Friday, December 01, 2006


in april, a couple of friends decided they needed to be schooled in the art of cooking meat over fire. so we got a pork shoulder, a duck, and a chicken. a good friend, randy reichert, gave us a back quarter from a nice doe.


the pork shoulder was deboned. this allowed us to smoke the seasoned bone seperately to use in soup stocks later. the top secret recipe pork rub was liberally applied inside and out of the shoulder. it was trussed with the skin/fat layer on top.



the duck was stuffed with ginger, fresh kumquats, sage, onions, and garlic. it was injected with a spiced honey white wine sauce.

the venison was rubbed with salt and pepper, some garlic, juniper berries, and rosemary. strips of bacon were laid across the top in order to keep it moist. the venison was cooked until rare and then removed from the grill. wrapping it in foil helps the meat to sweat itself off the bone. it was then thinly shaved and served with a great dipping sauce made of equal parts cider vinegar and sorghum molasses with 1/4 part fresh ground black pepper. Combine ingredients in a saucepan and simmer for a while. sauce is best if made a day ahead.



its been a year since i bothered to add content here--but now there is enough to talk about.

so we begin our oddessy in early spring of this year. newell watkins developed a prototype for a terra cotta smoker cooker made from flower pots. i took his prototype and adapted the design based on materials i found in my backyard. what you see here is the final product of "pot smoker 2.0". it has a firebox built up from collected concrete blocks with a sheet metal lining. two bottom-to-bottom 18" flower pots make the smoke chamber and cooking chamber. 18" terra cotta plate forms the lid.

the basis of the idea was to make clay smoker cooker out of re-used construction material. similar to a big green egg. one of these could easily add to your home's resale value. trust me.

now its time to cook something in it!