Nickel City Smokers Holiday Party

[j biesinger]

We compete a couple of times summer and have a nice collection of supporters, so we figured we'd give them something to do on a cold and windy night. It was also an opportunity to break out some recipes that aren't exactly competition style, and involve techniques like cold smoking, sous vide, and deep frying. And it was a solid excuse to drink duck fat cocktails and put bacon in our dessert.

There's a lot here, but I'm just going to post pics, if anyone has any questions, feel free to ask

wagyu brisket:

angus brisket:

duck fat cocktail:

Duck L'Orange Cocktail. Duck-fat infused Cognac & Gran Marnier, thyme & tarragon infused dry vermouth, fresh squeezed blood orange juice

blue cheese stuffed jalapenos

deep fried, sous vide bacon with SC mustard sauce:

Deep fried, sous vide wings:

Texas Hot Links with homemade mustard:

Spare ribs:

Beans:

Pulled Pork with Sauces (NC vinegar, SC mustard, Memphis)

Chile, Chocolate, Bacon Bread Pudding with bourbon cream

I did not make the beans, pulled pork, cocktail or dessert, as those were provided by some of my teammates (its fun having friends that like to cook and eat too)

 

[michele p]

Outstanding! All of it, totally outstanding!

 

[Geir Widar]

I wish I could have been there!
i really liked the idea of the fried bacon and sauce in pipettes.

 

[Gary H. NJ]

Everything looks beyond amazing. This one blew me away:

I'm speechless Jeff. How do I get an invite to one of these parties? You are one mad, bad man.

 

[Keith Kenney]

I was thinking the same thing. How do I get an invite? It all looks wonderful.

 

[Mike Coffman]

I am speechless too!! That is a whole lot of excellent looking food!!! Great job!

 

[Bill W. Michigan]

What else can I say but fantastic

 

[j biesinger]

Thanks everyone!

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"> How do I get an invite to one of these parties? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"> I was thinking the same thing. How do I get an invite? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Lol, we had about 40 adults over already, if we made the party any bigger we'd have to find a bigger space then my home. It was kind of funny because at any given comp there's an odd assortment of 20 or so of these folks that come to help clean up the leftovers. Summer is tough for everyone to make more than one or two, so everybody hadn't seen each other all at once. With everybody here, there was competitive looks, and side comments like: these people better not eat all my comp bbq this summer.


For the life of me, I can't get the wing picture to come up:

HOLY COW I FINALLY FIGURED IT OUT!!! the letters W, T, and F appear in a row in the address and the naughty word filter is changing it to ***.

funny stuff

 

[Jim Lampe]

nice photography... i'd eet that entire plate of those sausages

 

[Ray Crick]

Very nice J. You continue to impress me!

Ray

 

[Jim H.]

Outstanding, Jeff! Your backyard cook looks as good as many comp entries do.

 

[Wolgast]

Beatiful mate! Some great pics of some outstanding food. Well Done.

 

[r benash]

Incredible.

 

[Jon Des.]

Another amazing post, Jeff. Our wedding caterer used those little pipettes with an appetizer and I was pretty impressed, but I'm even more impressed to see them at a party. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. You know route 15 runs almost right by my house, and I'm just a short 300 mile trip away, right?

 

[j biesinger]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Our wedding caterer used those little pipettes with an appetizer and I was pretty impressed, but I'm even more impressed to see them at a party. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

everybody thought I invented the idea

. I mostly set them straight. A guy at the party said he was at a catered party and had a caprese salad on one (mozzarella, tomato, basil, with evoo and balsalmic in the bulb).

here's a couple more shots:

The wings (I re-uploaded them so it assigned it a fresh url without naughty acronyms)

production shot of some of the finished bacon, hot links and polish sausage (which wasn't for the party)

a practice run of the bacon shot, done a few days ahead of the party

and a little bit of leftover brisket for lunch to sooth my raging hangover

 

[Stuart C]

Utterly amazing. I'm not sure if I nearly fell over from the Wagyu brisket or the fried + sous vide bacon, but.. yes, I fell over.

 

[Gary H. NJ]

Are those tater tots in the final shot? Who cares.. it's all killer food Jeff.

 

[Kevin French]

Where do you get those sauce droppers / skewers? They are brilliant!

 

[Larry Corall]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">quote:
How do I get an invite to one of these parties?


quote:
I was thinking the same thing. How do I get an invite?


Lol, we had about 40 adults over already, if we made the party any bigger we'd have to find a bigger space then my home. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
You just need to find a bigger place! Think there are more than a few of us that are long overdue for a trip to Buffalo. I know I am.

 

[j biesinger]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Gary H. NJ:
Are those tater tots in the final shot? Who cares.. it's all killer food Jeff. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Recall I mentioned I wasn't feeling all that well, and they were hanging around, left over from a breakfast. They actually refried up nicely and I hit them with some rub for seasoning and dipped them in some leftover, homemade ranch dressing.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"> Where do you get those sauce droppers / skewers? They are brilliant!

</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

They are pretty easy to find online. Search "transfer pipette" Amazon has a box of 500 for $15.