Seasoning a New Barebecue Pit

Really the only answer is to cook pig parts.  Ideally many pounds of pig.    A more pressing matter when a new pit lands is learning.  To get a better understanding of heat flow on my new Guru Oven I cooked some biscuits.  Variance in biscuit doneness reveals hot or cool spots on the pit.  You can see the Oynx displays very even heat.

In other news New Glarus Serendpity was the perfect accompaniment to a sunny, thawing New England March day.

Smoked Pork and Duck Cassoulet

This one is based on a recipe in my book Wicked Good Barbecue.  Pork? Duck?  Pretty hard not to fire up my smoker when those ingredients are in the house.  Bacon, shanks and pork sausage all were slow smoked with pecan.  Duck legs were cured, smoked and then confited.

The fixins, pork shank, smoked bacon, duck legs, soaked great northern beans

Pecan smoke. Duck legs cured for 24 hours in salt and then confited in olive oil after about an hour of smoke.

Key ingredients for pressure cooker bacon broth

Smoked pork sausage

Cracklins and bacon for the cassoulet crust

Pulling the components of the dish together

Everything is better with liquid bacon

More pork

Finished cassoulet

Plated with raw winter vegetable salad, blood orange vinaigrette

@Hillfarmstead Everett Porter. Roasted, smoky, bittersweet contrasts beautifully with a rich meaty dish such as cassoulet. Roasted, smoky, bittersweet contrasts beautifully with a rich meaty dish such as cassoulet. http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/22511/61062

Blizzard Beers

Bring on the snow!

Nugget Nectar

For some the groundhog is a harbinger of spring. For me it’s seeing certain limited release beers start hitting the shelves starting with Bells Hopslam, Troegs Nugget Nectar and capped off in April with Founders KBS. A welcome sight on a cold February day…

30 Hours of Smoke

30 hrs later

Cold smoking bacon

A friend gave me a cured chunk of mangalitsa bacon.  I picked up a new piece of equipment so I could cold smoke for at least 24 hours and not have to babysit the smoker.   Fill with pellets, light with a torch and I should get a solid 8 hours of cold smoke.  My goal is to set the airflow right to allow for a clean smoke and keep the ambient temperature of the pit around 90*.  This job is quite a bit easier when its 28* outside as it is today.

Also interested in using this device to add more smoke flavor while cooking at regular barbecue temps.

Submersion – Barrier Brewing Company

Released at brewery on 1/16/2013, hand bottled, labeled and waxed with 400 bottles produced.

From Barrier Brewing: Brewed just before Sandy hit, trapped in the tank for a month on dry hops, and bottled during the rebuild, this beer is meant to commemorate the storm and celebrate our return!

Cambridge Brewing Company Barlywine Fest

Pretty excellent way to spend a Thursday evening.  It’s nice to have the opportunity to taste the same base beer with different years of age and different barrel treatments.   The 2009 Arquebus aged in white wine barrels with Brett was my favorite.

Meat, Fire, Beer

I hope to use this site to document and share stories of beer, bbq, and all types of cooking with fire adventures in 2013. Let’s start things off with a gratuitous photo taken by my colleague, Ken Goodman: