Memorial Day Cook

Short week this week as expected with the holiday and all.  I am starting to get frustrated with the home building process. Honestly I don’t know why I didn't expect this to happen…I guess I was just being dumb in thinking that it would get moving the day after we closed. I think realistically it will not be finished until mid to late September. Whatever. Still need to pick out flooring and talk about a few other things with the design but right now any forward progress is what we are looking for.

Memorial Day BBQ- I purchased a little gizmo called “The BBQ Guru” that is intended to help control the temps a bit more effectively in most wood/charcoal fired cookers. Basically what it is a watertight programmable device that is connected to a 10 CFM fan that will pulse off/on to stoke the fire for an indefinite amount of time.  You set the temp to whatever you desire; close all the bottom vents on the cooker and let the fan do the work. It’s really a great idea and seemed to work very well under the right conditions.

Here is a photo of the set up. It looks a little robotic with the whole contraption but well worth the results.

I was able to figure out a few things that I was previously un aware of. First off, the temperature that I had  been cooking at prior to using the controller were considerably higher than my targeted 225 while manually setting vents and adjusting the temps. This was evidenced by the much longer cooking period…the shoulders never got to the target of 195F internal and I decided to pull them anyway as we were all getting hungry. Important note: The target temp of 195 is not the temp that the pork is safe to consume…realistically is in the 160 range. For smoking a shoulder the magic happens at around 195F. It’s at this point the shoulders have broken down to the point all the fat renders out of the meat making for a juicy and tender product once you start shredding. In my experience anything south of the 195 mark makes the shoulders a little tougher and not quite as juicy.

The other thing that I noted is that I stink at cooking ribs. My technique is not consistent enough to produce the same quality every time. It also might be that I was still operating the cooker at the 225F mark and realistically the temps should be a bit higher than that. The other thing I did was instead of foil wrapping the ribs I instead put them all in an aluminum pan and covered them in foil. Bad idea. I was using spares trimmed to STL style and truthfully I have not had good luck with them and I think I am not using high enough heat and long enough cook times. I want to give it another try in the near future at a higher temp and see what the outcome is. They looked good just didn’t have that fall off the bone texture I like. I need to try to get a little more consistent to attempt a competition cook that I am thinking about next May.

Lots of experimenting with this weekend and for the most part it turned out OK…Pork shoulders were the stand out. I fired the smoker up around 2 pm on Saturday to try some chicken thighs and didn't shut it off till Sunday at about 5:30pm adding charcoal only once.

I didn't get a ton of pictures with this cook as I drank my way through most of it!

Start of Summer....

Memorial Day! The official beginning of summer is almost here. For my family this summer will be a bit different as we are staying with my parents while we wait for our house to be built. We are slowly settling in and it’s becoming more normal. Lots of things are planned for this summer and some unplanned. First off…didn’t think we would have sold our house as fast as we did. I thought it was the unsellable object that would haunt us forever (Hence the living with the parent’s thing). June is birthday month for the boys and Sam starts school in August. We also have a short vacation planed in August for just Ali and I. Max should hit a few milestones this summer as well. Assume he might be walking and at least talking abit. He currently has his own language now but I think will really come into his own in the next few months. His 1 year birthday also means NO MORE FORUMLA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I would like to at least take the kids camping a few times this summer…we have a few trips scheduled for next weekend and for the 4^th of July. I also re booked the lake site for late in October. That should be a good trip for sure.

Doing a big cook this weekend hopefully….Have a few gadgets that will be delivered that hopefully will gain some more consistent results. I purchased a temp controller for the weber that helps maintain the fire at a consistent heat level and also helps to conserve fuel.  More detailed review will follow on this once I have time to mess with it.

 On the Menu this weekend:  

1.       Pork shoulders

 If you are going to go through the trouble of firing up a cooker you might as well cook a few butts.  Once you shred em’ and cover em’ in sauce they freeze very well for consumption within 6 months. Doing this actually is great for camping meals and quick last minute weeknight meals. 

2.       Chicken Thighs

Going to try something a little different…want to brine them overnight and see how they turn out with a little light smoking in the cooker. Update to follow.

3.       Ribs cut to St. Louis Style

With the temp controller these should turn out  a little better than usual. I don’t think I am going to do anything special….but we will see.

I will post the results next week!

 

Kc BBQ tour

Since expanding my sales territory a few years ago I spend a lot more time in Kansas City...so much that I have gotten to know all the shortcuts to traverse the city and the outlying areas. If you don't know much about this town....it's worth visiting and it's a little known fact that most of thie worlds engineering work is done here. These folks are my main focus and I spend a lot of time helping devlope relationships between these large potential customers and the principals I represent. Today while visiting with a customer we got on the topic of BBQ....he turned me on to a few things I decided to check out after we finished and I will get to that in more detail below. I have been traveling to KC for about three years regularly...and based on the title of this blog I love all things BBQ. I travel pretty much by myself and I find it a little uncomfortable to dine out...so I have only sampled a very small portion of the city's offerings. That all changed today. I am sorry I waited so long!

Based on the recommendations I received earlier in the day I was directed to check out the KC BBQ Store. Wow! After talking a little bit with the man behind the counter I found out that a lot of the competing BBQ teams purchase a lot of their goods from them. They have everything from bulk rubs, big green egg's, competition smokers to bulk wood for running your cooker. I was able to pick up a few things to try for the up coming summer BBQ season. It is owned and managed by the same people who opened Oklahoma Joes. If that means nothing to you....don't know what to say. OK Joes has been voted one of the top 13 places to eat before you die by Anthony Bordain(sp?) and winner of many, many BBQ comps. If you have ever seen the travel or Food Channel BBQ specials...the gas station BBQ shop might ring a bell. This place regularly has lines out the door and is beloved by the local KC folks. I decided to give it a try but sadly didnt get to make it to the original gas station location as I was running short on time...but almost like it was planned there was a location just across the street from the BBQ Shop! Gues what? It was packed....and it was 2:30! If you go I suggest the Z-man sandwich. It's made up of brisket, 2 onion rings, melted provolone and a splash of the house sauce. Pretty damn good. 

Continuing the artery clogging theme for dinner...just north of the hotel I stay at is a Author Bryant's and having never tried it...I gave it a go. To tell you the truth I was not impressed. Didn't care for the sauce I think.  However it is as authentic as it gets(not the location,but the prep). Served with a plenty of white bread and nothing fancy. It's a KC legend with many fans who grew up on the stuff.

 Here are some pictures of today's lunch/dinner tour as well as the BBQ Store. Not all of these pics I can take credit for.

The Z-Man below!!!

Above is the Bryant's Combo pork sausage box.

Mother’s Day Trip-

We Just wrapped up a successful trip to the lake this weekend minus one little mishap with the RV Awning that could have been much worse. If you read last week’s post…you learned that we were heading to Lake Ozark State Park for Friday and Saturday night. Its nice going back there for many reasons but mainly it does not feel like the lake as most Midwestern folks know it. Its very secluded, No boat docks other than the marina and no hot-rod boats blasting the shores with huge wakes. The kids did pretty well other than one of the most ridiculous meltdowns I have ever witnessed by my oldest.

With that said….we caved and took him to waste some money at Miner Mikes…A backwoods Chucky Cheese if you will. We were able to also find Blue Bell Ice Cream (if you have had it… you know why this is exciting). With a freezer on board we were able to cart some back home for consumption.

Fun was had by all and I am ready to go back.  I checked last night and that site is booked every weekend until the end of October.  Bummer. Might need to get that weekend locked down just because.