From our Food Goddess, TaMara:
Last week I found a nice, small pork roast on sale and decided it would be perfect to make a slow-cooker pulled pork. That reminded me that it would be a good idea to revisit JeffreyW’s smoking adventures with his backyard smoker. I’ve pulled a few recipes, but if you search for “smoker” on the blog, you’ll find a whole lot more of his mouth-watering pictures and recipes.
Let’s start with my slow-cooker Easy Pulled Pork, I posted two ways to make it here.
Next up, JeffreyW makes an assortment of goodies in his smoker:
Here is his recommendation for a smoker and some tasty Ribs.
Homemade Pastrami (click here) – serious mouth-watering photos.
Smoked Chicken (photos and recipe here).
My youngest brother also jumped on the Smoker band wagon and sent me photos of a great meal that included Smoked Macaroni and Cheese (link here). He didn’t include a recipe, but I think it’s safe to say, make your favorite Mac ‘n Cheese, place in an aluminum pan, cover and smoke it for about 45 minutes to an hour at 165-180 degrees.
Smoker people seem very passionate, so if you’ve got the bug, hit the comments and share your experiences and expertise. What delicious things do you have planned this weekend? Anyone getting the grill out yet?Tonight’s featured recipe from JeffreyW:
Smoked Brisket
I thawed a beef brisket and was thinking corned beef but changed my mind. I have a fresh made pastrami on hand so I decided on a straight smoked brisket. The procedure is much the same as with making a pastrami except you are starting with a fresh beef beef brisket rather than a corned one. I suppose you could use the same dry rub for both but I wasn’t sure how the juniper berries in the pastrami rub would taste so I went with a more traditional rub. I was tossing various ingredients in and didn’t keep track of the amounts of each so I can’t do more than list them from memory: Black pepper, kosher salt, onion powder, granulated garlic, smoked paprika, ancho powder, regular chili powder, fresh ground cumin, some powder out of a bottle of Goya “Adobe Seasoning” (it’s yellow – go figure), creole/Cajun seasoning, oregano, and probably a few more.
I placed it on the top rack of my electric smoker, threaded the temp probe through the vent and into the thickest part, placed a drippings pan with an inch of apple cider under the meat, added the soaked hickory to the smoke chamber, closed the door and fired it up. It’s been cold and snowy so I knew it would take a good while to get to the “done” temperature but I wasn’t thinking 23 hours. That’s how long it spent in there before I pulled it. The probe was registering 176 degrees.
I pulled the first drippings pan out because I think it was keeping the inside temperature in the smoker too low and replaced it with a dry pan after about 12 hours. The quart of cider plus the drippings was reduced to what you see above. If I could make it by the gallon I’m pretty sure I would be a millionaire in short order. Awesome stuff.
That’s it for this week. No Bixby update, but he turns 10 months old this weekend, so I’ll put something together soon. Have a great weekend. – TaMara
Elizabelle
TaMara: was thinking of you this week. Met a neighbor a few streets over with a new puppy, cute little black and white dude in one of those Elizabethan collar contraptions.
And then I looked at his feet.
“Is that a Great Dane puppy?”
Yes. His name is Zeus. He has sharp little teeth and a charming little personality. His Spaniel sister is Kiva.
But for the outsized feet, he looked like your average, totes adorable B&W puppy.
Howard Beale IV
@Elizabelle: Technical term for a B&W Great Dane is Harlequin.
srv
The only thing I don’t have is good bbq.
CA really needs to work on that.
Roger Moore
@srv:
You need to learn where to look. There’s plenty of good barbeque down on Crenshaw.
srv
@Roger Moore: OK, NorCal then.
They can do pulled-pork, but everything else pretty much sucks here. Or it’s too boutiquey.
Zinsky
Yumsters! It looks delicious! I lived in Kansas City for ten years after college and learned to appreciate (and crave) good barbecue! Invite me to a cookout sometime, TaMara!
Elizabelle
@Howard Beale IV: Good to know. That makes sense.
This little guy reminded me more of a baby pit bull, until I saw the feet.
schrodinger's cat
Does cooking salmon on a cedar plank on a grill count as smoking?
Honoré De Ballsack
a bottle of Goya “Adobe Seasoning” (it’s yellow – go figure)
I’m pretty sure that’s “Adobo,” señor Jeffrey. With an “o.” It is used quite often in the Southwest.
WaterGirl
@Honoré De Ballsack: Surely Adobo was a victim of autocorrect.
Tommy
@schrodinger’s cat: Yes I think it does.
jharp
I really dig smoked whitefish. It’s a Michigan, Wisconsin, Canada, and Great Lakes fish and it is delicious.
Smoked Chubs and Lake Trout are also excellent though you can’t get the Chubs any more.
jharp
Anyone do any cold smoking? I’ve been meaning to get to that.
jeffreyw
@Honoré De Ballsack: Damn, I woulda bet money I wrote adobo there.
SiubhanDuinne
@Honoré De Ballsack:
No hitting below the belt?
Gravenstone
Tamara, I made a great slow cooker pulled pork that I think you might like. Basically it’s a variation of your first version. Rather than using vinegar, toss the pork butt into the cooker with a couple of bottles of good root beer (I used Sprechers). Just let it go low and slow for 8-12 hours. Then pull and mix with the BBQ sauce of your choice. You can always toss some of the braising liquid back into the mix for a change in flavor profile.
Gin & Tonic
@jharp: Smoked whitefish is a major delicacy among the Jewish and Eastern European communities in NY, and can be found in nearly any deli.
Gin & Tonic
@efgoldman: You gotta go down to the city, ef.
Tommy
@jharp: I hate to admit I don’t even know what that is. My parents are yard sale experts. I don’t understand it to be honest with you. But at times they buy stuff for me for a fraction of the cost. They got me a smoker a few years ago that would have cost me an arm and leg for pennies on the dollar. Using the thing non-stop.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
I have been reliably informed that Santa Barbara Chicken Ranch has the best tri-tip within a 200-mile radius of where we live. Apparently, they smoke and cook the meat the day before, cool and refrigerate it, and then the next day they slice it and grill the slices. One of my coworkers now always makes his tri-tip the same way.
Gin & Tonic
@Tommy: There’s about a 10-minute video here that’s pretty instructive on cold-smoking (but at a sort of production scale.) Their fish is outstanding.
jharp
@Tommy:
Cold smoking is really salt curing only with low temperature smoke.
You have to have a special smoker that keeps the heat away. Bradley Cold Smoker is the most popular.
That said I have yet to get around to trying it.
Tommy
@Gin & Tonic: I am land locked. I watch that video you linked to and almost want to cry. I recall living in DC where I would buy seafood off the boat on the SE waterfront from the. Or when I lived in Lousiana off the back of a truck on the side of the road. I don’t have that here in Illinois.
gogol's wife
@SiubhanDuinne:
That’s my favorite nym so far.
Helen
So. I want to adopt a dog. Y’all make me want one. HI IGGY. HI KAREN.YOU TOO RAVEN AND LITTLE BODHI. Here’s what I am thinking. A small dog has to be walked at least every 6?? hours. I am out of the apt for 11 hours a day. So I priced out walking a dog. In NYC, it’s $14 for a 1/2 hour walk. That’s $280 a month just to get the dog walked.
Should I do it?
Arclite
I’ve argued on other blogs with anti-vaxxers. My main thrust is that people have forgotten how horrific the actual diseases are because we’ve been so good at exterminating them. So, they bought into Andrew Wakefield’s stupid fabricated link between vaccines and autism, and a movement was born.
So, I am both saddened and heartened at this story:
Anti-vaxx mom abandons movement — after all seven her of her kids get whooping cough
Tommy
@efgoldman: I tell friends the thing I miss the most living in DC is my friends. Second is the Jewish deli. They made the best corned beef sandwich. Where I live nobody can make one. Seems strange to me.
sacrablue
Completely, OT…just watched giraffe birth live on animal planet. Still waiting for the baby to stand.
muddy
@Helen: Do you have a pet size restriction where you live? I prefer bigger dogs, I find them generally more mellow. Here’s a nice big doggy that could use some walks. Having a big dog is useful because you can make them wear saddlebags and carry your groceries. They really like wearing the backpacks.
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: They let you out of the MA/RI sphere?
Mike J
Miley pitched five innings that convinced me the Red Sox got a bargain basement ace, and one inning that screwed everything up.
Now we’re in the bottom of the 12th. Arrrgh.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mike J: Hannah Montana has hidden depths.
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: A likely story.
Mike J
@Omnes Omnibus: The lights went off in Yankee stadium. Everyone now has phone camera lights on.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mike J: “Free Bird!”
Mike J
@Omnes Omnibus: I know that you’re old enough to have held a zippo when saying that, ironically or not. (Here’s your free bird, the next one will cost ya!)
Omnes Omnibus
@Mike J:
Thanks, I needed* that.
*deserved?
Mike J
@efgoldman: I lived in Boston Clemens’ rookie year (and constantly ditched work for afternoon games), saw one Celtic/Lakers game at the Garden (the proper Garden, not that thing they have now) and saw numerous bands and the Rat and the Channel.
But I try to catch Sox games.
Mike J
Top of the 14th starting now….
catclub
@muddy: That is a stout dog.
Along the lines of: A diplomat is someone who can convince his wife that a new fur coat will make her look stout.
dp
I would be remiss if I didn’t point everyone to amazingribs.com for all smoking issues, particularly with respect to brisket.
kindness
I have one of those automatic type smokers. A Bradley. Makes it all so easy I love it. I still haven’t mastered the exactly how long I smoke which meat though. Surprisingly vegetables come out really tasty too. Not all, but many.
AnonPhenom
I’ve been cooking with one of these for the past 10+ years. It can smoke a pork shoulder or grill a rack of veal. If you’re as pressed for space as I am (NYC Outer Borough resident with a small yard) and looking to avoid the clutter, you can’t do much better. I’ve had both the lid and inner sleeve break on me during the 10 years and both were replaced free of charge by the company (I paid the shipping).
The only other thing I’ve ever been tempted to buy was, for obvious reasons, this.
Maybe when I retire…