Expanding horizons-

Barbecue may be just the beginning. I was exploring the Internet and discovered a wealth of cooking information on Dutch Oven cooking. Chuck wagons, Scout gatherings, hunting lodges. There are tools (many of which have been used for centuries) and books. There is even a Dummies book set which includes some cast iron. (Those Dummies people are no dummies.)

This might have been an "oh, that's interesting" thing until I found people giving advice as to how to have these open fires anywhere. Yep, the old barbecue can be your fire box. Or, as one person recommended, an oil drip pan from the auto parts store. The bottom quarter of an oil drum could work. Or that back-yard fire pit that was just there to take the chill off of evening conversations in the back yard.

I am not yet ready to do this next step in outdoor cooking. I am still just getting started with the Silver Smoker. However, I see it as a logical next step, and it looks like fun.

On the whole, I think I am addicted to the smoke. And eating.

I think this will be fun.

First run-

The Char-Broil Silver Smoker. What we had for our first run were some steaks from the Safeway Select line. I rubbed them with a little salt and pepper, and then got the fire going. My temperature indicator said I was just a bit below 300 degrees, so I laid them on the cooking surface and found a place to sit.

My guess was about two hours, but I planned to play it by ear. I didn't want to be the anxious neophyte and constantly open the cooking chamber, so I used a timer to keep myself in line. My vents were set at 1/4 for the upper and 1/2 for the lower.

After fifteen minutes I checked the temperature. My thermometer is attached to one of the cooking grates, so I have to open the lid a bit to check the temperature. It was good. I then added a handful of soaked hickory chips, and a handful of dry chips. We got smoke in a hurry, and it continued through the next fifteen minutes just fine.

So, I checked things every fifteen minutes, adding a bit of charcoal to provide fuel to keep up the temperature and periodically adding my smoke chips to keep up a good smoke. The Cowboy brand lump charcoal had a good scent, as well.

At an hour and a half I decided that things looked ready to test. The surfaces of the steaks had a nice brownish red patina. I pulled a steak from the box, cut off the end, and had a look. Good smoke ring. I tasted it, and decided that the Silver Smoker had been a great choice.

I called the family to come and get it. Beans, salad, and some very good steaks. I ate mine without any sauce. It was moist, and the fat was rich in flavor. The meat was fabulous. Oh, yeah!

Now these steaks had been about 3/4 inch thick before cooking, and were a bit less after cooking, but they held up well. I was concerned that pieces of meat that thin might not do well in a slow cooker. The were just fine.

Talk during the meal was of what to try next. I am thinking a pork shoulder. There was some talk of turkey. Maybe beer chicken. We shall see. It should be very soon.

Beer-

Beer is, of course, a common element of barbecue. I prefer full-bodied brews. American style beers are adequate, but I prefer more flavor.

My current favorites are Fat Tire (an amber ale), Blue Moon (a wheat beer), and Prohibition Ale (a most beery beer.) Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing produces a very nice amber, as well. I am also partial to Smithwick's Irish Ale.

I plan to include beer in my recipes, from time to time, as well as keeping a bit in the drip trays for humidification and flavoring. I hope to aid the cook with a brew or two during the cooking process, keeping safety in mind.

Comments on beer and barbecue shall be most welcome.

Perhaps that shall be another adventure, one day. Barbecue and home brewing. Yes.

Barbecue Beginnings

I love barbecue. I am not alone in this passion, and that is good. That means that multitudes are much more experienced than myself, and I love to learn.

It is said, “Barbecue is a destination.” The essence of this sentiment is to leave the cooking of fine barbecue to the experts with the proper equipment. I can accept that good barbecue is a destination, and I would love to visit more fine institutions and expand my mind, along with my waistline.

However, I presently am at home (or work) most of the time. I can’t explore the art of barbecue at work, so I must confine my experiments and adventures to my own back yard. I plan on plenty of destination barbecue in the coming years, but I also want to explore the art at home.

My birthday was this week. I saw a Pontiac G6 I rather liked, but my wife wisely redirected my focus to a barbecue. So, off to Home Depot.

So many choices! So many lovely choices! However, the budget dictated that I refrain from creating a backyard oasis with an island grill, hot and cold running everything, and copious amounts of beer. So, my eyes slid down the rows and shelves, and landed on what now sits in my back yard.

What I wanted to do was REAL barbecue, not just grilling. I found the necessary tool.

It is a Char-Broil Silver Smoker. (It is actually very black.) Yes! The price was right, at $159. A few extras (charcoal starter chimney, thermometer, charcoal and wood chips) and we were out the door for just a bit over $200. That, and considerable effort. Though packaged nicely, it is quite heavy.

It took several hours to build this thing. I say build, because “assemble” falls quite short of the task. The main chamber and the fire box were welded up, and the doors mounted. Just about everything else is up to the user.

Fortunately, the documentation is clear and adequate. I love the bubble packed nuts and bolts. Very clearly laid out, and easy to keep track of during assembly.

The instructions warn that the assembly should have two people, due to the weight. I am a relatively large person, and strong enough for the task, so I went solo. Exercise caution, if you go this route. To reduce weight I removed the components from the package right from the back of the vehicle, and moved them a bit at a time to the assembly area.

This product is well made, and the design allows the novice ( in this case, me) to build the smoker quite easily. I took my time, and finished in about two hours. The instruction sequence allows for surprisingly easy assembly. The assembler is directed to orient various parts in ways that allows components to sit on the ground, or on each other. No holding up heavy parts while you try to align screws and attach bolts.

The Char-Broil Silver Smoker is a design previously manufactured by the New Braunfels Smoker Company. It is an off-set smoker, having a smoke box attached to the side of the main chamber. Indirect heat and smoke cook the meat in the main chamber.

New Braunfels is a town in Texas. If you would like to see the town, I happen to have a slide show video on YouTube. Check out the mlockridge channel.

So, I finished assembly last night, and today I fired it up. Well, first I cleaned it, rubbing off any residual adhesives from the stick-on label with alcohol. I then oiled the inside with vegetable oil. Then I loaded the starter chimney with charcoal, and two wadded-up pieces of newspaper.

The charcoal I used is a lump charcoal by the brand name of Cowboy. Rather than the ground up and compressed charcoal biscuits, it is still bits of wood charcoal. It started beautifully. Once it was ready, I poured the burning charcoal onto the fire grate in the fire box, and arranged the coals to keep up a good burn.

Most of today I experimented with adjusting the vents to control the heat. This was a break-in burn, so no cooking today. I tossed in some of the hickory chips I had purchased, and was amazed by how much smoke a few chips will generate. None had been soaked in water, so they burned up pretty quickly.

The rate of fuel consumption seemed reasonable. I figure that I will want to start the fire about a half-hour (or a bit more) before introducing the meat to the cooking chamber. My first cooking run should be this Sunday.

This unit has considerable flexibility. If you want to grill just a bit of meat, the fire box can serve as a small grill. A grill grate is included. To grill a large amount of meat, the main chamber can be used as well. Fire grates are included so that the whole unit can be used as a grill.

As a smoker, it has a good capacity. A small turkey could be smoked in this unit, and probably will. However, I plan to work my way up to that.

So, a new adventure has begun. I will share it here.