Farts and Darts

Last Saturday, the Sullivans were invited out for a grilled meal of bison burgers at brother-in-law Adam Ardolino's place in Anamosa, Iowa. Saturday is dart night at the Ardolino's. So we were arriving early for this lovely grilled meal. The Dr. decided to bring a side dish; smoked baked beans. The smoked flavor is brought about by smoking a 1 lb ham steak. The baked beans are spiced up using yellow mustard, tangy bbq sauce and dark beer.

Smoking the Ham Steak:

Ingredients:

1 lb ham steak
Mustard Slather:
1/4 cup dijon mustard
1/4 cup tangy bbq sauce
1 tblsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp beer

Ham Rub
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cayenne powder
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp black pepper


Mix the slather ingredients in a shallow bowl and brush over the ham steak. Sprinkle the rub over each side of the ham.

Smoke the ham steak using apple chips providing the smoke. 1 hour at 220 deg F

Spicing up the Beans:

The beans are cooked in a medium crock pot. Add 1 large can of baked beans to the pot. Add 1/2 cup yellow mustard and 1/2 cup tangy bbq sauce. Cube the smoked ham steak into 1/2" pieces and add them to the crock pot. Chop up 1/2 an onion and add to the bean mixture. Cook on high heat for 1 hour and then turn down to low heat.

The beans were an excellent compliment to the bison burgers.

Of course digestion of baked beans and beef set up a gas generation system within each of us. The night's dart competition quickly became aromatic. Nevertheless, a fine time was had by all, odors not withstanding. The beans were a smoking success!

What a great promo!!

You know, I'm a little disappointed that they didn't give me a call to help out with this momentous event! Sounds like half of the country was there cooking or eating! Can you imagine the aroma ... even twenty miles away?? I'll bet there was a spike in the temperature of the town. Probably changed the weather pattern for the area!

When your chief export is beef, what better way to promote your product than to have a barbecue! I had no idea that they exported so much beef to the United States. That steak I had last night may have been some of Uruguay's finest. Who knows. The grocery store sure doesn't advertise their suppliers.

Here's the story!

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay - One of South America's smallest countries proved on Sunday it can hold the biggest barbecue in the world.

Some 1,250 Uruguayan grillmeisters sizzled up 26,400 pounds (12,000 kilograms) of beef Sunday, beating a 2006 record set in Mexico.

"It's all so beautiful. It's a record," Guinness World Records judge Danny Girton said after the chefs, in white hats and aprons, smoked and barbecued their way into the record book with help of 6 tons of charcoal and 1,500 metal barbecue stands.

The barbecue was so big that firefighters were called in to light the grills and make sure the flames did not get out of hand. It beat the previous record of 17,600 pounds (8,000 kilograms) of beef, Girton said.

Uruguay, a ranching and farming nation, last year exported more than US$1 billion (euro630 million) in beef — its chief export.

The load of meat cooked Sunday set off swirling clouds of aromatic smoke, as 20,000 spectators devoured the cuts quickly.

Blarney to Rest

St Patrick's Day has come and gone. Just because it was on a weekday, a Monday!, didn't deter the Dr. At 4:00 AM, two of the three corned beef briskets were finishing in the oven. They started at 325 degrees F for an hour, then the temp was turned down to 250 degrees F for two hours. One brisket was presented to the folks who build printed circuit boards at Collins Printed Circuits, and the other was presented to the mighty Maintenance Crew at CPC. These folks do a fine job, working hard every day. So a portion of smoked corned beef seemed perfect for them all.

The reception of the smoked corned beef was everything the Dr. could have asked. Several folks commented that they had never had better corned beef. The briskets disappeared by 9:30AM. So the Dr. was definitely loooking forward to St. Patrick's day dinner at the Sullivan household.

Lovely Linda Sullivan had agreed to make boiled corned beef plus potatos and cabbage. So when the Dr. got home, the Irish aroma was wafting through the house. A real plus was that the cabbage cores had been left for munching. This is a real treat. Pick a piece of cabbage core, salt and much...fabulous!

The third corned beef brisket was quickly put into the oven for the same treatment as the other two; one hour at 325 degrees F plus two hours at 250 degrees F. Everything was ready for dinner at 7PM. Our guests were the Murrys, Dale, Michelle and Brandon fresh up to Iowa from southwest Missouri. This winte has been a shock for them, yet they still find ways to get out of the house and go through the snow.

St. Patrick's dinner was a smashing success! The contrast between smoked corned beef brisket and boiled corned beef brisket was interesting and delicious. Both briskets had much to commend them, and each should be tried.

Here is the smokede corneed beef.

Here is the boiled corned beef.

Enjoy that Irish fare!

Blarney's A Smokin'!

The corned beef is in the Big Drum Smoker. I made a mustard slather containing 1/2 cup of yellow mustard and 1/4 cup of Dijon mustard. The dry spices include Corriander, Black Pepper and Garlic Powder. Everything rubbed in and placed into the smoker. The smoking wood is Oak. This is some fabulous taste.

The Blarney's Arisin'

What a great year! St. Patrick's Day is the Spring Equinox this year. The Dr. is smoking corned beef. I bought 4 corned beef briskets, all square cut. Three of these are going to be smoked and one is going to the Lovely Linda for boiled corned beef and cabbage. Monday, St. Patrick's Day, is when the corned beef reign's supreme. One brisket goes to those fine hard working men of Collins Printed Circuits' facilities maintenance. The next goes for sampling by the folks at Collins Printed Circuits (basically, I'm taking it into work). The third stays at home for St. Pat's dinner.

So, for the three briskets for smoking, it was time to get the salt out of the corned beef. Corned beef is made to be preserved by salt. This is wonderful for boiled corned beef and cabbage because the cabbage absorbes the salt from the corned beef when the two are boiled together. I love boiled corned beef and cabbage, especially made by Lovely Linda. However, smoking intensivizes salt flavor, so we soak corned beef to leach out the salt. I soaked the three briskets in cold water for four hours, changing out the water every hour.

Then, it was time to marinate. I chose my favorite this time, Guiness. The corned beef briskets come with a spice packet, so I put those in the marinade. The briskets are large, so two Guiness per briskets was just right. Everything is ready for a long smoke tomorrow.

It's Texas Chili Time!

Last week, the Dr. became ensnared in that great chili debate: Beans, or No Beans. The Dr., having spent his young adult life in Texas, learned what great chili tastes like. AND he says NO BEANS! However, there are many folks here in Iowa (including the lovely Linda Sullivan) who say BEANS WITH YOU! So the Dr. set out to show them the errors of their ways.

With the aid of Mild Bill's Spices, found at http://www.mildbills.com/ I found the recipe which won at last year's World Chili Cookoff Championship in Terlingua, TX. This recipe is titled 'Deb's Hot Rod Chili' by Debbie Ashman, just struck my fancy. Also, Mild Bill's sells almost all of the spices found in this recipe. So, I got on line and placed my order.

Now, Mild Bill's offers several different package sizes, and I didn't want to run out when making this recipe. So...I ordered in the medium package size (5 oz). You would think that someone with a Chemical Engineering degree and a lifetime of measuring things would understand how much he was ordering, BUT NO! In my defense, I have mostly been dealing with liquid measurements during my lifetime (mostly in the 12oz variety), and I didn't have a feel for solid measurements. Needless to say, when I got my order from Mild Bill's, I realized I could supply a small 3rd world country with chili for the next year! Here is a picture of all of the spices I ordered:

I'll tell you, I am delighted with the service and quality provided by Mild Bill's. The spices arrived in just a few days, and they were fabulous! The value for teh price was also very good. If I wanted to buy this much spice volume in any store, I would pay over $200. My entire order including shipping was less than $80. Now, on to the chili...

First, the meat...In Iowa, most folks use fine ground beef for chili meat. In Texas, most chili uses coarse ground meat, including lamb, venison, beef & pork. I decided to use bottom round beef, cut in 1/2 inch cubes. I bought tenderized bottom round beef and sliced it wile waiting endlessly for the Mediacom service desk to answer their phone (but that's another story). I decided to use my cast iron dutch oven for brewing this masterpiece, so I heated it up on the stove to 'grey' the meat(in other words, fry the meat until it is grey on all sides).

As you can see, the dutch oven's legs keep the ccoking surface above the cooking element. This helps even out the heat rising to the dutch oven. The cast iron of this dutch oven is thick enough to distribute the heat well too.

Cubed meat before and after 'greying'

I then added 8 oz of El Pato hot tomato sauce. Those of you living in Texas may be able to find this in the local supermarket, but in Iowa, I had to go down to our local Mexican restaurant and food market to find this smooth, flagrant sauce containing jalepenos, onions and tomatos blended into a sauce.

Combined with 15oz of beef stock, the mixture was brought to a medium boil.

Then the first dump of spices was added:

1 Tbsp onion powder*
2 tsp garlic powder*
2 tsp beef crystals
1 tsp of chicken crystals
1 Tbsp of Pacific Beauty Paprika*
1 Tbsp of Mexene Chili Powder
½ tsp cayenne*
¼ tsp black pepper*
1 package Sazon Goya*

NOTE: Mexene powder cannot be found in Cedar Rapids, Iowa! If you can't find it, add 1 par cumin, 1 part oregano and 1 part chili powder.

Here is the first dump:

Man! The smell was fabulous!

I set the temperature for a medium boil, and held it there for an hour. At the end of the hour, half of the liquid had boiled off. The spices had infused with the meat. Time to add the 2nd spice dump:

1 Tbsp of Mexene Chili Powder
1 Tbsp of Hatch Mild Chili Powder*
2 Tbsp Cowtown Light chili powder*
1 Tbsp Mild Bills dark chili powder*
1 tsp cumin*
¼ tsp white pepper*

Then another 45 minutes of medium boil which took most of the liquid from the chili! Now, I had to deviate from the recipe! So, I added a can of beer (surprise!), and got the 3rd dump ready.

1 tsp onion powder*
1 tsp garlic salt
1/4 tsp cayenne*
¾ Tbsp Cowtown Light Chili Powder*
1 Tbsp cumin*

Folks, you can't believe the fragrance of these spices!

Another 15 minutes at medium boil, and it was time to taste. Those of you who know the Dr. understand that he is folicly challenged. The first taste of ONE piece of meat set a sweat on teh crown of my head! Whoooo Doggies!

Then, it was time to put the dutch oven into the garage (temperature 9 degrees) over night.

The next morning, I heated the chili up in a crockpot and took it ot work. Soon, chili smells wafted through the office area.

One note: This recipe is for cookoff tasting situations. 2 lbs of meat is not enough for a decent sized meal for more than 5 folks. But, the heat was enough so that the folks in the office were content to just 'taste'.

Bottom line: Iowa folks can get to like that Texas Chili! Reviews were positive (the best chili I've ever had).

NO BEANS!

SMoking for Big Bros. - Finale

Oh well. Not enough folks signed up to bring in sandwiches or soup to feed the masses predicted to turn out for a CPC luncheon. So the event has been cancelled, and the pork shoulder is going to stay in the freezer to await another occasion. Best laid plans, etc., etc.

The smoked pork loin roast was very tasty last night. So there was some consolation.

Until next time...


Dr. Dave

Smoking for Big Bros. Update

Ten hours later, and the pork shoulder is done! I wrapped it in foil and then in cellophane, and it is now cooling its heels (shoulder?) waiting for Wednesday night. The plan is to finish the shoulder in the oven, shred the pork and keep it warm in the crock pot lightly coated with BBQ sauce. Cole slaw and buns will be assembled Wednesday night as well.

The Dr. is open to trying a sauce recipe if anyone has suggestions!

Dr. Dave