Urban Deli Tag smoker

We went to school last week. Actually, “we” didn’t. Our cook Mike Buchanan and the Urban Deli soon-to-be in-house smoker expert Gord Hewitt went to school. They took a week long Charcuterie, Smokehouse, and Condiment Workshop at the Hyde Park Campus (New York) of The Culinary Institute of America.

If you’re unfamiliar with the term you’ll find a good deal of information on Wikipedia. Basically it means (from Wikipedia):

(Charcuterie) … is the branch of cooking devoted to prepared meat products such as bacon, ham, sausage, terrines, galantines, pâtés, and confit, primarily from pork. Charcuterie is part of the garde manger chef’s repertoire. Originally intended as a way to preserve meats before the advent of refrigeration, they are prepared today for their flavors derived from the preservation processes.

What Mike and Gord experienced in the workshop was a set up similar to Gordon Ramsay’s ‘Hells Kitchen‘ where they broke off into six teams of three each day to prepare dishes and compare finished products and to also work towards the big buffet of all the samplings on their final day, which was Friday.

And with that behind them, Gord and Mike spent the weekend in Manhattan visiting delis and restaurants that specialize in smoked foods. Those foods are very popular in New York because of the simple, economical and tasty ways of preparing foods.

Now we expect Gord and Mike will give us the best of the best for new menu ideas. And we’ll be having fun tasting what they’ve learned and testing out those new ideas. 🙂

On the subject of smokers, but of another kind, we’re expecting Terry Whalen will bring his version of smokin’ to the Deli on Saturday with his roots, rock and blues.

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Montreal smoked meat and the great debate

You’ll find some really interesting discussions around the subject of Montreal smoked meat, pastrami and corned beef. Or, put another way, smoked meat and corned beef. And there’s a particularly lively debate about the difference between Montreal smoked meat and pastrami. Some say they’re the same thing. Some say they are very different.

If you go by what you find on Wikipedia about Montreal smoked meat and pastrami and corned beef, you would see they seem quite different, with pastrami appearing to fall somewhere between smoked and corned (as described by Wikipedia).

On the surface, these differences appear to be about preservative processes that came about before the refrigeration age. In one (corned), meat is preserved using brine (meaning salt) and in the other through smoking. Using these processes, particularly with smoking, it was discovered that while they preserved the meat they also did something to add to or enhance the taste. Montreal smoked meat and pastrami are both cured meat (that preservative business of brine), then smoked.

However, it’s more likely the differences lie in the seasoning – what it is and how it’s applied – added prior to the smoking. That would be the rub used on the meat. The seasoning could be garlic, coriander, black pepper, paprika, cloves … you name it. It really appears to amount to this: similar processes, different outcomes. Few aficionados, however, confuse the two: they know Montreal smoked meat from pastrami.

What often gets lost in the debate over Montreal smoked meat and pastrami is the importance of the bread — the rye bread. The bread is important for it’s consistency, the flour and the rye grain, and how it is sliced. But the topic of the bread is for another post …

Of course, here at the Urban Deli we lean toward Montreal smoked meat – it’s what we have on the menu. But if you ask Michael-ann (Liz’s sister), it’s really Atlantic smoked meat. Or New Brunswick smoke meat. Saint John smoked meat … Urban Deli smoked meat!

Why? Because we smoke it here. Yes, we have a smoker.

We really are the Urban Deli!

Tag: smoker

Charcuterie and going to school

Montreal smoked meat and the great debate