Exciting News!

Humphrey’s Chips and Chunks has been super busy this year with last quarter being our best since we’ve been in business for almost 7 years now. Our inventory keeps growing as we find more species of wood to be able to offer. With this said, we were faced with a very tough decision: to focus our efforts in continuing to grow the chips and chunks along with spreading awareness of how to use wood with barbequing or to continue to be a supplier of Humphrey’s Charcoal. It is with mixed emotions that we have decided to stop carrying the charcoal and to focus on the wood. This will allow us more room in our warehouse for processing the wood into varies sizes and products. With this said we wanted to make sure that you were going to be able to still get Humphrey’s charcoal at an affordable prices. You can do just that at Humphrey’s corporate website: www.http://charcoalbq.com/index.php You can still get pallets of lump for 279.00 + shipping. If you live in New England your shipping will be approx 100.00 - 125.00 a pallet. This still makes the 20lb bags approx $13.00 a bag.
We appreciate all of your support in the past and we look forward to working with in future. Please don’t hesitate to drop us a line and let us know what you would like to see for wood and metal products. You can contact me at nicole@msmco-metal.com and you can reach Chad at chad@mainemachining.com and you can always find us on facebook at the BBQ Specialist.

New Books

Chad received a couple of new BBQ books for his birthday from my mom and dad. One of the books is Weber's Charcoal Grill, the art of cooking with live fire. It has been written by Jamie Puriance and photography is by Tim Turner. Chad likes this book because 95% of the recipes show a picture of the finished product. (love you honey) The thing I like about this book is that not only does it have over 115 recipes, it also has a ton of tips and tricks within it. I'd like to share a couple with you tonight.
There is a section about Rubs and Marinades. It explains that "if you leave a rub on for a long time, the seasonings intermix with the juices in the meat and produce more pronounced flavors, as well as a crust. It then explains that "a rub with alot of salt and sugar will draw moisture out of the meat over time, making the meat tastier, yes, but also drier. So how long should you use a rub?" Here are their guidelines.

1 to 15 minutes = Small food, such as shellfish, cubed meat for kabobs, and veggies.

15 to 30 minutes = Thin cuts of boneless meat, such as chicken breast, fish fillets, pork tenderloin, chops, and steaks

30 to 90 minutes = Thicker cuts of boneless or bone-in meat, such as leg of lamb, whole chickens, and beef roasts.

2 to 8 hours = Big or tough cuts of meat, such as racks of ribs, whole hams, pork shoulders, and turkeys.

They have a recipe for a Fennel Rub that caught my eye.
3 teaspoons ground fennel seed
2 teaspoons kosher salt
3 teaspoons pure chili powder
1 1/2 teaspoons celery seed
1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground pepper

If you dare try this recipe, we'd love to hear what you used it for. It sounds yummy.

In the marinade section it explains that "the right times vary depending on the strength of the marinade and the food you are marinating." Soy sauce, liquor and hot chiles are intense flavors and shouldn't be over done. "A fish fillet should still taste like fish, and not a burning hot, salt soaked piece of protein." Also noted is that an acidic marinade can make the surface mushy or dry if left on too long. Here are the marinading times they suggest.

15 to 30 minutes = Small food, such as shellfish, cubed meat for kabobs, and veggies.

1 to 3 hours = Thin cuts of boneless meat, such as chicken breast, fish fillets, pork tenderloin, chops, and steaks

2 to 6 hours = Thicker cuts of boneless or bone-in meat, such as leg of lamb, whole chickens, and beef roasts.

6 to 12 hours = Big or tough cuts of meat, such as racks of ribs, whole hams, pork shoulders, and turkeys.

"Note: after a marinade has been in contact with raw fish or meat, either discard it or boil it for at least 30 seconds. The boiling will destroy any harmful bacteria that might have been left by the fish or meat. A boiled marinade often works well as a basting sauce."

I hope you found this information useful. If you have a question for The BBQ specialist, don't hesitate to send us an email. We look forward to hearing for you.

Beer Belly BBQ - Now open

In the town of Freeport, Maine right on route 1 is a new bbq store called Beer Belly BBQ. It's literally right down the street from LL Bean. Owner, Tanner Kennedy's goal is to provide BBQ enthusiasts with a one stop shop for all of their supplies. He carries many brands of sauces and rubs, grilling accessories, Humphrey's lump and natural briquettes, Chips and Chunks. He is also a professional silk screener. His prices are very fair. Here are some pictures of his store.



Recently, Tanner came to us with a new rig that he purchased from a hamburger and hot dog vendor. It had two large grills, three propane burners, and a giant box that was used to transport supplies. Tanner's vision was simple: PIG SMOKER! He wanted us to modify this rig and turn one of the grills into a heat source box, and turn the supply box into a pit that would be suitable for a pig. His goal is to be able to rent this out. He already has a few weekends booked, so I would call him ASAP and book this for your next outdoor party. All we have left to do is to paint it.






You can visit Tanner by joining his facebook page: Beer Belly BBQ

The Bayou Dirt Seasoning

Let’s get dirty with Todd’s Dirt. We received a care package from Todd that had his Crabby Dirt, Original Dirt and the Bayou Dirt. We decided to start out with the Bayou.

TODD'S DIRT
Upon our first dry taste we found the flavor to be in three very even stages. The first stage was a red pepper flavor that made our tongues twinge will glee. This was followed by a very nice herby flavor. This made a nice transition into the next bit of heat that hit us in the back of the throat. This was a nice change since most of the rubs that we have recently reviewed have been either very salty or sugary. This was a nice change.

The website notes that this gourmet seasoning has 16 spices with no MSG and is Gluten free. It notes that the spicy Creole burn will linger in your mouth. My partner will have to agree. About 5 minutes after the dry test, he said “Wow, I still feel the heat in my chest.” The heat isn’t the type that will make your eyes water. It gives you a warm feeling inside.

The price for the 3.25oz bottle of this seasoning is $5.00. I think this a little bit on the high side compared to other rubs that we’ve been getting in. However, I do believe that it is well worth the price.

We opted to rub this on some chicken legs and baked them in the oven. We sprinkled a liberal amount on both sides of the legs and let it sit for about 5 minutes. We baked the legs for 45mins at 400 degrees. The skin was heavenly, crispy with a very even flavor. I did find that after this spice was cooked, it did loose a little of it heat, but still offered up that red peppery flavor. It was truly the perfect spice for blackened chicken.

We found the consistency to be somewhat granular with flakes of herbs. We believe that this would not work well with a traditional injector. It would probably get clogged. However we do feel that the flavor would be great to add to an injection mixture and then strained prior to injecting.

Visit us again soon to view the review of Todd’s Original and Crabby Dirt. We’re planning on making: Dirty Pork Meatballs! & Dirty Cedar Planked Crabby Salmon!

Do you have a product you'd like us to review? Give us a shout and let us know what it is. We will post about it on Facebook, Twitter, our website, and our blog. Its great advertising! It doesn’t have to be a just a food product, it could be a tool or even a cookbook or recipe that you are working on. I look forward to hearing from you!

Holy Smokes Apple Slather

When I went to www.appleslather.com and clicked on the the “what the heck is it” link, it described this sauce as “a mild, sweet BBQ sauce with molasses, apple sauce, chunks of apples, cinnamon, nutmeg and a secret or two. Appleslather's unique and savory blend of chunky apple's, has a hint of cinnamon and nutmeg...plus a few other "secrets".Some folks have been known to eat it straight from the jar on a spoon!” I can truly agree with this comment. I also wanted to add it to my vanilla ice cream. There are literally chunks of apples in this sauce.

I did learn from their website that they are from they this sauce is made in Rochester, NY by a catering BBQ competition team called Holy Smokes, Inc. Please support them by visiting them on their facebook fan page.

You can see the chunks of apple in the jar!

Before I start with this review, I wanted to define slather. It is a transitive verb meaning to cover or spread thickly. This is a little different than the transitive verb to sauce. Which means to flavor or season with a sauce.

The initial taste test was that it is sweet and vinegary with a smokey after flavor. The sweet and vinegary flavors compliment each other. It is an equally balanced sauce. I found this sauce to have somewhat soupy consistency, not as thick as other sauces. I found this to be more useful as a dip or marinade.

I did marinade some chicken breast overnight. I was going to throw it on the webber, but it’s been raining here for a week straight. When I say rain, I mean downpour. 5” of rain. So I wimped out and baked it in the oven. I sliced it up and put it over a spinach salad with walnuts. The smokiness was so predominant that you would have thought that I grilled the chicken. What a versatile sauce.

It was suggested for me to try it as a finishing sauce for some ribs. I did just that this weekend. I wrapped the ribs in foil and poured in some of the sauce and finished cooking them. Generally I like ribs a little bit sweeter and less vinegary, but it did offer some great flavor to the ribs and was well liked by our guests.

I would give this slather a rating of 4.3 out of 5 because I feel it is a well rounded sauce/slather with a smooth taste. Beware! It is addicting and you’ll want to dip everything in it.

Green Bacon!

Saint Patrick’s Day means a little more than just an Irish holiday to me. It’s my birthday. I really enjoyed looking at other blog’s and facebook pages to see how much green beer is consumed and how much boiled dinner was served. While browsing I came across something really fascinating. A friend of mine on facebook, we’ll call him Jim, took GREEN to the next level.

This bacon was marinated over night with this Green Gravy. What’s in the gravy? It’s a mixture of 12 jalapenos, 8 cloves of garlic, and ¾ cup of peanut oil. This was then smoked with apple and hickory. This is definitely a recipe that I will be adding to my list. When I asked him how it turned out he said: “It's easily the best bacon I've ever had. In fact, if I could be on the show "The Best Thing I Ever Ate" I would be talking about this bacon!”

Pumped up Injector!

I was chatting it up with my facebook friend, Bevan Sweeny, this morning. He was telling me that he made a one gallon air powered injector. He refit the sprayer nozzle of and air pumped weed sprayer with an injector nozzle. He did this for less than $10.00. What a great idea, I just had to share it!