Gravy's Cooking Thread

Yeah it just goes to show you that a lot of the shit we do is really nit-picky and most people aren't going to care as long as it's edible. Hell when I was in my 20's I used to put a rack of ribs on the grill and flip them every 15 minutes for about 45 minutes and I thought those were good. They may not make you a winner on "Beat Bobby Flay" or whatever but slather the shit in BBQ sauce and even if you really fucked them up they are still decent if you're cooking for people who aren't snobs.

TJT said:

I had to go to a kid's birthday party last week. I was thawing out some ribs to smoke but my wife put them in the fridge before they were thawed. Leaving me pressed for time when I had to cook them for the party. Because of this I tried the "hot and fast" method of making ribs instead of my usual 2.2.1-ish method. I prefer ribs to not be fall off the bone because then you should just be making pulled pork.

Anywho I cooked them for 4 hours at 300F. This left the ribs with a very thick bark and I thought I ruined them. Served em up at the party and the adults straight devoured 2 racks of ribs in less than 30 minutes. Everyone thought they were amazing.

This has made me question my sanity.

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Did you wrap or just let fly? I'm like you, I don't need them falling off the bone, but just tender enough to get a good bite with a good bark. What type of ribs were they? I'll do spare ribs every now and then, but I honestly prefer baby backs. Country style pork ribs are also great and very forgiving, but I mean it's just a Boston butt cut up, but I like the amount of crispy fat you can get.

We used to have Chinese barbecued ribs and fried rice a lot growing up, and all my mom did was hit the country style ribs with garlic pepper, throw them under the broiler and then based with a honey teriyaki sauce. I know it's not Chinese but that's what she called them, and I'll still make an improved version of that just on the grill. The fattier the ribs the better because you almost get a good pork crackling type deal.

I also don't like my pulled pork to where it's so stringy it just becomes mush. Good bark and good fat rendering, and then I just kind of break it up in a chunks or are you still actually get a piece of muscle. It's my wife's favorite thing but I'll smoke, and luckily it's the way she likes it too.
Out of stone keep up with some of the newer barbecue trends, and I just kind of go with my gut most of the time. Monitoring temps is really the most important thing, and cooking something at a higher temperature doesn't hurt if you're pressed for time. Having a water pan though I think is pretty crucial, or at least I tend to get better results, along with spritzing here and there.

But BrutulTM is right, most people are more than happy to eat your food if you're the one cooking it as long as it's edible. Smoke whatever meat with some barbecue sauce and some good sides, and they'll eat it up.

I made stuff in the past for get-togethers where I wasn't exactly happy with the result, but everybody said it was delicious and I at least hope they were being honest. I always tell folks let me know if there's something bad about it because that's the only way I'll get better, so I don't mind criticism.

Hey it's not like my platings any good.

Furry said:

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First time I've prepped squid. Think I got all the bad parts out, but there's a few things that feel questionable. Cross cut the bell and will marinate it overnight. I'll hack it into bite size pieces and fry it tomorrow. Here's hoping it doesn't turn into rubber.

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I've never fried one that big, I've always done the smaller ones. Always thought typically you would grill a larger cuttlefish or squid. The tentacles are always the best part on the little ones.

What are you going to marinate it in?

Post the end results because I'm curious how it'll end up turning out. Did you end up massaging it like the Japanese do with octopus for sushi dishes to try to make it more tender?

Calamari is one of those things that I've loved since I was a kid, and as an adult you can normally tell if a restaurant is going to be pretty good by ordering it as an appetizer, and if it's tender and has a light batter, you know your meals probably going to be spot on. It's not an easy thing to cook, but with a squid that big, you can do test batches and figure out just how long you need to fry it.

What are you going to dredge it in? What are you going to serve it with, or you just making a couple of dipping sauces?

Furry said:

Marinating it overnight in buttermilk. Tomorrow I'll switch some of it to a velveting marinade for the last few hours. I was going to try a few different batters. Typical flour/cornstarch dredge, and then various light tempura style batters. I'll probably toss a piece straight in just to see what happens. I got 2 lbs of squid to play with, which is way more than I'll eat, and I don't do leftover calamari. Should be fun, and squids were under 10$. Honestly I think all versions will probably taste good if the texture is right. That's gonna be the hard part.

For dip I got my home made tomato sauce. I'll just add a little extra herbs and oil and make it a marinara.

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Yeah you should have plenty of wiggle room to try different batters. I agree it only make as much as you're going to eat because it doesn't ever reheat. I know though I can tear through a pile of calamari. You should make a good aioli to go with your marinara, and lots of lemon and flaky salt. I just haven't had calamari in a while, and now I'm jonesing for it. I've had it before where it's had some fried basil leaves and some thin sliced rings of pepperoncini that were flash fried, no batter, when you get that acid bite. It can be pretty versatile, especially if you want to play around with drizzling some sort of sweet chili sauce or something on it.

Did you get it from HEB?

Calamari steaks is another thing I miss from living in California. Can't get any kind of calamari here really outside of a restaurant.

Furry said:

Got it from Zion Market. I like a good amount of salt and pepper on my calamari, and have a lime on hand. I rarely do aiolis, I just prefer marinara style dips with calamari. I think the last place I got calamari had an aioli and it was good, but I mostly stuck with the marinara and let the family trash the aioli.

I know I've seen the basil thing before, but never tried it. My basil plants are dying, but I think my lemon basil is still killing it. Maybe I'll try frying some lemon basil leaves and crumbling them. I assume they get crispy? Now I'm curious. I only fry stuff a few times a year now adays, so a lot of experiments I just haven't tried.

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Yeah, you just literally toss it into the oil for just a few seconds and then pull it out, them rest on paper towel. You can do the same thing with sage, but if you've got big leafy basil, it works really well. Our basil is still doing pretty good this year. I bet your lemon basil would probably be pretty good if it's pretty leafy. It's worth giving them a shot just as a nice and different garnish.

Like you I may be only deep fry stuff a few times a year, I just hate having a dick around with the oil unless it's a family get together, but sometimes you just get in the mood for something fried.

Furry said:

Interesting experience. The dredge was pretty much impossible to get right for me. The calamari was turned to rubber pretty much instantly. I fried pieces as little as 10 seconds and it was disgusting. The tempura batters insulated the squid much better, and had better success with them. When I worked in batches it was so so. Had to work a few at time and time them carefully to get consistent results. My fryer is a tiny piece of shit, and tempura batter likes to float, so I needed to keep them under or they'd turn into rubber. With shrimp I can just flip them, but not so with squid. With a large fryer and a basket it would have been way easier. The right fry time for me ended up being about 2 mins, slightly under. Super delicious on the ones I got right.

Tried the basil trick too. Kinda funny turning the leaves crispy. Didn't seem to change the flavor in any way, so something I might use in the future.

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Yeah the herb still retain their full flavor, just changes the texture, and it's just kind of a fun garnish.

I've never tried to fry a squid as big as the one that you had, so I would imagine it's a bit trickier. That's why I like the little ones better.

Hey, at least you got something good out of it. I if frying in a wok might be a better option if you don't have a bigger fryer. I don't own an independent unit, just an outdoor propane burner to do fish and stuff. Did you take any pictures of the results? Do you think the buttermilk marinade helped? I just wondered if it might make the batter to cakey to wear the squid would get overdone while you're waiting on the batter to get crispy, but if you drained and dried the pieces some, maybe that wasn't an issue.

Furry said:

I washed and dried the squid and then salted it some to sit out a bit before I added batter. I didn't take pictures. Did the marinade do anything positive? Hard to say. It definitely did absolutely nothing to mitigate overcooked squid, so I feel like the marinade might have been a scam. I didn't have unmarinated squid to compare it with, and the ones that came out right did come out super good.

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I know you said you did a velveting deal with it, what did that entail, or am I misremembering?

Furry said:

I put some in baking soda and water at the end. Couldn't tell the difference between the two. I probably should have just straight up not marinaded some. Basically the same as chicken velveting.

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I wonder if it's just because of the type of flesh squid has versus something like chicken for pork or it's more fibrous? Same thing with a buttermilk or the velveting technique just not being able to penetrate that type of muscle because it's almost more cartilaginous.

I honestly don't know, I guess that's why I'm asking the questions because I'm genuinely curious, but it's giving me food for thought on how to try to make it better. Maybe that's why the Japanese massage their octopus for sushi to just break down the flesh to where it's super tender.