[capozzoli]

How do you guys serve those little chunks of slanine?

We first slice off the skin, then set that aside to use in soup or something. Then we slice it thin and serve on slices of bread about the same size as the slice of slanina. Like  hor derves.

Top it with horse radish and slice scallions. Awesome, never chewy.

[nicneufeld]

I sliced the slanina into long, thin slices, like most bacon is presliced in the US...as thin as I could get it.  Did not try it in small chunks.  But anyway, yeah, I'm not sick this morning (yet!) so hooray!  But the slanina was my least favorite of the meats I bought.  The wife wouldn't touch it.  I've never eaten raw american bacon but I'm at a loss as to how it would be much different.  Maybe the slanina I had wasn't the greatest?  I would like it more if it was cured and dried a little harder and firmer.

The suva govedina is fantastic, and the suxhuk was good but not my favorite in its flavor.  Back to serb pork sausages I guess!  Anyway, served with some cheese on hand, cucumbers, pickles, black and green olives, green onions, bread, a spicy Macedonian ajvar, and slivovitz, with a glass of homebrewed cider for the wife.  A ajvar and govedina sandwich is packed in my lunch...

[bluesman]

I think I found the motherload as far as smoked and cured meats and sausages go....enjoy!

Check out Jovan Foods LTD

http://www.jovanfoods.co.uk/product.htm

[beerocd]

How do you guys serve those little chunks of slanine?

Just the way nic had them on the plate, just smaller. About half the size of those sausage slices or maybe as big as a grape tomato - just depends on your mood. And by chewy, I don't mean beef jerky chewy but definitely not mushy unless it hasn't been smoked enough. Some of those slices are almost pure fat and I can see that being a big turn off to him or his wife chewing that up since they're not used to it. I flip through almost all the packages when choosing and look for the thickest runs of meat going through the slab. And there's always a meatier end and a fattier end, save the fatty end to flavor your bean soup and eat the meaty end.

[euge]

Ha I love this...!

Makes complete sense. Everything either preserved, pickled or totally fresh. I looked for Slanine but found a fully cooked bacon product by Karl Ehmer. Expensive and unknown so was passed over. They're good for liverwurst etc...

So smoked some local sausage. Smoky, fatty, crunchy... goes great with the ale.

[beerocd]

Man this is my kind of thread! Change the subject to SMOKED!!!

I've been meaning to do a fatty, flatten out a bob evans sausage - roll it up with a stuffing inside and then smoke it.

[nicneufeld]

How's the Tank 7?  I've gotten really bad with keeping up with my local brewery, Blvd, mainly because I'm too cheap to pay 8 bucks for a beer, now that homebrewing has become so efficient.  It reminds me of how when I lived in Pasadena for years I never once went to see the Rose Bowl Parade...one of those things, the closer you are to it the less you appreciate it.

[euge]

The Tank #7 was wonderful. http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=2909.msg32964#msg32964

This one's given me a spike of re-interest! If it's consistent it could make it to the beer-rotation, but competition's fierce! Only $9 a pop.

[beerocd]

The Tank #7 was wonderful.
 Only $9 a pop.

Man, I don't think I like beer that much. 
It's a mental block, cuz it's beer.
One time for an occasion, sure - but to regularly pop that much... 

[chumley]

Yesterday was our company picnic out at Hauser Lake.  Those in the office whose last names began with"A-J" were supposed to bring a salad, last names "K-Z" were to bring a dessert.

I chose neither and decided to make my great-grandmother's recipe for "knuckles".  My great-grandmother, along with my great-grandfather and two small children (one of them my 2-year old grandfather) emigrated from what is now Stara Voda, Slovakia (then it was a province in the Austria-Hungary Empire) to Niehart, Montana in 1895 to work in the silver mines.  While my great-grandfather was from Stara Voda, my great-grandmother was actually from Budapest.  We suspect that "knuckles" was how Montanans grew to pronounce "gnocchi" over time.

Here is the recipe:

Grate 6 potatoes (red or yukon gold work good).  Add 2 cups of flour and one beaten egg in a large bowl, adding more flour if necessary to make it less sticky.  On a floured surface, knead the dough 20-30 times, then let it rest for half an hour.  Then, roll it out and cut it into bite size pieces.

Get a large pot of salted water boiling and boil the potato dumplings a few at a time. When they float up, they are cooked.  Remove with a slotted spoon and place into a warm bowl, and continue cooking the rest.

Meanwhile, dice up 1/2 or 3/4 pound of salt pork (be sure to remove the tough pig skin from it first), or a pound of bacon cut into slices.  Fry those up.  Grate 2 cups of sharp cheddar.

After the last dumplings have been cooked, dump the water from the pot, then place the dumplings back in the pot on low heat.  Add the grated cheese, a small carton of cottage cheese, and stir. If it seems a little dry, add a bit of sour cream to the mixture.  Stir in the bacon/salt pork bits and its done.

__________________________________________________________________

This dish was big hit at the company picnic.  People would come up and rave about my potatoes, only to have my wife, who is into more healthier things, correct them and tell them, "Its not potatoes, its dough".

Oh well.  A little Slovakian peasant food once a year is goog for the soul.

[capozzoli]

Once a year, its more like once a week in this house. Maybe twice.

Im not sure how the Slovakian got the name Gnocchi it comes from Italy. Not far from Slovakia. Interesting thing about that dish you are talking about. From that region of Slovakia there is a very special sheeps cheese called Brynza. It is used to make a famous local dish called Brynza Halushky. (Cheese and dumplings) Instead of using salt pork the they use slanina which is discussed on the last page.

That is where the dish you are talking about derives. I guess when the Slovakians came here they worked with the ingredients they have and began to call it 'Knuckles'

Around here Knuckles is a very painful card game.  

Here is the Argentinian grill set up, Pennsylvania style.



May give it a wet run tomorrow.

[beerocd]

You aren't going to burn on those stones are you? I bet they crack...
Tell me you made a pan, for the fire, tilted with the back high and the front low - right?
Think of the stones man... 

[capozzoli]

No pan, just hot coals right on the ground, or in this case the stones.

Its fine if they crack, they may not though they are like 2" thick. I have lots of them left over from a landscape patio we made.

I may eventually replace the stones with a bricked in fire pit if we decide to keep this grill in the yard.

This is what Im talkin about.



Rustic.

[beerocd]

Man those crucifixes are so medieval and cool - but the stones will still crack. I had like 8x8 stones  around the firepit and they popped. It will not affect your bbq at all, just saying if you place any value on those stones at all... they're goners. Shouldn't you have a bit of tilt on that grill to move your meat from blazin to just hot during the course of the bbq? I know you'll just move coals around, but I thought you were all about authenticity. 

Oh, btw have you checked the price of grills/smokers? I think maybe you need to start a new line of biz...

 

[capozzoli]

im not worried if they crack. after a few uses Ill brush in a couple of bags of sand till it is filled in.Then later brick around it.

You cant really see it in that photo but it sits on  alittle hill. It is about 12 inches from the ground on one side and about 16 on the other. The grill is 4 foot by 3 foot and the removable warming shelf id 4 foot by 16 inches.

The idea is to have a really hot side and start the meat there, then salt it and move it off to the less hot side salt it and leave it for a slow cook. , then when it is done stack it on the warming shelf above.