Last Weekends Smoke

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tys

Fire Starter
Original poster
Jul 6, 2006
55
10
Ontario
Hi Again Everyone,

As we do every year, we took a week off last week and headed up north for vacation, and to celebrate our daughters birthday.

As it turns out there are quite a few people in the family(s) who have dabbled in smoking with most having used old refrigerators that were modified to become smokers. They've only ever done fish from what I gather, so my wife and I decided to whip up a batch of ABT's for the birthday party.

We had about twenty four people out at the cottage (including kids) and I did two dozen ABT's with the idea that everyone would get to sample them... since we didn't have a smoker per say, we ended up using my father in laws machine... which as it turns out wasn't a smoker either.

This "smoker" was some kind of dehydrating contrpation that was purchased at an MNR auction a couple of years ago... apparently the Ministry used to dry leaves out in it... who knows what they did with dried leaves...

Anyway, it worked out pretty good... it was almost like a small fridge type thing and it was well sealed with a vent at the top. Since it was electric we controlled the temperature with the dial on the front and built a small pile of wood in the bottom. We ended up using some Maple that was kicking around and some Apple. My in-laws have about twenty apple trees in their yard.

Well needless to say things went really well... all the adults were able to try the ABT's, unfortunately the kids were deprived of sampling the delicacies (they were too busy swimming) that day, so I whipped up another small batch the next day. What a hit the ABT's were... absolutely EVERYONE was asking where I learned to make them, what else I smoked, etc., etc.

I pointed everyone to this site, but there are only two or so people in the familiy who have computers, so I'll have to print some recipes and techniques out for them to try.

I wish I had some taken some pictures, some of you probably would've got a kick out of this dehydrating thingamajig. We ended up doing a couple of chickens in it when my mom came out for a night too... they weren't nearly as good as the one I had done at home, but tasty nonethe less. I didn't get to brine them, so I'm not sure if that was the difference, but they just didn't seem to have the smokey flavour that ours did. We also ended up doing some sausages that were also a big hit... it seems like you just can't go wrong with the smoking!

Anyway, just wanted to say thanks again for all the help. My wife asked last night what I planned to smoke this weekend... we're addicted :D

Take care!
 
Congrats Tys on your smoke, What did you stuff the peppers with and did you put bacon around them? This way I can just imagine what they looked like. Now I'm going to have to make some this weekend.


Joe
 
Way to go Tys...Spread the word of good smoking techniques, and recipies. Make sure you tell them about Pork Butts and Fatties. The family will flip.
 
Tys, you do what Gary said and you'll end up the disignated smoke at those family get togethers.
 
Hi Guys,

I stuffed the ABT's with mozzarella cheese and a little slice of black forest ham, thenI wrapped each one in a slice of a bacon. I cook the bacon for a couple of seconds on the griddle before wrapping the peppers just to firm it up... works great.

We're going to try a pork butt this weekend, so I'll throw some sausages on there, and try some ABT's stuffed with the sausage once they're cooked. Sounds good to me :)

Thanks again guys!
 
Tys, sounds like your getting a handle on things in the ABT department. Now we need to get you edjumicated about sausage. Bulk sausage is just sausage. Bulk sausage smoked is a fattie! Hope your paying attention, 'cuz there will be a test on this later!! :mrgreen:
 
I don't know guys... everything but that Fatty has turned out so far, but I'm thinking it might be the sausage roll we get here.

I've never seen a Jimmy Dean's (I think that was the name), and the grocery store people haven't heard of it. I always get pointed to the Maple Leaf frozen log.

I have another thread going about it, but we're 2 for 2 smoking them, and both times they were about the same... the texture is just hard to swallow.

I'm the kind of guy who will take a pack of breakfast sausages and cook the hell out of them though. They usually tell you to steam them for 10 mins and then brown them or something. I fry that stuff up for about twenty minutes, then I pierce them to get the jiuce out so they're nice and dry... I'm not big on the mushy sausages.

I like the dried stuff... jerky style! :)

I don't see how you could "crumble" the Fatties I've done for the Cowboy Gravy though... I'm thinking this Maple Leaf stuff just isn't the same.

By the way, I'm in Canada, so if any fellow Canucks have any input on the Jimmy Dean vs. the Maple Leaf I'd love to hear it.

Take care everyone.
 
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