Michael Rulhman’s book “Ratio” is one of the best things that’s ever happened to my cooking. It is typically my first reference when approaching a new dish and has helped me understand how I might someday develop my own voice with cooking more than any other book or experience I’ve come across to date. But [...]
Category Archives: Recipes
Michael Ruhlman in Chicago
Also posted in Event, Instructional Tagged Anthony Bourdain, Butcher & Larder, Charcuterie, Chicago, Michael Ruhlman, No Reservations, Ruhlman's 20 Leave a comment
Experimenting with Fenugreek to Replace Maple Syrup
I wrote about using fenugreek in homebrew to replace maple syrup last year about this time. I’m finally getting around to trying this out. I had hoped initially that a cold steep would be my answer for extracting the maple flavors and tastes from the fenugreek. Several experiments with that have proven that unhelpful. Instead [...]
When I’m dead, you must braise me
I’ve had a longstanding agreement with the 4-bar degenerates in my life that, upon my death, they will slow cook my better cuts serving using my carcass as the serving station, Old Country Buffet style. Further, my wife and friends have been clearly instructed to have a moog rendition of “Send in the Clowns” sent [...]
Also posted in Beer, Event, Health, Instructional Tagged Braising, Jim Cornelison, Meat, spaetzle Leave a comment
Veal Tongue Tacos
It’s been a while, I know. I’ve been living a life. Or burning one down. Or stumbling on the head of those two opposing excuses, really. This is the 4th year I won’t be going to Burning Man. It’s crazy, I’ve been not going almost half as many years as I attended. And what’s crazier, [...]
Also posted in Event, Grilling, Instructional, Pyro Tagged Burning Man, Gepperth's Meat Market, Mr. Worthington, Veal Tongue Leave a comment
The Season of the Goat: Farm to Table Goat & The Joy of Open Pit, Whole Beast BBQ
Earlier this season I put a fire pit in my back yard. Actually, that was the first thing I put in my backyard. A firepit, surrounded by dirt on all sides. Eventually we got around to putting in some grass and some stone work to gussy it up a bit, but the first effort was [...]
Also posted in Beer, Event, Grilling, Health, Review Tagged BBQ, Brains, Brooklyn Sorachi Ace, Farm to Table, Goat, open pit, sala, Sensory Training, Siebel Institute, Stillwater, The Bruery, Zack the Chef Leave a comment
Chocolate Bacon Stout Cupcake Recipe
The weather in Chicago has continued it’s schizophrenic pageantry of bullshit pulling us back from the premature summer of barbecues and late evening sunsets of last week into the mid-spring deluge of cold winds and water that seem to persist with a frequency that could have made Fred Rogers slip into a barbiturate crazed murdering [...]
Also posted in Beer, Instructional, Review Tagged bacon, butter, Buttermilk, Chicago, Cupcakes, Evil Twin, Lard, Mikeller, Soft DK Stout, West Lakeview Liquors 1 Comment
The Mint Julep
As predicted Saturday was another in a long string of money losing days in my career as a thoroughbred handicapper. Luckily there were Mint Juleps aplenty to soothe my battered soul and wallet. Here, described in beautiful poetry by a pros pro, Chris McMillian, is the Mint Julep. Enjoy:
Render Me Some Lard, Bubba!
I got this goofy new puppy the other day and everything I’m reading insists that she’s gonna love some bacon and cottage cheese in her food. Clearly a girl after my own heart. I had a good amount of back fat just sitting pretty in my freezer so I thought I’d render my fluffy lady [...]
Also posted in Grilling, Health Leave a comment
Swedish Potato Sausage & the Virtue of the Accident
I had a down right lovely Friday evening of drinking Arrogant Bastard on tap, cooking and hanging with friends before the rest of my weekend disappeared into the black hole of pagan fertility rites beat senseless by decidedly non-pagan white people and their eminently Caucasian methods of celebrating. Actually, the rest of my weekend was [...]
Also posted in Beer, Instructional Tagged America's Worst Chefs, Arrogant Bastard, Chef Robert, Home Sausage Making, La Creuset, mistakes, Oban, rack of lamb, Ravioli, Susan Mehnke Peery Leave a comment
Sazerac
I, as has been previously discussed here at OA, am a huge fan of The Old Fashioned. Last weekend while dining at a new local Gastropub Owen and Engine, the bar keep suggested my friends and I switch it up a bit and try a Sazerac. We did and the result was deliciousness. The Sazerac [...]
Also posted in Cocktails, Instructional Tagged new orleans, Old Fashioned, Owen and Engine, Sazerac Leave a comment