G Wiv wrote:

Katie wrote:I think it's kinda funny that you guys have discovered mace and think no one else knows about it.

ronnie_suburban wrote:Please point out to me where I wrote that?

Big bowl of popcorn. Comfy chair. Diet Dr. Pepper.

Nah, nothing to see here. Fact is, my recipe, which has evolved muchly over the years, started as a riff on the recipe in Charcuterie by Ruhlman and Polcyn (a fact I mentioned in the very first post of this thread), and that recipe calls for blade mace. In spite of recent rumors, I did not discover or invent it, or even come up with the idea to use it in a fish cure.

=R=

Katie wrote:I think it's kinda funny that you guys have discovered mace and think no one else knows about it. As long-time bakers know, mace is the outer coating (webbing) of nutmeg, mace being slightly more pungent and spicier than nutmeg. My mom always had little jars of both mace and nutmeg, but I have to admit, I haven't bothered to look to see whether you could easily buy mace from the supermarket spice shelves for a long time. Mace blades are apparently what the pieces of webbing are called before they're ground up.

Which illustrates my point. That little jar of mace your mom had was completely tasteless. Mace is a lot like pepper. It quickly looses any flavor after being ground.

nothing more valuable than comments about an ingredient from someone who's never used it, or the recipe it's used in. yay internet!

Clarence for the cyber throat punch. May name my band that. Toilet Plumes is so last month.

Ahhh, I can see that the Summer doldrums, the Dog Days, the Sirius Days, of August are over and folks are starting to warm up! Onward Gary, Katie, Clarence, Jazzfood, onward all!



Geo

lougord99 wrote:Which illustrates my point. That little jar of mace your mom had was completely tasteless. Mace is a lot like pepper. It quickly looses any flavor after being ground.

I'm with you on that. For the few recipes that call for it specifically, ground mace doesn't seem (to me) worth keeping around, considering how quickly it loses its flavor.

Hi,

Until fairly recently, I thought mace was the barest brown covering on the nutmeg. I did not buy mace, because I could scrape it off.

I saw a picture of nutmeg in its cocoon (my word) and there was a red substance wrapped around the all familiar nutmeg. This was identified as mace.

Until I saw it, I realize I was mistaken on what mace may be. Here is a link to what nutmeg wrapped in mace looks like: https://www.shutterstock.com/image-phot ... 1015905043

Regards,
Cathy2

ronnie_suburban wrote:Please point out to me where I wrote that?

Nah, nothing to see here. Fact is, my recipe, which has evolved muchly over the years, started as a riff on the recipe in Charcuterie by Ruhlman and Polcyn (a fact I mentioned in the very first post of this thread), and that recipe calls for blade mace. In spite of recent rumors, I did not discover or invent it, or even come up with the idea to use it in a fish cure.

I see your point, and I was wrong to suggest otherwise. I appreciate your (and Lou's) polite responses.

lougord99 wrote:Mace is a lot like pepper. It quickly looses any flavor after being ground.

Speaking of fresh mace, I bought some for the bride to carry in her purse. She Firmly said, thanks but no thanks. I plan on making cured salmon this week, maybe I'll use this instead of going to the latest iteration of The Spice House.



Lox and cream cheese, count me a Fan!

Did you discover it?

Jazzfood wrote:Did you discover it?

F'n A right I did!

Did you know I have the patent both on lox and cream cheese and peanut butter and chocolate? You're welcome.

Life is good when a friend drops a socially distant hunk of beautiful cold smoked salmon at your door. Thank you kind sir.

Click on image to enlarge






Friends, count me a Fan!

Color me jealous.

I need more friends like yours.

G Wiv wrote:Life is good when a friend drops a socially distant hunk of beautiful cold smoked salmon at your door. Thank you kind sir.

With apologies, I told you I thought that fish, as wonderful as it was, was only a 7/10. No doubt, it was a fine specimen. The piece of it I cooked -- the portion that wouldn't fit in the curing vessel -- was tremendous. But at the end of the process, I wasn't entirely happy with the cold-smoked portion of that side. Yes, it was tasty but it lacked the fattiness and unctuousness that are signature traits of the best batches I've made in the past. While we quickly and happily snarfed down the rather large portion we didn't give away, the shortcomings gnawed at me; mocked me. I had to take another shot, and I needed better starting stock.

I called a connected friend who was able to hook me up with this . . .


Ora King Salmon & Makoto AS Ryusei Gyuto, 210mm

You can clearly see the striations of fattiness running throughout the fish. This seemed ideal. Following my usual recipe and method (detailed above), I cured the fish for a scant 24 hours, pressing it with just a couple of pounds (not the brick), after which I rinsed it and dried it before cold-smoking it. This time, I took extra precaution with the smoking, 8 feet of extra precaution, to be exact . . .


Revamped Cold-Smoking Rig
As much duct tape as I've unrolled in my life, never was there a more precisely targeted application for it as this. I figured that adding extra distance between the fire and the fish could only improve things. I'm not sure it had much impact (smoke during every previous session has been cool to the touch), but it was nice not having to monitor the fluctuations in the fire's intensity or continually make adjustments during the process. Not that this is ever 'set it and forget it,' but the process wasn't quite the razor's edge that it has been in the past. In the end, I think the apple wood produced a gentle smoke for about 4 hours after which I retrieved the fish, vacuum-sealed it and stowed it away in the fridge.

After 6 months and 1 day, I finally entered a store for the first time. I donned an N95 mask and stopped in for some bagels at NYB&B on Touhy. Then, I headed home to make a lunch of the Ora . . .


Cold-Smoked Salmon on Sesame Bagel with Homegrown Tomato, etc.
As I've always said, the finished product can only be as good as the fish you start with allows. This fish was spectacular and I'm happy to report that I didn't f*ck it up.

Gary, I owe you a piece of this one.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:Gary, I owe you a piece of this one.

I am faint with expectation.

Also, kudos on you first gentle toe back in a store. If you gotta go, going for NYB&B on Touhy is the way to go going. (fucked up sentence but you get the drift )

Ronnie's beautiful fish, count me a Fan!

G Wiv wrote: Also, kudos on you first gentle toe back in a store. If you gotta go, going for NYB&B on Touhy is the way to go going. (fucked up sentence but you get the drift )

I completely agree with this. NYB&B limits the number of people in the store and mask wearing abounds.

The GP wrote:

G Wiv wrote: Also, kudos on you first gentle toe back in a store. If you gotta go, going for NYB&B on Touhy is the way to go going. (fucked up sentence but you get the drift )

I completely agree with this. NYB&B limits the number of people in the store and mask wearing abounds.

Yes, it was pretty reasonable. You can never completely control what some knucklehead customers do but the staff did a pretty good job of managing the flow and letting some people know, as they arrived, that they had to wait outside.

There was one moment when the customer nearest me, for whatever reason, felt he needed to be closer to an item in the case in order to order it. That brought him well within 6 feet of me. I wanted to scream at him that he should just use his words (for God's sake man, just say lox spread!) but instead, I decided to just take a couple steps back.

=R=

I'm planning my first cold-smoked salmon. I have a Smoking Gun in a cabinet that's never gotten any use -- does anyone have any experience with one of those, would I be able to do 2-3 lbs of salmon with that, or does it not put out enough smoke?
Otherwise, the WSM and a dryer vent and cardboard box sounds like a plan.
I know Alton Brown uses a hot plate with wood chunks in the box.

I've only taken a tiny taste, but my first foray seems to have gone well.
A few notes:
1) I may have let it cure a little long (48 hrs but the pieces - King Salmon from Whole Foods - weren't very thick), there was a lot of liquid and the fish pretty stiff.
2) I forgot to put rum on the cure, I sprinkled a bit of dark rum on the fish after rinsing.
3) I used foil tape to connect the hose to my WSM and a cardboard box, but I didn't clean it first, it kept popping off. Magnets helped.
4) in today's weather, even without ice in the box, the fish never passed 45F in four hours of smoking.
5) I wish I'd bought more fish.