Ross!! I Am Calling You Out!!!! Cook-off!!!!

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Ross

Ross

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Jun 15, 2004
14,693
Islander/Wayfairer 30 sail number 25 Perryville,Md.
[FONT=verdana,arial,helvetica]THE MUFFULETTA SANDWICH [/FONT]



[FONT=verdana,arial,helvetica]The muffuletta sandwich is one of the great sandwiches of the world, and it's criminal that it can hardly be found anywhere outside the city of New Orleans.[/FONT]
[FONT=verdana,arial,helvetica]It's also a bit of a lesson to those who think the only cultural and culinary heritage of New Orleans is French, Spanish, African and Creole. You ask folks about the quintessential sandwiches of New Orleans, and many people will immediately reply "po-boy", but the muffuletta is as New Orleans as any po-boy you'll ever eat, and there's nothing Creole about it. This is pure Italian, and pure Sicilian if you want to be specific.[/FONT] [FONT=verdana,arial,helvetica]New Orleans, in its population and its cuisine, owes much to Italy and especially Sicily; Italians have been coming to the Crescent City since the 1880s. It wasn't always easy for them -- one of the worst lynchings in American history was a massacre perpetrated upon a group of Italians in New Orleans in 1891.[/FONT]
http://www.gumbopages.com/food/samwiches/muff.html
Dang! I sure do like the internet.
​
 
Ross

Ross

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Jun 15, 2004
14,693
Islander/Wayfairer 30 sail number 25 Perryville,Md.
I guess that to make a proper Silician sandwich you need proper bread. I don't think store bought fills the bill.
 
W

Winkfish

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Jul 28, 2010
914
Boston Whaler Montauk New Orleans
Ross said:
I guess that to make a proper Silician sandwich you need proper bread. I don't think store bought fills the bill.
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Depends on the store. Central Grocery has the best reputation for muffalettas. Most stores here, even the chains, know that if you're going to sell a muffaletta, you need to have the real deal, and most of them do.

Also, as my wife often points out, "Italian" in America (even N.O.) is often very different to "Italian" in Italy. (Must be something in the water!! ;))
 
Ross

Ross

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Jun 15, 2004
14,693
Islander/Wayfairer 30 sail number 25 Perryville,Md.
Winkfish said:
Depends on the store. Central Grocery has the best reputation for muffalettas. Most stores here, even the chains, know that if you're going to sell a muffaletta, you need to have the real deal, and most of them do.

Also, as my wife often points out, "Italian" in America (even N.O.) is often very different to "Italian" in Italy. (Must be something in the water!! ;))
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A man was talking to his Italian deli owner and asked why an Italian cold cut sub was better in the states than in Italy. The deli owner said it was simple they use domestic cold cuts and he uses imported cold cuts.
 
Ross

Ross

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Jun 15, 2004
14,693
Islander/Wayfairer 30 sail number 25 Perryville,Md.
American bacon is packaged to be cooked in microwave ovens. It want to boil in the frying pan. Open the package and spread the slices out in a frost free refrigerator for a week and dry them. They don't spatter when frying that way. In Pennsylvania we can get dry cure properly smoked bacon.
 
W

Winkfish

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Jul 28, 2010
914
Boston Whaler Montauk New Orleans
Ross said:
American bacon is packaged to be cooked in microwave ovens. It want to boil in the frying pan. Open the package and spread the slices out in a frost free refrigerator for a week and dry them. They don't spatter when frying that way. In Pennsylvania we can get dry cure properly smoked bacon.
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American bacon is made from the belly of the pig. British/Irish bacon is from the back. If you haven't had proper British bacon, you haven't had bacon. It's better than any type of bacon I have found here in the states (or even Canada). There's a place in the states, Tommy Maloney's, that imports Irish meats, including Irish bacon. You can order it from their web site. You need to try it. That was one thing my wife missed most when she moved here - proper bacon. In fact, before we found Tommy Maloney's, she used to smuggle it back in when we'd go over to visit her family.
 
Ross

Ross

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Jun 15, 2004
14,693
Islander/Wayfairer 30 sail number 25 Perryville,Md.
From pork bellies you get the blend of lean and fat. from the backs you get a thick layer of pure fat before you get to the back muscle called the loins. From the back fat we get salt pork and in the south they call it fat back.
Salt pork is the choice for baked beans and diced for clam chowder. Fat back was boiled with green beans by my first wife's family until the beans and the pork was the same shade of grey.
In some places I have lived we could get smoked hog jowls. These were approximately square and about a pound each sometimes peppered and always bacon cured and smoked.
Canadian bacon is made by curing loins in the manner of curing pork bellies. It is always sliced very thinly and is very lean.
 
W

Winkfish

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Jul 28, 2010
914
Boston Whaler Montauk New Orleans
Ross said:
Canadian bacon is made by curing loins in the manner of curing pork bellies. It is always sliced very thinly and is very lean.
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British back bacon is cured by cold smoking, soaking in a salt (either dry or a brine solution) or both. I think it comes from the loin as well, but it is still very different from the Canadian bacon I've tried. It looks like the shape of a good pork chop. It's also sliced thinly, and it comes in lean or "streaky" versions (different part of the loin). The streaky version is still more lean than most lean American bacon I've seen.

Dang, I'm getting hungry again!! :D
 
Ross

Ross

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Jun 15, 2004
14,693
Islander/Wayfairer 30 sail number 25 Perryville,Md.
Winkfish said:
British back bacon is cured by cold smoking, soaking in a salt (either dry or a brine solution) or both. I think it comes from the loin as well, but it is still very different from the Canadian bacon I've tried. It looks like the shape of a good pork chop. It's also sliced thinly, and it comes in lean or "streaky" versions (different part of the loin). The streaky version is still more lean than most lean American bacon I've seen.

Dang, I'm getting hungry again!! :D
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The British method of hog butchery is somewhat different than the American method.
See if you can find a smoked and rolled boston butt. The cut is from the shoulder around the scapula (shoulder blade) nice blend of lean and fat.
 
W

Winkfish

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Jul 28, 2010
914
Boston Whaler Montauk New Orleans
Ross said:
The British method of hog butchery is somewhat different than the American method.
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It is indeed. My wife has a British cookbook with detailed illustrations of the different cuts of meat. I compared it to similar American illustrations - very different!
 
zeehag

zeehag

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Mar 26, 2009
3,198
1976 formosa 41 yankee clipper santa barbara. ca.(not there)
ok-----yu guys got me drooling... between bacon and muffalettas-- my favorite foods...LOL..and just before i go into my worst tight budget month for a long time..gonna do one pot meals for the broken shoestring budget..
 
Ross

Ross

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Jun 15, 2004
14,693
Islander/Wayfairer 30 sail number 25 Perryville,Md.
Have someone give you a nice meaty ham bone then you need some onions celery carrots and split dried peas.
When i was a kid mother fixed a large batch of pea soup and we ate pea soup from sunday to thursday on friday mom fixed something else. I don't remember what but it was food. After supper Dad put his arm around mon and said "Faithie, couldn't we have pea soup once in a while."
Have I ever posted my recipe for stuffed cabbage? Go to the grocery and get the produce man to give you the big outer leaves from the cabbage that everybody pulls off. Get enough meat for a small meatloaf and head for home. Steam the cabbage leaves and mix the meatloaf cut the mid rib out of the leaves and roll a bit of the meatloaf mix into a thumb size and roll it up and a cabbage leaf. Keep doing this until you use everything. Put it in a pan and add your favorite red sauce and cook it gently til the meat is done. serve it with pasta. a pound of meat will feed you for a week.
 
Ross

Ross

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Jun 15, 2004
14,693
Islander/Wayfairer 30 sail number 25 Perryville,Md.
I have expounded ad nauseum about the virtues of good stock. Today I have a good example of their utility. Nancy said she wanted vegetable beef soup for lunch. I got pint from the shelf and chopped an onion, a mushroom, some celery, and peeled a carrot and a potato and diced them. I got from the freezer a chunk of frozen tomato and whittled a little off the block and put the rest back, some frozen green beans and peas I added. I cut a couple of slices from a bit of beef and cut it into small chunks and fried it brown and added it the the soup. A sprig of rosemary and thyme and some salt and black pepper finished it. A half hour later we ate.
 
zeehag

zeehag

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Mar 26, 2009
3,198
1976 formosa 41 yankee clipper santa barbara. ca.(not there)
i love having the ability to freeze foods--- wish i could-- but ......best i can do anymore is find bones at the market i the barrio and make soup with those. today we do "yellow chicken" otherwise known as pollo asado. with leftovers after grilling this chicken the folks at the market refuse to give me the secret for, i will make chicken with rice, and throw some veggies into it.
 
Ross

Ross

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Jun 15, 2004
14,693
Islander/Wayfairer 30 sail number 25 Perryville,Md.
zeehag said:
i love having the ability to freeze foods--- wish i could-- but ......best i can do anymore is find bones at the market i the barrio and make soup with those. today we do "yellow chicken" otherwise known as pollo asado. with leftovers after grilling this chicken the folks at the market refuse to give me the secret for, i will make chicken with rice, and throw some veggies into it.
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The next best thing to freezing is canning. You must have a rather large pressure cooker able to hold 4 quart jars. I find that pints are a good size for two people and half pints and quarter pints are great for a little of this and a little of that.
 
zeehag

zeehag

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Mar 26, 2009
3,198
1976 formosa 41 yankee clipper santa barbara. ca.(not there)
oooohhhhh--can yellow chicken----- wow -- i could do that-----gotta figger out how-- stuff is magic...addictive also-- phillip can vouch ..so we gonna make a fire today!!!!!!
i use real mesquite--looks like lil branches in my bbq kettle, cheaper than the kingsford briquettes and less poisonous.....barrio has it allll....just takes a bit of shopping, which i hate doing...! philipino town is next week......excellent bargains in food shopping and fresh fishies -- they even cook it for free, if one is so inclined...
 
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