Making my first ABT, smoked trout, and smoked sausage tomorrow.

since dw is going out for warpaint and to get her topknot trimmed, i have the day to get some work done around the house and i figured i might as well get the smoker fired up.

i bought some giant jalapenos, and i have cream cheese, gorgonzola, mozzarella, red pepper boursin, and locatelli cheeses to go inside. need to figure which ones would work best with either regular hickory bacon, or maple bacon. i may add some chopped shallots to the cream cheese, and maybe some hot sauce.

i'm hoping to pick up a few more trout in the morning and toss them into the smoker as well, along with a cheese and basil luganiga that needs to be cooked.

ok, since this is my first go at these things, does anyone have any advice or suggestions on all of this: times, temps, which thing should be on which shelf, any marinades or rubs, etc..

should i do any special prep for the fish?

thanks very much in advance.

LOL, BT! You are upscaling the lowly ABT!

In my experience, you can't taste much of what's inside the pepper - you pretty much taste the jalapeno and the bacon. The cream cheese cools off the spicy heat and provides a nice texture. I lay half a Lil Smoky Weiner on top of the cream cheese, but you can't even really taste THAT, either. It fills people up, though, LOL!

If you find that you really CAN discern differences among your cheesy ABT fillings, please post that. Otherwise, it may be a waste of delicious cheese.

Some people sprinkle BBQ rub on the bacon after they wrap, but I find that it's too salty, and if you have HOT japs, you don't need more heat. I just sprinkle some paprika on, for color - gets nice and brown in the smoker.

I put ABT's on the top rack, since I usually have something larger on the bottom rack that will take longer (ABT's are my appetizers). Since I smoke at 225-250, they take an hour to an hour and a half. You could run your smoker hotter, get the bacon crispier, and take less time. You judge when they are done by looking at the bacon.

The sausage can also be run hotter - maybe 300 for both sausage and ABT's. What do you have for wood (if you'll pardon the expression)? I love cherry wood for anything bacon-y, but hickory is my all-around favorite.

I have never smoked fish, so I can't help you there. I wonder if it is going to make your smoker smell fishy thereafter.

Well, you have a fun, MANLY day, BT!

Lee

thanks for the tips and lol, qsis! you're really cracking me up today.

i'll be using a mix of apple and hickory. the paprka thing sounds like a great idea. i often do that on chicken for colour.

and thanks for the excellent description of the cheese, and what not to waste. i'll just use cream cheese, and maybe shallots. hmm, i may toss the cube of mozarella cheese in the smoker then as well. will it melt at 300 degrees? i guess it'll go on the bottom rack.
ooh, i also have a very ripe brie. i may smoke that too.
can you smoke a hard cheese like locatelli?

lol, do you think i'm smoking/eating with my eyes? i'll probably only get half of this accomplished.

Bucky, your mozz will probably melt.

Your best best for the mozz is to put it into the smoker AS SOON AS YOU FIRE IT UP, while the smoker is still "cold". This way you hopefully will get some smoke on the cheese before it starts to melt.

Unless you have one of those fancy contraptions that will make smoke, then chill the smoke/hot gasses to a certain temperature, smoking cheese is difficult, IMHO.

Agree with Allen. Cheese needs to be cold smoked.

Bucky, how did it all turn out?

I smoked some cheese one time in my WSM.

It was in early Spring (read, "cold") and I used 3 kingsford briquets and a small handful of hickory chips. The trick was to keep the smoker temp below 100 degrees, so the cheese wouldn't melt.

I did, and sat out there, watching it like a hawk, playing with the vents, for an hour and a half, two hours.

It worked, it was delicious, and it was a pain in the butt, so I've never bothered with it again.

A cold-smoke unit like a Lil' Chief would be great, but I don't have the room.

So, ANYWAY, BT, how did your stuff turn out?

Lee

cheese louise, i just got back into work... i do get a day off once in a while.

well, no trout. i didn't have time to get to the store as i played street hockey with my boy all day, and we went for texas weiners at the hot grill in clifton.

but i did get the abt's and luganiga smoked. about 1 1/2 hours at 275 to 300 over applewood. it was breezy and i realized fairly late that if i want temps over 275, i need to close the top damper.

i just took a nibble on an abt and a piece of sausage after they'd cooled. they were really good.

will post pics tomorrow.

You closed the top vent? On the lid???? Completely???

Sorry to be so incredulous, BT, I always thought that was equivalent to committing BBQ suicide! The threat was that your food would be covered with creosote (greasy black soot) if you closed the top vent.

You may have blown a hole in this old saw! LOL!

Lee

lol, no, you can't close the top completely. i only did this towards the end so the smoke was very thin by then. no creosote.

i can see how it might have been a problem when the thing gets going at the start.

here's the pics, as promised.

abt's ready for the smoker:



smoking away above some cheese and basil luganiga:



the finished results:





the sausage was fantastic. the peppers i used were huge, so i found the abt's were a bit too much. too much bacon, too much hot pepper, too much cream cheese, which was bland. 1 was enough when i would have expected to eat 2 or three.

next time i'll use smaller jalapenos, and try a different cheese.

Woooooooooooow! That all looks so good that my mouth is literally watering!!!

Nice job, Tom!

Lee