Salted Pig

Change of Plans

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 21:09:07 -0500

So as I’m sure you’ve noticed I haven’t been posting much (or at all) on here. A big reason behind that is my personality. I wanted this site to focus only on food and frankly I got bored with that. Its not that I’m done with food but in order to really be into something I can’t think about it 24hrs a day. In all honesty I’m most creative when I spend 1 or 2 days a week concentrating on a project. This is probably why I have a gazillion different hobbies, none of which I’m a amazing at. So what I’m trying to say is this blog is going to really random from now on. Proceed with caution from now on.

It's a Statement Cheese.

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 14:32:33 -0500

At a bar I am not proud to admit I frequent. There is a regular(you know the guy, you kinda pray he is too drunk to notice you walk in) who once tricked me into a conversation about a basketball game. Long and short of it is this game was a “statement game”. Both teams were excellent and were slated to be great competitors for the season. But history ran deep between the basketball players and this game was terribly exciting to watch on many levels. EVERY time I see this yahoo he yells “What kinda game is it?”

Thirty years ago, Laura Chenel was interested in raising goats. Today she is a semi-retired millionaire who helped to start a revolution…a goat cheese revolution.

It all started with a crispy round of pan-fried goat cheese and a simply dressed mesclun salad. This was a dish that was going to change the American view on cheese made from goat’s milk.

Laura Chenel came by farming honestly. The family farm, in Sonoma County, raised chickens and turkeys. Upon graduation from high school, Laura began to raise a small herd of goats. Quickly they were producing more milk than she could keep up with and naturally she turned to cheese making. The beginning was not very successful. Chenel did some research to improve her cheese making skills. She actually went as far as to contact the author of the French goat cheese book that she had purchased. That phone call plus one airline ticket and she was off to France for four months to learn the art of cheese making. Her connection in France led her to four different farms all over the country where she could hone her knowledge. Back in the States, Chenel perfected her fresh chevre and also created an interest in her product. As fate would have it, Laura Chenel’s goat farm was also the backyard of another pioneering woman in the food industry, Alice Waters, owner and executive chef of Chez Panisse. Waters was all too happy to order Chenel’s fresh chevre after the first taste. Not only did she love the cheese but also the politics that it represented. It was local, it was produced with organic ideals, and it would help to create a sustainable farm. All were passions of Waters and embodied that culture that Chez Panisse wanted to(and did) help build.

Laura Chenel chevre is easily found in many fine grocers and cheese counters throughout the country. Is it this cheese mongers favorite fresh chevre? Absolutely not! Judy Schad, of Capriole Farms in Indiana, has never been credited with starting a goat cheese revolution. Capriole was right there with her goats, mirroring the movement in Northern California, right in our backyard. I think that Capriole chevre is better than Laura Chenel. And there are better than Capriole. The point is this, Laura Chenel fresh chevre is a statement cheese.

Beer and Anger

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 11:33:52 -0500

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts I spend a fair amount of time at the Lincoln Park Binny’s, I’ve also touched on how great their beer manager is and how rare it is to see
somebody at a chain store really care about their product. I’m not comfortable harping on a chain like this but frankly the selection is amazing, look at the picture above! Those are each a different beer!

At this point I’m sure most of you are wondering why I get so excited about this. Well, the truth is I grew up in Florida, home of the most ridiculous bottling laws you’ve ever seen (now gone). From what I’ve heard Budweiser and their distributors had such a stranglehold on that state they only allowed beer in 12oz, 16oz and 32oz bottles to be sold. They basically banned most foreign beer and what small amount of craft brewers that where around back then. This being said there were a couple small places, like the home brewers shop, where you could get good beer. Unfortunately most of it had been sitting in a warehouse so long it had a nice patina and a layer of dust on it. To put it in perspective, early on we would get excited about last years Anchor Christmas Beer. So when I moved up here a couple years back it was like entering a Toys R Us for the first time, minus the creepy old guy in the corner with a trench coat.

As I’m sure most of you noticed beer has become the new wine. Not sure how I feel about this. On one hand we have an incredible selection of beers and restaurants opening that cater to beer drinkers. On the other hand we have a proliferation of “beer snobs”. Don’t get me wrong they have always been around, the difference was these “geeks” were friendly, unpretentious and approachable. The new guard of snobs has brought the stuffy, unfriendly and boring wine scene and taken the proverbial dump all over the beer world. When I’m sitting in a bar I don’t need to hear about the “hop profile” and “balance” from the douche in a coat and tie (or Sigma Chi winter formal shirt) sitting next to me.

Ok, ok….I know I’m being very general here. There are amazing people in both the beer and wine scene who truly care about their passion. The point I’m trying to make, if I even have one, is that I’m getting a little sick of everything becoming co-opted by the masses. Kinda like when mass media picked up on the Ska scene (for the 3rd time) in the early 2000’s. But what is the upside to this? Just like the Ska incident, when this all boils over and fades from fashion we will be left with nothing but the cream of the crop of brewers for all of us die hards to enjoy. Is it arrogant of me to think this way? Yep, sure is. What the hell do you expect?! Look at the industry I work in!

I’m sure a bunch of you are rolling your eyes right now, but wait!!! It gets better!

Buzz word #2; Charcuterie. Please stop. Please stop talking about bacon. Please stop putting it on your menu if it doesn’t belong there. This falls under the same dilemma of beer. There are a select few people in this town doing cured/smoked meats very well. I won’t name them for fear they might get raided by the Chicago food gestapo, but I’m sure you can guess who I’m talking about. The other ones who are flooding their menu with “in house” made sausages and other nonsense need to stop. I’ve had the unfortunate privilege of tasting these and frankly I would rather see a blank space on your menu.

Ok, quick aside. Let me interrupt my rant by saying that I am not claiming I am any better at curing. Frankly I f#*king suck at it. Most of what I make is not fit for consumption and what is usually doesn’t taste all that great. Point being, I’m learning. This is a craft, and not an easy one at that. Very few people actually learn this stuff from the old guard, almost all us are self taught. This is the point that gets lost in the fog of food fashion. You wouldn’t put a steak that tasted like shoe leather on your menu if you were unsure how to properly cook it, so why do you put something 10 times more complex on there without hammering out the details? Hmmmm?

I guess all we can do is sit back and let people either learn the right way to do things or watch them fail in a blaze of mediocrity. Please don’t let it be the latter.

Toys

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 22:57:07 -0600

While most office workers don’t enjoy getting new pens or computers for their job, people in the culinary world get the joy of geeking out over the tools of their trade. We spend copious amounts of time trying to find obscure handmade knives and pans. The hunt is most of the fun and it usually ends in a celebratory lunch at some new found hole in the wall.

Salted.....Cupcake?

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 16:15:15 -0600

As some of you know I’m a total sucker for baked goods and like everything else I’m a complete snob about my desserts. For a town with so many bakeries, frankly the majority of them blow. Bland, boring and poorly executed is pretty much the norm at these places. Now, let me go out on a limb here and say that I have no place to talk. I can’t bake, really, don’t even attempt to have me help make cookies. Thankfully a couple bakeries have recently opened up and are firing on all cylinders. Don’t expect any reviews, not my game.

You can pretty easily figure out where I got this monstrosity called a Malted Pretzel Cupcake. Don’t know if they make them all the time, its the first time I’ve seen them. All I can say is F#$K!! There are no descriptives to describe the combination of all my favorite things on top of a spongy cake, pretzels, salt and butter. Don’t be surprised if I wind up dead with two of these pastries on my person, one half eaten in my mouth the other shoved down my pants. Too much? I think not.

This is the "non-smokey" version?!?!

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 18:38:46 -0600

What to do on a Friday with no work? What to do, what to do…..Well I like to ruin other peoples work schedule by dragging them out to “lunch”. It all starts innocently enough and then I spring the trap.

“Oh, look where we are, we might as well go see whats new in the Binny’s beer section”

Its like I’m like the high school football jock who’s car just happens to stop running at Make Out Point. Not that I wanted to make out with Mike, just eat Al Pastor Tacos. Well, one thing led to another and we ended up perusing one of the best beer isles in the city.

Now I’m not one to promote chain shops but this Binny’s has one of the best beer managers around, Adam. One simple question turns into a half hour conversation and running up and down the isles pointing out all his new favorites. Frankly, this guy is way to into beer. Mike and I both are completely sick of over hopped beers (you hear that 3 Floyds!!). So our mission now is to find new varietals we haven’t tried yet. Now, if you are not yet aware German beer is cheap. Not crappy cheap but really tasty and priced for those of us who don’t have “real” jobs.

You’ll hear about the other beers I bought later, but first I’ll go the German route. I like bock, marzen, schwartz bier, etc… So in keeping with this tradition I picked up a Schlenkerla Urbock Smokebeer (spell check don’t like that one). Now it says “smoke beer”, and Adam told me the Urbock was the less smoked of the 3. After pouring the first ounce in the glass it smelled like somebody lit a campfire in my kitchen. I hate to make the analogy but this is literally tastes like a bacon beer. It has a sugary/fatty mouth and the smoke is straight hardwood. You get used to the flavor after a couple sips but the first waft is pretty intense. Is this a session beer? Hmmmm, maybe but I could see the smoke getting annoying after awhile. Am I going to tell you what to eat it with? NO! I don’t care what you eat it with!

Go by and say “hi” to Adam. You can’t miss him, long hair, blue Doc’s and a lip ring, everything your stuffy local wine merchant is not. I’ll post up about the other oddities I got later, one of which might be the last bottle available in Chicago!

The Devil Is In The Details, But Not Anymore.

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 00:18:43 -0500

“I don’t care where it comes from! I’m sick of summer produce, get any fall products you can!”

Produce Manager of a large unnamed “wholesome” market chain.

I’ve spent the past week writing a scathing editorial on people cashing in on the “local food” craze. I called people out (not by name), criticized business practices and praised others. You may be asking yourself “where is said modern day Watergate”. Well, unlike Bernstein and Woodward I tossed it. Crtl-A + Delete is very cathartic.

Why did I delete it? Very simply, I don’t care. Its not that I don’t care about supporting small farms or helping local producers, because I care very deeply about that. What I don’t care about is money. Frankly thats what it all boils down to. These people are out to make a buck by cashing in on a buzz word, and we can’t blame them. Most of these unnamed businesses/restaurants are in it for their bottom line and thats how the industry works. Profits usually come before quality.

But guess who comes out loosing in this little game, the consumer. Not only do we get duped into paying more for products that don’t come from where we think, but we loose the confidence to shop for these products. Do yourself a favor and help out the small guy, it’ll make you feel better, might even clear up your complexion.

I’m done being preachy. Consider yourself lucky.

Yeah, yeah. I know we haven’t been posting, we do have real jobs you know, well sort of real...

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:24:45 -0500

Yeah, yeah. I know we haven’t been posting, we do have real jobs you know, well sort of real jobs. Ok, they aren’t “real” jobs by most people’s standards, but we love ‘em and frankly they are much better then sitting behind a desk all day.

Beer:30

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 22:15:00 -0500

After a veeerrryyyy long day on my feet I was supposed to come home and jump on the bike for an hour and a half, well at least according my coach. Needless to say I turned on the TV and cracked a beer instead, I don’t think my cyclocross season will suffer.

Fantome is not a brewery you get to see very often. Coming from Florida I had actually never seen it till I moved to Chicago. The brewery is located in the Ardennes, the French speaking southern portion of Belgium. What really sets this place apart isthe fact that its run by one person, Dany Prignon. One guy. One guy brews 750 liters at a time, hand bottles, corks and caps. And I’m sitting here thousands of miles away drinking a beer that is barely available in the country of its origin! Amazing. Mr. Prignon brews a couple different styles most of them falling under the “farmhouse” flag. This particular bottle is a Printemps, but this blows away any other summer beer I’ve ever had. Now, I’m not going to give some rediculous tasting notes, because:

A) You don’t taste things like me, or anyone else for that matter. Don’t believe tasting notes.

B) I want you to go out and find this for yourself. Half the fun is running around town trying to find a bottle and cracking it open. Who knows you might hate it, I can think of worse things you could blow 14 bucks on.

C) I’m just plain lazy and my treasure chest of adjectives include such gems as: yummy, weird, holy crap and the always popular, good.

Drink beer, enjoy it. Smaller producers are more available then ever, support them. Next time you take a road trip stop into the local Stop & Rob and see if they have anything fun, local or foreign. You’d be very surprised what you can find at some shops. If you live in a big city please head over to your favorite beer monger and spend a couple hours just drooling over the selection. I do.

P.S. Please excuse the terrible picture. I’m not used to my point & shoot. The DSLR was out of juice.

Photo

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 00:44:22 -0500

Rockafella Yo!

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 00:41:00 -0500

I had a gentleman at the cheese counter the other day who told me an amazing amount of times that he didn’t like “Rockefeller” cheese. After plenty of confusing minutes, I settled on the idea that he meant Roquefort cheese.

Certainly this fellow wasn’t implying that there was a cheese named for the famous fossil fuel tycoon? Clearly he was speaking of the cheese that Pliny described in his writings as hailing from the mountainous region of France, close to the Mediterranean Sea…Roquefort-Sur-Soulzon.

The lore that follows this cheese is that a young shepherd girl enjoyed her lunch of cheese and bread one day in the caves of Cambalou. Leaving her lunch behind, to chase her flock perhaps, she found it a few weeks later when she returned to her favorite lunch spot and discovered what we cherish today, Roquefort.

Very simply, blue cheeses are a style of cheese that has had a mold introduced to the curd or the mold is abundant in the aging room/cave. After the cheese has been shaped and possibly cured, it is pierced to allow air to interact with the mold. The end result is the lovely green-blue veining that laces itself throughout the cheese. The most common molds used for blue cheese production are Penicillium roqueforti or Penicillium glaucom. Is this the same penicillin that Sir Alexander Fleming developed in 1928? Indeed our penicillium based molds do share the same familial line that birthed the ever-potent antibiotic, although the mold in our favorite blues harbor only a small amount of antibacterial mold compared to the dosage of your local chemist’s pill.

What is unique to the caves of Cambalou is the mold. The cheese makers would age rye bread in the same caves that they would ultimately age the cheese. After a few weeks of being in the caves, the bread would have been completely impregnated with this special mold. It was then ground to a fine powder and mixed into the curds before being hand ladled into the forms. At this point the cheeses would be pierced, returned to the caves and matured to perfection.

First American Billionaire…Classic French Sheep’s milk cheese? I see how easily confused you could be.

That Didn't Take Long.....

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 16:09:33 -0500

After posting about my lust for some Lumpe yesterday, guess what we ate for lunch today!? Yep, you guessed it. Paired with a sugary version of Orangina called Solo it makes for great lunch. The Lumpe is a sausage focused hot dog not one that derives its flavor from gobs of condiments (not knocking Chicago’s beautiful contribution to the world). The sausage has some of the best casing “snap” out of any I’ve ever had. Its a lighter flavor then the US hot dog and an ever slightly larger grind. With a little bit of mustard this snack disappeared in a matter of seconds. As an aside, you can actaully also order this with a topping of small cold water shrimp mixed with mayo. Weird, I know. Haven’t tried it yet but its on the agenda.

Dinner Al Fresco

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 15:43:00 -0500

I’m spending some time in Oslo with the family, my Father’s hometown. I’ll be hones, Norway is not known for its culinary prowess. We had dinner up on the Holmenkollen which is a large hill 900m above the town, famously known for a brutally large ski jump. The dinner menu was the usual “quick food” in Norway, open faced sandwiches and fish, all good but I wasn’t feeling it. Then a glorious beam of light shown upon the wall and revealed a hidden part of the menu. Out of the back the chef brought out exactly what I’d been looking for. A large plate of sliced cured meats, scrambled eggs and potato salad! There was a bit of sour cream on the plate to help cut the saltiness but frankly I didn’t use it. The Fennelar was perfect and that is frankly where my knowledge of the products stopped. There were two types of cured blood sausage, a salami with a very distinct herb I couldn’t place, and a ham sliced slightly thicker then normal which gave it a nice chew.

My next mission…..Lumpe. A foot long hot dog in natural casing, boiled and then wrapped in a flat bread made from potatoes. Of course there is good mustard involved.

Monty C. King of the entire Cheddar family.

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:43:59 -0500

Monty C. King of the entire Cheddar family.

Montgomery's Cheddar. Farmhouse style.

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:40:32 -0500

Mostly, Americans think of American cheddar, when asked what kind of cheese would they like? Is there a difference? Yes, American cheddars are typically dyed (with natural annatto seed) and have a taste profile that is salty and acidic. When you combine salt and acid you have the flavor sensation of sharpness. English cheddars (or farmhouse cheddars) are usually never dyed, and they have lemony, horseradish notation on the palate. Are all farmhouse cheddars of the same callibur? No, Montgomery’s Cheddar is considered “King” of this traditional English cheese. Lets go back to the beginning and learn a little more about why they are the best.

North Cadbury, specifically, is where this famed farmhouse cheddar calls home. James Montgomery(champion cheesemaker) and Steven Bridges are the collaborative cheesemaking team, and Manor farm is the place where it all happens.

Cheddar is a town in England, but actually, you won’t find any cheddar in the town of Cheddar! You will find a gorge, a natural site that brought many travelers through this area of the country. When in Cheddar…enjoy the local cheese. It was just that, local. All these cheeses were coming from nearby Somerset, made with the traditional recipe and applying the technique that was dubbed “cheddaring”. To “cheddar” a cheese, the curds are cooked twice and then broken apart into very tiny curds to expel as much whey as possible. Farmhouse cheddar will always arrive to your local market in a huge drum, weighing from 40 to 55 pounds. These cheeses are aged a minimum of 6 months. But the best cheddars will be well over a year old.

What makes Montgomery’s cheddar stand out above the rest is that they are the last cheesemakers still using a slow peg mill to break up the curds during the “cheddaring” process. This peg mill whips and shreds the curds rather than cutting them evenly. This process is believed to ensure that the curds knit back together much more quickly and deliver a better texture when pressed. Seventy years ago, the Montgomery family began making cheese. Today they still use the same culture strain to begin the cheesemaking process that they did three generations ago. Manor Farm has 140 Fresian cows that graze in its pastures. The milk that these ladies give is not pasteurized before the cheesemaking process begins, giving us all the taste of the land to enjoy with every bite.

The Vertical Slaughter Market, Or, A Quick Lesson In Economics

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:09:50 -0500

I grew up in a small town in northern California, a town that had four or five state-inspected butcher shops and now we have one. When I talk to the butcher and others, they told me that butchers shops and slaughter plants had to close due to increased regulations and fewer customers. But now, the customers are coming back, only this time, they want local meat. But we lost the infrastructure and now regulatory and economic hurdles are preventing a re-growth of the industry.

– Tyler Dawley, rancher

A vertical market refers to any company that has total control over a product from inception to consumption. Scary, huh? Companies like Smithfield and Purdue are now in total control over the farms, slaughter houses, processing centers, shipping and sales. Obviously this is great for them, huge profits, no middle men and nobody to call them out on quality and rearing practices. The market has shifted very dramaticly in the past couple years. Smaller producers and farmers are getting shut down or bought out either by these large companies or by increased federal inspection standards. Most family owned businesses can’t afford the resources to meet extremely stringent federal inspections. By a quirk in the system federal inspectors are not allowed to give advice on how to meet this standards, unlike state inspectors who are allowed to help in meeting their standards.

But the people who really suffer from this are at either end of the supply chain; the farmer and the consumer. If a small scale farmer decides he wants to sell to a chain store the only option is to go through facilities owned by his very large competitors who set their prices so low that he can barely make ends meet. This creates a tumbling effect that starts with low profits on the farm and a mediocre life. His children won’t contiue the business and leave the farm to find more gainfull employment, and we get another farmer forced to sell to a conglomerate. With all small producers being forced out of the game the average consumer is left with the garbage you see at your local mega mart. Even butcher shops, the ones that still exist, are not about to hurt their profit margine to help a smaller, hence more expensive, farmer. In the end the consumer ends up with “the other white meat” and chicken that looks like silly putty.

What can be done to fix this? Well, unfortunately there are no quick cures as long as people want convenience over quality. Thankfully that trend seems to be changing with the 20-30 year old demographic. Small time farmers are becoming mini celebrities in certain circles and people are flocking to get a piece of the agrarian lifestyle. The vertical market won’t come crashing down overnight, but we are slowly making steps to change consumers perceptions of how to shop and source their food.

Photo courtesy of Marc Piscotty (Denver, CO)

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 22:21:40 -0500

Photo courtesy of Marc Piscotty (Denver, CO)

A fontina to remember

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 13:54:40 -0500

My first days working behind a cheese counter led me into the arms of another cheese, an old Gouda that was unlike any I had ever had. I loved this cheese and I couldn’t get enough. I liken this relationship to one that is cheap and sinister, one you know is not good for you but you can’t help but cater to its every whim. All the while, ignoring the relationship that just longed for my attention.

Off in another cheese case, Fontina d’Aosta, waited patiently for the day that I would notice him. Fontina was a cheese that I was not very impressed by. Nothing special. Americans are most familiar with a soft, tasteless cheese that they might use on an Italian hoagie. I was a fool, blinded by the over-processed cheese world that we live in. The true Fontina was nothing like the cheese I thought it was…

Fontina is the hometown of the famed cheese, nestled into the base of Mont Fontin. The Piedmont region of Italy produces many noteworthy cheeses, but true Fontina is known best. It is a raw cow’s milk cheese that is aged for 4-6 months and semi-firm in texture. The real deal is something special. Fontina d’Aosta is a mountain cheese, which means that it is durable. Having to survive a trip down the steep sides of the Alps, this cheese needs to be able to handle a bumpy ride. Wheels of Fontina range in size, and those sizes are substantial, anywhere from 17 to 25 pounds.

Early spring brings the lush pastures of this mountainous area and the cows are led out to graze. Eating the cheese of pasture-fed cows delivers notes of what the cow’s diet consisted of. The terrior, or the sense of the land, is transposed onto the finished product. In the instance of true Fontina, fruits and nuts are delivered to the palate, as well as grassy notes that some might refer to as earthy. Want to know how to tell if it is the real deal you are about to mange? Authentic Fontina from the Valle d’Aosta has a large purple stamp depiciting a mountain with its name across the center of the wheel.

Many cheeses from the Alps have a similar characteristic in that they melt beautifully. France, Switzerland and Italy all have their own versions of a melted cheese dish that evolved from a need for a warm, substantial meal to see these folks through the winter. For the Italians it is fonduta, and Fontina is the traditional cheese used. Unlike the French and Swiss versions, fonduta is enriched with butter and eggs and then poured over polenta. Ridiculously good!

Fontina d’Aosta was there all along. Just under my nose. And I paid him little attention. When the moment was right he seized the opportunity and stole my heart. My true love affair cheese!

Fennelar

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 18:29:00 -0500

Years ago my family was sent a Christmas package from Norway which included, among many other foodstuffs, a rock hard and shriveled leg of lamb. I’d grown up eating salamis and other cured meats but this was a first for me. I was instructed to slice it very thin and just let it melt in your mouth, and an instant love affair was formed.

Traditionally Fennelar is made with a salt/sugar/saltpeter mixture and allowed to cure for a couple days and then it is hung to dry inside the barn. Some sources say to smoke the leg after curing but I have yet to notice any smoked flavor so I ignored the peanut gallery on that one. While I was on a roll throwing tradition out the door I also decided to only cure with salt for a couple days while pressing the leg under weight, same process as most traditional hams. I decided to omit the sugar because I wanted to preserve the flavor of the great spring lamb that my friend Nat from Mint Creek Farms sourced for me. Saltpeter is usually used in most cured products to give them that nice rosy hue. Well, I could care less about hue and there is sufficient evidence out there that the nitrates in saltpeter aren’t that great for you.

Fast-forward about 30 days and magic has happened. Surprisingly I hit almost no speed bumps on this cure. The flavor is spot on from what I remember as a kid and I instantly had a big smile on my face when I cut the first slice. This will definatly not be the only time I make this. It’s a product that is very hard to find in the US and once you try it I guarantee you’ll want your own leg to chew on!