col klink

A number of reasons. Like I said above, first and foremost it helps keep the meat moist. Second, it catches the drippings. Last but not least, it acts at a temperature stablizer. If you open the smoker, obviously that will let heat out but it hardly takes any time to get back up to temp because the water heats the air. Likewise, if the fire gets too hot, it has to heat up the water too for the overall temp to rise. It basically acts like a shock absorber. As Dave mentioned, adding bricks to the smoker will also help stabilize the temp. Dave, great to hear you have good access to brisket, and please do give a report on how your first one goes. Jaymes, when I can walk on water, I'll let you know!

I thought that you might have that grill, it's relatively inexpensive and pretty damn good. If you do go ahead and get the side fire box, within a 10 to 15 uses, you'll have to replace the fire grate because is uses the standard wire used in webber grills which cannot withstand the heat of a wood fire. I had a buddy of mine take off the original and weld on rebar in 1" spacing and it's been working like a charm ever since. I would try and get a deal from Chargriller if you do decide to get the firebox (do it! you'll never go back!!!). The side fire box is their smallest grill and yes, you could order that, but you don't need the extra legs that come with it, just tell them you want to upgrade and they can probably help you out. They seemed pretty nice on the phone when I talked to them and I can't imagine you'd be the first person to ask for the upgrade. Sorry to hear about your NN's! I heard some horrible stories from certain neighborhoods so I know how bad it can possible get. That $300 fine though is absolutely absurb, they're drunk on their own power. Small petty people. Did you save the tree for firewood?

Don't start calling me a god yet, I forgot to mention something that helps out a lot. Use a water pan beneath brisket. Check it every hour or so to make sure the water doesn't completely evaporate. This will help your brisket from drying out and as a large heat mass, it will stabilize the temperature of your grill. Also, they will collect the grease and excess mop/sauce from soiling your grill. Now as for controlling the temp. Get a water pan, one half the size of your grill. You place this on the charcoal pan under the meat. You mention that your grill has vents, both below and above. I'm guessing that there are vents on both sides of the grill, if that's so, here's what I'd do. On the fire side, open the vent below and close the vent above and the opposite on the meat side. That way air comes in to stoke the fire and the smoke is forced out by the meat. At first, open both vents and see what the temperature comes from that. Make sure to rotate your bisket about every half hour, though you're cooking indirectly, there will be a temperature gradient throughout the grill and you don't want any one side to be neglected. You should sit by the grill the first couple of times you smoke and after a while you'll get a feel for how things are going. Give each adjustment about 10 to 15 minutes for affect to have a change. Oh yeah, use about half of a chimney's amount for the start. If you having a difficult time getting the grill up to temp, just start some more. That's a lot easier than trying to cool down the smoker. If you don't have a chimney, get one. They're indispensible. I'm so glad to hear that your grill is not a gas. They can be nice, but if you want to eat your food, don't use them. They're only for convenience. Your grill sounds great and sounds very similar to my smoker except that I have a side firebox. I simply adore my cast iron grates. John wasn't concerned about your grill keeping temp, he was concerned about keeping a steady temperature if you use a pit since pits aren't closed containers and you have to deal with the weather far more than a grill or smoker. You don't have to worry about that since the neighborhood nazi's have already scared you. I can tell from everything else you posted, that you're already half there to making a good brisket. When you buy your brisket, don't get one that's larger than half of your grill size. As for rubs, you're not going to get very much penetration, but they'll add a lot of flavor to the crust. As for you pork, both ribs and roasts, if you're not brining them, you're really missing out. That's the one thing that the bbq joints don't do that you can do and it'll make your 'que better than theirs. We've had discussions about brining here (click me).

OK, I finally got out of bed today. Sorry ChefJeff, but*shudder*. If you only have an oven, take this approach or find somebody with a smoker. Preferably the latter. You might check local butchers who do their own sausages and smoke them. Tell them you're predicament and I'm sure they'd be happy to throw your brisket in the next time they put it to use. If your daughter wants brisket like she had in Texas, she won't like the oven method. Dave, since you have a grill, you can do it yourself. What kind of grill do you have? You mentioned rectangular dimensions so I hope it's not a gas grill. If it takes coals, you're in luck. Follow CathyL's suggestions to a T and you'll be happy. Use the lump charcoal if you can, it'll burn hotter (meaning you don't need as much and it'll be easier to control) and it will leave far less ash residue. Regardless of which type of coals you use, always use wood chips. If you don't, the brisket will only taste like you grilled it. One thing to be aware of, when you smoke with chips, you don't get nearly the amount of smoke flavor that you do with all-wood fires so use the most pungent wood available which is either mesquite or hickory. Though using oak there's less likely a chance for acrid flavors and it'll be more authentic since the preferred wood for brisket in Texas is post oak. Oh yeah, if you don't see smoke coming out of your grill, you're not smoking it, put more chips on! If it is a gas grill, it's going to be tough but it may be possible to get a decent result. The biggest problem with gas grills is they require a lot of air flow to feed the propane so as soon as you get a decent amount of smoke, it's out the back without a chance to jump into the meat. Plus, it's a pain in the ass to refill the wood chips and to smoke properly. Since brisket takes such a long time, you'll go through most of a tank in one sitting so I would suggest using Dana's method of smoking for 2 to 3 hours and finishing it in the oven. For the trip on the gas grill, let the temp get up to 275F or higher, it'll crisp the edges and give the meat more depth. Once it's in the oven, you're not going to get any more smoke flavor. Make sure that you know your oven's characteristics before letting it go all night long, you don't want to wake up to a briquette! Whichever way you cook the brisket, definitely dry rub it for a day or two with any commercial rub or your own. I've liked making my own rubs ever since I found a place that sells bulk spices for pennies on the dollar (don't worry, they import for most of the city). On my briskets, I like to leave as much fat on as I can get. After a good smoking, it's like butter and lets the brisket basically be self-mopping. If there isn't a decent fat pack, you'll have to mop it. I like to use a spicy mustard vinaigrette but use whatever suits your fancy, just don't add any sugar because it will burn. After you pull it off, or a half hour before hand is when you can put on a sauce with sugar. I just use the mop and let other people put on a sauce if they like. Mopping is always a good idea for the tip portion as it normally doesn't have a fat pack and is the thinest portion of the meat but if you're going to mop the tip, you should mop the rest for consistency. Dave, you didn't mention where you live but since you're no longer in Texas, it will probably be difficult to find a whole untrimmed brisket and if you do, it won't be $2/lb. I'm in Seattle and regardless of the size, I'm paying over $4/lb. If you don't have 15 hours to spare smoking, a smaller 3 to 4lb brisket is going to taste just as good as a large one (if the smoking style is sufficient) and it'll only take 6 hours to smoke. A 2lb section of brisket (try not to get the tip, it's leaner) can be done in 4 hours. Any less time than that and it'll be tough. There's one other way to do brisket that's also very true to Texan roots, use a pit. If you have a back yard, dig a pit and line the perimeter with bricks or stones. A 5 foot diameter should be plenty big enough if you're not doing a whole untrimmed brisket, but you'll do just fine with a 3 foot pit. You'll also need a spot close by for a fire. Basically the technique is to burn the wood down (preferrably oak or post oak) to the 2" to 3" coal stage and then shovel the coals in to the pit. The grill should be placed 18" above the coals. Use the same times as for smoking and you'll definitely impress the whole neighborhood. This is also a great way to 'que up pork ribs and any other 'que you've had in Texas. If you're going to try poultry, I'd cut the backs out so they can lie flat, you'll get more even cooking. And of course, don't forget to brine the birds. For only maybe $10 - $20 in materials, you can authentic Texan bbq in a pit versus hundreds with a smoker. Good luck! I know your daughter's love for brisket. I love all sorts of smoked meat, but I only get the shakes for brisket.

Malawry, thank you so much! I never would have thought to reduce the base sauce down so low. The olive oil I was using was blended in very well, how long would it take it settle out? Now when I'm smoking something, unless it's poultry or fish, it's going to be going for 3+ hours, would that be enough typically? I suppose it depends on the ratio of oil in the mixture and the emolient. As I think back, when I started working on the sauce, I believe the oil separated but since I don't have one of those gravy separaters, I just whisked the oil back in. I shall now buy one!

I've been having a blast the last month or so creating sauces from the marinade that I use for my meats. But I'm looking to improve them, they're just not restaurant quality, they're just to thin! On Tuesday, I made a marinade of curry and mango chutney with some mustard, olive oil, and fresh cilantro, parsley, rosemary and green onions. I was so happy with the marinade I had to constrain myself from drinking it! Anyways, after the marinated lamb went on the smoker, I wanted to make a sauce out of it so I reduced it by half after straining the particulates. Since the oil was easily emulsified, I kept it in and added about 2 cups of fresh whipping cream to thicken. I reduced that by half again but the sauce never really thickened (until chilled, then it was like sour cream). It was damn tasty but thin and spread out to the lamb, kale and the twice baked potato. I'd like it so the diner has the choice of eating the lamb with or without the sauce. Now I know you can add a simple roux or corn starch to thicken the sauce, but I'm looking for a way to thicken without starch. Is there a good dairy way to thicken? I've tried butter and it's ok, but I really like the flavor that cream added to the sauce. Do I need to reduce by more or do I need to submit to Darth Starch?

For swimming rama, there's only once place to go: Thai Tom's on the Ave. Tom has a rich peanut butter sauce which can be spicy if you want it and he sautes the fresh spinach to perfection whereas everyone else in town steams it, bleah.

Actually I forgot to sear it. I had my culinary torch at the table and did a last second sear on one of the pieces but I didn't like it; tasted too much like the fuel. Deep fried for a second though, that's damn good and really adds to the presentation.

Last night I smoked a leg of lamb with bacon/garlic/bluecheese twice-baked potatos and kale saute'd in bacon fat. The lamb was marinated in a mustard and mango chutney vinaigrette also with some soy, seasoned rice vinegar, salt, pepper, fresh rosemary, cilantro and scallions. Oh yeah and a tablespoon of curry powder. Whilst the leg smoked, I reduced the remaining marinade by half (keeping the olive oil), strained it and added about two cups of heavy cream and reduced again. One of my better sauces. For hors d'oeuvres, albacore sashimi served two ways, one plate with a garlic/ginger sauce and one plate with a ponzu sauce, both garnished with green onions. Closer to dinner, a half dozen fresh Puget Sound oysters. Desert was a creme brulee.

Gee, that sounds like extra work. However, when I do make my own salsa, or more to the point, pico de gallo, I try only to use fresh peppers but occasionally I'll throw in a commercial ass burner if I'm feeling lazy. ediot: splelnig

I finally tried another Pho place besides Than Brother's on 99 yesterday. This place is called Pho Saigon and it's on the corner of 45th and Wallingford, right across the street from the QFC in Wallingford. Batgrrrl liked that there were other items on the menu besides pho. I was happy because the house specialty is beef, soft tendon, tripe and meatballs. A combination you can't get at Than Bro's. However, you don't get a puff pastry and it's $6.50 for a medium bowl instead of $4.25. Though the pho was decent, I still felt ripped off since I knew more money was being spent on rent than on the food. The condiment plate had everything that Than Bro's has, bean sprouts (yuck), plenty of basil (in poor, but edible shape), jalepenos and a wedge of lime. To Pho Saigon's benefit, they have $1.50 Coors everyday.

Unless you are a glutten for punishment, yes, it does last a long time. You don't need very much, it's just as hot as the hot sauce.

Heh, heh. Oh yeah. My dad made a chicken burrito once after we went out on the town drinking and put just a shitload of Dave's on it, probably about 6 or 7 bottle shakes of the anal drano. Of course he took one bite and gave it directly to me. After a bite or two, I say embarassingly: "Dad, this is pretty hot, what did you put on this?" "Oh, just this one." "Dad! That's Dave's! Fuck!" I finished it and was happy to do so. Though the next day wasn't too pretty. Have you tried Dave's Insanity Salsa? or Dave's Hurtin' Habenero? Both are quite good and the salsa makes the best gaucamole.

MsRamsey and NightScotsMan, did you ever go to the Rendezvous in Belltown? It closed a year ago on Holloween and has since reopened under new management and much more expensive drinks. I used to get the $2.50 gins with a tonic floater. First time I went, it kicked my ass and spent the last hour in various alleys trying to breath. A buddy of mine went to bachelor party there a few years ago and ended up dancing with a crack whore. Yeah! In Belltown! Not only was it dank, but that's where all of the old-time alcoholics and wantabe alcoholics used to drink. Where the 5 foot lady behind the bar can kick ANYONE's ass and if you're lucky, a bum won't hit you up for a drink.

In the name of all that's Holy, I didn't need to hear that. He's ursurping my own efforts!

Yes! I love Paseo. Their new pork sandwich has roasted red jalepenos and of course, lots of garlic and onions. Next to Salumi, Paseo is my favorite place for a sandwich. But at $7 a sandwich, it's not quite the cheap eats as a place with a happy hour. However, it is a full meal and that price is definitely good. Often times I'll pick up a sandwich there and walk down the block to the Buckaroo for a drink. A couple of weeks ago I started regularly visiting the Whalemaker, the bar in the North Lake Union Ivar's. All of their appetizers are half off and well bourbon is only $2.50 and I believe it might be Jim Beam. Just don't ask for Jim Beam, they'll charge you more. Everytime I go I get a half dozen oyster shooters for $3. They're fresh and served in a shotglass on a bed of their cocktail sauce. I usually put on a little lemon and forego the cocktail sauce. Not bad. Just don't order the "caesar salad," it's served on a small plate and really pathetic. I've orderd the deep-fried clam sandwich and it wasn't half bad, especially at $3 or $3.50.

I'm in, but my whole Thanksgiving weekend is taken up. It'll probably be best to discuss this at the pot-luck.

Yup, just ask for omakase. It can be as easy as letting them decide or saying, I'd like some kind of spicy roll or "anything with scallops." They'll usually ask you at some point if there's anything you particularly like. We did ask for the sawagani.

That's beautiful.

You don't like it? I think it's pretty cool and a nice change of pace.

The terrine of beef shank is quite tasty, but next time I'm going for the charcuterie platter. I've heard great things about it.

Yeah, I was impressed too with the family. When I have children that age, I too will bring them for sushi, I don't blame the parents in the least. And the price, it was worth 50% more. Batgrrrl mentioned the time where we went out to Shiro's for my birthday last year and spent $60/head and we were not nearly as impressed as we were with the last three meals (or any for that matter) that we had together at Mashiko's. As for the toro roll, I believe there were two rolls, cut into 6 pieces each, leaving 3 a piece for each of us. Mmmmmm, albacore toro. The roll was so good that I don't know if I'd want to try another. It could be one of those: "remember that time when we had the albacore toro? Shit, that was the shit." This is definitely one of those sushi excursions that I'll be remembering for the rest of my life. But isn't that what I said the last time I was there?

What can I say? It's been a good week. Batgrrrl and I went back to Mashiko's last night because my buddy's girlfriend is in town from Colorado for the weekend and she can't get anything decent out there. Like we needed an excuse to go Mashiko’s. We were very smart and arrived a few minutes past 5 to be sure that we would be seated at the bar. But some numbnut and his family beat us to it. They brought their kids!! :angry: I think it's fantastic that they were broadening the horizons of these 5 and 6 year olds, But c'mon! If the kids weren't there, our party could've sat at the bar and the kids would've enjoyed the experience just the same at a table. What was cool about seeing the kids though is they gave them special aids for their chopsticks, a cute childish thing like a Hello Kitty pivot point and a couple of rubber bands to make it easier for them to hold it. Ever since George Carlin jokingly asked how do they teach children to use chopsticks in China (what, do they give 'em toothpicks? I never really thought it was funny, but it did come to mind.), I've wondered how myself. They were adorable. They were even adorable when they adorably took our adorable seats at the adorable bar. Anyway, we sat next to the really cool fish tank at the front and we had a spectacular meal. It was Kirsten's night to run the place and that means very interesting sushi. It was her who first introduced me to baby octopi, which means a lot to me so Batgrrrl and I were very excited. Kirsten asked how much we'd like to spend and we went for 7 courses and a total of $100. Oh yeah, it wasn't that much of a detriment to sit at a table, we really enjoyed ourselves and Kirsten made sure to come over to our table on numerous occasions and made us all feel special which is what I like about sitting at the bar. Sitting at a table also allowed us to talk to each other more easily, which is often times difficult with larger parties at the bar. 1st course: Seaweed salad with baby octopi. Since this was the first time for my buddy's girlfriend, Jo, to try them it was a little exciting for all of us. I picked an especially smart octopi, and its brains were creamy. This little guy had a HUGE head! And there was definitely a different texture up there compared to the smaller headed guys. I hate to think what that s/he/herm could've become if I hadn't eaten it. 2nd course: Kanpachi sashimi platter with a ponzu sauce. Kanpachi is related to Hamachi but has a more delicate flavor and is almost like a whitefish in texture. The flesh was tender and delicate but the star is their ponzu sauce and is my next sauce to try and duplicate. 3rd course: We just started talking about sawagani and miraculously, a whole plate of them showed up. There were only five so we let Jo get the extra one since this was another first for her too. 4th course: Saute'd maguro in sesame oil, pineapple and another garnish I couldn't put my finger on. The 4th and 5th courses actually came at the same time but since this was a hot dish, we pretty much ate this one first. In the larger cuts, the tuna was rare but the ends had more flavor (from the sauce) despite being fully cooked. This would've been a more enjoyable course if it hadn't been sitting to course 5. 5th course: Albacore toro roll. This is the first time I ever tried albacore toro and I will be forever changed, it is the most decadent sushi I've ever had and I'm in love for life. This was the only course during which NOBODY talked. As you know, toro is the fatty belly meat from tuna and is more tender than the other cuts. Well guess what? Toro from the albacore is even softer and more luxurious than regular albacore. The toro was wrapped with their garlic sauce (which I've come really close to making myself), green onions and tobiko and wrapped in a white soy wrapper. Oh yeah, the cut pieces were topped with more toro, a little bit of green onions and a little more tobiko. As Kirsten mentioned, the toro roll is somewhat rich, so she also provided a palette-cleansing roll of shiso and cucumber. The cleanser roll did its job beautifully and made each new slice of the toro roll even more memorable. Fuck. I apologize for using such vulgar language, but somehow I feel that my prose for this course doesn’t convey how incredibly fucking good this roll was. Whilst eating it I believe my exact words were (and I apologize for these too): “Jesus living fuck.” 6th course: A nigiri platter of maguro, surf clam topped with spicy scallops, hamachi and one of their specials, saba, a type of mackerel. The maguro was good, but not very flavorful, but it's pretty difficult to impress me with maguro. I thought the 4th course of saute'd maguro was more interesting. Now the surf clam was very impressive, it was one of the more tender clams I've tried and the spicy scallops gave a lot of flavor. What was ironic about this piece is that my buddy and I were talking about the fact that I had never seen any spicy scallops at Mashiko's before, I had only seen it at Azuma's before. The hamachi was the best I've ever had, it was so tender -- how tender was it? -- it was so tender, that Batgrrrl thought it was albacore! I almost believed her (after four bottles of sake) but then realized though it was garnished with green onion, there was no garlic sauce and as tender as it was, this tuna gave up the *slightest* more fight for the tongue to chew on. I know I've been gushing about the nigiri so far, but the star of the platter was the saba, there was a small shiso leaf between the rice and the saba and it cut through the oil you'd normally get with the fish and resulted in a wonderfully balanced piece. Almost as memorable at the toro roll. 7th course: At this point Kirsten came to our table again and asked us if there was any favorites or anything she hadn't touched on that we'd like for the last course. I responded with: "well, I'm still beside myself in joy right now and I can't think of anything that could top that toro roll. Would you mind surprising us?" Though the 7th course didn't top the toro roll, it was still good and provided us with a lot of ideas on how to prepare fish for ourselves that isn't served raw. The plate was salmon cooked in a coconut and fig sauce garnished with Anaheim peppers (those are the plain green peppers right? That's what they looked and tasted like). The coconut sauce was more interesting than the salmon. To me the only interesting salmon is smoked, cooked or not, but unless it's my own salmon, I like it uncooked. To say the least (which I know I haven't), the plate was cleaned of all sauce. I liked taking the skin and dipping it in the sauce the best. Now we only asked for 7 courses and we were at the limit of what we asked for, but we went ahead anyways and ordered another albacore toro roll, desert and a special course of sake since this was a special occasion as we don't see much of Jo these days. Of course the toro roll was out of this world. I will remember this roll to my dying day and make sure my future children know of it and spread it's gospel. Until they try it themselves, they will despise me for it. The desert was pretty damn good too. Around three scoops of red bean ice cream that was mildly sweet, were tempura'd apple slices and small slivers of banana saute'd in butter and probably some sugar too. Oh yeah, it was garnished with a sprig of mint. It didn't take us very long to finish it because not one of us used a spoon - we all used our chopsticks! The special sake came after we had just finished the desert for which Kirsten apologized. Of course we said no problem and we were actually glad she was a little late with it because the desert cleared our palette of the 5 bottles of house sakes we had (Gekkeikan). I can't remember the name of the special sake, but the brewer had to work under the traditional strict rules of Japanese sake meaning you can only use water, yeast and rice to make the sake. Not only that, this is the 55th generation that the brewer has been making sake, going back to the 11th or 12th century. I wouldn't call this an everyday, every meal sake, but damn it was good. It was sweet without being too sweet and had strong fruity flavors, most notable of them being plum. How they are able to get a plum flavor from rice I have no idea, but they did it and Kirsten was just as astonished as we were. What made the sake even better is that she threw it in for free! The total bill came was $100 for the omakase, $15 for the extra toro roll and desert and $30 for the 5 large house sakes. With tax the total came to $158.49 for four people. We all thought that they undercharged us -- and still do -- so we tipped over 20%. I have never left Mashiko's unhappy. Before we left I made a special request, I went up to the bar and asked for some garlic sauce to go! Because of how fucking phenomenal the toro roll was, I completely forgot to ask for albacore nigiri to compare my garlic sauce to theirs! This was my first time EVER at Mashiko's where I didn't get the albacore nigiri. I consider that to be their signature piece and now I don't know what to think. Anyways, Kirsten mentioned that they’ve been having fun working on the bottled version. There are much tougher regulations they have to follow if they want to put it on shelves, for instance they have to use a certified kitchen, of which there’s one in West Seattle. They are still planning on a December release. When I got home, I tasted it and I was very surprised to find out that my first stab at recreating it was almost on the mark. Unconsciously I purchased some ginger when I was planning on making it and added it to my sauce, a nuance that I hadn’t before noticed. Luckily for me, there’s some in the actual sauce. When I get the sauce right, I’ll let y’all know.

They do have a website: Click here for beer goodness. Unfortunately though, they won't ship anything with alcohol. The only thing you can do is beg and plead with the distributors in the area to start carrying it. I know you can get it in Washington, Oregon, the northern half of California, and Idaho (I think). I did the brewery tour last year at Thanksgiving and asked about distributing out into the Midwest and it isn't in their future. Too many concerns about losing quality and the expensive of shipping. About the Anchor porter, I'd already tasted BB and all I could taste in the Anchor were weird flavors that weren't supposed to be in a porter. But this was many years ago, maybe they've changed their tune since then.

I've tried the Anchor Porter and I thought it was awlful. I don't like any of their other beers either though. The best porter is definitely Black Butte from Deschutes. That beer has 80% of the porter market in the States and they only distribute to the Northwest. If you ever get a chance to visit the brewery in Bend, OR, I highly recommend it. Tighe, have you ever tried St. Peter's Porter? Or anyone else? It's from the UK and I've only found it at Bottleworks over in Wallingford (Seattle for everyone else). It's a block west of the QFC on 45th, same side of the street. St. Peter's also comes in one of the coolest beer bottles I've seen, it looks like a whiskey bottle from a 100 years ago. It has wonderfully toasted chocolate and coffee flavors, a real treat.