Christmas cooking

[Achtane]

You guys are all so fancy!

[goroth]

I wasn't going to make a glaze for my ham because I am going for low effort, but I realized I have a bunch of glaze ingredients already. What kind of glaze would you make if you had the following?

Condiments
- Dijon mustard
- Worcestershire sauce
- Louisiana-style hot sauce
- Soy sauce
- Miso paste

Sugars
- Blackstrap molasses
- Maple syrup
- Honey
- White sugar

Fats
- Olive oil
- Butter

Acids
- Apple cider vinegar
- Rice wine vinegar
- Lemons
- Limes

Herbs and spices
- Almost all of them

I did a simple glaze this morning - orange juice, maple syrup and cinnamon. It was really nice. Would've preferred cloves but we used em all.

Last year I made a glaze with... maple syrup? and fish sauce and some other stuff. It was apparently all the rage in Australia and the fish sauce gave it a really nice umami touch without making it actually taste fishy. Now I'm trying to google the actual combo I can't find it. So maybe mixing a wee bit of miso in could have the same effect.

[friendship]

oo fish sauce, nice! I ended up using sugar, molasses, maple syrup, dijon, Jamaican allspice, and a shot of gin to loosen it up and get some juniper flavor in there.

Came out pretty fuckin good!

Hope you guys had/are having a great dinner.

[goroth]

oo fish sauce, nice! I ended up using sugar, molasses, maple syrup, dijon, Jamaican allspice, and a shot of gin to loosen it up and get some juniper flavor in there.

Came out pretty fuckin good!

Hope you guys had/are having a great dinner.

aw yeah!

[Achtane]

My mom gave us lasagna, curried carrots, dressing, focaccia, bratwurst and collards.
So good.

[VREEEEVROOOOOW]

Today we're making chilli. It isn't very Christmas-y, so I'm mostly posting about it because I wanted to tell you this "thing" I've taken up in recent years.

OK, so for a lot of the more involved food I make, I've lately taken up this habit of looking up its food history, and figuring out how they used to make it. That usually means you'll find recipes from e.g. anthropologists or explorers, where you'll learn a thing or two, and you'll find a recipe that is a lot simpler than modern fancypants recipes, but take a good deal longer time to cook. The recipes will also almost always have a large degree of freedom, and expect a fair competence in cookery.

So for chilli con carne, the original recipe seems to be... you put chilli powder on meat. Which is a bit boring. Especially since I don't eat meat! I read on a bit and looked for the oldest recipe I could find which wasn't just meat, lard, tallow, and chilli. My recipe for today ended up becoming:

[1934]
Chile Con Carne (Meat with Chile)
2 pound mutton or beef
1 pound fresh pork
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons lard or dripping
3 bay leaves
1 onion, chopped
1 quart ripe tomatoes or 1 large can tomatoes
1 cup chile pulp or 6 tablespoons chile powder
1 tablespoon oregano
1 tablespoon salt
1 pint ripe olives
Cut the meat into small cubes. Brown onion and garlic, in fat, add meat. Cover and steam thoroughly. Rub tomatoes through colander, add to meat, stir int chile pulp, and cook for 20 minutes. Add seasoning and cook slowly for 2 hours. Cut olives from pits, add and cook for another 1/2 hour. Serve with frijoles. If chile powder is used, mix with 1 tablespoon flour, stir into fat in which onion and garlic were browned, stir until smooth. Then add meat and proceed as above."
---Mexican Cookbook, Erna Fergusson [Rydal Press:Santa Fe NM] 1934 (p. 39)

Dead easy, right? I'll swap meat for the mentioned frijoles and mushrooms, and lard with coconut oil. Might double the onion and tomato too.

[Never]

Damn, that sounds good! I’ve been living in TX ~6 years but I don’t really know how to cook anything regional besides tortillas, so I should try this...

I like the idea of learning some recipe history, I generally understand things better with some genealogy anyway. Have you seen that Tasting History guy on YT?

[VREEEEVROOOOOW]

It was fantastic. And hot! The mushrooms tasted divine. Served it with brown rice.

I haven't heard of Tasting History, but I'll definitely check it out now. Thanks for the suggestion! I'm also a genealogy fan. To me, there's something very powerful about origins, and something very scary about forgetting said origins.

[Dowi]

That chili recipe is really different from mine (no peppers? Whaaaat?) , but I'm writing down some notes about the process and try to integrate those in mine when cook it next Friday. Curious to see how different the final result will be.

Ps yesterday we had our delayed Christmas lunch with almost 4kg of lasagna, roasted chicken with almonds and oranges, leeks and sausage cake, chocolate-mousse and a good amount of wine and liquors.

[goroth]

Aw hell yeah!

[VREEEEVROOOOOW]

Every year in w1 I watch The Lord of the Rings extended edition one day. Last year we had six servings of lasagna to accompany it. (One per disc.) I think we'll do that this year too!

[jirodreamsofdank]

Smoked a brisket for the first time (I've done it sous vide before) - came out decent but a bit tougher than I hoped for. The smoker's recommendation was to smoke it at 275, I'm thinking 200-225 next time.

[goroth]

Not that I've smoked anything, living in a little apartment, but when I've slowcooked stuff in the oven I'd say 275 is pretty high - 225 definitely sounds more reasonable. What wood did you smoke it on?

[Dowi]

I've cooked so many things in the last week(s) that I just want to sit down and order delivered food for one week straight ,breakfast included. Too bad that's not an option.
Anyone in the same situation?

[Schlatte]

I've eaten so much in the last week(s) that I just want to sit down and digest for one week straight
Seriously, I think I've gained a few kilos over the holidays. We ended up making a tex-mex bread flower for new years eve: https://www.kuechengoetter.de/rezepte/t ... lume-94140
Awesome tasty snack!