Charcuterie Sundays

Holy cats fur!

2010-03-24T07:22:00.000-07:00

I dont really have much to say about this one...

2010-03-23T23:12:00.000-07:00

Perfect Capicollo

2010-03-23T22:46:00.000-07:00

Sometimes. It just doesnt get better then this.This is a monster cap off a berkshire from Fred at perth pork.This guy hung for about 4 months and had a beautiful 5 spice added to the cure and the aroma makes me salivate everytime i smell it.Using good pork makes a world of difference. The fat in this is incredible. Luckily i have about 40 more still hanging.

Larzo

2010-03-23T22:14:00.001-07:00

This is Larzo. Yes i've made this word up. And you know what, im gonna copyright it. Right here, right now. March 24th 2010. Larzo. Blam!(<-kitchen slang) I've always disliked Lonzino, Lonzo, Lonza, Lomo, cured pork loin.I've cured it numerous amounts of times and have never really fallen in love with it. Theres always something that has been missing. Its always very blah to me, regardless of the

New Website

2010-03-23T21:28:00.000-07:00

Well its been a while...Perhaps i should rename this blog "Its been a while..."Moving on, The Black Hoof and Hoof cafe are finally getting a website.Yes i know, its about freakin' time.What kind of restaurant in a major metropolitan city doesn't have a website? The only one i can think of is our restaurant. But the time has come and i feel good about this one.You see this isn't the first time

Sweetbreads: In search of the perfect imperfection

2010-02-23T07:33:00.000-08:00

In my experience, sweetbreads are one of the hardest offal to deal with. Heart is pretty consistent, brains no problem, livers are liver, and pretty much everything else is pretty consistent. Sweetbreads however are always different. No matter what supplier your getting them from or how much your paying your only guarantee is that they will be different everytime even the same batch will have its

Cocoa nib, Hazelnut and Cayenne Salami

2010-02-23T06:56:00.000-08:00

Currently our most anticipated salami at the moment, how could these flavors not be great?!? We are always trying to think of new combinations which isn't as easy as it may seem. There are tons of things one could throw into the mix but its important to show a bit of restraint and ease into new transitions. Different ingredients react in different ways. Why does dill hold its colour after months

Branden "Newest guy but not quite new anymore" Olson

2010-02-17T21:19:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, You just gotta let loose.... Branden has recently fallin head over heels for the song "blind" by Hercules and love affair. He has also been working 7 days a week for a month now (his choice) and sometimes one must take a break from making salamu and really let loose, drop all inhibitions and act a fool. People, this is BRANDEN OLSON!Enjoy!And please crank the volume!(ps.. i told you i

Suckling Pig Summer Sausage

2010-01-27T20:28:00.000-08:00

We've never used suckling pig in a salami before but when we had some extra pieces we didn't have any particular use for we thought why not? It has such a distinctive flavour and since we had the hay from the farm it comes from we decided to smoke it with its own hay. Summer sausage is a pretty quick process. Grind and mix your meat. Ferment for several days (in this case, only 1 day so we didn't

Recycled Salami

2010-01-27T20:07:00.000-08:00

We go through a lot of cured meats at the Black Hoof and now the cafe. We only use so much of these cured bits of flavor in soups, sauces, ragu's etc.... so we need to find another use for them. A couple months ago i diced up some prosciutto ends and folded them into a genoa salami and not only did it turn out extremely well, it also gave it an amazing richness that you can only get from a cured

Smoked Plantain

2010-01-26T07:31:00.000-08:00

My newest addiction! We made plantain for the Haitian fundraiser. The concept of the smoking was very last minute. Everything in the kitchen should always have the chance to see a smoker and this time we stumbled upon something great! Not sure it has been done before but it is fantastic! We finish it with a little chili lime salt/sugar mixture. Depending on how smoky you want it you can score the

Making Blood Sausage

2010-01-26T06:44:00.000-08:00

Blood sausage is a messy job, And can get even messier in a cramped kitchen with four guys prepping around you, but despite what many people might think, its actually very easy to make once you have all the key ingredients. The basic ingredients are blood, cream, bread, onions, back fat, and spices. We have made it numerous times and we have always had an issue of the diced back fat (which gets

I Gave Up Pimpin' for This?

2010-01-25T06:47:00.000-08:00

A new present. Now Everytime Thoshon is in the juice and discouraged, he can look at this magnet and say to himself "I gave up pimpin' for this?"

New Shots of the Curing Facility

2010-01-19T22:34:00.000-08:00

Went up to the facility today to drop some stuff off and pick up a few new things that were ready, as you can see with all the pictures lately, i gotmyself a new camera!Here's just some various salami.A whole wack load of little guysThis is Alfredo Santangelo standing in front of a few of his proscuits!Some Capicollo's and soprassattaBison Blueberry, ive been out for a while and im sure this

Current State of the Fridge

2010-01-19T22:08:00.000-08:00

Just a few random shots in the fridge. Busloads of slaw, marinating pork, brining chicken legs, beans,......Better have this all cleared out by tomorrow or else Geoff's gonna have a fit!!!!

Haitian Fundraiser

2010-01-19T17:43:00.000-08:00

I dont really know Hatian food, infact no one in the kitchen today knew Haitian food. But were throwing a big fundraiser for the victims of the earthquake tomorrow and the BH's always ready to work hard on our days off for a good cause. Colin's leading the brigade. He was up early getting 80 lbs of chicken, tons of cabbage for slaw, 2 cases of plantain, and we just had a shipment of beautiful

Black Hoof Pigs

2010-01-19T07:20:00.000-08:00

Not the Actual Black hoofed pig from spain, but these two ladies are now owned by the Black Hoof and we are raising them up to be the first two of our future breeders. I have yet to find time to bring the staff up to meet them, so we have yet to finalize their names, but the ones i like the best are "Brunch and Dinner". Crude i know, but we dont plan on cooking these ones so i guess it makes it

Kitchen staff #3

2010-01-19T06:33:00.000-08:00

This is Mike "agnolotti" Angeloni. He's probably the best looking of the kitchen bunch with his italian boyish looks and he's also the hoofs baker, pastry chef and pasta maker. He's spent the last few years at Splendido working under David Lee and although he's only in his early 20's, he is sure to make an impact on toronto's food scene one day soon. Like most italians, his food approach is to

Kitchen staff #2

2010-01-15T23:23:00.000-08:00

So this is Colin "C-Dub" Tooke, i dont even know what a Dub is but thats what we call him. He's my main man at the hoof. He takes care of everything if im not there and i know i can trust any part of my restaurant with him. He also just bought a loft right beside me, infact his bedroom wall is mine.... weird i know... but sometimes he'll walk my dog when im too tired... so i guess if works out

Re: New Guy Branden

2010-01-15T23:08:00.000-08:00

Branden just overcooked several hundred dollars worth of foie parfait tonight. He just became my least favorite new employee.... and now we're fucked for parfait tomorrow.... this incident will be the butt of our jokes for ATLEAST a week. Most chef's might get super mad. For me, the two lobes of foie, kilo of turkey livers, and a 100 bucks worth of booze is worth the ridiculing he is about to

Kitchen Staff part 1

2010-01-13T19:38:00.000-08:00

The thing that makes the hoof so special is its staff. I often look at the crew at both restaurants and think to myself, where else can you find such a wide range of talented cooks in one place who just dont cook food, but live food. You can find anyone of our cooks, on there day off cooking in one of the hoof's kitchen, not because they were told to, not because they have too, (and definately

its been a while.....again

2010-01-13T18:58:00.000-08:00

So long, i thought this blog may have expired.... or if it hadn't, perhaps i would have forgot my password.Lucky for me, and perhaps for anyone who decided to steal my wallet, all my passwords are the same. Life lately has been hectic, opening a second restaurant took a lot out of me, so much that at certain points throughout the process i thought i was going to totally lose my shit. I was faced

Anything for a buck

2009-08-25T22:19:00.000-07:00

The frustration of the garbage strike was too much to blog about as it was happening, now that its over and i no longer have a pile of maggot filled bags to deal with i feel i can write about the joyful time we had. It all began with the construction across the street. We had a large construction bin going for rubble, so when the strike began we didn't sweat it too much. We had our garbage

48 hour Trotter

2009-08-25T21:51:00.000-07:00

So the idea of eating a trotter in its entirety seemed like a beautiful thing. What could bring you closer to an animal then simmering away its foot in a porky stock for 48 hours with the idea of eating bone and all. Well folks, let me save you some time and excitement and describe what its like. Picture taking a piece of drywall off the floor, dipping it in some water to dampen it a bit, then

Its been a while

2009-08-25T21:40:00.000-07:00

I wont bore any of you for my reason of absence, i told you already, when the vibe to write is there i take advantage of it, when its not, its not. Lifes been busy, running a restaurant is a full time job, but often feels like a few full time jobs. We've been busing stocking up our selection of preserves over the last month, this time for two restaurants and were busy playing around with new menu

N'duja Update

2009-06-30T23:00:00.000-07:00

So i tried the first bit of N'duja the other day. A little early, but its ready nonetheless. My worries of too much powdered hot chili pepper was correct. I've never tasted the real thing but theres some things i would tweak in the recipe. While mixing this batch, i found it incredibly hard to mix everything properly because i had to work in so much powdered hot pepper. In Italy they most likely

Smoked Jowl Rielette

2009-06-30T22:39:00.000-07:00

I've made some rielette's before, but this one is by far my favorite. Generally i make them with pork or rabbit, sometimes pheasant but never jowl before. I used some nice tamworth jowls, a bit of pork belly and the meatier Kurobuta jowls that i am in love with. I lightly cured the jowls and smoked the Kurobuta's which were then all cooked gently in duck fat and shredded, then pressed. The thing

48-hour Trotter

2009-06-29T06:55:00.000-07:00

So, apparently, if one simmers a trotter for 48 hours, everything within that trotter becomes edible. The boys at the hoof kitchen are on hour 14-ish.... We've wrapped it up in cheesecloth, tied it and have been simmering it away on and off when we have space on our stove. If all goes well, we will chill it, slice it, bread it lightly and sear round discs. There are three textures we've been told

Pickled Ramp Jam

2009-06-24T21:43:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, infact a lot of times, great things come from big mistakes (ie: foie gras gojiberry). While trying to use my new pressure canner to preserve my pickled ramps, i overcooked the shit out of them. I am far from an authority of the pressure cooker, i've barely used one in my cooking career. Perhaps i need to cook in kitchen stadium for practice. Anyways, i overcooked the crap out of the

Foie Gras and Monkfish Liver Terrine

2009-06-24T21:30:00.000-07:00

Two weeks and one post of our 'hours of operation'....lame... i know. Anyways, This week a fun week. We got a few fishy things in to play around with from True World fish, a supplier of special japanese products. The first was whole sacs of fresh pollock fish roe. None of us in the kitchen are too familiar with what to do with them other then deep fry the suckers but were working on it and

Hours of Operation

2009-06-12T07:43:00.000-07:00

Since we dont have a website and more people then i thought read this blog i figured this would be a good place to post our Hours of Operation. First off, we are closed Tuesday's and Wednesday's. Last call for food on Thurs, Fri, and Sat. is at 1am, but the bar stays open till 2am. Last call for food on sunday/monday is 11:30 pm. with the bar closing at 12am. This Monday June 15th we will be

Brain Carpaccio

2009-06-08T05:54:00.000-07:00

Nic from Niagara St. Cafe had been asking about the raw veal brains ever since i ate it the other week. His birthday was on friday and he celebrated it with 50 other people at the hoof. What better a time to try version 2.0 then 2 in the morning on a friday night. I rinsed the brain and froze it vac packed. Out of the freezer, i sliced it thinly on the slicer and layed it on a plate with a bit of

Patio

2009-06-08T05:46:00.001-07:00

Its been a long time coming, but our patio is up and running and were really happy with the way it turned out. Although it looks like G-mo and Colin may be posing for the camera, this was actually a pre-meditation period for us before our first friday night with an extra twenty something seats. It felt like we did 200 covers that night out of our small little kitchen, it started at 6 and we

Kurobuta Jowls

2009-05-29T23:38:00.001-07:00

Also known as Berkshire Pork, but this stuff is the real deal. No cross breeds or 90 % berk, and 10% something else, this is the kobe beef of pork meat. Pigs cheeks are generally all fat with a few nasty glands in them, but these have some serious marbling of meat throughout. They run about 15 dollars a lb, not cheap by any means. I have them brining and will confit them tomorrow. I'm thinking of

Pancetta/guanciale

2009-05-28T06:31:00.000-07:00

Decided to try something a little different this time around. i like guanciale, but slicing the skinny pressed piece of fat can get annoying. This time i decided to roll it like pancetta and press it. Hopefully it stays nice and tight.

Curing Room Update

2009-05-28T06:15:00.000-07:00

Although i only get to spend a very minimal amount of time in this room, it is my favorite part of the week. The smell, the look, the constant squeezing of cured meats to access whats ready or soon to be cherry picked. Most animals in the animal kingdom are represented in these pictures... i'm sure you can guess which one is the N'duja. I harvested some really nice horse with clove and chili

Calf's Brain Tortelli

2009-05-26T07:23:00.000-07:00

After a slow unproductive sunday we decided to use our minimal prep day to make some pasta. Colin made the dough, Guy made the brain filling, and i made the pork belly pastrami filling. Its been a while since i've touched some good home made pasta and it reminded me how much i miss it. Because of the beautiful weather, we decided to do it outside. Here's Colin rolling out the first piece on a

Stupid things one does when its slow

2009-05-25T07:02:00.000-07:00

On a slow night most cooks would catch up on prep or clean areas of the kitchen that dont get regular attention, but some days, for no apparent reason, we go straight to option 3....playing with the deep fryer. The deep fryer is the most entertaining piece of equipment in a kitchen. Not many tools can compete with a container of consistently hot oil with baskets ready to fry anything that comes

N'Duja

2009-05-23T23:33:00.001-07:00

Put a little bit of tripe in something and you'll make most peruvians smile. In this case it's chef G-Mo. He is holding a bung cap filled with N'duja, a Calabrian salami that is the italian version of the french andouille only much hotter due to the 1.5 kg of hot chili pepper that went into this recipe. The thing that makes this salami unique from most others is that it is spreadable rather then

The 12 O'clock Crouch

2009-05-23T23:25:00.000-07:00

If your ever at the Hoof and its 12 o'clock and you dont see anyone in the kitchen, chances are we're doin' the 12 o'clock crouch, which consists of suckin' back some 50's and eating cheap, cold chinese food.

Demo Across the Street

2009-05-17T05:53:00.000-07:00

Demolition has begun. Put some guys together with some heavy duty smashing utensils and an empty room and we'll go nuts. The demolition started with 5 people, we were so excited we began bringing down the ceiling without eye goggles or face masks. This lasted about 3 minutes before we couldn't see and could feel the dry wall dust filling our lungs. Off Jen went to ML lumber to get us our

Veal Brains

2009-05-16T06:47:00.001-07:00

After an inspiring dinner at Splendido last week where i was served brains, i decided to see if i could get some in from my suppliers. Talks of them being illegal from one supplier made me want them even more. My supplier was on a mission to find them though and one day 10 lbs of brains were at my door. I havn't quite figured out what to do with them, i was thinking a sandwich, because it is

Kimchi Ramps

2009-05-16T06:36:00.000-07:00

We've already had about 100 lbs of ramps come our way. This 168 liter container was full and we decided to kimchi them. I dont have the recipe infront of me but i will try and post it soon. Normally, the addition of water isn't part of the recipe, but id like to be able to can these ones up and thought using a brine would help with keeping the ramps nice and and tasty in there jars. Lots of

Upgrades

2009-05-16T06:17:00.000-07:00

Jen and I started this restaurant with all the money we had. We were forced to clean out our own kitchens of anything that could be useful to the restaurant, which is ok, because neither of us have had time to cook at home. Business has been good and we can now afford to spend money on certain luxuries for the restaurant. I've worked in some fancy kitchens and i think this last investment has put

The Patio

2009-05-16T06:06:00.001-07:00

This is a shot from last week and despite the odd day of our contractor not showing up or the odd day of him showing up and not doing much and then disappearing, it has come much further then what you see here. I have an updated picture, but Jen has big plans for pimping out our patio so you will have to come and sip strawberry/rhubarb mojitos to see it for yourself. We had no choice but to build

The Wedding

2009-05-15T21:20:00.000-07:00

Yesterday i catered a wedding. It wasn;t just any wedding...it was my girlfriends parents wedding. I was also informed (by my girlfriend) that i was catering the wedding only 7 days prior. Cooks like me always get signed up for these family events, so im not surprised i found myself catering to 130 people, outside in a backyard, in the dark. Any cook knows, hell, anyone who's thrown a dinner

Pickling Season Begins

2009-05-03T07:44:00.000-07:00

So, every year the ramps are pretty much the first sign of "get ur pickle on". I'm still waiting for one of my foragers to show up at my door with 400lbs worth. Its a task for anyone to get that amount, i think you would probably need 10 people to do it in one sitting. The other day i managed to pickle 10lbs. Ramps are delicate, especially early in the season. I prefer to ferment then pour a hot

Updates

2009-05-01T00:45:00.001-07:00

So a few things to update. Lets start with the loser. Remember the pork loins i stuffed with noisette salami? Well, great idea, bad execution. It didn't cure great and it only kinda stuck to one side. Im sure i'll try it again sometime, only this time around i will probably press it as it ages to see if that helps. I plan to do the reverse idea now that i have the saran wrap casing :)Another

Sobresada

2009-05-01T00:22:00.000-07:00

The other day i made Sobresada. Its the spanish version of the italian sopressata, except for that its a ground salami, which then gets pulsed in the food processor and then cures. The end result is more like a pate one can spread, then a salami you can slice. The meat to fat ratio is 1:1 , so its very creamy. I decided not to pulse it for several reasons, the main one being i didn't have enough

Ramps and Old Women

2009-04-29T18:32:00.000-07:00

I've been getting ramps for a good price. A good price because they are not cleaned. Cleaning ramps can be fun if you make it fun. Today , i only had 8 lbs to clean. Not a ton, seeing that I plan to get 400 lbs for a ramp party im throwing soon, but it still took me 4 hours. Tired of being locked in the kitchen on my days off not able to enjoy the sun, my dog, and my girlfriend. I decided to

The Hoof Cafe

2009-04-29T17:04:00.000-07:00

So, its been a while. Infact its been 3 weeks from my last post. I'm not a writer, so if im not in the mood it doesn't happen. But with all the sun and new veg arriving in the markets expect lots of activity this summer. Now back to the posts title. Jen and myself are pleased to announce that we have acquired the place directly across the street (formerly the Chelsea Room) from the Black Hoof. We

1/2 head roast

2009-04-07T00:54:00.000-07:00

So i've decided the 1/2 head roast is much better then the whole head roast. It cooks better, looks better, and serves better. The crosstown crew came in as predicted, late, hungry and thirsty. Thy are generally good at just letting me put up things for them. So, i thought it was a perfect time for the head. We began warming the head up around 10:30. After reheating it in foil, we took it off to

Lamb heads

2009-04-07T00:48:00.000-07:00

Were looking to do round two of lamb headcheese. Lucky for me a friend pointed me in the direction of a butcher who goes through a lot of ontario lamb. I was only able to get 14 heads in and that will barely give me a terrine when it finally gets picked down, but at 2 bucks a head (tongue in) thats a deal!

Dry Cure Room

2009-04-06T06:45:00.000-07:00

The boys in the kitchen have been really busy stocking up for the warm months ahead of us. With the opening of the patio soon, we know were going to be burning through a lot of charcuterie. We also have to give enough charcuterie for the Slow Food Movement dinner on may 2nd for 200 people. In this picture i see wild boar, beef and dill, lots of Lardo, Pancetta, duck, buffalo, sopprasata,

1/2 head roast

2009-04-06T06:37:00.001-07:00

We got these Iron age split heads in as a freebee from the Healthy butcher last week. We brined them then salted them. Yesterday, we roasted them off with some miripoix and braised them out. Everytime the Crosstown Kitchen crew does an event on a monday they usually bombard the hoof after there dinner. We generally keep the kitchen open later on these days to accomodate the hungry chefs. Tonight

Renovations

2009-04-06T06:31:00.001-07:00

Those of you who dine at the Hoof who didn't like going home smelling like foie gras will be happy to know that we finally got a real kitchen hood. This bad boy looks like it wants to eat our little electric stove and the guy cooking in front of it. We also did some tiling and a new sink in the mens washroom. Next up, new toilet paper roll holders... woo hoo!

All hands on deck

2009-04-06T06:26:00.000-07:00

Not only does she make great cocktails but she also makes Testina. The hoof's better 1/2, Jen, lending a hand in the kitchen on one of our off days.

Road Trip

2009-04-05T18:44:00.000-07:00

Its been a crazy few weeks at the hoof and i just havn't had a lot of free time to post much. Thats not to say we havn't been doing some fun things in and out of the kitchen. This week on our day off Colin, Chris from Perigee restaurant and myself took a little road trip up to Blue Haven Farms that specializes in beautiful Tamworth heritage pigs. This is the farm where the hoofs first ham for

Evolution

2009-03-24T00:38:00.000-07:00

The key to successful charcuterie is to have a starting point and go from there. I have some friends (you know who you are!!) who have crazy ideas and jump head first into them with the end result not always being fruitful. I on the other hand like to slowly progress from things i have learned in the past. Call it playing safe if you will, I will be cooking for many years to come so i am in no

Raw Horse sammy

2009-03-18T23:18:00.000-07:00

The newest hit at the Hoof. Raw horse sandwich with a hot sauce made by the hoofs peruvian Sous Chef, G-Mo. We dont ever eat any of the food we make at the hoof for some reason. The first night we sold out but kept one back and shared a 1/2 each. The yolk gives it a beautiful richness. The heat from the hot sauce is just right. Not over the top, but enough heat that lingers on your lips nicely if

Lamb Headcheese complete

2009-03-18T23:09:00.001-07:00

This turned out really well. We took the lamb stock cut it with gelatinous pork stock and reduced it. We mixed the lamby goodness with fresh mint and pressed it with the braised tongues set in the middle. Unfortunately, you would need 20 lambs heads to make a decent batch.

A day in the Eastern Townships

2009-03-18T07:01:00.000-07:00

It started at 8am. After maneuvering through Montreal's rush hour Colin and I were on our way to the Abbey of St-benoit du lac to hopefully break bread with the monks who make the famous Benedictine Blue among others.There is no address, just a town. We had my iphone and that was it. We were on our way. Tired and in need of coffee, but we were behind schedule and didn't know what he had in store

Great Sushi

2009-03-17T23:59:00.000-07:00

Even though this is a charcuterie blog i thought i'd post a bit about our monday night dinner at Ginger in Montreal. Ginger does sushi, but its not your typical sushi restaurant. Well... the menu reads like it but the plates come out like none other i've ever seen. I'm not talking about Sushi Kaji style sushi, im talking about 3 cooks, 2 of them women, sweating it out in a tiny kitchen, hustling

Blogging from the hotel room

2009-03-16T15:41:00.000-07:00

So its monday in montreal and apparently not much is open on mondays. Yesterday we ate at PDC. We arrived by 930. waited for our table for 1/2 an hour, waited for another 45 minutes for a drink to arrive... i guess you can guess where im going with this....the service was shit. The food however was fantastic, albeit we did order too much. I cant remember everything but heres a list of most of it.

Boning Prosciutto's

2009-03-11T21:47:00.000-07:00

So today we started our day off early again. Alfredo, an artisanal prosciutto maker north of the city invited us up to show us how to debone a prosciutto. He starts his day at 7am. We made it up there by 11 30 :) It was one of the funnest experiences i've had not to mention uber informative. We walked around his curing room as he talked about prosciutto's, how to tell when to cover them in paste,

Off to Montreal

2009-03-11T21:30:00.001-07:00

The hoof staff and there significant others are off to Montreal. We decided a few days ago to close down for a couple days next week. Sunday the 15th and monday the 16th to be exact. We will reopen thursday. We decided that we need to take a little culinary trip for a few days. I can be fairly particular about leaving times and like to stick to a schedule. I like structure. i dont like winers.

Lamb Head Cheese

2009-03-11T18:44:00.000-07:00

We decided to make head cheese with the lamb heads. We've never made it with lamb before and after cooking the heads we realized we should have bought a dozen of them to get a decent quantity of meat worth making. But then again, this is all experimental so if its crap it will have only cost us 10 bucks.We brined the heads and tongues and purged the brains. We know brains have a short life span

A typical day off

2009-03-10T21:53:00.000-07:00

Today, after a busy monday, i woke up early. It was tuesday... a day i look forward too, not because its a day off from the kitchen, but more so a day in the kitchen without service. My day got started at 10:30. I got picked up by colin (current stage, next week payed employee) and we hit up kensington market. We met thoshon, who is the sous at Niagara on the lake, but has been staging at the

Less writing, More pictures

2009-03-03T08:42:00.000-08:00

Heres a few quick snaps of the hoof a friend took.Some dudes in a very intense conversationMe in the juicePicklesCheeseMarrowOctoSnoutCharcuterie

Rabbit Terrine

2009-03-03T07:26:00.000-08:00

Old school charcuterie is fun but very meticulous. There seems like theres a hundred steps to each recipe and if you skip one your likely screwed. i have several books that when you open them, they smell like grandma's linen closet. They usually contain two or three french chefs on the cover with very tall chef hats, thick rimmed glasses (also from grandma's closet) and decorated with what looks

Valentine's Day

2009-02-15T01:12:00.000-08:00

I dont know why i feel the need to write at 4am when all i should be doing is sleeping... but here I am, exhausted after a very very busy valentines day. A few things... We dont take reservations....I really didn't think we were going to be that busy tonight....i mean, i know our food is tasty, but in my mind it doesn't scream love is in the air.... maybe smoke in the air due to our horrific

Happy Cabbage

2009-02-10T19:31:00.000-08:00

So the dish is complete and i am very happy with it. I had some close ups of the dish but i just really liked this picture someone took of us and it really shows the size of the snout as well as how happy it makes us. This is my biz partner Jen and I. We've decided to call it stuffed big snout on happy cabbage because the ratio of smoked bacon, apples and white wine is quite a lot when compared

Pig Roast Finale

2009-02-09T23:16:00.000-08:00

So i showed up to work this morning to find the head roast pretty black. At first i was sure it was burnt, but at further inspection and taste it wasn't. It was actually pretty damn tasty. Not exactly cooked so i could shave it table side on some eggs for brunch but it tasted much different then say just your typical poached head. It had depth and a very nice caramelization to it. Unfortunately

Pig Roast Update

2009-02-09T08:20:00.000-08:00

So we started cooking it yesterday morning. We sat it on some miripoix with some pork stock, browned it for an hour at 400 degrees or so then covered it up with foil and basting periodically. It wasn't ready come service time, so we had to move our cooking operation a block away at my partners house. It barely fit in the oven but we crammed it in there. With no one to watch it for all of service

Pig Snout Update

2009-02-09T08:03:00.000-08:00

So the first stage of playing around with pig snouts is complete. It went exactly as planned. I quickly stuffed it with some smoked ham hock, set it while warm in seran wrap, then wrapped it in caul fat, aggressively seared it, then roasted it, then i basted, then sliced. It was very "porky", almost too much and uber gelatinous because of the fat and meat attached to the skin of the snout. Next

Genoa Salami

2009-02-05T08:21:00.000-08:00

Not all the salami's i do try to be different. This is a traditional Genoa salami and its the simplicity that really shines here. Its has a good amount of ground fat so it really keeps its moistness. There's only a few ingredients in this one but the complexity comes from a long fermentation period and good quality pork. I added caraway seed but never measured it, its not in your face but it has

Mastering French charcuterie ...or atleast trying to...

2009-02-04T22:28:00.000-08:00

French terrines can be quite intimidating and difficult. It would be easier if i grew up in France i often think to myself. No one ever really taught me charcuterie. A few basics i learned from my old chef but for the most part ive learned it on my own. Experimenting with dry curing has been fun and its not really "technical" you just need to understand a few basic necessities and then you begin

Pig Head Roast

2009-02-04T22:10:00.000-08:00

I have a weekly order of pig heads. I usually cant keep up with it but never remember to cancel it. this week i got one really big one and the other one went into the headcheese. It was sitting there in a 22 liter container, actually only 1/2 of it was because the other 1/2 was to big. I didn't know what to do with it but i knew i wanted to do something different. It was so big that i didn't want

Stuffed Pig Snouts

2009-02-04T21:37:00.000-08:00

So today I was informed that I wasn't going to be able to use our infamous Tongue sandwich on Brioche for a magazine shoot because another restaurant was doing a tongue dish. Why we, who specialize in pigalicious and off-cut meats dont get to use our tongue I cant understand, but i was over it as quickly as i got pissed. So what to use instead i thought to myself... Nothing on this weeks menu

Alheira

2009-02-02T00:27:00.000-08:00

Portuguese bread sausage. Actually, it should be called jewish bread sausage because it was originally made by jews back in the day who lived in portugal but didn't eat pork. You see, every portuguese and there cousin makes and smokes chorizo. So during the portuguese inquisition, the jews had to figure out ways to "blend in" with the people around them. Due to there religion they don't eat pork.

Head Cheese

2009-02-02T00:01:00.001-08:00

So a lot of people like head cheese or hate head cheese, but lets face it a lot of people dont even know what it really is. Luckily for me there's wikipedia so i wont bother explaining it here. Its very hard to get pig heads, trotters, hocks, tongues, ears, hearts, snouts, and tails from any one supplier and if i could, it would take a week... atleast. Luckily, my restaurant is in the middle of

Super Bowl Sunday

2009-02-01T23:38:00.000-08:00

Today was a good day. Horrible for business but a nice break from the typical madness. Every once in a while we (myself and my sous chef g-mo) find ourselves with a small prep list and free time to screw around. Today was terrine day. We did rabbit rilette stuffed with a torchon of salt cured foie gras, foie gras mi-cuit layered with dolce de leche and membrillo, as well as a nose to tail terrine

Cabbage Soup

2009-01-27T06:48:00.000-08:00

Cabbage soup. People love it. So I feel like i must clear the air a bit on what is actually in it and show respect to the main ingredient because i dont think it gets the acknowledgement it truly deserves. I hear people throwing around words like meat based, meaty, fatty, bacon, pork, cream based, creamy, etc.... when describing the soup. People.... Its just cabbage and water (and ofcourse a few

Pickling liquid

2009-01-25T00:59:00.000-08:00

Its almost 4am, and i will elaborate later on this but i thought it very important to get out there to whoever is reading this. I have never worked in a restaurant where we ever kept the pickling liquid for anything after its initial purpose. Wow, what a waste of so many vinegars and flavour. I have been doing so much with leftover pickling liquid. For one it makes a great salad dressing.

Back from New york

2009-01-25T00:16:00.000-08:00

Its been a while since my last post and id love to say i just got back from vacation but ive actually been in the kitchen cooking. New york was fun...., expensive, but fun. I went to a nice restaurant each day i was there. After spending a couple grand on food, my favorite meal was a grilled corn with chilli pepper, mayo and grated spanish cheese for $1.90 from a little take out place called

Noisette Round Two

2008-12-26T08:51:00.000-08:00

I really enjoyed the Noisette i made a couple months ago, the only problem is that it went too quickly. So i made a huge batch and screwed around with it in several forms. i had these bladder casings just ligering amonst some salt in the fridge i wanted to use up. I'm not sure if theres a traditional recipe one would use to stuff these with, but pork, roasted hazelnuts and fresh tarragon sounded

Gone Fishin'

2008-12-26T08:45:00.000-08:00

Well not exactly, but we closed down for two and a 1/2 weeks over the holidays for vacation. I'm on my way to New york. I'm driving down with my significant other and pooch. Luckily we have a free place to stay so we will be able to spend more money on food. Theres not many places i'm dying to eat at but i will definitely be checking out Bar Boulud, Daniel Boulud's charcuterie bar. I will also be

Pork Belly Pastrami

2008-12-26T07:53:00.000-08:00

This is a really nice treat if your like me and have eaten many beef pastrami sandwiches. I do this for my restaurant but dont slice it thin. I generally cut it into big slabs of meaty goodness, score it like you would foie gras and sear it to order. You can follow any pastrami recipe you like so i wont right mine down here. Although i will tell you that i usually up the amount of pickling spice

Update Dec 14th 2008

2008-12-15T08:17:00.001-08:00

Things are going just dandy at the Black Hoof. Business is good and were gearing up for a nice two week holiday come the 23rd right through to the 8th of January. I have a lot of stuff on the go right now hanging in the fridges. The Tamworth prosciutto made it through a month of curing without going rotten so thats good news. I have beautiful pancetta and thick slabs of lardo hanging that should

Rillette's

2008-12-09T07:52:00.000-08:00

A very easy charcuterie item to make and a necessity to any charcuterie plate. Two favorites of mine to make are rabbit and pheasant. The key to a good moist rillette is cooking low and slow. I use duck fat as its readily available from one of my suppliers. The first step is to salt cure whatever meat you are using for 12 hours. With something as lean as a bird or rabbit i usually add some cubed

Crazy for Pig Ears

2008-12-02T09:24:00.000-08:00

This week i've had a serious infatuation with pig ears. With my second batch of testina i decided to throw in the pig ears and cook them over night. We shaved the hair and rinsed out what looked to be ear wax ( and i say "we" because i finally have another cook in the kitchen now). The morning came and the ears were extremely soft and ready to be made into something. The evolution of the pig ear

The Importance of Labeling

2008-12-02T09:06:00.000-08:00

Running a restaurant kitchen by yourself with no cooks and no dishwasher really eats up alot of your time. I've been working 7 days a week for a couple months now and have been trying to keep up on the charcuterie as best i can. Because i've been in the juice every single day in the kitchen i've neglected some important aspects of charcuterie. The labeling and weighing of things has all but

Noisette

2008-12-02T08:54:00.000-08:00

I wasn't sure how this salami was going to turn out. The addition of nuts had me a little worried on how it would slice and cure. As i watched the mold grow and cling to the casing i was curious as to what was happening inside. I'm not really a fan of hazelnuts to be honest but i thought it was better then using walnuts or macadamia nuts and peanuts were definitely out of the question. There was

Bearsoala

2008-12-02T08:32:00.000-08:00

So i received three bear roasts from a friend who got them from a hunter. I traded him restaurant credit for 10 lbs of meat and we made it together. I had no idea what to expect from this meat. It was brought to me frozen and wrapped in butcher paper. i had it sitting in my freezer for a week before we made it. It felt like when my parents would put christmas presents out early and you'd have to

Update - Lonzino

2008-12-02T08:21:00.000-08:00

My lonzino turned out perfect... well maybe not perfect as the cocoa didn't really shine in the finished product, but there was the perfect amount of fennel in there. I have another batch of eight going which i plan to do different things to all of them. I plan to try a mole type pressed pork loin which is basically cured in chocolate and salt and then wrapped in a mole flavoured farce and then

Word on the Street..

2008-11-19T06:37:00.000-08:00

Is that someone may be bringing by some bear meat for me. Bearsola anyone? i also have ostrich coming in today because i told my bus boy that he should learn to make a salami and he was all for it. so i told him to pick any type of animal meat and that we would make a salami out of it. Well, after much deliberation he came back to me with ostrich. Why didn't i ever think of that? Anyways, were

Wild Boar with Cardamom and Orange rind

2008-11-19T06:22:00.000-08:00

So yesterday i had some wild boar defrosting and no plans of what to do with it. I remembered a dish we did at my last restaurant that used cardamom and orange and with no other ideas at the time decided to whip together a recipe. I was fighting back and forth whether to use green or black cardamom and after tasting the two in its raw state i decided to go with black. I also through in some

Testina

2008-11-18T09:27:00.000-08:00

So the last pigs head that came in had a jowl missing. So Testina was out of the question. So i made guanciale with it and boiled the head for stock which eventually gets used in this recipe. This week i got a fully intact head and just happened to have a friend come into work with me for the day who just happened to be a butcher. So while i cured some other meats he was tackling the pigs head.

2 Year Investment

2008-11-18T08:58:00.000-08:00

So i received 1/2 a pastured Tamworth heritage pig the other week. I split the whole pig with a chef friend and the price was unbelievable for the quality. We bought it from John and Marcia at Blue Haven Farms and the size and colour was amazing. The ham was 35 lbs , 20 once trimmed for prosciutto, needless to say it was massive! It will definately take closer to two years of hanging, if it even

The black Hoof

2008-11-02T08:07:00.000-08:00

So, the charcuterie bar is moving along well.We are busy and i have never in my life seen so many chefs in one place at one time eating and drinking every day of the week, except for the days that we are closed, but ive heard of a few chef groups that have came down on our off days only to realize that we close tuesday and wednesday! Its nice to see that our vision and goals have fallen into