2nd time is a charm, but what was the difference

[wutang]

Made some abts last weekend, stuffed with cream cheese, wrapped in about 1/3 of a strip of bacon, smoked with hickory and mesquite. They came out ok. About every 3rd one I ate would light me up-but that's ok. Yesterday made another batch, after cutting into "boats" I scraped the inside wall of the pepper with a spoon to clean out better and then rinsed under cold water to wash off a little more of the oil, stuffed with cream cheese, wrapped each one in an entire strip of bacon then smoked with pecan & apple wood. These abts were far and away better than the first batch. But what was the difference??? Was it the wood? A better batch of peppers from the store? The larger portion of bacon (pork fat is a good thing)? I guess I will just have to keep making (and eating) more until I figure it out. Any thoughts on what made such a difference in the taste of the final product??

 

[richtee]

In the words of a rather famous TV chef- "Pork fat RULES!"

And I'm sure the more thorough cleaning you did helped ya out too. You changed alot of things it sounds like- hard to nail down...but like ya say...just keep at it!

 

[norrell6]

I made some this weekend and experimented with roasting the pepper a little first and then stuffing them. It definitely cooled them down, but almost too much for my liking. The family did like the cooler ABT's. I made about half with raw and half with roasted and everyone was happy. I think in your case, it had to be the cleaning. The ribs of the pepper contain a lot of heat. If you did a so-so job cleaning them the first time you probably left one or two and it lit you up. Like Richtee said, keep practicing. I know I will!

 

[jbchoice1]

it was probably due to the extra clean out with the spoon.

 

[tbucher1218]

I have found that my abt's have less heat when I cut them into boats vs. whole. I also found that if I cut a slit in the bottom of the whole ones, they tend to have a little less of a bite. Of course cleaning the membranes good also helps. JMO

 

[bigwayne]

Cleaning out the ribs better is the difference.

 

[wutang]

Thanks for the input. All in all i think it was a combination of cleaning the inside of the peppers better for better consistency of heat from pepper to pepper and the extra bacon for more flavor. I appreciate the fast responses. I really can't see a reason not to throw in a batch of abts every time the smoker is fired up, for the sake of research of course.