Speaking of meat! We had a boys weekend last week that included my pal Mike, his brother, and another best pal John. This is a trio of meat lovers! Don’t get me wrong, I can carve up the protein with the best of em; but this group, left to their own devices without spouses in the great Wisconsin Northwoods is bound to consume some protein.
We had not really coordinated a whole lot but pretty much knew how to please this bunch of carnivores. In the fall each deer season, brothers Mike and Rick have worked together on providing massive 24 ounce ribeyes for the gang of eight that always join the Neilsville, Wis., “Whitetail Hill” cabin they inherited from their parents. Decades and decades of deer mounts on the wall and deer camp stories and laughter is an amazing tradition.
This past weekend was a tree dropping, cutting, splitting, and stacking weekend. Mike, Rick and I got at it at 9 a.m. Rick manned the tractor, Mike and I wielded the chainsaws and blocked the logs Rick was hauling out of the woods.
I was first up on “meat”! I picked up 4.5 pounds of good looking marbled chuck roast a few days ahead. I gave it a good rub with salt, pepper, and secret rub. Two-and-a-half hours at 225º in my smoker and then popped them in an oven bag in the house for another approximately five hours at 225º until they hit pull apart soft at 210º internal temp! I pulled the smokey beast in its own juices and added a little Montreal seasoning. Covered in the fridge for the weekend.
John conveniently arrived just as we concluded the first day of hard labor, but bought his way out of the fray with an awesome round of bloody Marys, and Rick kicked us off with an amazingly tender smoked venison backstrap for happy hour.
Dinner was a simple meatlovers piled high smoked pulled beef with a broccoli slaw in spicy pickle juice and mayo heaped on a big Hawaiian bun; enough for two each, bam!
Next morning John provided a huge skillet of hearty sliced kielbasa, chunks of smoked ham, chopped bacon with onions and sweet peppers fried hard. He stirred in a half dozen scrambled eggs and we gorged on a big heavy skillet to take us all the way through the day of splitting ahead.
I spent the month of January back during my freshman year of college in Manaus, Brazil on the interior banks of the Amazon River with my new roommate and his family. It was there I was introduced to the “Brazilian National Dish” of feijoada! I knew Mike had a budding enthusiasm for black beans, and the smokey meaty pot of goodness was right up his alley!
I perused the web for a good looking traditional feijoada recipe and passed it to Mike with a gentle suggestion of making it for wood weekend. He jumped all over it.
He made a perfect rendition of the imported Portuguese savory smokey meat stew. A long slow simmer of spices, black beans, smoked ham hocks, smoked ring bologna, bacon, ground sausage and last but not least, his special home smoked pork shoulder!
Served along side a pile of rice and fresh traditional orange slices, our meat lovers weekend concluded. Bam … and Bob’s your uncle!
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