Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with cooking and meat

Roast Beast

Miko — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 09:33:49 -0800

I recently bought a share of a pig from a farmer, and it came wrapped in various cuts. One of the cuts is a large, meaty, bony one called "chine end roast." How should I cook this? My Googling seems to indicate it comes from the back of the pig and includes some of the bones of the spine, and that it's kind of next to the rib roast. Should I cook it like a rib roast? Or maybe a pot roast? Or braised? I'm just not sure what kind of treatment might do this big ol' meaty cut justice. Thanks for any ideas.

VegetarianFilter: Give me your best veg taco recipes and tips!

pghjezebel — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 10:31:40 -0800

VegetarianFilter: Give me your best veg taco recipes and tips! I've been a vegetarian for several years now and then one thing I really miss? A good taco.

I've tried meat substitutes (boca crumbles) and find the texture rather gross. They always have a gristle taste/feel to them.

I've seen recipes for lentil style tacos - but my lentils always turn out hard. What about tofu?

What else can I try? Open to any and all recipes, suggestions and tips!

Holy cow that's a lotta beef.

lwclec072 — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 10:46:25 -0800

Help us think of roast recipes and chili recipes would be welcome, too. Boyfriend and I found a wholesale beef farm in our town and we got lots of meat, 20 pounds to be exact. We have 2 roasts and some stew meat. One of the roast we are going to slow cook with carrots, potatoes, celery and the works, but the other roast we're not exactly sure what we should do with it, other than just turning it into a slow cooked roast like the other, any ideas like maybe philly cheese steak would that be possible to turn a roast into shredded beef? If so help us do it! :)

We also have stew meat and my boyfriend wants to make chili with that and i'm never heard of such, any ideas with that?

Get in mah belly, belly

chalbe — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:58:03 -0800

Safe to eat raw refrozen meats that've been defrosted several times? I bought a slab of vacuum sealed raw pork belly and tried to turn this specimen into delicious BACON, but due to scheduling problems, etc. never got around to actually cooking it.

I'd defrost the meat in the fridge in the morning, only to find out later that night that I couldn't cook and 3 days later end up throwing it back into the freezer. The slab's gone through about 3 of these cycles of defrosting and refreezing.

Is it still safe to eat?

No-carb carnivore cooking and diet tips?

korpios — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 21:08:31 -0800

What are some cooking and diet tips for an ovo-lacto carnivore? (No, that wasn't a typo.) After reading Good Calories, Bad Calories, I swiftly changed my entire dietary regimen over to a near-zero-carbohydrate diet. I still eat leafy greens — but other than that, I barely touch single-carb foods and refuse to eat anything with more than a single carb per serving. The bulk of my diet now consists of meat, eggs, and cheese, along with servings of spinach leaves here and there. While I've gotten creative with mixing ingredients into omelettes, I'd like to expand my culinary horizons a bit while staying within the boundaries of my chosen diet. Does anyone have any suggestions for doing so? (Examples: ingredients to try, useful cooking techniques, or recipe sources.)

Note: Please do not reply with either moral or major health concerns regarding my diet; that's not what I'm asking for. Minor health concerns, e.g., "you might want to take a Vitamin C supplement", are okay.

Recipe for truly succulent, traditional Jewish brisket?

roxie110 — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 19:01:41 -0800

How do you make truly tender, succulent Jewish-style brisket? I've had a craving for brisket-like-my-grandmother-used-to-make for about a year now. I finally got the meat and my mother's recipe and cooked it today. The taste is great and the thin end of the meat turned out close to what I was hoping for; the thick end is cooked through but not moist and falling apart like brisket in my world should be, and when I stick a fork in it gives a lot of resistance. I don't know if I over- or undercooked it. I should mention that my "dutch oven" (really a stockpot) was too narrow so I used a Calphalon deep covered 13" nonstick skillet instead--maybe a big mistake? I am such a brisket novice.

Below is a quick recap of how I cooked it. I've looked up a ton of recipes but each one is slightly different, and life's too short to try every one. My question is this: who has a foolproof (mostly) recipe for truly tender, traditional Jewish brisket!? And just as important, how do you know how long to cook it and when it's done? (Can you overcook a brisket, as long as there's still liquid in the pan?)

Recipe I used for half a first-cut brisket, about 3 pounds, fat trimmed:
Preheat oven to 350. Place thickly sliced onions, carrots, and a couple chopped garlic cloves in bottom of Dutch oven. Rub ketchup, ground pepper, paprika, and one envelope onion soup mix on all surfaces of brisket. Add liquid to 3/4 inches deep (I used 1.5 cans low-sodium beef broth; most of liquid was absorbed by the end of cooking). Place chunks of potato around meat. Cover tightly and roast for 2.5 hours. Baste two or three times during cooking. Remove from heat, cool meat, and slice across the grain.

Help! And thank you!

Chili When It's Chilly

netbros — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 21:19:44 -0800

I'm going to make a pot of chili tomorrow. Besides the usual kidney beans, tomato schtuff, burger and trinity, what do you like to put in yours to liven things up? I'm going to the grocery before I start, so please help me out with some favorite ingredients and recipes. Thanks in advance for your assistance.

What is the purpose in frenching a pork or lamp chop?

MiltonRandKalman — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 12:51:58 -0800

What is the purpose in frenching a pork or lamp chop? Does it affect the flavor or is it just aesthetics?

Help me gobble this gobbler

peachfuzz — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 13:26:18 -0800

Have you ever dry-brined a turkey? I just picked up this year's fresh bird from a local farm. I've done the brine thing before, and was reasonably pleased with the results, but I'm more and more intrigued by the idea of a salt rub - I hate messing about with coolers and gallons of icy poultry-contaminated water, and I've used the Judy Rogers salt/dry brine method on roast chicken for years with great success. Easy-peasy prep, juicy breast meat, crackling skin - perfect, for a three and a half pound bird. I'm nervous about translating it for the big dinner, though.

My questions -

1) If you've done this before, do you have any tips on handling, ratios, timing, anything? Right now, I'm leaning towards kosher salt mixed with dried herbs, a tablespoon per pound, with about 60 hours covered and 12 hours uncovered to dry. Do you turn the turkey during the salting? Massage or otherwise redistribute the salt? Is more or less salt better?

2) Do you stuff the bird? If so, do you undersalt the stuffing? I have a favorite dressing recipe, and much prefer to cook at least some inside the turkey, but have been reading that it's not a great idea for brined or pre-salted roasts. Ditto for drippings/gravy - should I roast some extra parts in case the turkey drippings are too salty?

3) Any tips in general for cooking a 21 pound turkey? This is bigger than any turkey I've ever cooked before, and I'm nervous about cooking it through without burning the outside. With 13 or 14 pound turkeys I start at a high temperature, then lower, then turn it back up for a final browning, flipping it several times. I'm nervous about trying to turn a turkey this big, though; I guess I can shield the breast with some foil for the beginning. I am stressed about temperature and timing, though - do you have a definitive cooking method for big birds?

Thank you so much! I know it seems like I'm overthinking, but I'm pretty committed to having actively good (not just edible/we can suffer dry meat for tradition) turkey for my Thanksgivings, and it gets me really anxious every year - I hate cooking for a houseful of people when the centerpiece dish hasn't even gotten a trial run, and it just isn't practical to try out a bunch of different variations before the big day.

Which is the meatiest Indian cookbook?

vorfeed — Fri, 30 May 2008 22:19:06 -0800

Lamb and chicken, pork and beef... which is the meatiest Indian cookbook? I love to cook Indian food, but the Indian cookbooks I have feature lots of foods I can't eat (namely, starchy stuff like beans/legumes and rice). I know it's tough, because many Indians are vegetarian, but can you recommend an Indian cookbook with plenty of meat dishes? Individual recipes are fine, too, but I'm mainly looking for something I can flip through when I feel like cooking. The more meat recipes, the better, but I'd like something with lots of authenticity and flavor, too!

I have Madhur Jaffrey's "Indian Cooking" and "Quick & Easy Indian Cooking", along with Shahnaz Mehta's "Good Cooking from India". Between them, I've got enough ideas for the next five years of veggies, but the meat dishes take up only a few pages in each. I'm sick of rogan josh, vindaloo, korma, and saag murgh, please help!

What veal cut is this, and how should I cook it?

Ponsonby Britt — Wed, 14 May 2008 16:34:30 -0800

MysteryMeatFilter: Help me identify this veal cut and a good way to cook it. Note that veal is my presumption here; the original store label says it's lamb, but "veal" has been written in and there's a "how to cook veal" label on it. (Bought last month from the markdown section; it's been in the freezer up until I thawed it yesterday.)

So tell me, what am I dealing with here? (I have a basic understanding of what veal is; please note that this is not intended to be a moral/ethical question.) What's a good way to cook it, preferably one that'd work well as leftovers? Or should I not cook it and throw it out?

How hot is my meat?

wordsmith — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 11:07:13 -0800

What digital cooking thermometer do professionals use? My Polder brand thermometer (similar to this one) just broke, but even when it was new, it wasn't very good. I had a hard time trusting its readings. Is there an end-all meat thermometer out there?

I realize that "true" professionals probably know how hot their meat is without a thermometer, but surely there's a decent one on the market aimed at semi-pros, no?

That Goat Has Devil Eyes!

TheWhiteSkull — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 11:12:56 -0800

Goat is delicious. What are some other ways to cook it? I enjoy eating goat, but I've mostly had it in various stewed, curried or braised form. Often the cut seems to be mixed pieces of rib or back. Is there such thing as a goat chop? I've seen a couple of recipes for roast leg of goat, but that's more goat than I want to cook. Is there a cut that works well for pan frying or grilling (perhaps with a cumin seed rub of some sort)? Could I find something like this at a halal butcher?

Bonus points for recipes or recipe ideas.

Broiler? It's new to me!

snsranch — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 20:20:49 -0800

I just realized that my vintage O'keefe & Merritt oven has a broiler. I also have some well marbled kosher steaks... Any quick broiler 101? Is it usefull for this steak? I usually grill, but it's freezing outside. Can I just broil? If so how? I'd rather not pan-cook or grill tonight. I imagine the broiler is cool, but I've never done it before.

Cooking Meat Safely

pricklypear — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 11:56:57 -0800

When barbecuing, are you increasing the meat contamination risk by using the same spatula from beginning to end? And what about grill presses? My instinct wants to say it is a poor idea to use the same spatula throughout the meat cooking process. It seems unsafe to allow the same spatula to touch partially cooked and then fully cooked meat. I'm imagining barbecuing or stir-fry scenarios where one must attend to the meat as it cooks.

So, how does one not poison their dinner guests, but not use 10 spatulas, either? Should you only allow utensils to touch the meat after a certain point? I'm similarily wondering about grill presses that hold down raw meat, and whether someone is supposed to use a second, clean grill press after the meat is flipped?

Rump Steak Cooking

Jimbob — Tue, 03 Jan 2006 23:25:00 -0800

What's the best way to cook the juicy looking 450g rump steak I have sitting here beside me to a tasty medium? I've received mixed signals in the past. In Home Economics class in school, we were taught to "seal" the steak on both sides to lock in the flavour and juices.

But I've seen cooking shows where they've said to cook it on one side until the blood starts coming through to the top, then turning it over and cooking the other side.

Also, should I sear it and then put it in the oven for a while to cook through, or fry it in the pan the whole way through?

How long should I cook it? (So I can time the hardcore creamy mushroom sauce I have planned)

raw power

yonation — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 13:28:18 -0800

why don't we eat raw meat like animals? when did we evolve away from raw foods? why must we cook our foods before we eat them when every other hunter eats its food raw? i know we were hunters before we were into grains and agriculture; was the physiology just lost somehow?

What's your technique for grilling steak?

beaverd — Wed, 16 Feb 2005 12:27:52 -0800

steak grilling: what's your technique? [mi]