[Sca-cooks] Happy Festivus To All, plus Xmas menus for those who do that...

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Dec 23, 2007, at 8:58 PM, Heleen Greenwald wrote:

> Master A,
> Your menu sounds very wonderful!!  I remember years ago seeing Julia
> Child (on TV) using a Larding needle. You could kill somebody with a
> thing like that!! Well, anyway, being brought up Jewish-Kosher.... I
> had never even imagined such a thing..... I was quite impressed.

I'll betcha there's no particular reason why one couldn't have a  
larding needle that's been used only for beef suet strips (or some  
other hard fat from an appropriate part of the animal; I'm wondering  
if kidney fat might be considered a de facto loin portion, with all  
that sciatic nerve thing, but maybe there's some from something like  
deckle (a.k.a. top of the rib or rib flap meat) that's both firm  
enough and suitably flavored and not obviously treif, inherently.

My major complaint about larding needle designs I've seen is that too  
often you have to thread the needle and pull everything, needle, fat  
and all, through your meat, which is a path fraught with what I will  
charitably call uncertainty. What's really needed is a tube cut off at  
a sharp angle, like a very large syringe needle, say 1/8" internal  
diameter, with a matching "ramrod" inside it. Stick it into a block of  
hard fat, then stab it into the meat, and withdraw the needle while  
putting pressure on the plunger to leave the fat behind, extruded into  
the hole you made...

The trouble with barding, which involves thin sheets of fat (basically  
large thin slices tied in place) is that it tends to prevent the meat  
from browning, then it melts somewhat as it cooks, and semi-bastes the  
meat and drips off, leaving you with only marginally moister meat that  
looks like it's been steamed. Interlarded meat, on the other hand, has  
little bristles of fat all over and inside its surface, so both it and  
the meat, if done correctly, can brown, and when it's done, some of  
the fat remains in the meat.

One of the cuts I have had most success with was brisket, which has a  
sort of gummy sheet of fat on it that many people find unpleasant. You  
trim that off completely, lard the mat with considerably less fat than  
the mass of what you trimmed off, and roast or braise (or, I guess,  
pit-smoke?) as per usual.

>
> Wishing you, your family  and everyone on list a Merry-Merry!
> Phillipa

Thank you, and if my family can keep Christmas going until the Lunar  
New Year arrives, yours gets to have Hanukkah (whether you want it or  
not) at least until Purim! ;-) So there! (Okay, so it's a month and a  
half after Chinese New Year. But I have every faith in you!)

Adamantius