So it was our night to cook the team dinner for my sons varsity hockey night last night and I had prepared an ambitious (for me) menu consisting of: pulled pork, baby back ribs, meathead's mac and cheese (smoked Gouda and bacon and buffalo bacon), Cole slaw, smoked stuffed jalapenos, scalloped potatoes and my very own bacon buffalo burgers adapted to meatball format. Yes there was a bit of an underlying bacon theme.
I borrowed a pit barrel from a buddy because I like to cook my pork shoulder without crutching it and there is usually not enough fuel in the PBC to complete the cook. My plan was to start one PBC at 5am afor the shoulder and then fire up the secondary cooker around noon, transfer the pork and put on the ribs at the same time. This is where I ran into some issues, by noon the first PBC was hovering in the low 200's so I knew it was on its last leg. After moving the shoulder and hanging the ribs I could not get the second PBC above 145. My guess is there was too much stuff dripping on the coals from all the meat on top? So I ended up pulling the basket out from still hot PBC #1 and dumping the coals on some foil on the ground (see picture), restarting it, then transferring the ribs over to their own barrel while leaving the pork shoulder in PBC #2. All in all it was a learning experience and the meal turned out great. I had no idea what to expect in terms of appetites but ended up cooking WAY too much food.
Leftovers below:
Setup
Overloaded PBC#2
PBC #1 after the restart
Mac and Cheese
Poppers filled
Ribs
Pork Shoulder
I borrowed a pit barrel from a buddy because I like to cook my pork shoulder without crutching it and there is usually not enough fuel in the PBC to complete the cook. My plan was to start one PBC at 5am afor the shoulder and then fire up the secondary cooker around noon, transfer the pork and put on the ribs at the same time. This is where I ran into some issues, by noon the first PBC was hovering in the low 200's so I knew it was on its last leg. After moving the shoulder and hanging the ribs I could not get the second PBC above 145. My guess is there was too much stuff dripping on the coals from all the meat on top? So I ended up pulling the basket out from still hot PBC #1 and dumping the coals on some foil on the ground (see picture), restarting it, then transferring the ribs over to their own barrel while leaving the pork shoulder in PBC #2. All in all it was a learning experience and the meal turned out great. I had no idea what to expect in terms of appetites but ended up cooking WAY too much food.
Leftovers below:
Setup
Overloaded PBC#2
PBC #1 after the restart
Mac and Cheese
Poppers filled
Ribs
Pork Shoulder
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