My buddy Chris whom I have now officially dubbed the bionic man sent me an article from the NY Times about the Bacon Explosion. 

This little concoction is not for the faint of heart or the vegetarian.  Basically this is a bacon wrapped roll of sausage that is stuffed with bacon.  Yes, you have to head on over to The BBQ Addicts site and see how this is made. 

I am not sure if I will ever smoke something like this but then again I have fried bacon and smoked apple pies.  It just might have to be something we try at the ranch.  Better yet,  I may have to get some of those crazy kids from Planet Texas or Let It Smoke Kookers to give it a try the next time they are out there cooking.

Thanks for the heads up Chris!  I'm sure my heart appreciates the recipe.

Posted by danny at 09:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Nothing smells better on a Sunday afternoon than slow smoked ribs.  We are big fans of ribs and there are thousands of great ways to cook them.  They can come sloppy wet, sweet and tangy, dry and tender, or even deep fried (yeah I have done that too).

Today I am going to go through my process of slow smoked dry ribs.  This is a lot like the way I used to cook them in competition with the exception of secret spices. 

When shopping for your ribs, try to to get St. Louis Cut pork spare ribs.

These are sometimes also called "three-two ribs" or "Three Downs".

Just try to keep the size less than four pounds if they are untrimmed.  That way when they get trimmed they will lose about a pound.   These ribs will be cooked with a sweet spice.  Most of the rub includes brown sugar.  One I like to use is called Gordon's Grub Rub. 

It has a pretty mild flavor and mixes well with any sauce. Use whatever makes you happy.  If you want a spicy sweet rib, use a rub that has more pepper or mustard. 

Preparing your ribs is one of the most important parts to making a good rib.  After you have your smoker started and the temperature is ready, take your ribs out and make sure to wash and dry them.  Get all the water off the ribs so the rub sets into the meat well.

When trimming the ribs you want to remove any extra fat from the ribs. 

Also remove the cartilage from the bones so all you have are short meaty ribs.  After the fat is trimmed down remove the caps from the ribs.  This is the soft cartilage part of the rib.  This is best done with a cleaver.

Make sure to cut along the bone of the actual rib.  This will ensure that all you bite into is sweet ribs and not a bunch of fat or cartilage. 

Even though we don't want to keep these together they are still tasty.  You can cook these closer to the fire and they will give you a little half way point treat.  They also will give you an idea if your rub is working out. 

Once the ribs are trimmed the next step is to remove the thick membrane off the back side of the ribs.  This is what can make a rib tough.  To remove the membrane flip the ribs over and run your finger just under the membrane.  If the ribs are good and dry it should come off easily.

If the membrane is hard to pull off grab a tea towel and use it for leverage.  You can also use a butter knife to help get the membrane loose.

Once the trimming process is completed, the ribs should look like this.  MMMMMMM  Yummy.

the next step is to apply the rub.  This should be "rubbed" in not just sprinkled.  Coat the ribs and the rib trimmings thoroughly with the spices. 

This is also one of those great times to get your kids involved.  They get to hang with you and feel like they are being a part of the process.

Let the ribs set for a few minutes and make sure your smoker is ready to rock.  I like to cook my ribs between 200 and 250. 

This will ensure a good 5 hour cook.  Yeah, slow smoking is slow but there is a trick to enjoying the time.  This is also a good time to send your buddies off for the Bee Double E Double R-U- N.  BEER RUN!

Generally I hang my ribs but for this cooking we were also roasting corn so we had to lay them flat.  Just make sure to keep the ribs as far away from direct heat as possible. 

Once they are set in the smoker take a good look and shut the door.  You won't be back for at least 2 hours.

If there is room on the smoker add the trimmings to the hot side of the pit.  These will cook fast and make a good snack about half way through the cooking.  My kids love these and they are ready just about the time they start to complain that it is taking too long.

After about two hours, I go out and spray the ribs down with a little apple juice.  This ensures that there is still moisture on the outside and the ribs get a little sweeter. After about 3 hours the trimmings are ready.  My kids call them RIB-EEESS!

These cook closer to 350 degrees so they cook faster.  These are only for serious rib eaters.  you have to eat around all the junk to get a good hunk of meat. 

They are pretty good to share with a little dog too.  I don't think much is going to hit the floor.

Let the ribs smoke for a few more hours.  After the trimmings feast it is generally best to rest. (Yes, we are all asleep.)

 Once the nap is over the ribs should be close to done.  Take them out and let the ribs set for about 10 minutes. The ribs should look almost jet black.

Another indicator of doneness is if the meat is pulled back from the bone about  to 1.5 inches.

Cut the ribs down and then enjoy with your family. These are relatively dry but can be basted with sauce to make them sticky.

And that is the way that I like to cook ribs. Our family loves them with strawberry pie too!

God Bless Texas and God Bless the BBQ!

Posted by danny at 06:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This smoked chicken is one of my favorite recipes.  Not only does it look rather cool, the technique creates the juiciest chicken you will ever eat. 

I picked up the recipe from a crazy Pharmacist cooker in George West.  If you are ever at a cook-off and see a rowdy bunch called the Drug Store Cowboys stop in, ask for Tim and tell him Danny from Houston sent you by.  You may not get to eat any BBQ or find out their secrets but you will definitely be welcomed.   

What your gonna need:

• Small fryer chicken. I like the Kosher chickens because they are smaller
• Some small oranges
• Yellow Onion
• Chicken Rub (Use a basic rub nothing with Chinese 5 Spice it will make the crust bitter)
• Cotton Ham Netting - You can get this at Butcher Supply Stores
• Any type of vinegar based mop.  Or just use orange juice with a little oil in it.

The big secret to this type of chicken is that the netting will keep the chicken real tight so the juices are forced to run through the meat. 

We always suspend this chicken in our smoker so the chicken cooks evenly.  This is not a one hour chicken either.  It is one that takes a good 5 hours to slow smoke.

Prep your chicken and stuff it with a couple oranges and half an onion.

Take your netting and slide the chicken in leaving enough room on either side to tie a knot.  The check will be suspended with the breasts facing town and the legs at the top.  So leave about 5 inches of netting on the top to tie to your smoke box. (Note:  this can get messy so make sure and wear an apron.  The netting is not easy to manipulate.)

Rub the outside of the chicken with orange juice and your chicken rub.

Get the birds on the smoker that is roughly 200 to 225 degrees.  You should smoke these for about 4 to 5 hours basting with your mop every half hour after the first three hours of cooking. 

Because of the netting the goodness inside just simmers and doesnt leak out.  This will be one juicy bird when your done.  After the chicken is cooked to doneness and the juices run clear the bird is ready .

Remove the birds and let them sit for about 10 minutes before you cut open the netting. 

For competition just split the birds in half.  Otherwise just get on it and start enjoying the feast.  For those that compete, be careful using this technique.  Some judges consider it "marking" your entry so you could get disqualified.  It will stand out in the crowd not only in appearance but in taste too.

Hope you enjoy the yard bird!

Posted by danny at 08:57 AM | Permalink

Cooking is just as much a passion as photography is for me and getting creative is always fun.  My kids love helping out and REALLY enjoy eating the goods once their done.  The best part is getting them to help me. 

Whitney and I wanted to smoke an apple pie to go with or dinner but we decided to try something different.  We still have not decided on a recipe name so suggestions would be helpful.

Here are the ingredients:

• 8 apples - whatever kind you like granny smith works best though
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 3 Tablespoons of cinnamon
• 1 Teaspoon of nutmeg
• PreMade refrigerated pie crust

Generally you would do this in the last couple hours of BBQ for the day.  I don't know why you would want smoked apples without a bunch of BBQ chicken, ribs and other goods to go along side it.  The smoker can be relatively hot (around 250 to 300) degrees.  Once you are there than start getting the apples ready.

First you want to peel and core your apples.  We use this handy dandy apple peeler.

Mix the sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg in a bowl and roll each apple completely coating them. 

Set the apples aside and roll out your pie dough.  Cut the dough into four pieces.

Take each piece and wrap the apples with the dough. 

Set the apples on a pan with the exposed apple side down.  Make sure and use a pan or glass dish you don't mind roughing up a bit.  It will get rather nasty in the smoker. 

Since this was a test recipe we first tried to cook the apples in our little pot smoker. 

Unfortunately it was going to take too long for the smoker to get to temperature so we moved it to the big smoker.  Cooke the apples on the hot side of your smoker for about one hour.  Most smoked pies work best with a fruit or nut wood.  We use Cherry, Apple and Pecan wood for the process. 

We also threw in a real apple pie.  Some people don't believe me that I smoke pies but here is proof.  They are delicious and top off any great BBQ meal.

When the apples are done the crust will look golden brown.  This is the same for the pie.  Remove from the smoker and let sit a few minutes.

These little nuggets of happiness ROCKED.  Our neighbors came by and tried them out just to confirm they were as super-ramma-lamma-ding-dong good as we thought.   They may send you to the hospital if you add ice cream to them so be careful!

Oh and the Apple pie kicked butt too!

So try it out for yourself and let us know what you think.  It is a ridiculously easy recipe that kids can help with. 

Posted by danny at 07:44 AM | Permalink

So we stoked up the clay pots today but with the pork butt.  I have never cooked a pork butt but learned a valuable lesson.  It is a tasty piece of meat but is better to cook it super slow.   

I started the 8.5 pound meat around 9:00 this morning and took it off around 7 this evening. It was internally close to 180 degrees.  The meat was good and tender but not "pulled pork".  But this was nothing the old Chinese Meat Cleaver couldn't fix. 

I found out after reading a few forums that the best pulled pork is around 200 internally.  Now this is pretty hot for meat temp so going from 180 to 200 could take another 10 hours.  We will just have to see how it goes next time. 

So the meat is done the kids are resting and we are headed to my dads house tomorrow.  He wanted BBQ for fathers day so I had to obliged.  We will have pictures of the fun tomorrow.

Posted by danny at 03:34 AM | Permalink

First let me welcome everyone to our new blog.  It has been a while and I have fought this but have finally decided to create one. 

I thought the best way to kick this blog off is by discussing two of my passions.  One is photography and the other is cooking.  SO as you can guess I take a lot of pictures of cooking.  Today we took a swag at building our very own clay smoker.  The smoker consists of the following items:

1. 21 Inch tall clay pot
2. 21 inch short clay pot
3. 9 inch electric burner
4. 18 inch grill grate
5. smoker thermometer
6. heavy duty pie pan

With these items I was able to construct basically a cheap version of The Big Green Egg.  While these are very cool they are very expensive.  The total cost for the items above was about 65 dollars. 

Today we started our smoker with trial run of Turkey legs.  We are smoking them with Hickory and Cherry Wood.  Checkout the pictures of the build.

 So far this seems to be pretty cool.  It looks like the smoke stays quite consistent and cooks at a relatively low heat.  Approximately 200 degrees.  Well once the turkey is done we will let everyone know how it is. 

Tomorrow we are smoking a pork butt so that should be an interesting experiment.  Of all the meat I have cooked, a pork butt is something I have never tried. 

Posted by danny at 11:04 PM | Permalink