The Heart Of Texas

Breakfast Sausage 1 pork butt trimmed Fresh ground organic sage (fluffy and fragrant) (5T) Fresh garlic (to taste) (5T) black pepper, white pepper and Szechuan peppercorns (rough pulverized together) (5T) organic red pepper flakes (pulverized) (1T) whole fresh organic nutmeg (pulverized) (3T) whole coriander (roasted and pulverized) (3T) whole camino (roasted and pulverized)  (3T) pink Himalayan sea salt (to taste) a dollop of Bragg’s apple cider vinegar (1/2oz) the juice of 2 fresh limes I trimmed the pork butt into small rectangular shaped pieces so they would feed easily through my grinder.  I put all the above ingredients and thoroughly mixed with the meat and let it marinate for an hour.  With the fine blade I ground the pork one time and then mixed the ground pork by hand.  The outcome is an extremely flavorful breakfast sausage.

I have been experimenting with various flavors here lately.  When it comes to citrus, I like the flavor and sweetness of the pineapple.  Pineapple juice marinated jerky is very flavorful.  I like to get my salt from soy sauce another of my favorite flavors that really goes well with jerky.  So my thinking on this batch was to lower the heat by reducing the amount of red pepper.   Keep in mind these are organic, Indian, rep pepper flakes.  Very hot to say the least.  The sweetness would come from pure sugar cane crystals and the pineapple.  The first thing I did was lay out the strips on the aluminum foil sheets.  I then dusted with granulated garlic and granulated onion, fresh cracked Tellicherry black peppercorns and a little pink Himalayan sea salt.  I then painted with a mixture of pineapple juice, soy and sugarcane crystals all over the meat.  The final step was to sprinkle with red pepper flakes that I partially powderized...

Here is a dry rub recipe that rocks!  This is a base that can easily be heated up with additional pepper.  The nutmeg is discernible in this very large batch.  The cayenne is on the lower end of the Scoville scale.  ~  Enjoy~

Everyone should make their own beef jerky.  I have been a connoisseur of beef jerky all my life.  The various Polish, German, Czech etc meat markets around Texas do a very good job.  You can't drive by Prasek's Market and not stop, not if you have any sense.  Prasek's has a huge selection of jerky and beef sticks and it is all great! My buddy in Northern California has been consistently turning out beef jerky superior to anything I have ever tasted.  The Northern California climate is very favorable to the production of beef jerky.  The low humidity is the exact opposite of the climate here in Southeast Texas. The method: I carefully laid out strips of grass fed beef roast sliced thin.  I then sprinkled with garlic powder, black pepper, salt, sucanat (natural sugar cane crystals) , red pepper both pulverized and whole.  I then mixed up some soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, pulverized pineapple and sucant.  I used a submersible blender...

Marinara Sauce 6 large tomatoes blanched and chopped ½ onion 1 C fresh basil ½ T black pepper Fresh garlic to taste  1 T or more 2 t sea salt 2 T olive oil 1 T sucanat 1 T balsamic vinegar Tighten with arrowroot or corn starch I finely chopped half of an onion and sauteed until caramelized.  Add the tomatoes, garlic, basil, black pepper, salt, sucanat and vinegar.  Simmer for a few minutes and add the corn starch.  Delicious ~

I have been thinking of a flavor in my mind for quite some time and trying to create a base rub unique to the world drawing on my southeast Texas experience.  I got the itch to experiment with flavors.  Here is an excellent outcome for you to try ~  It is pretty interesting.  I added Schezwan peppercorns and coriander and modified amounts.  I toasted the coriander in a black iron skillet.  I pulverized 1 cup of pink Himalayan sea salt, 1 cup of Tellicherry black peppercorns, 2 cups sucanat and  ½ cup coriander.  The paprika and onion were already a fine powder.  The garlic was granulated.  I did not pulverize the granulated garlic.  All of the ingredients are organic and the finest available.  Most come from Whole Foods or Central Market.  The coriander I used is whole fresh organic.  The paprika is organic Spanish sweet already pulverized to a fine powder. After I combined all ingredients and mixed very well I co...

Country Pancakes 1 Cup Oat Flour 1 Cup Pastry Wheat Flour 1 Cup organic unbleached all purpose 3 eggs 1 T baking powder 4 T Sucanat 2 Cups milk 1/4 Cup olive oil 1 t Mexican vanilla I ground all my flour except the organic unbleached all purpose flour.  I beat the eggs in the milk and mixed all ingredients.  As a family, we had some plain, some with blueberries and some with chocolate chips.  The outcome was excellent.

Here is a dry rub with a kick.  Not too much, but you know it has pepper in it.  I still used pink Himalayan sea salt and organic tellicherry black peppercorns and organic Spanish sweet paprika and sucarnat.  The quantities are in the picture.  This dry rub is excellent.  I just tried it out on chicken, pork and beef.  30 Fresno peppers pulverized in a spice mill adds a deep, dull heat unlike the cheap burn of cayenne.