A thread for foodies...

leeroix · Oct 11, 2013

Its a thermometer that is synced to a device via bluetooth. It plots temp, sends you alarms if its too hot, or too cold etc... pretty cool actually. Has 2 probes, one for the meat, and one for ambient temp.

limr · Oct 11, 2013

That brining recipe/procedure looks really interesting. Do you think it would work with salmon? I am mostly vegetarian but will eat fish on occasion, and Thanksgiving is usually one of those occasions. I'm usually with my boyfriend's family for T-day and often will help out by making the main dish for non-turkey-eaters.

Even if it's not so good with salmon, I'm keeping that recipe for whenever I do host a big Thanksgiving or Christmas meal.

I love to cook. I love how tactile it is - I even grind my own spices in a mortar and pestle. There's more flavor in freshly-ground spices and grinding by hand gets out more aggression than using an electric grinder

It's not exactly Thanksgiving food, but I've been known to make a mean pizza.

...Okay, I just tried cutting and pasting from a blog post I wrote a few months back, but it's not working too well. If it's okay, here's the link: Day 55: When the moon hits your eye. « A Modern Day Dinosaur

If I can find it, I'll post the recipe for a Portuguese sponge cake we always had for dessert on holidays.

Derrel · Oct 11, 2013

...it sounded like a fair trade...but the lawn turned out to be 3/4 of an acre...

jwbryson1 · Oct 11, 2013

leeroix said:
Its a thermometer that is synced to a device via bluetooth. It plots temp, sends you alarms if its too hot, or too cold etc... pretty cool actually. Has 2 probes, one for the meat, and one for ambient temp.

Oh, I use the Maverick ET-732. Same idea. Works great.

kundalini · Oct 13, 2013

Here's my recipes:

Pork Brine:
1 Cup Kosher salt
1 Cup Dark Brown Sugar
1 Tbl peppercorns
1 Tbl Dry Mustard Powder
2 or 3 cloves of garlic smashed and paper removed
2 Cups "Hot" (heated) Apple Cider Vinegar

Add ingredients to a large mixing bowl by introducing the wet to the dry. Whisk to dissolve.

Rest for ten minutes. This lets the flavors get to know each other.

Add 1lb of ice and stir until most of the ice is melted or until the mixture is cool to the touch. Remove any remaining Floaties (ice cubes).

Fully submerge your pork cut with the brining mixture. 1 gallon zip-lock bags (without that stupid slider thing) works great for the brine time with cuts of meat for dinner. We're not talking pig pickin', full hog stuff here. I usually brine pork for 8 to 24 hours.

Chicken Brine:
I'm less fussy with poultry, it's mostly the yin / yang thing between salty and sweet. This will do a whole bird.

1 quart water
3.5 oz (by weight) Kosher salt
6 oz honey. I keep a small selection of naturally flavored honey from my trips to the mountains. Tulip, Sourwood, Sorghum, etc. These can be found on roadside stands and are wonderful.
You can substitute light brown sugar in lieu of honey. Just make sure it's at least a 1:1 ratio or better.

QUICK TIP #1:
After running a carafe of plain water through your coffee maker (with filter in place) to remove the coffee flavor, fill the reservoir again with a quart of water. Place the salt in the empty carafe. As the heated water drips through, it will begin dissolving the salt. Once the cycle finishes, whisk the salt and hot water to fully dissolve and add the honey and continue to whisk. If you're using brown sugar, add that at the same time as the salt in the empty carafe.

I'll brine chicken between two hours to overnight.

ALWAYS KEEP YOUR REFRIGERATED BRINING MEAT MIXTURE IN A CONTAINER THAT WILL NOT SPILL AND POTENTIALLY CROSS-CONTAMINATE OTHER REFRIGERATED FOOD STUFFS.

Enjoy you moist meal.

QUICK TIP #2:
After the brining process, set your protein on a wire rack to dry. I use a half sheet or jelly roll pan and a wire rack that sits inside. Using paper towels, thoroughly dry your meat by dabbing. Let the protein sit until it is room temperature. Add your dry rub. By letting the meat get to room temp, it takes less cooking time and reduces the chances of having a rock hard outer layer with an undercooked inner portion. Poultry is the only meat I want cooked well done..... and for good reason.

kundalini · Oct 13, 2013

jwbryson1 said:
......... Quick Tip: The breast will cook faster than the dark meat (thigh, legs), so in order to make sure you do not overcook the white breast meat or under cook the dark meat, lay a large zip lock bag full of ice on the breast for 30 to 45 minutes before placing in the oven or your smoker. This will chill the breast meat and slow the cooking so it heats at the same rate as the dark meat. It works like a charm! ....

Ever heard of the "Turkey Triangle"? I used this recipe by Alton Brown last Thanksgiving and it was marvelous. It kept the turkey breast moist and the dark meat fully cooked.

[video]http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/good-eats-roast-turkey-recipe/index.html[/video]

terri · Oct 13, 2013

That pork brine looks awesome!!! :boogie:

A little bit of heat, a little bit of sweet....mmmm!!!

kundalini · Oct 15, 2013

Here's a dry rub for chicken that some of you may find tasty, at least it was for me.

In a 1 gallon zip top bag:
1 Tbs Cilli Powder (I tend to use Hot Cilli Powder)
1 Tbs Curru Powder
1 tsp Adobo Powder (I use the version without black pepper)
1 tsp Ground Cumin
1 tsp Garlic Powder
1 tsp Hot Smoked Paprika (if you can't find HSP, use at least Hot Paprika)
2 tsp Cocoa Powder (weird, I know, but it works)

Zip bag and shake violently to thoroughly mix ingredients. Place your cut up chicken pieces..... you do buy whole chickens and butcher your own, don't you?..... and really coat that bird on and in every crevice and cranny. After the bird is thouroughly coated, place on a wire rack at room temperature for 1/2 hour.

Quick Tip:
Buy a 4 to 4-1/2lb young roaster fryer whole chicken. The bones and giblets make a great stock you can use later by adding aromatics like celery, carrot and onions. After the stock has cooled, I like to pour into ice trays and freeze. I'll toss in a few of the cubes when making rice, cooking veggies, etc. Adds more flavor than just plain water for most recipes.

kundalini · Oct 26, 2013

OOoooohhhhh, I found a recipe for a perfect homemade BBQ sauce. Very simple, very good. It's called No. 5 Sauce and I'm not sure if it's because there are only 5 ingredients or if it was the guy's 5th attempt. Being a native NC boy, I'm quite partial to vinegar based BBQ sauces, but am also fond of the thicker tomato based sauces. This recipe has the best of both worlds. Definitely thick, but with that pow of vinegar.

No. 5 Sauce

1 cup ketchup
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon worchestershire sauce
1 tablespoon rub (that would be the dry rub you used for the meat)

Opional but v. good: 1/4 cup meat drippings
(whats left in the foil after the rest)

Simmer to marry the flavors and thicken as desired.

P.S. My rubs are low salt.

This can be used as a base for adding your own tastes, likes and flavors. Here's a discussion thread on the sauce with enough iterations to boggle the mind.
No. 5 Sauce

I think I'm adding some chipotle peppers in adobo sauce for my next batch. As much as I have liked Sweet Baby Ray's sauce(s), methinks store bought bottled sauces are out the window now.

BTW, my smoker came in last week and the first smoking was 4 racks of pork ribs (4 1/2 hours on the lower grate) and 2 whole chickens (3 1/2 hours on the top grate). All done on the same ring of briquettes with equal parts hickory and apple wood for the smoke flavor. Brined overnight. As my grandfather would say..... Hot Damn! That's some fine eats, boy.

terri · Oct 26, 2013

Cool - I will probably be trying this. We experimented a couple of weeks ago with a homemade BBQ sauce after I made some fabulous pulled pork...didn't want to dump a bottled sauce on it, but in the end we agreed we should have.

kundalini · Oct 27, 2013

terri said:
Cool - I will probably be trying this. We experimented a couple of weeks ago with a homemade BBQ sauce after I made some fabulous pulled pork...didn't want to dump a bottled sauce on it, but in the end we agreed we should have.

Details girl. You can't use the words "I made some fabulous pulled pork" and leave us hanging. Mouths are watering. I plan to do a pork butt next weekend and any sage advice? Hmmm, sage..... possible.

terri · Oct 28, 2013

kundalini said:
terri said:

Cool - I will probably be trying this. We experimented a couple of weeks ago with a homemade BBQ sauce after I made some fabulous pulled pork...didn't want to dump a bottled sauce on it, but in the end we agreed we should have.

Click to expand...

Details girl. You can't use the words "I made some fabulous pulled pork" and leave us hanging. Mouths are watering. I plan to do a pork butt next weekend and any sage advice? Hmmm, sage..... possible.

Well, it was ridiculously easy. For the work involved and the taste received, you wonder what you've done wrong in life to have to have waited so long for this to come to you.

I picked up a pork shoulder at the market. Got out the old crock pot. In the bottom of the crock pot went sliced onions, mashed garlic, some salt. I browned the shoulder in cast iron first and set it on top of the bed of onions. hmm...how much beer? Off the top of my head I don't recall... just deglaze the cast iron with enough beer to scrape off the yummy bits and pour that hot mess over the shoulder. On top of that your main seasoning is about 1 TBS each of cumin, brown sugar and chili powder, mixed together with a fork and loosely spread over the shoulder with the fork. You just want enough beer to not completely cover the shoulder...but almost. I used 3-4 bottles I think...depends on the size of the shoulder, and at over 4 pounds, mine was *almost* too large for the crock pot! I will go smaller next time for simplicity's sake.

Put the crock pot on low, walk away for awhile. It's a 4-6 hour process, depending on the size of the pork. When you can start shredding it with a fork it's done.

Shred it on a platter and do your best to have that sauce nearby!!! We used a mustard-based recipe as I recall, and didn't really care for it. Ended up going for some bottled stuff.

kundalini · Nov 4, 2013

A crock pot and beer.... D'Oh. The crock pot sounds right down my partner's alley. Thanks for sharing.

kundalini · Nov 4, 2013

Well, I smoked my first Boston Butt this past weekend.

The night before I mixed a brine of kosher salt, peppercorns and molasses for a total brining of around 14 hours for a 9.5lb BB. At 7:00am, woke up, made a pot of coffee, surfed the news channels, had a couple of smokes and waited for the caffeine and nicotine to do their business. Washed hands thoroughly. I found an interesting rub for the BB, but already had several rub mixtures in the spice pantry. WTF, I took a large mixing bowl and dumped them all in. Since this was my first BB smoke, the other rub recipe would wait. None of the mixtures of the already made rubs would be bad for pork anyway, just don't really know what they were. Pulled the pork out of the brine, pat dry and rubbed. Fired up the WSM (Weber Smokey Mountain 18.5" smoker).

All my ducks weren't in a row though.

I left an opened bag of charcoal in the shed, which is a slat design, not open air, but not air tight either. It rained pretty hard the night before and I guess the charcoal absorbed dampness. Instead of getting to temp in about 30 minutes, it was more like two hours.
Apparently, I fried the cable of my meat probe on the gas grill a few weekends ago and it was completely hosed. No way to check the internal temp.
I had read not to trust the temp gauge on the lid. The only other meat probe I have only registers up to 200°.
I had a massive hangover.

So after the smoker finally hits a good temp (according to the lid gauge), I throw the meat on. I kept a check on the temp for the next two hours every 15 minutes and it stayed rock steady at 225°. I took off and did other things and got back around 2:00pm with a newly purchased oven temp gauge. The lid gauge had risen to 250°, but that wasnt really a concern or so I thought. The newly purchased oven temp gauge registered 285°.

After about seven hours, this is what I saw. The photo doesn't show the water pan well, but there is a cup of goodness down there, the drippings. I figured this was a good time to slather on some of the No. 5 sauce I made last weekend (seen in the second & third photos after it was turned)

I double foiled it and let it rest for an hour or so. With the combination of cooking at a higher heat than expected and no means of checking the internal temp, I guess the result wasn't too bad. It was still very moist and oh so tender.

Next weekend is my trial run for a smoked Thanksgiving turkey.

kundalini · Nov 5, 2013

I forgot to mention that I had a couple packs of wings also. I dusted them with the same rub that the BB was spanked with.

I put the wings on the smoker as we were chowing down on the pork butt. I had to use both cooking grates to get them all on.

It was well past dark thirty by the time we finished dinner. To make things go faster, I was one tired puppy by now, I fired up the gas grill to finish off the wings (and to crisp up the skin).