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Food Thread: Oink Oink! Trim Trim! Eat Eat!

Pork ribs! Great stuff, and easy to make. Sure, there are great BBQ joints where people stand on line for hours to get a rack of ribs, but as long as you don't dry them out, the home version is pretty damned good.

But inflation has struck even the lowly pig! Trimmed pork slabs (called St. Louis ribs) used to be less than $2/lb. And now? I saw them for $4/lb at my local supermarket. Even Costco is pushing $3/lb.

But there is a way to get what you want -- a delicious whole slab of porcine goodness -- while still having a bit of cash leftover for beer or bourbon. Buy whole, untrimmed pork ribs! It takes just a few minutes to trim them down to St. Louis perfection, and the upside is that you get the bones and trimmings, which is perfectly delectable meat that is cooked the same way you make the pork slab! Plus, the stuff on the convex side is delicious, and equally easy to cook.

Sure, it takes about five minutes to do with the appropriate knife, but for $2/lb. it is absolutely worth it, and you will get to brag about doing your own butchering (sort of) and lord it over your pompous 2nd cousin who always tries to one-up you in the kitchen.

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I often use this space to decry the awful inflation that has eroded our food dollar. I won't bore you with another list of stupidly expensive stuff (eggs are back up around here...with a vengeance ($7.49 for 18?). But I will talk about some good news.

Donald Trump campaigned on a platform of energy independence. If he returns America to a sane energy policy, and that can be done with a few strokes of the pen, we will soon see a decrease in food costs. Not a decrease in the rate of inflation, but a real drop. Why? Because fuel runs our food production...from farmers who use petrochemical fertilizers to diesel to run their tractors to the truckers who move the raw materials to processing plants and distributors to the trucks that move food to the retail markets...it all runs on petroleum. And petroleum is a fortune now!

There are few things more upsetting to a functioning society than inflation, and there is no inflation worse than food price inflation. Donald Trump has the opportunity to change the complexion of the inflation spiral in a matter of months, and it will be an obvious and welcome change.

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I tried a new (to me) slap and fold technique, and while it started out wonderfully, the end result was an incredibly slack dough that made me deeply suspicious of the famous baker whose technique I used. But I was able to form it...sort of, and it actually came out of the Banneton without any trouble. But as I mentioned, it was slack, and I was fearful that it would be a flat, dense mess.

As usual, I was wrong. Breadbaking is f*cking magic, with no connection to the real world of logic. Anyway, that is a 90% white flour/10% rye flour sourdough loaf that was delicious! I backed off on my usual 20% rye, and I think that made the difference.

And I have no idea why.

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I think the secret ingredient isn't a secret, but notice what they use for the sweet component! Go ahead...I dare you to try it!

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Anyone do this? I love it! The next time I make hummus I will grill a lemon and see whether the flavor is noticeable.

It's great on fish and asparagus and steak. What? Steak! Yeah...try it...you'll like it. It's a classic Tuscan preparation, and it's delicious. A drizzle of olive oil and a squirt or two of lemon! Really!

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I call it a Julep Strainer, but I am sure there are other names. It's actually functional, because the usual bar strainer, called a Hawthorne Strainer, gets all messy and clogged with the mint leaves in Juleps. This one is easy to clean out so when you are making Mint Juleps for 30 people at your Kentucky Derby party, your guests won't get restless and trash the place because you are too damned slow at bartending!

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What the hell happened to all the vegetables? And send me garlic that isn't grown in heavy metals and human waste in China, well-marbled hanger steaks and elk chops to: cbd dot aoshq at gmail dot com.

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

$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.

The problem...or the solution...is to buy lots of bourbon, take tasting notes, and eventually arrive at your favorites! It should take forty of fifty years, but it is worth it!