In more, isn’t the world sick of being a bummer all the time news:

Meat in the U.S. may be widely contaminated with strains of drug-resistant bacteria, researchers reported Friday.

Nearly half of all meat and poultry sampled in a new study contained drug-resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus, the type of bacteria that most commonly causes staph infections. Such infections can take many forms, from a minor rash to pneumonia or sepsis. But the findings are less about direct threats to humans than they are about the risks of using antibiotics in agriculture.

Read the whole article.

Here’s a recipe for fresh Kielbasa that is delicious. You can also turn it into smoked Kielbasa by smoking it at around 180* for about 2 hours and then cool in ice water for 30 minutes, dry and store in the fridge.

6′ hog casing
3lbs pork butt
1lb beef chuck
1lb veal shoulder
3/4lb pork fat
2 tblspn paprika
1 tblspn black pepper
1 tblspn turmeric
2 1/2 tspn coarse salt
2 tspn marjoram
2 tspn summer savory
1/2 tspn allspice
6 cloves garlic

Grind your meat, mix in your spices and stuff. Dry in the fridge for 24 hours, flip once to make sure both sides get dry. Use over the next few days or freeze for up to a couple of months.

As I walked out of work last Wednesday I felt something that I wasn’t sure I would ever feel again, something so entirely foreign and pleasant I was certain I was hallucinating. It was warmth. Where I would usually rush manically, head down and cursing, to my car. I now crossed in a slow walk, something nearing a meander. I actually looked around, took in the day and stopped for a moment to enjoy the heat of the sun as it crawled up the back of my neck. It was hard to imagine but for the first time in what seems like an eternity I wasn’t cold. The combination of a particularly freezing and brutal winter and my apartment resembling a set piece from Dr. Zhivago had led me to accept the fact that I would never again be warm.
It was a revelation and believe me when I tell you that it took every bit of power in my feeble mind not to throw this detox off the deep end and head right home to crack a cold one and fire up the BBQ. Instead I ate a rice cake and went to the gym. Sad, I know, but I was comforted in the thought that this was simply the first in a long string of perfect days. That soon the honey time will come to Chicago and with it a swaying slow play of summer dresses, cold drinks, long nights and delicious cuts of meat.
You’ll forgive me if the current detox has me fixating on the last item of the list. Time was in this town when every neighborhood had a butcher shop and everyone a relationship with their butcher. While that time may be over it’s not completely dead and gone. Thanks in large part to the increased interest in locally and sustainably raised meat and poultry Chicago is seeing something of a butcher shop renaissance. One of the most notable of the new breed of butcher shops is The Butcher and Larder located at 1026 N. Milwaukee just south of Division. Here’s what a recent blurb from Time out Chicago had to say:

“Somebody comes in and says, ‘I want to buy a chicken.’ ” Rob Levitt, the former chef of Mado who’s opening a butcher shop with his wife, Allie, plays through the ideal scenario of what should happen next. “The butcher’s happy to truss it for them.” Someone comes in and wants a fresh ham? “We’ll be exclusively whole-animal butchering”— pigs and lambs will come from Slagel Farm just southwest of the city—“so I can just cut it off the animal and sell it to you.” And for those in the market for something besides raw meat, the Levitts round out the shop with a “larder” of pâtés, terrines, corned beef, pastrami and the like, plus a few cult dessert items (such as “Migas” bark and shortbread) from pastry chef Allie. Fans of the Levitts’ cooking at Mado will find solace in sandwich and charcuterie offerings, monthly BYOB supper clubs, and a familiar face behind the counter: “Butchering is really what I’m happiest doing,” says Rob.

While The Butcher and Larder is certainly one of the more intriguing it is not by any means the only specialty meat store in the city. A recently published article in Chicago Magazine does a nice job of breaking down some of the many options in the area. The one I’m most excited to check out is Chicago Game and Gourmet. Check out the products page if you want to be have a BBQGASM. Only issue is that they’re wholesalers but there are a few different ways to work around that problem. I’ll let you know what I find out.
New butchers are all fine and well but no matter what new comes to town I’ll always have one favorite Butcher and his name is Abdullah.

If you vacation in Hotlanta this summer check out Abdullah’s BBQ and Chinese restaurant.

Truth is that no matter your flavor there are increasingly delicious ways to enjoy a long hot Chicago summer, get out there and do it. 

Chef Charlie McKenna from Lillie’s Q – my favorite bbq restaurant in the city – is now offering a full pig for groups of 6-8. He’ll prepare it, serve it and discuss preparation with his guests. You need to give the restaurant 48 hours notice. If you get over there in the next week you might be able to enjoy your hog with some tapped Hopslam as well.

Two blogs, Mrs. Wheelbarrow’s Kitchen and Yummy Mummy, are helping to organize what they are calling Charcutapalooza. On the 15th of every month a new recipe from Michael Ruhlman’s “Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing” will be posted and participants will have until the 30th to make the recipe and then post about how they used that recipe. The conceit is that with a variety of participants leaning on one another for help, insight and inspiration, everyone should benefit that much more.

Read all about it here…

It’s true that Chicago has, in the past few years, seen a relative spike in BBQ joints, but going from nothing to some is only slightly encouraging and, while the numbers have increased, the bar for quality has remained pretty modestly median. I still haven’t made it over to Smoque for their brisket yet which I beat myself up for every day. And Brand seems to be putting it’s focus on the wrong things. The pulled pork at the Rocking Horse is way over sauced, while Revolution’s pulled pork on a grilled brioche is damn tasty. Fat Willy’s remains as the most enjoyable BBQ joint in Chicago with a moderately interesting environment and at least a few beers to choose from even while their quality is wavering at best. When they are good they are pretty good, when they are bad they’re lame.

So take this hayseed out of the windy city and put him at Brooklyn’s finest approach to BBQ and you’ve got a delighted and fat-fingered fool. Enter the Fette Sau.

Set back off Metropolitan Ave. you make your way past a chain link fence and some picnic tables towards a smoky light in the back. The dining room is a large converted warehouse with cement floors and tiled walls giving it the look of a butchers quarters or small slaughterhouse. The meat is kept under glass cases where you choose and purchase it by weight. The food is served on large aluminum trays, covered with paper.

Pulled berkshire pork shoulder, slow cooked pork belly that was soft like jelly, and amazing “burnt end” baked beans were our poison for the evening, we shared the meat amongst several friends sitting at long wooden tables.

Fette Sau offers a diverse and well programmed selection of craft beers served from pulls made from butchering utensils and available in pints, half gallon and gallon growlers. And they boast the best selection of American whiskeys in New York City. I’m having a hard time remembering which of that fair selection we enjoyed with our meal, though it did seem to be effective in it’s intended course of both stoking the appetite and wandering the lip.

Fette Sau, the place is loud, crowded, chaotic, it stinks of hickory smoke and was the most surprising and satisfying BBQ experience I’ve had outside of Texas and my own backyard. It achieved what very few BBQ restaurants ever achieve and I can firmly argue no BBQ joint in Chicago achieves – a complete experience. Having great, properly prepared, well smoked, moist meat is important. Having great bread, delicious sides and the proper sauces to accent is key. But combining these elements with great beer, good whiskey and an environment that is as stimulating to the senses as the rub is on your tongue is about as common as a gay albino panda and even harder than that to find in Chicago.

My hat is off to you New York and my buckle a notch less tight.

We’re prepping to smoke a 12lb brisket tomorrow. I went looking for my copy of Beer Advocate, where I pulled the rub recipe from, to freshen up my addled mind. I couldn’t find it. This made me annoyed with me. Why can’t I put stuff back where it’s supposed to go? Seriously, this would make life easier.

By adding this post here, now I don’t need to put the magazine back where it’s supposed to. Problem solved.

1/4 cup kosher salt
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup black pepper
1/4 cup paprika
1 tsp cheyenne
1 tbsp cocoa powder (I added this as an experiment this time. We’ll see if it makes any difference, better or worse)

I use all that on the brisket. Makum some good bark. 12ish hours at 225* later and you’ve got carnal carnivore delight.

That is all.

I was just talking yesterday about how I wanted to wreck my finances and buy a Big Green Egg. The ceramic of the egg holds the heat very efficiently, giving you temperatures upwards of 800* allowing you to grill, smoke, and even cook pizzas. Unfortunately, the Big Green Egg costs >$1k generally.

I’m pretty pleased to have found instructions on building a DIY alternative to the Big Green Egg, the Little Blue Egg. Seems like you can build this thing for under $200 in about 10 hours give or take. Not bad at all.

Summer is officially in full swing which means barbecue season. We here at OA love our BBQ, in fact my doctor would argue that I love it too much. Unfortunately, this summer the price of beef is through the roof, not just because of the BBQ demand but also because of a shortage of animals being killed in other parts of the world.  This means it’s up to American Beef producers to fill the void and American consumers to dig deeper into their wallets. That being the case I thought it a good time to share the bit of knowledge I’ve ran across over the years in hopes of helping people save some money and dine deliciously.

Now for starters, the cow pictured above, that’s a dairy cow. (See the size of the udder.)  The only thing you’ll get out of her once she’s through milking is hamburger.  The anatomy, however, is the same as a beef cow and thusly the picture will work for our purposes.

Let us begin by just walking around the beast a bit and then we’ll get to some money saving tips.

The first thing to think about when looking at the animal is where certain cuts come from and why they produce the meat they do.  It stands to reason of course that the portion of the animal extending from its legs would tend to be less tender.  These are, after all, the muscles used most by the animal.  Which is why the brisket, which lays at the top of the front leg, is best when prepared slow and low as in BBQ or salted as in Corned Beef.  Above the brisket lies the chuck, this part of the animal can be a bit confusing as the names of the cuts can vary a lot and from time to time and change as slaughterhouses process the animals differently  in an attempt produce cuts that better serve customer demands.  Commonly this area produces many roasts, the kind one likes to place in a pot, but it also can be cut to produce beef chuck shoulder tender, neck off chuck roll or clods.  All of which are commonly used by restaurants in producing steak dishes that are not steaks.  Think stir fry’s, burritos and the like.  The shoulder is also home, perhaps most deliciously, to the short ribs.  A cut that is not a rib at all but rather a fatty deliciousness that has in recent years become quite popular and surprisingly expensive.

Moving to the middle of the animal we start to see cuts that are more familiar.  The rib, of course, gives us the ribs.  Which while perhaps less delicious than those given us by barnyard brethren, the pig, are still quite popular.  This area also gives us the rib roast, which in its state of platonic perfection becomes the Prime Rib.  A phrase,  I must admit, just caused my eyes to tear up a bit.  Below the rib is the plate, the plate provides the skirt steak, very popular throughout Mexico and down through Central and South America.  Certainly it’sd a staple of the new wave of Brazilian steakhouses.

Next to the plate lies the flank, which surprisingly enough gives us the flank steak.  A widely seen cut of meet, largely because of its low price.  It can be very flavorful and while I’d gladly dine on it at a friends house it will never find its way to my table.  Above the flank and into the back we enter the blessed zone.  This is the short loin, Uncle Sam territory, the place where all of the great steakhouse steaks are produced.  Here you will find the Porterhouse or T-Bone as well as its constituent parts the Strip and Tenderloin.  These, along with the sirloin, which sits next to it, are the biggies and man are they good.  You’ll notice that this is not a very large part of the animal,  the main reason for the high price and demand, particularly if it grades prime.  The sirloin, as I said, sits next to the short loin and produces both top and bottom sirloin.  If you’re picking, pick the top.  The sirloin also holds a variety of  tender roasts and the ball tip, another commonly employed cut in cheaper steak dishes.

After the loins it’s similar to  what’s in the front of the animal only often with less fat.  I have made some delicious beef sandwiches and beef bourguignon using bottom round but this area generally requires heavy manipulation and does not stand on it’s own two feet.  To be honest I’m rather exhausted after the paroxysm that was the short loin.  Let’s move on shall we.

Here some money saving tips:

1) Buy in bulk.
That means getting away from your local supermarket and enjoying a trip to a butcher or wholesale processor with a factory store.  There are several of these in Chicago, particularly in the Fulton Market district. I’ve had good luck at Peoria Packing or if you have a hook up Restaurant Depot, just don’t go on a weekend it gets a bit busy. If you don’t live near anyplace like this some things can be found at Sam’s club but don’t give those bastards any dime you don’t have to. By buying in bulk I don’t mean purchasing a whole animal, which while it can be a good and cost efficient option requires a lot of freezer space and a deep and abiding love of hamburger and roasts. What I’m speaking about specifically is buying whole loins or rib roasts and cutting your own steaks.   If you happen to find the loins in cryovac packaging it also provides you an opportunity for wet aging which while perhaps not as good as http://www.goodcooking.com/steak/dry_aging.htm can really help enhance the flavor and tenderness of your steaks.

2) Know what to look for and what you like.
When buying in bulk the meat will not only appear different than what you are used to seeing in the grocery store but it may also have a slightly different name. For example the New York Strip steak you’re used to seeing is actually a cross section of a strip loin which will be a long sort of parabola and weigh probably 8 to 12 lbs. While the Filet Mignon you love so much will either be called  Tenderloin or PSMO (peeled side muscle on) Tenderloin and will be a long cylinder weighing 5 to 8 lbs. Regardless of what you buy engage your butcher, they can help you to better understand what it is your looking at and may even have preparation ideas. Also, it is best to stick to USDA choice or prime beef. Always steer clear of select product and only buy ungraded meat if you’ve had it and know it to be of good quality.

3) Get creative, have fun.
A great way to save money and feed lots of people is to find ways to make cheaper cuts delicious. There are three primary methods of doing this. 1) Cook it slow and low. 2) Tenderize – either with marinade or by pounding. 3) Cook it light and slice it right.
- Number one is obvious enough and has been practiced and perfected the world over. We can’t all be kings but learn how to slow cook a brisket or slowly braise a roast and you can eat like one.
- Number two works great for those steaks that aren’t quite the steaks you wish they we’re. A good marinade can not only add flavor but help to break down the connective tissue. Maybe you remember mom pounding steaks as a kid, I know I do. Well the theory is simple, beat it until it breaks down maybe toss some flour on it and drop it in a pan. If your really feeling gluttonous batter that thing, fry it, whip up some country gravy you’ve got a chicken fried steak. Further proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
- Number three is real fun but not always practical. The best example that I can think of is the Tri-tip . It’s a cut that comes from the bottom part of the sirloin and when cooked medium rare to rare is delicious. That is assuming of course that you cut it against the grain, cut it with the grain and you get the sort of thing a cobbler would throw away. Sliced properly this meat will melt in your mouth and provide all the wonderful flavor that comes with high fat content.

I suppose fear of running into Guy Fiorre is a solid reason.

We will overcome.