All posts by allansuddaby

The Ten Sandwich Commandments

March 9, 2017 allansuddaby Leave a comment

I’ve been in this game for years, it made me an animal
There’s rules to this shit, I wrote me a manual
A step-by-step booklet for you to get
Your game on track, not your wig pushed back.

-The Notorious B.I.G.^[1]

The Ten Sandwich Commandments

Thou shalt provide interest.
Thou shalt provide textural contrast.
Thou shalt consider the colours of your ingredients.
Thou shalt balance rich sandwiches with fresh, light components.
Thou shalt balance salty meat and cheese with acidity.
Thou shalt cut bread precisely.
Thou shalt spread to the edge.
Thou shalt aggressively season meat, slaws, and salsas to compensate for the muting effect of bread.
Thou shalt apply salt to raw vegetables such as tomatoes and

General

In Defense of Deep-Frying

February 17, 2017 allansuddaby 5 Comments

On March 1, 2017 I’m teaching a class for Metro Continuing Education called Deep-Frying Without a Deep-Fryer. Course details are available here. I thought I’d re-post this old article, a vehement defense of this most venerable technique. Originally published March 23, 2014.

Yesterday I was walking on Whyte Avenue and I saw a sign that upset me. It was outside The Pourhouse, a tavern with a clever name and a broad selection of beer and food. The poster read “No Deep Fryer on Premises.”

I perfectly understand the intentions of this advertisement. I have been to bars where the food is clearly manufactured off-site, purchased frozen, plopped into a deep fryer, and garnished with green onions or bottled … Continue reading.

Burns Supper, Seasonal

Burns Supper

January 25, 2017 allansuddaby 4 Comments

Originally published January 25, 2011.

If you’re not already acquainted, let me introduce you to the proud institution that is the Burns Supper.

Robert Burns was born on January 25, 1759, in Ayr, Scotland. He grew up on farmland leased by his parents, and wrote several poems and songs about that rustic life, hence his famous epithet, “the ploughman poet.” His first book of poetry, published in 1786, was an explosive success, and he was quickly accepted into Edinburgh society, becoming a Freemason and working as a tax collector.

His poetry was written in an old Scottish dialect, one that modern English readers find more difficult to understand than Shakespeare. Even so, you probably know some of his verses. … Continue reading.

Cider

Merridale Cider

January 23, 2017 allansuddaby Leave a comment

A couple years ago I visited Merridale Estate Cidery in the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island. With so many folks around Edmonton making cider, and many of them looking for the fastest, most efficient way to produce a year’s supply, I thought I’d post some details from a commercial operation.

The apples at Merridale are all old-world cider varieties, basically inedible out of hand, and absolutely nothing like North American grocery store apples. They have names like Dabinett, Chisel Jersey, and Hauxapfel. The varietals are categorized as either sharp, bitter, bitter sharp, or bittersweet. Here “sharp” refers to acidity and “bitter” refers to tannin and astringency like you find in red wine, tea, and walnut skin, not true bitter flavour … Continue reading.

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The Physiology of Taste by Brillat-Savarin

January 13, 2017 allansuddaby 1 Comment

Often cited as the most influential food book ever published in the western world, The Physiology of Taste was written by Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin. Born in 1755 in Belley, France, “B-S”^[1] grew up to become first a lawyer and then a judge in provincial France during, well, a fairly tumultuous time in European history. The details of his life are fascinating. My copy of TPT includes a brief biography containing lines like “crossed swords with Robespierre” and “incurred the displeasure of Napoleon”. While he did live in exile in America for a short while, B-S managed to keep his head and most of his property throughout the Revolution and the Napoleonic years. It was in the last years of … Continue reading.

Meat, Rabbit

Boning Out Rabbit

January 1, 2017 allansuddaby 1 Comment

In my experience rabbit is usually hatcheted into quarters and saddle, as described (and lamented) in this post.

One year Lisa and I were in Piedmont in northwestern Italy in September, and it seemed that every restaurant was serving rabbit, and all of them had boned-out the entire animal, then rolled it into a cylinder and braised it, usually in Nebbiolo wine. It’s a beautiful, thoughtful way to prepare the animal. At first it didn’t make sense to me: I was hung up on theoretics, asking ridiculous questions like, “Won’t the tiny, slender loin get over-cooked before he belly tenderizes?” This might be true of pork, but I can tell you from empirical study that it is not an … Continue reading.

Cake and Cookies, Sweets

Shortbread

December 30, 2016 allansuddaby 1 Comment

Originally published December 1, 2013.

The triumph of Scottish baking on the old national lines.

-TF Henderson

Shortbread is the primordial cookie. It has only three ingredients: sugar, butter, and flour. And I guess salt is a welcome addition. Sometimes there’s caraway. And there are a few variations like Ayrshire shortbread that include eggs and cream. But usually it’s just sugar, butter, and flour, combined in a very simple ratio: 1:2:3.

In other words, butter makes up fully one third of the weight of the dough, so this is indeed a very short dough, “short” referring to fat’s ability to inhibit gluten development, creating a tender, brittle pastry. Some classic recipes will even replace a portion of the wheat … Continue reading.

Sweets

Sticky Toffee Pudding

December 23, 2016 allansuddaby 1 Comment

Originally posted December 19, 2013.

I’ll start by saying that this isn’t a pudding in the North American sense: it’s not a spoonable custard like, say, butterscotch pudding. Sticky toffee pudding is a cake with dates in the batter, covered in butterscotch sauce. In Britain the word “pudding” refers to dessert, generally, or to specific preparations that usually take the form of a moist cake. Figgy pudding and bread pudding are two examples. This is a good article for more info on British puddings.

Anglophiles will excuse me if I refer to sticky toffee pudding as a cake for the remainder of this post.

Sticky toffee pudding is actually a great cake that is nearly fail-proof. Between the dates … Continue reading.

Charcuterie, Meat, Pâtés and Terrines, Québécoise

Cretons

November 24, 2016 allansuddaby Leave a comment

Originally posted December 15, 2009 (if you can believe that). Re-posted today with some major corrections. I first read about cretons in an article in The Ottawa Citizen by then-food-columnist Ron Eade. He presented cretons as a Quebecois variation on rillette. A while back Emmanuel (Manu) of Pied Cochon, Joe Beef, and Woodwork fame gave me the skinny on cretons, and they really are not like rillettes at all. I am not able to find that original Ron Eade article to expose it. Presumably someone from the lower St. Lawrence forced him to remove it as libel or lies. Anyways.

Cretons is a pork spread made by simmering ground pork and aromatics like onion, bay, and clove in milk or … Continue reading.

Charcuterie, Meat, Pork

Cured Fatback – Lardo

November 17, 2016 allansuddaby Leave a comment

Originally posted on July 5, 2014.

This post is about cured fatback, most commonly known by its Italian name lardo.

Fatback is the subcutaneous fat that covers the pork loin. Resist the urge to say “back fat”: it’s called fatback. Industrially-raised pigs are intentionally grown very lean, so the fatback is typically only an inch thick. Heritage pigs can have three inches or more of fatback. These are the animals you need in order to make lardo.

Two autumns ago I got a side of Tamworth pork from Nature’s Green Acres. The fatback was two and a half inches thick in some places. It was the first pig that I ever cut that truly deserved to have … Continue reading.

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