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Food Thread: Sometimes A Sausage Is Just A Sausage, But Not This Time!

Yuck. Why bother with a sausage or hot dog when you mask it with tons of crap? The one in the photo is particularly unappealing (even ignoring the obvious double entendre) because there are at least three good foods in that photo (and who knows what else underneath) that do quite well on their own, but when combined turn into a gloppy, overwhelming mess.

I am a minimalist when it comes to hot dogs and sausage. A good bun that isn't too doughy or big, the appropriate mustard, and maybe a bit of sauerkraut and onion...but not too much! And that is it.

What I like to do is showcase the skill of the butcher, and not empty out the refrigerator into an oversized bun. There are plenty of amazing producers of great hot dogs and sausages (what's the difference?) in America, so it's not like we need to cover up substandard crap with chili and mac & cheese and fluorescent relish.

The influence of German immigrants on the American sausage industry is obvious, but we have created our own stuff as well that is on par with the best in the world. I remember going to Karl Ehmer in White Plains for their great German-style sausage, but later discovered Bruce Aidell in California, with his unique take. And anyone outside of Alabama ever hear of Conecuh Sausage? You Texans are spoiled, because it's hard to beat a good Texas smoked sausage, but I will put my local sausage maker up against anyone in the country.

But back to the original point...am I in the minority? How does the Horde feel about piling three pounds of crap onto a hot dog or sausage and trying to eat the damned thing without wearing it?

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Oh look! Inflation is unexpectedly high!

Grape Tomatoes: $2.50/pint
Naval oranges: $1.67 each
Laundry detergent: $15 for one of those monster containers
NY Strip: $17/lb.
Regular gas: $3.57/gallon
Strawberries: $3.99/pint

It's easy for the smug elites in D.C. and the blue cities to downplay inflation, because they make lots of money....our money! Someone who makes $200,000/year has far more flexibility in his budget than the more typical American who makes $75k. A 15% bump in the cost of pretty much everything he buys is a big chunk out of his budget, and bumps up against some significant decisions; like putting off a home or automobile purchase or not opening that small business he has planned for five years. Those decisions, multiplied by tens of millions is what is happening right now, and they will have economic repercussions for years to come in lost growth...which can never be made up!

Let's Go Brandon!

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Commenter "Bitter Clinger" fancies himself a bartender (I won't insult him by calling him a mixologist), and here he uses some interesting ingredients for an odd but pleasing drink. I have had something similar, and it's good!

Hosted a cocktail tasting this week, and among the cocktail requests I received was an "Old Fashioned with a twist".

The smart-ass curmudgeon in me wanted to give them an Old Fashioned with a lemon twist and say "That's what you asked for."

Alas, part of being a bartender is being friendly and actually liking other human beings. So this was my "twist" on an Old Fashioned (and you know I hate messing with classic cocktails *spit*).

I cooked off a package of bacon, reserved the fat, and then blended the fat into a bottle of Woodford Reserve Rye. I let it sit for 6 hours on the counter, shaking occasionally, and then stuck it in the freezer for two hours allowing the fat to solidify, which I then skimmed off and strained the bourbon through a coffee filter. That's how I made bacon-infused bourbon.

To construct the drink, I used 4 dashes of Fee Brothers Black Walnut Bitters, 1/4 oz of pure maple syrup and 2.5 oz of bacon-infused Woodford Reserve Rye.

Spun that with a large ice cube, expressed orange peel over the drink, and garnished with a couple of pieces of candied bacon.

Pretty tasty, even if it is the bastard child of a shitty bartender.

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You know what chaps my ass? Recipes that call for other recipes. We aren't cooking in a restaurant kitchen and most of us have time constraints, so maybe stop being pompous asses and write recipes for real people.

Okay, maybe that isn't completely fair, but it is irritating. This recipe does it with an ingredient that really isn't necessary. This isn't some holiday dish or special occasion food...it's braised chicken thighs!
Braised Chicken Thighs With Olives and Herbs But it does sound good, so I am going to try it and just substitute minced garlic and tomato paste.

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Longtime commenter and shiv-master Bluebell sent me this recipe, but for some strange reason I have not yet received the actual cake to taste. Because I want to taste this cake! And I am not a cake fiend...I think most of them are too sweet and one dimensional. But this sounds like a winner. Bourbon-Chocolate Cake with Browned Buttercream Frosting
How can it not be? Browned butter and bourbon?
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Remember the Red Beans and Rice from last week? The pot that Bluebell complained was perhaps a subtle subterfuge? Well here is the finished dish!

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I have been making peanut-butter-chocolate-chip cookies recently, using my own recipe, for reasons that I don't understand, but may have something to do with trying some recipes for them and being disappointed. Most of them are just CCCs with peanut butter mixed in, and that yields an insipid CCC with a mild peanut butter flavor. So what's the point?

So I decided to get the best of both worlds and make a chocolate chip cookie stuffed with peanut butter. That way I...um...get the best of both worlds!

After about 100 years of using Nestles Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips for my CCCs, I recently switched to Ghiradelli 60% chips, which seem more chocolaty and intense (and bigger). As for recipes? Yeah, the recipe on the bag is just fine.

So how to stuff them? Easy! Make a mixture of 50% smooth peanut butter and 50% powdered sugar. It's a pain in the ass to mix them, but just go slowly and you will succeed. Going fast just spreads powdered sugar all over the counter. Weigh out a 30 gram portion for each cookie and roll it into a ball. Take two 50 gram portions of well-chilled cookie batter and flatten them into 3" discs. Don't worry about making them perfect little circles; that's my job as an obsessive-compulsive cook. Then plop the peanut butter ball into the middle of one disc, cover it with another disc, and gently seal the edges so the peanut butter doesn't leak out, compressing it slightly so the peanut butter goes almost to the edge. It should end up about 1.25" thick and maybe 2.5" wide.

Bake it at about 350 degrees for 11-13 minutes, depending on how browned and crispy you want them. Don't go much past that or they will be overdone. The glory of these cookies is the gooey centers and molten chocolate in the soft cookie.

These are big and rich, so don't plan on eating a lot of them. No more than six or seven!

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Romaine lettuce that is green, instead of the white crap they sell that has never seen a photon, pork rib roasts from the front end of the pig where all the good and fatty meat lives, carrots that don't taste like stalky chalk, spare bottles of Van Winkle Special Reserve 12 Year Old Bourbon, an herb garden that actually produces herbs (but no basil!), well-marbled NY strip steaks and elk backstrap to: cbd dot aoshq at gmail dot com.

And don't think that you are off the hook with maple syrup and French Toast: I'm watching you...all of you! And I am watching you perverts who shake Manhattans and keeping a list for the Burning Times.