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Food Thread: Stop Ribbing Me!

Oh wow...I love beef ribs. But they are difficult to get around here, and even when they show up they are trimmed to within fractions of an inch of the bones, so they aren't much of a meal. Of course I am talking about the beef ribs, not the short ribs from the plate; but those are good too!

What I really want is a slab of beef ribs like the slab of pork ribs we all know and love. Sort of like in the photo, only with more meat. A lot more meat, so it's not just gnawing on the connective tissue (which is good).

I could settle for the short rib version of it, which is what a lot of BBQ joints use for their "Dino-Ribs" or whatever they call them.

But I'm a traditionalist! I want a rack of true ribs, and I will keep looking until I get them!

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This is the dirty little secret of the deeply dishonest organic food industry. Plants have naturally occurring pesticides and antimicrobials that in some cases are quite dangerous for people. So man bred them so that those chemicals were eliminated or minimized, so we could eat plants without getting sick. But we also had to deal with the bugs, so we used man-made pesticides.

It works. Very, very well. Modern agriculture produces an amazing abundance of food at low cost and high safety.

But when people fixate on organic rather than safe and tasty, we get things like this: German survey finds low awareness of natural toxin risks.

Hey folks...there ain't no free lunch. The bugs are there, and we either kill them, or let the plants kill them with their own pesticides, that you then eat!

Yum!

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Poached eggs...are you for them or against them?

I like them, but mostly as a vehicle for fun stuff, especially Hollandaise sauces and Eggs Benedict. Yeah...at breakfast joints I am easy. Biscuits and gravy, Chicken-Fried Steak, or Eggs Benedict, and I'm a happy camper.

Anyway, Misanthropic Humanitarian was, as usual, trolling me with a link to Epicurious, which I do not link anymore because of their asshole Woke bullsh*t. But they did have an easy recipe for poached eggs that I have done before.

It's simple...crack your eggs into a 1:1 solution of white vinegar and water (deep enough to cover the eggs), let sit for 10 minutes or so until the whites tighten up a bit and become more opaque. Then cook them in barely bubbling water for a few minutes...and you are done!

The vinegar denatures the surface proteins and that tightens the eggs, so you don't have tendrils of white all over the place.

It works. Of course there are other ways of doing it too, but this is definitely a keeper, because you can cook several eggs at a time.

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We were visiting friends a few weeks ago and they made Chicken Scarpariello for dinner one night. It's a great dish, and pretty easy too. I'm not sure which recipe Mike used (I should have asked, but I was busy drinking his bourbon), and since he is a great cook he may have tuned up the one he did use. But Anne Burrell is a solid chef, so hers is a good start. I would modify her recipe by using chicken thighs, but using the whole chicken isn't a deal breaker.
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This is from commenter "Diogenes," who seems to enjoy life, especially because he can afford it by fleecing his golf partners!

Combining cigars and whiskey is an interesting challenge, since a strong cigar can overwhelm the whiskey.

Much testing is needed!

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I ate at a Montreal seafood restaurant last weekend, and was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food. I mean, it's Canada after all.

But one dish was great. Fried octopus! No batter, just plain old boiled octopus that they dropped into the fryer to crisp up. It was served on a bed of pureed Northern beans, some olive oil, and maybe a few pickled onions. I'm sure I am missing something, because it was delicious, and the added texture from the frying was marvelous.

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Don't have fresh herbs? Use dried. Don't have free-range chicken? Use the frozen one you bought two years ago...on sale. And for f*ck's sake DO NOT USE GOOD WINE! That crap about only using wine you want to drink is crap, I have ranted about it before, and I will rave again. In fact, anyone who uses good wine for cooking is a knucklehead. Use the cheapest stuff you can buy.

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Good butter, and Flap Meat...whatever the hell that is...just send it, Broccolini that isn't $6/bunch, garlic...lots of garlic!, well-marbled hanger steaks and elk chops to: cbd dot aoshq at gmail dot com.

Who are those poor deluded souls who shake their Manhattans? These are the same people who drink fine bourbon with coke, and probably shake red wine with ice too.

However, I will give dispensation to those who use maple syrup on Brussels Sprouts! I tried that and it worked nicely. I still prefer Agave, but still...

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.