G Wiv wrote:I'd eat these!

Looks terrific.

thanks gary I appreciate it. The tart wash tuned up with some Jim Beam really made this batch shine.

I might do a couple slabs of bb's for the pig roast in June so you might be able to try them then. My ribs have come along way in under a years time thanks to your book, alot of reading of other sources, and smoking alot of ribs(pretty much every weekend since last March).


This weekend I am taking a break from ribs, and doing a meatloaf on Saturday, and a Cajun butter injected whole chicken on Sunday. Both on the WSM since I have gotten rid of all my other smokers(gave away the offset, and sold the GOSM). I now only have a Weber kettle, and the WSM in my arsenal, other than saving up for the bigger WSM I dont think I need anything else.

yesterday was so nice out ,i fired up the kettle with lump (indirect heat)
cooked a family pack of chicken legs& 2 -2 1/2 "thick pork chops.
used G WIV dry rub .

got my menus set

Today:

going to do a smoked version of a Sonoran style hot dog. Gonna smoke some bacon wrapped natural casing dogs, toss em on a bun and top with chili, onion, tomato, cheese, mayo, ketchup, and mustard.

after that I am doing 3 meatloafs on the WSM, as well as meatballs for some spaghetti later in the week(I got 10 lbs of ground beef to use up)

if you havent tried a smoked meatloaf you dont know what you ae missing, I wont do a meatloaf in the oven ever again.

tonights supper is smoked meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and a green veg.

Tomorrow:

going to inject a whole chicken today with Tony' C's creole butter and smoke the bird whole tomorrow. Should make a good Sunday supper, and some nice leftover chicken salad sandwiches.

jim, thanks for all of your great pictures!!! one question, what does WSM stand for?

local597 wrote:jim, thanks for all of your great pictures!!! one question, what does WSM stand for?

thanks.

Weber Smokey Mountain bullet smoker.

Ive got some pics of what i am doing today, Ill download later.

sw side jim, 10-4 !!

10# chub of Halal ground beef from Restaurant Depot became:



meatballs:







sauced with hoisin glaze:



the other half of the meatballs were done without any 5 spice or glaze, and will be for spaghetti - n - meatballs Monday.

Also did up 3 meatloafs:



all 3 on the WSM(one down low):



thanks for looking, meatloaf should be done around 6:30.

jimswside wrote:all 3 on the WSM(one down low):

Jim,

Looking good!

Next time out you may wish to poke holes in the bottom of the foil pans. This lets smoke in and fat out. Once they become firm enough to move, don't rush it, I typically take them out of the pans to finish.

Enjoy,
Gary

G Wiv wrote:

jimswside wrote:all 3 on the WSM(one down low):

Jim,

Looking good!

Next time out you may wish to poke holes in the bottom of the foil pans. This lets smoke in and fat out. Once they become firm enough to move, don't rush it, I typically take them out of the pans to finish.

Enjoy,
Gary

thanks for the tips Gary, they are kind of loose right now, Im figuring about another hour and a half. then Ill let them rest.

lots of leftovers, im planning on slicing them all tonight, and freeze them in easy sandwich, and leftover reheating portions in the freezer.

As the Hawk would say.. Put it on the board... yes...!

knocked it out of the park imho.. check out that ring..... mercy...






tomorrow is cajun butter injected whole chicken, and maybe some of those monster 13-15 shrimp on the WSM.

fired up the WSM have a chicken on & also smoking up some miesfeld ring balogna.
balogna on white bread sammys

some 13-15 count freshwater shrimp brined then smoked:




cajun butter injected and dry rubbed yard bird(my rub):




too cold to smoke.? nope...

just put a rack of loin back ribs on the W S M with lump & cherry wood.
using G WIV rub with a touch of brown sugar.
also having chicken thigh's & sausage

had the wife pick up a couple slabs of spares @ Restaurant Depot today(thats 4 visits in 4 weeks since I have become a member love that place. ). I think she said the spares were $1.49/lb..(the same price Brookhaven has em for this week.)

A 3 pack of BB ribs was tempting for $2.49/lb., but I have a craving for spares, and I am looking forward to some rib tips, and skirt I will trim off. Also will smoke some Mac-n-cheese with the ribs on Saturday.

"too cold to smoke.? nope..."

I love a guy who is serious about his craft!

BTW, I was reading about your gumbo on your blog. I notice you added the file during cooking; most often file is sprinkled on the rice just prior to serving as it becomes ropy if cooked very long. Is this the way you've always made your gumbo?

little500 wrote:"too cold to smoke.? nope..."

I love a guy who is serious about his craft!

BTW, I was reading about your gumbo on your blog. I notice you added the file during cooking; most often file is sprinkled on the rice just prior to serving as it becomes ropy if cooked very long. Is this the way you've always made your gumbo?

thanks..

That version of gumbo was kind of a mix of recipes & methods I have read about or tried., and it was the first time I put gumbo in during the cooking process, I typically had sprinkled it on after as you mentioned.

It seemed to turn out ok, kind of 3 different thickening agents going on(roux, file, okra).

Hi,

I don't smoke as much as jimswside or G Wiv, I probably haven't smoked anything since November. Today, I made smoked salmon for a luncheon with friends.

I haven't looked at my smoker in months, so it was full of little surprises. The little safety door on my smoker doesn't fit very well. It is not unusual to find some water sitting in the bowl. Today, the water level covered the charcoal grate. It is below freezing, it isn't water in the liquid state. It is solid as ice with the charcoal grate nicely integrated.

If I had looked yesterday, I might have taken the bottom inside to defrost. I don't have this time available, so I flip my bottom bowl upside down hoping it will slide out. No luck. I kept picking it up and dropping from increasing heights until it finally popped out.

I still needed a charcoal grate for the air flow. I winced, then gave up my bottom grate to hold the charcoal. It meant I needed to scrunch those two salmon filets on the top grate instead of using both grates as originally planned.

I didn't plan to use my waterpan, which is just as well because I didn't clean since the last used. Frozen dirty water with a layer of grease, which I put aside to deal with later. I took my other waterpan already filled with sand, laid a fresh layer of foil and put it aside.

Fortunately, I did clean the top grate after the last use, which means I scrapped it down when it was still hot.

Charcoal took longer than usual to ignite in the chimney. I got impatient, kept blowing into it and even burned additional paper in the bottom. I probably should have gone inside rather than watch it heat up. Time would have passed more quickly occupied reading the newspaper. I dumped the coals prematurely into the charcoal ring. I was just impatient today, which meant the charcoal took longer to light at both locations.

Part of my impatience was borne in fatigue. Gary warned not to rub the salmon any earlier than 3-4 hours, otherwise it has a gravlax quality. I had an 11 am finish target, which meant rubbing the salmon at 4 am. I prepared the rub before going to bed, because I couldn't imagine doing an adequate job half awake. When the alarm went off at 4 am, couldn't initially remember why I needed to awake at such an hour. I almost rolled over and went back to sleep. Fortunately, I remembered and did the deed. Upon returning to bed, I couldn't fall asleep until 5 am or so.

Awakening at 7:30 am was not very easy. I did rinse the salmon of the rub and let it dry for an hour. I thought if I started the smoker around 8:30 am or so, I would have the fish smoking by 9 am. Ha! Those complications from winter (and my neglect) ate into this time. The salmon rubbed in olive oil didn't begin smoking until 9:30 am.

Hoping to maintain my target of an 11 am finish, I never opened the smoker once. I went inside to make a compound butter, which was suggested as a baste for the salmon. I couldn't sacrifice the time opening the smoker any earlier than 11 am, because it takes it 15 minutes to recover temperature on a warmer day.

At 11 am, I opened the smoker to find both filets perfectly cooked. I lifted them onto serving trays and massaged in the basting, now finishing, butter.

At the luncheon, my reputation, as well as Gary's, were preserved.

Now that my smoker is cleaned, I might just smoke some more this week.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:At 11 am, I opened the smoker to find both filets perfectly cooked. I lifted them onto serving trays and massaged in the basting, now finishing, butter.

great job cathy
smokem if you got m

way to go Cathy... salmon sounds great.

I just got 3 slabs of spares on the bottom rack of teh WSM using a rib rack, the trimmed off rib tips, and skirt are on the top rack. chugging along @ 230 degrees.

ribs and tips from yesterday.









good stuff.

Cathy2 wrote:At the luncheon, my reputation, as well as Gary's, were preserved.

I'm thankful for that!

Seriously good job on the smoke, you nicely overcame obstacles, hit the fish fillets right on the mark, despite 20-degree weather, and even did the early riser thing, though without bourbon.

Salmon w/Brown Sugar Rub is particularly tasty, but I really love the citrus butter you used (not the same recipe), which is truly multinational.

Citrus Butter
- I typically make a triple batch.

1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh cracked finely ground
1 teaspoon grated zest of oranges
1 teaspoon grated zest of limes
1 teaspoon grated zest of lemons
3 tablespoons orange juice
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon lime juice
3 tablespoons minced parsley
1/4 pound softened unsalted butter

Citrus Butter:
Combine ingredients including salt and pepper.
Shape into 6-inch log on parchment paper
Roll and wrap tightly, freeze until butter is firm
Can be frozen for up to 3-months

just some chicken wings I injected and then smoked for the hockey game on Sunday. Tossed some of Danny from Toon's rub on them, and then topped them off with some of my rub.

Wing sauce is Texas Pete, melted butter, honey, and black pepper.

jimswside wrote:ribs and tips from yesterday.




good stuff.

NICE TIPS

Cathy...you embody LTH...honest reality!

razbry wrote:Cathy...you embody LTH...honest reality!

And $45 in salmon sitting in the refrigerator and if I didn't get it together, I was going to embarass myself and the five-step! Especially since a friend of Gary and Ms. Wiv was attending, who could report it all.

Regards,

Cbot wrote:

jimswside wrote:ribs and tips from yesterday.




good stuff.

NICE TIPS

thanks man,

More ribs this weekend(practicing up for a couple rib contests this summer), this time BB's, took a 3 pack of ribs I got from RD out of the freezer last night. Probably do them Saturday while I am waiting for a furniture delivery. Probably also do some ABT's for a snack, SUnday also looks nice weather wise, might have to do something that day as well.

to nice not to fire up the WSM got bb's on putting chicken on in alittle bitt

Step aside Jim...it is going to be beautiful on Saturday and I'm hauling out my smoker. Got a brisket and a whole chicken. Plus....I'm going to give smoked eggs a try. I'm feeling sulky right now because I know you are sitting with 19 other people at LTH having the meal of your lives! (Sulky face)

razbry wrote:Step aside Jim...it is going to be beautiful on Saturday and I'm hauling out my smoker. Got a brisket and a whole chicken. Plus....I'm going to give smoked eggs a try. I'm feeling sulky right now because I know you are sitting with 19 other people at LTH having the meal of your lives! (Sulky face)

sounds like you have a great day & smoke planned. The weather does look like its going to be great, maybe into the 50's down in the sw where I live.

WHile I am waiting for my daughters first "big girl bed" to be delivered tomorrow I will be prepping and smoking 3 slabs of BB's, and maybe some ABT's.like I mentioned upthread. Looking forward to my WSM's first warm weather smoke.

jimswside wrote:WHile I am waiting for my daughters first "big girl bed" to be delivered tomorrow I will be prepping and smoking 3 slabs of BB's, and maybe some ABT's.like I mentioned upthread. Looking forward to my WSM's first warm weather smoke.

Jim, be sure to tip the movers in turds.