I've been checking out a lot of cookbooks from the library, and have a scanner. What does that mean? Tons of scanned-in recipes and no virtual cookbook to keep them in. That all changes now. I just created cookbookmonster, a virtual repository of all my scanned-in library book recipes (and some of my faves from cookbooks I have at home).
Since TECHNICALLY posting copywrited material on the internet without permission is illegal, you'll need to sign up for a wordpress I.D. (wordpress.com/signup/only create ID) and comment to this post if you want to be added in the "users who can see this blog." Furthermore... let me know if you want to be part of the cookbookmonster project too! The more content we have, the cooler our virtual cookbook can be! (And who knows... someday we could blow outta this virtual popsicle stand and maybe get a website that is better than a blog for this particular purpose.)
Happy almost New Year, and sign up for a wordpress account!
xo, Caroline :)
**Edit: comment with your Wordpress ID's! Then I'll add you, and you will be able to see all my hard work ^_^
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Smokin' Hot!
I decided that ye olde Cast Iron Maiden blog deserved one more post before 2008 comes to an end. I feel bad that this blog has mostly been ignored since its conception, especially since the blog has such a clever and witty name. Cast Iron Maiden?! C'mon, it doesn't get much better than that.
Recently I've been pretty much obsessed with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's River Cottage series of TV shows and cookbooks. Hugh is a British celebrity chef known largely to his "back to basics", "real food" campaigning. He's a large supporter of buying only free-range or organic meats and practicing nose-to-tail eating philosophies.
Basically, he's a cooking bad ass.
In an episode of 2007's River Cottage: Gone Fishing, Hugh fashions an on-the-go smoker out of an old tin bread box. Personally, I've always thought smokers to be complex things which only should be handled by the manliest of men, the BBQ Kings. Smoking meat seemed to be right there with muscle cars, cheap beer and lawn maintenance. Imagine my surprise to see Hugh, with his glasses and luscious locks of hair, smoke a freshly caught fish without batting an eye lash. Obviously, smoking meat wasn't just for the BBQ Kings.
In fact, slow drying in the sun or by a fire has been used for food storage in cultures the world over. While today we largely use smoking to enhance flavor and texture, prior to refrigeration it was immensely important in preserving perishable foods. Humans have been smoking meat and fish for as long as we've been doing just about anything. You can read more about the history of smoking here.
Seeing that my ancestors were probably smoking meat successfully hundreds and hundreds of years ago, I decided to give it a try. If cavemen can do it, so can I, right?
It turns out that, for once in my life, I was right. Smoking is really really easy. When you get down to it, smoking food is a pretty simple concept that only needs a few key elements. You need a heat source. You need something to smoke. You need a container to contain your smoke. It turns out that building a homemade smoker is really easy too. In the episode of River Cottage: Gone Fishing that inspired all this, Hugh fashioned a smoker out of an old metal bread box which he placed over a fire. My smoker has a few more parts, but not many. My container is a metal trashcan (new, in case you were worried). I used a hot plate for my heating element and purchased some hickory wood chips to provide the smoke. Drill a few holes and add a BBQ rack, and you too could have a homemade smoker. While I didn't follow the directions on this website, the smoker here is almost identical to the smoker I made.
Upon completing the smoker, I smoked a pound and a half of salmon and two turkey thighs. Getting them up to temperature (150 F for salmon, 165 F for turkey) took several hours but the taste was sure worth it!
If you decide to do some smoking yourself, here are a few tips:
Recently I've been pretty much obsessed with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's River Cottage series of TV shows and cookbooks. Hugh is a British celebrity chef known largely to his "back to basics", "real food" campaigning. He's a large supporter of buying only free-range or organic meats and practicing nose-to-tail eating philosophies.
Basically, he's a cooking bad ass.
In an episode of 2007's River Cottage: Gone Fishing, Hugh fashions an on-the-go smoker out of an old tin bread box. Personally, I've always thought smokers to be complex things which only should be handled by the manliest of men, the BBQ Kings. Smoking meat seemed to be right there with muscle cars, cheap beer and lawn maintenance. Imagine my surprise to see Hugh, with his glasses and luscious locks of hair, smoke a freshly caught fish without batting an eye lash. Obviously, smoking meat wasn't just for the BBQ Kings.
In fact, slow drying in the sun or by a fire has been used for food storage in cultures the world over. While today we largely use smoking to enhance flavor and texture, prior to refrigeration it was immensely important in preserving perishable foods. Humans have been smoking meat and fish for as long as we've been doing just about anything. You can read more about the history of smoking here.
Seeing that my ancestors were probably smoking meat successfully hundreds and hundreds of years ago, I decided to give it a try. If cavemen can do it, so can I, right?
It turns out that, for once in my life, I was right. Smoking is really really easy. When you get down to it, smoking food is a pretty simple concept that only needs a few key elements. You need a heat source. You need something to smoke. You need a container to contain your smoke. It turns out that building a homemade smoker is really easy too. In the episode of River Cottage: Gone Fishing that inspired all this, Hugh fashioned a smoker out of an old metal bread box which he placed over a fire. My smoker has a few more parts, but not many. My container is a metal trashcan (new, in case you were worried). I used a hot plate for my heating element and purchased some hickory wood chips to provide the smoke. Drill a few holes and add a BBQ rack, and you too could have a homemade smoker. While I didn't follow the directions on this website, the smoker here is almost identical to the smoker I made.
Upon completing the smoker, I smoked a pound and a half of salmon and two turkey thighs. Getting them up to temperature (150 F for salmon, 165 F for turkey) took several hours but the taste was sure worth it!
If you decide to do some smoking yourself, here are a few tips:
- Soak your chips! Unsoaked chips will not smolder and smoke as well as wet ones. Soak chips for at least 30 minutes prior to smoking. If you don't use your chips all at once, keep them in water. They will dry out and leave you smokeless when you least expect it!
- Think salt! Smoke and salt are a match made in heaven. Consider the salt content of the meat you're about to smoke. Turkey, which is injected with a salt water solution, will be tasty placed straight in the smoker. Other meats may need to be salted, cured or even brined. Check out this smoked salmon recipe from Alton Brown for an example of curing!
- Experiment! Keep in mind that humans have been successfully smoking meat for centuries without recipes. Don't be afraid to try something new!
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