My husband and I were watching Who Wants to Be a Millionaire the other day and there was a question that stuck with me. What type of hat is named for it's distinctive shape? The answer turned out to be a pork pie hat. I had never heard of such a thing and couldn't figure out what made it "distinctive" enough to be named after pork or even pie. Once I looked it up online (what did we do before Google? Lived in oblivion, I suppose), I recognized it right away. I now understand the correlation between the hat and shape of a particular meat pie but I still couldn't get the silly name out of my head. So, naturally, I decided to make a cake.
I started by taking a 6 inch round, cutting it in half and standing each on its side with the bottoms together to make the body. I used my smallest mixing bowl for the head, some mini-cupcakes for a nose and feet and a pyrex ramiken for the pie. The entire thing needed a little carving here and there. The edges of his back were rounded out some, the head cut off a bit to make the neck shorter and the bottoms of the feet flattened so they would snug up next to him better. I inserted a toothpick to help hold his nose in place and went to work making him pink. It takes longer than you think to cover a pig in hot pink buttercream icing using a star tip. If I did it again, I'd probably just ice it and flatten it out to make it easier but I do like the texture contrast between the pig and the smooth fondant of the accessories.
Is there anything that people won't do with bacon? We've had bacon cups, meat cabins and ships, bacon mats and candy bacon. However, until today, I'd never seen anyone wear bacon. This may just become the next thing in undergarments. It's wire-free, made of all-natural materials and could double as a snack in a pinch.
There's a larger version of the image after the jump, for those of you who want a closer look at this hand-crafted bacon bra.
We're being a little lazy this Sunday afternoon because we're anxiously watching the two conference championship games on TV, but that hasn't stopped us from doing the research we need to do to get ready for THE Sunday afternoon of pro football, the Super Bowl.
Yes, the Super Bowl is two weeks away, and we're trying to put together our menu. We came across Alabama Pulled Pork Sandwiches, as made by Recipe Girl from an original recipe in Cooking Light magazine. The recipe is slightly different from a traditional pulled pork because it uses pork tenderloin. Additionally, the sandwiches are made with sweet potato biscuits rather than rolls or buns, but perhaps the most surprising thing is that the barbecue sauce is white.
When it comes to these short, dark winter days, there's nothing better than putting a little effort into a dish and then have it spend the rest of the day filling your home with the delicious smells of cooking. The weekends are perfect for these long braises, soups and stews. Many of these dishes don't need a recipe and can be created by feel. However, for those of you who need a little inspiration, here are eight recipes that are perfect for this time of year.
1. The Minimalist makes Beef Bourguignon from chuck, reminding us all that the cheaper, tougher cuts of meat have the most flavor. 2. Food and Wine offers three recipes for winter stews. For those of you who don't actually have all day to let your dish cook, these recipes are for you, as they all should be ready in about an hour. 3. Florence Fabricant went to Greece last year and brought back with her a recipe for Slow-Cooked Beef with Cracked Wheat. It gets browned on the stove for flavor and does a long, slow braise in the oven. 4. Elise has a gorgeous looking recipe for Spicy Lamb Stew with Butternut Squash. 5. Want a rich, veggie-filled chicken stew? Try this one from Orangette, it sounds quite yummy! 6. I love white beans. And I really love roasted garlic. So I do believe that I will adore this Garlic Lovers White Bean Soup from the Farmgirl. 7. I still have a single pomegranate rolling around my kitchen, which may inspire me to try this Pomegranate and Spice-Braised Pork from the The Splendid Table (even though the recipes doesn't call for fresh pomegranate. I could always use it for garnish). 8. Eclectic Edibles invented this Roasted Root Vegetable Stew as a way to use up already-roasted veggies. However, roasting veggies is so easy that it would be a simple thing to do in the stew making process.
While I am not passionate about bacon the way some people are, I will readily admit that there's nothing like a good BLT, where the bacon is nice, crisp and plentiful. I rarely make bacon for myself however, as I can't deal with how gross it looks as it cooks (we all have our food quirks). I learned about something today that may revolutionize my bacon eating habits. Bacon Salt.
Once, not very long ago, two guys named Dave and Justin discovered that they shared a mutual love of bacon. One night over dinner, they stumbled upon the idea of shakeable bacon and thus a product model was born. They have a very basic philosophy, which is that "Everything should taste like bacon." You can get your bacon salt in one of three flavors, Original, Peppered and Hickory. Best of all? It's Kosher!
I have never understood why there could even be a debate about Spam, but taking my own family as an example, I suppose it should be expected. My family is divided. My Mom and I can't stand the sight or smell of what looks like, well, Spam. Dad and sisters, on the other hand, absolutely love the stuff, and in fact, will do what I consider an act of utter I-don't-know-what, eat Spam "raw," straight out of the can.
I am absolutely intrigued that there has to be a sizeable enough contingent of Spam-lovers that almost 6 billion cans of the processed meat have been produced since its introduction into the world. Inspired by an article by Brad Schleicher and Stephanie Shapiro in the Baltimore Sun last week, I wondered, "Do people who claim to like Spam really like how it tastes? What is it about the stuff that is so appealing? Or even a little bit appealing?"
Schleicher says he loves it. In fact, he describes his first childhood memory of it: "I loved the strong aroma, the rich flavor and the smooth and creamy texture. That moment for me was a lot like the one most kids experience eating their first ice-cream sundaes, except that my food wasn't a sundae. It happened to be cold processed ham and pork."
On the other (more sensible, in my opinion) hand, Shapiro hates Spam. She says, ""Spam was the color of the 1950s: preternaturally pink, a slightly speckled flesh tone shared by Caucasians and pigs. When fried, Spam acquired an even more unfortunate hue, kind of like a radioactive tongue."
So I ask you, dear Slashfood readers, about Spam. Do you love it? Or, do you, like me, hate it?
A little more than a year ago, I fell all over myself after reading about Pig Candy. No, not those pig-shaped peppermint candies to which you take a tiny mallet and break open. I am talking about "candy" that is made from pork. At the time, the only place in LA that offered this "secret dinner-party hors d'oeuvre" was Lou, a wine bar in Hollywood.
Well, it has taken more than a year, but I finally got to Lou on Vine, and got to try Pig Candy, and friends, it is awesome. Really, it's nothing more than thick-cut bacon that's baked in the oven with brown sugar, but for some reason, popping these gems while sitting in a dark wine bar with a group of friends makes it so absolutely special.
It's Sunday, y'all, and if I actually had a big family for whom to cook, I'd be starting a roast in the oven right now. Of course, it's a while before I get to the bg family part, but at least I can prepare myself.
Associated Content has a helpful piece on how to carve various types of meat. Now, I realize that many of you already know how to carve a roast turkey, a roast pork loin, a roast lamb shoulder, but let this just be a little reminder for you, and a new lesson for the rest of us. The three major takeaways: 1) have the proper equipment, 2) cut across the grain, and 3) keep a warmed serving platter.
In a move that I'm sure has animal rights activists everywhere celebrating, Burger King has announced that they are to begin purchasing a portion of their eggs and pork products from suppliers that do not keep their animals in cages or crates.
In letters sent to PETA, BK outlined their new company supply guidelines. Ten percent of their pork already comes from suppliers who don't use sow gestation crates, and they plan to double that number by the end of 2007. They are also planning to source 2 percent of their egg purchases from hens that are not confined, a number they also plan to double by year end.
Though 2 percent may seem almost insignificant at first, Burger King's buying power could force more and more suppliers to switch to cage-free environments for their animals. Never wanting to be upstaged, I'm sure McDonald's and some of the other big names in fast food are likely to follow this example as well.
The LA Times heads into the Year of the Pig with a full section dedicated to pork, Chinese cooking, and restaurants.
Russ Parsons sings the praises of pork, with recipes for Cider-brined pork chops with wild rice, Ragù with pork ribs, sausage and pancetta, and Five-spice roast pork belly. Also included: an information box with resources for top pork in Los Angeles.
The National Pork Board has been touting pork as "the other white meat" for decades, providing low fat pork to the American public. In the last fifteen years the average pork chop has about the same amount of fat as skinless chicken breast. The only problem is that while being low fat, it is also low taste, just like that pasty white, mushy chicken breast. In many cases the pork has no taste at all. You try to fry up a chop and you end up having to add lots of fats or oils to brown it, and if you aren't careful you end up with a tough, dry, and flavorless hunk of inedible pseudo-pig on your plate.
Pork isn't supposed to be white, or even light pink. It should be a light red meat, but commercial pork producers have been breeding lower and lower fat hogs for decades, and it hit it's apex a few years ago. The fat and flavor ratios are so low in today's commercial pork that my local A&P / Food Emporium doesn't carry much in the way of untreated raw pork, only pre-brined, chemical laden and flavored raw pork. Brining is soaking raw meat for several hours to days or even weeks in a mix of water, salt, phosphates, and other chemicals and flavorings. It is used to add moisture and flavor to meat that has had all the fat, and so all flavor, bred right out of it. You also end up with the pork absorbing up to 10% water, a cheap way for pork producers to charge more for less meat per pound.
Unlike some states, there is no state food of Indiana, but if you want to inject something from the state into your SuperBowl menu, there are lots of foods that originated in or are otherwise associated with the crossroads of America. For example, Van Camp's Beans was established in Indianapolis in 1861 as a result of the popularity of pork and bean dishes with the early residents. Clabber Girl baking powder, Wonderbread, Gatorade and Endangered Species Chocolate all originated in the state as well, and there have been many noted Indiana fans who also got into the food business, like Orville Reddenbacher.
So, an Indy-oriented menu will have baked goods (made with baking powder), pork and beans, chocolate and popcorn. If you can find some at the market, you could add deep fried strawberries in for dessert, or opt for other fair foods, like corn on the cob dipped in butter. But according to the Indy Star, the one food that really says Indiana is a breaded pork tenderloin sandwich (Hoosier rib-eye sandwich is a close second). You can find a recipe for this (semi) regional treat here.
After it was revealed that the US's largest pork producer engaged in some highly questionable agricultural practices - to put it very mildly - when it came to raising the move than 25 million pigs they slaughter each year, there was an outcry. Smithfield Farms, with 187 farms in eight states, was known for keeping pigs in "gestational cages," free from straw, sunlight, or room to move for their entire lives and after years or criticism from groups like the Humane Society, as well as a 2 year long privately conducted study, the company has finally agreed to stop using the cages. The cages, which are sometimes referred to as stalls, were designed to maximize efficiency in the pig raising process by confining the pig to the minimum size that it would need to remain alive, but the interest in where our food comes from has now gotten to a point where even large corporate consumers, like McDonald's, are unwilling to overlook such conditions.
The cages will be phased out over an undetermined period of time. The company did not say how much the process would cost, but it is likely to be expensive for them as they try to find places to keep all their pigs that allow for cleaner, roomier living conditions.
I love sausage. All types of sausage. Here in the NYC area it's pretty easy to find all kinds of fresh sausage. Hot or sweet Italian sausage, weisswurst, brats, chicken & sun dried tomato, salmon & chive, andouille, you name it; and some of it is even tasty. The one sausage that is the most difficult to find is a really good, zesty, country style breakfast sausage.
Sadly, right now I don't have a Kitchen Aid stand mixer with all the attachments like a meat grinder and sausage stuffer; otherwise I would be making fresh sausage all the time. But wait, why should I let that stop me? I thought about it for awhile and figured out how to get around it. First, who needs to stuff the sausage in casing? I actually prefer bulk sausage made into patties. There's more surface area for browning, the tasty miracle of the Maillard reaction that makes sausage have that extra oomph. Second, why grind the meat myself? I can have my butcher grind it, or even buy it pre-ground at the market.
My husband and I were watching Who Wants to Be a Millionaire the other day and there was a question that stuck with me. What type of hat is named for it's distinctive shape? The answer turned out to be a pork pie hat. I had never heard of such a thing and couldn't figure out what made it "distinctive" enough to be named after pork or even pie. Once I looked it up online (what did we do before Google? Lived in oblivion, I suppose), I recognized it right away. I now understand the correlation between the hat and shape of a particular meat pie but I still couldn't get the silly name out of my head. So, naturally, I decided to make a cake. 
While I am not passionate about bacon the way some people are, I will readily admit that there's nothing like a good BLT, where the bacon is nice, crisp and plentiful. I rarely make bacon for myself however, as I can't deal with how gross it looks as it cooks (we all have our food quirks). I learned about something today that may revolutionize my bacon eating habits. 
In a move that I'm sure has animal rights activists everywhere celebrating, Burger King has announced that they are to begin purchasing a portion of their eggs and pork products from suppliers that 
The LA Times heads into the Year of the Pig with a full section dedicated to pork, Chinese cooking, and restaurants.
The National Pork Board has been touting pork as "
Unlike 
After it was revealed that the US's largest pork producer engaged in some highly questionable agricultural practices - 
May is National BBQ Month and National Hamburger Month
Cupcakes, not for dessert (unless beef is your idea of a treat)
Because eating French Fries in the car is so tough
