Holiday Appetizers / Smoked Cheese

I usually like to get my holiday cheese smoking done by early November so it has some time to age in the vacuum sealed packages before the holidays. Running a little behind this year as I just got to it yesterday.



Wife purchased a large batch this year and this is the cheese I got ready for smoking by cutting it up into logs that measure about 1" to maybe 1-1/2" near square logs.

Three Alarm Colby Jack 11.46 lbs
Alpenhaus Swiss 4.80
Dutch Gouda 2.00
Colby-Jack 2.00
Bruschettta-Jack 2.00
Danish Havarti 1.43
Le Gruyere 1.30
Sharp Cheddar 4.81

This is 29.80 pounds of cheese and probably the largest batch I have smoked at one time.

I decided to smoke this batch in my Backwoods Party as I thought it would be a full load and this cooker was handy and at the front of the garage.



I rolled the smoker out of the garage and loaded a charcoal chimney with about 10 brickettes of that great Rancher charcoal. When it was ready, I fixed up my firebox (pie pan) with 6 greyed over brickettes and then added some chunks of a mild hickory out of Maine which I won at a contest a few years ago.



I was right in that it really filled up the cooker. I smoked this batch of cheese a total of 90 minutes and it was checked for smoke flavor about 3 times until I got it to where it should be perfect after it comes out of the vacuum sealed packages.



This is some of the cheese coming off of the smoker. Sure looks good...





We got it all bagged up and vacuumed sealed and placed back into the fridge to age for a couple of weeks which will mellow out the flavor. Just can't wait to get into some of that smoked Three Alarm Colby-Jack cheese.

For the folks that need more detail on cheese smoking, see my other articles on this subject.

Spamwich and Rooster Booster Wings

I did an interesting cook a few days ago in the Backwoods Party cooker and it came out very well. This cook started out as a practice cook for my upcoming contest season and I also had a few other items I wanted to try on the cooker so I included them as well.



As a chili-head, I usually try to include some hot stuff on about all cooks if I have the room and I did plan for some hot wings of some type. Had a new bottle of Rooster (Sriacha) Sauce and decided to see if I could find a new recipe using this great chili sauce on the web for hot wings. Bingo!!!--out jumps a great looking new recipe at "The Wolfe Pit" (Mr Larry Wolfe) for some Orange Marmalade Sriacha Wings that just looks wonderful to me.

One of the other items that I wanted to cook is my Southern Succor Spam as this is a favorite of ours and always a great treat off of a smoker.



The Southern Succor Rub comes from the great Jamison's book titled "Smoke and Spice" and is a super spicy black pepper based rub that is also great on pork butts. I cut the recipe down a little for this Spam cook.

1/4 cup black pepper
1/4 cup paprika
1/4 cup Turbinado sugar
2 TBL salt
2 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp cayenne pepper



I am now ready to give the two blocks of Spam a heavy coat of this very spicy rub.



Now ready for the cooker.



About done on the cooker.



Now that is some good stuff!

While those items were cooking, I made up the Orange Marmalade Sriacha Sauce from the recipe at "The Wolfe Pit" as I wanted to try it on my Spam Sandwich.



18 oz orange marmalade (not shown in picture)
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup Sriacha Chili Sauce

I did add a touch of cayenne to the mix but would be too hot for most folks.

Heated and mixed it up in a pan and then removed from the heat.



I like to either grill or toast the hoogie bun and then lay down some colby jack slices on one side of the bun. On top of that goes some lettuce, some tomato slices, and some onion slices. Place the Spam on the other side and then I added some of that great looking hot Rooster sauce out of the glass on top of the Spam.



Fold that baby up and enjoy---oh my, that is good!!



I sprinkled on a light coat of the Smokin' Guns hot rub on the wings and placed them on the cooker. I then cooked them until they were done and took them off the cooker, dipped them in the Rooster sauce, back on the cooker until this glaze set up a little and then back off the cooker for one more round. Glazed them a second time and they came out very good but probably not as good as if I would have grilled them as per the recipe.



I made a mistake cooking these wings indirect in a smoker. Larry grills them and I think that would definitely improve the wings. They needed more char from a direct flame to improve the taste and I will do them this way on my next cook. The sauce is out of the world and I can't wait to try it on my pork loin.

Thanks again to Larry Wolfe for this wonderful recipe with the Sriacha sauce for wings as I am sure I will use it for many other cooks as it is just toooo good to not be included in my recipes and trials for hot stuff.

Holiday Appetizers / Pig Candy

Pig Candy is a great sweet and spicy treat to have around the house for the holidays. It is fairly easy to make and is a great snack and goes well with my other appetizers of Jerky and Smoked Cheese.



This cook is my no-carb low calorie version and I used the following ingredients.

4 pounds of the thick cut Country Bacon from Sam's Club

Sugar Twin Granulated Brown Replacement Sugar (Calorie free-no carbs)

Ground Cayenne pepper

Crushed Hot Red pepper flakes (in black pepper container)

I start by adding some Sugar Twin to a bowl and then adding enough ground cayenne pepper to make it as hot as I want it. I like it SCREEMING HOT and use way more than most folks can handle. For you folks that don't like it very hot, just add some cayenne and taste it and then get it as hot as YOU want. Some of the mix will cook and wash off of the bacon so do make it a little hotter at the start.



I would normally smoke this in one of my Backwoods cookers like you see in the picture but I cheated this time and did it in the kitchen oven so it won't have any smoke flavor but I was pressed for time and just didn't get the smoker out and fire it up for this treat. The Shame of it.....much better in a smoker.



I don't like this treat cooked in it's own grease so I use raised cooling grids in the pans to keep the bacon up and out of the grease.



After I apply the hot spices & sugar to the top side of the bacon, I placed it in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes.



I pulled it out, and then turned the bacon over, and added the spices again, and placed it back into the oven for about 25-30 more minutes or until it is done to suit me.



This is the final product just out of the oven and cooling on the top of the stove.



I then cut each strip of bacon in half and this picture shows the results of my 4 pound cook.



I bagged up the Pig Candy and have it ready for the holidays.

Good Stuff!!

Holiday Appetizers / Smoked Cheese

Real Smoked Cheese is a great treat to have around the house during the holidays. It is very easy to prepare and is wonderful with crackers and any smoked meat.



For this smoke, I used the following cheeses.

3.99 lb of Alpenhaus Switzerland Swiss Cheese (one of our favorites)

2.10 lb of Members Mark Sharp Cheddar

1.82 lbs of Dutch Gouda Cheese

1.23 lb Black Diamond 6 yr aged Cheddar Cheese

1.66 lb of Great Midwest 3 Alarm Colby Jack with Chipotle, Habenero, & Jalapeno

I cut the blocks of cheese into the smaller chunks like you see in the picture. The smoke doesn't penetrate the cheese but only builds up on the outside of the blocks and to keep the smoke equal in the pieces, it is better to keep the blocks no more than about 1 to 1-1/2" in diameter for the best results. This is also cracker size and will be perfect for this treat.



I got the Backwoods Chubby out for this smoke. I will run no water in the pan for this very low temp smoke. Placed about 10 Rancher Brickettes in the chimney and lit it off.



As soon as I had the coals all ashed over and grey, I place 6 brickettes in my pie pan and then laid a couple of chunks of fruitwood on top of the brickettes and placed it into the firebox of the cooker.



I loaded the cooker with the grids of cheese and closed it up. I must keep the temp inside the cooker to under 80 degrees for this smoke and with the cold morning of about 18 degrees, this won't be a problem with this cook. No heat is needed for smoking cheese but only the smoke for great results. In the Summer, I would have filled the waterpan with ice for the cook.

I let it smoke for 60 minutes and then pulled one log off to sample for the smoke. I cut the first piece off of the log and SET IT ASIDE!! I then cut the second slice off of the log and tasted it for smoke and found that it needed some more smoking. I then placed the log back into the smoker. I didn't taste the first slice off the log as it has way to much surface area (end piece) and would have given me a false reading.

I checked another piece at 90 minutes into the cook and it was perfect. Had a nice light smoke flavor and was good.



I pulled the cheese off of the cooker and shut it down.



I then vacuumed sealed the blocks in their bags. They will need to age about a week in the fridge as this brings out more flavor in the smoked cheese.

This will go over great with my Jerky and all I need now is the Pig Candy and it is up next.

Holiday Appetizers / Jerky

With the holiday season coming up, we always like to have some homemade appetizers, treats, and snacks available for family and visitors. We usually make up some holiday baskets for several friends as well.



This is one of our baskets from last year and it contains a package of my Pig Candy, a package of my Regular Jerky, and a package of my Hot and Spicy Jerky, a couple of logs of my real Smoked Cheese, and a bottle of Jack.

Now, dontcha wish you were one of my friends and received your Christmas basket???

CAUTION: This jerky recipe and method doesn't have a cure in it so it must be either refridgerated or frozen so it doesn't spoil after the cooking and drying.



This batch was 10 pounds of beef bottom round roast and I had the store cut it off of the full round in 1/4" thick slices for my jerky. This saves me a step in the prep of this treat.



I usually start by making up my marinade for the meat as it needs to soak a while so the sugar can dissolve. For this 10 pounds of meat, I mixed up this recipe...

3-1/2 Cups of Soy Sauce
3/4 Cup Dark Molasses
2-1/4 Cup Brown Sugar
2 TBL Onion Powder
2 TBL Garlic Powder
2 TBL Black Pepper
1 TBL White Pepper
1 TBL Ground Red Pepper
2 TBL Crushed Red Pepper



I make the marinade up in a large bowl and then throw the meat into the bowl as we trim it.



We trim as much fat out of the meat as we can and then cut it into slices like you see in the picture.



After the meat is trimmed, I place the meat and the marinade into a large stainless steel pot and put it into the fridge for at least 12 hours before it goes on the smoker. More time is even better.

On smoking day, I usually bring my cooking grids into the kitchen and then load them up. This was a large cook and will take both of my Backwoods Party cookers as I ended up with 14 grids of jerky meat.

I loaded up both cookers with some Rancher charcoal and then placed some hickory chunks over the top. I am running both with a dry water pan with my foil pan modifications as I sure don't need any moisture for this type of cook. After I lit them up, I cut the air back to about nothing on the intake vents as I don't want the temps to go over about 160 degrees.



The meat then comes out of the fridge and we load it on the cooking racks. With the Backwoods cookers, I can only load the racks about 65% full so the cooker can flow the proper amount of smoke and heat.



I ended up with 14 racks of jerky ready to go into the cookers.



Meat looked great coming out of the marinade.



Was a cold morning at about 18 degrees and I got the meat on the cookers at about daylight.

On my one cooker, I did my spicy hot jerky and for this, I sprinkled on some more ground cayenne pepper as I put the grids into the cooker.



It did warm up a little to I think about 28 degrees so it was a good day for my cook.

I had one cooker that did great and I was able to keep the temps where I wanted them at under about 160 degrees but the other cooker got a little hot and the meat got done a little quicker that I expected at about 4 hours. Didn't hurt the quality at all as the meat from both cookers came out wonderful. I need to adjust the door on that cooker and I am sure my next low temp cook will be fine.



My jerky started coming off the cookers at about 4 hours and continued to come off for another 4 hours before all of it was done.



Meat looks great and is now ready for the vacuume pack bags.



These are the first few bags off the cookers and are ready for the freezer.

Again, one last CAUTION, this meat must be refridgerated or frozen and it hasn't been cured. You can't just leave it set out on a table as it will spoil.

This is one great treat and will be a great snack for the holidays.

My smoked cheese is coming up next...

Old Fashioned Real Cornbread & Pinto Beans

Cornbread--vs--Corncake, anyone know the difference??? Just check the recipe. If it has any type of sweetner, it is corncake. If it has any more than about 3-4 tablespoons of flour to help hold it together, it is corncake. If it is baked in a pan or glass baking dish and the picture shows it more than 1" thick, it is corncake. Cornbread should be made out of fresh ground corn, sweet buttermilk, bacon drippings, little salt, couple eggs, and maybe no more than a 1/8 cup of flour per skillet. It should be baked in a very hot cast iron skillet that has been greased with lard or bacon drippings. The bottom should brown up nicely to the point of being slightly crunchy and the bread should come out about an inch in thickness.

Ok, lets do the real thing...



These are the ingredients for some good cornbread. The corn is grown on the Po-Farm for Frito Lay corn chips. We will grind this for our cornmeal.

Old Dave's recipe for two large 9-10" skillets of real cornbread is as follows.

2 cups fresh ground cornmeal
4 TBl flour
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1-1/2 cups sweet buttermilk
2 beaten eggs
2 TBL bacon grease
Enough lard to grease up the two skillets.


Sift the dry ingredients and then add the wet stuff and stir lightly until it is mixed. Do not over-stir or overmix. Lumpy batter is a-ok.



Next step is two shell enough of the corn off of the cobs for our two cups of cornmeal.



Great meal is ground course and never fine and when you eat the cornbread, you should have some grit left in it. In other words, as you chew the cornbread, it should be slightly gritty. Again, It is NOT cake!!



This is about 4 cups of fresh ground cornmeal ready for our cornbread.



I decided to do this cook and bake on my Backwoods Chubby so I got it out, loaded it up with good lump charcoal and fired it off with two Weber fire cubes which I placed right in front of the two intake vents. I will also run a dry water pan for this bake and cook. I planned to bake the cornbread first at about 400 degrees and then lower the temp to around 275 degrees and do my beans.

I greased up two 9" skillets with lard and placed them in the smoker as I want the skillets very hot when I pour in the cornbread batter.

Now, while I am waiting for my cooker to get on temp, I will start on my old fashioned method of cooking some pinto beans to go with our real cornbread.

Never, I say never, soak hard beans for any recipe. If you do, you will lose up to 18% of the nutrition in the beans when you throw out the water. It is fine to wash the beans if you want but please, don't pre-soak any hard beans for the best results. Beans are simple...put them in a pot, light the fire, and cook them.

Never add water to any dry beans as they are cooking. Start with the right amount of water for the cook and you will get a better result.



To start my pinto bean cook, I sort about 2 cups of the beans to be sure to get the small rocks and other crap out of the beans. If they look dirty, I will wash them but 9 out of ten time with beans, I do not wash them as they usually look good to me.

I then get my seasoning meat ready for the cook. I like to season all beans with a little bacon and a lot of 2 year old aged country ham. For this 2 cup cook of pinto beans, I am using about 9-10 ozs of the ham and two strips of smoked bacon.



This picture shows the seasoning meat ready to go into the bean pot.

I will also chop up a medium size onion for the cook.

I start by throwing the ham and the bacon in the pot and then kinda rendering it down on the kitchen stove to where most of the grease has been cooked out of the meat. I then add 10 cups of water, the beans, and the onions and then grind a big batch of black pepper over the beans. I do not salt as the country ham is usually salty enough for the pot of beans.

The beans are now ready for the smoker.



Well, the Chubby is up to temp (about 400 degrees) and is ready for the cornbread.



Just pour about half the batter into the first very hot skillet and you should hear some crackling as the batter hits the very hot lard in the skillet.



Do the same to the second skillet and you are ready to smoke some cornbread. I usually use about one small piece of apple smoke wood or nothing but the lump charcoal for this bake.



It takes about 30 minutes at 400 degrees to get the cornbread done. This skillet is about done.



Both loaves just out of the smoker and looking good.



Just slop on some real butter and give the cornbread a try. I think you can see just how crispy the bottom of the cornbread is and that is the way you want it.



After I lowered the temp in the Backwoods Chubby to about 300 degrees, I loaded up the bean pot. I cooked the beans at around 275-300 degrees for about 3-1/2 hours to get them as done as I wanted.



About every 45 minutes, the smoke and skum would build up on top of the beans in the pot, and I would then stir all this great stuff into the beans and continue the cook.



The beans are about done and ready to come off the cooker.



I will usually taste the beans and adjust for salt and then maybe add some chopped onions and just eat a large bowl with some of that real cornbread.



Good stuff...Nuff Said