snowangel

It's never to cold to smoke meat! I've had to dig my way to the Weber, but I do it, and it's mighty rewarding.

Looks great - did you cook to 150 deg.? Did you remove the skin before, or after the smoking? Hmm... my Luhr-Jensen runs at 180-190 deg.... ← In order of your questions: I cooked one of the belly halves to 150, the other two 155 (watching for Heidi's bus caused me to neglect it). I removed the skin after, but while it was right off the smoker. The nice thin blade of the fish fillet knife made it really, really easy. I did chop up the skin into roughly 2" squares, and I think they will make anice addition to bean dishes, soups, etc. The book also says to smoke at 200, it's just that I was aiming to see how low I could go on the Kettle. My husband has declared that I am the Kettle Queen! We had a bacon themed meal. Quiche (with bacon). Bacon on the side. For veg, asparagus "pan roasted" in bacon grease. As Diana was cooking the bacon, she noticed that this cooked much faster than regular supermarket bacon. I think it's because there's no water involved. The family has agreed that this was the proper balance of smoke and salt (it was not too salty) and sweet. Just right. Gosh, I'm so pleased!

Ron, what's interesting is that I have such easy access to all sorts of locally smoked bacon -- done in-house -- that's quite outstanding. I'd be hard pressed, however, after doing this to ever purchase it again.

Over the course of years, I have had some "creation" Epiphanies. My first cream puffs. My first "from scratch Aran sweater not using a pattern. They have all been eclipsed by my bacon Epiphany. I mentioned uptopic that I got two whole bellies, stuck one in the freezer, and cut the other one in half. I used the cure from Charcuterie, but omitted the maple syrup (I was out, and my family prefers a less sweet bacon). The other change I made was I did not trim the belly halves before curing because I figured all of those trimming would be especially yummy). Just a day or two after I had this stuff in the cure, some apple wood appeared on my doorstep. BTW, I did not take any pictures of the cure, or the belly halves in the zip lock bags. Sorry. My halves actually sat in the cure from Saturday through Monday (a week and two days) just because of my sked. But, on Monday afternoon, I removed them from the cure, rinsed and dried them, and juggled things around in the fridge so that I could get two halfsheet pans on two separate shelves (this was the most difficult part of the process). So, yesterday morning, I fired up the trusty Weber Kettle. Not too many briquettes in the chimney, first scraping the half-burned briquettes that were already in the Kettle to one side. I think that the chimeny was about 1/4, maybe 1/3 full. Oh, let me backtrack, the first thing I did was take the axe to the applewood, which was not split, and got that soaking. Chimney ready, coals dumped onto the small bed of half-burned briquettes. Water pan in. Water pan filled with ice. Grill scraped and on. Regular old fashioned Taylor thermometer on the grill. Retrieved the first of the bellies from the fridge and slapped it on the grill. Because of limited space, I had to do this in two stages -- first one half, then the other. Each took not much more than 5 hours. I did remove the skin (using a J Marttini knife that my husband has had for ages -- like this -- really nice thin blade that worked very well). The skin came off nice and easy. Now for the porn: And, I did remember to snap a photo before we devoured the after school snack for the kids. The verdict of the kids and I? Why would anyone buy bacon? The two friend's Peter has over right now each called their mom's immediately and asked when they can make bacon. I achieved the right balance of sweet and smokey. The other thing that impressed me was how easy this was, and how easy it would be to vary flavor of the bacon. I know what everyone is getting for gifts this Christmas. Must add not: Moment of pride. The Kettle averaged between 180 and 190 throughout the process. Just goes to prove that you don't need any fancy equipment to do hot smoking. My Kettle suits me just fine.

William, you might want to look at Dave the Cook's class in ECI on Brining. I do not add anything to my brine except salt -- I want that smokiness to shine!

Abra, you'll see pictures tomorrow! I pulled the bacon off just before I put burgers on, and I think that the bacon will slice more easily when cool!

Bacon. But, I don't hide it.

It is spring. It was a beautiful day. Sunny and 34 degrees (F), which made me think of the outdoors. Let's add that I have had a hankering for a burger. Further add that when we went out for dinner with Diana's volleyball team on Saturday, I ordered a burger and was served a pre-formed patty that was tough and dry. (reminder to self: if I want a good burger, do it myself, unless I have a craving for sliders.) When I was at the market on Sunday, I had the butcher grind up a nice piece of chuck for me. Topped with lettuce (I forgot to have my assistant hold some whole leaves while she was making salad), paper thin onion slices, blue cheese. My kids are now converts to burgers topped with blue cheese. The burger was so juicy that the bun almost dissolved. The only things that would have made this more perfect would have been a slice of a homegrown tomato and wearing shorts and a tank top.

Congrats, Chris, and welcome to the wonderful world of smoking! Trust you will do something just as soon as you get the unit and give a full and complete report.

My bacon is out of the liquid and in the fridge on racks. So, how long do we figure it will take to smoke these? I'm still using the trusty Weber; my FIL gave me something called a Mr. Meat Smoker (I have no idea if this is a worthy smoker, and I'm not willing to experiment with it on meat), so I'm going to have to do this in two batches (I have two half bellies).

My kids love clam chowder, so that was on the menu tonight. Russet potatoes, milk, canned clams (!), the clam juice and onions sweated in fabulous bacon from the meat market in New Ulm, MN. Diana fished out some of the potatoes and took the immersion blender to them. Scallions on top, plus cracked black pepper. A loaf of crusty bread fresh from the oven with some great butter.

Beautiful, Susan! And, I really love that noodle dish. Try it sometime with wider noodles! I get the whole sheets (fresh, not dried) at my local Asian market, and cut them into 1" ribbons. Also, this dish is really wonderful with squid. I've been doing a bit of Thai lately, but think I've been reporting about it on the Venison topic -- note the first two posts on the page to which I linked!

I love smoking meat. Really, really love smoking meat. You have no idea how sad I was not to participate!

Marlene, Ron, and Mike, today went from worse to worse, so I didn't participate. We had chuck eye steaks on the grill, with a small hunk of hickory that was residing in the Kettle along with a hunk of apple that just needed to be used. (BTW, Mike, congrats on the home improvement, my problems were all vehicle related.) Marlene, I think mesquite is too strong. And, as I hope I've stated uptopic (or perhaps on my topic about our Cabin), too much wood can be a bad thing. I prefer to limit the wood with ribs because they are so thin and the bone to meat ratio os so high. Sorry for bailing, but it has been a tough weekend. Onward and upward to smoking on Easter. Although, smoking in between now and then might just be necessary for mental health!

If you are interested in something that won't ever wear our, look no further than the Nordicware stove top waffle maker. No electric parts to wear out, no cords to lose, no downside. Yes, it does have deep pockets, but, there's just about nothing to go wrong with this model.

This weekend has just effing sucked. More later. (Marlene is right about the car. I enter week three in a suburban wasteland without a car.) I'm having a cocktail.

Just read uptopic. (Remind me to always put times when I post about smoking), but I think you'll want 5-6 hours for the spare ribs and about 4 for the baby backs. If they don't have especially nice fat caps, there's nothing wrong with wrapping them in foil for the last hour or two.

I'd better scan through this topic since I can't remember. I do know that I often remove mine, wrap them in foil and put them in a warm oven. Wish me luck. I don't have any ribs, yet, but will get some after I teach Sunday school. Between volleyball and the stops (yes, plural) at the auto parts store, I didn't have a spare minute yesterday.

John, I'll start this by pointing you to the RecipeGullet Copyright and Use Policy. It's a good starting point for discussion.

I've done Klink's rub without the sumac and it was still fab.

Mike is right, I never trim mine to St. Louis style. I think that's just trimming off that flap of meat on the back side, and one of my kids really likes that part of the ribs. What's interesting is that St. Louis style ribs are rarely available here and last time I saw them, they were $5.98/lb to the regular spare rib price of $1.68/lb. Go figure. Good luck with the dishwasher Mike. We've installed two of them, and it's not difficult at all. The first one we installed when into a kitchen that had not had a dishwasher, so we had a lot of plumbing and cabinet modifications to make. You'll need to relax by smoking meat after the home improvement project!

Marlene, sumac is also a spice. It's dark red. They may have it at Whole Foods. It is a wonderful addition to the rub, hummus..a bunch of stuff.

I recently found myself with a mess of habaneros and a whole glut of lemons and made marmalade. The stuff is wonderful. Not terribly hot, but enough heat to be a wonderful foil for brie or on a toasted bagel with cream cheese.

Larb for lunch today! Someone had put the lettuce into the meat drawer, so it was frozen, and I didn't want to bike for lettuce (we've just had a mess of snow and my car is undergoing surgery), so I tried a leaf of Chinese broccoli, which was not successful. So, I tried it with bean sprouts and that was no more successful. So, I ate it on top of Carr's Water crackers, which was not bad. But, I will be getting lettuce tonight or tomorrow. It had been way, way too long since I made larb. It is so easy and so satisfying.

These won't need as long a brining as butt. I think I usually brine them for a couple of hours (per Dave the Cook's class on Brining -- scroll about 3/4 of the way down the page) Rub? In my book, there's only one -- Klink's Dry Rub. Oh, and you might want to remove the silver skin from the back side of the ribs. I don't usually do it, but make slits in the silverskin. Call me lazy.