Smoked Old Fashioned Bung Bologna

Boar & More was a meat packing plant here in Wapakoneta, OH. I remember my uncle, who had a slaughter house & grocery, used to get his smoked hams from there; this was back in the 1950’s. They were still in business when we moved here in 1973. They bought their meat from a large stock yard that had weekly auctions. I am not sure when but I think it was shortly after we moved here both businesses closed up.

Kah’s original butcher shop was down town but moved to its present location near the Boar & More plant sometime before Boar & More closed. The owner of Boar & More knew Dick Kah liked their old fashioned bung bologna so he gave him the recipe when they closed up.

Dick is now deceased but his sons & family continue running Kah Meats. They still make the bung bologna, the best I can buy. They had not made any for awhile but I seen they had some the other day. I went in Saturday and bought a chunk, just under 3 lbs.

I cut 3 thick slices for fried bologna. The rest I cut half into 1 inch chunks & seasoned with Penzey’s rib rub & the other half I sliced half way through, crisscrossed and seasoned with some Dijon mustard and Cajun seasoning.

I smoked both at 170 deg. for 1 ½ hours the went to 225 deg. In a half hour I pulled the cut up and did the chunk another ½ hour. Both were tasty and will make some good snacks with some aged cheddar and my smoked Cajun crackers.

Kah's bologna, dutch loaf, and pizza loaf

Seasoned and ready to smoke

After 1 1/2 hrs. on smoke

At 225 deg.

Chunk is done

Ready to snack on

Smokin Don

English Chuck for loose meat sandwiches

Our daughter will be here this week-end to visit & celebrate her birthday. I decided to do up some chuck roast and grind it for loose meat sandwiches. Loose meat sandwiches were made popular in Iowa and one called Maid-Rite is popular, served with a slice of cheese on top. I have never seen them in a restaurant in Ohio.

I went to my butchers Wednesday to get the beef and he had two English cut chuck roasts. A regular chuck would be a little cheaper but I just can’t resist that cut or beef. I think of all the flavor you get from the attached rib bones & meat.

I got it ready Thursday morning to smoke. I would smoke it for an hour then go to 225 deg. until an IT of 160 deg. Then in a roaster pan on top of sliced onions, a Yuengling beer and a cup of water w/a heaping tsp. of better than beef bullion added for broth. Then covered with foil and cooked until 200 deg. IT. The roast was seasoned with some, coarse gray salt, seasoned pepper, and dried garlic flakes.

I got the roast on at 8 am and it was done at 1:30 for a total of 5 ½ hours. I let it set covered for one hour, then saved the onions, used a gravy separator to pour off the fat and the meat went in the fridge to cool. After it cooled I ground it and the onions in my meat grinder w/coarse die. Tomorrow night it will go in a Crockpot with some of the au jus and heated for sandwiches. The roast was 4 ¾ lbs. and I got 2 ¾ lbs. of ground meat.

We got some much needed rain Thurs. & Fri. a little over ½ inch. I dropped the canvas on the north side of my smoke deck and stayed dry smoking!

Seasoned Roast

Onions and broth

At 160 deg. IT

Ready to foil and finish

All done

Some good sandwich meat

Smokin Don



Update: My sandwiches and supper Friday evening.

My d-i-l came home from work about 3 pm and my daughter arrived from Chicago a little later. My son came home from school in Columbus at 5 pm. I had supper ready & waiting for all. My grandson’s friend from across the street stayed to eat too.

I had my loose meat beef in a Crockpot. For sides we had some local made potato salad, and some Bush’s grillin beans. Earlier today I also marinated some tomatoes, cucumbers, and onions to have too; the tomatoes were from my garden.

The loose meat sandwiches were served on a COWB, cheap ole white bun. It was too hard to hold and eat without falling apart so it was a fork & knife sandwich; tasted great! It would be easier to eat served on a hard crust bun.

Smokin Don

Garlic Sausage and Corn on the Cob

Another hot day here in Ohio, 94 deg. 40% humidity. I was watching the radar all week end, green & yellow all over the eastern half of the US but it all passed by Wapakoneta!

The kids were away for the week end so it was just me & the wife. I bought a half doz. ears of corn from my produce wagon & would fix the last 3 of my garlic sausage I had frozen for sandwiches.

Getting to know temps & times better to do corn I would do it all on my Traeger. The corn I had soaked in salt & sugar water about 5 hours. I did the corn for one hour at 275 deg. and the sausage & onions for 45 min. I seasoned the onions with a little salt & sumac berries. The sumac berries have a lemon or vinegar taste but less acidic.

The sausages were served on a whole wheat bun, a little mustard & onions on top. The corn with butter, salt & pepper and we had the marinated zucchini as a side. All really hit the spot & was an easy meal to do.

Onions w/salt and sumac berries

My Sausage

On the smoker

My Supper

Smokin Don

A Zucchini Side

Just a quick post on some zucchini. Those who grow zucchini know you usually have it coming out your ears & don't know what to do with it all. I made this up yesterday, 1 large & 1 small zucchini, 1 onion sliced thin, 1.5 mm on my slicer. Sliced the zucchini into a colondar sprinkled with some coarse salt & let drain for 20 min. Rinsed & place into a bowl w/onions, added 1/3 cup rice vinegar, a couple Tbs. olive oil and covered w/water. Added some ground pepper. Tasted & needed more vinegar, had about 2 Tbs left so added that. In the fridge to marinate. It sat overnight & tasted good for lunch, needed salt, I let everyone salt to their taste. Great as a side & think it would go well on a pulled pork sandwich!

Smokin Don

Beefy Meatloaf

I was hungry for some meatloaf and potatoes with gravy. For my supper Friday I did one up a beefy version instead of tomato based.

My recipe makes a pretty wet loaf but it comes out nice, not too dense. I did it on smoke mode 174 deg. for 45 min. then went to 225 deg. another ½ hour it was at 110 deg. so eased the temps up until 325 deg. After 2 hours total it was about done so went to 350 deg. until it was 160 deg. IT. This gave me a nice crust that I was after.

I baked an Ecce Pene take home ciabata bread to serve. I had my meat loaf done early so at supper time all I had to do was heat the gravy; fry up some Ore Ida hash browns and some carrots to serve with it and nuke each slice of meatloaf for 45 seconds. The carrots I boiled about 10 minutes; poured the water off and added butter and parsley and simmered awhile.

I served it with the bread & butter and gravy over the meatloaf and potatoes. It sure tasted good. We had some of my Peaches & cornbread dessert with vanilla bean ice cream after supper. That really was good; I thought it was better than any cake & peaches I have ever eaten.

Printable Meatloaf Recipe

Meatloaf at 100 deg. IT

Ready to serve

My Plate

Smokin Don

Peaches and Cornbread Dessert

Normally when you think cornbread you don't think of dessert, but when I seen this recipe I knew I had to try it. Basically it's two boxes of Jiffy cornbread mix, mixed per package. One 28 oz. can peaches drained. Mix 1 Tbs. of melted butter, 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon and stir into the peaches. I used Margaret Holmes OSage peaches. I preheated a 10 inch cast iron skillet, sprayed w/ELOO, added 3/4 of the cornbread mix. Added the peaches to the center then spooned the rest of the cornbread mix over the peaches.

Margaret Holmes peaches are the only canned peaches I have found that taste like home canned peaches. You have to watch, sometimes I find a piece of pit in them.

To make this easier yet one could just use a can of peach pie filling or any fruit filling you like.

If you want to bake this in an oven the recipe said bake at 400 deg. for 30 to 35 minutes.
I baked mine at 325 in my Traeger, that's about 350 at grill level. It took 50 minutes until I thought it was done.

I had this with some vanilla bean ice cream and was delicious. I liked this better than cake with peaches in. The peach mix kind of all settles to the bottom for a gooey crust. My wife said it was good but she would rather have cake.

Peach mix

Peaches added to cornbread mix

Rest of cornbread mix added

On the smoker

Cooling

My piece with ice cream

This was so good here's another view

Smokin Don

Pulled turkey leg sandwiches and a caprese salad

Today’s cook was kinda fun since I was trying something new; pulled turkey legs. This is just the second time I have smoked turkey legs. The first time I didn’t like them too well.
I bought 6 Honeysuckle fresh turkey legs. It said all natural but not sure what that could mean!

I made up ½ gallon of brine, a scant ½ cup kosher salt, a good ½ cup of brown sugar, 2 Tbs. molasses, 2 Tbs. soy sauce, and 2 Tbs. liquid smoke. Ok so I used liquid smoke! They were in the brine for 10 hours before smoking.

I rinsed the legs & let dry some in a colander. I then coated well with some Penzey’s Galena Street rub. I did them on smoke mode P5 for one hour & was holding pretty good at 170 deg. I then went to P3 for ½ hour, then to P0 & was at 225-230 deg. for the rest of the cook. After 2 hrs. 10 min. the first leg was at or over 165 deg IT. I pulled them as they reached temp and took another 20 minutes.

I covered with a towel for 15 minutes then removed the towel. Another 20 min. they were cool enough to handle so I removed the skin and pulled the meat. I nuked the skin until crisp for a cooks treat! Now that was a chore pulling the meat. I ended up doing more chopping than pulling but got some nice looking meat for sandwiches.

For my sandwiches I toasted the buns w/a little olive oil in a skillet, topped with the turkey and a slice of Swiss cheese. All went under the broiler to melt the cheese.

I made a caprese salad, romaine lettuce w/ a splash of red wine vinegar, a slice of tomato, some mozzarella cheese, fresh basil, a little ELOO, and gray salt & pepper.

The sandwiches were good, great flavor but I thought the meat was a little on the tough side. Unless I can get fall off the bone turkey meat I think I will stick with pork & chicken for my pulled meat sandwiches. The salad was great!

Brined and seasoned

On the smoker

Ready to pull

Pulled and chopped

Moking the sandwiches

My salad

My sandwich

Smokin Don