Recipes

RO - BTW, assuming you have a charcoal smoker? I have one of the small round 2-rack kettle type charcoal smokers and that is ample for most anything I'd want to smoke. They used to be about $35 on sale, but like everything else they have more than doubled in price in the last 5 or so years.They will last a very long time if they're taken care of. The big thing is getting the racks sprayed and then cleaned soon after use if smoking anything that has salt in it.

The primary thing I'll use this for is smoked salmon that is marinated in a teriyaki style marinade. The base for that is usually 2/3rds soy sauce to 1/3rd brown sugar, but can be altered to taste depnding if you like it sweeter or not.

I find that fish is really the only thing critical time-wise in the smoker as most meats will give you a +/- 1 hr window with no significant change. Overcook fish and you'll wind up with fish jerky that is only good for dog treats at that point.

When having a party, these things work great for burgers/dogs. You can throw them on there and enjoy your company while they cook, and are ready to serve anywhere from 1-3 hrs later. I'll use the water pan but not add wood when using it like that.

I do a similar rub ingredient-wise. I'll rub with a generous amount of brown sugar, then sprinkle on a good coat of garlic powder and paprika and a lighter sprinkle of some home-made ground pepper powder made from dehydrated portuguese and/or hungarian hot peppers.

You don't get the smokey flavor, but these also come out phenomenal in the oven at 215F for 6-7 hours. You have to take them off the pan using spatulas because they fall apart. The brown sugar makes a nice bark but does not burn at that temp, and the bark locks in all of the juices.

Smoking some ribs on this rare 85 degree day here in Michigan:
Put together a batch of my Dry Rub and wrote it down for my son
(1) Rack of your favorite ribs ( I like Costco Ribs)

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup paprika
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Optional: teaspoon of Cumin
I reccomend at least 3 hours in the fridge, overnight is best (wrapped in cling wrap)
After Smoking use your favorite Sauce, wrap and heat another hour, then rest an hour 3,1,1 (smoke wrap Rest)

I know we said we weren't going to buy any meat for a while, but large end rib roast is on sale for $6/lb at Shaw's by us and we're out of Fred Flintstone steaks.

Not really a recipe per se, but I will cut a large end into 4 steaks that are cartoonishly large, hence the "Fred Flintstone steak". I simply rub with olive oil and coat with Montreal steak seasoning and cook it on a high heat on the grill. Very yummy.

I may pre-cook some to rare and vacuum seal them so we can try out our Sous Vide. Ocean State Job Lots still has them for $99.99 and you get a $99.99 Crazy Deal gift card, which basically makes them free if you have other things that you intend to buy there, which we did.

I had mentioned this in the What's for Dinner topic, but if you're gluten free and want to try an exceptional GF cake recipe, Google "Clementine cake recipe".

As mentioned, I'm not really a cake fan so for me to comment about a cake recipe is saying something. Two of our 3 daughters are GF so this is kind of a go-to recipe for dessert for us when they're over for dinner.

Seems like we see enough of these kinds of posts to warrant it's own topic. Feel free to use this or just post in the What's for dinner topic as you have if you wish. Might be easier to find things in a dedicated topic though.