Author: Nate Elston

By Posted on Posted in Misc Food, Recipes No Comments

In a sad but true realization I am separated from my smoker this week, even though I have 3 racks of ribs in the freezer, the smoker is a city away and I will not be smoking anything this week.  So not wanting to let anything go to waste and in true Digital Chef style, we had some pears and it was not until I got into baking the muffins that I realized I did not have any ginger, so let the substitutions begin.

I started out with a recipe I found at Recipe Girl for Pear and Ginger Muffins, but like I said once I got started I realized we have no ginger here.  I debated running home and getting some but decided to wing it and use some cinnamon, nutmeg and ground cloves.  So as precise as I can recall here is the recipe I used.

Ingredients
1 3/4 c flour
3/4 c white sugar
1/2 c brown sugar plus extra
2 tsp baking powder
2/3 c sour cream
1/2 c vegetable oil
1 tbsp honey
2 eggs
3 pears peeled, cored and cubed
ground nutmeg
ground cinnamon
ground cloves

Instructions 
Preheat oven to 400°F.  Put paper muffin cups in a 12 cup muffin pan.  Mix together flour, sugar, 1/2 c brown sugar, baking powder, 1/4 tsp ground cloves, 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg, 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon in a large bowl.  In a separate bowl mix together oil, sour cream, eggs and honey.  Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients and stir in pears.  Pout into muffin cups.  Mix a small amount of ground cloves, ground cinnamon and ground nutmeg with a couple tablespoons of brown sugar and sprinkle over muffins.  Bake for about 20 minutes.

Sadly along with my smoker, I do not have my camera so you are going to have to take my word.  They are fine looking muffins, something even a coffee shop would be eager to sell.  And well they kinda fall apart right out of the oven not like a bad fall apart but like you would want from a fresh out of the oven muffin.  Besides having an incredible texture they were moist and the fruit was just right.

Now for the real question, the question of the hour, how did they taste?  Well they taste like muffins, when I make them again I will probably add a little more seasoning but they were good.  The pears had a great flavor and were complimented nicely by the muffin.

I can’t wait to make these again.  Next time I will do a batch like this and one with ginger like the original recipe called for.  There is something about ginger and pears that just belongs, so I can’t wait to try that.

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By Posted on Posted in Smoked Goodness, What's for dinner No Comments

Or a brisket sandwich at least.  Like so many quests in the kitchen and life I began my summer with a goal to smoke a brisket, I am not going to lie I have never smoked a brisket before and I am not had all that much smoked brisket.  But with a bit of patience, alot of hickory and mesquite wood and even more patience, the brisket got done and beyond that it was phenomenal.

Smoked Beef Brisket Sandwich

The brisket was good on its own and even better between a couple of slices of bread.  It was juicy and flavor filled and fall apart tender.  But enough bragging here is how it came about.

Tuesday I headed over to a local butcher after work and picked up a 9lb chunk of brisket with a healthy fat cap.  After a little waffling I decided to the only cook half of the brisket and freeze the other half until I was sure I had my brisket technique down, I ended up cooking only the flat part of the brisket.  I then proceeded to trim the fat cap down to about a quarter inch over the entire brisket and scored the fat cap in about a 1 inch grid.

Then it was rub time, I had planned on making my own rub but decided to save that until later, so check back.  I used a Cookshack Brisket Rub I picked up on my last trip to Cabelas, it was MSG free and looked tasty (can’t really smell it in the store) and  I was actually very happy with the rub and will likely use it again.  I digress, I rubbed the meat with a healthy layer of plain boring yellow mustard and then rubbed the brisket with the brisket rub.  From there it was into a sealed container and into the fridge for a night of rest.

Early the next morning before the sun had even decided to rise, I was out tooling around in the garage getting the smoker fired up, water pan filled and the smoker pre-heated to that prime BBQ temperature of 225°F.  Once the smoker was ready to go I added a healthy dose of hickory and mesquite and threw the brisket on the top rack, fat cap up and gave it one last dusting of the rub.

Beef Brisket fresh on the Smoker

Then it was time for the patience, checking in occasionally to make sure it was still smoking and the temperature was still good. One hour, two, three, four and then it was time to spritz with apple juice every hour on the hour.  At hour four I shoved my remove electric thermometer into the middle of the brisket to keep track of the progress and got back to waiting.  Around hour five is when it happened at the internal temperature of 151°F, the dreaded stall and it sat there for five hours before it budged even a single degree, it was frustrating but that is what the patience is for.

One Cooked up Beef Brisket

Finally after 14 hours on the smoker the brisket was done, it reached an internal temperature of 200°F and it was pulled and allowed to rest for about 2 hours.  Then it was time to slice and pull, this was magical.  Upon slicing into the brisket I picked up one half only to have it fall apart in my hands, pulling was never more easy.

Sliced Beef Brisket

Then it was time to enjoy, I ate way more than I should have last night and we had a lunch time feast at lunch at work today and the verdict was unanimous, it was excellent.  Can’t wait to smoke another!

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By Posted on Posted in Preserving the Harvest, Recipes 4 Comments

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but summer is winding down, it is coming to an end and in Michigan that means harvest time.  Gardening will be done in another six weeks at most  here in Michigan and right now the bulk of the harvest from my patio garden is ripening, and it is way more than we could possibly consume  before it goes bad.  That means one thing canning.

Pickled Banana Peppers

This is the first year I have grown Banana Peppers, my mother-in-law introduced them to me on pizza and they have been a must have since then.  So when the rabbits destroyed my plants this year, I went out and bought one from the farmers market and low-and-behold they are resilient little plants.  Soon after potting my plant from the farmers market the other two sprung back to life and have grown like weeds ever since.

Being the first year I have grown Banana Peppers this is also the first year I have canned them, I found some recipes online and did a best of both worlds (at least I hope) of the recipes I found.  What I ended up with was a visually pleasing jar of canned Banana Peppers, that in spite of several warning I tried before the advised 5-6 weeks tasted pretty much like what I expected.  The only difference is my expectations we based on what you get in the store and these have so much more flavor.

So without further ado here is the recipe per pint jar, I canned them as they came in as opposed to one big batch at a time and only wrote down the recipe I used per jar.

Ingredients
4-5 banana peppers (sliced into rings)
1/2 clove garlic (chopped)
1 c white vinegar
1/2 tsp pickling salt
1/8 tsp turmeric (for color)

Instructions
Place turmeric, salt and vinegar in a sauce pan and boil until salt if dissolved.  If you have not done so already, slice peppers into rings.  Pack garlic and peppers into a hot sterile jar, cover with vinegar solution leaving 1/2 inch head space.  Remove air bubbles with a non metallic utensil.  Cap jars and process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.  Remove and let cool.  Let sit for 5-6 weeks before eating (they are good before that too).

I also did jalapenos the same way, just omitted the turmeric.  They also turned out great.  Check back soon to see what else is cooking.

UPDATE: Make sure you add a pinch of alum powder to each jar or you will have mushy banana peppers, I did not do this with the first batch and they soon turned mushy. 🙁

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By Posted on Posted in Recipes, Reviews 2 Comments

Growing up I liked to eat waffles, we had them every Sunday morning it was tradition in our home.  Dad would get up and make waffles every Sunday we would pile them high with way too much brown sugar or drench them in more than enough Maple Syrup, but they were always good.  Well when my wife and I got married we got a waffle maker and I am ashamed to say that until this past weekend I had not touched it, one year had elapsed and we had not so much as made a single waffle.  Well that changed and we will be making waffles more than once in the following years.

Being that I knew absolutely nothing about making any kind of waffle that did not originate in box (I am ashamed to say), I was pleasantly surprised when one day a tweet from @thefoodgeek about waffles from scratch broke my concentration.  Now making waffles is not my specialty, so the recipe looked really simple and we gave it a whirl.

Waffle on a plate

It was almost like making waffles from a box except you have to plan ahead a little the night before and start the batter, then in the morning, add the eggs and cook them like you would cook a box waffle.  It was simple and they were really quite tasty.

Ingredients
2 c flour
2 c milk
8 tbsp butter, melted and cooled (we used margarine, blasted allergies)
1/2 tsp yeast
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla ( the original recipe called for 1/2 tsp)
1/2 tsp cinnamon ( to original recipe called for 1 tsp, but it seemed like to much for my palette)
2 eggs

Instructions
The night before mix dry ingredients.  Stir in milk, butter and vanilla until it is mixed well.  Cover and let it sit out overnight.  The next morning separate the egg whites from yolks, mix the yolks into the batter.  Whip the whites and fold them into the batter.  Pour the batter on a waffle iron and enjoy when cooked.

Adapted from A Year from Scratch – Simply Amazing Waffles

I didn’t change much in the original recipe but I did increase the vanilla and decrease the cinnamon to match my tastes.  It is probably pretty incredible the way it is written up on A Year From Scratch, but I really like my vanilla.  There are some other great recipes and cooking information over at A Year From Scratch that are worth reading through, make sure you check them out.

One last note, these waffles freeze incredibly well, just let them cool throw them in a zip lock and freeze.  Then pull them out and toast like a toaster waffle, they make a pretty wicked toaster waffle.

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By Posted on Posted in Recipes, Smoked Goodness 6 Comments

So many people have raved about apple cider brined pork chops and smoked pork chops that I had to see what all the fuss was about.  Well now I know, they didn’t knock my socks off but they were certainly good enough to make again and when paired with my made from scratch bbq sauce, it was a match made in heaven.  They were delectable.

Apple Cider Brined Smoked Pork Chops

Looks expensive doesn’t it, well it doesn’t have to be.  In addition to being inexpensive, it was crazy easy to make.  All that is involved is an over night soak in the brine detailed below, a quick dusting with any seasoning you want.  I used a little bit of BBQ 3000 just to give it a little more and then a quick (2 hourish) jaunt on the smoker at 225°F with some apple wood.  I cooked them up until the internal temperature was 165°F, pulled them and let them rest for a short while, before cutting into these juicy and mighty tasty pork chops.

Ingredients
4 c apple cider (not juice)
1/4 c brown sugar
1/4 c kosher salt
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp chile powder
1 c boiling water

Instructions
Mix sugar and salt into boiling water until dissolved.  Cool mixture.  Mix together apple cider, chile powder, vinegar and water mixture.  Place pork chops in a 1 gallon zip lock bag, pour in brine and fill remaining space with cold water.  Refrigerate over night in brine, remove, season and smoke.

Like I said this recipe will be sticking around next time it might not be chops, it might be another cut of meat.  It would also make a great base for some other marinade, just adjust the seasonings.  Please tell me it at least made you hungry to look at.

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