So this is following on
@Rich Dahl 's post and I've had the virus -- most of the finish pics got forgotten in the moment. I did get a couple more pics as proof I started and most of the cook(s) came out fine -- as my friend said, better than his heat and eat.
Yeah, one could take offense, but you gotta know him!
The tamales and Andouille looked really good and I took them off at 150* for reheating later. I'll have some tamales tonight with the good taco sauce I made a couple of weeks ago. Frankly, can hardly wait! The sausage is already now frozen for later. This is before the cook -- looked similar after.
Sadly, no pics on the stuffed peppers and and wings, but the accolades were tremendous and even I thought the wings came out special this time. After an hour and temp to 160* on the smoker, they went on the grill to over 180* and then coated with a Buffalo Sauce which was left on a few minutes to set up. This was perfect wings! (No pics!) As for the peppers/jalapenos, really good. My wife was really happy with her peppers which was very nice because they had vegan cheeses, turkey sausage, chicken bacon (alpha-gal allergy) and a touch of my Cajun spice. It can be hard to make those things really tasty, but this seemed quite good. She was happy enough to comment, so maybe I can get her to let me cook for her more. <sigh>
Then came the potatoes and meatloaf. Things got rushed and I only had time to grill the potatoes (halved, EVOO, salt/pepper, cooked until squeezable). They were fine, but the meatloaf to me was less than desirable. Nothing bad, but bland. More below if you want the diagnosis. Again, this is pre-cook.
Now let me tell y'all about the issues of the day. From the start there was a problem with the Royal Oak lump. I had a fire ring full left in the bag -- turned out to be all pieces less than an inch, so the ring was packed. I figured it might either burn too slow or too fast and hot. The first was correct. So I fought with temperature for hours before it finally took off and got up to 300* -- after the cook was finished. I just let it burn off -- don't need more of that. This is the first time I've had this problem -- usually small bits are fewer and mixed in. I have another bag left and may make some judgements about Royal Oak before buying more.
The next thing I found is that my old Maverick remote thermometer was not working properly in the cooker probe. The temp kept bouncing around from LLL to some apparently reasonable temp, to something questionable, to LLL and on and on... A little frustrating and aggravating, but not terribly serious. I'm perfectly happy cooking with the WSM thermo which I know to be about 20-25* low. But D**n!
Ok then... The recipe for my chorizo meatloaf was basically "meatloaf normal" with 1 lb ground chuck, 6 oz soft chorizo, 2 eggs, chopped veggies -- PLUS 2-4 oz cans of diced chilis. That made me think, but I followed the recipe -- something I seldom do, but my friend is not into HOT, so I took discretion. If I ever make this again (I won't), I will only use one can. Essentially it was very liquidy. So much so I decided to add about 12-15 soda cracker. That helped, but as it turned out, not enough. The recipe said to bake in a loaf pan and then "pour off the excess liquid". Oh that I had paid more attention to those words!
I've smoked meatloaf 2 or 3 times before -- enough to add greatly to my long time love of meatloaf. Smoking just MAKES it! But even after a night open in the fridge held to shape by the surrounding parchment paper, when cooked/smoked, it just fell apart and liquid did gush. Fell apart into about 3 large and 3 smaller pieces. Still fairly coherent and edible, but... Then the result. What really surprised me was that the chorizo and beef flavors seemed to cancel each other out -- the extra crackers probably didn't help. So I ended up with meatloaf perfect for a person on a bland diet. Thankfully, my taco sauce topping helped that part, but it was still bland. I had some today for lunch and guess what -- bland!
Despite everything, we had a good time, good visit and good catching up with a longtime friend who is dealing with parental alzheimers -- in a state more than a 1000 miles away. The weather was a quite warm 94* and is expected to continue like that for more than a week. No complaints from me.
while I have the smoker so all this will need to be staged over the afternoon.
