Recent content by jtnf

The secret is, I wasn't going to run out for red pepper flakes at midnight so I crushed four red ripe pequin peppers in the boil. I'll let you know how it goes with my testers... My first time pickling anything, and mid-week at that (I didn't finish up until after midnight) so I had to...

Naaaahhhh.... Pearls! Pearls are organic! "Oysters?!?!? Where'd you hear that, babe? Pearls come from Pigs! P-P-Pearls... P-P-Pigs..."

Strangely reminiscent of Genuine Lucas Wire Harness Smoke.

First and last piggy party I went to was hosted by a Master Mason (the brick and mortar kind, not the secret society and silly handshakes kind!) who built a pit for the purpose, and went absolutely hog wild in doing so (pun intended.) He had to have five grand into the thing. Poured footing...

Smoke temp was higher, despite being heated with "only" a plumbers torch. I've already cut around the injured portion. No problems observed so far.

The requisite moneyshot, and a real, real important question... Never seen this before... Is this a bruise or bacteriological? It is not quite as purple as the camera shows, but its' definitely there. Should I be concerned about eating this or serving it to people? IT was over 160 on this...

Whole loin, Pops brine, cured for a long time this time (sixteen days.) Green Mountain Grills "Gold" pellets mixed with apple chips in AMNPS, with a plumbers torch providing the heat source since my cabinet smoker is too hot at its' lowest setting. Smoke/cook time was about five and a half...

This was the video that led to the simple 2-up braid: To be perfectly honest, Phil The Butcher kind of frightens me a little. I still can't figure out how he's doing this!

  Oh - the lemon juice seems to have done it's job - Excellent "snap" and mouth feel.

Smoked for a few hours with a small heat source, temp in the 140ish range then turned up to 300 cabinet temperature and pulled when the IT hit 160ish.       Broiled a number of them to take to my office function tomorrow. They hit 200 IT far faster than I would have expected, but were VERY...

Suffered several blowouts but all in all I'm getting the hang of this sausage making thing. Watched some videos on YouTube to figure out a two-up braid. Definitely neater than draping around a rod. There are some old school pro butchers on YouTube who manage a three-up braid at a ridiculous...

The smell while resting in the fridge is PHENOMENAL. Casings have been rinsed a bunch of times and are now soaking in a dilute lemon juice/water solution.

Well, I decided to cure half of the sausage per the package instructions on the Cure #1 - "A scant 1/4 teaspoon per pound of meat" Exact recipe as Scarbellys, with smoked salt and smoked black pepper for the "salt & pepper to taste" Will be stuffing shortly. Fiesta Meat! Colorful.

A few years ago, towards the end of another brutal winter, I asked my HR department to allow me to throw a "Spring can't come fast enough dammit!" BBQ lunch. They insisted I change the last word to a cartoon swear but otherwise OK. And so a tradition was born. This is the 3rd annual. In...

2nd attempt just went into the brine. Straight-up Pops brine, made a whole gallon this time since I'm doing an entire loin. I trimmed all the fat and silverskin in advance this time. I have not yet injected - will do that tomorrow PM. Twelve days and counting!