Max’s Maverick Moose Loaf

March 9th, 2009 by Scott

This is Max:

Aside from being a total rock star and one of the coolest people I know (especially when he’s in his Batman getup), Max is the four-year-old son of my friends Emily and Greg, who are also kind of unfairly cool.  It obviously runs in the family.  So here’s the story: Last Fall, Emily had an idea to invite me to a super-swanky dinner party to celebrate the publication of Spain: A Culinary Road Trip, which she edited.  Like I said, unfairly cool, this person, although lacking the good judgment to keep me away from parties which feature both open bars and assorted celebrities.  Fortunately — and I’m not exactly sure how I pulled this off — I managed to have a friendly conversation with The Batali himself, after two cocktails, without either devolving into a slavering fanboy or making a whopping ass out of myself.  Nice.  The bulk of our discussion, as I remember it, concerned the duck hearts at Casa Mono.  They are excellent (as I was pointed out to declare in the New York Post).  The rest of the evening was equally strange and enjoyable, from the meal and the good company to the after-party, which found me at the Spotted Pig, somehow deep in conversation with Jimmy Fallon about his recent “master cleanse.”  Weird, but fun.

The following week, I felt it would be a nice thing to thank Emily for the invite.  Knowing Emily and Greg to be busy with Max — and with another addition to the family soon to arrive via stork, as well — I figured my thanks could come in the form of a home-cooked meal a la Shameless Carnivore.  They eagerly accepted, after which the question became “what to prepare?”

“Well,” said Emily, “we still have a lot of that moose and caribou that Greg brought back from his hunting trip in Alaska last year…”

“Wait a second,” I replied, incredulous.  “What are you doing holding on to all that wonderful product?”  She’d told me about the expedition months earlier, and, being a certain kind of carnivore, I simply imagined that they’d polished it off not long after.  To my delight and surprise, they hadn’t touched it.

“We didn’t really know what to do with it,” was her reasoning.

“Oh,” I said, with the sort of wicked, hungry grin that creeps across my face when I know there will soon be shenanigans, “I know what to do.  I know just what to do.”

* * *

Now, realize that this was last Fall, during which time, because of the predatory and culinary habits of a “mavericky” Vice Presidential Candidate, there was still a lot of discussion about Alaskan moose meat.  (Note: My favorite moose meat related bit came by way of David Reese’s brilliant Get Your War On.)  And here I was, amidst all the hubbub and hoopla, with an opportunity to sample the stuff, an opportunity, I’ll add, that didn’t present itself during the research for my book, which is sadly moose-free.  Caribou, yes, but no moose.

My plan was to cook up a classic American comfort food dinner — meatloaf, macaroni and cheese, and green beans — with my own little Shameless twist: not only would I be using moose for my loaf, but bacon as well.  Seeing as wild game such as venison, caribou and moose tend to be on the lean side, they’ve often been prepared with the addition of outside fats, a process known as “larding” or “barding.”  In this case, I decided to wrap the loaf in thick cut, hickory-smoked bacon from Tamarack Hollow Farm, which I’d been gifted after a recent cooking demo in the Tucker Square Greenmarket.  Brilliant, no?

When I arrived at the home of Max, Emily and Greg, I was greeted with warm smiles, a cold beer, and, straight from the freezer, packages of moose and caribou:

Unwrapping the thawed beast, I found a lovely cut of shoulder meat, glistening and dark in that deep crimson, iron-rich hue you’ll never find in a CAFO animal.  No two ways about it, this was truly wild protein, hunted in the frozen Alaskan hinterland.

Then I got to work.  First, I needed to grind the meat, which, you might be surprised to learn, doesn’t necessarily require an actual meat grinder (though if you have access to a $5,000 commercial Hobart, I cordially invite you to become my best friend).  For a small grinding job, all you really need is a food processor.  A Cuisinart is great, but even one of the mini jobs will work fine, provided you segment your meat in 1-2 inch slices and only grind a few at a time.  After all the Bullwinkle was nice and ground — also a good call when you’re cooking game animals, since the grinding also tenderizes the meat, which might tend to the tough side — I added a lightly beaten egg, a little milk, chopped onion, bread crumbs and spices, and mixed everything by hand.  With that finished, I layered the strips of bacon on the bottom of the loaf pan, like so:

All that was left to do from here was to pack the  meat into the loaf pan, top with the rest of the bacon, throw it in the oven and start working on the sides.  Of course, Kraft mac & cheese and simple veggies wouldn’t quite compliment this dish, so I upped my game a little, choosing a stellar Mac recipe from my friend Emily Farris’s wonderful cookbook, Casserole Crazy.  For the beans, I used a recipe from my childhood: simply steamed green beans — which Max helped me clean and pick the ends from — with salt and lemon pepper and a lemon-butter sauce.

Before I knew it, the loaf was ready.  We took it from the oven, carefully turned the loaf pan upside-down on the serving platter, and were gifted with this gorgeous sight:

Glorious!  Once sliced, drizzled in a simple brown gravy and plated with the sides, the meal was complete:

Of course, the big question on everyone’s mind was: What will moose taste like?  Venison?  Armadillo?  Old goats?  People?  Turns out, I have to hand it to Governor Palin — there’s a very good reason she’s hunting these suckers.  Moose has a rich, earthy flavor hard to come by in the world of modern industrial meat.  In fact, the only time I’ve ever had meat that’s tasted anywhere near this deep and pleasurably wild, it came from another hunted animal.  Even through the smoky, porcine layers of hog fat, we could all taste the essential “mooseness” of the dish.  And we loved every bite.

And so did Max.

Posted in Game | 5 Comments »

Back to the Airwaves: TSC talks guinea pigs on LA’s KCRW

February 2nd, 2009 by Scott

So, if you happened to be in the Los Angeles area a couple of weeks back — specifically on Saturday, January 17th — and you also happen to be a public radio fan, you might have caught a little bit o’ Carnivore fever on KCRW’s “Good Food” program.  I had a ball discussing the joys of eating “cuy” (guinea pig), so I’ve linked the file here.  Note: if you don’t feel like listening to the entire show and just want to get to the meaty fun, I come in right at 30.00, almost exactly half-way through the program.  It’s a great show, however, featuring Aya Masuda, Patrick Kuh, Jan Perry, Jonathan Gold, Laura Avery, even his holiness of all things organic and local, Michael Pollan.

Enjoy!

Posted in News, Vittles | No Comments »

The Brooklyn Pig Roast and Harvest Hoedown

November 12th, 2008 by Scott

This being Fall, the good people at Brooklyn Based thought it prudent to have a little party to celebrate the season — a little music, good drinks and company, and, naturally, a three hundred pound heritage pig roasted up low and slow.

Isn’t Fall great?

Granted, I don’t much need a season to warrant celebrating the delights of conscientiously-raised, slow-cooked well pork.  Still, it’s good not to overindulge in the great stuff (and, mind you, this was great stuff), lest we begin to see it as commonplace.  That, and there’s our cholesterol to think about.  But we certainly weren’t thinking about cholesterol that night.

There are a number of reasons that this event turned into one of the best times I’d had all year:  First, I was graciously allowed entry sans-payment, on my somewhat tenuous affiliation as a member of the food media.  Nice of them to do that.  Not that it wasn’t without it’s own price; it wasn’t long before I was co-opted by my friends Taylor and Harry from Brooklyn Kitchen as a bona fide member of the kitchen prep team.  No rest for the wicked…I’d be slicing pork and assembling tacos (interspersed with sips of beer and whiskey, of course) for the better part of the evening.  It was delicious fun.

Speaking of pork, here’s what made the big night even bigger: an enormous, pastured, lovingly-raised hog courtesy of our friends at Fleisher’s Meats, slowly roasted and hand butchered by Tom Mylan, butcher extraordinaire:

If you ever get a chance to see the man in action, I have to admit: it’s quite a sight.   You might just witness him handing a precious, meaty slice of chicharron to a toddler, who gnawed on the pork skin and fat in the kind of wonder and appreciation only offered by the very young.  A heartwarming sight.  And when some of the older lads, perhaps ten or eleven, wondered aloud whether or not they could see the animal’s brain, Tom replied honestly, and with some sadness, that he’d need a radial or a skill saw to cut open the pig’s head, and he just didn’t have the tools that night.  “But you can try some of the foot,” he suggested instead.  “Trotters are great!”  They took him at his word, and enjoyed.

At the end of the night, a little tipsy and filled with pig, I was both surprised and pleased to see that the hungry crowd had left absolutely nothing of the beast, every last scrap indulged upon by carnivorously-minded Brooklynites.  God bless that animal.  And my friends.  And the season!

Posted in Swine | 2 Comments »

Today in Meat News

October 30th, 2008 by Scott

This (almost) just in from the Associated Press:

Spicy pork sausage found in ’soiled diapers’ 

McALLEN, Texas (AP) — Customs inspectors scored the makings of a barbecue when a 21-year-old South Texas woman declared several soiled baby diapers at a U.S.-Mexico border crossing.

Suspicious of the chunky diapers, inspectors with U.S. Customs and Border Protection at the international bridge in Hidalgo found several links of spicy pork sausage, or chorizo, inside. The diapers had been folded to look soiled, according to a customs agency statement.

The Mission resident, who was not identified after the Friday night incident, was fined $300 and her chorizo was seized.

On a personal note, I’m fascinated by any news item that ends with the words like that, but doesn’t the phraze “her chorizo was seized” sound a little bit naughty, or is it just me?  Props to the woman, though, for the nearly ingenious thought to hide sausage in diapers.  This is clearly a person who loves her meat.  I’m just sorry it didn’t succeed.  You have to wonder, though…do border agents normally sniff at supposedly soiled diapers?  And if so, how often do they find contraband within?  And how often is that contraband actually savory Mexican delicacies?

It boggles the mind.

Posted in News, Swine | 5 Comments »

Best Food Writing 2008!

September 19th, 2008 by Scott

Bourdain, Reichl, Steingarten, Trillin, Waters, Buford, Sokolov…Gold?!?!

That’s right, friends, a selection from my book will be included in Best Food Writing 2008, right alongside some of my very favorite food heroes (I’m looking your way,  Bud and Tony…).  The collection will be published on 10/20, and while you can go ahead and pre-order your copy from Amazon today, you can also wait until the big day and stop by your local independent bookseller to snag one.

Here’s hoping you’ll check this anthology out — there’s little doubt it’s going to be tasty.

Posted in News | No Comments »

TSC’s Tailgating Special

September 10th, 2008 by Scott

So now that football season is upon us (Geaux Saints!  Geaux Tigers!), it’s only appropriate that those of us concerned with the meaty and delicious things of the world share in a very important discussion of a certain seasonal sporting tradition…

Tailgating.

Who doesn’t like a good tailgate party?  (Answer: no one I’d like to hang out with for any appreciable length of time)  Rachel Wharton, food writer extraordinaire from the New York Daily News  — motto: we’re not run by Rupert Murdoch! — thought it might be a good idea to interview yours truly to get some ideas on what to grill up in the stadium parking lot this Fall.  You can read the quick story here.

Now, let’s play some football!

Posted in News | No Comments »

Carnivore math: Organs + Po-boy = Awesomeness

September 8th, 2008 by Scott

Last week, I had the wonderful opportunity to guest blog on The Amateur Gourmet, as Adam Roberts was out of town, ostensibly soaking up sun and drinks and eating a lot of tasty treats.  My contribution: the story of a simple New Orleans boy living in New York who decided to take one of his all-time hometown dishes, the humble seafood po-boy, and give it an upscale, carnivorous twist.

Enter the Fried Sweetbreads Po-boy!

You can read the entire entry here.  Thanks again to Adam for the chance to guest post.  Hope you enjoyed a great holiday!

Posted in Vittles | No Comments »

So you think you can cook (chili)? The Brooklyn Chili Takedown is August 10th!

July 28th, 2008 by Scott

Ladies and gentlemen, start your dutch ovens!

Do you make a mean chili? Well, now you have your chance to prove it! The CHILI TAKEDOWN  is upon us yet again, New York’s finest no-holds-barred battle royale of chili chefs, and we’re calling for chilimeisters and chili tasters alike. Come one, come all, and decide whose spicy concoction will take home the prize!  The contest will be held on Sunday, 8/10 - 5-8pm at Union Pool.

We have an excellent panel of judges this time around, including owner/head chef of Paloma (and former Top Chef contestant) Camille Becerra, butcher extraordinaire Tom Mylan (of Diner, Marlowe & Sons, and Bonita), and yours truly, The Shameless Carnivore. As for the winners, the judges’ award carries a $50 prize, and — get this — A HUNDRED BONES to the audience’s favorite.  And by “bones,” I of course mean “dollars.”  So if you decide to bring it, make sure to bring friends, too…we’re not above competitors stacking the odds in their favor by inviting their entourage.  As the old adage goes, “All is fair in love and chili.”

Cost is $10 at the door for voting privileges and all the chili you can chow, and free for all competitors.  More details at http://chili-takedown.com/. Do you have what it takes to reign victorious over the chili smackdown to end all chili smackdowns? Game on!

Scott

PS: I will personally reward anyone who employs the Merciless Peppers of Quetzalzatenango, grown deep in the jungle primeval by inmates of a Guatemalan insane asylum.

Posted in News | No Comments »

Rockin’ the Dog: The Great Hot Dog Cook-off

July 15th, 2008 by Scott

So, this past weekend I decided to try my hand at competitive chef-ery, cooking up a MONSTER dog for the 3rd Annual Great Hot Dog Cook-off.  It was a hell of a time, and I must admit, there were some intimidatingly inventive takes on this American classic, ranging from Oaxacan mole dogs to Thanksgiving dogs baked in pastry dough with stuffing and gravy, doggies wrapped in banana leaves with mac and cheese, even — get this — hot dog sushi.  Wow.

My own entry was a paen to my Louisiana roots (naturally), and was probably one of the most ambitious culinary undertakings I’ve ever attempted, what I called the “Loosiana Gator Dog.”  Specifically, it was a butterflied Wagyu beef frank stuffed with a melted 3-cheese blend, topped with a tequila-spiked three-bean alligator chili (yes, there was actually alligator meat in the chili…two pounds of gator tail fillets, to be precise), and finished off with an artful squirt of sour cream, freshly chopped chives, and — the linchpin of the whole dish — crushed Fritos.

When all was said and done, this is what the finished beast looked like:

Sadly, I did not win the chili dog division, a prize that went to a Oaxacan dog with chorizo mole chili, peppers and queso fresco, served on a soft corn tortilla.  It was, I have to admit, really damned tasty…but it did NOT have any alligator in it.

We did manage to raise around $1500 for the Food Bank of New York, too, so it was all in the name of charity and goodhearted fun.  Many thanks to Kara of Ted & Amy’s Supper Club and Cathy from Not Eating Out In New York (her coverage here) for hosting such a great event.  And you can read more about the cook-off on Serious Eats, thanks to Jenn Sit.

Posted in Beef, Game | 16 Comments »

Bury me in Barbeque

July 14th, 2008 by Scott

So it seems I’m not the only dedicated carnivore out there writing and signing songs about my profound love of all things meaty and delicious.  These guys do a hell of a job, but I do have to say that, in fact, some of the best BBQ I’ve ever had was in Perdido Key, Florida.  Granted, that’s right on the tip of the panhandle, and might well just be considered an extension of Alabama.  Check out the video:

Posted in Beef, Swine | No Comments »