A barbecue adventure, the saga unfolds.

FYI: I am on an all-meat diet and this is torture for me.

Luckily, I have a co-conspirator who makes bi-weekly trips to different BBQ joints in Central Texas with me.

Next week, we are going to a well regarded smokehouse that was recommended by the guy at the gun store. What better reference could you have?
 
IK04 said:
FYI: I am on an all-meat diet and this is torture for me.

Luckily, I have a co-conspirator who makes bi-weekly trips to different BBQ joints in Central Texas with me.

Next week, we are going to a well regarded smokehouse that was recommended by the guy at the gun store. What better reference could you have?
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Sounds like you have all bases covered. Sort of like the urban hipster "farm to fork" concept except the "firearms to fire" implementation.

I like it!
 
Sac Arrow said:
Oh dude, you should have given me a heads up...
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I did check in with John, he was in Chico that weekend.

I found a judging class that was this year (2022) in April in Clayton. I don't see any that are scheduled the rest of this year though. I'll check with the judge contest rep from the Lodi contest to see if they know any that are normally scheduled around that area. That region also covers Hawaii. They were trying to talk me into judging a Hawaii contest, too. I might have to look into that, depending oh my nephew's Navy career.

edit:

The Lodi contest reps will be working a contest and judging class in Kapolei, HI 1 Oct 2022.
 
IK04 said:
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Next week, we are going to a well regarded smokehouse that was recommended by the guy at the gun store. What better reference could you have?
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Is it in Belton and do they also do espresso? Worth the trip.
 
I've mentioned before - "pork belly burnt ends"

This guy, Heath Riles, is the real deal on the bbq circuit. He has a new video every week. They always finish with the food porn money shot.

His pork belly burnt ends look outstanding:


You're welcome.
 
TCABM said:
Is it in Belton and do they also do espresso? Worth the trip.
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Nope. It's somewhere in Austin South of the river.

I've been to all the BBQ joints in Belton and so far, Miller's is my favorite. Don't know about the espresso...
 
IK04 said:
Nope. It's somewhere in Austin South of the river.

I've been to all the BBQ joints in Belton and so far, Miller's is my favorite. Don't know about the espresso...
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Probably off topic, but I was stationed at Ft Hood for two years. I know Belton well, and Austin as well. It was my go to party town. I remember great breakfast places, the Po Folks place with catfish, but I never did experience BBQ there. This was a while back.
 
Yeah, there is no awesome BBQ in the immediate area. Miller's is good and I haven't been to any of the smaller places in Copperas Cove or Killeen.

I went to what used to be the local Mecca of barbecue, Cooper's in Llano, but it was meh compared to the incredible stuff I've had in recent years.

All barbecue is good, but when you are spoiled by the best there is, it's hard to find a local place that satisfies. Maybe moving to the D/FW area to be closer to the upcoming grandson might be a good idea!
 
IK04 said:
...All barbecue is good...
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I dropped my youngest off at Appalachian State University yesterday. When he was a small child, we hit Woodland's BBQ after visiting Tweetsie Railroad when Thomas the Tank Engine was there. It's not the best BBQ joint but it's pretty good and I since I have to drive right by it on the way to campus I imagine I'll be a frequent customer for the next four (hopefully) years.
 
Pork bellies are hard to find around here. At least in raw form, anyway.
 
Sac Arrow said:
Pork bellies are hard to find around here. At least in raw form, anyway.
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Only places I reliably find them is at Sam’s or a real-live meat market. Can’t remember if I’ve ever seen one in a grocery store.
 
IK04 said:
…
All barbecue is good, but when you are spoiled by the best there is, it's hard to find a local place that satisfies...
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Schoepf’s is okay, we would go for Thursday night Free Texas Music Series, but I’ve heard those are now ticketed events. I usually order the giant sandwich and Miller’s and throw the bread aside in favor of the meat by itself.

Concur on the local joints, we try to fly into Lockhart occasionally for a change. If we visit our daughter in Austin, we’ll go over to Southside in Elgin.

If you’re in Cove, ain’t much there though.
 
Sac Arrow said:
Pork bellies are hard to find around here. At least in raw form, anyway.
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Try the Korean food stores. They always have Samgyap ssal.

What you show in those photos is called Twaygee bulgogee in Korean. Absolutely pork candy! yummmmm...

I eat hat stuff almost every week, along with some other amazing Korean meat goodies.
 
TCABM said:
Schoepf’s is okay, we would go for Thursday night Free Texas Music Series, but I’ve heard those are now ticketed events. I usually order the giant sandwich and Miller’s and throw the bread aside in favor of the meat by itself.

Concur on the local joints, we try to fly into Lockhart occasionally for a change. If we visit our daughter in Austin, we’ll go over to Southside in Elgin.

If you’re in Cove, ain’t much there though.
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Schoepf's went to using oak for their smoking wood and it tastes a little weird.

There is a new BBQ place in Cove that I just discovered, so I'll have to check it out. As far as flying in and chowing down, there nothing in this area. You can always land next to the Salt Lick in Driftwood if you have a helicopter! I'll be there next week.
 
I signed up to cook in an Oct contest nearby. Then a couple days ago a buddy, who owns a smoker mfg company, called and let me know he’s going to sponsor my team. He’s also a big sponsor for the contest, so he entered his spot for me and got my entry fees refunded. Now I’m craving q again. I’m probably going to do some contest chicken in the next week or two. I hate cooking contest chicken - it has to be “just right” or your scores go way down, in a big hurry. And I hate cooking chicken anyway. So I’ll throw in some pork butts, too. Since I only do a couple contests a year, at most, I don’t get anywhere near the practice and process control as the teams that cook one or two contests each weekend. Chicken is really touchy because of the skin. We almost always cook bone in, skin on thighs. Some will cook skin on drumsticks, but that’s rare. As a judge, I like getting a drumstick, they are normally very good. The rules state that if entered skin on, the judges must taste the skin. And the criteria for skin is that it must be “bite through”. So anything that’s tough, chewy, dry, or pulls off the thigh is undesirable. If I haven’t mentioned it yet, I hate cooking chicken.
 
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‘Smoked’ pork tenderloins on the gas grill with cherry pellets in a smoke box. About 250 for 30-ish min.
 
IK04 said:
Schoepf's went to using oak for their smoking wood and it tastes a little weird.

There is a new BBQ place in Cove that I just discovered, so I'll have to check it out. As far as flying in and chowing down, there nothing in this area. You can always land next to the Salt Lick in Driftwood if you have a helicopter! I'll be there next week.
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I fly up from the SAT area; when I fly up that way, it’s either to Llano or Stephenville.
 
Made it home OK from the bbq contest this afternoon. Managed to hold off the meat coma for a little while longer.

This contest had 2 ancillaries - sausage and dessert. Not every team enters those. I didn't judge sausage, but it looked like there was a pretty even spread of links, meatballs, and logs (bulk sausage rolled out into a log, sort of like a meatloaf, and then smoked). There were a few with chunks of cheese inside, and at least one that was stuffed with cream cheese. I couldn't tell if it was just cream cheese or if it was part of a jalapeno popper that was packed inside the sausage (a dinosaur egg). I only saw that one from a distance.

The desserts I got to judge, 4 of them, had one that just didn't work. It was a pan of what is best described as strawberry shortcake, but it didn't have shortcake at the bottom. It had something that I thought was waffles but it was hard to tell. Whatever it was, it had gotten soggy and torn up when we tried scooping it out and it just had an odd texture. Don't make that. The other desserts (2 cheesecakes and 1 chocolate parfait) were very good.

The 4 main categories were sort of mixed today.

Chicken - I had some that was overdone, some that was cooked very well but was bland, and some that tasted good but was overdone. I think I had one piece that was very good.

Ribs - One was possibly the worst I've ever had. It was very, very tough and I gave it the next to bottom score for that. One judge might have given it the lowest possible score, inedible. But it made up for being so tough by having a terrible flavor - it could have been entered in a hot-wing "hot" category contest. It was not a good flavor. But in all honesty, I gave it a decent appearance score since it did look pretty good. The bad thing was that the best rib of the whole turn in at my table was the final rib, it was right after the hot rib and was hard to really taste it with destroyed taste buds. But I think that final rib may still have gotten perfect scores from our table. I hope it won something. But that one rib, hoo-boy, that was a war crime.

Pork - one entry was on the dry and bland side. Two were just a little chewy, and the other 3 were very good. One team got turned away - they reached the turn-in table just as the door closed. Teams get a 10 minute window, turn in time +/-5 minutes on each side. Sometime they miss it.

Brisket - one was so tough I had a very hard time pulling off a bite. The others were OK and one really stood out.

Overall, it was a well organized contest, and that's the best you can hope for. The teams do the best they can and turn in the best they have. So even if it doesn't score well, they do deserve credit for turning something in.

In a couple more weekends I do it again.
 
I’m getting ahead of myself, but these are on tap for next weekend’s college football games.


Tomorrow we’ve got a bone in prime ribeye for dinner. It’ll smoke to 120ish, rest, then sear at 700* for about 60 seconds per side and be done.
 
TCABM said:
I’m getting ahead of myself, but these are on tap for next weekend’s college football games.

Tomorrow we’ve got a bone in prime ribeye for dinner. It’ll smoke to 120ish, rest, then sear at 700* for about 60 seconds per side and be done.
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I haven’t made, or eaten, shotgun shells. I’ve wanted to, but haven’t.

I do like making these:


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Slaps BBQ won the contest I was judging today. He’s currently 2nd place in the national points race. I’ll check next week to see if that win bumped him up, I’m not sure they’ve updated those rankings yet since there may be some contests tomorrow. There was also another contest near me today. One of the perks of being in KC is there are plenty of contests nearby, pretty much every weekend. The guy that won the other local contest is currently 13th nationally.

The contest I’ll be cooking in, mid-Oct, is the next to last contest around here. So there are usually a high percentage of top national team of the year chasers trying to pick up points. This old man will have his work cut out for him if he wants a ribbon.
 
I forgot to take pictures yesterday when I smoked two pork tenderloins, 1.5 lbs of pork belly, and a new (to me) appetizer. I'll use the pork belly this week to make this wonderful baked beans recipe. https://heygrillhey.com/pork-belly-bourbon-baked-beans/

But what I made for the first time, and wish I'd gotten a photo of were the Piggy Pops appetizer. Cubes of pork tenderloin, rubbed, wrapped in bacon, skewered with a chunk of jalapeño, smoked for an hour, and topped with a spoonful of sauce. https://www.smoking-meat.com/january-14-2016-apple-smoked-piggy-pops

I don't like them quite as much as ABT jalapeño poppers, but they sure are easier to make.

Photo from the recipe link:

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Okay. Tonight’s dinner is a 23 oz bone in prime ribeye. Butcher singled it out for a discount due to uneven thickness. Went from a little over 1” to a little under 1 1/2”, which doesn’t matter too much to me because I smoke then sear.

Here it is with McCormick Brazillian Steakhouse rub just to try it out. Rub went on this morning with a touch of olive oil. Pulled it out in time to come up to near room temp before hitting the smoker.
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At @Matthew ’s suggestion, I switched fuel and went with a pure chunk oak/hickory charcoal mix. I smoke to 120*, then pull it off and run the temp up to 650* then drop the steak for 90 seconds on each side. This usually turns out a beautiful medium rare. Here it is resting.
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Not the best grill marks or appearance. When I pulled the steak at 120 to run the smoker up to 650, I got distracted with potatoes and making a Sazerac (cocktail) with Sazerac (rye). I think that contributed to what you see next.
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The specks are just dried seasonings, but it looks like the steak got too cool before I seared it and ended up rare.

Good news is the smoke profile is closer to what I’m looking for. Still have some work to do there, and this particular charcoal tended to run hotter than I want, probably due to the oak.

Either way, momma was happy, the wine matched really well, and I’m going to move on to shotgun shells on Saturday.
 
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Last weekend 2 of our local teams won. There were 2 different contests this weekend here, and those teams did not compete agains each other. I judged one, two of the guys on my team cooked in the other. The two winners moved up in the national points rankings. From #2 to #1, and from #13 to #8. In late Oct I’m cooking in the next to last contest of the year in this area, my guess is both those teams will be there. It’s always possible to beat a team like that for a ribbon in any given category, but very hard to beat them overall. They have no weak spots, and the overall winner has the highest point total from all four categories (chicken, ribs, pork, brisket).
 
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GaryM said:
Well, there goes my secret plan to win the KCBS competition I've entered next month. Back to the drawing board.

Wait, can I cook the ribs in NyQuil?
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Chicken turns in first, then ribs. So if you want some sleepy judges scoring your competitors, I say, “If the rules don’t prohibit it, then it’s legal.”
 
I think I have relegated that my smoker is not going to be a universal Swiss army knife do it all. It's not the appropriate hardware for brisket, and any beef, chicken or pork venue short of ribs is going to be replicated just fine on either the grill, oven or crock pot. Therefore its use seems to be just ribs. I mean I -could- smoke turkeys, prime ribs and the like, but why, the work vs. return ratio isn't there. Now if I had either a pellet smoker, or a full time @Matthew, it might be a different story.
 
Holy cow! My smoker can only hold temperature from 150-250. Given your post, it's worthless! I use if for ribs, butt and brisket just fine.
 
Sac Arrow said:
I mean I -could- smoke turkeys, prime ribs and the like, but why, the work vs. return ratio isn't there.
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Prime rib and turkey are both easy to smoke, and awesome when they are done. You might give each a try before you give up on them.
 
Duh. My gravity fed smoker isn’t a do it all and it’s the closest I’ve come with a stable temp range of 205* to 650*. It’s like a steam locomotive, the higher the temp, the faster I gotta shovel the coal.

Putting on this market trimmed brisket brisket point tomorrow in hopes in turns out fantastic. Finally found a butcher who does points only (sells the flats for pastrami).

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I still haven’t had a chance to do the shotgun shells yet, maybe two weekends out until we can do that.
 
TCABM said:
Duh. My gravity fed smoker isn’t a do it all and it’s the closest I’ve come with a stable temp range of 205* to 650*. It’s like a steam locomotive, the higher the temp, the faster I gotta shovel the coal.

Putting on this market trimmed brisket brisket point tomorrow in hopes in turns out fantastic. Finally found a butcher who does points only (sells the flats for pastrami).

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I still haven’t had a chance to do the shotgun shells yet, maybe two weekends out until we can do that.
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That is one finely marbled point. Lots of good burnt end potential right there.
 
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