Paying It Forward - Pitmaster Membership Giveaway

[Jlock]

With this month being the 3 year anniversary of one of the more intelligent decisions I've made---becoming a charter member of the Amazing Ribs Pitmaster Club---I wanted to give something to those who are considering a membership. So I decided to hold my own, very unscientific, contest. The chosen winner will be receive a one year paid membership to the Pitmaster Club, paid for by me. It's my way of showing appreciation for all the great people and the input fellow grillers and smokers provide in the forum.

I don't post as much as I should, but I sure do read a lot of what people post and find that there are no better group of people with a common passion than here in the Pitmaster Club. I've even had the pleasure of meeting a couple of the great contributors here and believe it or not, CandySueQ and fuzzydaddy didn't run away screaming when we hooked up at Smokin' In The Square in Pensacola earlier this year. Great people!

Now that I got that out of the way, here is what I'm proposing:

We'll call this "Where ya at? What ya cookin'?" This is open to all who are currently signed up as a "Free Trial Member". All you need to do is post up a picture in this thread that contains:
1) An "action shot" of what's on the grill/smoker for your current cook.
And,
2) Include in the photo something associated with city/state/region where you're joining us from. For example, as a Floridian I'd include a little plastic palm tree that Mrs Jlock loves to keep around. Have some fun. That's what this place is all about!

Names/pictures will be accepted until 12:00 Noon on Thursday August 31st, 2017 with the random drawing being held on August 31st, 2017 at 6:00 PM (Central). The drawing will be monitored by the law firm of....



....so you know this is all on the up-and-up! I will announce the winner that evening.

Just my way of saying 'Thank you' to Meathead and the rest of the staff for a great product, and my simple attempt to expand membership in whatever small way I can.

Smoke On!

Jeff

**Disclaimer** This membership giveaway is in no way driven by, sponsored by, or subsidized by Amazing Ribs. It's my own idea, concept, and money paying for the one year membership.

[HouseHomey]

A generous thing.

Void where prohibited, dealer participation may vary.

[FireMan]

I think this contest is rigged!

[kmhfive]

This is a beautiful thing. Y'all gotta get in on this contest!

[RonB]

String him up now and get it over with.

[ComfortablyNumb]

Too bad my trial membership is up in five days. I could post a pic of the KBQ smoking a roadkill deer. In NE Washington state we have two kinds of drivers. Those who have hit a deer and those who are going to hit a deer.

[Jlock]

I'm going to keep bumping this so it keeps in the rotation.

Mods, feel free (if it's deserving) to co-locate in other topics/groups.

Smoke On!

[marshall]

nice idea !

[Lion]

Dang... I just joined and paid...

[Jlock]

The weekend is upon us so I wanted to bump my offer. No trial member takers so far.

Smoke on!

[ComfortablyNumb]

I suppose I'd best get cooking! My free trial was due to expire today and was prepared to pay up. Logged on and I have a two week extension, talk about enabling a procrastinator!!

[Jlock]

Do y'all think this would get more visibility from the newcomers/trial members if I copied it into the "Introduce Yourself" forum group?

ETA: I think I was just able to answer my own question. In a quick survey of the first two pages in the Intro section, I saw only one Trial Member post anything in there. Guess this is as good a place as any, unless Site Staff has any suggestions.

[Pirate Scott]

Very Generous, I would be all in. Moderators can help with placement I am sure.

[purp]

Well, I'll raise a hand. Bought the book three days ago after using the site for more than a year and joined the club that evening.

My most popular cook is a simple set of baby backs, using Meathead's Memphis Dust rub[1] and Sweet Baby Ray's sauce. That's how I first found the site — trying to up my standard backyard grilling game. Many, many racks have met with satisfied friends and family in the back yard over the past few years.



A quick word about the equipment: it's a Vision Grills Signature S Pro series kamado style, pretty much stock. For indirect heat, I toss a 12" pizza pan on the lower grill; for bigger/longer cooks, I put a disposable aluminum water pan on top of that. It's a bit ghetto; I figure when the equipment is holding me back, I'll level up. We're not there yet, by a loooong distance.




So I'm prepping for a neighborhood charity rib-off and looking to try some new things, so I've been doing some Rubsperimentation as a way to branch out. Last weekend I did four different rubs: Memphis Street Dust (natch), Southern Living's Memphis Rub[2], Trager Grills Smoky Spice Rub[3], and Dad With A Pan Texas Baby Back Rub[4]. I decided to do these on country-style boneless pork ribs because it's easy to rub separate batches and easy to cut them into morsels for dipping in various sauces to see what works well with what.




The first weekend's rubsperiments quickly narrowed the field; the Southern Living and Trager recipes fell by the wayside as interesting, but not particular to the judging panel's particular tastes. The Dad With A Pan rub showed promise, though half the panel immediately DQ'd themselves due to spiciness, and those of us in the other half found ourselves struggling to finish two ribs without needing a milk break.





So, for this weekend, I decided to tweak the DWaP rub into something I'm calling "Kansexas City Rub"[5] and try to adapt Meathead's amazing Banh Mi preview into something that might be rib-worthy. Both worked out well, though I don't think I'm yet smart enough to take the wonderful, subtle banh mi rub and glaze into a rib that really sells its roots.




For sauces, I've been sticking to bottled sauces that I like, figuring that someday I'll be brave enough to tackle sauces and glazes. So, to make rubsperimenting easy, we've been sticking to three favorites and dipping in them to see how things match up. The two Oso sauces are tomato-based with excellent flavor, bringing different levels of sweet heat.

I'm pretty happy with the Kansexas rub; it brings the heat and holds up well with any of the three sauces. The Banh Mi seems happy enough with any of them, but the Turf Sauce seems to allow some of the ginger and five spice flavors through. Like I said, I don't think I'm good enough at this yet to really make that one sing.

Next weekend: time for racksperiments, finished on the grill. Two rubs, three sauces, and nail down what's going to the rib-off on Labor Day.

Happy smoking!

[1] http://amazingribs.com/recipes/rubs_...phis_dust.html
[2] http://www.southernliving.com/recipe...ck-ribs-recipe
[3] http://www.traegergrills.com/recipes...baby-back-ribs
[4] http://dadwithapan.com/recipe/texas-...aby-back-ribs/
[5] That's kan-ZEX-uhs, and where was *your* mind, anyway? Yeah, the name needs some work.
[6] http://amazingribs.com/recipes/porkn...andwiches.html

[ComfortablyNumb]

Finally got the cook in. Yesterday it was windy and I didn't want to risk setting the county on fire. Today was calm, until after I got the fire started, wouldn't you know it! I kept the hose close and wetted down the dry grass around the smoker. Thankfully, other than some cooked meat and garlic, the afternoon was uneventful.



Getting the start up coals going. Washington is the 'Evergreen State', in the background is Grouse Mountain covered with larch, fir, and pine.



First in, chicken wings.



NE Washington is known for garlic. We grow about half an acre, so we going to roast some with the meat.



All loaded up, garlic on top, chicken in the middle, and a thick cut Choice New York cut steak, albeit a tad difficult to see.



A KBQ at work, mesmerising!!



Chicken comes out first and is placed on top of the firebox to crisp up. I was told by Mrs. CN to hurry as it was burning. Meanwhile, Molly our rescue dog from Yakima manages to find ways to get into most pictures.



Next the steak.







Everything brought together. Steak and chicken wings with some garlic bread. The heirloom beans, corn, garlic potatoes and smoked roasted garlic were grown on our farm. The state vegetable is the Walla Walla onion, so I added a couple of onions along with our garlic as side dressing. I can't call them Walla Walla because federal law (you read that correctly, FEDERAL LAW) prohibits me, but they are the same onion, only grown in Stevens County, WA. I can call them Stevens County Sweets, maybe not as famous but just as good!