Wife made me a bouquet of bacon “roses”.
That is love.
My wife r00l3z.
Food
New grill/smoker is needed – Suggestions?
I’ve had a Weber kettle grill for gosh… 12 years? 15 years? Quite a while. It’s actually served me quite well. It handles grilling needs, and some years ago I added a 3rd party thermometer to the lid and so I’ve been able to use it as a smoker with pretty good results.
But… she’s at her end. The “vanes” in the kettle are no longer moving. One of the vanes has worn so much there’s a hole. There’s just no more ability to control the air flow. I can make a fire in it, but controlling it is pretty much gone. It then becomes an art of just controling the fire itself to keep the temperature right.
Furthermore, I’ve known for a long while that while from time to time I want a grill, most of the time I want a smoker. As well, while the Weber has enough space to say feed a family or enough hotdogs for a neighborhood cookout, it just doesn’t have the square footage on the rack to hold what I cook these days. Plus when I smoke or otherwise indirect cook, there’s even less rack space available.
It is time for a new setup.
There’s a guy I’ve spoken with that makes custom setups. I’m going to talk to him, but I fear it may be too costly. On the flip side, the quality should be good enough such that it will last me the rest of my life with proper care.
The main things I want?
- Square footage. I don’t need to feed an army, but being able to hold a couple racks of ribs or a couple briskets or a couple legs from a feral hog. Plus being able to throw a dozen ears of corn on the side the last 30 minutes.
- Charcoal/wood. No gas, sorry Hank Hill.
- I do want to be able to smoke but also grill. I really don’t want to have one smoker setup and one grill setup. But from what I’ven seen on the market so far, what I want may not be there.
- Offset firebox for smoking.
I may have to go the custom route to get what I want. But if any good readers have suggestions towards what fits my bill, please comment.
(BTW, the Big Green Egg has always been curious to me, but it’s just not big enough.)
Lockhart BBQ Wars
On the cable TV channel, Travel Channel, they have a new show called “Food Wars“.
Normally I don’t care for such things, but when I saw a commercial for the Lockhart, Texas BBQ battle, well… I can’t resist wanting to watch this episode.
I love the BBQ from Lockhart so much that I go there just to buy food and bring it home to eat. Yes there are BBQ joints closer to me, but none come close to what is produced in Lockhart. Yes I personally prefer Black’s BBQ, but Smitty’s does make good brisket. There’s of course Kreuz’s but I just haven’t been impressed with them, to be honest. What I like about Chisholm Trail BBQ is actually eating there… a strange and warm nostalgia about it all. Now I must say, much of what I say about this rests upon evaluation of their brisket because in many respects, beef brisket is what Texas BBQ is about; Black’s wins hands down. But sausage is something too, and for that I’d prefer Smitty’s… the way Black’s grinds their sausage, it’s OK but not my preferred texture. Of course if you want sides, Chisholm and Blacks have you covered, but if all you want are beans and potato salad well, anywhere will suit you. I will give Kreuz’s credit for offering tortillas… mmmmm.
Thing is folks, if you haven’t tried the Lockhart BBQ joints then you just don’t know Texas BBQ and how yes there is a difference and how yes things are better in Lockhart. It shows that competition is good and helps to foster better products.
So yes, I’ll be watching Food Wars this evening. I’m curious to see how it goes. It won’t settle anything, but I’m sure my mouth will be watering.
If you’ve never experienced Lockhart BBQ and you’re in the area, let me know. I’ll be happy to take you around. 🙂
Bacon
Bacon encrusted bacon wrapped bacon, stuffed with bacon, covered in a bacon sauce, and topped with bacon. Bacon. That is all.
Lockhart BBQ on TV
Yeah, I’ll watch it.
Lockhart has truly some of — if not the best — BBQ in Texas. Of course, I’d say best in the world, but I’ll concede this is Texas-style BBQ… it’s not ribs from Memphis or pulled pork from the Carolina’s. It’s a different style. Nevertheless, it’s damn good stuff.
Personally, I prefer Smitty’s over Kruez’s; I just like how they do things. Plus I often get my BBQ on Sunday and Kruez’s is closed on Sundays (I respect that, but it’s a bummer sometimes… like when you crave for Chick-Fil-A). Chisholm Trail BBQ is alright, and there’s a nostalgia about dining in their restaurant. However the best pleaser for my whole family is Blacks because they have great Angus beef brisket and a healthy variety of sides.
You know, the weather has been so good here lately I was thinking about going for a motorcycle ride tomorrow morning. Now I may just have to take that ride to Lockhart and bring some BBQ home.
Robertson’s Hams & Choppin’ Block
Directly off Exit 285 of Interstate 35 in Salado, Texas lies one of the world’s most wonderful places.
Robertson’s Hams & the Choppin’ Block.
All sorts of wonderful little gifts and food-stuffs, but the best part? Their jerky.
Now some love the Robertson’s old-fashioned hickory smoked stuff. Me? I don’t care for it. But I love the Choppin’ Block jerky. That mesquite-smoked stuff is just wonderful. Smoked strips of beef. Good seasonings. Just the right thickness so it’s got some substance to it but it’s not too tough. Not too dry, not too moist. Without question it’s my go-to favorite.
Any time I drive by, I must stop in and pick up a 1 pound bag.
This past weekend I tried a few other things out. They now have a “hot” jerky and a buffalo jerky.
The buffalo was good. Thick chunks of meat. Very hearty. But you better love black pepper. It was very peppery. I enjoyed that, but my kids didn’t… just too much for them.
The “hot” would vary in heat. Some strips would leave a really good heat in your mouth, some strips would be nothing to sneeze at. The recipe also had a hint of sweetness to it, which I think complemented the heat.
Certainly I’m not giving up on my standard mesquite smoked jerky, but from time to time I’ll pick up a small bag of the other two depending how I’m feeling.
Now that I think about it, I should have picked up one of their smoked hams for Christmas dinner. Mmmm.
First Roast
A lot of Wife’s family are coming over to our house today for the annual Christmas season gathering. Should be fun.
I decided one of the roasts from my recent deer hunt would make for a fitting course. I also found some feral hog backstrap in the freezer and since we needed a little more meat to feed everyone, I thought making both would be good.
I decided to try out the crock pot approach.
Simple enough: flour, salt and pepper the meat then brown it in the skillet just to seal things up. Roughly cut up potatoes, carrots, onion. To the venison I added some whole cloves (started sticking them in the meat but it was so tedious I stopped and just put them in the pot). The pork got a mushroom-based broth. The venison a beef-based broth. Both enough liquid to cover everything (meat and veggies). A couple bay leaves in each. Also added a sliced up bell pepper and minced garlic to the pork.
Going to slow cook them for about 8 hours on “low” and we’ll see how they turn out.
It could be great. It could be a big disaster. Either way it’ll be fun to learn. 🙂
Updated: They turned out pretty good.
The cloves with the venison was an interesting twist. First, you have to like cloves (I do). If you do, give it a try. It added a really nice flavor to the venison. Nothing too strong, just a nice and different flavoring. The cloves also made the potatoes taste really cool. I don’t think we’ll use cloves all the time, but certainly it was cool to discover this mix.
The bell pepper made all the difference for the pork. It turned out very tender and just so flavorful from that one large bell pepper.
One key thing to do when serving is to keep all of the liquid the meat cooked in. Put some roast on your plate, shred it, then ladel some of the liquid onto the meat. Mmm.
Smoked Turkey
The past some years I’ve been smoking a turkey for Thanksgiving.
Let’s get the main joke out of the way…. how do you smoke a turkey? really big rolling papers. Or some have said since I live in Austin, I could use a bong or other sort of pipe. Ha ha ha. Joke over. 🙂
It started out of necessity: Continue reading
If only we could too…
Look at what I saw in my backyard a couple weeks ago:
Mind you I live in the city of Austin, tho obviously not downtown. There’s some flood control plots that run behind my house and coupled with the few hundred undeveloped acres connecting through (again, all for flood control and other “naturalization” stuff by the City), yeah we get all sorts of critters including deer and coyote. But for a city deer, he’s pretty good looking, isn’t he? Of course the majority of the deer we see on a daily basis are does and fawns or much younger bucks, but still the deer population in my backyard is pretty healthy. Over the years we’ve watched the same does come around, watched their children be born and grow up. And the deer population grows, unchecked.
The City seems to grant this is a problem. City of Austin recently passed an ordinance outlawing the feeding of deer. I know other similar legislative attempts have been made to control the deer population. Trouble is, the deer are oblivious to the hard work of our legislators. They don’t see your pretty flowers and landscaping as improving your house’s curb appeal… .no… the deer just see it as food. And the deer problems increase, because there’s a lot of this food about. The only threat to these deer are all the SUV’s driven by soccer mom’s with mobile phones glued to their ears. Unfortunately that’s not enough of a control measure.
Seems allowing hunters to hunt in urban areas is working to control the deer population. Whodathunkit?
I can understand people getting their panties in a wad over firearm-based hunting within city limits. But why not bow hunting? Mr. Buck above wasn’t but 25 yards from me. Certainly proper guidelines could be set down and the deer population could be better regulated. Furthermore, if the hunter didn’t want the venison, I’m sure the Capital Area Food Bank would be happy for the donation. Hell, Austin being Austin, I’d even find it acceptable if they made it a requirement of getting the “within the city hunting permit” to donate at least half of the meat to the CAFB.
But for now, all I can do is dream… and watch the deer play in my backyard. Hrm. Now if I could just get some buffalo roaming and antelope playing out behind my home too.
Could Be Oldest’s Favorite Website
Pickles and Beef Jerky… dot-com.
Looks to have been a short-lived venture into the world of pickles and beef jerky (natch). Yes, Oldest could love this website.
Things I found to be pretty cool:
He tried Alton Brown’s beef jerky. I always thought Alton’s approach was cool and have been curious about it, but the whole notion of using furnace air filters always put me off a bit. Just didn’t seem “food grade”. Still doesn’t. But the results seemed to be good.
He knows about Robertsons! You see, not too far north of Austin there is another Robertson’s in Salado, Texas. I always thought it was just the one store, but doing a road trip a couple years back I stumbled upon another Robertson’s up in Oklahoma. Turns out the one in Salado is actually a franchise, and they add a lot of their own products to the mix. I’m glad they do. I don’t like the “true” Roberston’s jerky… it’s hickory smoked and dry as a bone (sometimes brittle!); I know some folks like it this way, and it’s really not that horrible, but it’s just not my preference. However, the Choppin’ Block stuff the Salado folks make? Awesome. Any time I pass the store (conveniently located off Interstate 35 at exit 285) I stop in and pick up a 1 pound bag of the mesquite smoked beef jerky. The taste, texture, everything, just the best. And checking their website this morning to make this blog entry and lo… they have buffalo jerky! I’ll have to try some of that next time I pass through. They’ve got great smoked meats and cheeses too.
OK, I’m hungry now.
Stuff From Hsoi 