Hooray! Hooray! The first of May!

Weather permitting (or maybe even if it rains) we're going to be trying out smoking brisket on saturday. I can't wait!

I'm sticking some ribs in there too soon

We finally got the gas grill scrubbed up yesterday late and grilled some fresh kielbasa today for lunch. The plan is to grill the asparagus we got at the farmer's market this morning for brunch tomorrow (I'm also going to try for a hollandaise, along with waffles, berry compote, and chiccarones. Probably some bacon too.)

that's the brisket cut, nicely across the grain, managed to get a good smoke ring too, the meat wasn't fall apart tenderthough, maybe cos it only got about 6 hours, possibly because it wasn't a very fatty cut.

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How it looked on the plate, made the beans too, despite being soaked overnight and cooked for 4 hours, they were still a little hard, tasty though.

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this is what it was cooked on

We did a pork shoulder this weekend - 3 hours on the smoker and an hour wrapped in foil in the oven, very tender but not quite pull-apart tender - I need to make a few tweaks to our kit (drill holes in the fire tray for extra ventilation) so I can get a higher temperature. Tasted great though - pics to follow

and three shots of the meat - Vegematarians look away now

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Besides, its now winter here. Poo :(

It's time to whip out the Weber and get my smoke on. I'm going to start with some Vaguely Vietnamese Baby Backs -- I don't have a bucher in Switzerland yet, but I do at the place in Austria, and he's always psyched to learn new (to him) cuts.

Also Porkpie, some advice a year later -- you don't want to smoke hotter -- your briskit would have been better if you'd left it in another hour or so. Briskit is a lean cut, and an absolute bastard to get right.

Actually, speaking of Europe, does anyone know a website where various (American) cuts of meat are pictured and explained? What Austrians call "spare ribs", for example, are mini riblets, and I fear explaining briskit without pictures.

Here's one for Beef hindquarter cuts: http://www.askthemeatman.com/hind_qt_cuts.htm

And for Beef forequarter cuts: http://www.askthemeatman.com/front_qt_cuts.htm

also, anybody have any good veggie ideas for the grill? my standbys are corn still the husk, soaked for an hour or so in cold water, and asparagus or eggplant marinated in a little oil and garlic + kosher salt... nice and easy but getting a little dull.

If you like mushrooms, grilled portobello caps with a brush of olive oil + salt & pepper are great.

I think beets, rutabagas, and parsnips would grill up nicely, though they would take longer than asparagus.

Green beans work nicely -- you need to build little rafts with bamboo skewers to keep 'em from falling in, but the results are good. Peppers are a standby at our house -- get them nice and burned on each side, skin them, make a yummy salad. Tomatoes are nice as well -- slice them in half, put the cut side on the grill first, then flip them and season the open side with oil and garlic (and parmesan, maybe).

I did my first beer-can chicken of the year on Saturday -- it's the closest thing to fool-proof that I know in grilling. Rub bird, shove half-filled beercan up bird, place in smokey barbeque for an hour and a half. Gorgeous. We've got a good supply of plum wood, which is nice -- heavier smoke flavor than most fruit trees, but lighter than hickory.

I started the hot side of the grill on high for about 10 minutes, with the smoker pan on it, until things started smelling of smoking hickory goodness. Then, I turned the heat down and put the meat and drip pan in place, and used a wad of foil to block the hot-side lid vent. After 20 minutes, I added some damp shavings to the smoker pan, just to keep things going. I figure I'll check every 20-30 minutes for a few hours. It's smelling pretty amazing at the moment.

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I never wait 'til May anyway, but did less winter bbqing this year than usual (nothing after Christmas, when I did my smoked bacon and egg bagel sammiches) because of health and master's thesis issues. But beautiful weather today, and it was time, so: had a bunch of char (freshwater fish similar to trout but a little finer in flavor and bigger as well) and stuffed them with chopped up bacon that I had fried with the Scarborough Fair herbs (in a 3-3-1-1 ratio), some Old Bay and butter; coated them with the herby butter and bacon grease mixture, and smoked them with a mixture of oak and plum wood at 250F for a little over a half hour (basting with the herb buttergrease once at the halfway point). Oh man. Ohmanohmanohman. Will do this again, especially as I erred on the side of caution and took the fish off maybe 5 minutes too early (better than 5 minutes too late!)