Been home roasting coffee for a long while; currently have a load of
sausage in the smoker with hickory/oak mix, and wondered if coffee beans
lend themselve to smoking.

pheasant wrote:

Been home roasting coffee for a long while; currently have a load of
sausage in the smoker with hickory/oak mix, and wondered if coffee beans
lend themselve to smoking.

I've tried this several different ways. First I tried pure
roasted beans. No good. It created a "burnt" type of odor
which I didn't like at all, and it didn't do much for the
food. Then I tried unroasted beans. That wasn't much better.

Finally I tried mixing some beans in with regular wood.
I think the best I can say about it was it wasn't quite
as bad as the other ways.

I like to see that other people are thinking about these
types of things though. I'm still on a long journey of looking
for new and different smoking materials (sort of like when
I was in junior high, except now it's food related).

PS - I like your ID. If you actually have a source for
pheasant, please let me know.

--
Reg email: RegForte (at) (that free MS email service) (dot) com

"Reg" wrote in message
t...
PS - I like your ID. If you actually have a source for
pheasant, please let me know.

My 65 year old Ithaca M37 16 gauge is my source for as many pheasants as I
care to have. We generally can them for use in hot dishes, and pheasant
salad sandwiches. Stir frying the breasts works well too. Would never buy
any, as lean as they be, they'd be tougher than old shoe leather. Could
never figure out why we have so many out of staters paying exhorbitant price
to shoot the dumb things. Ditch parrots are their monker to locals.
Nothing special.
BTWmy wife is a gourmet cook.)

"pheasant" wrote in message
...


Been home roasting coffee for a long while; currently have a load of
sausage in the smoker with hickory/oak mix, and wondered if coffee beans
lend themselve to smoking.




I've tried it and it didn't work for me. Can you say 'burnt coffee'?

Jack

pheasant wrote:

My 65 year old Ithaca M37 16 gauge is my source for as many pheasants as I
care to have. We generally can them for use in hot dishes, and pheasant
salad sandwiches. Stir frying the breasts works well too. Would never buy
any, as lean as they be, they'd be tougher than old shoe leather. Could
never figure out why we have so many out of staters paying exhorbitant price
to shoot the dumb things. Ditch parrots are their monker to locals.
Nothing special.
BTWmy wife is a gourmet cook.)

Ah. I had a gut feeling there was some expertise there.

I've been in search of the better pheasant (and game birds
in general) for years. The first problem is supply. The
commercially available stuff in my area (SF bay area)
generally sucks. The only decent supply of pheasants I've
ever gotten was from hunters. My usual arrangement is
to provide cooking services in exchange for product.

Cooking them is another issue. You'd think that with all of
the trained chefs and cooks in the SFBA you'd find some
knowledge of the subject around. Not the case, unfortunately. It
tends to be served overcooked, overadorned and rather flavor-free.
I had to learn everything on the subject of game birds from
hunters and backyard cooks.

Here's my general method for smoked pheasant. Your comments
and advice are welcome.

I get good results barding them. I take some good quality
fatback and insert it with my smallest needle (smaller is
better so there's no residual unmelted fat).

Brine overnight in the following.

Infuse in one gallon water:

1/2 C + 1 T diamond crystal kosher salt
1/2 C brown sugar
2 T cracked juniper berries
3 T pickling spices

Air dry thoroughly. Smoke at 250-300 F until about 170 F
in the breast. If I'm serving right away sometimes I'll
brush on a little olive oil and finish on the grill.

Hope to see more of you here (and maybe the wife too).

--
Reg email: RegForte (at) (that free MS email service) (dot) com

"Reg" wrote in message
...

I've been in search of the better pheasant (and game birds
in general) for years. The first problem is supply. The
commercially available stuff in my area (SF bay area)
generally sucks. The only decent supply of pheasants I've
ever gotten was from hunters. My usual arrangement is
to provide cooking services in exchange for product.

Cooking them is another issue. You'd think that with all of
the trained chefs and cooks in the SFBA you'd find some
knowledge of the subject around. Not the case, unfortunately. It
tends to be served overcooked, overadorned and rather flavor-free.
I had to learn everything on the subject of game birds from
hunters and backyard cooks.

Here's my general method for smoked pheasant. Your comments
and advice are welcome.

I get good results barding them. I take some good quality
fatback and insert it with my smallest needle (smaller is
better so there's no residual unmelted fat).

Brine overnight in the following.

Infuse in one gallon water:

1/2 C + 1 T diamond crystal kosher salt
1/2 C brown sugar
2 T cracked juniper berries
3 T pickling spices

Air dry thoroughly. Smoke at 250-300 F until about 170 F
in the breast. If I'm serving right away sometimes I'll
brush on a little olive oil and finish on the grill.

Sounds like something to try this fall.

Only problem with hunted birds being the shot. They typically weigh maybe
2-3 pounds, so by the time you've cullled the blood saturated meat, and
tried to get rid of the bb's, it typically takes 3 birds to feed a family of
4. We generally breast them out, fillet off the breasts, then either can or
make soup stock from the thighs, backs, and legs..

I did buy some commercial ones many years ago to serve guests at Christmas,
and paying 35 bucks for 4 birds, decided they would be relegated to hot
dish, sandwich spread, and soup stock in the future.

Give me a nice roasting chicken any day.

pheasant wrote:

Give me a nice roasting chicken any day.

I believe a well roasted chicken is a meal fit for a king, or my family.

I reserve my best wine for roast chicken.

Matthew

--
Thermodynamics and/or Golf for dummies: There is a game
You can't win
You can't break even
You can't get out of the game

On Sat, 24 Sep 2005 22:37:38 -0400, "Matthew L. Martin"
wrote:

pheasant wrote:

Give me a nice roasting chicken any day.

I believe a well roasted chicken is a meal fit for a king, or my family.

I reserve my best wine for roast chicken.

Matthew

Especially when the Weather is too crappy to BBQ and you oven roast a
capon, eh. [I get to put my feet up & The Madam chefs].

Harry

"pheasant" wrote:
[ . . . ]
Only problem with hunted birds being the shot. They typically weigh
maybe 2-3 pounds, so by the time you've cullled the blood saturated meat,
and tried to get rid of the bb's, it typically takes 3 birds to feed a
family of 4. We generally breast them out, fillet off the breasts, then
either can or make soup stock from the thighs, backs, and legs..

What size shot are ya using?

--
Nick. Support severely wounded and disabled War on Terror Veterans and
their families:
http://saluteheroes.org/ & http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/

Thank a Veteran and Support Our Troops. You are not forgotten. Thanks ! ! !

In article ,
"Matthew L. Martin" wrote:

pheasant wrote:

Give me a nice roasting chicken any day.

I believe a well roasted chicken is a meal fit for a king, or my family.

I reserve my best wine for roast chicken.

Matthew

Funny, I reserve my best wine for game I have taken! I truly enjoy a
smoked duck with a nice Russian River Pinot Noir or a pheasant done over
apricot wood with a nice Washington Reiseling but for me (and the Finn
the wonderpup and SWMBO ) the meal is a fine reflection of a good day
afield. Of course I also recc a great burgandy with my Bambi Wellington
but that's not done on the grill so it would be OT.

Allen

Allen wrote:
In article ,
"Matthew L. Martin" wrote:


pheasant wrote:


Give me a nice roasting chicken any day.

I believe a well roasted chicken is a meal fit for a king, or my family.

I reserve my best wine for roast chicken.

Matthew


Funny, I reserve my best wine for game I have taken! I truly enjoy a
smoked duck with a nice Russian River Pinot Noir or a pheasant done over
apricot wood with a nice Washington Reiseling but for me (and the Finn
the wonderpup and SWMBO ) the meal is a fine reflection of a good day
afield. Of course I also recc a great burgandy with my Bambi Wellington
but that's not done on the grill so it would be OT.

Being a non-hunter, myself, I can understand your viewpoint. I've
startled more than a few waitresses by ordering "bambi" when venison is
on the menu:-)

Matthew

--
Thermodynamics and/or Golf for dummies: There is a game
You can't win
You can't break even
You can't get out of the game

Allen wrote:

Funny, I reserve my best wine for game I have taken! I truly enjoy a
smoked duck with a nice Russian River Pinot Noir or a pheasant done over
apricot wood with a nice Washington Reiseling but for me (and the Finn
the wonderpup and SWMBO ) the meal is a fine reflection of a good day
afield. Of course I also recc a great burgandy with my Bambi Wellington
but that's not done on the grill so it would be OT.

Wellington? I take it you mean wrapped in pastry (hey, you never
know what people really mean these days. It could be a reference
to the Battle of Waterloo for all I know).

I've tried that on my grill. It was a no go, but I had to give
it a try at least once. So what if I made a huge mess? All in
a good cause.

Nice food/wine pairings, if I may say.

--
Reg email: RegForte (at) (that free MS email service) (dot) com

wrote in message
...
"pheasant" wrote:
[ . . . ]
Only problem with hunted birds being the shot. They typically weigh
maybe 2-3 pounds, so by the time you've cullled the blood saturated
meat,
and tried to get rid of the bb's, it typically takes 3 birds to feed a
family of 4. We generally breast them out, fillet off the breasts, then
either can or make soup stock from the thighs, backs, and legs..

What size shot are ya using?

7 1/2 until Thanksgiving, then 6 if calm, 5 if windy. Here in ND we still
use Pb.

Matthew L. Martin wrote:

Allen wrote:

In article ,
"Matthew L. Martin" wrote:


pheasant wrote:


Give me a nice roasting chicken any day.


I believe a well roasted chicken is a meal fit for a king, or my family.

I reserve my best wine for roast chicken.

Matthew



Funny, I reserve my best wine for game I have taken! I truly enjoy a
smoked duck with a nice Russian River Pinot Noir or a pheasant done
over apricot wood with a nice Washington Reiseling but for me (and the
Finn the wonderpup and SWMBO ) the meal is a fine reflection of a good
day afield. Of course I also recc a great burgandy with my Bambi
Wellington but that's not done on the grill so it would be OT.


Being a non-hunter, myself, I can understand your viewpoint. I've
startled more than a few waitresses by ordering "bambi" when venison is
on the menu:-)

Matthew

Funny stuff. Try "Flipper" next time. The chicks will dig it.