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Beef Brisket
Brisket is a cut of meat from the breast or lower chest of beef or veal. The beef brisket is one of the nine beef primal cuts, though the definition of the cut differs internationally. The brisket muscles include the superficial and deep pectorals. As cattle do not have collar bones, these muscles support about 60% of the body weight of standing or moving cattle. This requires a significant amount of connective tissue, so the resulting meat must be cooked correctly to tenderise it. According to the ''Random House Dictionary of the English Language'', Second Edition, the term derives from the Middle English ''brusket'' which comes from the earlier Old Norse '' brjósk'', meaning cartilage. The cut overlies the sternum, ribs, and connecting costal cartilages. Method of cooking Briskets can be cooked in many ways, including baking, boiling and roasting. Basting of the meat is often done during the cooking. This normally tough cut of meat, due to the collagen fibers that make u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Basting (cooking)
Basting is a cooking technique that involves cooking meat with either its own juices or some type of preparation such as a sauce or marinade. The meat is left to cook, then periodically coated with the juice. Prominently used in grilling, rotisserie, roasting, and other meat preparations where the meat is over heat for extended periods of time, basting is used to keep meat moist during the cooking process and also to apply or enhance flavor. Improperly administered basting, however, may actually lead to the very problem it is designed to prevent: the undesired loss of moisture (drying out) of the meat. If not compensated by countermeasures, the opening of the oven door and the resulting loss of temperature and moisture content of the air circulating inside can lead to increased evaporation from the meat surfaces. To prevent this, the easiest solution is to place the meat in a closed oven bag, which traps evaporating moisture and does not let it disseminate into the oven space ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Texas Barbecue
Texas Barbecue refers to methods of preparation for barbecue unique to Texan cuisine. Beef brisket, Buffalo wings, pork ribs, and sausage are among the most commonly known dishes. The term can also include side dishes that are traditionally served alongside the smoked meats. History Native Americans had been slow cooking meat before European settlement. Enslaved people began this tradition of barbecue in the South in the 1500s, long before Europeans began smoking meats in central Texas. European meat-smoking traditions were brought to Central Texas by German and Czech settlers during the mid-19th century. Traditionally, butchers would smoke the leftover meat that had not been sold, allowing it to be stored longer without spoiling. As these leftovers became popular among the migrants in the area, multiple meat markets began to specialize in smoked meats. According to Daniel Vaughn, barbecue editor at ''Texas Monthly'', Southside Market & Barbeque is the oldest barbecue joint ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barbecue
Barbecue or barbeque (informally BBQ in the UK, US, and Canada, barbie in Australia and braai in South Africa) is a term used with significant regional and national variations to describe various cooking methods that use live fire and smoke to cook the food. The term is also generally applied to the devices associated with those methods, the broader cuisines that these methods produce, and the meals or gatherings at which this style of food is cooked and served. The cooking methods associated with barbecuing vary significantly but most involve outdoor cooking. The various regional variations of barbecue can be broadly categorized into those methods which use direct and those which use indirect heating. Indirect barbecues are associated with North American cuisine, in which meat is heated by roasting or smoking over wood or charcoal. These methods of barbecue involve cooking using smoke at low temperatures and long cooking times, for several hours. Elsewhere, barbecuing mor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mesquite
Mesquite is a common name for several plants in the genus '' Prosopis'', which contains over 40 species of small leguminous trees. They are native to dry areas in the Americas. They have extremely long roots to seek water from very far under ground. As a legume, mesquites are one of the few sources of fixed nitrogen in the desert habitat. These trees bloom from spring to summer. They often produce fruits known as "pods". ''Prosopis'' spp. are able to grow up to tall, depending on site and climate. They are deciduous and depending on location and rainfall have either deep or shallow roots. ''Prosopis'' is considered long-lived because of the low mortality rate after the dicotyledonous stage and juveniles are also able to survive in conditions with low light and drought. The Cahuilla indigenous people of western North America were known to eat the seeds of mesquite. History ''Prosopis'' spp. have been in North America since the Pliocene era and their wood has been dated to 33 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hickory
Hickory is a common name for trees composing the genus ''Carya'', which includes around 18 species. Five or six species are native to China, Indochina, and India (Assam), as many as twelve are native to the United States, four are found in Mexico, and two to four are native to Canada. A number of hickory species are used for products like edible nuts or wood. Hickories are temperate forest trees with pinnately compound leaves and large nuts. Hickory flowers are small, yellow-green catkins produced in spring. They are wind-pollinated and self-incompatible. The fruit is a globose or oval nut, long and diameter, enclosed in a four- valved husk, which splits open at maturity. The nut shell is thick and bony in most species, and thin in a few, notably the pecan (''C. illinoinensis''); it is divided into two halves, which split apart when the seed germinates. Etymology The name "hickory" derives from a Native American word in an Algonquian language (perhaps Powhatan). It i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pecan
The pecan (''Carya illinoinensis'') is a species of hickory native to the southern United States and northern Mexico in the region of the Mississippi River. The tree is cultivated for its seed in the southern United States, primarily in Georgia, New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico, which produces nearly half of the world total. The seed is an edible nut used as a snack and in various recipes, such as praline candy and pecan pie. The pecan is the state nut of Alabama, Arkansas, California, and Texas and is also the state tree of Texas. Name "Pecan" is from an Algonquin word, variously referring to pecans, walnuts, and hickory nuts. There are many pronunciations, some regional and others not.See "Pecan" at Wiktionary. The most common American pronunciation is . There is little agreement in the United States regarding the "correct" pronunciation, even regionally. Growth The pecan tree is a large deciduous tree, growing to in height, rarely to .Flora of North America''Carya illinoi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hardwood
Hardwood is wood from dicot trees. These are usually found in broad-leaved temperate and tropical forests. In temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen. Hardwood (which comes from angiosperm trees) contrasts with softwood (which is from gymnosperm trees). Characteristics Hardwoods are produced by angiosperm trees that reproduce by flowers, and have broad leaves. Many species are deciduous. Those of temperate regions lose their leaves every autumn as temperatures fall and are dormant in the winter, but those of tropical regions may shed their leaves in response to seasonal or sporadic periods of drought. Hardwood from deciduous species, such as oak, normally shows annual growth rings, but these may be absent in some tropical hardwoods. Hardwoods have a more complex structure than softwoods and are often much slower growing as a result. The dominant feature separating "hardwoods" from softwoods is the presence o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Smoking (food)
Smoking is the process of flavoring, browning, cooking, or preserving food by exposing it to smoke from burning or smoldering material, most often wood. Meat, fish, and '' lapsang souchong'' tea are often smoked. In Europe, alder is the traditional smoking wood, but oak is more often used now, and beech to a lesser extent. In North America, hickory, mesquite, oak, pecan, alder, maple, and fruit-tree woods, such as apple, cherry, and plum, are commonly used for smoking. Other biomass besides wood can also be employed, sometimes with the addition of flavoring ingredients. Chinese tea-smoking uses a mixture of uncooked rice, sugar, and tea, heated at the base of a wok. Some North American ham and bacon makers smoke their products over burning corncobs. Peat is burned to dry and smoke the barley malt used to make Scotch whisky and some beers. In New Zealand, sawdust from the native manuka (tea tree) is commonly used for hot smoking fish. In Iceland, dried shee ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charcoal
Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, called charcoal burning, often by forming a charcoal kiln, the heat is supplied by burning part of the starting material itself, with a limited supply of oxygen. The material can also be heated in a closed retort. Modern "charcoal" briquettes used for outdoor cooking may contain many other additives, e.g. coal. This process happens naturally when combustion is incomplete, and is sometimes used in radiocarbon dating. It also happens inadvertently while burning wood, as in a fireplace or wood stove. The visible flame in these is due to combustion of the volatile gases exuded as the wood turns into charcoal. The soot and smoke commonly given off by wood fires result from incomplete combustion of those volatiles. Charcoal burns at a highe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marination
Marinating is the process of soaking foods in a seasoned, often acidic, liquid before cooking. The origin of the word alludes to the use of brine (''aqua marina'' or sea water) in the pickling process, which led to the technique of adding flavor by immersion in liquid. The liquid in question, the marinade, can be either acidic (made with ingredients such as vinegar, lemon juice, or wine) or enzymatic (made with ingredients such as pineapple, papaya, yogurt, or ginger), or have a neutral pH. In addition to these ingredients, a marinade often contains oils, herbs, and spices to further flavor the food items. It is commonly used to flavor foods and to tenderize tougher cuts of meat. The process may last seconds or days. Marinades vary between different cuisines. Marinating is similar to brining, except that brining generally does not involve a significant amount of acid. It is also similar to pickling, except that pickling is generally done for much longer periods, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spice Rub
Spice rub is any mixture of ground spices that is made to be rubbed on raw food before the food is cooked. The spice rub forms a coating on the food. The food can be marinated in the spice rub for some time for the flavors to incorporate into the food, or it can be cooked immediately after it is coated in the rub. The spice rub can be left on or partially removed before cooking. Rubs are typically applied as a powder, aka "dry." Some "wet" rubs may have oil, water, or other liquid added to make a thick paste. Ingredients The spices are usually coarsely ground. In addition to spices, salt and sugar may be added to the rub, the salt for flavor, and the sugar for caramelization. Different salts are sometimes used for their unique qualities, such as Himalayan pink salt. The most straightforward rub is just coarsely ground black pepper as in steak au poivre. Spice rubs can also add ingredients such as herbs, crushed garlic, or oil to make a paste. Less common ingredients can i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
