. sous vide . fermentation . dry curing .
Here’s my take on quail scotch eggs. The recipe is rather simple but it does require some attention to cooking times unless you want to serve quail scotch rubber balls. I know it sounds kinda daunting deep-frying a hard-boiled egg, especially a tiny one like a quail egg but it isn’t that hard, like I said, […]
Ok, yes, I got extremely lazy this time and chose the easy way out. Pork meat already marinaded… as in.. the marinade sits in the pack with the raw pork… roll your eyes all you want but it looked like heaven to me. I haven’t done this in at least 10 years. I remember back in […]
Before we go any further I want to warn you. I just participated in the killing of a pig. I also documented it with pictures. I will do my best to avoid excessively-graphic imagery but as you may know, the process of butchering an animal is a dramatic event so if you’re not comfortable with this kind of […]
I will admit I wasn’t the biggest fan of tamales in general until like 2 weeks ago. I had some amazing ones at the farmer’s market here in Brentwood. Usually, when I get them at other places it’s always same story… dry, boring, bland, like what’s the point of all this. I thought they were hopeless and […]
![Another one of those recipes that almost got left behind. I took the photos weeks ago and I even uploaded them to my site but never got around to write about it which is weird.. guess was distracted by trying not to destroy my blog while making changes to it. It's happened. I love pork chops but they can go wrong pretty easily. They overcook really quick. And you know what that's like.. yeah... rubber soles. Totally unattractive. If you have the time and the equipment go sous vide. No doubt about that. If you don't then sear them in a really hot pan a couple of minutes per side. Obviously we're dealing with pork and we need to make sure it is safe to eat. Trichinosis is a concern and pork should be cooked throughly. Cooking meat throughly doesn't mean overcooking it though. The parasite in question actually dies at fairly low temperatures which is great news. This excerpt from a USDA document is interesting: Cooking - Commercial preparation of pork products by cooking requires that meat be heated to internal temperatures which have been shown to inactivate trichinae. For example, Trichinella spiralis is killed in 47 minutes at 52° C (125.6° F), in 6 minutes at 55° C (131° F), and in < 1 minute at 60° C (140° F). It should be noted that these times and temperatures apply only when the product reaches and maintains temperatures evenly distributed throughout the meat. Alternative methods of heating, particularly the use of microwaves, have been shown to give different results, with parasites not completely inactivated when product was heated to reach a prescribed end-point temperature. The U.S. Code of Federal Regulations for processed pork products reflects experimental data, and requires pork to be cooked for 2 hours at 52.2° C (126° F), for 15 minutes at 55.6° C (132° F), and for 1 minute at 60° C (140° F). But how can one translate this into a recipe? If you're cooking the meat sous vide... it's a no brainer. Set the water bath to 125.6F and cook the meat until the core has spent 47 minutes at this temperature for example. Of course. bare in mind that depending on the thickness of the chop, the total cooking time will need to be calculated. It's usually a few hours for individual chops just like the paragraph above suggests. Now, if you're cooking the chops in a skillet... things get a bit trickier and experience plays a big role in getting the meat cooked through but not overcooked. The thicker the chop, the trickier it gets. The leaner the chop, the quicker it cooks... all these catches. I personally observe a few things while pan searing pork chops at home: Thickness... I stay at about a inch or less other wise, sous vide, grill or roast. I bring the meat to room temperature. I salt the meat way ahead of time. If I have time I brine the chops instead I use a thermometer. I sear the chops in a really hot skillet a couple of minutes per side. I check internal temperature at various points. I finish in the oven if needed otherwise... I cover the pan with a lid and remove from the heat until cooked through. This might take several minutes so I check with a thermometer periodically. Sounds like a pain in the ass and it is but some repetition helps. Done a few times it becomes second nature. To my advantage it's really hard not to kill this parasite. If I work above 130F for the internal temperature it's pretty safe and the chop should be pretty juicy still. Anyways, don't take my word for it. I'm not an expert in the field that's the sort of thing I keep in mind when I'm cooking pork. Same with game meats. So moving on! Here is the recipe: [yumprint-recipe id='9'] enjoy!](https://thatothercookingblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/img_6621-1200x1200.jpg)
Another one of those recipes that almost got left behind during my transition to a self -hosted account. I took the photos weeks ago and I even uploaded them to my site but never got around to write about it which is weird.. guess was distracted by trying not to destroy my blog while making […]
Eggs, Pisto and Pork Bits! Yeah, this is gonna be a quick update and a quick recipe. I have finally migrated my old wordpress.com site entirely over to this new .org world. Wasn’t easy. Today I spend the day redirecting URLs, optimizing images, fixing broken links. This the the cool thing about self-hosting. You have […]
Before we get into this paella de pollo y cochino let me explain where I’ve been these last 3 weeks (I did mention it in the previous post but I still have a bit left I need to get out of my system). So 3 weeks agoI was getting ready to move my site to a […]
Boneless Pork Center Loin Cut Sous Vide. I didn’t even want to eat this thing it looked so damn pretty. Awesome roast..well, a roast of sorts. Having to roast in the oven or on a grill is fun and I love it with all the inaccuracies involved, they still yield delicious results. In our 80F […]
Let me sound like a late night infomercial for a second here. If you ever wanted to eat like royalty but still had to cook it yourself because you aren’t royalty (maybe you are, I’m not), this dinner, if you like pork, might be the answer and it takes about 15 minutes to make. When […]
It might seem as if meat is the only thing featured on this blog. What’s wrong with that? 🙂 no, seriously, I will make an effort to bring more vegetable centric dishes to this site. I want to write about the beautiful produce available in the region and I also want explore seafood more extensively, […]