One of the best, and oldest uses charcuterie can provide is how it helps use up odds and ends in the kitchen, especially meat scraps. Sometimes I have a little of something left from one project, or two, and I’ll vacuum seal some of the meat away in a larger container made from scraps, just…
Charcuterie
Venison Breakfast Sausage with Wild Blueberries
Looking in the freezer I had sausage on my mind. Seeing a couple bags of wild blueberries I remembered a moment of fear I had one day picking berries in a remote spot, and seeing a picture one of my friends posted about bears being seen harvesting berries in the area I was in. I…
Wild Fennel Seed Salami
Salami, cured meat with a couple crackers, a slice of cheese and a cold drink, there’s just about nothing I’d rather snack on while making dinner. With the dizzying variety of high quality salami brands available, it’s easy to go to the store, buy some and call it a day, and most of the time…
Pickled Lamb Tongues
My first time cooking with tongue was at Heartland, along with most of the other organs I learned how to cook. Usually I remember us cooking them and serving them as a small plate, tossed in a salad, or maybe warm mixed with a little pasta. I learned about pickled tongues when Lenny had us…
Bergamot Italian Sausage
I try to remember to dry as much stuff as I can to use during the Winter, which if you live in the Midwest you know can mean a lot of time in doors fighting cabin fever and looking for things to do. Inevitably I usually have plenty of bergamot (Monarda fistulosa) every year since…
Corned Venison Heart
At Thanksgiving this year, I was wandering around my girlfriend’s family farm in Wisconsin. I went outside to check on someone when I spotted something sitting on the grill outside (it’s cold enough at thanksgiving to refrigerate things outdoors, as most people who’ve brined a turkey in the Midwest know). Sitting on the grill was…
Winter Greens With Lentils, Chicken Heart Confit and Hedgehog Mushrooms
As the head of purchasing for the restaurant I have plenty of local purveyors I buy food from but there’s one that stands out from the others. He isn’t technically local, but he might as well be. His name is George Weppler, and in the Twin Cities there’s plenty of restaurants that would like to…
Peacock Thigh Confit, With Chanterelles and Leeks
As I was dreaming up how to make a 4 year old peacock taste good, I knew right away some of it would be made into confit. There’s a transformation that happens with meat with bones in it or ribbons of fat after it’s been seasoned and poached slowly in lard at a low temperature…
Peacock Neck Sausage
American culture has a predilection for looking at exotic food from safe distances. We want to watch shows about eating bugs and snakes, but the majority of us would balk if someone tried to feed them to us. We’re fascinated by foods we deem strange, but that fascination is strictly for the value of the…
Spruce Ham
A while ago I was having fun working with my old boss Andy, now executive chef of Oxcart Ale House in St. Paul while he did recipe development in my kitchen before opening the restaurant. He started out with the most difficult stuff: dialing in the from-scratch charcuterie program, which is similar to what I…
Goose Confit with Blackcap Raspberries
In my search for interesting and funky fruit, sometimes I forget about the things I’ve known about all along. Even if you don’t pick wild berries, you probably know the black cap. They’re easy to find, and most people don’t need a field guide to know what a raspberry looks like. That being said, there’s…
Duck Liver-Crab Apple Mousse, With Elderberry Jelly
If you’re a hunter of wild things, there’s a natural habit you get into: you keep going back to the places you know where things grow you like, since you can count on it. If you’re like me, your time is precious, and you want to make the most of it. This year, I didn’t…
Bacon Fat-Turkey Gizzard Confit
Smoked pork fat. Is there anything it can’t make delicious? I don’t think so. Bacon has been on my mind lately, since at the new restaurant we’ll be going through a lot of the stuff. I don’t know how much yet, but it will be a lot. 3-4 whole pork bellies, or more a week…