Sketchblog » cooking

Tex-Mex is Dying

stephen — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 03:17:23 +0000

Homesick Texan: Render Your Own Lard

stephen — Wed, 14 May 2008 04:56:17 +0000

I’ve never rendered my own lard, but I am a fan of the wonderful substance. It isn’t exactly health food, but Lard has half the cholesterol and half the saturated fat of butter. I don’t eat it every day, but I think Americans need to get over the fear of the stuff.

One of my favorites The Homesick Texan has written all about
how to render lard.

For more pork flavor you should go see wooly pigs.

The Wonders of Veal Stock.

stephen — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:17:34 +0000

Making homemade stock is one of my favorite things to do. It takes forever, but is completely worth it.

This blog post explains it better:

Beef stock tastes like Chef-Boy-R-Dee ravioli.

Veal stock is more velvety than actual velvet.

Beef stock is a sweaty, hairy truck driver on the final leg of a cross-country haul, in which he stopped only to sleep, not shower.

Veal stock is like standing naked under a gentle waterfall in the sunlight.

Beef stock makes your house smell like farts.

Veal stock makes your house smell like home.

French Laundry at Home: Veal Stock

Wild Yeast on Sourdough Myths.

stephen — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:07:20 +0000

I am not really qualified to talk about bread or baking, but I have taken a crack at baking recently. I even attempt to maintain my own sourdough starter. Sometimes this works, sometimes not.

Anyways, go check out the bread blog Wild Yeast
and learn about sourdough.

link.

For the record, I got the starter of my starter from here.

Why San Francisco Pizza is so Horrible.

stephen — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 04:44:51 +0000

I have been saying that the pizza here is total crap ever since I moved. How could a town that supposedly has a “Little Italy” have such subpar pizza? I keep trying new places and get excited when I find one rises above crappy to the level of mediocre. Anyways, enough of my rant. Here is what Wired and Iron Chef Mario Batali’s have to say:

“Californians do a lot of great stuff with their green-market goods,” fellow pizza nerd Mario Batali says, but “some of it’s just not pizza.” I called the Iron Chef to help me figure out why San Francisco — a formidable food town — can’t birth a respectable pie. Part of the reason, of course, is that while Rice-A-Roni and zinfandel are native to Northern California, pizza is not.

Or why not read the article.

Japanese jogger themed candy.

stephen — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 06:10:23 +0000

Fun stuff! I found this at Sunset Super. It was somewhere in between the men’s pocky and the beef tripe over at the butcher case.

The Grocer’s Encyclopedia.

stephen — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 23:08:45 +0000

Before there was Harold McGee’s On Food & Cooking and before Michael Ruhlman’s The Elements of Cooking there was The Grocer’s Encyclopedia by Aretemas Ward. This extensive work from 1911 is available online for free here.

Harold McGee: The Invisible Ingredient in Every Kitchen

stephen — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 00:47:04 +0000

The amazing food science genius Harold McGee has a great article in the NYT about the very basic yet often overlooked subject of heat in cooking.

The solution is to cook with more than one level of heat. Start with very cold meat and very high heat to get the surface browned as quickly as possible with minimal cooking inside; then switch to very low heat to cook the interior gently and evenly, leaving it moist and tender.

The article is filled with little drops of wisdom like these. I love the guy.

Link.

Bacon Flavored Salt

stephen — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 00:08:56 +0000

Its Bacon Salt.

I will let baconsalt.com tell you all about it. I don’t think I need to explain this. Baconsalt!

Homesick Texan

stephen — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 04:49:45 +0000

Now here is a food blog I can support and identify with. Lots of good food, photography and Texan foodstuffs.

Link.