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Saturday, December 18, 2004

MSNBC, to their credit, gets to the heart of the matter with a Newsweek article about the enabling sycophant who helped convince Bush to lead us into the self-described catastrophic success  in Iraq. Incompetence requires cheerleaders to achieve its goals. .              10:58:57 PM    comment []

CBS, meanwhile, goes retro with JonBenet.             10:29:01 PM    comment []

CNN ignores the scent of Rummy’s blood and leads instead with another tabloid murder story that might catch on now that Scott Peterson is gone. Welcome to the trailer park, guys!               10:06:51 PM    comment []

Longaniza Heating Up   There are two thermometer probes visible; one for internal and another for external temperature. In case you’re interested, the first is 115º and the second 154º F. This is right where it should be after a few hours in the smoker. The actual smoking starts when the internal probe hits 132º F. It is the amount of time, as much as 12 hours, the sausage spends in the 40º to 140º “danger zone” that makes the use of curing salts necessary. I’ll take the internal temperature up to 152º at the end just to be sure I haven’t made a petri dish.           8:27:46 PM    comment []

Here’s the sausage in the, uh, drying room. It helps develop flavor and the sausage takes the smoke better when the outside is dry. There is a fan on the floor, one I bought at Dollar General especially for this purpose many years ago when this technique was recommended for homemade andouille.                               10:55:42 AM    comment []

This is the Longaniza Cubano Caliente getting stuffed. I used a little Woodbridge Syrah to moisten the mix up for easier stuffing. It’s dark red because the curing salts (yes, they have nitrites) do that. They also prevent the growth of botulism. Unless you eat 200 pounds of sausage every day, there won’t be enough nitrites left to do you any damage. They convert to a gas, which inhibits growth of the clostridium botulinum spores, which can get you pretty quickly.                       10:48:42 AM    comment []