Smoke Wood Poll (#1?) The Results!

Well, I saw the polling feature that the folks at Blogger added to the tool set, and thought I'd pop up a poll. Thought it would also be a very UNscientific way to gauge the traffic to this oh-so-popular blog.

A few thoughts before you hear the drum roll and get the exciting results...
I just put out there this poll that asked "Smoke Wood - soak it, or keep it dry?". I think I set it up for 3 months. And about 1 month into it I came to understand a critical flaw in the poll. I should have specified that I was asking about smoke wood that is added to smokers when using charcoal.

There are a lot (most?) of barbequers out there that just use wood for their fuel, and also get their smoke that way. They are not adding chunks or chips to their fire usually. And they certainly are not going to soak this wood before using it!

So the question was posed too broadly. Hence the "#1" in the post title. I may re-run this poll and be more specific.

Or not. I've also learned from forum friends at CBBQA that, in general, folks tend to soak wood chips, but not wood chunks. The chips would just burn off to quickly otherwise. But the chunks can hold their own.

So for now, that will be my charcoal and smoke wood plan.

OK - so if you are still interested after all of that, here are the results.

Soak the wood - 35% of the votes.
Keep it dry - 64% of the votes.

Where is that last remaining 1%? I have no idea. Ask Blogger.

Link Tips - Jan 26 2008

I thought that every so often I'd post a little about some links that I've been visiting recently. There is SO much BBQ information out there on the web that it is hard to find it all. And not all of it is worth your time. So these are a few that I've visited recently that I found something of interest on. This might all be old stuff to many of you, but I'm still pretty green and looking to learn. Hope you find some of these interesting and/or useful.

About.com - Pulled Pork: The Meat:
I know that pulled pork is one of the BBQ basics. But I have yet to do one. This will be my next big cook (but first it has to stop raining and I need to have some free time!). This is a fairly basic info page, but it covers everything. There are multiple links to continue on through the process from meat to sandwich.

Playing with Fire and Smoke - Smoking Woods:
I know, there are a lot of sites out there with information on different types of woods that can be used for smoking. Well, this is one of them. Short, simple, and some good basic information.

Playing with Fire and Smoke - Buckboard Bacon:
This is something that I do want to try one of these days - bacon. Yum! This page has some good info and some tasty photos.

Kingfish BBQ - The Water Pan Myth:
This URL worked yesterday, but not today, so hopefully the site comes back up. I've been hearing for sometime about using sand in your water pan in a vertical smoker. But I had yet to here WHY. So I did a quick Google search and this was the first page that came up, and it quickly laid out the reasoning. I'm going to try the sand in the pan on my next cook!

OK - that's it for now. More to come I am sure!

Babeque Wood link

Ran across this page that discusses various woods used for BBQ and has a nice table detailing the flavor of the wood and what meats it is most typically used for. Not a complete list, but covers the most common ones from what I see there.

Take a look here.

I don't agree with his notes on the age of wood - I think it needs to age at least six months. One month is probably still too green. And it can be older, just not toooooo old.

The 2008 SAVEUR 100

Why yes, 2008 has just begun, but that hasn't kept the fine folks over at Saveur magazine from coming out with their Top 100 list for the year. This article never really explains what it is the Top 100 of. I will guess it's the Top 100 food related things. Generic enough for ya? =)

None the less, I'm posting about it here because of the number one slot...

1 Most Beloved National Pastime
The frenzied grilling, the enormous barrel smokers, the piles of tender ribs—is it any wonder that COMPETITION BARBECUE is our favorite sport? Pluck, hubris, and good humor are on display in equal measure at these open-to-the-public, juried events, as backyard hobbyists, brandishing team names like Partners in Swine and Dr. Porkenstein, vie for glory against barbecue-circuit legends like Paul Kirk, of Manhattan's RUB restaurant. We're not alone in our predilections: over the past five years, the number of official barbecue contests around the country has grown from about 200 to more than 600, says Carolyn Wells, cofounder of the Kansas City Barbeque Society, competitive barbecue's main governing body, which sets contest guidelines and trains and accredits judges (there are now more than 8,000 of them). The best part about the sport: the fans are as generously compensated as the players. Attendees get to eat to their hearts' content and bond with fellow 'cue fanatics amid a haze of fragrant wood smoke.

To see what the other 99 items on the list are, please take a look here.

Waiting on the Rain

Northern California got pounded by a storm today. Here in the San Diego area we are supposed to get a small storm with just a little rain tonight, and the big daddy hitting Saturday AM and going all day. I've heard a wide range of rain amount forecasts. Supposedly we could expect up to 5 inches in one day here in Escondido. We can certain use the water in the region - but that's a lot for a single day - especially after the wildfires in October.

But, more to the point of this post. I'm sitting here on the porch in front of the grill with a pretty big chunk of rib eye cooking away. Tossed a small piece of Oak on the grill just for a little smoke. But we tend to like this big ole steaks with a nice salt coating, let to sit for about 20 monutes - then grilled up. Yum. The salt is just right on these bigger cuts. Melts in your mouth.

No rain yet. I'll be headed in soon to feed the wife and I. Then it's waiting time on the rain. I'm sure if this rain comes as expected we are going to loose the driveway again. Fun stuff...
--

Well, that was tasty! Too small, but very tender and good. Still no rain...

Pork Butt? What's Pork Butt??

Well, it's not the butt of the pig as you might expect from the name.

This page is actually very informative:
http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/porkbuttselect.html

It has a good explanation of the cut, and lots of info on preparation too.

I've been craving pulled pork, so I think I'll try my first pork butt here soon.
HogWild BBQ has also been an informative blog that I've run across: http://hogwildbbq.blogspot.com/2007/04/pork-butt.html - Hog says that his pulled pork, when vacuum sealed and frozen, holds up really well. That's good for me because I always end up with way too much food - and I hate to waste it. I've got to work on finding folks to feed when I do large pieces of meat. Then again - if it freezes well, that can mean a nice lunch for me for some time!

The Must-Have Instant Read Thermometer

The Thermapen by ThermoWorks. This is the tool to have when cooking.

No, they aren't cheap. But if the popularity of these guys on the various BBQ forums is any indication, and the positive review by folks like Alton Brown - then this is the tool to have to check the doneness of your meats.

Lots of colors to choose from. "Free" carrying case when you buy multiple Thermapens at once, etc.

Check them out here.


I've decided I'm worth it and I'm buying myself one with my holiday bonus from work.

Happy New Year!

Leave it to Dilbert...

http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/dilbert-20071229.html

Useful Site - Cutting Board Care

I thought I'd pass on a link to this site as it has some good basic information on selecting cutting boards and how to care for them. The site is called "Cutting Boards, Chopping Blocks, and Butcher Blocks" - I recommend taking a look.

Smoked Turkey - My First Time

December 22, 2007

My first time smoking a turkey. I think it went pretty darn well overall. Got some tasty meat, and learned a few things along the way. Barbecue, like many other things, is something that you continually learn about - and the best way is to learn by doing.

In the end the meat was super moist, and had a nice light smoke flavor.

Lessons Learned:

• If possible, get a fresh turkey - no hassle with thawing, and it just has to be better.
  
• A 13 pound turkey is about the limit for my little Brinkmann smoker (this one is 12.71 pounds).
• Don't brine so long - it was a little too salty in some of the meat closer to the surface (I'll try about 10 hours next time).
• It is easier to deal with the cold when starting the cook - I had to wrap the smoker to get the meat up that last 8-10 degrees.
• Don't let your wife put a hat (especially one of hers!) on you - even if it does have ear flaps and it is cold out. I'll stick to the baseball cap I had on all day, thank you.
  
• The dogs know a good thing when they smell it - just don't turn your back on them!
  

The prep:

For this day I used a 12.71 pound frozen grocery store turkey.
Fully thawed bird and removed the neck and giblet bag.
At noon on the 21st I put the bird into a brine.

The morning of the 22nd I started up two chimney's of charcoal, and put a bunch of Oak chips into water to soak. Then I prep'd the rub, got my filler for filling the cavity and liquid for the injector all ready.

My rub this day was made up on the fly. I had been going back and forth on what to try, and in the end decided to go for simpler and made it up as I went along. This ended up being really ugly on the cold bird, but lovely after smoking for an hour.

The Brine:
1 cup of salt to 1 gallon of water. I ended up needing about 3 1/2 gallons.

The Rub:
2 tablespoons salt
1/4 tablespoon paprika
1 tablespoon white pepper
1 tablespoon dried rosemary
1 stick butter, melted

The Filler:
1 onion, quartered
2 pink lady apples, quartered
1 handful of dried cranberries

The Injector Liquid:
Apple Juice

First I tossed the cranberries on the bottom of the cavity, then alternated onion and apple till it was all stuffed.
I then injected with the apple juice. I have never done this before - not too hard to figure out.
Then I reheated the rub since the butter had hardened in the refrigerator and spread it over the bird. It wasn't quite enough to cover every part, but I did what I could. I also hardened as I put it on since the bird was still pretty cold. The bird sat for a bit to warm while I checked on the charcoal.

Here's the ugly bird with the rub on it just before going on the smoker (click image to enlarge):


It was sunny, but really cold (yes, really cold for a native Californian!), so I used both chimney's of charcoal, and thought I'd be smart and save myself some work later on and added some unlit charcoal on the edge of the pan on top of the lit stuff.

The theory was OK, but in reality it made the first hour hard. It was too darn hot. I opened the door, pulled the top off a lot - kept trying to let the heat out. Funny how when you need it hotter it won't happen, but when you don't need it hot, you can't cool it down. Finally I lifted the unit off the bottom and pulled a bunch of briquettes off. That did the trick!

At the one hour mark the internal temp was 250 F and the temp in the breast was 98 F.

Here's the bird at one hour (click to enlarge) - I was totally happy with the color on this. Looking good. At this point I thought I might actually pull this off.


At the two hour mark the internal temp was 225 F and the temp in the breast was 122 F.

At the two hour point the deep brown/caramel color really deepened (click to enlarge):


At the three hour mark the internal temp was 245 F and the temp in the breast was 137 F.

At three hours (click to enlarge) the color looked all set - now to slow cook and get the temperature up.


At the three and a half hour mark the breast temp was up to 140 F after having a drop in the smoker temp. Took a bit to get it back up.

Here (below, click to enlarge) I have covered the wings with foil because they were getting too brown.


At the four hour mark the shade was sneaking almost to the smoker and it was cooling off fast. The internal temp was 160 F and the temp in the breast was 141 F.

Tossed a little more smoke Oak just for fun (click to enlarge):


Things continued to cool, so I started some more charcoal - about 2/3 chimney. Put that in when it was ready, and the heat came up, but not enough to really hit deep in the bird. A slight breeze was blowing too.

So I got my really fancy wraps and draped them over the smoker - it isn't pretty, but it did the trick (see below, click to enlarge)!


With the smoker wrapped and some hot charcoal in the belly, the temp in the breast went from 171 to 181 in 45 minutes.


Pulled out the instant read to check a few other locations and I called this baby done!


Here's Mojo (one of our two Newfoundlands) with new found interest in what I am up to. Dontcha just love the hat? Jen was worried about me being cold so she pulled off my baseball hat and put this thing on me because it would cover my ears. Remind me to hide the camera next time...


Got the bird inside to carve up - yum!


Juicy and yummy. Everything just fell off the bones. Very tender, very juicy. Very happy. =)


We ate a bit to try it out. Not as much meat on a 12 pounder as I expected, but that's OK.

I bagged up some for each family to try out on Christmas day, and we will keep all the extra little tidbit for ourselves.


Jen thinks I should just do a number of breasts next time to get more meat for the work. Will have to try that sometime to see how it turns out.

So all in all a good day. I had my laptop out there with me so I could check the CBBQA forums and even make a few posts. The new thermometer worked out well. Only thing that would make it better is if it were dual probe. Got some yard work done and did lots of little things around the house - and ended up with some pretty darn good smoked turkey too.