We had family over on both Saturday and Sunday (my family on Saturday and my wife’s on Sunday). On Saturday we served MikeMcQ’s twice smoked salmon salad sandwiches, which have become a staple.
On Sunday it was brats. I was looking for a recipe and reread the thread about Phrett’s passing. I was moved once again by the comments that were left. I ended up following Phretts technique for beer brats as described by Bently. However, I did make one change, I used Diet Dr. Pepper instead of beer. It wasn't too bad, my wife's family is appriciative of most everything I make for them and they really seemed to enjoy them. However, I probably will not do that again, there wasn’t a lot of extra flavor added by the pop. The beer would have been much better.
The big experiment was sweet corn. There are a lot of local stands with very nice fresh ears. I wanted to do the corn on the grill and thought I would try a few different methods. The day before the company came I put four ears on the grill, each prepped a different way: the first was soaked in husk, but silk removed; the second husk on, but silk removed, not soaked; number three with the ear intact, with silk and husk not removed; and one ear completely husked.
The results were fairly predictable. The ear that was not husked at all created a lot of steam inside the husk and the kernels were very plump, but no smoke flavor; the two with the silk removed but still had the husks both had a hint of smoke and the soaked one was a bit juicier (if that is a term that can be used for corn); the best smoke flavor was from the ear that was husked and put directly on the grill, but it was not as plump as the others. I ended up going with flavor over plumpness. The smoked flavor was a big hit with both sides of the family.
