Okay, I really don't know what started my week with talk of barbecue smokers, but I have to wonder if it all had a purpose.
Early this past week, a friend of mine at work brought up the idea of building a homemade barbecue smoker similar to Alton Brown's design. This design consists of a terracotta clay garden pot on stands or bricks with a grill grate and another clay pot turned over the first one. The heat source is a hot plate and a temperature gauge can be inserted in the top of the overturned clay pot. The smoke comes from wood chips submersed in water in a tin pie plate on the burner.
While this is a great idea, and if you have proper ventilation, can be pulled off indoors, it doesn't produce the same smoke rings or flavor that a true smoked piece of barbecue produces. Here are a few links for these Alton Brown smokers. To be as simple as they are, we all know, the food scientist himself doesn't make gimmicks.
http://mootpointtango.blogspot.com/2008/04/adventures-in-cooking-part-1-smoked.html
http://www.instructables.com/id/a-little-brown-egg-in-Maine:-terra-cotta-smoker/
http://www.naffziger.net/blog/2008/07/05/the-alton-brown-flower-pot-smoker/
My suggestion for the smoker was a design I saw on Primal Grill with Steven Raichlen.
In an unrelated video, this shows a barrel smoker at work. Similar design, a little different hardware.
I drew my own schematics and shared them with my friend. Our conclusion came to buy the materials for ours and one more and let our shop welders do the dirty work. Maybe that will speed things up. Considering it is the first of the spring, we could have these things ready for smoke around July 4th. Sooner if possible.
This is Where the Irony Hits
This past Saturday night, my wife and I went to a silent auction for the local Rotary Club. There were free drinks and quite a few people that we knew and spoke with. The most notable that we saw was an old college professor. We will call him by his Native American name of Mr. Assonshoulders.
As we walked around looking at the different items up for auction, one of those that was not all that hokey was an electric barbecue smoker, with wood chips and all. Mr. Assonshoulders was one that was bidding the most for this smoker. I knew he wanted it, because he kept a close eye on the bid sheet. As I made my smart alec move to drive the price up higher, I noticed that he was in a bidding war with someone already. I really wanted him to see my name and to know what I was doing, but I didn't want to have the other guy lose out. I neglected to do so because I thought he would enjoy sticking me with the bill. Then again. It was a smoker and it wouldn't have been a bad deal. And well, he still wears his ass on his shoulders, so no love lost.
Till next time.
H. Staff
Monday, March 16, 2009
Monday, March 9, 2009
3/9/2009
I recently decided to turn my writing towards food. I love food and I love to analyze it. I think there is a fine line between lusting and loving food. If one lusts food, then they succumb to the atrociousness that come with the aforementioned deadly sin. Lovers of food value each ingredients place in a recipe. Whether the meal be a salad, appetizer, main course or dessert, the breaking down and recreating the different ingredients makes me love food.
When I first became addicted to the culinary arts, I would continually watch the Food Network for tips, ideas and recipes. I still watch it, but think that the original stars like Emeril, Paula Deen, and Rachel Ray are a tad bit hokey. I don't doubt their skill or culinary training, but I think that they have become far too commercialized. I understand that these cooks make a bulk of their living from the merchandise that they sell. From Paula Deen's "Lady & Sons" restaurant in Savannah, Georgia, to the multiple locations of Emeril's dining rooms, each one bearing signatue recipes and motif to match the owners.
Cookbooks are a big money maker for these chefs. I would be lying if I didn't have an addiction to cookbooks as well. With the average price of around $30 for a signature cookbook, how can they not see dollar signs in printing these art collections. Ina Garten, the proprietor of The Barefoot Contessa, confessed that it takes upwards of two years to create one of her cookbooks. Two freaking years! One year to develop and perfect the recipes, and a year to take pictures. You have to at least respect that.
The Food Network is so much of a media powerhouse right now that they can create a chef just from simple cameos and appearances. Quite often, we don't even see the chef that prepares our food at any restaurant we go to, so the exposure they get from these shows is well deserved. It is so easy to create new shows just building on the personality of the stars. Alton Brown is one of my favorites (Go Dawgs). He began with "How to Boil Water" and "Good Eats." Now he is global. He can be doing a mini series on Carribean Cuisine or just be known as the resident food scientist, and the emcee for Iron Chef America. His appeal is so great, I recently saw him on a commercial for Welch's grape juice.
I have subscribed to some of my favorite food travelers on this blog. I encourage you to visit these blogs and watch their television series. Anthony Bourdain, Adam Richman, and Andrew Zimmern. Sadly, I have not figured out if Richman's Vlog can be subscribed to yet. They all appear on the Travel Channel and are each paving the way to a new era in food lover's television. Bourdain's "No Reservations" and "Bizzare Foods" both detail the food of faraway lands through the eyes of a chef. These shows have tought us how and what these other cultures enjoy eating and what they must eat to sustain. What we once thought to be strange or bizarre is really just not understanding the ways of these foreign lands.
Until next time, maybe I'll actually post a recipe or two. Who knows?
H.Staff
When I first became addicted to the culinary arts, I would continually watch the Food Network for tips, ideas and recipes. I still watch it, but think that the original stars like Emeril, Paula Deen, and Rachel Ray are a tad bit hokey. I don't doubt their skill or culinary training, but I think that they have become far too commercialized. I understand that these cooks make a bulk of their living from the merchandise that they sell. From Paula Deen's "Lady & Sons" restaurant in Savannah, Georgia, to the multiple locations of Emeril's dining rooms, each one bearing signatue recipes and motif to match the owners.
Cookbooks are a big money maker for these chefs. I would be lying if I didn't have an addiction to cookbooks as well. With the average price of around $30 for a signature cookbook, how can they not see dollar signs in printing these art collections. Ina Garten, the proprietor of The Barefoot Contessa, confessed that it takes upwards of two years to create one of her cookbooks. Two freaking years! One year to develop and perfect the recipes, and a year to take pictures. You have to at least respect that.
The Food Network is so much of a media powerhouse right now that they can create a chef just from simple cameos and appearances. Quite often, we don't even see the chef that prepares our food at any restaurant we go to, so the exposure they get from these shows is well deserved. It is so easy to create new shows just building on the personality of the stars. Alton Brown is one of my favorites (Go Dawgs). He began with "How to Boil Water" and "Good Eats." Now he is global. He can be doing a mini series on Carribean Cuisine or just be known as the resident food scientist, and the emcee for Iron Chef America. His appeal is so great, I recently saw him on a commercial for Welch's grape juice.
I have subscribed to some of my favorite food travelers on this blog. I encourage you to visit these blogs and watch their television series. Anthony Bourdain, Adam Richman, and Andrew Zimmern. Sadly, I have not figured out if Richman's Vlog can be subscribed to yet. They all appear on the Travel Channel and are each paving the way to a new era in food lover's television. Bourdain's "No Reservations" and "Bizzare Foods" both detail the food of faraway lands through the eyes of a chef. These shows have tought us how and what these other cultures enjoy eating and what they must eat to sustain. What we once thought to be strange or bizarre is really just not understanding the ways of these foreign lands.
Until next time, maybe I'll actually post a recipe or two. Who knows?
H.Staff
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
The Ouroboro: The Engine of Food
The Ouroboro is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon swallowing its own tail and forming a circle. It often represents self-reflexivity or cyclicality, especially in the sense of something constantly re-creating itself, the eternal return, and other things perceived as cycles that begin anew as soon as they end. It can also represent the idea of primordial unity related to something existing in or persisting from the beginning with such force or qualities it cannot be extinguished.
What little research I have found never mentions this as a symbol for our need of food and the reproduction of food sources. A gap has grown between the connection of man and their food in the United States. Many of us have no clue where our food comes from. Not too long ago, being able to recognize the simplicity of different plants and herbs and consuming the lesser cuts of meat was a given. Our instant gratification society doesn't seem to care where these cuts of meat and vegetables come from. We want our hamburgers and fries, and we wanted it ten minutes ago.
Most of us think of food as a renewable resource. While that is true, we can't take it for granted. There are people that supply our country with the greatest grains, dairy, produce and meat that are the last of their kind. Once they are gone, there will be no one to take over. I have found it a growing trend of self-sufficient farms and even restaraunts that grow and cultivate their own food sources. Typically, organic foods are associated with these self-sustaining farms. The demand for such organic food stuffs has grown exponetially in recent times. Whatever the cost, many contribute organic eating to being health conscious. Be that as it may, there has to be a rebirth or renewal of such an easy skill to learn.
Just like the snake eating its own tail and reenergizing itself, learning to reap and sow will prolong the life of food and life of ourselves. Thereby, teaching someone to grow something to eat so that they will feed themselves for a lifetime.
What little research I have found never mentions this as a symbol for our need of food and the reproduction of food sources. A gap has grown between the connection of man and their food in the United States. Many of us have no clue where our food comes from. Not too long ago, being able to recognize the simplicity of different plants and herbs and consuming the lesser cuts of meat was a given. Our instant gratification society doesn't seem to care where these cuts of meat and vegetables come from. We want our hamburgers and fries, and we wanted it ten minutes ago.
Most of us think of food as a renewable resource. While that is true, we can't take it for granted. There are people that supply our country with the greatest grains, dairy, produce and meat that are the last of their kind. Once they are gone, there will be no one to take over. I have found it a growing trend of self-sufficient farms and even restaraunts that grow and cultivate their own food sources. Typically, organic foods are associated with these self-sustaining farms. The demand for such organic food stuffs has grown exponetially in recent times. Whatever the cost, many contribute organic eating to being health conscious. Be that as it may, there has to be a rebirth or renewal of such an easy skill to learn.
Just like the snake eating its own tail and reenergizing itself, learning to reap and sow will prolong the life of food and life of ourselves. Thereby, teaching someone to grow something to eat so that they will feed themselves for a lifetime.
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