5 Things - Vol. 15

5 Things Again?!

Of course!

Why Not?

OK!

1.

PUT IT IN A BOX

December happened and mail order did it once again. We sent over 1800 boxes full of delicious food to really cool people all over the country! It was lovely, chaotic, overwhelming, and appreciated. Take that and wrap it in an insulated box! Holy cow, pig or fish.

2.

WHO WANTS TO GET NUTS!?

Our office is small and the portion that gets used for mail order is even smaller. It often felt like our packing materials were going to quite literally box us in! To make matters worse we trapped Jeremy, took Celestine for a ride and covered Joe in peanuts multiple times. Anybody want to get nuts? Let's get nuts!

3.

BREAKING RECORDS AND TAKING ORDERS

Friday was our busiest day ever and it’s no surprise that It was completely bonkers! The line weaved its way through DeWitt Seitz, People waited patiently and our staff crushed it! Thank you to all everyone involved.

4.

Nos Fumant Aliquid

Last week our hardworking, dedicated, and talented crew smoked over 1 ton of fish. Enough said...

5.

ONE REMARKABLE RIDE

The final hours are nearing for our sibling up on Woodland Avenue, Northern Waters Restaurant. The doors close for good on New Years Eve. Saturday will be the last dinner service and Sunday will be the last brunch. So, please stop by and enjoy your favorite Northern Waters Restaurant dishes. We hope you lift a glass and share a laugh with us. It’s been a remarkable ride!

BONUS 5

LET'S TALK ABOUT THE WEATHER AGAIN

As locals know, this weeks weather has been straight up frigid. The bright side is everything looks so beautiful when it's this cold. Every smoke stack is so defined and the sea smoke on the lake is intensely stunning. Bundle up and get out there! 

See you next week folks!

-Stephen Pestalozzi Creative Dept. / Northern Waters Smokehaus     

5 Things To Do With Porketta

5 Ways to Cook Smokehaus Porketta

So, you’ve got your beautiful hand-rolled slab of heaven – now what? There are many ways to cook Porketta, including a straightforward, roast til it’s hot approach. But for the creative-hearted and culinarily curious we have assembled a short list of preparations for your dining pleasure.

1. Low and Slow: Roast Porketta at 325, covered and doused with a cup or so of liquid (white wine, lager, chicken stock or even a mild fruit juice such as apple will do). Keep it covered for the first hour and a half, then uncover and continue to roast until fall-apart tender (maybe another 45-60 minutes). When ready, take the roast out, let it sit for 5 minutes, and then shred like your life depends on it. You can use forks, tongs, or even gloved hands (but be careful – it will be hot!). Eat the whole delicious mixture over mashed potatoes, with your favorite pasta, or on a hard roll.

2. Grill it: Because the Porketta is fully cooked, you need not worry about finessing your fire too much. You can reheat the Porketta in your oven at a higher temperature (say, 375) and when it because hot to the touch, transfer to a hot grill to crisp up the exterior crust. The results will be crunchy, smoky, and oh-so-meaty.

3. Cute it Up: Cube it up? Cube your Porketta by cutting it into ½ inch chunks. Sprinkle with paprika and gently fry on a medium-heat skillet until the sides are crispy. Skewer them with other bite-sized cubed items like potatoes, cocktail onions, fennel, or sweet peppers (or our favorite – all of the above!). Serve on your holiday menu, or as an appetizer for a dinner party, or as a very high class midnight snack.

4. Take it to the Club: Make an incredibly savory club sandwich by layering thin slices of Porketta, right out of the package (it’s fully cooked, you know) with shaved fennel, sundried tomatoes, and crispy pancetta, and lemon basil mayonnaise (you can just amp up your Hellman’s with a dusting of lemon zest and handful of shredded basil or you can make your own). You can serve it on stirato or focaccia, but if you’re feeling sinister might we recommend a triple-decker with slices of your local grocery store’s most pillowy version of Italian bread, toasted.

5.  Go Full Holiday Roast: Place your Porketta on a rack in a large roasting pan, uncovered. Begin roasting the Porketta at 375 while you prepare your other ingredients. Wash fingerling potatoes or quarter them, quarter fennel, rutabaga, and or sweet potatoes. Toss all with olive oil and light salt (the Porketta is going to help flavor them all) and arrange them in the now-hot roaster when they’re ready (make sure you take the roaster out of the oven to accomplish this – safety first!). Cook all until vegetables are soft – around 45 minutes to an hour. Serve with something green, like Swiss chard, Brussels sprouts, or green beans. Buon appetito!

5 things - volume 14

Sunday

#1. Smokehaus Party takes place. Smokehausers do like a party. Food and drinks are in abundance, and people laugh and sing and frolic into the wee hours. It’s good for camaraderie, it’s a good release this time of year, and the we count the clock until next time.

Monday

#2. We started to release recipe cards in our mail order boxes! These little beauties feature our products and we’ll be making more and more as the months carry on. Look for one in your next shipment from us!

Tuesday

#3. Our website gets a few tweaks. In preparation for brand new photography, we’ve altered the look of our mail order section to showcase our new photos. Release date is very soon, so keep your eyes peeled. These new shots will knock your socks off!

Wednesday

#4. We slice 59 # of Smoked Berkshire Bacon, and add it to our growing stash for the holiday season. Take a look at some fun facts compiled by Mental Floss last year.

Thursday/Friday

#5. We gear up for none-other-than, Cyber Monday! It’s our first go at the cyber-space madness online shopping day. We think we’ve got a cute little offer, and we hope our amazing customers will take advantage. Cyber space immediately equated to Pigs in Space for us. And so our cute little campaign was born.

5 Things- Volume 12

We are nearing the end of the year, we are dusting off our ugly Christmas sweaters and we are making spare room for all of the seconds, thirds and fourths we will be having at our family gatherings. But before we reach that magical time of the year, we're keeping our dancing shoes on and we will continue to party and enjoy the amazing camaraderie that exists and the Smokehaus.

So with that said, let's cue the Adventure Time theme song (it's okay if you don't know it you can sing along).

"Adventure Time,
C'mon grab your friends,
We're going to very distant lands.
With Jake [the smoker] and
Finn [the sandwich],
The fun will never end,
It's Adventure Time!" 

This week was full of adventure:
1- THE FLOOD

At 6:30AM on Friday our basement started flooding. Water was flowing in from every crack it could find but our wonderful crew hiked up there pants, changed their plans and grabbed a squeegee. Friday felt like the scene in Hercules where he cuts the dragon's head off and three heads grow back. Shouts to our wonderful team for stepping in and helping us stay afloat! 

This week was also full of spoooooky tiiiimess:

2-Rocky Horror Red Mountain ft Chelsy from Vikre!

Our friend Steve Sola is letting us use this video that he took of a local favorite band in Duluth, Red Mountain. Our delivery-daredevil and basement-badass Jeremy Ehlert SLAYS guitar in this band. You can't see him but you can hear him shred. (We love you, Jeremy!)

Not pictured but also important to mention: Ned's band Alamode & Jacob's band the Social Disaster also played on Halloween night at the Rex Bar. Did we mention they were all born on October 11st!? 

Have you hugged a carnivore this week?

3- Halloween in the shop 

Harrison Cross is the man of many costumes. He's known for killer dance moves, exceptional puns, and going all out on Holiday extravaganza. This year he really raised the bar on his costume game and expressed his carnivore lifestyle more visually and larger than life. We also had a visitor from the New Yorker giving us advice on what kind of beans to purchase for our Chemex (Thanks, Cam)!

This week was full of cute liver caskets!

4- Are you a be-liver? 

Extra! Extra! Find these in the Grab-n-Go in our Deli soon! We will be packaging these cuties up and selling them 1/3 lb for your party convenience. Country Paté lovers unite!

And every week we're all about Awesome Burgers

5- Can you say onion rings? 

The Restaurant does burger Mondays and this weeks special burger looked like a dang good time. Stop in next Monday to see what chef James cooked up for ya!