Archive for October, 2009
Crack is wack: Breaking 100 eggs, Crossfit-style
You can run, but you can’t hide
104, actually. But let’s back up for a minute.
Recently I’ve been doing a lot of Crossfit, this crazy-intense exercise program. Its trademark workouts comprise a whole mess of weightlifting, bodyweight exercises like pullups, and sprints – all done as quickly as possible while keeping good form, like this one. One of the main reasons I like Crossfit is this timing element; it puts the element of sport into it, and takes the tedium out of things – you’re so busy racing the clock that boredom never figures into the equation.
I had always wanted to apply this balls-out methodology to other walks of life. So when I realized I’d be cracking 104 eggs for this party (80 for Cremini mushroom frittatas, 24 for pâte à choux with Gruyere and Parmesan), it seemed a natural opportunity to incorporate some Crossfit-style discipline into my cooking. I would break nearly nine dozen eggs for time.
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Is Dry-Curing this Filet Preparing Me for Fatherhood?
I think I’ll name her Gladys.
I’m not sure that it isn’t.
I’m cooking for a party on Thursday night, and one of the pièces de resistance is a dry-cured filet, diced up and served on potato crisps.
The simple but fascinating dry-curing process involves covering the filet completely in a mixture of sugar and salt (I used 2lbs. of kosher salt and 3-4 of sugar, plus a rosemary sprig I’d had left over) for three days. The filet is practically buried in the sugar-salt combo, then the whole thing placed in the fridge. And as time goes by, the salt and sugar draw the liquid out of the filet, like in that awesome coffee shot in Blue.
I’ll get more into curing at a later date, but in short: the curing process, which dates back to at least the Greeks, was developed solely to preserve meat in the days before refrigeration. And it really works; it kills bacteria by drawing water out of meat and microbe both, rendering meat safe, even without cooking. However, it had another, unintended side effect: it made things delicious.
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