Speaker 1: 0:00

So welcome back to episode number 31 of the Okie Smoking Podcast. In our last episode we talked about our beer brats that we made with the beer boiled onions. Those turned out fantastic. And also our Tropical Storm, which was some pineapple jalapeno hot sauce. That's really good. I've got some bottled and I haven't opened it. And I bet now it's even better because what I've found is, after they set for a while, some of the heat builds up a little bit, some of the flavors build up a little bit. So I think right after you let it set for a little while, it is even better. But on our upcoming episode I also made another hot sauce which is black, not black Hickory, it is some hickory smoke.

Speaker 1: 0:51

We're going to be talking a little bit about that, get Dolores' thoughts on that hot sauce coming up as well, as the holidays are just around the corner. So I wanted to talk a little bit about brining. You got Thanksgiving coming up In the near future. It'll be here before you knowining. You got Thanksgiving coming up In the near future. It'll be here before you know it. You've got Christmas. So dry brine or wet brine which one's better? Is there a difference? Some of the pros, some of the cons. We're going to go ahead and discuss some of that. We've also got a couple of texts that came in, one from Georgia and one from Illinois. Haven't got many texts, but we're going to go ahead. If that's you stick around, we'll discuss your text as well, coming up in this episode of 31.

Speaker 2: 1:35

Time to fire up that grill. From smoked pork to smash burgers, outdoor cooking just tastes better. This is the Okie Smokin' Podcast, and here's your host, john Barry.

Speaker 1: 1:55

Yeah, so sitting right beside me here I got my co-host beautiful wife Dolores. How are you doing today?

Speaker 3: 2:02

I'm doing good. It's another beautiful day outside.

Speaker 1: 2:06

Yes, it's fall. The temperature's gotten a little bit cooler. Actually made some chili. Yeah, made some chili this last week. That was real good. Just threw that in the instant pot. It was kind of just an evening thing. Got some beans Bush's beans used some pinto beans, some chili beans, some hamburger meat put in there. It wasn't keto, she did not have any, I didn't have any, but everybody ate it up. Topped it with some cheese. That was fantastic.

Speaker 3: 2:37

And crackers.

Speaker 2: 2:38

Yeah, you know when you think of.

Speaker 1: 2:40

September and October football and chili.

Speaker 3: 2:44

Yes.

Speaker 1: 2:45

And of course, as it gets cooler and snowflakes fall and that kind of thing Potato soup, all sorts of things, potato soup season.

Speaker 1: 2:52

Yep Haven't been having chili or potato soup in a while, so we've got that Also in this episode I was going to talk a little bit about. There is some we talked in the past about I think it was the top five or top 10 restaurants that were on Yelp. There wasn't any in Oklahoma and one of them is in Austin, or not Austin, dallas that me and you're going to go to and test.

Speaker 3: 3:15

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 3:16

And we're going to bring a review here and let you guys know what we thought about it.

Speaker 3: 3:19

That's in November, right.

Speaker 1: 3:21

Yeah, november when we hit that one. I can't remember what that's called. I should have had that. But we're going to also talk about a few that have made a website Travel Oklahoma. Just a few of the top barbecue places here that we need to try.

Speaker 3: 3:37

Yeah, we'll go back to the. What was that place that we tried?

Speaker 1: 3:42

Biggs, bibbs, bibbs, I thinkgs Bibbs, biggs, bibbs, I think it's Bibbs. They're not actually on this list.

Speaker 3: 3:51

They should be this list came out.

Speaker 1: 3:54

It's not real new. It came out within the last year, though, I believe, so we're going to look at that Because they're really good.

Speaker 3: 4:00

Yeah, Really really good.

Speaker 1: 4:02

So let's go ahead and start out by talking about our new hot sauce that we made, and it is hickory smoke.

Speaker 3: 4:12

Yeah, I liked it. It tasted good.

Speaker 1: 4:15

So what I wanted was a hot sauce. I was wanting a chipotle chipotle hot sauce. Well, chipotle peppers are hard to come by, but of course you can make them yourself, and that's something I like to do, because a lot of people don't really know A very ripe jalapeno that's typically turned red, and then you smoke it. You smoke it for a while, it's a smoked jalapeno and if you add that to the hot sauce, you're going to have a smoky hot sauce. I could not find any chipotle peppers. I don't have any ripe jalapeno peppers to smoke, so I went ahead and used some New York chilies just some dried chilies and some arbol peppers and mixed those up, did about half and half and put a few other ingredients in it and then the secret liquid smoke.

Speaker 3: 5:09

That tasted really good. It tasted smoky.

Speaker 1: 5:11

Yeah, and I just used a half a teaspoon, which made four five-ounce bottles, and this one has been your favorite.

Speaker 3: 5:20

So far.

Speaker 1: 5:22

So let's go down your top favorites. We've made four hot sauces. Let's go over them. We've got blueberry habanero. We've got tropical storm jalapeno. We've got the real hot one, the japanese pepper yeah that one's no and then we've got the new one, the hickory smoke. So starting what's your least favorite?

Speaker 3: 5:52

I thought you made a a reaper one too and the how and the reaper yeah, my favorite is the Smokin' one and then also the Tropical.

Speaker 1: 6:03

So the Blueberry comes in. Third, yeah. Wow, it has fell in the rankings. And then the Japanese was Wales. You had Dead Last right.

Speaker 3: 6:15

That one was zero.

Speaker 1: 6:17

And then the Carolina Reaper. I actually rank it above the Japanese. The.

Speaker 3: 6:22

Carolina Reaper was the one that I tasted off your plate, and that one was hot.

Speaker 1: 6:26

It was hot, but it was good it was good, but it was hot. It was really really good, but the.

Speaker 3: 6:31

Japanese one. That's a no-go unless you tone down those peppers and put more raspberry.

Speaker 1: 6:39

Right.

Speaker 3: 6:40

We'll try to kink it up.

Speaker 1: 6:42

Yeah, and I think I could come out with a little different, because I've had some people say that blueberry hot sauce is quite hot.

Speaker 3: 6:49

Really, To me it doesn't taste that hot.

Speaker 1: 6:53

It don't taste that hot to me, I mean we have a high tolerance of yeah. But I think it would be good if I had a second version at some point to where it's more milder version. Yeah, you know, just more blueberry taste, less spice. That's something to consider. But these are my three final hot sauces it's the tropical storm, it's the blueberry habanero and the hickory smoke, and then we're not doing any more for the and then you're doing the reaper one also next year, that's next year yeah, so for the year, for the season, we're gonna start growing our peppers.

Speaker 1: 7:28

You're gonna grow the peppers yeah, uh, fresh and uh, and then we'll be making those, because if you you can do it cheaper, it's going to be better.

Speaker 3: 7:38

And you guys the reaper it grows like on a bush and it's so pretty.

Speaker 1: 7:43

We've grown them before and they look really great, even like in your front yard, if you have a rock garden.

Speaker 3: 7:48

Yeah, it's really pretty.

Speaker 1: 7:49

Or just something with flowers and put it out there.

Speaker 3: 7:52

It looks great. We'll take pictures of it whenever it does bloom and stuff like that, and we'll put it on our site so you can see it.

Speaker 1: 8:00

It looks pretty. It is very, they very look good. And then we're going to do ghost peppers as well, and then, if we do like the last time, we did so many of them and we were giving them away froze some, but I think I'm going to. What do you call it? Dry them.

Speaker 3: 8:22

Oh, yeah, yeah, Because. Because I mean I have one in the the oven right there.

Speaker 1: 8:24

it's a dehydrator dehydrated or dried up peppers so that they're going to be able to preserve and then during the off season you will, you will still have some, you can make the sauces during the off season and things, and We'll have to get something that seals it really good though. Yeah, we've got vacuum sealers and then we'll start making some salsa. And then the salsa will be coming.

Speaker 3: 8:48

One step at a time.

Speaker 1: 8:49

She's wanting the salsa, so I guess we need to start working on that.

Speaker 3: 8:54

We need a dusty tin penny. We buy his tomatoes from them. He's always over-blooming the tomatoes, yep.

Speaker 1: 9:03

And that's what we do. That's what we're going to do. Get it from the local Oklahoma farmers. So really enjoy doing that. But that's our newest hot sauce, the hickory smoke. But what we're going to talk about in this episode also is the holidays are coming up. Are you excited?

Speaker 3: 9:20

Yes, halloween is my favorite.

Speaker 1: 9:22

Oh Halloween, I love Halloween. That brings me to a question that we had before we get into that. We did have someone text in it says from this one's from Illinois. It said hi guys Love the show. Does the Lures know of any keto Halloween ideals? Halloween's coming up.

Speaker 3: 9:41

Yes, I do. Actually, sometimes I make these, you know, stuff out bell peppers, right. Well, I remember when I made the pumpkin ones.

Speaker 1: 9:51

Yes.

Speaker 3: 9:52

You cut a little. Okay, get the bell pepper and you could do any color you know. Cut the little like jack-o'-lantern face out of it right and then you stuff it with like hamburger meat and rice or whatever you want inside there and then you bake it in the oven and it kind of like shrivels it and it looks like a little jack-o'-lantern so it is a jack-o'-lantern made out of a bell pepper yeah, it's cute and you just put some meat and cheese.

Speaker 1: 10:18

Yeah, blue pat debt, Like you know like the well mine would be, cauliflower rice, you know. And how many carbs would you say one of those contain?

Speaker 3: 10:28

You know, I don't know, I don't know how many carbs the bell pepper is. You'd have to look that up. But you do the cauliflower rice and then I always get the frozen packet and just stick it in there. So you just go buy that.

Speaker 1: 10:45

We're going to have to have you make some of these so we can get some photos up.

Speaker 3: 10:48

Put those on the site. Yeah, and then I'll put the carb content on it too.

Speaker 1: 10:52

Yeah, we get the carb content when you make that. We'll mention that in a later episode as well. Get the full carb stats on that. So a little Halloween jack-o'-lantern.

Speaker 3: 11:02

I've also seen somebody make like a devil's egg and they made like a spider on top of it, which was with just black olives.

Speaker 1: 11:11

Oh, that sounds good. I like black olives.

Speaker 3: 11:13

I could do that on there. Very nice Halloween's coming up, so we'll be talking some more halloween treats and and you know you could also make like a meatloaf with bacon wrapped and make a mummy, you know wow that's keto. That's keto. And you have the little like the little onions that's the eyes, you know and you wrap it. We could do that too. I've've done it before.

Speaker 1: 11:39

Well, there you go From Illinois. There's an answer to your question. We got another text coming in from Georgia. We'll get to that one here in a little bit, but let's go ahead and talk about brining techniques that we use for the holidays. Now, when it comes to brining turkey or chicken, there's a couple of different methods that I was wanting to mention in this episode wet brining or dry brining.

Speaker 3: 12:04

Let's say we've done the wet brining before with our turkey right, or we soaked it with the salt and everything. Is that the brining that you're talking about Like the salt?

Speaker 1: 12:14

If you just add the salt but don't use any liquid, that would be the dry brining. I think that's the one we did, isn't it?

Speaker 3: 12:20

No.

Speaker 1: 12:21

I thought we put it in a pot and we soaked it. It's been a while. I don't know if we've done that here recently.

Speaker 3: 12:27

That's when we deep fried it.

Speaker 1: 12:30

Yeah, I remember now.

Speaker 3: 12:31

Absolutely. Deep fried turkey is so good. It's really good. That's my top one is deep fried turkey.

Speaker 1: 12:40

Deep fried turkey.

Speaker 3: 12:42

Yes.

Speaker 1: 12:43

Well, let's go ahead and talk just a bit about what wet brining is. It pretty much is just you add water, about a cup of salt, you can add some seasonings, things like that. You can put it in an ice chest, you can put it in a bag or, like you said, a big pan. That's what we used was I think we had a big like a witch's pot.

Speaker 1: 13:03

Yeah exactly and we put the turkey in it, covered it with the water, probably added a couple of cups of salt. We had cut up lemons, put some herbs in it peppercorns we had garlic, garlic in there Garlic. We had garlic in there Garlic. Really just put everything in there.

Speaker 3: 13:19

We've also done it with the chicken, the chicken before.

Speaker 1: 13:23

And then just let it sit 12, 24 hours before you cook it.

Speaker 3: 13:26

Exactly.

Speaker 1: 13:28

And when you deep fry it or whatever you do, it comes out real juicy.

Speaker 3: 13:32

Oh my God, Turns out bomb.

Speaker 1: 13:34

Yep, and that's one way to do it. The other method is dry brining, which is similar. Now, one of the things I do like about dry brining versus, you know, the wet brining method is it takes up less space. All you've got to do and you use I don't know about a half a teaspoon, or what did you say about a tablespoon one tablespoon of salt for about every five pounds of meat. I never measure, but you just go ahead and sprinkle that on there and just rub it completely. You can also add other spices.

Speaker 3: 14:10

So is the dry brining and also the wet one just for like poultry, or is it could be?

Speaker 1: 14:16

any kind of meat. No, you can use it. It's probably more common in lean meats like turkey chicken pork, but you could use it on other things even beef.

Speaker 3: 14:31

Would it taste weird on beef though?

Speaker 1: 14:33

No, I don't know, I've never really done it on beef actually.

Speaker 3: 14:36

We need to try it one day yeah.

Speaker 1: 14:38

It's just something. I've used more or less on poultry items, but it would work good with, like, some pork chops.

Speaker 3: 14:44

Oh, that sounds really good, I've done chicken.

Speaker 1: 14:47

But I really enjoy dry brining and there's a benefit to both of them. They both have great. When you dry brine it, it brings the moisture out and just like if you're wet brining it. But let's talk a little bit about one key difference when you talk about this If we do cons and pros, pros and cons If you wet brine a turkey and you cook it, it is not going to be as crispy as if you dry brine it. So when you go ahead and put the salt on it and let it just dry brine in your refrigerator for overnight, it's actually going to crisp up that skin.

Speaker 1: 15:30

Stan, I like crispy skin so dry brine gets a point for that.

Speaker 3: 15:34

That's definitely a high, high point on mine, then.

Speaker 1: 15:38

It kind of makes it a little crisper. It really does do well in that department.

Speaker 3: 15:43

Oh, and whenever you kind of off the subject on here, but it's still related to turkey, Whenever you smoked a turkey, I was so against it because one year I used to work at a place and they smoked turkey and stuff like that and I thought it tasted so gross.

Speaker 1: 16:04

They didn't smoke it right.

Speaker 3: 16:05

When you did it it tasted good, so I was just wondering. I wonder what they did wrong.

Speaker 1: 16:10

Maybe didn't add any seasoning.

Speaker 3: 16:13

I had seasoning.

Speaker 1: 16:14

Too smoky.

Speaker 3: 16:15

It was gross. I don't know Something about it. I wanted it in the place, but it was pretty.

Speaker 1: 16:22

Yeah, smoked turkey turns out real well. Personally, for me, I do like the dry brining method and I get it that a lot of people prefer, using it, the wet method. But as the holidays come up, go ahead and let us know what is it you prefer Dry, wet brining? Is there much of a difference? Have you tried both of those? So that's a little bit of talk on that.

Speaker 3: 16:47

So what's your favorite though? Oh yeah, you said dry brining.

Speaker 1: 16:51

Dry brining. I really do like the dry brining method because another point that it gets is space and ease.

Speaker 3: 17:00

You know we should.

Speaker 1: 17:02

Because you don't need a big pot. Yeah, you've got to fill a plum full of water. You could just go ahead and put your salt all over the turkey, all over the chicken.

Speaker 1: 17:11

Less mess, whatever it is you're brining and just put it in a pan or you know pot or something, you can cover it, put it in the fridge, let it sit there for 12 to 24 hours. Of course, if you're brining just some chicken breasts, probably only four to six hours, you wouldn't want to do it quite as long. The smaller the meat, the less time. It also brings out that crispness that I was talking about and, of course, if you're deep frying it, you're going to get it crisp either way, but it will be crispier. Mark my word, word.

Speaker 1: 17:45

If you do the dry brine. There is also no rinsing. You know, once, once that is brined, you do the dry brine. Don't rinse it. Uh, when I first did that, I messed up and I thought you needed to rinse it off. Don't rinse it. Just go ahead and take it right out and cook it ever how you want. If you're putting it on your smoker, if you're putting it in your grease, uh, if you're going to go ahead and deep fry it, you know, just just now, because it doesn't really taste salty, you know, like too much power on it.

Speaker 1: 18:17

it isn't, and you'll want to still add, add your seasonings, like you always do. So that that's probably my favorite method right there. That's what I do most of the time is just go ahead and do the dry brine which, speaking of that brining, one of the big big another point is, and you mentioned it, no mess, exactly when it comes to the other, you've got all the water, you've got all this. It's just a.

Speaker 1: 18:40

You've got to take it out of the pot and it's like yeah so I'm a big fan of dry brining, but with the holidays coming up, those are a couple of options that you can use. We also got a text here from Georgia Hello. From Georgia. It says hi Okies, well, hello. I just listened to one of your episodes where you talked about a pizza you made with bananas. Got to give it a try, I don't know.

Speaker 3: 19:08

I didn't get to try that, but who else tried it? Was it Brian or someone? And I said it tasted good yeah it tasted good.

Speaker 1: 19:14

He didn't say he tried it. He said he's got to try it. Well, let me tell you and he didn't leave his name or anything, or her and if you try it, let us know what you think. Everybody really did like it. I can't remember exactly what was it. We said it tasted like yeah, I don't remember, but it was not bad. And we basically, oh, and we added curry. Oh, yeah, yep, you got to add curry. I don't know if they mentioned it there, but you got to add curry to it and just sprinkle that on there with your bananas. You could add other toppings.

Speaker 3: 19:45

You know what I want to make? I want to make some poblano tacos.

Speaker 1: 19:51

Poblano tacos.

Speaker 3: 19:52

Yeah, and you cook it on your smoker and stuff.

Speaker 1: 19:56

So do we cook those? Those are the big poblano peppers. Do you cook the whole pepper whole?

Speaker 3: 20:01

So we have to boil it first, you know to make it like the skin fall off and then when you cut it open and stuff, it's a lot easier to get the seeds out.

Speaker 1: 20:13

Gotcha.

Speaker 3: 20:13

And then we put it on the smoker and you get it like kind of toasty, and then you put the meat and the cheese.

Speaker 1: 20:21

So is that keto?

Speaker 3: 20:22

Yes.

Speaker 1: 20:22

So that could be your keto recipe of the day. So what are all the ingredients on this?

Speaker 3: 20:27

It's the poblano peppers and Monterey Jack cheese or whatever cheese you want on it. And then the hamburger meat. You can sprinkle a little seasoning and stuff, top it with whatever you want.

Speaker 1: 20:42

We're going to go ahead and give that a try, at least real soon, and we'll report back. I think that'll be our next video.

Speaker 3: 20:47

Alright, sounds good.

Speaker 1: 20:49

Yeah, let's get that put out there. Poblano pepper tacos, poblano pepper and and you're gonna have the pepper is gonna be your taco shell. That's gonna be awesome. Yeah, that is awesome.

Speaker 3: 21:01

I don't know how many carbs are on inside the pepper. Excuse me, so we'll have to look that up, but I mean it's probably not much. I mean jalapenos aren't that high on carbs, right on.

Speaker 1: 21:13

That sounds excellent. Well, in this episode we went ahead and let's do a recap Talked about our hickory smoke hot sauce, which everybody seems to like.

Speaker 3: 21:25

I think it's going to be great on tacos. Oh my gosh On anything.

Speaker 1: 21:28

Enchiladas.

Speaker 3: 21:29

On beef Beef.

Speaker 1: 21:31

So much stuff Outstanding yeah pork chops Chicken. Chicken. What can it not go on right Even?

Speaker 3: 21:40

the blueberry. One can go on anything too yeah.

Speaker 1: 21:45

So that was really good. And we also went ahead and talked over our brining, and we also went ahead and talked over our brining. So to recap that, wet or dry, I think for me I'm more of a dry brine type of guy.

Speaker 3: 21:58

Yeah, if you want it crispy.

Speaker 1: 22:00

You want it crispy. That's always a mess, less of a mess. You don't need to try to figure out how to have a bunch of water, you know, in an ice chest or in a big witch's pot. You can, but then the other problem is storing it for 24 hours.

Speaker 3: 22:18

Right, because we had it when we had our other fridge, then when we had to take the shelves out just to put it in there.

Speaker 1: 22:26

Whereas a dry brine, you can just go ahead and put your stuff on it, put it on a platter. Dry brine, you can just go ahead and put your stuff on it, put it on a platter.

Speaker 3: 22:32

You know, when we were looking at refrigerators, they actually have a refrigerator that you could actually do all that Right, like it's true, it actually has a brining drawer. It does that. One was made by KitchenAid yeah.

Speaker 1: 22:46

A very expensive fridge.

Speaker 3: 22:47

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 22:48

But it had a pretty cool dry brine or not dry, that would have been a. I guess you could put a dry, you could do it for dry brining. But it allowed for you to put the liquids in it and close the drawer. But you know you could do it anyways.

Speaker 3: 22:59

I would not actually like that Because you got to clean out. That's gross to me.

Speaker 1: 23:03

Yeah, you take the shelf out that's weird and wash it and that kind of thing. It's inside your fridge like that's weird, we did not get that one though, yeah, no. But we talked about that and we'll talk about this Poblano taco we're going to be making.

Speaker 3: 23:22

It's going to be good.

Speaker 1: 23:23

That's going to be good. We'll be talking a little bit more about that Halloween stuff that we're going to be making. Yes, that'll be coming up in the near future. Also, I want to mention our upcoming collaboration in November we're going to be doing and we're hosting it. If you would like to join in, all you need to do is create a video and post it. Whether you've had no videos before or you have a hundred. Uh, just post it, hashtag, peppering it up. Uh, post it. Anytime in the month of November. It's national pepper month and uh, if you go ahead and send us a link to it, we will add it to our playlist as well for national pepper month, and that's going to be real cool. So got that upcoming. A lot of holiday talk upcoming.

Speaker 3: 24:15

Now we'll do some Halloween stuff.

Speaker 1: 24:18

Halloween stuff. Yeah, so going to be real good. And if you're listening to this podcast, wherever you're listening to it, there should be a follow or a subscribe button. Be sure you click that so that you can be sure and keep up with all of these episodes right here. And don't forget to text us or email us at john at okiesmokingcom. Any last words, Dolores.

Speaker 3: 24:43

No, just have a good day.

Speaker 2: 24:46

Thank you for listening to the Okie Smoking Podcast. Episodes drop every Monday. Don't forget to follow this podcast or you might miss out on some delicious creations. You can also find us on our website, okiesmokincom, and on YouTube and other social media platforms. Until next time, keep firing up that grill.