LowerAlabama.org

This is a pretty simple recipe but it has several moving parts however, it’s easily done in the course of a day, it can be served for dinner if started around 9am. This is another method I’ve learned under the guidance of Daniel Powell who mastered this process long before me trying it –it works well with spare ribs but is MUCH easier with back ribs; both to prepare and to eat.

Start off by cleaning the slabs and chopping into sections of 3-5 ribs each. Any pork marinade will work if you want to soak them overnight however sliding them into the smoker naked (the ribs, not YOU) will work just fine. A good 3-4 hours at 225 degrees will get you through the first stage of this cook.

The next stage is where the fun begins – get ready to get messy. Pull the ribs off the smoker and find a table where you can layout sheets of aluminum foil. Use my killer BBQ sauce to coat the top and bottom of each section, stacking them 3-4 high and double or triple wrapping in aluminum foil. When you’ve finished making all your little foil stacks, slide them all back into the smoker for another 2-3 hours at around 200 degrees. Since the food is now wrapped in foil you will not need to worry about rotating wood chips for the smoke, you’ll be using the smoker as a low-heat oven the rest of the way in.

Pull the foil stacks out of the smoker and let them cool, still wrapped for an hour then serve. When you unwrap you will not be able to pickup the ribs by the bone, they will be tender to the point of falling off the bone and will have an unbelievable taste.
Continue reading Smoked Pork Ribs

Otherwise known in these parts as “pork butt”, it’s an all-night run in the smoker and makes for some very tasty pulled pork barbeque. This recipe and process is as simple as it gets; slather the shoulder in yellow mustard, rub it with my Smoker’s rub for pork and poultry, zip it up, and store it in the fridge for 12-24 hours. That’s it for the preparation stage!

The smoking phase is even easier, warm up the box to around 220 degrees Fahrenheit then slide in the shoulder for roughly 1½ hours per pound. Once again, just as with poultry, the goal is to cook your meat low and slow. Get the innermost portion of your pork shoulder to a temperature in the 180 – 190 degree range but no higher. Anything greater than 190 will yield you drier meat and be a complete waste of a couple of days not to mention all the therapy, frozen yogurt, and motivational audiobooks you’ll have to endure while trying to get over embarrassing yourself in front of all your friends. If you have a 10lb shoulder you’re looking at around a 15 hour smoke. In that run, you’ll probably add a few tinderbox refills along the way. (see my footnote below for ideas)
Continue reading Smoked Pork Shoulder

While camping with my friend Dave Tate last year ( the same Dave Tate that got me started on that killer squash recipe ) he turned me onto the way to make a great no-hassle burger from the cheapest stuff you can find. ANY frozen burger will do the trick although those thicker “bubba burgers” are preferable. Dave grew up in Louisiana so you can guarantee nothing he cooks is going to make it to the table without being dusted with Tony Chachere’s Creole seasoning. I personally love the stuff however it tends to be a tad too spicy for the kids so I’ve stepped it down to just salt and pepper – ground sea salt and cracked black pepper. The other piece that makes all the difference is Worcestershire Sauce. While salt and pepper or creole seasoning add the appropriate taste, the Worcestershire Sauce keeps the frozen burgers from drying out while serving time on the grill.

My method is to grind a small amount of salt and pepper into a bowl. After tossing the burgers onto the grill, squirt a little Worcestershire on the patties then sprinkle on some of the salt/pepper. I repeat this for about 3 flips then a couple more without and serve. What you end up with is a nice, juicy burger.

If you’re looking for the best burger ever, this isn’t going to be it but I guarantee if prepared with all the pleasantries and condiments, the DaveBurger will be better than any fast food burger and any proper restaurant burger which costs less than $10. It makes for great food to feed a party and great camping grub.

Bacon-wrapped turkey. You can wrap anything in bacon and make it tasty – turkey is no different but in this case, it goes in reverse. I’ll explain what I mean later.

Let’s talk about safety first. A good baseline is to smoke the bird for roughly 35 minutes per pound at a temperature range between 220 and 240 degrees Fahrenheit. The bottom line to cooking a turkey however is getting your bird’s core temperature to 165 degrees. You can time the oven bake or smoke all you want but the end goal is getting that temperature where it needs to be. Smoking the bird is very simple, especially when you’re lazy like me and use a gas-fired smoker. Long, slow cooks at low temperature only guarantees you’ll get great tender meat – it’s the seasoning that really makes the thing worth all the trouble.
Continue reading Smokin’ the BIG bird!