Making Capicola Update - Checking on the Pork Loin

It's Day Two for our future capicola, and time to take a look in the cooler and check on the pork.

It's still covered in salt, though the sparkly graininess is mostly gone. The salt has drawn quite a bit of moisture out of the meat, as you can see by looking at the brine on the bottom of the cooler.

We'll rotate the loins from top to bottom and turn them a bit to be sure they all have some exposure in the brine, and then cover them up again until tomorrow. By then, they'll be ready to rinse, season, and put into casings for the aging process.

TOMORROW:
Aging starts.

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It's Capicola Time

A few years ago, my brother-in-law's father taught me how to make home-cured capicola. Made from whole pork loins, it's cured briefly with salt, then seasoned and allowed to hang and age for about 60 days.

Winter is the perfect time to do this, because a cold attic is ideal for hanging the capicola (I have a small closet in the center of my attic that I use specifically for hanging and aging meats.) And so, every January, I get together with family and friends and a case of pork loins.

Today's post will show the first steps. As time goes on, I'll show the rest of the process as we go through. It's fairly straightforward - and I'll include a materials list now so if you want to try your hand at it, you can buy the stuff and make your own along with me.

Most of the actual activity takes place this first week. You'll need:

2 whole pork loins
Kosher salt or sea salt
A gallon jug of cheap white wine
Coarsely ground black pepper
Hot paprika or cayenne pepper
Sausage casings - you'll need beef middles, about 3 inches in diameter
Wooden slats, about 14 inches long (these can be ripped on a table saw from a 1-inch thick pine board)
Long plastic wire ties (heavy 12-inch ones are best.)
Cotton butcher's twine

For today, all you'll need is the pork loins and the salt, but in a couple of days you'll need the rest.

Start by cutting each of the pork loins in half and removing the plastic. You'll now have four shorter loin pieces. Coat each of these pieces with salt so they are completely covered. It doesn't have to be a thick crust, but there should be a good, even coating on all surfaces. The picture on the right shows about what it should look like. You'll need about a pound of salt to effectively coat all four chunks of pork.

Now put the salted pork loins into a non-reactive container to cure for about 48 hours. A cheap Styrofoam cooler or a plastic cooler with a food-grade white plastic lining is great. Put the loins into the cooler, sprinkle in additional salt if your fingers have rubbed any spots bare, and then close the cooler and leave it in a cold but not freezing spot for two days. If you have room in your refrigerator, you can put the cooler in there. If not, you can leave the container on a cold enclosed porch, in your cold attic, or in the cellar on the bulkhead stairs where it usually stays cold in winter.

Okay, so our pork loins are safely salted and stashed in a cold place. We're done for today. Tomorrow, we'll take a peek inside the cooler and see what's going on.

TOMORROW:
Checking the pork loins and turning them to ensure an even cure.

SUNDAY:
We prepare the cured loins for aging into capicola.

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ANGRY WHOPPER - YEAH!!

Burger King introduced their latest spicy offering earlier this week: the Angry Whopper. A Whopper patty topped with pepper jack cheese, bacon, pickled jalapeno slices, "Angry onions," tomatoes, lettuce, mayo, and "angry sauce," all on a sesame seed bun.

I really liked Wendy's Spicy Baconator during that sandwich's limited run, so when I heard about the Angry Whopper I decided to ignore the stupid name and give it a try.

My daughter and I got to Burger King during the quiet lull between lunch and supper, hoping that the lack of a crowd would mean the BurgerDoodlers on the line wouldn't just chuck our sandwiches together. Hahaha! Good one, right?

Here's what my Angry Whopper actually looked like inside: A whopper patty, as expected, topped with pepper jack cheese. There is a slice of bacon on there somewhere - it's hiding under the tomatoes at the top there. I guess the "Angry Onions" got pissed off and stomped away, because there weren't any crisp spicy fried onions on my burger, just some plain old sliced yellow onion. That orange stuff is supposed to be "Angry Sauce." I thought it tasted more like sugary French dressing, but my daughter swore that it had some heat when she tasted it. It didn't do anything for me, though.

The pickled jalapenos were generous and quite hot - spicier than the average jalapenos in this case, and after getting about three of the slices in a single bite, I opened up the sandwich again and repositioned them to spread them more evenly around the inside. That made the heat much nicer, and reduced the vinegar concentration from the pickled pepper. Lettuce was standard iceberg, looking like they'd cut it up with a weed whacker, and tomatoes were also substandard winter tomatoes, with grainy pulp and hardly any recognizable flavor.

In spite of the obvious defects, the Angry Whopper was pretty decent. Heat level was adequate for me and not overwhelming. I fall fairly in the middle of the "heat tolerance" range, though, so if you're a chilehead you may find the "Angry Whopper" to be a "Somewhat Annoyed Whopper." I'd like to try it at a different Burger King restaurant next time, just to see if they have all the correct ingredients.

If you plan to try it out, you've got until 30 March 2009 - this is a limited-edition burger.

Links:
Burger King's website. (No mention of the Angry Whopper on their main site at the time I wrote this)
Angry Whopper press release at Business Wire.
Burger King's "Angry Gram" website, where you can send an "angry gram" e-mail featuring a talking Angry Whopper to someone you don't like.

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It's Like Getting A Box Of Summertime!

I've written a few times about Mastronardi Produce's Sunset® brand vegetables. They grow the best-tasting out-of-season tomato I've ever had, and I've also written about their wonderful Ancient Sweets sweet red peppers.

Apparently, someone forwarded my blog entries to Mastronardi. They noticed that I had praised the peppers even though I had bought them past their prime on the markdown bin at the local Stop & Shop, and they thought I might appreciate some glorious fresh Ancient Sweets to experience just how good they can be at their peak of flavor.

Yesterday, I got home to find two foam shipping containers on my porch. One of them contained two packages of gorgeous plump red Ancient Sweet peppers. The other held tomatoes: a tub of Splendido grape tomatoes, a clamshell package of Romana tomatoes, and a flat clamshell of Campari tomatoes on the vine.

My daughter was home to accept the delivery, and she called me at work to let me know they were there. I told her to open up the containers and see what was inside. When she opened the one holding the tomatoes, she gasped: "Dad - it smells like summer in here!"

It's going to smell like summer in my kitchen for the next few days, too, as I use these excellent peppers and tomatoes. And I'll be posting recipes, too, so keep an eye out.

Thanks, Mastronardi!

Link:

Mastronardi Produce - The Sunset® Website

Ramen Review 10: Instant Noodle King - Wonton Soup Flavor

This is a brand of noodle cup sold at Asian markets in the area. It's slightly bigger than Nissin's Cup Noodles, but smaller than the Nissin Souper Meal. I bought it in several flavors, which I'll be reviewing over the next few weeks.

Ease of Preparation: 10/10. Very simple - add the contents of the enclosed veggie, seasoning, and oil packets, add water, allow to sit three minutes, stir, and enjoy. The snap-fit cap is very nice because it allows the contents to steam without having to fiddle with an ill-fitting foil cover.

Vegetable Packet: 9/10 Cabbage, wakame seaweed, corn, and chives. The wakame was a nice touch - its subtle sweetness rounded out the flavor of the broth and made this ramen one of the best-tasting I've had.

Seasoning Packet: 9/10 I admit I wasn't sure I was going to like this stuff when I first opened the seasoning packet. It contains powdered fish, and the smell was strong. Really strong. Almost disgustingly strong, in fact. But after the boiling water was poured on and the flavors of everything were allowed to meld, the strong and almost unpleasant fishiness was replaced by a very subtle and delicious prawny flavor with veggie accents from the wakame and chives.

Taste: 10/10 Excellent, as I noted above. I should also add that the noodles in this cup are delicately thin, yet nicely al dente and toothsome.

Spiciness: N/A This is not marketed as a spicy ramen.

Overall: 9/10 Recommended.

UPC Codes Won't Protect You From The Scary Chinese.

So I checked my email inbox this morning and found this little gem:

BAR CODES - country of origin info - Important

Why are we buying MADE IN CHINA when the USA produces (or used to produce) the best and the most food in the world? Is everything we have being OUTSOURCED With 'Melamine' and 'Rat Poison' laced foods flooding the market...... You need to read this article... and print out the list and carry it with you when you shop. China is not putting "Made in China" on it's labels anymore as sales drop for that product, but you can still know where a product comes from by reading the barcodes. The whole world is scared of China-made 'black hearted goods'.
Can you differentiate which one is made in the USA , Philippines , Taiwan or China ?
Let me tell you how... The first 3 digits of the barcode is the country code wherein the product was made. Example: all barcodes that begin with the numbers 690, 691, 692, 693, 694 and 695 mean the products are MADE IN MAINLAND CHINA .

This is our human right to know, but the government and related department never educate the public, therefore we have to RESCUE ourselves.

00 ~ 13 === USA & CANADA
30 ~ 37 === FRANCE
40 ~ 44 === GERMANY
471 ====== Taiwan
480 ====== The Philippines
49 ======= JAPAN
50 ======= UK
57 ======= Denmark

628------------Saudi Arabia

629 ====== United Arab Emirates
64 ======= Finland
690----695 = Made in China
740 ~ 745 = Central America
76 ====== Switzerland and Liechtenstein

What the hell is wrong with the dumbasses that send this kind of shit around? Are there people so damn stupid that they would believe a claim like "China is not putting MADE IN CHINA on its labels any more"? And what the hell are "black hearted goods"?

Allow me to debunk this email with a dose of fact:

1. Country codes are used at the beginning of the European Article Number standard EAN-13, which is used in Europe and not the USA.
2. Those country codes don't necessarily have any relationship to where the goods were produced anyway. They indicate only which numbering organization has assigned the codes to products by a specific company. So, if a Chinese company is selling wholesome red-white-and-blue-American-grown wheat, the package gets a Chinese code. The numbering system was devised to allow all EAN member organizations to assign codes without having to worry about duplicates.
3. US bar codes are based on the Universal Product Code type A (UPC-A) system, which doesn't include country codes at all.
4. All products sold in the US are required to have the country of origin indicated on the packaging. There are no exceptions to this rule.
   

I'm not saying China hasn't got some quality-control issues right now. They are in the midst of their very own Industrial Revolution - one that is causing upheaval in many different markets across the economic spectrum - and their growing pains are being felt around the world. But anyone who rushes to condemn evil Chinese black hearted goods and puff up with moral superiority about the USA and our BEST AND MOST FOOD, is best advised to pick up a copy of Sinclair's The Jungle, do a little reading, and shut their stinking piehole. China is eventually going to get past this rough spot in their economic development, just like the US did a hundred years ago, and the Bald Eagle would be a lot better off with the Dragon as a trading partner and not a rival.

Links:

Snopes.com page - Determining Product Origins by Bar Code
Google Books result for Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

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Mama's Choice Syrup

Are you familiar with Mama's Choice syrups? Most of them are pretty decent - real, honest ingredients that seem to be made and packaged with care. Blackberry Patch, the makers of Mama's Choice, is a Georgia company that has quite a line of tasty syrups which they sell on their website as well as in markets, specialty retailers, and gourmet shops around the country. Most of their stuff looks really good. But it really irritates me when a company weasels around with their labels, like they do here.

This label is designed to foster confusion. Yes, the label admits that the bottle contains "Maple Praline Flavored Syrup," but also says "pure and natural."

There is no maple syrup in the mix. There is sugar, corn syrup, maple flavoring, and praline flavoring. I suppose on a technicality you could call this "pure syrup," but I'd say it's quite a stretch to call it "natural." At any rate, I found this bottle in a display at Big Lots. Hopefully, the reason these bottles were there are because they're a poorly-labeled closeout.

If you'd really like to try out Blackberry Patch's products, you might be better off just going directly to their website. The prices there are exceptionally fair - 12 ounce bottles of their real maple praline syrup are sold there for just $5.99 for example - and you'll be putting money directly into their pockets.

Link:

Blackberry Patch's website. No ingredient listings or nutritional info that I could find, but there are careful product descriptions for all of the products offered.

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Getting Cheated At The Supermarket

Supermarkets are a low-margin business. They deal with shoplifting, spoilage, carelessness (dented cans and torn boxes) and accidents (Clean-up on Aisle 7!) all the time, and all that stuff hurts their earnings.

For the most part, we've become accustomed to some of the ways supermarkets try to improve the bottom line. Some of them are perfectly honest and rely on our desire for convenience or help with preparation - like selling pre-washed and pre-cut veggies at a higher price than bulk produce for example. Some of them are less honest, but still tolerated by most of us: using special spectrum lighting in various departments to make products appear fresher and more wholesome than they would under natural light; or packaging wilted vegetables under the fresher veggies in a shrinkwrapped tray; or extending the "fresh" shelf life of a cut of meat by reprinting the sale label with a later date, a lower price, and a MANAGER'S SPECIAL tag in bright orange.

And then, there are methods that are just plain dishonest, no matter how you look at it.

Take a look at the photo above. I took that picture with my cell phone camera at a local supermarket. on Shaker Road in Longmeadow, MA. It's a pre-cooked lobster on a white styrofoam tray, wrapped in plastic cling film. There is a price ticket at the top right-hand side of the picture. So far, so good, right?

Look under the lobster - nestled in there, under the little legs. That pink thing. That's a hot dog.

Yeah. They padded out the weight of the lobsters by hiding hot dogs underneath them.

Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana, Manchester CT

Back in October 2008, I wrote about the famous Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana on Wooster Street in New Haven CT. It's an iconic pizza restaurant and a genuine "destination dining spot" for people all over the Northeast. And now I can get their great New Haven pizza a lot closer to home, at the new Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana in Manchester CT.

The outside bears little resemblance to the brick storefront original, and the surroundings are certainly different, plopped upon a retail pad site in the Buckland Hills shopping development that includes dozens of stand-alone commercial buildings clustered around the mammoth Shoppes At Buckland Hill mall. Inside the door, though, the Pepe aura is strong.

Just as in New Haven, prospective diners wait in a small foyer until a booth becomes available inside, and when the foyer fills up (as it did the day we were there) one is required to wait outside. This caused a good deal of grumbling among the Northern Connecticut people who were unaccustomed to the way Pepe's does things, and who were left standing in the cold December air outside. But wait times here are short and no one had to spend very much time outdoors after all.

Inside, we found that they've replicated the New Haven coal-fired pizza oven, virtually brick by brick, right down to the cast iron doors and hinges. Spaghetti-board menus, roomy booths, white walls, and black tin ceilings all evoke the 1920's charm of the original restaurant. No one would ever be able to completely duplicate the original Pepe's with its patina of age and comfort, but the owners of the Manchester branch have done a very good job of capturing the atmosphere and ambiance of the original, right down to the old-fashioned six-ounce beverage glasses and Foxon Park birch beer.

But let's face it: Who cares about atmosphere when you're there to get a great pizza? And I am happy to relate that the pizzas from the the Manchester brick oven are every bit as delicious as the ones from New Haven. We had a pepperoni pie and a spinach and bacon pie, and they were perfect. Unfortunately, I was unable to get my favorite, the fresh clam pie, because a breaking winter storm that day had prevented that day's clam delivery. Maybe next time!

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Frank Pepe's Manchester location is at 221 Buckland Hills Drive, Manchester CT, to the left of the La-Z-Boy showroom (they share a parking lot.) They're open every day from 11:30 am to 10:00 pm, and their phone number is 860-644-7333. Click here for directions.

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Happy New Year!

The holidays have passed, and with them the hectic end-of-year schedules of house visits, holiday parties, traffic jams on all the roads around my quiet little dead-end street, and frantic shopping. A combination of events - the usual holiday preparations and family stuff, as well as having to rotate shifts at work and a few small household emergencies - kept me mostly away from blogging during December.

Things are starting to unwind a little now and there's finally some time to get back at the keyboard for a few hours every day. Hooray! I've got quite a backlog of stuff to post (photos and article ideas have been piling up all month - even though I haven't been posting, I've never stopped gathering material) so I hope you can get back into the habit of checking in now and again.

Special thanks to Michele at Life, Lightly Salted for taking the time from her own busy holiday rush to drop a line to see if everything was OK. [tips hat towards the Jersey shore]