Tuesday, November 29, 2005
please stop hugging my kid
PA was great. For some reason our Thanksgiving visits always seem to be extra fun. We left in a driving snow flurry, but for some reason the roads weren’t being treated or plowed so the pavement was completely covered for most of Rhode Island. Reen suggested that the folks in charge didn’t want to cover holiday pay to get the plows out. After an hour or so of doing 35 in single file the snow turned to rain and the drive quickly improved.
Turkey dinner was great and included cheesy potatoes which are normally Christmas fare. What a treat. On Friday evening Reen and I went out with Mom and Dad for dinner at Speckled Hen where I enjoyed a Scotch egg and a fine dinner. While we were at dinner however, the rest of the gang was back home preparing the house for the surprise party which was planned for Mom’s retirement. It was a total surprise and good fun. It even included a retirement song, written, produced and starring TT, with the O’Neil chilluns performing in support.
Saturday saw the womenfolk head in to NYC and leave Mike, Dad and me to look after Fiona which was great fun. We ran some errands around town which provided an opportunity for me to steal Fiona away from her Granddad, at least for a little while. It took me some time to figure out why people were holding the door open for me and generally being polite. Such are the perks when you are carrying the queen of the castle around. We had BBQ for lunch while we were out and towards the end of the meal we were surprised to see a manic little girl putting the squeeze on Fiona as she sat trapped in her (is it height chair or high chair!?) thing, unable to get away. This girl was like an overzealous lamprey, leaving Mike leaning across the table with his hand pressing against her chest trying to separate her from his daughter, saying “Please stop hugging my kid!” After this wrestling match had lasted for about 2 minutes, the girl’s mom finally noticed what was going on and put her child back in her carrying case. Ah, the holiday season is wonderful, isn’t it?
And back on the homefront...my current setup for smoking sausage is a pain in the ass. Depending on the temperature and wind outside, the amount of heat needed to keep the proper temperature in the smoker can vary quite widely. And after the initial smoking period (usually 2 hours) you want to raise the temp in the smoker by about 30 degrees, which can be difficult with charcoal. My current system is to start a large charcoal fire in the base of the weber grill and then transfer some of the charcoal into the bottom of the smoker. But the fun doesn’t stop there. If it’s warm out and you only need a small fire in the smoker, it can be so small that it doesn't properly smolder the wood chips and so you have very light smoke. Which is bad, mmkay? On the flip side if it’s cold out, the fire can be so large that the chips will skip the smolder and just burst into flames. This isn’t good because the smoke is different from the full combustion to say nothing of the fact that your chips are all used up much too quickly and the burning chips can raise the temp in the smoker higher than you want it to be.
With that as a little background info, I happily share with you the news that I’m set to take the plunge and migrate from charcoal fueled smoking to propane. I’m pretty sure that I can get away with this for under $50, and if it brings down my smoking time from the 4-5 hours it takes now I’ll be very pleased. The idea is that your heat source becomes a propane burner which you set a frying pan on. The chips go in the fry pan and don’t burn because they are not in contact with the open flame. And you can easily adjust temp in the smoker by simply turning the valve on the propane tank. I will be making Kielbasa and Andouille in the coming weeks for the holiday season (mmmmm…..gumbo) so I’ll be sure to let you know how this plan works out.
PA was great. For some reason our Thanksgiving visits always seem to be extra fun. We left in a driving snow flurry, but for some reason the roads weren’t being treated or plowed so the pavement was completely covered for most of Rhode Island. Reen suggested that the folks in charge didn’t want to cover holiday pay to get the plows out. After an hour or so of doing 35 in single file the snow turned to rain and the drive quickly improved.
Turkey dinner was great and included cheesy potatoes which are normally Christmas fare. What a treat. On Friday evening Reen and I went out with Mom and Dad for dinner at Speckled Hen where I enjoyed a Scotch egg and a fine dinner. While we were at dinner however, the rest of the gang was back home preparing the house for the surprise party which was planned for Mom’s retirement. It was a total surprise and good fun. It even included a retirement song, written, produced and starring TT, with the O’Neil chilluns performing in support.
Saturday saw the womenfolk head in to NYC and leave Mike, Dad and me to look after Fiona which was great fun. We ran some errands around town which provided an opportunity for me to steal Fiona away from her Granddad, at least for a little while. It took me some time to figure out why people were holding the door open for me and generally being polite. Such are the perks when you are carrying the queen of the castle around. We had BBQ for lunch while we were out and towards the end of the meal we were surprised to see a manic little girl putting the squeeze on Fiona as she sat trapped in her (is it height chair or high chair!?) thing, unable to get away. This girl was like an overzealous lamprey, leaving Mike leaning across the table with his hand pressing against her chest trying to separate her from his daughter, saying “Please stop hugging my kid!” After this wrestling match had lasted for about 2 minutes, the girl’s mom finally noticed what was going on and put her child back in her carrying case. Ah, the holiday season is wonderful, isn’t it?
And back on the homefront...my current setup for smoking sausage is a pain in the ass. Depending on the temperature and wind outside, the amount of heat needed to keep the proper temperature in the smoker can vary quite widely. And after the initial smoking period (usually 2 hours) you want to raise the temp in the smoker by about 30 degrees, which can be difficult with charcoal. My current system is to start a large charcoal fire in the base of the weber grill and then transfer some of the charcoal into the bottom of the smoker. But the fun doesn’t stop there. If it’s warm out and you only need a small fire in the smoker, it can be so small that it doesn't properly smolder the wood chips and so you have very light smoke. Which is bad, mmkay? On the flip side if it’s cold out, the fire can be so large that the chips will skip the smolder and just burst into flames. This isn’t good because the smoke is different from the full combustion to say nothing of the fact that your chips are all used up much too quickly and the burning chips can raise the temp in the smoker higher than you want it to be.
With that as a little background info, I happily share with you the news that I’m set to take the plunge and migrate from charcoal fueled smoking to propane. I’m pretty sure that I can get away with this for under $50, and if it brings down my smoking time from the 4-5 hours it takes now I’ll be very pleased. The idea is that your heat source becomes a propane burner which you set a frying pan on. The chips go in the fry pan and don’t burn because they are not in contact with the open flame. And you can easily adjust temp in the smoker by simply turning the valve on the propane tank. I will be making Kielbasa and Andouille in the coming weeks for the holiday season (mmmmm…..gumbo) so I’ll be sure to let you know how this plan works out.
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How come AB's method of electic hotplate and tin of smokin' chips on top won't work for you? Propane seems excessive if you can just plug in. Or maybe I'm missin' something.
Also - we must make scotch eggs sometime. Sounds faboo.
Also - we must make scotch eggs sometime. Sounds faboo.
I tried an electric burner and plate last year, but during the fall. It was maybe 35 out and the burner got the temp inside the smoker up to around 80. Which isn't bad considering but is nowhere near the target of 120-130.
Another problem with the electric burner is that many have saftey shutoff things that kick in after a certain time or temperature is reached so you it can be difficult/impossible to keep it running the whole time.
A final note is that AB was smoking salmon, which cooks the entire time at the 120-130 range. For sausage you smoke at 120-130 but then need to raise the temp further to 160-180 until the prok is fully cooked. While the elctric burner might be able to get you to +50 ambient temp, I'm not sure how it would do getting you to +100.
So if I lived in sunny Georgia like AB, I might be able to get away with the electric burner after some tinkering, but not up here.
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Another problem with the electric burner is that many have saftey shutoff things that kick in after a certain time or temperature is reached so you it can be difficult/impossible to keep it running the whole time.
A final note is that AB was smoking salmon, which cooks the entire time at the 120-130 range. For sausage you smoke at 120-130 but then need to raise the temp further to 160-180 until the prok is fully cooked. While the elctric burner might be able to get you to +50 ambient temp, I'm not sure how it would do getting you to +100.
So if I lived in sunny Georgia like AB, I might be able to get away with the electric burner after some tinkering, but not up here.
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