Monthly Archives: March 2013

Why Clarify Butter

A little different kind of post, but one thing that can make a huge difference in your cooking. Everyone loves the taste of butter but butter burns rather easily. In fact about 250º, which is not hot enough to saute’. By clarifying your butter you raise the the smoking point to about 350º. Now you can cook without the fear of burning  butter. The reason for the high temperature before burning is that you have taken out the ingredients that will burn and left the oil. What burns is the sugar, milk solids and water. Once removing these items you are cooking with oil. You can save the part you remove and use it for seasoning on items such as popcorn. So here is the process.

  1. Heat sticks of butter, I usually clarify at least one pound at a time.
  2. Remove items that are floating on the top and pour off the middle, which you will keep.
  3. The oil can now be stored at room temp with out the worry of the butter turning rancid.

Melting the butter

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Pouring melted butter into a clear pitcher.

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The butter starting to separate and layer up.

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After removing the top pour off the oil being careful not to get the bottom portion.

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Just the oil left

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Categories: BBQ, Entrees, Grilling, Texas Style Cuisine | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

Selling My Pit

I am down sizing on my BBQ pit. I am going to be using two smaller pits that will cook about what my big reverse flow will. I just plan on selling the pit but is someone is interested I will sell the entire trailer. My pit will cook about 30 briskets or 240 leg quarters. The cooking chamber is 9′ long and 36″ diameter, it has three doors and the fire-box is insulated with 1″ of ceramic insulation. The trailer has a rack for 4 folding tables and 4 18″X 24″ cutting boards. I have a water tank and a stainless steel sink. Let me know if you are interested in it or let you friends know and maybe they will be.

I am asking $7500 for the pit.

The whole trailer is $15000.

I will consider all offers.

The new trailer

Looking good and ready to come off

Looking good and ready to come off the pit

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Brisket Chile

A nice bowl of red!

A nice bowl of red!

I had to throw a lunch together today for some of the staff. I decided to make ranchero beans, mexican rice, cornbread and some Chile. I had to extend the hamburger meat I had so I pulled out some chopped brisket that I had been saving. I browned the burger and sautéed the onions, while doing that I chopped up the brisket into small pieces and heated it to render some of the fat. I used 5lbs of hamburger and3 lbs of brisket. The Chile came out excellent. The smokey flavor that the brisket brought to the Chile really added to the chili.

BBQ Chili

  • 5lbs                   Ground Beef
  • 3lbs                   Chopped Brisket
  • 2                        Onions, chopped
  • 3                        28oz cans Diced Tomatoes
  • 1 cup                 Chili Powder
  • 1/4 cup             Salt
  • 1/4 cup             Pepper
  • 1 tbsp                  Cayenne Pepper
  • 1/4 cup             Garlic Powder
  • 2 tbsp                  Cumin
  • 1 cup                 Corn Meal
  1. Brown meat and saute onions
  2. Add tomatoes
  3. Add seasonings
  4. Brin to a boil
  5. Thicken with corn meal
  6. Simmer for 30 minutes

 

Categories: BBQ, Entrees, Texas Style Cuisine, Uncategorized | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

Testing the blog connection

The blog is not sending information to Facebook any more so we are running a test to see of it will this time.

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Wood Fired Pizza

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I invited the family over for some pizza. I prepared the dough and the sauce and everyone else brought the toppings. It was a great time all the kids got in on it and they had a blast. I think we made every type of pizza you could think of and the kids rolled dough and rolled dough and rolled dough. I thought they were going to ware it out. everyone from the youngest to the oldest had a wonderful time and had some pretty good pizza. Now at first I was trying to cook the pizza on a wire rack but it just would not cook the dough. So I broke out the corm meal and laid them right down on the floor of the oven. From that point on everything cooked through.

The fire is just about ready

The fire is just about ready

My great niece helping with some toppings

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Categories: Grilling, Texas Style Cuisine | Tags: , , | 1 Comment

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