Friday, November 26, 2010

Fire Roasted Acorn Squash Soup

Today is my weekly Fire Day Friday guest post over at Our Krazy Kitchen and I wrote about the Fire Roasted Acorn Squash Soup (click to see that link) that we made yesterday.


Thanksgiving dinner was excellent and I hope yours was as well. I didn't take any pictures except of the cooking turkey and the soup appetizer because it was busy enough already.


Here is the brine recipe I used for 13 hours (1 hour per pound):
1 cup kosher salt
1 cup maple syrup
1 cup bourbon
2 Tbsp whole peppercorns
5-6 bay leaves
1 Tbsp fennel seeds
enough water and ice to cover the turkey

Rub was Bill and Cheryl Jamison's Poultry Perfect Rub from the book Smoke and Spice. I mixed it with butter too and smeared on the breast.

Baste was a 1/2 cup butter, 1/2 cup wine, 2 garlic cloves mince, and 3 sprigs of fresh thyme.
Technically it wasn't "smoked" because I cooked it at a higher temp but the cherry wood still gave it a nice light smoke flavor, deep skin color, and a smoke ring.

Here's the cooking log for the turkey for all of you BBQ geeks like me. (Click the picture to view larger.) If you want the template in an Excel spreadsheet, here: NMT Cooking Log