Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

My family and I did 22 lbs of smoked pork shoulder tamales last winter. Also did 2 whole smoked chickens that were then shredded and tossed in a Chile Verde salsa that I smoked before blending together. Tamales are a lot of work. It goes by faster when you invite the neighbors over and get booze flowing. Just sit back and run Quality Control lol.

 

There still time!

All of that sounds good! This is just my first toe dip in the tamale making pool.

A tamale party would be fun.

 

Its not traditional but we put slices of cheese in some of them. If I remember correctly, we did pork and cheese for one kind and Chicken cheese and sliced jalepeno peppers. We used pickled jalepenos one year and I thought that it was pretty good too.

 

Have done tamale time with brother and both families. Good times for sure!

 

I want to make some cheese and pepper ones too! Be fun to sneak a habanero in a batch. Tamale roulette!

Definitely a family or friends thing. Need to have a tamale party here soon

 

Kicken Chicken Sliders

 

I need a santa maria grill!

 

You need more property

 

should be happening sooner than later! for early next year.

 

Any recommendations for a nice knife for trimming meats pre-cook? Not heavy on wallet....

 

Assuming you have a knife already, get a good sharpening system and learn to use it.

 

Truth.

If you need a knife, I really like Victorinox Forstner.

 

Yes I need a knife

 

hard to beat for the price.

https://www.amazon.com/RH-Forschner-by-Victorinox/b?ie=UTF8&node=676316011

 

Agreed on all this. Knives have a point of diminishing return unless you’re a professional chef and even then it’s just a bit further than the average joe. No need to get a 250 dollar knife. A normal chefs knife I’d say anything more than About 50 and you’re wasting your money. Even at that you can get a decent chefs knife for less than that too.

 

https://www.scheels.com/p/rapala-fish-n-fillet-knife/22677-BPFN6SH1.html

 

In all honesty... If you have access to a Sam's Club.. these are what I use

https://www.samsclub.com/p/bakers-chefs-boning-knives-2-pk/prod5250046

https://www.samsclub.com/p/7-santoku-knife-di-2-pk/prod5250043

Sharp enough to use and can be resharpened many many times and cheap enough to replace without a second thought.

No need to spend more.

 

I used that very knife for years, it has been around as long as I can remember.

But prefer the Chicago Cutlery 5" boning knife over it and have had 2 of them for around 20 years now.

Have a German knife set that does a lot of heavy lifting. But have to admit for fine work and lots of it the Japanese knives are worth it (to me) and the 10-12° angle on the Miyabi knifes are superior for a lot of work.



Shun Premier carver is 15° and it has its place also. Especially bacon



If I could only have 1 knife (shudder at the thought) it would be the

Chicago Cutlery 5" Boning Knife with Ultra-Sharp Stainless Steel Blades, Utility Knife for Meal Prep and General Cooking, Walnut Tradition Handle Kitchen Knife

Chicago Cutlery 5" boning knife. But you will have to sharpen it a lot and I mean a lot. And hone it on steel after almost each use.

Made the 60+ run to Costco run this morning had the place pretty much to myself. Pick 3 any 3 meat items but no more. Was hard and hoping for a ribeye roll but no joy. Still made out OK.

5 lbs. of Nueskes bacon first time have seen it at Costco. And first time seen a 5 pound package of it.



I like Nueske's.

May is almost over and forgot to post my kitchen calendar this month.



In a couple of hours will hit the grocery store and hopefully catch a couple of pork butts. May wait until morning place was packed, forgot Friday is grocery day for a lot of people.

 

I keep Bubba knifes in my pit trailer along with some big slicers.

 

Guess the bottom item if for the tougher cut that you gotta take ‘round back to show who’s Boss.