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Food Thread: Are We Off Our Marbles About Marbling?

No, that's not marbled beef; that is a rib chop from Ossabaw Island Georgia pigs. I'm not sure I have ever seen marbling like that in pork, and I cannot wait to cook it!

Sadly, there isn't much of this stuff available. The vast majority of American pork is commodity stuff from the Midwest. And that's not a bad thing! It is amazingly inexpensive, it tastes good, and it is available almost literally everywhere. But it is usually very lean, probably a holdover from the bad days of American food production when everyone wanted to cut fat out of their diets, courtesy of the brilliant scientists of the federal government.

Luckily some of the cheaper cuts are nice and fatty, so we can still enjoy ribs and bacon and hams and butts that have lots of delicious, healthy fat! The worst offender in my experience is the loin, which still has that lean and boring look that legging-wearing, big-haired dancercize loons sought out in the 1980s. That's also a wonderful cut, so whenever I see loin chops with fat, I swoop in before one of you snatches it up!

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I have absolutely no idea what the hell a "Super Frites" is, nor can I even guess what "Pik!" means.

But the worst part is that they are delicious! But I am currently on a low-carb diet, courtesy of the spectacular bread I have been eating for the last six months.

Bastards! How do they stay slim and eat all of those baguettes?

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These are pretty much the most delicious things one can do with jalapeños!

I just harvested red jalapenos today. I'm going to open them lengthwise and smoke them in hickory until I get tired of tending the fire, and then I'm going to dry them.

In the past, I've pickled them. I love red jalapenos.

Posted by: Bombadil at August 03, 2025 07:06 PM (MX0bI)

Making Adobo is imperative though!
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I use a lot of salt in my cooking, because it is the most important spice, and it is absolutely delicious! I don't worry about health effects because they have been stupendously overblown by the medical community and a compliant media.

I also do not use iodized table salt, not because I care about the iodine, but because it is impossible to cook with! I use my hands to portion salt, and Kosher salt is just perfect for that. The crystals are exactly the correct size for pinching and sprinkling.

Sea salt is also great, so when I went shopping to stock my kitchen with essentials for our Paris sojourn, I bought a container of sea salt, not realizing that it was the same crystal size and shape of our iodized salts here in America.

Yuck! So off the the market, where I found this stuff.

Looks perfect. Except the crystals were monstrous! easily the largest-sized cooking salt I have ever seen. The photo doesn't do it justice. I think each crystal is about the size of a ping-pong ball.

I'm not sure what it's for, but I used it to salt meat, although only well in advance. The crystals took so long to dissolve that I needed several hours before cooking, otherwise there would be bits of salt on the meat. Which, now that I think about it, doesn't really matter!

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I'm not much of a tea drinker; I am obsessive about coffee instead! But there are people who like the stuff, including the crazy lady who lives in my house, so I have out of necessity learned something about tea!

And that's the way to do it. Loose tea is usually fresher, often of higher quality, and significantly less expensive than the equivalent tea packed in tea bags. There are also dozens of different teas available loose that are not packaged in bags, so anyone who wants to dip their toes in the world of tea is far better off with loose.

But...do people sell loosies on the street?

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I thought France would have good garlic, but the Frogs seem to have the same problem we have in the U.S. At least they don't import filthy garlic from China. Pork is great here, but no game, so send all of your extra antelope to: cbd dot aoshq at gmail dot com.

Who are those poor deluded souls We know who shakes 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 or fifty years, but it is worth it!