First BBQ craziness of the season

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Warm weather always brings out the wild side of barbecuers. The website of Cookshack, a manufacturer of electric smokers, has just announced the winners of a contest for nontraditional barbecue: traditional bbq meats smoked in a nontraditional way, nontraditional meats with a novel smoke profile, etc.

Including smoked desserts. Not heavily smoked desserts, mind you. In fact, the winning recipe neglects to mention putting wood chips in the smoker, though you obviously have to throw in a couple. Apple or cherry wood, I’d guess, not hickory or mesquite.

Anyway, that winner was a sort of coconut, chocolate, butterscotch cheesecake cooked in a smoker (partly cooked -- once the flavoring stuff is cooked and smoked, you top it with store-bought cheesecake filling). You can see the recipe here, along with some other unusual uses for a smoker.

-- Charles Perry