I’m no different from many people who grill or smoke their food, often. I’ve got a pantry filled with chile powders, herbs and spices that all go in to any rub I care to make at any given meal. I’ve got versions I like better than others and sometimes just like to strip it down to the basics and enjoy the meat & smoke.

Yeah well, when I was at the Fatted Calf Picnic this year Taylor used 1 ingredient for his dry rub and I’ve been experimenting ever since. Even took some slabs of baby backs to a food blogger picnic a few weekends ago. So far, I’m at 100% approval rating for this ingredient.

Care to come see?

What 1 ingredient could win over so many people? Salt, kosher salt to be specific.

For this rack I used my wood fired pit fueled with mesquite and hickory for flavors. I got a late start on Sunday, but it didn’t matter. Babybacks take so little time, 2.5 hours or so. Last week’s load I rubbed the salt in maybe 1.5 hours before going in the smoker. For Sunday’s run, it was between 3 and 4 hours. This can be done overnight as well, it just doesn’t matter. The results are so fantastic I have absolutely no interest whatsoever in using any other ingredient on my meat. It’s juicier, the meat “skin” has a snap to it and all you taste is the smoke and the meat. When put up against 2 other rubs, the salt still came in 14 lengths ahead with ease. Oh sure, my rubs could suck, that isn’t a probability I’d like to ponder. It’s that good.

Biggles

The argument in regards to wood versus briquette, versus propane, versus electric heat sources in smokers has got to be way older than the one on PC versus MAC, and that’s saying something. We know that for grilling, there is an exceptional difference, but does it matter for hot smoking (approximately 200 to 250 degrees F)? It doesn’t for cold smoking (90 to 110 degrees F). I’ve always stood by the age old ways of saying, “Yes nitwit, the fire does make a difference and it’s noticeable. Real wood, charcoaled or not, does make a difference.”

Over the years I’ve had quite a few propane lovers extol the virtues of their propane powered rigs. My eyes cross, I hear buzzing in my ears and go back to my old ways of using wood to power my smokers. I never even remotely considered buying in to the procedure, especially after tasting what I pull out of my smoker. Sorry pal, you can’t reproduce this, no way, no how.

On Sunday I decided to put my cold smoker to use, finally. Instead of 100 degrees, I jacked it to 212 and hot smoked a slab of baby backs using only an electric hotplate and a smoke generator.

Please click through to read the rest of the story, “Heat source, does it matter?”

Sunday morning showed up bright and early, the slab of baby backs needed some cooking, it was time. I knew the smoker would take a few hours to come up to about 200, a good hot smoking temperature. I had most of the rig ready to go, so the prep on the smoker was next to nothing, just needed to install a drip pan (1/4 sheet sized cookie tray lined with foil). I plugged in the dual burner hot plate and left the settings where it was from last time I jacked it to an even 200. This was at 12:30pm sharp.

An hour later I was only at maybe 90 degrees, pop open the door and jack to high. This was taking too damned long!

Note: Some of you know, some of you don’t. Just because myself, Chilebrown, Salvage, Henry Joe and others are pitmasters doesn’t necessarily mean that we don’t screw up, make mistakes and spend hours fixing said mistakes. You gotta know, sometimes you really got work for many hours to pull it together so the end result works and works well.

This my good people, is one of those times. It turns out that instead of jacking the heat up, I had nearly turned both burners OFF. I can’t really see the two knobs and it turns out that, for me, the high heat setting is reversed to what I’m normally used to. What that means is that an hour later, the smoker had dropped in temp. At this point I think I was 2.5 hours out and should have been putting my meat in. Nope.

Being the impatient sonofabitch that I am, I tossed in my propane fired turkey fryer stove and was able to get the heat up to 140 in about 10 minutes. Took notes and am looking for a solution to install it permanently for such future events. This time I really did turn up the heat on the electric hot plate and by 4pm I had my baby up to about 200.

Max heat, exhaust nearly closed. Intake nearly closed (tuned for cold smoking).

The smoke generator was filled with wood dust, lit with a propane torch and got underway with an aquarium pump, smoke poured in to the meat box. I thought for a moment and figured since I’m hot smoking and not cold, I needed an intake flow of cold air. So, I removed a sock from one of the holes on the bottom of the smoker, nearest the smoke generator.

See this post for setup, Operation Cold Smoke.

The ribs had come to room temperature with a salt marination of about 5 hours, should have been done overnight. I chose salt because this was and is an experiment. I wanted to know exactly what this type of hot smoking would do to the meat. In any experiment, you must absolutely know how to measure zero. If not? Your results are clouded with inaccuracy and are no good in the real world. Using salt, heat and smoke would give me some results I could measure accurately.

Smoker at 212, vents have intake with decent exhaust, smoke generator generating and the meat went on.

Since the generator can supply a large smoker for 12 hours, I walked away for 2.5 hours with no worries.

I probed the meat for the first time at 2.5 hours and it read 190. Pull and let rest for 20 minutes. Unplug hotplate & smoke generator, that’s it.

This is when the real test began, what did I have? I know it’s pork, they loin ribs, hardwood smoked and it was pulled at the right time. But what about the taste? Texture? How far did the smoke go in? Would it compare to a wood fired pit? How would it compare? Would I embarrass myself in the process or make a point that I’ve been extolling for over 20 years? It was time to find out.

Let’s start with the most important first, the smokiness. It’s got it, easy. But it’s different, and it’s tough to express to you. It’s warm, even, sweet with no real dimension. To get an idea, put the smoky flavor of bacon or ham in your mouth. Then, take the explosion of smoky flavor from a real wood fired pit flavor. It’s great, yet different. You do not have the living force of a fire to determine how the hardwood burns. It’s a perfect combust from beginning to end. Akin to a commercial smoker, no variation or creativity. Is this a bad thing? No, absolutely not. It is what it is and it’s good.

Real good. I took samples from the center of the rib meat and the perfect smoke permeated throughout the meat, entirely. The surface of the meat had a snap like the casing on a good hotdog. The ribs were so juicy that it ran down my arms as I dug in. With the even heat of the hotplate, there were no spikes or dips in temperature. Full smoky flavor, juicy meat, good pork, salt marination is perfection dialed in. As far as doneness goes, the meat came from the bone with a tug and a little chew. The interesting part was how the meat looked, it was homogeneous. When you smoke meat with a wood fired pit, the color and texture is all over the place depending on the thickness, meat and fat. This one had no variation of color, nor texture. Very interesting indeed when compared to the other. As a stand alone product it was very well done. I could sell this and make money, easy.

But to be perfectly honest, if you’re not cooking with wood as a main heat source, you are not creating an American barbecued product. The smoky flavors generated by a real fire cannot be recreated with a gas or electricity. The product I receive from my wood fired pit will never be recreated by my cold smoker at any temperature, sorry people.

To sum it all up, I say my dinner on Sunday evening at 7:20pm was most excellent. But if I’d used my other smoker? I’d totally kick your propane loving ass with a 6 foot steel crowbar. While on it’s own I found the ribs to be a 10 on juiciness, 10 on texture and high on flavor. It does not compare to a wood fired pit, it’s not the same.

And if you think you can change my point of view? You can take your tail and stick it directly up your …

xo, Biggles

Yeah well, before we left for Calistoga Jeffrey said a friend had given him an old smoker that someone had tossed out. It looked complete, but old, rusty and kinda funky. He sent me a picture and it looked serviceable. While I have used and owned a few of those bullet shaped smokers, I’d never actually used one with no visible air vents or access door to the fire.

The day arrived and I showed up with a load of pork chops and a pork roast, just to see what she could do. The darned thing weighed a ton for such a small rig, 16 gauge steel? The lid sits inside the main tube, pretty snug too. One rack sits up high, a charcoal pan lays below, had a 1″ hole in the bottom, at the center. Ash pan sits on the ground underneath. Sure there’s a little hole, about the size of a finger in the side, but not one adjustable air vent, who knew? I sure as hell didn’t.

A full load of mesquite charcoal, gray and all glowy was installed in to Ol’ Orangy. Remember, fire is a living, breathing being and needs to be tended to. Especially when your cooking in an unfamiliar pit. Get to know your fire, foo. And you know what? Fire is hot, and this one was no exception, brother. This little smoker was really putting out some serious heat. With the lid off it was a high-output furnace from gosh. With the lid on? A little bit slower.

Time to let the fire mellow, burn down so to speak. With the lid removed, the grate went on for a good cleaning (read here: burn the crap out of it). Time marches on. The charcoal had burned down and the lid went back on. Ya know, that little 1″ hole in the charcoal pan works really well. The wind whistled through, keeping the wood closest nice and hot. Then, from the center back to the outer edges, the charcoal burned nice and slow, perfection.

Maybe 15 minutes or so it’d cooled down and the meat went on.

Normally, one doesn’t want to open up the smoker frequently, just let the damned thing do its job. But I was unfamiliar with the rig and the meat wasn’t huge enough to just let it sit all afternoon. Peek, peek, peek! After all was cooked and plated, the fire I had decided to cook on was still a little too fresh for some low and slow action. But not a bad haul for the first run, not at all.

To sum it all up, this little torpedo does an excellent job, I’m really impressed with it. I would be proud to have one of these in my arsenal. While fire access isn’t the best, it’s really efficient and doesn’t need much reloading, unless you were doing a brisket er butt. Besides, the grate is really easy to remove hot, just make sure your leather gloves don’t have holes (don’t ask me how I know this). The only downside I could find in the design is where the ashes wind up, pretty much on the ground. Any decent gust will send them out and about, kinda like an old Weber kettle.

The next time you see an old smoker laying by the side of the road, tucked under some weeds or at a garage sale, grab it! It could very well provide you with some juicy morsels and save you some cash.

Biggles

For the last 10 years I’ve dreamed about making a cold smoker. Bacon, ham, sausage, pork chops, fish and chile peppers, oh my! But cold smoking isn’t quite as straight forward as hot smoking, and the equipment is different. That spells big delays, especially since I am dead lazy. So, I’m only now taking the project on.

The cold smoking thing all came together when Salvage sent me a link to a Cold Smoke Generator on eBay. I bought it immediately. The wheels spun and I posted last week about making a cold smoker out of a 55 gallon drum. I thought I had it made, but I was wrong. The drum was “lined”, that means it’s bad for food-related craft projects. The protective coating keeps organic solvents from attacking the steel, good for them, bad for us. It turns out you want an unlined, clean, steel drum for such things and this was not it. And then? Creepy E took the week off, so it was going to be nine days before the new drum could be ordered. I have an attention span of a gnat and I needed satisfaction–like now.

I figured I could use my hot smoker and talked to Salvage about it. Sure, not a problem, but you have to be very careful about Ptomaine and Botulism. See, with a hot smoker you get fats/juices all over the darned place and they’re generally cleaned up by a good hot fire. But cold smoking rarely goes above 120 degrees F. This means whatever nasties are there, they incubate. Here’s what he has to say on the subject.

Ptomaine is the enemy you can smell. Botulism is the real culprit in this realm. It wants 3 things, the spores, absence of Oxygen, and temperatures between 70 deg and 140 deg F. You are building the Botulism incubator. Hmmmm It is odorless and tasteless. The good thing is that Botulism and Ptomaine do not get along at all. So, if it smells rotten it will only make you very sick. If it smells good it can kill you dead. Heat botulism to 265 deg F and the organism dies, but the poison remains and you still die. So the moral here is to never grow Botulism. Like genital warts, you have to catch it from somewhere.

Saturday morning’s ToDo List:

Clean up a few grates, drill a hole for the generator and find some smokable food stuffs.

Early Saturday morning found me bead blasting a few of my smoker’s grates to get the grease and other assorted bits off. Cleaning each and every angle on those things was quite tedious but I got it done.

Between errands and a few other things, I didn’t get back home until the afternoon. I needed to sit and rest a bit, so the smoker had to wait until I was ready. Besides, Salvage and I were still firing off emails to each other discussing what I should smoke first. Something fishy? It sounded the easiest and quickest way, but fish needs to be brined first. Or something along those lines. So, I headed off to see Omar about a load of jalapenos–simple yet easy.

Time marches on. I finally mustered up enough umph to drill a hole in my smoker and install the generator. It had to be a 5/8″ hole. Yeah well, it turns out the bit I borrowed was dulled, stripped to the bone and pretty useless. More waiting. I figured Sunday I would buy me a new bit. Time for the internet, oh joy of joys.

Damned that internet, damned that Craigslist.

Picture the Biggles perched at his computer, in a dark room, pouring through Craigslist. Fingers twitching, mouth opening, closing, lick those lips. Yeah, that’s right I was at the General section searching for the word “smoker”.

Bingo.

I found a professional, old fridge-sized rig in Berkeley and it was still available. I made an appointment to go pick it up first thing Sunday morning. What have I done now? Is the third time really a charm? The last time I did this I wound up with a 2100 pound rig that I never had the time to restore. I gave it to Omar and it’ll be moving to El Salvador pretty soon.

As you can see, it’s got all the racks in there and is pretty much ready to go. Again, the racks will need to be cleaned, but they are all stainless steel, so it should clean up quite easily.

Wanna see that badass smoke generator?

Salvage pointed me to this rig on eBay. The seller’s username is fiddler252. That’s the best I can do at the moment, no other contact information is available. Here’s the scoop, listen carefully: It’s a smoke generator, all it does is slowly pump smoke in to your smoker. It’s made from solid machined aluminum with a cap on the bottom and a cap on the top. You fill it with little compressed wood squiggles or dust or really small wood chips. It lights from the bottom with a propane torch held there for about 40 seconds. Just install the lower cap and attach the supplied air pump. Then put the top cap on and the smoke begins to flow in to your chamber.

Last night I finally got my 5/8″ hole drilled, installed the unit and took it for a test run around the neighborhood. It works like a charm and apparently only needs to be filled every 12 hours! Not bad for only a hundred bucks.

The downside? My smoker ain’t tuned, yet. At first the smoke only pooled, then poured out the bottom. Too many holes. Good thing I have two little boys with socks. Or they had socks anyways, heh.

My Leatherman made quick work of a few of those socks and was able to plug the 13 holes with ease. At this point the smoker filled with smoke, just as it should. Very little escaping from the top, Salvage says this is how it’s supposed to be. Not like my hot smoker with a steady waft of blue smoke hitting the neighborhood. Here’s my fancy exhaust dampening system.

Um, it’s a plate, sitting on the hole.

Of course, I installed a remote temp gauge, and it read about 58 degrees. That’s not hot enough. I am going for a cold smoke between 90 and 120 degrees F. A dual burner electric hotplate sitting on the bottom raised the heat a bit. I think I got it up to about 76 degrees in about 45 minutes. Not sure if that’s going to fly or not, but I’m going to say NOT.

Okay, so where are we now? On the third attempt, we’ve got a box with a door and some racks. We’ve got the smoke generator installed and working properly. It looks as though the smoker itself only needs some fine-tuning and we’re good to go. What’s next?

I need to clean the racks, bring the smoker up to the right temperature in a reasonable amount of time and be able to maintain that temperature for as long as I want to (up to about 48 hours). Once I bring the temperature up, need to fire up the generator and see how all the air & heat flow, make appropriate adjustments. Once I can do all this, I’ll be ready to cold smoke something, anything!

We’re getting there.

Biggles

Years ago I went through my own trials of cold smoking my own chile peppers and onions. They were the best ever, but it just about killed me. Maintaining temperature & smoke for 24 hours isn’t exactly a love trist. I knew then I needed a smoke generator, a device that would combust wood bits for up to 12 hours without reloading. Heat is easy, an electric hotplate does the trick in a pinch. Combine the two and you have a cold smoker that will run unattended for maybe 12 hours, this is what I knew I wanted and needed.

Well, yesterday my friend Salvage pointed me towards a device that would generate hardwood smoke for 12 hours, cost about 1/3 to 1/4 less than anything else I’ve seen, and it is made by hand by some person I’ll introduce to you later (once I find out who exactly he/she is).

What you see here is my prototype. It’s a 55 gallon steel drum with an old weber kettle lid on top. This will give me a nice domed lid (promotes good heat/smoke distribution) with an adjustable exhaust that looks good and works great. Multiple horizontal racks will be installed near the upper portion of the drum so we can put slabs of bacon & acres of chile peppers for the most awesome smoking adventure of all time! Each rack will have some type of thermometer so I can see what each level is up to.

Ultimately, I’d like to get an industrial heating element that will allow me to put the temperature adjust on the outside of the drum. And as soon as the ordered smoke generator arrives, I’ll let you know.

Cheers,
Biggles

ps - Please don’t leave any comments about Alton’s cold smoker in a cardboard box. That is so what I don’t want.

I’m a Californian, born & raised. This, by sheer definition, means I don’t know what barbecue is. I can live with that, but it isn’t easy. I’ve fought through teeth & nails to read, listen and scour the net for help. Most of this I did back in 1998, as far as the net is concerned. In the traditional sense, I just did what I thought was right and to hell with the rest. If my rack of ribs cooked slowly for 5 hours with real wood, that was good enough for me. But I wanted more, I wanted to taste the regional sauces of the Carolinas, Texas and/or St. Louis. I tried, but didn’t come up with anything that was worth doing a second time. Until yesterday …

Ten years ago I used bbqsearch.com as my gold standard for people that knew barbecue, inside and out. I cooked through nearly each recipe for sauces that I could find. I never did find a vinegar-based sauce that I could put in my mouth, and the sweeter ones never came even remotely close to mine. I gave up and moved on, never gave it much thought. I always figured that some day I’d run across something that I could stomach, this day has come.

A month ago I was invited to Fatted Calf’s Picnic, a never to be missed happening. Well, along with all the world-class charcuterie, home brew, brew, home-pickled pickles, & Napa Valley splendor? A BBQ sauce that Taylor had come up with was in attendance. The velvety rich, tangy, then sweet sauce made me jump with glee. No really, this was good shit and I wanted more. It was a cross between the Carolina vinegar with a sweet overtone of the St. Louis to Texas love. This was a finishing sauce worthy of my smoked ribs, brisket or whatever. Filling it with pulled pork and inserted into good bun was what I was thinking of. This was good, really good, and I liked it.

Naturally I sent off an email and asked them to bottle it so I could buy it along with my other needfuls. A week passed, and what I received was an email stating that nothing he has is a secret and here’s the recipe. Okay, so it was obvious it wasn’t going in to production, but how awesome is it to get the recipe to the best ever BBQ sauce of all time? Very, just so you know.

I’m here to pass along the goodness, I tried making it myself yesterday and it came out nearly as good. I suspect his duck gelee outclassed my chicken jello, oh well. I also think his blackstrap molasses was richer along with a better coffee. But this shit was face down in the bucket good. Plus it was simple, interested?

Here’s what you’ll require:

• 1 onion, minced
• 3 cups red wine vinegar
• 2 cups stock or duck gelee
• 3 cups ketchup
• 1 cup blackstrap molasses
• 1 cup coffee
• 1/2 cup bourbon

Instructions:

Note: I didn’t have any duck gelee, so used chicken jello and rendered chicken fat.

Mince onion and make translucent in chicken fat (maybe 2 tablespoonsful), add vinegar. Reduce by half.  Add 2 cups of heavy stock and simmer for 20 minutes.  Fold in 3 cups of ketchup, one cup of blackstrap molasses, 1 cup of coffee and half a cup of bourbon. Simmer for 5 minutes, adjust seasoning and use according to
your twisted little desires.

The ribs I smoked were only marinated with salt for maybe 3 hours, it’s all you need. Smoke, meat = greatness. Sauce to finish and it doesn’t cover up any of the meat perfection or intrude. It’s good and I endorse it.

Biggles

Before I go right for the heart, here’s a photograph I dearly love. Check out that shiny rig! There’s no place on this planet I can go in and buy a pit that cool, sorry. And take a look at this old weber kettle, two tone paint baby! Ith pretty.

I have an older red one, but why did weber start using dark, blah colors? Would you rather have that two tone one? Or a black one? Sigh, I don’t get it. I can get my Pontiac Plibe in electric orange, but my kettle only comes in dark blue? Get with it Weber, high-heat paint technology has come a long way in 50 years.

Apart from the most excellent rigs, solid recipes and information, there were two things I thought interesting. Okay, we’ve all seen Alton Brown outdoors cooking food right? You remember him tossing his steaks directly on the burning charcoal, right? Everyone oooed and aaahhhhhhed. “Oh man, I’ll have to do that some day.” Says I. Well, way back in the stone age, in 1956, they were doing the same thing. And I have proof!

While we can all probably agree, humans have been cooking food directly on coals since we invented food. It’s kinda cool to show that Better Homes & Gardens was doing it when AB was in diapers. All the rage, I think not.

And here’s what made me say, “WHOA COOL!”

Maybe you’re suprised, maybe you’re not. Figured those chimneys didn’t hit popularity until about 30 some odd years ago. Hell, what do I know? But here it is 50 years ago, published. Isn’t that cool? So, if you’re on the net or in a real live used bookstore, and you see this?

Buy it, it’s Meathenge Approved.

xo, Biggles

Disclaimer: I shopped for this meal, I prepped this meal, I cooked this meal and I photographed this meal with a fever, with hacks, coughs and a flowy nose. Expect a few errors, expect some oddities. Just so you know.

Chicken noodle soup is one of those recipes where everyone has their own way of doing it, and it’s the only way. If it’s not their way? Rubbish! Yeah well simmer down now because this recipe is most probably some place you’ve never been. I need you to pay attention because there are some finer points where you’ll go wandering off and not get the expected results. It isn’t just about grilling chicken, then making soup with it, no sir.

Would you like to come play?

Here’s your grocery shoppin’s:

Chicken breasts (or whatever part you enjoy) 2 - good sized ones
Chicken broth - a quart or so
Carrots -2, peeled
Celery - 2 stalks
Onion - 1 - I used a white one
Butter - 2 nice pats
Bay Leaf - 1
Thyme - scant teaspoonful
Cayenne Pepper - to taste (a lot)
s&p - as you like it
Pasta - whatever you like, a few cuppas

While I just gave you a recipe, please don’t be a robot about it. Stick and move.

First off, get your grill’s fire going, a nice hot one. Prep the chicken parts in extra virgin and good salt, set aside.

Small dice your veggies and saute in 1 pat of butter until onion is translucent. Add herbs (break bay leaf in half), then broth. Stir it, look at it. Does it have the right ratio for chicken soup for you? I had to add another stalk of celery for mine. Simmer for 15 to 20 minutes. When done, add the last pat of butter. Start with butter, finish with butter.

Here’s the tricky part. Since we’re using chicken and not pork butt, it’s going to cook fast and won’t get much time for smoky love. So, you need to be able to sear this chicken so it gets all caramelly and jack the wood chips for max smoke action. This is key.

Notice the smoky love? Yes, you do. Cook the chicken and set aside.

Here are a few points I believe are important. You need to get enough flavor in the soup stock mixture as possible. So, tweak with salt as necessary. This is why I chose to add the herbs, I don’t usually. The butter is very, very important. Not only does it give the soup a rich texture, but butter is a flavor muter. This means any harsh flavors from the herbs will go away.

Adjust cooking so that the pasta is the last item done. Pasta needs to be used immediately, not 20 minutes later. Grab bowl, put in a few large spoonfuls of pasta. Add diced chicken parts, pour soup base over all. Finish with a few undoused chicken pieces and cayenne.

xo, Biggles

This isn’t necessarily an exact recipe, this time. This batch was something I did on the spur of the moment, not sure what happened really. I was doing my weekly shopping (fer kid’s lunches and junk) and walked passsed the chile peppers and thought to myself, CHILE VERDE. It was just like that too, chile verde. If you’d like a more exacting recipe, try my Pork Chili recipe. Either way, come along for some stewing fun, eh?

I love to play with my food. Which is why I’m probably more likely to cook this after work then I am to pan sear salmon or a salad. Playing with salad is just plain sad. Playing with pork and chile peppers? Now that’s a party!

Here’s who I bring to my party.

• 3 pounds of pork shoulder or sirloin of the same - Cube it
• 5 or 6 poblano chilies
• 2 small yellow or 1 large white or whatever - Dice it
• 1 head of firm & happy garlic - Smoosh mince
• 1 heaping teaspoonful of good salt (or none, you make the call)
• 2 teaspoonfuls toasted cumin seeds, then grind to powder
• 2+ fresh, hot chile peppers - You decide
• enough chicken stock, mebbe a quart or so
• 1.5 to 2 pounds fresh tomatillos
• cilantro to finish, if you like

Before you do anything you need to broil the tomatillos until they’re pretty. Remove the husks and rinse before you broil, foo.

See? While they’re doing their thing, fire roast the peppers. Once they’re all black and happy, toss in to paper bag for 10 minutes.

Scrape off the skin, do not do this with water. No washy away tasties, get it? Cut stem and remove seeds. Dice ‘em up.

Whiz the roasted tomatillos just a bit in a blender or food processor, all mooshy.

Since this was a weekday meal, cook one night and eat the next. I didn’t bother carefully browning the meat & onions & garlic. Keeripes, it’s going to simmer for hours, who cares? I know ol’ CB cares, he wins chili contests.

I’m going to make this REALLY easy on you.

Get a huge pot and throw everything in there at once and cook it.

Simmer until its done or your ready to eat, this is 2, 3+ hours.

Mine was too liquidy, didn’t pull the lid off soon enough. So, I transferred to a short, wider dutch oven and reduced until I liked the consistency. Plus, chile peppers were too light. What I mean is, the grocery store’s poblanos were all wrinkly, so I bought some New Mexican rigs. As you can see in the meez image, they’re really light green. So, next time I’ll make sure I get the poblanos. That being said, the finished product was outfrickenstanding.

As far as pairing it with something? Try a ladle and a cold beer.

Cheers

As I was saying, Oh my, what would a pot of chili be without a large hunk of cornbread? Really good, that’s what. But it’d be far better with some real, “No Cookie Ingredients” cornbread. No flour, no sugar, that’s what that means. This is some badass shit, thanks to Uncle Meathead for this recipe.

Here’s the recipe:

Buttermilk - 2 cuppa
Eggs - 1 Egg
Bacon Fat - 1/4 cuppa
Mayonaise - an optional dollup
Corn Meal - 2 cuppa
Baking Soda - 3/4 teaspoonful
Salt (Kosher) - Pinch it!

Combine dry with dry and wet with wet. No wait, preheat your oven to 450 first, I lowered rack to bottom. Then combine dry with dry and wet with wet and make sure you sift the B. Soda.
I let my buttermilk & egg lose it’s chill.
Rub your 10″ or 12″ cast iron skillet with liberal amounts of bacon fat.
If you don’t have a cast iron skillet, you cannot reproduce this cornbread. Stop now and either give up or find one, ask Mommy or Gramma.

Mix your batter together and pour into room temperature skillet. I decided since the batter looked like a blank canvas, that I should lay a slice of crisped bacon in the center with two sprigs of fresh thyme, love the thyme. Meathead won’t allow extrees, but I like the idea, so topped my batter.

Install to the oven for about 25 minutes or so, until done.
Let rest a while and SLICE. Serve with a pat of butter over top with honey slooping down and allowing to puddle on the plate.
Life has never been this good.