Here's some wild turkey smoked on the 'ol Weber and enjoyed on a recent canoeing trip. A surprising amount of people ask if I eat the turkeys I shoot and this is part of why it makes me chuckle a bit. Brined the breast for a day in half a gallon of water with a small handful each of salt and brown sugar, healthy dose of coarse ground pepper, spoonful of minced garlic, and a handful of whatever I was willing to pluck from my tiny herbs after recently planting them (basil, oregano, rosemary, thyme, tarragon). After taking it out of the brine and patting it try, I coated with with cracked black pepper. I used a mix of cherry, apple, and hickory chips for smoke, basted with off brand Dr. Pepper, and it ended up being on the grill for almost four hours. It was every bit as good as it looks. We ate half in the woods and the other half was gifted to the nice couple who let me access their property to hunt. I am legitimately excited to smoke up the other breast for ms. katokoch now as well as attempting the legs. I can always just braise and tear them up for a soup or pot pie and they may end up on the tough or chewy side, but it'll be satisfying to gnaw it apart like a caveman regardless.
Did a catering gig for a small graduation party today. Did one bone in pork shoulder and a couple of beef tenderloins in the little electric smoker. For the shoulder it was on for about 12 hours at 225 with cherry wood. The beef I did a quick smoke at 250 on apple and pecan until the internal temp was about 125, then finished it off with a quick sear on the gas grill to get it to medium rare.
The Wife was away for the weekend so i busted out the smoker, got a few of the guys around to shoot the shit, drink some beers and eat some smoked meat. It was glorious. I tried to emulate Aaron Franklins brisket recipe (season with salt and pepper only, spray with water/Worcestershire mixture), and all in all it turned out pretty well. My shitty little smoker was a pain in the ass to the maintain correct temp and the point was still a little fatty after 10 hours but the flat was still very moist, with a good smoke ring and very tasty. Served with a spicy slaw, burnt-end BBQ Beans and good old white sandwich bread it was a real hit with the guys. Made a real nice Espresso Barbecue sauce to go with it as well (also a Franklin recipe). Apologies for shitty phone pics. Spoiler Espresso Barbecue Sauce, by Aaron Franklin Makes about 2 cups 1 1/2 cups ketchup 1/2 cup white vinegar 1/2 cup cider vinegar 1/4 cup dark soy sauce 1 tablespoon garlic powder 1 tablespoon onion powder 1/4 cup brown sugar 3 tablespoons (1 1/2 ounces) freshly pulled espresso Brisket drippings, for flavoring Mix the ketchup, both vinegars, the soy sauce, garlic and onion powders, and sugar together in a saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat, stir in the espresso, and then add the brisket drippings to taste. Let cool, then transfer to a jar, bottle, squeeze bottle, or however you want to store it. Store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. Brisket Recipe: http://sourcherryfarm.com/2012/05/27/recipe-aaron-franklins-butcher-paper-brisket/ [\Spoiler]
Skip the turkey legs. I have tried several times and they are always tough. I mean chewing on a piece of leather tough. 1st time I injected them and kept them in the fridge overnight. Smoked at 275. 2nd time, I brined for 12 hours. Smoked at 275 3rd time, I brined and pressure cooked. All fails. The breast though... one of the best cuts of meat that I have smoked.
Poultry should be cooked at higher temps, I do my yardbird and turkeys at 325 or 350, never had an issue with the legs
I posted this in the WDT, but really didn't go into any details. But in case anyone is interested in the full process. Bought a case of pig bellies from Costco (not super cheap up here; $2.25/lb, but still cheaper than any other place in town). I had to split the bellies to fit them in my fridge, after which I did a 7 day cure of curing salt, some local small batch coffee, and molasses; flipping each bad once a day. As far as the smoke, I used my Masterbuilt Electric Smoker with apple wood @ 180* for ~10 hours, adding chips about every 60-90 minutes until the internal temp reached 165*. From there they went back into the fridge overnight after being wrapped in butcher paper and plastic to help draw out/firm up the fat and then sliced and packaged up into 1lb bags.
For those who butcher pigs or have friends who do, there's a slight variation on cracklins/chicarrones that I tried a while ago. Take the fatty skin, dice it into something about an inch or two long and wide, rub it in whatever your preferred spice mix is (my friend used his own fairly paprika-heavy blend), smoke it. My attempt was over coals and the first batch ended up going up in smoke, but the second batch turned out amazing. Excellent when hot, still pretty good when cool.
Rather than post all the pictures here, I'll just link to the imgur album from this past weekend's annual fall barbecue. http://imgur.com/a/HM2wT This year's menu consisted of beef brisket, pastrami, wings, turkey, venison, pork belly (not technically bacon since we didn't cure it), goat, baby-back ribs, beef ribs, pork shoulder, homemade sausage, mussels, and shrimp.
Fuck you. It's not even 9:30am on a work day and I'm craving BBQ. That looks awesome... all I could think about when going through the pictures was just how much meat that is... I'm not sure I have enough friends to eat all of that. You definitely have a passion, that much is obvious. I almost expect to see you on some reality show in the future.
At this point we've been doing this for 11 years so far and we only make that much food because we get the crowd for it. It started out as just one grill and a cheap offset smoker from Lowes in a tiny condo and has just grown year after year since. We do regular "legitimate business" catering throughout the year and this is kind of our Superbowl where we can get crazy and experiment with some stuff that you're not going to get to do for a regular private event, such as the goat or venison. It does make for a long ass day though. I was up at 2:30am and ended up going until about 12:30 the next night between all the cooking and hosting duties plus cleaning since it was at my house.
No, I just didn't get a chance to snap any pictures of the seafood because it was gone so fast. We served that stuff first more as an appetizer piece.
Per R&R thread, got a Big Green Egg for Fathers Day. My first smoke was a pork shoulder. Came out pretty awesome - The second smoke was a rack of baby back ribs. That did not come out so awesome. The rub I made had way too much salt in it and the ribs dried out very quickly after they were done resting.
Ribs are very temperamental when it comes to smoking them. I try to keep the smoker under 250 and wrap them part way through to keep the moisture in. I’ve fucked up many a rack due to poor temp control(bad thermometer) and not wrapping them in foil to keep in moisture.