What's for supper?

[Rufus]

I made my second Mississippi pot roast yesterday, and it was as easy and as good-tasting as the first. I don't want to overdo it, so I'll probably wait until they start twisting my arm and asking when we're going to have that roast again. This time we served it with some fresh-baked rolls so the family could make sliders.

What are "sliders"?

[brothers]

I made my second Mississippi pot roast yesterday, and it was as easy and as good-tasting as the first. I don't want to overdo it, so I'll probably wait until they start twisting my arm and asking when we're going to have that roast again. This time we served it with some fresh-baked rolls so the family could make sliders.

What are "sliders"?

Bryan, sliders (see White Castle restaurant website for reference) are similar to small hamburgers. The soft dinner rolls are sliced horizontally, the meat is placed between the two pieces of bread, and can be hand-held for convenience. It's probably not possible to eat just one!

[ShadowsDad]

I didn't know about White Castle the first time I went to one. I ordered one and the girl who took my order looked at me sorta strange. I figured it out when I got my order.

Bryan, look in your freezer section of your supermarket. Up here that's where they're found. That's if you don't have a White Castle in your neck of the woods.

[brothers]

Tonight's family supper was great! I made a Mississippi pot roast for the main course, I don't know why it's called Mississippi, but wow it was good. Seared a large roast on both sides, salted and peppered, and placed it in the bottom of the big crock pot. Added 1 envelope of the Ranch dressing/dip mix and 1 envelope of the onion soup mix from the grocery store, plus 1 stick of butter and 8 pepperoncini peppers, sliced. Cooked one hour on high and 8 hours of low, then took 2 forks and shredded the super tender roast. Absolutely no liquid added because the roast makes its own juice in just the perfect amount. Served it with a bowl of mashed potatoes and a bowl of baked broccoli. Delicious, and it served 8 really hungry adults and kids. Enjoyed it with a nice glass of red Italian wine and followed up with homemade pumpkin pie and coffee. This was the first time I've made this roast. Definitely going to do it again!

Following up - this past weekend there was a show (The Kitchen) on the Food Channel featuring the woman who invented the Mississippi pot roast recipe. It seems it has been so widely circulated on electronic media that she received a call from the editor of a well-known newspaper who had taken the time to track her down so he could ask her for permission to publish the recipe. She made this dish on the show, for the panel of hosts, who said they all liked it. She gave the recipe, along with another one she had created. She'll probably end up with her own show one of these days.

[fallingwickets]

Ive been making my version of it (chuck roast, salt, pepper, cayenne, a carrot, half an onion and some garlic) once a week now.....its a huge hit. Im trying to get away from processed foods and the ranch / onion soup mix ingredients looks like a chemical experiment LOL

clive

[ShadowsDad]

Right now I'm working on NOLA Muffalata (sp?). I've had the pizza dough in the refrigerator for 7 days now and I'll warm it and bake it off any day now for the sandwich. Maybe this Friday/weekend. The dough will keep and just keep developing flavor in that near 32°F refrigerator. It can stay in there, like a lager wort, for a very long time. I've kept pizza dough out there for 2 weeks. But this dough is destined to be sandwich bread, so it'll get a final warm rise before baking.

I've also got my sights on "smashed burgers". http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/03/the- ... ashin.html

I got my wider spatula (Williams & Sonoma) in today to do the smashing and the scraping. Now I need to locate the burger meat. If I don't find our homeground in the freezer (I thought we had a bunch and I can't believe we used all of it) we'll need to buy some for the burger experiment.

[Squire]

I do a variation of the smashed burgers by placing the meat between two sheets of wax paper and using a rolling pin.

[ShadowsDad]

I did the smashed burgers tonight with success but also also some fine tuning required next time. My industrial IR thermometer couldn't accurately measure the temp' of the pan, so I winged it and just got it very hot. The first burger was quite good, but next time I'll get the pan even hotter for better crisping. The 2nd burger should have had a hotter pan but I didn't give it enough time to recover after the first one. For the 3rd one I gave it enough time to reheat and that one came out better, more like the first one. The other thing I'll need to change is to use the larger burner for even more heat. I sure wish I had a way to measure how hot the pan is.

But once that's figured out for ones burner it's not difficult to do, and it does take quite literally 1 minute per burger. The wide spatula worked great for both smashing the burgers by using a finger to apply direct pressure to the top of the metal, and for scraping the stuck burger off of the stainless steel pan to flip them. As I indicated, my first burger (all I really needed, but I wanted to experiment so made a 2nd, was the best of the first 2. The wifes (the 3rd) was also good, so she said. Both of the best burgers stuck to the pan as the article suggests that it should. The 2nd one not so stuck. The wife said that it was tasty and worthy of a 2nd attempt.

Oddly enough all of the burgers appeared to be dripping blood as they came out of the pan, as though they were rare, but all were thoroughly cooked. Maybe they continued to cook from residual heat. Too, I didn't use American cheese, but the first burger used Hoffmans Super Sharp (a sort of American cheese, but much better tasting IMO), the 2nd one had provolone, as did the 3rd. The provolone didn't fully melt on the 2nd burger and a cheese that fully melts is really what's required. The article mentions that the burgers are dry, but I didn't find that at all. After the first smash I didn't smash them again and that resulted in a moist enough burger.

FWIW, I got the suggested spatula from Williams and Sonoma, and yes, it's a nice spatula. I might have gotten something similar at the semi-local restaurant supply company, but that's 30+ miles away and there was no time to get myself there (I wanted to try this "now"). So I paid for the suggested spatula and had it shipped to my door.
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products ... DUCTSEARCH

The article also said to use 75/25 ground chuck. I used 81/19 black angus (it was less $ per pound) and it worked fine. I expected all sorts of spatter and that was much less than if I had fried a thicker burger for a longer time. But my glasses caught the fine mist. I assume the exhaust fan did also. Yeah, you want the exhaust fan on. There was some smoke and that greasy "mist".

Yes, this is a keeper technique and we'll do it again. For a burger cooked indoors it was tasty and fast. Next time it'll be even better after this first attempt with mixed results. I'd like to figure out a way to get my "browning liquid" that I use for Sous Vide onto the patty . Maybe sprinkling the proto-patty with the dry ingredients (50/50 dextrose and sodium bicarb' [baking soda] ) will do it, and let the heat from the pan and the liquid from the meat work their magic with it during the cooking. I'd also like to figure out a way to measure the temp' of the pan.

[brothers]

A couple of years ago we realized it was getting monotonous having turkey and dressing and all of the Thanksgiving Day dishes all over again on Christmas. My wife and I usually invite all the kids and grandkids and anyone else to our house for Christmas dinner, so for the past few years we are serving freshly cut (grilled outdoors by yours truly) rib eye steaks and potatoes in one or another format, plus sundry veggies and desserts. Nobody leaves hungry, as far as I know. What are your traditional Christmas dinner staples? Also, if you happen to have a special holiday dinner on your special day, if you don't call yours what we call ours, what do you call yours?

[drmoss_ca]

When there was more of the family around we did a rijstaffel for a couple of years. Mounds of rice, several curries, lots of sambals and chutneys, plus nan bread and poppadoms. I think everyone except my mother enjoyed it, and whilst she liked curries, she couldn't quite get past the idea that Christmas involved a turkey or else the sky would fall. Rather silly when you remember that Christmas is only the celebration of the birthday of a man whose life's work has touched upon all our lives—here's to Sir Isaac Newton!

Chris

[Antique Hoosier]

My sister has invited me over for Shepards Pie. I believe a 2007 Saintsbury Pinot Noir is in order.

[brothers]

. . . . the birthday of a man whose life's work has touched upon all our lives—here's to Sir Isaac Newton!

Chris

He was OK too, but Benjamin Franklin's birthday is January 17th (1706). This coming January will mark his 311th birthday. Talk about life's work touching lives! He's my favorite of the founding fathers of USA. This fact has inspired me to plan to have a special supper on the 17th, consisting of a big pot of beans and a big platter of cornbread! If this works out well, I'll plan on doing it again every year.

[pausted]

Great idea, Gary!

[brothers]

I've invited the family to my house for Ben's Birthday party. I think I should probably make a test pan of cornbread before the big day.

[ShadowsDad]

A couple of years ago we realized it was getting monotonous having turkey and dressing and all of the Thanksgiving Day dishes all over again on Christmas. My wife and I usually invite all the kids and grandkids and anyone else to our house for Christmas dinner, so for the past few years we are serving freshly cut (grilled outdoors by yours truly) rib eye steaks and potatoes in one or another format, plus sundry veggies and desserts. Nobody leaves hungry, as far as I know. What are your traditional Christmas dinner staples? Also, if you happen to have a special holiday dinner on your special day, if you don't call yours what we call ours, what do you call yours?

Gary, we don't repeat the Thanksgiving meal. We intended to do a rib roast, but kept forgetting to take the roast out to thaw*, so now we're screwed. But I can take some previously sous vide steaks out and finish those off. I'll suggest it tomorrow. I normally make yeast rolls, and I'll suggest our home canned corn to round out the dinner. Since the wife loves the SV steaks and the rolls I think it'll get her nod of approval. Maybe we'll invite the neighbors.

*This year I didn't even make our traditional Potica. I have no idea where the time went.

[Rufus]

Our New Year's Eve dinner comprised a standing rib roast cooked medium rare on the BBQ, steamed broccoli, home-made baked beans, Yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes, lots of gravy and extra hot horseradish. For dessert we had a strawberry something-or-other and the starter was a green salad with pears and blue cheese dressing. Copious glasses of wine were quaffed and post-dinner we treated ourselves to Canadian ice wine.

[brothers]

Last week on St. Patrick's Day, my wife made corned beef and cabbage and other traditional foods. There was a little left over, and a couple of days later she made a delicious corned beef hash.

[ShadowsDad]

Corned beef is one of my fav' dinners Gary.

Our plans once it warms up a bit is to make a salt cured Corned brisket and invite a bunch of friends over. No one knows when that will happen. It's still winter here and we have LOTS of snow on the ground and more on the way.

[ShadowsDad]

The other day we were mining the freezer and I found some bear burger, moose burger, and moose steaks. Last night I cooked it up. I've had bear 3x, but the wife tells me I had one other time and that I can't remember it.

The first time it tasted like beef, the 2nd time it had been boiled and was very much like pork, This time it was like mild beef. It has to be well done to make sure any potential trichinosis is killed. Moose on the other hand can be rare and that's just the way I cooked it. I had moose steak and eggs for breakfast (with rye toast). Moose is good stuff.

[MotifSky]

I had only several sandwiches and apples with peaches for dessert I wasn't very hungry in this evening