Earl Cooks Pork Butt Burnt Ends

One of the big buzz phrases in the barbecue world these days is "Burnt Ends" Like many restaurant favorites, these started as the parts of the smoked brisket that were once considered to be unsellable, so the restaurant employees got to eat them. They came from the fattier "point" cut of the brisket.

I have never had brisket burnt ends. Now they are popular, thay are also expensive. I don't cook whole briskets, so I never have the trimmings left over. I found several recipes called "poor man's burnt ends" that used other meats and sounded just as good. Some used pork belly, some used roast beef, but the one that struck me was pork roast. That is what I decided to go with. I had a beautiful half of a pork shoulder smoked by Capt. Len's BBQ, a nearly perfect place to start.

I cut the pork into about 3/4-1" cubes and placed them in and disposable aluminum roasting pan and coated them with 2 kinds of sauce. Normally, I wouldn't need sauce for this tasty pork, but burnt ends NEED sugar to caramelize and, well, burn. I added a store brand hickory BBQ sauce and a locally produced Smoky Bacon sauce.
Now for the roasting. Since the pork was fully cooked and smoke I had only to heat it through and caramelize the sugars in th sauces giving them the burnt look and crunch. I started wit the oven at 350℉ for about 20 minutes. Then I changed it to cook from above (broil setting) at the same temperature for another 20 minutes.

They turned out great! This was my first attempt and some chunks were a bit overly crunchy, almost truly burnt. But they were still very tasty.

Results & Conclusions and Notes:

This was very much woth it and helped by the excellent smoked pork from Capt. Len's BBQ
Capt. Len's BBQ - Just Follow the Smoke!

Earl Eats Two Fast Food Bacon Burgers - A Review

It may seem unfair to compare a premium burger from McDonald's to a Junior offering from Burger King. But on this day, that's what I set-out to do...The Flame Grilled Bacon King Jr. from Burger King vs. the Bacon Smokehouse Burger from McDonald's. Both are similar in their descriptions but very different in their price points. How do they stack up, and which one is the Best Burger Bargain.

Let's start at Burger King: they describe their BACON KING™ Jr. as a "smaller package, same BIG taste. Two flame–grilled 100% beef patties topped with thick-cut smoked bacon, melted American cheese, ketchup and creamy mayonnaise on a toasted sesame seed bun." 

McDonald's describes their Bacon Smokehouse Burger as "A burger made with unexpected flavor combinations, including crispy Applewood smoked bacon, smoky bacon-onion sauce, real white cheddar(sharp), mild sweet mustard sauce and in-house fried onion strings. With a 100% fresh beef 1/4 lb. patty that’s hotter, juicier and cooked when you order. Served on an artisan roll." 

I liked both of these burgers very much. The BACON KING™ Jr. from Burger King had 2 patties while the Bacon Smokehouse had just the one, but it is a quarter pound patty. I have always liked the flavor of Burger Kings Flame Grilled patties, although a good friend of mine is just the opposite. The bacon was good on both too. The sharp white cheddar on the McDonald's offering was a pleasant addition but 2 slices of American from BK was good too. McDonald's "artisan bun" was nice and soft but the BACON KING™ Jr.'s bun was nicely toasted with the traditional sesame seeds.

I do like the addition of fried onion rings on the McDonald's burger as well as their bacon-onion sauce. I also like the creamy mayonnaise BK ads to theirs. I don't think the ketchup added to the  Burger King sandwich was necessary since it tends to cover up the flavor of the beef, but the mustard sauce on the McDonald's burger added a light tang without covering the beef flavor.

Results & Conclusions

As mentioned earlier, I liked both of these burgers. It seems like McDonald's is really trying to improve their fare. The Burger King sandwich is not really anything new, but is re-imagined and slightly downsized. If I were judging on simply which is best, McDonald's Bacon Smokehouse Burger wins. The fried onion rings,  sharp, white cheese and condiments won the day. However...

Burger King's is the best VALUE, by far! The McDonald's was nearly $6 for the sandwich alone. Burger King's price was around $3. Is it as good? NO! Is it good? YES!

Earl Cooks Grilled Ham & Cheese nn a "George Foreman"

The ads called it the George Foreman Lean Mean Grilling Machine. Daughter #1 simply called it the George Foreman. It ended up as mine!

This model is one that really is only good for a single sandwich, or a piece of boneless chicken or a burger. In addition, it is VERY difficult to clean, with no removable parts for washing. It is all by hand with no ability to immerse it in water, and by the time it reached me there was no grease drip tray. But I had never owned one and I wanted to see how well it would work.

A grilled cheese seemed like the best way to test it, but only after I cleaned it. That took awhile...then awhile longer...then awhile longer still!


Finally, I decided on my sandwich. It would be a grilled ham and Swiss.

• I started with 2 slices of "Turkey's" (a.k.a. my wife's) homemade bread.
• Next comes baby Swiss. The cheese must be all around the ham. I use black forest deli sliced ham—3 or 4 slices. So the order is, bread, cheese, ham, cheese, and bread again.
• Now I apply butter to the OUTSIDE of the sandwich. This makes the sandwich crispy and TASTY! It will also help release the sandwich from George. If you are using a grill or frying pan it will help there too.
• After grilling a few minutes, rotate to make it pretty. I had to add weight to press the sandwich enough for me.
• It was delicious and just what I wanted. It worked much like a panini press, but I had to do the pressing.

Result & Conclusions:
I am certain that subsequent models improved a bunch. The George Foreman Grills are made by a company called Salton. My biggest complaints are the poor design for cleaning and the inability to apply pressure to whatever is cooked.

I am glad I didn't buy it and don't want to clean it much, but for a quick burger or grilled sandwich, it is nice to have around.

Earl Revives Party Pasta Salad for "Turkey"

As you may have read here, my wife (a.k.a. "Turkey") does not care for most pasta dishes. She thinks "pasta" is well named, as Webster defines it: "paste in processed form". I have managed to get her to like some pastas when cooked right with the proper sauce. In the 1980's pasta became SALAD. Not a dish served hot, with a rich, meaty & cheesy sauce but cold and mixed with veggies and, unbelievably - uncooked ramen noodles!

At Daughter #2's birthday party last week, we ate well and laughed hard. We ate burgers and all beef hot dogs cooked to perfection by my son-in-law (a.k.a. "Rutt") and pasta salad made by my daughter. We also had a Texas Sheet Cake, expertly crafted by my son-in-law's mom. The wind kicked up and the candles looked like a mini forest fire. What a great way to spend an evening! Family - Friends - Food, an unbeatable combination.

All of this leads me to the reason for this post. We came home with some pasta salad leftovers and I was able to make it into something "Turkey" ate and enjoyed. To the basic pasta salad I added:

• Avocado
• Tomatoes
• Pepperoni
• Balsamic Vinaigrette
• Italian Cheese Mixture
• Fresh Spinach

If it seems like I made a whole new salad, I did add lots of components to make it a refreshing dinner on a VERY hot summer's evening. Thanks to my daughter, we I ate two very different  pasta salads that week, both of which were much better than those of the 80's!

Earl Cooks Fires Up the Upright Barrel Smoker after Years of Disuse

Several years ago I thought I would try smoking some meats, so I bought a cheap smoker (pictured new on the left). I met with almost no success, because I had no Idea what I was doing. Now that I am cooking regularly I thought I would give this little guy another try. I had leftover charcoal and mesquite wood chips from when I first got the smioker, and I wanted to try smoking some things I thought would be good. But first, I set myself to cleaning up this smoker. Thanks to the lid, the inside was okay. It didn't look like the photo, and there were a of bunch spider webs inside, but that cleaned up quickly. What took a bit of time were the grates. This model has a charcoal pan, a water pan, and two grates. Not worried about the charcoal pan, but I do need to clean the rest...especially the grates.

I knew I wanted to start with some basics that are cheap, to experiment on. Yukon Gold potatoes, a sweet yellow onion, and some inexpensive franks would be ideal. I quartered the potatoes, quartered the onion and used bun length franks from Bar-S. I decided to add some peeled, hard cooked eggs later too!

Using my chimney starter and a brown paper sack sprayed with vegetable oil, I lit up the briquettes. It takes about 20 minutes to get them to the white ash stage. Alton Brown on the Food Network uses newspaper, but we have gone totally electronic for our news and I don't have any. But I do like to get  paper bags when I shop because they are not only recyclable, they made are from recycled paper. As you can see IT WORKS GREAT! Once the coals were ready, I put them in the coal rack on the bottom. Then I added mesquite wood chips. I should have added them wrapped in foil or in a smoking box, but I plain forgot! Oh well. I also forgot to add the water pan to create a moist heating environment.  I fixed that later, but for now, it was fine.

I started by putting the potatoes on the bottom grate and the eggs, which I had hard cooked and peeled, on the top. My reasoning was the eggs would not need much time, and the potatoes could use the extra smoke. This turned out to be slightly faulty reasoning, which I will explain later.*

The first thing off the smoker are the eggs. As you can see, they had a lovely smokey color. The problem became that the smoke and heat on an already-cooked egg created a bit of a rubbery exterior. The egg was perfect inside, with no green ring around the yolk, and you could taste the smokiness. Next I removed the potatoes which were smoky, but again the skin was a bit tough. I had no idea what I was doing with these items going in. I now know what went wrong.

The last thing I took off the smoker was the last to go on...the HOT DOGS! They were the one thing I had confidence in. I have cooked many many hot dogs...but I have never smoked them!

They were PERFECT! Especially when I put them on some toasted buns, with Dijon mustard and a pickle slice.






*Some footnotes:

•  I said I would tell you why putting potatoes on the bottom and eggs on the top didn't work. I needed to cover the potatoes to protect them from the heat. The bottom rack was too hot.
•  The eggs were cooked and peeled, but the added heat  caused them to split. They too needed protection. I tried leaving the shell on in another batch, and they cooked, but no noticeable smoke penetrated the shell. I will have to find another way.
• I didn't write much about the onion. It turned out very smoky and I added some to my hot dog, but it was too big to stay in the bun, so it isn't shown, but tasted great.

Conclusions:
This was a qualified success. The hot dogs were well worth it and I will be doing them again - soon! I also realized that I had the components for a smoked potato salad, which sounds very good and I will post how it turns out! I also gained a new tool in my cooking arsenal, well an old tool revived, my smoker! I will be using it as a smoker and a small charcoal grill well into the Fall!

Earl Cooks Sausage Gravy Over Fries - Who needs Poutine?

Poutine (pu ˈteen) is a dish originating from the Canadian province of Quebec consisting of French fries and cheese curds topped with a brown gravy. I like fries, cheese curds AND brown gravy but I must say, I have been a bit unimpressed by those I have tried at food vendors, and my attempts to make them myself have only been half-hearted at best. But I came across a dish I developed a while back that puts poutine to shame...country sausage gravy over fries! 

What you Need:

• Fries - homemade, cooked from frozen, or leftovers from your takeout.

• Breakfast Sausage - This can be cooked from the package or from the microwavable precooked versions, or from the Sausage McMuffin you ordered with fries and saved for this.

• Country Gravy - This can be from a package, bottle, or can, or you can whip some up yourself,  just make certain you use a lot of fresh ground pepper. 

The fries will need to be as hot as you can make them, but DON'T USE THE MICROWAVE. Microwaves will make the fries soggy. Use a skillet or the oven to heat or reheat them. After mixing the crumbled sausage into the the country gravy, pour over the fries.

These can be eaten with your fingers, but you will want a knife and fork to get every drop. Try this with a runny egg on top to make it even better. It is a great way to use up leftover gravy from biscuits and gravy too!