mattthebutcher Weblog

 My daughter got married Saturday and I made her wedding cake. Talk about stress !!! But it seemed to come out very well,everyone liked it. I used indydebi’s buttercream icing recipe which worked out very well in the heat.Thanks indydebi for the recipe!I got it from CakeCentral.com,and thanks all my friends at SE for the support.

Here’s a chance for a little interactivity for all the bloggers out there. Below is a list of 100 things that I think every good omnivore should have tried at least once in their life. The list includes fine food, strange food, everyday food and even some pretty bad food – but a good omnivore should really try it all. Don’t worry if you haven’t, mind you; neither have I, though I’ll be sure to work on it. Don’t worry if you don’t recognise everything in the hundred, either; Wikipedia has the answers.

Here’s what I want you to do:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. venison                                                                                                                                                       2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos ranchero’s
4. steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

                                                                  PASTA CON SARDE

OK….I was browsing one of my favorite food sites the other day,and I noticed a post called “pasta and sardines”. At first I thought “yuck”. Don’t get me wrong,I love pasta,and I love sardines,not just together. The poster said they wanted to eat more healthy fish,ones that weren’t being over fished,and ones with high levels of Omega-3.Well,needless to say I HAD to try this dish.I thought it would either be very good,or it would hit the trash…lol….Much to my suprise,this dish was absolutely delicious! One that will probably be a weekly or bi-weekly dinner.It’s not overly fishy at all.I think that anyone that eats any kind of fish will love this,even tho it has sardines and anchovies in it. Trust me here,even tho many of you don’t know me…lol…..trust me.After all,if you can’t trust your butcher,who can you trust?….lol…..here’s the recipe……feel free to add or subtract anything you want,but it’s not overly fishy,not overly salty,in fact I added salt when i was eating.The raisins add a sweetness that shouldn’t be missing from this dish.Try it an be sure to let me know how you like it !!!

        1/2 c olive oil separated

        1 large onion diced                                                                                                  

        4 garlic cloves diced ( I used the whole bulb !)

         2 oz. pine nuts toasted

          1 bulb fennel blanched for 6 minutes, then coarsley chopped

           2 tins sardines (I used the ones packed in olive oil)

           4 anchovie fillets

            1/2 c raisins

            1 16 oz. can of crushed tomato’s

             1 tsp. black pepper

              1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes (or to taste)

Using half the olive oil,saute the onions,garlic and fennel in a good sized frying pan until the onions are opaque.In another small frying pan heat the other half of olive oil and mash in the anchovies and sardines to a paste.Mix the sardine paste into the onion mixture,add the raisins,tomato’s and pine nuts.Add the spices and gently simmer.At the same time,prepare whatever pasta you like,saving some of the pasta water to add to the sardine mixture if it’s too thick.You don’t want the mixture too thick,but also not watery.Kind of like a thick spagetti sauce. Combine tha sardine sauce and the pasta and serve with some good crusty bread.Again,please get back to me and let me know if you liked this recipe.thanks,and good eating !!!!

Hi everyone, thanks for checkin in !!! One of my faithful readers gave me a good idea. Thanks to L H …..for anyone that posts a question on my blog,i’ll try to have a Q & A thingy at the end of every week so you won’t have to scroll thru all the comments. My next couplea posts will have to do with roasting green coffee beans at home….i know…i know….that ain’t m

    Finally done !!!!!….thanks for all your patience…lol….obviously the pics of the whole pastrami are immediately after the steaming process…..i steamed them for about 2 hours….i like pastrami really tender….you can see when i slicewd them open there’s a little lighter streak in the middle of the pastrami….thats where the curing salt didnt penetrate to…..mostly what the curing salt does is to make the meat a uniform pink color. i think it looks better pink…..but i cooked the meat to at least 160 degrees, so it’s certainly safe to eat. the next time i’ll just use a little more curing salt in the first rub. now…..this stuff is way peppery….so if anyone really dosen’t care for that,scrape off the peppery crust before you slice the meat. all we need is some really good rye bread,a little mustard an a nice dill pickle an i bet we could give all those NY deli’s a run for their miney….until next time….like my fave tv food guy says “if it looks good….eat it”…..take care guys

      The pic on the top  is the pastrami after four days in the fridge,with the original rub on it.Now, wash the rub all off the brisket,all of it.We’re going to put a second rub on the brisket and then somke it for an hour or so. The second rub ingredients are :4 or 5 tbs coarse ground black pepper, 2tbs ground coriander or cracked coriander seed,and 2 tbs garlic powder.The second pic has the second rub on it.The third pic is the brisket on the smoker.One recipe i read said to smoke it till the temp was like 160 degrees,and then wrap the meat in tin foil and put it in a insulated ice chest to stay warm for 2 hours,but since i wanted REAL NY pastrami I decided to  do it my way!!!…lol….I put the briskets on my smoker for about an hour.I wasn’t cooking them,just adding some smoke flavor.As far as I could find out,all the good deli’s steamed the pastrami,so after smoking them I put them in a pan on a rack,with a little water in the pan.(second to last photo)Cover the pan with tin foil and put on the stove on medium heat till you can see a little steam escaping from the edge of the pan and then turn down the heat to a slow simmer. I’ll be back in 2 hours to show you guys the final result!!!! Keep reading →

 ready for the fridge

Here they are all trimmed and ready to cure.I used trhee pieces that i got from work that were already cut up. I think the smaller pieces take the cure better and are certainly easier to handle than a whole brisket.After trimming the briskets it’s time for the cure.Most recipe’s call for some kind of curing salt. Morton Tender Quick is probably the most popular.The first time i did pastrami I couldnt find Tender Quick at any stores nearby and i didnt want to wait to order some online so a hunter friend gave me some curing salt from a kit that he had.Thanks Woody !!!! Here’s the cure i used and like …

1/4 c Morton Tender Quick

1/4 c dark brown sugar

1/4 c coarse ground black pepper

3 tbs garlic powder

2 tbs ground coriander

Mix all ingredients together and generously rub all over the briskets,top,bottom and sides. Place briskets in one gallon food storage bags,one in a bag, seal,put in a shallow pan an put in the fridge for 3 days.Turn the bags over every morning and every night.

MMMMMmmmmmmm….pastrami……i was born an raised in New Yawk City where one could go to a good Jewish Deli and get all the pastrami one could eat. Now, living in a rural town in Florida,there’s not a single Jewish Deli around. the only pastrami you can get is from the deli at the grocery store……which IMHO isn’t REAL pastrami. OK….let me get a little technical here ( the butcher talkin now so pay attention).There WILL be a quiz !!! To me, real pastrami is made from the brisket. Yep….just like corned beef brisket, except a different cure is used. Most deli’s near me have pastrami, but it’s either TURKEY pastrami…..which is ok,,,unless you’re jonesing for pastrami from a good Jewish deli,or,they have pastrami made from “round”…bottom round…which might be ok also,but it just ain’t the real deal.So….let’s make some real pastrami…..shall we? This post is gonna be in at least 3 parts….coz it’s gonna take almost a week from start to finish,so bear with me.The picture above is what i hope the pastrami comes out lookin like,and i’ll post some pics as we go along.I searched the internet for pastrami recipe’s an ended up makin my own recipe from about 3 or 4 different recipe’s that i found.First, you need a FRESH brisket of beef.In the large box stores you can probably get a whole brisket which weighs anywhere from 8 to 10 lbs. Most likely if you go to a grocery store,they’ll have smaller briskets called a flat brisket.As opposed to the “point cut”. the point cut is the fatty end of the brisket and the flat cut is either the center cut or just the lean end of the brisket.You can use either end or both,just be sure to trim the fat to about 1/8″ thick so the cure can penetrate the fat.Brisket pictures on my next post…

Hi all….especially all my buds at SE. Obviously this is my first post so let me introduce myself. I’m Matt(obviously…lol)…I love to cook for my family and friends,but I don’t consider myself either a professional chef or even a gourmet cook.I just like to have fun cookin’! I’m not a food snob either…lol…I don’t mind sayin that i keep some grated parm in a plastic jar around somewhere,but I’d never turn down some  Reggiano Parmiggiano if I could get some.I work at a large grocery store as assistant meat manager somewhere in central Florida. One of the purposes of this blog is to help peeps get to know their meat……lmao here,….seriously tho….I’ll try and answer any questions anyone has about buying, storing or cookin meat…..hence the name “Matt the butcher”.I’m gonna try an have a new update at least weekly here…..maybe a money saving tip when buying meat,or how to cut up a chicken (if I can figger out how to work my new Canon)…lol….but this is really gonna be about havin a little fun once in a while…..please feel free to comment or leave some suggestions or questions…..like one of my fave food show guys says…”If it looks good…..eat it!!!!!!