fifi

Um... Wood... I'm thinking... I usually use hickory or mesquite but I think I would like to find some pecan. I haven't used pecan in years and would like to test it out. I have some big slabs of redfish and trout in my sister's freezer from last weekend's fishing trip and am thinking about smoking a couple or more of those so I want to see how I like the pecan. (I will do the fish later. 99 cent brisket is too good to pass up.) Now all I have to do is find the time to do this this weekend.

Oh my... I can remember walking home from elementary school in late May, looking forward to summer vacation. Mom always gave me some spare change when the weather started getting hot and I would stop into Balfanz Pharmacy. They made the best malted milk shakes in the whole world. It was an old fashioned soda fountain, the stools with red upholstered seats and the little black and white porcelain tiles on the floor. Normally, a cherry or vanilla coke was the after school treat but, for some inexplicable reason, as the days were counting down to summer vacation, I would switch to a malted milk shake, but not abruptly. The transition was a root beer or coke float. I have no idea where to get a malted milk (extra malt. please) these days. I may have to make do with some Haagen Daz vanilla ice cream and a root beer.

Kroger in Houston has whole cryovac'd brisket for 99 cents a pound. Gentlemen... Start your smokers. (Yea, yea, gentlewomen too.) In the WSM I split the brisket into the tip and the flat like klink said above. Trimming is an abomination.

BTW... Probably the best chicken salad I have ever made was with some chicken breast and thigh meat that I "stole" from a whole chicken while making chicken stock using the eGCI "recipe". The fact that you might add a whole chicken to the pot and then "steal" the best parts when they were just poached to perfection had never occurred to me in over 30 years of stock making. That was one of those *whack forehead with the heel of the hand* moments. eGCI Stock Class here.

I have a sneaking feeling that the use of red paper or mulch has nothing to do with the color. What you are actually providing is an environment where the ethylene gas can hang around. That is the key. If you are in a real hurry, put an apple in a paper bag with the tomatoes.

I also do the curry thing once in a while. No raisins, though. I am one of those folks that don't like raisins in food. Funny... I don't normally like fruit in savory food but the grapes in the chicken salad is one of the rare exceptions. I like the texture contrast with the pecans. I put a lot of pecans. I have also made a "cajun" version with finely chopped sweet onion, celery and red bell pepper. Then I season the mayo with cajun seasoning and a bit of lemon juice.

Yes. You end up with nothing but the "meat". They might not be as pretty as if you did them skillfully by hand but it sure is easy. It also works for larger oranges.

I like to add really sweet onion, celery and chopped pecans. Sometimes I add green seedless grapes cut in half. The dressing is usually 1/2 Hellman's and 1/2 plain yogurt.

Actually, the tan. That is really because I often get lazy and just make the oven method lard (one of the methods in RecipeGullet) and that really only produces the tan product. You can regulate how much toasted pork flavor you get from the oven and produce a lighter or darker lard if you watch what you are doing. I tend toward pull it it off as light as possible. But to get the really white stuff you pretty much have to use the stove top method and it is a bit of a pain. I actually fry chicken maybe once a year and that is usually precipitated from a lard making session. I will do it more often when I get that outside burner set up.

If they lasted that long. They are but they don't. I use the white lard for sweet pastry (on the rare occasion that I do that) and the "regular" tan lard for savory, sometimes. The tan does have a bit of porky taste and I use it most often for sauteeing vegetables, making refried beans, etc. As I think of it, I would probably use the white in the chicken pie so that the pig doesn't get into an unseamly quarrel with the chicken.

heh heh heh Have any of you ever tried Citrus Express? This is one of those things that I saw on late night TV and actually ordered. And it actually works!

Yeah... What they said. Now, what I say. First, a disclaimer. I live alone so I don't have to get home from work and get dinner on the table any more. But, when I did, I didn't try to get into anything too complicated. I tended to use my leftover strategies on those nights (leftover chicken or other meat in a salad, Thai curry, pasta sauce, stuff out of the freezer for instance) and saved my "real cooking" for weekends and days off. I really HATE being rushed so I just avoided the whole situation. Yes, I can do it if I have to, but that is after many years of practice and I don't like it so I don't do it and I am probably not as good at it as I used to be. (whew) I save recipe trials and development for when I can work at my own comfortable pace and enjoy the experience. If I am doing a recipe that I might do again, I make mental notes as to how long it takes. One of my biggest personal challenges is getting multiple dishes for dinner guests to come off at the optimum time. Clean-as-you-go is the greatest lesson I ever learned. It is a great time saver in the long run and I revel in a neat and well ordered kitchen.

This thread addresses some of the science in smoking and may be interesting to some of you. As of the date of this post, it is still active so you may want to check in from time to time. Richard Kilgore started out asking about fuels and the whole thing kind of drifted, but in a good sort of way.

I made lard the other day and took this picture to post in my entry in RecipeGullet to illustrate the types of product you can get. The white is the "first dipping" from the stove top process. Now... My question for Mayhaw Man... If using lard, would you use the pure white or the tan colored product?

Ah... Welcome newbie. You have not been initiated into the eGullet Cauliflower Cult. No kidding. Take care for the details of this incredible dish. The success is in the details. Ve have our vays of indoctrinating you. BWAHAHAHAHA!

Oh dear... I wish you had not even brought this up. This is from this site. If you really start thinking too much about this information and all of the alarmists, you would never smoke or grill meat again and would only eat boiled pap. Man has been cooking meat over wood fires for millenium. Even with the relatively recent reversion to cooking meat over burning wood, we are not dying in the streets. If I live a couple of years less for eating BBQ... well, it is worth it. Anyway, there is also the preservative powers of these "noxious compunds" that probably saved many of our ancestors from food poisoning.

Hopefully, someone can do that. My brain is too atrophied to attempt it. One of my heat transfer buddies has a finite element analysis program that would do a helluva job on this question but he is out on vacation. Dave... Does the research that you have on this have anything to do with the condensation of various components of wood smoke? (edit to add Dave's post since there was a concurrent post that could be confusing.)

I have to agree with you on this one, human bean. I have been to too many cook-outs where the griller is intent on having this happen to add "that smoky flavor". ICK! Burned fat is just acrid and gross. Like I have said, I am not much into grilling so I don't know how you keep this from happening. I am beginning to suspect, after watching various hosts, that there is a "cult" of cranking up the grill, taking great pride in how many BTUs are generated, and proceeding to cremate everything in sight. Is this a "Macho Man" thing?

I am with foodie52 on chocolate and berries. I just don't get it. The acidity of the berries don't do anything for the chocolate and vice versa.

Truffles - I have tried. Oh, how I have tried. Caviar - From the very best to the mediocre, bleh. Raw fish in any form. (Ceviche isn't really raw.) Any shellfish that I have to eat their innards - Only scallops need apply. Anything too weird or stinky. I only carry adventure so far. I am not into organ meats, animal heads, and other odd parts. I do like liver, though, especially foie gras (just quit putting sweet crap on it).

Most of you know, I like a project. So some of my favorite things require some work. Gumbo can be a project, if you are going for that really dark stuff. Mayhaw Man's family version of Chicken Pie is one I tried recently and had a blast doing. I am really going to do a cassoulet this coming winter. I will make my own duck confit. I will probably pass on making my own sausage. But the research to find just the right sausage may take a while. Some things aren't really complicated but the length of time and attention to detail required to make them really sing make them a bit of trouble: Perfectly smoked pork butt or brisket. Or how about a whole pig. Onion Confit may seem simple, but we devoted 10 pages of discussion to it. I once did a really complicated classical beef burgundy recipe (I think it came from Cook's Illustrated). Took me all day and dirtied just about everything in the kitchen. The final result as judged by my beef burgundy eaters was... don't bother. We like your quicky version better. Can't win 'em all.

I am laughing because what started out as a discussion of fuel choice digressed into a physics discussion. And I echo a big thanks to jsolomon. I was too lazy to look it up and do the math. I will plead that my reference books are at the office. Yeah... that's the ticket. You are correct Al_Dente. The smoking occurs early on. I have even read that after about 140F (is that right?) the meat doesn't really take up any more. I have taken to putting the meat on right out of the fridge on the recommendation of one of our resident geniuses some time ago. The thought is that, from then on, you are just adding fuel for heat. Those that use wood all the way may dispute this. I haven't done a comparison.

I am lousy at typos. I also keep typing ration instead of ratio. I don't want to go there on the silicone!

I did a quick google for silicone dioxide and didn't find anything right off so I gave up. I do remember that the specific heat capacity of water is something like 4.xxx whereas most other things are 2 or less, most things less. If I have that right. (I deep forgetting if specific heat capacity is the one that takes mass into account. It has been too many years since physics. ) Yeah... you have that heat of vaporization going on, too. That keeps the water around to act as a heat sink. It is a complex situation. Most folks assume that the pan of water is there to keep the meat moist. While it may do some of that (I have my doubts), the main reason it is there is to help maintain a steady even temperature.

Yep... Heat sink. Sand would work but water is better. I can't find the heat capacity of sand but water has a very high number compared to other substances. That is what makes the world work. All of that water in the oceans retaining and distributing heat energy. Or something like that...