Cooking Conservatively in Tough Financial Times

Vanity | Feb, 18, 2008 | JRandomFreeper

[dennisw]

We love “Henry Hill’s” chic pea salad....It’s so simple....chic peas, chopped pimento’s, chopped red onion, fresh Italian parsley, olive oil, s&p and grated lemon zest.....Don’t forget the crusty Italian bread!!!!

That looks a lot better than jailhouse cooking

[dennisw]

They have a gallon jars of kimchi too. When it comes to kimchi the Koreans don’t fool around

[dennisw]

Being teased by a good cook is just fine by me

[geege]

His book indicates they ate like Kings in jail....(So did Goodfella’s).

[Paul Heinzman]

Our store puts whole pork tenderloins on sale for $1.99/lb about every 6 weeks. These are usually about 8-11 lbs, but the store will cut and wrap.

Those are loins, not tenderloins, which are typically 2.5 to 4 pounds. Still, they are a great bargain. Very lean and tender and versatile. I've got half of one in my freezer right now that I'm contemplating thawing out for a weekend smoke.

[sergeantdave]

“Every GI I cooked for got the same attention that I gave every VIP I cooked for.”

Well, hell, I remember you, or most likely some other cook like you, in another place, another time, after we got off the line and ate at the officer’s mess, ordering a cheese omelet and sausage and fresh-made toast and fried potatoes, many, many moons ago. One of the best meals we ever ate.

That breakfast was greatly appreciated by me and my men.

[elk]

Wow. Can we come over to your house for dinner? :-)

I agree - soup is an excellent strategy.

[caper gal 1]

Buying and roasting a whole chicken packs a lot of bang for the buck. It’s the cheapest protein meat package on the market, provides a lot of servings, and the leftovers do great transformations i.e. chicken salad, hot chicken sandwiches, chicken fajitas, chicken a la king, etc. etc.

When I’ve picked the carcass clean, I toss it in a gallon zip bag and keep it in the freeezer until I have a cool rainy Saturday afternoon, then into the stock pot it goes with chopped celery, onion, carrots and some salt and pepper. After simmering for a few hours ladle it into plastic storage containers of various sizes and you have weeks worth of stock for quick soup, great rice, gravy and so on, all for pennies.

[dennisw]

Proper soaking and rinsing is the secret to tender beans. Another tip is not to add salt or acidic foods when cooking them, particularly salt, as it can make them tough.

Exactly! Like you say salt goes in at the end

Chickpeas in chili are awesome, and I swear they produce less gas than properly soaked red beans.

Sounds great. Chickpeas and lentils are of a higher order than most other beans. They are more grain-like and less greasy. Though all beans are good. Lentils were the "mess of pottage" in the Bible

And, never forget the lowly lentil. It cooks quickly, doesn’t need soaking to become tender, and combined with regular rice, onions, celery, and some spices of your choice, a yummy main dish! (brown is best, parboiled Uncle Ben’s second best, and forget instant rice!)

Beans are a complete protein but only with brown rice and other whole grains

[JRandomFreeper]

I find brisket for a good price and will grind hamburger meat with some, and some I'll smoke and BBQ.

But that doesn't happen often.

In a month or so, neighbor and I are going to the auction, buying a calf and slaughter and process it ourselves.

Give it a week to calm down after we bring it home, and get the stress hormones out, and then it's over. No feed cost to speak of.

We're figuring we can take it primals and offal(I'll use the offal for charcutrie) for about $0.60US/lb + our labor and time.

/johnny

[dennisw]

His book indicates they ate like Kings in jail....(So did Goodfella’s).

There was an infamous wing of a Massachusetts prison where the good fellas cooked up feasts. Concord maybe. They has hot plates rigged up and were allowed to bring in shrimp and lobster via the commissary. They had tomato sauces simmering for hours on Sundays

[Paul Heinzman]

Meat on the bone always has the most flavor and obviously the best for soups as the collagen and bone leak into the broth.

You know you've made good stock when it turns into meat jello in the refrigerator.

In fact, I think Alton Brown has said that is the difference between stock and broth.

[jacquej]

I have been doing this for 45 years, and it is completely worth making your own bread and soup!

When I was feeding 4 hungry kids, and hubby was starting a business, cooking from scratch was essential, and getting weaned from recipes was more important than cooking from scratch.

Now, stay with me here. Learning to have a house full of staples, and then combining them into simple healthy meals is the secret. Every time you “read a recipe”, and have to go to the store to buy an ingredient, you are wasting time, energy and money. And, if you are hauling kids along, you know what happens! They beg for stuff, and it becomes a negative experience for all.

So, learn to cook the basics. Rice, baked potatoes, pasta, (legume beans).

Get the spices, seasoned salt, and dried herbs you like. Stock your favorite pasta sauce, broth or bullion, canned items like clams, anchovies, olives, tuna fish, salmon, etc...Dehydrated chopped veggies, like in my last post...

Add sausage, hamburger, stew beef, other cheaper cuts of meat and fish to your freezer, buy butter in season, and freeze it. Powdered buttermilk is great for baking, which leads me to....

You get the idea. You make your meals from what is in the house. Learning to bake your own bread actually saves you a lot of money, so take the time and learn how. I used to do it by hand when I was young and energetic.

Start with basic white sandwich bread until you get the feel” for what the dough should look and feel like. Buy yeast in bulk, and store it in your freezer. Learn the basic proportions from the back of the bag of flour, and I recommend King Arthur flour, and keep trying until you get good at it.

My family got together and gave me a wonderful mixer two Christmases ago, and my bread is even better than ever. It is a Bosch Concept 7000, and I adore it! Much better than the Kitchenaid, in my opinion.

If you combine good ingredients, go lightly on the salt and other seasonings until the end, when you taste and adjust according your preferences, you will be a great cook before you know it.

The secret is to stay out of the market except for weekly or bi-monthly trips, and learn to cook from your pantry.

[JRandomFreeper]

Zoomie here. Midnight chow was my favorite meal.

As an NCO, I loved the flat-top and dealing with customers, and training the airmen. Not as much stress on the airmen as breakfast grill. That was a rush for old hands at busy bases.

Midnight chow was just pure love of job, love of teaching, and service to the guys at the pointy end of the spear.

I hope your meal was good.

Fond memories.

/johnny

[Doomonyou]

I’ve pretty much given up on beef,

Bummer.

Gotta love having a rancher in the family. We just picked up a new 1/2 of beef for the cost of cut and wrap. Of course, I get to help with the branding, dehorning, vaccinating, castrating, etc.

Happy California cows!:

[chris_bdba]

Home made pasta is easy to make and much better than boxed. It can also be made in large batches and frozen. I’m also a big soup and stew person. It’s very cheap to make and goes a very long way. What we don’t eat up I put into canning jars and freeze making sure to leave space for expansion. I also make most of ur breads. If you have a stand mixer it is easy to do and costs next to nothing compared to $2 or more at the store. I’ve in the past year made my own sourdough starte so no longer even need to buy yeast. :)

[DelaWhere]

>>>>But we are blessed with lots of game in the US. The Lord provides.<<<<

Well, we feed 3 for about $2.00 each per day - counting garden supplies canning lids and all... Large garden, save seeds from all heirloom open pollinated seeds,. 4 deer and about 45 chickens either canned or frozen - can/pickle/freeze just about anything from Apples to Zucchini (currently have about 80-85 cases of home canned foods)

Hard times? Not here - life is good!

[Mamzelle]

Beans, beans, beans. Lentils, butter beans, dried peas. The best nutritional value, will keep a long time. It’s BEANO that’s expensive.

[jacquej]

I use a hand sprayer (like the ones you get at the garden center, and some hearth tiles left over from when we put in our wood-stove...

I spray the loaves right before putting them in the oven, then spray the interior of the oven as fast as I can every few minutes after popping them in the oven for the first 10 minutes or so.

Then, after baking, I open the oven door a crack, and let the loaves slowly cool for 5 or 10 minutes in the oven.

Another secret is learning how to make a “biga” the night before, and using less yeast than many recipes call for, and allowing for a longer rise. A lot of yeast and a fast rise makes a less flavorful loaf, in my opinion. I bake bread around my schedule, timing the rise according to whatever I have to do that particular day.

[geege]

Henry’s book has the great “cooking in prison” recipes...like “Penitentiary Sauce” and “On The Run Pasta”.....and Witness Protection Recipes (living in Nebraska and Seattle)....I gave my brother in law the book for his birthday and he hasn’t gone a weekend without making one of his recipes.