Born into a bacon dynasty
Minnesota cookbook author Amy Thielen said she comes from “a bacon dynasty.” Her cousin Matt is the fourth generation to run Thielen Meats in Pierz, Minnesota and her menu for Wednesday night’s Cooking with the Cap Times event was, by her own admission, “very meaty.”
I can’t remember the last time I had gizzards — so tender! — and the peppercorn-heavy spice blend on the brisket pastrami reminded me of coffee grounds. When Amy cut open the steaming brisket, blackened outside but rosy inside, I heard a soft “ooh!” from the audience.
In books like “Company,” Amy approaches cooking in a way I see reflected at restaurants like Myriel in St. Paul and Fairchild in Madison. It’s upper Midwestern cuisine through a contemporary lens, informed by our long history of fermentation, immigration patterns (Eastern European, Scandinavian, Hmong) and make-the-best-of-the-season resolve. Desserts like Amy’s lemon nemesis, a citrusy semifreddo on salted, buttered Ritz crackers, crisply topped with toasted meringue, combine practicality and flourish in wonderful ways.
But back to meat: please do not eat the raw Costco ground beef proffered at “Comedy Bang! Bang!” next weekend. Host Scott Aukerman told Ashley Rodriguez “we want everyone to be munching on it during the show” but all tartare is not created equal. Do not take a famous comedian’s culinary advice — he’s never even heard of a meat raffle!…