Home Cooking Archives - Burger, Dogs, Pizza Oh My!

Vollwerths Blood Sausage Review

April 7, 2020 BurgerDogBoy

Vollwerths Blood Sausage Review

Blood sausage is made all over the world with varying protein ingredients, including pork, beef, goat and other meats. The meat is added in different amounts, depending on the region, along with the animals blood and it is allowed to dry or congeal enough to be put into a natural casing.

This version is made by YOOPERS! Say what? Yoopers is a nickname for people who live or are from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, which if you haven’t been there is kind of a world all its own. The manufacturer, Vollwerth, has been cranking these and other ring sausages out since 1915, along with links, ground meat hubs, and several canned meat / sauce products.

The ingredients in this version include: pork snouts, beef blood, pork, calcium reduced dried skim milk, salt, flavorings, dextrose, sodium nitrite. Oink.

As you can see from the pic at the right –>>> the consistency is crumbly, much like (Mexican) chorizo or the Cajun sausage boudin. As such, this isn’t on my regular shopping or consuming lists. I don’t think bursting casings is automatically going to happen, just occurred because of the way I cooked the ring.

It’s really good flavor, granted, I just don’t like the texture of these products. The filler in boudin is rice. There used to be a boudin rouge, which had blood in it for color, but that has fallen by the wayside.

I’m using it to supplement the traditional Cajun dish of red beans and rice, which a friend asked me to prepare for their family today, even tho red beans traditionally IS ONLY SERVED ON MONDAYS!

The product locator on the website isn’t operating, but you can buy some of their products online, including sausages and their canned products.

A picture of the factory is below. It’s in Hancock, Michigan. You might be familiar with another UP food product, “pasties” which are meat and vegetable-filled pastries that were brought to the area by Cornish miners.

Vollwerths Blood Sausage Review

Category: Home Cooking, Hot off the Grill, Sausage Tags: Michigan, Sausage

Please-U Restaurant Review New Orleans

March 11, 2020 BurgerDogBoy

Please-U Restaurant Review New Orleans

Please-U Restaurant Review. “Since 1946.” Doesn’t that tell you all you need to know about the Please-U Restaurant, on St. Charles Avenue close into downtown? Open from 6A – 6PM, this old-timey diner serves all the American favorites as well as traditional New Orleans sandwiches and hot plate meals.

I wandered in early a couple of days last week, first for a customized breakfast po-boy with egg, cheese, bacon, ham, sausage, mayo, butter, lettuce and tomato, and another day for a muffaletta (they make their own olive salad!) after a muff disappointment the previous day somewhere else.

First time I got take-out, order was prepared fresh, hot, to my specs. Second time it was a bifurcated experience, half in, half out, after a couple of eye-opening crack-o-dawn coffees.

But both were excellent, and I’m a sandwich kind of guy. Bread was fresh, innards were ample, including the meats and cheeses. The server lady was right to crow about the house-made olive salad, it was excellent, and trust me, there are some bad versions in the city, like long on cauliflower and short on olives! Hey, it’s not called “cauliflower and carrot salad” is it? You can learn more about this tasty treat here. I make my own at home rather often.

Sandwich photo is mine, storefront pic is from their website.

Menu.

Please-U Restaurant Review New Orleans

Category: Bread, Breakfast, Home Cooking, Hot off the Grill, Traveling Tags: Breakfast, diner, New Orleans

Panamei Seafood Review – in Grocery Stores Nationwide

August 6, 2018 BurgerDogBoy

Panamei is one of the brands available from Quirch Foods, an importer, exporter, distributor of quality products to groceries and industrial accounts.

They trace their roots back to the early 20th century in Cuba, then after 59, immigrated to Puerto Rico, set up there, and finally to establish a base in the Miami area, where they are today.

The work the entire gamut of food – beef, pork, poultry and seafood – fresh and frozen.

I was attracted to their frozen seafood because of specials one of my local grocers was running, several weeks in a row. I hadn’t noticed the product line in the past.

First item up was one pound frozen blocks of lobster meat. Their lobster comes from Central America. The package ingredients say: lobster. Period. You should slow defrost it in the frig for 24-36 hours. It is raw. I chose to steam it, then gave the meat a quick char under the broiler. Mind you, this isn’t one or two small tails, this is loose meat, from tails and claws. Good for sandwiches, salads, bisque, bouillabaise, and casseroles.

The reason I broke the speed limit to get to the store the day I noticed the product in the circular, is because it was marked at $7. A pound. Lobster meat.

And it was delicious. Yes, there are a few packs in the freezer. This time around it evolved into tasty lobster rolls, split buttered, toasted bun, slight memo and finely diced celery bits in the salad.

Following week it was shrimp. Good size (13-15), great value at $6 a pound. Sourced from Southeast Asia, package ingredients, shrimp, salt, water. The flesh was very flavorful and firm. It was great on skewers on the grill. I’m damned picky about my shrimp, having lived in New Orleans for years. This meets the grade. Yes, I stocked up on this, also.

Check the products out if you run across them. Don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Store locator.

Panamei Seafood Review

Category: Food Business, Home Cooking, Hot off the Grill, Seafood Tags: @panameiseafood, frozen foods, Lobster, shrimp

Gloriosos Fresh Italian Sausage Review – Milwaukee, WI

June 22, 2018 BurgerDogBoy

Today I used some of their fresh Italian sausages for a home-made pizza. I only picked up two, of the “hot” not “sweet” variety, and they run about four ounces apiece at about a buck twenty per.

I have this quirk which there is no rhyme nor reason for. When I’m making a sausage pizza, I don’t buy bulk sausage, but links, strip off the casings and use hand-pulled pieces for my topping.

You don’t have to pre-cook it, but you can if you like. It cooks just fine on top of the pie in the regular baking cycle.

So I made my dough, laid on the sauce, some finely diced garlic and sliced cheeses (provolone and mozz – slices melt nicer than shreds, in my opinion).

Then I symmetrically laid out bits of sausage, a sprinkle of Italian herbs, and my personal “go-to” topping, diced green olives with pimentos.

Using fresh dough, it bakes up nicely at 500 for 10-12 minutes.

Glorioso’s hot sausage is a bit hot, it turns out. Most of the time when I select that type of sausage, “hot” means lots of fennel and Italian herbs. But this wasn’t objectional at all, had great flavor, proper about of fat and great texture.

I only bought two as I said. I should have bought a couple dozen.

Gloriosos Fresh Italian Sausage Review

Category: Deli, Food Business, Home Cooking, Hot off the Grill, Pizza, Sausage Tags: home cooking pizza, Italian Sausage

Hot Dog-aghetti Recipe

April 28, 2018 BurgerDogBoy

Hot Dog-aghetti Recipe

Today’s recipe from the “New Hotdog Cookbook” (McFadden Publishing, 1968) (Recipe their property) is “Hot Dog-aghetti!”

8 small onions – about 1 inch diameter
1 1/2 c water
1 8 ounce can tomato sauce
2 cups tomatoes
1 cup macaroni noodles
1 package garlic flavored salad dressing mix
1/2 cup sweet pickle relish
8 hot dogs cut in thirds

Cut onions in quarters, boil in water. drain. reserve water. Place onion water in sauce pan with tomato sauce and tomatoes, bring to boil. Reduce heat, add pasta, simmer for 24 minutes. Add dressing mix, relish, onions and hot dog pieces, simmer for another ten minutes. Serves 6.
place onion water in sauce ba n with tamoto sauce and tomatoes. bring to bil, add spachetti.

Pic not representative of recipe

Hot Dog-aghetti Recipe

Category: Home Cooking, Hot Dogs, Hot off the Grill Tags: home cooking, Kids recipes

Bread Soup with Hot Dogs Recipe

April 27, 2018 BurgerDogBoy

My favorite niece found this old cookbook, the “New Hotdog Cookbook,” McFadden Press, 1968. Thought I’d put up some of their recipes, a lot of them are pretty funky!

Bread Soup with Hotdogs

Ingredients

6 C hot beef stock
6 slices enriched white bread, lightly toasted
6 eggs, poached until just firm
6 hot dogs, cut in 1/4″ slices

Place a slice of toast at the bottom of each soup bowl. Place a poached egg on top and distribute the hot dog slices around the toast. Pour in 1 cup of the boiling hot stock over the toast, egg, and hot dogs. Serve at once.

Random internet pic of soup, not representative of recipe

(Recipe remains copyright of publisher)

Bread Soup with Hot Dogs Recipe

Category: Home Cooking, Hot Dogs, Hot off the Grill Tags: Hot Dogs, Recipe, soup

Red Baron Deep Dish Singles Review

February 4, 2018 BurgerDogBoy

I like to check in with the mainstream frozen pizza choices once a year or so. See if they’ve improved, changed at all.

For the most part, I don’t care for any of them, with the exception of hyperlocal brands like Vito and Nicks in Chicago (absolute #1 favorite), and for the pies at Trader Joes that are made in Italy and France and actually taste like they came from a pizzeria.

Why can’t US manufacturers do that?

So I saw Red Baron Deep Dish Singles the other day at a dollar store. For a dollar. Thought I’d give one a whirl. Red Baron is a brand of Minnesota’s Schwan Food Enterprises and was introduced in 1975. It’s made in a plant in Marshall, MN (pictured below).

I am dubious about almost any food that says it can be cooked in EITHER a microwave or conventional oven, and 99.9 % of the time I’d opt for the oven. But since they market these as microwaveable, thoughtt I’d give that a shot.

Spoiler alert: it was horrid. In appearance, taste, and texture. I suppose they’re acceptable for kids for a quick after school snack (except for the nutritional value part), and especially for a buck. But if I was looking for a quick snack for a buck at the dollar store, I’d rather have White Castle burgers, which actually DO microwave well and are done in one minute.

That’s all I learned that Red Baron frozen pizzas are every bit as awful as the last 5-10x I tried them. I see no need to try again. (Right now, I’m eating a Screamin’ Sicilian All Meat Pie, and they aren’t so bad). One of a half dozen brands from Palermo, in Milwaukee.

Out of the box

Colonel Kurtz: “The horror, the horror.”

Marshall, MN Factory

Red Baron Deep Dish Singles Review

Category: Heat and Eat, Home Cooking, Hot off the Grill, Pizza Tags: @redbaronpizza, Frozen Pizza, Schwans

Great Value Beef Meatballs Review – WalMart Nationwide

February 3, 2018 BurgerDogBoy

“Great Value” is one of the in-house brands for many WalMart products. They aren’t actually manufacturered by WalMart, of course, they are contracted out to be made to Bentonville’s specifications.

I take great pride in my own meatballs, it’s a recipe that I have screwed around with for decades. When I make them, I do throw them in sauce to cook from a raw state, but I rarely, ok, never serve them with pasta. A waste of bodily capacity, if you ask me, sticking noodles in where more meat could go. But that’s just me. OK, and anybody I serve meatballs too.

But I keep looking for store bought ones to fill the gap, cause my homemade effort is a lot of work and doesn’t get done that often. I’ve found some great ones at Italian delis, but unfortunately, the two I have been to are easily an hour drive – in good traffic.

So I spotted these at WalMart, all beef, breadcrumbs, eggs, cheese, milk, spices. Relatively “pure” ingredients. They come frozen, but pre-cooked, so they are just a heat and eat product. If you had made a marinara, red gravy, spaghetti sauce, you could just toss them in the pot til they were heated through.

Verdict? They’re ok. Not as good as mine or the deli’s, but certainly less expensive. Handy for a harried household at least. The flavor is fine, could be a little stronger, I think, fennel and garlic if I was in charge, and I’d make the texture a little firmer, a little less on the bread crumb and milk mixture.

The balls are made for WalMart in Tracy, CA at American Custom Meats, a processor of meat products for retail and food service. It’s a sparkling new plant (pictured below).

Hean and eat

Dissected view

Tracy California Meatball Plant

Category: Food Business, Heat and Eat, Home Cooking, Hot off the Grill Tags: Heat and Eat, Italian cooking, Meatballs

Pork Tenderloin Recipe

January 31, 2018 BurgerDogBoy

Pork “tenderloins” are an Iowa thing. And Indiana thing. We’ll leave it at that. It’s a boneless pork chop, hammered with a mallet to make it larger and thinner, dipped in batter and deep-fried, served on a hamburger bun about 1/10th the size of the ‘loin. You might also call it wienerschnitzel, of a sort. Or how about “chicken fried pork?”

So I had been out driving around Iowa and Indiana in search of great tenderloin, and it’s so important to the state, that the Iowa Pork Council has come up with the “Tenderloin Trail” so you can hit a dozen of the best the state has to offer.

I have written up the Iowa one as of yet, they were all pretty good. Soon. In Indiana, I stopped at (and have reviewed) the Oasis Diner, and Ray’s Drive In. They were both superb.

What sets one ‘loin apart from another is getting it thin enough, but still retaining the juiciness of the pork. The batter. The seasoning. Length of time in the hot oil bath. These are all important.

When I set out to try it at home, I had some cheats, some shortcuts. First off, I didn’t purchase pork chops, I bought pork “cube steaks” which were half the price of chops this week and would work just as well.

I purchased two different dry fry mixes, both Louisiana products, Zatarain’s Seasoned Fish Fry (which I use a lot) and Louisiana Fish Fry Products Chicken Fry.

The latter suggests you mix a bit of it with 1/2 cup of water, dip your meat, and then completely cover it with more mix before frying. I also improvised a bit with the Zat’s, in that I dunked, then dipped in egg wash, and dunked again. This would give the breading a little more depth, thickness.

Then into oil. How long? Til they’re done! LOL (Not long).

On the surface, they appeared about the same when done. I plated them with some sausage gravy and a piece of Texas toast.

I liked the Zatarain’s better, simply because I’m a long time consumer and I like the pre-seasoning in it. Not a fair comparison, but it also had a bulkier breading because of the egg dip.

But I’d buy both again. There must be dozens of these kind of mixes in the grocery. You can also order both brands (and others) online from Cajun Grocer, a Louisiana company I have purchased seafood and other goodies many times.

Zatarain’s was a family owned business for decades, now it’s owned by seasoning giant McCormick and Schmidt (New Orleans area plant (pictured below) . Louisiana Fish Fry is still family owned, based in Baton Rouge. (pictured below)

https://www.cajungrocer.com/dry-fry-mix.html

Zatarain’s

Louisiana Fish Fry

Louisiana Fish Fry Baton Rouge

New Orleans area Zatarains plant

Pork Tenderloin Recipe

Category: Home Cooking, Hot off the Grill, Sandwiches, Traveling Tags: Pork Tenderloin, sandwiches

Queen City Smoked Sausage Review

January 10, 2018 BurgerDogBoy

When I made my initial foray to America’s foodie wonderland, Jungle Jims in Cincinnati last week, one item I picked up was a local product, Queen City Smoke Sausage.

(The official sausage of the Reds, apparently). Sausage is a big deal in Cincinnati, as is German food in general. So popular, the city celebrates its sausage heritage with a weekend fest in July, with two to three dozen purveyors offering their sausage and related wares.

A skinless, smoked sausage of pork and beef, mildly seasoned, is called a “Mettwurst” or simply a “Mett” in this part of the country.

A traditional Mett in Germany is usually pork only, cured and smoked, and strongly seasoned with spices and garlic. Although even in Germany, you’ll find different versions of the “Mett.”

Two states away, in Wisconsin or Illinois, this exact flavor and texture of skinless sausage would be called a Polish, or kielbasa. Queen City brand is one of the more popular local processors, around since 1965, and in addition to smoked sausage, they offer a Mett in a natural casing, fresh Chorizo and fresh Italian, bratwurst, cooked bockwurst, bierwurst and smoked andouille. Different sizes of wieners and dinner franks, sliced deli meats, ham, roast beef, and a few other items.

I did mine in a cast iron skillet and put a little char on them. I do that to emulate a natural casing, as I prefer casings to skinless. That’s just me. They go on a plain bun with yellow mustard and/or kraut. Ingredients are beef and pork and seasonings (first one listed is mustard), but also corn syrup solids, and that’s not a personal preference of mine at all. Sweet and savory clash, in my mind. Overall, I liked it, and I’d buy it again and like to try some of their other products.

If you can’t find Queen City’s products at a store near you, they are also available online. I purchased the 14 oz package which contains six sausages. Larger sizes are available.

The bottom picture below is Queen City’s factory, located in the part of the city that used to be known as “Porkopolis,” due to the large number of slaughter and packing houses in the ‘hood.

Packaged

In the skillet

Queen City Factory

Category: Home Cooking, Hot off the Grill, Sausage Tags: kielbasa, Smoked Sausage

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