A barbecue adventure, the saga unfolds.

Good to know. All 3 of these came from a couple of supermarkets, but I do know of a really good butcher or two in the neighborhood. I'll have to go check them out.
 
I'm not up to speed on Duroc vs. common swine but we have Duroc chops at the local grocery store. I've never thought to try them as they are all cut too thin for my taste. I might give it a go one of these days.
 
Hold my beer...I'm going in...

I decided to make the leap from grilling to smoking with a goal of making a Texas Brisket at home. Bought a Trager Woodland Pro pellet smoker. Did some Brats and Burgers to get a bit familiar, pretty good...though I did learn the importance of not opening the lid every few minutes. Probably not the easiest way to jump in, but I figure i can't screw it up so bad it won't be good.

Probably in the next couple weeks. Wish me luck!
 
jbarrass said:
Hold my beer...I'm going in...

I decided to make the leap from grilling to smoking with a goal of making a Texas Brisket at home. Bought a Trager Woodland Pro pellet smoker. Did some Brats and Burgers to get a bit familiar, pretty good...though I did learn the importance of not opening the lid every few minutes. Probably not the easiest way to jump in, but I figure i can't screw it up so bad it won't be good.

Probably in the next couple weeks. Wish me luck!
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If you’re lookin’, you’re not cookin’!
 
Just signed up to judge another contest this season. They are hoping for 99 teams this year. I think they had 70(?) last year.

There are 3 more I want to do, but they aren’t open for signup yet. There’s a 4th one I might consider, I’ve done that one the last 2 years. But it’s a 6-7 hr drive and is the same weekend as a local contest that I’m already signed up to do. It isn’t open for signup yet and it’s been struggling to get enough teams. Will see how that goes.

I think I might be doing 7-8 this year. I can’t remember, I need to check the calendar.

First one of the season is mid-March.
 
There is a new BBQ shack here in Gallup, almost under the beacon.

I haven't tried it yet, but maybe soon.
 
Next Saturday is the season opener: first KC area bbq contest of the year. I got my parking and check-in info email this morning. And I got the email from another contest two weeks after that one. There’s another contest the weekend after that. So three for me to judge in 4 weeks.

I’m still on the calendar for mid May to cook in a charity event. That one is always a good time.

Edit: got the email info for contest #3. I might be doing 10 this year. Some judges do 40 or so.
 
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Matthew said:
Next Saturday is the season opener: first KC area bbq contest of the year. I got my parking and check-in info email this morning. And I got the email from another contest two weeks after that one. There’s another contest the weekend after that. So three for me to judge in 4 weeks.

I’m still on the calendar for mid May to cook in a charity event. That one is always a good time.

Edit: got the email info for contest #3. I might be doing 10 this year. Some judges do 40 or so.
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Sac Arrow said:
Pork chops
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Yep, I loves me a good chop of pork.

I got reminded again today: even though this particular contest typically draws a lot of top teams on the contest circuit, there are a lot of first timers that still have a lot of learning to do.

JDQ BBQ (Josh DeWitt) was grand champion today. He has his own line of rubs and used to manage the local bbq store.

Slaps was runner up. Slaps is the name of a KC area bbq joint. One brother runs the restaurant, the other does contests. When they opened the restaurant they had to change their team name because they didn’t think it would work for a legit business. So Squeal Like a Pig BBQ became Slaps BBQ.
 
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Matthew said:
Slaps was runner up. Slaps is the name of a KC area bbq joint. One brother runs the restaurant, the other does contests. When they opened the restaurant they had to change their team name because they didn’t think it would work for a legit business. So Squeal Like a Pig BBQ became Slaps BBQ.
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They're wrong. There is an actual place near me where I've actually eaten called El Pig's Butt BBQ. In fact, I ate there partially BECAUSE of the funny name.

At one point I was considering opening an FBO at a northern Wisconsin airport - I was gonna name it Dairy Air.
 
Slaps posted pix. Joe got 2nd place overall, but I don’t know why he didn’t include pix of his rib entry.

Chicken 9th place
Ribs 20th
Pork 10th
Brisket 8th

I’ll see if Josh (JDQ) posted any pix of his first place entries

Total score: 701
 

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JD posted his pix. His overall score got him first place.

Chicken 3rd place
Ribs 17th
Pork 8th
Brisket 11th

Total score: 704


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Oh, baby! My local grocery store finally put their leftover corned beef on sale at $2/lb. I picked up 3, about 3.5 lb each. They are in the freezer and will eventually go on the smoker and turn into pastrami.
 
Yep, I’m about to grill up a mess of asparagus, too.

Olive oil and balsamic to coat, some coarse salt, then toss on a screaming hot grill. Roll it around for a minute or two so it gets bright green and charred. It’s crunchy and hot and takes very little effort.
 
Just pulled two ribeyes off the grill. They’ll rest for 15 minutes or so while we get everything else ready.
 
For Easter dinner, double smoked ham, dijon mustard coat, Killer Hog BBQ rub, cherry and hickory smoke, then glazed twice in the last hour with a brown sugar/honey/apple juice/bourbon concoction. Served with asparagus and potatoes au gratin, plus an excellent huckleberry hard cider.

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Conventional wisdom says to smoke these beef ribs, but I'm just going to straight up grill them. And some pork chops. I would have done chicken but the LGS was completely out of all chicken - something wrong with the display cooler.
 
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How have I missed this forum topic?

I will skip commenting on some of the blasphemous attempts at home smoking. The proper way is with wood, and with an offset heat source. Not gas. Not green egg. Not briquets. My set up in photo. We enjoy doing brisket and/or ribs several times a year, a bit of by guess and by golly with timing. We fill the smoker up with some whole chickens and freeze up some nice packages for smoky chicken salad. We have raised our own pig a few times, hosted a few pig pickings where some southern old timers told this yank that it was the best tasting pig they ever had. Someone reminded me of this this week. We paid little attention to variety, mostly availability is of concern. Pigs were raised on the ground, got table scraps, feed, booze, and whatever else we could round up.

How do you know when the pig is at the ideal weight for BBQ (120#) or processing (220#). Well there is a simple formula for measuring around the belly at the widest point and also from base of neck to start of the tail. Guess how many pigs stood still for this? Nada, hence my Q pigs were generally 200#, and my processing pigs were >300#. What does this mean? Fat, and lots of it. MARBLED FRKN PORK CHOPS like you would not believe. Think lean is wrong, meat needs fat for flavor.

My favorite commercial brisket comes from Mission BBQ, I like it "moist" when they ask. Try it if you can.

Within 30 minutes of our house/airport is one of the best ENC vinegar based BBQ pig places around. Book author, TV judge, PBS partner with Chef Vivian. Wood smoked, skin gets crisp, chopped into the Q. Worth a trip : https://www.skylightinnbbq.com/
 

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4RNB said:
The proper way is with wood, and with an offset heat source. Not gas. Not green egg. Not briquets. My set up in photo.
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I dunno about that; I've done some awfully good spareribs with a small charcoal briquet fire and a few applewood chunks, just using a regular grill.

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Small fire on the right side, ribs on a grate on the far left. Right air vent barely cracked open, left air vent completely sealed off with some metal tape, slightly open the chimney. Drip pan with a little water + apple vinegar under the ribs. Every couple of hours, light a few more coals in a chimney starter and add them, along with more wood if needed, and spritz the ribs with apple vinegar. Swab on a little bbq sauce for the last 30-45 minutes.

It runs a little hotter than I'd like, but the ribs are still wonderful. Tender, juicy, great flavor.
 
Well, in aviation, many big time airline pilots have supported and guided the small time and aspiring aviators. That is generally the theme of this forum. In BBQ, we have some experienced and credentialed BBQ masters guiding the guy starting out in his apartment with his Smokey Joe doing burgers. Humility is good. There is a whole range of BBQ experience from charcoal briquettes to wood fired.

Don't disenfranchise your army.
 
Adapt, improvise, overcome. Work with what you have.

Only the finished product gets judged. I’ve seen ribbons awarded to Q that was cooked in, with, and on any number of devices and heat sources (as long as the heat sources are some sort of wood product like pellets, briquettes, lump charcoal, or sticks). Those Weber Smokey Mountain bullet smokers have won a lot of contests.

I have my issues with the drum smokers and the hot and fast vs low and slow cooking methods, but that’s a discussion to be had over a couple 6 Shiners and a plate of ribs.

Oh, yeah … I signed up for another contest today, this one’s in October. Still waiting on 3 more to open for sign up.

My next big cook is mid May for a charity event. 40 slabs of back ribs x 6 smokers.

Edit: here’s one of the 6 smokers last May.


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Cornell chicken, following Dr. Baker's famous recipe: Cornell Chicken

Six-hour marinade, an hour on the grill, turning and basting every 5-8 minutes. Served with skillet cornbread and parmesan-lemon asparagus.

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Baby back ribs cooked on the Weber Smokey Mountain cooker, slathered in three coats (10 minutes apart) of a raspberry/habenero glaze, along with smoked buffalo wings, convection oven onion rings, hatch chili cornbread in grandma's 100-year-old Griswold cast iron, and baked beans.

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I did the charity cook on Sunday. 6 KC chefs compete for a people’s choice award and a celebrity judge award. One of the main sponsors is a local company that makes smokers. 6 of their smokers are run by me and the boys. The chefs are not bbq chefs, so their take on ribs and sides is their own.

They all get around 50 slabs of back ribs,

I’m not sure of the rib seasoning my chef used, but I saw a lot of garlic and red pepper. The sauce was a fermented garlic and roasted tomato mixture and was outstanding. His side was a base of smoked feta and goat cheese that was nice and creamy, heirloom tomato, and some sort of infused oil. It was really good.

Pix:

We had 50-ish slabs of back ribs in that smoker, there were 6 smokers.

Their knives cost just a little more than mine.


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Here's a question for the group on sauce. Dr has me cut out all non-naturally occurring sodium for a long time period. Anyone have a recipe for a sweeter sauce that has no sodium, or very little in it? The commercial sauces I tend to prefer are Bulleye Original and their Hickory smoke. Can't stand a vinegar based sauce or one with a lot of pepper or any jalapenos in it. Wife is trying to find alternates or homemade versions of a lot of things and it's a bit difficult to get tastes balanced between the commercial stuff and her mixtures. She's trying hard and I don't get upset when things don't taste good. It's difficult to switch to a no sodium cooking style and is going to take a bit of time to make it all work.
 
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