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Food Thread: Steak And Biscuits? Sounds Good To Me!

[Before we began, I would like to thank Weasel and Bluebell for arranging, hosting, fine-tuning and pretty much doing everything for the 2023 NoVaMoMe. The venue was lovely, the weather was perfect, the food was good, the conversations were sparkling and witty, and even the band...THE BAND?...was fun!]

Rib steak? Boneless rib steak? Ribeye? What's the culinary difference? Ignoring the ridiculous "Cowboy Rib Steak," which is nothing more than an expensive affectation created by steak houses to make the steak look more impressive, which is a more satisfying cut?

In general, I prefer a bone-in cut, because I enjoy the elemental experience of tearing the bits of flesh and fat and gristle off the bone with my teeth, smearing fat and juices all over myself while I grunt and moan and chomp. Never mind that I will need a shower afterward.

Whether it cooks better is open to debate. I like grilling steaks (no cast-iron on the stove except during rainstorms and blizzards), and balancing the steak on the bone to finish it seems to work well, because the heat penetrates the bone and cooks the yummy stuff along the inside of the bone. Sort of. But the boneless steak seems to cook more evenly, especially if you tie it and make it a nice tight circle of even thickness.

Which is what I did with a gorgeous ribeye that caught my eye in the butcher case recently. It was graded "choice," but that was obviously incorrect, which is why I swooped in and grabbed it. The son-of-a-b*tch in front of me chose its twin. Otherwise I would have bought them both. He broke up a matched set, which I think is tacky. It was beautifully marbled, which is unfortunately uncommon in rib steaks. I see more nice marbling in NY strips, which definitely adds to the experience. Rib steaks tend to have less marbling but more of those large strips of fat, which isn't a bad thing...I think that's delicious too. But finely marbled beef is special.

The original plan was not to cook it "Pittsburgh," but time just got away with me, and there were a couple of flareups that made the decision for me. Nothing burned, just nicely charred. It wasn't my fault! I was trying a new gin and it might have been a high proof version! And the steak was delicious. One of the best ribeyes I have had in a very long time!

Oh...I have been salting far in advance for the past several months, and I think that is the way to go. 24 hours seems to work well. I haven't noticed any difference with a 48 hour salt, and that's as far as I have gone.

This experience reinforces my usual plan, which is to look at the beef before I buy it. I never commit to cooking steak, because sometimes everything in the butcher case looks like crap. But sometimes, when I am least expecting it, I amble past and see an absolute gem. And the variations (flaws?) in grading make it entirely possible that you will find a glorious steak priced as "choice," that was clearly not meant for us plebes.

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World Food Safety Day: 'Nobody should die from eating food'

I hate this kind of sh*t. The United Nations is one of the evils in the world, constantly blaming the ills of the world on the wrong things, and their solutions are even more ridiculous. Here is the WHO "Assistant Director-General" (ooh! Does she wear a uniform?) spouting nonsense about food-borne illness.

"We tend to think about food safety only when we get sick, and we should think (about it) more often because foodborne diseases are entirely preventable," she said in a video message.

"Safe food allows the uptake of nutrients and promotes human development. Nobody should die from eating food. These are preventable deaths."

Foodborne illness is most definitely not "entirely preventable" in any rational food production system. It can be minimized, but the imperative is to feed everyone on earth, and making the goal "zero illness" changes cost-effective processes for minimizing illness to extremely expensive and slow systems. And people on the margins will die.

What the UN and the WHO will never admit is that wealth will minimize foodborne illness. Wealthy countries do just fine. Poor countries are where the problems are. So the answer is to stop putting up roadblocks to wealth...stop making energy more costly; stop placing incredible restrictions on food production; stop playing politics with food; stop trying to govern the world and simply get out of the way and let people work for themselves.

You know...stop being the United Nations!

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A long time ago on a cold and blustery Parisian night I wandered into a classic Bistro, and had a very good meal. Frisée aux Lardons (salad with bacon and a poached egg), and Sweetbreads. My date had a classic salad, and a steak accompanied by slices of roasted marrow. Lots of good wine, the service was good, and the meal stuck in my head as the gold standard of what that sort of experience should be.

Fast forward mumble-mumble years, and I revisited the restaurant, because why not? Same date, but the experience was far, far worse. In spite of a reservation made several days before, we were shoved into an extra table next to the waiter station. Sh*tty service, the pâté was undercooked (and they knew it...we heard the waiter mention it in French), the asparagus was stringy, the steak was mediocre, the lamb was a bit overcooked and a bit tough...essentially the kitchen and waiters were mailing it in. Plus, we were treated rather poorly, no doubt because we were Americans, and the reservation was made by the hotel. That sends a signal to the restaurant that we aren't regulars.

But that also signals that the restaurant is crap. Which is sad, because it used to be lovely.

Thomas Wolfe was correct; "You Can't Go Home Again."

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Okay, this is a tarted up version of what every kid on the planet has tried to do. Chef John seems to be scraping the bottom of the barrel with this.

Bread & Butter Pizza

It does look good, but it seems like a lot of work. Although the bread does look damned good. Which makes sense, since I think he is in San Francisco.

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Writing a recipe for a food blog so that it maximizes the number of "affiliate links" is guaranteed to irritate me, especially if the writer is so damned verbose that it takes several pages of scrolling through nonsense to get to the reason for even clicking on the site...THE RECIPE!

Green Bean Salad with Hearts of Palm

And it wasn't worth the effort!

I don't mind green beans in salads, although they squeak between my teeth and I find that vaguely disconcerting. But I also don't like hearts of palm. Whoever thought that was a good idea was obviously dropped on his head as a child, and not just once.

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Who is Justin Wilson?

I have no idea, but I love this video of him making biscuits. How To Cook Biscuits
And...he's seems to be using a liquid fat! I have never seen that before, so if any of you maniacs know anything about it, please to share with the class.

[Hat Tip: Weasel]

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I don't have a beard. I don't have tats. I am not a hipster douchebag.

But I love listening to music when I cook. All the stuff that certain-people-who-will-not-be-named complain about; I play when I am cooking for 10 or 12 people and I need the damned morning to myself; so go shopping!

What's your favorite cooking music?

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The oyster imperative remains in effect, especially now that we are entering the summer months. Yup, I'm not afraid of oysters in the summer! (Except that my usual source was sold out, so I am an oysterless Dildo, and you know how bad that is!) And send 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, garlic...lots of garlic! (but no basil!), well-marbled NY strip steaks and elk backstrap to: cbd dot aoshq at gmail dot com.

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

And yes, I used to demand fancy bourbon, but let's face it, $1,200 for a bottle of bourbon is just stupid, insulting, and a ghastly affront to most people's palates and wallets. I think the sweet spot is $40-$60 for excellent and interesting bottles, and bumping that to $100 gets you an incremental improvement in quality, but nothing mind-blowing. More than that and I think you are paying for hype and rarity, which may look good in your liquor cabinet, but doesn't translate to more quality in the bottle.