Monthly Archives: January 2011

Pho

31 Monday Jan 2011

Posted by in Beef, Miscellaneous

≈ 2 Comments


After moving South from Lincoln Square to Logan Square years ago, access to the Vietnamese sub-neighborhood on Argyle has gotten much less. While I miss the banh mi, what I miss most is a hot bowl of pho on a cold day, but driving 30-45 minutes for soup is not something that I am willing to do on a regular basis.

Instead of going without, I wanted to take a crack at making pho myself. However making such a rich, complex broth is intimidating, even for regular stock makers. Once I found a recipe, all that took was a faithful leap, 5 pounds of beef knuckles, and nearly a half cup of spices. The results were very satisfying and the output was enough to keep us full of pho for the foreseeable future. Continue reading »

Beef Bacon

28 Friday Jan 2011

Posted by in Bacon Making, Beef, Making Charcuterie

≈ 19 Comments

Beef bacon is something that I have been looking into ever since chatting about a butchering video showing a small cut from a huge steer that looks just like a pork belly.  It was shortly after this that Time Out Chicago posted an article discussing bacon from different beasts. The thing was, that I could not find this cut until a few weeks ago. This bacon comes from the same beautiful cut of meat, from Butcher & Larder and Dietzler Farms before that, that gave us the pastrami. Continue reading »

Beef Navel Pastrami

26 Wednesday Jan 2011

Posted by in Beef, Cured Meats, Making Charcuterie, Smoked Meats

≈ 12 Comments

This is not the first pastrami on this blog. Hell, it is not even the first beef pastrami, but it is the traditional cut, the navel, for the first time. Despite the tradition, most pastrami that you see these days is made from brisket. Especially in Chicago where the deli scene is, at my nicest, very limited, pastrami is brisket and mostly the flat, which is really, really lean in comparison to the point and especially the navel. The navel appears closer to pork belly than brisket when talking about meat and fat distribution.

Before Chicago’s newest butcher shop, Butcher & Larder, opened just a few weeks ago, beef navel was not a cut that you would find at a butcher shop in Chicago. Which is a shame, it is a beautiful cut of meat. With B&L open, however, beef navel can be had for anyone who takes the initiative to ask for it. Continue reading »

Venison Rillettes

24 Monday Jan 2011

Posted by in Making Charcuterie, Rillettes and Other Potted Meats, Venison

≈ 4 Comments

Venison Rillettes with Dijon and Pickled Red Onions

With a final pound of venison with the label of “Jerky Only”, a jar full of bacon fat, and a desire to not start another jar of bacon fat, I had an idea of how to turn this extraordinary lean and well worked muscle into something delicious. Continue reading »

Chocolate Chip Cookies

21 Friday Jan 2011

Posted by in Miscellaneous

≈ 5 Comments

There are family artifacts and heirlooms that fill up our houses and storage units – crates of etched glasses from the mid 20th century, 200 year old marble tops (you see it in most of the pictures here), and others. Then you have the kind that exist on a notecard or in a photo album. The sentimental ones.

This year, I received my great grandmother’s chocolate chip cookie recipe. Now I understand that everyone makes a chocolate chip cookie, but at my great grandmother’s home there were always chocolate chip cookies in a tin jar by the door. Always. When you walked in, you got a cookie. Continue reading »

Bacon Tastings: Butcher & Larder

19 Wednesday Jan 2011

Posted by in Bacon Tasting

≈ 4 Comments

Sunday was the day. After waiting from the first week of November for the meat stylings of Rob Levitt to transition from restaurant life to the butcher shop, the shop finally opened. Being a Green Bay Packer fan comes with many rewards, but this week’s reward was that Butcher & Larder opened promptly at noon, the same time as the Bears’ game, which I did not care to watch.

The shop looked great. The case was full of beautiful cuts of meat, some of which are not often (ever) featured in the cases of more traditional butcher shops. The room is thoughtfully, but sparsely, decorated with a cool selection of vintage knifes, a bacon press, a few lovely meaty wall hangings, and other meat related decor.  The star, besides the meat, is the beautiful manual meat slicer in the middle of the work area. It truly is a work of art and balances out the pure power of the meat grinder and band saw nearby. Continue reading »

Cassoulet

17 Monday Jan 2011

Posted by in Miscellaneous

≈ 4 Comments

It was nearly a year ago when I made cassoulet for the first time using the recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking. After spending nearly the entirety of two days making this supposedly simple dish, I was nearly too tired to enjoy it. It should not be that hard and it really is not.

Knowing that, at its core, cassoulet is a hearty, sticky bean stew studded with cured meats and sausages makes it easier. It need not be made with stock that you made with cracked rib bones. The beans need not be cooked thrice. In my opinion, you need cured meats, beans, and a sticky stock. Continue reading »

Ciccioli a la The Butcher and Butcheress

14 Friday Jan 2011

Posted by in Pork, Rillettes and Other Potted Meats

≈ 4 Comments

Ciccioli, Country Bread and Dijon

In the last few months, the community of those in Chicago who look for sustainable meatstuffs (and many others) have been waiting patiently for the opening of Butcher and Larder. Frankly, when it is too damned hard in a meat town to find unfrozen local, well raised meat and someone who cares as much as Rob Levitt does about whole animal butchery is in process of opening such a shop, it is really exciting.  Continue reading »

Saurkraut

12 Wednesday Jan 2011

Posted by in Condiments and Pickles

≈ 3 Comments

Being a Wisconsin kid, I grew up with Saurkraut juice running through my veins (along with brandy, beer, cheese, etc. – we have big veins). Bratwurst on a bun with saurkraut and mustard is the gold standard dish – picnic, ballgame, or fine dining, it is all good. While watching our beloved Packers play in primetime, you may have seen the folks wearing wellies pitchforking kraut at Frank’s and said “ewww”, but if you sneak it on a brat, you will be converted. Continue reading »

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