Smoked Lake Trout (Mackinaw)

Catch a fish / Clean a fish.

Brine a fish. For the brine Chris uses a really basic recipe. Usually 1 cup rough salt (like kosher), 1 cup brown sugar, mixed with one gallon of water.

And you thought smoked fish came from the grocery!

Smoking on up.

For the smoke we use Alder. Although fruit woods such as apple and cherry turn out pretty well too.

Fourth of July Smoked Brisket

Rub Brisket with the rub of your choice. I went with a standard rub here but added a bunch of Garam Masala just to spice it up...


Laying it on the grill at 8 AM... I put the Brisket directly in a foil pan this time (instead of using a drip pan) to help protect the brisket from heat and mopped it with cider vinegar and the juices right out of the pan.


Here we are after smoking for 7 hrs. Just resting before the feast. It turned out fall apart tender. I always love the look on peoples face when they first see a smoked Brisket. That "you want me to eat that ?" expression. Then I get to watch them devour a plate and go for seconds... I guess it is a compliment but no one touched the bar-b-que sauce I made. Plates were wiped clean with crusty bread.

Pulled Pork (with North Carolina vinegar sauce)

Well, I've been having a hankering for some Bar-b-que... Some smoked butt and a nice vinegar based sauce with crushed red pepper. You know, a nice North Carolina style Pulled Pork. So I set my sights high and figured it was up to me.

Kinda, "Now. Here. This."

So I got myself busy.

This would be two quarts of water, some salt and some molasses.

Because everyone knows you don't have to, but you can "Brine your Swine".

This is the pork after a nice 12 hour bath in the stuff, rinsed and about to be patted dry.

I am pretty sure every one knows I like to rub my butt, just in case here is some photographic proof.

At this point, I like to wrap it up and let it sit in the fridge for a day, just to soak up all those tasty spices.

Bright and early Sunday Morning. The Smoker is at temp (200) and the meat has reached room temp. (about an hour)

Smoking away.

About half way done. Don't forget to mop hourly with a mix of Cider Vinegar and Kentucky Bourbon!

Bring to 190 internal temp (this was about 9 hrs)wrap in foil and let rest for 1 hour. Pull. drizzle with a thin piquant vinegar sauce (cider vinegar, brown sugar, ketchup, salt, crushed red pepper and water)

Eat up.

Smoked Mackinaw

I'd like to show you a picture of the Mack's that I caught up at the lake house and smoked... But as you can see... they were a hit.

Rub

Mix up some tasty Rub

Rub some tasty spices on the meat of your choice.

This just happens to be two Pork Loin.

Bar-b-que at195 at least 2 hours for complete smoke flavor saturation.

use meat thermometor to determine doneness.

Sorry no photos of the finished meal.

the food was gone before I could take a photo.

Oops.

Leftovers

We had a bunch of leftovers for dinner yesterday. Strawberries and grilled asparagus and salad and grilled toast and smoked pork roast. Yummy!

The Bounty of the Sea

Roadmap:
First, purge your shellfish... then you warm a small amount of olive oil in a pan. Add chopped garlic and saute till golden and aromatic, add diced yellow peppers, green onions(whites only, reserve the green for later) and your favorite hot peppers. Saute til tender. Add shellfish and your favorite chopped smoke grilled sausage, some dry white wine and simmer covered till shellfish open. Toss with the greens from the onion, sliced grape tomatoes and fresh chopped cilantro. Slice fresh crusty bread, rub with garlic clove, drizzle with E. V. O. Oil and toast in a pan or on a grill. Serve with your favorite beverage, adult or otherwise. For me it was a toss up so I had a little of both "Kung Fu Girl" Riesling and a wonderful redhook "ESB".

A Pork Roast and Smoked Salmon (by Association)

So I thought I'd smoke up a pork roast... and since there was space on the grill I thought, "Hey, I should throw some salmon on, I mean... A guy's gotta eat."

Thankfully, I have plenty of salmon courtesy of Canada this last August.

Salmon, after I introduced it to the BBQ.

The Pork Roast, Resting.

I Thank God for Meat
(and smoke rings!)

Smoked Pork Ribs

The Richland Facility is up and running!

Bachelor Party BBQ

Well, Chris and I cooked for a little party. We ended up smoking 5 racks of ribs, about 30+ lbs of meat. About twelve guys showed up. What followed can only be described as lots of great eating, great drinking, and laying around in the yard.

Chris getting his rub on.

Beer

Smokin' Away

Beer Baste

Beautiful

Smoked Pork Butt with grilled Fennel, Zucchini and Veg. Rice

Relax, Pork Butt is really just a shoulder cut.
Smoke your pork butt. See the smoke ring?

Let your Pork Butt rest while you grill the Fennel and Zucchini.

Serve this up with some brown rice and Veg.

V-8 can Rootbeer Game Hens

Prepped Gazpacho fixins...

Getting my grind on...

Cucumber and onion salad with red pepper.

Game hens in a 3 hour bath of rootbeer, scallions, cinnamon sticks, corriander seed, ginger and garlic.

Oiled up, rubbed and ready to go.

Tasty, Tasty goodness!