If you’re a fan of the Henge, there are posts that you expect to see. At the root level, we’re talking about cooking food. Just above that, maybe MEAT and then all hell breaks loose.
Well, it’s been about 14 months since we went up and this will be our first Is My Blog Burning (IMBB).
Aroo ?!??! you say? It is a game that a fellow food blogger (Il Forno ) put up on
the wall. To play you have to cook the Food Theme called, then either post it directly to the host or put in your URL of your blog. There really aren’t any rules, just some people getting together for some fun.
It can be interesting to see what people come up with when you say, RICE !!! Or SEAFOOD. Sure as hell I’m going to cook something with rice differently that someone in Manila.
This time it is all about Grilling / Barbecueing. I thought this might be the time to step in.

As you saw from the first image, we’re cooking with real hickory. I feel very deeply about choosing the correct fuel for the job. I find it disturbing that a person would go out and spend all the time and money on organic meat, vegetable & fresh herbs, only to toss their faire on to any old fuel. Not once, in the last 30 years have I ever heard anyone talk about that great ol’ propane taste, something that will send you back to the good ol’ days while you bite in to that wonderful flavor rock steak. eeeegh.
If you can, don’t use unleaded or white gas to start your wood. See if you can find one of these starter type stoves that allow you to start your wood with newspaper. Cheap & easy, yet quite fast.
On every smoking endeavor I find running a load of wood through the smoker first gets everything up to temperature and the fire evens out very well. If you load up the smoker full of meat too quickly you’ll have to deal with temperature fluctuations and a longer cooking time.

As you can see I started with a whole natural chicken, cut the sucker in half. Juiced 2 really large lemons from my Uncle’s tree. Doused heavily with olive oil and dried herbies with some Old Bay Seasoning … and some secret toppings of love. This can sit from a few hours to over night. I find the fresh lemon really gives a wonderful contrast of flavors.

Here people is the piece of resistence. This is a pork loin that’s been brined over quite some time. This piece has been HAMMED. Taylor from The Fatted Calf made this little masterpiece and I was lucky enough to arrive semi-early on saturday morning (he sold out of the Sugo) while he still had a few on hand. This little pork roast of brined love was absolutely the most juciest of all. You know those brined meats you’ve had over the years? Or the Hams? Those meats that had so much salt it made your teeth all stringent and funny? This wasn’t that.

The hickory smoked chicken was ‘oven’ juicy, bright and the skin was crispy (best chicken wings EVER)! The Brined Loin was Museum Quality Pork, thanks again Taylor.

fini