The Baltimore Snacker

Snacking State-by-State: New Jersey IV - That Daffy Taffy

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:57:00 +0000

Throughout diners and along boardwalks and seashores in New Jersey, you will find more comfort food than the Jersey Devil can shake a stick at. There is pizza. There is the classic "ripper dog" - crunchy and split on the outside, soft on the inside. And there is salt water taffy, commonly found down here when you go to Ocean City, MD, or Rehoboth Beach, DE. Did you know that salt water taffy comes from Atlantic City? You want to take a bet on that?

One thing is certain though: It was Joseph Fralinger who popularized the salt water taffy and became Atlantic City's Saltwater Taffy King. Fralinger realized the potential of selling the candy to bathers and boardwalk visitors, and he saw there was a market for taking home the taffy as a souvenir. As an experiment, he boxed up the candy and he coudn't keep up with the demand. [Virtual New Jersey Shore 1999]

I've never made taffy before. In fact, I've made very little candy at all before. So in the name of science, here's what I can do now in case the Candy Kitchen is closed and I am in desperate need of salt water taffy.

The Recipe: Salt-Water Taffy

Out of all the recipes I found,the most straight-forward came from the Accidental Scientist website, which gives not only ingredients and tools but also explanations for why some of the ingredients need to be added.

* sugar (had it)
* corn starch (to make it smooth - had it)
* light corn syrup (to keep the taffy from crystallizing)
* butter (had it)
* water (also had it)
* salt (this too)
* glycerin (the food-grade, candy-making kind, not the topical kind. This is to give the taffy a creamy texture. it is, apparently, optional. The only place I could find the edible kind of glycerin was in the candy & cake section of Michael's, made - what a surprise - by Wilton)
* food coloring and flavorings (while you don't have to have these, it'll taste better. I used vanilla for some of the batch, and almond extract for the rest)
* In addition, you will need squares of parchment or wax paper to wrap the pieces of taffy in.

Put the sugar and cornstarch in your pot or saucepan, before you start heating it.

Next, add the corn syrup...

...the glycerin...

and the butter, water and salt.

Turn on medium heat and stir until it begins to boil. It's best to use a wooden spoon for this.

Once it begins to boil, stop stirring and wait for it to get to somewhere between 270 and 290°F (soft crack stage - that is, if you take a bit of the sugar mixture and drop it into water, it'll disperse as threads. When you pull it out, it will be slightly pliable before breaking).

Use a pastry brush - or in lieu of that, a wet piece of paper towel held by tongs - to wipe down the sides. This keeps extra pieces of sugar from falling back in and recrystallizing.

When it reaches the soft-crack stage, take it off the heat and add whatever food coloring and flavoring you plan to add.

I wanted different kinds of taffy. This batch was yellow and vanilla-flavored.

This batch was red and almond-flavored.

Pour the taffy onto a greased cookie sheet, or marble slab. This latter thing wasn't an option, since I don't have a marble slab lying around anywhere. It is thick enough that these two taffies won't mix with each other very much.

When cool enough to handle, oil or butter up those hands and get to pullin'. You will need to pull over and over again for several minutes. The recipe says ten. I got good results with five, but should have gone longer to be honest.

Hey, you try pulling taffy with greasy hands while taking a photo of you in the process of doing this!

Roll or pull into a 1/2 inch rope.

Grease a knife or pair of kitchen shears and cut the taffy rope into one inch pieces.

As the taffy sits and hardens a little, cut up your parchment into squares.

With all the stirring, oiling, cutting and boiliing, this was the most tedious part.

This is my first taffy-making experience. This taffy is more buttery and just as sweet as any I've bought before. It's also a little tougher. One thing I noticed: the pink taffy ended up being harder than the yellow. I'm not exactly sure why. Maybe I pulled the yellow taffy longer, or had more oil on my hands when I did it? Sadly, after a few hours the pink taffy was just so rock hard that, in the interest of not breaking my teeth, I had to throw it out. The yellow taffy, however, stayed chewy, and again I am not sure why. Anyway, they both taste lovely (when the pink taffy was edible, anyway), and now I don't have to spend $10 on a box the next time I head to Rehoboth!

- - - - -

It's time to leave the Jersey Shore (seriously, I hate that show). Now we head from the Northeast to the Southwest, and see what the Land of Enchantment has to offer. It's green chiles and frybread galore in New Mexico.

Sources:

Accidental Scientist (Exploratorium). "Saltwater Taffy Recipe". Date unknown. © The Exploratorium, www.exploratorium.edu, 2011

Cristaldi, Justin R. "Little Italy Across the Hudson". PRIMO Magazine, September/October 2001. Copyright Cristaldi Communications 1999-2001.

Giudice, Teresa, with Heather MacLean. Skinny Italian: Eat It and Enjoy It - Live La Bella Vita and Look Great, Too! Hyperion: New York, 2010

Jersey Pork Roll (JerseyPorkRoll.com). "What is pork roll?" Published 2005. Copyright JerseyPorkRoll 2011.

Schwartz, Arthur. Naples at Table: Cooking in Campania. HarperCollins: New York, 1999.

Stern, Jane, and Michael Stern. 500 Things to Eat Before It's Too Late. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: Boston, 2009.

Virtual New Jersey Shore (VirtualNJShore.com). "Salt Water Taffy at the Jersey Shore". Published 1999. Copyright New Jersey MetroNET, Inc., 1999.

Some information also obtained from Wikipedia's "New Jersey" page and other pages, and the Food Timeline State Foods link to "New Jersey".

Snacking State-by-State: New Jersey III: Triple Bypass and make it snappy! (or "Now we're on a [pork] roll")

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 13:16:00 +0000

Once you cross the Mason-Dixon Line, you enter a world of meats that you don't really see too often in Baltimore. There's scrapple (ick), which is not uncommon in Baltimore but still more of a Pennsylvania thing. And there's the pork roll (the South Jersey name for what is known in North Jersey as "Taylor ham"). Pork roll is a New Jersey original, which I had seen on occasion at the Eddie's of Roland Park. But apart from that, I had absolutely no clue what it was. It was time to find out.

Official Name: State of New Jersey

State Nicknames: The Garden State

Admission to the US: December 18, 1787 (#3)

Capital: Trenton (10th largest)

Other Important Cities: Newark (largest), Jersey City (2nd largest), Paterson (3rd largest)
Region: Northeast, Mid-Atlantic; Middle Atlantic (US Census)

RAFT Nations: Clambake

Bordered by: Delaware and Delaware Bay (southwest); Pennsylvania (west); New York (north and northeast); Atlantic Ocean (east)

Official State Foods and Edible Things: honeybee (for the honey, not the bee); brook trout (fish); knobbed whelk (shell)

Some Famous and Typical Foods: Italian, Italian, and more Italian; diner foods; pork roll (aka Taylor ham); "ripper" dogs and various preparations thereof; very diverse cuisines (including Italian, Indian, South American, etc) around Philadelphia (southwest) and New York City (northeast); Did I mention Italian?

What exactly is this "pork roll" thing? Well first of all, as Jane & Michael Stern point out in their 500 Things to Eat Before It's Too Late (I love this book), not all Jerseyites call it "pork roll": In fact, they refer to it by the North Jersey name of "Taylor ham"

Taylor ham, which is what Spam would be if it went to the gym on a regular basis, is a big, coarse-textured sausage that arrives in burlap and is sliced thin like bologna - but not too thin - and pan-fried like bacon... [It] is a wanton comfort food that no high-on-the-hog pork can match. [Stern & Stern 2009:111]

Surprise of surprises, there is actually a pork roll page. And they point out that the "pork roll"/"Taylor ham" divide is pretty much through the middle of the state, with folks closer to Philly calling it "pork roll" and those nearer to New York City calling it "Taylor ham". The Jersey Pork Roll page suggests that maybe Middletown (actually in North Jersey but you can draw a line northeast-southwest to Trenton from there) is the dividing line? From their page:

A few weeks ago [Me: around 2005, week unknown] I heard from two different people originally from Brooklyn, NY, and they both called it Taylor Ham, but a woman in Queens knew it as pork roll. [JerseyPorkRoll.com 2005]

If anyone has any thoughts about where the pork roll/Taylor ham mini-Mason-Dixon Line lies, the author Kate gives her email on the same page if you want to let her know.

The Jersey Pork Roll page also has many recipes for this first cousin to Spam and bologna. But I was inspired by the Sterns and the Roadfoodsters, as I have been with so many sandwiches (note: Illinois' Horseshoe sandwich, Indiana's breaded pork tenderloin sandwich, Iowa's loosemeats, Missouri's St. Paul sandwich, etc, etc. Hey, why are all these sandwiches from the Midwest anyway?) They talk about a diner favorite, the combo of pork roll, egg cooked however you want it, and yellow cheese in a hard roll. This sandwich is known as the "Triple Bypass" in diner speak [Stern & Stern 2009:111]. And why not give a nod to the diner, seeing as how New Jersey is the diner capital of America, if not the world?

The Recipe: Pork Roll (Taylor Ham) "Triple Bypass"

For this sandwich - which you must eat in moderation, since three slices of pork roll amount to about 200 calories - you will need just a few ingredients:

* pork roll/Taylor ham (one sandwich typically has three slices of pork roll, pan fried. It is becoming more common to see it here in Maryland, though I've never really seen it except in the Eddie's of Roland Park or Graul's (where one enthusiastic cashier told me how he grew up on the stuff in Jersey and just loves it. Apparently they sell it in large loaves that you can slice yourself. I've only ever seen it in the pre-sliced format through the Taylor pork roll company, for about $4. Also note: Jerseyites point out that "Taylor pork roll" is just a brand name, while "Taylor ham" is the North Jersey name for pork roll).
* eggs (a sandwich may have two eggs, cooked to specification. I default to "scrambled" in this situation)
* yellow cheese (two slices, or more if angioplasty sounds like a good thing for the future)
* butter (this isn't health food here, people. Just give up and fry the damn thing in butter. I used a tablespoon)
* hard roll (one per sandwich)

Take out three slices of pork roll...

...and score them. This is what cooks in New Jersey typically do to their pork roll slices to keep them from curling at the edges. My mother, who hasn't heard of pork roll before, used to fry up bologna when I was much younger and wrap it around a hot dog. However she never scored it, so it did indeed curl up around the edges.

Melt your butter in a pan.

Scramble those eggs (or cook them some other way that is conducive to being placed on a sandwich)

When the eggs are done, put the pork roll in the pan (really, I don't think it matters if you do the eggs or the pork roll first).

See the scoring? I see why they do that now.

Fry until it is done to your liking. This looks good for me.

Melt the cheese, preferably not in the pan like I did. If for some odd reason you do this leave it in the pan literally for three or four seconds before removing. Or just melt it on the roll in a toaster or microwave.

And now for the assembly: slice your hard roll and put the cheese on one side.

Place the pork roll slices on top.

And then add the eggs. This is my guesswork here. Perhaps it's layered in a different way. I don't know. It's all going to look the same going in.

I felt a little guilty eating this. It was so buttery and fattening, and the pork roll does taste like a cross between Spam, bologna and Canadian bacon, and about half as soft as Spam. I'm probably not going to buy lots of this stuff in the future, but at least I know what the pork roll tastes like!

Sources:

This gives new meaning to the phrase "Old tub o' lard"

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 05:25:00 +0000

Ew:

Retired chemist Hans Feldmeier, 87, told AFP [Agence-France Presse?] he had received the pig fat as a student in 1948... [He] said he had been given the tub [of lard] together with two tins of noodles and some milk. "I just didn't want to throw it away," he explained. Finally, after 64 years, he took it to food safety agents and was astonished at their appraisal. [9 News Australia 2012]

Feldmeier said it was gritty, lacked taste or smell, and "looked old" but in all was still edible. And he can have it too, right next to the big jar of Vegemite that I'm also not going near.

One thing I can say: at least he didn't also hold on to the milk for 64 years.

UPDATE - Apparently I missed that the gentleman was from Germany (focused on the fact that an Australian news agency was reporting this). Still: Ew.

Snacking State-by-State: New Jersey II - Hey Mambo! Mambo Napoletano!

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:01:00 +0000

As noted in the previous State-by-State post, the basic tomato sauce so common in Naples serves as a basis for many sauces, including the famous "Sunday sauces" that permeated Italian-American kitchens for decades, simmering for hours on the back burner while the family went to church (Yikes, did my great-grandmother do this in Baltimore's Little Italy? Leaving the burner on while you're not there just doesn't seem like a safe idea).

Official Name: State of New Jersey

State Nicknames: The Garden State

Admission to the US: December 18, 1787 (#3)

Capital: Trenton (10th largest)

Other Important Cities: Newark (largest), Jersey City (2nd largest), Paterson (3rd largest)
Region: Northeast, Mid-Atlantic; Middle Atlantic (US Census)

RAFT Nations: Clambake

Bordered by: Delaware and Delaware Bay (southwest); Pennsylvania (west); New York (north and northeast); Atlantic Ocean (east)

Official State Foods and Edible Things: honeybee (for the honey, not the bee); brook trout (fish); knobbed whelk (shell)

Some Famous and Typical Foods: Italian, Italian, and more Italian; diner foods; pork roll (aka Taylor ham); "ripper" dogs and various preparations thereof; very diverse cuisines (inckluding Italian, Indian, South American, etc) around Philadelphia (southwest) and New York City (northeast); Did I mention Italian?

Italian-Americans have continued the Sunday sauce tradition, maybe or maybe not on Sundays per se, but I digress. One must also remember that Italian food need not be the fattening atrocity that it has become in the United States. After all, our spaghetti and meatballs with powdered "Parmesan" "cheese" and a big chunk of garlic bread is about as "Italian" as General Tso's chicken with fried rice and an egg roll is "Chinese". And about as healthy.

And yet, we see diet gurus touting the "Mediterranean" diet. There really is something to that. It's even the basis of Skinny Italian, a cookbook by Teresa Giudice, one of the stars of Bravo's Real Housewives of New Jersey. I have to say that I've never seen any of these Real Housewives shows: Jersey, New York, Atlanta, etc, etc. I'm not sure what the allure is (and I call myself "gay" - p'shaw), so I don't know anything about Giudice or her costars. But I did think it was a good idea for this New Jersey post to look at Italian recipes that were actually made by somebody, you know, from New Jersey. Most of the other Italian-American cookbooks are super heavy on recipes from all boroughs of New York City. I'm not looking at New York yet. And I probably should eat healthier anyway.

In Skinny Italian, Giudice, who is first-generation Italian-American, lays out a basic guide for eating Italian food in a more authentic way, and as I note in my previous post, that simple tomato sauce is a basis for so many sauces. Of all the sauces that you can base this one on, I was most intrigued by Giudice's Napoletano Sauce, being a quarter napoletano myself - okay, my great-grandparents were from Salerno, not Naples. Okay, a small little mountain village to the northeast of Salerno, but my great-grandmother apparently still considered herself napoletana (not that I could ask her, since she died almost 25 years before I was born). Giudice implies that this whole meat sauce, which was her mother's and which she names for her daughter Gia, is a staple in Italian-American households:

Napoletano sauce is typically what Italians serve at their weekend family dinners, and it's also called "Sunday gravy." It would sit on the back of the stove simmering for hours while everyone went to Mass. When you got home, the smell...unbelievable! [Giudice and MacLean 2010:121]

Keeping in mind that "many different ways to make it" part, I adjusted the meats somewhat, but still got an amazing sauce.

The Recipe: Napoletano Sauce (a Real Housewife original)

For this sauce, on pages 121-123 of Skinny Italian, you will need the following:

* 1 recipe basic tomato sauce (about 3 1/2 cups - one of Giudice's "Quickie Sauce" recipes on page 117 of her book should yield this)
* beef (Giudice calls for 1 1/2 lbs of beef top round steak, but I found it cheaper to buy a pound of Angus beef boneless chuck steak, which was cheaper, for about $4.50 on sale at the Harris Teeter)
* a few pork ribs (okay, here I really deviated, as all the recipes I saw - this one as well as Arthur Schwartz's in his Naples at Table - call for ribs. I wasn't near an actual butcher, and didn't feel like buying an entire rack of ribs just for a few for the sauce. So for this one I bought pork loin chops, bone in, again at Harris Teeter, for about $3.50. I know it won't be the same, but again, these recipes aren't all the same).
* onion (had it)
* pecorino romano cheese (bought a chunk for about $10 a pound - and I will be using the rest of this often - at Pastore's Deli).
* parsley (no fresh on hand, so yes I did use the dried stuff)
* olive oil (had it)
* red wine (same - I used a lovely Sugar Pie red wine from Trader Joe's that I also used in a cranberry sauce a few weeks ago. Not a big fan of red wine but I like this one tremendously)
* salt and pepper (I just used more of that ground Mexican red chile pepper with the kosher salt).

Grate a substantial portion of the pecorino romano to start off with.

Mix the cheese with the parsley...

...and press it into the raw meat.

You will next brown this cheesy parsleyed meat in the olive oil.

Take out the meat and set aside...

...and saute your onion in the oil until translucent.

Add to this your red wine, and get the meaty bits off the bottom. Bring the wine to a boil.

Add back to the pot the meat, the salt and pepper.

Oh yeah, and the basic tomato sauce. You'll need that.

Here's where you need some patience: this sauce needs to cook for a few hours on the stove, partially covered, for the better part of two hours. I couldn't leave it alone, occasionally stirring and, er, tasting. Originally I was going to put this in the slow cooker until I read the "partially covered" part. You can't really do that with the slow cooker.

About half an hour in.

When finished cooking, take out the meat and cut it up.

I think I should have cut it more finely than I did.

Add the meat back to the sauce, stir, and serve!

This was a lovely, delicious sauce, and I daresay that it is thick enough I almost wanted to just sit down and eat it like a stew. But of course I didn't...

Though it should take a heartier pasta, I used the capellini I had on hand already. Really it still is a delicious sauce, so rich and vibrant. Hell, I think I'll need a bowl of the sauce by itself after all. Again, I'm not quite sure what these Real Housewives do, but if they're eating this then they must be doing something right, yes?

Sources:

Snacking State-by-State: New Jersey I - Come On-A My House, My House, I'm Gonna Make A-You Gravy... or Sauce

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 15:07:00 +0000

Most of us outside of the Garden State tend to think of New Jersey as one long turnpike, and that's about it. That does a disservice to the state, I think - a state that I have never bothered to get to know better. I'm not heading that way anytime soon, so the next best thing - no, not watching one of the many reality TV shows based in the state - is getting to know its food. That's what this project is all about, anyway.

Official Name: State of New Jersey
State Nicknames: The Garden State
Admission to the US: December 18, 1787 (#3)
Capital: Trenton (10th largest)
Other Important Cities: Newark (largest), Jersey City (2nd largest), Paterson (3rd largest)
Region: Northeast, Mid-Atlantic; Middle Atlantic (US Census)
RAFT Nations: Clambake
Bordered by: Delaware and Delaware Bay (southwest); Pennsylvania (west); New York (north and northeast); Atlantic Ocean (east)
Official State Foods and Edible Things: honeybee (for the honey, not the bee); brook trout (fish); knobbed whelk (shell)
Some Famous and Typical Foods: Italian, Italian, and more Italian; diner foods; pork roll (aka Taylor ham); "ripper" dogs and various preparations thereof; very diverse cuisines (inckluding Italian, Indian, South American, etc) around Philadelphia (southwest) and New York City (northeast); Did I mention Italian?

Flanked by Philadelphia to its southwest and New York City to its northeast, New Jersey is one of the more ethnically diverse states in the Northeastern region of the United States. As Wikipedia notes, New Jersey has some of the largest percentages of any state of Americans of Italian, Irish, African, German, Polish, Chinese, Jewish, Indian, Costa Rican, Cuban and Middle Eastern descent (among others). Jersey also has one of the largest percentages of American Muslims and American Jews. It's just a friggin' diverse place.

Among all ethnic groups in the Giardino State, New Jersey is by far best known for its large Italian-American population. Sure, when we think of Italians in the Northeast, we think of New Yorkers: the Bronx, Queens, Manhattan and so on have given us many of this nation's most famous celebrities of Italian heritage. But per capita, New Jersey just has more. And very, very few of them are orange. Hell, my great-grandparents came right over from Salerno. They weren't orange! Sure, they made a beeline right from Ellis Island to Baltimore, but had they stopped in Newark, they certainly would've stayed that same shade of olive that I remember my grandmother's skin looking like. But I digress.

New Jersey is specifically Southern in nature... Southern Italian, that is. As noted in PRIMO Magazine. In Newark, for example, we find many Americans of Sicilian, Campanian and Calabrese heritage. Italian-Americans in Newark arrived late in the 19th century, as they did to much of America. At one time, according to the author, Newark's 1st ward - "The North Ward (now the Central Ward) was once 95% or more Italian" [Cristaldi 2001]. It was once a bustling Little Italy in its own right, and even Frank Sinatra had baked goods shipped to him right from this neighborhood [Cristaldi 2001].

Of all the Italian foods that have become a part of the fabric of American food, none is more ubiquitous than tomato sauce. You need it for most of the other Italian foods that are popular in the US: pizzas, pastas, lasagnas, and so on. There are many variations on the basic tomato sauce. For a few years now I have used one I saw Adam "Amateur Gourmet" Roberts make (a la Lidia Bastianich) at the Baltimore Book Festival (Adam was cooking under a tent. I and my copy of his book got drenched by a severe downpour). Bastianich's recipe is a good one, but I've never bothered to use it as a base for other sauces. I will likely do that with the Bastianich sauce I have in the freezer. But instead I will familiarize myself with another "quick" recipe, this time from Naples (the reason for that will be clear in the next State-by-State post after this one). And I've been looking for a reason to use my copy of Arthur Schwartz's Naples at Table for a while now.

Schwartz's book, one I have kept on my bookshelf for years, has a whole chapter just on "The Classic Sauces" (or "Gravies" as referred to by some Italian-Americans, though by no means all). Many of them are made from those wondrous San Marzano tomatoes, which are now pretty easily available in major metro areas. One tomato sauce that serves as an important base for many heartier tomato sauces is the classic sugo di pomodoro - the smooth tomato sauce. Schwartz notes that while Neapolitans prefer to use fresh tomatoes, they feel no shame at all in using the preserved stuff.

Bottled tomatoes are definitely preferred over canned, and many households, even those in the center of bustling, urbgan Naples, still go to the trouble of putting up what they consider the world's best tomatoes - their own San Marzano, grown at the foot of Vesuvius as well as in gardens and farms all over the region. Bottled tomatoes are also sold in the groceries... In theory, they don't have as strong an acid edge (or metallic edge, if you will) as canned tomatoes, but all processed tomatoes, no matter what brand or in which material they are packed, get more acidic, bitter, and mushier with age. It's best to use canned or jarred tomatoes within six months of their packing. [Schwartz 1998: 50]

I bought myself a big old can of San Marzano tomatoes, which may very well have been packed before those requisite six months ago, for this recipe. A 35 ounce can will yield four cups of sauce if you keep the liquid in the sauce, instead of reserving it for something else like Schwartz suggests.

The Recipe: Sugo di Pomodoro Pelati (Smooth Neapolitan Tomato Sauce from Canned Tomatoes)

The recipe I used, with exact measurements, can be found on pages 50-51 of Schwartz's Naples at Table book. I made just a few minor adjustments, but still I didn't need that many ingredients. And you won't either.

* canned San Marzano tomatoes (note: not just tomatoes, and for the love of God not "Italian flavored tomatoes". These Campanian beauties are what you need for your homemade tomato sauce. This extra-large can was about $4 from Pastore's Italian Deli in Towson)
* olive oil (had it)
* onion & garlic (Schwartz actually suggests onion or garlic, but I wanted both. Neapolitan cuisine does not go all heavy on the garlic. It's a subtle, special flavor that is added in moderation)
* salt and hot pepper flakes (here I ground up a dried Mexican red chile)
* basil (had some in the freezer - frozen but just as flavorful)

Start by sauteing the garlic and onion. You need to remove the garlic after a few minutes in the oil. This is more difficult if you chop it up and throw it in. Trust me.

Note the beautiful tomatoes. While Schwartz suggests not adding the liquid, I wanted to do just that. Many recipes for this basic sauce say to add the liquid, while others say not to. I figured it was a personal decision.

Dump out those maters and squoosh 'em with a food mill (or lacking that, your hands).

Squooshed.

Add the tomatoes to the pot, along with the salt and pepper.

Let simmer for about 10 minutes, adding the basil towards the end, for a more intense flavor.

This is a pretty simple recipe, and not too different from others I have seen. With this, I don't understand why someone would use tomato sauce in a jar. It's about the same price considering how much you get, plus it has none of that crap in it. It's just a lovely tomato sauce. And in the next post, we'll see how this basic sauce becomes (yes) the base for something more complicated.

Sources:

NYPL Mega Menu Database

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:36:00 +0000

Why am I always the last one to see this stuff? I was doing research on early Indian restaurants in New York City - yes, this is what I do for fun - and came across a site that led me to this database on the New York Public Library website. It is an extensive database of restaurant menus dating back to the 19th century! Individuals can volunteer to transcribe them, or correct things that aren't correct. And it's not just New York restaurants, either. One random one that popped up: a 1955 menu from Baltimore's own Chesapeake Restaurant, once open near Penn Station and what is now the Charles Theater. Loving their entry for "Chicken Chesapeake In Casserole" for only $2.50. That would easily be ten times the amount today, almost 60 years later.

This is a time waster for a few hours.

(Menu cover from the Chesapeake Restaurant in Baltimore, c. 1955. Image linked from the New York Public Library Menu Database)

Snacking State-by-State: New Hampshire II - Meat pie, minus the whole Demon Barber thing

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 13:57:00 +0000

Most New Hampshirites trace their background to Ireland, Portugal, Italy and France. Given its close proximity to Québec, it stands to reason that French-Canadian cuisine would be found easily in New Hampshire (and all of northern New England). And yes, New Hampshire does have a significant French-Canadian population. According to the New Hampshire Historical Society, French-Canadians flooded into New Hampshire as other New Hampshirites headed west for other opportunities. Up to 50,000 French-Canadians lived in New Hamsphire by 1890 [NHHS 2011]. Today most French-Canadian-Americans in New Hampshire live in Manchester and Nashua, and in the northern areas of the state (if Wikipedia can be believed).

Official Name: State of New Hampshire
State Nicknames: The Granite State
Admission to the US: June 21, 1788 (#9)
Capital: Concord (3rd largest)
Other Important Cities: Manchester (largest), Nashua (2nd largest), Derry (4th largest)
Region: Northeast, New England; New England (US Census)
RAFT Nations: Maple Syrup
Bordered by: Maine (east); Atlantic Ocean (southeast); Massachusetts (south); Vermont (west); Québec (Canada) (north)
Official State Foods and Edible Things: white-tailed deer (animal); brook trout (freshwater game fish); striped bass (saltwater game fish)
Some Famous and Typical Foods: Irish and French-Canadian/Québecois foods; maple syrup, apples, cranberries; typical New England foods

Originally I had thought to tackle that Québecois classic, poutine, the famous combination of French fries and cheese curds covered in gravy. But I didn't find much on poutine in New Hampshire. Much easier to find were recipes for the very hearty French-Canadian meat pie known as tourtière. The tourtière is a particular treat around the Christmas season, and is specifically eaten on Christmas Eve. Yankee Magazine printed a charming story about Raymond "Moose" Despres and his mother's and grandmother's meat pies [Clark 2010] - the same type made by the mother and grandmother of the girl he fell for. That girl, Penny (Rousseau) Despres, shared her grandmother's tourtière recipe with

Yankee Magazine, and I attempt it below.

The Recipe: Memère Rousseau's Tourtière

For this tourtière you will need the following:

* pork (a few pounds of it, ground. I got some at the Fresh Market for about $4 per pound)
* potatoes (you will need a few cups, mashed)
* water (had it)
* salt (again, had it)
* onion (I actually ran out of onions, so I had to use shallots instead. At least they're popular in French cooking)
* 2 pie crusts (yes, again I was lazy. Sue me. But one thing to remember: Trader Joe's makes one hell of a pie crust, and it doesn't even have HFCS or hydrogenated anythings in it. Just costs $4)
* cloves (you will grind them)
* cinnamon (also ground)
* I forgot to put it in the photo, but you also need a little milk to brush over top the pie crust.

Put the pork, the onions/shallots, water and salt in a large pot and cook on a low flame for several hours. Yes, several hours, and constantly check on it, too. The above recipe says you need to let it cook for four hours.

I stopped at about 2 1/2, which was the bare minimum cooking time that I saw in any tourtière recipe in my research.

Meanwhile, mash up those potatoes.

Grind your spices.

And prepare your pie crusts. I used a 9 1/2" pie plate. Use at least a 9" one.

Mix the spices in with the pork mixture before you add it to the pie shell.

And then add the mashed potatoes.

Mix it all together.

And put it into the pie shell.

Cover with the other pie crust, crimp it, score it and maybe even make some sort of pretty design if you feel like it. I was kind of impressed with this ery French Canadian fleur-de-lis myself. I'm not the artistic type. I'd be lucky if I made a blob correctly.

Lightly brush milk over top of the top crust.

Bake for about 400°F for 30 minutes.

This is a hearty pie, which belies the tender crust covering it (guess I'll be lazy next time and go with Trader Joe's again). As for the meat: the thing that really does it for me is the ground clove and cinnamon spice blend. It's unexpected, and without it this would be a pretty dull pie. With it, it's quite a nice treat. And I will have to get a lot of exercise in after eating this pie.

- - - - -

We're heading down Interstate 95 next, and getting stuck on the turnpike for a while. It's time to find out what's cookin' in Jersey.

Sources:

Clark, Edie. "French Canadian meat pies are a family legacy (Best Cook: Meat Pie)". Yankee Magazine, January/February 2010.

Dojny, Brooke. The New England Cookbook. Harvard Common Press: Boston, 1999.

Hensperger, Beth, and Julie Kaufmann. Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook. Harvard Common Press: Boston, 2005.

New Hampshire Historical Society. "French Canadian Immigrants in New Hampshire" (PDF file "New Hampshire's French-Canadian Americans" linked to the NHHS "Education|Immigration Index".

New Hampshire Maple Producers Association (NHMPA). "Home page". Date unknown. Copyright NH Maple Producers 2001-2011.

Yankee Magazine. "Memère Rousseau's Tourtière (Meat Pie)". January 2010.

Some information also obtained from Wikipedia's "New Hampshire" page and other pages, and the Food Timeline State Foods link to "New Hampshire".

Snacking State-by-State: New Hampshire I - Beans, Beans and Nothing But Beans!

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 12:58:00 +0000

By the time you read this post, the nation will already have finished nursing its post-New Hampshire "first-in-the-nation primary" hangover. Far more exciting to me than watching a bunch of wanna-be presidents belittling each other is the food, which I will also be much better able to stomach.

Official Name: State of New Hampshire
State Nicknames: The Granite State
Admission to the US: June 21, 1788 (#9)
Capital: Concord (3rd largest)
Other Important Cities: Manchester (largest), Nashua (2nd largest), Derry (4th largest)
Region: Northeast, New England; New England (US Census)
RAFT Nations: Maple Syrup
Bordered by: Maine (east); Atlantic Ocean (southeast); Massachusetts (south); Vermont (west); Québec (Canada) (north)
Official State Foods and Edible Things: white-tailed deer (animal); brook trout (freshwater game fish); striped bass (saltwater game fish)
Some Famous and Typical Foods: Irish and French-Canadian/Québecois foods; maple syrup, apples, cranberries; typical New England foods

Like other areas of New England, New Hampshire has many of those classic Yankee dishes and staples: pies, cranberries, and of course maple syrup. It stands to reason that maple should play a key role in the cuisine of northern New England. The Granite State may not be the country's leading supplier of the stuff, but it still taps out a lot of it, producing around 90,000 gallons a year [NHMPA 2011].

Not only is maple syrup a key staple of Yankee cuisine; so is the incredible, edible baked bean. Those of us outside of New England identify Boston-style baked beans, unmistakably infused with molasses, as the standard. However - and this I did not know - there are different styles of baked beans across New England. In New Hampshire and Vermont, the sweetener of choice isn't molasses. Take a guess what it is. If you haven't been paying attention, just look at the previous paragraph.

The Recipe: New Hampshire Maple Baked Beans (Slow Cooker Style)

As I often do when consulting about all food things New England, I consulted the works of Brooke Dojny. In her definitive New England Cookbook [1999] she lists a different baked bean recipe for each of New England's six states. Her entry for New Hampshire was not quick to find:

I consulted several cookbooks from the Granite State, including a charming community collection, The Stoddard Old Home Days Cookbook, from a town near Keene in the southern part of the state. They all agree pretty much on the seasoning formula I use in this recipe, which calls for a bit of tomato ketchup to cut the sweetness of the maple syrup. [Dojny 1999:150]

The Stoddard recipe is the one I attempt below, with one big change: instead of cooking the beans over the stove for three or four hours, I decided to adapt it for the slow cooker. I didn't really have to change any of the quantities, though I did follow the basic outline of the Vermont-based Maple Pork and Beans recipe that Beth Hensperger and Julie Kaufmann lay out in their Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook [2005:196-197]. More or less, I used Dojny's ingredients with Hemsperger and Kaufmann's recipe.

Here's what you'll need for these baked beans:

* small beans (Dojny suggests navy beans or something similar. I chose Great Northern ones)
* salt pork (ah yes, that staple of New England cooking. I never realized how difficult it is to find salt pork in Baltimore, in any other format than the sliced pound of it. A 12 oz package runs about $4)
* maple syrup (the grade will affect the flavor: a darker syrup will yield a more intense maple flavor, a lighter one will be less overpowering and more mellow. At least, that's what the slow cooker book suggests)
* ketchup (just a tad, to counteract the intense sweetness of the maple syrup)
* dry mustard (had it)
* onion (scored and pushed into the beans - you shouldn't chop it up)
* salt and pepper (here, and they're in effect)

Start the night before by soaking your beans in just enough water to cover them. Unless you want crunchy beans - hey, maybe that's your thing and all, but anyway...

♪ ♫ ♪ I got soaked beans the morning af-terrrrrrr... ♪ ♫ ♪

♪ ♫ ♪ I've got the onion nice and scorrrrrred... ♪ ♫ ♪

♪ ♫ ♪ Why don't we pour the maple syruuuuuupppp...
On the beans that will soon be warrrrrrrrm... ♪ ♫ ♪

(Ah, the 70's. The Poseiden Adventure. Anyway...)

After you pour the maple syrup onto the beans in your slow cooker, add the ketchup and spices.

Then cover barely with water.

Push the onion (which I halved) and salt pork into the beans. If you have one big chunk of salt pork, which I did not, Hensperber and Kaufmann suggest that you cut the fat off and put it in separately with the meaty part of the salt pork.

Set the slow cooker for about 10 to 12 hours on low. Again, if you have one big chunk of salt pork, as once again I did not, you will remove the separate fat piece from the beans after about 6 hours, and then slow cook for another 6 hours.

Remove the onion and discard, or use it for something.

I've never made baked beans before, either on the stove or in the stove or in the slow cooker. The flavor and smell of the maple is not too intense, but it is there and it is lovely. In fact, I think I much prefer this recipe instead of the molasses one. Plus, the salt pork literally melts in your mouth (I'm talking the non-fat part here). It is luscious and hearty at the same time. How often does that happen?

Sources:

Clark, Edie. "French Canadian meat pies are a family legacy (Best Cook: Meat Pie)". Yankee Magazine, January/February 2010.

Dojny, Brooke. The New England Cookbook. Harvard Common Press: Boston, 1999.

Hensperger, Beth, and Julie Kaufmann. Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook. Harvard Common Press: Boston, 2005.

New Hampshire Historical Society. "French Canadian Immigrants in New Hampshire" (PDF file "New Hampshire's French-Canadian Americans" linked to the NHHS "Education|Immigration Index".

New Hampshire Maple Producers Association (NHMPA). "Home page". Date unknown. Copyright NH Maple Producers 2001-2011.

Yankee Magazine. "Memère Rousseau's Tourtière (Meat Pie)". January 2010.

Some information also obtained from Wikipedia's "New Hampshire" page and other pages, and the Food Timeline State Foods link to "New Hampshire".

And now it's the City's turn

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 23:31:00 +0000

Yes, Bawlmer Restaurant Week starts tonight and goes through the 29th. They've made some economical (for us) changes, too: three course fixed price dinners are now either $30.12 or $20.12 depending on the location, and - get this - some places will offer two course lunches are only $15.12. Now to find the time to get out there this week!

Stop SOPA (no, not Spanish for "SOUP")!

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 05:31:00 +0000

Even Google gets something right now and then. I'm going to let them take it from here.

Snacking State-by-State: Nevada III - Luck Be a Lush Tonight!

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 12:12:00 +0000

As I meant to say before, when Americans think of Nevada they think of Las Vegas. And oh, so much comes to mind when we think of Vegas: casinos, gambling, singers - and whatever you would call Céline Dion, buffets galore (the one time I went I spent some quality time with the buffet at the Aladdin), CSI, the Strip... excess beyond excess!!! (yes, even one of my favorite forensic dramas. Any forensic scientist will tell you the equipment they have there just doesn't exist yet. Again: excess). It should surprise no one that many Vegas casinos regularly gave free drinks to patrons of their casinos. It should surprise few that mixologists have found a prominent place here. It should surprise everyone that, despite the many cocktails that have been created in Sin City, none of America's most famous ones come from here.

Official Name: State of Nevada
State Nicknames: The Silver State; The Sagebrush State
Admission to the US: October 31, 1864 (#36)
Capital: Carson City (2nd largest)
Other Important Cities: Las Vegas (largest), Henderson (2nd largest), Reno (4th largst), Sparks (5th lagest)
Region: West, Rocky Mountains, Great Basin, Southwest; Mountain (US Census)
RAFT Nations: Pinyon Nut; Chile Pepper
Bordered by: Oregon & Idaho (north), Utah (east), Arizona (southeast), California (south and west)
Official State Foods and Edible Things: desert bighorn sheep (mammal - though generally not hunted); single-leaf pinyon (tree - for the pine nuts); Lahontan cutthroat trout (fish - whose low numbers are currently being replenished)
Some Famous and Typical Foods: Native American and frontier foods, specificalyl Native foods typical of Great Basin peoples (including pine nuts); Basque cuisine; buffets and Vegas-style excess (in Las Vegas)

Many American cities boast signature cocktails. New Orleans has its Sazerac. New York has a few, it's so durned big (the Manhattan, the Long Island Iced Tea, etc). And while the Mint Julep isn't indigenous to Louisville, the Kentucky Derby is its most famous venue. Hell, even Baltimore has its Black Eyed Susan around Preakness time (not the most famous drink, but I had to recognize). So I figured that Las Vegas has contributed at least one famous cocktail to the American culinary landscape. While investigating the many cocktails of Las Vegas, I found many that I had never heard of, some of which having been designated among the top American drinks of their year. One notable one is the Cable Car, cousin to the Sidecar. Notably served throughout Las Vegas, it was created by Tony Abou-Ganim at the Starlight Room... in San Francisco. He did bring it with him to Vegas, but it isn't an indigenous cocktail.

One very popular (but again, non-indigenous) cocktail in Las Vegas is the Mexican Mojito - according to the I4Vegas website, it is perhaps the most popular one in Vegas. I wouldn't know, but apparently it is a common one, a twist on the classic mojito replacing rum with, of course, tequila.

The Recipe: Mexican Mojito

While there are slight variations, the version of the Mexican mojito I used comes from Deborah Schneider at Leite's Culinaria. For one of hers you will need:

* 100% agave blanco tequila (Since I don't drink many cocktails, and never drink straight liquor, I have fairly little around my kitchen - especially tequila, which will hit you when you least expect it like a ton o' bricks: Morelia, 2000, and an all-you-can-eat taco bar - trust me, I know. I could have bought a large bottle for $40 or $50 that would have lasted me, probably, my entire life. Instead, I bought a one-shot bottle of Patrón for the eye-popping price of $7. This had better be a damn good cocktail.)
* fresh mint sprigs (hmmm, sounds like that mint julep so far. None fresh from my garden this time. I had to buy some for $2)
* lime wedges (about half a dollar for one lime at Giant)
* sugar
* ice cubes
* carbonated water (a bottle isn't that pricey, under a dollar)
* lemon-lime soda (you may have some lying around)
* more mint and lime for garnish

First, muddle the mint, lime and sugar together. I could'e used a spoon. Instead I used my pestle. Be careful if you go that route.

Add a few ounces of ice to the glass.

And then add your tequila. Next you shake it. Schneider suggests using a shaker, which I didn't have on hand.

Don't laugh.

A few stray splashes over the sink later, the tequila, ice, lime, sugar and mint are all mixed up.

To this you will add some carbonated water...

...and some lemon-lime soda: Sprite, 7-Up, Sun Drop, hell why not go crazy and use ginger ale instead? Of course, that will make a different cocktail.

I'm glad the lady at The Wine Source recommended the small bottle of Patrón, because it was a good white tequila to use for this drink. It's got the nice kick of tequila inside a mojito. What else can I say? It's a lovely drink. But once again, I was reminded just how hard tequila can hit a person. Even with this meager amount, I wasn't stumbling but I was feeling it for more than a few minutes at least.

- - - - -

We'll be spending some quality time mostly on the East Coast for a while, and our next stop is one of those early primary states. Bust out the maple syrup and pie dough: it's Granite Time in New Hampshire.

Sources:

Detterick-Piñeda, Cynthia. "Piñon Cakes - Pine Nut Cakes How To Make Pine Nut Cakes". WhatsCookingAmerica.Net, date unknown. Copyright WhatsCookingAmerica.Net 2011.

Elllingsworth, Christy. "Basque potatoes". The Daily Dish, posted January 4, 2011.

I4Vegas.Com. "Popular Las Vegas Drinks". Date unknown. Copyright I4Vegas.Com 1999-2011.

The Modern Mixologist (TheModernMixologist.com). "Cable Car: Tony's Signature Cocktail". Date unknown. Copyright The Modern Mixologist, 2007.

PineNut.Com. "History of Pine Nuts & The People of the Great Basin". PineNut.Com, date unknown. Copyright PineNut.Com 1998-2011.

Schneider, Deborah. "Mexican Mojito". Leite's Culinaria (LeitesCulinaria.Com), posted May 5, 2010.

Zubir, Nancy. A travel guide to Basque America: families, feasts, and festivals. University of Nevada Press: Reno, NV, 2006. Also partially available on Google Books.

Some information also obtained from Wikipedia's "Nevada" page and other pages, and the Food Timeline State Foods link to "Nevada".

Baltimore COUNTY Restaurant Week is here!

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 03:49:00 +0000

Don't forget that Baltimore County has its own Restaurant Week going on right now! Baltimore County Restaurant Week runs from the 12th through the 21st, with prices for lunch and dinner ranging from $10 to $35.Thirty-six restaurants are participating, from the 7 West Bistro in Towson to the Candle Light Inn in Catonsville, and from Costas Inn on North Point Blvd to the Grille at Peerces in Phoenix (and the Grill at Harryman House in Reiserstown). This may be a good time to take another trip around the Beltway, no?

Snacking State-by-State: Nevada II - Basque in the glow of oven fried potatoes

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 16:08:00 +0000

In the 19th century, Nevada saw pioneers searching for gold and silver. Settlers came not just from all over the East, South and Midwest but from other countries. Among those settlers were the US's first documented Basque settlers, coming to work in the mines and bringing with them their own food traditions from Basque Country.

Many of the newcomers were transplants from the smaller towns. Located on the banks of the Humboldt River, Winnemucca was supported primarily by farming and ranching. Several mines of gold, silver, copper, and tungsten brought many immigrants to the region. But in surrounding Humboldt Colunty towns the mostly wide-open ranges with adequate greenery were an attractive starting point for Basques hoping to establish their own sheep band. [Zubiri 2006:292]

Today, Zubiri notes, Winnemucca and nearby Elko mostly thrive on tourist dollars. Even with Interstate 80 funneling most traffic between San Francisco and Salt Lake City, people still stop in the cities - especially in the summer, when business for the Basque restaurants spikes, and when the Basque Festivals take place [Zubiri 2006:292-293].

I am familiar with several world cuisines, either in passing or through a more thorough investigation. I must confess that Basque is not among them. Among the sheepherder's breads - a mammoth loaf of bread cooked in a Dutch oven - and lamb stews (see this link from NPR for these recipes), I also found links to garlic soups and Basque potatoes. There are various versions of both the soup and the potato (try Buber's Basque Recipe Page for more). The recipe I went with is on the Daily Dish website, a blog of low sodium and salt-free recipes. The author, Christy Ellingsworth, did what I am about to do: take photos of the cooking process (hers are prettier than mine). I did add a little sprinkle of salt (hers is intentionally salt-free).

The Recipe: Basque Potatoes

For Ellingsworth's version of Basque potoatoes you will need:

* potatoes (for a potato dish? Seriously, I got about a pound of reds. This one calls for Russets though I've seen others that call for red or Yukon gold. The red ones worked well, and are cheap)
* garlic (had it)
* dried parsley, rosemary and thyme (have them, though I need to replenish the thyme)
* paprika, cayenne pepper and freshly ground black pepper (yup, have those too)
* olive oil (same)

Peel and cut up your potatoes. I did mine in large chunks, as per the recipe. However, you could just cube them as well. Adjust the cooking times accordingly.

Ellingsworth says to bust out that mortar and pestle and get to grinding up your garlic. Oh, if I had a mano and metate, I'd grind garlic in the morn...

Throw the garlic and herbs and spices into an oven-proof pan (when in doubt, stick with cast-iron) filled with olive oil, and heat for a few seconds.

Quickly add the taters and coat.

Adjust the cayenne to taste.

Next, cover the pan with aluminum foil, and place in a preheated 375°F oven for about 15 minutes.

Uncover, stir, and put in for another half hour or so.

The garlic wound up being hard and very browned, but you won't be eating it in this case. The potatoes are the star here, in this simple, spicy potato dish. The garlic and rosemary left a pretty subtle flavor, I think - surprising to me, since these are not things that usually impart a mild anything. This is a good, quick introduction to Basque cuisine (says the guy who knows next to nothing about Basque cuisine). Perhaps I should tackle that garlic soup?

Sources:

Detterick-Piñeda, Cynthia. "Piñon Cakes - Pine Nut Cakes How To Make Pine Nut Cakes". WhatsCookingAmerica.Net, date unknown. Copyright WhatsCookingAmerica.Net 2011.

Elllingsworth, Christy. "Basque potatoes". The Daily Dish, posted January 4, 2011.

I4Vegas.Com. "Popular Las Vegas Drinks". Date unknown. Copyright I4Vegas.Com 1999-2011.

The Modern Mixologist (TheModernMixologist.com). "Cable Car: Tony's Signature Cocktail". Date unknown. Copyright The Modern Mixologist, 2007.

PineNut.Com. "History of Pine Nuts & The People of the Great Basin". PineNut.Com, date unknown. Copyright PineNut.Com 1998-2011.

Schneider, Deborah. "Mexican Mojito". Leite's Culinaria (LeitesCulinaria.Com), posted May 5, 2010.

Zubir, Nancy. A travel guide to Basque America: families, feasts, and festivals. University of Nevada Press: Reno, NV, 2006. Also partially available on Google Books.

Some information also obtained from Wikipedia's "Nevada" page and other pages, and the Food Timeline State Foods link to "Nevada".

Snacking State-by-State: Nevada I - Viva Los Piñones

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 14:36:00 +0000

When Americans think of Nevada... well first we usually think "ne-vah-duh", like the "o" in cot (or like the Spanish word nevada, meaning "snowy"). Nevadans will correct you by saying "It's 'ne-vă-duh'" (IPA - /æ/ ), like the "a" in cat. The state's travel website even says this (though note: even though the state is "ne-vă-duh" the Sierra Nevada mountain range is "ne-vah-duh". Nevada, Nevada, potato, potato... ah, hell). Anyway, it's next on my food tour. And my first attempted recipe comes is yet another variation on frybread using, of all things, the incredible, edible pine nut.

Official Name: State of Nevada
State Nicknames: The Silver State; The Sagebrush State
Admission to the US: October 31, 1864 (#36)
Capital: Carson City (2nd largest)
Other Important Cities: Las Vegas (largest), Henderson (2nd largest), Reno (4th largst), Sparks (5th lagest)
Region: West, Rocky Mountains, Great Basin, Southwest; Mountain (US Census)
RAFT Nations: Pinyon Nut; Chile Pepper
Bordered by: Oregon & Idaho (north), Utah (east), Arizona (southeast), California (south and west)
Official State Foods and Edible Things: desert bighorn sheep (mammal - though generally not hunted); single-leaf pinyon (tree - for the pine nuts); Lahontan cutthroat trout (fish - whose low numbers are currently being replenished)
Some Famous and Typical Foods: Native American and frontier foods, specificalyl Native foods typical of Great Basin peoples (including pine nuts); Basque cuisine; buffets and Vegas-style excess (in Las Vegas)

Historically, Nevada's food is a reflection of its Native American and frontier immigrant cultures. The Native peoples of of Nevada are in the Great Basin (which extends into much of Utah, and parts of Idaho, Wyoming, California and Oregon). The Great Basin peoples were by and large hunter gatherers. Just as buffalo was the key thing for the Plains peoples and acorns were for many of the California Indians, so pine nuts were the staple food for Native peoples in the Great Basin. And this was far from an easy nut to crack (pardon the pun). The processing of pine nuts - or pinyon nuts, pignolias, piñones, etc - was largely a communal effort, extending from summer into fall. And the first falling of pine cones was considered a sacred time for many Great Basin peoples. Then the processing began - as PineNut.com notes, this was the hard part.

This began by roasting the pine cones around hot coals, turning them often, to cause them to open up. Then, the cones could be beaten lightly to cause the nuts to fall out. When a supply of nuts was available, these required further processing since the nuts were covered by a soft brown shell. Cracking this shell would be difficult and would injure the fruit inside. The nuts were processed by placing them on a basketry tray with hot coals from the fire. Once introduced together, the whole mass was kept in constant motion, throwing them up and swirling the tray, until the shells were roasted to a hard, crisp dark brown. The coals were removed at this point and the nuts were poured onto a grinding stone where they were lightly pounded with a mano until all of the shells had cracked and falled free of the inner fruit. [PineNut.com, date unknown]

The pine nuts would then be dried for future use, often being ground into a flour, not unlike the California Indians did with acorns (which had their own special processing needs).

The Great Basin peoples adapted their dishes with the influx of whites to their area. During the Long Walk (the relocation of Native Americans in the West to reservations), many recipes were adapted to the new staples brought in from the whites. One old recipe incorporates flour and powdered milk; perhaps an ancient version may have included pine nut flour. This pine nut cake, a modern cousin to the many varieties of frybread, is often eaten today while stories of the relocation are told [Detterick-Piñeda, date unknown].

The following recipe comes from Cynthia Detterick-Piñeda of Andrews, Texas, and reposted on the WhatsCookingAmerica.net website. Check here for a list of Detterick-Piñeda's (and others'?) Southwestern recipes.

The Recipe: Pine Nut Cakes

For pine nut cakes, you will need the following:

* pine nuts (seriously, you need these. As we now know, these things aren't easy to process, and that's why they're so pricey. I found that I didn't need a whole lot of them, maybe 1/2 cup at most. This will make half of the above recipe. I bought extra but found I didn't need to. Great - more pine nuts to use all around!).
* powdered milk (had it)
* whole wheat flour (had it too)
* oil (for frying - had it)
* salt and water (well, yeah, I have those too)

First, throw the pine nuts into a food processor with all the remaining ingredients, except of course for the oil.

Pulse at a high speed until you get something mealy...

...eventually adding water little by little until you get a nice ball of pine nut dough. I had to add just a little bit more water than the recipe called for. The dough ball pretty much just formed all of a sudden.

Break off pieces of the dough.

Form each piece into a ball, about the size of a walnut.

Or a Brussels sprout.

And flatten that ball.

Fry in hot oil for a few minutes on a side until golden brown. The author recommends cutting the first one open to make sure it is not doughy in the center. Mine weren't.

Drain and serve hot.

With whatever condiments you so choose. I have Icelandic butter and some of that Great Plains wojapi on top of mine.

Again, this is a smaller cousin to frybread. I find that these pine nut cakes are best fresh out of the fat. I had some day old pine nut cakes, cold. They should at least be rewarmed, maybe even refried for a minute in the pan. It is definitely a different way to eat pine nuts than I am used to. I ate mine with butter but you could use honey, jelly (or wojapi).

Sources:

Detterick-Piñeda, Cynthia. "Piñon Cakes - Pine Nut Cakes How To Make Pine Nut Cakes". WhatsCookingAmerica.Net, date unknown. Copyright WhatsCookingAmerica.Net 2011.

Elllingsworth, Christy. "Basque potatoes". The Daily Dish, posted January 4, 2011.

I4Vegas.Com. "Popular Las Vegas Drinks". Date unknown. Copyright I4Vegas.Com 1999-2011.

The Modern Mixologist (TheModernMixologist.com). "Cable Car: Tony's Signature Cocktail". Date unknown. Copyright The Modern Mixologist, 2007.

PineNut.Com. "History of Pine Nuts & The People of the Great Basin". PineNut.Com, date unknown. Copyright PineNut.Com 1998-2011.

Schneider, Deborah. "Mexican Mojito". Leite's Culinaria (LeitesCulinaria.Com), posted May 5, 2010.

Zubir, Nancy. A travel guide to Basque America: families, feasts, and festivals. University of Nevada Press: Reno, NV, 2006. Also partially available on Google Books.

Some information also obtained from Wikipedia's "Nevada" page and other pages, and the Food Timeline State Foods link to "Nevada".

Dougherty's Pub

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 12:18:00 +0000

Last night I wanted a hamburger or a Reuben after happy hour, and I was in Mount Vernon. I considered my usual choices for such sandwiches: City Cafe, Marie Louise, Stable. But a friend texted me another option: Dougherty's Pub, next to the Triple L Bar. I've passed by this little pub many times but never thought twice about it. I am glad I did. Pretty sparsely populated on a Wednesday night, and homey. They have a standard pub fare menu - pretty much American fare, nothing really Irish if that's what you're seeking - including a list of burgers to go with that beer. I went with the Blue Cheese burger ($7.50), topped with the standard onions, lettuce, tomato (they will hold those if you don't want them), along with bacon and Bleu cheese dressing. Not your average warmed over, dried-up burger. This one was a little soppy on the bottom, but still a good, juicy one. And a good way to absorb the Fat Tire or two you had at the Central during happy hour.

Snacking State-by-State Mashup 7: Paneer Potatoes with Bacon and Corned Beef

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 19:12:00 +0000

For my next mashup, I took a cue from the Idaho potato recipe I tackled midway through last year. The allure of various loose ingredients in my pantry, fridge and freezer was just too tempting not to throw together. Potatoes. Bacon. Sweet dried cranberries. Bacon. Corned beef. BBQ sauce. Bacon.

Ahem, did I mention bacon?

The mashup recipe: Paneer Potatoes with Bacon and Corned Beef

Makes 3 to 4 servings

Ingredients (state flag indicates State-by-State post where ingredient was featured. Ingredients with no flag were not specifically used for any one post.)

3 large or 6 small potatoes

1 to 2 T BBQ sauce

4 slices raw bacon, chopped

3 slices corned beef, chopped

1/4 cup milk or cream

1/4 c dried berries such as raisins, craisins (pictured), dried blueberries or huckleberries

about 1 fist-sized hunk stale or toasted vanocka Christmas bread

1 T beef tallow (not pictured)

few pats (or about 2 - 3 T) butter

1/4 to 1/2 c paneer or cottage cheese

Start a pot to boilin', and boil your potatoes for about 20 minutes, (until they are mashing consistency). Feel free to salt it but I didn't bother.

Melt some bacon grease, oil, butter or - in this case - beef tallow into a skillet.

Fry the bacon and corned beef in the beef tallow. My God, bacon, corned beef AND beef tallow from suet? Honestly, I don't eat like this all the time!

But maybe I should...

Break up the vanocka or another dried fruit-filled bread (or any old bread), and throw it in the food processor.

Keep at it until you have crumbs. Use about 1/4 cup if you just have store-bought ones.

Drain and mash the potatoes.

Next, mash some more with the milk and cheese. It will be a little on the firm side (add a little more milk if you want. Go on, see if I care.)

Next add the meat and berries - it's like pemmican potatoes!

Finally, add a dash or two of BBQ sauce, to taste. Or leave it out. Your choice.

Press it into a Corningware dish, and top with the bread crumbs. I ended up scooping it out and putting it in a shallower dish. Top with the butter and broil it for four minutes.

Er, three and a half minutes. Actually, it looks worse than it was. Only two or three berries on top were singed in the broiler. I just plucked them off and all was good. So four minutes will work.

If you've been following these mashups, you will note that I've had mixed results with these things. This was probably my most successful one: the buttery crunchy bread crumbs on top of moist (YES I SAID IT - MOIST!) potatoes and the sweet craisins and bacon. So far this is the mashup recipe I would most likely do again, proving that you gotta try pretty damn hard to mess up with a combo like potatoes, bacon, berries and butter. And folks, I just didn't feel like putting in that sort of effort.

Snacking State-by-State: Nebraska III - Mutual of Omaha's Wild Reuben (or "A post that New Yorkers may not like very much")

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 13:15:00 +0000

What better way to start off the New Year than with that hearty, All-American sandwich, the Reuben? (Actually, if you're hungover it might not be the most ideal way to start off the New Year, but anyway...). And it certainly is All-American: no less than two US cities in two different regions of the country claim it as their own.

Official Name: State of Nebraska

State Nicknames: The Cornhusker State
Admission to the US: March 1, 1867 (#37)
Capital: Lincoln (2nd largest)
Other Important Cities: Omaha (largest), Bellevue (3rd largest), Grand Island (4th largest)
Region: Midwest, Great Plains; West North Central (US Census)
RAFT Nations: Bison; Pinyon Nut
Bordered by: South Dakota (north), Iowa, Missouri (east), the Missouri River (northeast and east), Oklahoma (south), Colorado (southwest), Wyoming (northwest)
Official State Foods and Edible Things: channel catfish (fish), honeybee (insect - of course, the honey is what people eat, not the bee), white-tailed deer (mammal)
Some Famous and Typical Foods: corn, wheat and honey; foods of the Great Plains, including Native American foods (pemmican, wojapi, etc); foods from German, Czech and Russian immigrants, and foods from Midwestern and Southern settlers; the Reuben and runza sandwiches; beef (Omaha steaks)

Omaha has a bone to pick with New York City, and it goes the other way, I might add. You see, each city claims to be the birthplace of the Reuben sandwich - that wondrous concoction of corned beef, Swiss, sauerkraut and Thousand Island dressing between two buttered slices of rye bread, and all fried together. Later on in this series I will be exploring New York State and all of its wonders for a few weeks (from the comfort of my own kitchen, that is). Whether or not that is the reason for this post is beside the point: though I don't mean to get in between these debates usually, just the existence of this post shows which city I am siding with in this debate.

There are two origin myths for the mighty Reuben sandwich, and to be honest I'm not sure which is the more correct. Perhaps they both hold some merit. Jim Rader of Mirriam-Webster [date unknown] and Linda Stradley of What'sCookingAmerica.net [2004] compiles the two origin myths.

Certainly the older version comes from New York City. Rewind back to 1914, when German-American restaurateur Arnold Reuben, Jr. apparently made a sandwich for a tired actress late one night which he called "the Reuben's Special". Based on various accounts from Mr. Reuben and his daughter, the restaurant began making it around 1927 or 1928. As Reuben's daughter Patricia Taylor told the New York Times' Craig Claiborne,

...He took a loaf of rye bread, cut two slices on the bias and stacked one piece with sliced Virginia ham, roast turkey, and imported Swiss cheese, topped off with coleslaw and lots of Reuben's special Russian dressing and the second slice of bread. [Claiborne 1976, in Stradley 2004]

This is clearly the oldest recipe, but there's one thing wrong: it's not a Reuben, or at least what Americans think of as a Reuben. That clearly lies with Lithuanian-born Reuben Kulakofsky, as Jim Raber writes:

According to Omaha lore, the combination of rye bread, corned beef, Swiss cheese, and sauerkraut had been dreamed up in 1925 to feed participants in a late-night poker game at the Blackstone Hotel in downtown Omaha by a local grocer, Reuben Kulakofsky. Charles Schimmel, the hotel's owner, was so taken with the sandwich that he put it on the hotel restaurant menu, designated by its inventor's name. Fern Snider, a one-time waitress at the Blackstone, entered the Reuben in a national sandwich competetion in 1956; her entry won--hence one of the earliest pieces of documentation for the name of the sandwich, an OED cite from 1956 from the food services journal "Institutions". [Raber, date unknown]

Raber, who has a thorough discussion of the contentious origin myths surrounding the Reuben sandwich, seems to suggest that it is Lincoln, Nebraska's Cornhusker Hotel, and neither Omaha nor New York City, that is the very first documentation of a sandwich called a Reuben that is, in fact, made of corned beef, Swiss cheese and sauerkraut "on Russian rye bread". This confirmation didn't come until 1956.

Claiborne, at least, seems to slant towards the Nebraskans. And until I find out otherwise, so will I. New York has so much else going for it anyway, why not let Omaha have the Reuben? Or maybe Lincoln?

The Recipe: The Reuben Sandwich

The classic Reuben sandwich, whose recipe I more or less followed from the various descriptions of it online (plus my own memory of the many Reubens I have eaten) incorporates the following ingredients:

* corned beef (about $8 per lb at Wegman's, I bought half a pound and used most of that on this sandwich. It still wasn't enough but I didn't complain).
* Swiss cheese (much cheaper at about $4 per lb. Again, half a pound. I used a few slices)
* sauerkraut (had a can in the pantry)
* Thousand Island dressing (geez, at $3.50 a bottle of Thousand Island dressing is pricey these days)
* rye bread (a good loaf will be about $3.50 to $4, more if you go to an actual delicatessen)
* butter (had it, though I wish I had used some of that fancier European butter from Ireland or Iceland - the kind that's meant to actually taste good - instead of the generic Giant brand)

Start with the corned beef, which you will place on one slice of the rye bread.

Top the meat with some of the sauerkraut.

And then top that with the Swiss cheese.

Put a healthy dollop of Thousand Island dressing on both sides.

It is probably better to soften the butter and spread it on before you assemble your sandwich. Note to self: next time, soften the butter and spread it on before you assemble your sandwich.

Place the assembled sandwich in a heated pan (I like my grooved cast iron griddle), and fry on each side for a few minutes. I kept turning it about every minute, until the cheese melted).

Cheese is melted!

Although my Reuben wasn't stacked nearly as much as your typical diner Reuben, the same burst of juicy goodness from the meat, the sauerkraut and the buttery bread all made this a sandwich I have made again since I first made this sandwich. Not much more to say: this is perfection, whoever the hell made the first one. Now don't you want one, too?

- - - - -

We are on our way past the Continental Divide now, heading from the Great Plains to the Great Basin. It's the land of pine cones, mega-casinos with mega-buffets, wedding chapels, lounge acts, and fictitious zany cops who don't know what the hell they're doing. It's Nevada time!

Sources:

Abourezk, Kevin. "Ponca Tribe to honor Milford for historical gesture". Lincoln Journal Star. Posted May 29, 2011.

American Indian Health and Diet Project. "Traditional Indigenous Recipes: Wojapi". American Indian Health and Diet Project, date unknown. Copyright 2011, American Indian Health and Diet Project

Carson, Dale. New Native American Cooking. Random House: New York, 1996.

CzechMate Diary (Tanja, blogger). "Czech christmas magic: Vanocka / Kouzlo Vanoc: Vanocka". CzechMate Diary. Posted December 11, 2008.

Hill, Cheryl Joy. "Blueberry Wojapi". NativeTech.org: Indigenous Food and Traditional Recipes. Date posted unknown. Copyright 2011 NativeTech.

Nebraska Folklife Network. "Recipes: Traditional Foods of Nebraska Ethnic Groups". Date unknown. Copyright 2011, Nebraska Folklife Network

Nebraska Guide (Nebraska-Guide.Info). "As American as Apple Pie". Date unknown. Copyright 2004-2011, Interatctive Internet Websites, Inc.

NebraskaStudies.Org. "The Immigrant Experience: The Czechs Move to Nebraska". The Homestead Act: Who Were The Settlers? From Nebraska Studies.Org, date unknown.

Rader, Jim. "Brief History of the Reuben Sandwich". The Reuben Realm, date unknown.

Red Star Yeast. "Vanocka". Red Star Yeast, date unknown. Copyright 2011, Red Star Yeast.

Stern, Jane & Michael (Roadfood.com). "Runza". Roadfood.com, date unknown. Copyright 2011, Roadfood.com.

Stradley, Linda. "Reuben Sandwich - History of Reuben Sandwich". What's Cooking America (WhatsCookingAmerica.net), 2004.

Weisman, Karen. "Baking a Four-Strand Challah Bread Loaf". eHow.com, date unknown. Copyright 2011, eHow.com.

Some information also obtained from Wikipedia's "Nebraska" page and other pages, and the Food Timeline State Foods link to "Nebraska".

Chiu's still got it!

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 13:59:00 +0000

I don't get to write too much about where I eat anymore. Last night I got to go with the sister, her husband and friends to Chiu's in Harbor East. We didn't do what we usually do: order a few rolls, some soup, maybe some sashimi, and tempura ice cream. We had a more varied menu. Our one friend, who used to work in a Japanese restaurant, was not too big on the sushi rice, and the tempura shrimp wasn't as crispy as it usually is. But overall we found the service and the food to be good as usual. The food came out about as quickly as I could have hoped for.

One thing I do want to point out: Hakushika's Snow Beauty sake ($18 for 300mL). When you shake it up, sediments at the bottom mix in with the sake to make it very milky. I liked this sake. It was silky (hey - silky and milky!) and a little sweet, though very slightly gritty if you don't mix it well before pouring.

Snacking State-by-State: Nebraska II - Wojapi makes me happi

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 15:25:00 +0000

Like the pemmican I made a while back, wojapi is a classic Great Plains dish. Dale Carson, author of New Native American Cooking, makes hers from blackberries, but any berries (or even peaches if you've got 'em) will work with this dish.

Official Name: State of Nebraska

State Nicknames: The Cornhusker State
Admission to the US: March 1, 1867 (#37)
Capital: Lincoln (2nd largest)
Other Important Cities: Omaha (largest), Bellevue (3rd largest), Grand Island (4th largest)
Region: Midwest, Great Plains; West North Central (US Census)
RAFT Nations: Bison; Pinyon Nut
Bordered by: South Dakota (north), Iowa, Missouri (east), the Missouri River (northeast and east), Oklahoma (south), Colorado (southwest), Wyoming (northwest)
Official State Foods and Edible Things: channel catfish (fish), honeybee (insect - of course, the honey is what people eat, not the bee), white-tailed deer (mammal)
Some Famous and Typical Foods: corn, wheat and honey; foods of the Great Plains, including Native American foods (pemmican, wojapi, etc); foods from German, Czech and Russian immigrants, and foods from Midwestern and Southern settlers; the Reuben and runza sandwiches; beef (Omaha steaks)

Wojapi is the Lakota Sioux (and most widely used) name for the fruit pudding found throughout the Great Plains. An article from the Lincoln Journal Star earlier this year noted that the Ponca Tribe threw a party for the town of Milford, Nebraska, to thank the community that buried a member that died over a century ago on the forced Ponca Trail of Tears march from Nebraska to Oklahoma in the 1870's, to thank the community for "taking care of our ancestor for 134 years" noted Ponca Museum cultural director Gary Robinette [Abourezk 2011]. The feast, the article notes, included "a traditional meal of buffalo corn soup, frybread and wojapi (a kind of fruit pudding)" [Abourezk 2011].

There are various recipes out there for wojapi, but they are more or less the same: berries, water, cornstarch or flour, and sugar or honey. Dale Carson's Lakota-style wojapi [1996: 157] has an almost 2 to 1 ratio of berries to sugar. Hers also calls for minimal water, while a recipe on the NativeTech website for "blueberry wojapi" calls for twice as much water as sugar. The same holds for a wojapi recipe posted on this multiethnic Nebraska for Life handout of recipes for many ethnic groups in Nebraska (indigenous and immigrant).

You don't necessarily have to add pure white sugar either. A recipe on the Traditional Indigenous Recipes page of the American Indian Health and Diet Project aims to tackle the double tasks of fighting obesity and diabetes among Native Americans today, and making a more traditional version of the classic Great Plains fruit pudding. This version, as the site notes,

...was not [traditionally] made with flour or sugar, but today it often is, rendering it only a marginally nutritious dish (even less so if the berries used are frozen “with sugar added”). If the berries you find are ripe and tasty, there is no need to add additional sweeteners. [American Indian Health and Diet Project, date unknown]

Instead of sugar, the recipe calls for honey to sweeten the wojapi, if you need anything at all. It is this recipe that I decided to use. Hell, I could use less sugar in my diet, too!

The Recipe: Wojapi (Plains Indian Fruit Pudding) - Sugar-Free Version

To make this version of wojapi you will need:

* fruit (in this case strawberries - I went to a farm not far from work a few months ago and picked these myself - a wide shallow cardboard box for $10 per pound - and I had these beauties waiting in the freezer since then. This seems like a great use for them. These two bags of frozen strawberries amounted to roughly 4 to 5 cups).
* water (this is one of the recipes calling for a smaller ratio of water - only a quarter cup)
* cornstarch (if you want to thicken it the faster way, which Mr. Impatient here would prefer)
* honey (to sweeten, literally as needed)

Take your strawberries (and thaw them if they're frozen), and mash them until pulpy.

You will then add the strawberries and water to a large pot, bring to a boil...

...and then simmer for an hour, stirring occasionally.

After half an hour it boiled down to this.

While you're simmering it, add some honey to taste. I added about four spoonfuls, which sweetened it a little bit.

Stir in the honey, and add more to taste if you want.

If this isn't thick enough for you (or me), mix some cornstarch in a little bowl with some water.

Add the cornstarch water to the wojapi and stir it in. I did this at the end, after I turned it off.

Stir in and serve up!

You could eat the wojapi straight up, or use it as a topping for many things. Recipes I saw recommended it as a topping for frybread, ice cream or biscuits. I tried it on freshly made paneer cheese. This would also go great with Greek yogurt, or on that Czech Christmas bread I just made not long ago. It is good stuff. Find something to put it on and eat away.

Sources:

Abourezk, Kevin. "Ponca Tribe to honor Milford for historical gesture". Lincoln Journal Star. Posted May 29, 2011.

American Indian Health and Diet Project. "Traditional Indigenous Recipes: Wojapi". American Indian Health and Diet Project, date unknown. Copyright 2011, American Indian Health and Diet Project

Carson, Dale. New Native American Cooking. Random House: New York, 1996.

CzechMate Diary (Tanja, blogger). "Czech christmas magic: Vanocka / Kouzlo Vanoc: Vanocka". CzechMate Diary. Posted December 11, 2008.

Hill, Cheryl Joy. "Blueberry Wojapi". NativeTech.org: Indigenous Food and Traditional Recipes. Date posted unknown. Copyright 2011 NativeTech.

Nebraska Folklife Network. "Recipes: Traditional Foods of Nebraska Ethnic Groups". Date unknown. Copyright 2011, Nebraska Folklife Network

Nebraska Guide (Nebraska-Guide.Info). "As American as Apple Pie". Date unknown. Copyright 2004-2011, Interatctive Internet Websites, Inc.

NebraskaStudies.Org. "The Immigrant Experience: The Czechs Move to Nebraska". The Homestead Act: Who Were The Settlers? From Nebraska Studies.Org, date unknown.

Rader, Jim. "Brief History of the Reuben Sandwich". The Reuben Realm, date unknown.

Red Star Yeast. "Vanocka". Red Star Yeast, date unknown. Copyright 2011, Red Star Yeast.

Stern, Jane & Michael (Roadfood.com). "Runza". Roadfood.com, date unknown. Copyright 2011, Roadfood.com.

Stradley, Linda. "Reuben Sandwich - History of Reuben Sandwich". What's Cooking America (WhatsCookingAmerica.net), 2004.

Weisman, Karen. "Baking a Four-Strand Challah Bread Loaf". eHow.com, date unknown. Copyright 2011, eHow.com.

Some information also obtained from Wikipedia's "Nebraska" page and other pages, and the Food Timeline State Foods link to "Nebraska".

Did I mention there was a Kwanzaa cake?

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 23:54:00 +0000

Oh what the hell? I've posted it often enough but you just can't watch this train wreck enough, can you? Imagine what she would do for Boxing Day? Get a cake, put it in a box!

But, I figured, why stop there? Some Youtube users have actually tried to replicate this monstrosity. My favorite one is this one by Youtube user DrJerryrigger (he also made the Hanukkah "cake", as you may know). His video is quite hilarious, and so I have to link to it here.

But wait, there's more! Youtube user Rockyhorrorsue has also conquered the "angel food harvest 'cake'" for all to see, with somewhat more professional but just as hilarious results. Of course, she likely means this as anything but a tribute to her African American friends. Far from it - instead, she's poking gentle fun at the white girl with her own TV show about cocktails and tablescapes.

My favorite comment comes from Youtube user Petulia67: "This is like recreating a sinus infection". Yes, Petulia, there is a Sinus Infection. A delicious, sweet angel food harvest sinus infection in your mouth!

Erm, okay that's probably a bit more appetizing than this total affront to Kwanzaa. But as Rockyhorrorsue's video deftly pointed out, there are three different types of corn syrup in the cake. And corn, unlike cinnamon flavored store-bought frosting, is indeed a part of Kwanzaa. As the Smithsonian points out on their Kwanzaa educators' page, corn (muhindi in Swahili) represent children, and the stalks represent their parents. None of this has anything to do with corn nuts, as Dr. Maulana Ron Karenga, the founder of the Kwanzaa celebration, would readily note. Kwanzaa is meant to celebrate the agricultural principles that also help build communities, strong enough even to withstand an angel food cake cut in half, that some idiot covered with store-bought icing, filled with apple pie filling and dumped a whole bunch of corn nuts on top of.

I really have to stop writing about Sandra Lee. She's just too easy a target.

Snacking State-by-State: Nebraska I - O, chci chléb na Vánoce! (Oh, I want bread for Christmas!)

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 12:38:00 +0000

It wasn't my original intention for this first post to fall on Christmas morning, and yet it did. And for this extra-special Christmas installment of the state-by-state series, I start my visit to Nebraska with some Christmas bread, courtesy of the Czech-Cornhusker community.

Official Name: State of Nebraska

State Nicknames: The Cornhusker State
Admission to the US: March 1, 1867 (#37)
Capital: Lincoln (2nd largest)
Other Important Cities: Omaha (largest), Bellevue (3rd largest), Grand Island (4th largest)
Region: Midwest, Great Plains; West North Central (US Census)
RAFT Nations: Bison; Pinyon Nut
Bordered by: South Dakota (north), Iowa, Missouri (east), the Missouri River (northeast and east), Oklahoma (south), Colorado (southwest), Wyoming (northwest)
Official State Foods and Edible Things: channel catfish (fish), honeybee (insect - of course, the honey is what people eat, not the bee), white-tailed deer (mammal)
Some Famous and Typical Foods: corn, wheat and honey; foods of the Great Plains, including Native American foods (pemmican, wojapi, etc); foods from German, Czech and Russian immigrants, and foods from Midwestern and Southern settlers; the Reuben and runza sandwiches; beef (Omaha steaks)

Like the other prairie states, Nebraska cuisine is a mixture of frontier, immigrant (internal and external) and Native American foods. It's more than just corn, beef and wheat (though can we be blamed for thinking it is?). Many Plains Indian peoples, from the Omaha to the Oto, the Pawnee to the Arapaho to the Lakota, ate many of the same things that people ate across the Great Plains for millenia: buffalo, antelope, and wild greens and tubers. As fur trappers and homesteaders moved on in, they brought their staples from the East, the South and the Midwest with them. Specifically, Nebraska's food is particularly Midwestern (see Nebraska Guide's "As American as Apple Pie" for a thorough rundown), but Nebraska is famous for a few specific items:

* Omaha Steaks. Yes, those ubiquitous steaks sold since 1917 by the same company, now sold all over the country. There's one not ten minutes from my apartment. There's a lot of beef in Nebraska.
* The Reuben sandwich, which I will come to in a few posts from now. All I will say is this: there is some debate between Nebraskans and New Yorkers about where the Reuben first was made. But again, that debate is for some other time.
* the runza sandwich, which I admit this Back East boy has never heard of (must be a Midwestern thing): brought to Nebraska by Russian immigrants, this is, in the words of Jane & Michael Stern's Roadfood website, "hot bread pocket filled with ground meat and cabbage and onions. The bread is soft, freshly-baked white bread, and the filling is mildly spiced beef; the cabbage stays well in the background." [Stern & Stern date unknown, 2011]. Here the Roadfoodsters are raving about a runza from a restaurant of the same name in Lincoln.

Not just Russians but also Germans, Czechs and other European immigrants made their way into Nebraska. The Cornhusker State has a sizable Czech-American population. What sent them to Nebraska? Advertisements in Czech about available land in the area, for one. What sent them from Bohemia and Moravia was the same thing that sent peasants from all over Europe fleeing to the Americas:

...worsening economic conditions and overpopulation in rural Bohemia and Moravia. Specific crises like crop failures of the 1870s, and agricultural depression beginning in the 1880s resulted in greater numbers of people leaving. Some also left to acquire greater political freedom and escape the control of the Habsburg Monarchy and constant conflict with Germans. [NebraskaStudies.Org date unknown]

Czech-Americans in Omaha and Lincoln are probably enjoying a nice mixture of typical American and ethnic Czech foods for this first day of Christmas. One recipe that caught my eye was a recipe for vanocka, or Christmas bread. It's a slightly sweet braided bread with an egg wash, filled with sliced almonds and dried fruits. Sounds Christmas-y to this Irish-Italian guy raised near the Chesapeake Bay! However, for the sake of convenience I did something that will probably make little old babičky [Czech for "grandmothers" - thank you, Google Translate!] want to smack me: I used a recipe from Red Star Yeast that gave instructions on how to make the dough in the bread machine (here's a much more traditional version from Czech-American food blogger Tanja at the Czechmate Diary), and then braided, raised and baked the bread the normal way from there. You're not in Bohemia anymore!

The Recipe: Vanocka (Czech Christmas Bread)

For Red Star Yeast's version I needed the following (go to their recipe for exact measurements):

* bread flour, butter and yeast (duh, duh and duh - had it all)
* water and evaporated milk (had them both)
* sugar and salt
* eggs (both for the dough and for the egg wash)
* lemon zest (this will go in the dough)
* sliced almonds and dried fruit (this recipe calls for raisins and golden raisins - I had raisins and craisins ;left over from the pemmican I made for my final Montana post)

For the dough, combine the dough ingredients at room temperature. If you go the bread machine route as I did, throw these ingredients into your machine. I found that my 1 1/2 lb capacity Zojirushi bread machine can handle a 2 lb blob of dough, if you're just making dough and baking it in the oven.

Two hours later, your bread dough will be risen enough to take it out, flour it up and punch it down.

Make sure you add the fruit and almonds while still in the bread machine. I missed the beep (I was expecting it to happen much later, like with my previous bread machine), so...

I had to add it later, like you would if you were making it the normal way.

Fold it in and work it through for a while.

This next part was actually more difficult than I thought it would be. Divide the dough into four equal pieces (that was not the difficult part) and roll each out into a thin twelve inch log that you can braid with others. I did not follow directions, because you are supposed to set aside one of those pieces, divide it further and roll it into even thinner logs. Since I've never braided anything, I figured I would save myself the headache and just braid it challah-style. I used this video from eHow to walk me through my first bread braid (apologies for whatever ad they're throwing in). For a video that shows you how to braid vanocka the correct way, check out one of these videos from YouTube (yes, most are in Czech).

Baking a Four-Strand Challah Bread Loaf -- powered by ehow

It was not as difficult as I thought it would be, though my initial confusion made it seem so. After pinching the four strands together, it was just a process of - as the nice bread lady said - over, under, over.

Over...

Under...

Over!

Over under, over, over done. Roger, Over! (And don't call me Shirley.)

When the bread dough is braided, wash an egg over it. I had no brush, so I had to use a paper towel. Yes, sue me.

Next you need to let it rise one final time, fully braided. One fast way I found on the internet was to set it in an oven that is turned off, covered, and with a bowl of hot water underneath it. Let it sit with the door closed for about 30 to 45 minutes.

Mmmm! Puffy!

Take it out before you preheat the oven to 350°F (again, um, duh), and bake for 45 minutes. Mine is not the prettiest, okay, but it was still lovely to eat.

And there you have it: Czech Christmas bread with bread machine dough. It's a soft, luscious and not too sweet bread with nice sweet-tart bursts of raisins and craisins in the middle. Eat this with some good butter. Yeah, the European stuff - Icelandic, Irish... I don't think they have a Czech brand in the states. It should also go nicely with some jam, or with the Native American berry pudding you will see here in a few more days. Now go bake some bread, and Veselé Vánoce!

Sources:

Abourezk, Kevin. "Ponca Tribe to honor Milford for historical gesture". Lincoln Journal Star. Posted May 29, 2011.

American Indian Health and Diet Project. "Traditional Indigenous Recipes: Wojapi". American Indian Health and Diet Project, date unknown. Copyright 2011, American Indian Health and Diet Project

Carson, Dale. New Native American Cooking. Random House: New York, 1996.

CzechMate Diary (Tanja, blogger). "Czech christmas magic: Vanocka / Kouzlo Vanoc: Vanocka". CzechMate Diary. Posted December 11, 2008.

Hill, Cheryl Joy. "Blueberry Wojapi". NativeTech.org: Indigenous Food and Traditional Recipes. Date posted unknown. Copyright 2011 NativeTech.

Nebraska Folklife Network. "Recipes: Traditional Foods of Nebraska Ethnic Groups". Date unknown. Copyright 2011, Nebraska Folklife Network

Nebraska Guide (Nebraska-Guide.Info). "As American as Apple Pie". Date unknown. Copyright 2004-2011, Interatctive Internet Websites, Inc.

NebraskaStudies.Org. "The Immigrant Experience: The Czechs Move to Nebraska". The Homestead Act: Who Were The Settlers? From Nebraska Studies.Org, date unknown.

Rader, Jim. "Brief History of the Reuben Sandwich". The Reuben Realm, date unknown.

Red Star Yeast. "Vanocka". Red Star Yeast, date unknown. Copyright 2011, Red Star Yeast.

Stern, Jane & Michael (Roadfood.com). "Runza". Roadfood.com, date unknown. Copyright 2011, Roadfood.com.

Stradley, Linda. "Reuben Sandwich - History of Reuben Sandwich". What's Cooking America (WhatsCookingAmerica.net), 2004.

Weisman, Karen. "Baking a Four-Strand Challah Bread Loaf". eHow.com, date unknown. Copyright 2011, eHow.com.

Some information also obtained from Wikipedia's "Nebraska" page and other pages, and the Food Timeline State Foods link to "Nebraska".

What's this about old fruitcakes?

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 13:25:00 +0000

This is just too funny: 70 year old fruitcake made by the Cincinnati-based Kroger supermarket chain in 1941 is sold at auction online today for $525. This begs the inevitable question: is it still edible?

As Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky-based WCPO-TV reports, the proceeds from the auction will go to charity. No word on whom the buyer, an Arizona man, will re-gift it to next.

It's that time of year again!

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 14:34:00 +0000

For Aunt Sandy and her... waitaminute, her Hanukkah Cake! Yes, video of it is finally online!

And can you believe that somebody actually tried to make this abomination?!? Thank you, DrJerryrigger, for your bravery.

Snacking State-by-State: Montana II - It's Pemmican-tagious!

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 12:24:00 +0000

If I am reading Big Sky Cooking author Meredith Brokaw correct, Montanans eat a lot of foods that grow, walk and swim right around them. This is something they've been doing for millenia, and much of that includes food preservation techniques that also give one a lot of energy. Take, for example, that Great Plains classic ball of fat, berries and dried meat known simply as pemmican.

Official Name: State of Montana

State Nicknames: Big Sky Country
Admission to the US: November 8, 1889 (#41)
Capital: Helena (5th largest)
Other Important Cities: Billings (largest), Missoula (2nd largest), Great Falls (3rd largest)
Region: West, Northwest; Mountain (US Census)
RAFT Nations: Bison; Pinyon Nut
Bordered by: North & South Dakota (east); Wyoming (south); Idaho (west & southwest); British Columbia, Alberta & Saskatchewan (Canada) (north)
Official State Foods and Edible Things: grizzly bear (animal - no longer eaten); blackspotted cutthroat trout (fish); Ponderosa pine (tree - the pine nuts, of course, not the trees)
Some Famous and Typical Foods: frontier foods and Native American foods; huckleberries, chokecherries; beef & bison; game (venison, moose, etc) & trout.

Pemmican, so notes Wikipedia, is a Cree word that shares the same etymology as the Cree word for "fat". Although I'm showcasing it for Montana, it isn't specific to the state. Pemmican has been eaten for thousands of years throughout the Great Plains and Canada's prairie provinces. Once made, it lasts indefinitely in storage. When European fur traders came to the area they adapted the food as their own. Today you can find many recipes online for this high energy, high protein, low waste snack that just lasts seemingly forever.

Mark Sisson at the Mark's Daily Apple blog describes what early 20th century Icelandic-Canadian explorer Vihljamur Stefansson found out about pemmican when he first visited the Inuit:

Pemmican consists of lean, dried meat (usually beef nowadays, but bison, deer, and elk were common then) which is crushed to a powder and mixed with an equal amount of hot, rendered fat (usually beef tallow). Sometimes crushed, dried berries are added as well. A man could subsist entirely on pemmican, drawing on the fat for energy and the protein for strength (and glucose, when needed). The Inuit, [Vihljamur] Stefansson noted, spent weeks away from camp with nothing but pemmican to eat and snow to drink to no ill effect. [Sisson 2009]

The procedure sounds simple - just dried meat and melted fat, maybe mixed with some dried berries - but as I found out in my research, it is time consuming to make. Very time consuming.

Why the recent pemmican craze? Apparently it goes back to the book NeanderThin, the book and now website that claims to tell you how to achieve a lean body by "eating like a caveman" (not that we actually know yet what exactly Neanderthals ate, but it probably wasn't just meat. Scratch that: it definitely wasn't just meat). Since then several blog posts have been written about plebeian attempts to make pemmican. I've looked at a few of them in preparing for this post. The most straightforward of these I found on the NativeTech site, posted by R.L. Garritson, affiliated with the Les Roche Jaune Métis of Montana. Perhaps the most entertaining was this one by Rix White - WildeRix - who like most would-be pemmicanistas attempts to make it from scratch.

As the Paleofood website [1998; 2011] points out, "The boiling of suet takes a long time. Many hours. It does not melt easily. I would start it early in the morning." I don't have that kind of time, but fortunately I found a shortcut in WildeRix's pemmican post that turned ten hours of work into three!

The Recipe: Pemmican

In all truth, I used a few websites to make the pemmican you will see below, but I mostly went back to the aforementioned Mark's Daily Apple (who has helpful photos) and WildeRix (who has helpful humor) for guidance. You will need the following to make your own quickie pemmican. Yes, quickie pemmican.

* some sort of jerky - today beef is widely available, but I ended up with buffalo jerky from Trader Joe's ($5). Yes, mine had lots of flavorings. I didn't have the money, patience, time or equipment to buy a large beef or buffalo roast and thinly slice it, and I wasn't mass producing this stuff anyway. One bag of jerky will work just fine for my purposes.
* suet, if you don't want to cut corners, or lard, if you do. Kim at The Nourishing Cook website suggested either suet or lard. Though I ended up not using the lard, I got it out just in case I needed it. You may need it too. The truth of the matter is that it's not as easy to find suet - typically beef fat around the kidneys - as you might think. If you don't ask the butcher you're pretty much up the creek. I was about to give up when, imagine my surprise, I found frozen suet at Wegman's. Seriously, these people seem to have just about everything.
* dried berries of some sort. To stay in the Northwestern spirit, I used some dried blueberries (about $4), again from Trader Joe's, combined with some of those huckleberries I ordered through the mail a few months ago for that post about Idaho. Since those were pricey, I have been saving them for the most special of occasions, such as this one.

The first thing I did was carve up some of that suet, which doesn't feel like wet and gooey fat that you typically are used to, but instead it feels like hard, waxy and crumbly fat. I tried to dice it up but it ended up being easier to just kind of half-dice, half-chop it up with my knife.

Put your mincings into a baking dish of some sort. Most people do what NeanderThin author Ray Audette advises, and simmer it barely covered with water on the stove top for about 10 hours until it reaches a temperature of about 260°F, at which time it'll start melting. Neither I nor Rix White had the patience to do that. Lucky me, White found out the hard way:

So I boiled my fat for about 3 hours, but it didn’t look like it was melting all the fat. When I thought about it, I realized that my fat wasn’t reaching the 250 degrees that Audette recommended. I don’t know if that was the problem or not, but I decided to abandon the boiling and put my fat in the oven. I picked out the stray meat (which hadn’t fallen down to settle in the water) and ate it–it wasn’t the best, but it wasn’t bad. Then I put the messy concoction in a casserole dish and baked it at 250 for a couple more hours. The oven method definitely seemed to work better. [White 2007]

After about three hours, I got just enough rendered fat to use for my pemmican.

You don't see it too well but there's pure liquid suet in there.

While the suet was rendering, I needed to dry out my jerky. That sounds redundant, but jerky from the bag is actually too moist to just make right into pemmican. You need to powder it, and so I had to dry it out somehow. My solution: the microwave.

Yes, I am cheating here - native peoples, fur traders and Icelandic-Canadian Arctic explorers didn't have microwaves available to them but I do. I ended up nuking a few pieces at a time in my 1100 Watt microwave at a very low setting: about 4 minutes (1 to 2 minutes at a time) at 30% power. I tried 20% but it was just too low. In the end I got jerky that looked slightly burnt but really wasn't, and was just about completely dessicated and hard.

Okay, the one thing which I made harder for myself was in the powdering of the meat. Yes, to make pemmican you meed to grind the meat completely down into a powder. Most websites recommend a spice or coffee grinder. I just broke out my mortar and pestle.

After a few minutes the meat was mostly powdered.

Like so.

Funny that: I spent Friday night powdering buffalo meat. I've had less interesting evenings.

See, how could anyone mistake the two?

I also tried to more completely dry out my blueberries and huckleberries but the microwave actually seemed to get them less dry. Eventually I would just throw in some of the dried berries as-is.

To assemble your pemmican, put the powdered meat into some sort of flat dish.

Next pour over top of it just enough of the melted suet (or tallow) to cover it, and mix it up.

Throw in some of those berries, and smooth it all out.

It will harden soon enough, but hell, why not just throw that bad boy in the fridge to speed up the process?

As I was first getting ready to eat the pemmican, my first thoughts were along the lines of "meat candy bar". Ewww. But it dawned on me that it tasted more like a roast with some sweet spots (the berries) in bar form. And this stuff will last a very long time, and not even in the refrigerator at that. Granted, I am not going to be eating this on a regular basis, but it isn't meant to be eaten as a meal. It gives energy when you most need it, and perhaps that is its best use.

- - - - -

Wait - I'm taking you all back to the Midwest!? Yep. I head south from Big Sky Country to the heart of the Great Plains, the home of corn, wheat, steak and maybe, just maybe one of America's favorite sandwiches (Omaha, can you hear me?). We're off to Nebraska!

Sources:

Brokaw, Meredith, and Ellen Wright. Big Sky Cooking. Artisan: New York, 2006.

Garritson, R.L. "Pemmican". NativeTech.org: Indigenous Food and Traditional Recipes. Date posted unknown. Copyright 2011 NativeTech.

"Kim" (contributor), "How to Make Pemmican – Great Snack for Hiking!" The Nourishing Cook. Posted 2010. Copyright 2011 The Nourishing Cook.

Paleofood.com. "Rendering Suet for Pemmican". Paleofood.com. Date posted unknown. Copyright 1998-2011 Paleofood.com.

Sisson, Mark, "How to Make Pemmican". Mark's Daily Apple. Posted May 22, 2009. Copyright 2011 Mark's Daily Apple.

Visit Montana. "Baked Trout". Reprinted from Butte's Heritage Cookbook, Jean McGrath, author (Butte-Silver Bow Arts Foundation: Butte, MT,1980)

White, Rix ("WildeRix"). "The Pemmican Brief". Posted February 28, 2007. Copyright 2011 WildeRix.

Some information also obtained from Wikipedia's "Montana" page and other pages, and the Food Timeline State Foods link to "Montana".

BBQ Brisket for Hanukkah

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 16:00:00 +0000

Bobby Flay goes there. Besides, who needs gelt when you've got BBQ? Granted, it's a little difficult to play the dreidel game with, but still, it's BBQ!