Smoking Meat (16 page)

Brunswick Stew with smoked Pork

If you like Brunswick stew as much as I do, you’ll find yourself making this dish time and time again. It tastes even better the second day—if there’s any left over, that is! This recipe is a modified version of the one sent to me by my friend Gene Smith, who says it makes a wonderful camp food when deer hunting. You can also use smoked chicken instead of the pulled Smoked Pork Butt.

1/3 cup vegetable oil (bacon fat is even better if you have it)

1 medium onion, chopped

3 stalks celery, trimmed and chopped

1 green bell pepper, diced

6 cups pulled
Smoked Pork Butt

28 oz can diced tomatoes

28 oz can tomato sauce

28 oz can creamed corn

3 large russet potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 cup beer (or water)

¼ cup barbecue sauce (try
Slim’s Sweet & Sticky Barbecue Sauce
)

1 Tbsp + 1 tsp table salt

1 tsp chili powder

½ tsp coarsely ground black pepper

¼ tsp cayenne pepper (or 1 tsp Tabasco sauce)

Heat the oil or bacon fat in a large frying pan over medium heat. Sauté the onion, celery, and bell pepper until tender, about 10 minutes.

Transfer the vegetables to a large stockpot and add the remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring often to prevent sticking. Reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes, or until the potatoes are easily pierced with a fork.

Serve with cornbread.

Smoking Gun’s Pulled Pork Shepherd’s Pie

Smoking Gun, a member at
www.smokingmeatforums.com
, wanted a way to use up leftover pulled Pork, so he cooked up some mashed potatoes and came up with this wonderful southern version of shepherd’s pie. His family loved it and the rest is history. I love it too, and so will you!

8 cups
Garlic Mashed Potatoes

4 cups pulled
Smoked Pork Butt

2 cups shredded pepper Jack cheese

4 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Add the following layers to a deep casserole dish or lasagna pan in this order: 4 cups mashed potatoes; 4 cups pulled Pork; 2 cups pepper Jack cheese; 2 cups cheddar cheese; 4 cups mashed potatoes; 2 cups cheddar cheese.

Once layered, bake the shepherd's pie in the oven, uncovered, at 350°
F
for 15 minutes.

Pulled Pork Breakfast Burritos

Here’s another great way to use up leftover smoked pulled Pork, brisket, or chicken. Who would have thought you could have barbecue for breakfast? Well, now you can—and a mighty tasty bit at that. Serve these with your favorite salsa and you might just decide that morning is not so bad after all.

2 Tbsp vegetable or canola oil

1 red onion, julienned

1 green bell pepper, julienned

2 large jalapeño peppers, seeded and thinly sliced

2 cups pulled
Smoked Pork Butt

Six 12-inch flour tortillas

1 cup shredded pepper Jack cheese

½ cup sour cream (approx)

½ cup salsa (approx) (or
Perfect Pico de Gallo
)

Heat the oil in a large frying pan set over medium-high heat. Add the onion, bell pepper, and jalapeños, and sauté until softened and lightly browned. Add the pulled Pork and sauté for one to two minutes longer, or until the Pork is heated through.

In a nonstick pan, scramble the eggs until set but soft. Remove promptly and set aside.

On a tortilla, layer one-sixth of each of the pulled Pork and vegetables, scrambled eggs, and shredded cheese. Top with the sour cream and salsa or pico de gallo, and wrap the tortilla burrito-style. Repeat with the remaining tortillas. Serve immediately.

Bacon-Wrapped Stuffed Sausage Fatty

What do you get when you roll out a breakfast sausage, stuff it full of cheese and other goodies, roll it back up, wrap it with a weave of bacon, then smoke it so it is nice and crispy on the outside and oozing with moist goodness on the inside? Well, one of the best darn things you’ll ever eat in your whole life, that’s what! I highly recommend making two of these, as the first one will go so quick you won’t even know what happened to it.

13 strips thinly sliced bacon

1 lb plain or hot ground breakfast sausage

½ cup shredded pepper Jack cheese

1 jalapeño pepper, finely chopped

½ cup shredded cheddar cheese

8 to 10 baby spinach leaves

See below for photos of steps in bacon weave and preparation.

BACON WEAVE

This isn’t difficult, but it may take a little practice to figure out exactly how to make it work.

Lay seven strips of the bacon in a horizontal fashion on an 18- × 18-inch piece of waxed paper. Remove strips two, four, and six. Lay a single strip of bacon along the edge, across rows one, three, five, and seven. This is column one.

Replace rows two, four, and six on top of column one.

Next, fold back rows one, three, five, and seven, and lay a second column of bacon (column two) right beside column one and across rows two, four, and six.

Replace rows one, three, five, and seven across column two.

Continue this pattern of weaving until you have completed a seven- by six-piece bacon weave.

PREPARATION

Place the sausage into a 1-gallon Ziploc bag. Zip the top of the bag, then snip a bit off of the two bottom corners to let air escape. Using a rolling pin, flatten the sausage evenly so you have a perfectly formed square. Use a sharp knife or scissors to cut the bag open along the seams. Remove the top layer of the bag, leaving the sausage square on the bottom.

Flip the sausage square onto an 18- × 18-inch piece of waxed paper. Remove the plastic. Layer the top of the sausage with the pepper Jack, jalapeño, cheddar, and spinach leaves.

Roll the sausage up, with the filling inside, using the waxed paper to help you. Once the sausage is completely rolled up, place the roll along the bottom row of the bacon weave, centering it. Use the waxed paper that the bacon weave is lying on to help you roll the bacon around the stuffed sausage roll.

Leave the fatty on the counter while you set up your smoker.

SMOKING

Prepare your smoker for cooking at 225°
F
to 240°
F
. If you are using a gas, an electric, or a charcoal smoker, be sure to have enough wood chips or chunks to produce smoke for about two hours. Once the smoker is ready, carefully place the fatty directly on the smoker grate with the seam of the bacon weave facing down.

Smoke the fatty for three hours. Once it is done cooking, remove it from the smoker grate and let it rest for 15 minutes before slicing it into ½-inch medallions.

Eat the fatty slices for breakfast with eggs or on a burger or sandwich. Fatties even taste great on a plain piece of bread with a little barbecue sauce drizzled over the top.

Smoked Bratwurst or Boudin Sausages

I lived in Louisiana for five years, and while I was there I developed a real love for Cajun food. Boudin was one of the items I thoroughly enjoyed, along with crawfish, tasso, and a whole slew of other foods I dare not get into. Boudin is wonderful smoked, and the method for smoking it is so similar to smoking brats that I have placed them together here, pointing out only a couple of differences. Boudin is basically rice with Pork and spices made in a very tasty Cajun way; if you have not tried it, you are truly missing out. Brats are usually made from Pork and veal, and are of German heritage.

10 to 12 bratwurst or boudin sausages

¼ cup barbecue sauce (optional)

PREPARATION

Remove the sausages from their packaging and leave them on the counter while you set up your smoker.

SMOKING

Prepare your smoker for cooking at 225°
F
to 240°
F
. If you are using a gas, an electric, or a charcoal smoker, be sure to have enough wood chips or chunks to produce smoke for about two hours.

Once the smoker is ready, place the sausages directly on the grate, leaving about 1 inch between them to allow full exposure to the smoke. Smoke brats for two hours (do not overcook), and boudin sausages for three hours. For added flavor on the brats, brush your favorite barbecue sauce onto the sausages about 15 minutes before they are finished smoking. Remove the cooked sausages from the grate and immediately place them in a pan covered with foil to keep them warm until serving.