A glass of mineral-rich bottled water can
substitute for a glass of wine. Photo by
Groveb | IST.

Many people enjoy a hearty glass of Cabernet Sauvignon or Zinfandel with a juicy steak.

But what about those who don’t drink alcohol, can’t have it at the moment, are the designated driver, and so forth?

A hearty mineral water can stand up to any steak. One we like is Ferrarelle, Italy’s #1 naturally sparkling mineral water which, along with another favorite, San Pellegrino, has fairly good national distribution.

The sturdy texture of steak mandates pairing with a full bodied mineral water—one that’s slightly salty with significant total dissolved solids (TDS), which provide each water with a unique flavor.

TDS is the breakdown of what percentage of the water is bicarbonate, chloride, fluoride, lithium, magnesium, potassium and other minerals (more about TDS). Spring waters, as opposed to mineral waters, have very low TDS, and their flavor is not heightened by tasty minerals that are naturally dissolved in the water.

At 43 milligrams per liter of potassium and 81 milligrams per liter of silica, Ferrarelle is even more distinctive in its composition. Most high TDS mineral waters have high levels of sodium and/or bicarbonates, which make the water taste saltier.

Ferrarelle is also rich in calcium, magnesium and fluoride (one liter is 2/3 of the suggested daily requirement of calcium). San Pellegrino is highest in suplhates, followed by bicarbonate and calcium.

If you enjoy mineral water, you may enjoy learning about how very different they are from each other.

Check out our Water Glossary and our Mineral Water Section.

Bacon cole slaw with Wisconsin blue cheese. Photo courtesy EatWisconsinCheese.com.

If you’re looking for a way to change up your summer cole slaw and potato salad, we recommend bacon (or vegetarian bacon). Or, you can substitute the vegetarian, kosher Baconnaise, a bacon-flavored mayonnaise we love. Real bacon or faux flavor, the smokiness adds a level of deliciousness.

We presented a variation of this “red, white and blue” cole slaw recipe for Independence Day, but we didn’t add the bacon.

Yesterday we found ourselves with a package of Niman Ranch bacon and this recipe from EatWisconsinCheese.com. We made it and declared it a hit.

BACON COLE SLAW

Ingredients

For Slaw Dressing

 
Preparation

1. DRESSING. Combine all ingredients in a jar; cap and shake well. Refrigerate for an hour or longer to let the flavors blend.

2. COMBINE. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl; mix well.

3. CHILL. Refrigerate for at least an hour to let the flavors blend.

Variations

NIMAN RANCH BACON, NITRITES & OTHER THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

Niman Ranch bacon costs more, but its money well spent. All Niman Ranch meats support small, family-run, sustainably-managed American farms. The meats have much better flavor and texture than factory-farmed meat. (If you haven’t seen The Meatrix, it will open your eyes).

The other difference is the cure—a topic filled with misinformation and controversy about nitrates and nitrites. The issues are presented below.

Niman Ranch bacon has a noticeably lower moisture content than supermarket brands, and thus shrinks a bit less, with less curling, as it cooks.

Another observation: The bacon is thicker and browns more slowly, so you can make it well done without over-crisping.

Niman Ranch Bacon. Photo by Evan Dempsey | THE NIBBLE.

 
What Is Uncured Bacon?

Conventional bacon gets a “quick cure”: The pork belly is injected with brine plus the chemical form of sodium nitrate (which converts to sodium nitrite in the processing). Sodium nitrite extends the shelf life of the meat, prevents bacterial growth and provides the familiar pink or red color.

Uncured bacon typically uses a nitrate/nitrite-free cure with celery juice, salt and a lactic acid starter culture.

Then why is it called “uncured?”

Under federal labeling laws, if a meat product is not cured using the chemical form of sodium nitrate, it must be labeled uncured, whether or not it is preserved by another preservation technique.

Add this to the mountains of confusing government legislation. It’s easy for most consumers to think that uncured meat is less preserved, and thus more dangerous (the danger is the potential growth of the bacterium Clostridium botulinum, which can cause botulism).

But there’s more:

Celery is a natural source of sodium nitrate, so nitrites go into the meat anyway. But by adding nitrite-rich celery juice to the meat instead of actual chemicals, manufacturers legally to claim “no added nitrates.”

SODIUM NITRITE DOESN’T CAUSE CANCER

Here’s the lowdown on this issue:

Several decades ago, an animal study that got significant media attention concluded that sodium nitrite was a carcinogen. Large amounts of the chemical were fed to the animals.

But follow-up studies—which did not get hyped by the media—did not show the correlation. According to MeatSafety.org:

Numerous scientific panels have evaluated sodium nitrite safety and the conclusions have essentially been the same: sodium nitrite is not only safe, it’s an essential public health tool because it has a proven track record of preventing botulism. The National Toxicology Program, an agency within the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, conducted a multi-year study to evaluate sodium nitrite’s safety. The study found that sodium nitrite was safe at the levels used.

According to the FDA, sodium nitrite does not become toxic or increase risk of cancer in doses up to 10 mg of sodium nitrite per pound of body weight. This translates to an intake of 19 pounds of cured meat for a 150-pound individual.

So: Buy Niman Ranch bacon because it’s sustainable and tastes better—not because of “no added nitrates or nitrites.”

Forget those picturesque picnic baskets: You
need an insulated cooler. Shown: the
Koolatron.

It’s National Picnic Month: You’ve got a few more days to celebrate. How about an impromptu picnic this weekend?

Every picnic includes perishable foods. If you don’t keep them cool, you could end up with a very different type of memory of the event. Here are food safety tips from Common Ground:

There is only one way to pack a cooler safely, say the experts at Common Ground, which dispels myths about food and aims to provide confidence about what you feed your family. With picnics, the drill starts with ice.

This cooler acts a a mini fridge: it plus into a 12-volt outlet, such as the car’s cigarette lighter. From Koolatron.

A grilled USDA prime filet mignon. Photo
courtesy Palm Restaurant.

We had the chance to “grill” Bruce Bozzi Jr., a fourth generation family member of The Palm Restaurant, about grilling steak. Here are some of his family’s tricks of the trade for preparing the ultimate steak.

Choose your cut and get grilling:

HANGER STEAK

 
FILET MIGNON

This cut is best cooked on the stovetop and in the oven, rather than grilled over coals or wood:

NEW YORK STRIP STEAK

 
RIB EYE

A grilled USDA prime strip steak. Photo courtesy Palm Restaurant.

 
DO YOU KNOW THE DIFFERENT CUTS OF BEEF?
 
Check out our informative Beef Glossary.

A grilled flank steak, or London Broil. Photo courtesy WomackFarms.com, producers of naturally raised Angus beef.

Flank steak is a cut from the abdominal muscles of the steer. A relatively long and flat cut of meat, it is served as London broil and for fajitas.

Tasty as it is, flank steak is a tougher cut and should be marinated prior to grilling. The marinade serves as a tenderizer that also adds flavor.

Here are chefs’ tips for the best way to cook a flank steak.

 
Find more of our favorite beef recipes.
 
  

Trade up to better franks. Photo courtesy Niman Ranch.

Yesterday when we put the dogs on the barbie, they were uncured Fearless Franks from Niman Ranch.

Not all hot dogs are created equal. Many supermarket brands are full of fat instead of meat, and make up for the lower-quality meat by over-spicing.

Bite into a Fearless Frank and you taste superior quality meat plus a delightful smokiness. The texture is firm and toothsome. The franks are fearless because the meat is free of antibiotics, added hormones and nitrites, and is fully traceable.

The all beef franks are naturally cured with a proprietary blend of celery juice and spices. They give peace of mind to those who prefer nitrate-free preparations.

Fearless Franks are more expensive, but well worth it. The mantra: Eat better meat; if cost is an issue, eat less meat.

You can buy Fearless Franks at Whole Foods Markets and other fine retailers, as well as online from Niman Ranch.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CURED & UNCURED MEATS

Cured meats contain the chemical preservatives sodium nitrite and (or) sodium nitrate. Sodium nitrate is added to preserve and enhance a meat’s flavors and shelf life.

When nitrates break down through cooking, digestion or other means, they form nitrites, which are potential carcinogens.

Manufacturers and the USDA claim that the level of nitrates/nitrites is too low to cause problems. But there is enough of a controversy that it makes some people wary of ingesting nitrates and nitrates. They’ve given up hot dogs and other cured meats.

Instead, look for uncured hot dogs, like Fearless Franks.

Why Are Nitrates Used?

Nitrates and nitrites are chemicals that occur naturally in both all plant foods and some animal products.

Both substances are extraordinarily useful to processed meat manufacturers. They provide cured meats with their characteristic flavor and pink color. These chemicals are also very important in food preservation; they’re especially good at inhibiting growth of microorganisms, including those that cause botulism. They’ve been used for these purposes since the late 1800s.

The chemical reactions leading to the creation of carcinogens are not subject to speculation, nor are the formations of the carcinogens themselves. Both are well-documented. Although the carcinogens have been demonstrated to cause cancer in laboratory animals, and some research has suggested that individuals with heavy consumption of cured meats have higher risks of colon and pancreatic cancers, no research has shown definitively that they also cause cancer in humans.

Uncured franks are made without nitrites. Photo courtesy Niman Ranch.

Which is why to many people, nitrates and nitrites are a non-issue.

A Brief History Of Meat Preservation

Ancient man preserved meat by cooking it until most of the moisture (which allows bacteria to grow) was removed. The result: jerky.

Later, man searched for a less chewy solution, and found it in salt and saltpeter (the natural form of potassium nitrate).

During modern times, a product called pink salt, contains a standardized amount of sodium nitrite (it’s not the same product as the gourmet pink Himalayan sea salt) has become the preferred medium for curing and preserving meats.

Use of nitrites and nitrates in the production of cured meats is now carefully regulated, with concentration not to exceed 200 parts per million in finished products. Thus, The amount of nitrates and nitrites you ingest when eating cured products is considered to be negligible and, according to the USDA, does not pose any health risk.

Grilled food tastes great. But the ugly truth most of us try to forget is that grilling animal proteins—beef, fish, lamb, pork and poultry—as well as pan frying them, produces carcinogens. The more well-done the meat, the more carcinogens. (Here’s the scoop from the National Cancer Institute.)

Consuming dietary carcinogens has been associated with different cancers in humans; a new study has shown that they can cause prostate cancer in rats.

Research has shown that grilled beef is a major source of dietary HCAs when cooked at temperatures of 375°F and above.

Now, ScienceNewsDaily.com, which reports on the latest research, offers a cure…or rather, a marinade. All it takes is marinating the protein with certain antioxidant herbs and spices to prevent HCAs from forming in cooked meats.

J. Scott Smith, Ph.D, a professor of food chemistry at Kansas State University, conducted research for the Food Safety Consortium to discover what effect marinating steaks could have on reducing carcinogenic compounds (HCAs and PAHs*) produced by grilling.

Filets mignon on the grill. Photo courtesy AllenBrothers.com.

*Heterocyclic amines (HCAs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are chemicals that form when muscle meat—including beef, fish, lamb, pork and poultry—is cooked using high-temperature methods, such as pan frying or grilling directly over an open flame. Both have been found to cause cancer in animals, and some tests have correlated with cancer in humans.

The findings: Cooking meats with specific herbs and spices decreases or eliminates HCAs on meat, up to 87%. Dr. Smith and his team successfully used spices in the mint family: basil, marjoram, mint, oregano, rosemary, sage, savory and thyme. Most of these herbs are rich in three potent antioxidants: carnosic acid, carnosol and rosmarinic acid.

The herbs and spices were contained in a supermarket brand of powdered marinade containing rosemary and thyme. The cooked meat’s level of reduced HCAs correlated to the amount of antioxidant herbs and spices present in the marinades.

 
You can make your own marinades using these herbs. And certainly, add the herbs and spices directly to ground beef. Rosemary and thyme are delicious additions to any protein.
 
Here’s the original article.

If you’re grilling steaks on July 4th, here’s how to keep the sizzle and avoid the fizzle: grilling tips from Carlos Garcia, Executive Chef at Sullivan’s, Austin’s* premier steakhouse. In the cattle-rich, red-meat-loving state of Texas, you’ve got to get it right!

*There are 20 Sullivan’s locations across the U.S. See the website for the roster of cities.

Here are Chef Garcia’s tips to avoid the most common grilling “misteaks”:

MISTEAK #1: Going Too Lean

Marbling is what delivers the flavor: It is one of the most important factors in steak selection. When selecting your meat, look for small streaks of fat and you’ll have a more flavorful steak. But, the more marbled the cut, the pricier the meat. The solution (approved by your healthcare provider): Eat smaller amounts of better meat.

MISTEAK #2: Taking Meat Directly From Fridge To Grill

Take the steak out of the refrigerator and let it come to room temperature before you start grilling. This engenders more even cooking and more tender meat.

A beautiful rib-eye steak from AllenBrothers.com.

MISTEAK #3: Under- Or Over-Seasoning

The steak should be the star. Avoid heavy marinades, butter and rubs; let the flavor of the meat shine by simply seasoning with salt and pepper. Chef Garcia recommends larger-grain salt, such as kosher salt or coarse sea salt, and cracked pepper. He advises, “Be generous but not heavy handed.”

MISTEAK #4: Skipping The Pre-Heat

For the best prep, the grill should always be preheated before the steak goes on. Gas grills require 5-10 minutes; charcoal grills may take a bit longer. When using a charcoal grill, make sure the coals are white hot: They will produce the most heat. Searing first will help keep the seasonings on the steak through the cooking process.

MISTEAK #5: Not Letting The Steak Rest

Pull the steak off the grill and let it rest for 5-10 minutes before serving. While the meat rests, the hot juices are absorbed back into the muscle, making it juicier and more tender.

DO YOU KNOW YOUR CUTS OF BEEF?

Check out our beautiful Beef Glossary.

Add the salad on top of a skirt steak. Photo
© ChickenFriedGourmet.com.

We recently discovered Louisiana chef Michael O’Boyle, who writes the blog ChickenFriedGourmet.com. The photo gallery on the site is an inspiration to lovers of nouvelle cuisine, and has inspired us to cook up a storm based simply on his concept.

Lucky people in the Shreveport area can take part in Chef O’Boyle’a Gulf Pig Underground Dinner Club, with changing locations and menus. (Next up: a dinner in late July/early August and two in September/October.)

Chef O’Boyle is a consulting chef to the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board, which acquainted us with him by sending one of his recipes.

While most home cooks may not want to take on his Tomato Gelée, it’s easy to whip up his reversal of the conventional steak salad, greens topped with sliced steak.

Here, the positions are reversed.

Chef O’Boyle topped a skirt steak with pickled green tomatoes and a baby arugula salad, garnished with Parmesan cheese. Create your own variations with this template:

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. Pickle the vegetables (this can be done up to a week in advance).

2. Cook and plate the protein.

3. Top the protein with the dressed salad.

4. Garnish and serve.

Some home cooks just like to go the extra yard. Why buy corned beef and pastrami when you can make your own?

You can create the complex flavors and tender texture that will bring kudos from others at the dinner table while you get deeper in touch with your inner chef.

The first time you make corned beef or pastrami from scratch, you may want to rely on a kit of ingredients and instructions that walks you through the process of curing and cooking a brisket (the base of corned beef and pastrami). Even professional chefs use this Corned Beef & Pastrami Kit from Leener’s.

The kit comes with everything you need except the brisket: Morton Tender Quick, a very effective meat tenderizer, curing salts, plus spices, wood chips and a tenderizing tool. While you can certainly come up with your own tenderizer, black pepper, garlic powder, mustard seed, paprika and and other spices, this Make It kit is a turnkey cookbooks with simple instructions.

BYO brisket and make corned beef and pastrami with this kit. Photo courtesy Leeners.

There’s enough in each kit for up to 10 pounds of brisket. The only caveat is that you need to cure the seasoned meat in the fridge for five days per each inch of meat thickness. In our packed apartment-size fridge, we’d have to toss all the condiments to make space!

It took Leener’s, which specializes in “Make It” kits, six months to perfect the Corned Beef and Pastrami Kit. “We tried many recipes and methods of making corned beef and found that the traditional brine method produces the highest quality corned beef possible,” says company president Jim Leverentz. “Our goal is to bring back the old-fashioned goodness and flavors of a more patient time along with the satisfaction of making it yourself. You will be enjoying the best corned beef and pastrami sandwiches you have ever eaten.” (EDITOR’S NOTE: Although it goes without saying, you also need a top-quality brisket.)

In fact, the company also makes kits for the other ingredients of a Reuben sandwich: an Artisan Bread Kit to make deli-style rye, a Sauerkraut and Dill Pickle Kit, a Deluxe Cheese Kit for the Swiss cheese and a Mustard Making Kit. Pair the Reuben with your choice of brews from Leener’s Home Brewery System.

The Corned Beef & Pastrami Kit is sold in a four-pack for $32.95, or $8.00 and change per brisket. You can give any extra kits to people who invite you over for barbecue or other meat-centric meals. Kits are also fun gifts for anyone who likes to cook.

Get your kits now.

BRISKET 101: A beef brisket consists of two parts, the flat and the point. Traditionally the flat is used to make corned beef for slicing. The point, while cured in the same way, is smoked to make pastrami.