Wild Maine Belon Oysters

  Today was an exciting day for me at the Market.  While chit-chatting with one of our seafood vendors to the store I inquired about wild oysters and recalled an article mentioning the Maine Belon oyster.  These oysters are both notoriously rare and intensely flavored.  Compared to the hundreds of thousands of oysters produced by individual farms in Maine, only a scant 5000 of these Belon oysters are harvested from Maine waters each year.  I honestly didn't expect to be able to ever see them.  Anyway, the vendor says, "We just got a sample sack from an harvester so i'll send them your way."  And so it began...

  To say that eating a Maine oyster is like kissing the ocean on the lips would be to say that eating a Maine Belon is like making out with salt marsh mud, but withholding the grit.  It was in fact the most potently flavored oyster I've ever consumed, which it not an immense sum, granted, but includes all the varieties I've been able to track down for sale in Maine.  Only one of four Belons which I opened actually had any brine remaining, which a tragic commonality as I found the brine to be utterly crucial to any slim chance of balance this oyster had.  But these, I guess, are not about balance so much as intensity.  There's a deeply embedded flavor of all things oceanic and a touch of decay... fermenting salt marsh, wet, sun baked seaweed, dried fish and a dash of cove waters.  Intensely reminiscent of place from which they are harvested.


  Admittedly, when I tried the first one at work this afternoon I nearly gagged on it but swallowed it anyway and suffered an ill stomach for a solid two hours probably just out of shock.  I was more prepared this evening and even managed to savor it for long enough to chew it a couple times before swallowing it down with a grin.  Super intense but in a romantic way and with such an explicit terroir aspect to it I couldn't be anything but fascinated.  These are a truly rare and genuine experience.

Wicked Hot Italian, Banger tweaking and Duck Sausage

  This week we made a third degree of Hot Italian Sausage we've titled the Wicked Hot Italian.  It's pretty fiery.. not hurtfully angry, but persistent, a nice amount of heat.  It's the basic Hot Italian recipe with added paprika for richness, spice and color and a good heap of cayenne.  Still thinking something violently hot is in order so we'll be looking into more intense peppers for the coming versions, keep eyes peeled.
  Next in line was a slight tweaking on the Banger recipe.  Following recommendations, more breadcrumbs were added to the existing recipe but spices and meat proportions were kept the same.  It's still very tasty but a bit more firm and thicker perhaps, very agreeable and close as I can recall to the last good banger sausage I ate, though it was made by an American producer.
  To be festive and lean into the Christmas feasting spirit we made a Duck, Cherry and Herbs Sausage.  This one is a blend of 2/3 duck meat and 1/3 boneless chicken thigh for lightness and fat, as the duck was rather lean.  This sausage got a few good fistfuls of chopped dried cherries and a balancing amount of fresh rosemary and fresh thyme.  Also dashes of the usual pepper and garlic, some salt, and a pinch of ginger.  It's pretty and I believe an adaptable sausage, suitable to accompany savory Americana-Style sides.  I think it could excel along with more interesting dishes containing toasted nuts, balsamic glazes and more eclectic spices.  The fruit really opens the doors to some fun options. 
  For some reason, all the game sausages I conceptualize tend to involve fruit and/or nuts.  Can't decide whether to humor this urge or to quench it... thoughts?

about the banger

Kinda wanted to call them Bangor sausage, but didn't.  These are Freeport Bangers.  Not entirely unlike the English or Irish bangers but definitely not identical.  I've got an Irishman critiquing them this weekend for giggles after a chat about his disdain regarding the poor representation of the style stateside.  I have been meaning to take this one on but have been waiting to meat the chap upon whom to sharpen my skills with authentic European recipes.  Haven't been there myself, what would I: know.  I took several recipes at a glance and assembled what I thought to be an amalgam of the bunch with a personal tweak or two, couldn't help it. 
  Anyway, for stats it's mostly veal with about 40% pork.  To this was added copious amounts of bread crumbs which serve to thicken the meat but also hold a lot of juice into the sausage during cooking and make it somehow lighter on the palate.  There's small amounts of pepper, salt and garlic along with nutmeg and mace, which I gather are rather crucial to the recipe.  Also, pinches of ginger, marjoram, basil.  Forgive if I forgot, but I believe that's the list.  The most noticeable qualities are probably the juicyness, the lightness and the nutmeggyness. 

for some banger trivia, visit:
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangers_and_mash

I could see them sitting along a broad variety of foods as they are flavorful but mild and easy enough to like.  To the Europeans in the crowd, I'd love to hear how the fare fares upon the trained palate... feedback on the feed?

black and blue burger sausage, asiago cheese bread

  That is one whole package!  We were thrilled by the running start this small batch of sausage took yesterday, selling a third of the production in one half of a day.  That's a pretty good rate for a new recipe.  Paul called it "a winner," Michael said we hit it "out of the park," and Bob called it "darn good."  I think it's wicked tasty. 
   It's a 50/50 pork and beef blend seasoned with bacon bits, black pepper and crumbled blue cheese, with a touch of garlic, salt, and onion powder.  We debated a chopped red onion but held back thinking it would make the recipe too busy.  Add the onion on the side if you must or chop it over this indulgent sausage in a toasted roll with a hit of ketchup and mustard for a complete meal with a side of pickles and fries.  We had a couple on a white pizza today with grated cheddar cheese blended to the predictable mozzerella.  That as well was wicked tasty :)  sausage news for the day, checking out, GET MEATY.

On another note, last night was a bread production night.  Shanna ordered something fancy for a friend who did her a favor in a time of need so the asiago cheese bread came to be.  It's about 30% whole wheat with a tough of sourdough starter for levity, then there's grated asiago rolled into the loaf on the last stretch, and a bit atop along with fresh garden parsley and cracked black pepper.  It didn't smell too bad to me.  For those who cared: 1 c warm water, 1/4 c sourdough starter, 1 c whole wheat flour, 2 c bread flour, 2 tsp salt, 1 tsp dried yeast, 1/4 lb grated asiago.  blend water, starter and yeast, allowing yeast to hydrate, add salt and flour and mix till smooth and elastic.  proof till double, knead 3-4 minutes with plenty of flour, proof till doubled again, knead, then stretch to 14" square and cover with grated cheese.  roll into a log shape tucking in the ends to keep in cheese and improve the shape of the loaf.  place on baking sheet with a heavy dusting of cornmeal, cover and proof till well risen, about 45 min to one hour in a warm oven.  remove from oven and preheat oven to 450 F.  wash loaf top with beaten egg, and top with more grated asiago, chopped fresh parsley, and cracked pepper.  slash top a few times.  Bake 10 minutes, rotate 180 degrees and bake another 8-10 minutes until golden. 

stats don't lie... pesto sausage, whole wheat slackdough and tempura smelts

I guess one could call me an international blog-star... that's right, folks in Russia are peeping on my meat blog.  strange, but neat.  Serbia and others as well, small world.  Anyway, busy times.. wife's on full steam selling her goodies on ETSY and doing crafts fairs right now and life goes on alongside.  Like I said, busy.  But not too busy to innovate
   Take sausage for example... I haven't posted in a while but wanted to mention the newbies.  Last week a small batch of Extra Hot Italian which was basically our house Hot Italian with added cayenne, a nice amount and it did fairly well too, bonus.  We'll keep making it, thank you.  Also a Lamb Spinach and Feta sausage.  a few obvious flavors tossed together for a friendly reunion.  Rather Greek I guess, really seems like a Mediterranean pizza or sautee for atop pasta to me.  I'm sure there are applications aplenty.  Then Thursday last week we produced a Basil Pinenut Pesto Sausage which required quite a bit more pesto than I had expected.  It was jazzed a tad with some extra salt, pepper and garlic but otherwise drew it's flavor straight from the pesto jar.  Lovely, untainted, fresh, delicious. 
   Otherwise, having pleasant success with bread I couldn't resist sharing.  The photo is of the loaf I've been chasing for quite some time now.  It's a 35% whole wheat loaf based on a slack dough with a touch of sourdough starter for flavor and baked at a crisping 450 F.  That high temp gives the dough a great bounce in the oven and creates a nice dark crust with a very moist interior.  It's really the big pockets of air which are the greatest achievement for me.  The challenge is not getting them, but getting lots of them uniformly distributed throughout the loaf.  This batch worked out especially well. 
 
                                                                                    Last cool tidbit for tonight, tempura smelts.
These fishies are really popular up here and I'm told most people eat them with all the bones intact, but gut them and cut off the head, dredge them in flour and fry them in butter.  They're most often eaten by the guy who caught them and if you come up here mid-winter you'd see folks fishing in shacks on lakes or over the river when it's all iced up.. it's called "smeltin' " and is apparently a valid excuse to take a few days off work to drink beer.  These were store bought.  I de-boned mine and tempura fried them.  The sauce was of apricot preserves, soy sauce, cayenne and a dash of fruit juice.  I was also yummy.  Got this idea from a sushi restaurant downtown in Portland where I ordered them years ago when I had extra money for going out. Theirs were a tad nicer. 

luv me some beef ribs

The short rib is truly one of my favorite cuts on the carcass..  This here are the chuck short ribs, or the first three ribs of the chest cage, near the front of the beast, not to be confused with the very similar plate ribs which come from the next seven ribs in line.  Both versions are delicious.  Anyway, today was photo day and these were prepared for the fine folks at Pineland Farms who came to photograph we, the meat staff, and the meat.  I cut these just for the event.  They're normally separated and cut in half or thirds, or left unseparated and cut against the rib into a thin strip with narrow eyebones strung in between, as flanken ribs.  There's some other cool ethnic habachi-style preparations which are hard to describe. 
  For a taste of heaven on earth take these ribs in any form you can find them braise them.  Braising is to cook "low, slow, and moist."  First, season them generously with a dry rub.  If you care to marinade them overnight, do that first, then dry rub them with basic spices like garlic, pepper and salt.  Get ethnic and add chili and cumin, etc. or go over the ocean with a heavy curry crust... awesome.  Give them a sear to color them and add some flavor and then submerge them in wine or dark beer in a crock pot or dutch oven for 3 hours or so.  They'll require a temp of 350 F or high on the crock to get flaking tender and the more stuff you put in the braising liquid the better.  Check them by digging a fork into the meat and turning it... the muscle should easily shred apart and be "tender but yielding", in other words flakey, but not a mushy mess... When they get there they are ready and just need to be served.  This is the very basic preparation and there are countless versions out there but please, PICK ONE AND TRY IT!  short ribs rock.

Veal, at long last....

I didn't think far enough ahead to consider whether or not we could even afford to try a sausage with veal, but it turns out ground veal is not that expensive.  cool, right?  So this week I took a stab at it and created a recipe with about 40% pork and 60% veal with "Fresh sage and Apricots."  I think it's delicious, though I suppose I would.  My co-worker Mike was like, "whoa, it's like, fluffy."  He's right in a way.  The meat has a light flavor and a light and juicy texture that makes the sausage somehow a bit "fluffy."  The apricots are the dried variety and remained in pretty large chunks so they're less dispersed and you can find them as you chew, pleasant surprise.  There's a little bit of some other things as well, but mainly fresh sage.  This is the beginning of something delicious, I can tell already  :)

   Sales changed pace again this week... last week's digger in sausage sales picked up but only after I had scaled back my production.  That led us to some frenzied production late in the day at Bow St. Market.  We threw down on just the basics to get through the weekend; sweet italian, breakfast sausage, bacon and cheddar, smokey chipotle chorizo and a bit of lamb sausage.  I couldn't resist but changing the lamb recipe again, so this batch took on a refreshing can't-let-go-of-moderate-weather bent.  We're calling it the "Out Like a Lamb Sausage" in anticipation of the melting back of snow that hasn't yet fallen.  Perhaps you can tell I'm really not ready to start shoveling snow...

Anyway I'm pretty excited about the recipe which involved fresh rosemary and scallions, black pepper, garlic, salt and a few minor ingredients, most notably spearmint and coriander (!).  I'm probably the most excited about the mint.. it and the coriander give the sausage a nice fresh, fruity quality which just reminded me of great weather and fresh breaking buds and early herbs.  And it turns out I like lamb a LOT :)

This is me with my links weighing in at a studly 1/3rd of a pound per each!

This sausage would be well at home alongside a fresh salad, perhaps with a lemon vinaigrette and some feta.  I think it would also be terrific in a creamy stew with potatoes and leeks or uncased and stuffed into a frittata with artichokes, red bell peppers, and some fresh herbs... definitely on most any pizza (sheesh).

bonsai log

  It's the time of year to put the trees to bed.  These bonsai do not fare well in their containers through the winter, nor do the containers resist cracking when saturated with water in sub-freezing temps so we peel back the pot, wrap the rootball and bury them up to their necks in the earth for the winter months.  They'll go back in their pots after the ground warms in the spring, just before the buds swell and break.  The pine is a white pine, host of the Maine state flower, plucked from the ground as a one year old sapling around 6 years old. 

  The second is a pair of maples saved from a weed whacker at the in-laws property which were collected a year ago and were each at least three years old at the time of collection.  They're a bit immature and need some branch shaping which will be the project of the coming season.

Noreaster Buffalo

   Perhaps it wasn't all that clear but we were trying to convey the idea of New England, huntsman's cuisine, Maine woods, cool climate native plant life (which inevitably would flavor local cuisine) and of course buffalo.  A handful of people thought it was referring to the town of Buffalo, New York and their fiery food habits.  Not so.  Really just a buffalo or bison sausage.
  I've had an idea muddling around in my mind for a venison sausage lately.  This was likely brought about by the relentless conversation about deer-slaying amidst the meat department and store at large this week as we encroach upon opening day for deer here in Maine.  I've had vague memories of a recipe from an old job where we actually made venison sausage from trim off a whole Maine farm-raised venison carcass.  I: don't remember liking it a lot but there was little if any fat blended into that recipe to my recollection.  At any rate, that recipe along with others I've encountered in the past many years pertaining to game meats in general have formed this picture in my head.  so... Today while perusing the side case I stumbled upon the bison and thought perhaps today would be as good a day as any, no venison on hand. 
   This recipe calls for about 60% bison and another 40% pork.  To those meats are added fresh rosemary and thyme, juniper berries, some pepper, salt, a minor touch of other herbs and spices, and a fat handful of dried cranberries.  It cooks up pleasingly well at about 85% lean and shows touches of the dark meat with bites evoking senses of the maine woods and coast with bites of pine coming out between lean meat, earthy herbs and the sweet/tart familiar cranberry.  Perhaps the next batch will include a touch of walnut too.. super woodsy and seasonally appropriate, to my palate.  Swing in and make up your own mind.

not a baaaa-d sausage...

Sorry for the overly expected lamb pun, but I just couldn't help it.  The great news of the last few weeks is that lamb sausages have really done well.  Of the 12-14 sausage varieties we've had going at a time, lamb shot up to the top five for sales in the first week and has hung there since.  This week we ran out of trim which we've been saving from other cuts and had to dig into purchased trim which drove up the price a dollar so I scaled back the batch against my will.  I did not scale back my irresistible desire to offer new and varied options to our customers however... this week there's one in lamb:
  I split the batch and remade the Lamb with Herbs de Provence because it was so delicious and added another half batch of a new Curried Lamb.  The curry blend is a mild yellow curry; it's got a bit of cumin, a lot of turmeric and little to no heat.  Indian style curry, complex and earthy, lovely.  I added a bit of ginger for fun and some of the exotic and lightly spicy qualities I personally enjoy about Thai curries thinking it would offset the richness of the lamb.  And of course salt and garlic.
  I'm pretty excited about it and think it would be terrific alongside braised greens and aromatic rice or perhaps poached, then chopped and stir fried with fresh veggies for a thai style dish to be served in a coconut broth with white rice.  Maybe you'd just grill yours with long spears of pineapple to pretend winter's not coming, which it's not :)

  I almost forgot to mention the Ham and Apple sausage.  This was a very fall inspired recipe which will require some effort to perfect.  I probably over did it with the ham (problem #1).  This required a lot of granny smith apples to counteract (#2).  The result was a tasty and quite meaty sausage which changed to and oxidized gray color in literally one afternoon as the acid in the apples began to leach into the meat and denature the proteins.  It hasn't gone the way of the completely denatured ginger lime scallion sausage which got rather mushy from the acidic soy sauce, but it doesn't look great either.  Dried apples will be going into the next batch, but don't be afraid, it's still tasty!
  If I haven't mentioned it yet which I don't believe I have, I have an ongoing goal to create and innovate as long as my employers at Bow St. market will let me.  This entails creating and executing at least one new sausage every week.  For the last several weeks, I've actually accomplished two, which will probably reduce to one for the slower winter months.  Anyway, you can be my accountability partner, Blogger.  We'll see where this thing goes.  If you have any great ideas, send them my way and we'll probably get around to them eventually.  I am nowhere near out of ideas yet.

food for thought

Hobbies of any kind are boring except to people who have the same hobby. ___Dave Barry 1947

I thought you all might appreciate this.  I suppose my assumption was that if you follow this blog, you are perhaps a bit of a hobby geek like myself and often find yourself asking the same questions I ask such as "How is this NOT fascinating?".  Or otherwise being asked such questions as "Why do you know these things?" by people with incredulous expressions on their faces.  We can only be found looking back with the same incredulous expressions I suppose...

herbed pepper jack, whole wheat rye bread et galettes aux pommes

This has been a fun food weekend.  A day or two ago I finally got time to make some cheese for my sweetie.  She's way into spicy food and friendly cheese so I borrowed a pepper jack cheese recipe from my new cheese book, "Making Artisan Cheeses" by Tim Smith.  I may have shorted one temp rest in the production but I'm not super worried about it, had stuff to do.  Anyway, I added extra pepper flakes in the form of dried jalapenos and tossed in some fresh herbs from the garden, namely: chive, rosemary and thyme.  It should be interesting, looks delicious so far.  If this ages well I will probably leave it in the "cave" for a couple months, perhaps more...

 

Today I made some bread and some small apple pies (or galettes.)  The bread was pretty exciting, with a crunchy crust and a fine crumb.  It's a little heavy and rustic having about 30 % mixed whole wheat flour and rye which both inhibit rising to some extent but enhance the flavor and texture.  There's also a bit of molasses as the sugar source.  All in all, for a four hour bread loaf I was quite pleased.  

Then there were the pies.... utilizing some terrific Jonagold and Honey Crisp Apples from the in-laws orchard.  Those married with the fabulously easy and flakey pie crust recipe my mother gave me a few years ago came out marvelously.  Chloe and I banged out a batch of 14 in little time. She even rolled hers, patted it and marked it with a "C" :)  good times, tasty pies!
  Tomorrow of course is a sausage day so we should have a post coming about what's new.  Although if I had to guess I'd say something savory and friendly to cool, rainy weather.  Perhaps something crock-pot inspired...

New oyster, enter the bagaduce

  I'm pretty excited about new oysters in general, so this is probably no surprise... but I'm pretty excited about this oyster.  It's from the Bagaduce River in Midcoast Maine and it's lovely.  The ones we received today were very fresh and held plenty of brine.  They all showed up in cocktail fashion, about three inches and the batch was very uniform with a nicely rounded edge and a deep cut.  The shell was not especially thick which made shucking a bit tricky but they were quite full of meat.  Fresh and aromatic with intense ocean brine on the nose the flavor was less so.  They're complex and earthy with plenty of salt flat and ocean-y flavors, a dash of fish meat and a nice touch of brine.  I usually prefer them more briny but these were quite interesting and intense in other ways.  Too good.  Look for them :)

norumbega oysters

   Very excited about the new oysters at the market today... casual conversation with a fish vendor led to a new oyster source.  They're Norumbega Oysters from the Damariscotta River around Nobleboro and are harvested the day before they arrive at our door.  That's as fresh an oyster as I've been able to procure through the store yet and I understand that's the norm for these guys.  Only bummer is they all go away in one day so we'll have to plan a little further out in the coming weeks.  Oh yeah, they're an awesome deal too. love that! 
  They oyster itself showed up at a pretty average 3 - 4 inches or so.  Many had a shallow/medium cup but a good handful were verging on deep cup.  The shells are strong and shuck nicely but aren't super thick so there's a lot of space for brine and meat.  They are nice and meaty too.  The flavor is rich with brine but there's a nice balance with a little warm and sweet meat flavor with a sharp seaweed-y finish.  I like these a lot and for the price, they're definitely my new favorite :)  find them here...
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Norumbega-Oyster-Inc/142912496853?sk=wall

re:lamb or lamb, er...

   Another day of sausage experimentation led to a revamped interpretation of the Turkey Spinach and Feta which has done well for us in the past and a shocking necessity to make more lamb sausage. 
  The turkey sausage, which was in the past produced with a preblended collection of ingredients including chopped and dried spinach was created entirely from scratch today and with all fresh ingredients.  True, the old blend was tasty but I couldn't help feeling like a slack in a way.  I took a cue from the boss-lady Sheila and added chopped red bell pepper to the new version as well which added a little aesthetic drama to the tube as well as a pleasant sweetness among all the savory and earthy flavors.  There's also minor background spices of onion, pepper, garlic and oregano... yummo.  I'll be shocked if any of this goes bad, seriously.
  The lamb sausage quenched my desire to utilize one of my favorites in the "classic spice blend" repertoire, the herbs de provence mix.  It's just lovely, pulling together rosemary and lavender with some fennel, chervil, marjoram and sometimes others..  earthy and full of aromatic character, like lamb and a big deal in the south of france, not unlike lamb itself.  An altogether terrific combo.  Again, this sausage is comprised of 2/3 lamb and 1/3 pork for the sake of both making the sausage affordable and mellowing the intense flavor of the lamb itself.  I guess the pork fat doesn't hurt either.  I'm a big fan.  perhaps we'll cook a couple for demo tomorrow alongside some of the new turkey recipe.  come and check them out :) 

Exciting news in MEAT (red)

  We're always looking to do something interesting at Bow St... y'know.  "Like what?" you ask... All sorts'a stuff.  "Okay, like what in particular?"  Even more glad you pursued details :)

  Here's the skinny-du-jour... Freeport Strips.  These are better than average and come at a pretty modest price respective to the rest of the better grilling cuts.  It's a nicely marbled cut with no gristle and no big hunks of fat which means it's all edible.  And we think you'll want to.  These are delicious and have a rich beefy flavor without being strong or liver-ish like some other affordable cuts.  They also rank rather high for tenderness taking up one of this butcher's top three spots for delicious and inexpensive cuts of meat.  I would try it grilled or pan-fried with just the basics; black pepper, garlic and salt.  Give it a marinade next time if you have a favorite, but wait to be surprised by the great value here first.

This cut comes from deep in the shoulder in the tough, braising cut territory but is a pleasant surprise isolated on a pan.  Give them a go :)

a bread post, finally :)

  Made a loaf of white bread today and was thoroughly pleased with the outcome.. they're not always so shapely.  In this case it was just a matter of having the right pan with the right recipe.

If you should get ambitious, give it a try.  Here's the recipe I use the most often:

3.5 c bread flour
1 cup warm water
1.5 tsp bread yeast granules
2 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1 egg
2 tbsp olive oil
extra flour for surface dusting and kneading

mix water and yeast, stir till yeast is dissolved
add on all the other ingredients and mix with a spoon until it all comes together.. knead on a floured surface for 4-5 minutes.  it should get nice and smooth and be a bit tacky.  wash your bowl and dry it, oil it lightly and place the dough into it, cover with foil to retain moisture and put somewhere warm.  I use a sunny window on a warm day or just barely warm my oven, careful, it shouldn't be hot.
proof for 1.5 hrs or so, the dough should double at least.
take it out and punch it down on a floured surface and knead for a few more minutes.  stretch it into a 10" sheet and begin to roll it up like a scroll, when it's half rolled, tuck in the sides about one inch on each side and then finish rolling it.  lightly oil your bread pan and place the log shaped dough into it.  cover lightly with an oiled piece of tinfoil and proof for another hour, perhaps a bit more until it's just taller than the pan.  pull it out and pre-heat the oven to 450 F.  Make some nice cuts across the top of the loaf and bake it for 8 minutes, turn the oven down to 350 and bake for another 10 minutes.  Give the top a tap or two, it should sound hollow and be nicely browned.  cool and cut.  savor with much well deserved butter.

enter, the LAMB.

   Today was a first in Sausage Land; lamb links :)  We're calling it Mediterranean Lamb Sausage.. it's actually a blend of 2/3 lamb and 1/3 pork but you get the picture.  It's very lamb-y.  It's also rather Mediterranean, at least to the best of my knowledge.  It has the rich and slightly gamy flavor of the lamb meat, tamed with a bit of mild pork and pork fat and seasoned with oregano, citrus, garlic and minor amounts of others in the background.  We found the spice blend a refreshing counter-point to the meat. 
   This sausage would be great alongside a fresh salad with other bold flavors; red onion, balsamic vinegar, feta, etc..  But it could also make a killer meatball with a little bread crumb to sit atop a creamy pasta sauce or in a wrap.  Yeah, it's got pizazz, but you can handle it...  Don't be meek, embrace the Greek!

nice (to) meat

sorry to take so long, anyway here's a photo of the current sausage set.  One tag in the back right was facing the wrong direction for the photo, it was turkey sweet italian.  The debuting items on this were the very Thanksgiving-y "turkey cranberry & walnut" and the "Shipyard Pumpkinhead Ale Beer Brat."  Whether you enjoy that beer or not, it's hard to argue that it remains one of most popular seasonal beers to come out of the state of Maine.  It makes a pleasant addition to the sausage with bright and festive flavors of pumpkin pie spices alongside the usual beer-ish twang.. tasty :) The turkey sausage is starting off pretty well and seems like it may be around for more than a week.  Look for the sweetness of dried cranberries with the richness of toasted walnuts with background notes of fresh rosemary and rubbed sage. 

Get your Fall on and come check out these delicious new links to kick off a weekend of mediocre weather!

to assuage the sausage...

   Newbies to the sausage set include a roasted garlic and black pepper sausage and the smokey chipotle chorizo. 
for some reason, one of the world's most international sausages really has a weak following in Freeport, Me.  Look up chorizo sometime, under other spellings but often a very similar recipe.. there's a lot to look at, portugal, spain, mexico, france, most of south and central america.. they all make one.  it doesn't do well for us.  anyway we like it and were motivated to motivate our customers.  Does the name lack a ring aside maple blueberry or toasted coconut and curry?  Do people not know what it is?  Are the customers after something more exotic?  tell us, we'd love to know.  Regardless, our solution was adding more stuff to it.  There's smoked paprika now, a little natural mesquite smoke flavor and the warming bite of chipotle pepper ( a smoked jalapeno.)  We think a good thing just got better. 

  other news was the roasted garlic - black pepper pork sausage.  This, in retrospect, was probably a no-brainer but it took us a while to conceive.  It's an all pork sausage with background spices of garlic and onion and big front notes of black pepper and copious fistfuls of the delicious roasted garlic which the deli department lovingly prepared and was willing to share with the meat folk.  there's an abundance of garlic in every bite, even unmashed chunks, which get a caramelly toast to them in the pan.  The finish is laced with biting pepper to balance the richness but definitely finishes leaving a rich and sweet garlic note behind, mingled with pork fat and waning pepper spice.  Love it or leave it. 
 

These could both easily mingle with simple weekday side dishes or find their way to the grill if we get more good weather.  :Try the chorizo in a robust tomato based stew or toss the garlic sausage onto a pizza, cooked and chopped.  rediculous?  no.  delicious?  but of course.

over board, man...

Some were worried today, but not I!  We ventured into uncharted (to my knowledge) territory in Sausage Land, yup, crossed the bridge.  I might have accidentally burned the bridge down on the way over, but that's over and done with.  I don't know if one ever really comes back after a move like this... Holy Mole Chocolate Sausage.   Should I keep going?  okay then...


Smells a bit like a coffee perhaps?   there's coffee in it.
Rich and chocolate-y? there's chocolate in there..
Finishes a bit fiery? that's the chili powder.

Fanciful and fascinating.. few who tried it were without opinion, that's for sure.  It will inevitably fall into the Love/ Hate category but for me it's the prior :)  I did in actuality smile and giggle uncontrollably when I tried the first bit of the finished recipe.. hope you will too.  Come by, try it and be sure to share your creative applications of this brand new sausage with the staff, I personally would love to hear it.  Cheers!

wet hop ale and pickle experiment

the beer is coming along as expected.  WLP0001 (Sierra Nevada's yeast) did it's job well finishing the ferment quickly and compacting nicely.  Racked into secondary a week ago and added some hop pellets.  I didn't want to but wasn't crazy about the recurring wet tobacco/ smoldering leaves aroma abound in my harvest ales.  Anyway, should be bottling shortly.  will keep you posted. 
   Also opened the Jalapeno Pickles and was pleasantly surprised.  They taste more like the peppers every day.  The peppers on the other hand could stand a little mellowing.  WICKED HOT.  I have trouble with them... suppose they will be for Shanna as expected.  Nice crunch to the pickle though and the brine has good balance I think.   Read recently about fermented pickles and got curious... any advice or comments appreciated :)

sauerkraut fermentation

If you've known me for any amount of time you've probably heard of my homemade sauerkraut.  This is followed by an awkward explanation of how I make it and my funky fermenting contraptions... well for those who have been waiting, here's the digs.
I've also included a close-up to show you in better detail the bubbles from a live active, gas-producing fermentation.  I don't really ferment this stuff outside, that's just where the good light was.  the pint glass and duct tape are there to press the kraut under the brine so it ferments properly instead of rotting.  These photos were shot around day 3.. in about a week the bubbles will go away and it will be sufficiently tart but very crunchy still.  For more tender raw kraut I'll leave it in the jar till the color turns a dark gold, it mellows a bit and gets more sour and tender as it ages.  That's the best stuff but I don't often wait that long.

to make it, shred a head of cabbage and begin to pack it into a big jar.  I've found that 2- 2.5 tsp of salt per head of cabbage is enough to get a good ferment and protect the product from rotting without it being overly salty.  This head was much larger than the average store bough cabbage so i increased the salt according to the size of the container i was filling but a normal head of cabbage fills a 24 oz jar, roughly.  you need to pack the cabbage into the jar as tightly as possible and work the salt in as you go.  at the end, place the full glass on top and tape it in place.  water will sweat out of the cabbage and make the brine and as it begins to ferment it will shrink down on its own under the weight of the water.  let it go until the bubbles stop, or longer if you can keep it clean.  good luck :)

Our Civil Duty as Omnivores

starting to think it's a given now that these posts will involve new sausages at the market.  Well just in case you're curious.... I passed the baton to Michael for the day who whipped out a great looking batch of "Red Hot Italian Sausage".  It's a bit of a burner with more black pepper, red pepper flakes, cayenne powder and even some fresh poblano diced into it for flavor.  Tasty, tasty, tasty.  For fans of the style.  come support the cause.

    Believe it or not, your participation in this project doesn't go without notice.  If the sausage sells, we make more, if it doesn't sell, we don't make more.  It sounds simple but it's greater than that.  By purchasing the sausage of the week, you're really taking a stand for democracy...   So get behind your right to vote and come tell us what to do!  Think, all you have to do is eat well :)

On another note, I cut into a bleu cheese last night which I made and started aging about two months ago.  Whoa.  dag..  gosh.  Funny things happen in my basement and I knew that, but this caught me off guard.  Perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised.  I was.  Anyway, the whole thing was actually intended to be a two pound farmhouse cheddar, but I left it out to dry for a lot longer than usual before moving it to the basement.  Blue stuff grew UNDER the rind.  I probed it to find a few good Penicillium colonies so I pierced it like a bleu cheese and put it into a closed container to retain humidity.  Over night while considering the unexpected turn the cheese had taken I decided I needed to fully commit to the new plan and the following day I doused the cheese in a couple ounces of english blue stilton pureed into a bit of milk which would serve to sufficiently inoculate the cheese with blue mold.  Two months passed.  Got a bit of the infamous black mold in the taste but liked it enough otherwise.  There's an intense and almost hot blue quality with a bit of cellar must lurking underneath.  The texture is firm and a touch waxy, but generally good.  I'm getting closer to what I'm after.  here's the pics....

pickles and oysters

so, the quick pickles mentioned in a post a week or two ago ended up pretty good.  They were quite tart the next day and got more tender since then.  the brine is quite a bit more acidic than regular pickle brine and it seems to be breaking the veggies down quickly.  but for pickles on the fly, they're pretty good.
   new oysters at the market are johns river and taunton bay.  I like them both quite a bit.   what you'd expect from Maine oysters, medium sized and briny... delicious.  tomorrow should be a good sausage production day BTW.  may be trying out a new recipe in the next day or two, pork ginger lime basil... swing by if you're curious :)

more new sausages today...

   today we debuted the rich and indulgent mushroom-herb turkey sausage which was made with fresh mushrooms and laced with truffle oil and fresh rosemary.  I think this one works well on a savory plate of veggies and mashed potatoes but could also be used in a rich stew, perhaps a creamy one, or in a ragout tossed with vegetables over pasta.  Or try cooking it and mixing it into a poultry stuffing for the cool nights coming up. 
   also new to the scene today was a tasty and fun turkey sausage with toasted coconut and curry.  This could be a quirky appetizer served with a sweet thai chili dipping sauce or alongside a simmered Indian dish like saag with rice.  It could also make a festive addition to a thai style crunchy sautee of bell peppers, carrots and onion over noodles or rice and topped with fresh thai basil.
as always, keep posted for up and coming items and additions to the fall case which we will be rolling out soon :)

da' bread!

made a loaf of one of my favorite bread recipes a day or two ago and slightly altered it with a folded in layer of fresh garden herbs.. thought you'd like to see.  i call this stuff ciabadam.  akin to the ciabatta or pane francese but not identical to either. 
   it is made with a rather slack dough (meaning it has a high moisture content) and with a stretch and fold method rather than the more common kneading steps which don't work due to the stickiness.  often the best recipes call for a long and slow proof for flavor a gluten development but I have circumvented these time consuming steps by utilizing a fair amount of sourdough started as a portion of the ingredients and use almost all high-gluten bread flour instead of soft wheat which is more common in the regions where the recipes were developed.  i also use a fair amount of bread yeast to accelerate the rise.  the bread is allowed to bake on a stone in a really, really hot oven (475-500) for only 15-20 minutes depending on my mood and is pulled out when it is the color i like it, a tad on the dark side.  the center is moist and the crust crunches like a cracker when it's fresh.  It should billow steam from the center when it's broken with a friend.  needs only butter.  come over and i'll make if for you :)
  other news from the market, new sausage of the week is the deadly bacon cheddar and mushroom sausage...oh, dear (!)

market news, etc..

today's exciting news regards the arrival of some delicious items to the seafood case... namely oysters!  (love them)  we have a delicious collection including the Canadian Beau Soleil, Massachusetts' Wellfleets, Flying Points from Freeport's own Horn family farms, and another hard to get variety, the Winter Point oyster from the New Meadows River.  They're all brisk and briny and vary quite a bit in sizes, but in terrific condition for shucking and shooting :)  Also be sure to check out the great looking red snapper fillets..
  

pickling experiments tonight

This was not my first time pickling but it was definitely a more targeted attempt than those of the past.  Tonight I utilized fresh cucumbers from my own garden with the mother-in-law's brine recipe to start some dill pickles.  There were also one-off's of ginger-red pepper pickles, a dill-bomb jar, one with jalapenos, and several with extra black pepper.  Will keep you posted as I learn more of their progress. 
 
other activities of note... collected hops on monday from the vineyard in Falmouth along with those grown here at the house and brewed, on the same day, a wet hop red ale with american yeast, ample amounts of crystal malt and a touch of toasted malt.  Fresh hops weighed in around a total of six pounds in the whole batch!! (yes, that is a lot).  wish us luck here :)

another day at work

it was a big day at the meat market.. busy, busy.  more sausages to be made.  on call today, the new "Extra Italian" made with extra fennel, more fresh garlic and a heap of fresh herbs.  Also debuting the new "Sundried Tomato Turkey" recipe, hurry up and check them out.. we'll surely demo a couple tomorrow :)