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I don’t have a big sweet tooth, but I do like cookies. They are right behind ice cream on my small list of sweet indulgences.

American-style cookies are not unknown in Germany. You can find them in most supermarkets, but the selection is usually small and often limited to chocolate chip…and those are more like Chips Ahoy than Otis Spunkmeyer.

So I have adapted the recipes that I had to German ingredients and measurements, plus I have developed a few more that we really enjoy. Some are still works-in-progress.

I will openly admit that none of my cookie recipes are 100% original. I have taken bits and pieces from various recipes around the web and, with a bit of science, tweaked them into what I wanted.

Speaking of the science of cookies, J. Kenji López-Alt over at Serious Eats has an amazing write-up on The Science of the Best Chocolate Chip Cookies. As the title suggests, he discusses how the quantities and preparation of the ingredients produces various styles of cookie. So, whether your preference is light and cakey cookies, or dense and chewy cookies, it is worth reading his article to find out how to tweak your cookies to your liking.

Anyway, some tips for making cookies:

1. Let all ingredients come to room temperature before mixing. This means taking eggs and butter out of the fridge for a couple hours before starting.
2. Make the dough the night before and let it chill in the fridge. This helps prevent the cookies from spreading too much, and also improves flavor. (read the article from J. Kenji López-Alt on why)
3. Get a portioning scoop (DE / US). This is basically an ice cream scoop with a lever for ejecting the dough. This helps insure uniform sized cookies. I use a 40mm / 1.5Tbsp scoop.
4. Use a parchment liner on the baking sheets. This makes for easier removal from the baking sheet, as well as quicker cleanup.

And now for the recipes.

Chocolate Chip – these are fairly traditional chocolate chip cookies; not very different from the classic Nestlé Toll House recipe.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip – these are rich chocolate cookies with chocolate chips.

White Chocolate Cranberry – these are very similar to the chocolate chip cookies, only with white chocolate chips and dried cranberries.

Ginger Molasses – these are soft, chewy cookies that taste like gingerbread. One of my favorite cookies.

Oatmeal Raisin – these are classically soft and chewy cookies with oatmeal and raisins.

Sugar Cookies – this recipe is a basic sugar cookie recipe, with variations for snickerdoodles and rainbow cookies. This is not an appropriate recipe for traditional Christmas sugar cookies.

As I develop more cookie recipes, I will add them to the list.

Enjoy!

When I was in culinary school, my favorite course was Butcher Shop. I don’t remember the actual name of the class, but even our chef referred to it as Butcher Shop.

As you can well imagine, Butcher Shop was all about meat. We learned how to break down whole animals into smaller cuts you buy at the market; we learned how to filet and debone meat to minimize waste; we learned how to make sausage; and we learned how to cure meat.

Meat Curing Methods

There are two basic ways to cure meat: wet and dry. While it is possible to do both at home, dry curing often requires climate control (i.e. temperature and humidity) which is difficult to accomplish at home without special equipment. I will briefly describe both methods, but for the purposes of this post we are going to focus on wet curing.

Wet Curing

Wet curing is where the meat is soaked in or injected with a salt brine, then cooked after curing. The curing time is relatively short; from a few hours to about a week.

A classic Easter ham or corned beef are examples of wet curing.

Dry Curing

Dry curing is where the meat is packed in a salt mixture to cure, but is typically not cooked after curing. The curing time for dry-cured meats is relatively long; from about a week, to several month or even a couple years.

Salami and Prosciutto di Parma are examples of dry curing.

The Curing Process

The Brine

Brine by definition is simply a solution of water and salt. However, while technically possible, brining in just salt water is rather boring.

Most brines have salt and sugar (typically brown sugar) and a mix of spices. Aromatics such as garlic and onion are not uncommon.

Most brines will also have curing salt. Aside from “curing salt”, it goes by a few other names: TCM (Tinted Cure Mix), pink salt (so named because it is tinted pink to distinguish it from standard table salt), Prague Powder #1. This is a mixture of ordinary table salt (93.75%) and sodium nitrite (6.25%). If you have a medical requirement to avoid nitrates, or simply an aversion to using them, this ingredient is completely optional. Just know that your meat will not have the rosy pink color you are used to seeing when you cut into your ham or pastrami.

Many brine recipes that I have seen and used are a 12% salt solution. A large part of the reasoning behind this is that Listeria is killed by a 12% salt solution. Most other harmful bacteria are killed at much lower salt levels. I find a 12% salt solution to be too salty for the finished product, especially ham/pork, and end up having to “desalinate” it in a fresh water bath before cooking. Besides, Listeria will be killed by the cooking process. I usually make my pork brine at 6-8% salt solution. Beef, for whatever reason, tends not to taste too salty at 12%.

When making brines at home, I usually measure my water by weight, which makes the salt calculation very simple, and I also use half water and half ice, which helps to cool the brine quickly. Otherwise you have to wait for the brine to cool before putting the meat in it.

Add your water, salt, sugar and spices/aromatics to a pot and bring them just to a boil. Make sure the salt and sugar are fully dissolved and add the ice. By the time the ice is fully melted, the brine should be about room temperature.

The Curing

The curing process is quite simple: put the meat in a sealable container, pour the brine over it, seal the container and stick it in the back of your refrigerator for a week.

That being said, a little forethought and planning needs to go into the selection of your container. It obviously needs to be large enough to contain the piece of meat, but ideally shouldn’t be overly large or overly small. If possible, it is very helpful if the container has a lid that forms an air/water tight seal.

Once you have your ideal container picked out, put your to-be-cured piece of meat in it, fill it completely full of water, then take the meat out. Now weigh the water and add 10%. You will need half this weight in water and half in ice to make your brine. Scale your salt, sugar and spices accordingly.

If you simply put the meat and brine in the container, depending on the size of the piece of meat, you should plan on letting it cure for about a week. It will take that long for the osmotic process to draw the brine into the center of the meat. An exceptionally large piece of meat (e.g. a full, bone-in fresh ham) may take a bit longer.

Once in the brine, if the meat floats and is partially out of the brine, it needs to be weighed down so that it remains submerged. This is easily accomplished by laying an inverted plate (the heavier, the better) on the meat to keep in submerged.

To expedite the curing process, I highly recommend getting a meat/brine injector. This is essentially a giant syringe for injecting the brine into the center of the meat. These can be easily found online for unter $20 / 20€. Simply inject brine in a grid pattern of about 2cm / 1″. This will reduce the required brining time by about half.

Cooking

Once the meat has cured, remove it from the brine and rinse it with fresh water. Pat it dry and cook as desired. Hint: Smoking is always good for cured meats.

Recipes

Here are some recipes for basic ham and corned beef / pastrami brines.

Cooked Fresh Ham

Corned Beef / Pastrami

Welcome to Eric’s Cookbook.

I originally developed this website to organize our recipes, as well as a way to teach myself some web programming.

After 10 years or so, it’s time to focus more on the recipes. So I have installed a web framework that is much simpler to use and maintain, so that I can focus on entering and updating recipes.

A second intention is to convert, as much as possible, all of the recipes to German / European ingredients and metric measurements. Steph and I have been living in Berlin, Germany, since early 2016, and it just makes more sense to use local ingredients and measures.

So, enjoy the new site and all of the recipes.

Eric