col klink

Cool! (I have to keep my post count up, I can't be having that young upstart Schielke usurp me!) Except for the fact I didn't get to try the soup.

I better try it soon before it's out of season! I believe by March it's gone.

Alton Brown did a show exclusively on the pie crust and apparently mangaged to balance tender and flaky. I haven't tried it yet, but soon will.

Nancy Leson recently reviewed Shiki in the Seattle Times: Mmmm, fugu.

Didn't we figure out that it was better to show up earlier? (or not invite my late self?) Regardless, I'll be there.

Duck Roasted Potatoes Potatoes roasted with duck fat can be a life changing experience. It's truly amazing how the flavor of the duck comes through with only a little fat. 2 medium potatoes 2 T duck fat 1/2 medium onion Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Coarsely chop onions and potatoes to 1/2 inch pieces. In an oven proof skillet, saute potatoes and onions over medium heat with the duck fat for 5 minutes. Place in oven for twenty minutes, potatoes should be golden brown. Keywords: Easy, Main Dish, Dinner, Lunch ( RG127 )

Basic Meat Brine Brining has been around thousands of years but in the last century or so, it's starting to make a comeback. It is a simple procedure that dramatically improves the flavor of pork and poultry. 1 c Kosher salt 1 c brown sugar 1 gal water Mix salt and sugar with water, when dissolved add your choice of meat. Soy sauce is a variation that works well, but cut down the use of salt due to the already high levels of salt in the soy sauce. Large cuts of meat like shoulders and whole birds need do best with 24 hours of brining. Thinner pieces like cut chicken and pork ribs can go over night but no longer than 24 hours otherwise they take on too much salt. This can be avoided by reducing the amount of salt however. Other salts may be substituted but be warned, nearly all other salts are saltier than Kosher. Sea salt, canning salt and table salt can be used but some experimentation will be needed so your meat isn't too salty. Keywords: Easy ( RG124 )

Klink's Dry Rub This is a dry rub I made up of just what I had in the kitchen and it works very well with brisket (let it go at least 24 hours), ribs, lamb and beef roasts. 1/2 c Kosher salt 1/2 c brown sugar 1/2 c coarse ground pepper 1/2 c dried garlic 1/4 c paprika 1/4 c sumac 3 T turmeric 1 tsp dried oregano 1 tsp dried parsley 1 tsp dried basil Mix all ingredients and store in a cool dry place. For dry rubs to work properly, let the meat sit with the rub at least overnight before roasting, grilling or smoking. This rub will also go well with chicken and poultry but those should be brined before rubbed. This rub was made for and discussed here: Inaugural Pacific NW Smokeout Keywords: American, Easy ( RG114 )

Smoked Chicken This is whole smoked chicken and it's a really easy recipe though it takes a little more work than the average roasted chicken. The payoff? It's better than any roasted chicken and your family and friends will think you're a master chef. 1 whole fryer chicken 1/2 c Kosher salt 1/2 c brown sugar 8 c water The day before prepare a brine for the bird. Add salt and sugar to water and let the chicken sit in the brine overnight. You can brine a whole chicken in as little as an hour if you quarter it quarter it, but letting it go overnight will achieve better flavor. Brine in a non-corrosive vessal such as Tupperware or plastic freezer bags. An hour before smoking, drain the brine and pat the skin dry. At this point you can add fresh herbs such as rosemary in the cavity or under the skin as variations. Smoke chicken until the breast measures 155F which is about an hour and a half. Cut pieces will finish in less time. If smoking on an offset smoker, rotate chicken every 15 to 20 minutes for even cooking. Save remaining bones and skin for stock to make gravy for the next smoked chicken. Keywords: Intermediate, Main Dish, Chicken, Barbeque, Smoker ( RG108 )

Snowangel, the easiest ribs (and some of the best) aren't even ribs, they're cut from the shoulder and called "country style ribs." You'll often see them on sale at your grocery store, and when you do buy as many that will fit in your freezer. They have more fat and meat than both spare and back ribs and they do especially well when you smoke them. Despite tasting better, country style ribs don't give you quite the satisfaction of actually eating ribs, so as you already mentioned, back ribs or baby back aren't your answer, but spare ribs are. They lie somewhere between back ribs and country style in the amount of meat and fat. If your butcher is good, they'll trim off the half-sternum so it's easier to cut the ribs after you've pulled them from the weber. Oh, and before you put the (actual) ribs on, there's a membrane on the inside of the ribs that's best to remove before cooking. It inhibits flavor from rubs, brines and sauces and it's difficult to chew when cooked. Whatever meat you choose, just remember to brine it first. As for smoking in the weber, remember that you're using an indirect cooking method. The coals are on one side of the grill and the meat is on the other, and you don't need to soak your chips, chunks are better than chips and if there's no smoke, there's no flavor. If you have any other questions, don't be afraid to ask! edit: most ribs take 3 to 4 hours to smoke. If more than 25% of the meat is pulling away from the bone, it's done. If you can, have a thermometer on the grilling surface next to the meat. You want to keep that around 225F.

Unfortunately these days, not the good stuff. Or is it? I said that because I'm smoking these up today: That's two briskets (one for a good friend down the street) and a rack of spare ribs. Egads it's been a long time since I've had spare ribs, I miss 'em! But I won't be for long. As to the smoke, when I start the fire I'm usually crying a lot and every once I have to do a lot of work with the meats and you can't help but get a lot of smoke in your eyes and lungs and apparently it clouds up your judgement.

I really liked my beef tongue sandwich, the tongue has a smooth texture and good beef and pepper flavors. It was served with provolone, marinated onions (very raw), green pepper and lots of garlic. Very, very tasty. Though I agree with mamster and mb70 that the bread was too much. I kept finding myself in a conversation right after I'd take a bite and it seemed like hours before I could talk again. Mamster has the right idea to eat them open face.

Ah, so you were. I have smoke on the brain! The insulation is not a bad idea.

This was only my first time using it, but since there's a hinge in the handle and I don't have a permanent place for the stuffer (i.e. so I can mount it), it would be difficult to control with a pipe. But using a towel over the handle worked just fine. It depends on the casings, with synthetic casing you can get straight sausages but with hog casings you'd be hard pressed since to have over 60 feet of intestine be perfectly straight, you'd have a long hog!

Um, sorry about that folks, Batgrrrl and I just finished watching American Pimp and she's a little possesive. Oh oh, I betta get her her money! Not some of her money, not MOST of her money. But ALLLLLLL her money!

Um, Batgrrrl is making me log out . . .

Yup, and that works very well. I resort to that when I can't easily get the skins off with my fingers.

The next time I buy a duck, I'm smoking it! I'm very interested in how smoked duck fat compares to regular duck fat.

Render the skin skin side up, you'll want the fat to be in contact with the pan. You'll more than likely find the setting that's best for you, but basically you want a slow simmer and avoid burning. Last night I did the first of the lipid tests and I matched the smoked pork fat versus duck fat in a potato roasting contest. I am sorry to say the duck fat won. You could hardly taste the smoke in the pork potatoes and despite the duck fat not tasting like anything when tasted straight, all of a sudden exploded with ducky scrumptiousness when roasted with something else. I was really stymied laste night becuase eating the two fats straight the duck didn't even come close. The pork potatoes were still good, but they weren't duck good. Cooking with the smoked pork fat is not that much better than cooking with regular bacon fat. Sorry.

Trillium, are the silicon garlic peelers the same as the rubber tube ones? I tried one once without any affect. I hear that it depends on the garlic. The way I peel my garlic is after breaking it off the head, I chop off the root and if the skin doesn't come right off I give it a twist and then it usually does somewhat easily. If I'm only doing 4 or 5 cloves, it's no problem. It's just when I'm peeling 7 damn heads does it take an inordinate amount of time. Today I made the first delivery of my kielbasa to Blue Heron and MsRamsey and we did it at Salumi, my favorite sandwich shop here in Seattle. Armandino Batali (the owner) has gathered a lot of fame because he cures his own meats in the old school Italian style, of course it also helps that his son's name is Mario. I had the beef tongue sandwich which was awfully damn good. Anyway, Armandino really liked the kielbasa I left for him as well as the rest of the folks who work there including his wife who's just a darling. When I left she told me told me "to keep making sausage" (she was working the register with about 8 people in line). I asked if she'd like for me to bring more around she replied "oh no, but do keep making kielbasa." Ben, are you sure that you weren't thinking of the scene in Empire where Luke passes out on Hoth? "And I thought they smelled bad . . . . . . . on the outside!"

I take it the cheeseburgers are fully cooked and rather small? What's the point? I'm with Jin, gah.

Tonight it's somewhat cold (as opposed to summer, it's in the 50's in Seattle) and luckily the spirit of pie within awoke because a close friend of mine held "Pie Wednesday" in which we meet to celebrate pie in all it's glory. Since I was busy finishing up writing about kielbasa and mailing it out today, I didn't have time to work on a crust (next week) and instead went with a rhubarb and blueberry crumble. The fruit part came out great, not too sweet and not too tart from the rhubarb, a wonderful combination. The crumble left much to the imagination. The original recipe called for a stick of butter, 3/4 cups of brown sugar, 1/2 cup of coarsely ground pecans and a tablespoon of flour. How can only a tablespoon of flour make a crumble?? Anyway, I ended up adding over a cup of flour but it was still mostly molten brown sugar as the result of the "crumble" top. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't close to what I was looking for. I was painfully reminded tonight that I don't make desserts enough when as I was putting the assembled piece in the oven I realized that I hadn't added any flour to the crumble! Egads. Luckily I was able to somewhat remedy the situation, though not to the disired effect. I love experiments!

No, yes, yes, yes. The brisket came from my grocer and initially weighed about 3.5lbs and it was pretty much trimmed but had more fat than the average trimmed brisket. The rub is my own basically of spices I had around, salt and brown sugar. There was delicate heat coming off of it after a few seconds in the mouth. It really was an exquisite brisket. It smoked for 5 hours. Yes indeed Vengroff, that was a flaming orange gully and a gully that didn't last long.

It's as easy as asking. I announced in the last diary that I'd open up the new batch to whomever would like some and everyone who asked before the deadline has been sent some kielbasa. Currently NewYorkTexan is on the list for the next batch. Cathy, a trade for jerky would be just great. I'm not sure when the next kielbasa trial is though. Maybe in a couple of weeks or maybe a month or two. I guess it depends on demand! I'm also thinking about shipping smoked meat as well. I've been shipping Jason smoked pork, kielbasa, turkey and now brisket and even some smoked pork skin (let it render in cast iron for three or four hours on low, you'll thank me). That brisket I smoked was so damn good I'm going to smoke up another one this weekend and it's just not fair to not let everyone who'd like to try some to try some.

Just got back from the Post Office folks, it'll be 2 to 3 days before you get your packages. What's even better? Shipping is only $3.85 a package.