fifi

No kidding foodie52. Get this picture... Cooking-Man slices off a rib and tests it before offering some to "The Lady." "Yep, these are good enough. Ma'am would you do me the honor of trying this rib?" SWOON! (Hey... I'm not that old! )

woodburner... What is it about the Weber Ranch that makes it cost $1000? I am now picking my lower jaw up off the floor. I only paid $189 for my smoker. What is in that thing?

I am not sure of the dates for next year. It is always just about the same time of year. I think this year it was a couple of weeks later than usual because of allowing some "recovery time" from the Superbowl. In fact, there was some concern that folks would be burned out and the attendance would be down. But then, the BBQ broke the attendance records pretty convincingly. The economy is pretty good here so there is a lot of optimism for the livestock auctions. What you might want to do is go to that link on the BBQ and back up to "home" then save it as a favorite.

I dunno about that. I can go at least 14 hours with one load of charcoal and wood chunks in my Weber Smoky Mountain. I set it up, be sure the temperature is stabilized, and go to bed. Or, at least, I just don't touch it again. For an 18 hour brisket, I may add a little charcoal at the end but I am not sure I need to.

Thanks for that, Hannah. It is great to hear from someone on the receiving end of all of that largess. While all of the participants, whether in the form of committee members or the myriad other contributors, have a really good time, they work incredibly hard to pull this thing off. I was impressed with the conversations I had with the "heavy hitters" and just working committee members. They were relentless in keeping their eye on the ball and focusing on maximizing the proceeds for the education fund.

One thing I have noticed using peppers in anything with fat is that as it sits in the fridge, or even the freezer which is relevant here, is that it gets hotter with time. It is like more of the capsaicin diffuses out into the fat and provides more of a "hit" to the tongue. By the way... One of the best desserts I have ever had was in a great little restaurant in Akumal, Mexico. After trying to dissect the complex flavors, the chef finally confessed that it was just a puree of mango with some sweetened condensed milk drizzled in to taste, finely minced habernero mixed in and then frozen. It was served in a very large snifter and at serving, flaming very good tequila was poured over it.

Welcome FatTony. You have touched on a topic dear to the hearts of many of us. I will second the suggestion for checking out the eGCI. But I think I have found just what you need. I got up close and personal with it here. I have a Char-Griller like set up but I only used it for smoking. Then I got the Weber Smoky Mountain and that is now my main smoker but the other rig may see some grilling duty.

Around this time of year, the little city of Houston here in southeast Texas undergoes a transformation. It is time to RODEO! Being a native Houstonian, I accept this anachronism as a matter of course. But if you had been living in Houston for just the past year, you would think that you woke up in a weird dream. The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is upon us. A little history… Houston has never been a cow town. We are too far east for that and were never anywhere near the original cattle trails to the rail heads. Houston was built on the oil “bidness” and then branched out into medicine and high tech. The most common ranchers in our parts are the rich guys that like looking at cows so they keep a “little spread” on the outskirts. In recent years, some of these large tracts have been sold off for more urban sprawl and “development”. So, what is going on here? I will give you fifi’s theory* of Rodeo in Houston. It can be summed up in that one word… bidness. Doing business here has always had a huge social component. And some of our robber barons are world champion philanthropists. So someone had the idea of hijacking the rodeo tradition ‘cause we could have a helluva good time and make some money for a good cause at the same time and, oh by the way, get together with our buddies and do a little bidness. (*Note that fifi’s theory may be total bull cookies, but it sounds pretty good and may not even be too far from the truth.) But what to do about a good cause? Well, I suppose they figured that no one could have an objection to education, so education it was. Besides, that would help keep us supplied with bright young graduates to further the cause of Texas in general and Houston in particular. With that, the educational program was started with the first scholarship awarded in 1957. Since then, $100,000,000 has been awarded in scholarships. In the fall of 2003, 1,854 students were attending 94 Texas colleges and universities on a typical scholarship of $10,000. Learn more about that here. A few days before the actual opening of the Rodeo and Livestock Show, we start getting ready. The Gucci loafers and the Ferragamo pumps get moved to the back of the closet and the boots come out. You get the Stetson off of the closet shelf and give it a good dusting. Hmmm… you gotta get a new hatband for that Stetson. This one is too dull. Get that flashy shirt cleaned and send those jeans to get starched and creased. You check the weather to see if you can wear that long canvas duster or maybe the bear skin coat. (Those are usually for the guys.) The symphony and bar music are traded in for Country Western and Tejano. Watching the ballet and disco is out of mind as participatory two-steppin’ and line dancing becomes the exercise of the day. Of course, with all of this going on, we need our food and libations. This usually means BBQ, beer and bourbon. So… We have this modest little affair. I had the privilege of attending the third and last day of the BBQ Cook-off. I have family members on the pig and chicken committees so I got into a lot of things. Please click on the link above so you can see what I mean by “a lot of things”. (I didn’t have a helicopter to get that picture.) By way of explanation, the way this works is an organization like a committee, a county, a company, or maybe just some guys with more money than sense, get a tent and sponsor a cooking team. Or, the cooking team may be made up of members of the group. The tents are decorated and the inside usually includes a bandstand or a DJ set up, an area for serving the BBQ and accompanying goodies, and, last but surely not least, the bar. You can only get into these places with an invite. To get an invite, you have to know somebody. This precipitates a lot of schmoozing and the inevitable corollary… bidness. After all, that is why we are here isn’t it? Food, fun, bidness, and, oh yeah, lots of money for the scholarships. A few more statistics… There were 359 teams entered this year and the three day attendance broke the previous record at 183,339. With my camera around my neck and an introduction that I was a Forum Host from eGullet, I was offered unprecedented access to some of the cooking teams’ domain and got fed a lot of really good BBQ. So I will now shut up (more or less) and share some pictures with you here. Look for some more recent additions to the typical wardrobe. Beads and feather boas are common, as are pig hats, chicken hats and a few more outrageous costumes. You have to start somewhere. We will start at The Chicken Shack sponsored by The Chicken Committee. The operation of the Live Stock Show Committees is far too Byzantine to explain in any sensible detail here. Basically, they organize all activities having to do with the showing, judging and selling of the chickens. The first week is for the kids, the second week for the professionals. I don’t have the results for chickens from last year but I seem to remember that the Grand Champion Turkey sold for somewhere around $130,000. (What kind of roasting pan do you use for a $130,000 turkey?) Of course, anyone with any sense can see why you need this tent, and cooking team, and bar to support these activities. The cooking area is mounted on a trailer. This is pretty typical. This is the high alloy cooker with its high tech lid prop. Getting to the meat of the matter. Some of the team is working on serving up for lunch. They were finalists in chicken and brisket. Finally, I get a snack. Next on the list was Holy Cow Cookers. I think they won “Most Colorful Pit.” A couple of the nice folks that make Holy Cow Cookers cook. This little piggy is just getting started. Mama Cow? The Houston Pork Authority is going to do the pork committee proud. They made the finals in ribs. Esteemed committee members hard at it. The bar crew. The cooking crew takes time out from watching ribs to play the hams. You will find that that is a common tendency of the cooking crews. These guys have awesome ribs. Take a look. Yes. They were as good as they look. And now for a truly amazing sight. The Ultimate Smoker & Grill. Yes. The whole 18 wheeler is a huge smoker and grill. This is a commercial operation that is used for advertising and promotions. Check out the link to get the amazing specs on this big bad boy. I got to climb around on it and they fed me sausage and pork tenderloin. The grill in action. Nibbles for me! The nice guys that make this all go. The Maverick Cookers working on sausage and ribs. And there they are. Another pig on a stick. And the guys from Nacadoches County looking after him. Note the spray bottle of WD-40. This is my favorite stop. Check out Devil's River Mountain Men web site for the story. These are just some guys that get together every year for this event, spend insane amounts of money and have a lot of fun. Yes, the spit is powered by a water wheel. Sort of. Mopping the pig, literally. A couple of innovative pits. I can’t imagine why this place was so popular. You can’t have BBQ in Houston without Luther’s making an appearance. The racks in the pit go round and round. The wrought iron on this set up was pretty amazing. The winners of the categories await the award of the Grand Championship. And the winner is… Sorry for the blur but the guy was jumping up and down. The winners of the categories can be read on the link at the beginning of the post. I hope you enjoyed the pictures. I want to thank the teams that were so gracious in giving me access to their tents and cooking areas. I will note that you don’t see brisket here because it was judgment day and no one wants to open that pit for a bunch of stupid pictures. Brisket is just too sacred.

I recall that braised corned beef that I did for New Year's day. All I could get was a flat so I decided to braise it instead of trying the col klink smoking routine. I had this mad impulse to coat it with crab boil seasonings. It was a triumph. The nephew nearly fell over. I was doing a happy dance for two days. I have had to repeat the performance.

For a couple years I've been drying out tangerine skins just by exposing them to the air as I don't have a dehydrator. It seems to work pretty well as they are certainly dry and slowly darkening. As I understand it, the real stuff is about 20 years old, but this is a start. Yikes. 20 years! That is taking slow cooking to an extreme. Here is what I tried this evening... I had a boneless pork loin ($1.99 a pound, couldn't pass that up.) and decided to take a small roast off of it for an experiment. I opened it up and layed it out flat. I took 5 of my little preserved calamondin halves, squeezing off most of the salty juice, and kind of mushed them up (that is a technical term) and spread them on the surface. I was gifted some Penzey's garlic powder and put just a little bit in there. After rolling and tieing, I slathered the surface with about a teaspoon of the calamondin salty juice, using that instead of salt. I roasted it at 325F until it was 160F in the center. Let it rest and sliced. SUCCESS! The salt level was just right. The orange flavor came through in a delightful way and was not bitter as I had feared. After this rather plain experiment, I think I know more about the flavor now and will be better able to incorporate it into the next experiment. In the meantime, I am having delightful orangy pork snacks. Now, onward to the limes.

I love my stock pots. They have a nice heavy bottom and I don't get browning sludge like I used to in the thin cheapo that I "threw out in the yard". My kids are still reporting rave reviews on the cook sets I bought them.

Many thanks. It seems that the Zante currants haven't been available here as my sister has looked for them for an old recipe of our mother's and has had to substitute. Now they show up. We don't have Trader Joe's in Texas. Maybe the market for them has been mostly west coast. Who knows. Ok... So, as I understand it, "real" currants are the berry, Ribes sp. that you can get in the UK and Europe. Information here.

A few months ago, we had a discussion about possibly being able to grow currants again in the Hudson Valley in New York. It had something to do with the fact that the poor plants had been wrongly accused of harboring some disease many moons ago. There was also some talk of growing them in Calfornia. Now my sister reports finding a box of Sun-Maid Zante Currants at the store. She hasn't seen these since she was a kid. Does anyone know what these are? Are these some other variety of dried grape that has been misnamed "currants"? The box was no help and neither was the Sun-Maid web site. And, while we are at it... If all of the raisins are made with Thompson seedless grapes, like the Sun-Maid site implies, how do they get some golden and some regular raisin color? Rancho_gordo where are you?

Add three... two Villas and Pepin's The Apprentice. (I need a meeting.)

MEDIC! uuummm... I think we have a winner.

Oooo... I love the sherry idea. Just a reminder... I added 1/2 cup of very dense home made demi glace. I mean this thing came out of its little jar like a hockey puck so it didn't really add that much liquid. I have a sneaking feeling that there will be wide variation in how much water is in the onions. I am not sure that developing times and temperatures that will work every time is going to happen. But it will be interesting to see how much variation there is as we go along here. Perhaps this is one of those things that you just have to peek in on from time to time but you really can't screw it up, well, short of cremating it.

The Houston Chronicle - Food In defense of the potato. No big news here but an excellent reminder of the benefits of the lowly potato. Grab some Lone Star pub grub We will have to see how this "translates". The Houston Press - Dining The Red Lion isn't just another fake British pub -- it's an authentically fake British pub Hmmm... Is this an invasion? If so, which way? The Houston Chronicle - Dining Guide The po' boys disappear in a flash as the party goes on at Highway 6 eatery Alison finds what looks like a real po' boy. And that gumbo looks just like mine.

Ignoring anything said about carrots, daikon and especially zucchini... The wax that is used is the same type of wax that is used in wax coated paper cartons (cream, milk, etc.) and for years was used for paper cups. And the ever present wax paper. It is very highly refined petroleum wax and is highly regulated as a food grade wax. As far as eating it is concerned, I don't worry about it. It has been around in food packaging since way before most of you were born. Before some of the more sophisticated plastic packaging came along, it was the most effective and ubiquitous material used to make low permeability packaging.

Democracy? What democracy? There is no damn democracy in MY realm! BTW... those stickers are big ones for your bumper and pretty pricey. I was hoping for the little things to stick on cards and packages. Oh well. I don't know that we have to ship all in one day. We could keep it going. Beto is wanting some chiles and related ingredients. Someone else might catch on and hunger for some Camellia red beans and Cajun seasoning. Who knows? Right now, Beto is our only contact. Perhaps he can help spread the word there. That might take some time and if the word doen't get to that homesick Cajun right away, I wouldn't want him or her to think they got left out of a one time "airlift". After all... how long did we fly planes into Berlin. How the hell would we get someone in Afghanistan?

Soba... A retired military friend of mine says it means Rear Eschelon Mo Fo... if you get my drift. General Mabelline... Sign me up. What I am thinking is Beto and some of his buddies need some seasonings. We can do that. What I don't know is how many they are cooking for. Sounds like we have two types to take care of. The guys with facilities that would like to be able to add "a taste of home". Then there are the guys that are up front. If we got some addresses and had some idea where the folks are and what they need that would help. I am ordering stickers. And I have all of these boxes and bubble wrap since I can't keep my mouse button out of amazon.com. This could become an eGullet Airlift! Awaiting your instructions... Ma'am! *snappy salute*

Has anyone tried the tuna in the foil packs? (Starkist?) I haven't been able to jump off that bridge yet. I don't know why but it just seems so wrong.

SSB=Smug Scientific Bastard

Let's see... I started mine about four in the afternoon and it was done about noon the next day, lid off. I didn't want to throw away any liquid but wanted to concentrate it. I wasn't going anywhere so I just left it on a d forgot about it. Oh dear... I hope you didn't buy the same crock pot I did. See my tale of whoa here. If I would have read the reviews in the Target web site, I wouldn't have gotten that one. I am taking it back and getting the simple one... low, high, warm. edit to add: That thread has some funny stuff in it. Check out mudpuppie's version of geese attacking okra on page 2. (OK... maybe you had to be there.)

I was going to offer: First you get a mama hog... Oh well. That is probably off topic.

I second russ's vote for shrimp. I have also done scallops. But my favorite is a firm fleshed salt water fish that flopped on the deck about ten minutes ago. We always took the ceviche ingredients on offshore fishing trips. Mahi-mahi (dorado) is my favorite but ling, tuna, wahoo, snapper and many others are superb as well. We tend toward using lime juice.