Andrew Mark Veety

Instant Ramen - Good, Better And The Best

If you are like me, you can mark out the boundaries of the phases in your life with packages of instant ramen.

When I was young and poor, instant ramen was a source of cheap calories, a meal that fit into a budget centered more around the procurement of twelve packs and drum sticks than nutrition. My ramen intake centered on packets of Maruchan brand instant ramen, bought by the case for less than a few dollars and stashed into "my" cabinet in a kitchen shared with three other people and the bands that floated in and out of our basement studio.

When I was young and not so poor, instant ramen was a source of quick calories that fit a schedule centered around long work days and commutes that consisted of walking, buses and subways. For stowing lunch and dinners away in messenger bags and desk drawers, my ramen preference became noodles in styrofoam cups. The all-in-one package was easy and quick, cleanup consisted of rinsing off a pair of cheap chop sticks in the water fountain down the hall from my cube before tossing them back into a drawer for another day.

Now I am older and more middle class than I'd like to admit. As such, instant ramen has not been a part of my life beyond quick moments of recall when I happen to catch that scene in Elf when a poor Zooey Deschanel tucks into a bowl after a day's work. For me, Deschanel captures the visage of "every person," at the beginning of the journey twoard whom they will eventually become, sitting in the same position in front of the tv, in the same secondhand chair with a blanket tossed over the back to hide tears and stains in its well worn fabric, the same bowl of instant noodles doing its level best to compensate for a diet that's been missing since you've moved out of your parents' home.

Photos From An Early Summer Birthday Barbecue

I was lucky to have Jonathan Pollack's camera at a party we threw this past weekend for my son's second birthday. Here are a few of the dishes we shared with our friends.

In the foreground we have a salad of green beans, thin sliced onion and spring cherry tomatoes. This dish had a simple balsamic vinaigrette spiked with honey -- honey was the theme of my son's party -- for some additional sweetness. In the background I have a simple slaw with red and yellow cabbage, shallots, carrots and minced quick pickles that I made the day before. The slaw had a vinegar base, made with white wine vinegar I infused with salad burnett for a distinct "cucumber" flavor that contrasted nicely with the cabbage.

I prepared two kinds of pork for this barbecue, sourced from Caw Caw Creek Farms in South Carolina. Below is a plate of Caw Caw Creek keilbasa, smoked in hickory and cherry woods.

Next is pulled and chopped Caw Caw Creek pork shoulder, smoked for about 14 hours in hickory and cherry woods. I made two barbecue sauces for this dish. The first was a tomato based sauce, made sweet from the addition of honey and brown sugar. The second was a vinegar based sauce with a base of habanero chilis and fresh Georgia peaches. 

My wife made two cakes that played into the honey theme - bee hives -- paired with honey and ginger cookes in the shape of bees. A judicious addition of honey to the cake gave each hive a great caramelized color and made for a dish that was moist, sweet and perfect for a little boy's second birthday.

Happy birthday to my little man and thanks to everyone who stopped by to make his second birthday one to remember.

Art Of The Brine

If you are like me, you like to have the deck stacked in your favor when you're cooking leaner proteins like chicken and pork -- meats that can easily dry out when grilled, seared, baked or smoked. This idea of stacking the deck is not cheating - its more like taking out insurance on your dish. After all, proteins will almost always be the most expensive component of a meal, so its best to have a little something extra on your side to make sure that your food dollar is well spent -- instead of being a dried out lump on your guests plate.

This leg up is called a brine. Brines are simply a liquid saturated with salt that your protein rests in before cooking. Hence the term "briny deep" to describe the sea.

Brines do double duty in the kitchen. First they help keep meat moist by hydrating muscle tissue (meat). By placing a cut of meat, like a whole bird, in a brine you create an environment where the lower salt content within the protein and the higher salt content contained in the liquid will attempt to reach equilibrium. The result is water and salt moving out of the brine and into the meat. The meat retains this liquid during cooking. The result is a moist and flavorful cut of meat - and guests asking how you did it.

Like I said before - you are essentially buying insurance by using a brine. Don't believe me? Ok. Skip a brine and you are more likely to end up with the following situation:

For the record Eddie -- when making a turkey the neck should be cooked with the bird. It should be picked at as the hours pass until only the bone is left and used to make stock. But I digress.

From The WTF File - The McRibbles?!?

Here you will find an unconfirmed/leaked image of what could be McDonald's answer to the KFC Double Down -- or perhaps the BK Fire-Grilled Ribs served up by Burger King -- the McRibbles.

Bite. Sized. McRib.

Personally I swore off McRib sandwiches after getting a poorly sauced example last year for lunch. I experienced first hand what McDonald's "pork"  tastes like when its not covered in a sickeningly sweet barbecue sauce. It was...not so good...and I swore to never be tempted by the McRib again*.

That feeling of retching at my desk came flooding back when I saw the eight pack of bite sized McRib's in the picture above. As we sit on the cusp of watching McDonald's do to pork what they've done to chicken with the McNugget, I can only ask -- will you eat this? And if the answer is yes -- will you send me pictures and a write up?

Thanks in advance, because I just can't bring myself to take down a pack of McRibbles, should they ever arrive at a set of arches near me.

*Yes, I make this claim right after I consume my yearly McRib. However, unlike in previous years I've yet to go back on my pledge to stay away because that bite of McRib was so incredibly unpalatable.

For Immediate Release - Attention Piggies And Cows - You Are On Notice

First annual BBQ Competition and Tweetup. (perhaps someone can come up with a catchy name that reflects St. Louis, Twitter, and BBQ)
 
What is it? - A group of people (the "competitors") will cook Ribs (pork), Pork Butt (pulled pork), and Brisket (beef) through the night and early morning hours of the event.  The competitors can cook any or all of those items.  Given that the competitors will be individuals and not competition teams it's unlikely many will attempt to do all due to space restrictions.  So if you're only good at one of those things then by all means sign up.  Competitors will necessarily consume large amounts of alcohol in the process and have been given advance reprieves for any untoward behavior they may exhibit.  Another group of people (the 'consumers'..get it) will then arrive without having done any work whatsoever and partake in all of the goodness that is BBQ.  We'll follow KCBS rules for the most part.

When is it? - We are currently looking at the "spring break" period (generally in mid March).  As weather is always a factor in the St. Louis area at that time of the year (short sleeves, Down jacket, or rain slicker?) we'll firm this date up as it approaches and ideally have a backup date.

Where is it? - The event will be in the St. Louis area, but you're welcome to come from as far away as you like.  In fact, maybe we'll do something special for whoever travels the furthest. I have a couple of possibilities that we can definitely use (football field sized), and there's always the option of renting an area from a local park, but if you've got a great option by all means suggest it.

How is it judged? - We will select members from the local St. Louis twitter community that we feel have some appreciation and in-depth knowledge for the BBQ'ing arts.  It will be a blind judging, but those who are willing to judge *and* take bribes for preferential treatment will be prioritized.

How much is it? - Unknown at this time since it is dependent upon the shape and size of the final event.  In addition we need to decide if we want to try and make a "profit" that could go to a charity, or to simply try and offset out of pocket expenses.  Thoughts on this would be appreciated.

Who is doing this? - Matt Ridings and Andrew Veety are organizing this event, however we could use all the help we can get.  Lots of skills and access to resources would be great that have nothing to do with BBQ, such as:

• Graphic Design - For things like email invitations, website, t-shirt designs, etc.
• T-shirts
• Infrastructure Organization - Tables, chairs, trash, tents, etc.  And no, I don't mean I want you to bring trash, I mean we need a way to collect and dispose of it in a green friendly way.
• Music - This would be great, and there are certainly a lot of us out there with access to some great musicians/bands.  From a location perspective however I would have to insure access to a decent amount of electricity close by (or an Unplugged acoustic set will be the order of the day)
• Marketing - This is a tweetup, so we need you to get the word out via your friend network.  However, you may want to think twice before inviting that "friend" who wants you to constantly look at the link with her pics
• Other - We'll need hands, brains, and muscles. Feel free to bring one or more of those to the table, but I'd recommend a minimum of at least your hands because let's face it, you'd just look weird without your hands.

Want to participate? Please leave a comment below with what you might be able to help with, if you want to compete, or if you simply have a question.  Or drop us a line at techguerilla or amveats on twitter.  We literally came up with this idea 30 minutes ago so we're evolving in real time.

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Project Planning - Trisket 2009 - A Turkey Stuffed Inside A Brisket

Scared? You should be.

Every year my friend (and sometimes contributer) Jeff and his wife Leslie have a meal called "Fakesgiving" for all of their friends here in St. Louis who are far from home for the holiday. Essentially a Thanksgiving themed pot luck dinner, Fakesgiving is largely a vegetarian event, but every year there is a small turkey breast for the carnivores, until last year when Jeff asked me to make something special for the event.

What to make, what to make? I decided to borrow the idea of the "turducken", but put a Thanksgiving spin on it and stuff turkey inside of a beef brisket. I ran my idea past my friend, Chef David Koon, and we worked out a stuffing that would hopefully hold up to the extended cooking time a brisket needs. While he was more than a bit suspect of the concept, I know he was sad that he missed out on this project after seeing the pictures and was really excited to hear about it after it was cooked and served.

You can read more about it and see a movie of the process here.

While I have claimed over the last 11 months that the Trisket was a one time only event, as summer has turned to fall I've really been thinking about giving it a go once again. Over the coming weeks, I'll be revisiting the contents of the original stuffing; ground turkey, heads of roasted garlic, leeks, shallots, red bell peppers, bacon and dried cranberries. I'm also re-tooling the vinegar-based cranberry, peach and habanero barbecue sauce that I served on the side.

For the stuffing, I'm thinking about switching things to a traditional southern corn bread stuffing or perhaps a sausage and oyster stuffing - although I'm worried about oyster meat making it though the 20 + hour cooking schedule. I'm still pondering how to leverage the classic tastes of the season with the fact that I'm basically creating a turkey meatloaf that rides inside of a smoked brisket. I think if I embrace the idea of meatloaf a bit more, I can come up with something special to blow peoples minds - a core of andouille sausage, inside a meatloaf, inside a brisket perhaps?

For the sauce, I''m leaning towards removing the cranberry altogether, or at least the addition of whole cranberries. Perhaps the addition of canned cranberry sauce might work, but the jury is still out here.

In any event, I know I said "never again" for this holiday cooking adventure, but the concept is just to tasty to walk away from. More to come. Thoughts and ideas are welcome.

Gobble gobble.

The Salt Lick Barbeque

Since 1967, the Robert's family have owned and operated The Salt Lick Barbeque on their family ranch in Driftwood, Texas, using a recipe handed down from generation to generation since the Civil War. I recently got a chance to enjoy a family style dinner at The Salt Lick as we celebrated the rehearsal dinner for friends getting married in Austin. 

Very good barbeque is both an art and science; skill in the application of heat and smoke, showmanship in how your wares are displayed to waiting guests. After all, we do eat with our eyes as much as anything else. From buildings built of limestone quarried from the family ranch, long wooden tables and benches to accommodate family style meals and the stone holding pit within eyeshot of a framed picture of the owners daughters and Bobby Flay, the atmosphere of the restaurant is well executed and welcoming. 

The staff was very friendly and allowed me to check out the holding pit, which is the centerpiece of the restaurant, and the smokers which are hidden from view and the dining areas. Both were impressive in their design and evidence of day in and day out usage, but it was the holding pit that captured my attention. The limestone theme is continued with the pits construction, which is laid out in a horseshoe shape. The pit was a source of great pride folks tending to its fire, and they welcomed all my questions with a smile. Flanked by stacks of seasoned hickory wood, the fire in the pit is fed slowly all day, adding a last dose of flavor to the beef brisket, pork ribs, chicken and smoked sausage hung from above. 

Where the pit is the art and showmanship, the science and skill is evident in the outstanding meats The Salt Lick prepares. Slow cooked to perfection with ample evidence of smoke ring, the Salt Lick is a perfect example of what is commonly thought of as Texas barbeque - dry rubbed and slow cooked. This is not to do a disservice to the different barbeque styles found across Texas, which actually consist of at least four main regional styles, all with different flavors, cooking methods, ingredients, and cultural origins. It is only to say that when people discuss the barbeque of the United States, The Salt Lick is what people are referencing when they compare Texas to Memphis, St. Louis, Kansas City or North Carolina. 

Whole chickens, racks of ribs and beef brisket are rubbed with house seasoning and cooked slow and low to perfection, leaving the aforementioned smoke ring and interiors that are among the most moist I've ever had the chance to sample. Meats are mopped with a version of The Salt Lick's barbeque sauce as they smoke, but for the most part are left to reflect the unadulterated balance of spice and smoke that can only come after hours and hours over slow and low heat. 

The family style dinner at The Salt Lick includes cornbread, a platter or smoked beef brisket, pork ribs, chicken and smoked sausage, baked beans, potatoes, cole slaw, sweet tea, and a cobbler for desert. All the sides were tasty, but did not steal the spotlight from the barbeque. A sauce that has a hint of Hawaiian flare in the background is provided on the table for those wishing to smother their barbeque. While the house barbeque sauce complements everything well, I found it unnecessary. 

The Salt Lick does not serve alcohol, but our hosts provided coolers filled to the brim with ice and Shiner Bock, which is available here in St. Louis, but for me has never tasted as good as it did that night, with its intended pairing - Texas barbeque.

Opinion: Recommended

18001 FM 1826

Driftwood, Texas 78619

512-858-4959