Ask a chef

[perchie.girl]

Spice Cake recipe
2 cups brown sugar
1 stick softened butter
1/2 cup vegetable oil
5 eggs separated
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 clove
1/4 allspice
Pinch salt
1 cup buttermilk

Cream together brown sugar and butter.
Add oil in a steady stream
Add yolks one at a time whisking well between each one.
Mix dry ingredients and alternate adding them and buttermilk to batter.
Beat white to a peak and fold into batter.

Preheat oven to 350°.
Oil and lightly flour two 9" cake pans.
Bake for roughly 25 minutes.

A.

Sounds yummy.... funny how sugar is not considered a dry ingredient.... but if you read all recipes its never included in the flour and spice mixtures.

But then Baking is more chemistry than any thing else.

deb

 

[CanuckBock]

See this video

You should billed this plucker!

Thank you but we are unable to view videos due to livin' way out in the virtual boonies!

I do very much like dry plucking by hand and will continue to harvest the down off these ganders slowly and diligently. Getting too technical and mechanical would ruin the endeavour for me...I like it quiet, no rush, simplistic and thorough--fresh air, no stench from "the kill floor" waiffing about. Kind of a time to sit in a lawn chair and pull down, enjoy the day, give thanks to the goose that gave its life. Peaceful, tranquil, serene. It is a whole mellow thing that could easily be changed into a more factory farm, hurried and assembly line procedure. Just me, a few hours and trying to make the best of what could otherwise be quite horrifying--I raise these birds from eggs to end and I struggle justifying the right to bring life forth and then take it--at my will and whimsy to fill my gut. I know many that will process 50 to 100 birds at one sitting and get the family or friends involved but my spouse recounts how his family processed chickens and it sounds over the top nightmarish--raising birds was necessary for his family of nine back in the day...meant you ate and did not starve--affordable food because manual labour of all those kids was a given. Headless birds, blood and guts, boiling water pots, whirling pluckers, noise, smells and sights not worth reviewing. Nope, no lasting negative memories when I process. The only automation I enjoy is that after I dry pluck then gut, I can take these consumable contents inside to my kitchen with running hot and cold water and the fridge to cold age the meat. I know you are only making suggestions to lessen the work load and I appreciate your kindest of intentions. I am a strange old bird, stuck in my ways of dealing with potential demons.

Sunday dinner was spectacular and not only the hoomans got goodies...

​

The other geese did also!

Goose goodies...all the peelings and scraps brought
shrieks of great delight to the gaggles
GOOSE GOODIES!

In prep for Sunday dinner...we went to "town" on Saturday evening after our daily duties were seen to. I spent way too much time going over the veg on offer...pinching the rutabagas and poking about for the best of the potatoes--I enjoyed the moments completely. I almost (almost) bought rainbow organic carrots but at $4 for six...I could not fathom justifying their addition when I already had chosen out an expensive packet of rainbow taters at five bucks. LMBO...oh well, I got seed packets for rainbow carrots that I could NOT plant this year due to over excessive rains...and rain ever single day it seems since late May to now...sigh. Think we were residing on the WEsT Coast. Har har.

A dazzling array of VEG--bring on yer daily servings, eh!​

Got a great assortment of veg...even tried sweet potato in the stew...between the parsnips, rutabaga, turnip...multicolour potatoes, & carrots...there were enough ROOTin' Tooting good veg to bring taste to the concoction.

I know it was good because when I came back in to give the crock a stir...you could already smell the delish combo in the works. Nice...eating is a feast of the senses...not just taste but you "eat with your eyes" first...or in this case since it permeated the entire house..."eat with your snoot!"

Yeh, the crock pot was dang near overflowing...with goodness...
It melded down to a decent size as the hard veg softened
and became one with the crock...

I had some sugar peas and bok choy kicking round in the fridge to toss in the mix...four kinds of bell peppers, green cabbage zucchini, broccoli and cauliflower, brown mushrooms and a cob of corn. Two cloves of garlic to season the oil and a sweet Spanish onion topped off the list. I fried the mushrooms, celery centers and onion...added them to the mix in the crock and then the goose meat. Ay yes, the glorious gander goose meat...

Added some pork fat to the pan and browned it
before adding to crock ​

Deboned the goose legs (they are boiling for soup stock right now) and found the meat was just the perfect state of firmness for four hours in the crockpot. Delish!

Three hours later on high
and I added two tablespoons flour mixed with cold water
To make a good bread soaking broth​

It was far too windy to process my second gander on Friday and looks like we will be getting a deluge of rains today...so still got three more to go and so it goes.

I do believe I paid good homage to the gander and I am sure he would rather have had goose goodies from the Sunday dinner like the rest of his chums...one goose...well, uh, someone had to be the special guest at the dinner party and it be him.

Keep them well watered
and the raspberries will provide enough fresh ones for tastes for the next few days or so​

Got raspberries producing in my son's plot and my spouse brought it to our attentions that the red currants are producing too. Now to figure out what to do with red currants...most years the bugs get to them first but this year in particular, appears we might have to do something with them. Good golly...

red currants​

Hmmm...I am thinking if'n I pick some red currants, heat them with barely a nip of water in a heavy cast pot (microwave may do me) and add some sugar or honey to sweeten--one could very well have a saucy condiment that would compliment another goosey entree quite nicely. Hmm...ponder that thought of how things ripen in this season--timed to mean you can grow up a small smattering of foods to go with each other and keep your interest peaked in cooking.

If'n we ever get summer...as in some HEAT
Beans will be on the plate next
Fresh picked, boiled minimum of ten minutes to kill their toxins
and eaten with pride​

Yes, passion, as much as we are allowed to exude...cooking and eating only brings more joys to your quality of life when you have a more hands on approach to the beginnings of what you put in your pie hole. Having grown the ingredients, not all but some which are not all the difficult to wing...that brings an even greater sense of pride when you can beller "FOOD!" and know what your fam and yourself are honking upon foods you created from dirt to plate...from egg to bowl of stew...

About 1/4 of an acre of oats coming to head
Seven 5-gal pails of seed oats hand cast after tilling
Two sets of plantings to stagger the harvest to a more manageable task
To feed birds in the fall...treats of hand plucked clumps in their poultry pens
Happy birds, great amusements for all involved ​

Later sow oats...stagger my harvest to quell me from staggering...har har!

Maybe, perhaps...next year instead of hand casting oats to this plot of dirt...I'll give wheat a go and find myself learning how to harvest, age and grind wheat to flour--bake with REAL flour! Do that maybe once in my lifetime...the whole homesteader of the 1880's thingy. Bragging rights to owning your creation of bread--a slice of life, from grains to buttery pleasure...hmm...always next year to pursue such silly follies, eh! Or not.

We gotta eat to live...so may as well make it pleasurable...otherwise, bring on the fully balanced PILL. There ARE days (like Mondays after a busy weekend) where dog kibbles rather look enticing...a fully balanced, easily stored nutritionally good for you commodity...hmmm...

Better watch it Lace...I might be raiding from yer kibble stash!

But we can always ADD, like potatoes from the plot to the main ration...couldn't we?​

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[Akrnaf2]

I don't know if you paid attention but I am not an English speaker, so your short posts are impossible for me
sorry

 

[CanuckBock]

I don't know if you paid attention but I am not an English speaker, so your short posts are impossible for me

sorry

Your written English is great then. I know a bit of French language but tres mauvais!

Simply saying, I will keep dry plucking, like it best. No machines please...too noisy, too complicated. Keep it simple for ME--simple = happy me!

Thank you very much though!

Photos work well in all languages as we ALL can SEE with our eyes (taste with our minds!) and understand that, yes?

Tara

 

[Akrnaf2]

Yes of course
I speak Hebrew, Italian, English, Arabic, understand France and some Spanish (and I know some Curses in Russian and Persian )
I understand your will for quite but if you want to be efficient you need to use, sometimes, the modern technology.

 

[CanuckBock]

Yes of course
I speak Hebrew, Italian, English, Arabic, understand France and some Spanish (and I know some Curses in Russian and Persian

)
I understand your will for quite but if you want to be efficient you need to use, sometimes, the modern technology.

I am not a linguist and make fun of my own English language...making up works and bad grammar and spelling... My mother was an English teacher...I am sure I have caused her hair to turn grey too soon...

Very much agreed...but nothing I do here is for efficiency past if it is something tedious I do not like...then automation to take it away and make it fast is welcomed!

I only play farming...food grower, only do this to have fun, only to enjoy the finer things in life, avoiding the more "commercial" ways to produce food--the tasteless quantities of NO good for you foods. If I wanted to be efficient to the very best, I would only buy my food, or you go to great restaurants and allow chefs to spoil you with their talents. But part of life is having fun and making meals you grew the ingredients for...oh that is too much FUN!

Yes, I will not build a fire with a flint in a clay oven to bake bread (use my gas stove, happily!)...but to enjoy the finer things in life like making more than just the meal for family and friends but to sit down and break bread one day where I grew the wheat...to make the bread from seed outta the dirt I own...to me that is fascinating! That is what a chef would want to do...a real one with a passion for better control over what they use to make their meals...not me playing cooking. A real chef wants the freshness, the unique start, the wonders of maybe altering something in the process to make the meal even better.

The rooster and lamb you cooked for your Sunday Dinner...maybe perhaps you raised the meats? If you did, if the lamb was dry, not enough fat on the leg perhaps??...next time when you feed your lamb for slaughter, a bit more fattening foods, or more time to finish out. Now imagine my home...were I am going to grow lambs for my plate...where I could fatten the lamb on grains I grew without the chemicals of fertilizers and chemicals to kill the growing grains so I can harvest...I can wait for nature to kill the crop and for it to ripen and me to harvest it. Can you now imagine the taste of that lamb...and if it is not what I expect, I can make improvements...

But here I am torturing you with English--no disrespect meant to you at all.

Oh well...I am excited to have found this thread on BYC and know others will do the same...raise our food and cook it too!

I find that today, there is so many people buying too many items to clutter up your house with stuff...a gift of a meal has no residue, it does not occupy a space you have to make room for and since we must eat to live, it is a gift we really truly do need.

A gift of sharing a meal is a most wonderful gift with no "space taken up" except maybe a bit more FAT around our middles...more of us to be loved!

I have said, there should never be skinny chefs...a chef that is too skinny has me shake my head wondering...do they truly like the food they prepare?

No harm in making food because you consume that...must eat, so if it takes time to do this, energy and you find pleasure in the task...the reward is sharing that meal with others.

Peace be with you,

Tara

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote: Its the only way I can express love....

deb

 

[Akrnaf2]

Yes of course

I speak Hebrew, Italian, English, Arabic, understand France and some Spanish (and I know some Curses in Russian and Persian )

I understand your will for quite but if you want to be efficient you need to use, sometimes, the modern technology.

I am not a linguist and make fun of my own English language...making up works and bad grammar and spelling...  My mother was an English teacher...I am sure I have caused her hair to turn grey too soon...   

Very much agreed...but nothing I do here is for efficiency past if it is something tedious I do not like...then automation to take it away and make it fast is welcomed!

I only play farming...food grower, only do this to have fun, only to enjoy the finer things in life, avoiding the more "commercial" ways to produce food--the tasteless quantities of NO good for you foods.  If I wanted to be efficient to the very best, I would only buy my food, or you go to great restaurants and allow chefs to spoil you with their talents.  But part of life is having fun and making meals you grew the ingredients for...oh that is too much FUN!    

Yes, I will not build a fire with a flint in a clay oven to bake bread (use my gas stove, happily!)...but to enjoy the finer things in life like making more than just the meal for family and friends but to sit down and break bread one day where I grew the wheat...to make the bread from seed outta the dirt I own...to me that is fascinating!  That is what a chef would want to do...a real one with a passion for better control over what they use to make their meals...not me playing cooking.  A real chef wants the freshness, the unique start, the wonders of maybe altering something in the process to make the meal even better.

The rooster and lamb you cooked for your Sunday Dinner...maybe perhaps you raised the meats?  If you did, if the lamb was dry, not enough fat on the leg perhaps??...next time when you feed your lamb for slaughter, a bit more fattening foods, or more time to finish out.  Now imagine my home...were I am going to grow lambs for my plate...where I could fatten the lamb on grains I grew without the chemicals of fertilizers and chemicals to kill the growing grains so I can harvest...I can wait for nature to kill the crop and for it to ripen and me to harvest it.  Can you now imagine the taste of that lamb...and if it is not what I expect, I can make improvements...   

But here I am torturing you with English--no disrespect meant to you at all. 

Oh well...I am excited to have found this thread on BYC and know others will do the same...raise our food and cook it too!   

I find that today, there is so many people buying too many items to clutter up your house with stuff...a gift of a meal has no residue, it does not occupy a space you have to make room for and since we must eat to live, it is a gift we really truly do need.

A gift of sharing a meal is a most wonderful gift with no "space taken up" except maybe a bit more FAT around our middles...more of us to be loved!    I have said, there should never be skinny chefs...a chef that is too skinny has me shake my head wondering...do they truly like the food they prepare? 

 ​

No harm in making food because you consume that...must eat, so if it takes time to do this, energy and you find pleasure in the task...the reward is sharing that meal with others.

Peace be with you,

Tara   

No, sadly I don't grow my own food, I don't have enough land. I buy and process at list one lamb every year. I prefer them not too fat not more than 40-45 kg. And I am knowing exactly what I am doing

 

[CanuckBock]

No, sadly I don't grow my own food, I don't have enough land. I buy and process at list one lamb every year. I prefer them not too fat not more than 40-45 kg. And I am knowing exactly what I am doing

No worries on not growing your own food--alot can be said about the care, knowledge and preparation of the food too. You can bring the best of it out or completely ruin it too if you are not caring about the preparation in cooking! A master chef can work wonders with his skills!

Then as this thread is titled...to ask a chef (and so happy you are a chef that DOES know exactly what you are doing when it comes to a good lamb for cooking to eat!)

- Do you happen to know what breed of lamb you are getting?


Lanolin...yellow grease like oil found in sheep.

Lanolin is the YELLOW colour in this hair sheep's hair​

I appreciate the not too fat part because that can impart a more sheep taste than some may prefer...another is lanolin which is the grease sheep use to water proof their wool or hair!

Jacob Sheep (wool) fleece with a piece of Dorper Sheep (hair and yellow lanolin) in the center
to compare, Jacobs less sheep taste...Dorpers? Not sure, not eaten one yet!​

The Jacobs (primitive sheep breed) I raise have little to no lanolin (see, no yellow) but the Dorpers I raise (hair sheep which are a breed made from Persian Black headed sheep x Dorset Horned a wooled sheep = DOR plus PER = Dorper hair sheep) have me wondering how much lanolin will affect their taste!

​

This hair sheep has shed off her hair and you can still see a tinge of yellow along her sides...

Here on her belly, you can see the yellow lanolin ​

Will this particular ewe produce a lamb for meat that will go to mutton quicker than a lamb from another ewe with less lanolin...I am planning to experiment and find out.

​

This ram will be used on all the ewes this year. This using only him to sire lambs for meat means I can judge the potential differences in the lambs for meat and judge the ewes that produced them...at least that is the hope.

Now next questions for a chef that cooks lamb and knows exactly what he is doing (and I do not...not yet but trying!)

- Are your lambs fed any special feed, are they finished on something special, are they processed (killed) in any special way? There are special methods of aging a sheep carcass; things like tender-stretching the carcass in cold storage...

​

- Do you know if the lamb is male or female?


- If male, is it left whole? Intact as in a ram lamb?


I am currently trying to decide if I have ram lambs this next spring...to leave the males meant to be eaten whole and, of course, process them young (before the testosterone potentially ruins the meat?) before the LAMB becomes MUTTON!

I do know a male left whole will grow faster but you run the risk that he will get too "rammy" in taste...lamb becomes mutton and then a whole different way to cook them is usually needed...and even then, some go so over the top, so muttony that there are many people who do not like lamb to eat but do not know there is different kinds of sheep meat....

I have tasted a two year old Katahdin (hair sheep) ram that was used for breeding. He was delicious as a roast at a Katahdin AGM (meeting) but the Katahdin hair sheep (like the Jacob) does not have alot of lanolin either. Why bother to raise your own lamb if you cannot focus on a good tasting meat to be cooking. I want to learn and make the effort to have value in a superior product, all that I can make it be.

The white ones are Dorpers, the two black ones are Katahdin/Dorper Crosses ​

I may breed my ewes and KNOW exactly which lamb I am eating and which one tastes better...I want to do this and study this for myself and see if I can improve my choices or at least hope to have better meat that the supermarket does!

Here is a good prospect I am thinking.

June 1, she is shedding out all on her own​

She shed her hair out on her own completely...no clipping which is why I went to Hair sheep than remaining with Wool sheep, less work I was hoping...to keep sheep.

​

I SEE NO yellow in her hair coat...so if she has lanolin, to taint meat, she has very, very little of it...a good sign perhaps?

Duro...she is a pure Dorper but cannot be registered because she is a Whoops in that
her sire was a ram lamb that was let out by some children...
I bought her because she looks promising...
​

This is a Dorper ewe lamb, born Jan 2 of this year. She appears plump (fat) has lots of bone to hang meat off of...I am hoping that because all her offspring will not be registerable, it will be an easy choice to EAT her male lambs...

Pig Butt...​

Lookit this butt of hers? I may be wrong but that is what some call a "pig butt" and my my, what a nice "leg of lamb" she has. LOL Poor sheep...looking at her butt and drooling!

I will be feeding the sheep good quality hay this winter and they are on a nice mixed grass diet for now...so long as the grass holds out. I won't grain them, not unless I have to and only probably when lactating and feeding lambs will I supplement a good alfalfa based hay. I don't grain animals like sheep when they are conditioned scored (how much back fat over the hip bones) and are in good health already!

That's the plan and I look very much forward to knowing what kind of "lamb" you like and how much choice you get to make and the why's. Very much appreciate you sharing your wisdom.

Thank you!

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[Akrnaf2]

First of all I AM not a chef. I am a biology teacher and a zoologist
I am certainly a grate food lover! The chef in this thread is the starter of it ,Attimus.
I always buy a cross breed between the Awassi breed

Wich is a local breed with very distinctive smell and taste and have a very fatty tail and meat.
And the Australian Merino

Wich almost don't have any smell and have a relatively lean meat. and have a tail
This cross got the perfect taste for me!
I ALWAYES buy male NEVER female, huge difference in meat tast!
I always search for the grass fed ones but because we are a semi desert country it is very difficult to find them!
Because I am Jewish we have a very strict rules how to manage ouer animals, I am hiring a special man to do the killing, but I preper the meat for cooking,
Never buy lambs more than 45 kg!
And another thing we eat EVERYTHING of it!
Beside the meat we eat ALL the internal organs! Including the head ! I DON'T eat the brain because I am worrying from Croizfeld Jacobs disease!