Pork Spare Ribs Experience

I have cooked lots of ribs, both pork and beef. Some good and some not so good. But this was a surprise cook.
 My wife likes to sometime BBQ chicken, but never wants to fire off one of my smokers. So way back when she bought the most el-cheap-o kettle grill she could find. I am sure it came from wal-mart its a sunbeam brand. Anyway I wanted to smoke some spear ribs but didn't want to fire off one of the bigger smokers either. The sunbeam is setting there covered in dust and pine pollen, although it is under the patio. I says well ok then, lets give it a try. Wifes chicken always comes out good. I drag it out and give it a good bath, check it over (just to see how it works) looks simple.Air in and air out with a grate for the ribs. All I need is fire and smoke. Start my charcoal in the charcoal starter. add a few more coals and some pecan wood. Got the ribs all seasoned up and the fire going (No temp gauge).
Ribs Trimmed & Seasoned: 

 Used a temp gauge stuck through the exhaust vent,bottom air completely closed off temp was at 350°. Way hotter than I wanted was looking for about 250°. Knowing not to close the exhaust vent I did close it most of the way. Temp dropped to 300°. At this point I think what ever. After 2.5 hours I got this surprised result.I was thinking crispy critters.
Ribs just from the smoker and Saused:

 Some of the best ribs I have ever smoked, tender, moist, bite through and just the right amount of smoke. Yep I learned something, I need to cook with more heat And milder smoke. Lets have some good eats: Hope you enjoyed the story it was a fun and rewarding experiencce. Bill

Beef its whats for supper.

Digging around in the freezer , I found a brisket. Just looking at it, I says man I need to smoke this thing. Yep so I did.
I sure don't know how I missed seeing this brisket, but I had.
Got it all thawed out, trimmed and rubbed good with salt, pepper and garlic. This is a new rub from sucklebusters.com products. Its called SPG. Dan was kind to send me a nice sample. So here it is.
Beef Brisket Smoker ready: 

This is CAB choice 17 pound Brisket. I don't usually buy brisket this big But I had bought a case and this one was in it. Rest assured I have not bought any lately, beef is just priced to high for me right now.
 Got the UDS smoker going temp set at 275°, thin blue smoke coming from smoker. Using Royal Oak charcoal and hickory wood for heat and smoke. Man, just the smoke smell makes me hungry. Smoked until internal temp was 195°, removed from smoker, wrapped in brown paper and towel and placed in cooler to rest couple hours.
Ready to slice and dice:

I like the bark color, and the poke test was like very soft butter. So lets have a look at the inside.
Sliced, now for some taste test:

Yes its good, what more can I say, but You need to cook yourself one. As this one is now all gone. Bill

Pork Loin, Cured and Smoked

I really haven't done much with pork loin. Most that I have cooked were very dry and with little fat. Well, I bought another one couple weeks ago, hey, they were on sale. ($1.99 whole loin, not tender loin).
 Anyway I wanted to do something different, was thinking canadian bacon. But I already had regular bacon cure made up so that is what I decided to use.
Trimmed it up just to remove a few loose thin pieces. Did have to remove any fat because it didn't have any.
For the something different: After washing and patting dry, I rubbed it down real good with Pure Cane Syrup. Then applied my goto dry bacon rub.

 Recipe: 

Bill’s Homemade Bacon

Ingredients:

One 5# pork belly, rind removed

¼ cup of salt

1 teaspoon pink salt, “the curing salt containing sodium nitrite, not pink-colored salt”

Flavor, ¾ cup of Honey, maple syrup or brown sugar.

Mix all flavor ingredients together.

 Rub pork belly with your cure. Be sure and cover completely and rub in good.

Place pork in a large ziplock bag and place in refrigerator. Turn over every day for at least a week. Some liquid will form in the bag, this is good, do not pour off liquid.

At the end of the week, remove from bag, and rinse under cold running water (several times) Pat dry with paper towels. Place back in refrigerator in an open container so that it dries well . It should be tacky to touch. Coat with course ground black pepper.

Smoking Bacon.

Heat smoker to 150° Place bacon in smoker hang or place on grates. Add your smoking wood, your choice, I like pecan or hickory. Fruit woods are nice also. Smoke for color and flavor. When the color you like is reached, increase pit temp to 200°. When the internal temp of your bacon is 156° remove from smoker. We are not trying to cook the bacon, just trying to kill off any bugs.

Cool before slicing, I put mine back in the refrigerator.

I placed loin in zip lock bag, cured in the refrigerator for 15 days, turning everyday. The cure time was longer than bacon because the loin was thicker. I didn't inject the loin so wanted to be sure it was cured all the way through. 

Pork Loin after Curing: 

After washing and drying I added a nice coat of course ground black pepper:
Smoked with hickory and pecan wood. Smoke time was about 6 hours, raised the smoked temp to 200°. Pulled from smoker when internal temp was 160°.

Just out of the Smoker:

Let it cool until room temperature, wrapped with cling wrap and refrigerated over night.
Next morning, on to the slicer. I sliced it about 1/8" thick. You can be sure I had to have a taste. It is moist, tender, peppery and quite good eats.

Freezer Ready:

I will be doing this again. Hope you try it, its good eats. Bill

Getting low on most every thing.

Sausage is about all gone so is the bacon. I have been reading where pork prices are coming down. This is at the wholesale level, don't know if it will help consumers
much. Checked pork belly Friday (1-30-2015) was not good $3.70 pound skin off. He had another belly called compart (never heard of that) vendor said it was much better pork. Yeah at $4.00 something a pound it would have to be real good. I didn't order any.
But gonna have to have a bacon feast soon.

 So what I have been doing is smoking some? I have been BBQing some freezer treasures. You know like pork butt, chicken and ribs. Things I have been saving for hard times, well its time.

Pork Ribs:
These were rubbed with hoochie Mama rub from Sucklebusters. Then sauced with my own sauce. Just the way my wife likes them.

They were really good, sister in law made potato salad and wife cooked beans as side dishes.

Beef brisket:

Haven't cooked a brisket in a while. But we were having a Birthday party for my wife's mother. She was 97 years old on the 31st. Her request was for BBQ so that was what she got. It was one of those all night cooks, but worth it. All the guest were happy and I think Mom was to.

The Birthday Lady: Mrs. Helen Karam 2015

Happy 97th. Birthday Mom

Creole to me means native. So what I have made is Louisiana Sausage. Either way its mighty fine eats. When you get a recipe from the internet you can only hope that it is true to form. I have not found this to be true with sausage recipes. Not saying that I like them all. But most sausage people take pride in the product they make.
This sausage is made from pork, for the meat cut I am using pork butt and some rib trimmings from spare ribs. I like using pork butt or pork shoulder (same cut) because the fat content is just about what is needed for 20% fat in your sausage. Fat adds flavor and acts as a binder for your sausage. Not enough fat and you have a crumbly product. If you are smoking your sausage be sure to watch you internal temperature. I like to bring mine to 150 to 155 deg. higher than this and the fat will start to render. (not good). So the photos show what happened in my process.
I like to cube my meat, add my spices, mix then grind.
Ready for the grinder:

Ground and mixed:

Hanging in the smoke:

Smoked cooled & bloomed:

Packaged for the freezer:

Hope you enjoyed this process, here is the recipe I used. Try it, I found it to be some good eats. Thanks Bill

CREOLE HOT SAUSAGE

• 4 pounds lean fresh pork
• 2 pounds pork fat
• 2 teaspoons finely minced garlic
• 3-4 tablespoons cayenne pepper (more or less for your taste)
• 2 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 3 teaspoons ground bay leaf (use a coffee or spice grinder)
• 3 tablespoons paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 3 yards sausage casing (optional)

Grind the pork and fatback to a medium to coarse grind, and mix well with the other ingredients. Stuff into sausage casings, and tie them off so that each sausage is about six inches long. You can omit this step and make sausage patties if you like.

All Beef Sausage

Yeah I know beef is priced way out there about now. But I had some in the freezer that needed to be used. I buy all I can or all that I can afford at the time, when it is on sale. So, I am thinking (gets me in trouble when I do that) why not some beef sausage. So hear goes, first I cut the brisket like cutting steaks. I did this so the fat would be easier to trim. I wanted to weigh the fat and the lean to see what the ratio was. I wanted at least 1/3 rd  fat. Brisket being a fat laden cut of beef I didn't have any idea how much fat was in this brisket.
Cut Brisket like Steak:

Trimmed most of the fat:

Not knowing at the time I could of save all this trimming. Fat and lean was just right.
 Notice that the meat and fat are cut into chunks. I do this, then add my spices and mix before grinding.
After grinding I mix again. I think doing this makes for a better mix.
Ground, Spice mixed, Ready to stuff :

Now I discover I don't have casings. I was to let the sausage sit over night in the cooler and also soak my casing over night. Can't buy casings local. So start thinking again, yeah, I know. Off to the Mexican store, I know the manager and they make sausage. I was able to beg enough casings for this batch.
Stuffed and ready for smoker:

I forgot to take photos of the sausage being smoked. I used hickory for the smoke slow smoke because the sausage was cured. Smoked until sausage was 150 deg. Remove sausage and give a cool bath to stop the cooking. Hang in cool place to dry and bloom. Then can be packaged for freezer.
Freezer ready:

15 pounds of ready to eat all Beef sausage.
Recipe:

Brisket Sausage

Slice Brisket as for steak, trim fat, weigh fat and lean meat. Sausage meat should be 1/3 fat.

For a smoked sausage use a cure number 1,   rate:       1 teaspoon  to  5 pounds of meat.

Spice Mix

For 7-8 pounds meat

3 Ts course ground black pepper.

2 Ts ground cumin

4 Ts Chile powder

4 Ts crushed red pepper

2 Ts whole mustard seed

2 Ts pepper corns

3 Ts dry mustard

1 Ts onion powder

11/2 Ts salt

3 Ts brown sugar

Another Bacon Story

I can not lie, I love Bacon.Been out of good bacon for a while, we have been having to eat store bought bacon. That is some bad eats, but better than nothing? Not sure about that. Finely found some pork belly that was not priced like gold. They were a little thin around the edges, price $2.08 pound. Had to buy a whole case (four to a case) but my friend took two. So that left me with two. They weighed about 12.5 pounds each before trimming. I cured and smoked the whole belly's, the trimmings will be used for seasoning meat. I did my brown sugar dry cure for 12 days. I cold smoked these with my new A -Maz-N smoker using hickory wood pellets. Smoke time was 8 hours. Happy to say the Smoker worked great. I am now a happy Bacon eater. You Can Do This. Thanks Bill
The new Smoker:

Cured Bacon ready for Smoke:

The A-Maze-N Smoker in action:

Hickory Smoked:

Yeah Man, Good Eats: