Double Smoked Ham / Bloody Mary

I am always looking for an excuse to do some rotisserie smoking on the Weber kettle and did another ham a few weeks ago and here are the results.

I started with a Cumberland Gap Hickory Hills hickory smoked boneless ham that weighed 10.46 pounds. These are great for a rotisserie setup.



Wasn't much to do to prep the ham other than to sprinkle on a little Smokin' Guns hot rub and place it into my EZ-Que 6" rotisserie setup. A real shame that this company went out of business as they made great products.



I decided to use the Performer as it was closest to the door and got it all setup with a drip pan and lit it up to have ready for the ham. I used some cherry wood for the smoke and used my battery powered motor for the rotisserie and then covered it with a plastic bag since it was raining.



Checked it a little later and it was going good so now it was time for a drink and wouldn't you know it, there is a story behind this drink.

As a competition cook, we usually pick parsley (and all the cooks will know what I am talking about) about 7 to 8:00am on Saturday morning at a contest. My friend Jeff Neals from the Shigs in Pit would bring me a great Bloody Mary drink that was very hot and spicy (he knows I am a chili-head) about this time in the morning and it was wonderful. I really don't do very many mixed drinks as I do like my beer but this was an exception. I asked him to give me the recipe or teach me how to do this great drink as it is killer!

Jeff told me that the first thing I had to do was to infuse the vodka and he got me started with this step.



I purchased an infusion jar that holds about 1-1/2 gallons and loaded in several kinds of peppers. Mild peppers like ancho, bell peppers, and bananna peppers, hot peppers like the hot bananna, jalapeno, seranno, and a couple of habenero peppers. Looks better if you select some for the color. Then I added some onions, baby carrots, celrey, and a couple of cloves of garlic. I then filled it up with vodka and let it infuse for about 4 days. I poured it back into the bottles and I was ready to go with the infused vodka. Them used up veggies would probably make a heck of a good pot roast!

For the mix, Jeff suggested several different brands but after trying them all, both Jeff and I prefer the Mr & Mrs T's Bold and Spicy.



Jeff would suggest that you garnish the rim of a 16 oz cup with lime juice and maybe a rub of your choice or some celrey salt but I usually leave this step out. I usually just fill up the cup with ice and then pour about 1/4 of it into my shaker. I then add about 1-1/2 oz of the infused vodka and about 6 oz of the Mr & Mrs T's Bold and Spicy mix to the shaker. Next comes a 1/4 tsp of celrey salt, and a 1/2 tsp of celrey seed and then a very generous shot of Tabasco sauce. I then grind in generous amount of fresh ground Telecherry black pepper to the shaker. Shake that all up and pour into the cup. Then add a celrey stick, or maybe a Slim Jim sausage stick or pickle or whatever you have.



I don't think you can drink a better Bloody Mary. I think the infused vodka makes all the difference in the great taste of this drink.



I made up a glaze with some bbq sauce, real maple syrup, and some honey and brushed it on the ham about 30 minutes before it came off the cooker.



Looked pretty good coming off of the Weber kettle and I let it rest covered with foil for about 30 minutes.



Set my slicer up for thin slices and started slicing up the ham.



Made up a nice plate of sliced ham and then I got it ready to send out.



Placed it into another container, added some pineapple slices and juice along with some cherries and sent it on its way.

The Ultimate Hot Fattie

This treat has been all over the web and on the cooking shows and other TV shows and I believe it was invented by The BBQ Addicts and posted on their blog back in 2008. They call it "The Bacon Explosion".

Probably a gazillion versions of this treat out there and this is another with my changes as this chili-head does like this kind of food hot.

Had some other items to grill along with this Ultimate Fattie so I fired up the Weber kettle and got it ready for my version of this treat.



I started with these ingredients:

2 pound bacon
1 pound of Bob Evans hot sausage
onion
bell pepper
Jalapeno peppers
shreadded up about 1-1/2 cups of the very hot Three Alarm Colby Jack Cheese with Habanero, Chipotle, and Jalapeno peppers from Sam's Club.
rub
cayenne pepper

I need to stop right here and make a statement about the very hot Three Alarm Colby Jack Cheese as used in the above recipe.



This stuff is "killer". It's great shreadded up and then mixed with your regular cheese for pizza, calzones, lasagna and other Italian treats. Also wonderful just sliced for crackers.



I started by making up the bacon weave and did it on a piece of wax paper. I used 14 pieces of bacon.

I then cut up the rest of the ingredients and shreaded the super hot cheese. Fried up about 10 slices of bacon on the stove and broke it into small pieces.



Next, I sprayed some Pam into a 1 gallon Zip-Lock bag and placed the sausage inside the bag and then pressed it out with my hands to form a nice square piece of sausage. I cut the top off the bag and then cut down the two sides and laid the bag open to get at the sausage. Placed a piece of waxed paper on top and then turned it over and removed the rest of the bag.



Started the stuffing process with the onions, bell peppers and Jalapeno peppers.



Next came the bacon pieces and the shreadded cheese.



I then used the wax paper to help roll up the stuffed sausage roll and placed it on my bacon weave.



Using the wax paper again, I rolled up the sausage and bacon weave and then sprinkled on some rub and cayenne pepper and it was ready for the cooker.



Placed it on the kettle at about 275 degrees and let it cook until the internal got to 165 degrees. As you can see, I didn't get the seam of the bacon all the way under the roll. It came loose at about the time it was done and was easily fixed.



Had a problem here as the inside was done and the outside bacon wasn't as crisp as I like and I didn't want to overcook it. The picture makes it look like it was done enough but it wasn't so I let it rest until it cooled down some and then placed it in the oven under the broiler for about 10 minutes turning it a few times and man, that did it without overcooking the stuffing.



Cut it up for serving.

Just take a buttermilk biscuit, butter it and spread a glob of some good blackberry jelly on it and place one of these Bacon Explosion slices on it and enjoy. Also great on an English muffin with a big slab of tomato and some Mayo.

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.

Flat Iron Steak Meal / Weber Performer

Around the first of the year, Lowe's Hardware chain put a few Weber Peformers on sale for about half price at $199.00 dollars and I did find one at this great price and bought it. I really wanted a red one but I had to settle for the black.



For my first cook, I wanted to do a total meal on the kettle so here it is.

My menu was to be the following:

Flat Iron Steak
Thick slabbed potatoes
Marinated and grilled veggies
Fruit
An Italian Flatbread

Prep



For my bread, I kinda crossed one my focaccia recipes with my bruschetta flat bread recipe and just made up the dough with some Italian herbs and then added some olive oil, a bruschetta tomato topping, some tomato slices, and shreadded mozzarela cheese. I also sprinkled on some dried Italian herbs.



The bread ready to go on the cooker.



I made up a sweet marinade for my veggies and also added some pineapple to the mix and got it soaking. I had slab onions, bell peppers, and pineapple in the bowl.



I then prepped my slab potatoes. I used peanut oil as a sticker, and then added some dried Italian spices, fresh cracked black pepper, sea salt, and some parmesan cheese.



I sprinkled on some garlic salt and then cracked up some fresh tellicherry pepper on top of my 3 pound flat iron steak.

The Cook



My slab potatoes will take the longest so they went on the cooker first. I then put the bread on the cooker on a raised grid to get it closer to the top of the cooker for the best baking results. I was running the temp at about 400 degrees.



This was the first cook on a brand new Weber Performer Grill.



The bread just off of the cooker. Man, did it smell good!!



Just as soon as I got the bread off, I opened up the vents to get the cooker up to as high temp as possible for the steak.



It only took a few minutes a side to get the steak to about medium rare- medium and then off the cooker and wrapped in foil and rested for about 30 minutes.



The potatoes were done at this time as well.



The veggies went on next in my veggie pan.



At this high temp, they only took a few minutes to cook.



After the steak rested, I cut if for the serving plate. Looked great!



Mommy wanted some more fruit with the meal so she added some tangerine slices to the plate.

Ya just gotta love those Weber kettles...

Pit Beef/Roast Beef on the Weber Kettle

Wife wanted some roast or pit beef and I was looking to do a rotisserie cook of some type so this cook just went together like peaches and cream. I decided to do it on my EZ-Que in the old stand by Weber Kettle which always gives me great results. Never had a bad cook with this setup.



I started out with two beef bottom round roasts from Sam's Club with one weighing in at 3.58 pounds and the other a little larger at 4.11 pounds. I like the smaller roasts as it gives me more of that great outside crust after cooking. This meat should make for some wonderful sandwiches!



I cut the hard fat off of the fat side and then sprinkled on a generous dose of garlic salt and black pepper.



I got the cooker out of the garage and loaded up the charcoal chimney with enough Rancher brickettes to fill the two charcoal baskets in the Weber kettle. I then lit up the chimney full of charcoal. Was a cool morning at about freezing and with some misting rain and fog in the area. As you can see, we still have some snow on the ground.



I got my 6" EZ-Que rotisserie basket out and loaded up the two rubbed bottom round roasts and got them ready for the cooker.

Went back outside and poured the charcoal into the baskets inside the cooker and added the drip pan with a little water and got the cooker ready to load for an indirect hight temp cook.



I loaded the meat into the kettle for this short cook.



With the freezing rain I decided to use my tailgater battery operated rotisserie spit motor for this cook and I replaced the D batteries and installed it and it worked well.

I wanted to cook this meat as hot as the cooker would get and I opened up all the vents and had a lid temp of around 425-475f degrees which should get these roasts done to medium rare in about an hour. Then the wife told me she didn't want them "moo-ing" so I decided to cook them a little longer.



I ended up cooking the roasts for about 75 minutes which gave me an internal temp of about 155-160f which is about medium done. It sure looked good and should make for some great beef.

Brought the meat inside the house and removed it from the EZ-Que basket.



The smell was wonderful and I couldn't wait to get some sliced up. Wrapped them in foil and let them cool some before I put them thru the slicer.



The meat coming off of the slicer.



It sure makes up a nice plate of thin sliced roast beef. Me and my lady fought over each of the last 1/4" thick crust pieces off of each block of meat that went thru the slicer as the slicer won't cut the meat all the way to your fingers! ouch! These thin crunchy chunks are to die for!!

Take a fresh onion bun, cut it in half, wrap it with a wet paper towel and place it into the nuker for a few short seconds to get it steamed and warmed up. Place a big pile of this roast beef on one side of the bun. Add a couple of slices of Swiss cheese on top of the meat, back into the nuker for a few seconds to melt the cheese. Add a big dollop of horsey sauce to the top of the meat and add the top of the bun for one great sandwich.

We did freeze the remainder of the meat in pound packets for future use.