A barbecue adventure, the saga unfolds.

Sac Arrow said:
Oh my, that looks really good. I love a good lamb chop.
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Here’s what I’ll say. The dry rub, while not described as a truffle profile nor listing truffle as an ingredient came across exactly as that.

Not a bad profile, but nit for lamb. I ended up cutting it with some OF1920 bourbon and that did the trick.
I’ll stick with a more traditional lamb rub going forward.

In other news, it was accompanied by a fine local Tannat. Something that would compare with the best near your neck of the woods. I wish our trip out there a few years ago would have had less driving to afford an opportunity to meet.

We head to San Diego for the zoo in April.
 
TCABM said:
Like this?
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I approve.

We did chops, I can’t remember if they were boneless or not. On the outside they had a beautiful crust, on the inside they were perfect med-rare.

We got perfect scores on that entry and won some dollars. There was a guy I used to work with, he was judging that contest. On Monday he said, “Oh, man! One team turned in lamb chops, they were awesome!” I showed him my pix. “Like this?” “Yeah! That’s the one!”

I spent about 30 minutes looking for those pix. They are stored on a drive I can’t get to from my phone.


Edit:

Hey! Found a pic. The color in the picture isn’t nearly as good as it was for real. I was under a tent in shadows.


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Matthew said:
My brother was a judge at Pigfest BBQ contest today, Lakeland FL. Same venue as Sun ‘n Fun.

He saw this guy cooking tomahawks.

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Are the pineapples for an al pastor style or just looks? There a joint around here that does pork tomahawks al pastor. It’s….interesting.
 
It’s hard to beat that tomahawk set up on presentation short of a full side of beef rotisserie…. Man I miss when I was kid and my grandpa used to cook those. Heck I bet it’s been 30 years since I have been to a wedding that did a full rotisserie cooked hog with kegs. I miss that, Those were the best.
 
TCABM said:
Are the pineapples for an al pastor style or just looks? There a joint around here that does pork tomahawks al pastor. It’s….interesting.
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Al pastor was the first thing I thought when I saw the pineapple. I don’t know what they did with those steaks.
 
Flatiowa said:
It’s hard to beat that tomahawk set up on presentation short of a full side of beef rotisserie…. Man I miss when I was kid and my grandpa used to cook those. Heck I bet it’s been 30 years since I have been to a wedding that did a full rotisserie cooked hog with kegs. I miss that, Those were the best.
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One of our local bbq contests used to have a whole hog category. That was always fun to see the different setups. But they gave awards out to 10th place and rarely had more than seven teams enter.

One year the mayor set up a rig right next to us. He didn’t enter the contest, and his minions or some guy he hired, did almost all the work. They ran a couple lengths of rebar through the hog, wrapped some chicken wire around it, set it onto a chain drive rotisserie setup, then dumped a couple bags of charcoal directly on the ground underneath. That smelled so good, once the grass burned away. The next day the mayor pulled off chunks and dished it out to anyone that walked by.
 
Today we are grilling up some more flank steak and chicken, this time thighs, in some soft packaged liquid marinade from McCormick. I just want to use it up. I didn't buy it.

I am not super confident on how the flank steak will work out. It felt a little stiff when I pulled it out of the package. Not as tender as I would expect. Maybe the cow was working abs.
 
Matthew said:
One of our local bbq contests used to have a whole hog category. That was always fun to see the different setups. But they gave awards out to 10th place and rarely had more than seven teams enter.

One year the mayor set up a rig right next to us. He didn’t enter the contest, and his minions or some guy he hired, did almost all the work. They ran a couple lengths of rebar through the hog, wrapped some chicken wire around it, set it onto a chain drive rotisserie setup, then dumped a couple bags of charcoal directly on the ground underneath. That smelled so good, once the grass burned away. The next day the mayor pulled off chunks and dished it out to anyone that walked by.
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I'd vote for him.....
 
Matthew said:
One of our local bbq contests used to have a whole hog category. That was always fun to see the different setups. But they gave awards out to 10th place and rarely had more than seven teams enter.

One year the mayor set up a rig right next to us. He didn’t enter the contest, and his minions or some guy he hired, did almost all the work. They ran a couple lengths of rebar through the hog, wrapped some chicken wire around it, set it onto a chain drive rotisserie setup, then dumped a couple bags of charcoal directly on the ground underneath. That smelled so good, once the grass burned away. The next day the mayor pulled off chunks and dished it out to anyone that walked by.
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I will say that my in-laws (Central American decent) have cooked some darn good full feeder pigs (around 100-150lb range). Each new year they cook up one (pretty minced up) in a cauldron and boil it down until it fries in its own rendering, amazingly good, and around summer solstice they usually cook one in the ground. I was skeptical the first year. Dig a hole piling the dirt, fill it with wood and when it has burned down to coals throw in a pile of green corn leaves, the pig, then a bunch more corn leaves and start shoveling the dirt back on until no smoke comes out. About 30 hours later dig it back up and I’ll be darned if it is not absolutely delicious. Another trick I learned from them is putting tomatoes and peppers directly on to the coals. Roll them around as they sear and blacken with a stick then when they are cooked through brush them off to remove any char and grind them in a mortar, add a bit of fresh minced cilantro to make an absolutely delicious salsa dip.
 
Those Cuban Cookers work well:

lacajachina.com

La Caja China Roasting Box and Accessories

Want To Roast A Whole Pig and Have No Experience? Well, we can help you. Our roasters will roast a whole pig in less than 4 hours; No Experience is necessary!
lacajachina.com lacajachina.com

I was doing some yard work and smelled something awesome. Turns out my across the street neighbor and the two-houses down neighbor were cooking a pig for their son’s end of the year HS football team senior party. They were using a box cooker.

I asked where they got the hog. They just called around until they found one. They drove out to pick it up and the old boy pointed to the pen and said, “Which one?” They picked one out, then “BLAM! There you go.”

They stopped somewhere on the way back and field dressed it.

They had to split it in half so it would fit on the cooker. That’s when I noticed the blood stained tarp and chainsaw. I did tell them to remind me to never **** them off.
 
Matthew said:
Those Cuban Cookers work well:

lacajachina.com

La Caja China Roasting Box and Accessories

Want To Roast A Whole Pig and Have No Experience? Well, we can help you. Our roasters will roast a whole pig in less than 4 hours; No Experience is necessary!
lacajachina.com lacajachina.com
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They do. I had a Samoan Senior NCO at Fort Carson that had one and he pulled it out a few times per year for squadron functions. Fabulous.
 
Flatiowa said:
Another trick I learned from them is putting tomatoes and peppers directly on to the coals. Roll them around as they sear and blacken with a stick then when they are cooked through brush them off to remove any char and grind them in a mortar, add a bit of fresh minced cilantro to make an absolutely delicious salsa dip.
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I wanted to make some salsa with my kid when he had a day of from school, and we found one recipe that said to do something similar to this, though it said to do it directly on a cast iron pan IIRC. Lacking such a pan, I threw big chunks of tomatos and poblanos, and whole jalapenos, into kebab baskets, and threw 'em right onto a wood fire. Holy cow, that made some of the best damn salsa I've ever had. Absolutely using that method from here on out.
 
We have been in a deep freeze for weeks now. I can't wait for the weather to break so I can get back to smoking something.
 
Gary Ward said:
We have been in a deep freeze for weeks now. I can't wait for the weather to break so I can get back to smoking something.
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O-come on, there is nothing quite like grilling a fresh hamburger and having the top side freeze while it’s on the grill….:)
 
No pics yet, but baby backs are in the smoker with wings going on later.
 
Matthew said:
Around these parts (KC), the tendency is to add a little fresh rub, honey, and brown sugar. Some then use butter, some use Parkay, some use neither.

Mmm…you got those Billy Bob teeth looking good.
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I can see honey being added. I did glaze with a commercial razzpotle I had left over and that was surprisingly good.

I don’t do baby backs often, I think they’re too much work for too little reward, but I needed a lot of finger food and the wings and baby backs turned out to be just the right thing. I think going forward I’d add some poppers or thick cut sausage to the mix just to round it out.
 
TCABM said:
I can see honey being added. I did glaze with a commercial razzpotle I had left over and that was surprisingly good.

I don’t do baby backs often, I think they’re too much work for too little reward, but I needed a lot of finger food and the wings and baby backs turned out to be just the right thing. I think going forward I’d add some poppers or thick cut sausage to the mix just to round it out.
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Pork belly burnt ends and dinosaur eggs (cheese stuffed jalapeños, wrapped in sausage, wrapped in bacon) are always good:


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TCABM said:
I can see honey being added. I did glaze with a commercial razzpotle I had left over and that was surprisingly good.

I don’t do baby backs often, I think they’re too much work for too little reward, but I needed a lot of finger food and the wings and baby backs turned out to be just the right thing. I think going forward I’d add some poppers or thick cut sausage to the mix just to round it out.
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For me it's the opposite. Spares work out best in the smoker (a lot of work but worth it) and baby backs work out best in a standard Weber (less work and clean up.)

So what's the story on those sandals?
 
GaryM said:
In terms of marbeling, Berkshire looks like the clear winner, but those common chops look more marbled than Duroc. I’ve not actually done a side-by-side tast comparison though.
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Ah,yeah. I messed up the order. the common chops are actually in the middle with Duroc on the right and Berkshire on the left.

Common was clearly the least favorite. Duroc vs Berkshire was mostly split with Berkshire having a small edge.
 
Berkshire do taste better when grown correctly, but Duroc are very close and much quicker/more efficient to grow. You can heavy feed a duroc and it will grow like crazy and keep fairly lean until they get big then they start to marble out. Berkshire grow slower and will get very fatty before getting to full size if you feed them to much.
 
That would explain the price diff. Duroc was a little bit more per pound and the Berkshire a lot more.
 
Notice also the size differences in the cuts, that duroc would have marbled as well as the Berk if it had been kept on full feed for another couple weeks or a month, but the chops would have covered the better half of a dinner plate and the fat ring on the outside would have really have thickened up. Duroc are best when butchered much heavier than current “standard” industry practice, but the numbers don’t pencil out. The feed conversion goes down faster than the price premium goes up so even “specialty” growers harvest them too early. If you can find a grower who will “finish” one out properly for you it’s worth paying them a premium to do it.
 
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