Cured meats | Gourmandistan

Irish Colcannon runs through Appalachia, giving Gourmandistan another tribe to talk about

March 16, 2017 by Steve

Gourmandistan has already employed St. Patrick’s day as an excuse to make fun of Michellle’s Irish heritage. This year we thought we’d add Appalachia to the holiday mix, as it’s quite possible one or two of Michelle’s ancestors spent some time there, as many did, between Ireland and settling in other parts of U.S. We could wind through the many, many derogatory stereotypes of this mountainous region spanning the United States from New York to Alabama. However, that would needlessly offend some very sweet […]

Categories: Cabbage, Cooking, Cured meats, Food, Ireland, Kale, Potatoes, Recipes, St. Patrick's Day

Bacon salad dressing brings back memories, blesses pea shoots and more

March 27, 2016 by Michelle

Michelle had never heard of Hillstone Restaurant Group before reading this month’s feature article in Bon Appétit Magazine. This “non-chain chain” is reportedly adored by such culinary luminaries as Danny Meyer and David Chang. As she read, Michelle felt a jolt of familiarity when she saw that HRG “started in 1977 with the opening of Houston’s in Nashville.” 1977, it seems, was the year Michelle and her college girlfriends also landed on Nashville’s West End Avenue, becoming a part of the beginning of what Andrew Knowlton, the article’s author, calls the “best-run, […]

Categories: Apples, Chicken, Cured meats, Food, Friends, Nuts, Pork, Recipes, Restaurants, Salad, Watercress

Lack of grater leads to greatness with ham, celeriac and leek pie

October 18, 2015 by Steve

What started as an additional reason to resent holiday cottage kitchens turned into another success thanks to Michelle, with a bit of an assist from Nigel Slater. We had originally purchased a large knob of celeriac at a farmers’ market on our recent trip to Britain, imagining a picnic somewhere moor-ish where a bit of remoulade would accompany a leftover gammon (ham, to those non-English among us) sandwich and perhaps some crisps. Unfortunately, our rental was without a grater (or, at least we thought at the […]

Categories: Celery root, Cooking, Cured meats, England, Food, Pork, Recipes

Kentuckifying pasta with corn, country ham, butter and peppers

August 14, 2015 by Michelle

We are big fans of the late Judy Rodgers, even though we find some of the recipes in her fabulous Zuni Cafe Cookbook a bit confusing. However, Rodgers’ delicious “Pasta with Corn, Pancetta, Butter & Sage” isn’t one of them. We’ve enjoyed this simple-to-prepare dish many times. But, at this point of our summer season, we decided to vary it a bit. (This decision may have been influenced by our lack of sage plants, which drowned during our recent unseasonably heavy rains.) Instead […]

Categories: Cooking, Corn, Cured meats, Food, Pasta, Peppers, Pork, Recipes

Paleoanthropology and persnickityness in potée

February 1, 2015 by Michelle

While other forms of cooking undoubtedly predate the pot, there certainly couldn’t have been too many of them. Once humanity got the hang of fire and sticks, some genius must shortly have realized that cooking meat in liquid makes not only better meat, but (bonus!) a nice broth as well. Whenever this happened, however, it was a mind-bogglingly long time ago, as we were recently reminded by watching Werner Herzog’s “Cave of Forgotten Dreams,” a documentary about the Chauvet Cave paintings. Chauvet’s astonishing art […]

Categories: Beef, Cooking, Cured meats, Food, France, Rabbit, Recipes, Soups & Stews, Vegetables

Sweet Potato Soup with Sorghum Butter continues use of country ham

December 16, 2014 by Michelle

Gourmandistan has been going through our chunked, frozen remnants of Thanksgiving country ham much faster than we’ve ever used Steve’s home-cured guanciale. Our freezer holds quite a few packages of cured pork jowl, which have been waiting to be made into pasta carbonara or spuma. (Michelle, who despises spuma and always finds better options than pasta carbonara, wishes the guanciale packages would simply disappear, and may aid them in doing so someday.) The Newsom’s ham, however, has been called out on several occasions to […]

Categories: Cooking, Cured meats, Food, Recipes, Soups & Stews, Sweet potatoes

Seeking Eternity’s end through Kentucky country ham salad

December 4, 2014 by Steve

Gourmandistan recently tackled its first entire Kentucky country ham in ages and ages. We were stunned, after serving a Thanksgiving party of eight, to find that most of it still remained. That’s when we rediscovered a saying attributed to Dorothy Parker: “Eternity is two people and a ham.” One solution? Ham salad. Country ham is a signature Kentucky product which (like tobacco, bourbon and coal) may be a reason the people of our Commonwealth are so vibrant and robust. It’s salty, funky and smoky, […]

Categories: Cooking, Cured meats, Food, Pork, Recipes, Salad, Sandwiches

Spuma spurs slight civil unrest in Gourmandistan.

February 26, 2013 by Steve

Mutterings of dissent can still be heard every time the refrigerator opens and the speckled, pinkly pale jar of spuma is spied. Its funky, fatty taste did not please Michelle’s palate at all. Despite Steve’s insistence that ceviche, salami and sun-dried tomatoes prove the world agrees that “cured means cooked,” Michelle could not get past the idea she was eating “raw bacon.” Steve’s admission that he’d happily sampled “raw” bacon as a child further sickened Michelle, who had already decided […]

Categories: Appetizers, Cheese, Cooking, Cured meats, Food, Recipes

A better bacon for pasta carbonara.

June 19, 2011 by Michelle

Steve’s guanciale has been sectioned, sealed and frozen, but not before we put some to a very good use. We’ve long been fans of pasta carbonara, even championing Calvin Trillin’s effort to change Thanksgiving into National Pasta Carbonara Day. (Trillin seems interested in the humorous aspects of carbonara-themed parades and presidential portraits. We’re more interested in eliminating the angst and crap food found in so many “traditional Thanksgiving” meals.) Carbonara sauce has a murky origin, but Gourmandistan is partial to […]

Categories: Cooking, Cured meats, Food, Italy, Old cookbooks, Pasta, Pork, Recipes