Minor T-Bone Mystery Solved!

I received a couple complimentary steaks to try out from New York Prime Meats, which you can see here, before and after their appearance on my Memorial Day grill. By the way, if these guys think they’re going to get a mention on a high-traffic, award-winning blog for a few prime steaks, well, they’ve got another thing coming.

No, this post is not about how juicy and tender their gorgeous (free) beef was, it’s about me finally learning why the flat, bone end of a Porterhouse or T-Bone is always thicker than the opposite pointy meat end. This question has haunted me for decades. Not enough to actually ask a butcher, but still.

I always assumed it was cut that way so we’d have to pay $15 a pound for bone, and they’d grind the extra meat for those fancy red-leather-booth restaurant burgers. However, according to Ed Logan, Head Butcher at New York Prime Meats, the simple explanation is that once a thick steak is cut from the larger, primal sections, the meat contracts and shrinks up a bit, while the bone does not.

Makes sense! That’s the kind of foodie information that kills at cocktail parties. Trust me. Anyway, thanks to New York Prime Meats for the samples, and for solving this longtime curiosity of mine!

Black Onion Relish – I’ve Never Wanted a Hot Dog So Badly in My Life!

This quick and very dirty recipe for black onion relish was quite delicious on grilled salmon, but with every bite I became more and more agitated, thinking about how utterly perfect this would have been on a grilled hot dog.

If you’re one of these enlightened souls that enjoy grilled onions on their ballpark franks, you will love this sweet and smoky condiment. 

There’s something about how the onion roasts in its own charred skin, buried in the white-hot coals, which brings a goodness not achievable in a pan. Believe me when I say, my next hot hog WILL be wearing this relish.

As usual, I played it straight with the seasonings, but if I had a dollar for every way you could adapt this relish recipe, I’d have enough money to pay someone to think of a real ending for this post. Enjoy!

Ingredients for about 1 1/2 cups:
2 yellow onions

1 red pepper

chopped parsley, to taste

cayenne, salt and pepper to taste

*Dress with oil and vinegar to taste - I used about 3 tbsp olive oil and 3 tbsp vinegar

Taste and adjust!

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Grilled Jerk Pork Tenderloin – Because We're All a Little Jerky

Whenever I make this incredibly flavorful jerk spice marinade for chicken, I think to myself, “Man, I bet this would be great on pork tenderloin. I’ll have to try that next time.” Well, a few dozen summers have come and gone, and since I still hadn’t experienced that “next time,” I decided to finally try it, and it was great!

As expected, the spicy, aromatic marinade worked wonderfully with the lean, mild pork, and as long as you heed my warnings not to overcook the meat, you and your guests will be very happy with this. Of course your guests' happiness should be the most important thing to you, but let’s face it, it’s not.

No, a stunningly successful grilled recipe like this is all about you standing next to that platter of perfectly cooked pork – beer in one hand, tongs in the other – soaking in waves of compliments and adulation. Does that make you a Jerk jerk? Yeah, a little bit. Anyway, I hope you give this very easy recipe a try. Enjoy!

Ingredients for 6 portions:
2 (1 1/2-pound) pork tenderloins, trimmed, cut in 3 pieces each

1/2 bunch fresh thyme, about 1/3 cup picked leaves

1/2 chopped onion

1 to 4 Scotch Bonnet or Habanero peppers, seeded

4 garlic cloves

2 tbsp minced fresh ginger

1/4 cup white vinegar

2-3 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 tsp fine salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon cayenne

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

2 teaspoon ground allspice

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
*cook until at least 145 F. internal temp

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A Strawberry Rhubarb Custard Pie Worth Brawling Over

Because I grew up listening to baseball on the radio, whenever I heard the word “rhubarb,” I wouldn’t think of something edible and delicious like this amazing Strawberry Rhubarb Pie, I’d think of fights.

Back in the early days of radio, when they wanted to get the sound effect of an angry mob, they’d tell the performers to repeat the word “rhubarb,” over and over. It sounds heated and contentious, yet the listener doesn’t hear any specific words.

Baseball announcers of the same era began to call baseball fights “rhubarbs,” since they sounded so much like those radio effects. I didn’t learn about this until recently, and it made me think of all the games I’d listened to during all those summers, and how never once when I heard “rhubarb,” did I think of pie.

That was until I got this wonderful recipe from my mother Pauline, who I believe got it from my Aunt Angela. As you longtime readers know, both are fantastic bakers and while I love all their pies, this might be my favorite.

So, when Matt Cain drills Matt Kemp in the back this summer, and he charges the mound prompting an ugly benches-clearing brawl, and the play-by-play guy says, “we’ve got ourselves a real rhubarb now,” I will think of this pie. This delicious, rough and tumble pie. Enjoy!

3 cups sliced rhubarb

1 cup quartered strawberries

3 large eggs

pinch of fresh nutmeg

3 tbsp milk

3 tbsp all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

*I didn’t mention, but I added a very tiny pinch of salt
1 tbsp butter for "dotting"
pie dough for one 9-inch crust 
For the glaze:
2 tbsp jam with 1/4 tsp water, warmed in microwave

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