Double Sausage and Egg McMuffin with Cheese

One Double Sausage and Egg McMuffin with Cheese Sandwich cut in half.

The Best McMuffin’s

I realize some people aren’t fans of McDonalds food. If that’s the case with you, what are you doing here? Oh I get it… you know my recipes are usually better. Okay, that’s cool, you can stay. I mean, get a load of this Double Sausage and Egg McMuffin with Cheese, yo! It’s a lot of fun to make, too. Especially if you’ve got a griddle.

1 bag of a dozen English Muffins.

McMuffin Bread

It’s essential to have the right bread when you’re making a sandwich. You’ve got to have Rye bread, when you’re making a Rueben, Sub Rolls, when you’re making a Philly and you’ve got to have English Muffins, which is a sour dough bread, when you’re making McMuffin’s.

16 oz Farmland Original pork sausage still in the wrapper.

Sausage and Egg

The Sausage and Egg McMuffin is made with 1 breakfast sausage patty, 1 egg and 1 piece of processed American cheese. Personally I prefer Jimmy Dean sausage but Farmland was on sale so, use what you like. I portion the patty’s into a 1/4 pound each.

The egg is cooked in an egg mold to keep it round. It’s cooked sunny side up and with a little trick I show you in the video to keep from flipping the egg over. The yolk is cooked all the way through.

Double Sausage and Egg with Cheese Ingredients:

2 English Muffins
1 lbs Ground Breakfast Sausage
2 Eggs
2 pc Cheese, processed American
1 tbsp Butter

Watch the short video tutorial and I’ll show you exactly how to make these Double Sausage and Egg McMuffin’s with Cheese.

Braised Pork Belly with Noodles

1.6 lbs Raw Pork Belly cut portion.

The Best Ramen

If you’ve only been eating 15 cent grocery store bought Ramen packages, with foam noodles, and you’ve never had Ramen made fresh in a Restaurant or at home with egg noodles, you’ve been missing out. There’s nothing like a fresh bowl of gourmet cooked Ramen made right because it’s packed with carbs, proteins and all kinds of vitamins and nutrients; especially if it’s made with Bone Broth. Real Ramen recipes have this and they’re delicious.

Cubed cut pork belly portions braising in a large pot of ingredients.

Cooking Pork Belly

The most important thing about cooking pork is making sure it’s cooked all the way through. But, you don’t need to worry about that when you’re braising because the slow and low process goes above and beyond the safety measure temperatures and breaks down the enzymes in the meat to the point of absolute tenderness. In this recipe, I encourage you to poach the pork belly pieces for no less than 20 minutes. This will delicately cook the meat all of the way through before braising in my secret sauce.

Homemade Ramen Noodles with Braised Pork Belly, Baby Bok Choy, Spinach, Beef Broth and Scallions.

Making this Noodle Soup

It’s always a good idea to use the freshest ingredients when making this dish, however, some substitutions can be made and I’ve made a few. I do teach you how to make Beef Bone Broth from scratch and it’s great in this recipe if you want to spend 3 hours making it. If not, Knorr’s Bouillon is a fantastic alternative and I use their Beef, Chicken and Tomato recipes often(not affiliated, I just like it).

It’s also nice to have fresh noodles on hand and you can either Make them yourself, the way I show you “How to make Pasta“, purchase the oriental style Yaka Soba noodles, which I use in this recipe, or just use a plain cheap package of Ramen noodles. All will work just fine for this recipe.

Vegetables are always a fine addition to practically any soup and this dish is no exception. You can add what ever you like but my recomendations for this recipe 3 simple greens; fresh spinach, baby bok choy and scallions. Celery, carrot, cilantro, bean sprouts, red onion and corn are also other great alternatives and additions.

As far as proteins go, boiled or poached eggs are very common in Ramen bowls, chicken, instead of pork belly if you prefer or even beef brisket is great.

Braised Pork Belly with Noodles Ingredients:

1 lbs Frozen Yaki Soba Noodles (my favorite)
3 cups Beef Broth, to cook the noodles in and use as soup
2 to 3 lbs Pork Belly, cut into cubes

Vegetables
8 oz Spinach
10 Baby Bok Choy
2 Green Onions, chopped

Hong Shao Rou Braising Ingredients
2 Fresh Ginger, sliced (size of a quarter)
1/4 tsp Anise
1 tsp Pickling Spice, ingredients below
1 pinch Chili Flakes
1/4 cup Soy Sauce
1/4 cup White Wine
1/4 cup Brown Sugar
Top off pork belly with water in pot (2 to 3 cups)

Bring to a boil then simmer and cook, with a lid, for 1 1/2 hours.

Serve with 8 oz of cooked noodles, 5 to 6 cubes of Braised Pork Belly, 2 to 3 ladles of beef broth, 3 oz of Hong Shao Rou sauce, Garnish with Spinach, Baby Bok Choy and Green onion.

Pickling Spice Ingredients:
2 tbsp Mustard Seeds, whole
1 tbsp Allspice Berries, whole
2 tsp Coriander, seeds
1 tsp Red Pepper Chili Flakes
1 tsp Ginger, ground
2 Bay Leaves, crumbled
2 Cinnamon Sticks
6 Cloves, whole

Please watch the video tutorial and I’ll show you exactly how to make this Noodle Soup with Braised Pork Belly.

Dry Aged Beef

1/3 Boneless Ribeye, Dry Aged with the end heal cut off into 1 steak.

The Best Steaks

I’ve learned several different things about cooking great steaks, over the years, and the one constant, that everyone can agree on, is it’s got to have flavor. How it’s achieved, however, varies with preference and style. The 3 most common cooking methods are grilled, pan fried, oven baked/broiled or a combination of the three. So, other than variations of added ingredients, flavor can come from the fire and whatever you choose to fuel the flames on a grill or whatever you decide to throw in a pan. But, what if you could achieve flavor just as good with out any other ingredients than basic Kosher Salt and Ground Black Pepper. Dry aging your beef is a really great way to do it.

One raw 6 lb Boneless Beef Ribeye ready for Dry Aging.

What is Dry Aged Beef

One of the greatest kept secrets in gourmet cooking is how to properly age beef. It’s something that our ancestors had knowledge of but, because of refrigeration, the practice was no longer necessary to pass on to the following generations. It’s now considered a luxury and can be quite expensive to purchase. Steaks that would normally cost the average grocer $5 to $6 dollars per lb can cost upwards of $20+ per lb after dry aging.

Dry Aging Wraps for aging beef.

This process used to be done out doors where one couldn’t predict the weather, temperatures or exact humidity that is involved to perfect aging and prevent spoilage. Meat had to be protected from carnivores and other predator’s like insects but, now that we understand the science behind this incredible process, we can actually use refrigeration to our advantage and predict outcome almost every single time.

To do this at home, Dry Aged Wraps or Bags are used to protect the meat from other ingredients in your fridge and vise versa. Healthy Bacteria’s and Molds containing Penicillin form on the outside of the meat just like aging cheese but you don’t want to add any off put flavors or spread mold anywhere else in your refrigerator. That’s why I’m recommending these Dry Aged Bags. I am an Amazon affiliate but I’m not affiliated with this company, at all. I just found that you get more for your buck with this particular brand because the others are almost twice as much for less bags.

Boneless Beef Ribeye incased in Dry Aging Wraps, ready to start aging.

Now, Dry Aged Beef is simply a controlled atmosphere of humidity and temperature that ages the meat like a fine wine or cheese. The best meat for dry aging are sub-primal cuts on the bone like a strip loin, ribeye or sirloin. Water evaporates from the muscle and safe bacteria’s, with a variety of penicillin’s that form a harden surface around the beef as it ages for a period, on average, 21 to 28 days. Beef cuts with large fat portions can protect the meat from drying out to much as the enzymes in the dry aged beef break down the tissue, leaving the meat quite tender.

Dry Aged Boneless Beef Ribeye aged 28 days.

Preparing and Cooking Dry Aged Steaks

Once the Beef has been aged properly, steaks can be cut into portions. Most people will trim off the outside layer, all around the steak, before cooking. Only about an 8th of an inch is necessary but, if cooked properly, it’s safe to consume. The fattier parts can be cooked and rendered down in water, to prevent burning, and the fat can be used to cook the steak in, if you’re pan frying.

I highly recommend minimizing the added ingredients to your steaks when cooking. If you’ve never had aged beef steaks you should try it with Kosher Salt and Pepper only, at least for the first time. If you’ve been following my blog and channel, you know I love garlic, butter, herbs and grilling as much as the next guy but, dry aging adds flavor that doesn’t require any of those things. If you add them or even barbecue these steaks first you’re going to cover up the natural flavors that dry aging adds to your steak and you’ll never fully understand or appreciate the process if you do because that taste will be berried and lost to the fire and/or other ingredients.

I would recommend cooking your dry aged beef steaks in a straight pan fry with the aged fat on the stove and maybe the oven(like I show you in the video) or a full cook under the broiler in the oven. Cooking time will vary upon steak thickness.

Dry Aged Beef cut into a few Steaks, ready for trimming.
A word of caution

Most professionals won’t advise folks to try dry aging beef at home because of the technicalities. For example: a high humidity of 80% and an average temperature of 33° to 38° Fahrenheit are recommended at all times. This means, NO PEAKING. If you’re just trying to do this in the family refrigerator, it’s best to do it in one that is either a) not opened 20 times a day and/or b) separated from the bulk of the ingredients.

I use a drawer and a crisper is best because it allows you to control the humidity for fruits and vegetables. Obviously I’m aging meat instead but vegetables favor a higher humidity so I adjust the fruits and vegetable setting to vegetables. Most refrigerators are already set to the correct temperature. All you have to do now is follow the instructions in my video tutorial and be patient.

If all goes well, you’ll have a perfectly aged portion of beef. However, if there’s a real funny smell to your beef and it smells spoiled it most likely is. Properly aged beef will smell almost like nothing, for the most part, but will have a small hint of nuttiness’ to it, which is normal and how it should be.

How to Dry Age Beef at Home video tutorial by PoorMansGourmet.

Check out my other steak recipes: Pan Fried Ribeye Steak, Grilling Thick Ribeye Steaks, Chicken Fried Steak, Philly Cheesesteak.