Putzin'

Focker

The Berkwood Project was completed today.  Created two mountains of opportunity.  Cold smoked for a total of 32 hours on two days, ambients were ideal.

Inventory levels are back to baseline.



Seasoned the 17" Blackstone with the scraps, not much after parfreezing and slicing.

Burgs tonight, ground chuck, Montreal seasoning, cheddar, and chimichurri.  Found a good brew from St. Paul MN, $2.99 for a 4 pack at the gas station down the street, seemed cheap.  Stuff is really good, went back and grabbed four 4 packs.  

Burgers were top notch, plated on the fine china.  Really impressed with the S7s camera.  Thanks for lookin'

SmokeyPitt

One of the best lookin burgs I have seen in a while.  Really interesting flavor combo with the bacon, cheddar, and churri. 

Focker

Thanks much @SmokeyPitt.  It's what I had on hand, and it actually worked.    I have been putting chimichurri on just about everything, a phenomenal condiment, that holds well in the fridge.  Awesome flavors for finishing grilled chicken breasts too. 

pgprescott

Looks delicious Brandon. I especially like festive design on your China. Really sets the tone for your meal nicely. Bacon mmmmmmmmmm. 

WeberWho

Killer Monday grub for sure! What's the MN beer you found? 

Focker

pgprescott said:

Looks delicious Brandon. I especially like festive design on your China. Really sets the tone for your meal nicely. Bacon mmmmmmmmmm. 

Thanks Pete.  The china is a collector, a one off from the Aldi Boulder brand.

Focker

WeberWho said:

Killer Monday grub for sure! What's the MN beer you found? 

Thanks V.  It's from Summit, Hopvale Organic.  

RRP

Those are kick butt burgers, Brandon!  Well played.

MotownVol

Damn.  Now that is my kind of burger.   Looks great.

Focker

Thanks guys, lovin' this 17" Blackstone.

Hawg Fan

Great looking burgers and bacon.  I need to try curing and smoking bacon someday.  Yours looks terrific.

Focker

Than@Hawg Fan
Makin' bacon is rewarding.
Just do it. 

blasting

Killer burger @Focker

caliking

A chimichurri burger sounds like something I need. 

blind99

Looks fantastic. How long do you usually cold smoke a slab of belly for, and with what wood?  

minniemoh

Hey @Focker - how did you do your cold smoke and what wood? What was your cure? I have two bellies of Ruhlman cure that needs to be smoked this week and I was thinking of going cold this time. Thanks in advance.

By the way, killer looking burgers too. I need to get a Blackstone.

Focker

Thanks guys.

@blind99, @minniemoh
As for the cure, I use the Briner container and a wet cure/equilibrium brine called Pops' Brine.  It can be adjusted to your taste, sweet vs salt.  Throw it in the Briner, place in the fridge, wait two weeks.  No overhauling.

Cold smoking was done with a Pro-Q cold smoker and Apple A-Maz-N Dust.  Ambients were anywhere from the 40s at night to 60s during the day.  Filled the Pro-Q and lit in the AM, finished later that night until the fire went out.  Bellies stayed in the cooker until the Pro-Q was refilled and relit.  So 16hrs smoke, 8hrs off, 16hrs on, then wrapped and rested in the fridge for a week.  Sliced, then placed in FS bags.  Seemed like the batches I have done before with less smoke time you could barely, if at all, pick up the smoke when served.  

Thatgrimguy

I've used Pop's Brine before. Great stuff. I liked it anyhow.

GATraveller

Focker said:

Thanks much @SmokeyPitt.  It's what I had on hand, and it actually worked.    I have been putting chimichurri on just about everything, a phenomenal condiment, that holds well in the fridge.  Awesome flavors for finishing grilled chicken breasts too. 

Chimichurri is incredible.  

Florida Grillin Girl

Nice burgers, Brandon. I love chimichurri, too.

hondabbq

Glad to see you went cold smoke and not hot smoke.

Focker

Thanks all.  Herbs, calabrians for heat, good EVOO, salt, pepper, roasted garlic, red wine vinegar....tons of flavor, and versatile.  Keep it in a glass Italian Fido jar, and pull it a few hrs before use to get to room temp.

hondabbq said:

Glad to see you went cold smoke and not hot smoke.

Thanks @hondabbq, cold smoking is the only way to go IMO, same goes for the equilibrium brine.

blind99

that's interesting to hear how long you're smoking for.  I'm piping smoke from the small egg into the big egg, and I feel like I get plenty of smoke flavor after a four hours.  it seems to generate quite a lot of smoke so maybe that's the difference.  (in fact the smoke last weekend was almost acrid - I'm not entirely happy with the result, so I'm letting the bellies mellow a bit before I slice.)

that's cool to see you're using an equilibrium brine. I've started playing around with brines for bacon, as well. most recently it was leftover liquid from an experiment to make crispy pork belly bites.  pork belly is such a great cut of meat!

Focker

blind99 said:

that's interesting to hear how long you're smoking for.  I'm piping smoke from the small egg into the big egg, and I feel like I get plenty of smoke flavor after a four hours.  it seems to generate quite a lot of smoke so maybe that's the difference.  (in fact the smoke last weekend was almost acrid - I'm not entirely happy with the result, so I'm letting the bellies mellow a bit before I slice.)

that's cool to see you're using an equilibrium brine. I've started playing around with brines for bacon, as well. most recently it was leftover liquid from an experiment to make crispy pork belly bites.  pork belly is such a great cut of meat!

Cool, I like the simplicity of the brine, toss it in, wait, no palpating to feel if it's cured. Lol

The Pro-Qs burn is milder, the smoke smells sweet at all times, alot like it was done traditionally, with small fires burning and smoldering daily on dirt floors in the corner of brick smokehouses.  I hang the slabs on sausage smoking accessory hooks on the WSM, but have used a rib rack in the egg too.  The bacon at my Maid-Rite is awesome, you taste the apple, that's what I'm shooting for.

Many here use the A-Maz-N, same concept and Todd is a nice Minnesoooooohtan.  They're cheap, less hassle.  And a fellow egghead got me an electric hotplate to replace my old school lightbulb for the really cold days here in IA/IL if needed, setup with the chef alarm to get things in the sweet spot of 50-75 or 85 degrees.  Any higher, and you start flirting with the cooking process, like SV.