Scotch Eggs..on the smoker!

Let’s talk Scotch eggs!

Wikipedia describes them this way:

“A Scotch egg is a boiled egg wrapped in sausage meat, coated in breadcrumbs and baked or deep-fried.

Scotch eggs are prepared by hard- or soft-boiling an egg, wrapping it in sausage meat.”

They originated in the UK, but are loved by folks everywhere.

They also make a perfect smoked snack or side!

The easy way (and what you may see on bunches of YT vids) is to make a hard boiled egg, wrap it in sausage and smoke until the sausage is done.

This is also the worse way they can possibly be prepared. 😢

(Tough, overcooked egg inside a sausage jacket is not good eats)

Here’s how I do it.

Soft boil the eggs for 2.5 minutes. No more, no less.

Carefully remove shell (yes it’s a pain), be careful as the egg is soft boiled and really easy to puncture while peeling, but it is possible.

Flatten out your bulk sausage and cut into 6 squares.

Lay an egg in each square (or roundish)

Carefully wrap the sausage around the egg.

Season the sausage with rub (I use Q-Salt).

Smoke the sausage covered eggs for 1.5 hours at 250F, or until the sausage hits 165F

Pull, rest and slice.

There are great served hot or cold!

I like a spicy mustard for dipping.

Corned Beef & Pastrami

It’s that time of year! Corned beef will soon be on sale everywhere, don’t miss out!

Let’s talk Pastrami:

Traditionally made with beef navel (belly) or the point end of a brisket, it is cured, seasoned and then smoked. Once smoked it cools, and gets steamed to reheat, this gives the pastrami its trademark texture.

Pastrami and Corned Beef are close relatives.

Corned beef is also traditionally made from brisket, that has been cured. Most times this is done in a pickling brine that contains curing salts. The corned beef is then boiled with more spices (the spice pack they put in with it) and served when tender.

So it has become common place for people to make cheaterstrami…

Taking commercially available corned beef, soaking it in water for 24 hours with several water changes. This leaches the curing salts out of corned beef (remember, it’s traditionally boiled, so the salt content is super high) and leaves you with a chunk of cured beef.

All that’s left for you to do is season with with a low salt pastrami rub (heavy on coriander) and smoke.

If you are adventurous, you can cure your own beef for pastrami at home, in about 7-10 days.

Pastrami does not have to be brisket or navel; cure up some beef, season and smoke it.

Here is a photo of Pastramied Short ribs I did a couple of years ago.

For this St. Patrick’s day I took a 7lb corned brisket point and converted it to 4lbs of delicious pastrami

Now go make you some!

Pork Spare Ribs

Here’s why I choose spares and how I cook them.

Let’s talk ribs! Everyone’s favorite.

I’m going to keep it pork focused. So that leaves us with Loin Back Ribs and Spare ribs.

Loin backs are also known as baby backs and as the name implies, comes from the back of the loin, top of the ribcage.

Loin is also where pork chops comes from.

Spare ribs come from the bottom of the rib cage, adjacent to the belly, where bacon comes from.

St. Louis spares are full slab of spares with the rib tips removed.

Country style ribs… ain’t ribs. Strips of meat. Typically cut from the shoulder.

I prefer spares.

I don’t use any of the popular techniques that have been applied some numbers (3,2,1-3,1,2,), those are based on cooking at 220-225F and cooking full spares.

I cut mine down to St. Louis cut dry rub and smoke them with cherry wood, at 250-275F unwrapped, no spritz, no sauce.

Typically takes around 4 hours to pass the visual (bone pull back) & bend test.

Hope you enjoyed, now go cook some ribs!

Coming Soon

All the BBQ tips, tricks and techniques.

Stay Tuned!