NJ BBQ (was: BBQ cooking/competition school in May)

[Displaced Texan 11,731]

I bought a prime rib yesterday….thinking about putting it on the smoker..

 

I also bought 50lbs of pork butt I’m going to make into sausage. 

[10X 3,296]

My first attempt at making bacon turned out rather nicely!    I followed this recipe:  Bacon!   It calls for a wet cure, and a low temp smoke.  Purists may favor a dry cure, followed by cold smoke, but this is a more foolproof way to avoid food safety issues, and I'm not set up for cold smoking anyway.

I started with an 8.5 lb pork belly from Costco, and cured with sugar, brown sugar, salt, and Prague Powder #1, which is the actual cure and weighed out carefully.  

 

Everything was dissolved in water and the belly, cut in half, was put in to soak in the fridge-weighted down with a heavy plate to keep everything submerged, and the belly halves were flipped and rotated every day for 10 days.

 

At the end of 10 days, the belly was removed from the cure, rinsed, patted dry, then put back on drying racks in the fridge for 16 hours.   Today I fired up the smoker with hickory smoke wood, lightly coated the top of the belly with maple syrup, and put it on a 190F for 4.5 hours until it hit an internal temperature of 145F--enough to kill any bacteria the cure missed, but not so hot as to render fat from the pork belly.

 

The final product looks good, and a test slice I fried up tasted great.  I'm planning on a bacon-heavy brunch tomorrow!

Mmmmm, Bacon!

[CMJeepster 2,777]

Nice work!

[10X 3,296]

I ran the smoker one more time today before the holiday week ended for me--this time, beef ribs.  I've tried smoking them before, and was always disappointed as the ribs I could find had very little meat on them.   I finally found that Restaurant Depot is a good source of big plate ribs.   The four-rib plates weigh almost 4 lbs.

These were coated with a thin layer of tobasco sauce as a binder for the rub, followed by some kosher salt as a dry brine, then Mixon's short rib rub recipe, applied generously.   I smoked them with oak (mostly) and a bit of mesquite.   Once they go on, they don't require much attention, only in the last couple of hours did I mist them periodically with beef broth.  Total cook time was 8 hours, with the smoker starting out at 225, and gradually increasing to about 310F.

They turned out great, finally everything I wanted in a beef rib.   And even after cooking, they're huge.

 

Since I had the fire pit burning most of the day, I also tried something from the Playing with Fire cookbook I received for Christmas.  I tossed a butternut squash directly on the coals.   After turning it every 10 minutes for an hour, it was done, and while it was a charred blackened mess on the outside, the squash on the inside was wonderful.  I scooped it out, mixed in a little butter and some freshly grated nutmeg, and it was a great, fire-roasted side dish.

 

[10X 3,296]

[10X 3,296]

I was asked to smoke something for a Super Bowl party I attended--who was I to say 'no'?

I made three racks of baby back ribs on the WSM smoker, and three dozen ABT/jalepeno poppers.   Oak chunks provided the smoke, and the ribs were on for about 4 1/2 hours, the poppers for a little under 2.5 hours, initially at 225F, raising to 270F in the last hour.  I plated just a few of the ribs and poppers for the photo.  The recipes used are a couple of favorites I keep coming back to.

Jalapeño poppers

Best Ribs in the Universe

[MartyZ 692]

Where can I find a whole brisket in central NJ? I've only been able to find the flat at the few stores I checked.

[10X 3,296]

29 minutes ago, MartyZ said:

Where can I find a whole brisket in central NJ? I've only been able to find the flat at the few stores I checked.

Costco usually has them, sometimes choice, sometime prime, prices vary quite a bit over time.  Sometimes they have very good prices.  I picked up a prime brisket there for about $3/lb maybe a year ago.   

Sam's Club or BJs might be options--I've not been in one for a long time.  Costco seems to be a better source of meat, though.  

Restaurant Depot also has whole (packer) briskets good prices, but it's a little harder to get in, if you don't have a tax-exempt certificate associated with a restaurant or some other food service operation.  There are a few exceptions; I belong to the Kansas City Barbecue Society ($45/year) and one of the perqs is that members get access to Restaurant Depot.  Restaurant Depot has no membership fee.

 

[MartyZ 692]

I was in Costco in Marlboro 2 days ago, they only had flats

[10X 3,296]

7 minutes ago, MartyZ said:

I was in Costco in Marlboro 2 days ago, they only had flats

I'd check back with them from time to time, or call and ask to talk to the meat department.   I've seen days when the Costco's near me don't have a cut I'm looking for (usually brisket, pork shoulder, or pork belly, for the smoker) but within days they're back in stock.

[10X 3,296]

[10X 3,296]

[10X 3,296]

I hadn't run the smoker in awhile, so Friday I planned a pork (Boston) butt cook.   15 lbs boneless butt from Costco, more or less following Myron Mixon's recipe.   I injected with about a quart of a vinegar/sugar/hot sauce brine, used three different rubs (top, bottom, and on all of the internal surfaces left from the deboning, then smoked over pecan/apple wood, misting periodically with apple juice, for a total of 20 hours.  The Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker will run for 3-4 hours unattended, so I didn't lose too much sleep during the overnight portion of the cook.  In the morning I wrapped the butts to help them get past the 'stall', and also remembered the 9:22 am shot.  That's a tradition at BBQ competitions, but it also works fine at home. .  In the last hour I glazed the pork with a sweet + heat BBQ sauce I made based largely on apple butter.  I pulled the butts at an internal temp of about 204 F, rested them for 30 minutes, pulled and served.  The pulled pork was exceptional; served with homemade slaw and cornbread.  And mint juleps at post time for the Derby.

Appetizers included jalapeño poppers and bean and cheese quesadillas, also done on the smoker.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[brucin 923]

Great now I'm hungry. Looks excellent.

[10X 3,296]

I smoked a lot of ribs over the weekend…4 lbs of beef short ribs (the 4-rib plate weighed 4 lbs), and 6 ½ lbs of baby back ribs.  I went with a somewhat spicy rub and thin BBQ sauce glaze on the short ribs, and a ‘more sweet than heat’ flavor profile for the rub and sauce on the baby back ribs.  Since the beef ribs needed a three hour head-start, they were smoked over oak with a little mesquite, then I switched to cherry when the baby backs went on.

Part of the rationale for the ribs was an online BBQ contest I’m entering.  I’ve won a bit of money with these in the past.  The current contest is for rib entries.  Only a single photo, and no more than two sentences of cook description, can be entered, so it’s largely a competition on plating and photography.   Still, cooks put a lot of effort into making the food taste great, even if that won’t be judged.

Anyway, the last photo is my entry: both types of ribs, plus fresh corn and tomato/cucumber salad.   I won’t know how it places until the third week of July.  But the ribs were great, especially the beef ribs.  That is a very decadent cut of meat when smoked properly.

 

Belated update on July 28:  We won, best ribs!   $100 gift certificate to Porter Road Meats.

 

 

 

[10X 3,296]

I smoked a small (10.5 lb) packer brisket for a family dinner today.   I trimmed, injected, and rubbed yesterday afternoon--I really like the Loot N' Booty Jolly Roger Jalapeño Garlic Black Rub as the base rub, though I applied a light coat of a flavoring rub over it.  The brisket went on over oak and mesquite smoke about 12:30 this morning, I wrapped it around 4:30 am, and it was ready about noon today.  I separated the point from the flat and smoked them unwrapped for the last two hours, to firm up the bark, which softens while wrapped.   I've taken to cutting the entire point into cubes and lightly saucing before putting them back on the smoker to make burnt ends.  These were excellent.  I sliced the flat and served it unsauced; it was a bit overdone, but the flavor profile was good.   I realized my brisket knife is seriously in need of sharpening...

 

 

 

 

[10X 3,296]

 

Also, a belated update to my June 21 post above.   We won!  Best Ribs.  $100 gift certificate to Porter Road Meats.

[JohnnyB 4,323]

Congratulations!

[10X 3,296]

I only learned recently that beer-can burgers are a thing.  Turns out there are a bunch of recipes and videos online.  This one-minute video from the BBQPitBoys gives you the idea.  Hamburger is molded around a beer can to leave a cavity that can be filled with all kinds of yummy stuff before cooking.       Beer Can Burgers

A full-size beer can burger requires 3/4 pound or more of hamburger, so I scaled mine down slightly, using a glass that allowed me to use half-pound balls of hamburger.  Cold burger, and a cold glass sprayed with PAM makes the molding easier.  All were seasoned with salt, pepper, and a little Worcestershire sauce, and each burger was wrapped in two slices of bacon.   The folks we had coming for dinner all had very different tastes in fillings, so I made three varieties.  From the top of the photo, there are sautéed mushroom and Swiss cheese;  tomato, basil, and home-smoked cheddar; and adobe sauce, sautéed onions and jalapeños, tomatillo salsa, and Mexican blend cheese.   I grilled them over indirect heat for a little under an hour.  These don't get flipped, so you need the low and slow heat to allow them to cook through.

Folks dove in so fast I didn't get any plated pics of the burgers on buns.   Everyone loved them--there were no leftovers!

 

IMG_2960.pdf

[10X 3,296]

I ran the smoker this weekend, for an overnight cook of two pork butts, and since there was a little room left on the smoker, I threw on some veggies for making a smoked salsa.     The pork butts smoked 15 hours over   hickory, both injected, rubbed, spritzed, and glazed, both with a sweet and heat profile, though one with apple as the dominant flavor component, the other using tart cherry.   To the first, I added crushed pineapple and 6 diced jalapeños.  Both batches turned out great.

The veggies came off after 2 1/2 hours, and the next morning I ran them through the food processor with a hatch chili, cilantro, scallions, and some lime juice, cumin, salt and pepper, and sugar, to taste.  This was also a big. hit, especially for a first effort at making salsa.

5374D777-24F5-42D5-BABD-50086E4AE20E.heic

[Displaced Texan 11,731]

Im jealous. I haven’t smoked meat in awhile. We are in a drought, and things are so dry around here I’ve been scared to light the smoker. 

[Displaced Texan 11,731]

[10X 3,296]

Today was another cook day, my 95th cook on the Weber Smokey Mountain cooker.  It all started when my daughter asked me to show her how to make my Mom's stew recipe...which is done in a dutch oven or crockpot, but once I was committed to cooking most of the day I figured I might as well smoke something as well. Since I was out of jerky, I sliced up 2.25 lbs of eye of round and cured it for 26 hours with Hi Mountain hickory jerky cure and seasoning.   I usually use my own marinade and skip the curing salt, but the Hi Mountain product does make an excellent jerky.   I greatly prefer homemade jerky to any commercial jerky I've found.  I had half a rack free in the smoker, so I filled that with 5 strips of pig candy, bacon coated in maple syrup and brown sugar, with a bit of chipotle rub to balance out the sweetness.   We love pig candy.  Pics below

The jerky and the pig candy smoke in just 2 hours at 200-225F, and since the smoker was already fired up, I'd planned to next smoke the veggies needed to make another batch of smoked salsa (first described a couple of posts above), including three types of peppers (jalapeños, rehydrated Hatch, and some unknown species from my neighbor's garden).  The veggies also smoked for two hours (1 hour for the scallions).  I've attaches pics of everything (except some spices) that went into the salsa, and another of the smoked veggies before they want in the food processor.    The final product was excellent, good heat, fresh taste, and just the right amount of smokiness.

[10X 3,296]

Once a year or so I smoke a prime rib (well, a rib roast, it's usually not prime beef).   Yesterday it was a 7 lb roast, cherry-glazed.   It took four hours over cherry and hickory smoke.   Since the smoker was running, I also did a batch of smoked olives, sausage-wrapped shrimp, and sausage/cheese/jalapeno-stuffed mushroom caps.  Non-smoked sides included spinach casserole, and popovers

We were very happy with how everything turned out.   And the smoked olives were a great addition to martinis!

 

[brucin 923]

You did it again, now I'm hungry. And I want a martini.

[10X 3,296]

2 hours ago, brucin said:

You did it again, now I'm hungry. And I want a martini.

Thanks!   Though I'm sure you and the Mrs. put together some tasty meals as well.  And if a recipe doesn't work out, just add another martini or two.

 

[Displaced Texan 11,731]

I’m gonna smoke a Turkey and a brisket for Thanksgiving….

[brucin 923]

2 hours ago, 10X said:

Thanks!   Though I'm sure you and the Mrs. put together some tasty meals as well.  And if a recipe doesn't work out, just add another martini or two.

 

No more than 2 martinis they're like boobs, one isn't enough and 3 is too many.

I do make a very good stuffed cabbage and the occasional chicken marsala.

[Displaced Texan 11,731]

Turkey and a brisket on the smoker now. 
 

 

[10X 3,296]

I cooked a double-header this week, starting with a sausage fatty and some wings on Thursday, and chicken drumsticks and thighs today.

I'd not made a fatty before, but they're popular in BBQ circles.   A pound of pork sausage is flattened into a square, stuffed with most anything (I used sharp cheddar, scallions, and green pepper) and rolled up in a bacon weave with a bit of rub and BBQ sauce.  I used up some spicy plum sauce on mine.   Since I had room left in the smoker, I also prepped a dozen wings with Kosmo Killer Bee rub, and tossed them in hot honey when they were done.  The wings turned out great; the fatty was particularly good the next day, sliced into rounds to make biscuit sandwiches.

I usually run the Weber Smokey Mountain smoker around 225-250 degrees F, for low-and-slow cooking, but I wanted to try a hot-and-fast cook today to see if was an easier way to get bite-through skin on the chicken.   I'd heard the Webers top out at about 350F with all vents left fully open, so I trimmed, and dried some drumsticks and boneless thighs, rubbed with a spicy base rub and more Killer Bee for the top coat, and cooked them for about 90 minutes, starting in a foil pan with some butter, then coating with a mix of Blues Hog original BBQ sauce and Blues Hog Tennessee Red sauce.  They went back on the smoker grate for 10 minutes to set the sauce.  We were really happy with the results.