Smoked Chicken on the Recteq

Posted on by March 5, 2022

3/5/2022 – The smoke turned out very good with a good flavor and very moist.

Cleaned fat and separated 10 lbs of legs from thighs. Salted them on both sides and seasoned with Creole Poultry Seasoning. Let them rest and warm-up for an hour.

Put them on the preheated Recteq set on Xtreme Smoke and let them smoke for 45 minutes. Raised the temp to 260°. With the probe in the largest leg pushed in to almost touching the bone.

When the IT was 180, checked other pieces with the Chefworks temp probe and they were all in the same range with none higher. Pulled and wrapped to rest for 15 minutes.

Smoked Chicken Legs Wrapped in Bacon

Posted on by October 23, 2022

2/28/2022 – Skinned and wrapped in standard (not thick) sliced bacon the large chicken legs then smoked them on the Recteq. After cutting them from the leg/thigh quarters they were salted two days before. Several hours before smoking they were “rubbed” with our blackening rub made per Prudhomme’s recipe, then wrapped with the bacon, and then “rubbed” again. That much of the hot rub was almost too hot.

  1. 5:30 PM – Laid the wrapped legs in the preheated Recteq on Extreme Smoke.
  2. 6:00 PM – Raised Recteq to 275°.
  3. 6:50 PM – Raised the Recteq to 400° as the largest leg was 160° IT with the probe almost touching the bone.
  4. 7:00 PM – The bacon-wrap is sizzling fast and looks like it should not go any further so pulled them and wrapped them in foil to rest.

They had a light smoke flavor and great color. The bacon was done and not soggy. The bacon wrapping worked out well.

T-Bone’s Smoked Then Seared

Posted on by April 30, 2022

2/14/2022 – These Valentine steaks turned out great. It was good that they were great pieces of 1″ thick beef…that happened to come from Rouses. After the smoke/grill process, the center was near pink with a gradual color change to the smokey-red, very damp surface. This was like a sous vid where the IT is slowly brought up to near done then seared to get that great seared flavor.

  1. They were salted for dry brining with kosher salt
  2. Sat out after salting for about 1.5 hours
  3. Preheated the Rectec to 180 Extreme Smoke
  4. Put them in until the IT on the thickest one was 110
  5. Put them on the hot preheated tail-gate gas grill
  6. Pull them when the IT on all but one part was 135 plus

4/30/2022 – Jeff & Maggie are visiting and brought 2 dry-aged 1.5-inch thick T-Bones. Prepared almost the same as above. They were very good but not outstanding.

  1. They were NOT salted for dry brining. It would have likely made them moister although they were not dry.
  2. Sat out for about 3 hours
  3. Preheated the Rectec to 180 Extreme Smoke
  4. Put them in until the IT on the thickest one was 110
  5. Put them on the hot preheated tail-gate gas grill
  6. Pull them when the IT on all but one part was 135 plus

Skillet Ham, Cabbage and Potatoes

Posted on by February 2, 2022

2/2/2022 – This dish turned out great as it was easy, quick, and tasty on a cold winter day. It was inspired by the one here. We will surely make this again.

Ingredients

  • 3 tablespoons butter
  • 15 green onions from the garden when chopped with about 1.5 cups. [Original recipe called for one large yellow onion.]
  • 1+ small head cabbage, coarsely chopped that was enough to fill the No. 10 skillet before they cooked down.
  • Ina’s Chicken Stock made with fresh herbs—from the flower beds outside the kitchen door—2 hours into an all day simmer, from the large pot on the burner behind the skillet.
  • 5 ea. 1.5″ diameter red potatoes, sliced thinly
  • paprika & Kit’s Creole Seasoning until it looks right
  • 2+ cups spiral cut ham slices cut into no larger than 1″ squares
  • Salt and course grounds black pepper
  • Did not add these but should have so it is listed here so we remember next time
    • Red Pepper Flakes.
    • Hot sausage from Louisiana while likely reducing the amount of ham.

Directions

  1. In a No. 10 cast iron skillet over medium heat, melt the butter and saute the onions. When wilted add cabbage and stir to blend buttered onions into the cabbage. Drizzle about ¼ cup Chick Stock, cover and simmer to steam gently for ten minutes.
  2. Sprinkle spices and salt into potatoes and stir. Add spiced potatoes to cabbage and mix. Cover again and allow to simmer for ten more minutes. Additional stock may be needed.
  3. Allow to simmer covered for an additional 5 to 10 minutes until cabbage is soft and potatoes are nearly cooked. Stir several times to distribute the spices.
  4. Mix ham in and finish cooking until ham is hot and potatoes are done.

Comments to the Original Recipe that sounded like good ideas to try were as listed below.

  • Cube to potatoes so they do not fall apart although ours did not but perhaps will when rewarmed as leftovers.
  • Put the potatoes in olive oil first to brown.
  • “This recipe actually dates back a couple of centuries, but in all of its forms is delicious! In Britain, this is what is called “Bubble and Squeak”. My mom’s version has a southern twist and is called simply “fried cabbage”. She begins with a couple tablespoons of light oil over medium-low heat, and then adds two tablespoons of bacon grease for the smoky flavor. Next, she adds the onions and cabbage together and allows them to caramelize a bit before reducing the heat to low, covering, and allowing it to cook for about 15 minutes in its own juices. When the cabbage is about “half-tender”, she will add the sliced potatoes, salt & pepper, a dash of garlic powder, and julienne sliced ham, stir, and cover again until the potatoes are done.“
  • “Browned up the pototoes and ham with the onion before adding cabbage, then added broth vs. water.”
  • “I substituted chardonnay for the water-just because it’s chardonnay!“
  • “I used a chicken based white wine and herb broth, and used sausage instead of ham with some rosemary, 1 clove of garlic, green onion, thinly diced carrots(like you get in bagged salads), potatoes, and red and green cabbage. I cooked a large amount so I ended up using a pot with mostly broth and a few cups of water. Beautiful and delicious!”

Green Tomato Roasted Salsa in January

Posted on by April 23, 2022

1/10/2022 – This salsa was made with green tomatoes picked since we began having very cold nights and the tomato plants are freezing. It also has serrano peppers from our garden that were picked last week. 4/23/2022 – Enjoying the second half-pint of this salsa. The four serranos did not make it spicy. It is rather mild and a bit sweet—likely from the roasted tomatoes.

Continue reading →

Tomatoes Canned in Water Bath, Jan. 2022

Posted on by January 9, 2022

1/9/2022 – This canning was done like the one on . What is significant is this is happening in JANUARY with a bunch of our 2011 Fall tomatoes.

This was with the Better Boy tomatoes from the fall garden. All had been picked over the past week. We culled out the few with soft spots and holes. They made 5 quarts. We followed the Ball instructions here.

  1. Boiled about 8? deep water in our ols shrimp boiling tall pot. Using the 6? frying-wire ladle we set 4-6 tomatoes into the boiling water and pulled them out when the skins began to split. Place them immediately into cold water with ice cubes.
  2. Mary removed the skins, cut out the stems, and quartered them into a colander over the blue enameled stockpot to catch the liquid. Little drained out like it had in 2020 when the tomatoes were not as nice as these.
  3. Sanitized the jars and lids in boiling water in the large SS canning pot that now has the canning wire rack to hold the glass jars off the bottom.
  4. Packed the pieces into the jars pressing them down and sliding a spreading spatula down the sides to release any air pockets. We did not need to add hot water as the Ball recipe recommended if necessary as the jars were filled with pulp and liquid from the tomatoes. Added 1/2 teaspoon of Ball Citric Acid in each quart jar on top of the tomatoes. Installed the sanitized seals and the rings snuggly.
  5. Put them into the canner with the hot boiling water. Once it came to a very slow boil we set the timer to 45 minutes and let it bubble along.
  6. When the 45 minutes was up the jars were removed to cool on the plastic cutting boards. All five sealed.

Mary’s Roasted Tomato Salsa 2 Ways 2022

Posted on by July 10, 2024

1/5/2022 – This prep followed the one on , but was preserved in two ways. One batch for current use and one put up by way of a boiling water bath. Note the date is January and they were made with fresh tomatoes and fresh peppers from our fall garden. The batch for current use was great even before it cooled off completely. The batch for current use, i.e refrigerated, was good. The roasted flavor was subtle but enough. Sampled the boiling water-bath-batch on 2/11/2022 and it was great. The heat was mild and could be more for some dishes but this level was good with eggs. Will make this again.

See 5/31/2024 and Mary’s Roasted Tomato Salsa 2024 for the latest preparation.

Continue reading →

Shrimp, Bacon Wrapped & Smoked

Posted on by March 5, 2022

12/30/2021 – This is the first smoke with the Rectec of shrimp. Shelled, deveined, and seasoned with Creole Seasoning one lb of 16-20 shrimp. Wrapped most in Zeigler bacon and smoked them. Turned out very good and we learned a few things.

  1. Partially fried the bacon in a skillet until the meat part was becoming firm. A few pieces were too done and did not wrapped tightly.
  2. Cut the strips in half and wrapped the shrimp. The strip went around once on the larger ones and the tag ends hung out.
  3. Put them on a wire rack on a sheet pan that had been sprayed with Pam.
  4. Preheated the Rectec to 180°, Extreme Smoke.
  5. 5:30 PM – Out the sheet pan with shrimp into the smoker.
  6. 5:55 – raised the smoker to 400°.
  7. 6:10 – Smoker is at 400°.
  8. 6:50 – Bacon is done with little visible white fat.

Next Time

  • Use larger shrimp and may need toothpicks but the loose ends smoked was nice.
  • Serve with a hot bacon/garlic/pepper flakes for dipping
  • Could try with 45 minutes of Extreme Smoke
  • Could stuff larger shrimp with jalapenos and/or creme cheese with a full strip of bacon
  • Try pre-smoking bacon instead of frying.

German Sauerkraut with the First 2021 Cabbage

Posted on by December 30, 2021

12/30/2021 – Made our standard german kraut with a large head of Cheers Cabbage.

Rebuilt Spreadsheet 12/30/2112/30/2021
Cabbage1578
Caraway Seed – 2gm /1000 gm cabbage3.2
Juniper berries – 2 gm per 1000 gm cabbage3.2
Mustard Seed – 6 gm per 1000 gm of cabbage9.5
Salt – 1.6% of the cabbage25.2
Total1619.0
Projected 1/2 gallon jars at 1400 gm of cabbage per jar. But it made – *½ gallon

‘* Mary trimmed it up more after I weighted it and maybe removed 50 gms. That contributed to it not filling the ½-gallon jar as expected. So, the salt and seasonings will be a little higher than the above ratios.

Tuscan Baked Fish

Posted on by December 28, 2021

This is the recipe with the changes Mary made that was inspired by this recipe. It was very good!!

  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1/2 large Red Onion, diced
  • Diced up maybe 6 or 8 of the tomatoes from our winter garden. 
  • 1 lb. of Cod cut into about 8 smaller pieces
  • 2 tsp. dried basil
  • 2 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 2 tsp. dried oregano
  • 2 tbsp capers
  • salt and pepper, to taste
  • Chopped green onion from the garden for a garnish we forgot to use.
  1. Heat the olive oil in the small dutch oven. Saute the red onion until it is slightly translucent and add the tomatoes. Cook for about 5 min. Add the herbs, garlic and capers, salt and pepper.  Cook for about 15 minutes.  If I had some white wine I would have added it.  Let it reduce to a thicker consistency. 
  2. The fish had been cut into pieces and had added salt and pepper.
  3. About 20 minutes before you are ready to eat. Add the fish and place in a preheated 375 deg. oven. Done when then fish is flakey.

Tom was burning one of our woodpiles so I let it bake and then turned the oven off.  Sitting like that really helped the flavors meld together.

Served with steamed broccoli from our garden.