Welcome!

**Mballmond** · May 5, 2024, 04:51 PM

Found this giant ham at Publix for $.99/lb, so used the marinade meathead recommends from Chris at Big Bob Gibsons. Swapped out the apricot preserves for guava preserves (south Florida) and it came out delicious.

Attached Files

**DaveD** · May 5, 2024, 05:19 PM

Made up a pan of poor man's carne adovada enchiladas using my usual approach: about 14oz/400g of smoked pulled pig, Monroe's New Mexico red chile sauce, lots of shredded cheese, chopped green onions, yellow corn tortillas. Made 'em flat (don't think I'll ever go back to rolling enchis) in layers: tortillas, meat, cheese, sauce, sprinkle of green onions; more tortillas, more meat, more cheese, more sauce, more green onions. These are some of the best I have yet made.

Served with light sour cream and Wholly Guacamole chunk-style. Definitely not from-scratch in any way, but perfect comfort food for a rainy, gloomy day.

**Grillin Dad** · May 5, 2024, 05:55 PM

First ribs on the PBX!! Was able to keep temps in the PBX under 250 nearly the whole cook, no problem. Pulled the ribs out after 4 hours, but probably could have continued to cook them at least another hour, maybe two (my family likes them more 'fall off the bone'). But flavor was delicious

.

**HotSun** · May 5, 2024, 06:09 PM

hoovarmin asked for it, now he gets it: my Saturday fail. Warning: this may upset our more sensitive viewers, so you've been warned. It won't break my heart if you skip this post.

As mentioned last week, I was planning to cook some chuck underblade steaks that I mistakenly purchased and were sitting in the freezer for a while. I wanted to do them as steak, so I was going to go hot and fast. I dry brined for about 18 hours:

Pretty lean, lots of connective tissue. But I wanted to try to cook them as a flank steak. Next day, Mother Nature turned against me and our rain came early and often, so I was stuck with these. I didn't want to do hot-and-fast in the house (smoke alarms always go off), so I decided to braise.

Since they had plenty of salt, I just decided to toss in some salt-free seasoning that I purchased a few months ago, very much like Lawry's, but no salt (it is not a name-brand). I cut these steaks in half and seared each side. I deglazed with red wine, then I sauteed some onions, then some garlic. Tossed it all in the pan with 1 Tbsp of the seasoning.

For the record, I was under the weather yesterday, and really had not business cooking yesterday. But I was already committed. Here is everything in the pressure cooker. I added some more water, just before covering:

Cooked on high for 1 hour, but about 40 minutes in, the beautiful smell in the kitchen started to turn a little, uh, earthier? Well, this is a tough cut of meat, so I just let it go until the timer went off, by which time I had a very bad feeling about this.

Quick release, and found a bunch of burned meat. I couldn't bear to take a picture of the pot, but there was about 1/4 inch of char at the bottom. I removed the meat and put in a bowl:

My DW and DS both said it was fine, and they ended up eating it anyhow (it was not all bad). My DD and I skipped it and ate whatever else was on the table.

I know I didn't add enough liquid and the wine and onions at the bottom were probably just trapped and started this whole chain of events.

Overall, a 'D', mainly because there was a little salvageable meat and we didn't have to order out. I did make some killer roasted red skin potatoes. However, now I'm concerned that my DW and DS have terrible taste in food, if they enjoyed this, which is making me doubt all of my cooking.

**Richard Chrz** · May 5, 2024, 06:46 PM

My bride turns 60 tomorrow, but I did the celebratory cook this evening. Flanken ribs, smoked lobster, scallops, and lions mane mushrooms, and made a flourless chocolate torte as well.

**WayneT** · May 5, 2024, 07:37 PM

I was recently inspired by someone’s quail cook (raise your hand, please) and within a few days ordered some quail, duck breasts, halibut fillets, and scallops from D’artagnan. Tonight Mari Jo and I tag team cooked a meal featuring the duck.

I chose the SVQ method for the duck to preserve the beautiful interior of the meat by not overcooking. It was in the SV duck pond for 2:15 hours at 136F, after which it got chilled down to 47F within 2 hours, cold enough to soak up some smoke on the SNS before coming back up to 130F, prior to a sear.

I’ve found a great use for those freezer packs I get from various meat vendors when they send me products: a replacement for ice cubes when chilling SV cooks. Based on the food safety guidelines I employ for chilling after SV, 4 of these packs will easily replace a lot of ice cubes to make a 50/50 mix of water and ice.

I employed my four-zone, quasi cold grate method for the duck, building my fire on the right side of my SNS insert. This time I use a crumpled up piece of aluminum foil as a separator to keep the briquettes in place. After the first coals were lit and beginning to ash over, I closed the lid with both the top and bottom vents wide open. Once the grate temperature hit 175F, I put the duck on and closed the lid. The low temp on this cook was 175F and the high was 300F. I love this method because you don’t have to use a chimney or fiddle around with the vents. It’s great for short SVQ cooks.

After the duck reached 100F, I put my CI skillet for searing and orange/maple glaze on to reduce.

With my four zone setup, I had the skillet directly over the hot coals, the duck breasts furthest from the heat and the glaze pan next to the coals.

The result was some beautifully colored and crispy duck breasts with a sweet and zesty glaze.

Our first veggie harvest of the season, a ginormous broccoli crown, which was the featured side. Mari Jo also made a wild rice medley over which the duck breast was served.

This definitely was a celebratory meal for cinco di mayo.

Finis.

**Attjack** · May 5, 2024, 08:13 PM

Carne asada tacos, guacamole, and margaritas. Happy Cinco de Mayo.

**PGH_RAM** · May 5, 2024, 08:14 PM

I'm currently taking livestock-strength antibiotics that have wreaked havoc with my digestive system. Hoping to regroup my normally hale gut biome, I busted out two kinds of homemade kimchi: cabbage and radish. Here's hoping all those friendly bacteria find good purchase and thrive.

**Spitts57** · May 6, 2024, 02:46 PM

We had a little neighborhood BBQ Cook-Off this weekend and Mr. Spitts57 and I won first place in the chicken category with some traditional thighs and some of ssandy_561's 'chicken burnt ends" all sauced with Huskee's Orange-Jalapeno BBQ Shawsh. And we took second place in Desserts with a Texas Trash Pie that we cooked on the smoker with a little cherry wood. (This is a picture of the practice pie...I was runnin' and gunnin' at turn-in and forgot to take a picture of the box!).
It was just an informal competition but I can see how it could be kind of catching!
Love all the ideas, inspiration, and recipes I pick up here in the Pit!

**Mosca** · May 6, 2024, 04:16 PM

Building brisket tacos!

Make a quick pico de gallo…

Spread some puréed avocado (or use slices)

A strip of roasted Hatch chili pepper

A strip of bacon…

Some brisket…

Lay on that pico de gallo!

crema and cilantro…

And finally some manchego! (I wanted to use cotija, but I didn’t want to pause here to go to the store). Served with brisket beans and mini potato pancakes, and some sour cream and bbq sauces for dipping. And I took some time to do a classic Texas bbq joint plating! ORDER UP!

**JCBBQ** · May 6, 2024, 05:37 PM

I always make double Peruvian green sauce bc I like it in sooo many things. I used a bunch to make one of my favorite pasta dishes. Added some spicy Italian sausage. Winner winner Peruvian dinner!!