[nicneufeld]

2 sheets of newspaper, balled up on the underside - whoosh! Heap Big Fire.
Never used paraffin - (tea candle basically?)

I'd have to have newspapers on hand.  Do all my newsreading online!  But even so, the only way I got the coals lit was to continuatlly keep pushing handfuls of leaves into the chimney...once I kept a leaf fire going for 10 minutes the coals were lit.

Every once in a while I have a rough time getting a fire going, but usually, light a couple instalight coals, let burn for a minute, add regular charcoal, wait, and I have a bunch of coals at the ready.  I'm thinking it was a combination of the unusual cold, possible humidity, and bad charcoal.

No worries now...except that my bird is on track to be done a lot quicker than I had expected!!!  Thanksgiving brunch perhaps?

[beerocd]

light a couple instalight coals, let burn for a minute, add regular charcoal, wait, and I have a bunch of coals at the ready.  I'm thinking it was a combination of the unusual cold, possible humidity, and bad charcoal

I had a bad incident with one of those magic briquettes. It was this honeycomb shaped piece of charcoal and chemical crap pressed together. I lit one in a smoker pan to let the chemical smell waft away before I threw the rest of the charcoal on it. I decided to move the pan (it's just one briquette, right?) and ended up like the guy in raiders of the lost arc...

[bluesman]

I use a chimney full of charcoal and 2-3 sheets of newspaper to get my coals lit. It takes about 20-30 minutes for the whole chimney to get lit and then I transfer the lit coals to the grill.  I have 100% success with this method of lighting my coals.

Hey Nic...maybe start saving any extra mail circulars and any paper that you discard for lighting your charcoal in the chimney.

[akr71]

Thanks guys, it was a lot of fun and really not that hard, I'll be doing that again.  You've definitely got to serve it to a crowd or make it smaller though, even with 6 adults eating it there was a lot left over.  Not any more though, it's gone now.
 

My daughter (she's 7 and 45 lbs soaking wet) asked me the other day when I was going to make the bacon explosion again  Sounds like I need to add a few things to the grocery list...

[euge]

Great use for those old phone books. Rip some pages out and hit them with some vegetable oil. Use that to light the chimney.

[roguejim]

I'm brining the bird in Bluesman's brine recipe as I type.  Tomorrow it gets smoked.  I'll baste it a couple of times with a butter/maple syrup blend.  Can someone give me a brief tutorial on posting pics?  Thanks.

[tschmidlin]

You have to upload the pics to some website, I use google picasweb since I have a gmail account.  Then you just paste the URL to the pic in between [pic][/pic] tags.  If you click the quote button on a post with a picture in it then you can see what I'm talking about.

Looking forward to the pics of the bird

[markaberrant]

Anyone made their own pastrami before?  I was thinking of trying it, and then possibly steam in beer to serve.  Our club has a potluck coming up in Feb, and you have to incorporate beer into the dish, so this was an idea that popped in my head.

[nicneufeld]

Anyone made their own pastrami before?  I was thinking of trying it, and then possibly steam in beer to serve.  Our club has a potluck coming up in Feb, and you have to incorporate beer into the dish, so this was an idea that popped in my head.

I make it frequently, although one could say I was cheating.  Usually I use cheap corned beef brisket points, particularly just around st patricks day when they go on sale...soak them to reduce a bit of saltiness, hit them with a very aromatic pepper rub, and smoke until done....chill in the fridge over night, then onto the meat slicer, bagged up and then frozen for later use.

Recently I cured my own, this time trying out an eye of round roast, an incorrigibly lean piece of meat.  It's interesting...the brisket is better I think, but I like this version for use as a cold cut on sandwiches.

[capozzoli]

Nic, how are you slicing your lunch meats? I like my Jewish lunch meats sliced tissue paper thin. Im really into this idea of making this stuff at home but slicing seems to be an obstacle. 

There is a Jewish sandwich place near me that is just wonderful. Their sandwiches are a real treat. They slice the pastrami so thin that it is see through and it still holds together. Same with their lox, the old guys that work the deli case are artist with a knife.

Man I could go fro a sandwich.

[bluesman]

Nic, how are you slicing your lunch meats? I like my Jewish lunch meats sliced tissue paper thin. Im really into this idea of making this stuff at home but slicing seems to be an obstacle. 

A good slicer is on my wish list. It would be nice to be able to thinly slice a smoked bottom round roast.
I am a sandwich lover. Pastrami, smoked turkey, or even pork roll on some fresh bread with some good cheese and some stone ground mustard.
I was eying one up for less than $100 on Amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/EdgeCraft-610-Choice-Premium-Electric/dp/B0002AKCOC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1290905498&sr=8-1

[beerocd]

A good slicer is on my wish list.

I got the el-cheapo model from one of those bargain shopper magazines. I think sixty bux. With a little learning curve you can come up with some great slices. Only problem is I can't put a whole hunk of prosciutto on the slider thingy. Sure the pro model would be great but this works for now. I was worried it would be one of those fad gadgets that I'd use a little and then need to find storage for. If my use keeps up I may upgrade.

[nicneufeld]

Nic, how are you slicing your lunch meats? I like my Jewish lunch meats sliced tissue paper thin. Im really into this idea of making this stuff at home but slicing seems to be an obstacle. 

A good slicer is on my wish list. It would be nice to be able to thinly slice a smoked bottom round roast.
I am a sandwich lover. Pastrami, smoked turkey, or even pork roll on some fresh bread with some good cheese and some stone ground mustard.
I was eying one up for less than $100 on Amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/EdgeCraft-610-Choice-Premium-Electric/dp/B0002AKCOC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1290905498&sr=8-1

I have this very model.  Works pretty reasonable...BUT...you either have to have better tricks up your sleeve than I do, or your meat has to be of a different consistency, or its not capable of paper thin.  The cured meats I am doing slice to a reasonable degree of thinness, but if you try to go too thin they tend to shred and flake up.  If you work the curing process to get a drier, denser product, this might be alleviated. 

An electric slicer is an expensive product, it takes up a lot of space on your counter, and its a pain in the neck to use and clean sometimes, but I have to admit, for all these cons, you just can't get results like these with a knife, at least reasonably.  I bought a fancy 12" granton edge slicing knife, thinking I wouldn't need a slicer if I was patient and had a good knife, but that hardly ever gets used now. 

I really should try some of the serbian cured meats, like the suva govedja, on the slicer sometime.  I bet it could peel off nearly transparent strips of the meat, as dense as that meat is!  Usually with that sort of meat I just take my time with the chef's knife since I'm only doing a small amount of it at a time.

[tschmidlin]

Anyone made their own pastrami before?  I was thinking of trying it, and then possibly steam in beer to serve.  Our club has a potluck coming up in Feb, and you have to incorporate beer into the dish, so this was an idea that popped in my head.

If you're steaming it in beer it sounds more like corned beef to me.  I corn my own briskets every few months, and I've smoked one once to make pastrami.  It was excellent . . . well, it seems to turn out great no matter what I do, even just boiling it in water

I do a dry rub rather than the wet brine you usually see, weigh it down with bricks in the fridge and flip it daily for 10 days before cooking.  I leave out the sodium nitrate because I'm not too concerned about the final color. Delicious!

[Pawtucket Patriot]

For you BBQ'ers in the upper midwest (or places where it gets really cold in the winter), what do you do with the water in your water pan after smoking?  In the warmer months, I just dig a hole somewhere in the backyard (usually near the compost pile) and bury it.  With layers of snow and frozen ground, I'm not sure whether this will work in the winter (although I've never tried it).  At the very least, it seems a lot more labor intensive.  Any suggestions?