Foodie alert

Bobster said:
The 4H my kids were in had "free-range" chickens. Occasionally it would be our turn to gather the eggs and put them in the honor fridge to be bought by locals and sometimes us. While the chickens DID get feed, they also grazed on the local fauna and bugs and you can taste the difference in the eggs. Same goes for cow's and goat's milk--free range vs factory farm milk tastes different.

PS: while the eggs we gathered would be refrigerated, they would not be washed. Apparently, in UK they don't wash OR refrigerate their eggs. In the FL heat, I think it is wise to keep the eggs from getting too hot...
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True. Brits, Europeans dont refrigerate eggs or butter. They wonder why we do.

Eggs last even longer unrefrigerated if you rub the shells with oil. Fresh eggs from free range chickens also have a different color yolk. Darker. Definitely tastes better.

Fun food myth: It is very difficult for bacteria to grow in mayonnaise. It's too acidic. But I still wont eat egg salad to tuna salad sandwiches in the summer.

P.S. I hate meatloaf.
 
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My wife has 4 Americauna hens. She'd bought 6 as chicks that were supposedly all sexed as hens, and two ended up being roosters- as handsome as they were loud and tormenting the hens. Just terrible. One rooster is good for about 8-12 hens.

Both roosters became home-made chicken noodle soup ingredients. The males aren't good for BBQ or roasting as they are too lean.

They get fed quality feed, scratch & flygrubs along with free ranging here on the 2 acres when she lets them out of their garden area. Nice, rich, darker egg yolks. Yep it makes all the difference in the world.

they are neurotic little creatures. Equally funny and irritating. I call them all "roasters" lol.

If you wash the eggs, you wash off the "plume" coating from when they are laid, and you have to refrigerate them. I'm wondering if BL's oil rub solution may mitigate that requirement, once the shells are washed.

They will last at room temp quite awhile unwashed.

Oh- oftentimes it's either the egg or the onion (the latter absorbs all sorts of pollutants, poisons and yuck if left exposed for very long) that causes sickness issues therein with egg or chicken salad.

Fun fact: I too, detest meatloaf! Go figure.

Now to get peeling about 30 hardboiled eggs for another pickling round...
 
Behold the Schwartz!!

IMG_9644.jpeg
 
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Bobster said:
PS: while the eggs we gathered would be refrigerated, they would not be washed. Apparently, in UK they don't wash OR refrigerate their eggs. In the FL heat, I think it is wise to keep the eggs from getting too hot...
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Farmer /chook keepers I know don’t wash or refrigerate eggs. I sell fresh eggs with the bloom on. My customers don’t want them washed. If ya wash em they have to go in the fridge. Wash fresh eggs in cool-cold water just before using so as not push contamination into the eggs pores.

Eggs are naturally protected by the “bloom” a coating covering it when lain. The bloom protects the egg
( possible embryo) from impurities until the hen gets ready to set her clutch. It takes approx 12-15 days to accumulate a clutch of eggs. Thus we know the eggs are still viable at least 2 weeks without refrigeration. They do not go bad. Actually I’ve had eggs on the counter for 2 months that taste as good as day old eggs.

That said store bought eggs are not very fresh at all. They could be a month old before they are distributed to the grocery shelf. Although you may see some cartons with born on date….thats not the date lain.

Temperature to incubate chick eggs is 99.5-100 so unless your home is that temperature for several days no worries…well unless you enjoy balut made with chooks.

Edit- 1 ping beat me to it 😂
 
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I've never ventured into canning or pickling. My grandmother was quite good at it. Vegetables, sauces, tomatoes, jams and jellies, etc.

Let's just say I have enough Carnation Instant Breakfast, Twinkies and Ho Ho's stashed away to keep me going for a long time. The expiration date on all that nutritious goodness is about 75 years in the future.

I briefly worked with a dude who sourced mustard plants from some place. He ground and prepared his own mustard. I thought it was a weird hobby, but his homemade mustard was really something else. Better than the pricey gourmet mustards. On Norwegian smoked salmon with capers, it was to die for.
 
I've not done many pickling exploits. The above example is the second one in a few months...the one prior was in the 80's.
 
I was once in a pickle. But I managed to get out of it.
 
One Ping Only said:
White Vinegar, Water, Pickling Spice (cloves removed), Kosher salt, a few pickled jalapeño slices, added pickling juice from the peppers, crushed red pepper, a few chunks of white onion, and garlic cloves. Next batch I'll use my own pickling concoction....unless this one is a win.
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Sounds delicious!
 
Bongo Lewi said:
I was invited to a friends home for Thanksgiving. Mid 90's. I asked if I could bring anything and he told me to choose whatever I liked.
View attachment 18244
It was a joke of course. His wife nearly fainted upon the reveal. This is not the actual pic but it represents.
She called me names. You can get these at a good Chinese butcher. Pick up some chicken feet while there.
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Welp you know what they say, you can pick your nose, you can pick your friends, but you can't pick your...honey, honey are you ok? She fainted!
 
Nothing like a mix of gelatin, tongue, brain and who knows what else. A couple veggies thrown in. The butcher in my home town was German and he always had head cheese in the display case. Somebody was eating it!
 
mike334 said:
Welp you know what they say, you can pick your nose, you can pick your friends, but you can't pick your...honey, honey are you ok? She fainted!
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The real gift was a couple bottles of wine. A very nice red and a white. I was forgiven. My friend and his wife introduced me to my current wife. Upon repeating that story to my future wife the following summer in a backyard BBQ, my date replied she would have cooked it and made me eat it. My kinda girl. That's why I married her.
 
Bongo Lewi said:
Indeed. Pigs were made worse in domestication. Pig farms are toxic waste sites. Environmental nightmare. Eastern NC and Virginia have a major problem on their hands due to the number of pig farms.
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I recently read a book by Joel Salatin, The Marvelous Pigness of Pigs. It recounts his experience as a pig farmer in the Shenandoah Valley. It was an eye opener! He talks to anybody who who will listen about the benefits of permaculture agricultural practices.

Homepage - Polyface Farm

polyfacefarms.com polyfacefarms.com
 
mike334 said:
Sounds delicious!
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The first batch got better after a few more days....but the allspice and cinnamon in the pre-made McCormick pickling spice just doesn't cut it for me in the desired flavor profile, so I made my own concoction.

This new batch: Coriander, Mustard Seed, Black Peppercorn, Crushed Red Pepper, Kosher Salt, Sugar, Vinegar, Water, Bay leaf, with red onion slices, crushed garlic cloves, and about two dozen farm-fresh hardboiled eggs. They have a week and should be ready in a few more days, although 5 days minimum will suffice.

No snouts added. I could have added some all-beef hot dog chunks I suppose, but wanted to keep it focused on the eggs themselves for this batch. lol
 
One Ping Only said:
The first batch got better after a few more days....but the allspice and cinnamon in the pre-made McCormick pickling spice just doesn't cut it for me in the desired flavor profile, so I made my own concoction.

This new batch: Coriander, Mustard Seed, Black Peppercorn, Crushed Red Pepper, Kosher Salt, Sugar, Vinegar, Water, Bay leaf, with red onion slices, crushed garlic cloves, and about two dozen farm-fresh hardboiled eggs. They have a week and should be ready in a few more days, although 5 days minimum will suffice.

No snouts added. I could have added some all-beef hot dog chunks I suppose, but wanted to keep it focused on the eggs themselves for this batch. lol
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I see. An anti-snoutite.
 
Hey a 'Food And Drink' section!!! Thank you, Racer88!
 
on the subject of pork: While claiming ambivalence might sound honest, I can't imagine a world without

BACON.

The duct-tape of foods.

There is something positively JOYOUSLY DELICIOUS about the sear on a good pork chop, roast, or other pork component.

Then there is Canadian Bacon. Split pea & ham soup.

Then there is BBQ pulled-pork sammiches... oh my...

I sometimes think that upheaval and unrest in the middle-east could be a result of a lack of BACON.
 
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