What did you cook/eat today (March 2017)?

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creative said:
I recall you saying you used supermarket pork mince, but if you have a mincer and did as the recipe said i.e. minced some pork shoulder, that would give you the bone maybe? If so, this would give a more gelatinous stock (reducing it down without any saltiness too).
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Sorry to harp back on a topical thread but I did want to pick-up on this, just not had a chance since I first saw it.

So again, the key, when Tom Kerridge demoed it, was the pork mince he used. It was from a particular breed of pig reared in a particular way, and the lady whose farm it was minced it in front of him, and I think it was a particular cut of the meat that was used. What all of this was about, Tom Kerridge explained, was that the pork mince was relatively high fat content. Not necessarily a terribly fashionable idea, and certainly, the supermarket mince brags about how lean it is. But the thing about the sausage roast that I made is that while it was flavoursome enough, it was a tad dry. That is why, I think, the online version of the recipe calls for a mix of ordinary minced pork and minced belly pork, to up the fat content, recognising that not everyone can actually get this pork mince that Tom Kerridge used.

But my personal experience of home minced meat is that it tends not to be very good. I don't know if it's because it is over worked or what it is, but the meat seems to go not very nice, in my experience. The kind of large scale powered mincers they use in a butcher's shop or a supermarket just makes better mince, I find. But then I have also found a great reluctance from butchers to make pork mince. The primary demand is for beef mince and it is a major task to clean out the mincer to make a small order of pork mince and then clean it again for the next day's beef mince. There just isn't enough of a market for pork mince to justify having a second mincer or going to all the trouble of specially cleaning the only mincer.

So you are a bit stuck with supermarket pork mince, and personally, I have never seen minced belly pork. Again, perhaps I need to look out farm shops to see if I can get a higher fat content - not to mention higher quality pork mince.

Oh, and any advice on how to make a high quality, thick and sticky pork stock would be appreciated.
 
Ken Natton said:
But my personal experience of home minced meat is that it tends not to be very good. I don't know if it's because it is over worked or what it is, but the meat seems to go not very nice, in my experience. The kind of large scale powered mincers they use in a butcher's shop or a supermarket just makes better mince
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Have you thought of using a food processor? You freeze the meat first. See here: http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-grind-your-own-meat-in-the-food-processor-134272
 
morning glory said:
Have you thought of using a food processor? You freeze the meat first. See here: http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-grind-your-own-meat-in-the-food-processor-134272
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Hmmm. Very interesting piece Morning Glory. There is another story there of course. The difference between a more expensive, quality blender and a cheap and nasty one - well I'm sure I don't need to lecture you. I used to have a reasonable quality one until it befell a mishap. (Child's tactic, passive voice, it was entirely my clumsiness). So I replaced it with a low cost one that is somewhere close to useless. Well, I can use it to make Tzatziki but I'm not sure it is up to grinding part frozen meat. But I get the point - actually the point about the mince you make that way being coarser grained than commercial mince I think is highly likely to be virtuous. And of course the point about having exact control of the which cuts are used and the exact mix of cuts is absolutely key.

So if I do make it again soon, it'll probably have to be supermarket mince again, but I'll see what I can do to up the fat content. Longer term, I'll have to wheedle my way into my wife's good books and see if I can persuade her to allow me to invest in a new quality blender, on the promise that I'll treat it like finest porcelain.
 
Ken Natton said:
Hmmm. Very interesting piece Morning Glory. There is another story there of course. The difference between a more expensive, quality blender and a cheap and nasty one - well I'm sure I don't need to lecture you. I used to have a reasonable quality one until it befell a mishap. (Child's tactic, passive voice, it was entirely my clumsiness). So I replaced it with a low cost one that is somewhere close to useless. Well, I can use it to make Tzatziki but I'm not sure it is up to grinding part frozen meat. But I get the point - actually the point about the mince you make that way being coarser grained than commercial mince I think is highly likely to be virtuous. And of course the point about having exact control of the which cuts are used and the exact mix of cuts is absolutely key.

So if I do make it again soon, it'll probably have to be supermarket mince again, but I'll see what I can do to up the fat content. Longer term, I'll have to wheedle my way into my wife's good books and see if I can persuade her to allow me to invest in a new quality blender, on the promise that I'll treat it like finest porcelain.
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Or you could just hand chop some belly pork with a good sharp knife, perhaps....
 
morning glory said:
Or you could just hand chop some belly pork with a good sharp knife, perhaps....
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Yeah, you and my wife. She likes to make me work hard as well. Actually, that part freezing idea would probably work for hand chopping it as well. And I suppose I should put my sharp knife in the freezer too.
 
Ken Natton said:
Sorry to harp back on a topical thread but I did want to pick-up on this, just not had a chance since I first saw it.


So you are a bit stuck with supermarket pork mince, and personally, I have never seen minced belly pork. Again, perhaps I need to look out farm shops to see if I can get a higher fat content - not to mention higher quality pork mince.

Oh, and any advice on how to make a high quality, thick and sticky pork stock would be appreciated.
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Perhaps you could ask for a piece of back fat and mince it up by hand, then add it to your ground pork? Maybe you could order ground with a larger plate size? This will give you a coarser product with more texture after it cooks down...can you get your hands on any bones? The higher gluten content will create a thicker broth..like they use for the making of demi glace..You could also try to brown your pork for an extended amount of time on a medium heat so it won't burn, and create a nice thick fond. Once you add your water, this should make a nice dark stock.
 
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Tonight is whole roast chicken with herbs, runner beans and potatoes, boiled in turmeric spiced water and then fried with ground black pepper and kalonji seeds.
 
I hope you fell better, Mypinch.

Ken, I've tried making mince with knives before, and while it's workable, it doesn't exactly come out like it would if you used a meat grinder. The meat doesn't get pulverized in the proper way.

I bought a very good meat grinder a few years ago for making burgers and sausages. It's the Lem #12 stainless steel meat grinder.

If you are a gadget person, or might have the need to use it often, check it out.
 
Tonight's dinner is a london broil and vegetable fried rice.

Hey, do you guys in London just call it "our broil"?
 
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buckytom said:
I hope you fell better, Mypinch.

Ken, I've tried making mince with knives before, and while it's workable, it doesn't exactly come out like it would if you used a meat grinder. The meat doesn't get pulverized in the proper way.

I bought a very good meat grinder a few years ago for making burgers and sausages. It's the Lem #12 stainless steel meat grinder.

If you are a gadget person, or might have the need to use it often, check it out.
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I wasn't meaning that he chopped the whole lot by hand - just the belly pork and then add it to the shop bought minced pork. But I'm thinking aloud really - I haven't ever tried it!
 
morning glory said:
Well, I don't know! I've never heard of London broil. So I don't think its a London thing.
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It's actually a thick, oblong steak cut from the round, usually top round. I don't know why it's called a london broil.
 
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