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United States, North Carolina, Carrboro, English, Paul, Male, 56-60, All Music, All Food.

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Tuesday, November 26, 2002

I just deboned a chicken - not pretty, but not bad for the first time either. I think that guy who does it without a knife has a better grip on it than the Time-Life cookbook. It's good to have a sharp knife handy for the larger tendons, but your fingertips are easily much better for pulling away meat from bones. Nasty as that sounds, it's delicate work. The quick & dirty: Remove the bones top and bottom that connect to the wings to release them, then alternate from the tail end to the neck end to free the internal skeletal structure and release the leg bones. That does it for Time-Life and most recipes, but the NYT article has a rosetta stone sentence... He kept the wings of the turkey intact, and butterflied the drumsticks in the duck and chicken. That "butterfly" could mean he did it keeping them still intact - seamlessly contiguous, but I doubt it. The videos of leg-boning on a cut-up chicken show the meat cut into distinct pieces by virtuoso chef. Her instrument is the boning knife. Whew! I gotta take a break from typing on my Microsoft Natural Keyboard just to appreciate those so good at doing the difficult that they make it look easy. The point is, who cares if the inner birds have a few loose pieces? Why waste effort trying to keep them connected if no one can even tell the difference? Obviously, there shouldn't be any bones inside a terrine, so put the meat back inside the skin roughly where it belongs. Liz concurs on the fingers better than boning knife for working the flesh away from the ribcage, that's reassuring. And now comes the point where motherly cookbooks would tell you to wash your hands thoroughly if you have to do it that way, with your nails and fingertips.  If you have a knife in there, you can't see what you're doing so it all has to be one-handed unless you enjoy boning your own fingers. Two hands, one at the bones, the other either on the skin ot working in from the opposite direction works better. Release and when you have to, cut. My practice chicken took 35 minutes to debone and I got it with a $1.50 instant coupon (I couldn't find a capon with a coupon). No turducken just yet,  A duck with a leaner torso will be more difficult. The turkey, larger, should be a little easier. Not this year, but maybe sometime, the pieces will come together. What happens after boning and before the festive table is more important. You know that.   7:00:07 PM    comment []

Raphiole sounds a lot like Ravioli and it's also a meat pie, just bigger. It is one of many recipes in a 14th century collection of recipes at A Boke of Gode Cookery. Meatballs made from boiled pork liver and suet are wrapped in caul fat and baked in a pie, topped with spiced beaten egg just before it's done. I couldn't help but think of four and twenty blackbirds. The local news on WUNC just said the blackbird population in Carolina is increasing again, after declining through much of the 90s. That helped. Earlier, they had played the Toot Fugue of PDQ Bach, but before that Talk Of The Nation had a pre-Thanksgiving call-in. One of the guests mentioned a family tradition of noodles coated with bread crumbs fried in lard. That's not in Mimi Sheraton's The German Cookbook, at least not by a name I recognize in the index. Google found Raphioles from the words "bread" "crumbs" and "lard". Adding "noodles" brought up oodles at QUICK HUNGARIAN RECIPES for the Single Man, not to mention an entire chapter of of the Farmer's Cookbook named Soup Garnishings And Force-Meats. Still no noodles coated with lard-fried bread crumbs. Either no self-respecting cook would put their name on it, it's too simple, or I haven't searched enough. 4:52:59 PM    comment []

Another article on the vandalous post-game riots in Columbus, this one from the Chicago Tribune - which had hardly anything about the game itself! It notes that the destruction began when the bars closed at 2:30am. Why don't they let the bars stay open all night? Revelers would hit their individual limits and pass out one by one. Instead, you have an uncontrollable mob cast out on the streets all at once. 6:01:23 AM    comment []