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A Farewell to Smoke 🍖
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Hi Reader, Every October, I perform a little ritual that The One insists is more dramatic than the final scene of a telenovela. I stand in front of my Bradley smoker, cover in hand, and put Brad to sleep for the winter. This summer, Brad and I didn't hang out. At all. First, I had a relapse of Lyme disease symptoms (yay, me), which laid me low for a while. Then there was our trip to Chaumont, NY, to visit our dear friends Keith and Roberta. THEN there was the wedding of my college girlfriend's daughter. (Yup, you read that right. And, nope, Emily isn't my kid.) We stayed in a lovely inn in Georgetown, ME—a town that reminded us a bit of Martha's Vineyard. Between moaning in bed, traveling the Empire State, and crying at how moving Emily and Caleb's ceremony was, Brad got shafted. But here’s the delicious secret: although the smoker may get mothballed, the flavors don’t have to (get ready for it)... go up in smoke. [Insert loud groan.] The legacy of smoke lives on in cured meats, pan-seared sausages, and oven-baked ribs slick with liquid smoke’s sly wink. Who needs therapy when you’ve got a kitchen full of bacon? (And if you're still smoking, consider my Maple-Espresso Smoked Bacon.) How to Keep the Smoke Alive (Without the Smoker)
WHAT'S INSIDE...
Smoked Pork Shoulder⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.74 from 19 votes
When slow-smoking a pork shoulder, you should figure 1 1/2 hours per pound of pork. A 10-pound, bone-in pork shoulder takes a long time to cook, but for the majority of that time it is in the smoker. You can get it started right after breakfast and have it ready in time for dinner.☞ Try this recipeSmoked Beef Ribs
You can smoke the ribs as individual ribs, or you can have your butcher leave them as one large rack that you carve when done. These are sometimes called dinosaur ribs, like what Fred Flintstone eats at the drive-in.☞ Try this recipeSmoked Chicken
Brining in a very simple salt and sugar brine makes the chicken juicier than a typical bird and it’s seasoned throughout. The addition of the dry rub makes it even more flavorful.☞ Try this recipeHomemade Pastrami⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.84 from 56 votes
For this homemade pastrami, beef brisket is brined (or corned) in a pickling mix for 5 days. The now-corned beef is rubbed with black pepper, coriander, and smoked paprika, and baked in the oven. If you must smoke it, see the variation.☞ Try this recipeSmoked Spare Ribs
These smoked spare ribs are coated in a spicy rub, slowly smoked, and finished with a Texas-style barbecue sauce. No smoker required.☞ Try this recipeHomemade Guanciale
This homemade guanciale, made with pork jowl, seasoning, and white wine, is easier than you may think. Here's how to make it.☞ Try this recipeSmoked Cheddar Cheese
This smoked Cheddar cheese recipe explains, step by step, how to smoke cheese at home into smoke-imbued exquisiteness. Hickory Farms, be worried.☞ Try this recipeSmoked Pickled Potatoes With Anchovy Aioli
These smoked pickled potatoes are made by brining new potatoes in malt vinegar, deep-frying them, and serving them with homemade aioli.☞ Try this recipeBarbecued Beef Back Ribs⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.75 from 36 votes
These barbecued beef back ribs are easy to make. They're coated with a homemade spice rub and slowly grilled to perfection.☞ Try this recipeSmoked Turkey Legs⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.86 from 14 votes
Can smoked turkey legs you make at home possibly be as good as the ones at the carnival or theme park? Actually, they're even better. All it takes is a simple brine and a little patience. Here's how to make them.☞ Try this recipe |
Leite's Culinaria
Why, hello! Leite's Culinaria is the James Beard Award-winning site that helps home cooks and bakers put dinner on the table and laugh in the kitchen. Hungry for more? Join more than 30,000 food lovers and subscribe.
Hi Reader, I’ve always thought chicken gets a bad rap. People talk about it the way they talk about wallpaper—necessary, but boring. Ever since The One came on the scene, though, chicken has never been bland. There's his quick weekday roast he makes when he has three minutes and an attitude, the jug-cooked chicken from my cookbook that he swears could cure heartbreak, and a simple and simply superb Sunday supper: his brined roasted chicken that sits on a raft of carrots, onions, and potatoes...
Hi Reader, When I was a kid, beans were not optional. Ho-no! They appeared with the regularity of my godfather's Saturday-night stock car race. White beans with pork, black-eyed peas with tuna, lentils simmered until they slumped into submission. My mother insisted they were “good for you,” which, in childhood, was code for “culinary punishment.” This is what AI thinks I looked like as a child, sifting through a pan of chickpeas. But somewhere along the way, I stopped sulking and started...
Hi Reader, Every year when the first chill sneaks into the air, I’m hit with the same scent—apples and cinnamon—and suddenly I’m thirty-something again, standing in my postage-stamp-size kitchen trying to impress a man I’d met only weeks before. (Spoiler: I succeeded. He’s still here, three decades later, eating the evidence.) The One in my impossibly small kitchen in Brooklyn, tucked under a staircase. That first autumn, way back in 1993, was our season of Love Food. We knew nothing about...