40 Years of Cooking Equipment

Jul 13 2015

This year we will have been married 49 years. We moved into our home where we still live in 1973. It had a small kitchen but what looked like plenty of cupboard space. My wife did most of the cooking back then and I was a week-end cook. I had a two car garage and moved a nice work bench in. It was not long until I took over the cooking and my wife did the cleanup.

In the summer I liked to cook on my gas grill and then got into smoking meats. I started with an electric water smoker then went through two gas fired round water smokers and a chest water smoker and ended up with a Traeger pellet smoker that I cook on now.

I got into cooking new things to try and that required different equipment, woks for Asian stir fries, and roaster ovens for holiday cooks, and every non-stick skillet that came out. My kitchen cupboards were full and then I built shelves in the garage to store some. At one time I had two 18 quart roaster ovens, a nine quart and a six quart; not to mention at least 2 Crockpots. I wanted to deep fry a turkey so my wife got me the pot to do one. I never did do one but I use it a lot to do shrimp boils.

After I got my pellet smoker I needed more pots and pans, they went into the garage and in some wicker baskets on our back porch. I had roaster pans, wire baskets and grill pans. I wanted to make my own sausages and brats so I had a meat slicer, meat grinder and sausage stuffer and all was stuffed into the garage! I did manage to make a few batches of sausage. Then I realized I was over 70 years old and my butcher had the best sausages and brats I could want so I sold my stuffer to my friend Brad at the Beer and Wine Depot.

It was about 20 years ago I added a replica pie safe to the right of my stove. I added wainscoting to the wall and added a section of overhead cupboard to make it look like and old kitchen hutch. I use it for canned goods and skillets in the bottom. I keep two Lodge and a De Buyer skillet I use all the time in my oven.

I told the wife to keep watch at sales and antique malls for a nice cupboard I could put in my back porch to get some of the equipment organized better. She found a pie safe the other day we got. It’s a little taller than I wanted; I think it is not an antique but a well-made replica. It doesn’t fit too well in my narrow back porch but I got stuff in it from the baskets and the garage that I use a lot. It makes it a lot easier for me to see and get my stuff.

I am 73 now and I figure by the time I get all my equipment arranged the way I want I will be too dam old to cook anymore!

Cupboard added in my kitchen

The pie safe

Jowl BLT's and Fresh Corn on the Cpb

Jul 11 2015

It was a beautiful day today! It was sunny, not too hot and not a drop of rain all day! I started early and mowed the front yard, our son came down and mowed the back for me. I had all afternoon to enjoy, smoke the bacon for sandwiches tonight, listen to music and sip some beer. Just me and the dog!

I had two of my favorite things tonight I look forward to every summer about mid-July, fresh tomatoes for BLT’s and fresh corn on the cob! The corn was fresh picked yesterday and I had some smoked jowl bacon for the and fresh tomato for the BLT’s.

I smoked the bacon on my Traeger on smoke mode 180 deg. as soon as I got the bacon on I eased it to  275 deg. and that gave me 300 deg. grill level. It took about an hour and then left 5 slices on another 10 minutes. It went in the fridge until supper time.

My wife had lunch with some classmates and did some shopping. When she got home at 5:00 I had the corn cleaned and my steamer pot ready on the Camp Chef. For the corn I just clean some of the outer husks off, trim both ends and steam about 6 minutes in the husks.

I put the CI griddle on to toast the buns and went out and turned the gas burner on. By the time I toasted the buns the water was steaming so I did the corn and took in to make the sandwiches.

My wife had mayo on her BLT and what was left of my pea salad. I had mayo and mustard on my BLT and a small bowl of my leftover beans.

Did that ever taste good! I have had jowl bacon different ways the last 3 meals and corn on the cob the last two, so got my bacon and corn fix, at least for a few days!

Slicing the bacon

On my Traeger

Bacons ready

Toasting the buns

My beans

My corn

My BLT

BB Ham Ribs w/3 beans and Jowl bacon and Fresh Corn

Jul 10 2015

I found this recipe on Saveur for ham cured ribs by Chef Chris Shepherd of Underbelly in Houston.

I had high hopes for them but they came out too salty and I even cut the salt some in the brine. I halved the recipe and used 5/8 cup instead of ¾ cup for the half gallon of water. The next time I will try 1/3 cup since that is what I use in my standard brine.

My BBribs also were not the best. I bought them at my butchers and they were double wrapped and frozen. When I got them I thought they were a little shorter than normal, but they were thick. When I thawed and unwrapped there were two short racks. One looked pretty nice but the other looked like half ribs and half back strap. I cut them in half for my brining pot. They would still do and plenty for the wife and me.

My brine mix was half gallon of water, 5/8 cups of coarse salt and a tablespoon of pink salt, insta cure #1. The ribs were in the brine for 3 days. Anyone’s thoughts on the brine and time are appreciated. After brining I rinsed well and dried, seasoned with just a little Blues Hog rub and in the fridge several hours before smoking.

I had planned on 4 ½ hours for the ribs; 2 hours at 180 deg. and the rest on 235 deg. After two hours I went to 235 deg. and my Savannah Stoker controller settled in at a steady 250 to 255 deg. at grill level.

I had read at several good BBQ sites that the ideal IT for rib was 180 to 190 deg. At 3 hours I checked the temp with my grey thermopen and it was 180 to 185 deg. I thought another 1 ½ hours they will be too done so I went back to 220 deg. I should have remembered Old Dave takes his to 208 in the wrapped stage and mine ended up being underdone.

The ribs were supposed to be glazed with a mustard and molasses sauce. My sample package of Blues Hog came today and one was their Honey Mustard sauce so I used that instead of making my own. I used it on one piece for but I used Kah’s BBQ sauce on two for the wife, she doesn’t like mustard sauces.

I left the piece that looked like back strap plain.

I sauced them with 50 minutes left and tented with foil and let rest 10 minutes before cutting up. I liked the mustard sauced one pretty good and not to mustardy tasting. I always like the Kah’s BBQ sauce.

I thought the beans were extra good, even though the wife didn’t care for them. I thought they had a nice balance of the sweet, sour and heat. I knew the Sutters corn would be good, fresh picked today and my first of the season. I steamed them in my rice cooker and we had butter, Penzey’s sandwich sprinkle and parmesan cheese on them.

Click here for printable bean recipe

Click here for link to rib recipe

Ribs in the brine for 3 days

After 3 days

A little Blues Hog Rub added

For the beans

Jowl bacon, onions, and peppers sauteing

All in except the Rotel tomatoes

Blues Hog sampler pack

On the smoker ready for sauce

All done

My corn

My supper

Pea and Bacon salad w/ Meatloaf Sandwich

Jul 09 2015

Rainy and on the cooler side today; glad we did not get much rain since we had 2 inches the two days before. Sutters notified me by e-mail, I am on their list, they would have corn today. I thought maybe it would be late this year but said their corn is on high ground so it was right on time. I went to the grocery today and stopped at their stand and got some tomatoes. I will get some corn tomorrow to have with my ribs.

I went to Kah Meats and got some jowl bacon and a pound of their regular bacon. I did 5 slices to use for my pea salad and some of the jowl bacon to use in my beans tomorrow. I did it on my Traeger, started on smoke mode 180 deg. and eased up to 250 deg. and then to 275 the last 15 minutes.  I took the jowl bacon off after about 50 minutes so it had some fat left to flavor the beans. The other was done in 1 ¼ hours.

I made up the pea salad after the bacon was done. I only had one bag of peas so made a half recipe. I didn’t mix in the bacon, I like to serve it over top and it stays crispier. It went in the fridge until supper time.

I was having a cold leftover meatloaf sandwich, but the wife had hers heated with some gravy. We had a thick slice of tomato with a little vinegar and oil and some sliced Thai basil and the pea salad with the meatloaf.

The wife and I think this is the best pea salad; just some mayo and sour cream dressing and green onions with bacon. It is an old Frugal Gourmet recipe.

Click here for printable pea salad recipe

The bacon

For the salad

Thawing the peas

Dressing added

My wife's supper

My supper

Safety and some Tips on Using a Traeger Pellet Smoker

Jul 07 2015

I have been using my Traeger 07E pellet smoker over 4 years now. I cook summer and winter on it. Since a pellet smoker has to have electricity to run it is a good idea to use a ground fault interrupter. It will protect you from a shock hazard and may help save your equipment in case of a ground. I have one on a short cord that I bought at Lowe’s for about $26 US.

My pellet smoker is on a covered wood deck so I can use it in any weather. The deck is 6X6 feet and up against my house. This is not the best example for a safe cooking area. I have a fire extinguisher handy and there is a water spigot next to the deck. I also have the smoker setting on a fireproof mat. I bought the mat at Lowe’s; it is rectangular and made with cement. The manufacturer also makes a round one.

Any type of outdoor cooking equipment used on a wooden deck should have one of these under it.

The most common hazard is probably having a grease fire. I have never had one but I don’t do much cooking over 300 deg. F and I use my gas grill for searing. I also keep my smoker clean, vacuuming out and changing the foil on my drip pan. Some smokers have a searing area or a different drip pan to use for grilling and searing and are probably more apt to have grease fires.

One problem with Traegers is burn back after shutdown. It has an auger that lays flat (level) to feed pellets to the burn pot. I have had it; the fire is seeking oxygen and draws it from the auger tube via the pellet bin. It can burn back into the tube and if it ever got into the pellet bin you would have a nasty fire and damage your smoker. You can make this less likely by not shutting down after a 250 deg. or hotter cook. Turn the setting to 180 deg. and let it cool down before shutting down.

Before I had the shutdown fan and I would turn the smoker back on at the lowest setting and let it do a restart to get any burning pellets out of the auger tube and then shut down.  I even had it several times when I had the fan switch and even once with my new controller. It was not bad but could see a little smoke coming from under the pellet bin cover. I found that by leaving the lid open it helps it to draw better and it soon goes out. Since my smoker is on the wooden deck I keep a pretty close watch on it until it shuts down and I also never leave it plugged in.

Most pellet smokers that came out later have a shutdown feature that runs the fan until a low temp. is reached. I installed a manual fan switch on mine and now my new Savannah Stoker V3 controller has the shutdown feature and takes it down to 130 deg. before shutting down.

After I got my new controller installed I wanted to empty out the pellet bin and run a cycle to clean out all the pellets from the auger tube. I also wanted to check the burn pot in action to see how the pellets were burning. I had done this a couple of times before but I had replaced the heat shield and closed the lid until it burned out and cooled down. I knew it got pretty hot with just what pellets were left in the auger tube it would get above 400 deg.

This time I failed to put the heat shield back in; I assumed it would just go above 400 deg. and burn out. Well it went past 400 and kept climbing; it got up to about 760 deg. on the controller, the smoke stack cover was glowing red underneath burning the soot off and the powder coat paint blistered. I was ready to grab my fire extinguisher but it started to cool down and I was glad of that. So a word of caution; never try to run your pellet smoker without the heat shield in place!  

One other thing to watch for is unless you are there to see a flame happen out shut down the smoker and when cool enough take everything out and check the burn pot to make sure it’s not full of pellets. The smokers do not know the flame went out and most will keep on feeding pellets. After a cook one night I had set the smoker on smoke mode to cool down. I forgot to check it until late and when I did it was still on but clod. I checked the pellet bin and it was empty. I assumed it had run out of pellets and the flame went out.

The next day I was getting ready to cook and I loaded in some pellets and started it like usual, on smoke mode 180 deg. with the lid open and as soon as I saw smoke I closed the lid. I went inside to get some meat ready. When I went back outside the smoker was at 350 deg. I knew that something was wrong and shut it down. When it cooled down enough I opened it and inspected the fire pot. It was clear full of pellets and some had run over the side. I had watched the pellet bin enough to know it has some flat spots on two sides of the opening to the auger and it would feed pellets forming a funnel as it does leaving a lot of pellets still in there. I figured what happened the day before was it did this and the auger ran dry for a period and the flame went out then vibration caused more pellets to feed so it ran it out and filled the fire pot.

I hope this will be of use to anyone with a Traeger and some applies to all pellet smokers. Just get to know your pit and Let’s Talk BBQ forum is a good place to learn about most pellet smokers. 

Here the yellow cord has a GFI in it

The brown mat is fireproof

Thoughts on my Savannah Stoker V3 Controller

Jul 05 2015

It was late December and cold weather here in Ohio, when I got my new Savannah Stoker V3 controller from Billy Merril to install in my Traeger 07E. When I did cook it was in the 40’s and it worked great with the default parameters. I was getting good smoke below 225 deg. and higher temps were holding well. I very seldom cook over 300 deg. at grill level. I monitor my grill level temperatures with a Maverick ET 732 in the center front of the grates. I was getting 15 to 20 deg. hotter at grill level than my set temperature.

When it started warming up I was getting larger temp swings and was running hotter than the set temp. most of the time. I started changing The OtH and OtL and was finally down to OtH 70 and OtL 10. It was acting better but with the OtL down to 10 I had a flame out. I tried doing an Auto Tune but that didn’t work too well for me so I went back to my old parameters.

I sent Billy Merril an e-mail explaining my problem and the next day he sent me some new parameters to try. I have cooked on it four times since then and I am really happy with it.

My first cook was 2 hours smoking some peanuts. One hour at 190 deg. and one hour at 200 deg. I was getting 8 to 10 deg. temp swings above and below my set point and some great blue smoke. The swings were nice and steady.

My second cook was just 45 minutes at 190 deg. to smoke some chicken breasts before grilling on my gas grill.

For my third cook I did a stuffed sausage fatty at 180 deg. for one hour and then went to 235 deg. for an hour and the fatty was done. At 180 deg. I was still getting the nice 10 deg. +- for some great blue smoke. I was surprised when I went to 235 deg. it held within 5 deg. it never got out of the 230 range for that hour. I was getting 250 to 255 deg. at grill level.

My fourth cook I did a 7.75 pound pork butt for pulled pork. The total cook time was 9 ½ hours. I was watching it pretty close for most of that time. For the lower smoke times I was still getting the swings that gave me some good blue smoke. At the higher temps; 235 to 250 deg. it was holding within 5 deg.+-

At the higher temps I was running about 20 to 25 deg. hotter at grill level.

I am really satisfied with the way this controller is working with my Traeger 07E. I still get some higher temps. above set point on startup and when I have the lid open for a while. I think you will get this with any smoker. I can control this by waiting until the temp is above set point before I open the lid. When I do get the higher temps it does not take long for it to settle down.

My Traeger is pretty much stock, the one thing I have changed is when my heat shield warped I bolted ¼ inch steel to it and that straightened it out. It also acts as a heat sink so if you do not have this in your Traeger yours may not get the same results with these settings. If you have any problems just contact Billy and he will help you.

Savannah controller default parameters        

IGN = 130                            Sn = Pt

HY = 5                                    Pb = 0

At = 3                                    otl = 17

I = 140                                   otH = 100

P = 25                                    C-F = of

D = 35                                    Fan5 = 3

t = 20

Setting changes from Billy

set outl to 14
Set I =141
P=53

New settings

IGN = 130                            Sn = Pt

HY = 5                                    Pb = 0

At = 3                                    otl =14

I = 141                                   otH =70

P = 53                                    C-F = of

D = 35                                    Fan5 = 3

t = 20

Grilled Cajun Shrimp over Rice and Fried Green Tomatoes

Jul 05 2015

We had another great day for being outside! It has been great for 4 days now without rain! I took the time to clean my Weber Spirit. I scraped the inside down and changed the foil drip pan. I spent plenty of time having a cold one and listening to music. Our son and grandson came down for a while and we all set outside. The grandson watered some of the flowers and hauled some small limbs to the back of my pick up for me.

I had shrimp thawing for some shrimp skewers and some green tomatoes I bought for fried green tomatoes. I did some Zatarain’s yellow rice for a side I did in my rice cooker.

I have bought my shrimp from Kroger’s since they have good frozen wild caught gulf shrimp. They have it raw with shell on or raw cleaned and deveined. It seems they have changed their packaging to reflect the high price. I used to get it in one pound bags but now the raw shrimp comes in 10 oz. bags for about the cost the one pounders used to be.  I think they have even changed the size grading. The large I bought looked more like what medium used to be.

I sliced up the green tomatoes, one was a little bit ripe but I like them that way. I had three slices from each one that I breaded and got in the fridge for a couple of hours to set up. I dipped them in flour with some corn meal added and Penzey’s sandwich sprinkle, then in a beaten egg and then in some Panko bread crumbs.

I had 10 oz. of large (medium) shrimp I rinsed and threaded half each on some presoaked wooden skewers. I use two skewers for each; it makes them a lot easier to turn when grilling. I sprinkled on a little balsamic vinegar and olive oil then seasoned with some Penzey’s Cajun seasoning. They went in the fridge for an hour before grilling.

I have been using Zatarain’s rice mixes for sides; they are seasoned well and I can do them in my rice cooker so they are done and on warm hold to serve hot with the meal. I used their yellow New Orleans style for this meal.

I got my Weber Spirit heating up to med. low heat about 350 to 400 deg. for the shrimp. I covered the bottom of my 12 inch Lodge CS skillet with olive oil and added two tablespoons of butter. I heated it up on my gas burner set on medium. I added the battered green tomatoes for about 3 to 4 minutes per side. When they were about done I added the shrimp skewers to the gas grill for 2 to 3 minutes per side.

I plated up the shrimp skewers over the yellow rice and had the fried green tomatoes on the side. The wife and I both loved this meal.

Note: You can see that I slightly overcooked, a little burnt, the green tomatoes on one side, I did better on the other side. I used and old trick my wife used to do when she burnt one side of meat; she served it burnt side down!

For the tomatoes

Sliced tomatoes

Breaded

Shrimp skewers

Frying the tomatoes

Shrimp skewers on the grill

My supper