Yesterday was a fun day for me, I did my first half-century (50 mile) bike ride. I started cycling in January and now in June I was able to ride 50 miles pretty easily. The ride was the LA River Ride sponsored by the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition (LACBC).
On the ride, I made a short video in the spirit of Coach Steve.
LA River Ride 2009 from Michael Pusateri on Vimeo.
Lastly, per Squidly's request, here is the Runkeeper map of the ride with all the details...
And speaking of weekends, last weekend Michele and I celebrated our 15th anniversary with a trip to Paso Robles. We had a great time with the highlight of a 30 mile bike ride between wineries and tastings! Here is our hotel room.
My Hotel Room in Paso Robles from Michael Pusateri on Vimeo.
Great silk-screened ties at Cyberoptix. I must have Radio.
The latest Team Fortress 2 update now allows you to use bottles of piss as a weapon. Jarate ftw.
Hybrid Cutlery - I want a Knork, a Spife, and Splayd. (via Kottke)
I helped kill 6 ships in Eve last night, including a Typhoon battleship.
In the world of charcuterie
I never had a good way to cold smoke meat since I have a traditional hot smoker. I stumbled into the site of my new friend Nick Dawson and saw his design for a cold smoker from a trash can. I liked the idea and was one step ahead since I had a top vented hot smoker already.
I had pork belly curing to make bacon in the fridge, so I decided to build a cold smoker.
Here is a diagram of the idea behind a cold smoker.
Basically the smoke is made in the hot smoker, then sent via hose into the cold smoker where the meat resides.
I bought most of the gear at the hardware store, trash can, grill, duct take offs, duct adapter, duct collars, foil tape, vent, bolts & washers, and hose ducting.
The top vent of my hot smoker is 6" in diameter, but the duct takeoffs are 4", so I had to use an adapter to make a good seal. Fairly easy to do with the foil tape.
Next, I used tin snips to cut a hole in the side of the can to mount the duct takeoff. The snips cut through the trash can like butter...
Making sure I was wearing gloves, I fit the takeoff into the trash can and used foil tape to seal up the junction and cover any sharp edges.
The vent was mounted on the lid. I used the snips to cut down the vent shaft and make tabs to hold it in place. Again, the foil tape was perfect to seal things up.
Long bolts with washers were installed on the four sides to use as a rest for the grill that will hold the meat. I made a mistake and used carriage bolts, which didn't give me an easy way to tighten them. I should have used hex bolts.
With pretty much everything in place, I did the last step and connect the ducting from the hot smoker to the trash can. Doesn't look great, but it is functional.
The moment of truth. I fire up the hot smoker and hope to see smoke actually enter the cold smoke chamber. After about 15 minutes the wood chips finally catch and smoke appears. I was greatly relieved.
I put the lid ont eh trash can and sure enough, smoke slowly left via the vent. Success!
Here is a short video of the cold smoker in action.
Cold Smoker made from a Trash Can from Michael Pusateri on Vimeo.
Here is the pork belly in place, being cold smoked. Everythign was workign great.
The bacon turned out great. You can read about making bacon from scratch here.
Here is inside the cold smoker after the cooking. A little smoke residue and moisture, as to be expected. Otherwise, in perfect condition for my next charcuterie experiment.
If you want to to this yourself, my advice is to be sure to wear good work gloves when cutting the metal and joining pieces. The edges are sharp and you could get a nasty cut if you aren't careful.
Perhaps one of the most beloved foods in our house is bacon. We've tried all kinds and like most of them. After reading up a bit, I learned that making bacon isn't really that complicated.
This is a pork belly.
Bacon is made from pork belly. To be clear, American bacon is cured and smoked pork belly, British back bacon is cured pork loin. I am American, so I make bacon from pork belly.
The first step is curing the pork belly with a dry cure of salt, sugar, and pink salt (sodium nitrite). The main purpose of the cure is to prevent any bacterial growth on the meat and draw out some water.
Let's remember that refrigeration is a relatively new invention. In the past, a big life problem was finding ways to preserve meat for use long after it was killed. Curing by salting, smoking, and drying are methods to prevent meat from spoiling. Making bacon was a way to save the pork belly for later use. Pork belly was also the main ingredient of salt pork, a mainstay of the military diet for centuries.
I triple bagged the meat and put it in the refrigerator to cure for a week.
After a week, I pulled the now cured pork belly out and washed it well. I patted it dry and prepared it for a smoke.
Traditionally, bacon is cold smoked. The goal is to apply smoke to the meat without cooking it. That means keeping the temperature well under 150° F. That's not easy to do in a traditional smoker. So, I built a cold smoker unit from my regular smoker and a trash can. I'll post more about that project.
Here is the cured pork belly being smoked. The goal is to get a good amount of flavor into the meat without cooking it.
I smoked it for about 3 hours. I measured the temperature and it didn't get above 120° F. I pulled it out and let it rest a bit and then put it in the fridge to cool.
After cooling down, I started slicing. Sure enough, it had the look, feel, and smell of bacon.
The real test was cooking it. I fried up a few slices and eagerly took a bite. Sure enough it was bacon.
I am very happy with the result. It's a lot of work to make bacon, from the curing time to the smoking, but I enjoyed the process. When I make it again, I'm going to try a maple syrup cure process to get a bit of a sweet flavor.
Give it a try, you'll have fun.
My Hotel Room in Gilroy, California from Michael Pusateri on Vimeo.
Some have asked for my easy lasagna recipe. It's not really lasagna, since I don't use lasagna pasta. My daughter's call this "Dad's Easy Lasagna" since I can whip it up quick. It's more like a baked ziti than anything else. There are four kinds of cheese in this and the spinach is only added since Michele insisted. If left to our own devices, the girls and I would leave out the spinach.
Here's the recipe.
Dad's Easy Lasagna
1 box (1 lb.) penne pasta
1 jar (24 oz.) pasta sauce
1 tub (15 oz.) ricotta cheese
1 tub (6 oz.) feta cheese
1 bag (8 oz.) shredded parmesan cheese
1 bag (16 oz.) shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup chopped spinach
The main prep is cooking up the penne pasta in boiling water until it's cooked. This is the longest part of prep.
I also put the pasta sauce and chopped spinach into the blender to reduce the spinach into the smallest particles I can.
In a large bowl I start mixing the pasta sauce/spinach with the pasta, the ricotta cheese and the feta cheese cheese. Why feta cheese in Italian food? Because it tastes damn good and holds up after baking.
Once thoroughly mixed, put the entire mixture into a 9"x13" baking dish.
I put the mozzarella cheese down first with the parmesan on top. I don't use the full bags of cheese. Just enough to cover in the density I think appropriate. We like a nice thick cheese upper crust. Use your best judgment.
Bake in the oven at 350°F for about 40 minutes, until the cheese starts to brown to your liking. I start checking the oven at 30 minutes.
After pulling it out of the oven, let it cool a bit. You want the give the various cheeses some time to pull together so you can make a nice slice. You can keep it in the fridge for a while, it makes a great leftover to reheat in the microwave.
