What's Cooking (Take Four)

I wanted to report back on cooking for the first time ...the St. Louis Pork ribs. They are awesome, have great flavor, and are easy to separate. Can't believe I have never noticed these before.

I'll always choose St. Louis cut over baby backs. I don't mind baby backs, I just feel the St. Louis cut has better flavor. Also, if you get a rack of baby backs that still has a lot of loin on it then the loin part can get kind of dry, which sucks.

[Jenise]

Totally agree; good to see you again, Robert.

I was at a party last weekend where the host made baby backs. No sauce, minimal seasoning with a minimal dry rub. I was an hour late to the party but still, the ribs if cooked fresh should have been fine at room temperature. These however, had 100% congealed fat which makes me suspect they were cooked a day ahead and removed from the refrigerator without reheating, and only the heavy loin end pieces were still available because, I'm guessing, people were not interested in eating thick wads of fat. I tried one, couldn't get it down.

Totally agree; good to see you again, Robert.

I was at a party last weekend where the host made baby backs. No sauce, minimal seasoning with a minimal dry rub. I was an hour late to the party but still, the ribs if cooked fresh should have been fine at room temperature. These however, had 100% congealed fat which makes me suspect they were cooked a day ahead and removed from the refrigerator without reheating, and only the heavy loin end pieces were still available because, I'm guessing, people were not interested in eating thick wads of fat. I tried one, couldn't get it down.

Every once in a while I think, "I wonder if the old food forum is still up and active?" Sure enough. How's things been around here? I'm fairly soured on social media and niche forums are a bit more my style now, mostly. Of course, back in 2006 when we joined up, social media wasn't quite the monster it is these days.
Anyway, yeah, baby backs suck.

Also, this site hasn't seen a single upgrade in like what, almost 20 years?

[Jenise]

We're still here. Basically like standing around the water cooler at the office. Always a fun bit of chat and sharing life news since we've all known each other for so long.

Still in Austin? Last I knew you were cooking in a nursing home, or something like that?

I wanted to report back on cooking for the first time ...the St. Louis Pork ribs. They are awesome, have great flavor, and are easy to separate. Can't believe I have never noticed these before.

Good to know!

We're still here. Basically like standing around the water cooler at the office. Always a fun bit of chat and sharing life news since we've all known each other for so long.

Still in Austin? Last I knew you were cooking in a nursing home, or something like that?

Yep, still in Austin. Still running the dining program at an [i]assisted living community.[i] I don't do much of the cooking, mostly just steering the ship.
I lost most of my hearing and am now rocking a cochlear implant on one side with a paired mega powerful hearing aid on the other side. I look like a cyborg. A heavily tattooed cyborg. But I'm now hearing things that I haven't heard for over 40 years or ever. That's been a wild ride. I've been doing a lot of writing about it.

Here's the link if anyone wants to read. They post in reverse chronological order.

https://rwjenkins13.substack.com/?utm_s ... bal-search

Time to serve the elders their dinner. I'll try to not be such a stranger. Thank you for asking after me.

[Jenise]

Cyborg...okay, that made me laugh, though it's obviously a very unfortunate situation for you. So is that a congenital hearing loss or just way too much bass guitar? I obviously don't understand much about hearing loss--I saw a movie about a guy who got a cochlear implant and that's about it for what I know.

Re the forum software, we can't just change it out or we would.

But yeah, time passes. Karen and I are now widows....

[Jenise]

Back to food, Saturday was the annual terrine dinner at Bill Spohn's!

My dish was inspired by a memory. Tasting wine once at Sanford Winery in Santa Barbara, while pouring for us Richard Sanford himself described how amazing his chardonnay was with lunch that day, a crab and goat cheese stuffed chile relleno made by his Mexican personal chef. Back home in Alaska where King crab was pretty available to me year round, I created my own version of that dish and served it to rave reviews from time to time. When I moved away, I forgot about it. Something jogged that memory about the same time that Bill was scheduling the dinner, and me, who loves a challenge and knew crab season was opening on my Bay at about the same time, thought: can I turn that into a terrine?

That's all it took. Over the past few weeks I designed the dish on paper and about ten days ago made my first prototype using red Argentine shrimp. What I was looking for there was ratios: seafood to relative moisture resulting in fork-tender but sliceable. I also made a quart and a half of a fantastic roasted tomatillo and guajillo chile salsa. On Thursday last week I went shopping, buying a quart of fresh shelled Dungeness and two big warm water lobster tails in case needed for chunkiness since Dungeness shreds so easily.

I made the filling that day, needing about five cups to fill a half-moon shaped terrine mold that would enable me to cut 1 inch slices with a low center of gravity. The crab was already cooked, and I broiled the lobster tails before cutting into large dice. The other ingredients were mayo, sour cream, tiny diced raw jalapeno, chopped cilantro, a little dry white vermouth, a few spoonfuls of the salsa, white and black pepper, gelatine, and a handful of panko crumbs to sponge up any excess moisture. I lined the bottom of the mold with the bright red claw meats, and poured in a little amber colored aspic I made from a bisque-ish broth made from the lobster shells with water, fresh tomato, onion and tequila, then clarified before adding the gelatine. When that set, I spooned in the filling.

I also charred the fresh poblano chiles that were going to be thinly sliced and marinated with garlic and oregano for a garnish.

On Friday morning I had little left to do besides packing, just: slice and marinate the chiles, turn out and lacquer the terrine for all-over shine and pick up some blue cheese for the small avocado/smoked almond/blue cheese tostadas I was going to serve with my dish. I had used roquefort in my test version which, much as I like that cheese, tasted like an old shoe--a young gorgonzola would be much better. Turned out the chiles I had bought defied the usual one-in-twelve rule--five out of six were blazing hot. My Canadian friends aren't used to spice like that and I didn't want to kill the wine match, so I had to drive all over town to round up more chiles that were likely to be milder than the first batch I bought.

Anyway, so that was the dish. In shallow wide bowls I placed a fat slice of the terrine, poured salsa around it, topped each with a little nest of marinated green chiles and leaned a little tostada next to each. I made a plate of extra tostadas--they ate all those too! I'm very critical of my cooking and generally always think there's some part I'd do better if I could do it all over again, but not this time. Couldn't have been happier.

Strange comments about the baby back ribs, I have not experienced what you have. However, the ones I was buying came from a local source, which also makes fresh dog food and has other offerings that are popular. Maybe it was the way I cooked them, tightly covered for 2 1/2 hours, then uncovered for the meat to brown. That said, I will be buying the St. Louis ribs again; the brand on the package says Coleman.

[Jenise]

Baby backs can be just fine! I just prefer one end of the rack over the other and apparently others do too for the same reasons. The ones my friend served were more the fault of a cook who doesn't actually know how to cook.

Totally agree; good to see you again, Robert.

I was at a party last weekend where the host made baby backs. No sauce, minimal seasoning with a minimal dry rub. I was an hour late to the party but still, the ribs if cooked fresh should have been fine at room temperature. These however, had 100% congealed fat which makes me suspect they were cooked a day ahead and removed from the refrigerator without reheating, and only the heavy loin end pieces were still available because, I'm guessing, people were not interested in eating thick wads of fat. I tried one, couldn't get it down.

Good grief, that is crazy to offer something like that to guests. I will never forget a lesson I learned when I had beautiful pork chops to serve to guests. I had marinated them the day before in a fresh lime mixture, then cooked them on the grill. They were tough and dry, and only one lady did not want to embarrass me further, struggled to get hers down. I later learned that marinating with lime was the cause of it, as it had caused the chops to be partially cooked. Thankful that the guests were very close friends whom I had over for dinner regularly and knew I could cook.

Back to food, Saturday was the annual terrine dinner at Bill Spohn's!

That sounds amazing, Jenise. I'm glad *you* approved of it!

[Jenise]

Back to food, Saturday was the annual terrine dinner at Bill Spohn's!

That sounds amazing, Jenise. I'm glad *you* approved of it!

Well, I was convinced that I wouldn't. I was convinced that I should have stuck with shrimp like the test terrine and not used any sour cream. I was convinced it would turn soupy. I mean--name the disaster, I expected the worst. But it didn't turn out that way, thank god.

Cyborg...okay, that made me laugh, though it's obviously a very unfortunate situation for you. So is that a congenital hearing loss or just way too much bass guitar? I obviously don't understand much about hearing loss--I saw a movie about a guy who got a cochlear implant and that's about it for what I know.

Re the forum software, we can't just change it out or we would.

But yeah, time passes. Karen and I are now widows....

It's actually very fortunate, because, you know, I can hear now.
I've had bad hearing all my life but it's been progressively getting worse. It probably stems back to infancy or something I was born with. The most probable speculation is that I had an inner ear or thyroid infection as an infant. The infection went unnoticed and healed itself, but not before doing some inner ear damage.

I know the movie you are talking about. At the time I thought it was pretty cool. Now that I have an implant and am a part of the deaf community I see many flaws in how they portrayed his role post - implant.

Sorry to hear about the passing of yours and Karen's spouses. Time does, indeed, march on.

I like beef ribs but they are as problematic as brisket. I still favor pork ribs over beef for flavor and ease of cooking, though.

I'm still hunting a lot and have been enjoying the venison rib ragu that I used to make back when I first joined up here.

[Jenise]

Re beef ribs: they're usually too fatty for me, and I actually like beef fat. The best version of them I know was once a bar order only at Hollywood's famous Chasens on Fri and Sat nights--leftover from that night's prime rib service, they're painted with dijon mustard, rolled in bread crumbs and then baked until the crumbs crisp up. OOH. LA. LA. So yeah, give me pork ribs, and St. Louis style with a vinegary sauce.

That hearing problem must have been hard to live with. Once had one of those existential conversations with friends about which sense you'd do without if you had to lose one. All of us but one chose hearing over seeing, and the exception was a trumpet player and college music major, DJ, all that. I presume you wouldn't trade?

Are we talking short ribs or whole beef ribs?

[Jenise]

I presumed the latter, since you would prepare them somewhat the same way you'd prepare pork ribs.

I presumed the latter, since you would prepare them somewhat the same way you'd prepare pork ribs.

Yes, I like the latter. Though, again, they are prepared more like brisket, and much the same kind of pain in the ass.

[Jenise]

This conversation is making me hungry for red meat.

[Jenise]

So red meat it is. Dinner tonight: Green chile Cheeseburger!

Dinners since Saturday are swordfish, chicken, salmon, chicken. Going to a French place tomorrow so while I may yearn for steak frites it is likely the skate that I will have (a rare treat). Tuna (fancy Italian stuff) and tomato (greenmarket heirlooms) scheduled for Thursday. Maybe red meat on Friday?

One of my most memorable meals was barbecued whole beef ribs at the County Line BBQ in Austin TX. When the plate of ribs arrived I felt like Fred Flintstone.

-Paul W.

One of my most memorable meals was barbecued whole beef ribs at the County Line BBQ in Austin TX. When the plate of ribs arrived I felt like Fred Flintstone.

-Paul W.

I'm so sorry it was at County Line. Though, if it was a while ago it may have been when they had decent barbecue. That place is terrible now.