Winter in New England

[chew2475]

After a few inches of snow this morning the weather warmed up so figured I would do some smoking and maple syrup making in between a snowball fight with the boys.

Had a bunch of sap collected so got that boiling and ended up with 2 jars of syrup.

Getting close now!!!

The Final Product

While the sap was going I had the old "Smoke Hollow" going with AMNPS. Burner no longer works so it has become my cold smoker. Put in 2 cheddar and a Jalapeño Jack and smoked with Apple. (Realized I should of taken a pic with the smoke rolling out)

Here is the final product resting before the Vacuum Seal after 4 hours of smoke

Also put a rack of ribs on the Camp Chef pellet smoker for dinner with the family. Kind of did a modified 3-2-1. Did about 2.5 on the smoker. Then brought in a wrapped in foil with some butter and brown sugar and baked @ 250 for 1 hour. Finished it off on the smoker for about 50 minutes with a light layer of BBQ sauce the last 25 minutes. Came out as some of my best yet with an ice cold Pilsner.

And just in case I didn't have enough too do I had mixed up 5 lbs of a so called venison salami recipe in the morning. Something i came across online. Suppose to let sit over night and then smoke tomorrow. Thinking it will come out more like a summer sausage but it sounded good and always looking for ways to use up ground venison. Will get it smoked tomorrow before the next winter storm rolls in.

Thanks for looking at what a fun day in New England looks like.

 

[gmc2003]

Looks really good. Still way to cold around here for any sap to run.

Point for sure.
Chris

 

[chew2475]

Looks really good. Still way to cold around here for any sap to run.

Point for sure.
Chris

Yeah we have had a couple weeks here and there where there were a few days of nice weather. However looks like heading back cold again this coming week.

 

[crazymoon]

C2475, Busy day for you, syrup,cheese and ribs look tasty!Hope the venison sausage comes out to your liking.

 

[chew2475]

After clearing the driveway and some paths to the wood piles after the foot of snow last nightI got the Camp Chef smoker fired up and put the venison salami (summer sausage) recipe on the smoker from the other day.

I broke the 5lbs into 2 separate sausages and rolled them in plastic wrap last night and let them sit in the fridge again over night. Drizzled honey on one and maple syrup on the other and then set the smoker to 225 and smoked till reached an internal temp of 170. Took off the smoker and let it cool.

Sliced a couple pieces off tonight and it came out pretty good. Already have some plans for slider type sandwiches with these and the sweet fire pickles I made. Might also go well on a cheese plate with some of the smoked cheese I made that is getting close to being ready. The only changes I will try next time is to put the meat through a fine grind and instead of adding 2lbs of ground pork to the 3lbs of venison I will add 1lb of pork fat and 1lb of ground pork.

 

[pc farmer]

Everything looks great. That sausage looks awesome thou. I like course grinds in mine. Wish I knew about making syrup.

 

[chew2475]

Everything looks great. That sausage looks awesome thou. I like course grinds in mine. Wish I knew about making syrup.

Yeah I usually like coarse grinds as well but it made it a little hard to form. Could also be to the low fat content of venison so may try coarse with just a bit more fat. i try to keep the fat content down so get more of the venison without being too crumbly.

 

[HalfSmoked]

Awesome looking cook and cheese ah yell maple syrup.

Warren

 

[smokerjim]

what a great way to spend outside, a good snowball fight a plus, planning on tapping my trees Thursday, looks like great weather coming here in a few days to make some of that liquid gold.

 

[chew2475]

what a great way to spend outside, a good snowball fight a plus, planning on tapping my trees Thursday, looks like great weather coming here in a few days to make some of that liquid gold.

Yeah in a freeze here the next couple days but 40's and maybe 50 by the weekend.