Smoking with the Pit Barrel Cooker

Everyone on the InterWeb seems to love the Pit Barrel Cooker so I ordered one and finally had a chance to fire it up. The design is elegant: a small barrel with an adjustable vent on the bottom, fuel held in the bottom, and a hanging rack on top. The holes for the hanging rods (made of rebar, another touch of elegance) seem to provide most of the ventilation up top.

This shot shows the meat hanging on a hook. The result is all-around heating from vertical airflow, a much improved situation from my old two-barrel smoker. This airflow results in considerably faster cooking times while maintaining moistness and flavor. I used some applewood chips but I think that a lot of the flavor comes simply from dripping onto the hot coals. The vertical meat means that applying a traditional liquid mop is difficult; the solution is to rub with oil.

After about 4.5 hours I applied the Texas Crutch (foil wrap and chicken broth) and finished the brisket in the oven. I then used the smoker to concentrate on ribs.

Here are the finished ribs. Both the ribs and brisket were outstanding: wonderfully tender and moist, great smoky flavor. I look forward to many more meat-filled weekends.

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Eating Around Georgia Tech: Ecco

Our Texas Instruments colleague Cathy Wicks was gracious enough to host several of us at Ecco tonight. This is one of those restaurants that has been on my list for a long time. Even though it is within easy walking distance of Georgia Tech, I hadn't made it there until tonight. The menu is a combination of Italian, Spanish, and French that make use of some local Georgia ingredients. The combination of those three countries is sometimes a little forced, although the georgia ingredients (fruit, cheese) were all great and perfectly appropriate. We started out with a meat and cheese board. This actually reverses the French tradition, where cheese usually follows the main course. Everything was excellent. The Georgia cheese was a big hit, as was the French cow/goat cheese. I thought the sauscisson was very subtle and very good. The waitress said that the roast pork pasta was their signature dish, so I had to try it. It had traditional broad pasta (fresh, of course)

Pressure Cooker Candied Ginger

I made candied ginger a few years ago. It's not something I would do every day but I had a lot of fun doing it. I recently acquired a pressure cooker and it inspired an interesting idea to me: why not make candied ginger in the pressure cooker? It should be very soft and flavorful. Here is the result. I peeled two large ginger roots, cut them into small cubes, and put them in the pressure cooker with heavily sugared water. The traditional method first boils the ginger in plain water to soften it and then again in sugar water to candy it. The resulting candy was very tender but still with the characteristic ginger texture. It was also sweet without being overpowering. The traditional method leaves a lot of sugar crystallized around the ginger. The pressure cooker gives a much more subtle result. The ginger stays moist even after it cools but you can dry it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. That inspired me to dip it in chocolate. While I was in the b

DCA: Cava Mezze Grill

Cava is a DC area chain with light Mediterranean food. Saibal encouraged me to try lunch at their airport location and I was very happy with the experience. I ordered falafel on SuperSalad with assorted other toppings. The falafel was tasty. The SuperSalad was light, flavorful, and very easy to eat. Overall, a healthy and enjoyable lunch, something you can't always say about airport eating.

Atlanta etc.: Marilyn Wolf's Food Blog and Restaurant Blog

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