Show us what your cooking - Quarantine style!

[BrianInOhio]

Mike I read a lot before attempting and also read people kept logs of what they smoked. I figured I’d do the same. What I learned from my first smoke was they were a little smokey so next time I’ll back off an ounce of wood. I checked them at 5 hrs and thought I could pull them but went ahead and closed the door for an additional 30 minutes. Gave some cold one to my father in law last night and he texted me they were good.

 

[NDKoze]

Hopefully I get these descriptions in the correct order, it has been a long time since I posted some pictures.

"Chicken Spaghetti" The official name is Chicken Rotel
Slaw Burgers
Low Country Boil
Ham & Cheese Log
Breakfast food, Biscuits, Venison Sausage Home Cured Bacon
Steak and Shrimp
Biscuit and Lemon Curd
Club Sandwich
Custard Pie
Brats and Caramelized onions
Swedish Pancakes with blue berries and lemon curd whipped cream

Stay healthy and don't starve

*** After 3 attempts I cant get it in order, you will have t o try and match them up. ***

Hi Brian,

Just a suggestion for your labeling/order issue, you could change the name of the pictures since the file names do show up on your post. 

 

[barelfly]

This has turned out to be a great thread of cooks! Keep it up everyone! Share new stuff, your go to, whatever! Doesn’t have to be smoked or bbq, just keep posting or add to the post if you haven’t yet!

Great job all around! Seeing turkey the last few posts had me thinking of smoked turkey breast as well as some Disney style turkey legs!!!

 

[NDKoze]

I finally took the time to take advantage of a nice cool but windy day (wind really helps keep my A-MAZE-N smoker going) to smoke some cheese.

I smoked two packs of Gouda, one pack of Jarlsberg, and a pack of string cheese. Now, the hard part of waiting a couple of weeks for the smoke to meld and even out before testing.

This was truly a quarantine smoke. You can see my make shift computer station in the background on the pic of the vacuum sealed cheese.

 

[barelfly]

Gregg -

Are you only using the A-Maze-N pellet smoker unit, or is there some heat off the Smokin-it? I have yet to smoke cheese, I’m sure my wife would love it.

 

[NDKoze]

I only use the A-MAZE-N unit. I have a pellet/dust maze, a 6" tube, and a 18" tube for long smokes.

This time I used the tray. I take the smoke box out and set it right next to the hole in the bottom of the smoker to get as much air flow as I can. It ran fine for a good 4 hours and then the smoke did go out on me. I think that I need to get one of those aquarium pumps like the Bella smoker has and position the tube to blow some gentle air on the tray/tube to prevent it from going out.

Even with the tray, you have to be careful not to get the heat up too high as the tray/tube alone will get you close to the 90 degree range where your cheese will start melting.

I don't have a cold plate, but I do use frozen soda bottles on the very lowest shelf to help keep the heat down. You can use a tray filled with ice too, but you have to make sure that you seal it really tight because you don't want the moisture from the melting ice to get into the smoke chamber as moisture on the cheese is not good.

I give mine a fairly good does of smoke for 4 hours to get a good deep smoke flavor on the cheese. But, if you do this it will be pretty strong right out of the smoker, so packaging and letting the smoke flavor penetrate into the cheese and spread out more evenly is necessary. If you try a piece right out of the smoker, you will think that you ruined it, but you didn't. It just needs a good two week rest. And for hard cheeses, the longer you can let them age in your fridge the sharper that they will become. I have some aged cheddar in the bottom of my fridge that is over two years old. I only share that with VERY special people.

The string cheese on the other hand should be eaten fairly quickly after the two week wait. I would say you would want to eat it within a couple months or so as that will not age like a cheddar.

I am not a cheese smoking expert by any means, but I have smoked a fair amount of it and really enjoy it. Pairs really well for a wine tasting if you like wine.

 

[barelfly]

THanks for the info Gregg! That seems like an easy way to get some great smoked on cheese! Will have to get one of those tubes!

I had the 3D going today, did a 3:1 dry brine with brown sugar/demara and salt over night, rinsed and patted dry then back into the fridge for 5 hours for pellicle formation. Into the smoker with some peach wood. I read a few posts recently of doing a pre-warmup with the box, so I set for 150* for 30-45 minutes and then bumped up the temp to 200* until the salmon reached about 135*. I really liked this method, seemed to provide a nice stream of light smoke vs what can happen when going with the set temp right away. Definitely going to use this method in the future.

But, really enjoyed the salmon and grilled asparagus tonight!

 

[mike1910]

Beautiful color on that salmon. I bet it tasted just as good as it looks!

 

[barelfly]

Thanks Mike!

Here’s my next cook, which is a 3 step process and takes some time, but is fun and turns out good stuff! QVQ process I’ve read about here and other sites. Smoked a chuck roast this morning, rubbed with s/p, garlic powder, onion powder, mustard powder, and ancho chile powder. Smoked to an internal temp of 130* then bagged it and vac sealed and into a water bath to Sous Vide at 135* for 48 hours. So, Saturday, I’ll pull it from the bath and ice shock it and then use the Weber Kettle on Sunday with a 350* fire to reset the bark and bring back to 135*. Will slice and serve with au jus from the liquid left in the bag.

Will post the final pics on Sunday!

 

[mike1910]

Jeremy- I’m extremely intrigued as to how that turns out. Don’t know that I’ve ever heard of that 3 part process so I can’t wait to hear the results. I’m trying to figure out what to make this weekend. We’re finally seeing some decent weather, (upper 50’s) so something needs to find its way into the smoker! Although, ribs on the old Weber kettle don’t sound bad either. We’ll see

 

[Pork Belly]

Jeremy, great looking fish!

Greg good tip on the name change.

 

[NDKoze]

I am curious how Jeremy's cooks goes as well. I have done numerous Sous Vide chuck roasts, but have never added the smoke component.

This really seems like a solid plan, so I am looking forward to hearing how it goes.

 

[barelfly]

A quick update on the chuck - I let it go for just over 50 hours in the SV bath at 135*. I did a pinch test on it, which allows for you to determine the tenderness. There was definitely give in and I thought it would be perfect. So, i pulled it out of the bath and shocked it in ice water for about an hour and into the fridge it went. I’ll get it out today and fire up the Weber for a hotter warm up.

But last night, I made my absolute favorite dish to make - Paella. Normally I add clams and mussels but couldn’t find those this time, but you can’t go wrong with shrimp, chicken and homemade Spanish chorizo. I went to grab my paellera and it was nowhere to be found....must be at the lake house. So, went with the 17” Lodge cast iron, and it worked great.

Had a fun night with my wife and kids, they sat out on the patio with me while I cooked, had our first dinner on the patio for the year and then a fire and s’mores. With all this going on, consider myself fortunate to be able to have my health and family with me right now.

Enjoy your Sunday everyone!

 

[mike1910]

Jeremy- Great looking dish! If it weren’t for my shellfish allergy, I would love to try it. Sounds like you had the perfect evening. We also had fire with s’mores for the kids.  It was a beautiful day here (finally) and we as a family took full advantage and spent the day outside. I will be interested to see how the Chuck turns out. I’m working on a chicken Lo-Mein recipe on the Blackstone this evening. Hope to post some pics later, unless it’s an epic fail! Enjoy your Sunday

 

[mike1910]

Chicken Lo Mein on the Blackstone. It was a hit! Definitely a keeper. Hope everyone’s Sunday was good

 

[barelfly]

That’ looks like a great Lo Mein! Some good veggies and noodles to go with that great chicken! Love seeing those cooks on the Blackstone!

 

[barelfly]

I finished up the QVQ Chuck Roast today and I really enjoyed it. I couldn’t believe how tender this roast was with great flavor from the rub and smoke.

Today, the plan was to reheat the chuck with a 350* fire on the Weber, but I topped out at 300*, didn’t start enough fuel, but that was ok. We weren’t in a rush. I pulled the chuck from the bag, poured the leftover liquid into a pot to use for au jus/gravy for the mashed potatoes.

Onto the grill, and i think it took about 90-120 minutes total to get to temp, but it reset the bark, which is what I was after. Once it hit 132* internal, still below the sous vide cook temp of 135*, I pulled it and sliced as it was a rib roast.

The bonus of this cook - the au jus, man this stuff was amazing! We added a little water and red wine so we had more volume, a bit of corn starch to thicken and topped it on the mashed potatoes. It was so flavorful, bold from the beef and pepper, almost it was like my own A1 sauce in a way is what it reminded me of. 

This was a fork tender roast. I think the 50 hours in the sous vide bath was perfect. Any longer, and it would’ve been past what i was looking for. I probably could have turned this into pulled beef as well with that bath time. But, I think you get this type of texture with pot roast, but it still stayed together when slicing and had the great smoke flavor from the smoker/weber.

I think the only thing I would do different here, is add a bit more rub. Although my wife and kids thought it was balanced out well. One spice didn’t overwhelm, so I guess that’s good.

I have a few photos here, the chuck on the green plate is prior to the last smoke to show the unset bark. The rest, are through the smoke on the kettle.

A fun cook I’d do again!

 

[mike1910]

Jeremy- Looks like a complete success to me! Thanks for sharing your entire process, that was really interesting. I bet that gravy was to die for!

 

[BrianInOhio]

Jeremy and Mike you’re food looks amazing!

 

[Durangosmoker]

I did a chuck roast 2 weeks ago, not in the smoker, but sous vide, that sat in the water bath for 28 hours, and came out absolutely delicious. Texture was just where I like it, and I seared it in a cast iron skillet. I've done everything from 96 hours (way too soft and mealy), to 72 (better) to 48 (good), and now 28. I think the major tenderizing must come relatively early on, with the last bit happening more slowly over time. On my 28 hour cook, there was still a bit of silverskin that I had to cut out, so it will be fun to determine just how much more time i needed for that to go away.