Wapsi Square Forum

...so i had one more for dessert.

Well, no - i put a corned beef in the crock pot and i had a little more then a half-pint of Sam Smith's Oatmeal Stout left, and it would be a sin to throw it out.

Well, there you go: oatmeal for breakfast is perfectly normal...

Fine choice of oatmeal stout, I must say.

Typeminer wrote:Fine choice of oatmeal stout, I must say.

I actually would rather have had the Taddy Porter, but nobody nearby carries it.

{And Kroger, where i bought the stout, only carries the somewhat-more-than-a-US-pint-but-less-than-an-Imperial-pint bottles, not six or four packs.}

Aren't you a wee bit early for that?

AnotherFairportfan wrote:Well, no - i put a corned beef in the crock pot and i had a little more then a half-pint of Sam Smith's Oatmeal Stout left, and it would be a sin to throw it out.

Years ago, I was helping take care of my grandmother (who was recovering from a heart attack, which occurred about a day after my grandfather passed away... she had a really bad day!) and trying to figure out meals that she'd enjoy enough to eat adequately. I offered to make a lamb stew, she agreed, and then she was very surprised when I popped open a can of beer and used it to turn the pan-brownings into the stew base. Oddly enough for a lady of Scotch-Irish background, she'd never heard that beer adds an excellent savory flavor to such stews.

As I recall, she ate two helpings. Mission accomplished!

Back in the days of shared living when we bought kegs for parties, we often used flat beer for soup stock the next day. Or the next day that someone was far enough recovered to make soup, anyhow.

Cooking is the only thing I use beer for, as I dislike the taste of it for drinking purposes. I don't use it all that often, most often for fish batter. I have used it in soups a few times, and once or twice in baking.

I haven't experimented with it enough to determine if there is a best brand or style for any particular dish, though. Since I'll generally only use one bottle at most, yet it's always sold in cases of at least four, I'll collaborate with one of my beer-drinking acquaintances and let them take the remaining bottles. I think that the last type I used was Newcastle ale, for breading on fried cod.

jwhouk wrote:Aren't you a wee bit early for that?

I can do it again next week,

Nobody here will object.

But it was on sale, so i grabbed a four-pound slab.

It's on sales still, at least till Tuesday.

Catawampus wrote:Cooking is the only thing I use beer for, as I dislike the taste of it for drinking purposes. I don't use it all that often, most often for fish batter. I have used it in soups a few times, and once or twice in baking.

I haven't experimented with it enough to determine if there is a best brand or style for any particular dish, though. Since I'll generally only use one bottle at most, yet it's always sold in cases of at least four, I'll collaborate with one of my beer-drinking acquaintances and let them take the remaining bottles. I think that the last type I used was Newcastle ale, for breading on fried cod.

Generally, if you're doing something with beef (carbanode al la flamade is WONDERFUL - see page 24 of The Food Stamp Gourmet - online in PDF format here.), a dark beer is good - a stout or porter, say. (NOT Guinness Toxic Sludge ... errr .... Stout.)

I love Samuel Smith's Taddy Porter (if i can get it; currently i don't know anywhere close that sells it) or Sam Smith's Oatmeal Stout (which is what i used today). (Both of which are often available by the single bottle - albeit one that is slightly larger than a US pint but not quite as big as an Imperial pint...)

For people who like corned beef, pretty much any time is a decent time to eat it.

Me... I can buy a slab of corned beef and soak it in fresh water for a few days to get the salt down to a bearable level, or I can just buy a slab of beef. The latter won't be waterlogged.

Instead of Corned Beef, I go for Beef Brisket, smoked. And when I say smoked, here's what I mean:

First off, the proper selection of meat. A good rind that covers the entire length, and a decent marble is essential, or it turns into a brick. Then I use a rub. Not a marinade, a rub. I make it myself. It's a brown sugar base, with my preferred blend of herbs and spices thrown in, start on the meat side, flip it over, and everything left when I make up the batch goes along the rind.

Then it goes int the smoker, rind-up. Mind you, I use off-bore heat from a firebox so no one area gets scorched. Before the meat goes in, I set up a bed of coals, generally lump charcoal, not those cheap briquettes. Soaking in a pickle jar of water is the Mesquite wood. Since I live in Texas, and it's a local pest, it's from last year's cutting so it has a chance to season. Cut up in smallish chunks. The reason it is soaked is so that it produces more smoke.

Do that for two, maybe three hours. Once it's got a good smoke on it, wrap it in foil, let the fire die down a bit, and slooooow cook it overnight. At least eight or ten hours. If Mother Nature gets upset with us and starts to rain on our parade, the meat can go in the oven to slow cook, once you get the good two or three hour smoke on it. Not my preferred method, but it'll do in a pinch with minimal effect on the flavor.

When you pull the brisket, you have to be very careful to use tongs on the foil. If you try to spear it with one of those big tong forks, you're just gonna come out with a hunk of meat. It comes out literally fork tender.

Now we trim the fat, which mostly involves peeling the rind off and rendering it down for broth to make stew with. And with a sharp knife, cutting with the grain (since cutting against the grain is just gonna end up with a messy hunk of strands) to serve. Take the stuff that just plain fell apart, put a TOUCH of BBQ (drowning it is a cardinal culinary sin, but just a touch can enhance the flavor), mix in shredded cheddar (I like to use a sharp cheddar for this one, but you can use a mild if you prefer), and serve as chopped beef BBQ sandwiches, either on toasted garlic bread or buns. Put your veggie medley of choice in a foil pouch (open topped) and toss it in the smoker for a bit to give them a good smoky flavor. Personally, I like to drizzle them with butter before tossing 'em in. Aforementioned garlic bread also gets toasted, only IT gets toasted in the sidebox over an open flame so it gets broiled/flame kissed, but the flames died down enough that it doesn't get 'blackened'.

When I smoke a brisket, half the neighborhood 'just so happens' to wander on over, generally with some other side dish or something, and we end up with an impromptu potluck.

yum

ShneekeyTheLost wrote:Instead of Corned Beef, I go for Beef Brisket, smoked. And when I say smoked, here's what I mean:
.
.
.
When I smoke a brisket, half the neighborhood 'just so happens' to wander on over, generally with some other side dish or something, and we end up with an impromptu potluck.

32F and I haven't seen my grill since November. I hate you. Hwever, I will remind you of this in August when I am enjoying the outdoors under my canopy and you are huddling indoors in the AC as the land turns sere and brown around you.

Just Old Al wrote:32F and I haven't seen my grill since November. I hate you. Hwever, I will remind you of this in August when I am enjoying the outdoors under my canopy and you are huddling indoors in the AC as the land turns sere and brown around you.

It's not that bad, the heat allows you to use fewer lumps of coal or less propane, and just keep adding ice to your tea or beer to keep it from evaporating!

But do remember to use bug spray or have someone on the quad 50's to keep the mosquitos away.

- 'I don't like the taste of Beer...'; neither did I, but having left the pursuit of getting intoxicated as the primary desired result behind, I've found there are many offerings that are worth the time.

- follow up; I have an on going quest to find 'the Red', as I describe it; a good quality Red beer that satisfies and makes one feel it's almost Medicinal in it's ability _to_ satisfy...

- Beef Brisket; there (was?) a place or two in Oakland, Ca called 'Flints'. Besides the ribs that you would think to default to, the draw for me was the brisket; slow and low is the only way to go. (It was a crap shoot though, to be able to count on if Flints would be up and running, as they had a nasty habit of catching on fire on a regular basis...

- I am currently typing while there is a Sierra Nevada Torpedo close at hand. I'm going to have to try Cooking with one...

TazManiac wrote:- I am currently typing while there is a Sierra Nevada Torpedo close at hand. I'm going to have to try Cooking with one...

"I love cooking with wine - sometimes I even put it in the food."