Right now there is a recipe making the rounds on the bbq/smoking message boards that people are calling “pork shots” or “pork candy.” It basically consists of taking a slice of sausage, like kielbasa, and wrapping a strip of thick bacon around it to form a little pork cup and then filling it with some kind of spice mixture. It’s a pretty awesome idea. I am going to be experimenting with this idea trying different spice/filling ideas. Here is the basic sweet and spicy version that has been pretty popular so far. (Thanks to a thread on smokingmeatforums from poster solaryellow for the spice formula)

Bacon-Sausage Bites, Sweet and Spicy

• Kielbasa
• Thick cut bacon
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 2 tsp homemade chipotle powder
• 2 tsp paprika
• 1 1/2 tsp granulated garlic
• 1 1/2 tsp onion powder
• toothpicks

1. Slice sausage into rounds about 1/2 thick or about half the width of your bacon
2. Cut bacon strips to size to wrap around sausage round with a little overlap
3. Wrap bacon around sausage round and stick toothpick at overlap going through sausage to hold bacon to it
4. In a bowl combine and mix spices thoroughly
5. Fill each pork cup with 1 to 1/2 spice mixture
6. a)If you have a smoker, toss on at 230 degrees and smoke until bacon is crisp
   b)If you have a grill, cook over indirect heat by leaving burner under pork cups unlit, on low to medium heat until bacon is crisp

Tips

• the best bacon to use slab bacon that you slice thick yourself
• If using store sliced bacon, buy the thickest possible
• You may need to paper towel the bacon a bit if it is overly slippery
• these are spicy, you can cut down on the chipolte and paprika if needed
• The key is to cook them low and slow so as not to burn the brown sugar but to caramelize it while crisping the bacon.
• An oven at 250 can be used as well
• The smoker using some wood chunks would be the best option if possible

Pulled pork Sliders with Blue Cheese Slaw

Ok, I am not gonna lie to you, to get the absolute best pulled pork you need a smoker, using charcoal and wood. Other than the obvious smoke flavor the wood imparts during the long process, there is science behind the charcoal being best suited for low and slow bbq cooking (things like dry heat and moisture in gas cooking, etc). BUT, all is not lost folks! We can definitely get close enough, and create some very tasty pork-goodness with the tools we have on hand.

The pork:

• 3 tablespoon paprika (the smoked version would be great but not mandatory)
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 2 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon dry mustard
• 3 tablespoon kosher/coarse salt
• 1 5-7 lb hunk-o-pork boston butt or shoulder
• bbq sauce
• some nice soft rolls, like the fresh baked wholesale club dinner rolls, sweet Hawaiian dinner rolls, or Martins potato rolls

The slaw:
see our coleslaw recipe and just add a bunch of blue cheese

• The slaw can be made while the pork is in the oven
• Mix the dry ingredients together to create the spice rub
• Pull out your pork, and pat it dry
• Sprinkle the spice and rub your pork. Wearing rubber gloves will help the rub stick to your pork and not your hands!
• If you have any rub left, feel free to leave it to the side to sprinkle later.
• Put the pork in a roasting pan, covered, and refrigerate for a few hours or overnight.
• Put the pork, uncovered, into an oven set to 225 degrees
• Don’t even bother to check it for a few hours, it will take between 1-1.5 hours per lb to get to the desired internal temp, 200-205 degrees
• Once you get a thermometer into the thickest portion of the meat and hit 200-205 degrees, pull it out of the oven and cover with foil and rest for 30 minutes.
• Grab 2 decent sized forks, one in each hand, and start ripping into the pork, it should pull apart with little effort. This is where you can optionally sprinkle in some leftover rub seasoning.
• pour in the desired amount of bbq sauce and toss together, keeping in mind we aren’t making soup here!!!
• Construct the sandwiches with the pork and slaw and dig in!!

Suggestions and tips:

• oven temp is extremely important, I have oven thermometers in each of my ovens, you would be surprised how off your oven may be.
• Invest in a nice instant read thermometer, I use the thermapen and can’t recommend it high enough.
• Open Pit with its sweet tangy flavor is our store bought bbq sauce of choice. If you prefer a mustard based sauce (Carolina style), check out Cattlemen’s Master’s Reserve Carolina Tangy Gold BBQ Sauce.
• Sometimes I sprinkle in some extra brown sugar when pulling the pork apart.

photos:

About 120lbs of boneless pork butts, just rubbed. Prep for a TailgateJoe Jets tailgate party

2 Nice hunks of pork butt, after chilling in the oven at 225 for around 12 hours. Look at the "bark" on these beauties!

Pullin' my pork like a madman!

Finished sandwich topped with our blue cheese slaw

Plating some up for a Jets Tailgatejoe tailgate party

What can I say, my pork is a hit with the ladies!

TailgateJoe has their own exclusive beer for the 2011 season!

Kelly and the gang over at microbrewery Kelso of Brooklyn got a hold of some small batch barrels last summer and decided to come up with something special for us this season. He knows I like their IPA, so he created a special “Belgianish” spicy pale ale.  It was crafted to be easy to drink and go well with the grill items we serve at our parties. This beer was created using their small batch barrels and as such we have 12 kegs for the season. The beer was kegged on 10/6/11, so it is nice and fresh, as all of the beer I get directly from the Kelso brewery is. We will be serving TailgateJoe IPA at our parties throughout the season. This beer is exclusive to us, so stop by and have one!

About Kelso of Brooklyn:

New York Cork Report

Edible Manhattan

This past summer, while competing in The Great Hot Dog Cookoff, I had a chance to meet Kelly, owner and brewmaster of Brooklyn’s true microbrewery, Kelso of Brooklyn. Kelso was a lead sponsor for the cookoff and the charity event that day, providing not only the space for the event, but some great ice cold Kelso beer.

Flash forward a few months to the Jets/Vikings Monday night game this October, and when Kelly heard about the fundraiser we were doing for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (where we raised over $500.00) and beer pong tournament, he was down to support us. If you take a look at their site, or follow them on facebook or twitter, which you should by the way, you will see that Kelly and his gang are interested in not only making the freshest, greatest beer you can buy, they are also interested in working with charities and lots of grassroots groups in sustainable locally grown and produced foods. They truly have a great attitude over at Kelso, in addition to making some killer beers. We were very excited to have them as the official beer of the TailgateJoe Beer Pong Tournament, and everyone loved the two Kelso varieties we served that day. We hope to have them back for a few more games!

Here are a few words from Kelly about Kelso and the beers we served at the tailgate party.

About Kelso of Brooklyn:

Brewmaster Kelly Taylor & his wife Sonya Giacobbe (Kel + So) opened Kelso in the Clinton Hill section of Brooklyn in 2006. Their focus & dedication is to bringing New Yorkers extraordinary lagers which highlight the simple beauty of
well crafted, local beer. You can find their Pilsner, Nut Brown lager, St. Gowanus Belgian, as well as various seasonals throughout bars & restaurants around NYC. A lifelong Seahawks fan, Kelly fully appreciates what is means to be a Jets fan in NY & is happy to contribute in a small way to what is already a great season.

About the Beer:

CarrollGaarden Wit: This was the first of our Brewer’s collaborative line. Our brewers flavored this classic Wit style with traditional flavors of coriander & dried orange peel and added a little Brooklyn twist. The flavor is spicy, crisp, citrusy and refreshing. Perfect for a tailgate–tasty enough to put a few back and yet still have room for some more during the game.

St. Gowanus: Belgian Style Golden Ale. This spicy, fruity, and smooth beer is a great blend of a Belgian golden ale and an American pale ale. 5.75% alc/vol.

Pilsner: Floral nose, slightly sweet, with a dry finish. Classic European pils. 5.5% alc/vol

Please support these guys, swing by there site and if you are on twitter or facebook follow or like them, they are doing great things and are friends of ours! Thanks.

Kelso’s home page

Kelso’s twitter

Kelso’s facebook

Back over the summer, Team TailgateJoe competed in their first cooking competition, The Great Hot Dog cookoff. Well, despite being the second to last hot dog to be judged, we came in 2nd place overall out of 20 chefs, most of which were returning competitors and past champions. We are pretty happy with our first dip into the competitive cooking arena, and plan on knocking it out of the park next summer, as well as competing in a few other competitions.

The hot dog we served is a competition spec Mexican Hot Dog we normally serve, which we dubbed “The Sanchize” in honor of Jets qb Mark Sanchez. We added a few components, stepped up the quality of a few, and went with a larger frank in coming up with our award winner. Here is how we make it.

Ingredients:

• Hot dogs, we used a Nathans 1/4 lb hot dog, and good full flavored all beef thick frank will do
• Slab bacon sliced thick, we used the same guy who makes the bacon Peter Luger’s uses, just buy the best quality double smoked slab bacon you can and slice it thick
• Joe’s home made guacamole
• Sour cream
• Pickled red onions
• cotija cheese, can be found in most supermarkets or mexican grocery stores
• 1 pound unsalted butter, softened
• 1 large bunch cilantro leaves, washed and dried, around 3 cups firm packed
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• split top new england style hot dog or lobster roll buns, wegmans and pepperidge farm are popular brands nation wide

Directions:

1. Make the cilantro butter, combine butter (cubed), salt, pepper in a food processor for 2 minutes to blend. Can be stored in a ziplock bag
2. Butter the outside sides of the buns with cilantro butter and grill or place in pan to toast
3. Grill bacon strips
4. Grill hot dogs, this should not need an explanation
5. Lay bacon strip along one side inside bun
6. Spread Guacamole along the opposite side inside the bun
7. Place dog in bun
8. Top with sour cream, then pickled red onions, and crumbled cotija cheese
9. Stick it in your mouth-hole already!!!

Here is a few pics of the Sanchize dog, along with some pics of the other entries and the event.

This isn’t really a full fledged tailgate menu item, but a simple ingredient used with other tailgate favorites. These onions go great on burgers and sandwiches, hot dogs and mexican dishes like tacos. You can make them and store in the fridge for a few weeks or months.

Ingredients

• 2 large red onions
• 1/2 cup white vinegar
• 1 cup fresh lime juice, do NOT use bottled, squeeze your own!!
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 2 whole jalapeno chiles, slit down the middle
• 1 tablespoon honey

Tips

Do NOT use any kind of bottled or pre-made lime juice, only use fresh squeezed lime juice that you make yourself, there will be a huge difference and it will totaly suck if you do not head this advice. You can let these marinate 12-48 hours, then drain the liquid and store the onions in the fridge for up to a month or so.

Directions

1. In a nonreactive pot whisk together the juice, vinegar, sugar, salt, honey and bring to a boil for about 5 minutes until the sugar and salt is dissolved.
2. Slice the onions into very thin rings, about 1/8 inch or so
3. Take the liquid off of the heat and allow to slightly cool for 5 minutes, then pour onto the onions and toss the chiles in. Stir the mixture and cover and refrigerate for 12-48 hours.
4. Drain off the liquid

Make this the night before for a great dip to serve at the game, and as a spread on burgers and hot dogs, like our Award Winning Sanchize Dog!

Ingredients

• 3 Haas avocados, halved, seeded and peeled
• Juice from 1 lime
• 1/2 teaspoon course salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
• 1/2 medium onion, diced, red onion perferred
• 2 roma or plum tomatoes seeded and diced
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 clove garlic, minced fine

Tips

When buying avocados, look for Haas, they are the ones that are bumpy. To gauge ripeness squeeze it, there should be a little give. If it is rock hard is not ripe yet. Most supermarkets sell their avocados unripened, while some also offer avocados ripe and ready to be eaten. If you get an unripened avocado, just let it sit on the counter for a few days. To speed up the process toss a few of them into a brown paper bag. To even further increase the sped, toss in an apple or banana with the avocados into the bag. FYI, unripened avocados will NEVER ripen in the fridge!!

Directions

Halve, seed, and peel the avocado

(video)

Seed and dice the tomato

(video)

1. Place scooped avocado into a large bowl with lime juice and toss the halves to coat
2. Using a fork or potato masher, begin to break up the avocado, while adding the salt, cumin, and cayenne.
3. Continue mashing until a nice chunky texture is reached
4. Fold in the remaining ingredients, being careful not to puree the avocado
5. Let sit for 30 minutes to an hour at room temperature.

Optional additions

You can add diced up crumbled crispy bacon, fine diced jalapenos, fine diced green onions, and/or crumbled cotija cheese to kick it up.

Read about how we did and get the recipe for the Sanchize Dog here

That’s right, this coming Saturday, July 31st, Joe and Chef Sal will be competing in The Great Hot Dog Cookoff!!

20 amateur chefs will be competing to create the ultimate hot dog. TailgateJoe will be there with their “competition spec” mexican hot dog, dubbed “The Sanchize Dog.” It is going to be a great big block party in Brooklyn at Kelso Brewery with plenty of free beer and great food, and all for a great cause!

From the competition website:

The Great Hot Dog Cookoff started as a modest, friendly, cooking competition for Kara Masi and her friends 5 years ago. 50 people hanging out around the grill in year one grew to 100 the next year, and 175 the next. After three years of running the hot dog cookoffs out of Kara Masi‘s backyard, we upgraded to the headquarters  of lead sponsor, Kelso Brewery, in Clinton Hill in 2009 and brought on co-organizers Jennie Gustafson and Melissa Sands. We’ll be doing it up again at the Brewery for the 2010 5th Annual Cookoff. This culinary competition and fundraiser has raised over $8,000 to date for local charities including City Harvest, BARC Animal Shelter and the Food Bank of New York City. This year alone, we’re aiming to raise another $8,000 with the help of 300 hungry guests, 20 teams of fierce amateur chefs, and great line-up of generous sponsors and volunteers.

This is the first Team TailgateJoe competition, we plan on doing a bunch of them. If you run or know of a great cooking competition let us know about it!

Yeah you read right, and yeah it is really gross…….

So last week I was down in West Palm Beach, Florida kickin’ it with some friends. The South Florida Fair was going on, and there was a bunch of tv spots on various news channels talking it up. One of the biggest attractions at these state/county fairs is the oddball food sold at the concessions. Apparently the biggest thing going these days on the fair circuit is the donut burger. This is pretty much a burger with a donut as the bun. With all the press this thing got, I decided I had to make an attempt at trying one, even though it just didn’t in any way really sound appealing. As you can see from these pics, the burger was pretty shitty. After waiting ten minutes for it to arrive, I was a little shocked to see I was being served something that looked like it had been made hours ago. I am guessing it was a super cheap 4oz frozen burger patty that you get from the typical restaurant supply store that had the life cooked out of it and resembled (and tasted like, a hockey puck. It was topped with a slice of processed cheese and 2 strips of bacon that had the consistency, and flavor,of tree bark. This was all sandwiched into a stale glazed doughnut. I took one bite and my friend Tony took one bite and then off to the garbage it went, with me feeling stupid for wasting the 6 bucks on it.

So, fast forward to today. I happened to have this box of doughnuts laying around so I figured what the hell. Maybe I could do a much better job. Here is the list of ingredients and some pics and video of the process.

Ingredients

• 8 ounces ground angus sirloin
• 4 pcs bacon
• 2 slices american or cheddar cheese
• 1 fresh glazed donut, larger ones work best
• Salt, pepper, garlic powder to taste

Directions–like this is really needed!

1. Fry the bacon in a pan then place to the side
2. Shape the meat into a patty. A trick i learned when making fresh burgers is to make an indent on top of the patty, this allows the burger to expand as it cooks without looking like a ufo with a big dome
3. Season with garlic powder, salt, and pepper to taste. (What I also did ws take a small piece of uncooked bacon and placed it on the indent of the burger to inuse some more bacon flavor as it cooks, just toss it off before putting the cheese on.)
4. Grill the burger and throw the cheese on at the appropriate time near the end of cooking.
5. Split the donuts, and assemble the parts
6. Schedule appointment for angioplasty as soon as possible

Today we have a great, quick, and easy sausage recipe. Sausage is great fat guy food, and as such should be a staple of everyone’s tailgate. The best part about making your own sausage is you know exactly what is in it. Everyone has had bad or funky sausage before, you take a bite and it tastes like there are a few chunks of ass in it, which it probably does because a lot of sausage really is just spiced up lips and assholes stuffed into an intestine tube, YUM!! Anyway, here is the recipe…

BY THE WAY, WE WILL BE SERVING THESE SANDWICHES AT THE 11/15/09 JETS/JAGUARS GAME!!

Ingredients

• 2 lbs ground pork
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup (for sweeter sausage add another 1-2 teaspoons)
• 2 teaspoons coarse salt
• 2 teaspoons fennel seeds
• 1 teaspoon ground sage
• 1 teaspoon dry mustard
• 1 teaspoon course black pepper
• Your favorite frozen or refrigerated biscuits
• Cracker Barrel or similar cheddar or other cheese, sliced (optional)

Directions

1. Bake biscuits as directed on package
2. Combine the dry spices in a bowl and mix
3. Add pork to the bowl and mix to combine well and evenly distribute the spice mix, don’t be a bitch, use your hands yo!
4. Add the maple syrup and mix to combine
5. Form the pork into patties, a little smaller than a hamburger or whatever size you like fatso
6. Toss the pork onto a heated grill (or pan fry with some oil)
7. (optional) A minute before pulling the patties off, place slices of cheese on top to melt
8. Take the biscuits (you didn’t forget them in the oven right?!) split them in half, and assemble the sandwich, duh!

My suggestion for tailgaters is to bake the biscuits the night before or toss them in the oven the morning of the game to bake while you are in the shower dealing with your hangover from the night before.