Food Thread: No Blood For Rib Roasts!

Yes, it's that time again! Large chunks of delicious beef, seasoned and roasted to perfection.

Let us not discuss the second mortgage that is required to bring one of those roasts home from the market, and instead appreciate that Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden will be eating the finest prime beef without a care in the world for how to pay for it!

It's not that the cut is so expensive, although good quality beef is expensive. It's that they are deceptively heavy! And maybe I am an outlier, but I'll bet that most people buy way too much. One rib can be two pounds of meat, and a serving is generally considered about half a pound. So including the bone, there are about three servings per rib.

I'm going back and forth between a classic salt and pepper preparation, and an herb crusted roast. Cooked correctly, both will have a delicious crust, but that herb mixture can be delicious when soaked in beef fat and crisped in a hot oven.

But...I am also considering individual ribs. That way everyone can get an outer slice, which as we all know is the best slice!

Regardless, It will be fun to plan and cook.

Now to find a blood bank that will let me sell my blood four times this month!

I was in Paris last week, and one evening we walked past that bakery. There were 15-20 people lined up to buy bread and croissants, and in a city filled with good bakeries, that is notable.

Of course it was closed when we walked past later that night, so...sh*t out of luck! But breakfast the next morning! A hah! Too bad the line was too long to wait in the cold. But there was a cafe right next door, and shockingly, we got a really nice breakfast complete with superb bread and croissants.

Care to guess where they got their croissants?

Roasted (or sautéed) chicken livers on a plain salad. Delicious! Absolutely awesome! And I know enough about cooking to appreciate the effort that went into cooking those livers. They are irregularly shaped and sized, so they don't cook evenly, and without careful trimming they can be stringy and tough and sort of unappealing.

The restaurant is owned by one of the most famous chefs in the world...someone whose flagship restaurant in Paris is amazingly expensive. $80 soup territory. Yet he brought that cooking skill to his modestly priced outpost, and executed it very, very well.

Yum! Sweetbreads! Yeah, that may repulse some of you, but when done correctly they are delicious. Delicate yet firm, tender and rich and flavorful.

Sadly, they have gotten expensive in France, and I have no idea why. They used to be on par with chicken or pork, and less than beef. But now? That was the most expensive dish on the menu, but I couldn't resist!

Attached are a couple of pictures from this past Sunday's steak, which by tradition and law, is always prepared over a wood fire. This time of year, said fire is built in the living room hearth.

I have absolutely no idea what I was thinking when I scored this loaf. As a friend said, "I haven't seen a scalping that bad since the Indian uprising in the California gold fields back in 1848."

But it sure tasted good!

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!

posted by CBD at 04:00 PM

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