I had grandiose plans to cook 3 briskets, 3 Boston butts and some ribs over the weekend. Instead, Friday brought us snow, and that snow continued well into Saturday. We got snow from about 8 am Friday with few breaks until 5 pm Saturday, bringing our snow up to about a foot. That’s a lot of snow for southwestern Ohio in March! Fortunately, we have a great neighbor that plowed us out so we had no trouble on Monday morning.

Being snowed in isn’t all bad, when you have a great wife like I do, and a couple of cats that are fun, especially a 4 1/2 month old kitten that’s already well over 6 lbs!

Last weekend, I smoked a couple of chickens, along with some beef…
I hear that Maryland, especially around Baltimore, has a sandwich called Pitbeef. I’ve not been there, so I can’t tell you if what I do is even close, but I have my own version that I like a lot. I take an eye of round roast, a cheap piece of meat that’s really tough, and I smoke it for a couple of hours until it reaches an internal temperature of 120 degrees F. That leaves me with a nice, rare roast with good smoke flavor. I keep the pit at about 225 degrees F as I’m not going for a seared exterior (though I may try searing it, too).

Seasonings are usually simple, as the exterior only carries a small part of the flavor. This time, I just added salt and pepper. I’ve also added ancho chile, and I’ve tried some wet applications, too. My favorite was a blackberry/chipotle mix for the wet seasoning.

The secret to eye of round is that it is plenty tender if it’s sliced thin and across the grain. I can’t do this with a knife, so I use a meat slicer set to about as thin as I can still cut the meat.

I tend to like the sandwiches on smaller buns or bread; they’re just easier to handle. I add some raw red onion for texture and taste, and top it with sour cream horseradish. I’ve listed this before, but I’ll add it again:

• 16 ounces of sour cream
• 1 tablespoon champagne vinegar
• chopped chives (as much as you like)
• fresh grated horseradish to taste (I use about 1/3 of a horseradish root and grate with a Microplane grater)
• salt and white pepper to taste

That’s all there it so it. Mix it up and let it sit in the fridge overnight. This is by far my favorite horseradish sauce. Prepared horseradish is hotter, but add enough fresh, and it’s hot enough. The texture and flavor are fresher, this way, though.

The result is some of the best ‘roast’ beef sandwiches you’re likely to have.