Show Us What You're Cooking - 7/16/2014 through 3/13/2015

[Jon Solberg]

SHUT THE FRONT DOOR! Nice Ernest!

[Ernest]

Thank you Jon! Now I'm out of pulled pork.

[Marauderer]

Aren't you lucky Ernest!! now you can do some butts this coming weekend>

[Huskee]

Tonight is 2 racks of St Louis (self-cut spares). Picked up last weeks on sale for $2.79/lb which is a great price 'round here. I'm doing them with my rub, generous brown sugar topper, and with peach & pecan wood this time for a variation.

[Marauderer]

I understand about trying new techniques and backing up instead of moving forward. Bering a tweaker I don't know how many times I have messed up a great recipe trying to improve it. Does that mean that I am going to stop tweaking? No, but I do it a lot less now.

[Huskee]

You're spot on. You only really discover new things to do, or redundant things to omit, if you tweak- it's an adventure and sometimes it just doesn't work!

[cdnichol]

Hey Huskee,

Can you go into more details when you say Brown Sugar Topper? Like what phase of the cook is this done, Light or Dark Brown Sugar and Wrap or unwrapped during the process?

[David Parrish]

NICE. Color is awesome!

[Huskee]

Thank you sir. It looks like I added saturation to the pic but i didn't. The chili powder & cayenne (no paprika) in my rub makes it get brighter when it gets wet, and the brown sugar when melting really amps up that color.

[smarkley]

Looks great! Where is your house again?

[Huskee]

Looks great! Where is your house again?

Thanks! I'm in Central MI. They were great....probably the best flavor I've gotten recently. I really put the brown sugar topper to it and then added a slight shake of my rub on top of the b-sugar. Flavor was just to die for! The 2/3 peach 1/3 pecan wood was a different flavor, albeit slightly, but welcome.

I made an overconfidence mistake though. When my 4 hr mark came, actually closer to 3.5, I let the smoker's temp start coming down instead of stoking it back up- with the intent of not overcooking them, but more of a holding temp. That extra 1.5hrs (to the 5 hr mark) of the lower temp (180-190ish) kept them from softening that extra little bit. The ribs were a tad tough, more than I like. Not a clean bite. We never stop learning do we? Next time I'm confident I will make THE best I've ever done. Next time.

[Deuce]

Nice looking ribs Huskee

[Huskee]

Thank you sir!

[Ernest]

That "red" sauce is the famous Meathead's KC classic BBQ sauce with my very little tweak.

[Marauderer]

That "red" sauce is the famous Meathead's KC classic BBQ sauce with my very little tweak.

And your very little tweak is?? IMWTK

[Ernest]

And your very little tweak is?? IMWTK

I use soy and Vietnamese fish sauce instead of the steak sauce.
The reddish color is probably from my homemade pomegranate molasses.

[AldenMiller]

Pork Butt is going on the smoker this weekend. I just got my Stoker II yesterday and I am looking forward to testing it out on a day long smoke. I picked up an 8 1/2 pound butt today and will be prepping it tonight for a Saturday smoke.

-Alden

[Huskee]

Do you smoke it whole, or have you ever tried cutting it into smaller butts for more seasoning & bark, and shorter cook time?

[AldenMiller]

Whole for now. I have pretty much stuck with ribs and chicken for years, now that I have a setup that won't require as much attention for a full day cook I am going to figure out butts and briskets.

[Huskee]

Tonight I'm performing an experiment based on a conversation on the Disqus boards with a reader. I'm smoking skinless chicken leg quarters, but on two of them I put a little BBBR...just to see. I have a feeling it will be a bit spicy and harsh but you never know until you try.

All pieces were wet brined for about 1.5hrs in my usual 1gal water, 1C salt, 1C sugar for 1 hr brine.
The front two (1 & 2 o'clock) have the BBBR as you can probably tell from the red color. The others just have pepper. All were patted dry and give a light spray of PAM.

[Ernest]

Are you smoking at high temp or traditional 225 since they are skinless?

[Huskee]

Yes 225. This time using pecan per another conversation between Jon and...was it you... about using pecan?

[David Parrish]

I just finished a super awesome ribeye meal

[Huskee]

Here's how my smoked leg quarters turned out. Done with pecan this time, and a few coffee coals.

The ones that I put BBBR on were GREAT! They had great flavor, the only thing was they were obviously spicy with the black pepper main ingredient. I was surprised that they actually tasted almost like a Cajun chicken. Heavy on the smoke, which is how I like it; wet brined as described above which I favor for chicken pieces.

Juicy, sweet & spicy. Boom!

[Ernest]

I love how these look!! I favor legs over breast (yes, even that)
I wonder if I could skin a whole chicken, low and slow smoke it like this?

[Huskee]

You sure could Ernest. Skinned chicken, done at 225 ish, creates a bark on the surface similar to crispy skin, but more jerky-like (thin). I love it. I have never skinned a whole chicken but there's surely no reason why one couldn't. And thanks by the way!

[Ernest]

I got brined legs marinating in Penzey's jerk seasoning. I'm planning on smoking these tomorrow for a crowd. I'll cook em on the big worm at whatever temp he lands on since they're skinless.
Yeah, I'm not scared of trying new cooking method on a crowd. LOL!!!!!!

[Marauderer]

Well, I have a guest coming over Sunday and I was in Wally World and they had Smithfield regular spare ribs for $2.49/lb so I got 2 racks. Also got a bone in Smithfield Butt, 9 lb, for $2.98/lb. I will have to see if I can get the butt cut into thirds and get one ready to go Sunday morning. Probably brine/rub the other 2 and freeze them for another time.

[Huskee]

Decent prices, sounds like a great plan! a 3lb butt smokes beautifully, gives perfect bark to meat ratio IMHO!

[Marauderer]

Yes, I was paying attention when you wrote that in another thread. It is a grand idea.

[David Parrish]

Barry gets bonus points!