col klink

If you don't have the 8 hours to smoke your shoulder, cut it up into 1" strips, marinate and smoke for only 4 hours. You'll end up with a smokier result. I currently have 4 shoulders in my freezer at the moment.

That makes me so very proud. *sniff* *sniff*

Oh yeah, I prefer my corned beef to be smoked.

225F for about 4 to 5 hours, in an uncovered roasting pan, preferably on a rack, no braising. The idea is to break down the fat so it's soft and silky. You could even let it go for 6 hours depending on the size and fattiness of the cut. For most commercial corned briskets I would let it soak in water a couple of times before I started cooking it since there's so much salt, but I enjoyed the unsoaked as well. You just can't eat as much!

Last week I tried some corned beef that was just roasted in the oven, long and slow, like brisket should, and it was quite tasty. Granted you don't get the whole pot of food like you'd do with the above recipes but if you really like the taste of the corned beef, it's a great way to go.

Damn, thanks tighe. Now I need to hit the Georgian Room AND here. I thought I could get away with just the former. Cotes du Rhone is my favorite style of wine like EVER.

From what I hear, you basically have to know the family these days. They used to have a 2 year waiting list and then stopped taking reservations. edit: This is what Armandino does for his retirement; the fact that he serves dinner on occassion is a blessing to the blessed few who get to experience it. What's cool is that it's not a matter of having more money than anyone else, it's a whole different level of exclusivity.

Quajolote, yup, that's a brined chicken though a little saltier than the usual recommed recipe of 1 cup Kosher salt to 1 gallon of water. By all means, try smoking your chicken. It's hard to back to the oven after you've had it smoked. My standard brine recipe can be found here: In the eGullet recipe archive. Typically corning involves heavier salt solutions, heavy enough to float an egg. When I first started brining chickens I used to put in as much extra flavors as possible, like garlic, tons of herbs, peppercorns and the like. Luckily the recipe you pointed to mentions brining for 4 days because you'll need at least that to get any other type of flavor besides salt in the meat. But I've found that you can get all of that extra flavor into the meat without putting them into the brine. Brine a whole bird for 24 hours, dry it and stuff the cavity with garlic, herbs and onions. Or make a paste of garlic and ginger and put it under the skin. You'll save a ton of money on herbs and spices and those flavors will be more distinct. By the way, when you smoke your bird it will be harder to taste the herbs than if you roasted so don't be too dismayed the first time. edit: grammar can be a harsh mistress.

Just got back. I had the hot cotechino sandwhich with wilted radicchio, grilled onions, grilled green peppers and their garlic mix on a 1/3 baguette (Thanks Hey Jude!). A wonderful, fabulous sandwich. Certainly one of the best I've ever had there.

So does the new one have a pilot light or a electric ignition?

Yeah, that's fun to watch. Mine was filled with maguro and served with a great ponzu sauce. Damn that was good. But I doubt you'd be able to find sashimi grade tuna in Madison without having to talk to suppliers. Phantom, next time you go back, ask where they get their fish and then you can really start making sushi at home. I do, it's a blast. ediot: I done re-grammered my post.

Fish is hard to do in my hot smoker, ask me again when the cold smoker is finished. I've only done one truly phenominal smoked salmon and I've been unable to duplicate since. You just don't get enough time in smoke with a hot smoker before it's cooked. Lamb on the other hand, them there's good eatin'. Just ask Fat Guy. Shoot, even last night I smoked up some lamb. 3 1/2 hours and I pulled it at 135 for a perfect medium rare. I'm also quite proud to say that I've also smoked goat and it was very well received. Every spring a buddy and I run a Solstice party for the summer solstice. Last year I started the smoker at 2 in the morning for two hog legs, a shoulder and 12 lb brisket. The year before that we smoked an entire goat, a wild boar roast (shoulder), a venison roast and a rabbit. Everything came out great except for the venison. It's such a dry meat and by the time we pulled it, we were all well into our cups. My favorite moment was when we started pulling the goat. When we pulled the last front quarter we thought it was cleaned, but another buddy yelled out: "I found another pocket of meat! I FOUND ANOTHER POCKET!!!!" When people were leaving, one person said "man, this is the most f*cked up bbq I've ever been to!" Now I haven't tried cabrito yet but I have investigated it. Check out this old thread: Raising goats for food, forget about mowing the lawn. Not having smoked cabrito isn't a personal choice, it's just been a matter of finding it. It's been a while since I've smoked goat but I'd be happy to try it again.

Try using an English cucumber which has a softer skin. Then you should be able to cut a thin out of most of the cuke and end up with a big sheet to roll the crab in.

Oh sorry, they were wrapped before I threw 'em in the oven at 400F for about 20 minutes.

Tonight I tossed asparagus with evoo and kosher salt then wrapped them in thinly sliced smoked prosciutto. A wonderful heaven.

I am too but I'm booked this week and next.

Ah, cute joke DtheC. As an engineer I appreciate the good ones. Here's my favorite: The Architect, Artist and Engineer An architect, an artist and an engineer were discussing whether it was better to spend time with the wife or a mistress. The architect said he enjoyed time with his wife, building a solid foundation for an enduring relationship. The artist said he enjoyed time with his mistress, because of the passion and mystery he found there. The engineer said, "I like both." "Both?" Engineer: "Yeah. If you have a wife and a mistress, they will each assume you are spending time with the other woman, and you can go to the lab and get some work done."

With the sausage, and this isn't true of some of the other smoked meats that I've vacuumed sealed, heat them in the bag. Either in the microwave or in boiling water for a few minutes. This way the juices aren't loosened and actually stay with the sausage. Then just slice 'em up in to 1/2" slices with an assortment of mustards and lots of toothpicks. A pound or two will easily service a party of 15 or more, just ask Nightscotsman. If you have more in your party I would suggest thinner slices and asking them to "please remember that there's not a lot to go around and think about the other guests and just sample." Stone, I smoked this batch of corned brisket with a mixture of maple and alder, but mostly maple. I'd say about 75%. Maple is my favorite wood to smoke with. It has a lot of flavor but doesn't overpower like mesquite and burns for a long time.

I bought it corned. This was the first time I ever tried this particular brand of corned brisket and I have to admit, it's my favorite. It's not as salty as most commercial ones. I cleaned out my local Cash and Carry not once, but TWICE. Luckily for me I dropped in there on Friday 'cause I hadn't planned on going in there at all, but they had one 13 lb package left. Even luckier is the fact that they had two more boxes coming in on Saturday morning. That's 45lbs of corned beef brisket. Man I love them. I love them so much that I asked if I could get my wedding registered there! Cash and Carry is basically a restaurant supply store that's open to the public. If I want, I can buy half gallons of heavy cream. So far I've bought martini glasses, a cast iron bacon press, squeeze bottles, a double jigger and over 50lbs of corned beef brisket. The most beautiful thing about their corned brisket is that it was only partially trimmed. I can't stress this enough people, if you're going to smoke your brisket, you almost want as much fat as possible. Don't worry, most of that fat renders out into my water tray, but that leaves your brisket juicy and the remaining fat smoooooth as silk.

I hit Brasa last week. I had the curried mussles for the app, which was definitely my favorite of the night. I also had the chance to sample the polenta (fabulous, though I didn't taste the truffle oil but it's quite possible I don't know how to recognize it since I've never had truffles before) and the blue cheese salad which was also pretty good. I ordered the roast suckling pig for the main course. This was a little dissapointing since I was hoping for some crispy skin; guess I need to go the Georgian Room! The texture of the pork was similar to pulled pork but far more tender. That was great, but there just wasn't very much pork flavor at all, especially when drowned in the sauce and chorizo on the side. The clams were good. I just think they were trying to do too much with the dish. The petit fillet with the blue cheese sauce chosen by my fellow diners was the better choise. The reduction sauce was really tasty; it really livened up the mashed taters. There was only one dessert, chocolate ice cream in small pastries and topped with a little caramel sauce. It wasn't half bad. The ice cream was nice and chocolately without being overly sweet. I can't wait to go back to try the bar menu now!

Really? I'd be happy to ship out FedEx. But I think it'll cost a lot more. I'll look at the rates and tell y'all what I find!

Darn tootin', of course there's great beer here in Seattle but it costs almost $8/six pack. I picked up this half-rack of PBR for $4. There's a simple pride in drinking a simple beer. I learned to drink in Seattle and then I moved to Texas where it's a beer wasteland (comparatively). Ever since then I've lost the beer snobery and pretty much stopped drinking beer altogether. Marlene, before we get too excited, the package has yet to be delivered successfully to Canada. From what I hear the Canadian postal service is not the most reliable. But if this works out, you'll definitely be on the next list!

Sorry, Imagestation has been having some problems today. Here ya go: First the unsmoked brisket: Here's some brisket on the smoker: And here's the meat bucket, chock full o' meat:

I'd eat it!

Breaded in panko and fried in peanut oil in my skillet. Mmmmm. The asparagus in the smoker experiment was worthy but didn't really pan out. It tasted like it was grilled. OK, not but as good as roasting and frying.