ONSC's Cookin', Grillin', and Bacon thread (1 Viewer)

[Fort Knox]

Gotta love a good griddle. No more cooking 4-5 strips of bacon at a time for me!! Whole damn pack fits in one shot. Yee haw!!

 

[JohnVee]

Nothing beats the sensory experience of bacon frying in its own grease, but I opt for the oven when I need to cook an entire pack. Comes out flat, and it's easy to get your desired amount of crisp. Sure beats having to clean multiple skillets, too, for those of us not fortunate enough to have a king sized flattop!

Actually, I just remembered that I DO in fact have a really nice, very large griddle. I kind of forgot about it after I bought a new range in late 2020. Turns out the new range has wildly different sized burners from front to back, so there's no way to get usably similar gas/heat output over the span of the griddle. And the "griddle", and associated burner, in the center of the stovetop is only about 6" wide, and removing it to use my separate griddle instead would kill the ability to use the other 4 burners because it would cover their grates by too much to fit a skillet on any of them (not a problem if only cooking on the griddle, I suppose, but it screws multitasking). Switching it to left-right won't work because they're too far apart. Jeez...I came here and saw bacon and now I'm upset and depressed. How did it ever come to this? Oh, yeah...I let someone else pick the range.

 

[Fort Knox]

You need the right pan to do bacon in the oven. Too shallow, or not perfectly flat and bacon grease can get everywhere. I know.....simple solution....get the right pan/rack setup. I just love using the griddle, and it has the added benefit of quickly switching over to cooking whatever else you're making (hash browns, eggs, etc.) in bacon fat!! Not that you couldn't pour some of the bacon fat out of your oven pan into the skillet you're using, but I refer you to my aforementioned fear of spilling bacon grease all over, which I surely would do since, well....it's me.

 

[jfz80]

Cookie/Baking sheet. Over size Foil wrapped. 400* for 20 then start checking. Pinch and form grease funnel in chosen corner. Viola.

 

[jfz80]

But also... vegetables.

Stupid tasty slaw tonight for carnitas which escaped documentation

Slaw mix:
1 Md head cabbage (this one was green)
3-4 large carrots
2 jalepenos, seeds removed
1 large apple, cored
1 bell pepper. I used red.
—shred all ingredients— I used a processor for all but cabbage which I sliced thin on 45*

Dressing: with the ~ish factor
1 cup mayo
1/2 cup vinegar (honey Serrano here)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1T salt
1T black pepper
1T honey
1/2 t celery seed
2-3 cloves garlic minced
1 jalepeno
1 onion fine chopped

Whisk and let meld for a while (this one went two days lol) toss into slaw before serving, strain before storing

 

[JohnVee]

Yes, @Fort Knox But it only takes a good sheet pan, not a special one. Can’t warp at all. Definitely not a good use for one from the 3-pack/$12, but then again nothing is really a good use for those outside of “serving tray”. Plan on about $15-20 for a good 1/2 sheet. Can find them for less at Marshalls or TJ Maxx.

Pro tip: when you find one that works for you, buy another one or two. It gets annoying when you have some from multiple makers and they’re just different enough to not nest when storing them. Argh!

@jfz80 nailed the foil corner spout trick.

 

[S4Cruiser]

Have had good luck with parchment paper in cookie sheet for bacon…but have yet to find a pan that will lay flat once heated to 450*.

 

[Pick]

We have some of the Pampered Chef stone cookie sheets, no warping!! Crazy expensive though

 

[Fort Knox]

Well you guys have convinced me. I'm gonna buy a good cookie sheet and throw out the griddle!

 

[JohnVee]

Well you guys have convinced me. I'm gonna buy a good cookie sheet and throw out the griddle!

That's all we ever wanted from you. Now, when is trash day at your place?

But in all seriousness, a good heavy sheet pan beats the living snot of thinner ones for most normal purposes, especially for moving large cuts of meat to and from the grill/smoker/etc.

 

[Comet]

Sams Club cookie sheets (big ones). Parchment paper, cookie cooling racks. Perfect every time. Bacon. Mmmmmmmm

 

[JohnVee]

So... Regular Choice ribeye sold as steaks was $19/lb. This was $10/lb and should net me 3-4 thick steaks. Not sure if freezing them will affect the results of dry aging but it's worth a shot at that price. I can't recall seeing pre packed Dry Aged at Harris Teeter before, and this was the only one they had.

I also picked up a package of ground beef that was labeled simply "Custom blend ground beef order". The butcher said it was overage from an earlier order, chuck/ribeye/sirloin mix. $5/lb. Sampled it plain before making it into an otherwise unremarkable recipe last night...mmmmh. It cooked down about as fatty as 80/20 would. Dammit! I should have asked him why the Dry Aged was so cheap.

 

[S4Cruiser]

So... Regular Choice ribeye sold as steaks was $19/lb. This was $10/lb and should net me 3-4 thick steaks. Not sure if freezing them will affect the results of dry aging but it's worth a shot at that price. I can't recall seeing pre packed Dry Aged at Harris Teeter before, and this was the only one they had.

I also picked up a package of ground beef that was labeled simply "Custom blend ground beef order". The butcher said it was overage from an earlier order, chuck/ribeye/sirloin mix. $5/lb. Sampled it plain before making it into an otherwise unremarkable recipe last night...mmmmh. It cooked down about as fatty as 80/20 would. Dammit! I should have asked him why the Dry Aged was so cheap.

Thats a good price and I’d buy all of it for that. Prices for ribeye roasts (and all meat at that) have gotten stupid expensive over the past year. We vacuum seal lots of cuts (after breaking down a roast or tenderloin) and haven't noticed a difference vs fresh unfrozen.

 

[S4Cruiser]

I want to try some wagyu cuts but it’s insanely expensive.

 

[JohnVee]

"Chicken in a pot". A classic from France and repopularized by America's Test Kitchen many years ago. It does nothing for the skin except make it easy to remove. I added a little Sauvignon Blanc to the pot to mix with the juices for the gravy at the start, then a little more at the end when I added some lemon juice after straining it. I'd do it that way again but it isn't necessary.

I asked Sarah what she wanted with the Brussel sprouts...she said "bacon, apple, brown sugar, maple syrup, molasses". I left out the molasses but added reasonable amounts of the rest along with some of the same Sauvignon Blanc to steam after browning the mess. I'd do it again. Fast and easy.

 

[JohnVee]

Cheeseburger night. Loose packed 80/20 in cast iron. Dusted with kosher salt, black pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and paprika (not sure why I added that one but it worked out fine). Yellow American cheese from Harris Teeter (not too bad) and a slice of deli ham in tribute to my favorite Roy Roger's Double-R-Bar Burger. I put the toaster oven on 'bake' instead of 'toast' so I didn't get color on the potato roll bun, but that's all that was missing from this meal. Well, that and a tomato.

 

[weejub]

On the bacon - We cooked a lot of bacon in the B&B - We tried racks, differing pan sizes, methods other than the oven, etc. For the oven and ease we did the following:

1. Get the half-sized aluminum chaffing pans. We got ours from Costco - nice thickness. The height is perfect to reduce splatter. Double them up to avoid any holes etc.
2. Cook the bacon in its own grease until done - I like it "limp" as a customer called it . Pull it out and let it sit for a min while you prep your next step.
3. Move it to a double layer paper towel.
4. Eat as fast as possible.

You can use the top "dirty" pan many times - until the edges are black and the whole thing is shot:

1. Keep the greasy pan for lunch/dinner when you put Chicken/Pork/Etc in it and cook it. Wife hates it, but I just put them in the 2nd/meat/beer fridge as-is after the bacon until time for another meat.
2. After that, keep the greasy/chicken pan, add water and you have a soup starter - with your leftover meats and some added veggies.

 

[weejub]

I want to try some wagyu cuts but it’s insanely expensive.

Maybe go Prime USDA ribeye from local butcher as a $15-30/lb option first - I'm sure you have done that tho!



In my experience, on the butcher-aged meats:

I wouldn't pay extra for any extra butcher aging (not that @JohnVee did - great price!). Normally, your just paying for "rent" in a fridge. The quality of the meat is SOO much more important.

Instead, do a light salt/pepper rub for like 2 weeks on "normal aged" meat. Flip them every couple days.

They will tell you they have special fridges/etc for aging -with all the right humidity - blah. Ideal conditions are like 1-2 degrees warmer and <10% lower humidity - its just a fridge.



If you want to try your own taste test - find out how long they age the "dry aged" ones and the normal ones. Lets say the difference is two weeks: Buy a normal one, do the self-aging above, and go back and get the dry aged one two weeks later. Cook them together and see

 

[jfz80]

Wild Friday food prep night here. Couple pepper onion pork quiches and a sausage and rice casserole.

 

[mtweller]

I want to try some wagyu cuts but it’s insanely expensive.

Juan and Maria Galvis have a Wagyu beef farm/business now.