Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Rescue Me!


or rather rescue The Man. The New Hotness is exhibiting a heretofore unknown sense of "Lassiness" (the amazing ability to know that Timmy is in the well, where to go for help, and how to McGyver together a rescue plan if necessary) when it comes to people in the pool.

The poodles all seem to think that the pool is a giant acid bath, which is ironic, since the breed was originally a water retriever. Not this bunch. The Rickety Fat Dog hates with a passion to go outside if there is even 1 raindrop within a 25-mile radius. He will walk outside the door, stand for about 2 seconds in assessment of the situation, turn and hustle his fat little furbutt back in the house in an attempt to sneak down in the basement for a quiet moment of relief. If you attempt to turn him at the door and force him back into the acid rain, he will sit down about 2 feet from the door and blink at you, like a proverbial turkey, until you relent or actually force him out into the grass, thereby getting yourownself wet in the process. Then, he seems happy enough to go.

Back to The New Hotness...he's been acting very distressed every time The Man jumps in the pool, running back and forth, emitting a high little yip of distress until The Man's head pops back up to the surface. On Saturday, he must have been more agitated than usual, because The Man jumped in and was swimming along and heard secondary splashing. He turned around to see The New Hotness paddling along behind him, coming to "rescue" him. A Baywatch Babe, he's not, but it was rather touching, don't you think?

Onto more things that need rescuing...like me and the cooking of London Broil. Damn, how hard should this be to grill up a hunk of meat and have it be tender and tasty? Evidently, it's beyond my grasp, or so I thought. I Googled "London Broil Recipes," and found this site.

According to Ask The Meat Man, "London Broil is a 'cooking method' and not a cut of meat." Who the hell knew that? This was sooo not mentioned during the meat fabrication portion of my last class!

Anyway, I originally did the Meat Man's suggested recipe for London Broil--I coated it with olive oil and sprinkled it with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper, and then I grilled it. I let it get a little too done, because it was leaning more to medium than medium-rare (I'm still working on my beef grilling skills), and I did cut it across the grain. It was still pretty darn tough in my opinion, and I think it was because it was a piece of round roast and would have been better cooked with some other method. And, no wonder it was only $2.99/lb as compared to the flank steak, which was $6.99 a pound...duh!

I had a fine time wandering around The Meat Man's site--who knew you could get a DVD on how to slaughter a hog? Much less sausage casing in a particular color? "Walsroder® Fibrous Sausage Casings. Just Like Our Clear Casings Except
These Casings are Mahogany Colored and Printed With The Words
"Venison Sausage" and A Nice Graphic of a Deer Head." Mahogany colored? Printed with a deer head? Hee!

The hog yield chart is interesting, because I can relate back to the discussions we had during the meat fabrication days and sort of see what Chef Regional meant by "yield grades" (how much usable product a particular carcass will yield), and exactly how the carcass is dressed out. (I know, it's early in the morning to be using "carcass" in any shape or form.) And, what secondary cuts you get from the primal (large cuts)--like "loin" is a primal, and you get pork chops or tenderloins from that piece.

It really is an informative site with a lot of useful information in a no-frills format. Methinks this might be handy down the road in class if I have to figure cost on whether or not to buy meat whole and cut or by it pre-cut, which is probably going to pop up during the Banquet class project. I hear we've got to construct a banquet for several hundred all the way from supply requisition, recipes, and table settings. Whoo, freakin' hoo.

Carcass!!! (couldn't resist!)

5 comments:

LinC said...

I actually knew that "London Broil" was a cooking method, despite the attempts of grocery stores to package it as a cut of meat. I learned this from Alton Brown on the "Good Eats" show "Raising the Steaks." He said:

"In the days before World War II, plate-based cuts like the flank and skirt steak were called "butcher's cuts." That's because butchers had such a hard time selling them during the week that they usually took them home on Saturday night and enjoyed them on the cheap. But following World War II, a flank-based application called 'London broil' became all the rage in America, but only in America. In London, they never heard of it. I never have quite figured that out. Anyway, the price of flank steak has been going up ever since. But that's okay with me, because I have always preferred skirt steak."
(Quote courtesy of a complete show transcript on the Good Eats Fan Page. Check it out!)

I don't even want to *think* about butchering a whole hog. That's what Joseph's relatives back in the hollow do in the fall in order to start smoking bacon. "First kill one large porker..." Yikes!

I do cut up my own chickens (sometimes) but that's as far as I go.

Erin said...

I think it's adorable that The New Hotness tries to rescue The Man when he's in the pool.

I didn't know that the London Broil is a cooking method rather than a specific cut of meat, either. Nonetheless, I like it!

Erin said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
SUEB0B said...

Goldie is half lab - a water dog who gladly swims in creeks, ocean etc - but put her in the pool and she acted if she was being killed! Killed!

LinC said...

Is The Man still swimming now that it has gotten chillier? He's braver than I am! I think it's sweet that the Hotness thought he needed to be a rescue dog when Daddy was "drowning."