Wife’s Uncle states eating pork (baby backs) on New Year’s Day brings good luck for the year. Who am I to argue with him regarding an opportunity to smoke? Whipped up some of Meatheads Memphis Dust and dusted the rack which went into a preheated 220 F YS 640 for six and a smidge hours. Whipped up some Lexington dipping sauce which I augmented with a minced/mashed apple (no apple juice on hand), OMG! Sorry, I keep forgetting to snap a completed cook photo because the food is consumed immediately. Thank you Meathead for the amazing recipes, informative articles and this platform which built this community. Happy New Year to all and remember, keep on smokin’. Added the recent makin’ bacon smoke, o so good.
I always love making my traditional New Year's Day menu. Bone-in pork roast, a mess o' greens, Hoppin John with Carolina Gold rice, and cornbread. Everything had pork in it, too, for extra luck and, well, because I could. Greens had bacon and a smoked ham hock, Hoppin John and rice had smoked pork jowl, and I used lard to crisp up the outside of the cornbread. If I have lousy luck this year, it won't be because I cooked the wrong food yesterday.
I wish all of you a New Year filled with peace, love, and personal fulfillment!
Kamado Joe Big Joe III
Pit Barrel Cooker
Camp Chef Flat Top 900
Weber Performer 22
PowerFlamer Propane 160
Meater +
Thermoworks Smoke
Thermoworks Thermapen
Temp Spike
2025 Good luck meal (less the cornbread, which was meh). Gumbo based collard greens, pulled pork shoulder with Huskee 's Mustard Sauce (a staple in our home), black-eyed peas, and rice. The collards were amazing. My FIL took one bite, turned to me and said "these collards are by far the best I've ever put in my mouth in all of my 77 years." I agreed. Another winner from @regularfolksfood on Youtube.
Nothing real special. 8 lbs smoked ham. Double smoked with Applewood at 225 for 2 hours. I then put a couple of cups of broth from some smoked ham shanks I made earlier in the day into the CI skillet and tented. By the way, that's a 14 inch skillet.
I put it back on the smoker and turned up the temp to 325 for a couple of hours until the internal temp was around 150. I made a ham gravy with the drippings. Neither my wife or I like sweet glazes.
Ham was served with Sea Island Red Peas cooked in pork stock, collard greens, Carolina Gold rice and Cornbread.
my first attempt at Gumbo. It's at Seafood Gumbo with shrimp, oyster and claw meat. Took two fries, to make the Roux. Because there were people who couldn't eat spicy it didn't have the best taste.
Well, yesterday turned into a big cooking day since I'm on call this weekend and I had a day off to finally try a second longer cook on the Primo. To that end I thought a couple of racks of spare ribs would be a fun cook. They were, however, the most bizarre spare ribs I have ever seen. They each had part of the sternum attached and a weird hunk of extra meat that I think might have been part of a diaphragm. Anyway, trimmed them up the best I could and dry brined them overnight. Rubbed with Eat BBQ rub and Meatheads then put them on the Primo at 250.
This, my second long cook, on the Primo shows me that it seems to want to be at temps higher than 250. I have Smobot coming that I hope will be able to help the cooker stay at the lower temp. That said, it seems to want to be at 275-300 F. I am probably too obsessive-compulsive with wanting to cook at 250, however, I've always had good results cooking at that temperature. That said, I was able to play games with the intake and smoke stack openings to keep the temperature where I wanted it, it just took more adjusting than I had planned. That said, the results were delicious and I'm willing to try it again. Want to try it again with a rack or two of appropriately trimmed ribs. The pictures below shows after they had been on the Primo for a bit and then after I started cutting them and had a sample rib (loops).
I also did a batch of the always popular Troutman's Texas Red. It is one of our all-time favorites and with the cold weather making its way here it seemed the perfect accompaniment. Plus it gets better with an overnight sit in the fridge and it was spectacular tonight for supper. I smoked it on the PK-360 for an hour and used some of the oak chunks that I won as being the third place winner for the Pit Monthly give-away. I liked the extra smoke flavor a lot.
Additionally, my wife and her family had a rule that you had to have ham and beans on New Years Day for good luck for the rest of year. Subsequently I made a big batch of ham hocks and white beans. They were done on the stove top. Needless to say, we have a ton of food, however, there will be no need to cook this weekend and we will eat well.
If anyone has suggestions on cooking with a Primo XL I am open to any help especially when it comes to temp control. I hope the Smobot helps.
I went to the grocer to get something to throw on the barbie, honest! I didn’t make it past the seafood counter. There is always a good cut of meat, ribs or chicken but when I see really fresh seafood I cave…… I think I have MSS 🤪
We’ve had discussions before, but wanted to mention, this turned out terrific. Pulled smoked ham. I bought a big honkin shank & butt portion from Conecuh Sausage Company. Cooked Christmas morning.
Included my famous chocolate bread pudding as a bonus 😉. Alton’s recipe.
hoovarmin, on the contrary, it is very moist. After a few hours in the smoke, I wrapped in foil with a light sauce glaze, pineapple and splash of pineapple juice and water. It finishes in the braise.
au4stree this is very intriguing and I may DM you for some guidance because I want to try it. BTW, I'm a stones throw from you right now in Columbus GA visiting my mom. One day when we visit her I'd love for us to have a mini meat up.
No finished plated pics be cause, well, I had some Wellers Black that I started sipping on to bring in the new year. Anyway a couple racks on the Bronco. Had some black eye peas, corn, collards and cornbread on the plate too.
SnS Kettle
Napoleon 500 Pro gasser grill
Weber Slate 30” griddle
Gozney Arc XL pizza oven
Instant Pot Duo Crisper 8 qt
Cuisinart food processor
Kitchenaid Stand Mixer
Breville Smart toaster oven
Anova Sous vide (Pro version and Standard Version)
Cabella 15” Vacuum Sealer
Combustion Inc Wireless Probes (Gen2 upgrades)
Fireboard v2
Fireboard Spark
Fireboard Pulse (3) probes and S1G antenna
ThermoWorks RFX gateway and 2 RFX meat probes
Thermoworks IR gun
Thermoworks MK4
Thermoworks Zero
Thermoworks Signals
7 Shun knives (paring to 12" slicer)
Misen Chef's knife
Dalstrong Phantom Series Boning Knife
8-9 other knives (enough to get an eye roll from wife!)
2 Mandolins, 1 veggie spiralizer
Work Sharp E5 sharpener
Chef's Choice sharpener
Hone Rolling Sharpener
Leftovers from NY Eve dinner of cornish game hens with apricot glaze, mashed red rose taters. Well, my bride ran off with the game hen leftover and some rice we had in the frig, so no pic of that. I plucked a NY strip from the market. SV 130* for a couple of hours, then seared on Napoleon gasser IR burner. Served with a couple of glasses of Duckhorn Cab.
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