TLW got me a birthday present that has been on the wish list for years. A smoker. I chose Weber’s Smokey Mountain Cooker (aka The Weber Bullet) because it’s only a smoker (I don’t need two grills), it’s a Weber product, it’s fairly compact and it’s tried and true with a big following of Internet devotees.
Finally found the time to try out the The Weber smoker. I got a pork blade shoulder from Safeway, marinated it with some hot Carolina vinegar in a vacuum bag for a day and started up the bullet for a ten hour smoke. Lighting the charcoal and placing in some hickory wood and adjusting the resultant heat to 225F and keeping it was there was straightforward. We brushed the roast with barbecue sauce at the start and again mid-way through.
So here we have:
A 7 pound pork butt yielded only 2.25 pounds of shredded pork ready for tacos or pulled pork sandwiches. But I have a problem with this meat. It’s fat. I didn’t pull the roast apart until the following morning when the meat was cold, so the fat was more clearly apparent than if the roast was pulled hot and served a la minute.
I am beginning to gain insight as to why every smoker chef to publish a cookbook and put his picture on it appears, shall we say, well rounded. First, one needs fortification during the arduous ten hour smoking process–perhaps a beer an hour. Second, the product has a high fat content.
Honestly, We’re not sure we’re going to eat this stuff . . .
While shopping for a smoker, we came across some grilling skewers made of 3/32″ stainless steel preformed cable. They have a loop on one end and a fixed probe on the other. With meat and veggies strung on the cable, the loaded cable can be dangled, loop-side-down, and formed to fit onto the grill any which way that works best, straight out, serpentine or circled–with the probe end extended over the edge of the grill grate, if you wish. Since stainless steel is non-reactive, raw product, skewer and all, can be marinated if you are using only one marinade for both veggies and meat (not to my liking). They are really long–30 inches! Sufficient to load enough food for two on each skewer. Manufactured by Inno-Labs (firewiregrilling.com), the FireWire won a kitchen gadget award last year. Big Green Egg vendors have them and others too. Preformed cable is expensive–the skewers are $20 the pair. But neato!
Eggplants look glorious this time of year. Stack ‘em high! This is a nice vegetarian dish or a great side with a small meat portion. BTW, I’ve given up on “salting to sweat” eggplant. The science is shakey and it adds too much salt: just oil them up and go.
Just got this book on wood fire cookery and it looks rather far out, but with recipes that are unique and interesting, such as Beef and Potato Pie, Pork Tenderloin w/ Burnt Brown Sugar, Orange Confit & Thyme, Patagonian Potato Gelette and Smashed Potatoes w/ Tapenade Crust. The author is a famous Argentine chef/owner, restaurateur and TV showman.
All the veggies seemed to have gotten lost in the high heat. Maybe they were overcooked but everything was done in series (more French then Chinese). The shrimp and the rib eye strips were fine…the dinner guests loved it all…but I got to work on high heat wok cooking.