fifi

Leftover smoked meat? Hear ya go . . . BBQ Posole. I have been known to smoke some pork just to make this because the crowd was going to get hostile if I didn't make it. It is really one of those things that is about ten times better than it sounds. Yeah, it is a dish that yearns for a cold day but we have never let that stop us. Or, you could always freeze some of the meat for a cooler day. When making the stock, I just take off all of the dark smoked skin that I can. That keeps the stock from getting too smoky. You also have to watch the salt level if you are concentrating it.

You "northerners" are going to enjoy the new store. We have one here in the Heights on 19th. It is worth a trip to the stores even if you just walk in and sniff. Here is a link to the Penzey's website. You guys haven't made it to the retail store list yet but when you do you will be able to get a map. Happy sniffing. And if any of you manage to go in and just sniff we will need a report.

We haven't been doing organized picnics but are pretty choosy about what we pack for an "excursion." A current favorite is a pressed sandwich made with my eggplant gratin. Most often I use the version without the sausage. We also almost always carry a batch of Texas Caviar. We have started eating the caviar with saltines instead of tortilla chips. Then we congratulate ourselves on having done good on eating our vegetables. Using frozen bottles of water to keep the cooler cool is another trick I have picked up this summer.

I ran into Smart Chicken earlier this year and gave it a try when I did a chicken dish for the braising class in eGCI here. I am particularly partial to the boneless skinless thighs. I do a lot of braised chicken dishes. I don't think I have seen the "organic" version here and probably wouldn't pay the extra price for it if I did. I don't remember the exact price but I do know that I wouldn't have paid a lot more . . . some more but not a lot. It was the air chilling bit that caught my eye. Now, I don't know this for a fact but I have always thought that the water chilling was a bad idea. As you might guess, I am concerned about the contamination issues but I also don't know the details of the process that may have addressed that problem. I have just always wondered about the effect on the chicken itself. I kind of think of water chilling as "reverse brining." I have no data to back up that assumption. It just seems to make sense. Hmmmm . . . That makes me wonder. Many have reported on the effects of brining and there is a sense that brining has the most impact on chicken. Some have reported that they don't get what all the fuss is about. Maybe those folks aren't using our crappy water chilled chicken that really benefits from the brining process.

Ah . . . It has been many years since I have frequented Charlie's. Maybe that is where I get the impression that the "classic" wedge is served with blue cheese.

OK me-dear . . . I am back at women's work. I need to smoke some chicken. I happen to think that women are the best at smoking. We have the patience and finesse to bring it off with aplomb. (Does that rhyme with bomb that we are likely to get on this thread from the male smokers? ) On the use of sugar in the turkey brine . . . I have sometimes used it. Sometimes I really want that more hammy taste to get past the turkey. To me, it is just a choice of what I think is a good idea at the time.

Oh . . . I forgot to add . . . Save the bones and scraps for a batch of smoked bird stock. It is terrific added to veggies and such. I usually reduce it by at least half and freeze it in small quantities. Just be careful about putting too much of the skin into the stock pot or you will have something like tar stock. I agree with rlibkind on the temperature. My bullet usually runs closer to 225 which is fine with me. If you don't already put a rather deep aluminum pan full of water under the meat in your kettle, consider doing it. It doesn't really add moisture much but is a terrific heat sink and temperture stabilizer.

Ah . . . me dear . . . smoking is about the only other use of turkey that yields an edible bird. (Frying, of course, is the other.) I have done them gazillions of times when nothing but turkey will do for fanatical tradition reasons. First order of business is to brine the damn things. Don't waste any money on putting anything in the brine but salt. If you add sugar to the solution you get something more like ham in the end. Before I continue with a brining strategy, you need to decide what to do with the bird. Yes, that whole bird is a thing of beauty on the platter. But . . . I gave that up for the practical reason of being able to pull the breast meat off the smoker before it gets dry. (Brining helps with dryness but a turkey needs all the help it can get.) I usually cut it up like white and dark meat quarters of a chicken. That makes it easier to set up for brining as well. Get an ax. Back to brining . . . I don't usually have fridge space for the stupid birds so I use a cooler. Yes, you have to mix up a lot of brine but salt is cheap. I use frozen bottles of water to keep it chilled. We are never cold enough to just sit it on the porch. I usually brine "overnight" meaning at least 12 hours. Then just apply the rub as you wish. I keep the smoker at about 225-250 like I do for pork. Then, I just watch the internal temperature. Don't forget the The Virtual Bullet site for more tips and techniques.

Frozen is great for some recipes, though, and you can stock up way ahead of time. I have to say, some frozen veggies (mostly corn, peas and spinach) are one of the few things where I find the frozen more useful than the fresh. ← I second that one. Fresh spinach is a real pain. For most recipes, I gave up on fresh a long time ago. I was visiting a friend in another city that actually has farmer's markets and we bought this big bunch of gorgeous spinach. We washed and washed and washed. Still gritty. Then I remembered my sister's trick for big batches of greens from the garden . . . into the clothes washer with a box of baking soda. But I digress . . . long live frozen spinach. I use the strainer and spoon method because I don't have a potato ricer. Now I have another reason to buy one. I can see that it would be an ideal tool.

Thanks for finding that one, GG. I had forgotten about it and the darn search engine seems to have ignored "iceberg." Anyway . . . Here I want to explore the wedge. I had forgotten about the thousand island dressing. Ick! I have never been a fan though my mother considered it a pantry staple. Why am I thinking that it is mayo, ketchup and pickle relish?

Over in The Heartland forum, I reported on a recent dining experience at Lindey's in Columbus, OH that included the ancient and venerable lettuce wedge. Since my return, I have made this for myself about three times. (I left out the tomato, though.) I have now decided to resurrect this thing for my repertoire. I am really liking the textural contrasts and the presentation can be fairly impressive. So far, I have just been doing the classic with the blue cheese and bacon, if that is the classic. I just remember it being sort of a steakhouse staple around here many years ago but I don't remember any specific variations. I am thinking of a variation based on a salad that my mother used to make when I was a kid. She would put pineapple slices on a bed of shredded iceberg, a dollop of mayonaise slightly sweetened with pineapple juice, and a sprinkle of grated sharp cheddar. I loved that stuff. As I think of other possible variations on the venerable wedge, more and more questions come to mind. Who started this anyway? And when? Was there a "classic?" Is it seeing a rebirth? If you have run into it, what variations have you seen? Read . . . crunch . . . and discuss.

That provided my belly laugh for the day! On the other stuff . . . Good answer. I have only ever lived in the Houston and New Orleans areas so there wasn't much adaptation needed with my various moves. But I can see how a real change could kick growth in the butt.

I love these threads. Somewhere here, we discussed the Octodog. Yes . . . we discussed it at great length. Here. And here. And if you do a forum wide search on octodog you will get a few more interesting hits. Warning: The discussions tend to go downhill rather quickly. I can't find it now, but someone came up with the idea of putting an octodog upside down on the top half of a burger bun with a little hole in the middle. It took me a while but when I realized what was going on with that I experienced a total incapacitation event. The banana thingy had a similar effect.

I'm a bit late to the party but I am really enjoying this trip to the frigid north. You mentioned some time up-thread how, even in these days, your local climate and environment affects how you eat. Since you came from southern California, detouring through Egypt, I have to shake my head at how you have adapted to what I would call an extreme climate. (Actually, myself being Gulf Coast born and bred, I think you are nuts. ) I can see how it would make you appreciate fresh local roduce more. I might occasionally, very occasionally, be envious of being able to use the back porch for a really big cooler for that big pot of stock. Looking back, can you talk a bit more about the adapting?

I had something similar to your set-up before I got the Weber Smoky Mountain. One thing I would suggest is that you get some of those big disposable aluminum pans and fill them with water and put them under the meat you are smoking. They make for a heat sink to keep the temperature constant. You are aiming for about 225F at the meat. The wood is not that big a deal. Work more on getting to and maintaining temperature. Get thermometers. The alder is great. I have friends near you that use it for salmon.

Oh my goodness. I just got back from a two day lavendar picking excursion to Blanco and was wondering about the wineries in the area. I think I am going to have to put the Willie Nelson CDs back in the changer and make another trip. I am not a wine freak but I could get into Texas wines. I have done the festival at Messina Hoff and the "port" is quite good. Thanks for the tour.

Another fun thing to do with those cages is to plant them with morning glories or moon vines. They make towers of blossoms. Anyway, I just got back from the hill country, Blanco to be exact. My sister and I went to pick lavendar. (Well, actually, she picked. I took pictures.) Anyone growing lavendar out there? It seems that there was some kind of difficulty with a fungus amongus last year. At any rate, none of the lavendar farms are all that big but are fun to visit.

That is an exceedingly cool link, SuzySushi. I knew there were lots of varieties of mangos but this poster really brings it home. Mangoes are fascinating becase there are so many types and even when wthin one type, the degree of ripeness affects the taste so much.

Boy, am I glad this got bumped up. I am after my favorite restaurant to include an option for a non-sweet slaw and I am going to build on this. The Asian twist has promise as does salting the cabbage. I think we are going in the right direction here.

Elie, My sister makes tomato cages from the 4x4 reinforcing wire that is used in concrete for driveways and patios and such. You need a good wire chomper, like in big, and some big pliers and gloves. But, you can fabricate some pretty substantial tomato cages with this stuff. You need to use some really strong anchoring devices into the ground to keep them from dumping over when a thunderbumper comes through. Your garden results are looking good. Don't be discouraged. I usually takes aboout three seasons to figure out what works best where and really get the soil going.

Thanks Cindy. Well, it is new to this Texan and apparantly not new to a lot of others. I haven't gone back and read all of the posts but I am now wondering how old it is. I will report that I ran into the head maintenance guy in the parking lot. I mentioned that my smoke detector battery needed replacing and I would be putting a maintenance ticket in. He said . . . "Don't bother, I will be right up to fix it." and he did. NEVER underestimate the power of the cake.

I hope I am not too late. If you started with the charcoal ring not chock full, you might need to add some fuel. I sometimes have to toward the end of a brisket. Don't ditch any water. The more water the better. That is your heat sink. Actually, some folks use a Brinkman charcoal pan (it fits where the Weber pan does) because it holds a bunch more water. I tend to add the water a little at a time so that I am not bringing the temperature down by much. I am too lazy to heat the water before adding it. The real temperature control is those bottom vents. I don't recall ever running with them open all the way. (BTW . . . The top vent should always be open all the way.) But then, I have only used Kingsford plain briquets. I take that back. I once tried chunk charcoal trying to be a purist. Temperature control was all over the place. Being a natural product, it is a variable fuel. Also, the ash is so light that the meerest hiccup and ash flies up into the cooking chamber. I have been known to add some wood chunks late in the game. I know, it is probably a waste of wood but I just think watching smoke come out the top looks cool and makes folks think I really know what I am doing. Geez . . . I hope you feel better. Thanks for reminding me about Mark's sauce.

Thank you for joining us, Monica. I know that you have done a lot of research into the markets. I am baffled by the lack of markets in the Houston area, as compared to what I have seen in Washington DC, Chicago, San Francisco, etc. Is there some basic reason that we can't get this going?

OK . . . You go get the WSM. You present it to him in a sexy little get-up wielding tongs. And you find a way to convince him that your sexy little smoky body is the best present he has ever gotten. And all of that will not be too far from the truth. whewh

WSM = Weber Smokey Mountain. All information here.