G Wiv wrote:How was your pork chop, it looked like a movie star in the store.

Gary,
I can say, without question, that it was the best pork chop I've ever eaten in my life. It had an amazing pork flavor.

I prepared it simply. I toasted some bread cumbs with sage and garlic, seared the chop off, lightly coated one side with dijon mustard and topped it with the bread crumbs. In the oven for 12 minutes and served with some sauteed spinach.

Sure it was a bit expensive, but this is yet another example of "You get what you pay for."

So many pork chops taste of nothing. This one however blew me away.

I liked it so much I even dedicated a blog to it.

Stopped by B&L today and for my impulse buy, picked up a steak and kidney handpie that had just come out of the oven 15 mins before. Chris mentioned that selling the kidneys on their own was a bit of a challenge, but ground up with some beef and wrapped in pastry dough made it easier. Here's the pic they tweeted this morning.



The handpie was really great. Flaky pastry dough, generous and meaty filling, tops were sprinkled with salt and as Chris shared with a mischievous smile, "When they came out of the oven, I brushed them with beef fat."

Wish we had gotten two.

shyne

For LTH Soup and Bread night, Rob was kind enough to save me a beautiful, meaty 5lb shank bone. He then trimmed the meat off and sawed the bone in half for me, the better to get the marrow out after I described the dish I was making, and suggested the best way to do so (soak the bones in ice water for an hour, then the marrow pops right out).


Dietzler Farms Beef Shank

I think it was one of the very best versions of Caldo de Res I've made to date and I credit this wonderful shank & the tips from Rob regarding preparation. Every time I visit Butcher and Larder, I find myself more growing more impressed with and enamored of this place.

What's steak-and-kidney taste like? Is it mostly a textural difference from a normal ground-beef filling? I saw a whole steak-and-kidney pie there on Friday but will admit that "kidney" isn't a huge selling point for me.

I am an unabashed fan of this place, for what it's worth. We're getting a significant fraction of all our proteins from B&L now; everything has been (predictably) amazing --- in particular, you'll never find a better, more forgiving piece of pork --- and we're saving money over Whole Foods. If you work in the Loop like I do, they're extremely convenient to get to.

We've bought:

A whole pork collar

Beef cheeks (we braise them in a pressure cooker and they're amazing; like thermonuclear roast beef)
A couple steaks

A bunch of whole chickens

Toulouse and chorizo sausages

A whole brisket (which I've had cooking since yesterday morning)

A gargantuan hunk of pork shoulder, half of which will be tonight's carnitas and the other half of which will be sous-vide char siu later this week

I spent almost a year looking for farms to get local meat from after reading Charcuterie and Cooking By Hand (which I came to via Rob Levitt's "Sky Full of Bacon" video, also from LTH), only really getting lucky when I called Slagel and found they'd deliver to Mado. I liked having a half a pig in my chest freezer, but B&L is so much better; all the farms Mado worked with, butchered by the chef from Mado, who will explain to you what to do with what you buy. An awesome resource.

Ursiform wrote:I think it was one of the very best versions of Caldo de Res I've made to date and I credit this wonderful shank & the tips from Rob regarding preparation. Every time I visit Butcher and Larder, I find myself more growing more impressed with and enamored of this place.

I loved your soup, wonderful flavorful broth, I wondered how you achieved it. Great dish.

Finally conncluded my inaugural Guanciale project, and couldn't be happier w/ the results.

Bought the jowl on opening day for the B&L and served it up yesterday.



Cross section




Cut into lardons




Starting to render... Love that translucent quality the fat takes on as it starts to melt.




Finished lardons. Managed to actually save a few for the final dish.




Final application. Bucatina All'Amatriciana. Looks so simple, but was absolutely mind-altering. The flavor explosions from the Guanciale just blew everyone away during yesterday's family dinner. Perfect al dente pasta.. just enough acid from the San Marzano to go along w/ the rich salty slightly sweet pork nuggets. Wow. Well worth a month of letting meat hang around in my garage.

tqbf wrote:What's steak-and-kidney taste like? Is it mostly a textural difference from a normal ground-beef filling? I saw a whole steak-and-kidney pie there on Friday but will admit that "kidney" isn't a huge selling point for me.

While you could definitely tell that there was something more than just ground beef going on with the filling, I'm having trouble articulating an accurate description of the taste. If I didn't know what was in it, though, I'd be hard pressed to identify that one of the ingredients was an organ meat. B/c they were both rather finely ground, I don't think that the textural difference with respect to the kidney had any significant impact on the final outcome.

shyne

Having had kidney just a couple of times, I can say that anything that makes it less noticeable in a dish is a good thing.

Too bad the Andrew Zimmerman didn't mention that Rob has since moved on to B&L and that Mado has closed since filming the show. Or maybe that's a good thing for our selection?

I really want to do one of those butchering classes, so I hope Rob offers one soon...

I finally had some time to check the place out. They didn't have what I was looking for on hand (beef to braise), but I walked away with some delicious roasted garlic and Goose Island Matilda sausage. Now that I'm settled into my new place, it will add barely a mile to stop by on my way home tomorrow; because Rob said there should be what I'm looking for then.

I pan roasted the sausage, and served it over some slightly spicy collard greens and roast diced sweet potatoes (using the rendered fat of course). Delicious.

Heart stopping tongue, slaw and chopped liver sandwich at Kaufman's yesterday, house made corned tongue from Butcher and Larder for lunch today. Might just stay on the tongue roll with lengua from Tierra Caliente tomorrow.

Butcher & Larder house Corned Tongue



Chris sliced up a pound, a reasonable $6 per, and home I went for lunch.

Chris at the slicer



Light striations of fat lent richness, tender though with working muscle spring to the chew and clean mineral meat flavor, tongue is one of my favorite of the bits and pieces. B & L's version was perfectly executed, though for my taste I prefer a bit more zing in the corning process.

Pound of B & L Corned Tongue



B & L tongue, baguette, no rye on hand, mustard and, for added zing, sweet/hot cherry peppers.



Noticed B & L had boudin, soon as Rob said there was pork liver involved I was hooked. Cooked up one link to have with my tongue sandwich, best boudin I have had outside of Louisiana, including my own.

B & L Boudin



Not shy on heat, hint of offal, balanced rice/meat/scallion ratio and quality casing that held up to light steaming then pan crisping.

No soda crackers, went with baguette and Texas Pete



Before you ask, yes, I like Ream's boudin, but B & L's has a more balanced rice/meat ratio and considerably more heat, not to mention a hint of offal funk.

Simply love visiting B & L, not just for butcher offerings, always run into someone I know, meet interesting people and Rob and crew have that rare happy at their job aura.

Enjoy,
Gary

I was in yesterday and picked up some pate...I'm convinced that their pate is easily the best I've ever had in Chicago.

Did anyone see the brains in the window for $3/lb? Has anyone ever tried brains? How would you even cook them?

We had the B&L boudin on NYE and it was tremendous. I've had the itch to make it since and am taking a crack at it today. The Korean sausage and the beef/beef tongue terrine in the case on Thursday were excellent as well.

Besides a place to get and learn more about meat, some of the one offs at B&L are a great motivator to get in as often as possible. Whether the items mentioned above or the braunschweiger, which ranks as one of the best things eaten so far this year, these get-it-before-they-are-gone treats are really great additions to Chicago's food landscape.

If and when Nduja is available, heaven help the neighborhood. The carnivores will be out in full force.

Just fried up some of the breakfast "chubs" for a quick bite. I believe Mr. Levitt mentioned bourbon and rosemary in their composition. The slightly herbaceous, barely boozy porkiness packed a flavorful punch in each bite.

I gave Chris a workout at the slicer when I asked for some corned beef. The razor-thin slices melt lovingly on the tongue--quite good, and worth the $20/lb. I admit to occasionally stooping to the level of canned corned beef, but such products are mere pretenders to that name, in light of this.

Upthread pics have me salivating presently--saving the boudin for this evening will be a challenge.

msmre wrote:We had the B&L boudin on NYE and it was tremendous. I've had the itch to make it since and am taking a crack at it today.

How did it turn out? We had boudin patties for dinner, somewhat light after a Great Sea ding of a wing lunch.

Pan fried Butcher & Larder boudin patties w/basted eggs

G Wiv, those patties are telling: the person I split my B&L boudin with described the texture as being like "crab cakes, but with pork." A bit of zip, some liverish minerality, and a good proportion of pork made for a fine lunch. No saltines or hot sauce, but I'll be sure to try that next time.

G Wiv wrote:How did it turn out?

With only Ream's and B&L to compare it to, I think that it turned out pretty well.

Production

Consumption

Here is a picture of the pate that I picked up from B&L last weekend:

How much was the pate? I'm thinking of getting some tomorrow if they have it.

From what I can remember, all of the pates range from $9-12/lb.

-Dan

Octarine wrote:How much was the pate? I'm thinking of getting some tomorrow if they have it.

I asked for "a couple of inches" and they gave me a little more than what is pictured for roughly $5. It's very rich so you don't need too much IMO.

It seems with the pates and terrines, they prefer to slice by thickness rather than weight (since it's difficult to gauge the weight). I told them how many people I was looking to feed and the sliced off a healthy (and appropriate) portion per person.

I bought some of the beef terrine a few weeks back and... wow, just wow. Amazingly rich beef flavor, it reminded me of steak tartare (obviously) but the texture was a little easier for my dinner guests (since it didn't look/feel like straight-up ground beef). B&L added in some diced liver to the terrine (as in, while the terrine over all was consistent in texture, you also got sizable (1/4"?) pieces of liver) and I was not as sold on that addition. Which is to say, I guess, that when I served pieces of the terrine the same night as I bought it, no one said anything. However, when I was finishing the leftovers a couple of nights later, the liver pieces really stood out as just tasting... well, gross and I couldn't eat them. Which, totally fine - the small pieces really didn't detract since I could just pick them out.

And if folks see pork rillettes? Buy some. Delicious. I think rillettes come pre-portioned in .25oz. servings also at $12ish/lb.

Here is another glorious item from the team at The Butcher & Larder: "The Untouchables" sausage-green onion, bourbon and Great Lakes Eliot Ness beer. A fantastic beer sausage that features a wonderful spicy bite and a smooth beer and bourbon finish. Their sausage machine is constantly cranking out house creations that change almost daily. I would recommend heading down there and grabbing a sausage or two along with some pate as it makes for a great treat!

Based on these photos and reviews I know where I will be heading tomorrow to pick up some tasty morsels. You guys were the motivation to end my procrastination!

My advice is to go there only if you aren't dead set on a particular thing. I drove an hour in rush hour traffic last night to get some pate for a going away dinner only to have the woman in front of me buy the last piece. I understand they can't have hundreds of pounds of anything at any given time but their stock is very small.

Octarine wrote:My advice is to go there only if you aren't dead set on a particular thing.

Or, if you are set on a praticular thing, call ahead and reserve it.

stevez wrote:

Octarine wrote:My advice is to go there only if you aren't dead set on a particular thing.

Or, if you are set on a praticular thing, call ahead and reserve it.

That sounds good in theory, but when I tried it the very friendly woman who answered the phone politely refused, explaining that if they allowed people to reserve stuff, they'd be cleaned out before their stock even arrived. I have, however, seen people successfully reserve items via twitter, so it might just depend who you are, who you communicate with, or what the weather is like.

I had the same experience as KennyZ, but they will tell you how much of something they have left, then you can decide if you want to make the trip.

Kennyz wrote:

stevez wrote:

Octarine wrote:My advice is to go there only if you aren't dead set on a particular thing.

Or, if you are set on a praticular thing, call ahead and reserve it.

That sounds good in theory, but when I tried it the very friendly woman who answered the phone politely refused, explaining that if they allowed people to reserve stuff, they'd be cleaned out before their stock even arrived. I have, however, seen people successfully reserve items via twitter, so it might just depend who you are, who you communicate with, or what the weather is like.

If I need something in particular, I'll usually call ahead and ask if they have some in stock before heading to the local Whole Foods. If I'm planning on being there within the hour, they'll usually put together my order and hold it for me.

But I've made a habit of stopping in even when I don't need anything...just to grab some pate, sausage, or scrapple.

It seems like if you want specific cuts of meat, go on Wednesday or Thursday - but if you need charcuterie, waiting until the weekend seems to be better.

I think we may need one of those 'when to go/what to order' charts people have for certain taquerias.