What's in the smoke?

I, admittedly, am dangerous around fire. I have the scars to prove it. A long time ago I swore off lighter fluids and have perfected the art of starting my charcoal fires using a chimney charcoal starter. If you don't have one - get one, unless you don't have a grill, then you don't need one. I have to thank my friend and colleague, Hal Forman, for introducing me to this miracle of fire. It is, first of all, a no-brainer. Secondly, it always works, as long as you can set paper on fire. I never use starter fluid. I don't like to use charcoal because of the benzopyrines, but I left my propane-fired, second-hand grill behind with the next-door Mormons in Germany. I think that is what I did. Maybe it went to Rita's along with the dogwood tree. Anyone with the answer is welcome to set me straight.

I have in my possession the beautiful royal blue Weber grill I bought on Easter Sunday at the Exchange at Vogelweh. It has a few more chips of enamel off the outside but all in all it is in great shape. In addition to that I have our CharBroil Smoker. Since moving to Pennsylvania I have been able to find all of its parts. That is what this blog is about. I am trying to learn how to use the smoker. Last week I shopped at the the market for the first time in many weeks. In the process I bought turkey burgers, chicken sausages, tuna steaks, butterfly pork chops and the buy one get one free specials - pork roast, London broil and chicken breast with back bone. A lot of meat.

For the Memorial Day feast I cooked on the Weber grill - the sausage, burgers, chops and tuna steaks. I forgot to mention the butterflied shrimp. I offered my honey whatever he wanted. He was a happy camper and had plenty to take to work in his lunch. It was really good I have to admit. Last night we had all the leftovers from the week. Today, after having read up on using a water smoker I fired up the CharBroil. Somehow I just kept remembering how much Harry and my mother liked using the smoker. I may be wrong, but I think that is why I bought one in the first place - because they liked it. I think I got this one from the Navy Exchange when we were in La Maddalena. I think I used it once. In the interim, being packed up and moved around, it got sort of bent out of round, so when I used it today I wasn't at all sure it was working right. But I fired it up anyway, following the instructions from various videos and descriptions I had watched and read on the Internet.

I put six chicken breasts and a pork roast in the smoker along with a pan full of water, vinegar, juniper berries, rosemary, thyme, summer savory, onion and apple. No particular "recipe" - just what I had on hand. After many hours of adding hickory chips soaked in water and coals I was not very confident that I was going to have meat that would not kill us when we ate it. To make sure it was OK I made up one last chimney full of coals and finished off the meat in the Weber grill. I think that eventually the meat would have been OK, but I was a worried novice. So, after testing each piece with the thermometer I concluded we were safe. I swooped them all into to the house and proceeded to carve. It was just yummy. I'm pretty ready to try it again, but know a lot more than when I started. One of the things I know - which I read somewhere, was to not hang out the wash before you start up the smoker. Only I forgot that and now Jay will get to wear his dinner to work every day until the next wash day. The price for being green.

Now I have all kinds of protein stored away for future use. One of my discoveries since moving here was the freezer in the basement. Kim cleaned it recently and we have fired it up. Seems it works just fine and now I have a place to store my future excess from the garden.

I have not met some of my goals set in earlier weeks, but one thing I have done is to make myself an outdoor haven to enjoy. While waiting for the last of the meat to come off the grill I sat back with a glass of wine and watched the mama Robin feed her baby in the spot we had just tilled for the herb garden. Tomorrow I will cover the tilled dirt - currently full of worms and goodies enjoyed by the birdies - with weed block plastic, and put in my herbs. I have actually grown Italian parsley from seed, and curly parsley and cress and cilantro. They are in the other garden but I am moving them to the home of the herbs where they will live with rosemary and thyme and sage - purple sage at that. My garden is a song.

So - as for what is in the smoke - there is learning, memory, smell, taste and a sense of satisfaction - along with anticipation of what tomorrow holds.