Unc bmtu bbq

[FishTalesNC]

Yesterday had my biggest cook ever when we had a party at our place for my wife’s coworkers from the UNC Bone Marrow Transplant Unit. I’m guessing 30 people showed up, maybe a little more with kids. I dry brined three 8lb boneless butts for 36 hours. Rubbed them down with MMD at 5am. Got them on my 26” kettle with SNS and cherry wood at 6am, up to temp an hour later. Ambient temps were kept between 275-300F. At 11am refilled the SNS with fuel & water. At 2pm they were around 195F IT so I started checking for probe tenderness, which happened by 3pm. Held them in the oven until 5pm when people started showing up. Pulled them one at a time as needed thru the evening. We also provided a decent selection of BBQ sauces, hot dogs, cole slaw, and my wife made baked beans with leftover homemade bacon from last weekend - the beans were the first to go!

Lessons Learned:

• 24 pounds of meat has an impact! Took my kettle a lot longer to come up to temp, both at the beginning and after refueling.
• I finally want to try wrapping. I’ve never cooked whole butts, always cut them in half. I’ve also never wrapped. Compared to the halves, it took longer for the middle of the whole butts to get to temp, which meant an even more significant bark in the end. A few spots were just too dry and jerky-like. Next time I do whole butts I want to try Oakgrovebacon suggestion of putting them in a foil pan and covering loosely with foil once I’m happy with the bark. I think if the bark had softened a bit it would have been better.

That being said, a lot of people went back for seconds and kids would run thru the kitchen and grab a bite of pulled pork instead of chips or more dessert. But I got the ultimate compliment when one of her coworkers, starting in on her 2nd sandwich, told me she was a vegetarian!! (By choice, not for any medical reason). I had to confirm with my wife later that I heard her right! She admitted today was going to be "interesting" but didn’t care and her husband was just going to have to deal with it, ha - not sure I can ever top that one! 👍🏻

[customtrim]

Nice job

[Keiferr]

Nicely done! Congrats on the vegetarian convert! I always say I'm a second hand vegetarian; animals eat grass, I eat animals.

[Mudkat]

What a wonderful thing to do for the Bone Marrow Unit. The food looks great!

[RonB]

Congrats on converting the vegetarian. If we all pitch in we can win this war.

And I would have thought you'd have had some Bone Suckin' Sauce for a bone marrow transplant group.

[FishTalesNC]

Oh man, great call... I whiffed on that one!

[FireMan]

You had me at the "beans were the first to go." At that moment I glanced at the first pic & mentally gasped & thought: Wow, that’s awesome.” You will be relishing this success for a long time, especially with who these people are, a really special group. The enticing of the vegeteranian is a total gas. Well done, well done!

[HouseHomey]

That is a BIG WIN!! Nice work my friend. Success!!!

[droopie69]

Good deeds with good butts! lol

[Troutman]

Way to go, that’s pushing your kettle to the limit!! And yea I like big butts !!!!

[Frozen Smoke]

Nice job! Nothing more rewarding than cooking for large groups of people and getting compliments.

[jgreen]

Nice cook. Sounds like it was appreciated.

[Oakgrovebacon]

Sounds like you did Great! Good looking food.

[scottranda]

Unc bmtu bbq > duke bmtu bbq!!

[FishTalesNC]

😂 As far as BMTU goes, I think you’re right!

[Nuke em]

Sounds like next time ya gonna have to do some pulled chuckies. And tell your grass eater to invite another grass eater. If we win enough battles we will win the war. Nice job and wonderful to assist for a good cause.
Got me thinking bout yesterday I ran to a local food mart and there was a few Korean vets set up at a table. After purchasing my items I walked up to our vets and shook each one of their hand and thanked em for their service to helping me to keep the USA free and proud. I then gave them my number and told them I would love to cook for them anytime they wanted. My gift to them. Hopefully they will call me and set something up

[FishTalesNC]

Great ideas on both counts, hope they get in touch with you that’d be awesome!