Barncast 41 -- Hog wild

Of course I don't mind you editing my rambling!!! Andrew you did a great job of it.

About your trip to Chicago. Go online and purchase your museum tickets even though they are more expensive...especially if you want to see the King Tut exhibit at the Field Museum. That way you can just walk in and not waste time standing in line any more than you have to. Remember with your chores, time is valuable.

Shedd is nice to visit as well and has a huge variety of fish to view as well as the whales. I have not been to Adler in about 20 years so I can't help you there. And I've never been to the Art museum either.

Museum of Science and Industry is quite a distance away from the other museums so you will want to travel there...don't even think of walking!

Would love to meet you there, but we will be in Indy over Thanksgiving :(

A funny thing happened on the way to the butcher.. What a great story! Somehow I don't believe that your first comment was "Shucks!" :) Nice to hear that you have great neighbors who stop and pitch in.

I've butchered exactly one chicken. It didn't go well, and I said "never again". Your way sounds better so I may try again.

The killing part turned into a nightmare that I won't describe here. When I finally got to plucking, it was giving me the creeps. "Making my skin crawl". That turned out not to be my imagination. The bird was infested with some sort of critters who were abandoning ship for passage on a nice warm human. I left my clothes in the garage and sprinted for the shower.

Scalding water sounds like the way to go!

Thanks for the great podcast!

Best, Tom

Please do a mini cast on the grilling of the turkey. I've never heard of doing it on the grill before!

Do you make your own goat cheese out of your goat milk? Also, do you have a good recipe for mac and goat cheese? I LOVE goat cheese and I'm always looking for something to do with it and thought Mac and Cheese with goat cheese might me a little bit too rich.

I'd love to hear a cast about grilling turkey because I'm going to be visiting family in Alabama and they've got a terrible, terrible oven. They have a mediocre grill, but it's better than the oven, (which runs about 200 degrees (F) hotter than the little nob says).

Help, help - save me from a turkey that's burnt on the outside and raw in the middle. You'd be my heroes!

They do say that owners and their animals grow to look like each other, Andrew... India

Having done a chicken on Sunday morning, your description with photos of gutting a bird was great, especially making clear that extracting the innards can be quite hard to do.

How about a follow-up jointing a bird?

Hey Everyone!

Thanks India... ;)

Ellen, Thank you for the Chicago suggestions!

Tom, that's nasty! You should tell stories, you have a way with words. ;)

Ok, I'll get a cast out about doing the turkey on the grill tomorrow with Dad. I know it's cutting it close, but hopefully you'll find it usefull. It's basically the same way Alton Brown does the bird in the oven, except on the grill with indirect heat. Ok, except a cast out early tomorrow.

Hi Richard! Sure we can do that. I'm not the greatest, but I make do, and once you see pictures I'm sure you'll find it pretty easy.

Jen, ok let me explain. Cheese made with goat milk is cheese, it's chevre, gouda, cheddar, etc. It's like cheese made with cow milk isn't cow cheese. It's cheddar, gouda, havarti, parmessan, etc. I hear chef's on TV say "goat cheese" and it makes me cringe every time. So I can understand why people think any cheese with goat milk is that white creamy soft cheese, it should be called aged chevre. It's a pretty strong goaty aged cheese akin to cream cheese. You don't make mac&cheese with cream cheese. The cheese I used for Mac&Cheese has been cheddar, havarti, or colby. Basically what ever I have open.

i really appreciated the section on killing and preparing a bird! do please follow up with jointing a bird, it'd be helpful to know how if you wanted to fry your bird! I'd also be interested in seeing some of your recipes! Misty, I'm with you on there being no such thing as a balanced singles, it can't exist except as roving without twisting some of the laws of physics. I wanted to tell you also that my grandmother grew citrus in central indiana when I was a kid. Granted, they were small trees, in pots, and she brought them in for the winter, but she did get some small fruits from them. speaking of local tree fruits though, have you guys tried the Indiana Banana, otherwise known as the PawPaw? how about the other Indiana native, the persimmon? ask around locally and you will find lots of good recipes, or I can send you some if I can find them. Thanks for a continually great podcast! Joy

Joy, I grew up in central Indiana and remember persimmons and pawpaw well.

Pawpaws were rather rare when I was growing up. Many of the older people didn't look on them with a kind eye because is was considered something you went and looked for when there was "not enough to go around."

Persimmons, on the other hand, was a classic fall dessert. My grandmother had a persimmon tree in her yard in Bedford Indiana (home of the original 'cutters). My mother and aunts would gather them in the fall and make something called persimmon pudding which has the consistancy of a brownie. I never cared much for it. Persimmons we picked were between hazelnut and pecan size fruit with a large pit in the center. I'm still amazed at the size of the cultivated persimmons 8)

My husband doesn't remember if they have persimmon trees that far north. He grew up in -beautiful- Rome City, IN (tongue firmly planted in cheek). It is northwest of Fort Wayne.