I’ve been involved with my shul’s annual barbecue for about four years now, and this is the first year we ran out of food. I won’t say it was only because of its skilled preparation — the beautiful weather and ideal mid-September scheduling played large parts in drawing out more attendees than we could feed — but a few people asked for recipes, so here goes. (Remember that these are effectively institutional recipes, prepared in a practically unequipped kitchen, so don’t hassle me for using bottled barbecue sauce and dehydrated onions.)

BARBECUE CHICKEN
The quantities on this one aren’t important, just the technique: precook dark-meat chicken in a flavorful, slightly acidic sauce, then finish on the grill for great flavor and crisp skin.

• 1 institutional jug Cattleman’s Smokey barbecue sauce
• 1 smallish bottle apple cider vinegar
• 50 lb. case of chicken legs, preferably Canadian, split into thigh and drumstick portions
• 10 half-size, full-depth aluminum steam pans with lids

Preheat a large convection oven to 300 degrees.

Pour about 1 cup sauce and 1/4 cup vinegar into an aluminum pan and mix. Fill each pan with about 10 pieces of chicken, coat both sides of each piece with sauce as you load the pan. Cover pan tightly, and repeat until all the chicken is used.

Place sealed pans into oven and bake for 40 minutes. Remove from oven. If not cooking immediately, refrigerate until ready to use.

Prepare six-foot grill with one bag of lump hardwood charcoal. When hot, remove cooked chicken pieces from sauce and place on grill. Give the chicken a little char (about five minutes on each side) and serve.

KUFTA
Adapted from epicurious.com. Using dehydrated onion instead of fresh actually makes forming the kufta a heck of a lot easier, since there’s less moisture to contend with, and the little shortcut didn’t detract from the finished product’s flavor.

• 20 lb. ground beef
• 1 1/2 cups dehydrated minced onion
• 2 cups dried parsley flakes
• 2 Tbsp. ground cinnamon
• 2 Tbsp. ground coriander
• 1-2 Tbsp. cayenne powder (your preference)
• 2 Tbsp. powdered ginger
• 2 Tbsp. cumin

• Extra virgin olive oil
• Lemon juice

Reconstitute dehydrated onion with warm water just to cover; let sit for five minutes.

Mix rehydrated onions, beef, parsley, and spices thoroughly.

Form small handfuls of meat into sausage shapes (about 5″ long, 1″ diameter) and refrigerate or freeze in foil trays until ready to cook.

Prepare six-foot grill with one bag of lump hardwood charcoal. When hot, cook kufta until lightly charred on all sides and internal temperature reaches 160 degrees.

Splash cooked kufta with a bit of olive oil and lemon juice. Serve.

Neighbor and Kosher Blog reader Ari hosted a steak tasting at his home a couple weeks back. Here is his report.

We recently held a taste-testing of 4 high-end, USDA Prime kosher steaks available from Gordon & Alperin in Newton, MA. Unfortunately, Filet Mignon and other cuts from the rear of the cow are not available kosher in the United States (due to the difficulty of removing certain parts of the cow found in the hindquarters), so we tasted Center-Cut Ribeye steak ($32.99/lb., also called “eye of the prime,” the king of kosher steaks, available at a very royal price), Ribeye Cap steak ($19.99/lb., also known as the “tail of the prime”), Hangar steak ($19.99/lb., also known as “hanging tenderloin”), and filleted Blade steak ($16.99/lb.).

(I wanted to roll and tie individual portions of ribeye cap to make rolled ribeye cap steaks, but the quantity of meat we received wouldn’t allow it once cut into 14 pieces. Thus, instead we grilled the RC flat on the grill, and served it sliced.)

All meat was lightly seasoned with a pinch of salt and pepper on both sides. The seasoning was prepared by mixing 3 tablespoons of kosher salt with half a teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper. All meat was cooked to medium (about 150 degrees F), although the thinly cut blade steaks may have been accidentally ventured towards medium-well or well-done (one thin piece registered at 172 degrees F).

Taste-testing forms were provided to each guest, and 13 forms were received back. Participants were asked to rate each of the steaks from 1-5 in the following categories: tenderness, beefiness, saltiness, and appearance. Participants were also asked to provide an overall score for each steak on a scale of 0-10. Results are summarized below. Mean scores are reported first, followed by standard deviations.

TENDERNESS
Hangar: 4.08 / 0.49
RC: 3.69 / 0.75
Blade: 3.46 / 0.66
CCR: 3.85 / 0.90

BEEFINESS
Hangar: 3.69 / 0.75
RC: 3.23 / 0.83
Blade: 3.85 / 0.90
CCR: 4.76 / 0.43

SALTINESS
Hangar: 4.85 / 0.37
RC: 3.38 / 0.87
Blade: 2.31 / 0.63
CCR: 2.54 / 0.78

APPEARANCE
Hangar: 3.92 / 0.75
RC: 3.00 / 1.08
Blade: 4.31 / 0.48
CCR: 4.46 / 0.52

OVERALL
Hangar: 8.08 / 1.12
RC: 6.77 / 1.17
Blade: 6.92 / 1.44
CCR: 8.54 / 1.39

A few results stand out. The Hangar steak was universally regarded as the saltiest steak by far. This is probably due to the fact that it has many surface openings (due to a widely spaced grain) into which the salt used in the kashering process likely entered but did not exit. Thus, kosher Hangar steak should probably be cooked without any added salt. The remaining steaks had much more reasonable saltiness scores, more in-line with what a typical person would consider desirable.

Also, the CCR had the highest beefiness score by far (with high agreement). This is not surprising, given that the rib section typically produces the “beefiest” cuts. The other three cuts provided roughly similar beefiness scores as each other, well below the CCR. Surprisingly, the RC, which is also from the rib section, had the lowest beefiness score.

Somewhat surprisingly, the Hangar steak had a higher tenderness score than the pricey CCR (although the small difference might not be statistically significant, especially given the high deviation in the CCR tenderness score). Also surprising was the fact that the Blade steak had the lowest tenderness score, contrary to its official description. This may be due to the fact the Blade steak was overcooked a bit. In my previous experience, Blade steak has generally been recognized as extremely beefy and tender by my guests, so it is very important not to overcook it!

People seemed to prefer the appearance of the CCR and Blade steaks. I thought this category would provide very divergent resluts because appearance is such a subjective category, but with the exception of the RC, the standard deviations were on the low side.

Overall, people preferred the pricey CCR, followed by the Hangar steak. A signifcant drop before the 3rd place Blade steak and then the 4th place RC. However, the data was divergent. It should be noted that 5 of the 13 testers rated the CCR as a perfect 10, while another 5 testers gave it only a 7. However, only 1 tester gave the Hangar steak a perfect 10, while only 4 testers rated it as a 6 or 7.

The big surprise in this test was the relatively cheap yet highly-regarded Hangar steak. The similarly-priced RC did not fare nearly as well (although perhaps it would have come out better rolled). The cheaper Blade steak had moderate scores, but this may be due to overcooking. While the CCR scored the best, this was to be expected from the king of kosher steaks, and its exorbitant price will make it suitable for only the most special occasions.

While my low-carb leanings have been mentioned here before, I actually love bread. I love eating bread (who doesn’t). I love baking bread. The quest for the perfect loaf of bread takes complete control of my kitchen, now and again. I have raised a sourdough culture for several months and I’ve considered building a brick-oven in my backyard on more than one occasion. Understandably, I was very excited to get my copy of Peter Reinhart’s Whole Grain Breads, from Ten Speed Press. The timing couldn’t be better - while I lost much weight with the help of Dr. Atkins, I have recently become a whole-foods, whole-grain kind of guy. The pendulum has gone full-swing.

In his latest offering, Mr. Reinhart delves into the world of whole-grain breads - it’s more complex that you might think. Great whole-grain breads require very different approaches than other breads. In the ninety pages (!) before the first recipe, everything you might ever need to know about whole-grain baking is presented. There’s a complete primer on the anatomy of grain and the chemistry of bread-baking. You’ll learn terms like biga, soaker and seed-culture. You’ll learn how to raise your own natural-yeast starter.

The recipes that follow are detailed, and illustrated with beautiful photography. They range from classic multi-grain breads to whole-grain cinnamon buns, whole-grain challahs to whole-wheat matzos, whole-grain brioche to multi-grain crackers. Every branch of bread baking is covered.

If you’re an avid bread-head like me, you’ll find this book an indispensable resource. I’m a loyal fan of Peter Reinhart - I own 4 of his books (Brother Juniper’s Bread Book, Crust and Crumb, The Bread Baker’s Apprentice and American Pie). Mr. Reinhart has truly made a mission out of understanding bread and the process of creating it - I find his writing interesting and inspiring. If you’re new to bread baking you might find the process daunting - but hang in there. The results are well worth it.

First, this dispatch from London:

Plans for a four-star kosher hotel on Golders Green Road in North-West London have been approved by Barnet Council in the face of protests from residents and a Jewish councillor.

The 60-room building will include Shabbat-friendly door keys and lifts, meat and milk kitchens and mezuzot on all doors. Conservative councillor Melvin Cohen and local residents claimed there was no demand for the hotel and that it would worsen traffic congestion.

I love it when fellow Jews sabotage efforts to accommodate the observant community… real mature.

I couldn’t help my incredulity when I read this morsel of student journalism, from the University of Missouri - Columbia, about mezuzot.

The Jewish tradition of making mezuzahs has been passed down for thousands of years.

“It is commanded in the Torah to put the prayer on your door,” Berkowitz said.

The scrolls inside the mezuzahs can be kosher or non-kosher prayers. The kosher scrolls are those that have been blessed by rabbis.

“It’s up to the individual whether or not they want the scroll blessed,” said Cheryl Neiman, former Jewish Student Organization vice president.

Note: This must be done the same rabbis that bless food to make it kosher.