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Update: Pig-a-palooza 2010

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I volunteered to help with the cooking at a local fund raiser. The main course was to be a whole hog, but there were also plenty of pork butts & ribs to cook too.

We convened on the cooking site at 3:00pm on Friday and began preparing the rotissiere/spit that we would use to cook the hog. Now, I’d never done a whole hog before but one of the volunteers was experienced with the process so he took the lead.

We prepped the hog, got it mounted on the spit, and had the first coals under the 159 lb. guest of honor shortly before 6:00pm. We had a large trailer-mounted pit that we used for the ongoing process of lighting fresh coals and readying them for shoveling under the spit.

We decided that we’d use my Backwoods Fatboy to cook the butts and ribs. We picked up my cooker and had 12 boneless pork butts (~60 lbs.) on by 9:00pm. That would allow us to get the butts done and the ribs started early in the morning and hopefully have things finishing up by the noon serving time.

It was all revelry and good times early on, but slowly the observers drifted off to their homes for a comfortable night’s rest as the night wore on. By 1:00am we were down to three guys who were committed to the process and whatever outcome morning would bring. We had one close call around that same time. We hadn’t anticipated that the hog would shrink as much as it did, and we had to readjust the clamps that held it on the spit to keep it from flopping around and coming apart.

The hog finished up around 7:00am, about the same time that we began taking pork butts off of the Fatboy and started putting the ribs on. We had the hog picked by 8:00 or so. We kept it in pans on the pit we used for charcoal starting and waited for lunchtime.

Once we pulled the pork butts and began to serve lunch, it became clear to us that the pulled pork butts were much tastier than the whole hog. Over the course of the afternoon, we served all the pulled pork and the ribs. We only served about half of the pickings from the whole hog.

So here are a couple of observations about my first time doing a whole hog.

I don’t care for it. There’s so much of it and no real good way to season it, so it ends up tasting mosly like pork roast.
I think we cooked it too fast early on. The pit that we rented for the event had no thermometer, so we were cooking by feel. I think we should have started at a lower temp.
Doing a whole hog is really all about the process and presentation. For pure eating pleasure, I think the pulled pork and ribs were much better.

After tending the pits for 23 straight hours, I’m beat. But I do feel a sense of satisfaction and pride when I see folks’ reaction to our efforts.

Additionally, we helped a great cause. I hope the whole event was successful enough to warrant doing it again next year, cause I had a blast.

Cheers,
Braddog

Bananas Johnson

Okay, I know there’s a dish called Bananas Foster but this is my take on bananas on the grill. So I’ve decided to call it Bananas Johnson (after a potato dish called Potatoes Johnson).

There’s really nothing to this one. Just some cut the ends off of a couple of bananas, slit them lengthwise, and put them in the cooker. Once the peels get good and black, sprinkle some brown sugar in the slit. Once the brown sugar carmelized, I served these with a little vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. Wow! This rocks!

Got a variation on this trick? Drop me a note and let me know.

Cheers,
Braddog

Trimming a Beef Tenderloin

Around my house my family only goes for one kind of steak, filet mignon. Well that can be a pricey proposition. In fact, the last time that I bought filets from the market they were running $23.95/lb. Not the kind of thing I can afford to do very often.

So, I’ve been thinking about picking up a whole tenderloin and trimming it myself. Today, I took the plunge and bought a small(ish) one at Sams Club. The thing weighed in at a little over 5 lbs. and was priced at $9.98/lb. Still expensive, but much more affordable than buying the steaks individually.

Now I’d never trimmed a tenderloin before but I figured, how hard can it be? Well the step by step guidance was just a quick Google search away. I should have known that I’d find all the video help I need on YouTube. There I found two different videos and after spending less than 10 minutes in front of my iMac, I was ready.

I had the tenderloin trimmed and cut into steaks in less than 20 minutes. I cut filets a little on the thin side since my family also thinks steaks (or any meat for that matter) should be well done and it’s tough to get a really thick steak done enough for them without charring the outside too much.

After marinating for about an hour, I put the steaks and baked potatoes on the Bubba Keg. Man, they were every bit as good as the $23.95/lb steaks that I’d gotten at the market before. And the best part is, I’ve got a nice piece of the tenderloin left. I plan to smoke it on Monday and cut it thin for sandwiches next week. I’ve got a taste for a steak panini. Stay tuned for that!

Here are links to a video that I found on Youtube.

Cheers,
Braddog

Pig-a-palooza 2010

I recently became aware of a local charity that’s putting together a BBQ & music event. The folks organizing the event are neighbors of mine who have a foundation in the name of their son who they lost a short while ago.

I’ve volunteered to pitch in and help cook a whole hog & pork butts for the event. Luckily, we’ve got an experienced hog cooker signed up to help as I’ve never had a chance to cook a whole hog.

Here are the details:

WHAT: A Bar-B-Que Eat’n • Music List’ning • Game Play’n Charitable Fun Time
WHERE: Schranz Park (aka Swansea Kingdom), 360 Honeysuckle Lane, Swansea , IL , 62226
WHEN: Saturday, June 12TH – 11 am to 6 pm
WHY: To honor the memory of Jacob Kellogg and raise scholarship funds
for students of Wolf Branch and Belleville East

Entry donations:
unaccompanied kids ($15); single adults ($25); couples ($40); entire
families ($50)
RSVP to:
deatrice@charter.net (RECOMMENDED)

If you can’t attend but would like to make a donation, please send to:
Jacob’s Ladder Foundation, 2661 N. Illinois Street, PMB 309, Swansea , IL 62226

Hope to see you there!

Cheers,
Braddog

Smoking a fatty!

I talk about this quite a bit and recently a co-worker who reads the blog inquired, “What’s a fatty?”. That’s when I realized that I’d never actually defined what that means anywhere on G&B.

Here you can see a fatty on the BGEQuite simply, a fatty is a tube of sausage that you might slice into patties for the skillet or crumble and fry for other recipes. However, for the grill you simply pull the wrapper off and put the whole log on the cooker. Breakfast sausage works great or you can use Italian sausage, chorizo, etc. You can even stuff the sausage roll with cheese and other fillings if you’re inclined.

I like to use Bob Evans breakfast sausge, apply some BBQ rub, smoke or grill it until it’s done, and then slice it as a chef’s treat while I’m cooking or slice it and put it on mini-bagles or biscuits for breakfast the next week.

That’s it. There’s really not much to it. Give it a shot the next time you’ve got your cooker running.

Cheers,
Braddog

Grillfest 2010

A couple of years ago I was in my local grill and fireplace store, Hearthside Grill and Fireplace in Belleville, IL. As I chatted with the folks there, I found out that they were in process of becoming a Big Green Egg dealer. They took my name and number and I told them that I’d be happy to help them out any time and I’d like to be on their mailing list for any special events.

I’ve probably only been in the place a couple of times since then, but out of the clear blue sky I got a phone call about 2 months ago. It was the lady I’d spoke with and she was inquiring about whether I’d be available to demonstrate the Big Green Egg at their annual Grillfest. It seems that the regional BGE representative wasn’t available and all the other manufacturer’s reps would be there demonstrating their products. I readily agreed and the day finally arrived.

Grillfest 2010 at Hearthside Grill in Belleville, ILI enlisted the help of my neighbor and good friend and together we prepped 100 ABT’s, ribs, a fatty, and pork tenderloin for the event. I arrived at 7:30am and found the other reps alredy on site and beginning to cook. So I quickly got a fire going in both the large and extra-large Big Green Eggs that the folks had for me to use.

Dave Dey & Jay “Braddog” BradshawI staggered the start time of 3 racks of ribs so that the finish times would be staggered throughout the middle of the day. That worked really well. We put the fatty on with a pan of biscuits and had samples of those early in the day. We also had ABT’s going in small batches throughout the day.

Along about lunch time, the local Papa Murphy’s showed up with 16 ready-to-bake-pizzas so we configured the XL BGE for baking pizza. This was the first time that I’d cooked on an XL and the first time I’d cooked pizza on the BGE. This rocked! I’ll definitely be doing this again at home.

There were a couple of notable moments during the day that really provided me with a little personal validation.

I noticed the Holland Grill rep hanging around and listening to my conversation with a prospective buyer. Afterwards, he commented, “You guys are waaay better than the BGE rep”.
One of the guests had spent a lot of time with me talking about the BGE. He then wandered over to the Traeger tent and sampled a rib. He happened back by as I was serving up rib samples. He leaned over to me and said, “I know it’s not a competition, but your ribs beat the Traeger ribs hands down”.

It was a long day, but I loved it. I think the dealer was satifisfied with our effort and maybe they’ll ask us back next year.

Cheers,
Braddog

What’s the Difference? Pulled Pork for Competition or Consumption

I recently enjoyed the series of BBQ Round Tables conducted via the BBQ Central Radio Show (I subscribe to the podcast via iTunes). Over the course of 4 weeks, Greg Rempeinterviewed some of the top BBQ teams on their techniques for preparing each of the four KCBS meats.

I listened intently as the BBQ pros talked about trimming, rubbing, injecting, smoking, wrapping, presenting, and in same cases even tasting their product before turning it in for judging. I say in some cases, cause not all of them even bother to taste the product before turn in. I guess you gotta “run what ya brung” some times. So it may not matter what it tastes like.

For the most part, the pros agreed on the majority of the steps and there were only slight variations in their process. However, I was surprised to hear that 2 out of 3 of the pros only cooked pork butt for ~ 6 hrs. or so. They are starting the process around 3:00am, wrapping the butts after 3-4 hrs, and calling them done at 198* or so. They seem to focus their turn in on the “money muscle” ( I still haven’t figured out exactly what that is and I’m not brave enough to Google it ).

So I thought, if it’s good enough for them it’s good enough for me. I did a couple of butts recently and I used this hotter, faster method of cooking. What I discovered is that the outside of the butts were really good and pulled easily. However, at the core I thought they were still a little stringy and tough.

So I wonder, is there a difference between competition pork butt vs. pork butt prepared for consumption? It sure seems like it to me based on this one attempt. I have a coupe of big parties to cook for in the next month and I’m gonna stick with a 12 hr low ‘n’ slow for now.

What do you think? Is there a difference? Drop me a comment and let me know.

Cheers,
Braddog

Suicide Pork Butt

When I was a kid, I played some little league baseball. After every game, the coach would buy the team a soda at the concession stand. It was there that I ordered my first “Suicide”. My team mates and I would step to the counter and proudly request a soda cup filled with with a combination of multiple flavors of soda from the fountain. Most often it was Mountain Dew & Coke, but frankly it could be any combination and some of the players even went so far as to have a shot of every flavor in their “suicide”.

It was this experience along with the countless bottles of BBQ rub with only a smidge left in the bottom that led me to this experiment. So on Saturday, I pulled out four nearly empty bottles of BBQ rub and mixed my own “suicide” pork rub. I used a little 17th Street Magic Dust Dry Rub , Hogs ‘n Heat, McCormick Grill Mates Pork Rub , and a little rub from an unlabeled shaker.

After combining the dregs of these bottles into a larger shaker and giving it a good mixing, I sampled the rub a bit and it was really tasty. So I applied it liberally to a couple of pork butts and set about the business getting the Big Green Egg ready to rock.

I was very pleased with the results and we enjoyed some really good pulled pork for dinner. Unfortunately, I created a dish that I could never duplicate! 🙂

Cheers,
Braddog

Review: Hick’s BBQ Company

I found myself at loose ends for lunch today and decided to take the opportunity to sample a new BBQ joint that’s sprung up in my own backyard.

Hicks BBQ opened just last year in Belleville, IL. I became aware of the place after one the BBQ shops in St. Louis recommended their sauce and told me about the restaraunt. Funny how the place is within 10 mins of the house & I didn’t even know it was there.

The place is in a newer building, but on the outside it sure looks like a BBQ joint complete with a big off-set smoker in the parking lot and a front porch full of tables. As I said, their sauce had been recommended to me. I bought a bottle and enjoyed the heck out of it, so I stepped up to the counter to order with hopeful anticipation.

They had a great lunch special consisting of a pulled pork or chicken sandwich, 1 side, and a drink for just $7 including tax. So I ordered up the pulled pork lunch special and dejectedly found a seat when I found out they didn’t have sweet tea. The place was half full when I sat down but it was completely full by the time I left.

When they brought out my lunch, I was impressed by the generous portions. I was pleased to see they had their own sauce on the table, but surprised to see bottles of Sweet Baby Rays as well. Oh well, I was only interested in Hicks’ own concoction so I hit the sandwich with some sauce and dug in.

The pulled pork was good, but not great. They had applied a generous sprinkling of BBQ rub on the sandwich that provided a little flavor, but overall I didn’t taste much smoke or bark in the pork. In fact, I’d call it chopped pork rather than pulled pork.

There’s an extensive menu there that I need to work through and the ribs looked good. I’ll provide updates on my next trip when I try the brisket or the ribs. Overall, I’m super pleased to see a new joint opening up and you can bet I’ll go back.

By the way, if you get a chance to try their sauce I highly recommend it.

Here’s my final report card for Hicks Bar-B-Que Company:

BBQ – B
Side Dishes – B
Atmosphere – A
Value – A
Overall – B+

Cheers,
Braddog

Magic Dust

My favorite BBQ restaurant is 17th Street Bar & Grill. I enjoy their BBQ and have enjoyed reading Mike Mills’ book “Peace, Love, and Barbecue”. It’s chocked full of recipes and today I put together a batch of Mike’s rub that he calls, “Magic Dust”.

I had all of the ingredients in my cupboard, so I figured it was time that I kept with one of my New Year’s resolutions and tried something different. When I got the rub together, I compared it with the little bit of store bought Magic Dust that I had left. It looks, smells, and tastes pretty darned closed to the commercial version.

It’s on the pork butts now. I’ll be firing the smoker this evening and will report back on the end results.

Cheers,

Braddog