Gravy's Cooking Thread

My small, trimmed bit of brisket flat turned out interesting. Was a bit dry, but still tender and tasty. Tried a recipe to sous vide at 155 for 36 hours and then reheat on the grill for crust and smokiness. A lot of juice expelled from sous vide, though, and my charcoal grill is small so hard to do indirect heat so it may have dried getting back to temp too hot/quick. Will just use the smoker or char and then sous vide next time.

Burgers on the grill were good enough, though I only got a few bites of my girlfriend's because I burned the first one and everyone wanted burgers only so wasn't enough. Ended up with an average brisket sandwich.

I almost got the baked beans perfect on my second attempt after the ones I soaked overnight got obliterated in the shitty instant pot that overcooks everything. Used the brisket juices for the baked beans, so they were good, just a few strangely still too firm.

All in all, wasn't my best effort, especially because even the potato salad had to be under seasoned or my girlfriend's family would complain it's too salty it too spicy if there's even too much black pepper. The brisket was too peppery. Was asked which deviled eggs were "safe" to eat, had to ask for clarification, there was I guess concern the very light dusting on only half the eggs was going to be spicy. Yeah, it's a major psych out cooking for them and I always screw shit up trying to make it extra bland or making sure there is no pink at all in meat etc.

But, re-seasoned the potato salad and made the baked beans and brisket into chili last night that made for a good post-4th meal, though. At $3.99 a pound might just start making more brisket into more baked bean brisket chili because it was really good for a quick pot of chili.

Photo of me drying out brisket on a grill too small to really do effective indirect heat:

Kiroy said:

I trim but not a ton. Every time I trim all I can think is trimming is for pussies

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False, when you trim your brisket you get more even fat and you also can make smoked tallow out of the trimmings.

Deathwing said:

I tried this on my 8yo son. Now he hates me and still won't eat pulled pork

Joking aside, when do kids get over being picky eaters? Turning down pulled pork, cornbread, and baked beans should be grounds for disownment. Wait, probably still joking.

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When they aren't fed for 3 days...

Deathwing said:

I tried this on my 8yo son. Now he hates me and still won't eat pulled pork

Joking aside, when do kids get over being picky eaters? Turning down pulled pork, cornbread, and baked beans should be grounds for disownment. Wait, probably still joking.

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Don’t know. I’d like to think we raised our kids the same but my 5 year old son is the pickiest eater. The most exciting thing he’ll eat is grilled chicken but it takes him about an hour as he spends 5 minutes chewing each piece out of protest. My daughter is 9 and she will literally try anything, any cuisine, any food, even if she ends up not liking it at least she tries it.

With my own kids I found that getting them involved in cooking the food made them a lot more likely to eat it. And with my middle son, he wouldn't eat fish of any sort until I took him fishing, and he helped clean and cook the fish (just panfish). He thought it was delicious. Since then he has been more than willing to eat all kinds of sea food. I dunno what the secret is for everyone, but my kids cooking made them much better eaters.

Deathwing said:

I tried this on my 8yo son. Now he hates me and still won't eat pulled pork

Joking aside, when do kids get over being picky eaters? Turning down pulled pork, cornbread, and baked beans should be grounds for disownment. Wait, probably still joking.

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My folks did the whole "You will sit at the table until your plate is clean" thing with me and my sister. Didn't really work since they didn't have the will to see it through, but if they had forced the issue it would have. Remove all food and all access to food until they eat it. Reheat it for as many meals as it takes, too.

Forcing kids to eat certain foods or the "clear you plate" mentality may just causes more issues. Same with appeasing them with always providing other choices or too much attention over not eating or praise when they do eat. Just make dinner, put it in front of them, don't give them too much attention one way or the other. If they're hungry they'll eat.

When dinner is over pick up plates and move on. If they didn't want to eat, they aren't going to starve to death by breakfast. If they are starving or having issues, probably other medical issues happening than being picky that need to be addressed.

Keeping in mind children's sense of taste is extra sensitive, so anything bitter or sour or fermented etc is going to be heightened, so don't be a bad, asshole parent wondering why your kids never eat sauerkraut or kimchee.

Also keeping in mind sweets and junk food and fast food will confuse a kid's pallate and they'll start to find anything without tons of sodium, sugar or artificial flavoring bland and uninteresting. Hard to compete with the sugar burgers from McDonald's.

Between coddle-culture and fake-food-diets it seems most kids are retarded spazzes about food these days, sadly. Don't want them to be that way? Then don't poison their body with that shit food, nor mind with worse culture.

Feed a kid real food, decently prepared, like poor people used to do, and ironically your kid will grow up with a refined, curious pallate and broad tastes, or at least tolerance and an ability to better cope, more capable to function in what little pockets of worthwhile society that may still exist when they're entering the job market or starting to go on dinner dates.

Of course even good eaters will have their bugaboos. I refused to eat corn beef hash and Chex cereal as a kid and still hate them to this day. But I had credibility and rapport with my mom so she just let me not eat the rare things I genuinely didn't like because fuss or disruption over being picky just wasn't a part of dinner.

Let's be honest, 99% of the time the real problem is the wife/mom is obsessing and coddling and giving a ton of attention to eating. The same way they do with water bottles as if every kid and dog dehydrated to death when we were kids because mom wasn't there with water bottles every waking hour.

My girlfriend does the same thing with our dog. We make him real food. Ground beef and chicken and beef roasts with veggies and barley or rice. Fucker eats like a king. But every few months he starts getting picky because my girlfriend obsesses over his eating, pumps him full of high quality treats, and lives how happy he gets with (appropriate) bits from the table.

And I have to correct it by picking up his full food bowl a few times before he is magically not picky anymore. And she worries about that missed meal like he's gonna starve. And we have a talk, things improve, And a few months later the dog is made picky again and I'm having to correct my girlfriend's behavior.

My guess is most of the times picky kids are caused by the same female dynamics that can be fixed with a little bit of common sense "enough of this" approach from the father. Which is why strong fathers are so important and fatherless homes are so dysfunctional for both kids and pets.

I don't remember ever being forced to clean my plate, but I *did* have to try a suitable portion of everything; if I didn't like it, well, dinner was light that night.

Picky eater story: Was a preteen in WY. Mother decides vacation that year was to San Diego. Somehow one of her friends kids got to come along. That girl would only eat hamburgers. Which is fine in nowhere WY, but god damn, when you're either fighting a tantrum in the fresh fish restaurant, or having to plan "do they have a burger" options, for every meal; it got old quick.

I'm not a super fan of anise/black licorice and crazy vinegary anything; but there's still times and places when those flavor notes are the right flavors to add.

Dr.Retarded said:

I guess I had a weird upbringing.

We moved to New Orleans when I was two, and I grew up around that entire food culture. My mom enjoyed Cajun cuisine, so when it was crawfish season you were eating crawfish. If the New Orleans food festival was going on, you were downtown at the exhibition center or whatever, and sampling the greatest dishes from all of the restaurants in the city. I was maybe three or four years old but we went to that particular festival every year, and the one thing I wanted was alligator meatballs. I don't remember what restaurant it was from but they were just awesome (I understand that's an opening for all kinds of jokes), but from what I remember they were in etoufe type flavor profile, holy Trinity and all that.

My mom used to use a weird reverse psychology on us. She would want to go out and eat at the restaurants she enjoyed or eat the foods that she liked, and and having to bring us along, a lot of those restaurants at that time didn't have kids friendly menus. So she would talk up whatever item that she thought we might eat, and make it more of a challenge, that it was really cool to eat something so different or weird compared to other kids. Build up a bunch of interest and talk it up like it was something amazing, even if it was just fried catfish.

My sister never really took the bait, but I was hook line and sinker. It was a point of privilege and pride that I was enjoying things like turtle soup at Ralph and Cacoos or oyster po-boys at the mom and pop joint in front of our neighborhood. Shit other kids were too scared to try. I started making a list of all the neat things that I've had a chance to eat, and God damn it stuck with me to this day.

I thank my mom for my enjoyment of cooking because she exposed me to a completely different world of food at such a young age. Every year for Christmas or birthday I get cookbooks that she scours eBay for, specifically old New Orleans restaurant stuff that is out of print. I was never a picky eater other than just a couple of things like Le Seur green pees or beets, and a lot of that had to do with her just tricking me into eating weird and different foods.

Once I realized that the challenges of different things tasted amazing, gloves were off and I would try anything in the world. I'm a very fond memory of maybe being a seven and eating at a steak and ale, and eating half of the escargot.

Once I started getting old enough I helped her out in the kitchen, and that really kind of sealed the deal. I know lurkingdirk mentioned that if I'm not mistaken, and it's a fantastic way to get your kids to eat or at least show interest in what you're making. It really just comes down to conditioning, but there's plenty of positive options in which to do so.

I guess the one thing every parent should strive for is to keep their kids away from fast food / junk food, but I understand that's a hell of a battle.

Edit: if any of you ever need a specific New Orleans dish recipe, just let me know I'm sure I've got it in the library.

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Give me the best gumbo recipe!

Dr.Retarded said:

Happy to. What type of gumbo were you looking for? Seafood or chicken and sausage?

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Chicken and sausage. I don't live in a place with good, fresh seafood.