The Meat Hook

I've never had a regular "butcher." Hell, before I moved to NY, I don’t think I'd ever even been to a butcher. Like most Americans, I bought my meat in shrink-wrapped packages in the local mega-mart.

We rarely do this anymore. Instead, we've been trying to buy our meat from a local butcher, or at least from the butcher's counter at a reputable grocery store like Whole Foods or Fairway, where we have some confidence that the meat is of high quality and that the animals providing it have been raised responsibly.

And, in the past half-year, we've been taking nearly all of our business to a new butcher shop called The Meat Hook, which recently opened up in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn. The Meat Hook claims to deal only with trusted farmers and sustainably raised animals. I believe them, and the proof is in the pudding: One taste of their mighty fine products is all it takes. Their homemade sausages are inventive and incredibly delicious; their slab bacon is to die for; and their beef and poultry cuts are top-notch.

This past weekend we purchased a raw (not pre-cooked) ham steak, which we watched them cut straight off of a giant hock. Later that evening we slapped that approximately inch-thick slab o' porky goodness on the grill, about 6 minutes on each side, and it made us forget everything we thought we knew about ham. None of that insipid, overly salty, unnaturally pink stuff injected with tons of nitrates; no, the taste of this was somewhere in between the greatest pork chop I've ever had and a beef tenderloin.

We've also had a number of fantastic sausages from them, including a truly unique green chorizo, full of poblano, jalapeno, and Serrano peppers and cilantro. We used this sausage to make huevos rancheros one weekend morning and it really brought that simple dish to a new level. In fact, we've never had a sausage from them that failed to impress. Currently, we have a shop-smoked kielbasa and andouille sausage from The Meat Hook in our freezer. The former we'll probably just eat with some rye bread, sauerkraut, and mustard; the latter will become part of some Cajun-style rice and beans or jambalaya.

What really sets The Meat Hook apart, though, is its incredible customer service, which is always a surprise in NYC (and particularly a surprise in the cooler-than-thou hipster mecca that is Williamsburg). If you mosey up to the counter one of the butchers will greet you with a friendly hello and be chatting you up in no time, and will answer your questions (of which you'll probably have many) thoroughly and thoughtfully. What's more, the employees really seem to enjoy their work, and they perform it with an enthusiasm that is infectious. I particularly remember a recent visit where one of the butchers was busy making sausages when the shop's sound system (usually blaring classic rock) cued up "Black Betty" by Ram Jam, causing him to momentarily drop what he was doing to clap and stomp along and encourage anyone in the store to do the same. I must admit, it’s the first time I've ever though butchering could be a fun job. But don't take my word for it… watch this video to get an idea of The Meat Hook's atmosphere:



Is it expensive? Yeah, even for our out-of-whack NYC cost barometer, it's a bit pricey. But we've been of the mind lately that meat should be expensive because we should be eating it less frequently, and it should be of higher quality when we do eat it. More succinctly, eat less meat, eat better meat.

Currently, The Meat Hook shares a large warehouse space with The Brooklyn Kitchen, a fine, if not also a bit pricey purveyor of kitchenware and provisions such as locally sourced, seasonal veggies; homemade stock; dried beans and grains; dairy, etc.; as well as homebrewing supplies and ingredients. A visit to the entire complex is a must for any local foodie… and trust me when I say "Get the ham steak."

Smoky Lentil Soup

One of the best ways to add depth of flavor to any dish is to give it a hint of smokiness, whether by grilling it over charcoal or wood, or adding a pre-smoked ingredient such as smoked paprika or bacon.

We've become pretty regular customers of a relatively new butcher called the Meat Hook, in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn. They sell two kinds of slab bacon – regular and smoked. The smoked is really smoky, so much so that we usually just get a quarter or half pound, thickly sliced, and dice it up as needed to add flavor to our dishes. I understand that not everyone has access to a reliable butcher… in that case, regular packaged bacon will work just fine for this recipe, although I recommend seeking out slab bacon (pretty much every good supermarket carries it) and having the butcher cut you a few thick slices.

One of the recurring themes of our blog will be bacon. It's such a magical ingredient. But if you want to make a lentil soup with another meat besides bacon, you could certainly use ham (try the leftovers from a baked ham, bones and all, just make sure to remove before blending), pancetta, or even turkey. If you still want to make it smoky, you should try to find Spanish smoked paprika, or pimenton, which pretty much blows regular paprika out of the water. And of course, you can also add only the smoked paprika and make a pretty great vegetarian lentil soup.

But as I said, we prefer smoked slab bacon, and we adapted our recipe from The Best of Craig Claiborne, a highly recommended cookbook that my sister bought for me as a gift some years ago. Here's our version of the recipe, which has a few more ingredients in it than Mr. Claiborne's version:

Smoky Lentil Soup

Ingredients:

2 tbsp. butter
¼ lb. smoked bacon or ham, fat left on, diced
¼ c. coarsely chopped onions
½ c. coarsely chopped carrot
½ lb. dried lentils
5 c. fresh or canned chicken or vegetable stock
2 c. water
1 bay leaf
1 sprig fresh thyme or ¼ tsp. dried
½ tsp. of ground cumin
Pinch of cayenne pepper
Smoked paprika to taste (if you don't use smoked meat)
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Heat 1 tbsp. of the butter in a small kettle or deep saucepan and add the bacon/ham (bacon will take a bit longer to render and crisp) and onion. Cook briefly until the onion wilts. Add the carrots, lentils, 4 c. of the broth, smoked paprika (if using), cumin, and cayenne. Add the remaining ingredients, bring just to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer 30 to 40 min.

Remove about a cup of the soup with lentils/carrots (or more if you prefer a thicker soup) and set aside to cool briefly, then blend (careful that it's not too hot!) until smooth. Add blended soup back to kettle along with remaining 1 c. of broth, bring to boil, turn off heat, and swirl in remaining tbsp. of butter.

Serve with warm crusty bread (or biscuits) and butter.







We paired this with a 2007 Terre Di Corzano Chianti and it was a nice match. Beer would also pair well: a saison, or something lightly smoky, like Aecht Schlenkerla Helles Lagerbier.

Biscuits and gravy

I love breakfast.

I usually don't get to have a great breakfast during the work week, so when the weekend arrives I often go nuts. And one of my all-time favorite breakfasts (especially when hungover) is the Southern staple of biscuits and gravy. Generally this means sage-y, spicy pork breakfast sausage in a heavy cream-laden sauce poured over freshly baked buttermilk biscuits. It's delicious, but it will probably shave a few weeks off of your life.

Recently, Beth and I had a more healthful (though certainly not as healthful as, say, oatmeal and fresh fruit) version of this dish at a bistro called Ortine, in the Prospect Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn. It featured whole wheat biscuits with rich, creamy mushroom gravy and a side of breakfast sausage which, while delicious, was actually superfluous. Given our recent mastery of biscuit making, we vowed at the time that we'd have to recreate this dish at home.

This morning we had the chance. Last night we hosted some friends for dinner, and one of the dishes we made was fancy macaroni and cheese with morel mushrooms and crispy leeks. We used dried morel mushrooms, which have to be reconstituted. This process yields a couple of cups of morel liquid that is simply too delicious to be discarded. So we saved it.

When brainstorming breakfast this morning, Beth mentioned making buttermilk biscuits and I immediately thought of making a mushroom gravy to go with them. To make Southern pork sausage gravy, you fry up your breakfast sausage (which is usually already spiced with lots of sage), remove it from the pan, and make a roux with whatever fat is left in the pan. Then you add lots of black pepper and some heavy cream.

With mushrooms and mushroom broth, the process is fairly similar. I sliced and sautéed some cremini mushrooms in butter with lots of chopped sage and thyme, removed them from the pan, then added a little extra leftover bacon fat to the pan (more butter would be fine, but you need some fat in the pan, otherwise you really can't make a proper gravy). Then I whisked in some flour to make a roux; added some warmed mushroom broth, more sage and thyme, and lots of black pepper, brought to a boil, then turned down the heat and reduced it a little bit. Finally, I returned the mushrooms to the pan, added a little half and half to make the sauce a little creamier, let it thicken, and voilá: a rich, creamy, spicy, herb-y mushroom gravy as good as any sausage gravy I've had.

Meantime, Beth made her buttermilk biscuits with some whole-wheat flour (which I hemmed and hawed about until she reminded me how good Ortine's were), and they turned out great.

More on biscuit making in another post, but I'll just post the mushroom gravy recipe here. I imagine this would also be delicious over some steak, or rice, or whatever, and you can definitely vary the ingredients as such (for instance, some red wine instead of mushroom liquid would work very well). Please note that, as with much of our cooking, we improvise, so many of these measurements are estimated after the fact.

Creamy Mushroom Gravy (enough for two servings of biscuits and gravy)

2 c. sliced mushrooms

1 ½ c. mushroom stock, warmed

5 tbsp. butter/bacon fat

2 tbsp. flour

¼ c. (or more to taste) heavy cream, half and half, or whole milk (yogurt would also work well here)

Fresh thyme, sage; minced

Black pepper and salt to taste

Handful of chopped scallions

In medium-sized pan, sauté mushrooms with thyme and sage in 2 tbsp. butter/bacon fat. Remove mushrooms from pan, reduce heat to medium-low, add 3 remaining tbsp. butter/bacon fat and melt. Whisk in flour until smooth. Whisk in mushroom stock; bring to boil; add mushrooms back to pan, along with black pepper, salt, sage, and thyme; reduce heat, and simmer until it begins to thicken. Whisk in cream, simmer a little longer until gravy is desired consistency. Pour over biscuits and top with chopped scallions.

Then dig in!

About Brooklyn Bon Vivant

Welcome to Brooklyn Bon Vivant! We love eating and drinking. That's the basic premise of our blog. It's more than that, though. When we first moved to NYC, we dined out... a lot. It's one of the best things about living in NY. But it ain't cheap. Over the years we started to realize that we could make food and drink at home that was nearly as good, if not better (and cheaper), than many of the restaurants we enjoyed. And we think that anyone willing to do a little research and work can also make really great food and drink at home.

So that's what the cooking and brewing sections are about. These entries are not recipes, per se. We want them to serve as a window into our process, from when we first ask each other "What's for dinner?"; to buying ingredients; researching and modifying the many recipes that are already out there; and eventually using the knowledge that we've gathered to start creating recipes of our own.

If that was all our blog was about, it would probably be enough. But we also love the culture of food and drink, and how it brings people together and creates conversation, friendships, and memories, so we want to capture that. And we love Brooklyn and NYC, and all that they have to offer. We love to travel, though we don't do it nearly as much as we would like to. And yes, we still love dining and drinking out. So we hope to sprinkle in a little of all these things. In the end, it's about enjoying life.

"You guys should really start a blog." That's what many of our friends kept telling us when we'd wax poetic about our latest meal or night out. We're a bit lazy, so it took some time, but here it is. Honestly, we probably would have done it a long time ago if we knew it was this easy.