As mentioned in Rub for Ribs #2, I had been using a recipe from Southern Living since the mid-90’s, with significant changes over the years. That recipe is based on Mexican chili powder, which induces indigestion in older stomachs. Substituting paprika helped, but not enough. I read a BUNCH of recipes and developed Rub #2.

Feedback was positive, but I thought it lacked zing. Last night Lorraine mentioned that she thought it was good, but a bit too bland, and asked me to use a different rub.

I agreed with her assessment and had been thinking about what to do:

• increased salt from 2 Tbsp to 5 Tbsp
• added 2 Tbsp ground coffee
• added 1 Tbsp cumin
• increased black pepper from 1 tsp to 1 Tbsp

The increased salt is both for flavor and to accommodate the larger overall volume. Coffee adds richness to the taste. Cumin adds an aromatic — too much cumin bother’s Lorraine’s stomach, but instead of 1/5 of the blend, it’s 1/15th. The increase in black pepper gives it a bit of a kick.

I’m leaning towards adding 1 tsp cayenne or an extra 1 Tbsp smoked paprika next time, depending on feedback.

Rub for Ribs #3

• 5 Tbsp Kosher salt
• 2 Tbsp ground coffee
• 1 Tbsp allspice
• 1 Tbsp cumin
• 1 Tbsp dried mustard
• 1 Tbsp granulated garlic
• 1 Tbsp ground black pepper
• 1 Tbsp onion powder
• 1 Tbsp paprika
• 1 Tbsp smoked paprika

Put all ingredients in an electric spice grinder and use to mix. Store in airtight container.

Rub liberally all over ribs. For my electric smoker, I smoke at 225 F for 3 hours, then increase the temperature to 275 F for 2 hours. This worked last time, with the ribs finishing (at temperature) an hour early. I dropped the temperature to 125 F and slathered the ribs with commercial barbecue sauce, and kept warm for an extra hour.

Notes

Last time we had baby back ribs from Harris Teeter, which are meaty. The 5 hour smoke had them all but falling off the bone done. Maybe a bit overcooked, but very moist and juicy.

This time? We have Costco ribs that are MEATY. The ends of 2 slabs are 3″ thick. I’m probably going to follow the same schedule and expect they’ll be done. If the meat temperature is not quite high enough, I’ll reduce heat to 225 F instead of 125 F.

I’m still learning to use the smoker, and having different rib volumes requires judgment calls in figuring temperatures and times.

The volume produced by Rub #2 was 9.25 Tbsp, and for this one 15 Tbsp. This pack of ribs is 10 lb whereas the last one was 7 lbs. In each case the volume of rub was sufficient to coat 3 racks without any leftovers.

I’ve been using the same rub for baby back ribs for 30 years. If I remember correctly, our friend Alison found it in Southern Living.

However … time marches on and as we get older, our bodies change, including digestion. The amount of chili powder in the original recipe was not a problem way back when … but now it produces indigestion. Reducing the amount of chili powder and increasing paprika helped, but not enough.

So I read a dozen or so rub recipes, and formulated this one for taste and (hopefully) lack of indigestion production.

This first version is likely to morph over time. We will see.

Rub for Ribs #2

• 2 Tbsp Kosher salt
• 2 Tbsp onion powder
• 1 Tbsp paprika
• 1 Tbsp smoked paprika
• 1 Tbsp dried mustard
• 1 Tbsp granulated garlic
• 1 Tbsp allspice
• 1 tsp ground black pepper

Put all ingredients in an electric spice grinder and use to mix. Alternately, mix very well with a spoon. Store in airtight container.

Rub liberally all over ribs. Cook as desired.

Notes

I didn’t measure the output, but that is calculable based on amounts. It made enough rub to coat 3 racks of baby back ribs, with no leftovers.

I smoke the ribs for 6 to 8 hours in a smoker. During the last 2 hours coat the top side of the ribs liberally with BBQ sauce. I use whatever is cheap — we’ve tried various ones — it all comes out the same.

I have been making this bread for several decades, and was surprised I had not posted it before now.

This recipe came with our Zojirushi bread machine’s book. I may have altered some details, but it’s largely the original recipe. My change in recent years is to use the machine to make the dough, then bake in the oven in bread pans.

Italian Wheat Bread

• 1-1/2 cups water
• 3 Tbsp sugar
• 1-1/2 tsp salt
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 tsp basil
• 6 to 8 cloves garlic, pressed (optional)
• 2-2/3 cups bread flour
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 tsp active dry yeast

Original Instructions: Place the ingredients in the bread machine in the order listed, or in the order specified by the manufacturer. Select the Wheat cycle and press Start. Makes a 2 lb loaf.

What I do: Pour hot tap water into the bread pan, then add sugar, salt, olive oil, basil, & garlic. Layer flours on top, then sprinkle with yeast. Hot water makes a more consistent rise, but may initially be too hot for the yeast. Keeping the water and yeast initially separated fixes this problem.

Select the Dough cycle and press Start. On my machine, this is 1 hour 55 minutes long.

Grease two 5×9″ bread pans. Preheat oven to 350 F.

Remove dough from machine, cut it in half. Shape into loaves and place in the prepared bread pans. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on wire racks. Makes two 1 lb loaves.

The basis for this recipe is from Martha Stewart. I modified the ingredients slightly, and cleaned up the instructions. The original instructions were too wordy.

Chicken Crepes

• Simple Crepes (recipe below)
• Gruyere Béchamel (recipe below)
• 2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, pressed
• 11 oz frozen spinach, thawed, drained
• 3 cups cooked chicken, shredded or sliced
• 1 cup Gruyere, shredded
• Chopped fresh parsley, for serving

Preheat oven to 400 F with rack in center.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high. Add garlic and cook until golden, 1 to 2 minutes. Add spinach and stir until heated through and combined with garlic. Let cool. Transfer to a work surface, chop, and set aside.

Mix 1-1/2 cups béchamel with chicken. Working with one at a time, place crepe on a work surface. Arrange 1/4 cup chicken mixture and 1 heaping Tbsp spinach down center of crepe; roll into a cylinder. Transfer, seam-side down, to a 9×13″ baking dish; assemble and arrange more crepes, leaving 1/2″ in between each. Spoon more béchamel on top and sprinkle with cheese. Bake until bubbly, about 15 minutes. Switch oven to broiler setting and cook until browning in spots, about 5 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool slightly. Sprinkle with parsley.

This recipe makes enough filling for 12 crepes.

Simple Crepes

• 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp granulated sugar
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• 1-1/2 cups whole milk, room temperature
• 4 large eggs, room temperature
• 3 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted, plus more for brushing

For the above chicken filling, make a triple batch of crepes shells.

In a stand mixer, blend flour, sugar, salt, milk, eggs, and butter until smooth, about 30 seconds. Refrigerate for at 30 minutes, or up to 1 day.

Stir for a few seconds before using. Heat an 8″ nonstick skillet over medium. Quickly pour 1/3 cup batter into center of skillet, tilting and swirling pan until batter evenly coats bottom.

Cook until crepe is golden in places on bottom and edges begin to lift from pan, 1 to 1-1/2 minutes. Use an offset spatula to lift one edge of crepe, then use your fingers to gently flip crepe.

Cook crepe on second side until just set and golden in places on bottom, about 30 to 60 seconds. Slide crepe onto a paper towel-lined plate.

Repeat with remaining batter, coating pan with more butter as needed, and stacking crepes directly on top of one another. Let cool to room temperature before using.

Gruyere Béchamel

• 3 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 4 Tbsp all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp Dijon mustard
• 4 cups whole milk
• Pinch grated nutmeg
• 1 cup shredded Gruyere cheese (about 4 oz)
• Coarse salt & ground black pepper

Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat until foamy. Add flour and cook, stirring frequently, until mixture is pale golden and has a slightly nutty aroma, about 5 minutes. Stir in mustard.

Whisking constantly, pour in milk and whisk until smooth. Cook over medium-high, whisking often along the bottom of pan, until boiling, about 7 minutes.

Reduce heat to maintain a simmer. Add nutmeg and cook, stirring occasionally, until sauce thickens to the consistency of thin yogurt, about 10 minutes. Stir in Gruyere. Season with salt and pepper.

I was looking for a new wheat bread recipe and found one I liked. I made a few adjustments, including adding baking cocoa to the bread.

Honey Whole Wheat Bread

• 3/4 cup milk, warmed to 90 to 95 F
• 3 Tbsp honey
• 2 Tbsp butter, cut in pieces
• 1 Tbsp baking cocoa
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 1 tsp salt
• 1-1/2 cups bread flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 tsp bread machine yeast

Put the ingredients in a bread machine in the order listed. Set the machine cycle for “Dough” and press Start.

After the cycle completes, grease a 9×5″ bread pan. Form the dough into a lozenge and place in the pan. Let rise in a warm place for 1 hour, or until doubled in bulk.

Preheat oven to 375 F. Bake the bread in the middle of the oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until it sounds hollow when thumped. Cool on a baking rack.

This recipe, originally titled Maple Deer Sausage, is originally for venison, but it works great for just pork.

Breakfast Sausage 2

• 5 lbs pork shoulder, cut in strips to fit in a grinder
• 2 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp dried marjoram
• 2 Tbsp kosher salt
• 2 Tbsp rubbed sage
• 1 Tbsp fine ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup real maple syrup
• 1/2 cup ice water

Grind the meat through a medium or coarse plate. The stuffer on my grinder requires a plate be installed, so I will do medium/coarse or coarse/coarse.

Combine the spices in a small container and mix with the 1/2 cup of ice water and the 1/2 cup real maple syrup.

Pour the spice mixture into the ground meat and mix thoroughly for at least 2 minutes. Use your hands for mixing to assure even distribution.

Once the sausage is fully mixed, stuff it immediately into casings and cool it down. I use smaller casings (22 to 24 mm).

Alternately, this works well as patties — I use 1/4 lb meat in a hamburger press for form the patties.

Note: The original recipe called for 3 lbs venison plus 2 lbs fatty pork shoulder or 1 lb lean pork + 1 lb pork fat.

I’ve wanted to make smoked kielbasa for a while, but I’ve had mixed results with keeping an even temperature in my charcoal smoker, so I didn’t make it. However, the recent purchase of an electric smoker spurred me to make kielbasa, and this one is very successful.

Smoked Kielbasa

This recipe is an amalgamation of several recipes I read. One called for nutmeg, others called for marjoram, and some called for Accent (MSG). I didn’t use nutmeg or Accent, and substituted for the marjoram as I didn’t have any.

I expect to make adjustments to this recipe, so this will definitely change.

• 10 lbs coarsely ground pork
• 2 Tbsp ground black pepper
• 2 Tbsp minced garlic
• 3 tsp granulated garlic (yes, 2 garlics!)
• 3 tsp Kosher salt
• 3 tsp Prague Powder #1
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp tarragon

I used peppercorns and put everything in my spice grinder, e.g., a Mr. Coffee rotary coffee grinder. This did NOT work well, as the result is a paste and the garlic did not chop up. I moved the mixture to Oskar (chopper) and it worked out ok. Next time I’ll grind the peppercorns first, and will press the garlic, then use Oskar to mix it.

Note: The recipe I cobbled together calls for 3 tsp marjoram, which I didn’t have as I didn’t put it on my shopping list. I substituted 1 tsp tarragon, using a lesser amount. For the next batch I will have marjoram on hand.

After grinding a pork shoulder, I had 9 lbs of meat, and went ahead with the full amount of seasoning. I used the medium grinding plate — next time I may use the coarse, as the meat goes through the unit twice.

I put 1/4 of the meat into a large bowl and spread 1/3 of the seasoning mix across it. This was repeated twice more, with the remaining meat on top. The idea is to distribute the seasoning as much as possible before mixing. Then I mixed the meat by hand for a couple of minutes. Any time I spotted a clump of seasoning, I mixed it in.

My stuffing attachment on the grinder requires a plate, so I used the coarse plate. It took about 20 minutes to stuff natural hog casings. Collagen casings are far easier to use, but I don’t like the texture as much.

The sausage went into the electric smoker on 225 F for 3 hours. The target temperature is 160 F, and all sausages were in the 165 to 168 F range. I save the oak cubes I use in winemaking, drying them out. These work very nicely for smoking.

Next Time

Next time I’ll grind the peppercorns and press the garlic prior to making the seasoning mix.

IMO the black pepper is a good amount, but I’ll see what my wife thinks.

I will definitely have marjoram next time. I may add nutmeg.

Since one or both of my sons will probably be involved, we’ll probably make at least 20 lbs of sausage.

9 lbs of sausage may sound like a lot, but I have a feeling it will go VERY quickly.

Lorraine likes Shawarma seasoning, which we purchase as Neomonde and Sassool, both Mediterranean restaurant/deli’s in Raleigh and Cary, respectively. We use it in a variety of meats, including pressured cooked stew beef, tacos, meatloaf, hamburgs, etc.

We ran out a few weeks ago, so I decided to try making it. I started by researching recipes, narrowing the search to two that I liked best. I’m using these as a starting point, and will adjust the blend over successive batches.

Shawarma Seasoning

This is an ongoing experiment. Recipes #1 and #2 are the recipes I liked best. Batch #1 is the first batch I made, and Batch #2 is what I’ll make when we run out of #1.

The amounts are in teaspoons.

This page will be updated with each successive batch.

Batch #1: The cloves was a bit too prominent for my taste. It’s one of those spices that goes from “needs more” to “too much” very quickly.

Batch #2: I decided to bump up the cayenne cinnamon a bit I don’t want it hot, but a bit of cayenne accents the other flavors. I’m considering adding 1/2 tsp cardamom.

It’s been 4 years since I did any real experimentation with brisket. I make brisket 4 or 5 times a year, based upon the first 4 recorded experiments, but haven’t kept written notes. After reviewing the first 4 brisket recipes and thinking about other results, I came to a few conclusions:

• vinegar is absolutely essential
• brown sugar is essential
• some type of heat, either powder or sauce, is essential
• Hoisin sauce gives it a nice tang, so it’s essential
• Use of a rub is inconclusive, regardless of what I said in Take #4

This one has a thick sauce, which I coated the meat with. It takes an hour for the crockpot to fully heat up, so my guess is the sauce will act as a rub. Time will tell.

06/15/2025: I made some final tweaks to the recipe, which are reflected below.

Crockpot Brisket in BBQ Sauce, take #5

BRISKET:

• 3.25 lb brisket, weight after fat removed

BBQ SAUCE:

• 1/4 cup Balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup red wine
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1/2 cup barbecue sauce
• 1/2 cup hoisin sauce
• 1/4 cup prepared yellow mustard
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 Tbsp paprika
• 1 Tbsp baking cocoa
• 2 Tbsp dehydrated onion (heaping)
• 1 tsp dried mustard
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp granulated garlic
• 1 tsp seasoned salt
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/4 tsp Indian chili powder (or cayenne or other spice)
• 8 squirts pepper sauce (Texas Pete, Tabasco, etc.)

Per usual, I removed all visible fat pockets, which reduced a larger roast down to 3.25 lbs.

Poured all sauce ingredient into a crockpot, stirring well. Place the brisket on top, then rolled to ensure it was coated. The brisket is a bit wide so I squished it to fit.

Set the crock pot temperature on High for 2 hours, then on low for 6 hours.

I thicken the sauce on the stove over low heat for 20 minutes.

Notes:

Any vinegar will work. I like the flavor Balsamic adds, and I have rice wine vinegar handy. Cider vinegar is fine.

Any red wine is fine. White is ok as well.

Hoisin sauce is essential, as it adds a tang to the flavor. Alternately oyster sauce (not oyster flavored sauce) will work.

I may bump up the baking cocoa next time. Last time I used 1 tsp, this time 1 Tbsp. Next time? Maybe 2 Tbsp.

More hot spice and/or sauce can be added, depending on the audience. I use Indian chili powder as it’s handy. Chipotle chili powder will add a smoky flavor.

I decided I want to make a flat bread to go with a version of Gyros … looking for something new, I found several recipes, and decided I liked this one best. Yeah, I tweaked a couple of things.

It’s very easy to make. Since the bread dry-fries in a skillet, the oven is not used, which makes it a summer bread recipe.

Flat Bread

• 1 cup warm water
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1-1/2 tsp coarse salt
• 3 cups flour
• 2 tsp bread yeast

I make the dough in the bread machine: Add water, sugar, and salt to the pan. Add flour, then yeast on top. Set for Dough cycle.

After the Dough cycle finishes, remove the dough from the pan. Shape it into log and cut into 4 equal pieces.

Heat a large skillet over medium to medium-high heat until hot.

Roll the first piece of dough into a ball, then roll into a large circle on a lightly floured surface. The bread will puff up when cooked, so roll it to no more than 1/4″ thick.

Dry-fry (no oil) in the hot skillet for 1 to 2 minutes until puffy and browned on the bottom. Flip and dry-fry another 1 to 2 minutes until lightly browned on the bottom. Because stoves and pans vary, some experimentation with heat level and time is required.

Remove the bread to a rack to cool. Repeat with the remaining 3 pieces of dough.

Notes:

The first time I made this, I used bread flour and the bread is chewy.

The second time I used half bread flour, half all-purpose flour as I can out of bread flour. We’ll see how that comes out. If I like the texture better, the third time will be with all-purpose flour.

My changes to this recipe include tweaking the sugar and salt, and adapting to make the dough with the bread machine. This recipe can be hand-kneaded if desired.