This smoke was with a cut-up butt and turned out good. Continue reading
July 24, 2016.
Cut eight new (red) potatoes into quarter
s. loaded into shallow alum pan sprayed with Pam, drizzled EVOO and rubbed it onto the quarters. Put on at 10:40 AM to top grate of MES that has been going for four hours with a pork shoulder and mesquite saw dust in the AMAZEN tray.
While cooking made Arron Franklin’s potato salad sauce with pickle and mustard.
- 2/3 cup mayo. His called for 1C.
- 1/4 cup yellow mustard. His called for 1/2 C.
- 3/8th cup or a little less than 1/2 cup chopped dill pickles His called for 3/4C.
- 1T dill pickle juice. That is what he called for for 2 lbs. of potatoes.
- 2t black pepper. His called for 1T.
- a little less than 1t kosher salt. His called for 1t.
After 2 hours at about 265 removed them and they were still a little underdone in the centers but had a great light brown color on the while exposed areas. Those areas are a little tough but not thick so can be chewed ok. Mary zapped them for about 4 minutes. Cut the potato quarters into normal size chucks. Assembled the ingredients and added Arron’s sauce while the potatoes were still hot.
As left overs, the potatoes are a bit too firm and it lost its pickle zing in the sauce. The smokiness had disappeared and all total it is a bit disappointing.
Next time the potatoes need first to be rubbed well with EVOO before smoking to, hopefully prevent the surface from becoming tough. Use the SS deep pan with holes in the bottom to let the heat through so they cook quicker. Then smoke until done–almost falling apart. Then add more mustard maybe by adding ground mustard and more black pepper.
Four Seasons Blend by Adam Perry Lang
1 cup coarse sea salt or kosher salt
2 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons garlic salt
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
MAKES ABOUT 1 CUP
My Versions
July 24, 2016
1 cup kosher salt
2 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons granulated garlic
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper — this could be higher by 2x
July 24, 2016
Bought an 8.2 lb. pork shoulder at HEB on sale for $1 per pound Saturday morning the 23rd. Mid-afternoon mixed roughly 1/2 cup of yellow mustard with about 1 tbls of apple cider vinegar and about 1 tbls of Worcestershire sauce. Rubbed that over the shoulder then sprinkled on and rubbed in Stubb’s Hot Pork Rub. Slide in back in the bag and back into the refer.
6:15 am – Started preheating MES40 set at 260. Plan to cook with setting at 275. Ambient temp is 84° and humidity is 82%.
6:35 – Added meat to third rack from the top with alum pan below to catch drippings. Let the box come up to temp with the meat in place so did not have to open the door and let the heat out to place the meat. Added and lit the new AMNZN tray Kelley gave me for my birthday. Followed Todd’s (manufacturer) directions and “Fill up the rows to the brim, and then pack the sawdust down with your thumb; fill to the brim and pack down again”. Put it into MES and lite with the torch. Did not light like pellets as started very slow with only a little smoke. [Should have left it out until it was burning evenly. Also see note (1) below.]
7:30 – Raised setting to 275. Tray is burning nicely.
8:30 – A lot more smoke so checked it and the tray is black across all rows. Temp at the box control probe is 275-280 and air probe on ChefWorks is 265 on the grate about 1.5″ from meat and door’s glass. (1)
9:30 – Smoke is only slightly noticeable
10:00 – Reloaded tray with level lower sawdust and re-lite. The tray burned up fast as sawdust should not be used for temps over 180° per SMF/BearCarver. See note (1) below.
10:40 – Added shallow alum tray of red potatoes cut into quarters and rubbed with fruity EVOO. See separate post here. Tray is barely burning and very small smoke plume rising from it. Re-lite with an extended butane lighter until small flames. Whipped Thermoworks meat probe with Everclear and inserted into meat. IT is 154°.
12:40 – Pulled the potatoes and the meat’s IT is 174°.
3:45 – Found that the timer had timed out and the MES has been off for maybe more than 30 minutes. Box temp is down to 145 and IT is 176. Warmed convection oven to 325 and at 4 pm pulled and wrapped meat in alum foil and put into convection oven. Re-inserted probe and IT is 146–very odd. Rose soon to 178.
5:00 – IT is 203°. Turned off oven and left it wrapped inside to rest for at least 30 minutes.
The roast had a great flavor, very moist, a nice bark but not distinctive. The smoke taste was lighter than expected as this was mesquite but due to the new tray and sawdust flash burning there was times when there was no smoke being generated. Could have been spicier although as it was so moist we did not use any finishing sauce that would have spiced it up a bit.
(1) With the MES set at 275 the tray with sawdust burned across rows twice even though second time the dust was well below the top of the metal. Found the next day posts at SMF that BearCarver only uses dust for lower than 180° smokes.
CRAB CAKES WITH LOUIS SAUCE from Regina’s Family Kitchen, Mobile AL
These crab cakes are a delectable splurge for serving at home. Top with a generous dollop of creamy Louis sauce and serve them as an appetizer or as part of the main course.
1 pound jumbo lump crab meat
4 slices white bread
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
3 teaspoons mustard
2 eggs, divided
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
about 1/2 cup flour
2 tablespoons water
about 1/2 cup cracker meal
Creole seasoning to taste
vegetable oil
Louis sauce (see below)
1. Put crabmeat in a mixing bowl. Place bread slices on top.
2. In a separate bowl, combine the mayonnaise, mustard, 1 egg, Worcestershire, salt and pepper, stirring to mix well. Pour this over the bread and crab and let soak for several minutes. Mix together with hands to combine. Form into “patty cakes.”
3. Put a little pile of flour on one plate. Whisk together the remaining egg with water to make an egg wash. Mix cracker meal and a sprinkle or so of Creole seasoning on another plate. Lightly dredge each cake in flour, then in egg wash, then in seasoned cracker meal.
4. Heat 1/4 inch of vegetable oil in a pan over high heat (you want hot oil). Add crab cakes to pan and sauté for 4 – 5 minutes or until golden brown. Flip cakes over and cook an additional 4 – 5 minutes. Drain on paper towels. Serve warm, topped with Louis sauce. Makes 6 – 8.
LOUIS SAUCE
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup chili sauce
2 tablespoons grated onion
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley
dash of cayenne pepper
1. Whip heavy cream. Gently fold in remaining ingredients.
2. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. Makes about 2 cups.
Shrimp Remoulade by Regina’s Family Kitchen, Mobile AL
A classic, cold, delicious starter and a guaranteed crowd pleaser. This dish is a favorite menu special at Regina’s Kitchen.
2 pounds medium-sized shrimp, boiled and peeled
1 1/2 cups mayonnaise
3 tablespoons Creole mustard
3 tablespoons hot sauce (Mary Ann and Regina prefer Crystal.)
4 tablespoons capers, drained
1/2 purple onion, minced
large handful flat leaf parsley, chopped
3 ribs celery, finely chopped
fresh cracked black pepper, to taste
Creole seasoning, to taste (Mary Ann and Regina use Tony Chachere’s.)
1. Toss all ingredients together until well combined. Refrigerate for about 3 hours before serving. Serves about 6.
http://www.mobilebaymag.com/Mobile-Bay/May-2016/Reginas-Family-Kitchen/
From DukeBurger at SMF – July 17, 2016.
Stuffed with pulled pork, BBQ Sauce and chunks of mozzarella and wrapped in a single slice of bacon. Can’t believe how good this was…
Smoked at 300 for one hour with hickory on the trusty kettle.
July 18, 2016
Thawed a two-bone and a three-bone roast. Removed silver skin from ribs. Rubbed with Stubbs Hot Pork Rub about 5 hours before start and then about 2 hours before sprinkled liberally broken dried rosemary. Left out for the hour before the cook.
Preheated oven to 350 with No.12 cast iron skillet. Seared sides of roasts as much as possible in a skillet that was not hot enough (only 350 minus what it cooled of from searing the previous sides). But it did add color. [Could have done this on the stove but by the time it was hit with convection roast at 400 it got crispy. Color was likely all it needed.]
Once all meat sides were browned turned them bone side down, inserted the ThermoWorks meat probe and set the oven to 350 convection bake. The IT was at 55. The IT temp rose consistently at about 1 degree every 2-3 minutes.
Once it got to 135 reset the oven to convection roast at 400. Once the meat was sizzling we added four ears of corn broken into eight halves around the meat in the skillet. The corn was coated with butter and sprinkled with cajun seasoning.
Having left the door open to add the corn plus the room temp corn the meat began rising after 15 -20 min. Once the meat reached 145 pulled it and left the corn in the skillet with the rendered fat as it needed to cook more. Used the tongs to spin the cobs in the grease to coat them. Once the kernels had a few blacked spots pulled the skillet to the cooling rack.
Cut one roast into three chops and served to Mary and Kelley along with the corn and our first try at Ree Drummond’s Pinto Beans. Piper and Olivia had spaghetti and marina sauce as they needed to eat earlier being 2 and 4 years old.
The roast/chops were good, moist and tender. The crust could have been crisper and spicier but it would have been hard not to over do it. The beans were a good change and will try them again. The corn was the hit. Mary and Kelley rave and Olivia and Piper liked the ears I did without any cajun seasoning.
From his potato salad recipe. This was good as a dip and would be great on other salads.
- 1 cup mayo. His called for 1C.
- 1/2 cup yellow mustard.
- 3/4 cup chopped dill pickles
- 1T dill pickle juice
- 1T black pepper
- 1t kosher salt
July 8, 2016
Bought a 1-1/4″ thick steak at Winn Dixie. Seasoned it with black pepper and seasoning salt/tenderizer in early afternoon.
- Pre-heated Sportsmans Gas Grill until EVO on grate began to smoke.
- Put meat on one side and turned that side off. Closed lid as first step in reverse sear. Left other side on high.
- Three minutes later flipped meat side to side on high and turned it off. Turned now empty side to high and closed lid.
- Repeated about 3 times for 2-3 minutes each. During this phase grilled thick sliced zucchini on the other side with burner on high.
- Left it on over burner on high and flipped it twice after about 3 minutes each side until muscles pulled into identifiable pieces slightly and fat was rendering.
- During the flipping over high
Rested maybe 15 minutes until cut and eaten. Nice reddish center with good browned outside where flames from rendered fat onto the burner guard had kissed it.