What did you cook up today?

[mannytheseacow]

[DevilsBrew]

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[matt walker]

Whoah! That looks awesome, I'm hungry now. Yum, roasted peppers!

[matt walker]

Today's mission, smoke my weekend meals before the deluge. We've got up to 5" of rain predicted over the coming 36 hours or so, and I'm trying to beat it and spend some time outdoors while I can.

I started by rubbing down this little Boston roast early this afternoon. This is from a Tamworth my friend raised and we slaughtered and butchered ourselves. I cut myself small cuts so I could smoke often this summer, since I wanted to really test out my firebox.

Rubbed...



I then got some apps ready. Stuffed some hot peppers from the greenhouse with cream cheese mixed with a little onion and garlic, and topped 'em with some home made rub. That's a little bacon from the same hog, which I smoked and froze last June or so....



After the roast smoked for about four hours, it had the bark I wanted....



So, I wrapped it up, and put in the peppers along with some mac and cheese I whipped up. Here's where I'm at now, mac and cheese and peppers will be ready in about 2 hours, we'll see about the pulled pork...

[matt walker]

Here's what happened..

[mannytheseacow]

HAHAHAHa! You've even got a fancy garnish! I was half going to post a picture of the mac and cheese that I made the other night, as a joke, as it came out of a little blue box. It looks like you've got the real thing there. That meal looks like it would be right at home at any fine dining establishment.

I'm a big fan of rubs and brines. So much so that I've been putting my pork rub on my eggs in the morning.

For big pieces of meat a rub or brine really gets that flavor all the way through and softens the protein structure. Care to trade recipes?

[matt walker]

As for garnish, I pulled all my basil out of the garden Thursday in preparation for this storm we are in now. Now they are saying up to 10" of rain, so I wanted to get it while it was still looking good. So yeah, basil on everything for a few days.

As for the rub, I'd love to share, but first, here's the pulled pork from last night. It went almost 8 hours on the smoker at 275° or so, then rested for another hour. I pulled it late last night....





Here's the basic rub base I use. It's pretty similar to a lot of Memphis style rubs, but I don't like them quite as salty, and I don't mind carmelized sugar, so I tend to cut the salt and up the sugar compared to most rubs like this.

1/3 cup Sea Salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup Brown sugar
2 Tbs Sweet Hungarian paprika
2 Tbs Chili powder, medium heat
2 Tbs Granulated onion
2 Tbs Dry mustard
1 Tbs Granulated garlic
2 tsp Dry thyme
2 tsp Dry oregano
2 tsp Black pepper, ground fresh
2 tsp Celery salt
2 tsp Ground ginger
1 tsp Ground coriander
1 tsp Ground cayenne

[DevilsBrew]

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[DevilsBrew]

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[matt walker]

Mac and Cheese is super easy. I always just make it from scratch, you know, a little roux, maybe some peppers and onions, milk, cheese. If you have bread crumbs those are great for the top. If you are really decadent brown 'em in garlic butter first. A little rub or paprika over the top for color, smoke at 275°ish for 2 hours. Yum! I use apple for smoke, since it's what I have. I'm sure Hickory would be awesome.


Okay, I have to share a little more. This just happened!

I made bread this morning, and then was kinda puttering around thinking about what to have for breakfast. I looked in the fridge, saw that pulled pork and leftover cream cheese stuffed peppers and thought, "why not?"

BBQ Benedict!