2024 - HERE BEGINS THE CALENDAR
FOR 2024.
IT WILL BE UPDATED AS NEW INFORMATION ON EVENTS BECOMES AVAILABLE.
THIS IS GOING TO BE A GREAT YEAR FOR FRIED CHICKEN!
A Blog About My Experiments With Fried Chicken and a Documenting of the Many Parish Picnics in the German/Czech Towns of Central Texas (With Photos and Videos)
2024 - HERE BEGINS THE CALENDAR
FOR 2024.
IT WILL BE UPDATED AS NEW INFORMATION ON EVENTS BECOMES AVAILABLE.
THIS IS GOING TO BE A GREAT YEAR FOR FRIED CHICKEN!
German chocolate cake is not "German". It refers to German's chocolate, a type of chocolate developed by Sam German in 1852 for the Baker's Chocolate Company. The recipe is very Texan, from a Dallas/Fort Worth State Fair.
German Chocolate Cake
I typically use the 1234 cake recipe from the back of the Swan’s Down cake flour box. But, here also is the cake recipe for this one. The custard frosting recipe makes a lot and you will have left over frosting for topping on Rice Krispie Treats.
3 cups sugar
1 ½ cups, that is, 3 sticks, unsalted butter
3 cups evaporated milk
12 egg yolks, beaten
3 cups flaked and sweetened coconut
3 cups of chopped pecans
3 teaspoons of vanilla extract
Combine the ingredients except the vanilla, coconut and pecans in a sauce pan and cook over medium heat, stirring until thickened for about 10-15 minutes. Allow to cool for at least 20 minutes and then add the coconut, vanilla and pecans and set aside.
This cake recipe calls for 350 F oven, floured (3) 10 inch pans
2 ½ cups AP flour (assumed 120 g per cup)or, try it with cake flour
1 ½ cups unsweetened cocoa powder
1 ½ teaspoons salt, or less if preferred
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 tablespoon baking powder
3 cups sugar
5 large eggs
1 ½ cups buttermilk (the acid in the buttermilk will react with the baking soda)
1 ½ cups strong coffee
1 ½ sticks of softened & unsalted butter.
As bakers, you know that you beat your softened butter with your sugar until creamy. Then you add eggs. Then the wet ingredients. Separately, you’ve whisked together the dry ingredients and you add these just until blended.
For less of each, divide these recipes in half. Baking time is about 25-30 minutes.
But on the whole, it's a fairly straightforward process. Just a matter of paying attention to what you're doing when deep frying. Given the daily throughput, I'm assuming that they do not pre-marinade the chicken, just are careful about the batter and shake during the frying process. You could get similar or better results from soaking the chicken in a thinner version of the batter in the fridge for 24 hours, because that would soften the meat up and ensure better heat transfer.
But the main thing is to ensure consistency of the batter on the surface during the fry, checking it multiple times and adding shake for flavor, in order to keep it hot enough for long enough to ensure it's fully cooked instead of still cold inside. Basically double or triple fry with additional batter and shake each time you check it. With thin enough batter, additional batter won't over thicken it.
You also need to cook each type of piece separately. Breasts are going to take longer and somewhat more attention than drums or wings, for example. Wouldn't be surprised if they have different pre-set times and/or sections for each type of piece. - Otto M (Reddit)
C. "I went to the original Gus’s many times and I knew Gus and Terrence (Gus’s oldest son).
They most definitely cooked in peanut oil and there’s likely cayenne in it (Terrance’s chicken was hotter than Gus’s) but the mixture was strange. And they most definitely did not pre-soak the chicken - it was mixed up in a tub with the “batter.” Right before cooking.
The “batter” (if you could call it that) looked like the pink slime in the underground river from ghostbusters 2 - that’s the best way I can describe it. It dripped off the chicken with the consistency of syrup but had a pink hue.
People would try all sorts of things to try to get the recipe including calling saying they were the hospital and someone was having an allergic reaction
Gus was a no frills man and would kick you out for cussing or putting your feet on the bench across from you (which was easy to do because the booths were so small in the shack). He was an old ww2 army vet. He used to call the recipe “the grave recipe” because he was taking it to his grave and not even his sons had it.
He finally started getting older and have his two sons the recipe but Gus refused to sell it. He once told me church’s had offered him 500,000 and he turned it down because he had heard the Coronel (KFC) had gotten more and that his chicken was way better than the Colonel’s recipe.
Gus finally passed and after some time his sons franchised - the first one being downtown. They still mixed the “batter” in mason and sold it to the one downtown.
Funny thing, the one downtown was terrible when it opened. But there was a fire at the original in Mason (one of several) and while it was being repaired and brought up to code, the sons came down to the original and told the couple that ran the franchise all the things they were doing wrong (they since divorced, the wife kept the one downtown and the husband opened the one on mendenhall - the second franchised location).
Since then a company formed here in Memphis finally bought the recipe from Gus’s sons and it now sits in a vault like the original coke recipe. That company handles all franchising and sales of the “batter.”
Gus was one of a kind - I don’t think I ever saw him smile. If he wasn’t cooking he’d sit in his spot (usually the booth closest to the kitchen), in a perfectly ironed white or blue shirt sleeve shirt, hand on his cane. His hair was white and he still wore it in a same short 1950s style.
He had zero tolerance for anyone not abiding by the rules of his tiny restaurant. That was his domain. They sold 40s of 2 or three domestics and the only sides were beans, dirty rice, and white bread.
The service took forever and a day. Each son and Gus had their own chicken when they were cooking and that was their profit for the day on sales during their cooking shift.
Remember the place was very small and wide open - the “kitchen” was just a couple of fryers right behind the cash register.
After Gus passed they’d shut the restaurant down when Judge Judy was on - if you were in there you were good but the screen door would be locked and there would often be a line forming outside while everyone - wait staff (all family) and cooks alike watched.
Another fun fact - the second gus’s wasn’t the one downtown. For a short time one of Gus’s sons ran one in Jackson, TN. This was way before the franchise agreements.
Lots of memories from that place. IMHO the original will always be the best and the one downtown is as close to the original as you can get. All others are good but not great (I’ve been to a couple that should be shut down due to quality." -Benefit of Mr. Kite (also Reddit)
Fried Chicken – San Antonio “Meadow Restaurant” Dairy Free Feb 2023
A recipe gleaned from a San Antonio Cooks cookbook from the Meadow Restaurant. Author of the book is Julia Celeste Rosenfeld. The book is available via Amazon or your local bookstore. I note that it calls for smoked paprika and also Spanish paprika. Now, historically, one defaulted to Spanish paprika when one wanted a smoked paprika. Also noted, I'm not too sure about that Mexican oregano. If I make this, I will probably reduce the amount or eliminate altogether. I'm comfortable with the other ingredients and I think that dry mix for the batter is going to be a good one. The soy sauce in the marinade is another interesting riff. That adds salt.
I look forward to dining at The Meadow, to sample their fried chicken on a future visit to San Antonio.
1 tbs sea salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp Mexican oregano
1 tsp Spanish paprika
½ tsp mustard powder
½ tsp cayenne pepper
(Spice Mix)
1 3 ½ lb chicken to which you add 2 tbs of the above spice plus ¼ cup soy sauce plus 2 tbs Crystal hot sauce
Batter
1 cup AP flour
¾ cup cornstarch
¼ cup rice flour
Store leftover spice
Chicken pieces in bowl. Add ingredients above. Refrigerate 12 hours
To make batter, combine batter ingredients above in bowl, add 1 ¾ cups cool water to make batter. You can soak chicken in batter and refrigerate up to 2 hours.
375 F
I am thinking about starting the 2023 calendar events a little later in the year than usual. I've been doing it for many years now. In *the meantime, I am recommending that you subscribe to PolkaBeat's newsletter that will list the picnics as they occur, along with postings for great music and festivals in 2023.