Brown Sugar and Honey Bacon Smoked on a Pellet Cooker

[FTC Disclaimer] I have no affiliation with Thermoworks or Beswood.  I genuinely my Grilla a few years ago as a thank you for cooking on their Memphis In May team.

I love bacon but who doesn't?  I recently cured, smoked, and sliced a batch of Brown Sugar and Honey Bacon.  

Curing and smoking your own bacon takes a little time and refrigerator space, but it is well worth the effort. 

• You get truly smoked bacon, not something that was sprayed with aerosolized liquid smoke and cooked in a big oven.
• You get to make choices about the seasonings.
• You get control of the thickness of your slices.
• You save a good bit.  I pay less than $3 a pound for pork belly, but bacon at the stores is running $5 to $7 per pound depending on the type.

One tip, wear gloves when handling the bacon cure.  First, it's just a good idea any time handling curing salts.  Second, if you don't, you will find that minuscule paper cut that you forgot existed.

Brown Sugar and Honey Bacon

adapted from Chris Lilly's Fire and Smoke: A Pitmaster's Secrets

Ingredients

• 8 pound pork belly, skinless
• 6 tablespoons kosher salt
• 1.5 teaspoons pink curing salt (Prague powder #1)
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup black pepper, coarse ground/16 mesh
• 1/2 cup local honey

Instructions

Thrilla in the Grilla - A Grilling Contest for Veterans and First Responders

Second in a series of four posts about my food week in Orange Beach AL:

1. World Food Championships 
2. Thrilla in the Grilla 
3. Grilling Demo for Pensacola Eggfest VIP party
4. Pensacola Eggfest

The most rewarding thing I did at the World Foods Championships had to be helping our friends at Grilla Grills run the Thrilla in the Grilla, a contest

• organized by Veterans
• competed by Veterans and First Responders
• table captained by Veterans and First Responders, and
• judged by Veterans and First Responders
• on Veterans' Day!

Earlier this year, Grilla Grills ran the online grilling recipe contest, Red, Hot, and Blue for Veterans and First Responders.  The contestants entered their recipe, told their story, and sent a picture of their dish.  A panel selected the Top 10 winners and Grilla Grills invited them to the World Food Championships to compete head to head.  

The contestants lined up for the final cooks meeting and waiting on the "GO!".

 The meeting was important because this contest varies in a few ways compared to most of the World Food Championships contests:

1. First, the judging uses an open format instead of double blind, so they see which teams are cooking what as the clock.
2. Second, the contestants only submit 1 entry in 2 hours, not structured AND signature.
3. Finally, for an "improvise, adapt, overcome" theme, the contestants are given a mystery box of three ingredients that have to be used.  Each contestant got different sets of mystery ingredients.

We were lucky to have Michael McDearman as our emcee.  Michael is a well known competitive grill master and the Director of the Sam's Club National BBQ Tour.   Here he is interviewing Jason as he gloves up to get started.

Troy Winter seasoning his turkey breasts.  By seasoning from up high like this, he is ensuring better distribution of the seasoning.  If you season too close to the protein, the seasoning can have spotty coverage.

Smoked Turkey Breast with Bourbon Orange Glaze on a Grilla Pellet Cooker

[FTC Standard Disclaimer]  This is not a compensated post; however, I did receive my Grilla pellet grill as thank you for competing on Grilla's Pro Team at Memphis In May.

Alexis was craving good turkey for lunch meat so we smoked a turkey breast last weekend just for slicing.  It is also good to get some practice in before Thanksgiving, right? 

I opted to use my Grilla pellet cooker for a couple of reasons.  First, I like the color that it builds up on food.  Second and probably more importantly, I was juggling tasks and wanted the ease and reliability of using a pellet cooker.  

2017 Memphis In May World Championship BBQ Cooking Contest

The Memphis In May International Festival is a month long celebration of music, food, and culture. It's a big deal featuring:

• The Beale Street Music Festival - featuring both established and up and coming recording artists.
• The International Salute to each year's "host country" includes performances, exhibits, lectures, films, and food from the celebrated country.  This year the theme was Columbia.
• The Great American River Run - A half marathon and 5k.
• The 901 Fest is a tribute to the culture, food, and music of Memphis.

But of course, the part that I am always most excited about is the Memphis In May World Championship BBQ Cooking Contest.

• Memphis In May is one of the four "majors" when it comes to the world of BBQ contests.
• Each year there are about 250 teams and 100,000 visitors that come to Tom Lee Park on the banks of the Mississippi River for the smoke showdown.
• It's not the biggest it terms of number of teams but it certainly has the most grandeur and the most excess.  Compared to other contests, Memphis in May is just bigger, crazier, and bolder.
• It's a World. Freaking. Championship.  

I am fortunate enough to be a cook on the Grilla Grills Pro Team.  Here is an inside look back of our crazy week at the 2017 Memphis In May World Championship BBQ Cooking Contest.  

Monday and Tuesday - Load In and Set Up

The first days are what most people never see.  It is chaotic and hectic but it is a vital part of getting the job done. 

It's an almost 6 hour drive plus we had a smaller site, so we didn't take our trailer. We fit our Grilla Grill, hot boxes, coolers, and gear into our truck and headed due West.

Due West on I-40 until we hit the Mississippi then we're basically there.  Battery Park and the Hernando de Soto bridge viewed from Tom Lee Park where MIM is held.

Getting through the park on these days can take a long time.  Traffic is one way but the narrow path is blocked routinely as trucks have to back in smokers, scaffolding, tents, and equipment.  Vehicles just have to sit and wait for that to clear.

Pick ups as far as the eye can see in either direction.  It's like the first day at a freshman college dorm, everyone is trying to get loaded in at the same time.

Some over achievers are fully set up by Tuesday, like Pork Illustrated.  You're making the rest of us look bad, guys.  Mix in a break or two! ;) 

Bacon Crusted Salmon

Tender, smoked salmon topped with a crust of crumbled brown sugar bacon - you just can't go wrong with that, right?

The recipe for the Charred Corn Bisque was in my previous post.

About The Recipe

The first time that I ever saw this dish was at the photo shoot for Chris Lilly's second book.   Here you had a world famous food photographer, a food stylist from Southern Living, and other people who are used to stunning food.  But when they had finished shooting this particular dish and the crew started tasting it, things got quiet.  Instead of the usual chaos before the next shoot, everyone just got absorbed in eating this fantastic recipe - it was literally "shut your mouth" good.

Chris Lilly adorning his bacon crusted salmon with the ginger maple glaze during the photo shoot for his second book.  The grill is Chris' personal Komodo Kamado.  I'd say Komodo is the "best in class" of kamado grills except it's not even in the same class as most other kamados, including the brands I love and use. They have exquisite tile work, unique designs, and decked out in premium stainless hardware inside and out.  Of course, I could buy 4 Big Green Eggs for the cost of one Komodo. 

Recipe Source

The recipe can be found in Chris' book, Fire and Smoke, A Pitmaster's Secrets ($24.95).  I'm not going to post the recipe, just buy the book it's worth it - it's loaded with great recipes.  I'll just give you the basic idea and what I did differently (not that the recipe needed any changes...I'm just incapable of following directions).  

For the bacon crust, I wanted to up the ante a bit. First, I sprinkled a LIGHT amount of brown sugar on the bacon and just on one side. I only wanted it slightly sweetened, not full on candied bacon.  Second, I smoked the bacon in my Grilla pellet grill. Grilla is the sponsor of the Memphis in May team on which I compete and I got my Grilla as a thank you for being on their team last year.

Chris Lilly used a mini-food processor to crumble his bacon.  I like to practice my knife skills so I used a santoku knife to finely mince the bacon. You can do either but the food processor makes more sense for mixing in the bacon fat and panko bread crumbs. 

Chris Lilly uses a flavorful marinade for his salmon recipe with soy sauce, ginger, garlic, sesame oil and more. I used a lot of the same ingredients but I cheated because I had this pair of aces up my sleeve...

 A friend of mine has a client that is a start up company making gourmet soy sauces and they had a small packaging error. As a result, I got a 6 bottles (each one a different variety).  This isn't a product pitch because they haven't gone in full distribution mode yet and you can't get Ink Soy Sauce.....yet.

But when you can get Ink Soy Sauce (such a tease, right?), I recommend giving it a shot.  It's good stuff and rocked in this marinade.  It was rich, tangy, sweet, and salty.  The marinade was good and will be good with chicken too.  Mix a little (1/4 cup or so) with some maple syrup or honey and you have a nice glaze too.

Garlic Ginger Sesame Marinade

• 1/2 cup Ginger Sesame Soy Sauce by Ink Soy Sauce
• 1/4 cup Garlic Sesame Soy Sauce by Ink Soy Sauce
• 3 tablespoons sushi vinegar
• 1 tablespoon mirin
• 3/4 cups peanut oil

Mix first four ingredients together and then slowly add the oil while whisking rapidly.  

For the fish, it was a short swim in the marinade, just long enough to make the Charred Corn Bisque and Poblano Crema.  For chicken I'd let it ride for 4 hours.

So I forgot to add bacon grease to my bacon/panko mixture and it didn't stick to the fish when I pushed it down into the crumbles.  No big deal, when I flipped it back over, I just sprinkled the leftovers on top and pressed them down a bit.  Worked fine.

If I was cooking on a kamado grill, I would have used wood planks like the book recipe does.  But I was cooking these on my Grilla pellet grill so 1) it was going to get plenty of smoke from the pellets burning and 2) the planks wouldn't smolder much if at all because there would be no direct heat under them.

It was a quite cold and very blustery night, with snow moving in. The Grilla did well fending off the wind and cold, holding temps.  If I opened it up all the way like this, of course, I lost a good bit of heat and it took a few minutes to restore cooking temperatures.  So most of the time I just barely opened the Keep Heat Swing Lid to check on progress or to drizzle the glaze.  That kept the heat much more stable.

Here is a better shot of how the Grilla's Keep Heat Swing Lid works.  Instead of opening up, the lid access door swings right and left. The advantage of this is you can open it just a crack for checking doneness, basting, spritzing, or glazing.  

While the salmon was cooking on the Grilla, Alexis used one of our ceramic kamado grills to make a clone recipe of Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits.  The set up was a plate setter (legs down), a raised rack above that, and a pizza stone on the rack.  This got the biscuits high up in the kamado so they get brown on top.  Yep, there was also a Kick Ash Basket in there, we pretty much always use those in our kamados.

I cooked the salmon until the crust was golden brown and the internal temp was 130°f, about 20 minutes at 350°f.  Internal temps for fish should be between 120°f and 140°f.  Dense flesh fish like tuna and salmon can be done at 120°f..

We liked the glaze so much that I reserved some of it and drizzled it over the finished fish as a sauce. Sooooo good.

Served at 10pm on a snowy, cold Saturday night (we ate lunch at 4pm....don't judge) with cheddar biscuits and Charred Corn Bisque.

This is a rock solid recipe, but then again, recipes from both of Chris Lilly's books typically are. His first book was instrumental in helping me master BBQ and grilling and the second one continued that journey.  If you don't have them, you should correct that immediately :)

For more about plank grilling on a kamado grill, you can check out my post about Plank Grilled Potlatch Salmon.

[FTC Standard Disclaimer] I received no compensation for this post but just to be clear on a few product mentions....

• Chris Lilly's books - I paid full price for both and I don't get affiliate sales or anything from the links I provided.  
• Grilla Grills - I don't work for Grilla Grills but I am on their Memphis In May competition team and I got my Grilla pellet grill for helping out.
• Ink Soy Sauce - Like I said, they are just a client of a friend of mine and I got some free samples from my friend.  Good stuff, though.  Keep an eye out for it in the next few months.
• Kick Ash Basket - Great product.  I received one as a review piece a couple of years ago.  Since then I have bought 4 more (3 large and 1 for my Mini-Max) at full prices, putting my money where my mouth is. 
• Komodo Kamado - No affiliation whatsoever.  Just a great kamado grill with a wonderful reputation.  

Fire Roasted Meatloaf Casserole

A leftover meatloaf sandwich is one of the most perfect fridge diving foods.  But sometimes you want to try something different and I came up with this recipe in my head before I even had leftover meatloaf.  I cooked that Grilla Meatloaf just for this recipe and then Alexis and I ate every bit of it before it could even get cold.  So the next day we made TWO Grilla meatloaves just to be safe from our own gluttony.

This really isn't as much a recipe as an idea for a recipe.  Feel free to use your own favorite meatloaf, tomato gravy, and/or mashed potato recipes. Obviously it is a lot like a shepherd's pie but I think it's a heck of a lot better.  

Fire Roasted Meatloaf Casserole

Ingredients

• 1 batch Grilla Meatloaf, cut into 1-1.5" thick slices
• 1 batch tomato gravy
• 1-2 cups shredded cheese
• 1 batch roasted garlic mashed potatoes
• 1 1/2 tablespoon sweet BBQ rub
• 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
• 1/2 cup BBQ sauce

Instructions

1. Set up grill for indirect heat and preheat to 350f
2. Place the meatloaf slices in a layer in a lightly greased 2 quart casserole dish.  (We used an 8" x 11.5" x 2" casserole dish.)
3. Cover the meatloaf with a layer of the tomato gravy and top that with shredded cheese.
4. Spread or pipe mashed potatoes on top of the casserole.  Sprinkle rub and parsley evenly across the mashed potatoes.
5. Put the casserole in your grill and fire roast until heated through, about 45 minutes.
6. Drizzle with the sauce and serve.

Notes

• We used Meat Church Deez Nuts for the sweet BBQ rub.  
• For the BBQ sauce I used my leftover glaze from the meatloaf which was 1/2 cup ketchup, 1/4 cup Blues Hog BBQ sauce, and 1/4 cup brown sugar.
• I did the tomato gravy as written except - we simmered for 15 minutes, used an immersion blender and THEN added the bacon.  We also added roasted garlic and more salt and black pepper.

We used the Grilla pellet cooker for this recipe because we wanted easy and steady heat.  This recipe would also rock in a kamado grill because they work like a brick oven.

The Grilla uses electricity but it isn't an electric cooker.  It uses electricity to run an auger that pushes compressed wood pellets into the cooking chamber.  But after the 8 minute warm up period, all of the heat is provided by burning the real wood pellets.  You can even see the flame through the Grilla window.

I learned my lesson and made two meatloaves in case we devoured one before we could use it in the recipe.

Glazing the meatloaf.  I like a tangy, tomato based glaze but if you like the brown gravy style, that works for this recipe too.

Did I mention that I love meatloaf?

Chop up the end pieces to fill in any gaps.

The tomato bacon recipe we used has a good bit of bacon in it and it adds a great flavor to the casserole.  

We used sharp cheddar cheese but you could go with any cheese you like.  You can shred blocks or just use slices.  Pepper jack cheese would also be a great way to go, especially if you went with a Tex-Mex or Southwestern flavor profile.

You can just spoon the mashed potatoes in but I like to use a piping back just for appearance's sake.  We did our basic mashed potato recipe using a blend of Yukon gold and red bliss potatoes, sour cream, roasted garlic, butter, salt, and pepper.

We used a sweet BBQ rub but you can do whatever seasonings you want.

 

Roasting your casserole higher up in your grill will keep the bottom from burning and get better browning on the top of the dish.  It gets the heat reflecting down from the top lid.

Just like the cheese and rub, whatever BBQ sauce you use should either complement or contrast the meatloaf that you use.  We just used some extra meatloaf glaze and it was perfect for this.

Uh oh....looks like the meatloaf sandwich now has competition for being the best way to use leftover meatloaf!  

Fire Roasted Grilla Meatloaf

One of my favorite things to fire roast is meatloaf.  It is one of the ultimate comfort foods to me.  Meatloaf with sides of mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, and some greens is better at putting you to sleep than Ambien.  The best meatloaf is making a leftover meatloaf sandwich at 2 or 3 in the morning (speaking of Ambien).  

I like all kinds of meatloaf.  Ones that blend pork, veal, beef, and/or sausage together are tasty but so are ones made just from ground beef.  I like ones with brown gravy as much as I do ones with a sweet tangy tomato based glaze.  I like meatloaf with big coarse chunks of sauteed veggies and ones that have everything so ground up it's basically just sausage.  I enjoy meatloaf that is stuffed with boiled eggs.  I guess what I am saying is:

I will eat meatloaf on a boat,

I will eat meatloaf with a goat.

I will eat meatloaf made with lamb,

I like meatloaf, Sam I Am. 

We made this recipe specifically to go into another recipe.  Well, we weren't very successful in using it in that other recipe, mainly because the two of us ate the entire thing when it was done.  It started off with "just a taste" and you know how that goes.  It's pretty basic but oh so good.

I don't like to cook meatloaf in bread pans because it just sits in it's own rendered grease.  They have special wire rack loaf pans that will act as a bread pan but let the grease get away from the meat.  Personally, I just free form mixture in the shape of a loaf and that's it.

For the BBQ sauce, you want something bold, sweet, and thick.  For these two batches, I used Albukirky's Duke City Sweet from my friend, Kirk. Another good one to use is Grilla's Thick and Bold BBQ Sauce which is the sauce that won us 2nd Place at the Memphis In May World Championship BBQ Cooking Contest.  

Fire Roasted Grilla Meatloaf

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/2 medium red bell pepper, seeded and diced
• 1/2 medium sweet onion 
• 1 jalapeno chile, seeded and diced
• 1 tablespoon roasted garlic or chopped garlic
• 2 pounds ground chuck
• 3/4 cup panko bread crumbs
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup BBQ Sauce
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 teaspoon season salt  
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp granulated garlic
• 1/4 tsp celery seed

For The Glaze

• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup BBQ Sauce
• 1/4 cup dark brown sugar

Instructions

1. Saute the bell pepper, jalapeno, onion, and chopped garlic in butter until the veggies are tender, about 8 minutes.  (Skip the garlic if you are using roasted garlic, it's already cooked).
2. Mix together the ground chuck, red bell pepper, chopped or roasted garlic, and panko bread crumbs.  
3. Whisk together the eggs, BBQ sauce, black pepper, season salt, kosher salt, granulated garlic, and celery seed.  Fold this mixture into the ground chuck mixture until well combined.
4. Form the meat loaf mixture into the shape of a loaf and refrigerate it for one hour.
5. Set up your grill to indirect heat and preheat to 350°f. For a pellet cooker, just turn it on and set to 350°f.   For a kamado style grill like Big Green Egg, Grill Dome, or the Kong, this would be using a heat deflector or plate setter.  For a gas grill, this will be turning on some burners but leaving 1-2 of them off and your food will go over the areas where the burner(s) are off.  For a kettle grill, just bank the coals to the sides, put a drip pan next to the coals and the food will go on the grate above the drip pan.  
6. Put your meatloaf on the grill, close the lid and let it cook until it reaches an internal temperature of 125°f.  
7. While the meatloaf is cooking, whisk together the ketchup, BBQ sauce, and dark brown sugar until well combined in a small bowl.
8. Brush the glaze over the meatloaf to coat the top and sides.  Put the loaf back on the grill with the lid closed and cook it until it reaches an internal temperature of 160°f, about another 30-45 minutes.
9. Remove the meatloaf from the grill and let rest 5 minutes before slicing to serve.

We used 3 grills making this.  I could have done it all on one but I like to keep in practice on using all types of grills.  Yes kamados are my go to grill but like they say in business - if the only tool in your tool belt is a hammer, you'll treat all of your opportunities like a nail.  

I roasted a batch of garlic on the Mini-Max.  About once a month we'll buy a bunch of heads of garlic and roast them just to have on hand.  Substitute roasted garlic for any recipe that calls for regular garlic and you'll get a richer garlic flavor and no bitter edge. 

Slice off the tops, drizzle with olive oil and season with sea salt and black pepper.  Roast indirect at 350-400° until tender and lightly browned - 60 to 90 minutes.  Then carefully (zey hot!) squeeze out the pulp and discard the rest.  We keep ours on refrigeration for about a week and use it in everything until its gone (< - - - Vampires hate him).  

I sauteed the veggies on the side burner from my Char-Broil Professional.

I mentioned in my Memphis in May post that I had used a pellet cooker and hell didn't feeze over.  In fact, Alexis and I both really liked the Grilla pellet cooker because it was so easy to use and did a bang up job cooking. We were on the Grilla Grills pro team and it was one of the cookers that we had available for use. Fast forward a few weeks and Grilla gave me one of my very own.  I have a review post coming up but suffice it to say I love this thing so far.

The Grilla pellet grill is a head turner, isn't it?  Pellet cookers like this are heated by burning small pellets of wood and they control temp by adding more or less pellets using an auger.

Since I don't use bread pans, the grease is going to have to go somewhere.  I use a resting rack over a foiled quarter sheet pan to catch the grease.  

Did you notice that the grill lid opens sideways?  That makes it easy to check on your food without letting all of your heat escape.  Typically I open it just a crack to see, I opened it more here for the picture.

Ready to sauce.  This is one of my favorite basting brushes. Normally those sets of grilling tools are pretty much crap.  But my brother bought me a set a few years ago from Williams Sonoma and it still rocks (Thanks Jeff!).  Other than a burn on the handle of the tongs, they still look great and function perfectly.  I like the length of the brush and the angled tip makes it easy to baste right on the grill.

Usually I never sauce anything until the last 10 minutes of cooking but for meatloaf I make an exception, I like it to really cook on there.  It's up to you, if you like it still gooey, then wait until your meatloaf reaches an internal temperature of 145°f to sauce it.

Finished! 

So what was that recipe that was going to use meatloaf as an ingredient?  It's a fire roasted meatloaf casserole that was killer.  I'll post that shortly.

*I am not a medical authority and I've never taken Ambien, this was creative license.

[Standard FTC Disclaimer] I received a Grilla pellet grill from Grilla Grills for helping out on their Memphis In May dream team....I was the nightmare part, lol.  I am not contracted with them nor do I receive any compensation from them.