Yesterday was our neighborhood First Annual Deep-Fry Your Turkey Day. We did 9 smallish turkeys, 2 ducks, three chickens. We cranked it up right after church. It was cold enough that we had trouble getting the peanut oil above 320, so it took longer than we planned. All the neighbors got well-fed last night, and all dogs enjoyed the venison butchering scraps. It was reminiscent of a barn-raising.

Why go to the trouble of setting up a fryer just for oneself? We served tons of beer, and venison-black bean soup and cornbread. And cupcakes. And ceegars. Red-neck Yankees know how to have fun. Next time, we'll do two pots of oil, not one, to halve the time - but we did not expect such a response for a last-minute plan. All dogs were invited, too, of course.

One bucket of birds in brine:

Our fryer set-up. The basket insert works best for the turkeys, but chickens and ducks don't need it and can just go on the stick.

Our Louisiana-style rub and bird-injection table. The green stuff is sauteed, pureed, then strained garlic, shallot, onion, carrot, and celery for injecting.

We cranked up one of these in the driveway to keep warm. Worked well, as long as it didn't set you afire.

 We set it all up like this. Readers have seen that old fire engine before.

We also had the last doe of the season to butcher as the birds were frying. She'd been hanging for a couple of weeks, but probably frozen through most of the time. Note Golden chewing on the hide. That always happens. A pal is just beginning the skinning. I brought home a foreleg with the hair for my pup to play with. Yes, that is an old fireplace in the 1890 garage, so the gentry would not have to get into a cold car. For the comfort of the chauffeur no doubt, too.

That's how one of my LI ducks came out of the fryer:

How is the turkey after all of this effort - overnight brining, injecting, Cajun rubs, etc.? Tastes like turkey, but pretty good turkey. The skin is especially good. In future, I think I'll do ducks and chickens, but not turkey - things with a higher skin/meat ratio.

I brought a venison shoulder home, too, from that doe in the garage. I think I'll braise it with root vegetables when the turkey is eaten.

What a fine country we Americans live in. We are not convinced that the Obamanites know how to appreciate it. A good life is a simple matter.

Suffolk Rabbit Pie. Yum. A tasty Medieval dinner. My supermarket has frozen rabbit. (But I thought Rabbit Joints aka rabbet joints were a cabinetmaking deal.) I guess they mean thigh and leg. I assume you remove the bones before putting it in the pie, but they aren't clear on that.

Rabbit with Garlic. Wow.

I don't know what Mayor Bloomberg is having for dinner. Maybe tofu salad with a glass of water. But if you have any pheasants in the freezer, this sounds good:

Pheasant supremes with sage and onion fritters, caramelised apples and Calvados sauce

Never use a wine for cooking or marinating that you would not be very happy to drink in a glass.

Dr. Joy Bliss

This via Am Digest: How to carve a turkey like a man from The Art of Manliness: just the blog title tells you it is essential in today's sissified world.

If my memory serves me, I think that photo is from Dr. Bob a few years ago.

Bacon recipes are going around. It must be the time of year. For example, Apple Bacon Pie.

And how about this Texas Tommy? Thank God the hot dog is Kosher.

Here's all you need to know about how bacon is made. Real chefs make their own. Some folks save their bacon grease in the freezer, to cooks greens in. I should start doing that. Greens without grease are rabbit food.

We concluded our most recent planning meeting for our local Ducks Unlimited event by consuming a bottle of delicious, smooth, and healthful Liquore di Mirto (aka "Mirto") which the Dylanologist was kind enough to bring us back from Sardinia this summer.

It is apparently the national drink of Sardinia. They like it in Corsica too. This bottle was from Oristana.

The rosso is like a port, with the extremely pleasant and unique fragrance of Myrtle.

It's too precious and tasty to waste on debate-watching. We recommend shots and beer for that.

Had some of this last weekend.

Tastiest wine I've had in quite a while, and excellent for the price - but I am not good with wine jargon. Oregon's Willamette Valley Vineyards Whole Cluster Pinot, 2007.

Too young to drink? That's a matter of taste. I am old enough to drink and that's what counts.

A reader sent this in as a suggestion in response to my search for a new grill-smoker:

It's on sale here.

If readers have any better ideas (where the shipping wouldn't be $1000), let me know.

Did I tell the story here about how the squirrels chewed through the propane hose on my old grill during the winter, and the unfortunate result when I opened the valve and tried to light the grill? Needless to say, that is an ex-grill.

Fall is coming. Today's B&G recipe.

Remember: Lots of gravy greases and smooths the insides of your arteries, and helps your brain think better too.

We stuck with the Piedmont's local Barbera wines during our Italy trip. Barbera d'Asti and Barbera d'Alba. That same grape has been grown up there at least since the 13th century.

I did not realize that the Barbera grape is the most abundantly-grown grape in Italy. These are basically good table wines, nothing too complicated or fancy, and far down on the wine totem pole from the great Northern Italian wines like Amarone and the Nebbiolo grape-based Barbaresco and Barolo.

About Barbera d'Alba, this site says:

In the hilly area around Alba, only vineyards in the hills with suitable slopes and orientations are considered adequate for production. The terrains must be primarily clayey-calcareous or sandy-calcareous in character. DOC recognition is excluded for terrains with northern exposures and the bottoms of valleys that are flat or semi-flat. The colour of the wine is intense ruby red when young with a tendency to garnet after ageing.

This site says:

The high-in-acid Barbera Grape of north-western Italy is a chameleon-like grape which changes considerably according to yield. As an everyday variety, it is a juicy glugger but it can metamorphose into a concentrated, rich, plumy and cherryish wine with undertones of sweet vanilla and spice when aged in small new casks. In Argentina, it tends to the former style with a little less acidity thanks to plentiful Andean sunshine.

Photo: Barbera grapes

Our regular readers know that I enjoy cooking meat in my smoker. For me, that is real barbecue. Not a grill - a smoker.

Mostly pork, sometimes beef. Unlike some of my pals, I do not believe in smoking game birds because their fine flavor is too subtle to hold up to smoke. 

I like to put on the hot rub du jour overnight, then start smoking it in the morning - or whenever I get to it. Pork loin, butt for pulled pork, ribs, beef tips, whatever.

Sometimes I like to finish it off with a store-bought or home-made barbecue sauce on it while it finishes, sometimes during the entire cooking, sometimes on the side. For ribs, you have to cook with the sauce so they don't dry out. In Texas, it's on the side with the brisket - but I don't like brisket.

What's your preference?

Photo is my smoked pork loin. You need to have the sauce on the side for that.