Charcutepalooza April: The hot smoking challenge

This post is about the making of a sandwich.  Michael Ruhlman’s eggs Benedict from scratch, to be specific.  When he posted about it  the day before this month’s Charcutepalooza challenge (hot smoking) was announced, I wondered if smoked bacon might figure and was delighted that it did!  Neil and I decided to smoke some salmon as well as bacon, and since neither our barbecue or oven will go to a low enough temperature to cold smoke, we were thrilled that the Apprentice Challenge was to hot smoke some salmon.

It’s a pretty easy process. First you cure the salmon in salt and spices/ flavourings. We followed the recipe in Charcuterie using kosher salt, pink salt, dark brown sugar, pepper, all spice, bay leaves, cloves and mace. Since I was responsible for this and my head still isn’t quite right, I forgot the rum 🙁 Next time…

The salmon stays in the cure for 36 hours and then you rinse it, as you get the smoking station ready…

And, ahem, you remove the pinbones that someone else was supposed to remove before the fish went in its cure…

Fire up the barbecue…

And you’re good to go!  We smoked it at between 150 and 180F for a couple of hours.

And voilà:

I am not a huge salmon fan (in fact, I really dislike it), but tasted it anyway. It tasted… too fishy for me.  I served the rest of it to Neil with the remainder of Dorie Greenspan’s quinoa, fruit and nut salad (that was very pretty!) and then on top of Nigella’s potato cakes with a dollop of sour cream:

Gorgeous (if I do say so myself!). And again, so easy!

Next up, the Charcuterie Challenge – hot smoked bacon.

We have smoked bacon before – coincidentally for another Michael Ruhlman “from scratch” challenge – the BLT – with some success but we do not own a proper smoker.  We looked at various ones recommended by the Charcutepalooza crew but even our tiny pork loin wouldn’t fit in the one that was within our budget (they were very shallow and, well, a pork loin is round…) and we simply do not have the space for a larger one.  As we were leaving the store, I spied something that we may well be kicked out of Charcutepalooza for 1. Thinking about, 2. Purchasing and 3. Using (with much success!):

Sorry… (and I am not an Emeril fan. At all). But you know what? It worked. It’s a foil bag with the seasoning – hickory – inside already that you put your meat or fish or whatever in and smoke it in your oven or on a BBQ. Since our BBQ was already smoking the salmon, we used the oven. There was a bit of residual smell in the house the next day but it wasn’t too bad. So for $14 for three bags (enough for tons of bacon) this was a good option.

The pork loin is brined for48 hours – we used sage, thyme, sugar, pink salt, kosher salt, and garlic in our brine, as per Charcuterie.  You can find Ruhlman’s post on Canadian bacon here.

After it was done in its brine bath, we rinsed it and then it sat in the fridge overnight. Then we were ready to test out the dodgy looking Emeril smoker bags…

It seemed WAY too easy.  But 45 minutes later, we had a beautiful hickory smoked loin…

And what to do with a beautiful hunk of Canadian bacon?

Well Ruhlman’s eggs Benedict from scratch was calling my name. We’ve made hollandaise sauce before too (Neil is pretty good at making it) so I just had to figure out the English muffins.

The first time I made them, I followed Ruhlman’s recipe and used muffin rings with some success:

I cooked these the same day I did the dough (resting it for an hour) and they were somewhat… doughy.  Proper English muffins that I grew up with (that were just called muffins since there were no cake-type muffins on the scene back then) didn’t have those holes in them and they just didn’t feel or taste right.  They didn’t taste bad, just wrong.

The next time I made them, I did the dough the night before, and brought it out an hour before I was to cook them. After an hour, the dough was still cold and hard as a rock and I despaired. I set it aside and came back to it after a couple of hours (total resting time out of fridge = 3 hours) and it was malleable and able to be divided up into muffin-sized pieces. I went free-form this time, using 1/4 cup of the dough for each muffin (I used more when I did the rings because I felt like I needed to fill them).

I also didn’t use cornmeal because the non-stick pan I was using seemed to make them crispy enough on the outside without it.

These ones were MUCH better – much more like what I remember English muffins to be like in both taste and texture:

Perfect when toasted extra crispy.  Now about that eggs Benny from scratch…

All that was left to do was make the hollandaise, cook the bacon and poach a couple of eggs.

I actually followed Ruhlman’s recipe for hollandaise from Ratio word for word and ended up ditching the lot.  It had way too much butter in it and never thickened (you can find his post about hollandaise sauce here).  Neil came to my rescue (he was poaching the eggs and they were done and the muffins were toasted and the bacon was cooked and I was like “My photos – it’s a disaster!”).  Neil stepped in and made the hollandaise with no recipe, eyeballing the ingredients. And it was perfect. I am very lucky!

UPDATE: Michael asked me on Twitter this morning “How can there be too much butter?” To which I replied “I know, right?” Sounds ludicrous.  But 2 sticks of butter for 3 yolks just was too much. The yolks, admittedly, were on the small side.  Since I have always just watched Neil make the sauce, I didn’t trust my judgment and just kept on adding the butter, even as the sauce got more and more watery. So I don’t know what happened there. I will definitely make it again, following those instructions and make a note of what happens when. But for those of you who have made it from scratch before, you know there is not much time to take notes or photos 😉

Now THAT’S a sandwich!

I could eat this for breakfast, lunch and dinner. And the satisfaction that we did everything but raise the pig and chicken (oh and the cow for the butter..) made it taste extra special. I loved this challenge because it made me make English muffins. And eat them with bacon and eggs and velvety hollandaise.

The “official signup” for Charcutepalooza is over (see who signed up here) but you can still join in the fun – purchase Charcuterie on Amazon (affiliate link)

 

42 thoughts on “Charcutepalooza April: The hot smoking challenge”

  1. HA! I’ve totally seen those Emeril bags and have been curious about them. I like that they go in the oven and are a pretty good size. I’m curious enough to try them out for sure.

    Reply
  2. Oh, I doubt very much that you will get kicked out of Charcutepalooza, in fact you should be commended for your resourcefulness! Everything looks fantastic…love the photo of the salmon on the potato cakes. I’m used to the more *holey* English Muffin but certainly willing to take a bite out of your sandwich 🙂 Great job Mardi!

    Reply
  3. Mardi–Lovely post! The English muffins look wonderful. Love the photo of them all puffed up on the skillet. These have been on my list for a while. I love that you used the Emeril bag! LOL! I did not even know that such a thing existed. It is a great option for those who are hesitant to buy more expensive equipment or for those with no space for more gadgets (plus easy clean up!).

    Reply
  4. I did the eggs benidict too – who could resist Ruhlman’s post! We ate before I could even take the picture. I’d never made English Muffins before, and I am totally hooked. Next time I’ll try resting the dough overnight, and forgoing the cornmeal. Beautiful post!

    Reply
  5. I just love these charcuterie challenges. They always get me inspired….and then of course, I remember the myriad of other, more boring, things I have to do and the dream is gone.
    On a side note: I use 1 stick to 4 yolks for my hollandaise and I love it.

    Reply
  6. Oh Mardi, I’m laughing over here! The smoker bag is a hoot…glad it worked so well. I, too, don’t have a proper smoker, so my gas grill is getting quite the work out! Alas, I ruined my hollandaise also (scrambled the eggs)…but I strained it and it was just ok. Definitely need to practice with this one. Your final product looks amazing!!

    Reply
  7. No breakfast yet for Barb and I would kill for that eggs benedict right about now. I’ve seen those bags…I might smoke after all because I have the room but I’m not ready to invest in a smoker just yet. I do love salmon though…will have to give this a try!

    Reply
  8. Oh that salmon on top of the potato cakes looks wonderful! Then there’s the benny… wow! Mouthwatering!

    Reply
  9. First, I think that little bag was a great idea, how easy! Our pork loin *just* fit in the smoke stove-top smoker, but it was real close to not fitting.

    Those homemade english muffins, the hollandaise… drool. I could really go for it right now.

    Your salmon looks absolutely beautiful, what an awesome photo!

    Reply
  10. I think the smoker bag was genius! Everything looks great Mardi…I love the idea of eggs benedict made with homemade everything…too bad you don’t like salmon, though, because yours looks really good 🙂

    Reply
  11. Hey Ladies…Mr. Neil here…remember me?

    It is MOI who is Mr. CHarcuterie and smoker, ahem. (Just ask Ethan.) And apparently fairly mean with the hollaindaise.

    Just sayin’. 😉

    Reply
  12. Yummo…….makes my toasted sandwich look a tad boring in comparison….even if it does have smoked salmon on it!!

    I get my raw biodynamic milk direct form the farm…….legal way round it is I own shares in the cow……maybe there is something along the same lines in your area.

    Hmmmmmm…….can just picture Chookingham Palace in the back yard, right beside the pear tree!!

    Reply
  13. Wow, I view these “from scratch” posts with an amount of sceptism, and came in expecting that you had just made the hollandaise, but this is the real deal. Very impressive.

    Just a note: If you have too much butter in your hollandaise then it will actually become too thick, not too liquid (well, to a point). The only way that will happen is if you add the butter too quickly, and it splits. We work on 100g butter and ~7.5ml vinegar reduction per egg, which is well in line with your 3 yolks to 2 sticks of butter.

    Reply

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.