Now smoking

[Shannow]

Cooked Christmas pork and turkey on parent's Weber a week ago.

Turned out pretty well.

Back at home, and got the Brinkmann Cook'n Ca'jun fired up today.

Been trialling cocochef briquettes (made from coconut husks) quite successfully the last few months. Much better than the half black powder coal, nitre, and sulfur stuff.

Did a chicken for tea. Shrunk the skin with boiling water, sprinkled with mixed spices. Water pan was filled with 750ml of aborted home brew, a litre of water, some home grown Rosemary, and a few home grown bay leaves.

Chook was cooked for 2.5 hours, with some hickory smoke.

Added "red rascal" potatoes (skin on) into the water pan (topped up with boiling water). Dropped the chook onto the lower rack, directly over the boiling water, and placed a seriously over-large home grown "button squash" (9" dia) on the top rack.

Cooked another 2.5 hours, stirring the coals regularly.

Chook was very pink and tender (checked with a meat thermo, as it's hard to trust clear juices with really pink flesh at the thigh joint). Squash tender and tasty. 'taters crumbled and went well with a little cultured butter. carrots, broccoli and zucchini alongside.

Noticed the grill is at low temp.

Had some spare aged tasty cheddar, so froze it, and am smoking it with hickory at present.

Picked up an organic sourdough spelt bread yesterday.

Will see how it goes toasted, lightly buttered, and with shavings of smoke cheese in the morning.

 

[moribundman]

Pink chook scares me, but I trust you and your thermometer. A roasted chicken with potatoes is hard to beat.

The sourdough spelt bread sounds interesting. How did it taste?

 

[Shannow]

The bread is great, not vary sour 'though.

It's a dense loaf (for whitish bread) that makes a great crust when toasted...would make good croutons. The toast is lovely with a little cultured unsalted butter and thin shavings of extra tasty cheese for breakfast...might try a rarebit on it at some stage.

The smoked cheese was a failure. Turfed it this morning. Might have been better if I started with a milder, softer cheese to start with rather than a bitey cheddar.

Pink chook was lovely, albeit scary when you first cut into the thigh when jointing it. Clear juices and pink meat.

There's about half a chook left, so I'm gonna try a chook stroganoff this evening. I think the smokey meat will compliment the paprika.