Do they recognize quality?

A long post: Photo of the day is of the shaping room of the bakery. We're getting ready for a new delivery of equipment. That cabinet is a front-projection TV that will be removed to make room.

Today's post is inspired by an archived article in Food Arts Magazine about upscale restaurant chefs curing their own salame (salumi). One chef, Michael Symon, of Lola in Cleveland, was quoted, "it makes us better cooks, teaching us respect for ingredients and increasing pride in our products...Usually the restaurant world is about immediate gratification. The wait helps them grow as cooks".

The fact that no amount of added "natural flavors" will ever be a substitute for real flavor, sourdough bread in point, supports the ideal of learning a craft and making something great with that craft. You may have read previous posts regarding long slow fermentation in breadmaking to draw out flavors in flour. Well, guess what? This principle lies in almost all things of quality.

A friend and I were looking at the meat counter at our local "better" grocer and I was lamenting that the "dry-aged" cuts had all been trimmed or worse removed from the display. She mentioned that the customers didn't want to buy "old meat". Hunh? Did I miss something? Does America want to taste beef? Or do they want to season the crap out of "fresh meat" so they taste the seasonings and not the meat? Are we turning Japanese (While the Japanese are embracing the wet and dry methods of aging beef)? Ironic?



Are we raising our children to believe that fast food burgers are what a burger is supposed to taste like? You don't need a grill to make a better burger! And don't get me started on my childhood staple of pizza. Nutrition aside, I am grateful my family includes butchers, bakers, cooks, and backyard gardeners!

In the last three months, at home, I have:

• baked bread (duh!)


• roasted green coffee beans


• dry aged beef roasts


• brined and smoked meats


• baked a least 5 delicious pizzas


• churned my own gelato and ice cream


• ground my own meats


• and prepared fresh vegetables in at least five different ways (steaming, roasting, grilling, sauteing, and braising)
  

Most of the above mentioned items are available commercially, so I don't need to make them myself, right? Isn't it easier to buy them than to make them? Perhaps, but the bought ones aren't the same quality you'd find if you made them yourself, are they? I mean, when I roast coffee beans, I can make sure the only things going into my roaster is coffee beans (no foreign material if you know what I mean). I can choose where the beans come from (are they a fair trade country recognized by the US as such?). I can choose to blend different beans for a different flavor and I get to roast them as dark as I want. I can even roast as few as one pot's worth!

Meat grinding you say? What's the deal with that? Well, first of all, I don't want to pay for water - many commercial grinders work so fast and for such long hours that crushed ice is added to the meat to keep the fat from melting during the process. And even though the package says 85% lean, who's checking that that is what really is in my package? Maybe I got the fat that was supposed to go in the next package? Is the fat in ground beef from the same cow or even from the same cut of meat? Why do I need to have my beef sprayed with something that keeps it looking red and shiny for days? Can you spell salmonella? At least I know my equipment has been cleaned and sanitized and I know whether I am using the same equipment for beef, veal , pork and poultry. Do you know where your ground meat has been? **Note from Marsh Butcher in Kokomo: He does NOT use ice, since they do smaller batches and you get the labeled cut (or better). That means you might be getting tenderloin tails in your ground sirloin, Darn!


I recently bought a chicken from a local farmer who also sells at the farmer's market. I haven't thawed it yet, but plan to do so soon. Since she brought it to the market, it had to be commercially processed and that means frozen. If I want a fresh chicken, I need to go to the farm and pick it up there. The whole idea of seeing her process sounds cool to me except that I might feel bad for the chickens. I think I'll call her to see if she has fresh ducks and turkeys, maybe I can get the TurDuckHen poultry from her for Thanks giving.


Thank you, dad, for bringing home lamb and mutton and teaching us the difference and showing us to respect our food. I am sorry for the times I only wanted food from a box and orange pop for breakfast.