Le Rôti de Bœuf: Édition Spéciale Boucle d’Agrume. Wednesday, Feb 22 2012

The Beef Roast: Special Citrus Buckle Edition

A toast to the buckle roast.

A fiercely handsome aged roast.   From a farm out in Virginia and dry-aged for 5 weeks.  Sweet, feral, drool inducing aged beef-fat fragrance girdled in pork back fat with citrus and herbs.  Until the USDA allows farmers to raise grass finished cattle older than 2 years (i’ve heard something to suggest that they have recently amended the regulations, but such info is difficult to find; specifics are welcome) for slaughter without sending the spinal cords for inspection to assuage BSE concerns , we’ll have to settle for pastured, grain finished since 24 month old grass-fed animals do not have the time to fatten up on the grass nature intended.

Starsky & Hutch Edition Top Round Roast

Or perhaps a top-round roast for 8, in traditional racing stripes.  Versions or Randall Lineback wrapped in petit salé (French bacon) available as well, in addition to melon style lamb shoulders and boneless prune stuffed pork loins dutifully packaged in caul fat with appropriate spices and herbs.

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The Best of the Wurst. Sunday, Dec 13 2009

The Great Extrusion.

3 efficiently calculated varieties of tübesteak inspired from the 600 or so Germanic forms of extrüded meat for the send off the dearest sibling ever  to the Bundesrepublik Deutschland’s capital after 8 years in this one.  Many of the 20^th Century’s most sinister Aryans’ wieners were smoked, (on and off the battlefield) though Kitsch und Klassics’  smoking hardware is severely  crippled; a modified file cabinet (the Germans coincidentally kept very good files) which erroneously filled the basement apartment with more noxious hickory gas than it did onto the meats to be flavored.  Consequently, a triptych of non-smoked finger-shaped finger food was conjured, the specific proportions of which will remain appropriately Top Secret:

Clockenwise von der top swine: Bierschinken, Nürnbergen rostbratwurst, Fingürlicken rindswurst.

Bierschinken: a breathtakingly large emulsified cooked pork sausage served cold not unlike mortadella or cervelas with chunks of pork and pistachios in it.  Ground twice, seasoned with salt, #1, paprika and puréed with onions cooked in lard.  Should have added more raw pork chunks but forgot to put enough aside.  Poached for 3 hours until an internal temperature of 150F was reached.  Awesome on its own.  The additional dab of whole grain mustard made it more awesome with mustard.

Fingürlicken rindswurst: a plump emulsified beef sausage not unlike the venerable Frankfurter, poached then grilled.  Twice ground rib-eye (erroneously sold as chuck at the neighborhood bodega) and chuck blade were puréed with cooked onions and caraway.  The idea to include a coloring agent of tomato paste and paprika diluted in ice water to preserve the reddish beef flavor was shamefully forgotten.  Despite the use of sodium nitrite (in all 3 varieties), the color was closer to brown than a reddish ochre. The sausages were poached then grilled.  The casings were crisp and after a characteristic “snap” yielded a tender, moist, beefy texture with a hint of caraway that supplemented by repollo curtido (Salvadoran pickled cabbage)  almost conjured the elements of a Ruebenesque hotdog by way of Central America, save for the cheese.  The next aisle over from the pickled whathaveyous featured analgesic Pediatyle style hangover juices fit for a delicate baby , notable a Latino themed horchata version.

Nürnbergen rostbratwurst: a short, stubby, fresh,  ground pork sausage flavored with cardamom, mace, chili and marjoram.  A delectably savory grilled sausage.  Properly seasoned and moist, though perhaps a bit over cooked by our generous host bar’s cooks.

An accoutrement of cauliflower pickles.  Romanesco, yellow and purple cauliflower with red onion, carrots, chili and lemon zest  in a 3% salt, 1.5% sugar and 33% concentrated vinegar solution.  Swedish Ättiksprit (24% acetic acid) was used in lieu of decongesting German essig (25%).  Outside of pickling, such strong vinegars are excellent antiseptics, formidable showerhead cleaners and offer merciless self-defense fumes.

Power to the Pickle.

An excellent evening which brought together a cherished group of all sorts from  parts, albeit to say goodbye to a beloved sister, colleague, teammate and social fulcrum.  However, the sausage innuendo jokes were limp before they even started.

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Coufidou de l’Averyron Monday, Oct 5 2009

Coufidou de l’Aveyron

A rustic red wine and beef stew from the Aveyron which used to be served by its residents during Easter and Christmas and derived from the Occitan word “coufir” which mean to slowly simmer.  It is generally composed of tougher, rail quality cuts such as beef cheek, shank or neck that have been marinated in coarse regional red wine and demands slower and lower cookery consistent with a braise.

More tender and commonly used (in France) anthropomorphic biarticular muscles from the other side of the creature on the medial side of the top-round include (muscle name and cleaned weight):

Beef top round cross section: 1. La poire “the pear” Pectineus 390gr. Named for its pear shape. 2. Le merlan “the whiting”, somewhat resembles the fish of the same name. Sartorius 170gr. 3. L'araignée “the spider” Gracilis 640gr; Allegedly looks like a spider after it is cleaned of sinew and nerves. Source: Senaratne et al., 2009

The traditional garnishes include mushrooms, onions, lardons and carrots which are seen in other dishes typically enjoyed during the shorter days of the year such as variations of Coq au vin or Bœuf Bourgingon.

For this particular interpretation of Coufidou, beef neck segments were marinated for 4 days in a raspy bottom-shelf syrah with standard aromatics (carrot, celery, onion, garlic, thyme, bay leaf, peppercorns).  The neck segments were pulled from the wine and blanched in water to remove as many impurities as possible.  The segments were covered with the original marinade to preserve the resourceful vein of frugality and simmered with salt for 6 hours or so until tender.

In the meantime, button mushrooms were fluted and cooked in an acidulated blanc (water, flour, lemon juice, salt and olive oil).  Rutabaga and turnips were turned, carrots beveled and glazed in olive oil and a splash of white wine vinegar as were cipollini onions.  Potatoes were turned and carefully simmered.

The segments were cooled in the strained liquid and the meat was picked from the bones when cool enough to handle.  To build the stew base, garlic was browned in beef fat, (crushed and discarded) and then crushed tomatoes were cooked until dry.  The beef neck liquid was added piecemeal to the tomato product and quickly reduced to build a sauce of adequate consistency and depth to which the picked meat was added.  The chocolate aroma undertones of beef and red wine are worthy of a scratch & sniff sticker.  The vegetables were then added to the base and only brought to a simmer in order to meld the flavors.  Seasoning was verified and the stew was heartily consumed.

Stewings on the stew: The flavor profile offered a respectful triptych of beef & wine (which magically conspire to present the aforementioned aromatic element of chocolate), the sweet, earthy starchiness of the root vegetables, onions and mushroom and the acidity from the vinegar.

In hindsight, the stew base could have benefited from an acidic element of either sherry or Banyuls vinegar.  The vegetable garnish appeared to overwhelm the protein element; however that could be chalked up to the intentional emphasis on the cellar rather than the larder in the day of when proteins were a scarce luxury rather than a cheap commodity.

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