On Saturday, in celebration of my friend Evan’s birthday, we decided to have a major smoke-a-thon, in which vast quantities of food were infused with the flavor of burnt wood. Two smokers were used for the effort, and several different beasts went above the fire, producing, in the end, a delectable feast.
So here is what was smoked:
Evan smoked beef brisket over dogwood wood. Certainly not your traditional smoking wood, but it still produced fantastic results. Evan also threw on a mix of potatoes and peppers over the dogwood, and let them smoke up for a good long while.
Bear smoked a whole duck and some bacon wrapped quail over pomegranate wood, with some added rosemary sprigs and lotus tea. We are all in agreement that this ended up smelling incredibly similar to the smoke of a particular illicit drug. Regardless, the results were well done. The duck meat was juicy and delicious and smoked bacon is awesome regardless of whether there are quails wrapped in it or not.
I was the sea element in this ordeal and chose to smoke some shrimp. Smoking shrimp is incredibly easy as far as smoking goes. I smoked two batches. The first were the ones I had bought, extra jumbo Carolina shrimp. The second were smaller ones provided by Meg. While the small ones taste perfectly fine, there is something I really enjoy about the feel of a giant shrimp. Marinading while smoking seems to work out pretty well, though if I do this again I may choose to marinade a bit prior to throwing them on the smoke. The smoke I used for them was also pomegranate and a bit of the rosemary and tea.
At some point a pineapple was also put onto a smoker and I have to say that this was a very good thing. I agree with Bear, that if one were to choose to make kabobs of shrimp and pineapple and smoke them . . . there would be much happiness.
All around a good Memorial Day weekend cookout. Nothing quite like letting a bunch of good food get cooked up in wood smoke.
