Also, I managed to lose a bunch of piggy in the ensuing chaos where I was wandering lonely as a cloud from place to place around the metropolitan area trying, in vain, to maintain sanity.
I got a hot tip that there was a place out in the west end that sold lots of piggy. Well, naturally this is the kind of place I like. I had never been out that way before, to Virginia and 28th Street. It's in the Parkland neighborhood. This is a neighborhood with a somewhat tumultuous history according to Wikipedia.
Anyway, I got there after getting pretty lost. Really, I only found the place because I had given up trying to find it and wanted to look at all the nice old houses and the Masonic temple. It's a surprisingly dense block, discounting the bombed-out vacant lot across from it. Anyway, the place looks like an old Winn-Dixie. I don't know why, exactly. Perhaps it was the color scheme.
Anyway, once I did walk into the place I found that it was poorly-lit and practically deserted. In the square footage of this old Winn-Dixie they had naught but two aisles of groceries spaced forty feet apart and a butcher display in the back. No big deal. I'm just here for the meat. Also, it was unheated. Likewise: no big deal. That just means they don't have to refrigerate. Well, meat they had. I bought a whole slab of pork belly. it looked great even though it turned out to be salt pork. They had whole oxtails, lots pf piggy, and a bunch of steaks and (blech) poultry. I aksed for snouts and he siad they were out of "snoots." Although, according to Lord Internet that might actually be cheeks. Either way, I'll have to go back and buy some.Well, I bought some maws, ears, the salt pork, chitlins, and the piece de resistance: a pound of brain. You might think that a fellow such as myself coming in a buying thirty dollars worth of pork might raise and eyebrow. Not so much. He just shoved it all into a garbage bag and bid me good day.
And I hate to tell you but I managed to lose it all during that confounded ice storm when my fridge went flooey for ten days. However, I did manage to save the brain! I sent myself a reminder on a nice engraved "save the brain" card. And I cooked it with eggs. Nice high heat to sear the outside makes for a bit of nice caramelization with a gooey inside. A mild liver-like flavor. It's great, although admittedly difficult to get over the fact of the matter: that brains are delicious. I know. I'm still having trouble with it. Also, with this memeish photo:
However, I have absorbed all of the pig's knowledge and will pay the cardiologist with the money earned from all these truffles I sniff out.
I have also been practicing biscuits this week. With all the fresh buttermilk and soft winter wheat and suchlike I had to. I discovered the secret ingredient. Sorry to disappoint you and I know this is super lame but it's actually practice. I made my own butter, buttermilk, and rendered some lard from that slab of pork I bought at the meat store. I even made some with skim milk and vegetable shortening. And what I found was they got a lot better as I progressed regardless of ingredients. Flour, fat, leavener, milk, and practice with a biscuit cutter. A biscuit cutter is actually better than a juice glass of cactus jar, though. That's about the closest thing to advice I have to give you. Just follow your cat's lead and make biscuits. They're worthwhile. You'll get good at itl I have faith in you. I'll bet you can even knock one out in, like, fifteen minutes. And even with terrible biscuits you can pretend they're hard tack. In fact, you don't even ahve to pretend too hard. Terrible biscuits and hardtack have a lot in common. And with if you find yourself the proud owner of a four pound slab of salt pork playing shipboard cookie is not terribly difficult.
1 comment:
I miss you.
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