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!

New Restraunt Opening!

We were fortunate to get a little taste of the new pizza restaurant opening soon in Kittery, Me. It’s not just any pizza joint, this is wood fired grilled pizza joint named AJ's Woodgrilled Pizza located at 68 Wallingford Square in Kittery, Maine. This is an offshoot of Anneka Jan’s, a high end neighborhood bistro.. Charlie Cicero is the head chef down there. When we talked about woodgrilled, BBQ, or smoked, Charlie is an expert. He is the pitmaster for the award winning team called Mighty Swine Dining.

Chad made his way down there yesterday morning to deliver some Humphrey’s Lump along with some hickory and apple chunks so they would be ready for the grand opening. Charlie gave Chad a tour of the new place. A brand new J&R grill will cook the pizza’s. This grill has the capability of changing the distance in which the pizza sits above the coals. They plan to open early next week.

Before Chad left, Charlie gave him one of his All Beef Kielbaba’s. We immediately cooked it up that night and had some onions and peppers with it. It was wonderful. I can’t even describe the flavor and the smokiness made me want to eat more. It wasn’t salty, or fatty, but it was juicy. I asked Charlie what was in it and how did he cure it. He told me that there is lots of garlic, beef, beef fate and other spices. They grind it all up and stuff it. They hung it up in the walk in over night to dry alittle and foar a pelicile so the smoke “sticks”. They then smoke it until it reaches 160 degrees. They let it cool and vaccumm seal it. They don’t currently sell it, but you can order it in either of the restraunts.


You can view their menu, make resavations, and get directions right on their website. http://www.annekejans.net/index.cfm

Second Half of Product Review

We are finally ready to post the review on the Simply Marvelous BBQ rub “Season All”. We have been waiting to post this because when we tested it on chicken and took our first bite we both looked at each other and said, we’ve got to try this on beef. We did just that last night. Chad stopped at the butchers on the way home from the shop and got two thick strip steaks. All I have to say is: I thought the Sweet and Spicy was going to my favorite, but the Season All was heaven off the grill. It was so tasty.

A few of the main ingredients are salt, paprika, garlic, brown sugar, and other spices. The first dry taste was very salty and peppery. The salt was a bit overwhelming, but we found this cooked off. It did offer a very nice smokiness.

We first used this rub to season a butter, soy, and chicken stock injection for our whole chicken. Then 20 minutes before cooking we rubbed the outside of it. We cooked this over some Humphrey’s lump for a few hours. The flavor was great and our guest were very satisfied.


Last nights cook was great, two strip steaks rubbed 20 minutes before cooking over some Humphrey’s all natural. They were cooked perfect to medium rare. This rub really brought the flavor of the meat out.

Based on a scale of 1-5 (5 being super sweet) We give it a 1.
Based on a scale of 1-5 (5 being super hot) We give it a 2.
Based on a scale of 1-5 (5 being super smokey) We give it a 3
Based on a scale of 1-5 (5 being super salty) we gave it a 5 dry, and 2 ½ after it was cooked
Based on a scale of 1-5 (5 being super peppery) we gave it a 4

This rub has a fine granular consistency and was very easy to squeeze through our injector.

We give this a 4star rating for chicken and a 4 ½ star rating for beef.

We are very excited because Simply Marvelous has just come out with a Cheery Rub. I can’t wait to try it! We’ll keep you posted.

Snowshoe Grilling Challege

I'm very excited for this weekend. After a long winter we will get to see all our Que friends at the Snowshoe Grilling Challenge in Abington, Ma. This event is being held at the VFW located at 30 Central St. This is the 17th year for this challenge which is organized by team Lunchmeat. This is a NEBS sanctioned event and benefits the Abington Food Pantry.

The sun is supposed to shine so come on down and chat with teams about BBQ and Grilling. You can also watch the teams prep and cook. I do have to warn you that it gets very hectic and serious come turn in time which starts at noon. The teams will often focus on plating their food and may not be very social at this time.

Be sure to stop by the NEBS booth for a hot chocolate and a hot dog. They will have some merchandise for sale. They will have lots of information on New England BBQ and other events in the area. Don’t hesitate to ask them any of your questions.

The event will wind down with award ceremony at 4:00.

Visit www.NEBS.org for more information on New England BBQ events.

The Teams this year are :
Red Rose Cafe
Uncle Jed's BBQ
iQue (current Jack Daniels' World BBQ Champion)
Boneyard Smokers
Smokin' Dave's BBQ
Yabba Dabba Que
Lakeside Smokers (placed 7th overall at the Jack Daniels World Championship)
I SMELL SMOKE!!! (3rd KCBS Team of the Year (nationally), NEBS Team of the Year)
Smokin' Hoggz (Abington-based team and sponsored by Humphrey’s Charcoal - LOCAL)
Purple Turtle Catering Co.
Insane Swine BBQ
Shoe City Smokers (Brockton-based team - LOCAL)
Beverage Brothers (brand new team)
Meat @ Slim's
Birds Of A Feather BBQ (brand new team, Rockland-based - LOCAL)
Sweet Breathe BBQ (brand new team, VT)
Bourbon and Beale BBQ
Wildwood BBQ (NYC restaurant and last years' Snowshoe Grand Champion)
Pig's Done
Q Haven
Mike Hudson (no name yet) (brand new team)

This years sponsors are:
New England BBQ Society
Dick's Gas Grill, Weymouth, MA
A1 Embroidery, Weymouth, MA
HoneyDew Donuts, Abington, MA
Backyard Living, Abington, MA
Red Rose Cafe, Weymouth, MA

For a recap and pictures of last years event visit http://www.pigtrip.net/recap-Snowshoe2009.htm