My Next Experiment

I've been inspired by the following recipe from the Eulalia of Eulalia Hath a Blogge, another blogger with an interest in historic cuisine (Thanks, Eulalia, for permission to repost this):

3 oz beef stew meat (pasture-raised), in chunks
1/2 slice Trader Joe's uncured applewood smoked bacon, cut into bits
1 pippen apple, well past its prime, cored and chopped
1/4 cup pearled barley
1 cup homemade hard apple cider (very dry!)

Cook in a crock pot on high heat for 3 hours (or thereabouts) until everything is tender and all of the liquid is absorbed. Careful not to let it burn!

Now, I think Eulalia's recipe sounds very tasty. However, I seldom make any recipe exactly as it was written, and I'm not likely to do so with Eulalia's glop for several reasona. For example, I probably won't hunt down pasture-raised beef, but I likely will use more beef than in Eulalia's recipe (my husband and I are ardent carnivores). Nor am I going to Trader Joe's for bacon while a quarter cup of bacon chunks from our best local barbecue place is occupying space in my fridge. And if I use hard cider in this stew, my husband, a semi-militant teetotaler, probably will refuse to eat it. (Fortunately, good non-alcoholic apple cider is easy to get around here.) Nonetheless, I like the tenor of Eulalia's experiment, and expect to use it as a jumping-off place for experimentation of my own. Naturally, I'll report on how it comes out.