New Smoker!

So long little Char-Griller, we learned a lot together and made some pretty tasty bbq to boot along the way. I'm bequeathing her to my brother's friend Steven who has taken an interest in smoking as well. I hope he learns a lot and brings people together with bbq long into his future.

After a lot of shopping, comparing, reading, and research I finally settled on a new smoker that will be the last I ever own(unless I make it a retirement job). I spent a large portion of time drooling over smokers from Tejas smokers, BBQ Pits by Klose and many other larger manufacturers. I could never quite get myself to commit to something this expensive without seeing it for myself though, and the thought of traveling to Texas to shop seemed ridiculous. However, I found that the Bass Pro Shop in our area of Arizona was carrying a brand out of Oklahoma called Horizon that I was immediately impressed by. After doing research on this particular brand and finding people had very little negative to say about it, we made the purchase and towed her home.

It's a Horizon 20" RD Special Marshal Backyard Smoker, and man is it a beast.


I spent the remainder of this Saturday seasoning it and getting a feel for how it responded to adjustments. I burned a lump charcoal and hickory fire for about 5.5 hours and oiled it up by spraying oil inside and out and then wiping down the outside at about the 2.5 hour mark. Once it was shiny black inside, I shut it down and wiped it down one more time to get as much unbaked oil off of it as I could.

Sunday I christened it with a couple of racks of pork ribs. Nothing too fancy, just a test run to see how things came out. I invited my Mom over to share in the output as well and we had a nice little meal. Sarah is going as meat free as possible for awhile, so I made her some nice grilled black bean burgers over the firebox, which has LOTS of room for this kind of cooking as well.


I think the most immediately noticeable thing about this new smoker is how little adjusting and tending it requires. It takes considerably longer to heat up compared to the cheap little Char-Griller, which is understandable as it is 1/4" cast iron. Once you've got the temperature up where you want it though, it's just an adjustment or two and bam, there it sits for hours and hours on end with only having to add wood to keep her going as the upkeep. I actually had time to prepare Sarah's meal in its entirety without having to worry whether the smoker went out or if the temperature was out of control and burning the food. I spent the majority of the day doing everything else other then worrying about the smoker in fact and that is a huge change. I used to have to camp out next to the cheaper smoker and watch it like a hawk, if I left it for a half hour I was getting worried and potentially either ruining the food, or seriously delaying the meal because of temperature fluctuation.

So thanks to my wife Sarah for making this happen for us, I hope we have many many years of great bbq, and a little blogging along the way!

Labor Day Feast

We typically go over to friend's or family's for holiday BBQs, but this Labor Day we decided to have it at our house. I invited my Dad and Michele over for some chicken, pork ribs, potato salad (recipe below), corn on the cob and an afternoon of Wii.

Chickens:

Sarah wanted left overs, so I picked out two 3.5 - 4lb chickens. The brine that I used the first time was excellent so I went with that and tried a different mop to change it up.



I brined the chickens from 10pm until about 8am Labor Day morning and then pulled them from the brine and used a meat injector to suck up brine and inject it into the breasts, thighs and legs of each chicken.



2 hours into the smoke:



1 hour before I pulled them, I began putting on the mop to make the skin tasty.

Mop:
1 cup barbecue sauce
3/4 cup ketchup
1 cup orange juice
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce (we used Chipotle Tabasco)
1/2 teaspoon tarragon
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon celery salt

Mix and refrigerate until ready to mop the chickens.

Chickens right after flipping:



Carving the chicken:



These chickens came out great. I think using the meat injector to inject brine into the breast, legs and thighs made a HUGE difference in the overall moistness of the chicken. It was flavorful, sloppy and really juicy!


Ribs:

This was our first attempt at ribs, and I can easily see that we'll be doing them any chance we get as they came out fantastic! Bahrbeekeureefic is the term Sarah used in an attempt to sound either southern or Texan (I'm not really sure which it was, but it made me laugh) :-) I bought two racks of pork ribs and set out to create a rub with just the right amount of sweet and spicy to compliment them. Sarah volunteered to create a BBQ sauce from scratch that matched the rub flavors and we were off.



I started by opening the ribs and giving them a thorough rinsing and then placed them on a cookie sheet so I could work with them. I peeled off the membrane on the back of them with a little effort and then applied the rub generously to both sides. A good thing to remember if you would like to use the excess rub later is to shake it on the ribs and then spread it with your hands rather than tossing your ribs in the mixture which will contaminate the entire batch. You can then seal up the remaining rub and use it another time.





David's Rib Rub:
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup paprika
3 tablespoon black pepper
3 tablespoon salt
3 tablespoon chili powder
3 tablespoon garlic powder
3 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon cayenne
1 teaspoon celery salt
1 teaspoon cumin
PREPARATION:
Put all the ingredients in large container with lid. Close up and shake until mixed to your satisfaction. Taste to suit.

I put the ribs on and smoked them for roughly 4 hours, flipping them at the halfway point. About 30 minutes before I pulled the ribs I applied Sarah's "Secret" BBQ sauce to one side, flipped them after 15 minutes and did the other side.

Sarah's Sweet, Spicy & Flavorful BBQ Sauce ("Ssshhhh") :-)

Ingredients:
2 8 ounce can tomato sauce
2 6 ounce can tomato paste
1/2 cup golden brown sugar
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
6 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 cup minced onion
3 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon dry mustard
2 teaspoon cayenne (or to taste, this recipe has quite a kick)
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 cup whisky (the cheap stuff works)
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons honey
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon molasses
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon season salt (I used a coarse sea salt blend, if using a traditional season salt, reduce this to 1/2 tablespoon to prevent over salting)
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon tumeric
1/2 teaspoon onion powder

Directions:
Sautee minced onion and garlic in olive oil until onions turn opaque, and the garlic softens. Add remaining ingredients, mix thoroughly and allow to simmer for about 30 minutes; be careful leaving this unattended as the sauce is heat sensitive can splatter everywhere. Makes roughly 4 cups of barbecue sauce. Refrigerate any unused sauce to use later.



Halfway point:


Applying Mop and BBQ sauce:


Cutting up the ribs (didn't require much cutting, they're falling of the bone):


Plateful O' Ribs:


Dinnertime at last!


After eating Notes:
These ribs came out yummy, although my temperature did rise above 240 towards then end of the smoke and the rub charred slightly. Luckily I caught it before it got to hot and ruined the rub.
Sarah's BBQ sauce is yummy, if you don't like spice then you can tone down on the cayenne, but we like it hot here.
Timing would be the only issue I had and it wasn't much of one. I managed overall to get everything out at once an dinner was great.

Red Hot and Blue's Potato Salad

While visiting family in Virginia during the holiday season of 2003, I was taken to Red Hot and Blue, a casual, counter-service style chain restaurant founded in the late 80's by "three Southerners and a transplanted Yankee [who] longed for authentic southern barbeque and the great blues music they all loved", with promises of the best sweet tea I'd ever taste (even though I prefer mine au natural) and potato salad that would ruin me for all other potato salads. I knew that if my anti-chain, anti-fast food family was this enthusiastic about this place, it had to be something spectacular.

I wasn't disappointed. While the sweet tea was, well, sweet (I will always be a plain tea girl, just the way my mom raised me), the pulled pork sandwiches were served properly, naked with a small side of sandwich slaw. For those who love saucy barbeque, there were four regional varieties of sauce on the table with flavors to suit any palette. The potato salad though, oh my the potato salad - excuse me for a moment while I drool at the memory...

This potato salad was as promised, like no salad I'd ever had before, and I could have easily abandoned the pulled pork sandwich in exchange for of a plateful of this simple, yet flavorful comfort food. The potatoes were warm and the flavors were unique.

I've been trying to recreate the experience ever since, and by George, I think I've got it!

Ingredients:
4 lbs red potatoes
5 hard boiled eggs, roughly chopped
1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions (4 large stalks)
2 stalks minced celery (plus either the heart, leafy ends, or bottom 1/3 of the bunch)
1 1/4 cup real mayonnaise (Best Food's/Hellmann’s has the best flavor; I used light because it's what we keep on hand)
1 tablespoon celery seed
1/2 tablespoon kosher salt
1 1/2 tablespoons celery salt
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 cups water

Directions:
In a steamer, rice steamer, or large stock pot with a steamer basket, combine four pounds of rinsed, whole red potatoes with the celery heart, ends, or bottom, cider vinegar, 1 tablespoon of celery salt, kosher salt, and water. Steam for 45 minutes, or until easily pierced by a fork. The potatoes should be soft enough to mash.





While the potatoes are steaming, place the five large eggs in a sauce pan and fill with cold water to an inch above the eggs . Bring to a rolling boil on high heat, and immediately drop to a medium-heat boil for ten minutes. Have an ice water bath ready to submerge the eggs into once the timer goes off. Once the eggs are cool, peel the eggs and roughly chop.

In a large mixing bowl, combine eggs, green onions, celery, celery seed and mayonnaise. Cut the hot potatoes into bite sized pieces and combine with the mayonnaise mixture. Add remaining 1/2 tablespoon of celery salt and thoroughly mix. At this point, you should taste the salad and add further celery salt based on your personal flavor preference.





This salad is meant to be served shortly after making and warm for the best flavor experience. If your situation doesn't allow for the salad to be served within an hour, it also works as a cold salad.

Until I can make it back to the east coast, this will have to do, and it will do nicely if I do say so myself.

Pulled Pork Sandwiches - 1st Try

My wife Sarah is passionate about good food. Since I've met her she has exposed me to some of the most amazing foods I have ever eaten and I love her for it. North Carolina style pulled pork sandwiches are one of those foods, and it's almost laughable what I thought good barbeque was until we went on vacation and had barbeque on the east coast. Now if you favor Texas barbeque, don't get upset by this statement as I've yet to experience it. Everyone has eaten "Authentic Texas" barbeque from the local chain, but I won't claim to have had it until either I have a crusty old texan make it for me, or we visit the state and seek out where the locals tell us to go. Since I purchased the smoker, Sarah's ambition for it has been to drive me to make some pulled pork. I'm not going to attempt to mimic North Carolina pulled pork as far as cooking the butt goes, but we're going to eat it in that fashion as sandwiches. Meaning that we're going to put the coleslaw that she makes, which IS NC style on the sandwiches and use either a vinegar based hotsauce such as Texas Pete's or create a sweet and hot sauce to put on each sandwich. We'll probably have them both ways just because we can. I'll leave the sauce creation to her and post what she comes up with.

So after a little research and talking to my friends who know more than I do about these things, we ended up purchasing a pork shoulder from Costco. We got a 14 lb. shoulder and until we got home I was still a little confused about what we had purchased.

When I got home I put the whole package into a large collander and put it into the sink to cut it open and drain out the juices and blood that was in with it. I gave the whole thing a rinse and as I turned it over I found that it was actually two shoulders packaged together not just one. That turned out to be perfect because I didn't have the time necessary for a shoulder that large to smoke. We happen to have a foodsaver so I vacuum sealed the larger of the two shoulders and stuck it in the freezer for a later date. I grabbed some kitchen string and tied up the shoulder several times until I had it firm enough to be able to turn it end over end on the smoker when the time came.



Brine:

• 96 oz. water
• 2 - 12 oz. cans of Coors Lite
• 3/4 cup of salt
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 dried new mexico chile, crushed
• 1 tsp. powdered garlic
• 1 tsp. ground cloves
• 1 tsp. red chili flakes
• 1/4 cup of olive oil
• 1/4 cup of worcestershire

Place all ingredients in a large stock pot and bring to a slow boil. Chill in fridge until cool and then place the pork shoulder into the pot and the entire pot into the refrigerator overnight.

I created the brine above and brined the shoulder from 10pm Friday night until about 6am Sunday morning.



Rub:

• 1/8 cup raw sugar
• 1/8 cup kosher salt
• 1/8 cup paprika
• 1/2 tbsp. freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 tbsp. granulated garlic
• 1/2 tbsp. onion powder
• 3/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
• 1/4 tsp. ground coriander
• 1/4 tsp. crushed fennel seed

Place all ingredients in a large bowl and mix together.



Sunday morning at about 7am I got out a bottle of French's mustard and lathered the entire butt with it and then applied the rub to all sides of it. At that point I started the smoker and let it get to temp while the meat continued to sit at room temp. Overall I think i let the butt rest at room temp for about 45 minutes. Once the smoker was to temp I put the butt on and shut the lid. I came back inside and began boiling the brine until I had a stout reduction. I tested the flavor and made a quart of apple juice and added about 1/4 cup of the brine reduction to the quart of juice for later spraying.




At the halfway point I went out and flipped the butt end for end and sprayed generously with my apple juice/brine mixture and closed it all up again.

I divided the remaining time to cook in half and did the step above again when it was time. Continuing to divide the time in half until there was none left.

Somewhere about 3/4 of the way complete we had to run to the store for some ice and other ingredients for that nights dinner. I had a flat on the Toyota and had to change it in the driveway (not fun in the Arizona sun). Anyway after getting that resolved and then to the store and back, I lost my fire....doh! The temperature on the smoker had not declined a bunch, but was about 175 when I came back. After much fretting and working I managed to get things back online and going.

When the butt was at about 180 degrees I pulled it from the smoker and wrapped it in plastic wrap and then in foil and put it into an ice chest for transport to our friends' house for dinner.

After eating notes: Everyone said it was great, but I wasn't satisfied with the way it came out. I thought it was too salty and didn't like how it shredded.

Things to adjust:

Cooking time - allow more time for it to cook through done to tender and WAIT to pull it off until my temp readings are between 195 and 205. I think there was still too much unrendered fat in it. My initial guess was that it would take between 1 - 1.5 hours per lb. It was closer to 1.5 - 2 hours per lb. and I pulled it to early because of the time crunch...

Rub - Work on a more complex rub and skip the mustard coating(the outside was delicious, but could improve)

Brine - Too long this time, either shorten the time in, or shoot it up with a meat injector

Spray/Mop - use only applejuice, don't mix it with the salty brine.

Blog Redesign

Last night Sarah decided she was going to work on the design of the site. I let her have at it and left her alone. Wow, it looks great doesn't it? It's nice to have a graphic designer at your fingertips :) Thanks honey; I love you.

Amburgers and WootBeer!

Well Root beer for my wife. I drank plenty of plain ol' beer, Miller Highlife, the champagne of beers! After yesterday's success with the chickens, Sarah and I decided we would try something else that wasn't as time intensive. We had some awesome smoked hamburgers at Jason's house last weekend and it didn't take nearly as much time so we settled on that. I requested Sarah's beer battered fries to go along with them since they are so darn good; the kids stand in line for them. Since corn is in season we decided to take advantage of the sales and added a couple of ears of white corn as well.

I started by mixing up the hamburger patties the way my Dad taught me:

• 1 lb. of ground hamburger (we used 90/10)
• ¼ cup Jack Daniels Spicy Original BBQ Sauce (your favorite sauce will do)
• 1 large egg
• ½ cup rolled oats (roughly, I didn’t really measure it just added them in until the hamburger was the right consistency)

Put the hamburger in a large bowl, add the egg, BBQ sauce (or ketchup), rolled oats and dig your hands in and mix it up. Break the hamburger up into the desired quantity (no more than 4 per pound or you'll end up with some tiny burgers). Shape each segment into a well-formed hamburger patty.




Next I addressed the corn on the cob:

• The desired number of ears
• The same number sheets of aluminum foil
For each ear:
• 1 tsp. butter
• Dash of freshly ground black pepper
• Dash of coarse salt
• A couple of ice cubes

Lie out a sheet of aluminum foil and place a freshly washed ear of corn onto it diagonally. Using a spoon smother it in the butter. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and place the ice cubes right up next to it. Roll up the aluminum foil wrapping the ear of corn nice and snug.



Getting the smoker going:

I went out and using the charcoal chimney, started my charcoal. This handy device is really easy to use and eliminates the need for lighter fluids. Crinkle up some newspaper; shove it in the bottom under the wires. Set it down on the ground and fill the top about halfway with charcoal. Light it with a long match or one of those handy candle lighters and your off and running. It should only be about 15 minutes and your coals will be ready for transfer to the firebox. Here's a link to the charcoal chimney I purchased (it's cheaper at Home Depot) Weber® Rapidfire® Chimney Starter Once the coals on top are showing gray transfer (use some gloves when picking it up, it's hot!) the charcoal to your firebox and put on a piece of whatever wood you are going to smoke with. I used oak for the burgers.



Once the smoker was up to temperature, I've found that 225 degrees Fahrenheit is just about perfect; I put the hamburgers and the ears of corn on and set a timer for 1 hour. In the meantime Sarah whipped up the fries, some crispy onion strings and black pepper bbq mayo.

Black Pepper BBQ Mayo:

3 tbsp. of mayonnaise (we used light)
1 tbsp. of your favorite BBQ sauce
Coarsely ground fresh black pepper to taste

Mix well and refrigerate until ready to use.

With 5 minutes left of cooking we put some thick sliced medium cheddar cheese slices onto the burgers and I added a small chunk of mesquite and closed up all my dampers so it would smoke heavily.

These burgers were fantastic, the best I've ever made. If you have the opportunity to do something creative with smoked hamburgers like this I would recommend it highly. I know we'll probably never eat a plain old grilled burger again!



Oh and in reference to the title of this post see the following link for some mindless idiotic humor: A&W Amburgers and Wootbeer!

And That's About It!!!!

Now That's A Fire!!!!

Friday morning I got up about 7 a.m. and pulled the smaller of the two chickens from the brine and set it in a pan to examine it. I had read several posts on smoking websites etc. that warned not to overbrine chicken. The smaller chicken was soft and very pliable so I pulled them both, covered them and put them back into the fridge. I still needed wood, so I headed up to Berry Bros Firewood Co. and purchased a bag of oak and a bag of well-seasoned mesquite. They have nice size bags there for 15 bucks a bag, so I should be good for a while.

I came home and got everything together and started the charcoal chimney on the ground in the backyard. The charcoal chimney can eat the surface right off concrete, so I'd recommend finding a nice patch of dirt away from anything flammable and get it going there. While that was going I pulled the chickens from the fridge and rubbed them down in oil and fresh ground pepper. Right about that time Jason called me and asked how it was going. I rubbed it in a bit that I was smoking and drinking beer instead of working. He took that in good stride and gave me some well used advice on the dampening of the smokestack and firebox inlet. It probably took about 20 minutes for the charcoal to get to the point where the briquettes on top were showing gray. I transferred them to the firebox and put on a nice size chunk of oak to start. It doesn't take long at all for the temperature on the smoker to get up to where you want it. I am focusing on keeping mine between 220 and 260 degrees Fahrenheit.




With the smoker and the chickens ready there was nothing left to do but put them on. I placed them on the far left side of the smoker away from the firebox inlet after talking to Jason about placement. He also advised that a water pan was probably not necessary as he had yet to get a dry piece of meat and he wasn't using one. For those of you who aren't familiar with smoking, a smoker uses indirect heating and placing the meat on the side of the smoker closest to the firebox can result in the meat being exposed to higher heat as well as some flames. For more in-depth information on indirect cooking check out this article from the The DIY Network



The next 4 hours were pretty uneventful. I just checked on the smoker about every 15 to 20 minutes or so. Sometimes I stayed out and dealt with a temperature spike, but for the most part it does its thing and can be left alone. After the first hour I gave in to my temptation to open the smoker and take a look, they were browning nicely and looked great.



During some of the downtime I made a mop for one of the chickens using some ingredients I had on hand. I applied this mop to the chicken during the last hour and a half of cooking, three times at thirty-minute intervals.

Stout Mop
• ½ can stout – drink the other half :)
• 1 tbsp. crushed garlic
• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 1 tsp. sage
• 1 tsp. thyme
• a pinch of black pepper
• 1 tsp. olive oil
Combine all ingredients in saucepan and bring to a simmer for 15-20 minutes.



With an hour or so left I decided it was time to put on the corn and onions as well as the giblets for my grilling partner Indie - isn't he cute? He's never been so attached to me as he was today :)




Here's a picture of the grill right before I pulled everything off for serving.



After eating notes: the larger of the two chickens wasn't as juicy as the smaller, it certainly wasn't dry, but in comparison the smaller came out better. I'm pretty sure it was because the brining time was sufficient for the smaller bird, but the larger bird could have sat in it longer. Sometime during the approximately 6 hours that I was working on this I began to wonder if all of the work was worth it. It was! I can't wait until I get to do it again (and neither can my family).

Creating A Brine

After much searching on the Internet I found a brine for my chickens that I thought sounded good. Thanks to 3 Men With Nothing Better To Do for posting their brining suggestion. I hope it makes it tender and juicy.

Brine Ingredients:
• 1 gallon water
• 3/4 cup kosher salt
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon each of dried tarragon, thyme, black pepper
• 1/4 cup olive oil

I searched the house for my largest stock pot and then doubled the brine recipe to make sure I had enough coverage for the two chickens (about 4lbs. a piece) After adding the water and bringing it to a mild boil I added the remaining ingredients and allowed them to stew for about 5 minutes before removing it from the stove and allowing it to cool.




While it was cooling I got out my chickens and rinsed/cleaned them in the sink. I trimmed the excess fat off of the rear end and put the giblets in a Ziploc bag until tomorrow (The dogs will need a treat too!)




With that complete I placed the chickens in the fridge and found something else to do until the brine was cooled down. Once the brine cooled (I had to coax it a little with some ice) I place both chickens in the stockpot and put the whole thing in the fridge, which took a little reorganization. I'm going to leave it in the fridge until tomorrow morning, should be about 8 hours total. I hope this isn't too long, but since this is a balanced brine (sugar and salt), I think it will be ok.

The Smoker

Here is a picture of my fully assembled smoker, complete w/ firebox and fully seasoned. As you can see from my mistake it makes a bit of a mess when you season it. I'd recommend doing it someplace where you're not worried about oil drippings.