Our Favorite Recipes...pineapple juice edition.

[Ironsmith]

Welcome to the EC Kitchen! This may be one of the few serious threads I ever post so go crazy and get in here with your favorite food, desert and drink recipes. Tips on kitchen techniques and your favorite utensils and appliances are welcomed.

This is a copy of ZONGA's recipe she was kind enough to share in another thread. If you can eat it or drink it we would like you to share it.

meatloaf
A pound of ground turkey, pound of ground pork sausage meat
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup ketchup
2 Tablespoons brown mustard
a small dash of A-1, careful, don't make it too sour, just a little tangy.
1/3 - 1/2 cup each - chopped scallion - grated carrot - chopped sweet red pepper
2 eggs
1/2 cup bread crumbs
garlic powder, salt, pepper
1/2 can pineapple juice.

In a non-stick pan cook some of the moisture out of the vegetables. let cool
add all the ingredients. It will be wetter than your usual meatloaf.
bake to an internal temperature of 160.
Cover and let it rest 10 - 15 minutes. It will be a little crumbly and moist
Serve with sour cream mashed potatoes and any gas producing green vegetable.


For beef burgers all I add is the heavy cream, 3 Tablespoons for a pound of meat, salt, pepper. Toppings ad lib.

[Ironsmith]

On ground beef for your favorite recipes.

Some of us have been around long enough to remember a local butcher shop or meat market, and the days when the butcher would ask you "How many pounds, and what are you using it for?" They cared about what they were selling you, and often would pardon themselves and grind your order fresh right then and there, from very specific cuts to fit their customers needs.

If your taste buds were lucky enough to grow up around butcher shop quality ground beef, then your one of the lucky ones. What you find in today's packaged ground beef is agriculture's answer to providing a low cost packaged retail product that's safe and consistent in quality standards. It's at best just edible, flavor is essentially non existent and I cant recall the last time I bought a package of ground beef from any retailer that I would call "good" in regard to it's taste and texture no matter what they were charging for it.

Simply stated if they still made it the way they used to, the price per pound in today's market would be shocking. Who's going to patronize packaged ground beef at 2-3 times it's current price per pound? They wouldn't be able to sell it against the price of steaks and roasts that don't have the further processing costs incurred with grinding and handling.

So I grind my own. I guarantee you if you drop by for burgers, you'll look me in the eye and say it's one of the best you have ever tried. Same goes for any meatloaf coming out of my oven, and the secret to success is exactly what the local butcher did in his shop back in the "Good Old Days".

The perfect grind for the most popular ground beef recipes is 70/30, and I make that exclusively from whole beef brisket. You will get a perfect grind from it every time, and the texture and flavor are impossible to beat. Restaurant's known for having kitchens that offer up a world class burger filling their dining rooms with repeat customers all grind their meat fresh with that very same simple recipe.

If you compare the cost of an electric grinder (they run $50.00 and up) for an adequate quality machine, and look at the significantly lower per pound cost of whole brisket offered at most club stores, you can save a fortune in a real hurry over buying packaged retail hamburger. There's nothing wrong with grinding and freezing several pounds at a time, the trick is to use freezer containers filled to capacity and never "pack" it down. Avoid using freezer bags, once ground beef is compressed it affects both texture and flavor, so best to wait until it's time to cook with it.

Some people prefer chuck roast to make their burger, it's very good and works well if you like a leaner ground beef. No matter how you make it, you know exactly what is in it and your guaranteed a superior product for your family.

Tip for making the perfect burger, no matter how you like to season it with 70/30 ground meat all you have to do is "form" the patty to size. The less you compress or pack it the outside will get a deeper sear on it and the inside stays moist and flavorful.

I use a Kitchen Aid Classic stand mixer that has the extra power take off for attachments, you can grind a 15-20 pound roast in about five minutes with their grinder attachment. That mixer sells for around $225.00 and is the single best thing I have ever bought for the kitchen, it's power and quality rivals commercial kitchen appliances at a fraction of the cost.

Give it a try, I can't imagine you will ever buy packaged ground beef again.

[Zonga]

I made the best tender juicy ribs today.

2 racks of baby back ribs. Tell the butcher to remove the membrane, or do it yourself.

Carefully rub down the ribs in running water. Remove all particles of bone chips. Pat dry.

With dry hands
Shake a good amount of Tunnel Bar-B-Q all purpose spice on both sides and press it in. Salt it to taste with Kosher salt. Add 1/2 can pineapple juice.

Place a sheet of foil on the bottom of the pans. Put the ribs on a rack.
Put a little water in the bottom of the pans, but not enough to touch the meat..

Roast at 350.

Turn the ribs every 20 minutes four times. Start with the meaty side down.

serve with baked potatoes and tender young asparagus, or beans and vinegar base cole slaw


Order Tunnel Bar-B-Q spice and hot BBQ sauce from
http://tunnelbarbq.com/

[Zonga]

Now that our summer has arrived I've been enjoying sweet tea. It reminds me of when I lived in North Carolina. I'll post the recipe for those of you who have never been lucky enough to live in the South.

2 qt boiling water
tea bags 4 or 5, steep 5-10 minutes
1/2 cup of sugar.
1/2 cup pineapple juice.

Always serve over lots of ice.

[Uncle Al]

Sweet Tea! Yes! ...but that's not enough sugar. (-:

The Southern Way is to add sugar to the boiling water until no more dissolves to get it as sweet as it can possibly get. The hotter the water the more sugar it'll hold.

[Mr. T]

Did you bribe the gate keeper with those ribs? I thought I saw your picture hanging up at the post office.

[Ironsmith]

Sweet Tea! Yes! ...but that's not enough sugar. (-:

The Southern Way is to add sugar to the boiling water until no more dissolves to get it as sweet as it can possibly get. The hotter the water the more sugar it'll hold.

This, I watched it made at the club this afternoon (think Alabama sweet) and they added what looked like 10 cups of sugar to a gallon of boiling water.
It is the best sweet tea I have ever had and ironically enough I lose the desire for my afternoon nap after a glass or two.

[Aaron Burr]

"Shake a good amount of Tunnel Bar-B-Q all purpose spice on both sides and press it in. Salt it to taste with Kosher salt."

NEVAIR!!!!

Store bought all purpose whatnot on Gods sweet meat? We may have to settle this up at the observatory with switch blades or possibly stage some sort of game of chicken with stolen automobiles and a cliff.

Anyway, sit down for this one. I'm about to drop some science.

ALL SCIENTIFIC THEOREMS HAVE A NUMBERS IN THEM. The ones that don't are suspect to say the least. Anyway, 8-3-1 is the secret formula for ribs. 8 tablespoons of dark brown chugar. 3 teaspoons (or less if you hate salt) of sea salt. I tablespoon of ancho chilli powder. Rub on ribs. Wrap in heavy foil. Let refrigerate overnight. You can stick it straight in the oven but it's best to let it sit for a while. Then, bake low and slow. 300 for 3 & a half or so. Remove from oven, drain juice from foil wrap into pot. Dump some of the juice down the sink. Add dark molasses, a lil' white chugar and some salt to the pot, 1/2 can pine apple juice .Reduce it down some then use a brush to slop that sticky sweet goop all over the ribs. Broil uncovered for a couple of minutes. Do that a few more times until you have a nice candy glaze.

Enjoy the best ribs to be found anywhere in this particular space time continuum.

[Uncle Al]

What?!? No celery salt?

[Aaron Burr]

Of course not. I'm going for a completely different range of flavors.