sotv

The Morrisons £5 a kg for whole salmon back on offer again this week

I have been brining our chickens we cook in the house for over a year now. Fabulous flavour and never comes out dry now. 1/2 cup of granulated sugar & 1/2 cup of salt (I use kosher salt) dissolve in a litre of boiling water, mix with another 3-4 litres of cold water enough to fully submerge the bird and leave in the fridge for 24 hours. Wash it all off and pat dry. I add a Rotisserie rub to flavour the skin and drop it in a red hot dutch oven pot that has been warming in the cooker (without lid) gives a lovely sizzle when you do and cook as per guidelines on the packet. Dutch oven not necessary if you don't have one, normal roaster will do. Well worth ago especially if planning to do a turkey for the first time this xmas by brining it first. If xmas is at our house, we cook a capon/rooster now, think it is much more juicy/flavoursome bird than a turkey and more widely available to buy, than it has been

Hoping there are some knowledgeable kitchen knife people on here? Starting to get a collection of Zelite knives and although they each come in good storage boxes and some with leather sheaths. But due to the size of the boxes need to be kept in an underneath cupboard in the kitchen and it is a bit of a pain having to dig through them to find the right knife for the job. So looking for a knife block or Knife roll bag to store them ( a knife roll bag may be better if wanting to take them somewhere)? I don't want a magnetic strip or block. Would like it to be able to hold around 10-12 knives. The largest knife I have is 17.25 inches long (12" blade) any recommendations please?

WowBBQ showing the EX4 as £1199 and EX6 as £1499 out of stock as not released yet, but gives an idea of a possible price Due March 2020

Question for piece of mind, it has been brining for 10 days now, another 4-7 to go. Just want to check that the brine makes the meat go very dark (brown) in colour, as it certainly isn't pink anymore and cant see it being, after washing off the brine? I used coconut sugar in the brine, but would imagine the brine would have been very dark in colour, due to the other ingredients, even if I had used granulated sugar Smells very christmasy, even in the bag. p.s. Do you bother glazing it, when cooking it, or is it already flavoured enough to not need it.

Done 3 pieces of Packington Farm Free Range Pork Legs this morning ranging between 1.2 - 1.4Kg for myself and family. If it tastes as good as the brine and rub smell, it will be gorgeous, I am sure. The house smells of Christmas, with the brine and rub being mixed and boiled. 😀

Just bought a rechargeable headlamp on an Amazon lightning deal £8.49 with free prime delivery (valid till midnight tonight). Hopefully help with these dark nights and trudging up the garden to see how it is going.

Thanks for the reply, always think of one more question you should have asked. Family members have also asked for a couple also, so going to do 3 pieces, what sort of time for cold smoking do you suggest for 3 x 1.5 kg pieces in a bullet smoker all done together, with a ProQ cold smoke generator.

Missed this, will give it ago for boxing day I think. If I was to start this next week, once cured and smoked, it would still keep in the fridge till boxing day if I vacpac it? Or best left another couple of weeks before starting.

I like Silver Birch wood dust to smoke all my meats, cheeses and salmon and find it quite mild and a less bitter in finished smoke flavour compared to some other woods. So I now increase the smoke times I would do with say with oak by up to 25% to get a good balance of flavour for my and families tastes.

How long did you sulk for 😀

Nice idea and a bit of fun on the day, whilst everyone is waiting for their stuff to cook. I know you are going to publish a full set of rules nearer the time, but is marinating the steak first allowed?

Got few things planned, going to do a Smoked Salmon and Spinah Terrine for starters, using some home smoked cold salmon and possibly some hot smoked salmon for the filling, but maybe easier just to buy the hot smoked from the supermarket for the quantity needed. A selection of hard cheeses for the cheese platter to finish and eat over xmas. Also may try some nuts over xmas, if I can find a mixed selection of shelled nuts that haven't already been salted first. Tempted to do a green ham for boxing day, but as never done one before from raw, bit apprehensive and may resort to my trusted Christmas Ham recipe which is easier to do. Anyone else got any plans?

Thanks for the advice. Stuck it on now, not meant to go higher than 8c today and hopefully the same Sunday. Should get 20-24 hours of dry weather so hopefully all will be good. Looks like it might be a hard frost tonight, so decided against running it through the night.

I have had issues as well, but getting there. I have an old version of the ProQ at the moment and found the cake adaptor slips and needs re-tightening quite often. Looking to replace mine with another bullet smoker of some description and will be looking to buy one that allows the daisy wheel to be removed by undoing a nut rather than the rivet on mine currently. Which I am hoping is the cause of the slipping, as I haven't removed the daisy wheel on mine. Have you removed or is the daisy wheel easily removed on your Basso? After a lot of trial and error, found different types of charcoal do work, some better than others, especially with regards to outside temperature. Found the ProQ cocoshell work best for me overall, in all conditions but lumpwood works well in warmer outside temperatures also. If a warm day I tend to light on the opposite side of the smartfire. If colder I leave a hole in the centre of a full basket of charcoal and pouring half a lit chimney of white coals into the hole. and a few unlit ones on top of it, I find that works better for me with lumpwood or generally colder outside conditions. If some unlit or half used coals remain after a cook, i tend to use them in my next cook as starter coals for my chimney. That 2nd chart looks good and hopefully you will get many more of them, in your coming cooks. I noticed a slight difference with my pit and meat probes, but 10F difference isn't huge, in your case when it comes to pit temps if it is. But it maybe the shorter pit probe is being affected by steam/moisture from the water than the longer pit probes when you tested them perhaps? If you are convinced the probe is running 10F hotter than it actually is, you can always set the temp for 235F to get a 225F cook for example

I have a couple of slabs of bacon ready to cold smoke. Forecast to go below zero and a frost tonight. Is it ok to smoke when temp goes below freezing. So many few dry nights forecast for the coming days and weeks. Need to take advantage of a dry 24 hours where possible at the moment, if ok to do so.

I have this xmas ham recipe to fall back on, that I posted earlier. But would love to make one from raw this xmas. Plenty of recipes out there to try. What I have a problem is what sort of bucket size in litres would I need to brine say a 3kg pork leg in. Limited space in fridge so keeping it to a correct sized bucket rather than an oversized one would make it more practical for me. Even if I could find a deep rectangular one for the size would be even better. Anyone any ideas on size needed and where to get plastic bags and size suitable for the meat and brine also? If anyone has any practical experience of this.

Please don't take this to a message thread. This is an interesting topic to follow for outsiders, from a seedling of an idea to hopefully a team competing at Maldon.

Tesco and Waitrose sell these kits online would need to check your local store if they stock them

Got your own PA 😀

Got 2 pretty square pieces of pork belly curing at the moment, should be ready for smoking next weekend Thinking of leaving one unsliced and cut it with a large 10" carving knife as neededfrom the fridge, for the first time. The one I want to keep unsliced is 1.6kg before curing. I don't expect it to last long, but understand it can last for a further period of time in the fridge than if I did it all in one go on my slicer, without the need for freezing? Will it keep just fine in a normal food bag, or need to be kept in a ziploc bag in the fridge (don't want to vacpac it every time it has been used). Can bacon be cut against the grain or best to always slice with the grain?

Have ordered quite a bit of meat from here in the past few months gridironmeat haven't tried a brisket from there, but based on the boston butt, pork belly and ribs i have got, very impressed with them. They will also sell you the flat end or point of the brisket if you don't want a whole one. Free delivery over £45 and if you ask him he will give you a 10% off code usually. Also he will always cut or trim the meat how you want. The meat is only delivered on a Thursday or Friday, by APC, very well packaged and surrounded by frozen containers so the meat has always arrived fresh to me.

Whole Salmon £5 a kg at Morrisons from the fish counter at the moment. Just picked a 3kg one up for just over £15. They filleted it and weighed each side for me (for curing amount) ended up just over 1kg a side after filleting. Going to do this recipe again. Really enjoyed it and hopefully after freezing some may still be left for xmas 😀

Are these dates confirmed, with yourselves? As will probably book it this weekend if so.

The date for the Midland can be moved pretty easily if the National is held in the early part of July to say August, to spread it out if necessary If it's held late July shouldn't be a problem as a big enough gap and tailgates are meant to be predominantly local events, rather than targeting a National base, although everyone welcome. I know some people like attending multiple events, throughout the year, but from my own experience. I like to keep it local and 1 or 2 events a year. So the Midland and National would be all I would hope or expect to attend next year. Just need to wait for Steve and Wade to confirm a date and go from there, if the calendar becomes to clogged up with dates close together.