Porchetta di Testa

Our ingredients.

Not too long ago, there was a Pig's Head at Spro. Some of you may have been wondering why a pig's head would be at a coffee bar - well, here's why.

During my trip to Chicago for the National Restaurant Association show, I had the opportunity to view a demonstration by Chris Cosentino of San Francisco's Incanto restaurant. Chris is an avid devotee of all things offal and awful - those nasty bits that most people fear. Pancreas, brains and whatever assorted oddity that usually gets lopped off at the meat factory - if it's considered offensive by the mainstream, he's ready to prepare and eat it.


Midway through deboning the head.

Chris was giving a demonstration on how to make a porchetta from a pig's head. I was thrilled. I was fascinated. In our little world of Baltimore, I only hear or read about things such as this. I rarely get to taste this kind of cuisine and I certainly never get to see it prepared. Chris was at the show giving a quick and dirty demo on just how to do it and I paid rapt attention.

It was my mission to make it at home and prepare it with an eye towards including it in our repertoire at project hampden. Sure, I could bring it to The Spro in Towson, but once our friendly suburban clientele heard they were eating pig's head with tongue, they'd be running for the nearest Starbucks.


Ah, lovely cheek meat and skin!


Fully seasoned and ready to roll.

As soon as I returned from Chicago, I gave David Smith at Springfield Farm a call. Order me a pig's head from the abbatoir as soon as possible, please. That Thursday, along with our usual order of eggs, came a pig's head in a plastic bag. I left it sitting on the back bar of The Spro as our proud testament of exciting things to come.

The results were expected and amusing. Our customer, who by now are getting used to certain strange antics with coffee, were a mixture of surprise, shock, disgust and intrigue. They wanted to know why? Why was there a pig's head sitting on the counter? What were we doing with it? Those who knew our penchant for going outside the box with coffee drinks tentatively asked (with great concern) if the pig's head was somehow going to be an ingredient in some coffee concoction.

Rest assured, I told them, this pig's head was destined for other things than your demitasse cup.


Mariano assists in the wrapping and rolling of the porchetta.

With the pig's head slung over one shoulder and my knife roll tucked under the other arm, I headed over to Woodberry Kitchen to use their prep kitchen and their supply of curing salt (since I didn't have any of my own). Making the porchetta is pretty straightforward - simply take the pig's head, slice it down the center from the tip of lower mouth and start cutting the skin and flesh away from the skull. In anticipation of this, I had spent part of my afternoon at The Spro sharpening my boning knife with an assortment of Japanese wet stones. Razor sharp knives are an essential necessity.

The tricky parts of the skinning process is to keep as much of the cheek meat intact and not to puncture the skin. The butcher already has removed parts of the skin around the eyes to check for disease so holes are to be expected. You also want to keep the ears attached and the snout intact as it will be an integral part of the porchetta.


Six hours of sous vide.

Trimming around the skull isn't as difficult as it may sound. In fact, it's pretty easy. Just make sure to keep as much meat intact as possible. Then, once the skull has been deboned, pull the mouth open and start cutting out the tongue from the base of the throat. I should also note that you should check the end of the skull (where it has been severed from the body) for the glands - remove them if they are still there and discard.

Did I mention that you should have made sure to shave or burn off any and all hairs that may be remaining on the animal? Or that you need to remove the "skin" of the tongue? Be sure to do so unless you like the feeling of stubble in your charcuterie.


The pig's head finished, cured and chilled for three days.

A great way to judge the suitability of a girl is their reaction to the pig's head - especially in these moments of extreme disembowelment. Some girls can't stand the sight of it, others are interested and even a few are excited by the prospects - we call these girls "keepers." Amy S. is one of those girls who just wanted to hang out and watch it all being done. Sexy.

From there, simply layout the head, skin side down and flap the ears under to cover the open gaps in the skin where the eyes once were. Sprinkle with curing salt then season with salt, black pepper, aleppo pepper, crushed garlic and rosemary (or whatever else you fancy). Now's the time for the challenge.


Unwrapped and ready to slice.

It seems that nothing excites an Italian cook more than the making of traditional Italian cuisine. I don't know how traditional this porchetta really is but once Mariano laid his eyes on the beast he was very excited and wanted to be a part of it. Hailing from Argentina and working at a Michelin one star in Italy, Mariano is as die hard as any Italian. To him, cooks just don't "know" pasta. He's even got some roe laden fish salted, hanging and drying somewhere around Woodberry - just in case.

Place the tongue, with the thick side tucked into the snout, in the center of the head and roll the whole thing together from one side. You're approximating the look of the head with the roll but it will still be a roll that just has a snout. Chris Cosentino recommends tying the roll with twine or running it through a butcher's netting machine but Mariano had a better idea: just roll the sucker with plastic wrap.


The detail of the gelatin is amazing.

After some careful moments (and quite a bit of plastic wrap), the pig's head was rolled and formed. And big. The sucker was pretty large. Too large, in fact, to fit in any of the vacuum bags in Woodberry's inventory. I had to take it home.

Back at the house, with a custom cut FoodSaver bag at the ready, I vacuum sealed the head inside the bag and let it cure in the refrigerator overnight. By Friday afternoon, it would be time to cook.

At three o'clock on Friday, I filled up a large Cambro with water and got the circulator from PolyScience working. 85C for six hours. By the time I came back at eleven that night, the porchetta was done and the waiting begins.


Slicing it thin.

Once the porchetta has been cured and cooked, it needs to be chilled quickly in an ice water bath and then cured in the refrigerator for at least two days. I opted for three days rest before calling some friends to invite them to sample the new porchetta and since my slicer is at Woodberry, it would have to be done there.

As the head came out of the bag and was unwrapped, I was a bit thrown off. What looked like plastic wrap fused onto the porchetta was actually the gelatin taking the shape of the wrap. The gelatin was beautiful. Amazing. I stared at it in wonder for ten minutes.


Meat Ready to Eat.


A small plating for some special guests.

Into the slicer it went and I went to town slicing off thin slices of porchetta for all to try. Cooks, servers, diswashers, bussers and runners all got samples to taste. Mariano, after tasting some of the slices, grabbed a 9pan to take a stash home. It was delicious, delicate, slightly salty and deliciously fatty. I plated up some for my friends to try at the bar. They devoured it and I sent another plate. A hit.

By the end of the evening, we had eaten a third of the porchetta. A victory. I bagged the rest to save for later.

In retrospect, if we can recreate these results on a consistent basis, I think some very exciting possibilities lie in store for project hampden once we get the prep kitchen there built and installed. Some nice charcuterie cold plates and cheeses. Could be beautiful.


The cross section of the porchetta - notice the ear. Exciting!


Vac bagged and ready for another day.

Firing and The Big Foam

Big foam cappuccino super hot and dirty steam wand at The Spro.

With the impending doom of opening project hampden, I've fallen upon the task of shoring up the staff at The Spro in Towson and starting the search for qualified barista candidates.

To my mind, hiring is utter agony. It's one of the most difficult parts of the job. Hire poorly and you might as well shove a shiv in your neck. Hire well and life can be very good indeed.

Over the years, I've hired and employed over a hundred people - each one I vetted personally. I'm happy to report that I've only fired one employee with prejudice in ten years. Some left of their own volition and others were excused during their training phase but only one was truly fired outright.

In 2002, I hired this person whom I didn't entirely vet out. I hired the person because some on my staff thought we could use this person - to be clear: a bunch of my girls wanted to bring on a guy and campaigned hard for me to hire this person. Against my better judgment, I brought him onboard. From the get go, it was clear he was the wrong person for the job. Within a week he thought he was the new hot shot on the team: the star player.

While the girls worked hard and grinded it out, this guy was hot dogging and showboating. He wanted to chat it up with the girls. He wanted to hit on our female customers. He thought he was The Shit but could barely perform the basic requirements of the job. Technically, he was absolutely horrible. After two weeks, he could barely complete the technical aspects of the job and the girls were now unhappy with his presence.

Firing someone is one of the most unpleasant tasks of my job. I don't enjoy doing it. It's physically wrenching. It's not something that I want to do. But it is something I will do when the time comes.

And that time was fast-approaching.

After two weeks, many of my staff were unhappy with this person. They wanted him out. I agreed. He had to go, but firing is very unpleasant and I wanted to put it off as long as possible. I decided to have a cigar to think it through.

As I sat at my friends' shop smoking that cigar, things became very clear. I could put off firing him and risk alienating my crew, which could result in my best people leaving, or I could go down there that morning and fire the person and be done with it. Losing my best people and being stuck with some lame-ass, showboat, hot dogger was about the worst possibility there could be.

I dropped my cigar, drove to Jays Shave Ice and fired him on the spot.

In spite of that glitch in 2002, I've always taken hiring very seriously. Especially since I don't want to get stuck with a non-performer like that again. From time to time, other operators ask me my methods for hiring and they've changed quite a bit. Once upon a time, we had very formal interview and vetting standards. Lately, they've been much more organic and dynamic.

But one component of the interview process that hasn't changed is when a candidate has prior barista experience (not superauto experience), I'll throw them on the machine and let them make me a cappuccino. The cappuccino they make is whatever they are used to making and know how to make. I just point them in the general direction of the milk, the grinder and steam wand and let them go to town.

Perhaps years ago, I would have been horrified to see what I've been seeing lately. But in my old age, I've come to accept the world as it is and accept that perhaps baristas around the world just aren't up to the same standard that we perform. It's okay because I just want to see what I have to work with and where we need to focus should they make it to the training phase.

Whatever the case, watching the candidates perform is always entertaining and informative. For example, I never really understood how people were able to create that super dry and thick milk foam. I knew they pumped but wow - seeing it live and in person was something else entirely.

Now I know what I'm missing...

Between the Hours of 3:30am and 6:30am

Years ago, I spent some time living with my uncle - who is probably the most business savvy and successful person I know. The guy was an absolute bastard and mentally beat me 'til I was black and blue. The time was now to get things done. Do, do, do - like a fucking mantra.

Up until that time, I had been working in the motion picture business doing production work. The oddity of the industry is that most "normal" people think there's something wrong with you because your friends and neighbors usually see you between pictures when you're at home and out of work. Between gigs, it's not unusual to find yourself sleeping in late and lazing around the house, which is when the normal people see you and form the incorrect impression that your life is one of leisure.

What they don't see are the months of shooting when you're working fifteen hours a day, six days a week with only an eight hour turnaround between the time that they call "wrap" for the day's shoot and the time you have to report to work the next day - which usually means that it takes you an hour after wrap to stow all of your gear for the night, drive home, unwind, shower, sleep, get up, get ready, drive back to set and be rip-roaring and ready to go by the call time. The reality is that it takes an hour to get out of there, at least another hour to go home, shower, unwind and go to bed and at least another hour in the morning to get ready and get to the set - meaning that you get five hours of sleep, if you're lucky.

Pile all of that on a fifteen hour day of non-stop standing and rushing around at full speed and you start to see that film production is a grueling life that is anything but the glamour that the public thinks. To make matters more difficult, all of the usual stuff that normal people spread out over their week - like grocery shopping, laundry, house cleaning, banking, etc, now has to be compressed into that one day you have off. Forget rest, forget relaxation, forget living - it's all about production.

But to the rest of the world, you're just a slacker because you sit at home all day between pictures...

It was during one of those three month breaks that I went to stay with my uncle, who also decided that I must be some slacker because I was hanging out in his part of the world for several months at a time.

The one thing I learned in the film business was that it did no good to try to convince people otherwise. They just wouldn't believe it. Might as well let them think what they want and get on with it. My uncle was no different. To him, work was all-encompassing - as it was for me, just that it wasn't all-encompassing everyday, just at multi-month intervals while shooting.

After a couple of weeks, the guy laid into me. He wasn't happy about my party all night, sleep in all morning philosophy. He wanted to see me working. If I was going to stay in his hours, I had to work. I had to get up at six a.m. and get cracking. He didn't care what (or who) I did at night, or what time I came home, as long as I was up and cracking at six.

After awhile, he just pissed me off.

But I held to that schedule and even if I rolled in at 5am, I was up at 6am and making it happen. That bastard beat the crap out of me and burned an intense, white hot anger in me for years. But it wasn't until years later that I realized that it was him pushing me away from film production and towards my own future. He had pissed me off so much that I only wanted to achieve if for no other reason than to tell him to go fuck himself. And then I mellowed out a bit.

Several years later, after we had built Jays Shave Ice, my uncle came to visit and as I showed him our operations, I saw something in his eyes that I hadn't seen before: respect. Suddenly, there was no longer a need to tell him to fuck himself, it was his respect he was looking to give, but only if I had been worthy, if only I had proven something, and now that I had, we were there.

To this day, when I think about those times living with my uncle, I can only describe them as I have above. The guy was a complete and utter bastard to me. A complete fucker. I can still feel the anger and rage he ignited in me, and I can still savor that triumphant moment of respect - a moment more delicious and satisfying than any young girl I've ever taken home. Even now, it's that desire to prove my uncle wrong that drives me each morning.

I relate this because a friend called me the other night and she was surprised that I was home on a Saturday night. She expected me to be out and about, but the reality is that I spend my weeknights out and about and stay home on the weekends. Last night was no different. After arriving at Woodberry to pick up milk for The Spro, Spike, Isaiah and Allie invited me to an industry wine tasting until midnight, which turned into a four hour marathon of drinking, eating and moving to multiple bars. What I expected to be a quick night brought me home at 3:30am.

Today was my opening shift at The Spro and even though I didn't get home until 3:30am, I had no problem getting up at six - if only to prove my uncle wrong...

I'll be at The Spro all day if anyone decides to swing by.

Sending Out An S.O.S.

With a couple of hours between appointments and an impending thunderstorm looming on the horizon, I didn't have anywhere to go and I didn't want to go home.

I think this is turning out to be one of my "dark secrets." You know, I'm in the specialty coffee biz, I don't pay attention to what Starbucks is doing because it's almost never applicable to The Spro, but yet whenever I find myself in a pinch, I seem to find myself at a Starbucks, Caribou or similar national coffeehouse chain - and I never drink the coffee.

Why do I find myself here - at the Mount Washington Starbucks? I think I'm here because I need a place of refuge for a couple of hours. A place where I can quietly sip a large iced tea and write the latest chapters of the Spro Coffee Handbook without being disturbed or feeling like I have to give up my seat and leave.

Unlike many independent coffeehouses, Starbucks (and their ilk) offers clean, roomy and, most importantly, strongly air conditioned environments that are actually comfortable to make yourself home in - a trait I fear is lacking in many indie shops. In the sweltering heat of Baltimore summer with rising humidity and falling barometric pressure from the thunderstorm, I want a place I can hide out in that's cold and comfy.

We need more indie places that have strong air conditioning and comfy seating that don't look like eclectic remnant flophouses.

SCAA 2009: A Few Of My Favorite Things...

When Sarah Allen, editor of Barista Magazine, asked me to write an article for the June/July 2009 issue, I thought "no problem." To me, fifteen hundred words was plenty of room to write about everything cool on the show floor. As the article progressed, even two thousand words wasn't enough - which is how this post evolved.

Held during the third week of April at the Georgia Congress Center, the annual Specialty Coffee Association of America's Exposition is the coffee industry event of the year. For the past four years, I've been quite involved during the show whether doing things as a member of the Barista Guild of America's (BGA) Executive Council, managing the BGA trade show booth, teaching espresso classes, competing in the United States Barista Championship or doing machine calibration for the World Barista Championship - in other words, it's been a busy four years.

This year, I've been pulling away from all the volunteer work and decided to attend the SCAA as just another attendee - an attendee with no commitments, class schedules or volunteerism. I wanted to see the show as many other people see the show.

Lots of people spend countless hours volunteering their blood, sweat and tears for the SCAA and the payoff has always seemed paltry to me. Give up X amount of hours volunteering and get your attendee fee paid. In the past, that X amount of time turned out to be so much that there wasn't enough time to do much of anything else. All that work and money spent on travel, accommodation and food with not much in return. Hard to justify for small companies.

By no means is the SCAA a very large trade show. While it's the biggest in the coffee business, it's still dwarfed by a number of other shows I attend during the year. Over three show days, they allot fifteen hours of show time to the vendors and the attendees, and while it sounds like a lot of time, I found out that it just wasn't enough to tour the floor, chat with vendors, taste coffee and really get into the products you found interesting. The SCAA needs to expand the floor hours from 12 noon to 5pm to 9am to 5pm.

While I did find myself crunching to get everything crammed into the limited show hours, I did find some cool stuff that I wanted to include in the article but couldn't because of space limitations. Here are some of those products:



Roaster On The Run.

Coffee-Tech FZ-RR 700
One of the more interesting things I saw on the show floor was this copper-barrelled sample roaster. Designed to take anywhere, all you need is some sort of heat source, whether open flame, radiant or whatever. Simply plug the unit in, add heat and roast - wherever you are in the world. Operation seemed simple and easy enough though, because of its' size, there isn't a way to see the coffee or use a tryer of some sort. But if you're stuck in the wilderness of Papua New Guinea and want to roast a sample, this could be the ticket.

www.coffee-tech.com






Metropolitan Tea Timer
Timers are a handy barista tool and Metropolitan was showing this small, sandglass tea timer with multiple time settings. It always seems difficult to find a decent hourglass timer and this one has three settings for a variety of uses.

www.metrotea.com






Green Guru Blow Out Series
These were some of the more interesting "accessories" on display at the show. Green Guru is a Boulder, Colorado based company specializing in using reclaimed materials for its' products. They were showing their Blow Out line of wallets and pouches that utilize 98% reclaimed rubber from bicycle inner tubes.

www.greengurugear.com




Taking the first test for the BGA Barista Certification.

Barista Certification
As a barista myself who happens to own the company, the barista certifications I see floating around seem dubious at best to me. If my standards are focused, what good does some general certification do for me and my company? It's a question I've been asking for years. This year, the BGA's certification program is coming to fruition and I think it has the best chance of becoming the most meaningful certification program out there.

As I wrote in the article, I had the opportunity to spend some time with Heather Perry and Scott Lucey. They're passionate and committed to the program and have come up with a curriculum that I think has the best potential of producing certified baristas with a skillset that is applicable for any quality operator. It may be a couple more years before a solid baseline of baristas has formed but as I sat in on the lectures and reviewed the test material, I was impressed with the depth and precision expected from a candidate if they expect to pass certification. This is one program to watch in the coming years.

www.baristaguildofamerica.net



Espresso Machines
In the world of espresso machines, it seems as though not too much happens for a couple of years and then Wham! Everyone is rushing for progress. 2009 was one of those years. Suddenly, it seems that everyone is thinking about pressure profiling.


Scace 3P Installed.

Scace 3P
Techno wizard Greg Scace is at it again with a new pressure profiling device that will retrofit onto any espresso machine. Simply disconnect your pump, wire up this unit and voila! Pressure profiling! Digital controls will ramp up (or down) the pressure as you see fit. The caveat: since you're retrofitting your existing machine, the profile will only work on one brew at a time, but the controller will compensate if you run additional groups. Expect the unit to cost about the same as an expensive home espresso machine and from Espresso Parts.


Synesso Hydra
I really didn't get much of a chance to check out the Hyrda being demonstrated at the Intelligentsia booth because it was always busy being used to make espresso for attendees and the booth was just plain busy. But I hear good things about it from the Synesso devotees.

www.synesso.com



Emily works the Slayer.

Slayer
Easily the most hotly anticipated espresso machine in the industry today and I want to like the machine - especially with it's steampunked good looks, but I'm confounded by the fact that the Slayer people actually want to argue that the Slayer looks nothing like the Synesso. That's about as absurd as if Synesso stated that their machine didn't resemble the old La Marzocco GS.

Don't get me wrong, the machine looks good. It's low-slung with a black body riding on cast metal legs and hand-carved wooden actuating handles - sexy. But the protruding groupheads, as well as the top-mounted steam wands and rotating-handled steam actuators - there's no mistaking that the Slayer took design cues from the Synesso Cyncra and it irks me that anyone would actually argue that point - as though people are that stupid. It's offensive.

Beyond that, the Slayer offers variable brew pressure in the form of multi-stage settings on the actuator handles. Results from the baristas I talked to were mixed but I suspect that's more due to being jammed onto a show floor with dozens of other eager baristas breathing down your neck for a turn at the machine. In a controlled setting, with coffee you are familiar with, I'm betting the Slayer could be a serious challenger to the Synesso cognoscenti.

www.slayerespresso.com




Working the LM Prototype.

La Marzocco
Leave it to the old and venerable La Marzocco to lay low, like a lion in the weeds, waiting to spring upon it's prey and decimate them without mercy. Since being removed as the machine sponsor of the World Barista Championship, La Marzocco has seemingly been playing it quiet. And then they unveiled their new machine prototype.

Forget what you've read above. Those machines are great but the La Marzocco trumps them all. Variable pressure per grouphead and not pre-programmed like those above. On this machine you can vary the pressure up or down manually with the paddlegroup controller. Push it to the right up to 12 Bar, or back it down to the left. No pressure is left behind. Beautiful. Find the ideal profile? You can then save that profile and play it back during successive brews. Amazing. We were blown away. Everyone else is stuck on offering profile brewing with programmed pressure points, La Marzocco has jumped into the deep end by offering infinite variability.

But like any blockbuster movie, this machine is just a teaser. Housed in an FB80 body, the new machine will be completely redesigned for release sometime in 2010. Arrgh!

lamarzocco.com




Compak K10 Doserless Timer

Compak K-10 Timer
While much of the barista world chases after the Robur E, I just don't "get it." I've been a fan of the Compak K10 since 2006. Perhaps there's something in the barista world that just believes that Mazzer is the only option (or that ridiculous Anfim stepped grinder) but we've been pounding and grinding on the K10 for over three years now and it's an absolute workhorse that's easy to use, fast and cool. Luckily, Compak has been busy updating the grinder and keeping it up with the times and they took some time to show me the latest update to the K10: a doserless timer.

With the ability to set grind time to 1/100 of a second, the new K10 should be a killer. The side mounting of the readout and controls dampens my enthusiasm slightly (but is nowhere as infuriating as the knob on the Anfim) but I'm expecting great results to continue from this grinder and will be using the new K10 timer in our new shop opening before fall 2009.

www.compak.es




Malykke Grinder and French Press Boiler

Malykke
I wrote in the article a little bit about this grinder and I want to stress the fact that I severely want one. I'd love to have a couple of them mounted on the wall of my new coffee joint but we've come so far in weighing coffee for consistent results that dose grinding via timer seems like two steps backwards - especially when the unit uses weight to determine the size of french press you've hung from the grinder.

If that seems confusing, the Malykke grinder can be operated by hanging a french press from the spout. As it hangs, it presses against a weight sensor that has been preprogrammed to know that your 32z press pot weighs X amount of grams and once it senses that weight, it knows to grind for Y seconds. All Malykke needs to do is work on that programming so that once the grinder has been weighed, it automatically tares and then grinds Z grams of coffee into the press pot. If they can overcome that hurdle, then this could very well be the best grinder ever built.

www.malykke.dk





Hot Water
Things come in waves and one of the new waves in coffee seems to be the controllable water heaters.

Wilbur Curtis
It's been on the market for a little while now but the Wilbur Curtis Company has their new Fresh Aeration water tower that will inject fresh air into the heated water to keep it lively. Along with a digital temperature readout, this simple water heater looks like it will topple the ground held by Bunn and Fetco in the water tower segment.

www.wilburcurtis.com





Marco Uber Boiler
Brought to the attention of the barista world by 2007 World Barista Champion James Hoffman, the Marco Uber Boiler is an ongoing project that brought some prototypes to the 2009 WBC Bar where I had the chance to check it out. Without a doubt, it is the coolest-looking water boiler on the market and is very promising but the surface-mounted readout and controls are just begging for a pot of water to be spilled on them and fry the electronics - but the scale slash water drain is tre cool.

marco.ie




French Press Boiler at work.

French Press Boiler
Sharing the same booth with Malykke was the company (who's name escapes me and I can't seem to find on the Internet) who shook the roof a few years ago with their counter-mounted single-group espresso machine. Essentially, this French Press Boiler is the same chassis as the espresso machine but made to brew and dispense hot water for press service. Housed in clear plexiglass to show off its' innards, the boiler pulses and times the water. It's intensely good-looking but the MSRP is $5,000 - which is four times more than the comparable Bunn water tower that most shops use for press service.

Fill Then Pay

Roasting Alta Mogiana

The Good Smoke 2

Those Europeans and their warning labels...

What makes a good meal great and a great meal even better? Capping it off with beautiful cigars. Hell, give me some great steak and a great cigar and I'm just a happy human.

After such an enjoyable meal of fine smoked meats, what better way to celebrate than with a few Montecristo #2 Habanas (illegal, of course) that I rescued from the Frankfurt airport over two years ago. While I do love great cigars, it's always a treat to share great cigars with friends who truly enjoy cigars. Nothing is more frustrating to a cigar lover than to share a great cigar with someone only to have that friend not only not appreciate the smoke but to smoke half (or less). The coup de gras comes when that person stubs the cigar out mercilessly.

Those are the times when you regret ever sharing that fine cigar.

Luckily, my friend Bryan is someone who knows and appreciates fine cigars and will never be found stubbing one out. In the humidor, I've got a nice collection of cigars dating back to 1995 where they have been slowly and carefully aging for thirteen years or so. I've always tried to buy cigars of a certain caliber and it has returned dividends in beautiful smokes that are flavorful and lingering. Ahh, the memories...


What's that precious gift hidden in the box behind Ethipian Birr? Oh my!

Knowing that Bryan enjoys Cubans, I grab the aforementioned box of Montecristo #2s and head out to the veranda. Inside are freshly printed Ethiopian Birr notes - evidence that I bought this box during my trip to Addis Ababa in February 2007. As I open the box, expecting to find three Havanas, I'm surprised and delighted to find two Montecristos and one PG Belicoso Maduro.

Even though I can't imagine what it could be, I must have done something right this week.

While I love the Montecristo #2, my passion in cigars is for the Paul Garmirian Belicoso Maduro. To my tastes, there is no finer cigar. I started smoking them in 2002 and they've rocked my world for seven years now. By this point, I've smoked well over one hundred of them and I've only had three that had problems. In the world of cigars, that's an amazing statistic.

It's a delicious cigar. Medium bodied with a sliky spiciness and a mild sweetness. To my palate, this is the one cigar I could smoke day in and day out. In fact, I have smoked it day in and day out - which is why I'm surprised and excited to find this hidden treasure.

I love and smoke this cigar so much that I no longer can keep them in the house. I've had boxes in the house. Boxes that were intended for my reserve. Boxes for aging. Boxes to combat the anticipation of the downturn in the economy. Boxes that I were supposed to be for the days when business was bad and I couldn't afford to splurge on such a cigar.

There they were, boxes of PG Belicoso Maduro. Waiting for Days of Doom. Waiting to rescue me from wiping out my empire and fortune. Waiting for the days when I would have no more money, no more women and no more nothing. These boxes were for those days when I would have nothing left, I could still comfort myself with the flavor of the Belicoso Maduro.

But no, I don't have discipline. Just one cigar, I would tell myself, intending only to smoke that one Belicoso Maduro before going back to something lesser, like the Padron 1964 Anniversary (a perfectly delicious cigar in its' own right). That's when the madness would begin. Just another one from the box will be okay. Then another and another, and another - suddenly, before I would realize it, I had smoked through the entire box.

It's like an addiction. It's so good, I can't get enough. Help me.


Happiness is: the Paul Garmirian Bellicoso Maduro.

For several months, I've been without. Since I no longer make regular trips to Northern Virginia, I no longer make regular visits to the PG Boutique in McLean and my larder has run dry. It's been a sad state of cigar affairs here on the home front.

As I savor each draw from the Belicoso Maduro, I'm reminded why this is still my favorite cigar. No other compares. That light spiciness and the mild sweetness. Just amazing. I wish I had a steak. And some of that Pezzi King Old Vines Zinfandel.

That would be Legen - wait for it - dary!

The Open Road

PG Boutique: Someday...

The Good Smoke

Gotta Be Starting Somethin'.

Back in 1995, old friend Sam and I partnered together to make a little barbeque shack called "The Ono Grill." It was a fun experiment that only lasted the summer and showed us just how viable our barbeque ideas were. Our barbeque was a mixture of Southern and Hawaiian traditions, with lots of Sam's personal BBQ experience thrown in for good measure.

Take our pulled pork recipe, for example. To prepare the pork, we followed traditional Hawaiian techniques for Kalua Pig, but when it came time to serve, we mixed it with Sam's pork sauce. Tangy, sweet, hot and just delicious.

I didn't know much about barbecue back then to really understand the context of what we were doing. To me, it was just delicious. I had no idea how it compared, until I started tasting BBQ during my travels. What I found was that our style was different and unique while still maintaining a respectful connection to the traditions. The flavors were tasty but not too far out there. Today I wish we had been able to maintain our project because I would like to see how our product compared to others.


Two types of ribs from Springfield Farm.

Nowadays, barbeque is limited to the couple times a year that I decide to make it and pull out the smoker. I've got a Fast Eddies FC100 pellet smoker. It's a great smoker that's easy to use and very versatile. We ended up with two at the Ono Grill and each of us got one after the project was over. It's now my "secret weapon" when it comes time to smoke.

Over at Springfield Farm, I spotted several packs of something labeled "Oriental Ribs." They're different than the traditional baby backs (and cheaper too), so I bought a few packs of Oriental ribs and a rack of baby backs as the control.

The rub I use is a relatively simple one featuring sugar, salt, cumin and a variety of other spices (yes, it's a secret - this is barbeque afterall). Pat dry the ribs with a paper towel then liberally apply rub until the entire rack is coated and shake off excess. I make sure that no meat is left uncovered by rub and then I refrigerate the ribs for two days. While I like to let the flavors meld during this time, good results can be found if you had to cook right away.


Seasoned for two days.

Two days later, it's time to cook. Simply fire up the smoker and set to 225F to 250F. The nice thing about the Fast Eddy is that I can simply dial in the desired temperature and the Traeger feeding system does the rest and holds it in that temperature range indefinitely. If you're doing this with fire, wood and an offset box, it's going to take a little more effort.

I'll cook the ribs for at least four hours.


Big slice of pork butt seasoned with Alae'a salt and ready to go.

It's Sunday, and I've got a motherlode of meat sitting in the refrigerator waiting to be eaten. I've been so busy this week that I've been putting off my cooking tests and now they're piling up on me. Better to cook everything off, vac pack it and eat them all week than letting them rot.

There's a big hunk of pork butt left over from the Mother's Day Tocino and while there's not enough time to cook the butt to the point that it strings out, I'm thinking we can get a nice smoked roast out of it. Liberally season with Alae'a salt and into the smoker it goes for three hours.


One look at that crown meat and you'll know why I selected this cut.

An hour later and it's time to toss in the ribeye I've been saving. While at the farm, I noticed this cut amongst the many. My favorite cut of beef is the ribeye, specifically the crown cap of the ribeye. It's full of fat, which means it has the most flavor and is the most tender and juicy piece. I love it and when I saw how big this cap was, I couldn't resist.

The dilemma was whether to grill it, pan fry it or toss it in the smoker. It's been a long time since I smoked a steak and figured what the heck? I didn't want all the grease from pan frying and I wasn't in the mood to fire up the charcoal grill. Into the smoker it went for the last hour of the smoke,


About halfway there.

For the pork butt, I knew that with the size of cut I was using, it would be cooked through in just over an hour. I was hoping that the muscle would break down in those three hours. I was playing a small gamble but also knew that even if it wasn't enough time that the flavor would be quite nice indeed.

When it comes to smoking a steak, pretty much any steak will be done in one hour. And if you've never seen a smoked steak, it looks like nothing you've ever seen. Just a whole different animal.


Meal Ready to Eat.

I gotta say, I find the whole smoking thing to be quite enjoyable. It's certainly not fast but it is relatively easy - especially when you have a smoker like mine. Just set it and forget it. While the meat cooks, I can enjoy a four hour 24 marathon with Jack Bauer and not have to get up except to refill my champagne. Even if you're sitting by the smoker tending to a fire, it's a highly enjoyable time and a great way to bond with friends.

Plus, there's something so ethereal, so "manly" about smoking meat. Whether you're digging a ditch for a Hawaiian imu or building fire for an Argentinean style Cruz, there's nothing like fire, smoke and booze to keep you going.


A look at the ribs.

By the end of the cook, the oriental ribs had carmelized to a dark brown, the baby back had a beautiful brownish red crust, and the pork and steak had ribbons on fat mixed with that reddish smoke color you see on meats. Lovely.

When you cut into smoked meat, you want to see a nice smoke ring. It's that ribbon of red along the edges of the meat and should be most evident when you cut into the meat. See that red ring of smoke and you know life ahead is going to be good by the spoonful. That's presuming you actually maintain enough civility to use utensils. I don't.


Smoke ring on the pork butt.

One thing I did find myself short on was barbecue sauce. I thought I still had some in the fridge but realized I had none. Rather than take the time to make a new batch, I dug through the pantry until I found a bottle of NOH Hawaiian sauce that I had received as a product sample.

No time to wait, time to grind. Poured out the sauce and it wasn't bad - just a bit too sweet and not pungent enough for my tastes. I prefer a bbq sauce that's a bit tangy and slightly sweet. The NOH was very sweet and lightly tangy. Next time, I'll remember to make a batch of sauce ahead of time.


Ready to get down with some fried chicken and steamed broccoli.

Sous Vide Fried Chicken

Could this be sous vide?

I'd been hearing rumors about a certain Northern California chef who allegedly has been making fried chicken sous vide. With discreet inquiries with friends meeting dead ends, I decided to find out for myself.

I love fried chicken. It can be so tasty, so sublime, so simple. My preferred way method is to source high quality, local pastured chickens, season with salt and pepper, refrigerate for an hour to dry out the skin, coat in all purpose flour then pan fry until crispy. It's simple and allows the natural delicious flavor of the bird to shine through.


Bagging the chicken.

But I've always wondered how to deliver fresh fried chicken en masse. No, I don't want to fry it and hold it in an Alto Shaam or C-Vap for several hours. I wanted to know how I might deliver freshly fried chicken quickly - to order. Initially, I thought that par cooking the chicken might be the answer. This was met by a resounding chorus of "NOs" from just about every chef and cook I know. Bag that.

Or maybe that was the answer...


One hour at 64C.

While chatting about this with Philip and Jason from PolyScience, the potential of using the immersion circulator to create my quick service masterpiece came into view. What if we vac bagged the chicken, cooked it sous vide, held it cold and then fried to order? Would the results be worthy? Would they be delicious?

To answer those questions, I sourced a chicken from Springfield Farm and set about butchering the old gal into two legs, two wings, two breast and two thighs, with the back going into the other days' stock. I decided that I would use two basic methods of preparing fried chicken. First, my usual simple concoction of salt and pepper. Second, a more southern approach of buttermilk and Tabasco. I would also separate a control group of each that I would fry traditionally.


Overnight in the fridge. Hash marks are from vac bag and check out the gelatin.

For the buttermilk chicken, I took one part Tabasco to five parts buttermilk (we use a house cultured buttermilk at home) and soaked the chicken in the liquid overnight. The next morning, the pieces were vac bagged and refrigerated. The salt and pepper chicken received a similar treatment. After seasoning, the chicken pieces were then vac bagged and refrigerated.

For reasons that are still not very well understood in my mind, ingredients should be well chilled before being placed in a sous vide waterbath. I don't have enough technical knowledge to understand why but Keller was pretty adamant in his book Under Pressure that I go with the flow, but one of the major reasons is to have consistent results and a common baseline to begin cooking.


Into the cast iron skillet.

The chicken that would be cooked sous vide were placed in a 64C water bath and cooked for one hour. After the cooking, the chicken was chilled again and held.

To fry the chicken, I first opened the salt and pepper bag. The juices had covered the pieces in a lovely, slimy gelatin. After wiping dry and setting the chicken on a platter, they were placed back in the refrigerator for one hour to dry the skin out slightly to aid in crisping.

With just over an inch of vegetable oil in a cast iron skillet heated to 350F, each of the pieces of chicken were dipped and coated in all purpose flour then placed in the hot oil. In the fryer were a salt and pepper leg and thigh, and a buttermilk breast and win to make differentiating between the two groups easier.


Cooked and chilled chicken.

The hot oil roared to life with the chicken and in five minutes, the four pieces of chicken were golden brown and covered in a crispy coating. Time to see how they turned out.

As I cut (or bit) into each piece, the results were as hoped. Crispy coated skin cooked to a proper golden brown and the interior beautifully moist and heated through. Near perfection. Brilliant.

It's been nearly two years since I first started eating chickens from Springfield Farm and, if you recall, my first time, I was a bit put off by the flavor. Maybe I've gotten used to that flavor or maybe I've been eating too much bland commercial Chik-Fil-A or KFC lately, but I was nearly put off by the flavor of this chicken.


Into the frying pan - five minutes.

It was strong. It was pungent. It was nearly offensive. It was gamey. I nearly gagged. Then I realized that it was concentrated. This was the true flavor of the chicken nearly unadulterated. Perhaps I hadn't used enough seasoning or maybe the sous vide method locked in the flavor so it had nowhere to go except stay. Either way, it was powerful. Deep. Rich. The essence of chicken bashing you in the face and forcing you to look. I couldn't turn away.

Had the vacuum bagging of the meat locked in the flavor so strongly? Do other methods of cooking pull those flavors out of the meat? I could only guess yes and turned to our control group.

The control group was the other half of the chicken prepared and cooked normally. Fifteen minutes in 350F oil for the dark meat and seven minutes for the white meat. The control group had that same wild, gamey flavor but it wasn't as strong and in your face as the sous vide pieces. I'm guessing that some of that flavor is imparted into the cooking oil and pulled out of the chicken, lessening its' impact.

I also discovered that I'm not a big fan of the buttermilk coated fried chicken. It really didn't do anything for it. I'm back to the simple salt and pepper method.


All Your Chicken Are Belong To Us.

But this test was about seeing whether or not sous vide is a viable method for preparing fried chicken. Can the technique be used to cook the chicken through, hold chilled and then fried crispy to order - with no or very little loss in tenderness and moisture? While one test isn't enough to say definitively, I think the answer is yes.

In these tests, as the coated exterior crisped and turned a golden brown, the interior reheated to a proper temperature and seemed perfectly fine, with no indication that we had used any sort of techno-wizardry to create it. In fact, my friends who I served the chicken to had no idea that sous vide was part of the mix.

At least now I know how I can make quite a bit of fried chicken quickly...