What say we, smoke some, smoke more and well ,drink some and well,catch some

[misfish]

Labor day weekend and well,there was some labor during these past 3 days. The good fun stuff.

 

Lets get this started eh.

 

Home and get the bacon that has been curing for 7 days ready . Rinse, pat dry and add ground pepper as the norm for me. In the fridge til morning. My smoker was booked for the weekend. Bacon ,some jerky ,sat and sun, Monday was going to be a fishing day .

Well Friday night I get a knock on the door and it,s #1 son with a fresh silver salmon. Pop,can you clean and smoke this for me ? Ya ok,I will try and fit it into my weekend schedule . So a quick, slice slice there and a flip flip there, a dump of salt here,couple of dumps of brown sugar there, fill bowl with water, stir,dump in a zip lock bag and into the fridge it goes till a later date.

Saturday morning arrives early,4:20. I thought that was an early time to start smoking. LOL  Get the smoker fired up and in goes the pork. I could only get an internal temp of 165-168 deg, so decided to fire up the grill to get the proper internal temps of 175-180 deg. Good call, as it did not take long .

Turned out IMO, so good. I was slicing pieces off the smaller chunk and just eating. Had to stop or I was going to go into a piggy coma . Cut the ends off of each slab,cubed for frying up and put in home made mac & cheese later on .

 Sliced and vac packed.

 

Since the grill was fired up,might as well throw on some chops and taters for dinner. Oh look,more beer. LOL

No pics,to hungry. LOL

After that was all done,I prepped for my first attempt at smoked ground beef jerky. I used this commercial stuff, Hi Mountain. Seems everyone carries it,so must be good . I went a little less then the recipe called for,as this was my first try. So up in the AM Sunday just before 4:20 this time, pull the bowl out of the fridge ,grab my new jerky maker tube pusher thingy. Oh wait, for got. I have been looking for jerky grates, but man, they want an arm and a leg for them. While at CTC, they had these use once and throw away grilling grates for $5.99. Yup,I,ll take 2 of those for my first go at. Now, back to the squeezing of the meat. Stuff the tube,and lock,load and squeeze . Effortless I must say. Laid out the strips like a pro, I thought anyways.

Interruption happens,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, TEXT, Son says,fish are on,grab rod and get here. What the hell, I am just about to do my jerky,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Hell with it,they will wait. Put racks in the fridge,grab rod and some of my silly leg balanced jigs I tied. I was not prepared, but son calls with the bite on,I got to go .  Look for a report on this later,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Now back to jerking,,,,,,,,,,

Home by 9:30 am, I get the smoker ready,once again . Get the wood pan going,grates in and wait . Check after 2 hours, coming along just fine,I think. Never did this before,what the hell do I know, but the smell was unreal already . The word is,when you can take a stick of meat, bend and it does not break,it,s done. I was able to bend the sticks after 4 hours and it did not break. Done . Only issue was,I had no pam spray and well,some of the sticks kinda stuck to the grate. No worries,I chewed the remaining stuck pieces off. No waste.LOL One thing for sure I will do next time,is go with a low fat content ground meat and spray the grates. I went with lean and found it was a bit greasy for me. I will go with extra lean or maybe even with ground game. Bison,elk or venison . Have to start some where right. I did get it right,the first try .Vac pac these up for later eats on the river and to share with my fishing buddies. This jerky stuff is going to be a must have come the ice season. Great snacking .

Not finished yet, oh no. Master chef at large here .

I wanted a nice full spatchek lemon chicken for dinner. Grab one of those free range no antibiotic birds . Ya cost a few $ more, but found that today,s normal pack chicken tastes like crap, no flavor, so gave it a go. Along with some lemons and corn on the cob from a local and fixen,s for ceaser salad. I injected the breast and legs with pure squeezed lemon and sprinkled newfie savory all over it. Man, that bird plumped up . On the grill indirect for 1 hour with 2 large apple wood chuncks. Reached 165 and it was chow time. Man that apple wood smoke on the skin and lemon in the meat,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, DROOLING

 

Now back to that dropped off salmon. Once dinner was done, I got the fish pat and racked, and in the fridge til Monday AM.

Up Monday real early and well, smoking fish was not on my mind,fishing was, so off to the river for a few hours . Sons smoke fish can wait . Was a good call as I went 1/2 in a few hours. Yes, you will have to find this report in the fishing section of the forum as well .

 

Home,and well, same routine, smoker prepped,fish in,smoked and well,  jerky salmon vac packed.

Cabelas had this box of bags 15% off . Cost me $22 for alot of bags. Good bargain and lie the different sizes. Easy packing .

 

Mondays feed is, LEFT OVERS. The best kind.

 

A side note after all this,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

When I arrived home this morning, I see my granddaughter with a couple of packs of my vac packs. One smoke bacon and one of snack sticks. She was all smiles and said, your suppose to be fishing . Well that was until I tail slapped her with my catch of the day. LMAO. Ya maybe not funny to her,but hey, it,s all fun til you get tail slapped. LOL

 

Hope all had a great fun and safe long weekend .

I am pooped out.

 

Beer me.

 

 

[Terry]

Dang all that looks good

[glen]

I’m hungry. 
 

what temp does the ground jerky get to?  
I think Wild game should be 160.  
it might be a good use of the lesser cuts   

 

[Big Cliff]

Absolutely amazing 

[misfish]

7 hours ago, glen said:

I’m hungry. 
 

what temp does the ground jerky get to?  
I think Wild game should be 160.  
it might be a good use of the lesser cuts   

 

I had it get to 170 and they were on the bottom 2 racks . I think the middle racks would be better. Trial and error . I also used just 1 pan of apple chips, had no hickory . One pan was plenty IMO .

[Spiel]

[AKRISONER]

Your kids break into your home and Rob your smoked meats eh? Let me know if you ever want to hire a security guard. You can pay me in chicken and bacon

[glen]

Do you have a grinder and mixer?

[misfish]

26 minutes ago, glen said:

Do you have a grinder and mixer?

Yup. Hand grinder and a kitchen aid.

[mamona]

Oh boy, you were quite busy in the past few days