In preparation for the smackdown I'm exercising my PBC chops. Mahi Mahi fish tacos aka Dorado, or Dolphinfish. I used the Oakridge smokey chili lime rub and basted with garlic butter. Also cooked some jalapeño poppers with bacon to maximize fat drippings for the smokey flavor. I have grill grates for my PBC and they saved the fish from scorching with all the fat coming off from the baste and bacon fat. Couldn't capture a pic of the fish on the grate because there was so much smoke ðŸŸðŸŒ®🔥🔥🔥â¤ï¸ðŸ¿
Got it. Thanks. Since I don’t have either, I’ll just sit back and enjoy. If things roll around to the LSG or PK, then I might have to rouse from my lethargy. But good for now.
SWMBO requested 100% ww bread and I complied. She also wanted some seeds and nuts in it - she got that too. Unlike Henrik , I didn't even try to resist.
If I show this to my wife I will get in trouble. She will ask "How can HE BBQ veggies so well and you can only do the corn leaving the rest for me inside?" Bravo!!!
Pork butt. Didn’t bother checking the weight. Threw it on the Traeger this morning at 12:30 at 200. Left it alone until 2 then turned it up to 225. Wrapped at 170 and then brought the temp up to 300. Finally tossed in the cooler when it was 205. Put a towel on it and it help it’s temp for 2 hours. Shredded it for dinner and it was awesome. Even the non butt fans were impressed.
Did a grocery-store Smithfield pork butt today, and it came out extremely well. Full details right over here. For tonight, I sliced off the money bit and then some, and we had that kind of chunked up on the plate with sides of steamed summer squash and we split a honkin baked tater. This was the first time I wrapped (w/butcher paper) at the onset of the stall, and when I pulled it out of the Cambro after resting and unwrapped, it was awash in juices. Definitely got braised, and the bark got mushy. My lovely bride thought it was great, even preferable. Go figure.
The smoker journey:
Getting wrapped:
After resting & unwrapping:
Slicin' & servin'. Pulled the rest for leftover packaging.
Bronco Pro Barrel Smoker
PBC
Pit Boss 757GD Griddle (2)
Blaz'n Grill Works Grid Iron
Weber Genesis E-310
Original Original Grilla
Smokey Joe® Charcoal Grill 14"
Fireboard 1
Thermoworks ThermoPop
Thermoworks Thermapen Mk4
Thermoworks Smoke Thermometer with gateway
2 iGrillminis - from before they were Weber.
You know what they say about the best laid plans! You better have a Plan B to back them up when they blow up in your face. Or if not a Plan B, lots of cookers as alternates.
Several weeks ago my son asked me to smoke brisket for his employees. Sure, sounds like fun. I always like to cook for people. We agreed on my doing 3 briskets. I picked up 4, so I could do one for my wife and myself. The Blaz'n Grid Iron easy does 4. Plan was to put them on between 9 and 10 last night, to deliver to his store an hour away at about 11 am. Started up the Blaz'n, and had the same problem as I have been fighting since last year, and that I thought had been dealt with. Last year a derecho went through and the 80+ mph wind drive rain up into the pellet tube, where it got the pellets wet, which then dried to that wonderful imitation of concrete. Before I realized what the issue was, the auger motor first sheared the shear pin, and then bent one. Last night it would not turn enough to keep feed enough pellets to get above 180. I suspect that trying to turn against the hardened pellets burned it out enough that it still will turn enough to get a few pellets to the end of the tube, but not enough to do any good. So next week I'll order a new motor. But, that didn't do any good for last night, when I had to deliver 3 promised briskets.
Into the gap jumped the PBC, and the brand new, never before cooked on Weber Performer Deluxe. The PBC could have held the 3 briskets, but I daisy chained 4 hooks on each of two briskets, but was one hook short to do the same on the third. It must have stayed at the other house. I loaded both cookers up with B&B lump and briquettes (hey, by now it was after 10, and I was getting desperate. I was emptying partial bags and didn't especially care what they were, oak, mesquite, hickory, if it was charcoal it was fine.
Got everything going (and the dewpoint was such that by the time I did, my shirt and shorts looked like I had been swimming). After getting up a couple of times during the night to make sure everything was doing OK, about 7 I got the warning that the temp was down to about 180 in the PBC. Still had unburned charcoal, but I need to improve on my coal lighting. Last night was a rush job, in the dark. The PBC had held pretty steady at about 250 all night. I pulled the 2 from the PBC, which were stuck in the stall at about 170-180, wrapped them and put them in the oven at 300. The kettle, with a SnS basket, had run closer to 300 during the night, although my ambient probe was at the edge of the basket, so I assumed it was running higher than what it would have been on the other side of the brisket. The brisket in the Weber stayed there until about 8, when it hit 203. I wrapped it and put it in the cooler. About 8:45 the other two had hit temp and joined their brother in the cooler, where they stayed until we got to the store.
Yes, it does pay to have 5 cookers on hand.
Yes, you can hang briskets in a PBC, but you better daisy chain them in two locations. You can see one hook pulled loose.
Inaugural cook on the Weber Performer. Everyone always starts with brisket for the first cook, right?
The two that were in the PBC, getting ready for the oven.
Getting ready to start cutting.
Comparison of the PBC & Weber Performer briskets. Not exactly from the same cut, I just quick grabbed a slice from one I had already done to compare. Basically, it was like pulled beef it was so tender. The slice on the bottom is from the PBC, the slice on top is from the kettle.
What kind of reviews did I get? I doubt anyone there really knew which had been cooked on what. Employees started coming back saying they could smell the brisket when I opened the cooler, out in the store (served in the warehouse space). It was suggested to my son that this should be a monthly event. One older employee said that it was the best meat she had ever tasted in her life.
So, thanks to all of you here who have taught me so much. I could not have done this without this site.
Guess I'll keep smoking.
I have been on a burger kick this summer. It is Huskee 's fault for that damn good Dorito burger. My midsection will not forgive him. Today I (think) I invented a new burger - the apple burger. It has likely been done before but I haven't seen it done so I will take credit. It was really good. I picked some peppers from the garden to put on the burger and thought it would be have something nice to mellow it out if they were too hot. So I sliced some apples and sprinkled Tajin on the top of them. Yep - I ate some before putting them on the burger. I made my usual smash burgers - 1lb ground beef, 1 TSP onion soup mix, 1/8 tsp cumin, 1/4 tsp ancho, 1 tsp Worsctewhatever, 2 tsp ballpark mustard. I made them into meatballs and then liberally salted and peppered the outside. I did my smash thing on the Blackstone. My special sauce was mayo, thousand and a couple of squirts of Sriracha. The apple slices and peppers went on the bottom, everything else on top. My wife let me buy a wine barrel for the BBQ area a week or so ago so I was trying to celebrate with something new.
Swimming this morning, steaming tonight! The plan was scallops & flank steak. A short trip on Clear Creak reservoir upped the plate with trout!
Olive oil, salt, pepper, parsley, onion, tomato, lemon, and of course wrapped in bacon! Luckily had family visiting to share.
Season your country-style ribs (sliced pork butt) with a sweet BBQ rub (I used Killer Hogs' The BBQ Rub) and smoke at 250 F until ~165 F (mine took about two hours). Then cut a medium yellow onion into strips and place those in a cast iron pan. Add the pork to the pan. Pour in one cup of apple juice and then drizzle BBQ sauce (I used Sweet Baby Ray's) all over the pork.
Cover with foil and braise for an additional two hours at 250 F or until the pork gets north of 200 F and is probe tender.
These were so, so, so good. I actually was very worried they would turn out too sweet, given the apple juice and that I used one of the sweetest BBQ sauces out there. But they weren't. The sauce didn't really taste sweet at all. It was almost tangy and the rendered fat gave it a wonderful lusciousness. And the onions essentially caramelized making them really good, too.
Here are the "ribs" generously seasoned. You can see my temp probe on the left on the bottom one.
Here's what they looked like when they hit 165 F.
Everything in the cast iron and back on the grill....
Look at that yummyness!
Plated up with garlic mashed potatoes and steamed green beans.
It tasted even better than it looked. Absolutely melt in you mouth pork BBQ flavor!
Looks wonderful, and glad to hear not overly sweet. You're right about SBR's sauce, it sure lives up to the Sweet part... way too sweet for me. Maybe the onions did the trick to knock that back? Great cook!
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