Double Bratwurst Po Boys on the PBC--Steve Raichlen on Project Smoke

[fzxdoc]

I just watched an older Steve Raichlen Project Smoke video on making a Double Brat Po Boy on the PBC:

It looks tasty with the sauerkraut and onions smoked as well, and would be easy to do all at the same time on a single PBC with a split grate. I'm not sure what makes it a "Double Brat" Po Boy, as Raichlen calls it in his video, except perhaps that usually the brat is split in half for serving???

I use sausage hangers* to smoke all types of sausages** on the PBC: Irish Bangers, Italian Sausages, hot and mild, Chorizo, Andouille, and of course Brats. Usually I smoke a half dozen or more sausages while I'm smoking chicken in the PBC, because the sausages dripping some their fat into the hot fire, I believe, boost the smoked chicken's flavor. Plus I get lots of tasty sausages to go along with the chicken, or to freeze and use later in lots of dishes like gumbo, etc.

I usually take sausages up to 180°ish for extra snap to the skin. That usually takes about 45 min at 350°ish. Raichlen says basting the sausages first with EVOO first makes the skin snappy. Worth a try, I'm thinking. He smokes them for an hour to 165°.

Here's an action photo from my PBC: 3 chickens and 12 sausages:




Anyway, this is a fun video. Notice that Raichlen does not use rebars while cooking.

Kathryn

Postscripts:

*PBC sells 4-count sausage hangers on their website. I buy 6-count sausage hangers and modify the handle to fit into the PBC, because I like smoking a minimum of 6 sausages at a time, taking up less space on the rebar. When cooking with chicken, I now hang them from a hook as opposed to looping the rebar through the handle section so I don't have to pull the rebar to get them out.

**For my family, Fresh Market and Johnsonville have the best sausages--they stay nice and tightly packed when smoked. That is, they don't get crumbly with gaps inside like shown at the end of Rachlin's video, at least in my experience.

[HawkerXP]

No rebar!?!

Thanks doc!

PBC, PBC, PBC!

[bbqLuv]

Traeger, Traeger, Traeger,

[Duanessmokedmeats]

PBC, PBX, PBX

[yakima]

fzxdoc, where did you get those sausage hangers?

[fzxdoc]

Those are three roaster-sized split chickens, yakima. I prefer splitting and hanging chickens to spatchcocked chickens. That way I can cut out the backbone and keel bone (and some ribs, clavicle(wishbone), wing tips, and a few other odds and ends for fresh chicken for broth (made in the 10 quart Instant Pot, ahem) , added to the smoked chicken carcass, along with some herbs like basil and cloves, onion/garlic, tomato paste, white wine etc. at the end of the day.

to be continued...

[fzxdoc]

continued...I sliced off the handle that had the wood insert at the level of the short extension on the second half of the basket.

I modified the CharBroil sausage hanger years before the PBC folks came out with their fancy version with the PBC logo, holding only 4 sausages. To me, a 6 sausage hanger, held by the hook sliding in just above the first sausage in the lineup is the perfect distance from the fire to get a bit of color on the sausages but no burn to them.

K.

[fzxdoc]

...continued #2
Although the whole famdamily prefers white meat, I still cook the split chickens and use the leftover dark meat in tacos, green chicken enchiladas, chicken&dumplings, chicken and spinach alfredo, etc. The two daughters, although they hate eating dark meat when I smoke the split chickens, will happily accept packages of pulled dark meat for said leftover use. Go figure.


K.

[Michael_in_TX]

You're right....I'm not sure why he calls these double brats either.

Being the uncomfortable Steven Raichlen fan that I am, one interesting bit of trivia is that if you watch this clip and then go find the equivilent segment in Episode 111 of Project Smoke, you'll notice they are slightly different. In this clip, which is on PBC's Vimeo channel, Steven clearly says name PBC and the logo is easily seen.

In the PBS show, he never refers to it by name by as an upright barrel smoker and the name plate is not as prominently featured. This is common thing they do. The sponsor gets one version of the segment and PBS airs a different one. In later series, the 'masking' of the brand names gets really aggressive to the point of literally using gaffers tape over nameplates and logos.

In addition to curiously not using rebar, those must be the cleanest PBCs ever lol. (One of the mild criticisms of the early episodes of Project Smoke were that the grills that were intended to be on camera were overly cleaned between shots. The grills that actually did the cooking were often never seen.)

(Also, Steven looks young in this clip, shot in 2015. He is currently 71 years old.)

[jfmorris]

I would watch segments of Project Smoke, and came to the conclusion that Steven cooked on brand new grills for every single episode. Never saw any sign of prior use on cooking grates or insides of those grills - they all started off looking brand spanking new when he was making the fire in them!

[hoovarmin]

Yum. I may just have to go uncover that PBC that's been sitting neglected on the side of my house for the past year!

[hoovarmin]

fzxdoc no sun and rain for the beloved PBC. Well covered and under the eaves - but definitely lonely.

[fzxdoc]

I repeat, Awwww. Poor PBC.

Was it something it said?

K.
( )

[hoovarmin]

fzxdoc It's a matter of space and redundancy. The Big Joe III is really deep, and with the grates on the top tier of the divide and conquer rack it duplicates the phenomena of the barrel, in that you can direct cook without fear of flareups and burning and get that delicious smoke that comes from meat dripping directly on coals.

[Lynn Dollar]

Interesting. I enjoy the older Raichlen shows. I'm currently binging on the second season of Project Smoke.

I have his Primal Grill series from 2008 to 2010 recorded. And I can find Project Smoke, Project Fire, and Planet Barbecue on my local PBS station site.

A current trend in barbecue is live fire cooking and direct heat. Raichlen was doing that in 2008. He was also doing international fusion then as he released his book Planet Barbecue in 2009.

[fzxdoc]

I remember seeing that Pappys episode, Lynn Dollar . I wish I could locate it again.

Kathryn

[Lynn Dollar]

I can watch it through my local PBS affiliate, OETA. Not sure if that's available everywhere. But here's a link to Project Fire Episode 401 with Pappy's in St Louis. It may not work for you.

https://videos.oeta.tv/video/episode-401-raichlen-grills-st-louis-8oqufq/

[fzxdoc]

Thanks for the video link. It worked!

Kathryn

[Jerod Broussard]

I loved his background muzak cooking on some argentine grill, and of course any mention of "cilantro."

The bread seems to be quite small for Poboy.

[fzxdoc]

Agreed about the bread. The curse of small buns.

[LA Pork Butt]

I am sure it is going to taste wonderful, but growing up in New Orleans if you can get your hands on some authentic poboy bread it will take wonderful up a notch. The bread makes almost anything you put on it taste wonderful. Have fun with it.

[JCBBQ]

Love the action shot!!

[Mosca]

The gaps in the cut brats look like they were cheddar brats, and that was melted cheese.

I think I am going to have to try this for myself and find out.

[HawkerXP]

For BREAKFAST!

[fzxdoc]

But he didn't use cheddar brats, Mosca. They were straight up brats.

I've purchased fresh sausages from other markets besides Fresh Market and often have gotten the kind that were not tightly packed enough to be "gapless" after smoking. Many like that often have a mealy mouth feel which I find off-putting.

I have never made a sausage, so I may be describing the cause of "smoked brats with gaps" incorrectly as being loosely packed. Perhaps they have a higher fat content. I really don't know. But I do know what I like in the end product. For that reason, I stick with FM and Johnsonville as my main sausage sources, straying only occasionally for research purposes.

K.

[MarkN]

Since my son gave me the Project Smoke cookbook, I have always been smoking brats instead of the traditional grill-split-flame method and have been quite happy with it.

I noticed in the video that when he says to check the internal temperature of a brat with a goal of around 160 degrees, his instant read thermometer is over 200 degrees (to which he says "Perfect!"). It makes me wonder if the temp inside the PBC is really the 275 that he says or something higher since he is not using rebars. I know my PBC will run over 300-325 if I pull the rebars out.

Good stuff!

[Finster]

It's been awhile since Ive hung sausage in the PBC, but I seem to recall them being done well before 60 minutes, and that was with the bars in. I may have to do a memory refresher course this weekend...
After seeing Kathryn's photo, some chicken may need to be involved as well

[fzxdoc]

I agree, usually in 40-45 min at the poultry-cooking temp of 350°+, the sausages are temping at 180° internal, my fav temp. Many people cook to 165° internal, though.

K.