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Food Thread: All Foods Are Tasty, But Some Are More Tasty Than Others!

Most food is pretty damned tasty. Hot dogs and oysters and fried chicken and roasted cauliflower and pickled carrots and chopped chicken livers with caramelized onions and crispy fried potatoes and a great ripe tomato and a steaming bowl of split pea soup and a grilled whole red snapper and... well... I could go on forever!

But as varied as my tastes are, it is very hard to beat a well-marbled grilled steak. The combination of glorious richness from the fat, the firm texture, the salty goodness of the juices, and the elemental -- even primal -- joy of eating flesh is a tough thing to beat.

What's the point? Nothing, other than steak tastes good! And I found that photo while poking around for ideas, and it sure does look great!

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Isolating rather than destroying infected flocks of chickens seems to be a much better way of managing Avian Flu. Especially since it is spread by wild birds, and they are almost impossible to control.

So why is the accepted solution the wholesale destruction of millions of egg-laying chickens? Why not allow the disease to burn out, and leave chicken flocks with immunity?

I'm not a chicken expert, and I am certainly not a virologist, but any federal government policy based on "science" is to me immediately suspect.

Avian Influenza in Birds: Causes and How It Spreads

The problem is that the USDA long-standing policy has been to cull entire flocks. But why? Show me the science, and I don't want to hear about it being the traditional method.

What? Me? Suspicious of my government?

Add in "They are stupid as well as evil," and you might begin to understand!

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Lurker "Tyler" sent this photo, probably to make me jealous that he can get great looking beef ribs and I CAN'T!

Great butcher near me in Omaha. They have "Piedmontese" beef cuts. The ribeyes are 2" thick at least and they have a regular supply of beef ribs (pictured here after cooking) which are unbelievably hard to find at local grocers so I make the extra 20 min drive. I ended up putting them in a sous vide at around 135-140 degrees for 5 hrs and finishing in a pan indoors due to time/weather constraints. Negative temps out here in the Midwest so had to make do! Either way, they look great but didn't have the normal 24-48 hour cooking time most beef ribs require in a sous vide and were slightly chewy but all things considered, a success. Given that this butcher has them on a regular basis, I'd likely use them in a stew and try some other recipes... plus, they have huge slabs of pork belly which, again, is hard to find in Omaha.

See what I mean? He's gloating!
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Ice Cream Expert is apparently a real job, and long-time commenter and cauliflower hater "Bluebell" wants to know why nobody told her!

There is a YouTube video produced by Epicurious titled Ice Cream Expert Guesses Cheap vs Expensive Ice Creams, and I think it is an entirely reasonable question why Bluebell wasn't offered the job.

And it suggests another question: Who are these supposed experts? Sure, the ice cream expert is Jeni Britton Bauer, of "Jeni Ice Cream" fame. I consider myself an expert on some foods, and Weasel is clearly the world's expert on the two-minute meal, but I don't see anyone touting us as experts!

[Why no link? Yeah... I stopped linking Epicurious along time ago when they went full retard race-baiting loony-tunes.]

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I was poking around a few weeks ago for a good technique for rack of lamb. I wasn't too worried about the actual recipe, but I did want to see if I could find a straightforward technique.

And I did. This one is solid and forgiving. Garlic Herb-Crusted Roast Rack Of Lamb just works well. But damn. Eight cloves of garlic for one rack? That is ridiculous, and I like garlic!

Of course I ignored that part.

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The narration is absolutely magnificent. It's a fantastic combination of pure Americana combined with scary post-war government know-it-alls.

[Hat Tip: Weasel]

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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!