Holy brisket breaks the bank

Pearl's Kitchen is excited to be serving up some grub at the upcoming Purim festival at the San Francisco JCC on February 28th. We're bringing our top game to this event (not that we don't always serve our best) because this is the ultimate test-- serving grandma's food to other Jewish grandmas, their children, and their grandchildren. In preparation I've been perfecting my chicken soup with matzoh balls and Jon's been fine tuning his corned beef. And then we got the not surprising question: is your meat Kosher?


Ok well, the chicken soup is no problem. Up until now I've been using organic chicken in my soup, but I can easily replace that with kosher chicken which is readily available and not too pricey. The corned beef on the other hand is another story.

We've been investigating different brisket retailers since the beginning of this endeavor. We really liked the product from Robert's Corned Meats which is a locally owned business that's been selling corned beef briskets in SF for 100 years. We have looked into very local producers like Marin Sun Farms, which sells all grass fed beef raised fifty miles away and bigger gourmet producers like Golden Gate Meats, which ship from Montana but the meat has no antibiotics or growth hormones. Of course prices range dramatically and justifiably depending on the size of the production and usually the sustainability of the practices. But nothing could have prepared us for the price jump when we looked into kosher briskets.

 Kosher is a certification which ensures that the animal and its meat have been prepared according to Jewish law. It must be killed in a humane way (by hand) and it's blood must be quickly drained from its body. If an animal is sick or dies of natural causes it cannot be Kosher. As an aside, even the grand old USDA does not allow "downer" or sick cows to enter the food supply, but it still happens all the time. Similarly to foods labeled organic, there seems to be an assumption that Kosher means the meat is healthier or at least more ethical. The validity of this is a whole different debate which I won't get into here, but one thing I do know is that Kosher means expensive!

Take this family's story from an article in Money Magazine:

It's not just the $9 grape juice doing damage to the Perets budget. The kosher mozzarella that Abbi uses to make pizza costs $5, double the price of the non-kosher kind; brisket, the quintessential Jewish comfort food, costs a whopping $14.99 a pound vs. $1.99. It all adds up to a monthly grocery bill of more than $1,000 for Abbi, 33, Guy, 36, and their four kids, ages 3 to 9 (a fifth is due in July).

I'm familiar with the reasons that grass fed local beef or even just regular old organic beef is more expensive than your average corn fed beef shipped from a factory farm in the Midwest. I read Fast Food Nation and The Omnivore's Dilemma. I get the whole negative externality thing- that the price of industrial food is deceptively low because its costs are being born out by the environment, our health, and the poor treatment of the animals and the people who process them. But I've never really thought about Kosher meat before and today I found out that a pound of Kosher brisket is twice as expensive as a pound of the holy grail of sustainable beef at Marin Sun Farms!

So here are some possible explanations:

1. The Kosher market is relatively small and so there is not the economy of scale necessary to drive prices down.
2. The butchering and handling of the meat must be done by someone who is highly skilled and therefore charges more.
3. There are less plants producing Kosher meat so if one gets busted for doing something wrong, prices go through the roof.
4. People are so willing to pay for Kosher food because it is a necessity for them that the few producers that do exist are able to dictate higher prices.

While we may never get to the bottom of the Authentic vs. Sustainable debate, likewise we may never know whether Kosher is really worth the premium price. Here at Pearl's Kitchen we will continue to examine all of the available sources of meat and promise to serve food that we feel good about.

Authentic vs. Sustainable Deli

Does this look like a ecologically sustainable meal?

Like most regional or ethnic cuisines, Jewish deli is often judged by its "authenticity". Diners critique their meal in accordance with childhood memories of hometown cooking and the presence of the traditional hallmarks of the cuisine.

In a deli this means towering pastrami sandwiches, Hebrew National, menus the length of a short novel, and - in some West Coast delis - products imported from NYC. But these fundamentals may not conform with the concepts of sustainable food production and preparation which has become a central concern to many eaters in recent year.

The enormous sandwich is a relict of a perhaps bygone era when the energy resources required to produce large quantities of meat was of no concern. Traditional favorite Hebrew National is now owned by food behemoth ConAgra. And the something-for-everyone menu limits the restaurant's ability to stick to local and seasonal ingredients.

But would Jewish deli eaters accept a deli which sheds these so-called authentic features and committed itself to sustainable, local, and seasonal products and practices? Saul's Restaurant & Deli, from its perch in the Gourmet Getto in Berkeley, has tried to do just that. It has slimmed its menu, gotten rid of Hebrew National, and has worked to integrate local and season products into its offerings.  It's even experimenting with grass-fed corned beef. By it's own admission the reaction from deli purists has been mixed. Many have bemoaned the removal of favorite menu items when they go out-of-season, or the replacement of traditional but fructose laden Dr. Brown's root beer with hand crafted sodas made with cane sugar and seltzer.

In response on February 9 Saul's hosted a panel discussion called "Referendum on The Deli Menu". Panel members included professor-slash-best selling author Michael Pollan, City Slicker Farms founder Willow Rosenthal, and author Gil Friend, along with the owners of Saul's. The discussion was moderated by radio host Evan Kleiman.

You can watch the video below. The conversation was quite illuminating. Of particular interest, Michael Pollan - a regular at Saul's - revealed his favorite Jewish deli dish: Chicken in a Pot!



Also carrying this torch is recently opened Mile End in Brooklyn, New York, which is doing a succinct menu of house cured vegetable and meats, Montreal style. We will definitely be visiting Mile End at first opportunity.

This conversation is very relevant to us at Pearl's Kitchen. While we are trying to emulate grandma Pearl's cooking, we are also seeking to support sustainable production practices and use high quality ingredients, including seasonal and local products. We are making as many of our products from scratch, using fresh ingredients obtained locally.

Schmaltz

When my dad talks about Schmaltz his eyes kind of glaze over and he gets this funny look like he's talking about a long lost love. What he's really talking about is rendered chicken fat. And the thing is, it's not just my wacky dad who feels adoration for the stuff most people throw out of their roast chicken. Anyone who grew up eating food cooked in schmaltz wishfully remembers the days before reduced sodium packaged turkey breasts and nonfat half & half (how is that even possible?) Arteries shmarteries; Pearl's Kitchen is committed to learning the art of using rendered chicken fat.

So I called Aunt Ethel, my grandfather's sister who's the last living relative of that generation from the Bronx side of my family. Not surprisingly she lives in Florida and was watching Turner Classic Movies when she answered the phone. So we talked schmaltz (and chicken liver and matzoh balls.) She wearily emphasized that once I cooked with schmaltz nothing would ever taste as good again. But she qualified that by saying that I must eat it in moderation, because of course, its bad for your arteries. She politely didn't focus on the fat ass ramification.

One of the biggest challenges for me has been finding enough chicken fat to render. I've called my meat market in the Mission who only carries rendered duck fat for $7/lb. I went into Whole Foods and they told me they absolutely do not carry rendered chicken or goose fat and there's no place in the city to get any. Yeah right. Whole Foods Shmole Foods.

Most whole chickens these days don't have much fat on them, but Aunt Ethel said you need to find an old chicken which she kept calling a fowl. Somehow I think they don't sell old chickens anymore.  I just found this blog which says you can use all the skin on the chicken to create your schmaltz. I had been under the impression you needed to get only the pure soft white pockets of fat you find. But naturally, when you fry chicken skin you're gonna get a lot of fat and so I'll definitely try it.

What I have right now is the fat scrapped off two batches of chicken soup that I recently made. This could be enough for a batch of matzoh balls. I also know that there's a guy at the Ferry Building Farmer's Market who makes schmaltz and sells it in quaint looking jars which probably cost like 20 bucks. And I called Israel Kosher Meats who also sells homemade schmaltz. But of course I called on Friday evening at 6pm and she sounded like she wanted to say...."Ummm hello, its Shabbot, this is a kosher freaking shop, I'm not supposed to answer the phone, who the hell are you to be looking for schmaltz, you shouldn't be on the phone either!" So maybe we'll pop over there on Sunday when they reopen.

A confession about rye bread and how I will redeem myself

An essential part of our current menu is the homemade rye bread that flanks our corned beef. Although I hate to admit it, until recently I never really liked rye bread. Before I continue this confession, I will make very clear that it is Lauren who is writing this post. I wouldn't want to taint Jon's reputation.

As a child (and actually even as a young adult) when the family went out for deli, I always asked for white bread with my corned beef. The whole family would look away, intensely embarrassed and pretend I wasn't related to them. They'd crack jokes and the waitress would look personally offended while telling me they don't carry white bread, but could probably make a sandwich with challah. That worked for me and I'd eat my warm corned beef with mayo on challah. (Yes I said mayo-- but I won't digress.)

 Pearl's Kitchen Corned Beef Sandwich

                                                                                                Photo by Nina Lao
But rest assure I would never ever subject anyone to my horrific preferences. So of course you will not find any white bread or mayo at Pearl's Kitchen cart. What you will find is some fresh baked rye bread filled with lots of caraway seeds and a fabulous mustard slurry.

 Which leads to my latest challenge- baking rye bread to redeem myself from the sins of my youth. Currently I use a bread maker to bake the bread we sell. It has been turning out delicious, but I do aspire to make rye bread the more traditional way, using a sour dough starter rather than yeast. A sour dough starter is just flour and water which you "feed" daily with more flour and water. This mixture ferments and through a chemical reaction becomes the substance which makes the dough rise. Each time you make bread in this way, you use a portion of your starter and save some. Then you feed the original more and so on. This can go on for many years. The Boudin Bakery in San Francisco calls their starter the "mother dough" and has been using it since 1849!

A Sourdough Starter

So I met this guy named Danny who recently started an organization named Sour Flour, which aims to "build a community through bread." I tend to like people who have lofty goals they aim to achieve through food. And ya know what, he's really doing it. I spoke to him for a bit at a recent street food vendor party we attended, and a week later I was in his house with two other people learning how to make baguettes! For free I may add. I had considered taking a very expensive course at a well respected baking school, but will now be able to put that off and learn from Danny. 

The Sour Flour Business Plan

What I learned in my first bread making class:

1. I need to get better at math.
2. Science hurts my brain.
3. A fresh sour dough baguette with homemade garlic butter makes me very happy.

Joking aside, I really did learn a lot, helped make 13 baguettes, met some cool people, and plan to continue my training. There is a lot of science and math which can be modified like crazy to make the perfect loaf.  I'm just going to start by just adding some water to some flour and hope to see the little bubbles that tell me the chemical reaction which I don't understand is working. Then I'll call Danny and ask him what to do next.

What is corned beef?

The first thing you need to know about corned beef is that it does not have any corn in it. It does - though - have a lot of salt in it. Corn used to be a word for grains of sand or salt. The word "corned" refers to the fact that the beef is cured in salt.

Prior to the advent of refrigeration all meat which was not eaten immediately needed to be preserved. One common way to preserve meat was to put it in contact with a lot of salt. Salt draws liquid from the flesh and inhibits the growth of microorganisms. It also makes the meat taste really good. That's why we still salt-cure meats long after its necessity has disappeared. The salt creates flavor, breaks down tissue, and improves the meat's texture.

Salt-curing can be done by covering meat with salt (dry cure) or submerging it in salty water (wet cure, or brining). Corned beef is usually made with a wet cure. Herbs and spices also are added to the brine. No two recipes are alike, but bay leaf, allspice, peppercorns, and garlic are common. The meat is kept in the brine for at least several days.

Corned beef it typically made with the brisket cut. The brisket is from the cow's lower chest. It is a big, tough, and usually cheap cut of meat that needs to be cooked at a low temperature for a long time it tenderizes.  A full brisket is 10+ pounds and shaped like a triangle, with a thick fatty end (the "tip"), and leaner thin end (the "first cut")

After the curing process is completed the meat is braised or steamed for several hours until tender. Then it's cut into thin slices to be served.

The most common Jewish way to eat corned beef is in a large sandwich, with rye bread, and spicy mustard. That's the way Pearl's Kitchen is serving it up, between two slices of homemade rye and our mustard slurry.  Yum!

How did it all begin?

This whole crazy thing kinda began at last year's Eat Real Festival. We were pursuing the stands and came across ForageSF, which was basically a guy named Iso promoting his version of community supported agriculture (CSA) but with wild foraged food-- a CSF! So every month he goes out and forages in the mountains, forests and street of Northern California, and you get a box of the most local food around. A CSA is the same thing (and much more common), but you're buying a share of a local farm, which delivers a box of their produce to you each month.

Our good friend Sunny Savage is an amazing foraging expert (she even has her own tv show!) and so our interest was peaked- we signed up with his list. Six months later we received an email from Iso that he was interested in putting together a market event that would allow local food producers and home cooks, that have not had the time and money to go through the whole permitting process necessary to serve their goodies at official farmers markets, to come together and sell their stuff- and the Underground Farmers Market was born.

Jon and I had been talking a while about starting a Jewish deli truck. My entrepreneurial grandpa was pushing the idea, by connect us with the guy who runs the deli he visits regularly in Northbrook, Illinois. It was mostly wishful thinking, as we are both a bit too conventional to just up a quit our perfectly wonderful jobs. But then we got encouragement from a family friend who runs a very successful food business in Marin, who told us- keep your day job and start by doing it on weekends!

OK so this Underground Farmers Market was our chance. Not to much financial investment and no city bureaucracy required. We decided to do it. It was on a Thursday so I took a vacation day (Jon couldn't- no surprise) and baked rye bread, cooked 13 lbs of Robert's Corned Beef, and made 4 pans of sweet noodle kugel over the course of 12 hours. (The hourly wage for this job is not the point people!)

Well it was a great experience and an utter success! We sold out of our corned beef sandwiches in less than 2 hours and brought noodle kugel out of the kitchen and into the consciousness of lots of local SF foodies.

SLIDESHOW: Underground Farmer’s Market – Mission Loc@l -- San Francisco Mission District's News, Food, Art and Events

So when Iso decide to do it again a month later (mind you, this was a week and a half ago) we jumped on the chance to participate again. This time there were twice as many vendors and 50 times more people. Lines around the block for hours on end. It was fabulous! We made twice as many sandwiches and again sold out in a few hours. We met some great street food vendors like the Magic Curry Cart and the Pizza Hacker, who came over, introduced themselves and gave us tons of encouragement.

And the rest is -less than 2 weeks of- history. There is amazing network of vendors who communicate and use their combined popularity and social networking skills to introduce more and more people to their wonderful cuisine. We hope to join their ranks with Pearl's Kitchen!

The Launch

We have officially launched Pearl's Kitchen, the aim of which is to bring grandma's Jewish kitchen to the streets! The grandma at hand is Pearl, shown left playing with a wind chime. She was a wonderful cook and we just felt that San Francisco would really benefit from a re-creation of her kitchen, albeit on a folding table in a city park (for now.)

Pearl's Kitchen will explore the cooking regime of this one particular Jewish grandmother as well as recipes enjoyed by Jewish families everywhere. We will also be delving into the Jewish Deli world, which is currently the focus of a very interesting debate here in the Bay Area. What is an authentic Jewish Deli? How does it jive with the goal of serving people organic, sustainable food. Is this a valid debate or is this just the type of thing that New Yorkers point to and laugh as they bite into their delicious "authentic" pastrami sandwiches. We will see.

"We" are Jon and Lauren, who love food and are very excited to join the vibrant underground food scene in SF. Currently both of us are gainfully employed at full time day jobs, but we're gonna do our darnedest to cook and serve up yummy grub in our free time as often as possible. We've already met an amazing group of talented cooks who are out there serving interesting food on street corners, in art galleries and in parks.

This blog will serve as a journal of this experience. Part diary of a street food business, part cookbook, part musings of Jewish food and the underground food scene of which Pearl's Kitchen hopes to become an integral part.

We've signed on with all the requisite social networking outlets, so check us out on Twitter and Facebook, or do things the old fashion way and email us. We'll let you know when we're out next so you can come get some corned beef sandwiches or noodle kugel!