Convention – Cookin’ on the Road

World’s Best Braised Beef

Abigail — Thu, 09 Nov 2023 22:24:23 +0000

World’s Best Braised Beef

Brownstown has the world's best braised beef. Try it!

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Diet Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free

Keyword Intermediate

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 15

Simmering Time: 1 30

Total Time 2

Servings 9

Author Brownstown

Ingredients

½ medium onion chopped
⅓ lb celery chopped (1 1/2 cups)
3 ½ lb stew meat in 1-inch chunks
1 Tbsp butter
1 ½ tsp parsley flakes
1 ½ tsp salt
¾ tsp black pepper
¾ tsp garlic powder
1 dash hot sauce Frank's
¼ cup Worcestershire sauce
1 ¼ tsp beef base beef boullion
2 Tbsp cornstarch

Instructions

Pre-Prep:

Dice the onions and celery. Set aside.
Cut the meat into 1-inch cubes.

Braised Beef:

In a large dutch oven (or kettle) over med/high heat, melt butter.
When hot, add the meat in one layer and braise until browned on all sides.
Add all the remaining ingredient except for the cornstarch, cover with a lid, and simmer for 1 1/2-2 hours.
When the meat is tender, combine the cornstarch in a cup with a little cold water and stir until dissolved. Pour into the pan with the meat and allow to simmer until cornstarch is cooked.

Notes

Make Ahead: This is really good if it’s allowed to simmer for a few hours before serving.

Serve with: Potatoes

World’s Best Baked Beans

Abigail — Thu, 09 Nov 2023 21:43:29 +0000

World’s Best Baked Beans

Brownstown's baked beans are the best in the world. Here's the recipe, scaled to a "normal" size.

Course Side Dish

Cuisine American

Keyword Intermediate

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 30

Simmering Time 1

Total Time 1 45

Servings 12

Author Brad Fryburger

Ingredients

½ lb Little Smokies
⅓ lb bacon cut in 1-inch chunks
½ lb ground beef
3 Tbsp butter
2 medium onions
⅓ medium green bell pepper
2 tsp minced garlic
56 oz canned baked beans original flavor
2 Tbsp BBQ sauce
1 tsp black pepper
2 tsp Lawry's salt
2 Tbsp yellow mustard
¼ cup ketchup
¾ cup brown sugar packed
¼ cup apple finely diced

Instructions

Pre-prep:

Dice the onion and bell pepper. Set aside.
Cut up the bacon and Little Smokies. Set the Little Smokies aside.

Baked Beans:

In a skillet, cook the ground beef. Drain and set aside.
After the ground beef is cooked, cook the bacon.
When the bacon is cooked, remove from the skillet, but don't remove the grease.
Add the butter to the bacon grease and sauté the garlic, onion, and bell pepper until soft.
Finely dice the apple.
Open the cans of baked beans and drain off about 1/3 of the liquid.
In a large pan (or a Crockpot), combine all the ingredients, including the drippings from the skillet. Simmer on low for at last 30 minutes, or up to a couple hours. Stir frequently.

Notes

Make Ahead: These are best if they can simmer for a long time, so it would work well to make it in a crockpot and let cook on low.

Convention Spaghetti Sauce

Abigail — Sun, 23 Oct 2022 01:32:36 +0000

Convention Spaghetti Sauce

This was a really good homemade spaghetti sauce we had at convention.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Diet Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free

Keyword Intermediate

Cook Time 3 30

Total Time 3 30

Servings 400

Author McCordsville

Ingredients

Brown Beforehand:

50 lb breakfast sausage
40 lb ground beef
10 lb green bell peppers

Sauce:

13 #10 cans diced tomatoes
8 #10 cans tomato sauce
3 #10 cans tomato paste
1 ½ cup black pepper divided
2 cups garlic powder divided
1 cup salt
2 ¼ cups dried oregano
2 ¼ cups dried basil

Instructions

Pre-prep:

Dice the bell peppers.

Timing is for a 5:00 pm supper.

1:30pm – Begin browning the sausage and ground beef. Drain the excess grease.
2:20pm – Add the bell peppers to the browned meat.
2:30pm – Add 1/2 cup black pepper and 1/2 cup garlic powder.
2:40pm – Add the tomato paste and caramelize.
2:45pm – Add the diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and the rest of the spices. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally. Add water if necessary.
4:00pm – Remove the lid and allow to simmer, uncovered, until serving time.
5:00pm – Serve.

Notes

There were 4 gallons left over after serving 395 people.

Here is this same recipe sized down for 8 people.

Swedish Meatballs

Abigail — Sun, 20 Feb 2022 00:41:11 +0000

These soft, flavorful meatballs in creamy sauce are always a favorite.

Swedish Meatballs

Course Main Course

Cuisine Swedish

Diet Gluten Free

Keyword Intermediate

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 40

Simmering Time: 2

Total Time 3 10

Servings 8

Author Adapted from Ardith Ellingson’s

Ingredients

Meatballs:

2 cups soft bread crumbs *special diet note – use gluten free crumbs
1 ½ cups half & half
1 Tbsp butter
¾ cup onion diced
2 lb ground beef or 1 1/2lb ground beef and 1/2lb ground pork
2 large eggs
⅓ cup fresh parsley minced
3 tsp salt may need a tad more
¾ tsp ground ginger
¾ tsp ground allspice
¾ tsp ground nutmeg

Gravy Option #1: Flour Gravy (The best option if you have time)

3 Tbsp butter If there are any drippings from the meatballs, use them and then add butter until you have a total of 3 Tbsp of grease.
4 cups beef broth divided
⅓ cup heavy whipping cream or sour cream
3 ½ Tbsp all-purpose flour *special diet – see note about gluten free

Gravy Option #2: Traditional gravy (If you don't have time for the meatballs to simmer in the gravy)

3 Tbsp all-purpose flour *special diet – see note about gluten free
3 cups beef broth
3 Tbsp butter If there are any drippings from the meatballs, use them and then add butter until you have a total of 3 Tbsp of grease.
⅓ cup heavy whipping cream

Instructions

Meatballs:

Preheat the oven to 350°. Grease a 10×15 baking pan.
In a large bowl of a stand mixer, soak the bread crumbs in the half & half for 10 minutes.
Melt 1 Tbsp of butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and saute until soft – about 3 minutes.
Stir into the breadcrumb mixture.
Add the beef (& pork), eggs, parsley, salt, ginger, allspice, and nutmeg.
Beat at high speed until the mixture is fluffy.
Dip 2 teaspoons in ice water until cold. Use the cold spoons to shape the meat mixture into tiny meatballs and place in the baking dish.
Cover with foil and bake until the meatballs are cooked – about 40 minutes for normal sized meatballs, and probably about 25 minutes for tiny meatballs. (They don't have to be totally cooked because they will simmer in the gravy for a while.)
*Save the drippings for the gravy.*
Optional step: The meatballs are best if they have a crispy outside, so after they were baked, I pan-fried them for a couple minutes to get them crispy.

Gravy Option #1: (the best option if you have time.)

When the meatballs are cooked, dump them in a large pot and add 3 1/2 cups of broth and the meatball drippings. (You may need to add some butter if there aren't many drippings.)
Simmer until close to serving time – the longer they can simmer, the more flavor they will have.
Close to serving time: (You may need to remove some meatballs to make it easier to whisk the flour mixture in.)
In a cup, whisk together 1/2 cup broth & 3 1/2 Tbsp flour.
Add the broth to the pan and whisk until beginning to thicken.
Add the cream (but don't bring back to a boil because it might curdle).

Gravy Option #2:

If you need to make these quickly and don't have time to let the meatballs simmer in the broth, here are the instructions for traditional gravy.
in a saucepan, whisk together the flour and broth.
Add the meatball drippings and butter and bring to a simmer.
Simmer until beginning to thicken.
Add the cream (but don't bring back to a boil because it might curdle).
Pour over the meatballs and serve.

Notes

Crowd Size: 6x for 12lb meat – makes 224 meatballs. Feeds 43 people with 2 serving bowls left over.

Make Ahead: You can easily make these meatballs ahead of time and either freeze or refrigerate them. You could just make the meatballs and store them raw, but it saves a step later on if you go ahead and bake them. Then you can just combine the with the gravy and allow them to simmer on the day you plan to serve them.

Gluten Free: This is best made with flour gravy, but you can also make this gluten free by using gluten free bread crumbs then using cornstarch instead of flour in the gravy. Just use half as much cornstarch as you would flour (5 1/4 tsp cornstarch instead of 3 1/2 Tbsp for gravy option #1 and 4 1/2 tsp instead of 3 Tbsp for gravy option #2.)