- Aug 27, 2012
- 3
- 10
Hi all
Just joined from Los Gatos, CA, a small part of the south San Francisco Bay Area. Been grilling for 30 years but just recently moved into the realm of smoking meats in the last two years. Started smoking meats with a few test batches of St Louis style ribs for family on a makeshift grill/smoker set up in anticipation of adding 150 lbs of slow smoked ribs for a two and a half day "country Faire" even at my daughter's school. I already had the Tri-Tip booth during the event where we serve about 325-350 lbs of marinated, grilled tri-tip sandwiches for the weekend and wanted to see how well the ribs went over as we had a large 5 foot diameter wood barrel smoker setup on the front of the grill trailer which we never used before. Needless to say a little homework, a perfected dry rub (13 secret ingredients) and a killer sauce for the ribs made the ribs the hit of the event. We even had a person who attended and judged the Great American Rib Cook Off in Reno Nevada the week prior who commented the ribs would have finished in the top ten in Reno. Kinda put me over the edge....
At home I decided to invest in a pellet smoker since living in an urban area it's pretty tough getting you hands on a reliable and wide range of good smoke woods. (Not a lot of Hickory in CA, but we have a lot of oak). Went with a Traeger Texas set up and I'm pretty pleased with it. Definitely a good solid rig to get yourself indoctrinated into the world of smoked foods. I stick mainly with chicken & pork (butts and ribs), but have recently moved into a lot of smoked fish with a great Copper River Sockeye salmon season this year. Ahi and albacore tuna, prawns and the occasional batch of smoke almonds and smoked beans round out what I've found to be staples for us.
Next up on the learning curve is my first attempt at Spanish Chorizo. Then, if that comes out, I'm going to use the sausage in an initial attempt to create a "smoked" paella, a bit of a take off of the traditional Spanish paella I learned to cook when I visited Spain. Also, have to take a stab at my first brisket.
We're still grilling most of our beef cuts (rib-eyes, NY strips, tri-tip), but I'm always looking for a new challenge for the smoker. Considering an attempt at smoked salt and smoked cheese.
Cheers,
Dan
Just joined from Los Gatos, CA, a small part of the south San Francisco Bay Area. Been grilling for 30 years but just recently moved into the realm of smoking meats in the last two years. Started smoking meats with a few test batches of St Louis style ribs for family on a makeshift grill/smoker set up in anticipation of adding 150 lbs of slow smoked ribs for a two and a half day "country Faire" even at my daughter's school. I already had the Tri-Tip booth during the event where we serve about 325-350 lbs of marinated, grilled tri-tip sandwiches for the weekend and wanted to see how well the ribs went over as we had a large 5 foot diameter wood barrel smoker setup on the front of the grill trailer which we never used before. Needless to say a little homework, a perfected dry rub (13 secret ingredients) and a killer sauce for the ribs made the ribs the hit of the event. We even had a person who attended and judged the Great American Rib Cook Off in Reno Nevada the week prior who commented the ribs would have finished in the top ten in Reno. Kinda put me over the edge....
At home I decided to invest in a pellet smoker since living in an urban area it's pretty tough getting you hands on a reliable and wide range of good smoke woods. (Not a lot of Hickory in CA, but we have a lot of oak). Went with a Traeger Texas set up and I'm pretty pleased with it. Definitely a good solid rig to get yourself indoctrinated into the world of smoked foods. I stick mainly with chicken & pork (butts and ribs), but have recently moved into a lot of smoked fish with a great Copper River Sockeye salmon season this year. Ahi and albacore tuna, prawns and the occasional batch of smoke almonds and smoked beans round out what I've found to be staples for us.
Next up on the learning curve is my first attempt at Spanish Chorizo. Then, if that comes out, I'm going to use the sausage in an initial attempt to create a "smoked" paella, a bit of a take off of the traditional Spanish paella I learned to cook when I visited Spain. Also, have to take a stab at my first brisket.
We're still grilling most of our beef cuts (rib-eyes, NY strips, tri-tip), but I'm always looking for a new challenge for the smoker. Considering an attempt at smoked salt and smoked cheese.
Cheers,
Dan
