Brett A. Smith

I started a fun little experiment today.  I am going to make hot dogs using scraps from Kobe short ribs and Berkshire pork belly.  I’m going to smoke them over hickory and do a blue corn dog appetizer.  Sounds like a cool idea to me.

My girlfriend, Ashley, and I had dinner with my family this past Sunday and will be traveling to her parents’ house this coming Sunday so we thought we would just have a nice Thursday off together.  I didn’t want to do a turkey so I just did a simple roasted chicken from Kalona and made some sweet potato gnocchi with a Mahon spinach cream sauce to go with everything.  We had a bottle of Lyeth cab as well.  It was delicious.

40 lbs of freshly smoked bacon

bbq pork belly, creamed arugula, pickled mushrooms, fried egg, toast

Round 1 of 6 – House Cured/Smoked Berkshire Bacon

I am currently working on the winter menu, due shortly after the first of the year. Keep watch.

With my new interest in charcuterie, here is another type of cured meat I am trying at the restaurant.  It’s called bresaola and it is a traditional dried meat in the mountains of Italy.  Typically used is the beef eye of the round roast, however I will be using a well trimmed beef tenderloin.  Hopefully it works.  The first round I am using the recipe out of Charcuterie by Brian Polcyn and Michael Ruhlman (INCREDIBLE book).  If it works, I might play around with the flavorings a little bit.  This particular recipe’s flavor profile consists of thyme, rosemary, and juniper.

Starting with a well trimmed beef tenderloin (approx. 3 lb)

Finely ground powder of kosher salt, DQ curing salt, sugar, black pepper, thyme, rosemary, and juniper berries.

Half of the mixture is rubbed all over the tenderloin, placed in a bag and left to cure in the refrigerator for 7 days.  After that time period, the other half of the mixture is rubbed all over the tenderloin and left to cure for an additional seven days.  It is then tied with butcher’s twine and left to hang (dry) for 3-4 weeks.