7/2/2023 – We made cajun marinara like last year and froze it in quart and pint containers for easy meals in the winter. Started with a 25 lb. box of canning tomatoes from Sessions Farm Market (only $15) as our tomatoes are not producing this year. We also got the bell peppers there as our bells are still too small.
06/18/2023 – Jeff gave me a Meat Church 4-pack of rubs for Father’s Day and we tried two of them today on ribs and chicken smoked on the Recteq at 250°. The meat turned out good although the ribs had a tough bark likely due to being in the smoker too long and too hot. It was in there maybe 4 hours.
Prepare your Smoker Prepare your smoker at a temperature of 275 degrees. I recommend medium smoke wood for this cook such as hickory or pecan.
Pork butt prep Remove all excess fat from the pork butt. Only leave minimal on the bottom, although this is less important as you can remove it after the cook. Optional – butcher the area around the money muscle to expose it. You only want to leave it connected by an inch or so for easy removal near the end of the cooking process.
Optional Injection Mix Meat Church Hog Injection with a high quality juice (e.g., Martinelli’s apple juice, Welch’s White Peach Grape). Inject in a 1” x 1” grid pattern until the pork butt is nice and plump.
Season the pork butt Slater the pork butt in yellow mustard to act as a binder for the seasoning. This will not affect the flavor. Rather, it allows the seasoning to adhere more quickly.
Season all sides of the pork liberally with Honey Hog (The Gospel, Holy Gospel, Deez Nuts or other rubs work as well). Allow the pork butt to “sweat out” which just means let the season fully adhere.
Smoking the pork butt This cook should take around 8 hours or so depending on weight. Plan on an hour per pound at most. Place the butt directly on the grate, fat side down.
Spritz every hour with apple juice or cider vinegr. We are targeting a beautiful mahogany color. This will occur just before the butt starts to turn really dark. This should be around the 6 hour mark with an internal temp near 165.
At this point remove the butt and place it in a half steam pan. Apply a liberal coating of Honey Hog Hot. Then top with the brown sugar and the pats of butter. sometimes I like to add 1/2 can of a good fruit juice. Jumex juices work great. Using leftover injection or that juice you mixed with is also a good call.
Cover the pan tightly with foil and return to the smoker. If you want to separate the money muscle you will want to do that when it is between 190 – 195 degrees internal temperature.
Continue smoking the butt until it reaches 205 degrees internal temperature.
Finishing Simply allow this butt to rest for 30 – 45 mins. Then shred or pull the butt, continually tossing in its own au jus. In the video at the top of this recipes we show you how to use a fat separator for this step.
I typically add a little more seasoning of choice after the shred for added flavor. Enjoy!
6/11/2023 – Bought a tray of “ribs” at Rouses (on sale of course) yesterday. Salted to dry brine and shook on a moderate amount of 6POGS on opposite sides then rubbed them to get some on the other two sides. Put them back on the styrofoam tray, wrapped in clear food wrap, and into the refrigerator overnight. This cook is building on the ideas and lessons learned in our earlier post here.
1:30 PM – Pull them after about a 24-hour dry-brine to “get the chill off”. Started preheating the Recteq to 225° with Master Blend Pellets.
2 PM – Put them on the smoker
3:30 PM – IT was 160°.
4 PM – Basted them with 1.5 cups of ACV and 1.5 cups of So Good BBQ sauce with a tablespoon of 6POGS.
Pulled at 3 hrs
Wrapped in foil after basting in ACV/SoGood at ½ cup each plus 1 tbsp of 6POGS painted on then poured over them before wrapping them snuggly.
Continued the cook in the convection oven at 250° until 6:30 PM.
6/3/2023 – This Q is like the one last week but with the suggestions cited in that post; i.e. a more spicy rub and slower initial smoke. The 6POGS and additional smoke time made a really good Q.
12:00 AM – Trimmed thighs of fat and excess skin. Salted one side to dry brine and put back into the refrigerator.
3:00 AM – Seasoned moderately with 6POGS Rub under the skin and on top as well as the backside.
4:30 PM – Preheat Recteq to 300°F and allow to come up to temp.
5:00 PM – Placed chicken on Recteq and smoked for about 70 minutes for the internal temp to be 155 in the legs and 189 in the thigh.
5:50 PM? – Painted on So-Good BBQ sauce.
Cooked another 15-20 minutes until it reached an internal temp of 190°F in the largest leg.
5/26/2023 – This turned out good and it was also easy. The process below was inspired by the instructions at Recteq here.
8:00 AM – Trimmed thighs of fat and excess skin. Salted both sides to dry brine and put back into the refrigerator. They were a bit salty so next time only salt one side.
12:30 AM – Seasoned with Cajun Poultry Rub on under the skin and on top as well as the backside.
4:30 PM – Preheat Recteq to 350°F and allow to come up to temp.
5:00 PM – Place chicken on Recteq and cook for about 30 minutes. When the internal temp of the chicken is 165°F, paint on So-Good BBQ sauce.
Cook another 15-20 minutes until it reaches an internal temp of 195°F.
Remove chicken from recteq and allow it to rest for 10-15 minutes before serving.
Next time:
season it with 6POGS or add some cayenne with the Cajun Poultry Seasoning.
preheat to 300 to allow more time for the smoke to connect.
5/4/2023 – This was an easy dish that was great. The recipe below was inspired by the one at The Mediterranean Dish. This seasoning/sauce would be great with shrimp or pork chops. The original recipe called for anchovies that we did not have and would not have used. They might be something we would like with other proteins.
6/7/2023 – This test used the leftover seasoning from 5/2/2023 but measured everything. It had the old-time smell of shrimp being boiled but the salt seemed a bit low and the seasoning was not distinctive. The seasoning-to-water ratio seemed ok as after the pre-boil the water had a good color. Next time: boil smaller shrimp for more surface area; increase cayenne pepper and cloves; let them soak longer.
1.5 lbs. headless large shrimp that had been individually frozen
2 Qts water
½ Cup of the 5/2/2023 seasoning mix
2 Tbsp table salt
Boiled then simmered water with salt and seasoning for an hour
Added the large headless shrimp.
Once half was floating took the pot off the burner and added a quart of ice cubes to stop the cooking. Maybe that was too many floating; i.e. boiled too long, as they were a bit chewy rather than crunchy. Could also add more ice.
Let them soak in the seasoned water for 15 minutes.
5/2/2023 – Adjusted the 1/7/2018 recipe below and found it weak likely due to too little added to the water. Boiled one pound of headless shrimp in about 2 quarts with salt and 3 heaping tablespoons of this blend. Next time try at least half a cup in that much water.
INGREDIENTS 4 tablespoons mustard seeds 3 tablespoons coriander seeds 2 tablespoons whole allspice – Ground roughly in a blade grinder 2 tablespoons dill seeds 1 teaspoon whole cloves 1 tablespoon crushed red pepper flakes 1 tsp ground cayenne pepper – Next time 1 Tablespoon 8 bay leaves 2 small lemons were cut in half, the juice was squeezed into the water then they were dropped in.
Added salt and seasoning to the water, brought it to a boil then let it simmer for 30 minutes. Brought it back to boiling and added the shrimp. When some were floating turned the stove off and added ice. Let the shrimp sit in the lukewarm seasoned water to absorb more seasoning as is done with crawfish.
Needed more salt and a lot more seasoning.
1/7/2018 – This boil was based on a Zatarian’s Copy Cat Recipe to which I add cayenne and coarse fresh ground black pepper. It was ok but still not as robust as I remember but well balanced. Need to increase the amount of boil mix.
INGREDIENTS 4 tablespoons mustard seeds 3 tablespoons coriander seeds 2 tablespoons whole allspice 2 tablespoons dill seeds 1 teaspoon whole cloves 1 tablespoon crushed red pepper flakes 8 bay leaves – Torn into small pieces
ADD: Salt – poured in some, stirred and tasted until the water tasted a little salty. Not nearly as salty as sea water. [Needed more salt] 2 T Cayenne 1T Course ground black pepper 1 lemon quartered and squeezed
Mixed and crushed the large seeds in our new little mortar and pestle where the pestle fully fills the mortar.
Brought ~1.5 gallons of water to a boil with about half of the seasoning mix. Had 3 small red potatoes so threw them in for the first boil. They were done before the 1.5 hours was over and I had pulled them to toss back in later during the cool down.
Simmered for 1.5 hours then returned it to a rolling boil
Added the 2 lbs. of headless shrimp.
Stirred occasionally until a few were floating.
Dropped in a 1-gallon zip lock bag filled with ice cubes. They melted within 20 minutes and cooled off the boil nicely.
Maybe 15 minutes later we shelled and tried some with shrimp cocktail sauce. The seasoning was evident but still was mild. More salt would have helped and definitely more seasoning.
Many cajun recipes add shrimp boil concentrate and that would have helped.
1/08/2018 – Peeled and had in a “chef” salad. Still very mild seasoning although it seemed well balanced. Tasted the red potatoes and they were bland and no taste of salt.
