Review: Liquid Salsa - Tabañero Hot sauce

Creator: Tabasco Mexico
Name: Tabañero Hot Sauce Picante
Price: $6.50 per bottle
Link: Tabañero

I'm always on the look out for a flavorful hot sauce that brings a little something different to the flavors. I've found some that claim to have great flavor but are too spicy to taste the flavors and others that taste like a sauce with no heat. I started to see tweets about Tabañero and it got me interested. I decided to give it a try.

Review: Amor de Brazil - Carnivores Paradise

Name: Amor de Brazil
Location: Matthews, NC
Price: $$$$
Link: amordebrazilsteakhouse.com

There's a taste of Brazil hidden in Matthews, NC. The service is friendly, the ambience intimate and the food plentiful. It's a great place to celebrate a birthday, anniversary or just hangout with a bunch of friends. But go hungry.

Recipe: Grilled Bruschetta

My family loves Italian food and snacks. We love to try new things at home and one of our favorite appetizers is bruschetta. I was watching the Food Network and one of the chefs made grilled bruschetta. It looked good and I thought I can make that and make it better. So I did.

Hog Heaven - Restaurant Review

Name: Hog Heaven
Location: Pawleys Island, SC
Price: $ - $4-$22 ($22 is for the buffet with seafood)
Hours: Mon-Sun 

Took a long needed vacation and headed for Myrtle Beach. When I go on vacation I like to hit local places that are not touristy but show the local flavor and foods. I do break from this from time to time if there is a chain that I don't have in my area.

Anyway a twitter friend recommended I try Hog Heaven down in Pawleys Island. I planned one of our afternoons to of down and check it out and see Pawleys Island also.

Swine 'n Dine for Charity

Team Swine 'n Dine: Frank Fields, Rob Ford,
Mike Bonn. Not pictured, Preston Cornett.

I received an email from my friend Gwen Poth who requested I check out and review this BBQ team who use their BBQ to raise money for 24 Hours of Booty in Charlotte. I always love it when other BBQers use their ability for good and to raise awareness for a good cause. After all OTT is a great event I help with, so I’m always happy to spread the word for someone else. Rob, the spokes person for the team, and I exchanged a few emails so I could find out about the team. We set up a time for me to meet the team and try some of their porcine product.

The Team
In the emails we sent back and forth, Rob gave me the history of his team, Swine ‘n Dine. It is made up of four members; Rob Ford, Frank Fields, Preston Cornett, and Mike Bonn. They started to cook at their neighborhood festival and sold sandwiches and pork butts and all the proceeds went back to the neighborhood. They really enjoyed cooking together and decided to cook for the neighbors once again. Their neighbors liked what they were cooking and asked if they would do it again for a third year. The team went from cooking 150lbs of pork to 400lbs per cook.

Super Bowl Sunday

Our SUPER Super Bowl Screen

This weekend we had a Super Bowl party and I smoked a bunch of food for it. I had done some St. Louis ribs last month and had saved the trimmed tips so I used those along with some country style ribs. I also did the crowd pleasing MOINK balls, wings and Pigs on the Wing. We had a great time with lots of friends eating, talking, cheering on our teams and making fun of the half time show.

Review: Meyer's Spicy BarBecue Sauce = Spicy, Sweet Love

Creator: Meyers’ Elgin Sausage
Location: Cuetopia, TX - Home of the Fighting Sausage Heads 
Cost: $4.95 + shipping and handling
Link:  Spicy BarBecue Sauce

Meyer's Elgin Smokehouse makes a variety of rubs, sauces and other delectible delights that I have had the privalige of reviewing. I've had the Spicy BarBecue Sauce sitting on my shelf for awhile trying to find just the right thing to try it on.

Truth be told, I'm not a fan of sauces. BBQ meat must stand on its own and the sauce only enhances and brings out the flavor. In my book, if you need sauce the meat isn't seasoned right. Well, I did find something to use the spicy sauce on. In fact two something's; smoked wings and Pigs on the Wing.

Putting the "Q" in the Queen City

Name: Queen City Q
Location: Charlotte, NC
Price: $$ - $6-$14
Hours: Mon-Sun 11am-12am

Queen City Q recently opened in Uptown Charlotte, and there was much rejoicing. At least from me. Anyone who is familiar with Charlotte knows they have been lacking in places for good BBQ. Being located at the center of both Carolina's you would think there are many BBQ joints serving the classic Carolina slow smoked pork. You would be mistaken. There are a few BBQ places but finding one where you want to pay for the q is difficult. Yes the Queen city has been lacking in the "Q" department but that is changing.

Drunken Chicken with a Twist

I've been thinking about trying to make a drunken spatchcock chicken for a long time. I finally tried it this weekend and videoed it. Normally with a drunken chicken you take a half can of beer and stick the chicken on it and set it on the cooker until it's done. Spatchcocking basically means you butterfly it. Therefor it can't fit it on a can of beer any more. I laid mine on a rack in a pan and put some wine in the pan to cook it. It was a first for me to try it this way and also video it. 

Flavor and Spice and Everything Nice

Creator: Meyers’ Elgin Sausage 

Location: Cuetopia, TX - Home of the Fighting Sausage Heads
Cost: $4.95 + shipping and handling
Link:  Texas Hot Pepper & Wing Sauce

I like spicy and I like flavor. There are some hot sauces that are just spicy and that is all they bring to a dish. There are others that just bring flavoring with no spice. Texas Hot sauce is neither of these. It brings flavor and heat. 

Recipe: Gibbs Ribs

My all time favorite BBQ is ribs. When cooked correctly they are a combination sweet pork and savory spices with hints of smoke that marry the flavors together in a magically wonderful way. Ribs aren't difficult to make but take about 5-6 hours to do correctly.

There are many different ways to make ribs and various methods and spices you can use. Below is how I make them and the way my family likes them. They are based off of our teams 1st place ribs but tweaked for our home palates.

Review: Sweet & Hot and beefy goodness

Creator: Meyers’ Elgin Sausage

Location: Cuetopia, TX - Home of the Fighting Sausage Heads

Cost: @$14.95 +shipping

Link: Beef Jerky

I got more beef jerky from Cuetopia, this time it was their Sweet & Hot. This jerky is better then the plain beef jerky. The spices they use on it give it a nice sweet flavor and a great hit of heat. It is not too hot so your mouth is on fire but just a nice pleasant heat. This jerky is also moist compared to Meyer's beef jerky.  It's not greasy just moister. 

The family all got in on this bag of jerky and we all decided this was the better of Cuetopia's jerky. Its not to hot and just the right amount of sweetness to make it oh, so good. You get a hint of the hickory smoke they used to smoke the jerky in also making for a very pleasant eating experience. 

This jerky is a definite must taste and would make a great stocking stuffer or two. On the Gibbs Ribs scale* I gladly give this jerky a full rack. As the folks at Cuetopia say “We make our jerky for us to eat; we just sell what’s left over.”

*When I do reviews, books or otherwise, I rate the items with ribs (they are my favorite BBQ dish). A full rack is great and a single rib is poor. I will tend to stick to a full rack, half rack or one rib.

How to: Smoking a Turkey 101

In 2009 a friend gave me an old smoker he never used. This was the start of a beautiful thing at my house. It was a couple weeks before Thanksgiving and I was trying to figure out what to make on it first.

The first cooker.

My wife and I talked about it and decided we would try smoked turkey. I had never smoked anything by myself. It was going to be an adventure. My wife bought two turkeys. I asked, “Why?” Her reply was, “I’ll roast one incase the smoked one doesn’t turn out.” "OK," I thought, "Play it safe so we don’t go hungry on Thanksgiving Day."

Pigs with wings? (Bacon Wrapped Wings)

I was trying to figure out what to make for supper and looked in the freezer to see what I had. I had some chicken breast, wings and bacon. So I figured I would grill some chicken and wings. As I was thinking about how to season the chicken I thought, "Bacon wrapped chicken wings would be good." Here's how I made the wings.

Ingredients 
Chicken wings - I made 12
Bacon - 12 pieces to wrap the wings
Rub - I recommend something that has a bit of sweet to it.
BBQ sauce - I use a homemade one similar to Sweet Baby Rays

When ever I grill I start my coals before I start to prep the food. Coals take longer to to heat up then gas so you need to plan ahead. You can cook these on either gas or coals.

Lighting the charcoal.

Meyer's Elgin Sausage - Part III (Smoked, Spicy and Oh, So Yummy)

Creator:Meyers’ Elgin Sausage
Location: Cuetopia, TX - Home of the Fighting Sausage Heads
Cost: @$21.50 +shipping
Link: Sausage

All good things must come to an end. Last weekend my supply of Meyer's sausage did. It was a happy but sad day. Happy because I got to savor the wonderful flavors of their Hot Smoked Sausage and Smoked Mexacan-Style Sausage with Jalapeños (Tejano). Sad because I now have no more Meyer's sausage and I'm not sure I will like what we get here. Ok, that last bit is crazy talk because we love sausage, but it defiantly won't be the same.

Last weekend we had some friends over and I smoked some meat including the sausage. Meyer's sausage smokes nicely. It plumps up and the juices are released in the casing making for a nice juicy sausage that is full of flavor. As I said in my first review of Meyer's sausage the casings are firm but not tough, this makes for a nice eating experience. You don't feel like a dog trying to tear through a piece of leather.


Hot Smoked Sausage
This sausage is great. The flavor is like the smoked sausage but they add a bit more red pepper to give it a nice kick. Some "hot" sausages are so spicy you don't taste the meat because your mouth is on fire. Not with this sausage. It gives a nice burn but you still can taste it. It just enhances the flavor and eating experience. For some this sausage would be too spicy but I think it has just the right amount of heat.

Tejano
I really liked the flavor of this sausage. This was also my wife's favorite along with the Smoked Jalapeño sausage I reviewed in Part I. It has a great chorizo flavor and the jalapeño brings the sweet pepper flavor to it. It is no surprise why this sausage won a second place people's choice award.

The hot sausage would great in scallop potatoes, chowder or any number of dishes. The Tejano sausage would be great in enchiladas, Mexican stews or other dishes with a south-of-the-border twist. I had left overs of both so I chopped them up and made a gumbo with some pulled pork I had. The sausage brought the right amount of extra spice to the party and made my families mouths happy.


Both of these sausages receive a full rack of ribs with a side of sauce on the Gibbs' Ribs* scale. I definitely recommend ordering some from Meyer's Elgin Sausage and try some of their other goodies.

*When I do reviews, books or otherwise, I rate the items with ribs (they are my favorite BBQ dish). A full rack is great and a single rib is poor. I will tend to stick to a full rack, half rack or one rib.

Review: Meyers Elgin Sausage Sausage - Part II (Beef and Potatoes)

Creator: Meyers’ Elgin Sausage
Location: Cuetopia, TX - Home of the Fighting Sausage Heads
Cost: @$21.50 +shipping
Link: Sausage

After the first set of sausages we had from Meyer's my wife kept asking when we would be eating the others. I decided Sunday night would be a good night for a pack. I was home and the ladies were out shopping so I decided to make supper for us.

In the variety of sausage I got from Meyer's Elgin Sausage was a pack of beef sausage. I really enjoyed the other sausages they made and thought they would work well with scallop potatoes. So, I decided to make scallop potatoes and sausage. Normally I cook the sausage with the scallop potatoes but since I knew the ladies wouldn't be home soon, and the potatoes would take an hour, I decided to smoke the sausage.

I put the charcoal in the chimney starter and lit it so the charcoal would be ready when I put the potatoes in the oven. I thought about smoking the potatoes too but didn't have a disposable pan. I got the potatoes in the oven and got the cooker fired up with the ready-to-go coals.


The cooker was at 250° so I put the sausages on and let them cook. I checked them once after about 30 minutes and turned them over. About 10 minutes after my wife and girls arrived home supper was ready.


The beef sausage is really good. The spices in it bring out the beefy flavor of the meat and they have a little bit of heat, like good sausage does. They seemed to be a bit juicier then the previous sausages and the casings a little tougher. I think I could have cooked them a little longer as they didn't quite split. My wife said these were her favorites along with the jalapeño and cheese ones. After making sausage for so many years Meyer's really knows what they're doing.


These sausages go great with scallop potatoes and would go great with sautéed peppers and onions or just by themselves so you can enjoy the full flavor of them.

On the Gibbs Ribs* scale these also get a full rack. I'm looking forward to trying the next two packs I have.

*When I do reviews, books or otherwise, I rate the items with ribs (they are my favorite BBQ dish). A full rack is great and a single rib is poor. I will tend to stick to a full rack, half rack or one rib.

Review: Meyers Elgin Sausage Sausage - Part I

Creator: Meyers’ Elgin Sausage
Location: Cuetopia, TX - Home of the Fighting Sausage Heads
Cost: @$21.50 +shipping
Link: Sausage

One of the BBQ people I follow on Twitter is @cuetopia. He is the official Twitter spokesperson of Meyers Elgin Sausage and the Fighting Sausage Heads. Since I have been following him he has tantalized and taunted me with pictures of their smokehouse making sausage. I finally procured some to test and do a review on.

Some friends invited us over to watch a football game, eat chili and socialize. I figured this would be a great time to cook up three packs of the sausage and get some other opinions about them.

I looked at what we had and decided two "regular" and a spicy one would be good to try. I pulled out the Smoked Sausage, Smoked Sausage with Garlic and the Jalapeño & Cheese.


I didn't want to do a long smoke, so I decided to grill the sausage. I used some Kingsford Hickory charcoal. Once the fire was going I put the sausages on.


About every ten minutes I rotated them so they could cook evenly and move them around so no sausage was on a hot spot too long. The temp on the grill was low so it took about 30 minutes to cook them. The sausages cooked up nicely. Swelling up, splitting and releasing their juiciness into the coals making for a mouthwatering aroma.


Once they were cooked I put them in a dish with cheap labels and tinfoil separators. After all we didn't want them to get mixed up.


All three of them were juicy, not greasy like some sausages. Their casings gave a nice crisp snap when I bit into them or cut them. They weren't tough like some, where the whole casing tears off as you try to gnaw through the outer casing to get to the tender meat on the inside. Just the right toughness to hold it all together to grill or smoke.

Smoked Sausage
The Smoked Sausage is great. I took a bite and thought, "WOW! That's good sausage." It has just the right amount of smokiness so you can tell that it has been smoked over hickory wood but not too much where it's overpowering.

These sausages are great by themselves but would make a dish of scallop potatoes really good. My wife makes a great corn chowder and these would make it even better (that is hard to do as it is very good.)

Smoked Sausage with Garlic
I love garlic. Most dishes I cook have garlic in them, even my BBQ pork. I was looking forward to these sausages and was not disappointed. These sausages are just like the Smoked Sausages but with garlic. It is not overpowering, in your face, breath-of-death giving garlic. It is a subtle garlic flavor that enhances the overall taste sensation of the sausage and bumps it up a notch.

These sausages stand well on their own but would be good in an Italian sandwich with onions and peppers.

Jalapeño & Cheese
I like spicy. Every time I eat jalapeños or jalapeño flavored anything I feel ill. These sausages scared me. I thought, "Great, I'll eat these and my stomach will feel like it's turning inside out and my mouth will be on fire." Boy was I surprised!

These are my favorite sausages I have tried so far. The spice is there but not the, "grab-a-gallon-of-milk-my-mouth-is-on-fire" type. It is a nice slow burn. You really don't notice the heat at first but after a couple of seconds your mouth is pleasantly warm. My wife, who is not a fan of spicy, really liked them too. The smokey flavor and the heat make for a happy mouth and I had no ill side effects from the jalapeños.

These sausages would make great enchiladas or other Mexican style dishes.

All three of these sausages are great. I wish there were a local store I could by them at. If I had a BBQ restaurant I would serve these. To quote one of my friends when I asked him what he thought of the sausages, "Mmmm...mmm...mmmm...good. On the Gibbs Ribs* scale these easily get a full rack of ribs with extra sauce on the side.


*When I do reviews, books or otherwise, I rate the items with ribs (they are my favorite BBQ dish). A full rack is great and a single rib is poor. I will tend to stick to a full rack, half rack or one rib.

Making Rub

One of the most important part of BBQing is using the correct rub. There are many out there to choose from and lots of them are very good. But if you want a challenge, make your own. It can be a fun rewarding process and you can learn a lot about flavors and their profiles.

I started making my own rub and love it. I've shared it with friends who always ask for more. It works well on just about everything I have put it on.

To make my own rub I scoured the web for recipes and discovered there are about as many recipes as there are BBQ people. I found a basic rub recipe that used salt, brown sugar, paprika and black pepper then altered with other spices to what I thought tasted good.

A couple things I learned when making rubs:

• Start small - Make enough for one cook. About a cup at most
• Take notes - Write down what you do so you can replicate it if you like it. I made a kickin' rub once but have no idea what was in it.
• Dry brown sugar - Yes dry it out. To dry brown sugar spread it out on a pan and turn your oven to the lowest setting. Put the pan with the sugar in it for about 30 minutes. Stir it at least once while it is drying. You will probably have to break up some lumps once it is dry. Drying the brown sugar will keep the rub from clumping up.

• Mix or grind your rub - I have a Tupperware Quick Chef that I use to mix and chop all the ingredients together. This helps me get an even mix. I also sift the brown sugar to make sure that there are no lumps I missed.

• Store in an airtight jar - spices tend to loose there flavor when they are stored in light open places. I store my rub in a canning jar in our pantry. But honestly it is usually gone before it would loose it's flavor.

Here is a good basic rub recipe to help you get started making your own.

1/4 cup Kosher salt, coarse
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup paprika
2 Tbsp. black pepper, coarse

Try adding other spices or changing some of the ratios. I use a 2:1 brown sugar to salt ratio along with a few other spices. Enjoy and make some good Q.

Smokin' Gumbo

This week is our ASC fund raiser at work. One of the annual traditions for it is a chili cook off. Last year I entered and won. So, of course this year I had to defend the title. The theme of the fund raiser this year is Mardis Gras, so, of course, the food was to be Cajun or Creole.

I tossed around a few ideas and decided to make a gumbo using smoked chicken, smoked andouille sausage and smoked peppers. The only gumbo I have ever made has been a quick version that I don't really think qualifies as gumbo but more as a soup.

I went online and searched for a recipe to use and found one on Food Network. It is one of Emeril Lagasse's gumbo recipes. I used the main part of it but altered it to suit my needs and style of cooking. 


Ingredients
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups chopped onions
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 1 cup chopped Roasted bell pepper
• 1 pound smoked sausage, such as andouille or kielbasa, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch slices
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
• 3 bay leaves
• 6 cups chicken broth
• 1 pound smoked chicken removed from the bones.
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
• 1/2 cup chopped green onions

Directions
Combine the oil and flour in a large stock pot over medium heat. Stirring slowly and constantly for 20 to 25 minutes, make a dark brown roux, the color of chocolate. Add the onions, celery, and bell peppers and continue to stir for 4 to 5 minutes, or until wilted. Add the sausage, salt, cayenne, and bay leaves. Continue to stir for 3 to 4 minutes. Add the chicken broth. Stir until the roux mixture and water are well combined. Bring to aboil, then reduce heat to medium-low. Cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 1 hour.

Add smoked chicken. Simmer for 2 hours. Skim off any fat that rises to the surface. Remove from the heat. Stir in the parsley and green onions. Remove the bay leaves and serve in deep bowls over rice.

How I did it
That is the recipe I used. I made my stock also and smoked my chicken, sausage and peppers which bring a nice flavor to the mix. I followed the above directions after I had smoked my meat and peppers.

I butterflied the chicken and took the backs, necks and gizzards, put them into the stock pot and covered them with water, chopped celery, garlic, onions slat and pepper and brought it all to a boil. I then put the lid on  and let it simmer over medium heat while I cooked the meats and peppers (about two hours).

Butterflied Chickens

Chicken stock cooking

I smoked the chicken as I talked about in my "Smoked Chicken" entry. It took about two hours for it to be ready. I added the andouille to the smoker about half way through so it would cook for an hour. 

The smokin' meats

Done cookin'

I let the chicken cool down and then carved it. As I carved the meat off the bones I added the bones and some of the skin to the stock. It gave it that extra punch of flavor. 

Once that was all done I strained the stock into another bowl so I wouldn't have any chunks in the broth. I then started the roux. Roux takes time, but is worth it to make it right. It is not difficult but you do need to watch it carefully so it doesn't get too dark, too quick.

The roux

After the roux was done I added the "Holy Trinity" onions, celery and the roasted peppers.

The roux and the trinity

Then the andouille sausage was added.

Marrying the flavors

Once it was all combined I added the stock and let it simmer. 

Flavors combining into a happy mess.

After simmering for an hour gumbo and the chicken was combined and it simmered for another two hours with the flavors getting all happy.

Ready to serve.

I made the gumbo on Saturday for our Thursday event so the family taste tested it to make sure it was all good. This also allowed the gumbo to sit in the fridge to let the flavors get more integrated. 

The final product

Thursday I served it all up and ended up tying for first place. It was a good time and good food. I would make this dish again just because the flavors are so good. 

Beer Can Chicken & Ribs

A couple days ago we had some friends over for supper and I made smoked beer-can-chicken and ribs. Once again they were awesome.

After the first beer-can-chicken I made I started to experiment using different beers. Each beer adds a different flavor to the chicken. I have used Modelo, an oatmeal stout and a Hefeweizen. This time I used a Serria Nevada Pale Ale. I really liked the flavor of it over the others I have done. Before I put the rub on I painted the chicken with a mustard base BBQ sauce to help the rub hold. I then stuff the cavity with onions and garlic to add additional flavor to the meat as it cooks.

You might notice that the pale ale is in a bottle which doesn't work to well when cooking. I take and empty soda can and rinse it out and then fill it half way with which ever beer I'm using.




I smoked the chicken and the ribs at about 225°. I did the ribs using a 2-1-1 method. This means I put the ribs on the Cooker for two hours uncovered, then wrapped the ribs in tinfoil with some Woodchuck Apple Cider in it to add moisture for an hour, after that hour I unwrapped the ribs and glazed them with a BBQ sauce and cooked them for another hour.

The finished ribs.



The finished chicken.



It was all really good and I wished we had more ribs.