World Bacon Championship, Part 2 of 4

Today's World Bacon Championship category is: Anything wrapped in bacon.  Now, I imagine that there will be a decent amount of Fatties and sausages wrapped in bacon that are turned in that day.  For those who don't know, a Fatties is ground sausage, rolled out thin, filled with a stuffing of your choice, rolled up, and encased with a bacon weave.  Here is one that I made.  A good choice for this competition, but I want to be different.  So, in order to get a little beef into our judges diet, I am going down the flank steak path.

So, I took two flank steaks, pounded them out and tenderized.  Then, I marinaded overnight in Stubbs Beef Marinade...

Then, I prepared two types of filling.  One was caramelized onion, Gorgonzola cheese, and sriracha sauce.  One was caramelized onion and garlic herb cheese...

Then, I removed the steaks from the marinade, laid flat, and spread the cheesy filling out on the beef.  Then I rolled up, closed with toothpicks, and wrapped with bacon.  Then, on to the smoker at 375 F...

 Pulled when done, about 30 minutes.  Then let rest, then sliced...

They were both very good.  I liked the creaminess of the Gorgonzola with the added sriracha kick.  Hope liked the mellow flavors imparted by the garlic and herb cheese.  We are still debating over which one to use as our recipe.  Rest assured, I believe we will score well either way.

What will a do differently next time?  A little less filling and I will make a weave to wrap around the outside instead of single bacon slices.

Either way, outstanding!

Thanks for stopping by,

Bill

World Bacon Championship, Part 1 of 4

Our first competition this year is at the Roc City Rib Fest in Rochester, NY.  On Saturday, the NEBS Competition is themed this year.  This will be the home of the World Bacon Championship.  Giddy Up boys and girls.  Lots of pork going on here.  Just imagine the smell that will be coming from Rochester when around 100 teams are cooking bacon at the same time.  Mmmmm...

Anyway, there are four categories:

1.  Plain Bacon in a Box.  No rub, no sauce, no seasoning.  Just your bacon, cooked, in a box.  A mano a mano bacon throw down of porkilicious proportions.  It boggles the mind.  Doesn't it?

2.  Wrapped in Bacon.  Anything you want, wrapped in bacon.

3.  Savory Bacon Dish.

4.  Bacon Dessert.

Today, we will focus on category one, Plain Bacon...

I bought 2 pounds of uncooked heaven from our butcher, Dave's Country Meats this weekend for this R&D session of porktastic proportions...

Dave's bacon is the best in our opinion: not too salty, not too sweet, and just the right amount of smoke.     It is the perfect canvas for our turn in box.

I fired up the smoker and brought it to a temperature of 375 F.  Then, I added a few slices and cooked for 10 minutes, then flipped and cooked 10 more minutes.  These slices came out the way that I like them: crispy.

Then it was time to experiment and taste as I went along.  It is a tough job, but someone has to do it... ;)

A couple of slices here...

A couple of slices there...

A taste from every batch...

Just flipped...

Cooked to perfection, just before pulling...

Samples anyone?

What is the verdict?  At 375 F, the best bacon was that which had 16 minutes of total cooking time with a flip halfway through.  Flexible, but not limp.  Some crisp, some chew.  Bacon in this style had more taste than the totally crisp rashers.

Stay tuned for part two: Something Wrapped in Bacon...

Thanks for stopping by...

Bill

Slappin my Chicken: Slap Yo Daddy Chicken Rub Review and Chicken Practice

A couple of weeks ago we did a practice chicken cook to try and perfect our recipe for 2013.  At the same time we tried a new rub:  Harry Soo's Slap Yo Daddy Chicken Rub...

After opening the package, we performed the obligatory sniff and finger test.  The chili, onion, garlic, and cumin flavors where obvious upon nasal spectroscopy.  The finger test added a taste of citrus that brought it all together.  This was a rub I could fall in love with.  But, the biggest test was up next: competition style chicken...

We are trying to get away from thighs.  I love a good chicken thigh, smoked to perfection with a blend of rub and sauce.  What I do not like is trimming a scraping a thigh to get bite through skin.  So, we have been experimenting with legs and thighs this off season.  First, I started with some whole chicken legs...

Using poultry shears, I separated the leg from the thigh, removed the knuckles from the thigh bone, and marinaded overnight in Italian dressing.  In the morning, I removed from the marinade, patted dry and placed into foil pans.  Then, I seasoned both sides with a coating of Slap Yo' Daddy Chicken rub...

Once the rub became "wet", I applied a second coat on the top...

The chicken then hung out in the refrigerator all day until hitting the smoker.  The cooking process is as follows:

30 minutes on the rack, 275 F, skin up.
Dunk in sauce, placed into a foil pan, skin side down, 30 minutes at 275 F.
Remove from pan and place on rack, skin side up.  Applied sauce at start, then after 15 minutes.  Ramped temperature up to 300 F.  Pulled after 30 minutes.  So, that is a total cook time of 1.5 hours for those keeping score.  Here is how they looked:

I have to say, I love the SYD chicken rub.  I nice mix of spices with a bit of heat.  Actually, if you go a little heavy handed, it is a lot of kick.  But, after a night in the frig, the heat did mellow out a bit.  So, if you are adverse to spice, watch how much you put on your yardbird.  I will be backing off the rub a bit for competition.

As for the chicken, I am liking the tender and moist meat that the higher cook temperature is creating.  The skin on half of the thighs was bite through and the skin on all of the legs was bite through.  I believe that for our first competition this year, we will be turning in legs that are separated from the thighs on a whole leg.

Overall, the Slap Yo' Daddy Chicken rub will be part of our first competition.  The blend of spices and citrus flavor is perfect with the dressing marinade and sauce.  Rating?  3.5 out of 4 stars.  I can't wait to try this rub on some other cuts of meat...

Thanks for stopping by...

Bill

Heaven in a Basket

A few weeks ago, I had an hour to kill before I had to pick up the youngest.  So, I decided to do so at one of my favorite places for lunch in Cranberry Township, PA:  I went to the Brighton Hot Dog Shoppe.

The Brighton Hot Dog Shoppe is exactly what you would expect: dirty water dog heaven.  The dogs are boiled to perfection and served on spongy, steamed hot dog buns.  You can get them any way you like: with yellow mustard, relish, ketchup, chili, cheese, onion, etc...  They also have fries, onion rings, and sinfully think shakes made the old fashioned way with real whole milk and ice cream.  If you are looking the eat healthy, this is not the place for you.  Just keep on going to the nearest salad bar.

What do I order?  I get two dogs with chili, cheese, and onion, plus fries with chili and cheese.  Pure artery clogging sin.  But, once or twice a year, this hits the spot...

The Brighton Hot Dog Shoppe has counter service and full service sit down.  Everyone is friendly and the service is great.  They also have diner style breakfast in the morning as well.  So, if you are in the Cranberry area and love a good hot dog, this is the place to go.

Bottom line, 3.5 stars out of 4.

Thanks for stopping by...

Bill