Nice memory StCirq! Sounds like a real feast. It reminds me of when my village slaughter porc. Everybody gathers around. They make blood sausage with hand grinders too, but also dishes with raw thicken blood. We don't make confit or ham, so everything must be consumed quickly, and the children are particularly pleased (they don't have much to eat other days).


MyriamC: that seems a legitimate trick, I'll note it down for all kinds of fruit tart^^

<<they don't have much to eat other days>>

That sounds rather dire. What's up with that?

Sorry, I meant they didn't have much meat to eat other days. Otherwise they were still fed enough of rice. It's a poor village in Asia.

>> alongside some serious wine drinking <<

StCirq - this was the greatest post ever!

<i>they'd drain the blood and start making blood sausage (with hand grinders)</i>

What were they grinding?

Michael, I'm not sure, as for me it was hard to tell one part of a pig from another - unlike with a duck or a goose, where it's easy to tell which part is which. But they did have the trotters separated, and the heads (from which they scraped the cheeks). The focus was definitely on the fowl, so maybe I didn't pay enough attention, plus I am not enamored of blood sausage, but it seemed as though they were feeding pig flesh, from the body of the (cooked) pig, into grinders along with herbs - fennel is one I remember - and churning out sausages (chipotalas? most likely, around here). It's also quite possible that these were sangliers, not just farm-raised pigs, because sanglier is a staple around here in hunting season. As I said, the focus was not on the pig - it was all about the ducks and geese. The pig/boar seemed like kind of an afterthought, though it was always huge and impressive. And I did love Mme. Lacoste's pig confit, maybe because it was such a welcome change after all the duck and goose here,, which seems to be so exotic to Americans, but which is an absolute staple of the diet here.

How we went from tenderised octopus to pig grinder! :D
Amazing thread.

Christmas season is approaching! We will start baking Christmas cookies next weekend!

I titled this thread "Cooking Secrets". My next recipe tells you a real secret how to raise very simple cookies on a next level.

In Germany, we call these cookies "Heidesand" which means something like "heathland sand" (in Northern Germany we have heathlands with large sandfields). The ingredients are simple, and people from the Anglo-Saxon world might be reminded of shortbread. But there is a little secret involved. Here it goes:

250g butter
250g sugar
400g flour
2 tblsp cocoa powder (for marbled Heidesands)
2 pinches of salt

It begins with the secret: At first, brown the butter in a pan. Browning the butter brings out more flavours and makes these simple cookies delicious treats. Caramel flavours will emerge and the butter flavour will become more intense.

When the butter is lightly browned, let it cool. Whisk until it is frothy. Stir in sugar and salt, then flour. Take one half of the dough away and mix cocoa powder into the other half. Then work both doughs slightly together so that a marble pattern emerges (more sophisticated patterns are possible). Form dough into a roll, wrap in foil and put it for one hour into the refrigerator.

Heat the oven to 180°C. Cut the dough roll into slices and bake them for 12 minutes. Cookies should not become brown.

The right timing traveller! I made cookies last week to my friends but the result was not exceptional. Maybe because I didn't brown the butter. Will try it again.

I notice you don't use egg nor levure in your cookies?


* I stocked up too many recipes and I don't have time to test them all, shame on me.

>> I notice you don't use egg nor levure in your cookies? <<

No, the simpler the better. Pure taste.

thank you for that simple tip, traveller.

Biscuit making this weekend, I think.

Will no one give the secret to keeping ravioi from rupturing? (Store bought, I'm afraid, but still ...)

don't have the water too hot, AJP. you don't have to have to at a rolling boil ,just simmering.

and use a slotted spoon to put the ravioli into the water and to take them out.

T1959 I like the butter browning, I am trying that.

When you make ravioli you press the edges together with a fork.

Maybe it works if you give your store-bought ravioli a little after-treatment (only if the pasta are still somewhat soft).

Otherwise, you may cook them too long. Also ravioli should be eaten al dente. The general rules to keep them intact are:

- Use a large pot with lots of water, so they can swim freely in the water.
- Do not stir.
- As said, they should only simmer.
- There are ready if they rise to the surface (usually after two minutes).
- Take them carefully out of the water with a slotted spoon and place them on the plates. Do not mix with sauce, just pour the sauce over the ravioli after you placed them on the plate.

http://dashofsavory.com/duck-confit-ravioli/
https://de.pinterest.com/alenka100/ravioli/

Thanks, T1959. I boiled hard and stirred. Will try the right way next time.

Another Christmas cookie recipe.

It is popular in Northern Europe, Germany, Netherlands, Denmark, parts of France and it is called "Spritzgebäck" in German or "spritz biscuits" in English (according to an online dictionary). I have tried to find an English translation for "spritzen" but have not found anything sensible except "extruding" which may not enhance your appetite.

There are endless variations of Spritzgebäck, but I write down my favourite one - with almonds and a hint of rum:

500g butter
350g sugar
500g flour
175g starch
175g ground almonds
a good amount of vanilla extract
a hearty glass of dark rum

Mix everything together, starting with butter and sugar.

Then, the dough is extruded onto a baking tray. For the extrusion, I use a meat grinder (which we never use to grind meat). It looks like this:

http://fleischwolfcheck.de/spritzgebaeck-fleischwolf/

Alternatively, you could use a cookie press, a cake decorator or pastry bag mit different nozzles. A meat grinder works best if the dough is refrigerated and firm, while for the other devices the dough must have room temperature. The result is better if you use the meat grinder with cooled dough.

Anyway, you bake the cookies until golden brown. You may coat some of them with chocolate after baking, but we love them straight and pure.

Browning the butter (as in a previous recipe) is not necessary because the delicate form of the extruded cookies and the oven will do the caramelizing.

You can buy factory-made spritz in Europe, but usually they are not good because they use cheap shortening instead of butter. According to recent research, butter is healthier anyway because of its low content of trans fats.

thanks, traveller; I don't often make biscuits but I might have a go at some of yours. The only ones I have seen at Christmas have been Pfefferkuchen; I was first introduced to them when I was learning German at school and the teachers organised a German carol concert with food like Stollen and Pfefferkuchen. I hated them then, and have hated them ever since.

Pfefferkuchen are from the medieval times when oriental spices were precious. So, those who could afford them, used them for everything and in unbelievable amounts.

Pfefferkuchen have in fact been made with pepper and although I like spicy food, I find pepper does not really agree with cookies.

We also have Spekulatius cookies with cardamon, cinnamon and cloves and these are really good.

I see the Danes have an EU opt-out for cinnemon as their consumption is consider unhealthy by Brussels.