May 30, 20187 yr Started a thread on old site about homemade stuff that isn’t really all that hard, but kicks the shit out of store bought/convenient version. My discovery of stovetop popcorn changes my life. Recently ended up with a 15lb sack of potatoes from Costco. Been knocking out potato salads to use the sack up. Most of the time/effort is waiting for potatoes to boil. So much better than store bought. suggestions welcome.
May 30, 20187 yr Caesar salad dressing. Only a few ingredients: mayo, olive oil, lemon juice, black pepper, anchovy paste, Worcestershire, Dijon, minced garlic and freshly grated Parmesan. Edited May 31, 20187 yr by Jerry Callo
May 30, 20187 yr Cured pork belly bacon. All other answer are wrong Edited May 30, 20187 yr by BabaYaga
May 30, 20187 yr 30 minutes ago, Incredulity said: Do you go salad by salad, or make a big batch and use over time? I make enough to last a couple weeks.
May 30, 20187 yr I like homemade Caesar dressing, but I've only made that a few times. My go-to is a basic vinaigrette (I like to start w/ the Joy of Cooking French Dressing recipe). I'll make just one salad's worth if necessary and mix it up with my milk frother. Also any mexican-food sauce, colorado, verde, salsas, pico. Pintos/refritos. Any of these are much better from scratch and not at all difficult or involved. Also think that grinding your own hamburgers is worth it for large enough groups.
May 30, 20187 yr Author I am in on the salsa or Pico. Go to for pulled pork leftovers is corn tortilla tacos with homemade pico.
May 30, 20187 yr Homemade stock. Make your own stock -- chicken, shrimp stock, whatever. Just make your own stock. It is absolutely worth it.
May 30, 20187 yr Author 26 minutes ago, baboso said: This potato salad - chunky or whipped? Chunky. Getting the chop and boil right are key. just enough to know there is potato there, but still soft.
May 30, 20187 yr 20 minutes ago, Brisketexan said: Homemade stock. Make your own stock -- chicken, shrimp stock, whatever. Just make your own stock. It is absolutely worth it. Absolutely. Pro-tip - breast milk bags work great for storing stock in the freezer.
May 30, 20187 yr 1 hour ago, Brisketexan said: Homemade stock. Make your own stock -- chicken, shrimp stock, whatever. Just make your own stock. It is absolutely worth it. This, but I will say that for beef stock you need to be careful if using stuff off your smoker in your stock. You need to balance that out with some un-smoked beef parts IMO or the result is overly smoke-tasting. In my experience. 55 minutes ago, Incredulity said: Chunky. Getting the chop and boil right are key. just enough to know there is potato there, but still soft. What kind of potatoes? I try and get away w/ using Idahos to limit the peeling time. 2 hours ago, luke duke said: Ice cream Word. With real eggs!
May 30, 20187 yr Stove-top popcorn was the first thing that came to mind. Other than that, I'm a big fan of homemade butter. Shake some cream, scrape out the butter, and add some salt. Super easy. I also enjoy homemade flour tortillas over just about anything you can find at the grocery store. And for that matter homemade bread is the fucking bomb, especially focaccia.
May 30, 20187 yr Agree with others on chicken stock, pico/salsa. Grind your own cumin seeds in a mortar rather than use the pre-ground, it makes a huge difference. Grind everything yourself for that matter: chilis, coffee, everything. Infuse your own simple syrup with mint leaves for juleps. Do it with slices of raw ginger for other cocktails.
May 30, 20187 yr 2 hours ago, Incredulity said: Chunky. Getting the chop and boil right are key. just enough to know there is potato there, but still soft. This might be helpful (or maybe not). Leave the potatoes whole when you boil them. They're done when they start to split open. Drain the water, let them cool, then break them apart with your hands. Much quicker than chopping them before boiling, and you have better control over the consistency of your salad. I prefer reds or whites. Idaho and other types potatoes don't hold up as well to boiling, IMO Edited May 30, 20187 yr by ChampKind cuz
May 30, 20187 yr Kind of simple, but I won't eat pre-shredded cheese. It's nasty. Shredding your own is so, so much better.
May 30, 20187 yr Author 1 hour ago, GringoSalado said: This, but I will say that for beef stock you need to be careful if using stuff off your smoker in your stock. You need to balance that out with some un-smoked beef parts IMO or the result is overly smoke-tasting. In my experience. What kind of potatoes? I try and get away w/ using Idahos to limit the peeling time. Word. With real eggs! idaho. I peel, chop to a little more than 2x2. add to rapidly boiling water for 15min. leaves some nice potato texture chunks, but soft.
May 30, 20187 yr 2 hours ago, Johnny Sack said: Kind of simple, but I won't eat pre-shredded cheese. It's nasty. Shredding your own is so, so much better. Doesn't melt right either. Pretty sure it's coated to prevent clumping. Fuck that.
May 30, 20187 yr 9 hours ago, Jerry Callo said: Caesar salad dressing. Only a few ingredients: mayo, olive oil, lemon juice, black pepper, anchovy paste, Worcestershire, Dijon, and freshly grated Parmesan. close, but the master would say you are lacking garlic and one egg yolk (1/2 credit for the mayo)
May 30, 20187 yr 2 hours ago, ChampKind said: This might be helpful (or maybe not). Leave the potatoes whole when you boil them. They're done when they start to split open. Drain the water, let them cool, then break them apart with your hands. Much quicker than chopping them before boiling, and you have better control over the consistency of your salad. I prefer reds or whites. Idaho and other types potatoes don't hold up as well to boiling, IMO If you pull the Idaho's as soon as they're cooked through and ice bath them they tend to stay together, then you can peel them (with a fork). If you overcook them you're fucked as far as chunky ps goes.
May 31, 20187 yr Agree with others on chicken stock, pico/salsa. Grind your own cumin seeds in a mortar rather than use the pre-ground, it makes a huge difference. Grind everything yourself for that matter: chilis, coffee, everything. Infuse your own simple syrup with mint leaves for juleps. Do it with slices of raw ginger for other cocktails. However: do not grind coffee and spices in the same grinder.
May 31, 20187 yr 6 hours ago, Incredulity said: I am in on the salsa or Pico. Go to for pulled pork leftovers is corn tortilla tacos with homemade pico. The premade pico at HEB is awesome. It's one of a few items that they make better than me.
May 31, 20187 yr I couldn't decide which thread to put this in, but this seems like the right spot.My wife has been asking for help learning to use the smoker. So, Memorial Day I walked her though firing up the WSM and she did 3 whole chickens plus another 8 or so leg quarters. They turned out great. For my part, I harvested the skin from the smoked birds, sliced it up and fried it into homemade chicken-bacon. It'll probably end up in some breakfast tacos or on a pizza. I've never seen store-bought...but I assume mine is better.I also turned the drippings into gravy for some shrimp and biscuits the next day and, of course, roasted all the bones so we can make stock.
May 31, 20187 yr I'd say homemade pasta but after discovering the Bucatini fresh pasta at HEB for ~$5, I haven't made a single batch of fresh pasta myself. Totally worth it to just buy it ready made with the same ingredients I use anyways (flour, eggs, water). Homemade curry paste, green curry in particular, kicks ass.
May 31, 20187 yr Grind your own brisket packer for hamburger patties. Throw in some bacon with the grind to get some badass bacon burger.
May 31, 20187 yr 16 hours ago, Jerry Callo said: Caesar salad dressing. Only a few ingredients: mayo, olive oil, lemon juice, black pepper, anchovy paste, Worcestershire, Dijon, and freshly grated Parmesan.
May 31, 20187 yr 19 hours ago, luke duke said: Ice cream Yessir. I have a hand-crank maker and we wear that sombitch out with birthdays, graduations, etc. I have two recipes that I use- a vanilla one and one that calls for whichever fruit sounds good and is in season. I think one time we added up the cost of the ingredients after a batch of strawberry ice cream and it was close to $30/gallon. Damn. I also like homemade cornbread with homemade syrup (brown sugar, butter, and vanilla).
May 31, 20187 yr Quote My wife has been asking for help learning to use the smoker. So, Memorial Day I walked her though firing up the WSM and she did 3 whole chickens plus another 8 or so leg quarters. Have you gone mad? You are taking away one of the last bastions of husbandly alone time.
May 31, 20187 yr 15 hours ago, Lazarus Bocanegra said: close, but the master would say you are lacking garlic and one egg yolk (1/2 credit for the mayo) I forgot to put garlic on the list, but I do use it in the recipe. Mayo is cheating, but it has a longer shelf life. Speaking of garlic - I'll only use freshly minced garlic. I can believe people use that stuff that comes from a jar.
May 31, 20187 yr 3 hours ago, Kennythetiger said: Yessir. I have a hand-crank maker and we wear that sombitch out with birthdays, graduations, etc. I have two recipes that I use- a vanilla one and one that calls for whichever fruit sounds good and is in season. I think one time we added up the cost of the ingredients after a batch of strawberry ice cream and it was close to $30/gallon. Damn. I also like homemade cornbread with homemade syrup (brown sugar, butter, and vanilla). I admire your commitment to the hand crank ice cream maker. But we picked up one of these a couple of years ago, and even our old motorized White Mountain can't touch it for ease of use and quality of ice cream. Also, if anyone is looking for ice cream recipes, there's not a bad one in this book. Edited May 31, 20187 yr by dcbc
May 31, 20187 yr Stove top popcorn is much better than microwave popcorn, but I'm not sure it really fits "worth the effort". It takes a grand total of 5 minutes to make it, mostly just standing there. There's hardly any effort involved to make popcorn by either method, so the bigger question is why anyone would choose microwave popcorn in the first place. For the thread topic, I would submit homemade noodles and pasta sauce.
May 31, 20187 yr Corn tortillas which are then turned into homemade taco shells. Some are turned into puffy tacos, some are baked like regular taco shells and some get deep fried ala JiTB.
May 31, 20187 yr On 5/30/2018 at 8:57 AM, Jerry Callo said: Caesar salad dressing. Only a few ingredients: mayo, olive oil, lemon juice, black pepper, anchovy paste, Worcestershire, Dijon, and freshly grated Parmesan. Definitely. I take the coddled eggs and oil route. Pretty much all salad dressings actually: green goddess, bleu cheese, ranch, real Italian vinaigrette. Put it in a gravy boat or bring out the oil and vinegar cruets and a lemon.
June 1, 20187 yr I currently have the peels of 14 lemons macerating in 1.75 liters of Pinnacle vodka in a tupperware container. After a couple weeks I will add fake sugar (carb nazi here), fill an old whiskey bottle, and walla, Limoncello all summer long.
June 1, 20187 yr Making mojitos from scratch with fresh mint leaves off your plant is definitely worth it
June 1, 20187 yr I currently have the peels of 14 lemons macerating in 1.75 liters of Pinnacle vodka in a tupperware container. After a couple weeks I will add fake sugar (carb nazi here), fill an old whiskey bottle, and walla, Limoncello all summer long. Good one. Our limoncello recently finished and it’s great.
June 1, 20187 yr Making mojitos from scratch with fresh mint leaves off your plant is definitely worth itHow else do you make mojitos?
June 1, 20187 yr 7 hours ago, NeverMarryAStripper said: Making mojitos from scratch with fresh mint leaves off your plant is definitely worth it We grow mint in our herb garden solely for this purpose. 6 hours ago, wild_turkey said: How else do you make mojitos? I guess some people buy store-bought mint? It's a travesmahockery. Edited June 1, 20187 yr by utee94
June 2, 20187 yr On 6/1/2018 at 9:36 AM, Incredulity said: Chew doublemint gum and shoot rum? That does seem much easier.
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