Recipes & Cooking Techniques

We just created a new forum for Recipes & Cooking Techniques. "When you can't travel across the country for your favorite regional specialty the next best option is to whip it up at home. This is the place to either share or request your favorite regional recipes and cooking techniques."

I need the recipe for the marinade for Kenny Rodgers Roasters Chicken. The two stores we had in town closed a few years ago, and I miss them. Thanks in advance.

My neighbor just knocked down several trees to clear his densely wooded lot for a new driveway-garage. Two of the trees are Hickory!! I now have a great supply of chunk Hickory to mix with my charcoal for the BBQ/Smoker, that should last for years ! For me a slow BBQ full of Pork Butts needs more than just a few wood-chips to get that smell drifting across the neighborhood ! Mesquite is OK, But Hickory is my 'Wood of Choice'!
BTW this is post 91..If Micheal is off-line, I am ahead of him by one.

We had a apple tree that was better than 40 years old and I recently had to cut it down. It made me sad because it had yielded many years of tart apples which we used for applesauce, pies and other uses. However there was good that came from it. We carefully cut it up and now use it to BBQ. It is my belief that the wood gives my brisket a special flavor and in addition it gives the neighborhood a special aroma while it is cooking. I like to slow cook the brisket. I put the wood and coals on one side of the grill and the brisket on the other side. I like to leave it on for about 8 hours.

Paul,
Fruit tree wood is great for slow cooking or smoking. Apple does a great job on Pork shoulder/butts also!
I sympathize with you about the loss of a tree, especially after it has produced for so long. When we left SoCal in 2000, I left behind a dozen fruit trees that gaves us over ten years of produce, and lot of pleasure. Luckily the buyer of our home has the same interest in the trees that I did, and they are thriving. We have planted 35 trees here on land that was wooded before the builders hit the lot. Some are in their 3rd full season. We use the pruning trim for added flavor in the outdoor cooking. We look forward to the first fruit on some of these trees this season.
While we are on this thought. I wish I had known how spreading strawberries can be. we slaved in the desert of SoCal to keep 25 plants from dying...Here we have to rip those suckers out twice a year to keep them from smothering themselves...but have a ton of berries all summer. Strawberries are great with outdoor food !!!!!

Mr. Mayor!!!
My strawberries only bear in the spring and they are blooming now. In addition, they make pretty ground cover and survive our Tennessee winters.

I will try the applewood on pork butte. I marinate my port and I baste it a lot while it is smlking and joking. BBQ time is fun and the spring time is the best. Ain't too hot and the libation stays cooler.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

Although Hickory is my favorite, I really like using Pecan wood as an alternative. Good flavor.

There's a guy in Mobile, Alabama, who uses a blend of hickory and pecan wood for his pork barbecue--among the best I've found. His place is called The Brick Pit, on Old Shell Road.

I want to be Paul's neighbor

You Got Blooming Strawberries ?
I got Freezing Rain tonight ... and the lawn is a lovely
shade of brown ... Strawberrys bloom here in the 2nd - 3rd week of May
Next week I can think about starting Tomato seeds ...

I cast my vote for Hickory

Not only do I have blooming strawberries, I am picking asparagus and having it for breakfast with my omlet. Full spring in East Tennessee

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

I just picked up a short piece of hickory that had been plowed into a snow bank behind the Dinosaur BBQ (hey it was 20 feet from the wood pile...). I'm going to split it into chips for indirect cooking in my webber(s). Hickory rules as far as I'm concerned.

quote:

Originally posted by Sundancer7

Not only do I have blooming strawberries, I am picking asparagus and having it for breakfast with my omlet. Full spring in East Tennessee

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

Okay, he said asparagus. Now I want to be Paul's neighbor. I'll make the Hollandaise.....

After slaving over a faltering asparagas bed in SoCal for several years and a ton of water, we are enjoying the natural ability of this wonderful food to produce a Spring Bounty in only it's 3rd year here. We enjoy it so much that we have expanded to a second row of the roots, with the hopes that ion the next couple of seasons we will have more than enough to feed visitors as well as ourselves.
I really like carrying a shirt pocket load of 8-10 spears and munching them raw as I work in the less productive areas of our property.

Al, I hve been picking asparagus spears now for several weeks. I assume that you folks in Louisville now have enough spring that your aspargus is now producing. Enjoy

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

Try smoking turkey breasts or small turkeys with the apple wood.