Time for a fun experiment. It's called head cheese. Head cheese is not an experiment at all, I have made it dozens of times.
This one reminds me of today's Martini. Martinis are made with Gin and Vermouth.
I was in a piano bar recently and noticed there were no Martinis there with either Gin or Vermouth. All Vodka and other crap. I guess it's there to appeal to the skirts.
So, with that in mind, I am making head cheese with no head.
I have some loin that I did the immersion thing in vinegar/garlic brine and will transfer the liquid to the InstantPot to pressure cook pig skin for the gelatin. When finished, I plan to scrape the skin for Chicaron. The only thing I am uncertain about is the time to cook the skin to get max extraction of the gelatin but leave the skin intact to make the pork rinds.
The clock started yesterday and I'm on at least a 3 day process.
This one reminds me of today's Martini. Martinis are made with Gin and Vermouth.
I was in a piano bar recently and noticed there were no Martinis there with either Gin or Vermouth. All Vodka and other crap. I guess it's there to appeal to the skirts.
So, with that in mind, I am making head cheese with no head.
I have some loin that I did the immersion thing in vinegar/garlic brine and will transfer the liquid to the InstantPot to pressure cook pig skin for the gelatin. When finished, I plan to scrape the skin for Chicaron. The only thing I am uncertain about is the time to cook the skin to get max extraction of the gelatin but leave the skin intact to make the pork rinds.
The clock started yesterday and I'm on at least a 3 day process.
No... no gin for me. After a rather unfortunate meeting with a bottle of Tanqueray when I was in my late 20s, I can not come close to any kind of gin... yuck! I make my vodka martinis with a touch of Martini (or Cinzano) dry... shaken, with a green Spanish olive. A nice simple drink with just enough snap to make me happy... without the bad memories of gin.1
Chicharones are good. No need for gin... just a good, light pilsner or lager.
Piano bar... ay! now you're getting sophisticated... too much for me. I find music too distracting in a bar.
What kind of music do you listen when using the Instapot? High Pressure music? Heavy Metal?
Chicharones are good. No need for gin... just a good, light pilsner or lager.
Piano bar... ay! now you're getting sophisticated... too much for me. I find music too distracting in a bar.
What kind of music do you listen when using the Instapot? High Pressure music? Heavy Metal?
Jimmy Buffett. Don't be stupid Tony.
I admit to being a rebel. Not only did I do the wet version, I dripped a teaspoon of the olive brine in there too.
Seriously, who the **** likes the taste of straight gin? Who are you are kidding or trying to impress? I know stupid when I see it. I grew up in a family like that.
I hope that someday you have a chance to try Citadelle gin plus Dolin dry vermouth , perhaps at a cocktail bar or maybe at home. I think you'll be delighted.
I drunk a whole liter.. on am empty stomach.
Afterwards, was laying on the freshly mowed grass hoping to die. It felt like I was dry heaving my lower intestine by then.
That wasn't even the worst part.
Ate humble pie two days later... the day after I was in bed all day.
Just coming within a foot of an opened bottle of gin.. with its 'aromatics' turns my gut over.
Last edited:
My brother in law likes their red vermouth for his manhattans.
I grew up with vermouth being an exclusive Italian affair. Don't much cotton to them Joseph Come Lately French affairs.
Ice, three shots of Costco Vodka, half a shot of Martini/Cinzano dry white, shake well, pour and drop in a couple of fine manzanilla olives....
Ole!
I'll add that to my list of gins to try, after I locate some sipsmiths VJOP. I normally stick to Tanqueray 10. Confession time I have never tried Vermouth. Growing up with all those cheesy Cinzano and Martini ads(with that ****** earworm jingle that 40 years on still comes flooding back) just made me never want to have anything to do with it. That and I was a beer monster until my 40s so have missed a lot of strange concoctions.
When I was a kid in the old neighborhood.... weddings were always a neighborhood affair. They'd have the wedding as the local church and then there'd be like four or five busses to take everyone to the reception.
Open bar naturally.
Us kids would get a nice Cin-Cin ( Cinzano red and sweet white, on the rocks, with a touch of sweet "gas" water )... sometimes two... and then we'd sit back quietly for the whole reception.
The best behaved kids you have ever seen. ;-)
Open bar naturally.
Us kids would get a nice Cin-Cin ( Cinzano red and sweet white, on the rocks, with a touch of sweet "gas" water )... sometimes two... and then we'd sit back quietly for the whole reception.
The best behaved kids you have ever seen. ;-)
In Cleveland, the weddings would have a bottle (or several) of the local ryes, whiskies and, of course Canadian and beer off the tap. You met the cousins, (2nd and 3rd) you saw at the last wedding or wake.
Don't laugh, but tonight, for the first time I did battle with a vanilla pod. Up until now they had seemed like too much of a pain in the neck compared to a bottle of extract, but SWMBO ordered vanilla ice cream made with real vanilla and she even bought the pods. I still think they are a pain in the neck but the custard, which is currently chilling does taste gooooood.
We do get a real vanilla extract, a brown paste like material with low alcohol content.
The local milk cooperative 'Amul' sells ice cream with real vanilla, they buy it from growers in South India, where suddenly a lot of cultivators got started, only to have a collapse due to over supply.
The growers have a cooperative as well, and they try to help stabilize supply and prices.
The other makers, including Unilever, use vanillin, artificial flavor made from the wood pulp industry by products, which is very cheap.
How did you break up the pod?
Can you shred it, and store the rest?
Have you tried cardamom powder and a little nutmeg as flavor to home made custard?
The local milk cooperative 'Amul' sells ice cream with real vanilla, they buy it from growers in South India, where suddenly a lot of cultivators got started, only to have a collapse due to over supply.
The growers have a cooperative as well, and they try to help stabilize supply and prices.
The other makers, including Unilever, use vanillin, artificial flavor made from the wood pulp industry by products, which is very cheap.
How did you break up the pod?
Can you shred it, and store the rest?
Have you tried cardamom powder and a little nutmeg as flavor to home made custard?
Vanillin is the flavour you associate with the vanilla that comes from the orchid. There is nothing artificial or fake about it. It’s the same chemical, regardless of the source.
I think you will also find the majority of vanillin is extracted from crude oil, not wood pulp or other potential sources as that is the cheapest raw material.
I think you will also find the majority of vanillin is extracted from crude oil, not wood pulp or other potential sources as that is the cheapest raw material.
Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanil... organic compound,extract of the vanilla bean.
"Today, artificial vanillin is made either from guaiacol or lignin."
That was my source, and there are many so called experts there on Wikipedia....
I think you are better informed than me about the locally sold material, and the prevalent food regulations.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanil... organic compound,extract of the vanilla bean.
"Today, artificial vanillin is made either from guaiacol or lignin."
That was my source, and there are many so called experts there on Wikipedia....
I think you are better informed than me about the locally sold material, and the prevalent food regulations.