Smoked Beef Brisket

I smoked this brisket back in May. Over 10 pounds of certified Angus BEEF! It was more like a braised brisket as opposed to a traditional Texas style BBQ brisket, due to the pan of beer/apple juice/onions/jalepenos/bay leaves/etc... steaming underneath the meat. then I decided to just dunk it right into the pan for the last 5 hours or so. Total cook time was 19 hours. It was so tender it nearly fell apart when I transferred it to the cutting board. Sorry no pics of the finished product, after 19 hours I was a bit tired.

BBQ Spare Ribs

Cooked for 7 hours. Smoked with hickory and applewood. Rasberry glazed and sauce served on the side.

Smoked Pork Shoulder

Pitmasters call them "butts". Despite the name, this cut of meat comes from the upper shoulder portion of the pig, considered the "butt end" of the shoulder. Dry rub applied, slathered with yellow mustard, and into the smoker at 230 degrees for 16 hours. Flavored with a combination of hickory and applewood smoke. When done, it was so tender and juicy it practically fell apart while being transferred to the cutting board.

Beef Jerky Time!

First attempt this past weekend at making beef jerky in the smoker. Came out pretty good. Some pieces I should have taken off a bit sooner, but they are still good. Marinade consisted mostly of soy and Worcester sauces with other seasonings.

8 hrs in marinade:


Let dry on some paper towels:


Onto the smoker racks:




Smoked for 4 - 5 hours at around 150 degrees, using 1 hour of Hickory smoke.

Finished product:

Up in Smoke

Got surprised the other day by an early Christmas gift from my boss - Original Bradley Smoker - 4 Rack model. Complete with a variety wood puck-pack and a weather cover! Actually, the gift was really for my 10 year anniversary with the company. What an awesome gift! Two other guys I work with got one too. Just yesterday morning set it up next to my Weber Q grill on the back porch, and put it through its "seasoning" dry run.

Seasoned the OBS (Original Bradley Smoker) yesterday and today doing my first smoke. The menu for today is: baby back ribs, turkey drumsticks, jalapeno poppers, and homemade coleslaw.
Initial prep last night involved making the slaw, brine the turkey legs in a salt/sugar/thyme solution and dry rub on the ribs after removing the membrane. Pre-fridge pic:

Woke up this morning patted the turkey legs dry:

Everything sitting out to get up to room temp. Mixed up a little more dry rub (can't see the brown sugar in the pic):

Made those legs a little happier:

Had to split the ribs into two slabs to fit on the racks:

Cored the jalapeños:

Here's what is going in them: cream cheese, shredded cheddar, cilantro, and green onion:

After stuffing the peppers I recapped them and help with a toothpick:

So far so good:

Into the Bradley:

I'm using mostly maple pucks but threw a couple of cherries in there too. It is taking a long time to get the OBS up to temp, but I expected that with the cold weather here in NY. Boiled the water before putting in the bowl which seemed to help. But I think it was taking the pic with the door open that did the most damage. Well, I'm glad I started early...
...Pulled out the ribs, here's what they looked like before splashing with apple juice, wrapping in foil, and returning to the smoker.

The turkey legs I just moved to the bottom rack, here's what they looked like. (I'm a little concerned about them drying out.)

The jalapenos... well they tasted good. But I think having them on the bottom rack was a mistake, they seem overcooked to me. But the cheese did not leak out and the flavor was there. Maybe a bit too hot even after removing all the seeds and ribs. Must have got a hot batch...

... Well everything is done and was delicious. Turkey legs came out moist and flavorful.

I pulled them apart to use for sandwiches tomorrow. Sorry I didn't wipe the bowl before taking the pic.

Ribs came out great. Not fall off the bone, I actually got lucky, they had a little pull to them and the meat came off nice and clean.


Homemade BBQ sauce, coleslaw, and some Jiffy cornbread.

Can't wait until the next smoke.

Produce: Is Organic Always Best?

Take an inventory of my shopping cart on any given Sunday and chances are you will see a good number of organic products in it. But I do not exclusively shop organic. For this post I’m just going to focus on produce. Fruits and vegetables. Yes, I buy the organic mac n’ cheese, organic juices, and some other items, but it is the produce where I find myself having a hard time committing. It’s not so much the higher prices that bother me, or the limited selection. For me it’s all about quality.

My number one consideration when choosing ingredients is TASTE. The fresher a piece of fruit or a vegetable is the better it is going to taste. Much of the organic produce in supermarkets just doesn’t have the same quality of their conventionally grown counterparts. From the organic domain I’ve had woody celery, pulpy apples and pears, oranges that taste like they’ve been refrigerated and thawed multiple times, and grapes that were dead before they hit my cart. I am seeing a lot of organic produce wrapped in plastic and Styrofoam so that its shelf life can be extended. Since not as many people buy organic produce it has a lower turnover. Supermarkets pay more for this organic produce and lose more money when the organic goods expire. So they try their best to keep it on the shelves as long as they can. In addition to this a lot of the organic produce is warehoused and trucked from far distances because of limited number or lack of local suppliers. The longer it takes fresh produce to reach the supermarket and your kitchen the less fresh it is going to be.

What about the environmental impact of organic produce? I never thought much about it before, I always assumed that going organic would always be the green way to go. But there have been some studies that argue organic goods have a worse impact on the environment compared to conventional produce, this article in the UK talks about it. I strongly disagree with these findings and I am suspicious of who and what groups are behind these studies (I’m thinking big-time corporate industrial farms). The transportation of organic produce is cited as a big carbon emitter, but if you look at all the conventional fruit in stores this time of year – much of it is from South America! What if I want to eat a low-emission peach or nectarine? Do I need to fly to Chile? Oh wait, no that would use gas.

Japanese Inspired Turkey Burgers

I have made burgers out of ground turkey before but never thought they were great. Usually tasteless, dry, and would often fall apart while cooking. Today I had some ground turkey in the fridge and some nice fresh hard rolls so I set out to invent my own creation - Japanese inspired turkey burgers with a wasabi mayo. The juices of the vegetables keep the burger moist, the egg holds it all together, and the mayo has a little kick to it. Makes four burgers.

Ingredients for the burger patties:
4 hard rolls
1 pound ground turkey meat
1 small yellow onion
1 scallion (green onion)
2 stalks of celery
1 carrot
1 clove of garlic
1 T. fresh chopped cilantro
1 T. soy sauce
1 T. olive oil
1 egg
2 T. unseasoned breadcrumbs
2 whole water chestnuts from can
1/4 t. kosher salt
1/4 t. black pepper
a sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds

Ingredients for the wasabi mayo:
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1 T. fresh chopped cilantro
1 T. white horseradish (or the wasabi equivalent)
1 t. soy sauce
1 t. olive oil
1 pinch black pepper

Preparing the burgers:
Finely chop the onion, scallion, celery, carrot, water chestnuts, and garlic. Heat olive oil in a skillet. Add chopped items to skillet. Saute vegetables over med-high heat for about 5 minutes leaving them about 75% cooked still with a little crunch left. Remove from heat.

In a large mixing bowl add the ground turkey, egg, soy sauce, breadcrumbs, cilantro, black pepper, and sesame seeds. Add sauteed vegetables to bowl and combine all ingredients with your hands. Don't over mix. Shape the mixture into 4 burger patties, try to keep them rather flat and of bigger diameter than the hard rolls because they will get taller, yet horizontally smaller as they cook.

Place patties in a hot skillet after prepping with a coating of olive oil. Make sure bottom sides are seared and browned before turning over to finish. It should take about 12 - 14 minutes to cook the burgers. Burgers should be a little soft to the touch. If they are firm they are overcooked and dry.

Preparing the wasabi mayo:
Use a hand blender to combine all ingredients: mayo, cilantro, soy sauce, horseradish, olive oil, and black pepper. Mix until homogeneous.

Putting it all together:
Lightly toast the hard rolls. Spread wasabi mayo over both tops and bottoms. Place patties on buns and serve.

Alternate ideas:
Instead of using this turkey meat-mix for burgers this mix is a great filling for steamed or pan-fried dumplings. Also, instead of a wasabi mayo on the burgers try a puree of a light vegetable oil, fresh mint leaves, and sugar.