IMG00134-20100319-1908.jpg

Pulled pork and beef brisket sliders at the Red Rose Cafe in Weymouth MA

IMG00133-20100319-1907.jpg

Frito pie at the Red Rose Cafe in Weymouth MA

First try @ Corned beef and Pastrami

Well seeing that I have had a large amount of time on my hands as of late, I figured I would try and make corned beef and pastrami by curing the meat myself. I bought a 15.5 pound brisket, I separated the point and the flat and trimmed off most of the fat. Instead of putting the meat in a brine for 10-14 days, I decided to dry cure the meat. I made up very simple rub of 1.5 cups of kosher salt and 1.5 cups of ground up pickling spice. I rubbed both cuts of beef with the rub and placed in to 2.5 gallon bag and put it in the fridge for 5 days. I took the meat out and rinsed off the rub and soaked them in water for a couple of hours (changing the water every hour). For the corned beef (point) I braised it in 24 oz of beer (Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale) 1/2 cup of whisky about 12 oz of water, 1 Tbsp garlic and 2 Tbsp pickling spice. I cooked it for about 3 hours @ 275, then I added about 2.5 lbs of potatoes and 2 lbs of carrots and let cook for another 2 hours. during the last half hour of cooking I took a head of cabbage, quartered it and seasoned with olive oil, salt and pepper and grilled it. I must say that it came out pretty good for a first time, a little on the salty side but overall Good!!

For the Pastrami I used the flat cut of the brisket and coated with a 50/50 mix of my brisket rub and coarse pepper. I put it on the smoker for 3 hours @ 250, then wrapped in foil and back on the smoker for 2 more hours. I let the meat rest for about an hour then put it in the fridge to let completely cool. A few hours later I sliced it up and made a huge sandwich on pumpernickle bread ,swiss cheese, Jack Daniels old no. 7 mustard and Dr Gonzo's Smoke Isle Elixir. I must say very good. Would I do it again? of coarse I would. I think the next time I will try with the brine method.

Snowshoe 2010

Wow!!! what a great turn out for such a fun event. The Snowshoe raised over $700 and over 200 lbs of food and supplies for the Abington Food Pantry. Congrats to all the teams who got calls and to the top teams overall:
1. I Smell Smoke
2. QHaven
3. Lakeside Smokers
4. IQUE
5. Meat @ Slims
All I can say is the weather could not have been better for the first weekend in March, a little cool and breezy in the morning, then around 11 AM it really started to warm up, it really made for an awesome day for grilling.
The Snowshoe is usaully the first event of the NEBS season, it is a one day grilling event, and is a very fun event to do. We did pretty well for our first event of the season,We place 12th overall in a very strong field of 21 teams and we got two calls:

7th in Ribeye

10th in Chefs Choice (Salmon)

We also placed 11th in Chicken wings and 17th in Sausage Fatty (think Jimmy Dean) for those who do not know what a sausage fatty is. All in all it was a great time, and it was awesome to see everyone again. Now bring on the BBQ!!!!!!!!!

Tentative 2010 BBQ Contest Schedule

Here is the tentantive schedule of BBQ competitions that we will be doing this Year, you can get more information on these contest at www.nebs.org or www.kcbs.us :

Mar 6 Snow Shoe Grilling-Abington, MA

May 28-31 Roc City Ribfest - Rochester, NY

June 5-6 Peter's Pond - Sandwich, MA

June 12-13 Rockin Ribfest - Merrimack, NH

July 2-4 I love BBQ Fest - Lake Placid, NY

July 24-25 Harpoon - Windsor, VT (only if we get selected)

Aug 7-8 Mainely Grillin' and Chillin' - Eliot, ME

Aug 20-22 Hudson Valley Ribfest - New Paltz, NY

Sept 18-19 Harvard Fall Festival - Harvard, MA

Oct 1-3 American Royal Open - Kansas City, MO

Oct 23-25 ??????

Simply Salmon

One of my favorite fish to eat and cook is Salmon, it doesn't matter how it is prepared, from to sushi to lox and bagels or just simply grilled with a little lemon and dill.  There is just something about the flavor and the texture that I just love.
I decided to go to the local fish monger and pick out a nice Salmon fillet (about 1.75lb). It was such an awesome day, I thought it would be good to fire up the Weber and cook it with a little indirect heat with some sugar maple wood chunks for a little smoke flavor as well.
All I did to prep the Salmon was, first cut the fillet in half and then seasoned with a little bit of Smokin Hoggz all purpose rub and some brown sugar. I wanted to try out a new finishing sauce also. I made a nice Balsamic reduction glaze that came out very good, sweet with a little tang.
The salmon went on the pre heated grill (275-295) for about 40 minutes total cook time, about half way through (20 min) I applied some of the glaze and at the end of the cook as well.
The Salmon came out great, the flavor was awesome, the fish just melted in your mouth. Here are pix I took of it so you can get an idea, enjoy.

Chicken Time

For last nights dinner I wanted to cook a chicken on the smoker, I haven't done that in a while, and yesterday was a real nice day to cook outside. I started with about a 6 lb bird and liberally coated it with the Smokin' Hoggz chicken rub and a little drizzle of olive oil. Started the coals for the smoker, with a full chimney of unlit Humphrey's hard wood lump charcoal and then a half of chimney of lit coals, I also added couple of pieces of black cherry and oak as well. I cooked it at about 250 degrees for the first hour (applied a thin glaze of sauce after first hr)  and 300 degrees for the rest of the cook (1 1/2 hrs). Total cook time was about 2 1/2 hrs. After it was done I let it rest for about 15 min. The chicken came out awesome, I couldn't believe how tender and juicy the white meat was. I tell you if I could get this to work for competition, watch out. until next time. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.