Food Thread - Those that eat

[ShadySands]

On 3/30/2025 at 3:51 PM, PK htiw klaw eriF said:

I made Carbonara with pancetta. Internet Italians may try to blow up my house, but it tasted very good.

I pretty much always have guanciale on hand these days but sometimes I prefer pancetta to mix it up. I don't care about authenticity for anything anymore, just taste.

[ShadySands]

I also made salmon that I soaked in sake and miso for a couple of days.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

2 hours ago, ShadySands said:

I pretty much always have guanciale on hand these days but sometimes I prefer pancetta to mix it up. I don't care about authenticity for anything anymore, just taste.

Where do you get it? Ordering is my only option and it seems to be too expensive for my budget.

And while I don't care about authenticity either, it is funny to me that the first written recipe for carbonara is from Chicago and uses pancetta and parm. The current iteration seems to be maybe a decade old and you had Italian chefs using cream in the dish during the 80s.

[ShadySands]

32 minutes ago, PK htiw klaw eriF said:

Where do you get it? Ordering is my only option and it seems to be too expensive for my budget.

And while I don't care about authenticity either, it is funny to me that the first written recipe for carbonara is from Chicago and uses pancetta and parm. The current iteration seems to be maybe a decade old and you had Italian chefs using cream in the dish during the 80s.

I'm lucky that I have a few local spots that stock it, a Polish grocery store/butcher shop and a little Italian shop down the road always have it. My local Sprouts sometimes has it too.

Before that I would order it for special occasions but I'd recommend trying local meat spots first.

E: I put a random Houston address into Instacart and searched for it and Central Market has it listed but out of stock

Edited April 1 by ShadySands

[Hurlshort]

My mom always made carbonara with pancetta for my birthdays, so that is my favorite way to do it. I love it, but I can also feel my arteries clogging when I eat it at this stage in my life. It's a pretty rich dish.

[ShadySands]

Sardines and anchovies

Who wants to make out?

[majestic]

Speaking of healthy food:

 

Was pretty good.  

[ShadySands]

Roasted some chicken drumsticks and served that with a whatever we have Mexican rice and miso honey butter carrot chips.

The Sonathan liked the chicken and the carrots and the Dottiri loved the rice. Wife and I thought it was all really okay. High praise!

Edited April 11 by ShadySands

[Pidesco]

Despite a long and storied history of eyeballing everything, today I weighed the gnocchi before cooking.

[Gromnir]

evidence old dogs may learn new tricks.

am having spent many cumulative hours cleaning steel baking sheets after cooking. chicken fat is mild annoying, but sugars is especial tough to remove and am having used bar keeper's friend enough to eliminate our fingerprints when am too lazy to wear gloves in an effort to get rid o' carbon scoring. maintained as shiny as lancelot's armour from excalibur. 

we do have a few o' grandma's baking sheets, which look like cast iron pans with all the built up residue on 'em, but we rare used 'em 'cause they are complete flat and have no rims... save two smallish round sheets which were almost non functional for everyday uses.

...

'bout a year ago we tested grandma's compared to our shiny sheets.

grandma wins for all but cookies or similar. the cast-iron black pans work far better for roasting protein and vegetables and they is virtual non-stick... almost, but not quite. roasted veggies come out particular fantastic on the blackened pans.

have spent the past year effective seasoning most o' our baking sheets and metal cooking pans. 

HA! Good Fun!

 

[ShadySands]

Grilled pork chops and served it with some mac and cheese and honey miso butter carrots.  The texture was good and I could even taste it a bit.

[Gromnir]

am having mentioned previous how am shamefaced by the recognition that if we want legit nba arena or mlb park nachos, then queso sans american cheese or velveeta just don't match our expectations. 

...

am almost never bothering to click on youtube suggested links, but it has happened. 

had literal never watched the guy previous, but we saw the video thumbnail and for some reason we were simultaneous reminiscing 'bout campbell's condensed bean with bacon soup. we make a bean and ham/bacon soup that utilizes mayocoba beans, a soup which for us is a winter month staple and am recognizing our version has a similar flavor profile to the campbell's condensed version, so for funsies we clicked on the link to see where bean and bacon ranked. am so complete derisive o' internet ranking videos or lists, so is double strange we bothered to watch. triple strange is we watched even when we noticed bean and bacon were not one o' the soups he rated.

*shrug*

after seeing babish comments on the spicy nacho cheese soup, we bought a couple cans and experimented. first effort we tried straight. not great, but we understood babish observations. second effort had us add evaporated milk, a bit o' jalapeno brine and some corona beer. better. eventual tried five or six different varieties, but arguable the best result were when we shredded a few ounces o' decent sharp cheddar cheese and added it to the soup-- that's it, just the can o' soup warmed up and shredded sharp cheddar stirred into the molten mixture. diabolical simple and pretty much exact what we were hoping to achieve.

online we has seen the campbell's soup priced as low as $.85 but typical ~$1.72. 

is not as if am regular making nachos or anything which would require a nacho cheese sauce, but given how shelf stable and cheap is the soup, am expecting am gonna always have a couple cans in the pantry henceforth.

...

so weird.

HA! Good Fun!

[Malcador]

Lamb for Easter.  

[rjshae]

Consuming more potassium helps keep blood pressure down, so I've been focusing on foods high in K. Like bananas, dried apricots, beans, unsalted potatoes, and various fruit juices. Apparently it causes more sodium to empty out through your urine.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Mac and cheese, ham, chicken, and other Easter stuff I ate at a family gathering.

First time I did a "southern style" msc using eggs and honestly it works well for substantially less effort than making a cheese sauce like I'd typically do for a baked mac and cheese. Everyone said it was very good, but I think I should use sharp cheddar next time instead of medium because the flavor could get dialed that way a bit more. Overall this is probably going to be my go to baked mac, and I'll save the more intensive method for fancy takes.

[Hurlshort]

My wife and I were on a bike ride and decided to swing into the store for a bag of potatoes. But then we noticed the hams were super cheap, so we got an 8-pound ham for about $5. It was good, but balancing the ham while cycling home was a bit tricky.

[Gfted1]

I bought my first watermelon of the season last week and I am disappoint. Its almost completely devoid of flavor.  I was so excited to see a giant tri-wall full of them in my grocery store that I jumped the gun and probably need to wait until summer kicks in.

[ShadySands]

I also got a watermelon but my wife thinks it's too early and it is also going to be kinda not good. 

[Gromnir]

suggestion: pickle the rinds.

even mediocre watermelon makes for decent pickled rind.

as is our yearly ritual, have been living off of a spring diet heavy with snow peas, but the weather forecast has us worried. temps over 90F means no more local snow peas. the forecast for all next week is 90+.

the local asparagus season has maybe a week or so remaining. 

end of june is likely when we begin getting good corn... similar time for melons. not long thereafter we see fantastic tomatoes. however, if we get even a few days o' rain 'tween now and juneish (unlikely but possible,) the corn in particular will be delayed.

long wait 'til end of june.

well, the q2 shipment for the rancho gordo bean club (it's a real thing... no joke) should be out for delivery within a week or so. as such am s'posing we will have something to keep us occupied until the corn and melons mature.

HA! Good Fun!

[Hurlshort]

I also like mature melons. 

[ShadySands]

I've honestly never had pickled rinds and I eat a lot of pickled stuff though it is mostly meat. I don't like pickles on burgers or even with a sandwich as I prefer pickled jalapenos over cucumbers for those. Spicy pickled Polish sausages were a childhood favorite and every couple of months I buy some from Amazon trying to recapture that glory but none measure up to the local brand I grew up with, Max's. Come to think of it, my cousin said they started back up again but it wasn't as good as how they remembered it. Maybe it never was.

e2 or 3: Since my flavor profile is spicy pickle I also wanted to plug Miss Vickie's spicy dill pickle chips. I don't normally eat potato chips but this... this we like.
 

Edited May 15 by ShadySands

[Gromnir]

pickled something or other finds our way into many recipes, but particular during the summer when am grilling tacos or when am barbecuing meats. a few pickled red onions goes well with many kinda tacos. we frequent do a quick pickling o' jalapeños and cucumbers as well as the aforementioned onions. am making watermelon pickles less often, but regular enough during the summer.

two slight different approaches... first video is kinda humorous

 

actual fermentation pickling o' dills, sauerkraut is kinda a fall/winter only thing for us as am doing in the garage.

aside, and unrelated, am knowing there is a kevin bacon bit where he were on jimmy fallon talking 'bout using herbed mayonnaise on his thanksgiving turkey; is a technique he learned from j. kenji lopez.  

'bout a year ago it occurred to us that if you don't wanna deal with making herbed mayo and you are aiming for a maximum taste-v.-effort ratio when making roast chicken (or turkey,) a bottle of store bought ranch dressing achieves similar results with less mess and fuss than using mayo. ranch is having a high % o' mayo and it ordinary includes chives, onion powder, garlic, parsley, salt, pepper and dill... in addition to the sour cream and buttermilk. ranch is functional herbed mayo. so even if you don't wanna genuine marinade your bird, before roasting your chicken, am willing to recommend slathering the bird with your favorite store bought ranch. doing so will add flavour (but not the mayo flavour) and produce fantastic and foolproof brown and crispy skin with little effort. 

HA! Good Fun!

ps @ShadySands am recollecting the miss vickie's spicy dill pickle chips is available at our local cost co, which we go to infrequent but as it so happens, am needing head there tomorrow for dog medications. will pick up a bag o' your chips, and a bunch o' other stuff most o' which we probable don't need.  

 

Edited May 16 by Gromnir

[Gfted1]

Huh, I didnt even know pickled watermelon rind was a thing.

[Gromnir]

aside, am not seeing much of a point to sterilizing jars for what amounts to quick pickling. the watermelon rinds ain't being fermented, so boil up a water, vinegar, salt and sugar mixture with the spices/herbs o' your choosing and then pour your liquid over the rind pieces which is ideal in tight fitting jars. keep the finished product in the fridge and they should keep for a few weeks. is sooper easy and pretty much the same method as jalapeños, red onions and sweet pickle slices... though 'course you is gonna alter the ratios o' sugar and vinegar in particular depending on the application. am s'posing sweet pickled jalapeños could be appetizing, but such might not be what you were trying to achieve when considering a topping for nachos or chili dogs. 

anyway, pickling watermelon rinds is a way to salvage otherwise disappointing watermelon. 

HA! Good Fun!

[Gromnir]

*chuckle*

posted today by j. kenji lopez alt:

...

one thing am doing different (other than going with ranch dressing when am in a rush and/or don't have fresh herbs on hand) is that we cook our spatchc0cked bird in a 12" cast iron skillet.

directions:

put the cast iron pan in an oven and set it to 500F. when the oven reaches temp, take the skillet out and lower the oven temp to 450F. put your spatchc0cked chicken skin side down in the pan and return the pan to the oven. cook for 30 minutes. don't worry, the skin o' your bird will not burn and it won't stick to the pan. the skin will be incredible crispy and brown. after a half hour, remove the bird from the oven and flip the carcass so it is now skin-side up. return to the oven and cook until internal temp in the breast is 145. for a bird o' 'tween 3.9 and 4.25 lbs, that is probable gonna take about ten more minutes o' roasting. after the chicken reaches temp, remove it from the oven and take the bird out of the cast iron pan to rest, 'cause cast iron retains heat like a boss.

this method will not work with big chickens. 4.25lbs is just about the limit cause anything bigger is gonna prevent your bird from fitting flat in your skillet. 

'cause Gromnir cooked the chicken in a cast iron pan, all that beautiful crystalized chicken goo in the skillet may be turned into a sauce or gravy-- no need to dirty another pan. while the chicken is resting, which takes about ten minutes, make a gravy or sauce in the skillet.

regardless, we thought it were amusing that a day after we mentioned the kenji lopez mayo approach for turkey as being great for chicken, he posted a video for roast chicken using same technique. 

...

am also amused that immediate after mr. lopez shared his immersion blender accident story, he once again failed to unplug the damn blender before cleaning off the excess from the working end o' the device. 

HA! Good Fun!

ps @ShadySands the chips were enjoyable, but am gonna observe how now, multiple hours after having consumed a small quantity o' the little tater snacks, we burped a bit while drinking a coke and near the full force dill and vinegar from the chips came back to us. we would definite purchase again in the future. 

Edited May 16 by Gromnir