When cooking link sausages, what is it that causes them to roll around on their own?

We tried this recipe last night with a salmon fillet and I have to say it was mighty tasty.

Salmon fillet, rinse and pat dry

2 big spoons of cooking oil

1 big spoon of lemon juice

1 little spoon of rosemary (I think fresh would taste better…crush it)

1/4 cup of white wine…I used Sauturne

1/2 little spoon of lemon peel

1 big spoon of Worcestershire sauce

1 little spoon of chopped garlic

Mix all these ingredients up, put it in a plastic bag and drop in the salmon fillet.  Seal the bag and let it sit for at least a half hour.  I let it sit for 2 hours.

The recipe is one I got off line from “http://cooks.com” and I modified it a bit.  It called for broiling 4 inches from the heat for 5 minutes per 1/2 inch thickness of the fish.  I put mine in a fish holding deal and BBQed it outside.

I’ll bet it would be good with big trout fillets as well.

It was delicious!

Bears Butt

Sweetbread

Sweetbreads or ris are culinary names for the thymus (throat, gullet, or neck sweetbread) or the pancreas (heart, stomach, or belly sweetbread) especially of the calf (ris de veau) and lamb (ris d’agneau) (although beef and pork sweetbreads are also eaten).^[1] Various other glands used as food are also called ‘sweetbreads’, including the parotid gland (“cheek” or “ear” sweetbread), the sublingual glands (“tongue” sweetbreads or “throat bread”), and testicles (cf. Rocky Mountain oyster).^[2][3] The “heart” sweetbreads are more spherical in shape, and surrounded symmetrically by the “throat” sweetbreads, which are more cylindrical in shape.

One common preparation of sweetbreads involves soaking in salt water, then poaching in milk, after which the outer membrane is removed. Once dried and chilled, they are often breaded and fried. They are also used for stuffing or in pâtés. They are grilled in many Latin American cuisines, such as in the Argentine asado, and served in bread in Turkish cuisine.

The word “sweetbread” is first attested in the 16th century, but the logic behind the name is unclear.^[4] “Sweet” is perhaps used since the thymus is sweet and rich tasting, as opposed to savory tasting muscle flesh.^[5] “Bread” may come from brede ‘roasted meat’.[

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Well, there you have the Wikipedia version of Sweet Breads.  Here is mine!

Fat Duck once went to a grocery store meat counter and asked the manager, “Do you have any sweet breads?”  and the manager replied, “Just a minute I’ll page the bakery!”  Fat Duck knew right away he wasn’t going to get any sweet breads from that store.

I special order my sweet breads from a local butcher shop.  They know exactly what sweet breads are made from and it takes a few weeks for them to get a bunch gathered up.  It seems that beef cattle, where I insist mine come from, only have a smallish amount per animal and so it takes a few to get a couple of pounds worth.  Well anyway, who cares about that, what we want is some raw sweetbreads (notice I’ve changed it to a one word thing).

Take the sweetbreads and place them in a boiling pan with water enough that they are floating in it.  Then dump in a full bottle of lemon juice (you can use vinegar if you want).  It’s the acid in juice or vinegar that is going to do the work for you.  Boil it up for about a half hour.  Once boiled you are going to have to cool the whole bundle down really quick.  So prepare a large metal pan, small cooler or something like that with water and ice in it.

When the pot of boiling sweetbreads is done cooking, drain it quickly through a colander, you know one of those things that looks sort of like a bowl, and it has a million holes in it.  And then from the colander dump the sweetbreads in your ice water and let it sit until it is cold.

By the way, I hope you are reading this before you attempt to do this task, because it does take quite awhile to get it done.  It is very much worth all the effort in my opinion, else I wouldn’t do it.

When it is cold, the work begins.

Using just your fingers, start to peel the little glands out of the membrane that surrounds them.  Some of the glands will be smaller than a green pea, while others maybe as large as a strawberry, but there a a bunch of them in a pound.  Sometimes this takes upwards of an hour to accomplish.  You will end up with quite a pile of membrane throw away stuff, but you will also have a pile of good old ready to cook up sweetbreads as well.

Rinse off the sweetbreads and set them aside to drain.  Now clean the sink, cooler or whatever you chilled the sweetbread in.  Wipe it first with a couple of paper towels because there is a rather thick layer of greasy gunk all around the outside and bottom.

To cook the sweetbreads, get a plastic bag and put some flour in it, then season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder etc. to taste.  Then dump the whole lot of sweetbreads into the bag and shake it up real good, to coat the sweetbreads all around.

Heat up some vegetable or peanut oil in a frying pan and then carefully put in enough sweetbreads to cover the bottom of the pan.  As they brown up, stir them around and keep this up until they are nice a brown all around.  Now take them out of the pan and place on a paper towel to drain a bit.

Those babies are ready to eat!

Often times we will cook up a pan while deer hunting or camping and then set the pan out and give all the participants a toothpick.  Every one sits around munching on sweetbreads and loving life.  I don’t know of anyone who does not like the final product.  I do know a few that don’t want to do the task to get to that final product, but who enjoy the end result.

In the Wikipedia definition above, they mention another way of preparing for the removal of the membrane and I think I’ll try that way the next time I get some sweetbreads from the butcher.

Enjoy!

Bears Butt

June 21, 2011

This recipe is used to fry up some very yummy fish.  Don’t use it for trout, salmon or any fish like those varieties.  But for warm water fish like bass, crappie, perch, catfish…even talapa (spelling?) and halibut chunks.

It’s probably the easiest recipe in the world to use and the end results are 5 star for sure.  Like I said somewhere on this site, you add the ingredients to your taste, that is pretty much how I do my cooking, a pinch is a pinch and a dash is a dash, grind up the meat and then make hash!

One cup of all purpose flour!  One can of beer (cheaper the better).  Mix in some salt, paprika, black pepper, maybe some garlic powder and if you like spicy, a dash of tabasco pepper sauce.  Stir it all up until smooth.

Fillet your fish and cut into serving size chunks, rinse and pat dry with paper towels.  No paper towels?  Let them air dry and don’t forget to turn them over once the up-side has dried.

Crank up some peanut oil in a pan or deep fryer.  You have to have it deep enough so the fish will float while it’s cooking.  Get it hot but be careful, the fish will cause it to boil up some when you put it in and you don’t want it to spill out of the pan.

Put the fish chunks into the batter mix and make sure they get completely covered.  Take them out one at a time and lower them into the hot oil.

Cook until it’s brown all around, turning one time, but don’t over cook it.  You will catch on the more you use this recipe.  Place the cooked fish in a pan that has paper towels in it to absorb any excess oil, and after a bit you can move those fillets over to another container in the oven to keep warm, or go straight to the plate for eating.  No paper towels?  Get a trivet.  No Trivet?  Lay table forks side by side with the fork ends down, this forms a bridge for the fried fish to lay on and drip the excess oil off.  Pretty smart huh?  You can do anything you want, when you want to do it.  That’s what I always say.

Serve with lemon juice, tarter sauce or your favorite fish dipping sauce.  And of course beer and some sort of potato or rice dish.  This is just another extension of my famous diet to keep you trim and happy.

Enjoy!

Bears Butt

June 16, 2011

Woke up hungry this morning and was going through my mind as to what sounded the best for breakfast.  Eggs?  Ham? Bologna? Bacon? Chorizo?  We have them all, but which one sounds the best?  After mulling it over in my mind for awhile I came up with the following.

3 eggs, one slice of ham diced up, one chorizo cut and squished, sharp cheddar cheese slices, a grab of diced green peppers and the same of diced onions.

Onions, peppers and the meat go in the pan and thoroughly cook, pour in the eggs which have been whipped together and scramble it up until done.  Top with cheese and pop it in the oven to melt.

Burn two pieces of toast and Vuella!  A Breakfast for two in less than 5 minutes!

So, don’t go camping without these essentials.  You know you have to eat and you also know you want to go fishing or hunting.  This will keep your meal to a minimum and you can go off and do your thing once you are done eating.

Enjoy!

Bears Butt

June 17, 2011

6 chicken thighs with skin and fat removed, more if you are having guests or a big party.

Bread Crumbs (Panko or crushed saltines and/or corn flakes do the same thing)…it takes about 2 cups for 6 thighs.

Salt to taste (goes in with the bread crumbs)

Pepper, same as salt

Paprika, same as salt

Pat the chicken dry,  Here comes the secret…aha.. You knew there was a secret!

BBQ sauce, pick your favorite kind.

Oh ya, preheat the oven right now to 375 and then get a baking dish and spray it with some olive oil non stick stuff.

Roll the chicken in the BBQ sauce and then roll in the bread crumb spice mix.  You did mix the spices with the bread crumbs didn’t you?

Place chicken in the baking dish.  Keep this up until you don’t have any chicken left to deal with.  Why?  Heck, I don’t know how many people you are serving or if you want leftovers or not.  You figure that one out.

Then pop it in the oven!

Let it sit in the oven making your mouth water for about one hour…maybe a bit longer, but not much, watch close because you don’t want to burn it.

It comes out crispy and the BBQ taste is locked inside of the crusty outside.  I love it.

Turn off the oven,  because you aren’t ready to eat now anyway.  Pop open a beer and relax while you decide what to have to go with it.  Broccoli?  Mixed veggies?  Corn on the cob!  Yum.

You are really in for a tasty treat.  Don’t tell your guests the secret ingredient.  Let them come on this site and discover it for themselves!

Enjoy!

You are probably wondering a little about my abilities to cook such scrumptious stuff.  Well I’ve been cooking for about, well, close to an hour on this recipe alone, so you see I have quite an extensive background already!

Bears Butt

June 15, 2011

Here is the easiest dutch oven recipe in the world.  It is not my recipe, but one that was first introduced to me by Wapiti Dung, mountainman extraordinare!

The setting:  A winter time blackpowder rabbit hunt.

We had hunted all morning and had worked up a real powerful dry and hunger.  So, back at the wagons, we opened up a few cold ones and fired up the wood.

Wapiti pulled out his trusty 12 inch dutch oven, dug out some bear grease (or some sort of grease) and heated it up.  The rest of us continued to suck suds.  He joined in the suds as soon as the chicken parts were in the oven browning.

They were browned for a while and then removed from the grease.  Once all of the chicken parts were browned, he dumped out the grease.

He put in what he called a “stand off”, which most of us educated connoisseurs know as a “trivet”.  Then he loaded all of the chicken on top of the trivet.  There was so much chicken in that oven the lid wouldn’t quite close, so he smashed it down some.  We didn’t much care what he did at that point and we continued to drink more beer…life was good!

Oh, I forgot to mention, he shook  the chicken parts in seasoned flour before browning them.  Shook the chicken parts in a bag that had the seasoned flour in that is.  Let’s have another beer!

THEN he added the secret ingredient!  A whole can of “Olymipa” beer!  There is something VERY SPECIAL about Olympia beer that brings out the best in chicken cooked this way.  On went the lid with a good hard press downward and the beer was brought to a boil and then the heat turned down to a simmer type boil.  Life was so good at that point, we started betting beers and shooting at targets while we waited.  One hour exactly later, we enjoyed the most scrumptious chicken on earth.

So, there you have it!  Rabbit Chicken.  Quick.  Easy.  And, it goes very well with beer!

Enjoy!

Bears Butt

June 3, 2011

Most ever body likes a good piece of jerky meat now an agin.  I like jerky ever now an agin more than sum, so when I make sum up I make lots an it keeps in the cooler fer quite sum time.  Corse ifn ya is gonna make jerky, ya gotta have sum meat on the meat pole.  Ever fall we goes huntin fer ven, an sum time we goes after elk too which makes sum very good jerk meat.  But ven aint bad nether so here is my recipe fer jerk meat an aginst my normal recipe handlin teckneeks ya best faller the ingredients perty much like they is listed, cuz sum of them is more important than others an you will see why as ya read on.  I’d give ya pictures if I had um, so if ya kint read, well ya better let sumbody else do the readin.

Git yerself about 3 pounds of ground up meat.  Try not to have too much sinyou in it, cuz sinyou makes it perty stringy and you don’t want that when you is chewin on jerky.

Over at the general store ya need ta pick up sum of what’s called Liquid Smoke.  I don’t know how they get the smoke inta a liquid, but I guess that don’t make no nevermind anyway, just git it and put in about 3 of them big spoon fulls in it.  Big spoonfuls is what sum call a spoon fer the table, ya know table spoon.

Ya know, ya might want ta make a list of stuff you is gonna buy at the general store, cuz yer own storehouse might not have all the stuff you is gonna need for this here recipe.

You is gonna need sum mustard seeds.  It’s a whole lot easier to let sum body else harvest them little things, so I always go to the general store an git mine.  How ever you wanna do it, you is gonna need about one of those little spoonfuls.  Now don’t leave them things out, cuz they is a purdy important part of how the jerky is gonna taste later on.

This next part is the most important part next ta the meat fer yer jerky.  It’s called Mortons Tenderquick salt.  I guess there is a place called Morton sum wheres and this is the onlyest place what you kin git this salt.  It has sum special stuff in it called nitrites an this here nitrite stuff is what kills the bad bugs what is in ground up meat.  This here salt is might finely ground up and it kin blow in the wind purdy easy, so when you go to pour this stuff in a container to measure with, make sure you git behind a wagon or wall or turn yur back ta the wind.  I recon you are gonna want ta measure out one of those big spoonfuls fer each pound of ground up meat ya got.  Since we is using 3 pounds of meat in this here recipe, ya best measure out 3 of those big spoonfuls an add it to the meat an other stuff.

In yer cupboard git out sum garlic powder, black pepper an the onion powder.  Measure out a tiny bit of garlic powder an black pepper, bout  one fourth of one of them little spoons worth of each of these two things an a half of a little spoonful of the onion powder.  Add these to the mix.  Kin ya smell how good it is?  I kin, an I’m just writin this down fer you an I ain’t even makin jerk.

Last thing ta add is a full cup of water.  Make sure that when ya dip the water out of the crick it aint got no bugs er floaty stuff in it.  The less stuff what goes in this jerky that ain’t been listed here is better.

You might want ta wash yer hands about now, cuz you is gonna mix all of this up usin yer hands.  Mix it up till the mustard seed seem ta be spread out about even thru the whole mix.  The water is gonna mix up purt near dry with the whole deal too.  Once ya got this done, just put the whole bowl of stuff in a cool place, cuz ya aint gonna do nuthin now but let them nitrites kill all them bugs.  Don’t do nuthin with it until tomorrow bout this time.

Is it tomorrow yet?  If it is, now ya kin dry the meat.  You kin make really thin patties with it an dry it in the sun, er oven, er dry rack what ever ya have.  I heard sum folks have what they call a jerky shooter an they press the meat out in what looks like pencil shaped meat strips.  You do it however you want cuz it’s your jerky meat an only you an whoever you want will be eatin it.  Dry it until you just kint stand it no more an then it’s ready ta eat.  Ifn’ I use a oven, I leave it in about 20 hours when the oven is just warm nuff ta make ya git yer finger offn the rack fast when ya touch it.  That’s hot enough to dry jerky.  Dryin in the sun is differnt an you is gonna have ta figger that one out yerself.

Well, that’s all there is ta makin good jerky.  Good luck this year makin meat fur the meat pole an give this here recipe a try.  I knowed ya is gonna like it.  Goes real good with a beer too.

I dun dig jus find out bout makin jerky wid duck an goose meat.  An it tastes right gud, but you is gonna hafta make sum modifercations ta the mixin fer it ta taste reel gud, if ya knowed what I dun mean.  So, keep everthing the same ceppen put in triple times as much black pepper in the mixin.  An if you is reel brave, add sum o that stuff what is liquid an reel hot like.  Tabasco or other such hot liquid stuff.

Bears Butt

June 3, 2011

Modified Nov. 13, 2011 to add the duck part

I never claim to be an expert when it comes to cooking, and I have a real tough time following recipes.  I always tend to decide more or less of something will make the meal a little better than what the written ingredients say to put in.  I also tend to believe that if something is  particularly  good  by itself, that combining two or more of them would even be better.

On a deer hunt I really like to eat  Kipper snacks with ritz crackers.  There is something about being out on a crisp fall day, high in the mountains and taking a break from the hunt and open up a can of those bad boys!  MMMMMM.  Of course you have to dispose of the can properly and I always take a seal-able plastic bag, and dispose of it when I get back at camp.  Not much worse than having kipper juice all over your stuff.  The smell just never does seem to go away…..season after season…..

I also like one or two vienna sausages again with ritz crackers.  This is mostly just to remind myself of  how much I really don’t like them, especially a lot of them at one time.  This reminds me of another story.

And I like enchiladas.  But not on a hunt or out in the mountains, however I think they would be good there as well, I’ve just not had them while out there….HEY GUNNER….HINT, HINT!

OK, enough of the background.

One evening Sherry was fixin up our supper of enchiladas and had a couple of tortilla shells (or whatever they wrap the actual food up in) so I obliged myself to them.  I reminded her of my thinking about how combining good things together just might turn out something we would enjoy again and again.  So out comes a can of Kipper Snacks and a small can of vienna sausages.  We all know that enchilada sauce totally covers up any taste of whatever is inside the shell anyway and makes all enchiladas taste exactly the same no matter.

I carefully placed equal amounts of kippers and viennas on the shells and rolled them up.  Covered them with sauce and cheese and placed them alongside the “real supper” in the oven.  They cooked up real nice and smelled the house with a wonderful aroma.  Course that could have been just the smell of the “real supper” doing that, not sure.

When we sat down to eat I plopped one of my newly created masterpieces on my plate and began to eat.  The first bite was excellent.  I didn’t get any meat with the bite, just the shell and sauce and cheese.  The second bite was full of the meat mixture and when I bit into it I almost puked!  The nastiest tasting combination in the world!  Don’t try it, I’ll guarandamntee you won’t like it either.

This is one of my favorite breakfast meals, but I usually save making it for special occasions or whenever I decide, whichever comes first.

It is a great one whenever you have been partying the night before and need a little “tang” in your mouth early in the day.

I learned about this one in Germany while I was there and of course they make it a lot better than I can, and my recipe is all from memory.  The amount of ingredients is up to you.  I’ll just tell you what is in it and you can decide if you want more or less of it in your meal.  It might sound a bit strange at first, but I’m here to tell you it has never been turned down by anyone I served it to and they loved it.  Well, maybe they didn’t LOVE it, but they ate it and never grumbled.

Bowern (not spelled correctly in German language, but it sounds like this) means “Farmers”.  So, you get the drift already.  Farmers Omlette.  HMMMM, sounds like it might have a bit of everything in it doesn’t it?  Well, you are pretty much on track with that.

Eggs…..of course eggs, what is an omlette without eggs?

Chopped up onions and green, yellow, red peppers….either or on the peppers and some might like the hot variety.  I don’t especially care for hot peppers.

Some sort of breakfast meat…by that I mean the usual kind of meat cooked for breakfast…sort of like going out for breakfast and looking at the menu…do you see fish on the menu for breakfast?  No!  So don’t put that in this meal.  Do you see chicken on the menu for breakfast?  No!  Again, don’t put that in it either.  What I’m talking about here is, HAM, SAUSAGE, BACON or SIDE PORK.  Make sure it’s all cooked up real good and ready to eat and then cut it up, break it up or what have you into to eatable chunks, small enough for the young child to eat without choking and toss it into the mix.  I stick mostly to ham or sausage.

Spuds (potatoes)….now these can be any way you like them.  Sliced thin and fresh fried, boiled and then shredded, boiled/baked and then chunk-ed up…HEY FRANK!  If you are reading this, they DON’T have to be diced into 1/4 inch squares…….just chunk-ed however they turn out.  I like shredded personally, but chunk-ed was how the Germans made it.

Now this next part is the KEY part.  Dill Pickles!  Yes, Dill Pickles!  Slice them long way and then cut them up into chunks!  More is better (to a point).  For a meal for two, dice up two pickles of medium size.  Your taste buds might like more, but for heavens sake, don’t leave them out, this is what gives it the “twang”!  You are gonna love it!

And once all of this is mixed up and heated together in a pan and the spuds are browned and the flavor of the dill pickles is wafting in the air and all that are going to be partaking of it are standing around salivating like Pavlovian pups, you have to ward them off, cuz now it’s time to top it all off with cheddar cheese!  Cover the whole top of it with cheese and let it melt.  You can melt it by turning off the heat underneath and putting a lid on it, or putting it in the oven.  If you are cooking in a dutch oven outside, just remove the coals from the bottom, put the lid on it and put coals on the lid.

Now eat!  That is all there is to it!

Enjoy!