stock, mirin and/or sake, sugar, and soy sauce – Noodles, tempura, etc.

Yakiniku Sauce Recipes

Written on November 9, 2009 by Mr. Stephenson in Japanese, Mr Stephenson, Sauces, Spices

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These are the Yakiniku sauce recipes I used for Chris and Hiroko’s Yakiniku extravaganza. The apple miso sauce is not at all a trad Yakiniku sauce but we used it on chicken and as a dipping sauce. It was very good. You really want to vary the ingredients to taste so use these just as a guide.

Soy sauce based Yakiniku Marinade/Sauce:

Ingredients:
1 onion
3 cloves garlic
1 large asian pear peeled and cored
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup mirin
400ml soy sauce
4 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup maple syrop
juice of 2 lemons
3 tbsp yuzu crush
2 tbsp roast sesame seed lightly ground
1 tbsp sesame oil

Directions:
1. Grate with a fine grater or pulverize in food processor: onion, garlic and pear.
2. In a pan, put wine and heat to boil. Add soy sauce, sugar, maple and the mixture from step 1. Simmer for 20 minutes with low heat stirring occasionally.
3. Add lemon juice, sesame oil and sesame seed then cool down.
(You can store this sauce 3 weeks in a fridge.)

Salt based Yakiniku marinade/sauce

Ingredients:

1 onion
3 cloves garlic
1/2 cup white wine
1 1/2 tbsp sea salt
2 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup mirin
2 tbsp sesame oil
juice of 2 lemons
2 tbsp roast sesame seed (lightly ground)
5 spring onions very finely chopped

Directions:
1. Grate with a fine grater or pulverize in food processor: onion, garlic.
2. In a pan, put wine and the mixture from step 1. Cook for about 3 minutes. Add sea salt, sugar, mirin, sesame oil and lemon juice. Cook for another minute or so.
3. Cool down and add sesame seed, sesame oil and finely chopped spring onion.

Apple Miso Sauce/Marinade

Ingredients:

1 cup good quality miso paste (I used a red miso)
1/2 cup apple juice
1/4 cup mirin
1/4 cup sugar
1 onion (grated)
1 apple (grated)
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp grated garlic
1 tbsp ground sesame

Combine ingredients and adjust applejuice/mirin to taste.

Soy Based Dipping Sauce Recipes

Written on November 9, 2009 by Mr. Stephenson in Japanese, Mr Stephenson, Recipes, Sauces, Spices

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These are the dipping sauce recipes used for Chris and Hiroko’s Yakiniku extravaganza. You really want to vary the ingredients to taste so use this just as a guide.

Ponzu Sauce

1/3 Cup Soy Sauce
3 tbsp Yuzu Crush (or use lemon juice)
3 tbsp Lemon Juice
1/3 cup Dashi
2 tbsp mirin

Chili vinegar soy sauce

4 tbsp chili paste (i used a chinese garlic chili paste)
3 tbsp soysauce
4 tbsp rice vinegar

Mustard/Wasabi Soy sauce

3 tbsp dry mustard (we used Keens)
1 tbsp wasabi powder
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons dashi to reconstitute the mustard powders
1 tablespoon sesame seed, lightly toasted
1/2 cup soy sauce

I read that people put all manner of dairy – cream, milk, sour cream – and also mayonnaise in this sauce. We did not do this. We kept it as a soy sauce based sauce and I can attest to the genuine yumminess of this with the grilled meats. I would go so far as to say that this sauce was nothing sort of a revelation!

Ginger Soy Sauce

1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup sake
4 tbsp mirin
one good sized knob of ginger, grated

You need to boil this one for a bit to get rid of the alcohol flavour in the Sake. I would say that, all in all, this sauce was the least interesting. I think I would like to try this with a bit more of a vinegar/mirin vibe. I have to say that I did not really like the sake flavour in this so much.

Kombu and Katsuo Dashi Recipe

Written on November 9, 2009 by Mr. Stephenson in BBQ and Fire, Fish and seafood, Mr Stephenson, Recipes, Sauces, fire cooking

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This is the Dashi recipe used for Chris and Hiroko’s Yakiniku extravaganza.

Kombu and Katsuo Dashi

8 inch kombu (dried kelp)
2/3 oz. (I just used a small handful) katsuobushi (dried bonito) flakes
4 and cups water

Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Strain and use as a soup base or sauce ingredient.

Yakiniku

Written on November 1, 2009 by Mr. Stephenson in BBQ and Fire, Meat, Mr Stephenson, Uncategorized, fire cooking

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Mr. Duess will love this one, its all about cooking things quickly…again as a way of emphasizing the freshness and quality of the ingredient.

Um...yum.

I have been invited to cook the dinner for my brother, Chris’s, wedding. It’s a casual affair with 30 or so people attending. He requested that the meal be relaxed and easy to eat whilst milling about. I, of course, want to do something special. He is getting married to a charming Japanese woman, Hirko, and I thought that there had to be a BBQ tradition of some sort in Japan. I did some research and, low and behold, I found Yakiniku!

Yakiniku is Korean BBQ modified for Japanese tastes, it was brought to Japan by Koreans after the war. I have read that the meat is cut into smaller pieces and the marinades are a bit lighter and less sweet, or the meat is not marinated at all. Consulting with the good folks at Sanko revealed some fabulous accompaniments along with some advice for traditional Japanese wedding gifts – cash. Yakiniku is described as being more about the softness and texture of the meat than about strong flavours. From what I’ve seen, people use a lot of apple and pear in the marinates.

Torrance Torihei's photo of Ton Toro - Yum

Mr Duess will also love this, one of the favorite dishes is Ton Toro, which is marinated grilled pork belly! I ran a little test last night with some fresh pork belly. I have to say that the combo of soya sauce, mirin, garlic and a touch of rice vinegar with grilled bork belly is a real pleasure. It turns out that this is also Hiroko’s favorite so I know I’m on the right track here.

In any event, it is a perfect way to do something casual but a touch fancy for Chris and Hirko’s wedding. Its also very quick to prepare so I will be able to enjoy the party as well as chefing up the meal.

Its going to be an interesting adventure. As a heritage cooking technique, it really involves tracing the lineage of the techniques (I’ve certainly done my fair share of…um…inquiry into Korean BBQ) to arrive at the right set of flavours and compliments to the meal. There is also the further element of our Canadian tastes in this exercise. Yakiniku was developed to make eating the internal organs of the cow more palatable – offal prepared in such a way will still not entice the uninitiated Canadian palette so we are choosing to stick to beef rib – both rib eye and shortrib, pork belly, chicken thigh and shrimp. I certainly know that I won’t be making authentic Yakiniku but I’ll be doing my best to make a tasty and fun interpretation of it.

I will be using what is at hand at the party – a gas BBQ at Chris’s friend’s place. I think that I will supplement this with a small tray of briquettes and some kind of hardwood – alder or oak I think for some wood cooked flavour. Alternately I might build myself a little hibachi or pick up a weber smokey joe – the more I think about this the more I think it makes more sense to do this over coals. I’ve ordered my pork belly and ribs from Windsor Meats who I’ve been told is the best Butcher in Vancouver.

I will certainly be taking my camera with me to the meal and will post some updates of the prep and the meal proper.

The bacon fry

Written on October 25, 2009 by Mr Duess in Curing, Dinner Party, Meat, Mr Duess, Mr Stephenson, Smoking

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Last night, after a delicious mushroom risotto, Mr. Stephenson and myself decided that it was time for some bacon. Our wives chose ice cream for desert instead, but we fired up a small cast iron pan and started frying. The bacon was from the first trial run of the cold smoker, and whilst slightly over-smoked it’s still miles better than anything you can hope to buy in a supermarket.

That’s of course partly to do with the pork we’re using, humanely raised, no hormones, no antibiotics, but also do to the time and effort we put into the curing and smoking. The sweet spot for a cold smoke seems to be about a day and a half, down from the three days I smoked the first batch for. That way you’ll end up with a bacon that’s wonderfully smoky, but without overpowering the spices from the cure.

We fried our bacon with sprigs of rosemary and ate it on walnut bread with some wild fermented pickles, with the bread soaking up the fat.

Whilst we’re on the subject of fat, if the picture makes you worried about your health, let me reassure you. Between the two of us we ate really very little meat. Because bacon is so full of flavour, a little does go a very long way. In addition, bacon fat, if you start with a healthy pig, is actually very good for you. Bacon fat is about 65% polyunsaturated, with only about 11% saturated fat contained in it. It is also rich in vitamin a and e, so while you should not eat a pound a day, the occasional slice of bacon, or three, should actually be beneficial to your health.

Bacon Craze

Written on September 29, 2009 by Mr. Stephenson in Editorials, Mr Stephenson

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I think that the bacon craze is a good thing. Who could not benefit from the pleasure of a nice slice of homemade or artesian made bacon?

I do, however, think that it gets quite ridiculous at times. A colleague brought me in a bacon chocolate bar the other day. It was adorned with the image of a voluptuous Nigella look-a-like who encouraged us to scratch the surface of the bar and inhale carefully, bite into it, let it melt slowly on the tongue and then savor the memories conjured up by the complex mix of applewood smoke, salt, pork and chocolate. It really was a bit of romantic wankery. On wonders about the marketing blub. In the end, the very potent chocolate overpowered everything and it ended up tasting like seasalt chocolate which is very good, but not particularly subtle.

On the other side of the coin, do wish that “The Bacon of the Month” club existed here in Canada. A different artesian bacon sent to you every month sounds delicious.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

International Bacon Day!

Written on September 3, 2009 by Mr. Stephenson in Editorials, Mr Stephenson

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Mark your calendars and lock up your pigs! This is a new Stephenson and Duess favorite. It’s International Bacon Day!

http://internationalbaconday.blogspot.com/

Its like a birthday or Christmas or Thanksgiving…or Valentine’s day for that special smoky salty bacon sweety… Saturday, September 7th.

We are proud to say that we were planning a bbq that day and it is certainly a tiny course correction to put us into alignment with the day’s festivities. And that course correction is bacon!

From the site:

Bacon Day is a day of Bacon… think Iron Chef but all day and the secret ingredient is Bacon. Breakfast traditionally consists of bacon waffles, with a side of bacon, and any other concoctions thought up. Throughout the day there are showings of Kevin Bacon movies and any other movies with leading roles given to pigs, e.g. Babe, Piglet’s Big Adventure. Lunch must have BLTs and there are snacks around and slices of bacon everywhere. Dinner is a fight for your food quite literally. It is more a tasting of all things bacon and everyone wants a taste. Due to the vast quantities of bacon cooked, the grill outside is the best bet. If you are invited to a Bacon Day celebration, it is traditional to bring something to eat (of course containing bacon) which can be made there if the host allows, and drink (which may or may not include bacon).

No fake-on (soy bacon) for Stephenson and Duess though. We will be cooking up some of the good stuff – cinnamon pepper and pancetta spiced bacon I think.

Home Cured Bacon and a Harley Davidson

Written on August 29, 2009 by Mr. Stephenson in Curing, Editorials, Meat, Mr Stephenson, Smoking

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Like Mr. Duess, I grew up in the country. Unlike Mr. Duess I grew up in the woods in northern northern northern Canada: The Yukon to be exact. I grew up with a secret swimming hole, fishing and hunting trips, a nice big dog, lots of motorcycles and fixing motorcycles. I would say, however, that it was ultimately a tough place and that this small list of things kept me out of trouble. When I moved to the city to pursue an exciting life in media (woo hoo), in some misguided attempt to embrace urban living and my new creative profession, I left behind all these fabulous things. Things that I think have, in a circuitous way, lead me to make some pretty great home cured bacon.

The short version of this story goes something like this: I had a revelation of sorts a few years ago that I could have my exciting, fun, culture filled urban life AND still love motorcycles, hunting, fishing and big dogs. I went out immediately and rented a motorcycle, got my hunting license and brought home another cat (I know its not the same thing – the dog will have to wait for a larger backyard in the future).

MPW and I on our way, like good Canadians, up north.

My good good friend Micheal Phillip Wodjewoda became struck, around the same time as I did, with his own special form of motorcycle lust and he dove head first into it. He is now a full time rider. I, for the sake of the sanity of Mrs. Stephenson, have opted to rent a bike occasionally in the summers when the weather is nice. Once a year Micheal and I go on a little tour together. Wednesday was our day. This year I rented an unlikely bike for me – a Harley Sportster.

It is a simple, low to the ground, rumbly, middleweight bike with a very basic V-Twin, single cam engine and short short exhaust pipes without baffles. This all really translates to this bike being louder than hell as it propels you with a convincing amount force across the asphalt.

What does this have to do with home cured bacon you might ask. I know, certainly, that Mr. Duess is likely rolling his eyeballs reading this right now. To him I say, I beg your indulgence, Mr. Wax On, Wax Off!. I got to thinking a bit about the experience of driving the Harley and how it relates to this idea of “New Heritage Cooking”.

My ride and I after a fabulous truckstop lunch. "Keep the rubber side down" was a piece of helpful advice I got from the cashier.

The Harley is about as honest a ride as you can get. You can hear the valves tapping away, you can hear the combustion of the gasoline air mixture, you can even hear the pistons and crank shaft in the slow chugging of the engine (according to Micheal, it makes a sound that goes, “potato-potato-potato-potato-potato”), you certainly feel the vibration, smell the exhaust, and are very aware that the ground is only 23 inches from your but. On top of this the suspension is rustic so you feel every little bump and you ride this little beast in an upright position, so you get the full force of the wind against your body.

There is a kind of basic understanding that you reach, through your senses, of the reality of riding a motorcycle. This is not only highly enjoyable and entertaining, but lead me to appreciate the aesthetic of the Harley – something I was previously not into, standing on the street listening to some jerk rev his Harley up at the lights. And this is where we get to the home made bacon part of things.

The really nice thing about the home made bacon, the home made duck prosciutto, the home made sourdough bread (damn you Mr. Duess! you will get your comeuppance) etc, is that you begin to develop a relationship with the process and all the elements that go into it. This translates into a more informed sense of taste – a more informed experience with the final product. I can unequivocally say that my appreciation for bacon has grown leaps and bounds through selecting, spicing, curing and smoking my own.

Just in case you forgot, this is bacon.

There is a real knowing that comes with doing. While this is not a perfect metaphor, I think that the Harley Davidson puts you in this very position. If you’re riding around on a slick racing machine with a technologically advanced engine and suspension, you can certainly ride fast, but you do this by exchanging the ability to percieve the more elemental aspects of the experience. I’m not trying to make a case here for one being better than the other – I am a fan of the fast slick bikes too (as Mr. Duess has indicated, I do like my speed) – but I think that the Harley kind of puts you in real sensory contact with the basics. Once you’ve taken this in, I have no problems saying that the experience becomes richer.

Making your own cured meats puts you in contact with the materials and elements of the process. When I eat prosciutto, salami, pancetta or bacon now, I have a sense of the meat, the spices, the cure, the fermentation, drying, and smoking. I can taste it. And this makes the experience richer. After a lifetime of riding bikes, there is something very simple that the Harley reminded me of – that you’re riding over the ground on a couple of wheels strapped to an engine powered by exploding gasoline. That’s just how I like my bacon – not exploding, but honest.

Review – The Professional Chef, The Culinary Institute of America

Written on August 22, 2009 by Mr. Stephenson in Books, Editorials, Mr Stephenson, Reviews

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As a great man once said: Holy calamity, great insanity, all you ever gonna be is another great fan of me! We here are Stephenson and Duess have to start somewhere with our book reviews and what better place to start than on a book that we are great fans of – it’s a monolithic book without author – a seminal book about the fundamentals of cooking. The Professional Chef is truly a foundational book and covers everything from the basics of nutrition, to knife skills, to meats, vegetables, starches and dairy; desserts, breakfasts…charcouterie….this list goes on. It is not just a manual for professionals and it not just a basics book. This is not like the Joy of Cooking or the Silver Spoon which are rich compendiums of recipes and techniques. It is not a cookbook, though it has a number of fabulous recipes. This book is a real guide to cooking technique, tools, ingredients, methods, and meals.

You can check out the table of contents here. I have the 7th edition, but it looks like they’ve added sections in the 8th edition on Asian, European and American cuisines.

This is a book that I am proud to say that I read from cover to cover – and I did it while trying to impress my soon-to-be wife, Mrs. Stephenson (it might have been the book – I’m just saying).

The book begins with food, nutritional and kitchen basics. From here it moves on to ingredient identification. I found this to be very useful. What do True Striped Bass or Dilitini look like? You’ll find the answer in this section. It then moves on to stocks and “liasons” or thickeners – roux to bechamel, clarified butter etc. There are certainly more indepth instructional books for stocks and sauces (like the fabulous Peterson’s Sauces manual), but these chapters certainly gives you a solid basis in the essential aspects of cooking sauces and stocks.

One of the things that I most appreciate in this book is the chapter structure. The book provides a walk through of how to cook each type of ingredient (IE Potatoes or vegetables) through a single recipe – like doing a gratin or simple steamed carrots. There are a lot of very useful instructions in these step by step guides – like pan steaming carrots with some sugar will add a lovely glaze when you cook away the steaming liquid. For more complex things, you are given clear photographic and other sensory reference (smell, texture taste etc) for each step. This resolves an important issue I have with other such books – when you are trying to learn a new technique, how do you know you have it right if you have no reference with which to measure each step in the process? The other thing offered in these steps is a way to troubleshoot your dish – if it’s too this or that, what might have gone wrong.

From each step by step basic cooking methodology, the book moves on to a sequence of recipes that build on that method. The recipes are in restaurant proportions so you’ll need to translate them to serve a smaller group. They also use weights, so you’re best with a kitchen scale – though you can do without if you use a “common ingredient weights chart” like this one here or you can google up a weight-to-measurement for the ingredient you need to measure (though, again, nothing beats a kitchen scale – they’re $30 for a good inexpensive one – do it!). The recipes are actually quite amazing. They range from the very simple to the very intricate.

Before I go on too long here, I will conclude this review by saying that this is simply the best all round cooking manual I’ve encountered. It is easy to see why it’s on the curriculum of many culinary arts programs. It is clearly written with a rich range of topics that will serve both the beginner and the initiated very well. It is very well organized, illustrated and I found it a pleasure to read – its not at all dry. I would think that this book would fit well on the shelf of anyone wanting a good reference and/or foundational instuction to culinary compentency.

Makin’ Bacon. The movie. Part 2.

Written on August 20, 2009 by Mr. Stephenson in BBQ and Fire, Curing, Meat, Mr Stephenson, Smoking, Tutorial, Video

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This is the video companion to the second part of our posting on Makin’ Bacon - Makin’ Bacon – Part 2. The Big Smoke.

As food-wunder-geek Alton Brown said, “Until you’ve made your own bacon, you haven’t eaten bacon”. So kick back, light up a nice blow torch (don’t ask…just watch), and check out the movie for the second part of our Makin’ BAcon tutorial.

To follow the story, you can also check out:

Makin’ Bacon Part 1 – doing the cure

Makin’ Bacon Part 1 – The Movie

Stay tuned for segments on hot smoking, and a review/tutorial on “The Smokinator 1000″ which turns the fabulously modest and flexible Weber kettle grill into an unbelievably effective smoker for less that $100. We’re certain that you’ll love it as we do.

Tags: bacon, smokinator, vacuumpack, weber

Makin’ Bacon – Part 2 The Big Smoke

Written on August 19, 2009 by Mr. Stephenson in BBQ and Fire, Curing, Meat, Mr Stephenson, Smoking

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Alright. Where were we. Oh yes. Home made or artisan made bacon is simply the best thing ever. Once you’ve had it, it is not an easy thing to forget!

When I dream of bacon - this is what I see.

We cannot say enough good things about the transformation that the humble pork belly makes when it is cured and then either smoked or simply roasted in the oven. You end up with an ingredient that will transform the simplest soup, stew, salad…um…scone, sandwich, burger, shepherd’s pie, braise….into something really sumptuous.

This is part 2 of our bacon tutorial. Its arguably the simpler part of the bacon making process if you’re familiar with smoking. It becomes even simpler if you simply roast it in the oven. Smoking is not necessary at all. An oven roasted bacon is a beautiful thing. The ever meat-tastic Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall reports that he smokes maybe a quarter of the bacon he makes. He finds that the oven roasted bacon makes for an excellent ingredient as well as being very tasty out of the pan. All this is to say that if you do not have access to a smoker, don’t fret – the oven is a perfect place to finish a bacon.

Our home made bacon has been sitting in the fridge for 5 days in its cure (See Makin’ Bacon part 1…or even better, Bacon – The Movie Part 1). We’ve been turning it once a day and rearranging the pieces so that the each take a turn at the bottom of the stack. After about 5 days, the flesh will firm up and will become a richer hue of redish pink rather than the light pink of the raw pork belly. If it still feels really squishy and looks light pink, give it another day.

Anywhere between 3 and 7 days the belly will be cured. The longer it sits in the cure, though, the saltier it will become. I find that, if I measured 50g (1/4ish cup) of cure per 3-5 lb belly, 5 days works quite nicely. It allows the spices to permeate the meat and the cure is solid but not too salty.

Some people rinse the belly at this stage. I find that when using this curing method, there is no need to rinse. You’ll also get the added bonus of keeping the spices on the meat which adds some nice texture and great flavor to your finished bacon.

Weber at 250 degrees at the top of the dome. This equals 230ish degrees at the grill surface.

Our lovely bacons after about 3 hours in the smoke. The "Smokinator 1000" smokebox is on the left hand side of the grill.

At this point you can either very simply wrap them in foil and roast them in the oven at 250f for about 3 hours to an internal temperature of 130f OR you can hot smoke them.

We’ll be doing an more in depth exploration of smoking at a later point. You can check out the soon to be released movie to get a brief overview. The short story is that you want to smoke it at 230ish degrees for, again, about 3 hours. I like either Oak, Maple, Alder and small amounts of hickory but you’ll need to experiment to get a taste that agrees with the taste buds of you and yours’. These bellies are being smoked in a combination of Oak and Alder (ignore what I said in the video…I changed my mind mid course). I went for a lighter flavoured smoke because I wanted to the spices and the quality of the meat to really shine through. It really gave the bacon a great light smoky flavour that complimented everything very well.

Once the bellies have been smoked or roasted, you’ll want to let them cool a touch, and then cut the rind (skin) off. Its helps to angle the blade up towards the skin while using long even strokes when doing this. It stops you from cutting into the layer of meat underneath.

From here you want to chill the bacons overnight and then carve into portions and freeze what you are not going to use immediately. We vacuum bag ours up and put groovy/nerdy labels (it is a fine line sometimes) on them for friends.

Cinnamon bacon cut into chunks, vacuum packed and ready for the freezer and friends.

Bacon in the cast iron pan with some green tomatoes from the garden.

When you cook this kind of bacon, you will discover that it is nothing like commercial bacon. It does not shrink in the pan at all. The best way to cook it is on low heat. I prefer a cast iron pan but any heavy pan will do the trick.When we finished the bacon, Mrs. Stephenson and I made ourselves these amazing bacon and panfried green tomato sandwiches on rye bread. So so good.

Please keep an eye out for future discussions on smoking and “The Smokenator 1000″ which is the most excellent and ingenious tool that we used in the Weber kettle grill to smoke the bacon.

I can personally vouch for the deliciousness of these sandwiches. They were spectacular.

Some excellent sources for diving deeper into makin’ bacon and meat curing are Michael Ruhmann’s Charcouterie and Mr. Meat, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s River Cottage Meat book. Two different approaches though both very committed to making excellent cured meats.

Stay tuned for the movie accompaniment to this posting. It’ll be coming within a day or so. In the meantime, best of luck with your bacon makin’.

Tags: bacon, smokinator, weber

The Other Bacon. Not a Pretty Sight.

Written on August 17, 2009 by Mr. Stephenson in Curing, Editorials, Meat, Mr Stephenson, Smoking

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Mr. Duess will love this one. While I was looking about on the internet to make certain that our very recently and most excellently produced instructional bacon video was the best bacon video ever made by a human being ever, I discovered a monstrosity of epic proportion and singular pertubation.

Just to be clear, what you are about to see here has nothing to do with how we make bacon or how we would ever even think of making anything at all. This video really highlights how far away from food the “food industry” is.

Yes…this pretty much confirms that unless you make your own bacon or buy it from a reputable small provider or organic provider, you’re pretty much eating directly from the ass of evil. “…time to put the coffee on and scramble some eggs…” the video says. Holy crap…literally. I may drive a fast car Mr. Duess, but this video gives speed a bad name.

This video puts in to perspective why we are doing what we’re doing here at Stephenson and Duess.

The actual reality of industrial food – especially industrial meat – really comes into view in this video. I’ve watched it a few times now and have to say that, with each view, it becomes clearer and clearer to me that what we are doing here is not just about making good food and having a good time; it is really about recovering food from industrial production, marketing and “experts”. Food IS something that you can make at home, with friends, with good ingredients, with enjoyment. If you do a bit of legwork, it really does not cost much more money. It does, as Mr. Duess is fond of saying, take some time, but even this can be rolled into moments with friends and family or taken as a time to decompress.

In any event, I think that we could and should work our way through these industrial “How its Made” videos. It will be good for a bit of entertainment. It will also, and I’m certain about this, be good information and imagery from which we can sharpen our mission.

How does the saying go? There are two things you don’t want to see being made, hotdogs and legislation.

Tags: assemblyline, factory, foodindustry

Dinners at the food source

Written on August 13, 2009 by Mr. Stephenson in Articles, Editorials, Mr Stephenson, Reviews

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Here’s an article on eating at the source – in a field, on a farm, where the food came from.

Check out the article here.

A couple of questions developed in my mind as I read this. Does this event lead to a more direct connection to the food or is it a piece of dinner theatre with the field playing the lead roll? Or both? Is this a case of truth in fiction?

On the one side, I can see that this event introduces the audience to an encounter with their food that is informative, tasty and “novel”. On the other side, does paying big bucks to eat at the source really achieve a direct connection to the food – or does it import a fine-dining restaurant aesthetic and politic into the field?

As an urbanite, I think that its possible to achieve a better relationship with food by buying from farmers at the market, participating in a CSA vegetable or meat share, and learning about ways to prepare these foods. This is to say that I think that a good connection to food is about competency to procure, handle and prepare the food.

I’m quite sure the fine-dining-in-a-field was excellent, fun and memorable. I am suspicious of the idea that physical proximity, in the case of the fine-dining-in-a-field, equals a more direct connection to the food. I do, however, think that it has potential value as a piece of theatre that might inspire further investigation of and engagement with food.

Tags: fashion, finedining, restaurant, slowfood

Cooking Methodology – Making it your own

Written on August 13, 2009 by Mr. Stephenson in Articles, Editorials, Mr Stephenson

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Home made pizza is one of those things that I think is difficult to master. There’s the 500+ degree oven and the whole pizza stone thing. There’s also the question of the dough. I just perused a very interesting methodology for making pizza dough that dives deep into all of the variables.

If one was quite serious about making the best possible pizza, one could play with all the variables – liquid, fat content, type of flour, salt, yeasts, tempurature, rising time, resting time etc – to come up with a formula that works well, not only for your tastes, but also for your setting (IE your kitchen, your oven.)

This is something that comes up again and again when Mr. Duess and I discuss cooking with friends. They often wonder about recipies. Our response is that you use the recipe as a starting point to figure out the principals and then the rest is about tailoring it to your tastes, your cooking style and your cooking context.

The article is full of really good information and a method that I think Mr. Duess and I often take for granted, which is to try something, take measurements, and then revise based on how it turned out. Cooking is like anything else in that respect. The important part is to consider how it could have been done differently. This is not only about considering the recipe, but also your ingredients, your tools and your style.

When trying something new, we often will come up with something that just does not work. (One of my favorite things that Mr. Duess will say to me is that he’s glad to take a risk when I’m around because if it doesn’t work, we’ll eat it anyways – unlike, perhaps, our wives or a dinner party guest) Many times we have taken a risk and fallen flat on our faces. Its always, without fail, better the next time – even if by a little bit.

I found this article fascinating in that it discusses playing with all the vairables to come up with the best recipe to suit your own very specific situation. Its a method that will allow you to come up with your own version of things. This will bring you and yours a great deal of pleasure.

Here’s the article.

The source is a bit unlikely and not at all our thing (its some kind of management/personal actualization consultancy – funny place to find good info about cooking pizzas), but the information and method are great.

Tags: customization, method, process