Well, I have not posted to the site consistently this year and I probably have a good reason…a 8.5 month old boy wonder. But, I have had time to tend to one of my favorite things to do and that is cook. I have not had much time to brew much beer, as I brew from grain and that is a major time suck. But, I have been getting into the lower levels of food, the sources of our food, the roots of our food. I don’t want to get too Zen, but the more I have been learning, the deeper I want to go. Sometimes, it can be get a little crazy, especially when you compare things to what one can buy in the supermarket; what we have been given as our choices. At this point, part of what is keeping me reading night after night about (what are now considered) “old world” techniques and methods is the simple idea that things don’t “come” from a market. Just as medicines are not “created” in a lab…they are mixtures of things found in nature or of things that have been created to mimic things found in nature. I had been thinking about this when my niece said something like, “just go to the store and get it.” We have lost touch with so many things. People run around and stress about their job as if the world would end if they didn’t do whatever it is they do during their weekdays. Unfortunately, the reality is, if you didn’t do whatever you did for work, it really wouldn’t have a negative effect on society. But, if there were no more supermarkets, what would you do for food? If someone gave you a pig, would you be able to eat? Steaks don’t grow on trees and neither does bacon. Do we all need to know how to break down a hog? Maybe not, but you should if you want to live in the real world. I don’t want my son to grow up not understanding that there is a connection between things. That is something that is real. For some reason, I sleep better at night knowing that I am learning about how I can use all of an animal, wasting nothing. After all, it is a life we are taking in order to sustain our own. We should treat food with a little more dignity than we do. I, for one, have been guilty (and still am) of wasting lots of food, overbuying at the store.

Yeah, I am strange. Here are some great books if you enjoy non-fiction and/or love to cook:

Fat Everyone should have to read this book

Charcuterie Learn about the almost lost art of making forcemeats called Charcuterie

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Copyright 2011 ©Jason Golod.

Since Gavin was born, I have been focusing on at-home hobbies, when I have a “free” moment or two. For those of your with kids, you know why there are quotes on there. My cousin David said it well, “I remember when weekends were for relaxing not catching up.” A month or two after the G-man was born, I bought a Char-Broil smoker at the Home Depot. It has a side fire box and for $159, I think it is probably the best bang for the buck for a non-commercial smoker. It has a pretty large smoking chamber that comes with lower and upper grills…the lowers are designed to hold charcoal if you want to use the smoking chamber as a bbq…but, they also double as more places to smoke meat.

I came across the Bay Area Meat CSA (aka BAMSCA) a month or so ago and I was able to buy a quarter of a hog that was around 200 lbs whole. I have met some very cool people who are into tinkering in the kitchen and buying quality, local meat. That kinda sounds wierd, but it is all good. Since I took the rear quarter, that means I got the “fresh ham.” A fresh ham is basically a raw ham that has not been cured, brined, smoked or cooked….raw homey. On the advice of Peter Licht (who is teaching a chacuterie class on the 21st of June) I brined the ham for 3 weeks+ before I smoked it. Ths is not an easy task as a ham from a 200lb hog is very big. You need to clean it as well as you can. Scrubbing the skin and exterior of the ham with water and probably some soap, rinse it well and then put it in a food safe plastic bucket that has your brining solution. Cover it with cold water, seal it up and put it in the fridge….oh yeah, did I mention that you need a fridge that you can put a 5 gallon bucket into? If you have pulled all of this off, you will have a brined ham. As I mentioned, I brined mine, skin on, for about 4 weeks. Over-brining can lead to a tough to chew piece of meat, but a 25+ lb ham can take 4 week of brining no problemo.

Now for the important part….the smoking. I smoked mine for about 5 hours. I wanted some smoke flavor, but I didn’t want it to be overpowering. Unfortunately, 5 hours on a ham this size is not nearly enough. The outer 1/2 inch or so of meat had some smoke flavor, but with the skin on, it is very hard to get the smoke into the meat…but, the skin kept everything nice and moist. My thoughts for round two are to smoke a similar sized ham for about 10 to 15 hours, skin on. Then put it into a 350 degree oven to finish it off (internal temp of 165 to 170 degrees F). I finished mine in the oven at 350 for a few hours, but I did not place the thermometer in a good place. I stuck it in the shank end of the ham away from the bone almost completely butting up to the end of the guage. While this gave me a good reading at the small end, the fat end was not cooked around the bone. My recommendation is to place the thermometer about 2 inches from the bone on the meaty side of the fat end. I would then probe it in a few places when you think it is ready to take out of the oven. Regardless, it is going to take a long time to cook. An alternative might be to start it in a 250 degree oven over night, then get up and smoke it for the rest of the day. I finished mine with a mixture of cane sugar and dijon (spread on with a cake spatula) and then sprinkled bread crumbs over the top. The ham was thne put back into a 425 degree oven until it was hard (about 20 minutes). You need to take the skin off and I would say most if not all of the exterior fat before putting on the mustard. That crust is amazingly good.

To recap, I would smoke a fresh ham for about 30 to 40 minutes per pound and then finish it in a 350 degree oven. Be sure to probe the ham in a few spots when you think it is ready to take out of the oven. Be sure the ham is very clean and that your bucket is sanitized before brining it….you will probably find some mold is starting to grow in the bucket when you take it out…but, don’t worry. Clean it off, soak it in some water for a few hours to pull some of the salt out and smoke that thing.

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Copyright 2011 ©Jason Golod.

Well, my homebrewing skills increased a little this weekend after I tried my hand at “all grain” brewing on Saturday and Sunday. All grain brewing uses malted grains (grains that have started the germination process and are then stopped) rather than malt extract (sugar syrup created from mashing malted grains). Using malted grains rather than extract adds 2 to 3 hours to the whole brewing process, but for some reason makes the entire day more enjoyable. I made a couple of different pale ales which are relatively straight forward brews to make and everything seemed to go very well. I really can’t say how much easier things are these days with the great sanitizers that are available…which make sanitizing everything quick and easy. I will be kegging the two extract IPAs I made last week this weekend and bringing one or two up to Fall River for our July 4th celebration with Liza and Josh. When we get back the all grain IPAs should be ready for some attention. Wooot.

[tags]Homebrew, All Grain, IPA, Beer[/tags]

Related posts:

1. Back to Homebrewing
2. Columbus IPA aka Jose’s Rooter IPA

Copyright 2011 ©Jason Golod.

Well, you learn a few things along the way in life. One of the lessons I learned recently is that no matter how many beers you have had, it never makes sense to dump 1.5lbs of spent caramel malt (grain) down your sink drain. Even if you run 5 gallons of water down behind it, it is not a good idea. So, an hour later when the sink backed up, I called Roto Rooter. It was Saturday afternoon and none of the local plumbers would even answer their phones. The one that did was pretty pissy with me. Anyway, I have to say Roto Rooter is on their game. They are probably 50% more expensive, but they seriously are out of control with the customer service and follow-up…A+ team. The guy that showed up was named Jose and I honored him by naming the Columbus IPA kit (from More Beer) after him. It was great and we finished it off last weekend. More malty than a traditional IPA. I would say it is fair to call it a Steam IPA, rather California Common IPA, since Anchor Steam trademarked “Steam Beer.”

I am going to brew up another batch of the stuff, but use the late extract addition technique to lower some of that body and flavor, plus dry hop it with 2 oz. of Cascade hops in the secondary fermenter. Was hoping to drink this on July 4th (we will), but some people out there frown upon drinking it so young.

[tags]Homebrew, IPA, Beer, Columbus IPA[/tags]

Related posts:

1. Back to Homebrewing

Copyright 2011 ©Jason Golod.

I am not dead…not yet anyway. I have been away from this place for a bit, but I am going to get back on the posting train here shortly. While I have to head out pretty soon, I wanted to say that I have started brewing again…and I love it. There have been a great many advances in home beer brewing technology over the past 10 years. While there is nothing major, other than Star Stan sanitizer, there are a bunch of little things that make your life 100 times easier when it comes to enjoying the home brewing process.

Star San Sanitizer

Seriously, this stuff is a godsend. For those of you who are not familiar with brewing beer at home, sanitizing your equipment is THE single most important thing when it comes to brewing great tasting beer. When I used to brew, we would use a diluted bleach and water solution to kill any bacteria, fungus or other junk that might be on our equipment or in the fermenting container. There are a few problems with using bleach. You can use too much and/or not get all of it off when rinsing it off. You may introduce something bad when you rinse it off. The end result is the same, crappy beer….and sometimes worse, bacteria. While nothing that can kill you can live in beer, there are plenty of little things flying around that can make it taste like crap.

Star San is a rinseless sanitizer. Yes, it can come into contact with your wort (unfermented beer juice) and everything is cool. It is the best thing since sliced bread. You mix up a batch (1 fluid ounce per 5 gallons of water) let it soak for a while and then dump it out….sanitized.

Siphon Starters

So, one of the more nerve racking jobs was starting a siphon. While starting a siphon is easy, worrying about contamination become more of an issue it seemed every time. These days there are a number of automated siphon starters that not only get your siphon going super fast, they eliminate 99% of the contamination issues that existed with the tried and true siphon starting methods.

Forums

As with most hobbies, there are tons of enthusiasts that eat, sleep and drink home brewing. Because of that there are many popular online forums where brewers from all over the world hang out. There is more help than you could ever use on those forums in addition to tons of recipes, pictures, tips, home-built equipment plans, tutorials and more.

Anyway, so far I have brewed a Belgian Dubbel (which really tastes a lot like Chimay Red), an American Style Pale Ale (great) and I have a German Style Wheat Beer (aka a Hefeweizen) in the fermenter. So, if you are around, come on by and I would love to share a beer with you.

[tags]beer, homebrew, pale ale, belgian dubbel, hefeweizen, wheat beer[/tags]

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Copyright 2011 ©Jason Golod.