[bluesman]

I love a good steak over a blazing wood fire.

+1

Now that sounds really good right now.  I have always wanted to build a firepit in my backyard.  This will give me even more incentive.

[beerocd]

I dont think there is suposed to be a lot of smoke.

I challenge you to have a real wood fire, without smoke.
It'll be more spit flavor than "smoker" flavor, but it'll get in there.

[nicneufeld]

Now that sounds really good right now.  I have always wanted to build a firepit in my backyard.  This will give me even more incentive.

Not to undermine your reason to build a firepit, but you can of course build a wood fire in any charcoal grill, as long as the wood fits.  But there is just a lot of fun cooking over an open firepit though.  Sort of like camping in your backyard.  I wish I had a better supply of firewood!

[beerocd]

Now that sounds really good right now.  I have always wanted to build a firepit in my backyard.  This will give me even more incentive.

Not to undermine your reason to build a firepit, but you can of course build a wood fire in any charcoal grill, as long as the wood fits.  But there is just a lot of fun cooking over an open firepit though.  Sort of like camping in your backyard.  I wish I had a better supply of firewood!

Less grass to mow is a wonderful reason to build a pit. and a bocce/petanque court, and a horseshoe pit, maybe a swimming pool...

[capozzoli]

Yeah, and I think where I am doing this grill on the ground will be next years garden. If Im still here.

Smoke yes, but I meant its a much smaller part of the big picture, unlike or BBQ which there is usually along enclosed smoke.

I love Korean BBQ. We go to a place near my house where you get a wood fired grill at the table, not a gas grill. Huge difference, cause the meat is getting smoke.

I wonder though, Ill bet if you do an Argentine grill on a windy day as opposed to a still day you will get a lot less smoke on the meat.

There was just a really good radio show I listened to the other day. This BBQ anthropologist is traveling around the researching BBQ. I wish I could remember his name.

Getting all of my beef from a Brazilian butcher over in Riverside NJ. Its like little South America on that side of the river. Lots of Portuguese store and restaurants too.  

I think the Portuguese do this same open fire method with Spanish cuts of meat, as do a lot of countries.

Gonna make some Chimichuri with a few other sauces too. Gonna make a huge fruit salad and some other trimmings. I have a request to make Sangria. So Ill make cooler full of that with lots of fresh fruit.

Anyone know any other good Argentinian sides?  

[bluesman]

Check out this Argentinian set-up.

Argentina presents a fascinating case study of how a variety of different cultures—indigenous Andean; Spanish, Italian and Arab, the independent gaucho, living in the wilderness, among others—have combined to create the “criollo” or typical Argentine cuisine, and infinite variations of it. And while beef, empanadas and dulce de leche may be the most famous manifestations of the Argentine cuisine, they are far from the only ones.

Copied from a website I was visiting.

[nicneufeld]

I wonder though, Ill bet if you do an Argentine grill on a windy day as opposed to a still day you will get a lot less smoke on the meat.

Bigger factor is simply the heat of the fire!  Hotter the fire, in my experience, the less smoke you get.  If its really raging hot, its not going to dump out a lot of smoke (a lot of the "smoke" flavor from direct grilling comes from drippings incinerating in the fire) compared to a lazier fire.  Also, letting a wood fire burn down to coals will also decrease the amount of smoke being put out.

I've got to figure out what cured eastern european meat product I want to get tomorrow.  They have big hunks of cured, dried beef, all sorts of sausages.  I could get that cured fat product...whats it called...slanina? 

[capozzoli]

Yeah, Im hearing that you are supposed to make a fire separately and then only transfer hot red coals under the meat.

The slanina nic is sorta like a lunght of bacon, usually smoked it is used in making little sandwiches. I really like them as a now and again treat.

Boil it for about twenty mins or so, and remove from the water. Save the smokey pork water to make bean soup. Then make the slanina cold in the fridge. After slice it kinda thin and place on wedges of rye bread. Then top with any combination of horse radish chopped scallions or onions, good mustard. Serve with sliced radishes and cucumber. Great for breakfast.

Those pots look like the South African ones for the porje or what ever that stew was called. I really want one of those things.

[beerocd]

Smoke yes, but I meant its a much smaller part of the big picture, unlike or BBQ which there is usually along enclosed smoke.

Yeah I know, just tired of agreeing all the time.  

 

[beerocd]

Boil it for about twenty mins or so, and remove from the water. Save the smokey pork water to make bean soup. Then make the slanina cold in the fridge. After slice it kinda thin and place on wedges of rye bread. Then top with any combination of horse radish chopped scallions or onions, good mustard. Serve with sliced radishes and cucumber. Great for breakfast.

We chop slanina up into little cubes and put it out on the appetizer tray along with olive, dried sausages, feta...
If you have fresh bread, some green onions or garlic (with lots of salt), and slanina - that's a meal right there.
Why are you boiling it? It is "ready to eat", been eating it like that all my life.
And yes a few big chunks in a pot of bean soup is what makes the bean soup taste like it's supposed to, the slanina will fall apart and you can get a bit of meat into every serving.

The sandwich idea is interesting - never had a slanina sandwich in my life. It IS good on Pizza though!

[capozzoli]

I get the fresh smoked stuff from the Russian.Ill eat that without boiling,

but some of the packaged stuff I worry about. Its kinda like eating raw bacon isn't it?

I learned boiling from the Slovaks. Plus takes a little fat out of it too.

Slovakian call the little slanina sandwich wedges vojacik (voy ah cheek) translates too "Soldiers".

They are awesome with beer!!!  Breakfast. 

[beerocd]

I get the fresh smoked stuff from the Russian.Ill eat that without boiling,

but some of the packaged stuff I worry about. Its kinda like eating raw bacon isn't it?

I learned boiling from the Slovaks. Plus takes a little fat out of it too.

Slovakian call the little slanina sandwich wedges vojacik (voy ah cheek) translates too "Soldiers".

They are awesome with beer!!!  Breakfast.  

Well, Georges for instance... I'll eat that straight but I think he/they boil it before they smoke it. The texture just isn't the same. The truly smoked stuff is awsome and chewy and getting harder to find. It's on my to do list this fall to smoke a few slabs of slanine to last us through the winter.

EDIT: Need it for cabbage rolls too. Not in em, on the side in the broth.

[capozzoli]

We make it in the fall around thanks giving. Around the time the late cabbages come out and we are packing some keisla kupusta.

 Its not hard.

Here is some pics of slanina from the old thread.

Cold dry wisps of smoke. 







Going through the pics I found some good ones from the last cold smoking season.









Here is a pic of me playing with my poppy cock. He was my buddy, I miss him.






OOO and look, apple dumplings, made from late jersey wine saps. Oh man, I love the fall! Hate summer.

[euge]

That looks good. So is slanine a pork-belly type of cut? And, is that a brick in your smoker?

[capozzoli]

yep it is cured and cold smoked pork belly.

Its basically bacon but not sliced, when eaten it isn't fried and many westerners are turned off by it similarities to raw bacon.

I love it, I have even had versions that are straight fat.

It is actually a stack of bricks. They are there to both block and absorb some of the heat coming from the fire box. the idea is to keep the smoking chamber well under 90 degrees while cold smoking. I aim for 50 degrees havent gotten it in that smoker yet. More like 75.

Long cold dry smoke preserves meat and fish.