Brent Young and Ben Turley show you how sausage making is done at the Meat Hook in Brooklyn, NY. [Serious Eats]

I received a email asking what BBQ Sauces do I use daily? Albuquerque being one of the few places Rudy´s “Country Store” and Bar-B-Q has expanded to outside of Texas, I am fortunate to be able pick up locally a bottle of original Rudy’s BBQ Sause. The hot “black pepper” sauce is a family favorite on Chicken and Beef.

The other two generals sauces I have around are a homemade vinegar based Mustard Sauce (the recipe can be found on the recipes page) and a homemade red bbq sauces similar to “Bone Suckin Sauce”.

These two fellow bacon heads were never told not to play with there food. The duo construct a rocket out of bacon and one sausage link and try take the pork products to whole other level.

I had some left over jalapenos and cream cheese after smoking some ABT’s last weekend. Suffered the jalapenos with some partially cooked ground beef added some cream cheese and dusted the whole thing with bread crumbs. Fired up the kettle grill and smoked them for a little over an hour. They came out great, you cant go wrong with chiles, cream cheese and beef. Next time I would put the cream cheese in first then top with the beef and possibly use a larger chile like a New Mexico (Anaheim) or a poblano.

The Minion Method is a popular way to light you charcoal for smoking. The basic idea is a small amount of lit coals provide enough heat for smoking while slowly lighting the underlying layer of coals. This allows you to keep the heat down and have enough fuel for long cooks (12+ hours). This method is essential in Ugly Drum Smokers which lack a charcoal refilling door. Using this method in your UDS can help you achieve long cooks, which is why many love the UDS, set in and forget it.

1. Place 90% of your charcoal in the firebox. Optional: You can also mix in chunks of flavoring woods (Hickory, Apple, Pecan …) to the unlit coals
2. Light the remaining 10% in a chimney starter.
3. Pour the hot coals on top of the unlit coals.

Its lunch time, I grilled up some great natural hot dogs and caramelized onions from my local butcher.

Found a great local butcher (Keller Meats) in town and decided to grill up some porterhouse steaks for dinner on Sunday night. Menu included steaks medium rare, seasoned with salt and pepper, grilled asparagus spears, some garlic bread and a baked potato. The wife and I were very please with the special dinner.

Brining has been a longtime method used by some of the worlds top chefs to inject flavor and add moisture to meat. In a brine, the salt actually opens up the cells in the meat, allowing them to hold more water.

Unlike a marinade, which only imparts flavor to the outermost meat, a actually brine draws in the salt and other added flavorings all the way to the bone.

Here is the basic brine recipe:

1 gallon of water
1 cup of salt
1/2 cup of sugar

Make sure brine is cold before placing the meat in it. Brine for 3-36 hrs. in the refrigerator depending on the thickness of meat, keeping the meat fully submerged in the solution.

• Boneless Chicken Breasts, Pork Chops: 2 hrs.
• 2 lbs: 4-6 hrs.
• 3-4 lbs: 6-8 hrs.
• Whole Chicken: 12 hrs.
• Small Whole Turkey: 12-24 hrs.
• Large Whole Turkey: 24-36 hrs.

You can add flavors like herbs, chile, citrus and additional sugar to the basic brine recipe to achieve different results.

TIP: To adjust the salty flavor in the meat, change the brine time instead of altering the salt content in the recipe.

Here are some chicken drumsticks I brined and smoked last weekend. I added chile flake and garlic at some lemon to the basic brine recipe.

Unfortunately I missed the final product photos, but the drums turned out great and had plenty of moisture.

A close look at the very popular WSM 18″ smoker. In 2009 Weber introduced a 22″ inch model after customers called for a smoker with greater cooking capacirry.

Starting charcoal has always been a pain and one of the biggest reasons people turn to gas as opposed to charcoal grills. Using lighter fluid, paraffin wax cubes, presoaked charcoal briquettes and other methods which impart their foul flavor into the charcoal is unnecessary.

In my opinion the simplest and cleanest method to light them coals is to use a chimney starter (cost under $15).

How to Use a Chimney Charcoal Starter:

• Place old newspaper in the bottom compartment. TIP: I use pieces of the charcoal bag, tear a small piece from the top of the bag, then separate the layers. (see pictures below)
• Place on the grill for other safe area away from combustibles.
• Fill chimney with you favorite brand charcoal lump or briquettes.
• Ignite the paper underneath with a match or lighter. TIP: I use a Bernzomatic Auto Torch as a convenient alternative to a lighter. Its has been my favorite time saving products and I am still using the first bottle of propane.
• Wait 10-15 minutes until the top layer of charcoal begins to turn white.
• Pour in the grill or the smoker and enjoy the flavor of real wood.

I hope that helps.