Gourmet Scientist - Red Meat & Poultry

Horse meat in Verona

nospam@example.com (Crystal Cheng) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 00:26:00 -0500

Horse meat tartare

Am I a hypocrite?? I remember reading an article many years ago about Europeans butchering wild horses for their meat and how despicable it sounded, especially since I like horses. Well, I was quite young then and fairly naive.

Late last year, when an unexpected visit to Verona, Italy, led to an equally unexpected discovery that horse meat was a specialty, my curious nature got the better of me, and I HAD to try it. So, for lunch, my 3 friends and I ventured into a local restaurant in search of horse meat. My friends had the lunch set menu with 2 courses, while I went for the a la carte both for the greater choice and the more manageable portion of food. What did I order? Something extreme enough for our server to ask at least twice whether I knew what it was that I ordered: horse meat tartare. Yup. I went for the most extreme of extremes. :-P

Bistecca (well-done)

All 3 of my friends had the "bistecca," a thin piece of meat that was pan-fried, but all managed to be different. There was a raw (recommended by our server), medium, and well-done, although the raw was still slightly cooked. So, we managed to have horse meat cooked in every which way.

The verdict was that horse meat was less chewy and less strong in flavour as compared to beef; and it was well-received by all. Now I understand why so many people enjoy it.

But, you may still be wondering what raw horse meat tastes like. Well, with tartare, the flavour comes mainly from the added sauces/ingredients rather than the meat itself as raw meat is essentially tasteless. Texturally, it was quite chewy since it's not cooked. Rest assured, nothing happened afterwards, although I was quite stuffed from all the uncooked meat that my poor stomach/intestines had to digest!

New Year's Day Surprise

nospam@example.com (Crystal Cheng) — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 02:34:37 -0500

Game: considered by many as a delicacy probably because of it's relative rarity and often difficulty in acquiring. Just a month ago, my dad had half-jokingly asked if I'd be interested in cooking venison if he ordered some online. This past weekend, I was getting reacclimated with the grim disparity between man and nature when we passed more than 4 deer carcasses on the highway just between Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the West Virginia border. My brother even caught a snapshot of a beautiful male deer coasting the highway atop a SUV...probably the result of roadkill or game hunt. In any case, I never imagined I'd be asked how to cook venison, let alone having the actual meat in my hands!

On New Year's eve, a family friend gave us a small sliver of leg meat (shank??) that another friend had given to them. How it was obtained, how fresh, and through how many hands it passed (and slivers it lost on the way) I will never know. All I know was that I was pretty excited. Intuition screamed braising, especially when we confirmed that it was a lower grade cut with lots of muscle. The next question was Eastern or Western flavour; and with my recent braised lamb escapade, we conceded with Western.

I was again reminded of the beauty of cooking at home: I literally had everything I needed (or its equivalent) without needing to head to the store. My mom had habitually marinated the meat with bourbon, garlic, soy sauce (and maybe a couple other things) overnight. Luckily, that marinate could work with my idea. With the same theory in mind, I first browned the meat. I then browned onions and scraped off the brown meat bits (deglaze) with apple cider, chicken broth, water, and a little brandy. To all that, I added carrots, potatoes, radish, orange-flavoured dried cranberries, a little fresh ginger, black pepper, and sage. I wish I had bay leaves, but the only suitable replacement on hand was the sage. I left it in the oven covered for ~2.5 hours at 350°F (177°C). By then, the meat was tender but the flavour hadn't fully permeated the meat. Ideally, it should have been ~4-5 hours, but it was lunch time and the smell was driving our stomachs mad.

Overall, the venison tasted nice--very similar to pork actually. The flavour came out well, although bay leaves would have given greater body than the sage. I might have added a little too much apple cider and too little brandy. Plus, it would have been better to use either ground ginger or removable ginger slices to eliminate the occasional potent spiciness. Regardless, it turned out well for a first attempt. The next will be Eastern, unless, of course, we get a really nice tender section that solicits a faster technique.

Duck with Seafood

nospam@example.com (Crystal Cheng) — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 18:43:00 -0400

As part of our summer school with our Japanese counterparts, we had the conference dinner at St. John's College. The 3 course dinner involved a salad with Gressingham duck as the starter, trout fillet with vegetables and potatoes as the main, traditional english water pudding as the dessert, and coffee/tea with chocolate truffles to end the meal.

What enthralled me the most was the starter: three slices of roasted Gressingham duck accompanied by a scallop and some type of seafood (similar to uni???) laid over a bed of boiled/steamed arugula leaves and edamame-type beans. The scallop was seared to absolute perfection--slightly browned on the top and bottom with the inside just barely cooked, giving a texture of set creaminess. The duck was moist, and the strong taste of arugula dampened by the boiling/steaming. All the flavors melded well together. I would never have imagined combining duck with seafood; but somehow, they matched. My naive hypothesis was that all these individual components had a "smelliness" which allowed them to fit well together and resulted in an earthy and hearty flavour.

The dessert was a bit of a puzzle. None of the native English people recognized the name "Traditional English Water Pudding." At first glance, it looked like a pannacotta. However, it was much less creamy. There were two layers. The top, which encompassed 90% of the pudding, was like a watery jello. The bottom was the texture of almond paste with a lemony flavour; the taste and texture were familiar, but I could not put my finger on exactly what it was (lemon curd???). Accompanying the pudding was a small bowl of mixed berry compote. The pudding itself was very light and watery, and the sweet sour berry compote complemented the lemony flavour at the base of the pudding. It was a definitely a nice gentle end to the substantial meal.