Disclaimer: This is going to be a bit of a long post!
Carter Hall is one of my favorite mixing bases, because I find it to be like vanilla ice cream- good quality, but not very flavorful by itself. I love dark-fired Kentucky (smoke cured) and I love Latakia (smoke cured). Living in the Southwest, I also think any food (especially meat) is improved by Mesquite smoke. Since I am off work (bored witless) due to a back injury, I have plenty of time on my hands and plenty of Valium and Percocet swilling around in the bilge. I'm sure you can guess where this is going.
Yesterday I set my trusty Weber Bar-B-Kettle up for low-heat smoking mode. Built a good old-fashioned, all wood base fire to burn down to coals. When the small stuff was almost ready to break up and mash through into the botttom of the grill, I put three fist-sized chunks on so they could start to smolder. While that was going on, I opened a fresh pouch of Carter hall and wrapped it in a length of aluminum foil, shiny side out. I used a chopstick to poke holes all over that sucker to let the smoke pass through. I put it on a grilling basket to keep it as far away from the heat as possible.
By this time the fire was ready to knock everything but the smoldering "smoking chunks" down through the grill. I set those around the outside circumference of the grill, and put the grill basket in the very middle. I covered the grill, closed the upper and lower vents, and crossed my fingers.
Fast forward to 45 minutes later. Small amounts of mesquite smoke were still wafting out from under the BBQ lid, which I took as a good sign. The lid was only slightly warm to the touch. I pulled the packet off, opened it, and dumped it onto a plate. It did not reek of mesquite as I supposed it would, and thanks to the slight amount of PG in the CH, it was not dried out. It smelled of freshly toasted nuts, and that's about it.
As soon as it was completely cool, I put it into a Mason jar to let it mojenate overnight. This morning, on opening the jar, I got a slightly dark-fired, slightly toasted nut smell, with just barely a hint of a mesquite tang. I loaded up a bowl in one of my smaller billiards I usually use for nothing but Classic Burley Kake. I figured that would be benign enough not to interfere with the flavor of my new FrankenHall.
Smoked the entire bowl, and here is the result: Not nearly as mesquity as I thought it would be. I could not taste it on the tongue, but did get a pleasant, mild taste of it on exhaling through the nose. This happened throughout the entire bowl. The normal CH nuttiness was transformed into a slightly stronger, toasted version. The mild taste of dark-fired burley stayed throughout as well, but was mild enough not to satisfy someone who is looking for an ODF or DSK type experience. (For that I would recommend ODF or DSK; they're both delicious!) Really, my only disappointment with this experiment is that I wanted more mesquite boldness. So, after I smoke this batch (because it really did turn out good), I will try again.
Carter Hall is one of my favorite mixing bases, because I find it to be like vanilla ice cream- good quality, but not very flavorful by itself. I love dark-fired Kentucky (smoke cured) and I love Latakia (smoke cured). Living in the Southwest, I also think any food (especially meat) is improved by Mesquite smoke. Since I am off work (bored witless) due to a back injury, I have plenty of time on my hands and plenty of Valium and Percocet swilling around in the bilge. I'm sure you can guess where this is going.
Yesterday I set my trusty Weber Bar-B-Kettle up for low-heat smoking mode. Built a good old-fashioned, all wood base fire to burn down to coals. When the small stuff was almost ready to break up and mash through into the botttom of the grill, I put three fist-sized chunks on so they could start to smolder. While that was going on, I opened a fresh pouch of Carter hall and wrapped it in a length of aluminum foil, shiny side out. I used a chopstick to poke holes all over that sucker to let the smoke pass through. I put it on a grilling basket to keep it as far away from the heat as possible.
By this time the fire was ready to knock everything but the smoldering "smoking chunks" down through the grill. I set those around the outside circumference of the grill, and put the grill basket in the very middle. I covered the grill, closed the upper and lower vents, and crossed my fingers.
Fast forward to 45 minutes later. Small amounts of mesquite smoke were still wafting out from under the BBQ lid, which I took as a good sign. The lid was only slightly warm to the touch. I pulled the packet off, opened it, and dumped it onto a plate. It did not reek of mesquite as I supposed it would, and thanks to the slight amount of PG in the CH, it was not dried out. It smelled of freshly toasted nuts, and that's about it.
As soon as it was completely cool, I put it into a Mason jar to let it mojenate overnight. This morning, on opening the jar, I got a slightly dark-fired, slightly toasted nut smell, with just barely a hint of a mesquite tang. I loaded up a bowl in one of my smaller billiards I usually use for nothing but Classic Burley Kake. I figured that would be benign enough not to interfere with the flavor of my new FrankenHall.
Smoked the entire bowl, and here is the result: Not nearly as mesquity as I thought it would be. I could not taste it on the tongue, but did get a pleasant, mild taste of it on exhaling through the nose. This happened throughout the entire bowl. The normal CH nuttiness was transformed into a slightly stronger, toasted version. The mild taste of dark-fired burley stayed throughout as well, but was mild enough not to satisfy someone who is looking for an ODF or DSK type experience. (For that I would recommend ODF or DSK; they're both delicious!) Really, my only disappointment with this experiment is that I wanted more mesquite boldness. So, after I smoke this batch (because it really did turn out good), I will try again.
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