Pork Faff Therapy/ What are you eating?

Sweet

@Jim Craft and Cleaver

3 Likes

That looks jolly nice.

My bento box on the train from Kyoto to Kanazawa.

My wifeā€™s

![20181202_134432|375x500](upload://sGSuOQyu9Er24uh5UzFHWimS00N.jpeg) 

Total cost Ā£20.

Hot Cocktail in the hotel - rum, homemade yuzu jam and mint.

7 Likes

Ribs and Sauages were brilliant, burnt ends were ok. Louise had a tray with wings, buttermilk fried chicken and a slice of brisket. The chicken bits were great, but the brisket was terrible - dry and over cooked

Iā€™d go back for the ribs, and the burgers looked good. Personally, I am not convinced by all the smoking of meat, or for that matter the overly sweet BBQ sauce places like this seem to slather it in.

Shame they donā€™t do BR Cheese sandwiches and a Maxpak coffee. :grinning:

2 Likes

Had something very similar on LNER to Grantham the other day.

3 Likes

As far as I understand brisket and also why I havenā€™t tried to smoke it yet, is that the quality of beef is everything. In the US, Beef is corn fed, or at least corn finished, which means the animals have more bulk and fat. Grass fed beef is the norm in Europe and is much leaner.

There are two muscles in a whole brisket; the ā€˜pointā€™ and the ā€˜flatā€™, they run at roughly 45Ā° to each other . The point ( which is the bit used to make burnt ends too) has more fat and the flat is lean. Cooking the two together is very difficult if the beef is grass fed because the flat dries out before the point and a long time before the two reach optimum temp, which is around 88Ā°.

Corn fed USDA brisket is available here but is twice the price of grass fed beef and hard to get in quantity. It is possible to cook a grass fed brisket apparently but is a major palava, involving separating the two muscles halfway through the cook, and wrapping them for different amounts of time. Difficult for a restaurant I would assume.
The last brisket I had here was at the Red Dog and was only ok, part of it was really quite dry. Iā€™ve had it in the US before and it can be incredible, tender and really flavoursome.

I think smoking is a good method of cooking but not all meat is easy to smoke!

My family and I cook brisket, and have done for as long as I can remember. They buy the cheapest cut and never pay any attention to whether it is corn fed USDA etc. Regardless of the provenance, sympathetic cooking leads deliciously tasty and tender beef.

Last week I cooked a 2kg piece, I have no idea of the provenance, it was tender and fantastic.

I think that the awful slice of brisket was more about a lack of understanding of how to deal with it, than the quality of the original cut.

Smoking, I remain unconvinced about as a means of cooking.

2 Likes

Let me know when you find decent Smoked brisket on a menu here, Iā€™ll be there like a shot. :+1:

1 Like

best brisket I have had, is the salt beef from the B and K salt beef bar in Edgware. Sublime salt beef sandwiches on rye with pickles

1 Like

It isnā€™t smoked though is it?

no

Donā€™t you know that smoking is bad for you? :thinking:

Itā€™s worse for the animalā€¦

2 Likes

Fair pointā€¦


Beans for this cooking slowly on the hob for tonight

I cooked this version before, but first time cooking with urid dal and kidney beans

1 Like

Since Tesco stopped selling my favourite butter and Lou is only occasionally making hers, Iā€™ve been trialling a new one. Very nice it is too.

image

It says lightly salted, but the salt level is fine for me.

Lunchā€¦

1 Like

Brussel.
Sprout.
Slaw.

Get thee to fuckery.

5 Likes