nate elston - Part 25

The Rub Down::Penzey’s BBQ 3000 vs Bad Byron’s Butt Rub::Part 1

By Nate Elston Posted on August 10, 2009 Posted in Reviews, Smoked Goodness No Comments

It’s only recently that I have realized the simplicity and remarkable flavor of dry rubs. While I was in Gatlinburg recently I picked up Bad Byron’s Butt Rub from the Pepper Palace (go there if in Gatlinburg or Myrtle Beach or St. Augustine or online at www.pepperpalace.com), back home I had already received the Penzey’s Spices (what I don’t grow I get from these guys, they have some amazing stuff) BBQ 3000.

As fate would have it I have a couple of country style pork ribs in the freezer and a good day to grill/smoke out tomorrow. I will be attempting to smoke these fine specimens of meat on my Weber charcoal grill. Should be interesting. That said I prepared the meat by rubbing it a day ahead. And here is what I have come up with.

After rubbing both of these rubs into the meat I must say they both have a very pleasant aroma but the Butt Rub rubs much better into the meat where as the BBQ 3000 has a tendancy to clump and not want to rub well. I guess tomorrow is the day we find out what these rubs are made of. Off to bed for some grilling sleep!

Tagged with: bbq 3000, butt rub, grill, grilling, pork

The Texas Squealer Burger…squels of delight

By Nate Elston Posted on June 29, 2009 Posted in Recipes 3 Comments

This past weekend I had some company over and made the world famous squealer burger, for those who don’t know what a squealer is, it is quite possibly the moistest, tastiest burger one will eat. I used the a recipe found on Recipe Zaar as my base and went from there. Because of the crowd I was feeding I ended up using 6 pounds of beef and substituted 90% Lean Ground Sirloin in place of the called for the 80% lean hamburger meat called for in the recipe. The added moisture from the bacon more than made up for the lack of fat in the burger, it’s like basting the meat from the inside the whole time it is cooking. I grilled up 22 of these patties and they were oh so moist, had great flavor and were gone in minutes.

Edit::The Actual Nate Elston Texas Squealer Burger Recipe

The recipe I used is as follows:

Ingredients
Per 1 pound of extra lean (90/10) ground sirloin
1/4 pound uncooked finely (size of a pea or a little bigger) chopped bacon, thicker cut bacon is better
Worcestershire sauce to taste
1 tbsp Mc Cormicks Grill Mates Hamburger Seasoning

Instructions
Hand mix all that together in bowl or large pot, and then form into burgers, about a 1/3 pound each.
From there put them in the freezer for about a half an hour it seems to help them grill better.
Grill until done to your taste.

If you want some extra kick, I have in the past added cheese (cheddar or pepper jack) and jalapeños to the meat before it is grilled, its almost like having a burger with the toppings inside.

Tagged with: bacon, beef, food, grill, hamburger, recipe, review, squealer

Slow Cooker Stuffing Recipe Review

By Nate Elston Posted on June 15, 2009 Posted in Recipes No Comments

Have you ever wanted the stuffing without the hassle of making the turkey? Maybe you don’t eat meat but smell the glorious smell of stuffing when you visit with your relatives for Thanksgiving. Well what ever the case I love stuffing, I mean forget the turkey, give me some stuffing. Well in my quest to find good stuffing without the bird I decided I had to start somewhere so I went to my favorite recipe finding tool, Google, and I found a starting point. Over at AllRecipes.com I found a recipe for Slow Cooker Stuffing, it looked easy enough so I gave it a whirl. Being that I live on my own I decided to make a quarter recipe of this, which filled about half of my mini slow cooker. I also used fresh sage and dried parsely, didn’t quite have enough to strip my plants. I dried the bread in the oven at 200°F until the bread felt crisp. I then mixed per the recipe but refrigerated over night and threw it in the cooker this morning and left for work.

When I arrived this evening I was greeted by the pleasant aroma of stuffing so I fried up the grill and threw on some chicken. Meanwhile, anticipating the flavorful treat that was waiting for me. Finally the moment arrived I scooped out a healthy portion of stuffing and dug in.

Stuffing Ready to eat with chicken breast.

Once I finally got to eat it I was not disappointed, it was moist, flavorful and remarkably like stuffing. Now that is not to say it was as good as out of the bird but it certainly was a great substitute, it tasted like stuffing, smelled like stuffing and will do just find to hold me over tell I have time to cook a whole bird. I will surely cook this again, probably in a week or two.

Tagged with: recipe, review, slow cooker, stuffing, thanksgiving

Mmmm….Sage and Rosemary Pork loin

By Nate Elston Posted on June 3, 2009 Posted in Recipes 1 Comment

Thanks to a gifted pork loin, I had to find something tasty to make of it and I did! Let such a beautiful piece of meat suffer in the bowels of tastelessness was not an option for me, and so I set out to the interweb to find the most delicious sounding recipe for this particular cut of meat I could find and I found many, but I finally settled on a recipe from Good Housekeeping entitled Sage and Rosemary Pork. Now the recipe calls for a substantial amount of fresh herbs which thankfully where all available on my patio herb garden, making this an easy and thrifty choice of meat. I prepared the meat just as the recipe called for except I ‘stuffed‘ it the night before and kept it in the fridge, upon arriving home this evening, I placed it in the oven and prepared the rest of the meal fried asparagus (just add a little olive oil, garlic powder and seasoning salt to taste and fry until bright green) and chipotle garlic mashed red skin potatoes. This was a culinary delight, no doubt I will have wicked breath for the remainder of the evening but the infusion of flavor from the stuff pork combined with the asparagus and potatoes was incredible. The pork was well flavored using this method and moist. If you are looking for a simple recipe for pork loin, I would suggest this. Be sure to check back, as I am finding so many amazing sounding recipes I will be sure to cook up more pork in the future.

The pork loin, fresh out of the oven, resting.