A Fenway Park tin filled with yummy
baseball shortbread. Photo courtesy
Cooperstown Cookie Co.

The rich, traditional shortbread cookies are handmade in the regulation size and shape of baseballs (3″ diameter). Fresh, light and fragrant with butter, they melt in your mouth.

The cookies are all natural with no preservatives or additives—just flour, butter, sugar, pure vanilla extract and a pinch of salt.

Unlike some shortbread recipes that can be a bit al dente, you can give a tin of these to Grandpa (or a kid with braces) without worrying about damage to the dental work.

Each tin—available with the logo of any Major League Baseball team—includes a tricky baseball trivia question. This gift will make the day of a baseball nut; and anyone who loves good shortbread will be thankful that proprietor Pati Drumm Grady put her family shortbread recipe to such good use.

“Julep” is a Middle English term for a sweet drink, derived sometime between 1350 and 1400 C.E. from the Arabic gulab (pronounced julab), which refers to rose petals steeped in water.

The mint julep originated in the American South in the 18th century, where it was made with bourbon or with genever (aged gin). The gentry served their mint juleps in silver or pewter cups, but a tall glass does just fine.

Today the gin has disappeared as an option. The ingredients of a mint julep are bourbon, mint, sugar and crushed or shaved ice—similar to a Mojito, which uses rum instead of bourbon.

Here are two recipes for mint juleps.

If you don’t like bourbon or want a change, here’s a variation of the mint julep from New York City’s 21 Club, called the South Side Cocktail. It uses a white spirit (gin, tequila, vodka, white rum) plus the addition of lemon juice.
 
SOUTH SIDE COCKTAIL RECIPE

Ingredients For 1 Drink

1. Place all ingredients in a shaker, and shake vigorously to bruise mint leaves.

2. Strain into a chilled collins glass filled with ice.

As today is also Memorial Day, we toast to all who have fallen while, defending our country.

MINT JULEP HISTORY
  

Do we have to cook this beautiful beef to
well done? Maybe not. Photo by FCAFoto
Digital | IST.

Because ground meat has been a significant source of foodborne illness, the USDA advises consumers to use a meat thermometer when cooking burgers. In other words, you should not rely on eyeballing the internal color of the meat to ensure it’s safe to eat.

The agency’s research has shown that the color of meat is not a reliable indicator of ground beef safety. To be safe from harmful bacteria such as E. coli, ground beef must be cooked thoroughly to 160°F: thoroughly well done. This recommendation applies to all ground beef, including meat balls and meat loaf.

Why, then, can you eat steak as rare as you like?

When a steak, roast or other cut of beef is cooked, the heat kills all the bacteria, which are on the surface of the meat.

When beef is ground, however, the bacteria are dispersed to every individual ground bit. They’ll be killed if they’re on the surface of the meat that’s exposed to the heat. But unless the ground beef is cooked to 160°F, any harmful bacteria inside the beef/meat ball/meat loaf will still be viable.

If you love your beef medium rare—and we do—you have options to limit your exposure. While there are no guarantees, you can:

 
A meat grinder does more than make burgers. You can grind your own pork, poultry, veal and lamb as well as beef; and make sausages, ham salad, ham loaf, chopped liver, corned beef hash—even cat food.

O.K., so where’s the beef? Otherwise asked, how to you get your burger or steak to the desired degree of doneness?

If you don’t have a meat thermometer, you can try it by touch. While that’s not what the USDA advises, that’s how chefs in every restaurant do it. See this simple meat doneness pictorial and try it.

Meat Thermometer Readings For Steak & Burgers

 
Remember that food continues to cook internally when it’s removed from the heat. So removing it from the stove or grill when the meat thermometer reads 10°F less for beef, 5°F less for burgers (because they don’t need to “rest” for 10-15 minutes before slicing).

To speak with an expert, call the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline, 1.888.MPHotline (1.888.674.6854) during business hours. Learn more at IsItDoneYet.gov.

At 21 Club, though, customers also want a luxury burger. In honor of National Hamburger Day, May 28th, here’s Chef Greeley’s recipe, which uses duck fat to add panache:

21 BURGER RECIPE
Yields 8 burgers.

Ingredients

The 21 Burger. Photo courtesy 21 Club.

 
Preparation
1. In a mixing bowl add the beef, duck fat or Crisco, fennel, cayenne pepper, ground pepper, thyme, rosemary, egg and onion. Mix until all ingredients are incorporated evenly.
2. Divide the beef mixture into four 8-ounce burgers. Pack and shape them.
3. On a hot grill place the burger and cook for approximately 4-1/2 minutes on each side for medium rare temperature. Cook longer for a more well?done burger, if desired.
4. Serve on a bun with desired garnishes.

[1] Grilled fruit is a welcome treat (photo © Melissa’s Produce).

[2] It’s easy to cut fresh pineapple into chunks. First, cut a wedge lengthwise (photo © The Fruit Company)./td>

A fruit salad (do you have time to carved a watermelon basket?) is always welcome; as are fruit skewers, easily made by adding cut fruits and whole berries to wooden skewers and inserting into a half melon placed face down on a tray.

But grilled fruit skewers are even more fun.

Here’s a basic recipe for grilling all fruits.

Melissa’s uses its own Sugar Cane Swizzle Stix instead of wood skewers, and adds a dessert sauce. We prefer the natural, sweet flavor of the fruit without a sauce.

And you don’t need skewers. You can grill watermelon and pineapple slices, and halved tree fruits.
 
 
GRILLED PINEAPPLE & STRAWBERRY SKEWERS

Ingredients

Want something more elaborate? Try these recipes: