Stay off of Penzey's mailing list; he's one of those CEOs that likes to use the bully pulpit, and I will no longer buy his crap. I get things I need lots of from the best seller I find at Amazon (depends on the spice) and buy small quantities from Morton & Basset at the grocery store.
According to the Backwoods website only the least expensive chubby is labled as made overseas. I thought the rest were made in USA?Quote:
Originally Posted by JM Campbell
Regarding quality of lack thereof, I've never used a backwoods smoker but I always heard they were good quality.
When I was looking last year all I saw in my searches was that the chubby was made in China via 3 different reviews. What turned me off from the chubby was the ash/fire box looked tiny and appeared to me on a long cook would need a refill and with the way it goes into the bottom with a recess/lip looked like a invitation for a mishap. The box to me in pics and a couple videos looked pretty thin despite being insulated. Is already gone the cheaper route with a lower end kamado and did not want to repeat. I was buying for long term usage and went with a Yoder flat top 36x48.Quote:
Originally Posted by JclInAtx
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Got an Oklahoma Joe's charcoal starter for Christmas and tried it for the first time this weekend. It is a real step up from the weber models. Heavier gauge stainless steel, not aluminized, larger diameter but still fits on my butane burner charcoal starter. Bonus: handle didn't get hot at all. Very happy with it. Highly recommended.
Been educational.
Last week I picked up on sale a couple of wild line caught koho salmon fillets. 30% off is still about $10 a pound. Smoked low and slow. Since takes no more real time or effort smoke other things I rubbed about 3 pounds of chicken thighs with my favorite, local, commercial rub and tossed them in. Pulled the salmon, and everyone wanted more with steamed vegetables for dinner. Both kids liked it. I was going to make my Smoked Salmon Cheesecacke, always a hit when people drop the EWWWW, and actually taste it. I did not, however, brine the salmon first as recommended by Hank Shaw. As the work week drew to a close I warmed up the leftover salmon in a shallow pan with butter. Then soft scrambled some eggs, topped with parsley and chives and served it to She Who Must Be Obeyed in bed. Huge thumbs up. Next time will make some hash with the salmon, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and maybe roasted beets and once it is crispy make little pockets to drop eggs into to an over easy/over medium state for a luscious, runny yolk. The problem with that smoke is the fish was done a bit earlier than the chicken thighs, so I made the Malinois promise to come get me when the chicken hit temp. He said he would. So I finished my homework or woke up or whatever, and realized the Malinois did not come and wake me up, or get me, or whatever. I was rewarded with a lot of atomic element number six, presumably covering some chicken flesh. Inedible, and I can eat almost anything. Dumb dog.
In the intervening week the Malinois decided to break into the smoker, as the meat smells I guess drove him a little more nuts than normal. After all, he is a Belgian Malinois, and nuts is a spectrum for those dogs. He knocked over the smoker and was only rewarded with the contents of the drip/water pan. He is still licking the concrete out there. He bent the frame of the smoker. It is still useable, but the door sticks annoyingly now. Dog was rewarded with a grease spot on his head, right between the ears where he brushed greasy stuff to lick the drippings. No one wanted to scratch the dog's head all week. Dumb dog.
This week I followed Hank Shaw's recipe (not Hank the Malinois) and brined the salmon. Since it was almost no more time and effort, I also brined a couple pounds of chicken thighs. Simple salt and sugar and water brine. Overnight. Rather rudely reminded that when you have a couple of double Makers Marks with the wife for the weekly session of Valuing and Appreciating Each Other (post-pandemic date night) before you pull the pinbones from the salmon, that the cellular swelling the brine causes emphasizes every careless mutilation of the flesh, making a cratered, but juicy, fillet. Dried on a rack to form a pelicle. No rub. Smoked over pecan, as I was out of cherry. Tossed in the smoker while I finished my OILS 535 homework for the week. Basted with maple syrup (salmon only). Did not trust the Malinois. Salmon came out great. Chicken came out great. I keep finding reasons to walk through the kitchen where the food is cooling and pinching off a piece to consume. She Who Must Be Obeyed is watching me closely, reminding me with Forrest Whittaker Eye and a thoroughly unhelpful tone that the smoked food is for meals later in the week.
On a side note, for dinner last night I thawed the last of the brisket I smoked a couple of months ago. She Who Must Be Obeyed complained at the time that it was too fatty. So I tossed it in a pan with a bunch of beef stock a bit of soy sauce, onion and garlic powder, covered it in foil and braised it in the oven at 225° F for several hours. Removed it, and my sharpest carving knife could not slice it. It fell apart into pulled beef. For the kids (and me) I mixed the beef with a barbecue sauce, and topped it with onions and pickles on a sub roll. For the wife (and me) I piled the meat onto a sub roll with swiss cheese, added a splash of gastrique to the broth, and dipped the sandwich.
pat
https://spicesinc.com/ for online orders.Quote:
Originally Posted by donlapalma
Or for local in person purchase: Gordon Food Services which is a restaurant supply company.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JclInAtx
Ah, shit. I thought they were made in the US.Quote:
Originally Posted by JM Campbell
https://shop.backwoods-smoker.com/co...ts/chubby-3400Quote:
The Chubby 3400 is made overseas.
Yeah, according to the site the chubby 3400 is made overseas and the chubby g3 is the imported version of the g2. So it looks like the g2 is the least expensive one made in the US, but you're atQuote:
Originally Posted by BehindBlueI's
Here's review another review from amazing ribs of the g2 https://amazingribs.com/grill-smoker...-chubby-review they gave it a gold rating. Theres a blurb at the bottom that mentions using a g2 party in Chicago in the winter and they "They perform superbly even in freezing weather"
A number of pellet smokers have insulating covers available for cooks in low temps. Don't think I've seen anything similar for charcoal smokers.
Completed my maiden cook with my new Slow N Sear setup today. Did a pork butt low and slow at 275. Took 6 hours. Wrapped with foil at about 160, when I was about 4 hours in. I was impressed with the steady temperature and noticed that the temperature had a tendency to fluctuate a lot more when the water pan was empty. Probably the best pulled pork I've ever made. I am no longer concerned about doing long cooks on the Weber Kettle 22".https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...caf3c6e3d5.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...940b58653d.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...8b2d2d9fa4.jpg
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I have a local oriental market that is, hands down, the cheapest for bulk spices in town. A half kilo of whole spice, like coriander, cumin, black pepper, and others for about the cost of a small jar of ground spice at the mega mart. For harder to find spices there is a local Indian spice market, that I drive past and want to stop at, but the oriental market has a super selection and super prices. I am sure that the spices are grown and harvested on a radioactive waste area over a burial ground, by laborers that use their toes to collect the spices. But the price is right. For really hard to find spices when I was working on a Hawaiian smoked pork rib recipe I needed the interwebs to find dehydrated soy sauce, which Amazon had and shipped free via Prime.Quote:
Originally Posted by donlapalma
Whole spices store better, and a blade type coffee grinder does a good job of grinding. I have mentioned before cleaning your spice/coffee grinder by filling it with plain, raw white rice, and grinding the rice into flour. Toss. The rice flour gets everywhere and absorbs all the oils left in the grinder to keep your grinder from smelling and tasting like the last thing you ground in it.
pat