Sounds kinda kinky, hopefully I wont end up with a pork shoulder that's a junkie. I might try this out next weekend and make a batch of injected pulled pork. More pork porn to come.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
flavor injector
Sounds kinda kinky, hopefully I wont end up with a pork shoulder that's a junkie. I might try this out next weekend and make a batch of injected pulled pork. More pork porn to come.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Fatties and ABT's
We wanted to wrap up the first month of smoking with a bang! to do so we decided to smoke an Apple Pie filled fatty and ABT's (Atomic Buffalo Turds)
up first is the fatty, for those of you that don't know about fatties they are an amalgamation of bacon, sausage and anything else you might want to stuff inside the two! This is accomplished by taking 1 lb of your favorite sausage (I like Jimmy Dean) and rolling it out in a 1 gallon freezer bag, then stuffing it full of whatever your heart may desire. But that's not all, you then roll the entire thing in a weave of bacon and proceed to smoke it at 225* until the bacon is crisp and smokey and the internal temp reaches around 165*.
Time to roll up a fatty...
Please note that you should do this in a a freezer bag however much to my dismay when I tried to find one I was fresh out. Instead I was forced to improvise and use a baking pan lined with saran wrap. While not as convenient as a freezer bag, it got the job done.
For this fatty we went sweet and savory and used one of the most sought after baked goods known to man, a hostess apple pie. At a 10 for $10 at nearly any grocery store they are by no means cheap so you can either make a bunch of fatties or save them for when you get the munchies later on.
Stuffed with some lightly crumbled apple pie...
weaving the bacon into a blanket of porky goodness...
They should make emergency blankets out of bacon, then you could be warm, well fed and stylish. Those stupid foil blankets sure are beginning to look foolish aren't they? I am sure your thinking well what happens when you eat it all? I am pretty sure if they made blankets out of bacon you wouldn't be carrying just one.
yum....
Time to roll up my first fatty...
That was a lot easier than I expected for some reason....
On to the ABT's...
An atomic buffalo turd is the smokers version of a Jalapeno popper only much better. Not only are they extremely easy to make but like a fatty the possibilities are seemingly endless, with your own creativity being the only restriction. In its simplest form its a Jalapeno cored, piped full of a cream cheese concoction, wrapped in bacon and smoked until the bacon is crispy.
Because it was just me and my partner in crime we only bought 6 Jalapenos. We halved and cored them prior to piping in the filling which consisted of, Cream cheese, "mexican blend" Sargento shredded cheese, Salt, pepper and a pinch or two of creole seasoning.
Similar to the fatty the ABT's were wrapped in Bacon that was secured in place with a tooth pick.
Time to smoke!
away we go...
Halfway there
ABT's DONE!
nom nom
Let me be the first to say, these things are fucking amazing! these exceeded my every expectation. Initially I was concerned the bacon wouldnt be cooked enough and I would end up taking the whole piece off with the first bite. Thankfully I was wrong, the bacon was cooked perfectly, the filling was delicious and the jalapeno had a bit of heat to make these the ultimate beer food.
They didn't last long....
Finished fatty
time for the money shot... wusthof knives are awesome by the way
I couldn't be happier with how this turned out for my first try!
Now I have to be honest... while all of the pictures of fatties I have been drooling over online the last few months were very impressive, I didn't really get it. Yes the idea of a stuffed sausage wrapped in bacon is awesome, but what is all the fuss about? well after taking my first bite, a light shined down from above, angels sang and champagne flowed from the heavens. Maybe I just got lucky on this one, but the combination of sweet and savory was exactly what we were aiming for and yet we managed to far exceed our own expectations.
This was by far the best thing that has come off my smoker thus far and I cannot wait to make another.
what did I learn.... well i'm sure most of you already know this, but apparently you can wrap just about anything in bacon and it will automatically become exponentially better.
I also learned that extraordinarily rich, sweet and heavily processed desserts go excellent with bacon and sausage! It reminds me of dipping your breakfast sausage in maple syrup only this time you maple syrup is a pie and your sausage is a 1lb loaf wrapped in bacon.
awesome....
up first is the fatty, for those of you that don't know about fatties they are an amalgamation of bacon, sausage and anything else you might want to stuff inside the two! This is accomplished by taking 1 lb of your favorite sausage (I like Jimmy Dean) and rolling it out in a 1 gallon freezer bag, then stuffing it full of whatever your heart may desire. But that's not all, you then roll the entire thing in a weave of bacon and proceed to smoke it at 225* until the bacon is crisp and smokey and the internal temp reaches around 165*.
Time to roll up a fatty...
Please note that you should do this in a a freezer bag however much to my dismay when I tried to find one I was fresh out. Instead I was forced to improvise and use a baking pan lined with saran wrap. While not as convenient as a freezer bag, it got the job done.
For this fatty we went sweet and savory and used one of the most sought after baked goods known to man, a hostess apple pie. At a 10 for $10 at nearly any grocery store they are by no means cheap so you can either make a bunch of fatties or save them for when you get the munchies later on.
Stuffed with some lightly crumbled apple pie...
weaving the bacon into a blanket of porky goodness...
They should make emergency blankets out of bacon, then you could be warm, well fed and stylish. Those stupid foil blankets sure are beginning to look foolish aren't they? I am sure your thinking well what happens when you eat it all? I am pretty sure if they made blankets out of bacon you wouldn't be carrying just one.
yum....
Time to roll up my first fatty...
That was a lot easier than I expected for some reason....
On to the ABT's...
An atomic buffalo turd is the smokers version of a Jalapeno popper only much better. Not only are they extremely easy to make but like a fatty the possibilities are seemingly endless, with your own creativity being the only restriction. In its simplest form its a Jalapeno cored, piped full of a cream cheese concoction, wrapped in bacon and smoked until the bacon is crispy.
Because it was just me and my partner in crime we only bought 6 Jalapenos. We halved and cored them prior to piping in the filling which consisted of, Cream cheese, "mexican blend" Sargento shredded cheese, Salt, pepper and a pinch or two of creole seasoning.
Similar to the fatty the ABT's were wrapped in Bacon that was secured in place with a tooth pick.
Time to smoke!
away we go...
Halfway there
ABT's DONE!
nom nom
Let me be the first to say, these things are fucking amazing! these exceeded my every expectation. Initially I was concerned the bacon wouldnt be cooked enough and I would end up taking the whole piece off with the first bite. Thankfully I was wrong, the bacon was cooked perfectly, the filling was delicious and the jalapeno had a bit of heat to make these the ultimate beer food.
They didn't last long....
Finished fatty
time for the money shot... wusthof knives are awesome by the way
I couldn't be happier with how this turned out for my first try!
Now I have to be honest... while all of the pictures of fatties I have been drooling over online the last few months were very impressive, I didn't really get it. Yes the idea of a stuffed sausage wrapped in bacon is awesome, but what is all the fuss about? well after taking my first bite, a light shined down from above, angels sang and champagne flowed from the heavens. Maybe I just got lucky on this one, but the combination of sweet and savory was exactly what we were aiming for and yet we managed to far exceed our own expectations.
This was by far the best thing that has come off my smoker thus far and I cannot wait to make another.
what did I learn.... well i'm sure most of you already know this, but apparently you can wrap just about anything in bacon and it will automatically become exponentially better.
I also learned that extraordinarily rich, sweet and heavily processed desserts go excellent with bacon and sausage! It reminds me of dipping your breakfast sausage in maple syrup only this time you maple syrup is a pie and your sausage is a 1lb loaf wrapped in bacon.
awesome....
Finished Turkey!
Well sort of, here's the rest of the process.
First things first we had to remove the turkey from the brine and give it a quick rinse with fresh water before letting it air dry in the fridge overnight. This was an important step in the process and gave me the delicious crispy, smokey skin.
Time for a quick rinse...
Patted dry with paper towels
Time to get tied up and massaged with butter...
done! One last seemingly simple yet very important step is to tuck the wing tips under the body to prevent them from burning.
This is all you need to get this thing chugging along at whatever temp you like!
I cooked the Turkey at 325* with a dry water pan and I lightly lined the pan with water to catch the drippings to make gravy with.
Almost ready for a turkey...
Ready to go!
And away we go...
Believe it or not I didn't even touch the smoker until the bird was done. I didn't even peak! and here is the end result....
But before I show you that just to reemphasize how awesome the MT-73 thermometer is...
just sit back and relax, play a game and let the smoker do the work while the thermometer keeps a watchful eye on things.
And now the bird...
and a plate full of leftovers.
What did I learn....
First, I would like to keep the turkey in the brine longer next time. I let it sit for around 30 hours and I have a sneaking suspicion a few extra hours would have only made things better.
Second, I would prefer if I didn't have to take the bird somewhere before carving because the crispy skin got soggy in the hour and a half in traffic on the way to its destination.
Third I will probably not just tie up the legs but instead truss the entire bird as if I were pan roasting a chicken in the oven. I am also told this may help prevent the skin from bursting open as well (Thanks for the pointer http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/)
Lastly, overall I would say it was pretty good, nice smokey flavor and a nice change from the norm. While I would definitely do this again, next time I think would stuff the cavity with an onion or two, maybe some apples, rosemary, thyme, cinnamon etc... just to add some other flavors to not only the bird but the drippings too.
First things first we had to remove the turkey from the brine and give it a quick rinse with fresh water before letting it air dry in the fridge overnight. This was an important step in the process and gave me the delicious crispy, smokey skin.
Time for a quick rinse...
Patted dry with paper towels
Time to get tied up and massaged with butter...
done! One last seemingly simple yet very important step is to tuck the wing tips under the body to prevent them from burning.
This is all you need to get this thing chugging along at whatever temp you like!
I cooked the Turkey at 325* with a dry water pan and I lightly lined the pan with water to catch the drippings to make gravy with.
Almost ready for a turkey...
Ready to go!
And away we go...
Believe it or not I didn't even touch the smoker until the bird was done. I didn't even peak! and here is the end result....
But before I show you that just to reemphasize how awesome the MT-73 thermometer is...
just sit back and relax, play a game and let the smoker do the work while the thermometer keeps a watchful eye on things.
And now the bird...
and a plate full of leftovers.
What did I learn....
First, I would like to keep the turkey in the brine longer next time. I let it sit for around 30 hours and I have a sneaking suspicion a few extra hours would have only made things better.
Second, I would prefer if I didn't have to take the bird somewhere before carving because the crispy skin got soggy in the hour and a half in traffic on the way to its destination.
Third I will probably not just tie up the legs but instead truss the entire bird as if I were pan roasting a chicken in the oven. I am also told this may help prevent the skin from bursting open as well (Thanks for the pointer http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/)
Lastly, overall I would say it was pretty good, nice smokey flavor and a nice change from the norm. While I would definitely do this again, next time I think would stuff the cavity with an onion or two, maybe some apples, rosemary, thyme, cinnamon etc... just to add some other flavors to not only the bird but the drippings too.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Turkey time
As the best holiday of the year rapidly approaches its time to smoke my first turkey.
I am using a simple apple juice based brine for the next 24 hours and will then air dry the bird in the refrigerator 24 hours prior to it being ready to be cooked.
The brine I made consisted of the following, apple Juice (2 Qt's) Water (3 Qt's), 1 cup of kosher salt, 2 pounds of brown sugar (1 lb of light and 1 lb of dark) 1 Tbs of ground cumin, 1 Tbs of ground Clove, 3 Oranges and about 7 cloves of garlic smashed.
Almost ready, time to let it cool to room temperature before using.
Instead of using a bucket or food grade container, I just used a turkey bag and used a trash bag as a back up and put both inside a cooler to keep in the refrigerator.
Time to add the brine and other ingredients
Sealed up tight, ready to put in the fridge, I also added a few cups of ice.
now I just need to be patient...
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