The first Big Cook

Last Saturday night I came to realize a true test of barbeque - The Week Later Test. A week after our first big cook with "Gisele" the new Jedmaster, I found myself eating left over brisket and sipping a Maker's Mark. Earlier that day I saw a friend that heard our chicken turned out fantastic. As I sipped my bourbon it struck me, it's a week later and I'm still eating and enjoy our fine food and I'm still hearing comments about how good our food was.

So how did our 4 meats score on the Week Later test. I think it is pretty clear, brisket and chicken drew the most favorable comments and any time I'm still eating something a week later it must have been good. The good news is brisket and chicken have been our 2 weaker entries so we must be on to something.

It is definitely important to start with a fat packer brisket. The brisket was excellent. It may or may not have been over cooked - hard to tell since we cut it when it was still very hot. It took right at 15 hours to cook and well held it at a high temp for 3 hours. Taste, tenderness and moistness were all very good. All week I looked at the leftovers in the refrig and the brisket had the most fat and resulted in the most moist and tasty leftovers. Wish the bark had not been so dark.

The chicken received rave reviews. I was a bit surprised because it got very little attention and was almost an after thought. We nailed the taste, tenderness, skin and moistness. Presentation was nothing like a contest but we can work on that. Unless someone can change my mind with a compelling argument we should be brining chicken with only salt and water. Based upon our chicken in Ohio and on Easter, the simple brine produced a nice clean, moist product. I think the Italian dressing method introduces too many other ingredients and flavors that complicate the flavor and cooking methods. I thinkwe start it on Gisele and finish on the Weber.

Thought the pork was good. Would still like to have more bark on the outside. I think we should mustard and rub, let it set, then reapply right before we place it on the smoker. Still need to work on presentation.

The ribs cooked for 5 1/2 hours. They had good flavor and texture. May have been a little over done but not much. My biggest concern was cutting the ribs. I felt like we had sharp knives but they seemed hard to cut. It was like the outside of the meat was too dry and we had a hard time cutting through it. Maybe saucing them the last half hour would have helped. I'm not certain but I don't think we wrapped the ribs at any point either and that may have helped soften the crust. We also may have cut them too soon. Everything was probably cut sooner than we normally would in a competition.

All in all, a great, great time and another big step forward in our cooking. Looking forward to the next time.