Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Now summer is approaching what is everyone smoking

LOL I thought that would get everyone attention. I just bought an electric smoker and so far used it for salmon and ribs. Anyone have any recipes or ideas on what else I can smoke this summer. Thanks

Drew

Cubans.

Oh wait, wrong thread.

I keep telling my family that "I'm a funny guy".

My daughter says "looks don't count".

Can we increase the drink minimum?

One of our favorites is a pork butt roast..often labeled as a pork shoulder blade roast. The recipe we use:

Barbecued Pork Butt

5-6 lb. Pork Butt untrimmed and bone-in
French’s mustard as needed

Rub

1 Tbsp. salt
¼ Cup sugar
2 Tbsp each: brown sugar, cumin, chili powder ( good powder not store bought)
1 Tbsp. Black pepper
1 Tbsp. Cayenne
¼ Cup Paprika
1 Tsp. Ground ginger
1 Tsp. Allspice
½ Tsp. Ground cloves

The Rest

Apple juice, bourbon or ale for spraying
Sauce for mopping and dipping
Sauce for mixing with cooked meat



Slather French’s mustard liberally all over the meat. Sprinkle generously with BBQ rub and let sit two hours to come to room temperature and become tacky. In the smoking process, this tacky coating becomes the pork butt’s flavorsome exterior.

Start smoker; get coals going and ashed over. Put in drip pan lined with foil. But no liquid. Get smoker temp to about 225 F or 110 C. I have also done this on my gas grill with a smoker box. Place pork butt on top rack. Keep temperature steady at 200-225 F adding apple wood, pecan or both every hour or so, and new coals when needed.

Smoke butt about 1 ½ to 2 hours per pound or until it registers 180 to 200F on a meat thermometer. Turn butt once about halfway through. It will generally be done in six to seven hours, depending on the heat of the smoker and weather the butt is boned.

In the last two hours spray meat liberally with apple juice and maple juice (or beer) turning and spraying a couple of times. In the last hour mop butt with Ron’s dipping sauce thinned a bit with apple juice or beer.

Once butt is removed from smoker, let it sit under a foil tent for 15-30 minutes. Pull meat apart with two forks. It should shred easily, if not slice and chop.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Greg

There's nothin' like the carbonized-hardwood-particulate-matter-infused ass of a swine, I always say.

Don't think about the chemistry and it's all good.

Very cool, Greg. Thanks so much for sharing that.

Geez, Peter, don't be such a buzzkill

You forgot to mention the increased risk of stomach cancer. Dig in!

"Carcinogen" is just another word for "Yummmm!"

Damn!!
What a buzz kill.

Yeah, I'll be enjoying my stir-fried tofu and organic vegetables all sum....HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Not in this lifetime:

1 beef brisket, untrimmed, 7-10Lbs
Quarter cup or so of kosher salt
Half cup or so of home-made chili powder (it's easy, buy some dried chilies of various "heat," cut the stem end, shake out the seeds, snip the chilies into 1/4" strips, run them through a coffee grinder or like device until powdery. Wear gloves while doing this).
1Tbl freshly toasted and ground cumin
Say a couple of teaspoons each fresh ground white and black pepper
2 Tbl dark smoked Hungarian paprika
1/4 cup light or dark brown sugar.

Plus you can add garlic powder, onion powder, Chinese 5-spice powder (be careful! This will overpower everything else! 1 or 2 tsp. at most should do it) lemon zest, etc. Play around.

Mix with a fork and rub very liberally on the entire hunk o' meat. Really rub it in. Put the brisket in a plastic garbage bag and place in the fridge over night or at least 8 hours.

Next day, take the brisket out of the fridge and hour ahead then smoke it FAT SIDE UP at 225F with apple, oak, or hickory chips for 8 hours-ish or until tender enough to cut with a dull spoon. If you really want to do it up and can control the temp accurately (put an oven thermometer in the rack where the meat sits, that is the the air you want to measure; the built-in thermometer up top will not tell you what you want to know) start it 18 hours before you want it done and raise the temp thusly:

1st 6 hours: 160F
Next 3 hours: 175F
Next 3 hours 190F
Next 3 hours: 210F
Last 3 hours: 220F

Remove from rack and lightly tent in tinfoil for 15 minutes. Slice and serve.

A note on smoking: When using an electric, charcoal, or gas smoker or BBQ and adding the chips or chunks of wood, you only need to do this for the first couple of hours. If you keep throwing chips on the entire time you can get a very unpleasant buildup of chemicals on the meat that will ruin it (essentially creosote). Plus, the smoke will only penetrate so far in the first place. When using a purpose-built hardwood "smoker" you don't actually want a lot of smoke, since visible smoke has a lot of moisture and deposits the crud on the meat. That's why we burn the wood to coal in a fire pit then toss it into the fire box. I do burn a log or 2 in the firebox at the beginning though.

Framer-

Great recipe! Have you tried raising the temp and covering the butt in honey for the last hour or so?

Also I love my butt on a bun with coleslaw (I know, it's just too easy. I also love telling my friends how much I enjoyed rubbing my butt or rubbing my meat the night before). Try traditional coleslaw or Carolina style which might be a little piquant for some (yellow mustard, hot pepper flakes, and vinegar).

Yes, with setup lines like those, you could easily get a job as a straight man.

The two most popular "smokees" (you have the smoker and the smokee, right ?) are turkey and your run of the mill "pull it out of the lake" fish, typically whitefish or similar.

Has anyone played with those newfangled "digital smokers" which have a little power auger to drop coals in at a predictable rate so you can sleep at night ?

>>pork butt roast..often labeled as a pork shoulder blade roast

This is a useful piece of information which may reduce the number of funny looks I get at supermarkets. Thank you !!

All,

Here is a recipe that I scavanged one time (I did not write it) that would probably work well in a smoker / grill (to add to the flavor of the recipe)...takes a bit of time but well worth it!

Begin Recipe

Robert Rodriguez' Puerco Pibil (or Cochinita Pibil) from Once Upon a Time in Mexico

"Are you a MexiCAN, or are you a MexiCAN'T?" If you're a MexiCAN, follow these instructions closely:

I've taken the liberty of transcribing Robert Rodriguez' recipe from his "10 Minute Cooking School" Featurette from the Once Upon a Time in Mexico DVD. It looks mouthwatering, and I can't wait to make it. As soon as I saw it, I thought about this forum.

Clean up the kitchen, fellow SpoTTies.

You'll need:

3-5 lbs. of pork butt
1/2 cup of orange juice
1/2 cup of white vinegar
Banana leaves (usually found at mexican and asian markets)
5 tablespoons of annatto seeds
2 teaspoons cumin seed
5 lemons
1 tablespoon black pepper
8 allspice nuggets
2 habanero peppers
1/2 teaspoon of cloves
2 tablespoons of salt
8 cloves of garlic
Tequila. Lots of Tequila. Mmmm.
Casserole pan
Aluminum Foil
1 Big-[censored] ziploc bag
a coffee grinder
a blender

Now, Rodriguez suggests you buy a separate coffee grinder to mix the raw seasonings, so not to cross-pollinate your spices with your coffee.

So...throw the annatto seeds, the cumin, the pepper, the cloves and the allspice into the coffee grinder and grind it into a super-fine, powdery dust. You'll combine it with some other stuff later to create Achiote Paste. Don't ask; keep reading.

Anyway, so you grind all that up until it's like drywall dust. Then dump it in the blender.

Chop up the habaneros, and be careful to remove the seeds and veins--unless you are SERIOUSLY down with super-spicy HEAT.

Then add the OJ, the vinegar, the juice from the five lemons, the salt, the garlic, and the chopped up habaneros into the blender as well, and add a "splash of the finest tequila you can find." Blend. Blend some more. Check it closely. This is your achiote paste. Blend some more, just in case. You don't want any chunks of this stuff lingering in your mouth.

Grab your pork butt (hehehe...that was completely accidental) and HACK it into 2" cubes--preferably with a machete, for that authentic Yucatan atmosphere. Dump the cubes into the "big-[censored] ziploc bag."

Dump in your achiote paste, and do the shake n' bake, without the baking part...yet. Just make sure the meat is completely marinating. Rodriguez doesn't say for how long, so I'm guessing 2-4 hours minimum. Correct me if you know better. I haven't made this yet.

Now, grab your banana leaves (hopefully they're fresh--more moisture), and line your casserole pan about three layers deep.

Dump your achiote paste-saturated pig butt into the pan. put more banana leaves on top, and wrap that spicy meat all up in those big 'ol leaves. Then SEAL the entire casserole pan up with aluminum foil to lock in all the moisture. That's what cooks the pork.

Get a friend to help you lug all that dead meat on over to an oven you've pre-heated to 325 degrees, and heft it in. Close that door and go watch dvds for four hours. If there's any tequila left, take that with you.

Rodriguez pulled this stuff out, and it looked just melt-in-your-mouth kinda good. Serve it over a bed of rice, and hey--anything else you want to serve with it."

End Recipe

I have made this before and it is exquisite...the achiote paste has a unique flavor but it very, very good. You can probably substitute a different cut of pork...may try it on a tenderloin.

Give it a shot and let us all know how it comes out...

Disclaimer: Kids will probably definately NOT like this...

Enjoy.

WhatFurrer

It is also known as a "Boston Butt." Some people smoke the whole shoulder which is made up of the butt and the picnic roast. A whole shoulder can be pretty massive. I usually stick to the butt (again, it's just too easy).

Whatfurrer- that looks like a fantastic recipe. I'll have to try it. Later this summer a couple of the fellas and I are going to try a whole pig. Apparently a rental place in town here has a rig with a motorized spit and a charcoal tray below. I wanted to dig a pit and roast the porker under ground but WAF insinuates itself everywhere.

A lot of great ideas which I printed out and put it in her recipe folder. My wife likes the smoker which means less cooking she has to do, which I dont get since we eat out most of the time.

So... my cheapo gas bbq finally disintegrated and I'm in the market for something new. The smoking happens at by brother-in-law Rob's (the far away one, not the close one ) and Rob does all the smoking, I just do the eating.

I figure it's time to start pulling my weight. I've pretty much narrowed the selection down to a Weber bullet smoker or a Weber charcoal kettle (either the "Gold" or the "Performer" with propane lighter thingy).

The only argument for the Performer vs. a regular kettle + chimney is that in theory the Weber kettles are sufficiently airtight that you can close all the vents and have the charcoal stop burning, leaving it ready for use next time. If the charcoal is *already* in the kettle then having a built-in lighter seems like a good idea and a real convenience -- but if I had to start from scratch with new charcoal every time then a chimney would really be just as convenient and all I'm getting for the extra $$ is a cart, table and charcoal bin.

Note that in the US a Performer costs almost 3x a regular kettle, while in Canada the prices are closer, more like 2x -- presumably there is a relatively fixed transportation cost applicable to both.

The bigger question, though, is "smoker or kettle ?". I figure maybe 2/3 of my usage will be "low + slow" but it would be nice to be able to grill the occasional burger, sausage or steak.

It sounds like at least a few of you are running charcoal smokers. Is anyone running a Weber bullet (WSM) and if so do you ever use it for occasional grilling ? There is a brief blurb on grilling with a WSM at the virtualweberbullet site but it involves rebuilding the pieces in a different order and I'm not sure how stable their recommended arrangement is.

Did some more reading and it looks like summertime smoking in a Weber kettle works just fine, although you might have to check on it more frequently. Wintertime is what I'm not so sure about -- the WSM bullet seems to have thicker walls and is reported to work well in the winter while the kettles seem to be iffy for anything except grilling (where you can have a full bed of coals). I think the fact that the WSM can run with a full basket of coals even when smoking might be part of the difference.

I guess the real answer is something like this :

http://www.bbqs.com/cart_admin?func=viewProduct&wid=78&cid=1047&pid=1256

1/4" steel walls, 350 pounds...

That's the bbq I have. I have been using it for about 5 years. Got away from gas grills and never looked back. My parents keep bringing up something about carcinogens from the briquettes but I just dont want to go back to gas.

Every article I read says that the real health dangers come from animal fats at extremely high temperatures, whether those high temperatures come from charcoal or from gas.

"Low and slow" barbecueing and smoking seem to be much less of a risk, unless you REALLY get carried away with the smoke.

I think the Weber kettles are a great value and very versatile. I have smoked everything from turkeys to briskets in a 22.5" Webber, using the indirect method. I don't know that I would pay for the propane starter model.

Thanks... that helped me make the final decision. I ended up going with a 22-1/2" kettle but at the last minute decided to get the Performer with the cart and gas lighter. Here's how I figured it :

22-1/2" gold kettle - 190 CDN
chimney starter - 30 CDN (don't need with Performer)
mod to add a thermometer in lid - 20 CDN (included)
baskets for coals - 30 CDN (included)

I'm already up to $270 CDN, so the extra $130 for a Performer doesn't seem too bad considering you get :

- a nice, really well built cart and work surface
- convenience of not having to take partially burned briquettes out to relight them
- very convenient lid holder
- thermometer already built into lid (no modding)

Everything you get for the $$ is convenience, of course -- it won't cook any differently from a Silver kettle -- but if the convenience lets me use it more often then I figure it's a good investment (carcinogens notwithstanding).

I picked it up after work today and assembled it as soon as I got home.

Tossed on a bag of chicken leg quarters (smear on some jerk seasoning, sear for a few minutes on each side over the coals, then indirect heat over a drip pan for an hour turning every 15 mins), which should be done... now.

Gotta go

EDIT -- Dang, that was good. I guess the charcoal adds a bit of smoke flavour even if you haven't added any smoke wood. The outer part of the chicken had a nice red/pink smoke tinge and the meat was really tasty even though I didn't have time to marinade at all.

Close the vents, charcoal seems to go out. Fire up the gas starter, charcoal gets going again. I like it.

I refuse to answer this question on the grounds that it may incriminate me.

I'm starting to notice that some boards have a set of very specialized smileys. Here's one I found on a site dedicated to the Weber Smokey Mountain (WSM) cooker, aka the bullet.



We need some good Axiom-specific or HT-specific smileys. Any ideas ?

BTW I'm trying my first "top down burn" aka Minion Method cook on the Weber today. With briquettes a few people have managed to get 13+ hour burns and relatively stable temperatures without having to add fuel. I stuck a couple of firebricks into the Performer to divide it in half, filled one side up with lump charcoal then dropped some lit briquettes on top.

Here's a pic while I was getting it started -- the small pile of coals in front is over the Performer's built-in gas ligher, and the big pile of coals in the back is unlit.



After the small pile of coals got started I dropped them on top of the unlit pile then added foil and drip pan where the small pile of coals was in the picture. Added a water pan over the coals and 3.5 pound pork sirloin over the drip pan and it's been going for a couple of hours at a rock-solid 275F.

I've never used lump charcoal before so I'm guessing I'll only get 5-6 hours before having to refuel. Fingers crossed.

Yeah lump 'coal burns hotter and faster than briquettes. Mass is your friend when it comes to heat regulation. I always have a few bricks here and there in my rig.

I have taken a lot of heat (NPI) for occasionally using water/beer pans instead of dry drip pans when I do my thing. Some of the fellas are real purists about this stuff. While it does cause some contamination due to the vapor trapping smoke particles it really helps with large, lean cuts like whole pork loins.

I know it's been done to death, but not by me.

Beer can chicken and BBQ'ed cabbage :



Both cooked indirect for about 1-1/4 hrs, lid temp 325-350. Chicken was extremely good, but cabbage wasn't quite cooked enough and probably needed another 1/2 hr.

That is my favorite way to cook chicken.

What's that thing that you killed with a toothpick?

I'm not sure I want to know.

That is an Atomic Buffalo Turd, known in polite company as an "ABT". Type it into Google if you don't believe me.

- Split a jalapeno in half lengthwise, cut off stem & remove some or all of the veins & seeds

- Fill with a small block of cream cheese plus some smoked meat or sausage

- Smear with hot jerk seasoning (recipe says mix cayenne into the cream cheese)

- Wrap with 1/2 strip of bacon, kill with toothpick

- Cook with indirect heat or smoke for 30-45 minutes or until bacon is cooked. Let cool for a few minutes and enjoy

Nutritionally the best thing I can say for them is that they appear to be compatible with the Atkins diet. Taste-wise there are many good things to say about them, assuming you enjoy spicy food. These are apparently a popular finger food on the competition bbq circuit.

Replacing jalapeno with habanero gets you an Atomic Dragon Turd. I imagine you could skip the cayenne pepper.

NOTE - sometimes ABTs are made in a "vertical" format (see link). I haven't tried this -- seems too unstable on the grill :

ABTs standing on their hind legs

I love beer can chicken. Best way to get rid of bad beer after someone brings it to a party.

What do you do with all the chicken ? Most bad beer comes in 24 packs and nobody drinks any at the party

Is there any canned beer that's actually decent?

Of course -- there's.... just a minute... might have to get back to you on that. Maybe Guinness ?

Sapporo is pretty good but the can is about the right size for an 18-20 pound turkey. I normally buy Molson Export when I need something in cans -- Molson Canadian was our traditional camping beer for 25 years but it tasted like dishwater (for 25 years ) so we replaced it with 5 liter cans of Grolsch.

Beer Chicken = Goooood!

I live in a province where, believe it or not, canned carbonated beverages are still outlawed. It's actually a big deal to bring back canned beer when you go to the mainland.

Still, I don't like canned beer. Except for Guinness. That widget thing invention really does make it taste like the real thing straight from the keg. Bottled Guinness is just awful.

I am the proud owner of a Molsen Canadian Dancing Beer can though.

Tonight I'm smoking beef ribs for the first time. My first thought is "where have you been all my life ?"

These are the brontosaurus ribs I remember seeing on the Flintstones as a kid. Half the price of pork spareribs, which in turn are half the price of baby back ribs, and at first glance they seem to be extremely good cuts of meat. Obviously a lot of that weight is bone, but 7 ribs / 4 pounds is my idea of a barbeque !!

It's turning out to be surprisingly easy to get a 6 hour burn on a single basket of coals using the "Minion Method". Best practice so far seems to be a Weber basket of tightly packed lump with a dozen or so lit briquettes on top plus a couple of chunks of smoke wood. Lid temperature has been solid at 250F for a couple of hours now.

OK, so the beef ribs were a disappointment. The cook itself went well (6-1/2 hours or so) but there was essentially no meat on the ribs, just fat. I put enough rub on for meaty ribs, so the few little scraps of meat were way too salty.

Oh well.

Did a practice cook of some pork spareribs this afternoon trying out a new technique for long cooks on the Weber -- alternating between the two baskets so I can do top-down burns and run for 3-6 hours unattended instead of adding a few lumps of charcoal every hour.

Some people are getting 12-13 hour burns on a single load of charcoal by filling up one whole side of the bbq and doing a top down burn with that, but if all the coals light (it happens) you go from 250 to 400F in a flash and there's not much to be done other than shut all the vents and hope it goes out soon.

The spares worked out great -- certainly the best ribs I have ever cooked -- and now I'm 1/2 hour into my first smoked brisket. Roughly 8 pounds after trimming, covered in BRITU rub and sitting awkwardly in a foil pan two sizes too small 'cause everything I read says you gotta use a foil pan if you don't have a water smoker or offset smoker.

The pan is supposed to prevent shrinkage, but if the brisket doesn't shrink a lot it ain't gonna fit in the pan.

Fingers crossed. Time to check the temps then get my first hour or two of sleep.

Beef ribs are hard. I've had the same experience as you once, charcoalized another set, and I think I've managed to do them properly once. I'm still learning my new grill, so I'm not going to try them again just yet... especially considering how well my father in law does them.

Interesting. I initially assumed the problem was technique (or lack thereof) but I couldn't explain how cooking technique could explain what I was seeing. The beef ribs I cooked were nothing but fat with occasional bits of very tasty (but salty) meat.

Sounds like overcooking is something to watch out for with beef ribs ?

It might be worth finding out where your father in law buys his meat.

Near Santa Maria. ;-) And some of the ribs I did were bought by him...

You guys have inspired me. I've decided it is time to make ribs for the first time this season. I don't smoke them, but they are the only food I make that I can say the way they are done is the best I have ever had.

I make my own BBQ sauce first. That is simmering as I type this. Then I will take four lbs of baby backs and marinade them, wrap them in foil, and put them in the fridge overnight. Tomorrow they go in the oven at a low temp for 2-2.5 hrs, then they come out and go on the grill for a couple of minutes per side. They just fall right off the bone...soooo good.

I won't even mind how unhealthy they are, since my wife wants to just make a big fruit salad for dinner tonight. Tonight's healthiness will balance out the yummy ribs tomorrow night!

Getting slightly off topic (is grilling ok here?), one of my favorite things to grill is artichokes. Here's the recipe I use.

Corn is also killer on the grill.

Do you grill the corn in the cob, wrap it in foil, add salt/butter in the foil?

I've had mixed success with corn, but I did buy corn on the cob to go with the ribs tomorrow night, so if someone has a good way to do corn on the grill I'll give it another shot.

I get corn with the whole husk on. Peel back (not off!) the husk, cover the corn with butter, and replace the husk. Tie the tops of the husk together weith twine so the don't peel back. Soak them in a pan of water for about 30 minutes. Grill on the main rack of the grill. Grill for awhile. (10-20 minutes?) I usually just take them off when everything else is done. The husks shouldn't catch fire, but the ends will blacken and smoke nicely.

This has never failed me (famous last words...)

My best recipe for corn on the grill:

Buy corn in the husk and remove just the outermost leaves.
Carefully peel back the remaining leaves and remove the silk.
Drizzle olive oil over the corn.
Sprinkle salt and chipotle powder on the corn.
Rub the mixture over the corn to coat evenly.
Put the husks back over the corn and grill for a total of about 5 minutes, rotating every minute or so.

The husks will retain the moisture and flavor and help cook the corn faster.

I've avoided putting salt on the corn until after cooking, because I'm afraid it might make the kernels tough. Apparently, this fear is unfounded...

Don't go crazy with the salt, just a "sprinkling" (for the May Queen)...

I'm trying your method KC. They are soaking in water now. I don't have twine to tie the ends on though, I'll just have to try to keep it on as best I can.

Anyone heard the Duct Tape Madrigal? It's published on the first Car Talk Car Songs CD. Fantastic stuff. I'll have to look up the guy's website--I owe him a CD purchase...

Bridgman,

I've got me some cabbage. What do I do? Just wrap some foil on its bottom and throw it on the barbie for 1.75 hours? Do I need to dress it up at all?

Alright. There it is. By the way the rub consists of lemon zest, rosemary, paprika, salt, thyme & pepper. I drowned garlic, rosemary sprigs, red pepper flakes, oilve oil, lemon juice & thyme in the beer. Pour the lemon juice in slowly or you'll have a geyser on your hands.

Now I have to throw on some of Peter's corn. My wife will be so pleased when she gets home from work. Yes, I am practicing to be a homedad .

That cabbage smells absolutely wonderful. And there's the corn adorned with the olive oil/chipotle powder conconction. And my wife is just pulling up in the driveway. I'll get bonus points for this .

Sorry about the late response. The recipe I used involved inverting the cabbage, carving out the core leaving a cone-shaped opening, using a foil ring to hold the cabbage upside-down, then filling the opening with a mixture of bacon, butter cubes and bbq sauce. I would not use that recipe again -- my guess is that just cooking it plain would be better.

The recipe did call for brushing the outside of the cabbage with bacon grease, which I forgot to do so can't comment on the result.

Looks like a great meal.

What time is dinner? Looking at the pics it's hard to tell but did you stuff a potatoe in the top of the bird to seal it up?

No Wid, I didn't stuff anything in but that's a great idea. I wonder it it would go BOOM .

John, that stuffing sounds absolutely nuts . I did it plain and even though the outside was blackened, the inside was like a marshmallow. It flaked beautifully. I then put fresh lemon juice and olive oil on top of it and tossed it real good. Yum.

The chipotle corn was amazing. That's the only way I'll do corn from now on.

The rosemary/garlic/beer/thyme-infused chicken was very tender and extremely tasty. The tall beer can really helped at keeping it elevated high above the flames and I had no issues with stability. Here's the recipe I used by the way.

Now I have to find me a recipe for BBQd crab legs for tomorrow.

I use a stand like this for my beer can chicken. No worries about it toppling over.

The thing is, a little bacon grease makes anything in the barbecue taste better,,,it's the universal seasoning.

My grandma makes a fantastic cooked shredded beet side dish that has bacon grease in it. One of the best uses of beets, next to barscz and chlodnik (hot and cold beet soup, respectively, for the non-slavik among us).

Ahh, shredded BEET.

First time I read this as "shredded beef with bacon grease", which seemed excessive even to me.

Yesterday it was turf. Today it was surf. The face-huggers were just awesome .

>>John, that stuffing sounds absolutely nuts

Steve Raichlen, "How to Grill", page 357. Even worse, in the same way that one buys an LP (er... I mean CD) because they heard a song they liked, I opened the book up in the store to "How to Barbecue Cabbage", thought "what a cool idea", and bought the book.

EDIT -- hey, I never saw a serious seafood meal on a barbeque before. Good show !

Does it have any recipes for BBQing green onions? I brush them with olive oil, rosemary and garlic and they turn out really sweet and tasty.

Here is my first attempt at smoking spare ribs. I used a simple Kansas City dry rub and let them marinate over night.



They should be done shortly but from the test taste I tried I expect really good results.

Looks good, Rick! I just ate lunch, but looking at those ribs is making me hungry again.

Well if I must say so myself..................Damn those ribs were good That with some corn on the grill and a pasta salad. Good eats I'm tell ya.

Joyce and I tried corn on the grill for the first time tonight....with the chipotle seasoning as well. What have I been waiting for all these years?


DEEE-LISH!!!

(The corn was really good, too!)

damn those looked good, wid. carmelized pork fat, mmmmmmmm. i gotta get me another smoker.

btw, what wine you guys have with bbq'd pork? kind of a difficult proposition in my experience.

For bbq'd pork, I'd go with a "softened" Syrah/Shiraz. If you look around, you can find some that are blended with viognier (a white wine).

interesting, yesterday was the first time i've seen/tried that shiraz/viognier blend.

soft reds seem to be the ticket. i picked up a btl of carmenere at someone's suggestion, but have not had the opportunity to try it with pork.

Last night we hickory-smoked a bone-in sirloin (what a cut!); for an additional side I made mushroom caps stuffed with a combination of blue cheese, rosemary, walnuts and butter. Great complement to the hickory! (I also made standard bacon/celery/garlic stuffed mushrooms for the non-blue-cheese-eaters.) Mushrooms are so good at this time of year.

Now that sounds good! I love those kinds of mushroom recipes... Now if I only could find a way to convince my wife that they're edible

Those shrooms sound way cool, Amie.

How about some recipe guidelines?

Oh dear, I'm one of 'those' cooks. Mix a spoonful of room temp butter with two or three or four spoons of crumbled blue cheese; add several shakes of dried rosemary and a spoonful of coarsely chopped walnuts.

That will fill four large stuffing mushroom caps.

For five large stuffing mushroom caps, one stalk of celery, half a clove of garlic, two strips of bacon, and the stem of two of the mushrooms - that usually makes enough to fill and a spoonful for the chef.

I pre-cook the mushroom caps in the microwave with a drop or two of water when they're empty - two minutes. That gets them started so that you can just finish them at 350*F for about 10 minutes and the mushrooms aren't crunchy.

How's that for a rough estimate?

You just made me short out my kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkeyboard with drrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrroooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool.

thanks Amie. I wasn't even sure if you were cooking those or not.

Well, no steam escaped from this wrapping job . That's dried onion, garlic, basil and pepper with chipotle, olive oil and lemon juice on that wild salmon fillet.

Chipotle is the new salt.

Yeah, I put it on everything now that you introduced me to it . I used to say Chipotl and then my smart-mouthed sister said "It's chipotlay, you nerd!".

Superstore/Presidnet's Choice introduced a new
Tequila, Habanero Barbecue Sauce this summer. Comes in a giant, ugly bottle with a cork top.

Tequila & Habanero!!! How can this be anything but good!

I'm off topic a bit but wanted to share. Speaking of smoking though, I'm now intrigued. What should one look for in buying a smoker? Any good tips or URLs on techniques?