When I smoked the rice for my Brown Rice Salad, I also smoked a dry pan of raw brown rice for later use, because I was curious how it would turn out. This Sunday, I had a chance to play with cooking it, to fantastic results! I didn't think it could pair with just anything, so I decided to experiment and try cold-smoking some teriyaki marinated chicken thighs before doing a chicken stir fry with them, so that the flavors would blend better. I wanted to cold-smoke the chicken, rather than cook it, is because I wanted the ...<< MORE >>

As the person that gets all the calls about how to cook this or that, I decided it was time to smoke some salmon. I’m not a big fish person, so this was my first time to ever cook any. This was going to kill two birds with one stone, because I was being bugged by a co-worker whose birthday it was, that really wanted some smoked salmon for the big day. So off to the grocery store I went.<< MORE >>

I can't believe it, but it's almost time to go to the National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show in Chicago. The show is from May 17th - 20th, so we leave bright and early on the 16th to set up. This is our biggest show of the year, and it's always a busy, exciting time of the year. Heather, our Tradeshow Coordinator, has been running around like a chicken with her head cut off trying to get everything ready to go and make sure that it's all perfect. Because once you're there, it's a little late to do anything!<< MORE >>

Come by and say hi , if you are in Memphis during the World Championship of Swine May 15, 16, 17. I will be cooking with Terry Black from the team Super Smokers. Terry is a past Champion of the event. We will be cooking on a couple of FEC100's and an FEC300. We're in the shoulder division. We finished 14th last year, but things will be alot better this year we hope. The MIM World Championship is the only one of 4 major world championships of BBQ that the FEC cookers don't have. We have the team to beat this year I believe. Were the only commercial mfg that has 3 of the 4 crowns (American Royal open, Jack Daniels, Houston Livestock and rodeo).

        

I went to the grocery store to get the brown rice and the dill that I needed for my Brown Rice Salad, only to realize that I didn't really have a protein to eat with it for dinner. As great as I was hoping the salad was going to turn out, a giant tub of Rice Salad for dinner just isn't my thing. << MORE >>

I got the idea in my head to smoke some rice after reading a thread on Chow.com about baking off pie crusts with rice in them as the weight rather than beans, the logic behind that being that while the beans aren't edible afterwards (at least taste wise), the rice takes on a nice toasted nuttiness, so it's dual purpose. It made me wonder what smoking the rice would do to it. << MORE >>

May is National Barbecue Month and here is the meal to celebrate barbecue ...<< MORE >>

“I’m following these recipes exactly and my meat is not done in the cooking time that is called for – what is going on? Is something wrong with my Smoker?”<< MORE >>

My boyfriend is a hunter (mostly for deer, although he has some dove in the freezer I want to try smoking) and one of my favorite things to smoke-cook from the deer is the backstrap. He has all of his meat processed for him, and his butcher cuts the backstrap up into little steaks. I've also seen it whole, more like a tenderloin. Either way, this mode of preparation is my favorite.<< MORE >>

I came to work yesterday morning the same as always, and out of nowhere Stuart informs that I am in charge of lunch for 12 people! What?! I thought, “Oh, my, what to cook?” Normally, I would have a great idea, but on 4 hours notice I had no great ideas, so I decided to cook chicken breasts and thighs. We had a Creative Q’ing contest in December, and I decided to use the first place winning Mai Tai Chicken recipe submitted Bad Bob's BBQ Restaurant. It is an awesome recipe and easy to do. << MORE >>

Larry Hill, 2008 Wishland BBQ Competition Grand Champ, will be demonstrating the FEC100 and FEC300 at the following contests. Stop by and take a close-up look at the smokers, sample some food from them, and talk to Larry, who knows how to win on FECs!

May 2-3-4, 2008 (KCBS) 2nd Annual Stagecoach Music Festival
Indio, CA

May 9 - 10, 2008 (KCBS) 5th Annual Modesto Blues, Brews, & BBQ

        

Come by and see me in Huntsville AL on May 2-3. Brian Jett from Ber-Vel distributing will be with me. We will be next to the road on the north end of the park in a 40' green motor coach. I'm on my way to Indiana to pick up a new trailer today. Jackie Weight will be in town cooking also. We will be helping her celebrate 5 years of being in BBQ. Rick passed away last October and this is her first trip without him.

        

There you are, cold drink in hand, sitting on the patio watching your brand new Cookshack Smoker cook its first slab of Baby Back Ribs. All of a sudden, BOOM! Smoke is pouring from around the door and the top smoke hole like nobody’s business. You notice the neighbors peering over the fence looking your direction as your wife is asking, “What did you do to our supper?”

Relax. This is not a serious problem or danger. You have just experienced what we call “burping”. There are several things that have to be just right for this to happen. It usually happens in newer ovens and is caused from a combination of low moisture, larger amounts of wood and rapid temperature gain. Sometimes the temperature climbs so fast that the vapors from the wood heating will not escape fast enough causing it to push smoke out the door, thus giving you a loud burping sound. This normally only occurs with a light load and several pieces of wood.

As I said, this is not a problem or danger and your food should be fine but you can reduce the occurrence by using less wood and starting with a lower cooking temperature. I would recommend using one or two chunks of wood and keep your temperature around 225 for the first two hours.

        

Cookshack's National Sales Manager, John Shiflet, has helped many people achieve success in the barbecue business. Click below to listen to John talk about how to get started in your own successful barbecue business.

        

I talk to lots of people about smoke-cooking in my customer service job, and the Creosote Chicken problem comes up from time to time with people who have never smoked a chicken before. When you use too much wood the Bitter Beer Face kicks in and it can really ruin the pat on the back that you want with your smoked food. When this happens I ask my customer how much wood they are using, and most of the time that is the problem. Here is what I suggest:<< MORE >>

I had the opportunity to cook in the Stillwater Blazathon two weeks ago. It was a great contest with 40+ teams.

Over the past couple of seasons I just haven't been able to master the pork category. So, when I got to Stillwater I was ready to try something new. That when Dave (Butcher Boy BBQ) told me about his new pork injection. I gave it a try, of course I had to add a little something to it, so I added a cup of brown sugar and 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar. WOW! A nice 5 place in pork and I thnk I am onto something new.

Next contest I am going to just try it with the vinegar and see what happens.

        

I'm having a girls night out type get together at my house on Friday, and I've decided to have some sort of cheese plate. To make it special, I've opted to smoke my cheese. It's ridiculously easy to do with the cold-smoke baffle, and the flavor is great (I like that you can control the smokiness/type of smoke you want).

I love cheese, in pretty much any variety. I'm not the biggest fan of the "smoked" cheeses that you can sometimes pick up at the grocery store, because I find that more often than not, they're not actually smoked but rather have had artificial smoke flavoring added to the ...<< MORE >>

Click the link to join the Cookshack Barbecue Forum!

Moderated by the Smokin' Okie, and with over seven years of barbecue knowledge and 7,000 members, the forum is a huge source of barbecue and smoke-cooking recipes and techniques for home cooks, competition cooks, and commercial operators. Be sure to join and introduce yourself. It's a friendly place with forums for Cookshack customers, professional foodservice owners, managers, and chefs; competitors, recipes, and more.

        

Welcome!

Join us as we offer how-to posts, podcasts, and videos guaranteed to get you on the road to great 'que whether you smoke at home, at work, or on the competition circuit.

Each crew member will be posting about topics in their particular area of expertise. To look for something specific, use the Search box or Categories link in the sidebar.

Meet the BBQ Go-To Crew

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• Stuart Powell, CEO, is knowledgeable about all aspects of cooking at home, at work, and competitively
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• Ed "Fast Eddy" Maurin is a championship professional competitor will help you hone your competition cooking skills
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• John ...

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Fast Eddy talks to Greg Rempe of the BBQ Central Show about brisket, how he got in to barbecue, his competition experience and his line of FEC cookers.

Download | Duration: 00:25:08