How to cook ribeye like a 19th century mountain man

I got my recipe from a 19th century mountain man.

1 Ribeye
1 tsp Koshering Salt (I use Sur La Table Kosher Salt. It has a nice consistency)
1 tsp Pepper (Black cracked peppercorn. Do yourself a favor and get a pepper grinder)
oil (anything with a high smoke point. enough to coat each side)

Cast iron (I use a Lodge 12" skillet)
Cooling rack (I use a stainless steal as opposed to chrome because stainless steal can go in the oven where            chrome cannot)

Ribeye. This is one of my favorite cuts of beef. Ribeye is muscle of the rib section that spans ribs 6 through 12. It is mostly comprised of the Longissimus dorsi muscle. It has excellent marbling, which adds outstanding flavor and tenderness to each bite. Seriously. Try it.

Koshering Salt consist of sodium chloride with no additives. It is referred to as Kosher salt, but that is a misnomer. Where you have some salts that are certified kosher, this is an additive free salt used for koshering meats under kashrut. Koshering salt is not recommended for some baking due to its large grain size, however, it is my salt of choice in the kitchen.

Pepper is, surprisingly enough, dried fruit of the Piper nigrum, a flowering vine found in South East Asia. The different colors are indicative of the ripeness of the fruit when picked and the drying process. The most common pepper used is black. Black pepper is made by a process of harvesting the fruit when still green then boiling, which breaks down the cell walls and turns the pepper black. It is then dried for several days and makes your ribeye taste more delicious. There is a lot of history and use of pepper throughout antiquity, however, the most important thing to note is that it has been utilized by nearly every culture who has come into contact with it due to its very unique taste.

I do not own the rights to this image. 

Oil. In this case, it is best to use an oil that has a relatively high smoke point. DO NOT USE OLIVE OIL which has a smoke point of around 350 F. I like grape seed oil which has a smoke point of about 420-450 F. Also peanut oil and canola oil which have respective smoke points of around 480 F work well to. For a nice twist, use avocado oil. Smoke point is around 500 F for this oil.

Ovens are hot.

Cast Iron. My cast iron of choice is lodge logic. It is cheap and well built. An average skillet runs about $30 and if well taken care of can last generations. Cast iron does have a relatively low melting point, but I would be very impressed if you could get cast iron to melt  in your home oven. However, cast iron is able to be heated and maintain higher temperatures then other cookware. This makes cast iron the best choice for searing and frying. If you are anemic, this is also the cookware of choice as it leaches iron into your food.  Cast iron is fairly easy to maintain. As long as you keep it seasoned, it will maintain nonstick properties and you can just rinse it out or wipe it clean with a paper towel. DO NOT leave any moisture on it as it will pit and rust. Also, it is more than appropriate to wipe the inside with a heat resistant oil such as canola. Additionally, it is important to note that cast iron, along with other non-Teflon coated cookware, that it has a certain amount of porosity to it. What this means in the kitchen, is that if you are to place protein into a cold pan, it will leach into those pores and as the pan heats up, the proteins will stick to the pan. However, if you heat up the pan prior to cooking, as demonstrated below, it will provide a smooth, even cooking surface.

On to cooking the meat.

Thaw your ribeyes the night before cooking in the refrigerating unit of your domicile. Remove the steaks approximately 30-40 minutes prior to cooking and wrap them in cellophane to prevent moisture loss. This would be a good time to preheat your oven. Place a cast iron skillet in the oven on the center rack and set the oven temperature for 500 F. It's cast iron, it can't get too hot. The oven will take a while to get hot, so you have plenty of time to get all of your sides together (what ever you want. I will recommend great sides to pair with this upon request) and prepare the steaks. When the steak no longer feels "chilled" to the touch coat with oil and allow the excess to drain off. The purpose of doing this is to fill in the surface of the stake to give it an even cooking surface. This next step will need to be done to your individual taste, but I do 1 tsp of salt and 1 tsp of fresh ground black pepper. Add salt and pepper to both sides covering the steak. This allows a crust to form on the surface of the meat allowing it to retain more moisture thus becoming melt in your mouth tender.  Take the cast iron out of oven and please use oven mitts with a high temperature resistance. I cannot stress this enough. Turn the burner up to high on your stove and set the cast iron on there so the the skillet does not lose heat. If you are in your home, prepare yourself for smoke alarms. They will go off.

In the spirit of cooking like a mountain man, I did this in a wood stove, which can yield temperatures in the excess of 1000 F. You can do this on any heat source (such as a grill) that can produce and sustain temperature of 500 F. 

Sear both sides (30 second on each side for a 1 inch thick ribeye. Decrease or increase for each 1/2 inch taken away or added). Once seared, there should be a nice crust. Stick the skillet back in the oven for approximately 1-3 minutes on each side depending on how well done you like your steak. 1 minute will yield a rare steak. 2 minutes will be medium and 3 minutes will be well well done. Remember, steak does not stop cooking once you remove it from the heat source (the interior temperature of the meat will on average increase 5-10 F after being removed from the heat source). I suggest a maximum of 2 minutes on each side in the oven. Medium rare (130-140 F) to medium (140-150 F)  is really the best for this cut of steak.  Remove the steak from your oven, place it on a wire rack and cover with foil. Let it sit for about 10 minutes to allow temperatures to come down and the steak to rest. This will keep your steak tender. I suggest putting a plate under the cooling rack. Trust me. Enjoy being able to cut your steak with a fork!

Sorry, not much history on ribeye...

Pizza

Pizza. What can I say about pizza? Pizza is such a versatile food and can, more often then not, be catered to any taste. The origins of Pizza are unclear at best (many, including myself, believe that pizza has its origins in Ancient Greece as a dish called plakous which is flat bread topped with olive oil herbs onion and garlic), but it is unanimously agreed that during the 17th and 18th century, the Naples area of Italy gave us pizza similar to what we know today. But how did we get pizza? Simply put, tomatoes were a common ingredient among the poor as the tomato was thought to be poisonous well into the 16th century after it was brought from the Americas. This caused a distaste among the ruling class until much later. However in the late 18th century, tomatoes on flat bread was very popular among the poor and middle classes and eventually came to be a tourist attraction. 

The Naples area has remained one of the pizza capitals of the world. Neapolitan pizzas have been granted Traditional Specialty Guaranteed (TSG) certification to preserve traditional taste. What that means is that only specific and safeguarded recipes can be used for these pizzas. Two of the most prominent are Pizza Margherita (Presented to Queen Margherita of Savoy along with two other pizzas. This was her favorite as it resembeled the Italian flag of green red and white. Margherita pizza has tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese filets, and fresh basil leaves. This was in 1889 and the first recorded time cheese was added to pizza) and Pizza Marinara (which has a long tradition of being prepared by a "seaman's" wife and has the traditional toppings of  tomato, oregano, garlic, and EVO). 

Pizza has spread to all corners of the world where Italians have immigrated and has certainly been catered to regional taste. Everything from Thai and curry pizzas to Southwestern barbecue chicken pizza. Here in North American we have New York style thin crust, Chicago deep dish, and California non-traditional. One of my favorites right now is barbecue pork, sweet bourbon sauce, jalapenos, and mango slices. A long way from pizza margherita but delicious nonetheless. 

Pizza of late has been ragged on because of its "unhealthy" appeal as junk food. There was quite a controversy when the U.S. congress recently certified pizza as a vegetable. Thoughit is very true that frozen and delivery pizzas have a inordinate amount of sodium and sugar, when you make your own pizza you can certainly control that. The disclaimer is that homemade pizza is not a convenience food. It's not quick if making it all same day. However the dough and sauce, and if you so choose, the cheese can be made up to a week in advance. The dough can be frozen and used later. 

Pizza is certainly a comfort food that can be an excellent ice breaker for entertaining, or a great healthy for the family. 

On to the recipe.

For this pizza, I made everything aside from the meat. This pizza was non traditional in the sense that non traditional topping were used. It resembled a Pizza capricciosa (mozzarella, tomato, mushrooms, artichokes, cooked ham, olives and oil) only I used jalapenos instead of olives and omitted the mushrooms. I also used homemade mozzarella for a fresh taste. I will include a blog post on mozzarella upon request.  

The dough. A good dough makes or break the pizza. There are dozens, if not hundreds of variations of the same recipes when it comes to pizza dough. I myself have at least 10 different recipes I use on a regular basis.  

Tools needed:

Saute pan

Pizza stone

Pizza peel

Parchment paper

Pizza cutter

everything else is icing on the cake

Dough: 

3 1/3 cups of all-purpose flour. Extra for dusting

1/4 cups of whole wheat flour (if no whole wheat flour 3 1/2- 3 3/4 cups of all-purpose flour)

2 1/2  tsp (1 package) of yeast

1 tbsp of sugar (use Honey)

1 tbsp salt (Koshering salt as it is pure without additives)

1 1/4 cups warm water (110 F) to warm kills the yeast, to cold won't activate the yeast.

2 tbsp Olive Oil (Extra Virgin cold press)

Put the yeast in the water to activate for about 10 minutes. You'll know if it's activated. Mix the dry ingredients and sift them. Add the oil and honey to wet mixture and start adding the dry ingredient a little bit at a time. If hand kneading, make sure surface is clean and knead for approximately 10 minutes until "elastic". If using a stand mixer or bread machine, activate the yeast and then unceremoniously dump the ingredients in and allow the machines to do the work. Then let the dough sit in a warm place for about 30 minutes or until the dough doubles in size. 

While the dough is rising, make some sauce. Again, taste is subjective and some like sweeter sauce. I don't. I like to taste the tomatoes. If crunched for time, or just don't want to make an elaborate sauce (remember the sauce should be an accent and not overpower the taste of the crust) here is an easy recipe.

1 15 oz can tomato sauce. Get good quality as some generics can have a faint metallic taste

3 oz tomato paste. 

1 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning

1 tsp garlic powder

A splash of honey 

Simmer on stove top, and correct seasoning as needed. It is very hard to screw this sauce up.

However, My sauce of choice right now

1/4 cup EVO

4 or 5 cloves garlic. Minced

1 can crushed tomatoes (or crush your own favorite. I like plum tomatoes for this)

1/3 cup water

1 tbsp fresh cut basil leaves (1 tsp dried. you can get a dehydrator and make your own dried herbs)

3/4 tsp dried oregano 

1/4 tsp dried thyme

1-2 tbsp red wine vinegar. Don't go cheap here. 

Salt and pepper to taste (many canned tomatoes are already salted for preservation. taste the tomatoes before adding anything else. Use Koshering salt and fresh ground pepper)

Saute Garlic in EVO 

Heat up skillet over medium heat and pour oil in. When you turn on the stove. Take a second to put your pizza stone in, yes...a pizza stone (it emulates the stone ovens used in Naples), the oven and preheat the oven to 450. When oil is read it should "ribbon" against the pan when swirled around. If your oil starts smoking it is TOO HOT. Once the oil start "ribboning" put garlic in and lower heat to medium low. Saute the garlic until fragrant (about 2-3 minutes) but be wary that if garlic turns brown it will become extremely bitter. Mix all other ingredient except salt and pepper and only add 1 tbsp of vinegar into a bowl. Add garlic and oil into the mixture stir and let sit for a minute. Taste, and then correct flavor with salt, pepper, and vinegar. Use immediately or refrigerate until ready. Oil will separate from the tomatoes. Just stir prior to use. 

Most important aspect of cooking...Make sure you have a good Sous chef! Mines a Pro. 

By now, dough should be ready. Punch it. Punch it good. It's fun. Take your pizza peal and line it with parchment paper ( traditionally flour or cornmeal could be used, but it tends to burn, so parchment is a good substitute. It is heat resistant and thin enough to not interfere with the pizza stone magic. Build your pizza on the parchment paper on the peel. Place your dough on the center of the peel, work it into the desired thickness (about half and inch) and shape. Leave slight finger depression in the dough. It will catch the sauce. 

Now Oil the outer crust. I use a mixture of EVO, melted butter, and minced garlic. Add your sauce and toppings and put in the oven before the dough has time to absorb the oil mixture. Pizza will cook right on the paper. Cook time should take about 10 minutes. Crust should be a brown. Yes brown. Not burnt. Not lightly brown...but brown. Use the peel to free the pizza from its fiery prison and let sit for about 3 minutes. Enjoy. It should be delicious and healthy. 

Homemade mozzarella, cooked ham, artichokes, jalapenos.

If you would like more history or variations of the dish or any ingredients, please let me know!

Welcome

Lets talk about food.  To some this may be another "dime a dozen" food blog where the blogger has a sense of inflated importance. To others, and these are my intended readers, I hope to demonstrate the importance of food in our lives. I will not stand on a soap box and condemn particular foods as unhealthy, or preach about a diet that requires you to consume 15 lbs of bacon in one sitting while drinking vinegar. That is not my intention.

Food, for all of its many purposes, is a relationship builder. It stems from evolutionary adaptations of gifting food to build social relationships and hierarchies. For example, Chimpanzees in the wild will often organize hunting parties in which they will gather some sort of meat source (i.e. A bush baby) and offer it up to others and share it as a group. This solidifies relationships and status within the community. Is this not unlike humans? Do we not invite and offend through our use of food? Do we not seek to share recipes that are close to our hearts, maybe even representing to us a sense of nostalgia and maternal love?  The answer is a very simple yes.

Food is almost universally thought of to be an individuals first glimpse into a foreign culture. We use it to cross boundaries and to sample the practices of cultures we do not quite understand. This sampling certainly brings change to our preferred foods, and opens us up to new culinary traditions and a greater variety. After all, most of our changes in diet are voluntary (with historical exceptions and modern exceptions). Crossing those boundaries of taste begin to allow us to move past ethnocentrism, recognizing the other traditions have much to offer, often far surpassing our own expectations of what is deemed "gourmet cuisine".

However, food offers much more, I think, as we also have recipes we cling to in times of despair and stress. Our comfort foods which envelop our sense of cultural conservatism, which is not a terrible thing, as it is these comfort foods, or in the south "soul" foods, that help us maintain our relationships by giving us something familiar that is commonly appreciated. This allows us to fill the conversation with discussions other than the culinary presentation and to enjoy one another.

To put it short, these are the sort of topics I will be discussing in this blog. I will be providing recipes, and tips on how to get "that darn chili to taste right". I will say this as an instant criticism to negative feedback on this or any other food blog. Taste is subjective, and I will certainly discuss this at a later time. However, I will suggest alternatives and substitutes. I welcome any positive criticism however, and I will take request on foods to prepare. There are no limits, but please be reasonable. I will not be preparing pidan. I will do my best to explore the history of each dish and how it relates to us as modern eaters.

 There is certainly a food revolution taking place, and I am trying to do my part by educating and receiving education at the same time. Thank you for coming to my blog.