Did some smoking today. My wife brined the pork and the brisket for a week for the first time and it made a huge difference. Smaller joint is a lamb shoulder which was insanely good.
12 Likes
The quest for the perfect burger continues. Think these were the best yet. Added some minced garlic, mustard and tomato puree into the mix.
Also made crinkle cut chips.
More of my wifeās Eton Mess ice cream along with homemade Nutella ice cream
7 Likes
Based on these posts I like to imagine that you have an incredibly elaborate barbecuing setup in your back garden just waiting for the 3 days in Wales that you could reasonably call āsummerā 
5 Likes
waitā¦they get 3 days! That hardly seems fair! 
4 Likes
We get about 2 months of summer here. But only 3 days of spring, typically.
3 Likes
Southern Ontario has notoriously fickle seasonsā¦ āIf you donāt like the weather, wait an hour.ā
Our Spring and Fall oscillate between freezing cold nights (usually in the -10 to -5 range) and then blisteringly hot days (tomorrow will be 31 degrees with 90% humidity), often with snow, thunderstorms, hail, and cloudless skies all occurring in the same week (occasionally, albeit rarely, on the same day). Summer tends to be pretty consistently hot and unpleasant (not for me, personallyā¦ I seem to be mostly immune to hot weather and humidity) and the winter tends toward cold and miserable (especially slushy and āwetā cold, which is just the worst).
Anyway, food!
Tomorrow is my partnerās 40th birthday. We have a small gathering of close friends scheduled which will be the largest group of non-work-related people I will be around since March 2020. There will be 10 of us total, and Iām making 36 sausages in 3 different flavours (my partner requested a Sausagefest, and thatās what Iām going to give herā¦ why are you all looking at me like that?). Pretzel and whole wheat buns, and Iām going to braise the sausages in the oven in three or four different braising liquids to cook them, and then just throw them on the BBQ to crisp them up before serving.
Braising liquids currently include:
Sauerkraut (with a bit of added water to thin it down)
Beer (with onion and peppers fried and then tossed in)
Stock (probably chicken stock, and probably more peppers and onions in this one, but Iād like to do something elseā¦ itās too bad we both hate black licorice flavour, because I imagine fennel and anise would be lovely in thereā¦ maybe ginger and soy? I dunno, I will think about it).
I have big aluminum pans which I am going to put the sausages and their simmering liquids in, and then toss all of those in a 350 degree oven for about an hour to an hour and a half to cook them gently. Out, onto a BBQ, back into the braising liquid, and then on the table where people can take the sausages with any of the cooked flavouring at the same time.
Iām also responsible for strawberry āshortcakeā, which in this case is going to be 2 different types of Alton Brown pound cake (buttermilk vanilla, and lemon), along with a mountain of strawberries in strawberry sauce (really just a sprinkle of sugar to pull out liquid, gives a lovely thick jammy sauce) and probably blueberries and/or raspberries as well, depending on whatās available at the farmerās market tomorrow morning. And a litre of whipped cream (with a splash of vanilla and some sugarā¦ I know there are people who like āplainā whipped cream, and I get it, but not for this application). Cakes are going into the oven first thing in the morning to cool until dinner time. and then everything should be good to go!
Our friends are supplying side dishes (salads, sāmores, drinks, appetizers), and that will be everything.
I will try to remember to take pictures.
5 Likes
You canāt see the barbecue, pizza oven and smoker set up, but weāve Wales proofed our outside cooking space
12 Likes
That is all
4 Likes
I discovered an amazing way to cook sausages from a cricket blog of all places, which isnāt too different to this.
Get a frying pan, slice an onion and cover the bottom of the pan with it. Chuck in sausages, cover with a can of beer. Bring it to the boil and cook until the liquid has all gone.
Chuck in some oil and the fry until you get your required colour.
Hope you have a great day
6 Likes
Fennel salami is very popular in Italy. maybe combine it with something other than anise. black pepper? maybe garlic? Olives?
We always add KĆ¼mmel (caraway seed) to Sauerkraut.
Have you considered braising in red wine something strong like chianti? I could imagine that for some Italian inspired salsicce.
Anyway good luck with the Wurstravaganza!
3 Likes
So, as expected, I forgot to take pictures. In my defence, it was a very long day.
We got up around 7am to head out to the local farmerās market (St. Jacobās, which is about 20 minutes north of us). There I bought $60 worth of sausage (a dozen each Paprika and Garlic, Hot Italian, and Oktoberfest), $35 worth of strawberries (two quarts and a pint), $60 worth of buns (24 pretzel buns, 24 German buns), and two coffees.
Drove home (stopped to get propane and ice), immediately started baking. First step was to get the pound cakes in the oven (one lemon, the other buttermilk vanilla). Pictures show 16oz of butter and then 16oz of sugar being creamed, and then the final productā¦
The top of the lemon pound cake burned a little, but I hacked it off and we were good to go. The vanilla pound cakes turned out a little over done, but I blame it on our ovenā¦ itās weird. I canāt explain it, but it never seems to cook things properly. I really, really need to get a good oven thermometer, because I think ours is just off by 10-20 degrees. Anyway.
Rest of the food turned out well (the sausages were braised in three liquids, as I mentioned: mushroom onion beer, pepper garlic chicken stock, and sauerkraut). Friends brought interesting food as well (one person brought a watermelon cucumber mint salad that I didnāt try because I donāt like mint but it was apparently very good).
8 Likes
Send me the leftovers! 
2 Likes
Last weekend I made some cheese (-substitute), a batch of seitan, and some glamorgan sausages.
Iām experimenting with the seitan ā my best batch resulted from my accidentally not following a recipe properly and getting the proportions āwrongā (and yet right), so hopefully I can figure out how to recreate that. I have theories. I should really make much smaller batches so that I can iterate faster.
4 Likes
More smoking to go with the Cider Sours.
Beef short ribs, pork collar and baby back ribs.
First time smoking beef ribs - they were so tender, but not a cheap cut. Making stock from the bones currently.
10 Likes
5 Likes
What is Weeping Tiger steak???
2 Likes
Itās from a Thai recipe.
Soy sauce, rice wine, fish sauce, sugar as a marinade
3 Likes
That sounds delicious. But Iām not sure Iād want the word āweepingā associated with anything Iām going to eat!
1 Like
It was the specialty at the Thai place by my apartment until they sold the place. (Itās still a Thai restaurant but a different family owns and operates it and that is not one of the items on the menu anymore.)