The Smoky Mountain

Another successful samoke! No ribs this time... those can add up pretty quickly. Instead, I smoked five pounds of pork tenderloin, three large stuffed fatties, and 28 mice. Everything was perfect! I shredded the tenderloin and added the liquid it had braised in for its last hour of tempering. Talk about melt-in-your-mouth goodness!

I found a great finger food: the stuffed fatty. It's pretty simple really. I flatten out a roll of Jimmy Dean Hot sausage (this will go a whole lot easier if done on a sheet of waxed paper), add a bead of cream cheese the length of the fatty, then top it with various things, like mozzarella, cheddar, peppers, onions, sauces, bacon, pepperoni... just whatever sounds good together. My boss had given me a large jar of home pickled peppers! (Best I've ever had) So I laid those out over the cream cheese, added some large sauteed onions, cheddar and mozzarella. Then I rolled those up, sealed the outer sausage up real good, and set them in the smoker until they reached 170 (approx 3-4 hours, if you can keep the cooking temp around 225-260). Then let them set for a little while, and slice them up. Aaaahhhhhhh.... droooooooool. The only problem with them is that they go almost as fast as the smoked mice.

Put all these together with a side of baked mac and cheese, corn, a salad, and some bread, and you've got yourself a pretty good meal.

Now, what to do with those leftovers...

(Special thanks in advance to Paula Deen for the inpiration)
In a sauce pan, heat a can of drained black beans, a can of drained red beans, a small (or large, or medium) can of green chilies, a half a can of stewed tomatoes, kosher salt and pepper (not kosher). Simmer until all the fluid is gone, then smash them all together into a paste. (If I had a food processor, I would see if I could do it in that.)

On a tostada shell (which I made using my brand new... and now often used... deep fryer), spread a scoop of beans, then pulled pork, tomatoes, sour cream, and maybe cheese. We didn't have any lettuce or guaco, or we would have added those, as well. (I'll bet those pickled peppers would have been good. Too bad I used the last of them on my stuffed fatty.)

Flavorful pile of smoked goodness, I dub thee:
"The Smoky Mountain".

Enjoy! And remember: if you still smell clean by dinner time... you probably bought it at a rib joint!

Bear With Me

I have to apologize to my faithful few. School has started back up and so my focus has been more appropriately elsewhere, lately. I try to keep up with things politick, but just don't get much chance to comment. While taking a full load of school, I am also working 3 jobs for about 30 work hours a week (still much less than when I was in undergrad). I blog when I can, but y'know, nurturing a strong family relationship requires a little time away from the laptop. I like my wife, and I think she likes me, too. I want to keep it that way. My chitlins are growing up behind my back. They all have birthdays coming up in the next three months, and I have tried to bargain with them to let them have a birthday so long as they promise to quit growing up. They're not willing to cooperate with that (and yet they still want to have a birthday...).


On another note, I forgot to mention that I grilled dolphin last weekend. I am not a fish-eater. I don't know why, either. I used to love fish as a kid. I remember liking it, and I don't remember what caused me to change. I would like to like fish. This dolphin helped me begin to accomplish that. I marinated it in some yellow carolina BBQ sauce (they like mustardy italian dressing for BBQ sauce out east. Makes for a better marinade than a dipping sauce, in my never to be humble opinion). Then I grilled it over some pretty hot lump charcoal until it started to flake, then flipped it over to grill the skin side for a few minutes. I tell you what, it was some pretty darn good eats. Tasted a little sweet, actually. My buddy has some more cuts (he caught it in So.Car. this summer), so I'm sure I'll be roasting up some more. I downed it along with a thick cut t-bone steak, grilled to perfection, along with some grilled onion (slice it thick, drizzle w/ olive oil and sprinkle with rosemary, then grill until translucent), fresh mashed potatoes, and corn.

I know it wasn't a smoke, but boy was it a good grilling!

Happy eats!

Another Awesome Samoke

No pics this time. Forgot to charge the camera. Which is too bad, because these were a sight to behold! I'm still excited about it.

I was chosen to cook the meat for our J. Reuben Clark Law Society End Of The Year Picnic And Swim Party Get Together (Can I Come Up With Any More Words To Make This Any Longer Of A Title) Thingy. We were expecting about thirty people, so I fixed an ample supply of ribs. I cooked them in two shifts at six hours per shift, so it was a thoroughly enjoyable two days of samokin' ribs! My most satisfying moment came when it was time to cut them up. The knife went very smoothly in between the bones, slicing the meat as though it were butter. That's when I knew they were good. I made enough to fill a large, deep turkey roaster pan to overflowing! Of course, my taste testers were right there to perform their duties. I got the six thumbs up (they claimed they had to try an ample sampling before they would give the OK).

I did struggle a little with the pork roast, though. The first was a little on the tough side. The roasts heated up faster than normal, which I didn't expect with so much meat. But I got it done, shredded, and mixed in with a nameless-to-avoid-self-incrimination sauce. I then added five fatties, and about 15 roasted mice (see previous entry). The mice were extremely spicy, and only cooled down after four days in the fridge. But they were good, nonetheless.

The JRCLSEOYPASPGT(CICUWAMWTMTALOAT)T participants loooooved them. What they didn't eat there (about half, since only about 15 adults actually showed up), we split up and took home. Later reports indicated that they were even better several days hence.

That was, so far, the largest smoke I have done. It was also extremely enjoyable. My special rub added that sweet spice to the natural flavors of smoke and pork (although there were a few reports of some of the ribs being just a little too spicy - I'll work on that). Can't wait to do it again!

Y'know, if I were to get some out of town visitors for the upcoming Memorial Day Weekend, I might could be convinced to stoke it up. I'm just sayin'.

Roasted Mice

No point in just throwing the critters out!

I ate WHAT!??

Don't worry, I gutted them first.

Smoker Mods

When I first got my grill, I wanted to be able to grill, but I also wanted to take up smoking. My first couple of smokes were a little difficult, but with trial and error, I made a few modifications.



I found that I had a big gap around the lip. This allowed the heat to go up and out the sides without staying in the cooking chamber. So I found some heat resistant furnace sealer at Lowes. It looks like nylon rope. It worked great, but eventually the glue got brittle, so I bent some nails to use as clamps until I can figure out something more permanent. It still works pretty good. (All that white stuff is glue drippings.)



I found that by lowering the smokestack to the level of the grill, the heat was forced to fill the entire chamber, instead of just sweeping across the meat closest to the fire, and then up and out. The problem I had was that I have a warming rack attached to the lid that got in the way of anything that would have prodruded from the stack. So, to improvise, I found a 4 inch diameter aluminum ducting that would attach to the bottom of the stack, and then snake around the heating rack, and lower to just above the grill.






Oops! Sorry, gratuitous pic of wife's awesome cinnamon rolls.



The other problem I was trying to solve was a more even distribution of heat. It didn't seem to want to go over to the far side. So I turned my charcoal pan over, drilled holes all along it, and then tilted it. That way, it captures some of the heat coming out of the fire box, and distributes across the cooking chamber. The only problem I have now is that the heat is a little too evenly distributed. This can be a problem when I am trying to cook beef along with pork. Beef needs to heat up to a lower temp, and then cook at that lower temp in order to stay moist. I may turn the charcoal pan over for my next cook (I'm fixing up some beef roast along with several cuts of pork, and some ribs). I want to get the beef just right before I try an expensive and time-consuming brisket.



While I'm doing show and tell, I might as well show you the charcoal chimney I made out of an old coffee can and some wire. It took a while, and hurt the finger pretty good, but it was fun and works great! I've the wire sitting around for a long time, and got the coffee can from work, so it didn't cost me a dime.




OK, one more shameless shot of some good samoked ribs! Mmmm..mmmm...mmmmm.

Get out the napkin and wipe that saliva off your mouth!

Update (June 1, 2008): These were some of my early ribs. They were purchased from an IGA, where they were offering a great deal. They were cheap, which was great while I was experimenting, but is why there is very little meat left on the bone (there just wasn't much to begin to with).

Mmmmm....mmmmmmm.....mmmmmm

I just finished up another samokin' barbecue. I found an awesome deal on ribs, so I fixed up some ribs...lots and lots of ribs. Too many ribs (is there such a thing?). I had actually smoked some ribs last month, and man oh man, I had never had ribs like those! Excellent flavor, perfect smoke, good rub, and talk about tender. We didn't have to gnaw any of the meat off the bones. I thought I could do it again. Some turned out that tender, the others weren't bad. The flavor was AWESOME!

I've got pictures around here somewhere. I'll post some as soon as I can figure out how.

Anyway, I have been playing around with some other recipes. I made something today that the girls actually wanted seconds! Seconds, I say. When that happens, I know I've done something right. I usually get the "I don't like onions (or tomatoes, or meat, or frog tongues)." But today, I started making nachos, but then started playing around and wound up with something much better. Here goes...

Start with beef. Mix in some "Cheesy Nacho Mix" and a can of refried beans. Then crush corn chips all over the bottom of a small casserole dish. Spread shredded cheddar over the chips, then plop-spread half of the bean/meat mix around over the cheese. Drain a can of Mexican style stewed tomatoes, and spread half of it around. Then cut up half a block of cream cheese, and plop it all around over the mess. Throw in a few black olives if you want. Then crush some more chips, more cheese, more mix, more tomatoes, more olives, the rest of the cream cheese, and more cheddar. I didn't have any green chiles or I would have spread them over the top. Toss it in the oven on about 450 for about 15 minutes, or until the cheese starts to brown. Serve it with salsa, maybe some chopped tomatoes and lettuce. Good stuff.

Dang, I'm goooood!

Shhh! Sorry, I have to whisper. I am in the middle of class, but thought you might be interested. Just finished up another successful smoke! I found a great deal on some meat, $5 per package. Some packages were worth $8-$11 each. Got some country style ribs, and some pork roast. Smoked those and a couple of fatties. OH MY GOSH! Yes, they were good. I've never tasted such tender roast. Ohhhhhhhh, mmmmmm. Now, I'm sitting in class and dreaming of another smoke. Is that addiction? If it is, then I like addiction. If anyone is interested in getting some good advice on smoking, check out the link to the left.

Oh, oh. I'm about to get called on.

SaMokinnnn!

I did it! MmmmMmmmMmm. My first smoke was a bit of a disappointment. I coughed and sputtered from the beginning. It was hard to get the temp up in the cooking chamber. My built-in factory supplied thermomememeter never got over 100 degrees. I kept making adjustments and burning more coal, and still nothing. I solicited help from the guys at smoking meats website (see my favorite links), made some modifications, then found a meat thermomememeter which I laid on the grill and discovered that I had the proper heat all along. So I smoked a fatty and ribs. The fatty was awesome, and the ribs were the best I've made so far (but still not great).

I then made several significant modifications to my smoker, and tried again a few days later. This time, I was able to keep more heat in the cooking chamber, direct it toward the center, and smoked a very, very, very delicious pork tenderloin. The wife and kids loved it. And now I'm hooked.

We are supposed to have some ice coming thru here this weekend, but all we got was some cold rain. This would have been a great weekend for smoking, but no, alas, and dang the weather. All I get to do now is sit here and dream about it.