Cooking/Food thread

[p238shooter]

golddigger14s "question." My answer is easy, buy a deep freeze, a few boxes of zip lock bags (Some people use sealers) and a few muffin tins. There is one configuration of miniature loaf pan that is a little larger and has 8 rectangles.

Then I grill, smoke, or put together most anything I like using a regular recipe. A big pan of sausage gravy, few cans of biscuits after they were done in the oven. I just did some German potato salad today and have some in the mini-loaf pan. I will bag the chunks up in the morning (just run hot water over the back side until it releases) that will go with the 2 gallon sized ziplocks I filled with the leftovers of the two sides of ribs I smoked today. Did 20 burger patties last week, a brisket the week before. I do need to deep fry a few pounds of fish. (I was getting low on stuff) I also do stews, Crock pot roast, most any type of casarolls, soups, home made enchiladas, ham and beans, gumbo, you name it.

Nope, not quite the same as fresh in some cases, for instance, I do not care for full chicken pieces reheated, but better than store bought pizza in most situations for sure.

No need of trying to make a 1/10th size meal fresh every day. Make a full batch, eat a fresh meal of it and put what you might eat in a couple days in the frig, put the rest in the freezer for anytime later.

Doing this you can have a meal of what ever you choose in 10 minutes when ever you are ready. 1/3 the price of Mell's diner without leaving your house.

Humm, thinking about sausage gravy and biscuits for in the morning. Might fry an egg with it while it is slow thawing in the microwave.

Good luck to you. Try it you might like it.

 

[tRidiot]

Do not read this post if you are already hungry, or if you're on a diet, OR if you're on that keto fad thing, like my buddy who came over to hang out last night. lol

So here's what I ended up with yesterday:

Nice little pork butt, rich and juicy and yummy. This wasn't the problem with my keto-converted friend....

This was - what has turned out to be probably the best thing I have EVER cooked in my life. Seriously. And I've made some good food, I'll be the first to admit. I make a mean steak, either sous vide or just grilled, reverse sear, whatever. And I've made some great other stuff, plenty of fabulous ribs, and I love cooking in the kitchen, too. Friends in my church small group loved when The Wife and I signed up to bring dinner to our get-togethers, I always like to go all out for that. BBQ sometimes, did a street taco bar one time with full-on homemade carnitas and carne asada-style beef, etc. It was the bomb, no kidding. But these... these little things are definitely going IN the rotation for the long haul!

Above are little chunks of pork belly, covered in my pork rub, then tossed in the smoker for about... oh an hour, maybe an hour and a half.

Then, we take them out, toss them with some real butter, agave nectar (or just honey, if you prefer), a little more rub and some BBQ sauce - this time I used Payne County Hog's Bane. Cover the pan with foil, threw them in the oven and let them braise for another hour or so, maybe more. I took 'em out once and flipped 'em around, got 'em a little more coated. Then, pull them out, either drain off the liquid or repan them, put them back in the oven (or smoker) and let the residual sugars and seasoning caramelize for 20-30 minutes (oven was at 250°F this whole time).

And you end up with THESE little pieces of meat heaven, pork candy nirvana:
Pork Belly Burnt Ends.
O. M. G.

There is just absolutely NO comparison on these things. They are freaking INCREDIBLE.

They are a lot of work - had to chase down a pork belly, then thaw it, then skin it (this was a PITA), then cube it, season, put on (greased) racks and put in the smoker. Oh, and my first batch got ruined. I had to go somewhere and thought I would be back sooner and they would be fine, but I was gone nearly 3 hours, and with the smoker running hotter than normal trying to finish the pork butt I didn't get on until noon, when I came back, almost all of them were ASH. CINDER. RUINED. F00K.

So I broke out the other half of the pork belly which was partially frozen by then, cubed that one up and started over. The smaller pan above is most of what I could save out of the first batch, they were a little more well done and had a little more "chew" on the edges, but that unctuous, smooth, fatty, sweet, slightly salty porky goodness was still freaking amazing!

I can't rave about these things enough. I remember making pork shots once, with little pork kielbasa sausage medallions wrapped in bacon and filled with pulled pork (like a little shot glass), then topped the "shot" with brown sugar and a few drops of Elijah Craig bourbon, then smoked. OMG, those were absolutely ridiculous - these things blew them out of the water. Like... no comparison. None.

You gotta do this. There is just no option, no choice. This is a must. If we ever do a real BBQ ENS up this way, I'll have to do them, but jeez, I'd not likely be able to do anything else, because these things would take up all of my smoking capacity, and they're somewhat labor-intensive. And I'd have to make a dumptruck load full to satisfy everyone. I'm going to work on methods to pare down the work, some things I can do ahead of time to streamline them, but man, I can see all of my friends asking when I'm going to do these next EVERY. TIME. I. BBQ.

Ok, enough of that. I sound like a little girl, I know, but damn, I'm just floored by how good these are.

BTW, I kinda-sorta followed Malcom Reed's recipe on YouTube, if you want to check it out.

For those too lazy to click.


So that's part of what I did yesterday... and what I'm cleaning up today! The leftovers, I mean! lol.


Oh, and here's a link to my Fireboard's log of the cook. No point having this toy if I can't show off the results and data, right? lol

https://share.fireboard.io/AFF8EC

 

[dennishoddy]

That looks real interesting. Have to pick up some pork belly next time we visit Costco.

 

[tRidiot]

I was surprised I found this one at my local butcher. May be worth a call. But then, I know you're heading to Tulsa pretty regularly these days, so it's maybe not so far out of the way. In Tulsa, if you don't want to make it all the way down to Costco, the Asian Mart grocery at 31st and 129th pretty much always has pork belly, and Perry's Food at 10th & Lewis often does, as well. The Asian Mart would be closer to your normal path, I think, right? Broken Arrow?

 

[chazroh]

Going to have to try that

 

[chazroh]

Hell im gonna go to Costco now!!

 

[dennishoddy]

I was surprised I found this one at my local butcher. May be worth a call. But then, I know you're heading to Tulsa pretty regularly these days, so it's maybe not so far out of the way. In Tulsa, if you don't want to make it all the way down to Costco, the Asian Mart grocery at 31st and 129th pretty much always has pork belly, and Perry's Food at 10th & Lewis often does, as well. The Asian Mart would be closer to your normal path, I think, right? Broken Arrow?

We are usually camped out at 101st and Garnett, so driving on 101st, I can get to Costco pretty quick, and then Sprouts on the corner to stock up with some fresh coffee beans.
Last time I was in there they already had the pork belly’s sliced lengthwise about 1” thick.

 

[tRidiot]

We are usually camped out at 101st and Garnett, so driving on 101st, I can get to Costco pretty quick, and then Sprouts on the corner to stock up with some fresh coffee beans.
Last time I was in there they already had the pork belly’s sliced lengthwise about 1” thick.

If they're skinned already, too, you're totally set, man.

 

[dennishoddy]

If they're skinned already, too, you're totally set, man.

Yep, already skinned.

 

[chazroh]

I just pulled these out of the oven @tRidiot and they are epic