17th Street Barbecue – Murphysboro, IL

In the world of barbecue, champion pitmaster Mike Mills is affectionately known as “The Legend.” He presides over the pits at his two nationally acclaimed 17th Street Barbecue barbecue restaurants in Southern Illinois. In the early 1990s, he was co-captain of the Apple City Barbecue team, one of the most celebrated teams ever on the circuit. He is a four-time World […]

Smoked Chipotle Powder

We put up a new site for our custom blended smoked chipotle powder at https://SmokingHotFlavor.com https://youtu.be/7WA33HJ8xK8

Smoked Cheese

We love smoked cheese!    I’ve smoked cheese in my WSM before but the cold smoke attachment I used was less than great. This looked like a great idea and easy to use. A-MAZE-N Smoker Tray     The following video shows how to use it.

Making Perfect Bacon Deliciousness… Again

Several posts back we cured our own bacon and encouraged you to do the same. This post is a little different and much simpler. Let’s assume you see some thick sliced bacon on sale – really good quality product that happened to miss the eye of a bunch of bargain shoppers so is now high […]

How To Win A Chili Cookoff?

Make the best chili…  of course. Several years ago in support of the Chambersburg Noontime Lions club, we decided to enter the 2011 Annual Icefest chili cookoff.   The entry specified 20 gallons of chili so we knew we had our work cut out for us. I did a couple of test cooks ahead of […]

Perfect Pastrami Sandwich

OK, I admit it… I LOVE Pastrami! Fifteen years ago I was a bit of a newbie to the food scene.  I mean, I knew about food… Steak, Pizza, Burgers, Ribs, Wings, etc. – but ask me about anything outside of the American mainstream and I was clueless. Then I visited NYC and did a […]

Make Your Own Pastrami – Perfectly

Perfect Pastrami Sandwich

Coming soon – my foray into the world of this wonderful Jewish Deli meat. In General, there are really only 3 steps: ‘Corn’ your brisket.  This is simply taking a trimmed brisket and brining it for several days in a mixture of pickling spices to create corned beef.   Some recipes show just the brisket flat – […]

Make Your Own Homemade Chili Powder

If all you’ve ever used is the store bought ‘wimpy excuse for real ingredient’ chili powder from the usual boring name brands you are in for a real treat! Not only will this stuff fill in for the generic brands in any of your favorite recipes you’ll find that adding it to any number of […]

Build Your Own Cold Smoker

Most of us have some kind of hot smoker that we use to do the ‘low and slow’ BBQ masters method to maintain 200-250 F heat source.  I’m looking to move into the preservation arena (peppers, meats, veggies, cheese, etc) that requires ‘cold smoking’ in the under 120 F range. I’m a DIY guy so […]