My old man is a chef. He never wrote anything down. If you want to access his bag of tricks you have to catch him on a day that he both remembers, and wants to talk about it. Sometimes it feels like he would just assume forget. Thank god some people did write things down (The Chuck Files, we thank you Chuck)
For this reason (and many others) I write almost everything NEW I try down on paper. I went to art essentials and purchased an 8.5 x 11" sketch book that I journal new recipe ideas, sketches for presentation ideas, notes on how to maximize produtction in my kitchen so that I can somehow salvage a personal life outside the restaurant. It has taken my cooking to another level. Not only do I NOT forget an idea when I have one (short term memory loss is a bitch) but I have intersections to get back to on things that turn out great, and on things that need adjustments. Without this direction I used to just wing it, every batch coming out about the same but not quite. I used to think that using recipes was for house wives and pastry chef's but I am a believer. Plus, there is nothing more satisfiying than executing a recipe that you created. I still cook off the cuff, but when I add another pinch, I write it down.
Thank you Mr. Minor
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8 comments:
I still have the chuck files....Charcuterie also necessitates journalistic skills. Every new recipes gets written down. You need to know if the curing time is right, or too much salt, or god forbid not enough. Recipes are not just for house wives anymore. Our chef always suggests to newbies to bring in a notebook and write everthing down. I know eatlocalfood's old man, the guy has an amzing memory, how I don't know, but it's freaky. Me, I have a hard time remembering what I did yesterday, hence the notebook
Hey Speaking of meatsalt, what's the deal with the Coppa recipe in the Ruhlman Charcuterie book. Have you tried it? I got mad yeast on the casings, but it smells and tastes totally fine. What you know about that?
Why bother wasting precious brain space with recipes and such when we can carry them in a journal, iphone, or blog. My journal fell apart last week. I was jumping up and down trying to motivate the food runners. The book flew from my pocket and exploded on the floor. It was poetic. Glad it wasn't my iphone.
Yeast on your casing....?sounds like a personal problem to be looked a t by a dr....The first few times I made that i used chunks of shoulder like they call for in the bible(charcuterie)and always had problems..so i changed to a whole muscle and it has been killer everytime. As far as the yeasty casing you should be ok, its beef bung and mine have got real nasty as well. I always peel it off anyway. Me no like beef bung....
wash it off with cider vin and h2o, you should see the hams after hanging for 9 months or so,,,,fuuuuunky.
Word; It is the chunk method from the bible.And yes, beef bung (middles). I have a Niman hog coming today and I am going to try the whole muscle method. For this method do you just truss? No casing?
I do have a mini proscuitto curing from the "oyster" of the ham on our last pig. Looks like it's doing it's thing pretty well.
And did you use the same recipe for whole muscle coppa or different? I just broke down that pig... Nice one. Fatty...
no trussing, just bungs and I do use the same recipe. Just one big piece of meat instead of a few medium sized piece. good luck.
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