Beef Arm Roast & Twice Baked Potatoes

09 25 2017

I had a 1 ½ lb. beef arm roast I planned to do on my smoker and finish in my Instant Pot. For sides I would have twice baked potatoes and some sliced beets. I had 3 large russet potatoes to bake.

I seasoned the roast with just salt & pepper and put it in my Traeger pellet smoker for 1 ½ hours. I chopped some onion for the bottom of my Instant Pot. roast went on top, added some dried garlic flakes and a cup of water with some Better than beef bullion. I set it on Meat/Stew for 45 minutes.

I baked the potatoes with potato rods inserted at 360 deg. In my oven for 1 ½ hours. I let them cool while I took care of the roast, I removed some of the fat, sliced and back in the pot. I cut them in half and scooped out the potatoes. I mixed in some butter, sour cream and shredded cheddar. That went back in the skins and topped with some more cheddar and back in the oven.

I had heated some sliced beets with a little butter and toasted an English muffin. I served the potatoes topped with some sour cream and chives.

The beef was not fall apart but tender enough to cut with a table knife and all tasted good. I have some of the potato skins left for tonight’s supper.

Roast done on the smoker

In the IP

Baked potatoes

Beets

Slicing the beef

My supper

Smoke & Steam CS Pork Ribs w/Fried Hominy

09 24 2017

I don’t do country style pork ribs that often, I just never got them tender enough for me. They are not really ribs but sliced from the shoulder blade end of the loin. For me the best way was to smoke some and then braise or do in a crock pot. I did some Friday for our supper and added my Instant Pot pressure cooker to get them fall apart tender.

Reading some recipes for the IP called for 45 min. Cooking in the IP. I decided on 1 ½ hours in my Traeger pellet smoker and 35 minutes in my IP. I seasoned the 3 ribs I got from my butcher with some Galena Street rub and did them at 250 deg. grill level with LumberJack 100% hickory pellets.

Then they went in my IP, added about a cup of beer and ⅓ cup of BBQ sauce and set it on Meat/Stew for 35 minutes. When done I let it release the steam before opening and serving. I used my butchers sauce, it’s a little like Sweet Baby Ray’s only tangier. Use your favorite and water will work in place of beer. I removed grease with a gravy separator to serve over. They were fall apart tender, I ate most of mine with my fingers.

My side was some fried yellow hominy in a little olive oil and added chopped onion and red  peppers. We had some English muffins and butter with it. This made a great meal and will probably be my go to method for country ribs.

Done smoking

Ready for the pot

For my side

Done in the pot

My supper

Crisbee to season my vintage Wapak Skillet

09 23 2017

I had heard about a product to season cast iron when I ordered my Stargazer CI skillet. It is a mix of oils and beeswax. My skillet came unseasoned and I used the Crisbee Stik to season it. The outside was a nice black color but the inside was a light brown. After using it it looked like the seasoning was coming off. I ran it through a self cleaning cycle in my oven to remove all and redo with grape seed oil.

A good authority on cast iron said he had the same problem with the Stargazer and said the inside was actually too smooth for the Crisbee to stick to it.

Our son gave me a vintage Wapak Holloware Z logo skillet for a gift. I had one that was a smooth bottom but it was warped some and just used it to bake in, mostly cornbread. This one has a heat ring and sets solid so I hope I can use it on my glass top stove.

The skillet actually looked like I could just clean and use but the bottom had grease caked on some so I decided to redo it. I used a wire wheel to clean the bottom and ran it through a self-cleaning cycle in my oven. It had a lot of rust on it so I used some fine steel wool to take off what I could get off.

I decided to give Crisbee another chance. I heated it to 200 deg. applied some Crisbee and wiped off all I could with Scott’s blue towels. It went back in the oven to 300 deg. then wiped again with the blue towels and went to 500 deg. I let it set at 500 deg. For an hour then shut off to cool. I did this two more times but just went to 400 deg. It looked nice and black when done. I fried up a pound of bacon in it to break it in good. Had to have BLT’s with it! I am happy with the Crisbee the second time around and will see how it holds up as I use it more.

Click to see Crisbee product

Re-seasoned and one use

Pulled Pork and Salsa Potato Salad

09 23 2017

I have been lax about getting my cooks posted so need to get back in the groove. A while back I got an 11 pound pork butt on sale for $1.40 a pound so I couldn’t pass it up.

I had wanted to try what was Eli’s, Cincinnati Ohio, rub of brown sugar, salt and pepper. I got the butt on at 4:00 AM at 250 deg. on my Traeger. At about 7:30 I had a fire that I figured was grease and brown sugar. I shut the smoker down, I had 150 deg. IT in the butt. I placed it in a pan it just fit on a rack and covered with foil. I finished it in my oven at 300 deg. to an IT of 205 deg. After it cooled an hour I pulled it and added some of the degreased pan juices. It was really tender and pulled easily by hand.

I was having sandwiches with Stubbs original sauce and some fried green tomato flavored potato chips. I had made up a new potato salad recipe all the family likes with salsa in it. The recipe is:

2 pound baby Dutch, or any potatoes steamed.

2 heaping TBS. sour cream

1 heaping TBS mayo, Hellman’s or Duke’s preferred.

4 teaspoons salsa, I used Newman’s Own mild

1/2 to one sweet onion sliced thin

Salt & pepper to taste.

Mix all together and let chill a couple hours before serving.

Pork Butt

Ready to smoke

Moved to the oven

Done and cooling

Pulled

For the potato salad

My supper