ottawa foodies

Hey guys! New to foodies, but looking to get right into the mix! I found a Bradley Smoker (original) on usedottawa.com for 150$ from a wonderful woman who won it in a contest from Canadian Tire and didn't know how to use it.. (BRAND NEW) Haven't looked back since!

I found a recipe for maple bacon on a previous forum, Forum - monty pictorial - makin' bacon
and adapted it a bit to make some standard bacon for myself and family... Thx for the inspiration monty!

The recipe is as follows:

1 - 4kg pork belly (skin on)
1/2 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp coarse ground black pepper

rubbed it down with the previous ingredients and left to cure in the fridge in a freezer bag for 7 days, flipping daily. I choose not to use nitrates for most things, although I do have some on hand for jerky and sausages. Bacon, I fry until its crispy as nothing else, so I don't feel the need.

followed the same smoking instructions, except a little higher temperature and a little more smoke...

3 hrs of smoke at 150 F ( I used a classic apple wood)
turned up to 165 until it reached 137 internally

Peel back your skin, cool, slice, fry and enjoy! I'll make sure to get some pictures up soon so you can see the results! (had that in this morning from 8 am, finished at 1pm, and put in my new experiment: honey garlic-jalapeno pork back ribs! I'll post that recipe a little later on, also with pics!

First taste test of the bacon will be tomorrow morning with breakfast

Just glad to be a part of the neighborhood!

side view

top view

And bottom view after I skinned it... Looks amazing. I'll post one more pic after I taste it and slice it... Can't wait!

Nice. Using a Bradley digital myself.

I have my first pork belly curing in the fridge right now, very basic cure (cure 1, kosher salt and maple syrup). I'm not 100% sure how to tell if it cured well other than just proceeding with smoking and giving it a try after. I'll fry a little up first before smoking to check on the saltiness and whether I should soak it first. I'm hoping it's ready to go by Monday or Tuesday. I cut the skin off before curing which I will probably regret, I'll leave it on next time.

I've done a lot of smoked salmon this year. Some brined just in salt and brown sugar, others teriyaki, others salt/maple. All very good, hard to go wrong with salmon I find. Even my first attempt was great. My neighbours are always hanging over the fence when i have some smoking.

Pork ribs going in the smoker tomorrow with a very spicy rub.

Peter- Best advice I've gotten is to look for soft spots in the meat... when you press down on it, it should have the same feel as a med-well steak all the way through... it's not done yet if it's not consistent across the belly... make sure you post some pics, I'd like to compare the color of the two...

This was also my first try, the only thing I would have done differently is to soak it a bit... I only rinsed it off = relatively salty bacon... I love it like that, the family, not so much... more for me!

Ribs are almost done!!!! I can't wait! Jalapeno-Honey-Garlic sauce and rub can be found here: Forum - Favorite Rubs

Smoked at 200 with apple wood for 3 hrs, wrapped them in tinfoil for an hr/hr half at the same temp, no smoke.... unwrapped and sauced, back in for an hr still at 200...

a little more sauce, char for 5 min, and let them rest.... or that's the plan for the next bit... I'll post some pics when they come out....

Can't wait to dig in...

Try smoking those ribs till the bones start to wiggle a bit then finish on the grill with some sauce.love my Bradley as well. Most kick ass bacon I've made so far was black pepper and crushed juniper berries, sounds strange but it finished the best of all my batches so far. I always found a quarter cup of cure for five lbs of belly and let cure 7 to 10 days it firms up just right and not too salty. Good luck with your smoking nukem and keep posting updates. I've got a charcoal smoker as well but it just can't smoke the same as the Bradley.
Cheers

Timberframe Norm came over one aft to help work on a project and we agreed to dine on some homegrown pork loin roast afterwards. He has a nice briefcase sized rotisserie we used for the task, fueled by charcoal and random leftover hardwood chunks from the sawmill. Fortunately for me he likes to root in the firebox leaving me in the chair to enjoy a nice homebrew!

Wow krusty, that looks amazing... I can almost smell it from here! Here's how my ribs turned out last night...(thx for the advice smoker guy, thats exz tly what i did with the glaze/sauce I made... unfortunately I was feeling lazy and just fired up the propane grill instead of finishing over charcoal....

AMAZING! really good garlic flavor throughout, and the honey came through nicely in the rub and glaze/sauce... the corn and taters i had in for the last 3 hrs wrapped in foil were awesome too!

and here's the final sliced product of the bacon.... I have another piece going in the smoker in about 30 min that had the same cure, but I added a load of franks red hot to it as well while it cured.... gonna cube that after it smokes over some hickory and use it for chili's and such.... should be amazing! i'll post pics of the final product later on....

Annnnd, for tonight's dinner project, I butterflied and pounded flat a turkey breast, stuffed it with spinach, ham and Parmesan, then wrapped it in (store bought) bacon and tied it like a roast... gonna toss that in with hickory chips later on... smoke at 200 until it reaches 165... and enjoy! I'll get some pics up uf that too later...

Smoking is my hobby, I bought the Bradley for myself right after I quit smoking cigarettes... Quit smoking to start smoking! So, on weekends, I fill my time with this while I'm not being distracted by learning accounting.... fun stuffs!

27 day old 6.5lb dry aged brisket rubbed and covered for 12 hours, smoked for 3.5 hours with mesquite then slow cooked for another 6hrs at 225. Tender juicy and oh so smokey. THe perfect meal for UFC 148 last night!

@KenV...that looks delicious! I made ribs for Ufc 148 and smoked them with mesquite wood.

What's being smoked in my backyard? I don't know ... but I wish those kids would give me some.

aha! I was wondering how long it would take for someone to make a sart assed comment lol!

I have the sartest ass of anyone here!

Aha! and I can't spell! Touche Rizak... touche. Glad to see there's someone as much of a SMART ass as I... Waiting on the pics of the turkey breast, on the gfs camera...

"Whats being smoked in your backyard?"

SHISHA !!!! ... for me and my guests ... after a big mid-east feed.

No kiddin' ... I bought my pipe at Al-Kalaa Mini Market .

Came with tongs, cleaning brush and carrying bag. I might not be able to use the carrying bag to bring my hookah to a park anymore, if City Council gets there way.

Council is to discuss the proposed ban on July 11.

Read more:

www.ottawacitizen.com

Any other Ottawa Foodies backyard shisha smokers ?

well, i use a device similar to a hooka, just not for shisha... lol ;)
I've been considering getting one actually... i quit smoking cigarettes over a month ago, and it might be nice....

Most are tobacco free if i remember correctly?

However, on a serious note, today's smoking experiment is going to be:

Jalapeño and cheddar stuffed hamburgers. Topping them with some of the home made bacon from earlier posts, and some of my home made bbq sauce...

Thinking of doing an hr at 130F with hickory, then turn it up and bring it to an internal of 150 before saucing and tossing it on the grill to come up to 160F and get some char on it...

Let's see how it turns out!

SHISHA !!!! I'm not but I went with my daughter to a "cafe" in Paris with various offerings. It was definitely a male "mecca" but there were several choices of smoke materials. I personally couldn't wait to get back out on the street "pour un piche de rose"! She thought it was neat.