Recipe: Italian Meatballs

Posted on February 13, 2024 by arah

Every time I think of meatballs, I am reminded of the scene in Lady and the Tramp where they are sharing a meatball and spaghetti dinner. It makes the meal so romantic and the meatball wasn’t just meatball, it became a sign of affection. Anyway, I didn’t grow up eating meatballs. My mom didn’t have time for that, she had an army of 6 kids to feed! It was ground beef in red sauce. I grew up thinking meatballs were hard to make. I know now that they are easy, makes a ton and are great for freezing.

Zaycon Foods- meatlballs

And so, without further ado, I give the easiest meatball recipe from our awesome in-house food man, Matt H:

Meatballs are a great thing to keep in the fridge. Super versatile, fast, easy and well, dern it, people like them.
What I don’t like is the list of ingredients on store bought meatballs. When I was at the market, the package listed no fewer than 21 ingredients. 21!

These have 8 including Salt & Pepper AND they are 93/7 Zaycon Ground Beef, but the best part is that YOU decide what goes into them for your family.
Zaycon Foods-meatballs Ingredients:

- 2 lbs of 93/7 Zaycon Ground Beef
- 2 Eggs
- 3/4 cup Breadcrumbs
- 1 Tablespoon Italian Seasoning
- 1 teaspoon Garlic powder
-1 teaspoon Onion powder
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 1/2 teaspoon Pepper

Zaycon Foods- meatballs
Your hands are your best tool, so scrub them up and get all up in it. Mix all the ingredients until smooth consistency. I used a medium sized portion scoop then smoothed them into balls, then onto a baking sheet lined with parchment for easy cleanup with a cooling rack on top. Zaycon foods-meatballs Bake in a 375 oven until done about 20 minutes. If you’re going to make a large quantity, allow them to cool, then freeze in a single layer on a sheet, then after they are frozen, put into large freezer bags.
TIP! If you’re wanting to stretch your ground beef and nobody in the family is sensitive to soy products, you can extend the beef by adding textured soy product, available in either the bulk section or health food section of your market.

I think next time I get a case, I’ll turn one full 10 pound chub into meatballs. They freeze great and are ready in seconds.

Zaycon Foods-meatballs

Matt H.

You can head over to the Zaycon Foods website for information on our ground beef and many of our other beef products!

Recipe: lemon strawberry rolls

Posted on February 10, 2024 by arah

With Valentines Day just a few days away, I wanted to post something fun and easy that would be perfect for a Saturday morning breakfast with the ones you love….ah, how sweet. Zaycon Foods-lemon strawberry rolls

These rolls can be made with frozen bread dough, which cuts down quite a bit of the time. I use my moms all-use bread recipe, and I’ll be sharing that with you here as well! In fact, you can be a super cheat and use store bought lemon curd too, I won’t tell. Zaycon Foods Mama’s bread recipe:

2 Tablespoons yeast

1 Tablespoon sugar

2 cups hot water

let sit for 5-10 minutes to get the yeast activated

Add 5 cups flour, 1/2 cup sugar and 1 teaspoon of salt. If super sticky, add up to 1 more cup of flour. knead in mixer for 5 minutes.

Let set for 30 minutes.

Lemon Curd: (This is a lot easier to do that you think)

3/4 cup lemon juice

1 cup sugar

Zest of 1 lemon, good fun for the kids. My kids love to use fun kitchen tools.

1 cube cold butter, cut it up so it melts faster

3 egg yolks

You are going to need a double boiler, you can make one with a saucepan and a metal mixing bowl if you don’t have one. Bring water to a boil in the saucepan, you don’t want it to touch the bottom of the metal bowl, so be sure not to fill it too high. Once its to a boil, turn down the heat and put the metal bowl on top and add to it:

sugar, lemon juice and zest and egg yolks, mix together. You need to whisk the entire time its on the heat. It will start to thicken and stick to your spoon, take off the heat and add your butter a pad at a time until melted. cover and let cool until you are ready to use it.

Putting it together:

Roll out your dough to fit an 11×17 sheet. I like to bake on parchment or a silicone baking mat. You need to spread your lemon curd out across the dough and sprinkle with diced strawberries. Roll the dough like your making cinnamon rolls. This is going to get really messy, cut 1 1/2 inch sections off your dough log. I use dental floss. Its really easy and cuts fast. This size should cut about 12-15 rolls per log.

Bake 350 degrees for 22 minutes.

glaze:

I like to make a super simple sugar glaze with powdered sugar, a little milk and melted butter. I eyeball this part. I melt 1 tablespoon of butter and add about a tablespoon of milk to about 1/2-3/4 powdered sugar. If its too thin, I add more sugar, too thick, add milk. I drizzle this on the rolls while they are still hot.

These are not too sweet or too lemony and a nice change from chocolate, and I am a HUGE fan of chocolate. I think it would be fun to play around with different flavors. Maybe try a peach curd with raspberries or how about orange curd with a honey drizzle.

Recipe: Pasta Carbonara

Posted on February 4, 2024 by arah

8 to 10 slices of Zaycon bacon, cut into pieces
1 box good spaghetti, cooked al dente
2-4 teaspoons of minced garlic
4 of the freshest eggs you can get your hands on, beaten
Freshly cracked black pepper
coarse salt (Kosher will work fine) for pasta water
A smallish wedge of parmesan or pecorino Romano cheese finely grated (make sure you grate your own, otherwise you get that powdery coating on it and it fouls this recipe up) maybe 6 ounces?

In a sauté pan, put the cut up bacon and a little water, (1/3 to 1/2c) cook until the water evaporates and the bacon begins to sizzle. You want the bacon to be brown and cooked and slightly sizzley, but not crispy – that’s what the water is for – it makes it tender. Add the minced garlic and find a place to sit down, because your pan contents will make you weak in the knees. Cook until you just can’t stand it anymore and you completely forget this is hot bacon and then I burnt my fingertips snatching a piece. There won’t be enough fat to remove – this is Zaycon Bacon we’re talking here. Set aside your bacon mixture.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk the eggs, cheese & pepper

Cook the pasta in salted water while the bacon is cooling. This is why I said go with 8-10 slices because you will lose bacon. It’s going to happen, so make peace with it.

When you strain your pasta, reserve about a cup of the pasta water and slowly whisk about half into the egg mixture. In goes the bacon/garlic followed by the hot pasta. Toss until everything gets nicely coated and the sauce thickens.

This is EXACTLY how I cooked the pasta in the picture and I’m here to tell you, the second I was done taking the picture, I scarfed that.

Matt H.

Steak pan sauce, as seen on Zayconlive

Posted on January 23, 2024 by arah

So if you caught our live webcast yesterday, you got to experience the Matt H. and Matt K. duo. I wish you could have had the opportunity to smell the kitchen while the steaks were cooking and when that roast came out of the oven. We didn’t wait long after the cameras stopped rolling to take a sample.

I asked Matt to be sure to get me the recipe for the pan sauce he poured over the steaks. It is a pretty simple recipe with a lot of flavor. So here it is. Take it away, Matt!

After you have finished with the steak (or chicken or pork or what have you), to the hot pan, add a tablespoon or so of finely minced shallot. If the pan appears dry, add a small drizzle of olive oil to assist with cooking the shallots.

Zaycon Foods Keep the shallots moving, cooking them for a minute or so. Add ¼ to 1/3 c of water to deglaze and add 2-3 tsp (a tablespoon is 3 tsp, so in that area) of soy sauce. Continue cooking until the shallots look done to your liking. Reduce heat and add 2 tablespoons of butter and slowly stir in but not over a high heat, this will thicken, add more butter if you feel it is necessary. Adjust seasoning. Voila!

This sauce was pretty amazing and I can’t wait to make it myself. If you are looking for the roast recipe, you can click on over to this post.

You may have noticed a key word that was dropped on the show yesterday for a chance to enter for $50 Zaycon credits and we realize, not everyone has Facebook, so please, feel free to enter right here for that chance to win, but you’ll have to watch the taping to get the key word. You can do that here.

We hope you enjoyed the show. We will be doing live webcasts more often with our products so you can SEE delicious!

Roast.

Posted on January 19, 2024 by arah

Pot Roast.
_MG_0292 blog
The very words comfort, don’t they?

I’ll say it again, Pot Roast.

Ahhh.

When I was growing up, roast was reserved as a “Sunday Dinner” type of thing. My mom would put one in the oven before heading off to church. I would think of it many times between sermons. Many, many times. In fact, I thought of little else. I knew that when we would return home, we would be greeted with the aroma of, well….love.

My mom’s cooking skills were limited, but she did her best. I don’t remember her ever using a chuck roast. I’m pretty sure she based her roast purchases on price and not on cut. I remember her using a bottom round. She never browned it first, she would just cut up potatoes, carrots & onions, then sprinkle on the contents of an onion soup packet, wrap it in tin foil and call it a day. That was her best. J

We would come home and it smelled SOOOOOOOO good and every once in a while it really was good. I think she lucked on occasion bought a chuck roast on accident.

Well, we have a brand new product here at Zaycon Foods. Beef Chuck Roast. And all the love is back.

Chuck roast is probably one of the most flavorful, tender cuts of beef that you can get your hands on, but it needs to be cooked low and slow. Good things come to those who wait.

Let’s get a-roasting.

1 Zaycon Beef Chuck Roast
Salt & freshly cracked pepper
2 tablespoons oil
Large onion, diced
1-2 tablespoons tomato paste (optional)
1 tsp sugar (optional)
3 cups beef stock
2 sprigs rosemary
3-4 sprigs thyme
1-2 pounds carrots cut into 3” pieces
2 onions, wedged
1-2 pounds new potatoes
3 tablespoons or so cornstarch mixed with COLD water

Set the oven at 300.

Begin with a large covered roasting pan, I prefer an enameled cast iron one.

Generously salt and pepper both sides of the roast. Go ahead and season the sides too. We’re headed to flavor country.

Heat your pan over medium heat, then oil.

Brown both sides of the meat. Place the roast in the hot pan and don’t touch it for 4 to 4.5 minutes. Don’t touch it. I know you’ll be tempted, but if you wait, you will be richly rewarded. If you have the patience, brown the sides too. If you’re under time constraints you can skip it, but you’ve come this far, see it through.

After you’ve browned the roast, remove it to a pan and add the diced onion and if you need a little more oil in the pan go ahead and add a couple of teaspoons or so. Your goal here is to caramelize these as dark as you can. Again, if you’re short on time, add a teaspoon of sugar. This will speed up the process. I also like to add a tablespoon or two of tomato paste. This will give your finished sauce a deeper color and body, but the flavor doesn’t change enough to make it mandatory.

You know how delicious French onion soup is? We’re kind of lending a similar flavor here. Caramelize them dark, but not burnt. Add your stock at this point which will deglaze your pan. Stir up that flavor, then replace the roast.
Add the rosemary and the thyme. If you’re feeling fancy, make a bouquet garni, but I just toss them in.

Into the oven it goes. 300 for oh, about three hours. Unlike some recipes, this is not a science.

After three hours, carefully remove the roast from the pan, and send the juices through a strainer to remove the stems and the diced onion which is now just entirely spent. Replace the roast, and add your veggies. I like to use new potatoes, onions cut into chunks, carrots that aren’t too thick. They’ll all need another 45 minutes or so.

After everything is finished, remove roast to serving platter, plate your veggies, and then thicken the pan juices with either a cornstarch/water mixture (very forgiving) or thickener of your choice. Check your seasoning of the gravy.

“Fall-apart tender” and “succulent” don’t begin to describe this. In the movie Contact, Dr. Ellie Arroway said “should have sent a poet”. She should try this roast. _MG_0292 blog

Feel the love.

Matt H.

mmm, that sure looks good!

Posted on April 16, 2024 by arah

Today we have a guest. Matt H, as he is known (we have 4 guys named Matt that work at Zaycon Foods), is one of our drivers. I introduced him in a post here. Matt LOVES to cook, and a few weeks ago told me about this ham glaze he made. Then he sent some photos and told me that he was starting his own cooking blog. Well, being that Easter is this Sunday and some of you may have purchased Zaycon ham, you might like to try this glaze.

I asked Matt to send me a recipe and boy, did he deliver. And so, I give you Matt…and his ham.

As I write this, I’m trying desperately to come up with some happy memory of ham. Short term memory serves up more than plenty, but growing up, the only memory I can come up with is that mother of mine handing me this oddly shaped can, and telling me to pry the key off of the top and open it. Huh? You’d pry this key thing off of the top, wiggle it into a little band of metal on the side of the “can” (the “can” was not a can shape, but rather almost an egg shaped container) then you would twist the key around the top. Then, you’d have a top that would come off revealing what I now would call a catastrophe. One look at the contents and you’d spend precious minutes trying to figure out how to put that metal band back on and erase what just happened from your memory. Good heavens, it was a sight. The word “slurry” should NEVER be used to describe meat.

To be sure, this was meat, just whizzed up meat from all sorts of parts & bits. Then it was nicely encased in jelly. Meat jelly. Oh goodie. Must everything in my life jiggle?

So that’s my memory of ham.

Sub-par. At best. Ham is typically served at some type of celebration. Christmas. Easter. Thursday. But just how is canned ham celebratory of anything except maybe parole?

Fast forward to me throwing meat all over the country for Zaycon Foods. Boy, do we have ham! No slurry here, no ma’am. This is one solid muscle. If I didn’t know better I’d say that these porcine fellows have been doing their squats.

If you haven’t tried them, you owe it to yourself to do so. They are all meat! And what meat it is. The hams come fully cooked, so all you need to do is put them in a hot oven, come up with a glaze of your choosing (notwithstanding my surpreme humility, mine is rockin!) and your entree is done!

For my glaze, you’ll need a hot pepper jelly, some pineapple preserves, brown sugar, moleasses & a dash of cloves. If you can’t find pineapple preserves (and they can be trixy to find), feel free to use apricot/pineapple preserves. I’ve used both and both are wonderful. Next time I make this I’m going to try a habanero jelly - I’m getting bold. The reason for the moleasses is all I had was a light brown sugar. I wanted a little deeper flavour, so used the moleasses. You don’t need much. And you certainly don’t need a lot of cloves.

Put the ham in a roasting pan, cover with aluminum foil and bake it. During the last 20-25 minutes, baste with the glaze.

Yes, you could serve it with a box of Au Gratin potatoes, and as yummy as they are, this ham deserves to be pampered. I’ve come up with “Duke Potatoes”. As I was making them, I started making Duchess potatoes, but decided that they needed a little more substance. “Strong enough for a Duke, but made for a Duchess” is how I describe them. (And made by an Empress Dowager, but I digress)

Zaycon Bacon is a subject that will be delt with in some detail in a later post. For now, just trust me, use Zaycon Bacon. You’ll need a full 3 pound pack for this recipe. In reality, you’ll just need about 5 slices, but Nicole won’t stop picking at it, so shoot, just cook it up. I like to blame her, but it’s really all of us.

Use a potato ricer. You’ll thank me. If you don’t have one, don’t worry - just mix as many lumps out as you can. If you can’t get them all out, just call them “rustic”. We love rustic.

Start with whatever potato you like. I find that Yukon Golds are SUPER creamy. Reds are good too. My mother was from Idaho, bless her heart (I work in the South and know fully well what that means), so she liked to use Russets. They work quite well for this dish, so I used them here as an homage to my mom, which is funny to me, because not in a million years would she have made these. 99% of the time, her potatoes were begrudgingly sprinkled from a box into boiling water. She would sprinkle too fast and not stir quick enough. The poor old girl could have used them to hang wallpaper. I wish she had. Try as hard as I have, I just can’t forget it.

Boil the potatoes until they are fork tender, drain, then send them through a ricer. Add cheddar cheese, Zaycon Bacon, sour cream, butter, chives, freshly cracked pepper & salt. All to taste. I’ll post my measurements, but this is your dinner, not mine. Please do it as your family would like it. My personal opinion is that recipes are there as a guide, not as scripture. Unless it’s baking. Or candy. Or meth. Or if you’re trying to re-create great grandma’s meatloaf. For those things, prescion is key.

I like to use a stand mixer, but if you don’t have one, not a big deal.

Don’t add milk to this, you want these to be as firm as you can get them, so they will stand up after piping. I guess you could use powdered milk, but it seems to me there are laws against that. Duchess potatoes call for egg yolks, but I didn’t care for the texture that they imparted, so I skipped them. You’ll have a taller product if you use them, but then if you don’t like the taste or texture, you just wasted that Zaycon Bacon! So they stayed out this time.

After mixing, take a piece of parchment paper and on one side, using a biscuit cutter or glass, or other round objet, pencil a circle. Put it onto your baking sheet marked side down, you’ll then be able to see the outline of the circle. This is your guide. Using a giant star tip, and a large (18″) piping bag, (don’t even think about using that stupid ziploc trick you learned on the cooking show from Aunt Sandie - she’s crazy) pipe a pretty mound. Keep it up and fill that baking sheet! You’ll want a hot oven 375 and get them browned just a bit.

Fresh green beans sprinkled with sliced almonds round it out. Please don’t serve it with canned, grey beans. They should be green beans, not “grey beans” Life’s too short to eat canned beans.

Did you get your order in for that Zaycon ham?

Who knows, maybe I delivered it!

See ‘ya in the parking lot!

Matt H.

two words: Bacon. Jam.

Posted on March 27, 2024 by arah

Bacon is delicious. Plain and simple, I love bacon. However, sometimes I want to do something different, other than just make a BLT or have it with a side of eggs. So I asked around for some bacon recipes, something different, maybe odd, but still tasted good. A customer of Zaycon Foods by the name of Joan and a blogger at How To Be A Housewife, mentioned bacon jam… um, “what?” and “ew!” both came to mind. She said there were tons of recipes for it if you search the internet. So I did. And came across this recipe from Tide and Thyme. Oh My Word. I don’t know how people think of these recipes, but its going to be a favorite around this house. It is a simple recipe, but make sure you have an afternoon available where you don’t have to go anywhere for a few hours. It does take some time to simmer. For you bacon fans, I give you…

Bacon Jam.
This recipe is pretty easy, I only had to buy some maple syrup and had everything else in my fridge, on my counter or in my cupboard.

Cut up a pound of Zaycon bacon into 1 inch sections. I get my kids involved in all of my cooking and baking. They get to learn and I get to let go of my OCD about cooking. DSC_7725copy a Fry up the bacon in batches. A little plug about Zaycon bacon, it is medium cut and it cooks up nice. Typically, I like to bake it, it always comes out perfect. DSC_7751copy a When your bacon is browned, but not super crispy, take it off the heat and set it on a few paper towels to soak up some of that grease. You will want to reserve about 2 tablespoons of grease in the pan.

While my bacon was browning (with the help of my daughter) I diced up a medium sized onion. I use Walla Walla sweet onions. We love Walla Walla onions, they are sweeter and overall have a great flavor. They are also grown fairly local to us.

Add about 4 cloves of chopped garlic to the onion. I cheat and buy my garlic in a jar. Its just easier fro me. Add it to the pan you used to brown the bacon. When the onion is transulcent, add the bacon back in the pan.

The you can add in all the other ingredients, a Tbsp of brown sugar, a Tbsp of hot sauce (I think it could use more and will double the hot sauce next time), 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar, 1/4 cup of maple syrup, black pepper to taste and…

DSC_7789copy a

a cup of coffee. DSC_7761copy a We don’t drink coffee and I didn’t want to go buy some and have it go to waste. I do drink Teecino and so I used it instead. I am not sure what the difference would be. I’m guessing its for flavor and not the caffeine. DSC_7798copy a This is where the waiting comes. You want to simmer it for around 2 hours, adding about 1/4 cup of water every 25 or so minutes as it needs it. It will end up looking like this: DSC_7802copy a

The sauce will thicken up a bit. once you can’t tell the onions from the bacon, its ready. Take it off the stove and let it set for about 15-20 minutes. Your house will smell amazing and you will want to throw a few burgers on the grill or even toast a bagel and top with cream cheese to get it ready for a bit of this jam. DSC_7818copy a I put it all in a wide mouth pint jar and used my hand mixer and gave it a few good pulses. I wanted to keep a few good pieces of bacon and not pulverize the whole batch. DSC_7832copy a I couldnt keep my girls hands out of it. We had pretzel chips handy and taste tested it. Bacon heaven, I tell ya!Its sweet, it’s salty and has a tiny hint of a kick of spice. I think we will have a new favorite for BBQ’s around here. It made sound weird, but try it first before you dis it. Its got bacon in it!!

And while Zaycon bacon events are over and we won’t be back until this fall, the grilling pack is open for ordering. Imagine this on an all beef frank or a keilbasa sausage, maybe eat it as an appetizer while you are grilling the pork ribs.

For the full recipe, check out the post at Tide and Thyme.

Tag Archives: cooking

Recipe: Italian Meatballs

Recipe: lemon strawberry rolls

Recipe: Pasta Carbonara

Steak pan sauce, as seen on Zayconlive

Roast.

mmm, that sure looks good!

two words: Bacon. Jam.

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