col klink

In a shameless attempt to eat rumballs, I humbly ask for recipe's too.

If I'm breaking in a new cast iron pan, I like to buy a duck and render all of the excess skin. Cast iron loves duck fat almost as much as I do.

Ha! When I was a little kid I used to make these all of the time. My buddies and I would have battles! Talk about stupid kids, once we put needles in the points. Oddly enough, nobody lost an eye.

That's funny, when I had the omakase at Tojo's I didn't think it was as good as the omakase meals I'd had at Mashiko's. Here's what I thought of Tojo's.

Aha, that's the key -- buy him some hootch!

Weber kettles are great at keeping heat in, even in cold temperatures. You'll probably have to throw some more coals on, but you shouldn't have too many problems. I'd just put it in a spot where there's at least a little bit of shelter from the wind.

1) Why can't you smoke the day of? If you can smoke a pork shoulder or a turkey, you can smoke a turducken. Probably the best aspect of smoking versus oven roasting on a big day is that you free your oven to cook everything else. I was orignally going to roast my turkey-day point-buck venison shoulder but since there was so much need for the oven for all of the sides, I smoked it along with the turkey. Of course I was already going to have the smoker going so it didn't make any sense to roast, but I still stand by smoking. 2) For a turkducken, if you have access to a wild duck, I'd use it. Wild ducks are very lean and as such, the texture of the turducken will be better since it will be inside and there will be no subdermal fat to render. With farmed duck there's so much fat that it doesn't render and is the only chewy component of a finished turducken.

Congrats on your first shoulder! You only have to put more chips on when it stops smoking, but that's only if you like your meat smokey. If you were satisfied with how smokey your pork was, or thought it was too smokey by all means, throw less chips on. As for flipping/rotating, every hour would probably be fine after a couple of hours but for the first hour or two every half hour it is better as the meat raises in temperature more quickly at that stage. It's possible that one side could deform or burn at the early stages, especially if your fire is too hot.

ditto.

Pricey compared to what? I'd also like to hear about your freaky problems.

Cool!

Yes, Michigan does grow some nice apples but my wife recently picked up some Honeycrisps from Michigan and they pailed in comparison to the ones from Washington. I will grant that the grocery store in question often has questionable produce.

Since I've moved to Minnesota, I've discovered a new apple called the Honeycrisp. It's a fantastic apple. It's closest relative is the Fuji apple but the Honeycrisp is not quite as sweet but not as sour as the Granny Smith while being just as firm (as the Fuji). I assumed that since I had never seen one that they must be a local variety but in fact it is new within the last 5 years. Only thing is, the ones that I'm finding here in Minnesota are grown in Washington. How come I never saw any in Seattle when I lived there only this last summer? (and yes, I did check apple varieties while I was there because I was always looking for a Criterion. I foun one six years ago and I haven't been able to find them since.)

$20! Talk about inflation, I'm pretty sure I only spent $10 for two pieces last spring. (wait, I'm checking) Actually it was $12 last spring. Still, that's a large increase in price. Nice work torakris! That looks very tempting.

Hell no! That would destroy all of that beautiful gaminess of the meat. And with a fawn, there's even less gaminess than a full grown deer. I don't brine red meat. The closest I come to brining is corning. And with this fawn buck shoulder all I did was salt and pepper the exterior before smoking it. Well, that's not completely true. I saw it get shot, field dressed, skinned, quartered and I help butcher it myself. Since it was shot two weeks before Thanksgiving, I didn't feel safe leaving it in the fridge so I vacuum sealed it and froze it. I thought I slightly overcooked it because I didn't pull it off until 140 but it came out a beautiful medium rare and really, really tasty. My hunting buddy said not to rinse with water, but I just have a weird feeling about not rinsing game meat off. This fawn shoulder was easily the best venison I've ever had. It was tender and succulent with a nice hint of gaminess like you'd find in a good lamb or goat roast. In retrospect the only thing I'm unhappy with is that I made a gravy for the venison instead of a nice pan sauce. Of course I didn't have a pan for the venison, but you get the idea. I did however use some rendered venison fat for the gravy and it was the most distinct character of the gravy.

This is also a common occurance at some pretty good BBQ places. Maybe they are exempt? Only if they don't serve the meals on plates, butcher paper only. "Voted Best Lunch Buffet" = the dish with coconut milk is going to literally smell like manure.

Ah yes, the NPR piece. My wife and I happened to be there that Wednesday (for an early Valentine's Day meal) the day the NPR piece ran and had the fugu. The place was packed that night and Ken was flabergasted that so many were there on a Wednesday night. Of course we were cooler than everyone else (well except for the Japanese four top who ordered some of the most beautiful sashimi I've ever seen) because we had planned to be there and were sitting at the bar right in front of Ken. When I called ahead and asked if fugu was still on the menu I could barely understand him but as soon as I said nigiri he told me "come in anytime!" With the sashimi platter or the soup you do need to call ahead at least a day. Ha! I was just checking out Ken's webpage and there's a link to my review here!

Ack! You threw them out? Actually, I apologize for not mentioning that it's possible for commerically corned brisket to be too salty if you try it right off of the smoker. That is what happened the first time I smoked corned beef brisket. I was looking for regular brisket but all I could find was corned brisket so I picked one up, smoked it and when I tasted it, it was far too salty just like yours except I didn't throw it out -- I threw it in the fridge. The next day I tried it cold and it made for some spectacular sandwiches and straight up munchin. But that doesn't help you if you want to eat your corned brisket right off the smoker. Either you have to find a different brand that doesn't salt as heavily or you have to corn it yourself and through trial and error, you'll figure it out. Of course that can be awlfully expensive and time consuming (as well as artery clogging unless you can give it away). For tips on corning your own beef, check out Chef Fowke's thread on making pastrami. As for the lack of brining and your own rub, you don't have to. Corning is a more intensive form of brining and can be done in a dry fashion or a wet fashion but the latter can take up to three weeks. Keep in mind that intensive flavors have already been added to these commercial brisket points and your rub will have a hard time competing with all of the herbs and spices that it's been sitting in for at least a number of weeks (and who knows how long it could have been frozen). Although I recommend a dry rub with regular brisket, I don't with a corned beef brisket unless you're corning it yourself a la Chef Fowke above. Dry rubbing a commercially corned brisket is just throwing money away. Even if you're smoking up a regular brisket, I wouldn't recommend brining it. Brisket is fatty and if you don't cut the fat off of the flat, you'll have juicy and tender brisket without brining. When I was living in Seattle, I found a great store called Cash and Carry which is owned by Smart and Final (www.smartandfinal.com). They sell a whole, untrimmed and corned beef brisket that wasn't too heavily salted which smoked up quite beautifully and was utterly delicious. The name of the brand is First Street Deli and make sure it's uncooked corned beef because they also have cooked as well. They have stores in Arizona, Mexico, Nevada, Florida, California with C&C stores in California, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. Click here for store locations.

Don't get me wrong, they treat the steaks very well (the tenderloins and the backstrap were out of this world) but my buddies don't have the food background that I do and normally just don't think of cooking large portions of meat. They think in terms of hamburger and steaks. Since the shoulder isn't as tender and the muscles aren't as big as the hind quarters, they just hamburglerize them. Is your roast wild or farmed? If it's wild, more than likely the your roast is one of the muscles from the back leg. If you trust the source of meat, only roast it until 135 F otherwise it will dry out. Do you know who shot the deer? If so, ask that person if you can eat it medium rare, otherwise it will have to be well done and it will be dry to remove any possibility of trichinosis. If it's farmed venison then you won't have any problems roasting until medium rare.

I smoked up a venison shoulder from a fawn buck. Smoky, medium rare and utterly delicious. If it wasn't for the fact I was there for the butchering (and the shooting), my buddies would have turned it into hamburger! I decided to make a gravy with some rendered venison fat but that didn't turn out as well. Of course the smoked turkey went over very well likewise my wife's pumpkin pie from scratch.

Exactly what jminion said. In my experience, points take at least 4 hours but usually take 6 or even 8. But if it doesn't pass the probe test, don't pull it off -- keep smoking it. You shouldn't have to worry about over smoking a point, there should be more than enough fat to keep it juicy.

Yeah, but East Texas isn't real BBQ. I'm jealous! Please have a slice of smoked prime rib for me. I'm sure they are a myriad of books on the subject but I'm not aware of any. Anyone else know of any good ones?

Are they skinless? Because smoked duck skin is pretty rubbery. If I were you, I'd smoke the breasts for half an hour and then finish in a pan to crisp up the skin. But that may be more work than what you're looking for on a t-day. If you do it all on the smoker the meat will still be really good but the skin will be a little rubbery. Make sure not to let the temp get above 145 otherwise it's overdone. If they are skinless, I'd just do it all in the smoker.

Nope, they're getting paid just like the women. "Seattle is now an equal-opportunity objectification city. Not only can you eat sushi off naked women at the Bonzai restaurant every Saturday night — now you can eat it off naked men, too! " God save Dan Savage. edit: Here's Savage's relevent column from "Savage Love".

The history was fascinating, especially since it was migrant workers that established Texas BBQ. Today whites just love the BBQ but it was because of white racism that the migrant workers were forced to eat at the markets on the back porch with only butcher paper to eat on and now that's the only way to eat truly great Texas BBQ. The irony is delicious. Not that the Salt Lick isn't great, but it isn't traditional Texas BBQ since they use a sauce, albeit a great one as well as being my favorite BBQ sauce.