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Category Archives: Snacks

Smoked Sausage

I guess everyone knows what tomorrow is…if today was your last BBQ what would you make? Fear not though, with the help of this wonderful little chart you can still have all of your favorite barbeque cuts in a postapocalyptic world with no agriculture system.

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I know there will be no more internet so you cannot thank me for this valuable information, but I trust that all of you will print out several copies and thank me in your prayers as you cling to your automatic rifles and await the coming apocalypse.

Just in case we do make it through tomorrow, I figured I would show you how we smoked sausage.

Ingredients:

  • sausage
  • smoke

Sounds complicated huh?

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While we were smoking a pork butt, I figured we might as well make some smoked sausage since we have an abundance of the stuff right now.  We already had the smoker going as about 250 degrees and full of hickory wood.  We threw the sausage on there and let it smoke for one hour, and BAM you’re done.  Easiest recipe ever posted on a food blog.

If you want bonus pork points, you can throw it back on the smoker after you wrap it in bacon

If you want bonus pork points, you can throw it back on the smoker after you wrap it in bacon

Lastly, I would like to apologize to my family and friends if December 22nd rolls around, as you will not be receiving any holiday gifts from me this year because I spent all of the money on ammunition and canned bacon in preparation for doomsday.

 
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Posted by on December 20, 2012 in Pork, Snacks

 

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Smoked Deer Jerky

Do you want to know why I hate the rain? It drives my little fur babies inside where they just sit around and look depressed in between random bouts of tearing up the house.  If I put on Animal Planet the big one is fine, but the munchkin hasn’t quite caught on to watching TV just yet.  I know, I am a terrible parent letting them watch TV all day.

Alas, not Caeser Milan again!

Alas, not Caesar Milan again!

While they have been busy driving me crazy I was making smoked jerky.  My spoiled yuppie dogs would not even eat any raw venison.  If there is anything a dog should like it is freshly killed wild game, but no.  They wanted the nicely seasoned and cooked chicken thighs that were sitting on the counter for lunch.  Spoiled little monsters.  To keep the puppy entertained I just throw a lemon on the floor, which you can see here .  I am not sure if that is for the her entertainment or mine, but this went on for a solid hour before she got bored.  The lemon is like crack to her, she knows it will make her suffer, but she just can’t stay away.

Why do you torture me ma?

Why do you torture me ma?

If you want to make them feel better, you can of course share some deer jerky with them, but first you have to make it.  So, get some mesquite wood soaking and your BBQ set to 175, only use about 1/4 of a chimney full of briquettes.  You want to cook on very very low indirect heat here, because you are just trying to dry the meat, not cook it.  Remember, because the meat is still technically raw, you will want to store your jerky in the fridge.  You don’t have to use deer, any small beef roast or cut of steak will work too, I have not tried this with poultry yet though.

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Cut your meat into thin slices, about 1/4 inch thick, it really helps if the meat is slightly frozen.  Put your slices in a bowl with a marinade made from

  • 2 cups water
  • 2 TB Worcestershire sauce (optional, you can add more salt to the marinade if omitting)
  • 1 TB honey
  • 3/4 TB – 1TB salt
  • 1 TB BBQ rub

Add extra water if needed to cover the meat.  This recipe makes enough marinade for up to 2lbs of meat.  Let it soak up the awesome juice for 1-2 hours, then discard the marinade.  Cover your cooking grate with tin foil and then poke some holes in it to let the smoke through.  This is just a precautionary measure, but I was worried about some of the smaller pieces falling through the grates as they shrunk up a bit.  It is part redneck ingenuity, part BBQ genius.

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The setup

You only need to add smoke in at the beginning, since meat this small cannot continue to pick up smoke flavor through the whole drying process.  Leave the strips on there until they start to look dry and brittle, ours took about 1 hour and 50 minutes.  If you need to add more charcoal, remember to add lit briquettes, as the ones in the smoker will not be hot enough to light them.

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After you are done, let it cool for an hour or so and then dig in.

 
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Posted by on December 10, 2012 in Barbeque, Game, Snacks

 

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Hickory Smoked Game-Time Nuts

Sometimes it feels like I live with a teenager.  I love D to death but he thought it was just hysterical when I used the phrase “salted nuts” when talking about my prep work.  He actually found it so entertaining that I could not help but laugh.  Anyway, these salted nuts made a great snack for the official start of Football season, try not to eat them all in one sunday though.

In my house, those Smokehouse almonds used to be a regular snacktime staple, until we started reading ingredients.  MSG, maltodextrin, potassium sorbate…wtf is in these things?  We decided to make our own smoked mixed nuts on the Weber 22.5 inch kettle with hickory smoke.

Ingredients:

  • 6 cups raw nuts: we used almonds, walnuts, and pecans
  • 2TB of oil: coconut or olive oil
  • 1 t cumin
  • 1/2 t garlic
  • 1/4 t cayenne
  • generous amounts of salt

Basically you just mix all of the ingredients together in a foil pan and put on the indirect side.  How freaking easy is that?  Next time you have a party whip a batch of these babies up, I will even let you take credit for coming up with this genius idea.

You want to leave these on for 20-30 minutes and stir frequently.  They will get a bit darker in color, which is fine…Turning black, is not.  There is only a couple minute window between perfectly smoked and burnt so keep an eye on these.  Also, if you give them adequate time to cool before serving it lets them get nice and crunchy again.

 
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Posted by on September 10, 2012 in Barbeque, Random, Snacks

 

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