Content about Beef
June 13, 2011
Nick finally takes a look back at the chili of his youth.
Cockaigne: an imaginary land of great luxury and ease.
—Merriam-Webster Dictionary
"Cockaigne was the name of the family home...Any time there's a recipe with this in the title, it means it's an old family favorite."
— 'Joy Of Cooking': 75 Years Young, CBS
When the words "imaginary land of great luxury" and "chili" collide, usually that means we're set for some...
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I don't really care for big burgers.
Sometimes I feel like I’m the only one railing against the big burger tide. While nearly every new restaurant opening in Chicago features a big, fat burger on its menu, I’m that guy that prefers thin little griddled burgers. Usually I can only find them at old school joints, but even these are frequently harder to find these days. It’s getting to the point where I haven’t eaten a burger at a restaurant in months. I...
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March 15, 2011
A quicker, easier process than the whole brisket
Corned beef is one of the more basic and surprising kitchen experiments. But I think that people still think it's pretty nuts. I'm staying in California for a couple weeks, and had to buy the ingredients, cook, photograph, and eat this project while staying at someone else's house (sorry for the lack of pictures). First of all--it's really tough cooking somewhere you don't have all your familiar tools! But I...
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February 22, 2011
Nick eats lunch at home everyday, usually scrounging up leftovers in his fridge into some kind of new creation. He'll post about more successful attempts.
After making a big batch of beef broth for the best risotto of my life, I was also left with an insane amount of poached beef. Though a simple beef sandwich with horseradish would have worked, I instead decided to make a modified Italian Beef. Not 100% successful, but still delicious.
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October 5, 2010
The kiwi could change everything
The kiwi that could change everything
I keep returning to Korean barbecue, and once I get it in my head, nothing else interests me. The amazing flavor of the meat--beefy and complex and sweet--and the unique butchering and cooking method, which renders the normally tough short rib into a grillable pleasure. These things are crack to someone who loves to eat and is fascinated with cooking.
So here's what we know about Korean-style...
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September 29, 2010
Tweaking the classic Chicago hot dog (aka The Superdawg)
Though it pains me to say this, the Chicago hot dog has one little flaw. It’s not always an issue, but it’s there just the same. Most of the seven toppings which make up a proper Chicago-style Hot Dog can be had at any time: mustard and relish are condiments, celery salt is a seasoning, the sport peppers and pickle come from a jar, and onions can be freshly cut up at any time of the year. No...the flaw is that damned red tomato...
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Our weekly roundup of what the two of us have written over on Serious Eats.
"Dinner Tonight" Column
QUICK MEALS TO YOUR TABLE FIVE DAYS A WEEK.
Chicken with Tomato-Saffron Vinaigrette with Mixed Greens
Paprika and saffron help give a vivid orange-red tinge and a round, mellow flavor to this simple summer salad.
Summer Succotash with Bacon
Lovely, lovely bacon fat and a shot of sherry vinegar...
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July 9, 2010
Or, the best carne asada tacos we've ever had
As far as I know there are only two kinds of ways to make carne asada. The first method is to take thinly sliced flank or skirt steak, sear it over mad charcoal fire, chop it up, and then stuff it into warm corn tortillas. It's almost always great. The second method is the kind that most taquerias use, which is to scoop some bits of raw steak, plop it on a grill, and sauté until it is cooked. This one is almost always bad. The...
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Our weekly roundup of what the two of us have written over on Serious Eats.
"Dinner Tonight" Column
QUICK MEALS TO YOUR TABLE FIVE DAYS A WEEK.
Steak and Eggs with Smoked Paprika
A sprinkle of smoked paprika helps wake up this breakfast classic.
Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato Salad with Aioli Dressing
This dish reinterprets the ingredients of a BLT as a refreshing summer salad.
Flounder Sandwich...
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June 11, 2010
A mixture of tofu, ground meat, and chile bean paste suspended in a bright red and dangerously spicy sauce
Had you put a gun to my head a few years ago and asked me what my least favorite kind of food was, I'd have A) asked you why wanted to shoot me, and then B) probably said Chinese. Bad broccoli and beef, greasy fried rice, those strange orange packets of sauce--these were my impressions of the entirety of Chinese cuisine and what a billion people ate for dinner. Though I probably knew better, I couldn't block the mental image of...
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Our weekly roundup of what the two of us have written over on Serious Eats.
"Dinner Tonight" Column
QUICK MEALS TO YOUR TABLE FIVE DAYS A WEEK.
Shaved Asparagus, Pea, and Prosciutto Salad
Blake takes advantage of asparagus season by shaving the spring vegetable thinly and tossing it in a salad.
Yucatecan Papaduzul (Enchiladas Stuffed with Hard-Boiled Eggs)
Pumpkin seeds flesh out this authentic Yucatecan...
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April 26, 2010
Our weekly roundup of what the two of us have written over on Serious Eats.
"Dinner Tonight" Column
QUICK MEALS TO YOUR TABLE FIVE DAYS A WEEK.
The Best Oyster Po' Boy Outside of New Orleans
Nick still can't reach the perfection he found in New Orleans, but this cornmeal and flour crusted oyster recipe comes the closest.
Cornmeal-Crusted Pan-Fried Trout
Sometimes the simplicity of a freshly caught fish requires...
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March 2, 2010
The Big Mac will always be better.
I should apologize in advance for this fast food rant. I've never indulged in such a tirade before, but I simply couldn't resist this one. Regularly scheduled content will return later this week, I promise.
The Mac Snack wrap is the stupidest, most idiotic, dumbest fast food creation I've ever seen. It purports to be a Big Mac in flour tortilla, except it betrays logic and any culinary common sense. From the moment I saw the...
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February 15, 2010
Our weekly roundup of what the two of us have written over on Serious Eats.
"Dinner Tonight" Column
Quick meals to your table five days a week.
Chipped Beef Gravy
"I can't be the only one who grew up with this meal," Nick writes. 67 comments later, we think he has his answer.
Roasted Salmon and Potatoes with Cucumber Relish
20 minutes in an oven turns out this classy dish.
Sichuan Boiled Beef in Fiery Sauce
The fury...
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January 28, 2010
The PC guide to little burgers.
What is a slider? A slider is a particular thing. It's particularly American. It's a small subset of our great culinary tradition, the hamburger. But as I explained last week, it's not just a mini-hamburger. To be a slider, it cannot be perverted with expensive ingredients like foie gras or tuna tartar, a cutesy version of a burger for a chef to play with. A slider consists of a thin layer of beef, American cheese, a soft bun,...
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[Photographs by Victor Schrager and DPerstin/Flickr CC]
Welcome to Wednesday Links. This is our weekly collection of four of the most interesting food links we've discovered in the past week. Enjoy!
Reading the Carcass by Tom Mylan
Brooklyn Butcher lays out the elements of great beef, and explains why grass fed beef usually tastes bad (and how it could be better).
Food, Not Rocket Science
This...
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January 19, 2010
How do you make the best mini burgers?
First things first: there's something to clear up about "sliders." They are not mini hamburgers. Along with Adam Kuban over at A Hamburger Today, I actually sort of hate mini hamburgers and the implied cuteness. Sliders are a different beast, and not cute. They are compact and small, yes, but they are also haunted by sauteed onion, which they are cooked on top of to create a sort of steamy bed. The resulting burger patty...
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December 14, 2009
Best of the beef.
When Blake and I sat back and looked at what food obsessed us in 2009, we noticed an unusual interest in beef. Pork is still the hippest meat around, and praise for beef sometimes seems limited to talk about steaks or short ribs. We wrote about both of those cuts this year, but we did it our way. We also managed to dress up mounds of round, tenderize brisket, turn chuck into the tender foundation of chili, and wax poetic about the...
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December 4, 2009
How to transform cheap meat.
This is why beef chuck roast cooked in a 131°F–140°F (55°C–60°C) water bath for 24–48 hours has the texture of filet mignon.
- Douglas Baldwin, A Practical Guide to Sous Vide Cooking
After my experiments with sous-vide chicken resulted in one of the finest birds I'd ever eaten, I immediately set off on a crusade to transform the cheapest cut of beef I could find into filet mignon. I know this...
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May 13, 2009
How to pickle brisket.
I was standing in the meat section of my local Korean grocery store (the excellent Joong Boo Market) with fellow food blogger Brian, from the Daily Ikura. He was talking me through his favorite Korean dishes and ingredients, and I was loving it. We were discussing uses of red bean paste, which ramen was worth its price, and whether some brands of soy sauce were really so good you could sip them. Then I picked up a hunk of...
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April 9, 2009
How to cook your next porterhouse.
I'm not interested in carbonizing the surface of the meat. To me that ruins the flavor.
- Alain Ducasse
It was a bachelor weekend of sorts. My wife mercifully let me pass on attending a wedding of an old family family friend, so I had the whole weekend alone in the apartment to get work done. I had some crazy projects planned including a mad braise of a cow tongue, but the first night alone was all about pure unrestrained male...
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March 25, 2009
Blake discovers South African dried beef.
By Blake Royer Here in Estonia there is a word,...
Here in Estonia there is a word, kevadväsimus, that translates as "spring fatigue." It's the expression that refers to a grim mood that seizes us all when the sun has come out and the days are growing longer yet all other signs still point to winter. We know the weather will improve, but it's that sliver of hope that makes it now harder to endure. For...
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March 12, 2009
Korean barbecue solves the challenges of cooking short ribs.
Short ribs and I don't have a good history. The first time I tried to make these with Blake we ended up with a collection of tough, greasy, hunks of impenetrable meat. The second time I solved the toughness factor by cooking them for ages, but forgot about the fat. Even after stashing the pot of short ribs in the fridge for a day so I could easily skim some off, I still felt like I had dunked the meat in fryer grease. That's...
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February 26, 2009
Occasionally, I guiltily pause to consider how much salt I put in my cooking. Only occasionally. But when I'm cooking pasta--throwing in handfuls of the stuff to ensure the noodles are full of flavor--I think, "this can't be good for me." But then I think that the greater crime is eating food that doesn't taste as flavorful as it possibly can. What a waste of calories to consume something knowing it would taste...
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February 17, 2009
The German way with round.
Sauerbraten is a national dish of Germany, and there are many variations in its preparation, all hailing from different regions. However, I didn't have to look much further than Alton Brown for a good recipe--the reviews on the recipe's page at Food Network are almost exclusively raving. A combination of cider and red wine vinegar provide the recipe's twang, and all the traditional notes for the marinade are hit (...
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February 13, 2009
How to make this Chicago classic.
The other issue I had to face was how to cut the meat. As I remembered from my visit to Al's #1, the beef should be shaved as thinly as possible. Al's used an huge deli slicer, which I obviously didn't have. Saveur recommended just tossing the meat in the freezer for 2 hours before serving and then slicing it as thinly as possible with a chef's knife. Some recipes recommended taking the cooked meat...
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February 11, 2009
Discovering Chicago's distinctive beef sandwich.
The mystery is that while the sandwich's meat is incredibly tender, it isn't made from some expensive cut of beef. From the research that I've done, most Italian beef recipes call for round or the sirloin tip, which are both tough and lean cuts. The use of a cheap, neglected cut really interested me.
At first glance, the sandwich looks a lot like a cheese-less Philly cheesesteak....
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January 30, 2009
A recipe for Texas-style chili.
Diced instead of Ground Meat
I had stopped using ground beef a few years back, after watching a Good Eats episode. The reasoning makes sense. When ground beef is used, the fat either needs to be drained off immediately, or needs to be skimmed off the day after when all the fat has accumulated at the top. But if you use chunks a lot of the juices stay inside, leaving both the chili less greasy and the meat more...
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January 28, 2009
When I arrived in Buenos Aires, "Ojo de Bife" ("eye of beef") was at the top of most steak menus, giving the blessed ribeye its appropriate place in the steak pantheon. It reminded me of a Jeffrey Steingarten passage from his essay in Men's Vogue about a search across Spain for great steak--which has led me to order ribeye almost exclusively since reading it:
...the most delicious beefsteak is a thick (about two and a...
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January 25, 2009
You might assume that Nick has hijacked The Paupered Chef, chopped my body into little pieces and hid me in the attic (between sessions of ravioli-making and chili shenanigans). But this is not the case; I am alive and well. I left Estonia for close to a month to bask in holiday cheer back home in the States. But now I've returned to the cold and dark climate of Northern Europe, where the sun still slips below the horizon...
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January 25, 2009
Alas, I didn't take home the top prize, but I did have an amazing time at the 2009 Time Out Chili Cook-off. There were some quite good chilies there, including a smoked brisket one that happened to be stationed right next to mine made by some firemen. I can't believe theirs didn't win!
As I promised people who liked my chili at the event, here is the recipe that I used for my Drunken Texas Chili. In the next...
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January 22, 2009
Though I once promised an Irish waitress that I'd never compete in a chili cook-off, I've decided to officially break my oath. I am in the running for the top prize at the 2009 Time Out Chicago's Chili Cook-off at Martyr's (3855 N Lincoln Ave). It's all happening this Saturday, Janurary 24th from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.
This is my first competition, and in typical Paupered Chef fashion I haven't exactly settled on a final recipe. I've...
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All content copyright Nick Kindelsperger and Blake Royer.
