Sweet Corn and Ribeye Steak

Fresh Sweet Corn cooked "right" in a pot of boiling water is a wonderful treat but even better in a smoker or cooker following these simple steps.

First, you need to forget what you read on those other blogs about sweet corn and by the way, you shouldn't be reading any OTHER blogs as it hurts my feelings and some of those dimwits and cityfolks don't know nothing about country cooking. Anyway, do not pull back the shucks and remove the silk as it will be much easier when it is done and the shucks need to be tight on each ear for this method to work right. Do not add sugar to the soak water. Do not overcook this great treat by browning up the shucks on your cooker. KISS

Get out a clean bucket or something that will hold the corn you plan to cook and fill it up with water. Add about 1/2 to 2/3 cup of salt to this bucket.



Add the sweet corn with the shucks and be sure to get it all submerged. Do not strip the ears back to remove the silk or even fool with the shucks as this is one of the secrets to great corn.

Soak this corn for ONE hour.



Now, take it straight to the cooker or smoker running about 225-275 degrees and cook it indirect for ONE hour turning every twenty minutes. The shucks do not have to be browned as it will be far overcooked before the shucks brown up very much.

Make you up a butter jar out of a quart canning jar or a pitcher of some type. Fill it about half full with hot sink water and then add a cup of hot butter on top. Pull the shucks back to use as a handle and remove the silk on the corn and dip those ears in the butter jar and then add your salt and pepper.

ENJOY!!

Ok, for the balance of this cook which will be three ribeye steaks and nine burgers, we will use the Weber Performer.



I like the burgers done at high temps and indirect so I placed the first 6 burgers over the drip pan and cooked them in about 12 minutes. I then placed the last 3 on the cooker and added 2 of the ribeye steaks and I have them direct over the hot coals.



The ribeyes take about 3-4 minutes a side and this is the 3rd steak.



Finished steaks and some corn and we also did some baked potatoes when we did the corn for this meal.



A nice meal.

Rib Tips, St Louis Spares, and Other Treats

This cook started out as a rib practice cook and just kept growing until I had several other items cooked as well as the ribs and tips. I had a couple of new things to try with my competition ribs as I sure do need some improvement to stay ahead of those dang Shigs.

Here in Central Indiana, those bronto spares have been on sale all Summer for as low as $1.59 a pound to about $1.99 a pound and this is a very good buy if you can find them under about five pounds per slab. I have been filling the freezer with them and decided to see what I could do with them.



I cut them down to St louis cut which gives me a slab at just under two pounds and about 3 pounds of rib tips per whole slab of the bronto's. Got more tips than I got ribs!!

I got them ribs all prepared with some secret stuff and then did the tips with my regular stuff and fired up the pellet cooker with some pecan and loaded them up.



They came out good and I did sample one rib off of each slab and gave them to a neighbor for testing.

Now for me and my lady, I have this 9 pounds of tips ready to go back into the smoker in some sauce and another sweetner to finish them up.



Now that is some good eating!!



I also prepped a whole pork loin which is another great buy at $1.57 a pound at Kroger and cooked it along with the ribs and tips. They can be brined, marinaded, or just rubbed and cooked whole and make a great meat that will go with about anything. I love a couple of slices with my eggs at breakfast. Makes a great sandwich as well.



They slice up nice and are always tasty and juicy.



We usually end up freezing some one pound packages of this meat for later use.



As with all my cooks when I have room, I always do some of my breaded and super hot wings.



This chili-head just can't get enough hot stuff!!

Smoked Sausage Medley

I did this cook for a Thursday evening contest pitch-in over in Kettering, Ohio at the 4th Annual Veteran BBQ Cookoff. You know...bring your favorite dish type of thing.



I figured that I would need to serve about 70 people so I decided to do about 9-10 pounds of meat. I used some Smoked Eckrich sausage, some Eckrich Polish sausage, some mild Italian sausage, some Brats, some Chorizo, some Andouille, and some of my super hot and spicy Italian sausage which I have in the bulk.

Ok, for the Medley, I used some portabella mushrooms, red onions, white onions, red, green, yellow, and orange bell peppers.



I wanted all of the ingredients smoked kinda heavy and did them slowly in my pellet cooker with pecan pellets on the smoke setting for some additional time. I started with the bell peppers.



A tray of onions ready for the smoker.



The portabellas ready to go on the cooker.



Since some of my home made sausage is in the bulk form, I just make it into small meat balls for this treat.





I made several smokes with this treat to get it all done and ready for the event.



I cut up the sausage and got it ready. As I finished up, I placed all the smoked and cooked ingredients into some Zip-Lock bags until serving time at the contest.

I planned to make up a light sauce with some Prego, wine, water, and Italian spices.

At the contest, I put this all together in a large stainless steel pot and heated it up for serving.

I don't have any finished pictures of this treat as it went pretty fast at the contest.

Portabella Pizza

I was cruising around the bbq forums a few days ago and on the "Addicted To BBQ" forum, I found this great looking treat. A gentleman who uses the handle of "a26guy" put up a post with pictures of this great looking personal sized pizza.



The unique part of this pizza is that the crust is just a plain portabella mushroom which makes it great for all low carbers as it is about impossible to make a low carb pizza crust out of anything that is edible. It is just great for your regular pizza as well and should please all guests.

Anyway, after seeing the post, I couldn't wait to try it for myself. I also did a couple of regular pizzas with this new treat in the pellet cooker using pecan for wood.



I started by using a mellon baller to cut and scrape the gills from out of the underside of the portabella caps. I then cut each stem off down to the caps. For my toppings for the six portabella pizzas and the two regular 14" pizzas, I browned up a mixture of one pound of hot sausage and one pound of hamburger. I then cut up some onions and bell peppers and opened a can of black olives and the sauce to go on the pizzas. I also used 6 cups of mozzarella cheese on the pizzas.



I sauced the caps and then added the blend of hot sausage and burger.



I added the onions and bells peppers.



Next came the black olives and plenty of cheese and then I added a piece of pepperoni on top.



The six portabella caps ready to go on my pellet smoker.



I brought the smoker up to about 350 degrees for this treat and it took about 18-19 minutes to get the pizzas done to my liking.



This is just before I pulled them off the cooker.



Sure did look great!

After the portabellas came off the cooker, I raised the temp to about 425 for the regular pizzas and loaded them on the smoker.



These things are KILLER!!



Was a little cold outside to screw around setting up a couple of baking hearths so I did the regular pizzas on a pan.



Good stuff!!