Smoke-fest

Sorry, no oregano herbage here, so all you gov agencies can go back to monitoring the rest of the Net. This Saturday was a daylong cold smoking session. This time an old fridge was procured for smoke duty instead of our previous glorified cardboard box. A hole was cut in freezer section for smoke intake. It was determined after running for a bit that there was not enough air/smoke flow from the freezer to chill section so another hole was cut in the bottom & a computer muffin fan inserted to encourage flow. Yes, the fridge was now trying to chill the world and I’m sure Wayland’s electricity bill will show the damage, but it’s the price to pay for the pursuit of smoke salmon and bacon.

Derek shows up with additional material to smoke.

He also sets up his live streaming video feed. Wow, we’re all net hip now or something! Geek out!

Taking a peek into the fridge, excuse me, cold smoker, we figure there’s still not enough circulation of smoke. We can’t get away from it, more astronaut arm needs to be tacked on. So more holes are cut, astronaut arm installed.

So now the smoker looks even more Rube Goldbergian, although I think saying that actually insults the term here.

By the way, pay attention when using your genuine mesquite chips. You may also find some genuine desert reptile too! I am quite certain this unhappy fellow will impart quite an unhappy flavor to the smoke. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t very happy with the situation either.

The astronaut arm seems to be doing the trick. Looks like we’re getting good smoke flow now. So now that things seem to be set up, what now? It’s like fishing on Oahu, with even less action. So the obvious thing to do is a beer run. Derek has already brought a Cosco bag of chicken wings. Hmm, we need veggies, potatoes are veggies, curly fries are made from potatoes, perfect! Oh, and the Aiea Heights Times seems to have a slightly better Mexican selection than Safeway. We restock Wayland’s “Happy Guy” Tapatio sauce.

And what better way to prepare food to go with beer while outside watching smoke? Deep fry! Oh yeah, lubricate those arteries! And that great Tapatio’s we bought? We blast through a bunch of it “fixing” the honey BBQ wings. They are ok, but pretty sweet. Liberal dousing with Tapatio’s works awesome with the sweetness, now we got some manly wings!

And since this time we have the space, we experiment with trying a little cheeseHenge in the smoke. We’ll let you know how it turns out.

Alright, so we’re about halfway in at five hours, what to do for another five? A portion of pork belly was reserved for a foray into making Kau Yuk, literally steamed pork. It’s actually not all that complex, just time consuming. It does call for some asian specialty ingredients, red bean curd sauce and star anise.

There’s an initial boiling of the pork belly portions, then it’s steamed in the sauce for pretty much as long for desired tenderness.

It must be auspicious, it’s red.

Yes, I know it says RED bean curd.

Well, this day is certainly not for the weak of heart, literally. Here is a chunk of that fatty kau yuk, ready for the eating!

The sun has traveled across the sky, and then some, and the meats should now be done. I’ll just let the pics do the talking here, not much to say about this part anyway.

The 70’s era “Coldspot” fridge has done it’s final duty. It’s now bound for the great freezer in the sky.