Thursday, June 3, 2010

Day 3.144: Smokin'

I'm sure some of you have been wondering why I have been referring to our outdoor cooking activities as cook-outs rather than barbecues.

It was during our first spring here that I noticed that the term barbecue was not so widely used here as in the UK.  It was probably the next summer that I became aware of 'barbecue' as a cooking style that had nothing to do with backyard grilling and everything to do with smoke -  but it was only recently that I read a good summary of the whole situation courtesy of FUSSYlittleBLOG.

So today was the day for me to break out the hickory chips, the indirect heat and a whole lot of smoke in my charcoal grill and see what could be made of it.

This being a work day there was no way I had time to make pulled pork, brisket or even ribs, but I had a recipe for smoked Italian sausage with a 45 minute cooking time, so that was what I did.

It was fun, easy and tasty.  Bring on a longer cooking opportunity and a big hunk of meat and we will barbecue!

3 comments:

  1. This may go without saying, but when you decide to barbecue a big hunk of fatty meat... make sure to put the fatty side up.

    It's good to see a nice plume of sweet smoke. And even better to hear that something I wrote had an impact.

    Thinking about bbq sausages makes me remember my favorite ones from Everett & Jones in Berkeley.

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  2. "Thinking about bbq sausages makes me remember my favorite ones from Everett & Jones in Berkeley."
    Good to hear that something I wrote had an impact ;-)

    But seriously, thank you - you have made sense of a lot of half-understood culture-specific food issues for me!

    My first big hunk of meat was smoked on Sunday - it was pulled pork (the recipe I used called for dry-rub then left overnight, three hours smoking, two hours in the oven, one hour to rest).

    My nearly-vegetarian daughter described it as 'not too bad' which was praise indeed! The rest of the family showed their appreciation in more traditional ways.

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  3. Should you attempt pulled pork again, I can't speak highly enough about Elder Ward.
    http://www.nakedwhiz.com/elder.htm

    Glad to be of help. Let me know if there is anything else I can do.

    ReplyDelete

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