Here is a little Bourbon Cherry Wine smoked Ham with Brussel Sprouts stir fried in the WOC with bacon bits & good olive oil. Then there is a Mediterranean Salad with peppers, olives, garlic, artichokes, maters, & mushrooms drowned in good olive oil & balsamic vinegar & seasoned with Walton’s Greek Seasoning. I would call that deesert for dinner. Injected the cherry juice brine with bourbon & a little red wind into the ham. Smoked the ham with Cherry wood & Wine barrel staves. Then of course, maybe the deesert should be Andy’s French Baguettes with sweet salted good butter.

Tex_77 Man those look good. We just smoked some of our Chicken Apple Sausage. It was good too, but probably not as good as yours, maybe healthier.

Decided to do an Apple Bourbon Brined pork loin then smoke it in Apple Wood. Figured those would be some good flavors for this cold weather finally reaching us. Of course I had to add a little spice & garlic to kick it up a notch or two.

Got a hankering for some homemade Calzones. What the stomach asks for, the stomach gets. As much as they do not look very professional, they always taste better than professional. Andrew made the dough as he really likes doing that & I made the Calzones along with the homemade marinara sauce to dip them in.

Here is a little Spatchcock Turkey for that Christmas in July affect.
I could not even spare them mashed taters & homegrown green beans, just bring on that Summer heat & humidity.
But, the Coup De Gras was Andrew’s French Country Boule’
Now don’t that just look purty?

Worked up a solid 26 pounds of Smoked Beef (shoulder & Top Round, Mainly Brisket Fat) Sausage yesterday using Walton’s Roasted Garlic along with some our homegrown/home dried & smoked & ground Chipotle/Ancho Blend. Smoked early this morning in Pecan/Hickory blend for 1 hour at 140, 1 hour at 150, then about an hour at 160/170°, iced down for about 30 - 45 minutes, dried at lowest setting on dehydrator for about 2 hours. Vacuum Packed (that great sucking sound through a straw) & froze. Gave some away, Margaret is always very proud of this stuff. This Walton’s Roasted Garlic is really good. I made more than I had intended to in one setting as we had more beef fat saved than I thought, so did not even use all of it. Set aside a few dozen breakfast patties to have some for breakfast this morning. I know breakfast is normally too early for garlic, but this stuff is good. You will not find this kind of quality in the grocery store, even though their product looks much prettier.

Finally, a chance to settle down & post the latest gastronomia. Smoked & Finish sizzle Rib Roast, Smoked asparagus, Smoked taters with roasted garlics , onions, & peppers, Smoked honey glazed carrots with Christmas peppers, Smoked green beans with mushrooms & Poblano Peppers, Smoked mushrooms then turned into gravy with beef drippings, & the most wonderful French bread.

Just a little stuffed & smoke Pork Loin wrapped in bacon with Hopin Johnnies, Corn Bread, & Collards with Kale, & Baby Back Ribs.
The Ribs were fantastic, especially for Dry Baby Backs, the loin was very tender, juicy, & tasty, but I am not all that satisfied with the stuffing this time. Filleted the loin out, seasoned it, & stuffed with a cheese, sausage, dehydrated red & green pepper (no fresh left now), & dehydrated mushroom mix. It was not bad, btu I think I will go back to regular stuffing or sausage stuffing. The Hopin Johnnies were the highlight, but all was good.

Here is that Canadian Bacon, finally ready for slicing & frying up a bit for breakfast. I got a good solid jar of lemon zest dehydrated in the oven from some of the lemons too. I brined the bacon for 10 days in a mix of Walton’s Maple Bacon Brine deuced up with Apple Cider, Bourbon, & a few other herbs & spices. Rinsed it well & peppered it lightly. Smoked with applewood chips at a smoke schedule starting at 120° in 30 minute increments increasing to 185° until the internal meat temperature reached 145° for 30 minutes, then racked it & in the refer overnight open & exposed to air. Sliced it the next morning & fried up a bit. It was good.

Did not go for the highest quality beef on this one, but we were extremely satisfied with the outcome & quality on this particular pick, especially these days at $3.99 pound for the beef & 2 apx. 4 oz tails for $5.99. You just do not get that very often, even if I could not produce the perfect looking tails. The taste was great though. Reverse Seared with Cherry this time. Margaret was very satisfied & I suppose, that is what counts.

wdaly Sous Vide sounds good too. I thought about that, but more chances of an oven being in the house than sous vide. The sous vide sounds better, but the oven sounds easier. I just hope I was really of some help. Afterall, you did all the hard work & we cannot wait to see the final results.

OleSmokey That is great & sounds like it was a great experience. Once you get on the mainland you can take those trains too & see the countryside & get places quick I understand. I am glad she enjoyed it all & got a good experience out of it too.

twilliams Wow! That must have been devastating too, loosing all that meat & wasted effort. That is sad.

That sounds about right with those low temperatures. Even though you have it set at 180°. I am sure those temps have a pretty substantial impact on it. Maybe another hour or so to go. I don’t know if wrapping it would be good for a Canadian Bacon. You will lose some of your smoke, but you have a lot of smoke already in that amount of time. You could also consider taking it inside to the oven if you can at least get down to 200°. I know it sounds like cheating, but you have got to do what you have got to do to keep it safe, get it done, etc. & you have already acquired a lot of smoke flavor. Sounds like you are having the reverse issues as we are trying to keep this Doppel Bock brewing right with this unscheduled heat & humidity spell that hit us overnight.

woodchuck777 Kind of like how you do some Virginia hams & certainly salted Mullet. Good idea. I think milk works good too, like for fish, etc.

wdaly I am very sorry, Andrew did not write the time it took in his digital journal & I did not hand write it min my journal either. I know it takes a while for us. Maybe I need to start taking better notes of that. On the other hand, it can change as far as times go I have found due to humidity, external temperatures, etc. even if you are able to maintain a perfect internal temperature (which we have not been able to, at least not without a lot of sporting activity). How long have you been running it so far?

wdaly Let me check in our journal & see if we noted how long it took us to get there. Give me a little bit while I go down & look. Hopefully we will have something.

Jonathon & his name was Brutus…

Jonathon now come on, there must have been more than that going on now.

Jonathon bocephus wvotrfan, good Eyes & good job.