Cookin again

[Dannyalcatraz]

Cheese #1



Cheese #2

The thawed patties, removing them from storage

The patties cooking

the condiments



Cooking with the cheese added: Gruyere up top, onion cheddar below. Notably, the onion cheddar melted beautifully, with some coating the outside of the patty

A few months ago, I experimented with making a small batch of a new sausage recipe using fresh hatch chiles. But I never got a chance to do a true taste test- I had to store the results in the freezer. I used a Shape+Store silicone meat press/storage tray for that. (They’re brilliant!)

Burger Master® 8-in-1 Burger Press and Freezer Container


Tonight, we got to try them out, as burgers, of course.

Mom’s was made with mayo, mustard, some dill relish, and some Dietz & Watson caramelized onion cheddar. Mine was basically the same, but I had smoked gruyere and tomatillo sauce on mine. They were served on lightly toasted, buttered buns.

Both burgers were good, but they were…underwhelming. The sausage meat was not seasoned well enough to really make an impression. It was only slightly more flavorful than a regular burger patty. It definitely needed more hatch chiles, for one. Maybe some cumin? Fresh green onion?

Regardless, it was still good enough to eat and consider actually improving on this first step.

 

[Zardnaar]

Looks good

 

[payn]

Cheese #1



Cheese #2

The thawed patties, removing them from storage

The patties cooking

the condiments



Cooking with the cheese added: Gruyere up top, onion cheddar below. Notably, the onion cheddar melted beautifully, with some coating the outside of the patty

A few months ago, I experimented with making a small batch of a new sausage recipe using fresh hatch chiles. But I never got a chance to do a true taste test- I had to store the results in the freezer. I used a Shape+Store silicone meat press/storage tray for that. (They’re brilliant!)

Burger Master® 8-in-1 Burger Press and Freezer Container


Tonight, we got to try them out, as burgers, of course.

Mom’s was made with mayo, mustard, some dill relish, and some Dietz & Watson caramelized onion cheddar. Mine was basically the same, but I had smoked gruyere and tomatillo sauce on mine. They were served on lightly toasted, buttered buns.

Both burgers were good, but they were…underwhelming. The sausage meat was not seasoned well enough to really make an impression. It was only slightly more flavorful than a regular burger patty. It definitely needed more hatch chiles, for one. Maybe some cumin? Fresh green onion?

Regardless, it was still good enough to eat and consider actually improving on this first step.

Oh you got the hex patty shaper! I need one for my Battletech homies!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Oh you got the hex patty shaper! I need one for my Battletech homies!

There’s a lot of Chinese knockoffs (surprise!), but this one isn’t one of those. I have a couple, have given some as gifts, and anticipate getting some in other sizes.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Mom & I decided (for reasons) to work on a new bread pudding recipe. We’re substituting the raisins for a mix of golden raisins, dates and cherries.





They’re just coming out of the oven; tiny samples indicate it’s a sweeter dessert bread than our original.

Finally got to try out a larger sample. The new mix is good, but very sweet. It’s also a little inconsistent.

Some context: when Mom & I decided to standardize our original bread pudding recipe, we found that the deciding factor on the quality of the final product was the amount of raisins. The raisins cut through the pudding’s overall sweetness as a counterpoint, but it’s a balancing act. Too many, and they overpowered the other flavors, like coconut & butter. Too few, and the bread puddings were too bland. We found 2lbs/batch was the right amount. (One batch makes several loaves.)

With this new fruit mix, we’re getting a couple of simultaneous issues. Golden raisins are sweeter and more mildly flavored than their more common dark cousins. Dates are also very sweet, with a mild flavor. But the cherries have a robust sweet-tart punch, which works much like the normal raisins’ flavor does.

Result: in this mix, the parts of the pudding lacking sufficient cherries were super sweet. Meanwhile, the piece I got was almost devoid of raisins & dates, but had lots of cherries. It was almost like 2 different desserts.

So when we try again (months from now), we’re going to use more cherries (subbing out some of the golden raisins & dates), and do a better job of unsticking them from each other so they distribute more evenly. We might also sub regular raisins for some or all of the goldens.