Old Age

On the first day, God created the dog and said, “Sit all day by the door of your house and bark at anyone who comes in or walks past. For this, I will give you a life span of twenty years.”
The dog said, “That’s a long time to be barking. How about only ten years and I’ll give you back the other ten?”
And God saw it was good.
On the second day, God created the monkey and said, “Entertain people, do tricks, and make them laugh. For this, I’ll give you a twenty-year life span.”
The monkey said, “Monkey tricks for twenty years? That’s a pretty long time to perform. How about I give you back ten like the dog did?”
And God, again saw it was good.
On the third day, God created the cow and said, “You must go into the field with the farmer all day long and suffer under the sun, have calves and give milk to support the farmer’s family. For this, I will give you a life span of sixty years.”
The cow said, “That’s kind of a tough life you want me to live for sixty years. How about twenty and I’ll give back the other forty?”
And God agreed it was good.
On the fourth day, God created humans and said, “Eat, sleep, play, marry and enjoy your life. For this, I’ll give you twenty years.”
But the human said, “Only twenty years? Could you possibly give me my twenty, the forty the cow gave back,
the ten the monkey gave back,
and the ten the dog gave back; that makes eighty, okay?”
“Okay,” said God, “You asked for it.”
So that is why for our first twenty years, we eat, sleep, play and enjoy ourselves.
For the next forty years, we slave in the sun to support our family.
For the next ten years, we do monkey tricks to entertain the grandchildren.
And for the last ten years, we sit on the front porch and bark at everyone.
Life has now been explained to you.
If you are looking for me I will be on the front porch…

When did you realize you were old??

Denny O

Denny O’s. Brisket into Pastrami

Denny O’s. Curing Brine for Corned Beef

1 gallon of pure clean quality water
1 cup non-iodized kosher or canning salt
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar (or 2 cups brown and omit the white sugar)
1/2 cup corned beef spices
2 tablespoons crushed juniper berries
1 tablespoon of Cure #1 (Prague powder, DQ curing salt or other, not Morton’s Quick Cure or Insta Cure)
Dissolve all and mix in food-safe container, stir until clear, then chill.

Denny O’s. Corned Beef Spice Mix

2 tablespoons black peppercorns
2 tablespoons mustard seeds
2 tablespoons coriander seeds
2 tablespoons hot red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons allspice berries
1 tablespoon ground mace
2 small cinnamon sticks, crushed or broken into pieces
2 to 4 bay leaves, crumbled
2 tablespoons whole cloves
1 tablespoon ground ginger.
Combine peppercorns, mustard seeds and coriander seeds in a small dry pan. Place over medium heat and stir until fragrant, being careful not to burn them; keep lid handy in case seeds pop. Crack peppercorns and seeds in mortar and pestle or with the side of a knife on cutting board.
Combine with other spices, mix. Store in tightly sealed plastic or glass container.

Neatly trim a brisket flat removing the fats down leaving at most to 1/8" to at most 1/4" of fat from a 10 pound brisket. Submerge it in the above brine. Place a 1/2 filled gallon Ziploc bag on the top to keep the brisket submerged. Add meat. Do not add different species of meats, but you can add pieces of the same species in the same brine bucket.

Refrigerate 1 to 21 days, depending on thickness of meat. I usually do a 21 day brine.

When the meat is 1 to 2 inches thick, figure it will take a brine of 1-10 days in the brine bucket.
When it is 2 - 4 inches, 5 - 15 days, may require injecting to cure from the inside-out as well as from the outside-in.
When it is 4 inches and larger, 15 - 21 days and should require injecting.

Injecting - use a 4 oz manual injection pump with the broadcast needle or equivalent.
Brine can become frothy (ropy). It has both salt and sugar in it. It also is inputting curing ingredients into the meat and oozing out blood and plasma. Just dump the brine and make up fresh and continue curing should that happen. Make sure you keep it reasonably between 37° - 40° F.

Weigh down the meat into curing the brine with half-filled Ziploc bags of water on top.
Flip once every day, end for end and inside to outside to achieve a uniform penetration into the meat.

No further mixing or stirring of the brine is required let it cure until it is done. Meats will come out of the brine with a distinct normal grayish look.

Note: Cure #1 (Prague powder, DQ curing salt, Insta Cure#1 or other, not Morton’s Tender Quick)
Side note: It needs to have the sodium nitrite level at a maximum of 6.25%.

I use this as reference: Computing equivalency, for 100 gallons of curing brine, you add 24 lbs. of curing salt to 100 gallons of water and mix.

That is .24 lbs, or 3.84 oz. of curing salt to 1 gallon of water maximum.

My recipe calls for 1 tablespoon of curing salt to 1 gallon of water. A level tablespoon is .88 of an ounce. Heaping is approx. 1 ounce. Either is fine. Neither comes close to the maximum amount allowed, but just enough to do the job. Curing at Maximum, plus with injection, requires 48 hours of cure time maximum. This process uses less than one third the curing salts and a longer curing time to tenderize and flavor the meat.

You must cover the product until it floats off the bottom of the container, then weight it down to stay submersed in the brine, leaving no area to be exposed to air.

At minimum the cure takes ¼”/day plus a min of 2 more days (cure penetrates both sides), a 2” thick brisket takes 4 days plus 2 = 6day minimum cure time

When the curing time is completed Take out the beautifully cured “corned beef” (because that’s what it is at this point), and wash off all of the brine and spice. Then, put it in some clean water to soak for an hour to soak out any of the extra salt and rinse it once again. Lightly pat it with a paper towel, but not too dry. With the corned beef being damp proceed to the next step, the Pastrami rub.

Note: I will do a double batch of the brine in a 5 gallon food safe bucket with a lid for 2-10 pound ish brisket flats.
You will loose approxmately 40% of the weight during the smoking process depending on the cut of meat


Denny O’s. Pastrami Rub

1/3 cup Butchers Course Ground Black Pepper
1/3 cup Juniper Berries (crushed)
1/4 cup Coriander Seed Course Ground
1/4 cup Mustard Seed (brown or yellow I use a combo) Course Ground

Coat the rub heavily all over the corned beef brisket at about 4 to 5 tablespoons per square foot in a large deep nonreactive pan and cover with plastic wrap. The rub may want to stick to the plastic wrap that is why I use it in a deep pan.

Smoking Corned Beef into Pastrami

Pull it out of the refrigerator on the day of the smoke an hour or more before putting it in the smoker.
When you have the smoker running a constant temp of 225 degrees F (I prefer cherry wood), lay the corned beef on the rack. Figure about 1.5 hours per pound of meat. This is no longer a brisket because it has been corned, so easy on the smoke but go to your liking. Spritz the corned beef every 45 minutes or so never allowing it to dry out on the surface. Insert the temperature probe in a couple of spots and smoke till reaching “the dreaded stall phase” @ about 150 to 155 degrees F.

This is when the steaming process begins. Remove it add an 1/8 to a 1/4 cup of surgery moisture like apple juice or your liking into a double wrap of foil and return it to the smoker or an oven. (The oven is fine to use at this time as there is no more smoke that will be adsorbed and the moisture is in the double foil wrap. Smoker/oven temp is still 225. Reinsert the temp probes and continue the low and slow temp of 225 and let the meat go to 203 degrees internal or it feels like cool peanut butter through most of it. Don’t Over Cook It!!

When in the ballpark of 203 degrees +/- you are done, remove it out of the smoker/oven leaving it foiled. Set it in a dry cooler wrapped in heavy bath towels and close the lid for 2 to 10 hours. After that time set in a pan, still in foil and refrigerate until it is well chilled. After it has chilled remove from foil and slice.

Slicing, Slicing is crucial to maximize the tenderness of your final product. Look at the meat and see which way the grain is running. Cut it into thin slices of a 1/16th" up to a 3/16" crossed grain and at an angle from the top to bottom of the slicing stroke if you can. Do not slice length wise!
Steam to reheat until just warmed. Layer the pastrami on grilled rye bread with Dijon mustard (if you need pronounced flavors) add provolone or Swiss cheese and homemade kraut if it will please you. Yum!!

3/14/2022 edit, Left is corned beef and on the right is pastrami.

Best of Luck!
Denny O.

Just a pizza “Denny O 's"style.
1/8 slice each out of a full 16” pizza is all we can do.

Denny O

Sorry I have been on the naughty list. frown Please forgive me.
So here’s the short version.

Ok, been busy with a work for hire project. I’ve had some meat in the basement fridge for a bit the first one is 26.5 pounds of pork bellies. I try to purchase the heaviest weights of heritage pork bellies that I can find with the rines removed and a uniform thickness.

Brined for 2 to 3 weeks in a soft solution of ;
1 cup kosher salt (Not less than a 1/2 cup)
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 heaping tablespoon #1 pink cure (Do Not Confuse Pink Salt with this!!!)
1 gallon water.

I use a 5 gal bucket that is food grade and it has never been used for anything else but food in it. For 4 t0 6 bellies I need 2-5 gal buckets and a double batch of brine. I can fit/hang 5 racks into my smaller smoker at one time.

I make a double batch of brine and set the bellies in rotate every day or two, Fill a gallon ziplock with the brine and lay on top to keep the bellies submerged into the brine. Keep these in a cold place that maintains a 33 to 39 degree temp for the duration of 2 to 3 weeks, (you can do less time but,). My basement fridge.

Removed from the brine and rinsed off underwater

Laid out uncovered in the fridge to dry for 1 to 2 days (or hung in the smoker).

Hang in the smoker and using the “A-maze-N” full of my choice pellets, cold smoke for a day till gone and then the next day cold smoke them all over again.
The third day fire up the smoker @ 150 for 1 hr, @160 for an hr, @ 170 for an hr then @ 180 till the internal temp is 145 to 150. Shut off the smoker and let them rest. (Side note here I’m doing them during the cold weather months with no worries of heat and freezing).

After a day or two rest slice then to your desired thickness. Slice and portion into bags then vac, then freeze!

Excellent smokey bacon!

You will find if you slice this bacon thick or thicker than the store bought, it will;
Taste better
Splatter less (Barely a need for a splatter screen)
Needs to have a lower fry temp (keep the burner on a lower temp!!)
Cook it to a tid bit lesser done, but still to your liking.

Biggest reason, it is not injected with solution and you know exactly what is in it!
Heritage breed pork that is just salt and sugar.
The curing salt is at a level of less than 1/3 of the norm and still extremely lesser than the commercial processors that you get at the stores, plus there is nothing injected into it!

Let me know If I may be of any other help on this.

Lately I’ve been making this for others as well as myself. This last batch has been all spoken for.

But I’d rather be on the lake with my mind on God than in a church with my mind on fishin’ Denny Orfield

Well, the upper crust steak houses have nothing on “DennyO’s Smokey Bones” . I have a very unique and special steak for my bride.
The other heart from the cow!

It is a prime butterflied ribeye split at 1-1/4" each, reverse seared.

I ment to add,
I wish to thank all of those that have served at any capacity for our way of life!
I mean all of you at any capacity!!

Does this belong to someone else?

Very nice hat by the way
Jonathon Austin

I’ve read through this and I’m wondering,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
Won’t this be
,
,
kind of
,
,
A
,
,
,
Fowl Sausage? ;<)

A fellow chef posted earlier his Italian Meatloaf. Well here is my take.
1 pound deer burger
1 pound 80/20 hamburger
1 pound ground pork
3 eggs
Fare amount Lea Perrins
Fare amount low sodium Soy sauce
Good covering Italian bread crumbs
Sprinkling of parmesan cheese
Good sprinkling of Oregano, Basil and Thyme
Sauteed 8 oz chopped mushrooms and med/large Vidalia onion chopped

Hand mix very well
Pour and flatten on waxed paper then assemble with marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese
Roll up using paper then wrap ends and around it with thin sliced bacon
Again while it is still on the paper roll it into a 1/2 steamer pan and smoke.

I will take it to 155/160 for a finished temp but about a hour or so before, I’ll suck out some of the fat and spread marinara sauce over it

For me I’ve been in construction since I was a youngin.

Born into a self employed one man plumbing repair, sewer and septic tank company. I was taught electric and electronics, sent to the university for a couple of years and decided that carpentry was where I was meant to land.

I’ve had residential and commercial projects under my own company and have served as a site superintendent for large projects through 20 mil across the central USA.

YooperDog fresh cut sweet corn, smashed taders n guavy and deep fried yardbird.

Ya’ll all are putting me to shame Chefs!
I just picked up one of them thar black rodents with the whitish streak down its back, torched the hair off of it and threw it on the top of the burn barrel that I was dealing with the trash that had piled up against the front of mes homestead.

Momma thought the offerings were a bit hard to gnaw through this time but as usual she said very tasty and thanked me. I think I did right, she says the same. That’s how we have stayed together so long Ie guess.

I think I know what will help heal Jonathan !

Sorry we had to start without ya!

Tee Hee he

processhead said in What did everyone cook today?:

This one has a lot of moving parts so bear with me. Started with marinated pork, shrimp and scallops on a skewer and a couple of whole country pork ribs for good measure.
Grilled these over a charcoal fire with a couple of pieces of pear wood for flavor.
This by itself would be the basis of a pretty good meal, but they are just one part of a bigger whole. That being a Vietnamese dish called BÚN THỊT NƯỚNG.
The meaty bits get chopped up and added to a bowl of vermicelli noodles, lettuce, fresh basil, cilantro, crushed peanuts, green onions browned in lard, and nuoc cham, a seasoned fish sauce based condiment.
The complexity of flavors in the finished dish is hard to describe, but is simply amazing. We will be doing leftovers again tomorrow, because once is just not enough. Plus I grilled enough for the whole neighborhood.

My wife gets the credit for all the hard work and creativity. I just grilled the meat/shellfish.

I call “Dibs”!
Oh, Ya Baby!

GWG8541
Anyone ever try this one?