Stick a Fork in it...

...this column's done.

The February Fork & Spoon is out today, so you can now read about my adventures playing Musical Meats.

In the column, I wrote about changing meats (like the bison pictured here) in traditional dishes. While it was fun thinking up recipes to tinker with, it's hard to stop. Seems like I'm not the only one doing so--I just read about what a local Iron Chef winner is doing with Ostrich meat.

Anyway, it'll be fun to get back to making lasagna without wondering what it would taste like with smoked chicken. That should last a day or two...

Buffalo Stance

When last we talked, I was in a meat substitution quandary. As you may recall, I'm writing a column on swapping meats in traditional recipes. I recently made Bison Bourguignon and had a decision to make: whether to consult a bison-specific recipe or use a beef one and substitute bison.

After receiving some expert advice from Canadian reader and bison ethusiast "Al," I went with Julia Child's beef recipe. While bison is leaner and prone to drying out, that wouldn't be a problem when cooking in liquids as in a bourguignon, he wrote.

Of course, it being a bit of a fancy pants recipe, it took a bit longer than I'd hoped. The Spoonstress made a heck of an herb bouquet, using cheesecloth we hadn't seen since making horchata. She said it looked like an herb diaper--I suppose we're not gourmands. Anyway, let's just say I was glad we didn't have guests over waiting until 10 to eat.

In the end, the dish was the savory salvation to a night's worth of waiting. I'm not sure the bison was an improvement over beef cubes, but it gave us an interesting topic of conversation during those hours of preperation. Plus, I now have a Canadian reader or two.

Buffalo What?

The die has been cast. The bison has been purchased. Tonight will mark two firsts: my first bourguigon and my first Bison Bourguignon.

After conjuring "lambalaya" recipes for days, I've decided to cap my Musical Meats column with some bison cubes. After all, it's the new red meat. Or perhaps this slogan: "Buffalo--don't feel guilty, there's plenty now."

It wasn't hard to find the meat. I had heard of someone getting buffalo burgers from Whole Foods, so I called their deli department. With some advance notice, they cubed some bison instead of grinding it. I enjoyed a few free orange slices and graham bear thingies and checked out, earning brownie points for not taking a plastic bag.

So what do we call this protein anyway, buffalo or bison? Apparently real buffalo are what you and I call water buffalo. Bison are what we've always called buffalo. So we'll just go with bison meat. At least that way there won't be any confusion with buffalo wings. There will be no blue cheese or celery involved.

Names aside, I face a harder question: Do I use Julia Child's beef bourguignon recipe and trade bison for beef? Or do I go with Bison Centre's "Bison Bourguignon" recipe (which I saw only after thinking up the idea. Honest.)? I'm leaning towards J.C. because I already bought the bacon and the Bison Centre is in Alberta, Canada. Then again, what the Albertans may lack in fine dining, they may make up for in buffalo, er, bison know-how.

Either way, wish me luck. I'm a bourginner.

Wingin' It

As I wrote in my last newspaper column, one of my edible objectives for 2007 was using the new smoker I got as a birthday present back in November. Chalk it up.

Despite some minor difficulties, I think I'll be using it quite often. Then again, it's hard work keeping that fire going. It's even harder on a 28-degree night. I can see smoking being a lot more fun on a 70 degree spring afternoon. While I knew starting my maiden smoking at 4:30 p.m. with minimal planning wasn't the best idea, I plowed ahead anyway. After all, I had a column to write. Six and a half hours later, fork hit mouth. Dining (alone, with the Spoonstress already in bed) at 11 p.m. wasn't what I'd imagined.

The goal of this late-night smoke session was recreating pulled pork with an alternate protein-source for the upcoming Musical Meats column I'm writing. I smoked a whole chicken and two turkey legs.

Were it not for an embarassing meat thermometer mishap (I took the bird out of the smoker to take its temperature--really silly in hindsight. I think I'll blame it on my hunger, although the cold probably didn't help), the poultry would have been amazing. Because the thermometer issue led to overcooking, it was a little dry. But it was still smoky and tender.

Of the two, the chicken was the tastiest. It held the flavor better and produced two of the best wings I'd ever had. Granted, I'm no wing connosieur. In fact, I can't remember the last ones I ate. But for some coincidence of anatomy, this body part retained more of the moisture.

I'm not saying I'm ready for nationals or anything, but it's a start. And next time I'll get an earlier start.

Musical Meats: The Music Hasn't Stopped

I've been racking my brain trying to decide what to feature in my Musical Meats column. The idea is to swap one protein for another in a traditional meat dish. The problem being: I'm looking for a switcheroo that will yield a creation that's a) new, b) tastes good and c) has a catchy name. Pork Pot Pie satisfies all three, but finding others has been difficult.

Trying to incorporate the animal noises into the name was a bad idea. Aside from being a tad morbid, it got a bit corny. As a result, I won't be adapting Beef Bourguignon into Lamb "Baa"guignon.

As I often do, I've been placing too much emphasis on the name. I've been struggling to see if I can make anything to fit the name Duck, Duck, Goose. Or Duck, Duck Mousse. But then I realized that even if geese are mean and poop everywhere, I don't want to eat them. And duck mousse sounds more like a punishment than a treat. As for the idea of Goose Mousse, the less said about that, the better.

A recent write-in suggestion of Pulled Chicken is a solid one. It may be lacking a bit in the newness category, but it has a shot at being really tasty. And I bet I can make something happen with that name (hint: another aliteration).

Musical Meats

Despite a dearth of write-in meat-swapping suggestions, I'm forging ahead with my next column--Musical Meats. I've been brainstorming about what entrees would work with a different meat. For some reason, most of my ideas are pork-based. Since I already transformed chicken pot pie to pork pot pie, I don't want to make other porcine substitutions. Still, pork au vin is tempting.

Lamb isn't a favorite at the Forkquarters, but I may give it a whirl as a beef substitute. While I don't usually enjoy lamb, I do tend to like it when it's baked. To understand why, we may need a guest chemist to blog us an explanation. I'm now looking at possible beef recipes to co-opt, er, transform.

I have pondered involving seafood, but I ruled that out as not fitting with the column's tentative Musical Meats' title. We'll get there, folks. Meanwhile, keep thinking. The simple criteria: it has to involve taking a well-known dish and changing the main ingredient. If it encourages a catchy name--see pork pot pie--all the better. The author of the best suggestion will be immortalized with an in-column shout out in The Chapel Hill News. For what more could you ask?

Name that Meat

After taking some time to enjoy/fulfill my food-related New Year's resolutions (read--lots of cookies), I'm back to work on my next column. I'll be writing about swapping one meat for another in some well known dinners. The idea came to me last week when leftover pork and a craving for chicken pot pie begat pork pot pie.

A more mainstream influence for this idea is the glut of post-Thanksgiving recipes that substitute turkey for any meat. My mom made hay with Turkey Divan and you see all kinds of solutions today, from turkey lasagna to turkey ice cream. Oh wait, that's Turkey Hill Ice Cream. But in one degree of separation, that company does list a recipe for ice cream sandwich lasagna. One degree further away, this contraption makes ice cream look like spaghetti.

Anyway, back to meat swapping. Also inspiring: most Chinese restaurants' decision to offer dishes like lo mein or egg foo yung (or egg foo "young") with a full bibliography of proteins. I'm not opposed to the idea, in fact I'm intrigued. What if after ordering moo shu pork for years, moo shu chicken has been better the whole time? Or maybe we've been wrong all along and pork is the tastier filling for a savory pie?

I've been toying with ideas on what traditional dishes might benefit from a little switcheroo. For example, Coq Au Vin could become Pork Au Vin. Who knows, it still might. One thing's for sure, I won't be re-making any luncheon loaf or other mystery meats.