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.

SOLD on Q takes a leap forward

This past weekend the SOLD on Q team took a trip to Columbus, Ohio to visit City Barbeque and our friend Rick Malir. We were able catch up with a great friend and make some new friends over wonderful food and drink - just an all around great cook. We have returned home with a new smoker, smarter than we were and with a bright future. The BBQ Boys from Ohio have sold their smoker and passed on valuable insight to the Sold on Q team. For that Lance, Brent and Todd are grateful. The team is also grateful to Rick for making it all possible and for the generous hospitality of Rick and his wife Bonnie. We just hope to carry on the legacy and have as many good memories as the BBQ Boys.

BBQ season is coming!

It's time to look for a contest. I am hopeful we can do three this year. Here are 5 contest suggestions: Manhattan in April, Abilene in May, Wichita in June, Paola in August and Park City is September. Maybe you guys have some suggestions?

St Louis Style Ribs

Last Saturday after dicking with the membrane on two slabs of ribs for 45 minutes I was ready to quit this crazy hobby. Tonight I have a new "rules to live by". Before ever trying something new in life, always check for a youtube video first - you are sure to save lots of the time and wasted effort.

This evening, Brent and I discussed where to get our ribs and whether we should trim them St Louis style ourselves or let the butcher. This lead me to youtube and a leap forward in my Q knowledge. I have attached a link to a video below that is great for trimming St Louis style ribs. I'm now convinced to trim the whole slab myself.

Now about that 45 minute thumb wrestling match with the membrane last Saturday. After watching the video I have come to the conclusion that the butcher at YB Meats removed the first membrane for me - what a nice young man. Maybe next time he will tell me that. You see I learned there are actually two membranes. The first appears relatively easy to remove. The second is on the bone and if removed the rib bones will fall out when you cook the ribs. I'm convinced I was trying to remove the second membrane, hence my headaches and part of the reason the bones fell out when we were done cooking.

Moral: a new rule to live by - always consult youtube first.

Enjoy the movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYMNLMQmM4s

Handling our meat

one would think men of our experience would know how to handle our meat, Sat night's over "tong-ation" of the ribs and chix showed otherwise.

At walgreens, I found gloves for handling hot items and bought a set. basically like oven mitts but shaped more like cotton gardening gloves - $10 a piece. I also bought a box of 100 vinyl food handling gloves - they won't handle heat (do any?) but the hot handling gloves are washable.

Rubbing - read some articles that showed using apple juice and mixtures with it (Jack Daniels?) and applying with a spray bottle works well - spray it first, add rub, and spray again. I bought two spray bottles in case we want to go this route.

check out BBQpirates website - they look like they've done well without all the industrial equip...

Will the Weber arrive?

It just may happen - that is my quest to out E-Bay Mr. Todd on the infamous WSMS. After an all-in winning bid that beat Todd's price by enormous $9 and a few emails to follow up on where the hell it was, the guy finally emailed me back with tracking info. According to UPS, it should be on my doorstep tonight!

Let's just hope it doesn't look like some newbie picked it up and dropped it out of a back of a pickup when we unvail it. Hope to have it set up & plan to run heat through it Tue or Wed night as well as rub some dirt on it (whilst we'll look more qualified this time, shiny stuff probably doesn't vogue well)...

So, sounds like we will have 3 bullets & the kettle - this might work - think we need to figure out how to cook the chix thighs - I like the idea of smoking it on a bullet and finishing it on the kettle but I read a few competition sites that actually used a kettle for all.

Thermometer - A personal experience

A big thanks to Lance for posting the information on installing a thermometer in your Bullet. Fortunately, Lance and Todd understand a few basic economic principles that prevented us from chasing too far down that rabbit trail of government style spending. Here's the deal: a $15 thermometer should not require a $45 uni-bit for the installation. That only make sense if you are responsible for spending tax payer money.

Lance and I both got our thermometers installed with a simple bit - 3/8" in my case. Before installing mine I tested it to see if it was properly calibrated - held it in a pot of boiling water and it appears to be properly calibrated. For the record, I ordered mine from kck.com - good prices and quick delivery. I'm going to order another one for my kettle. For the kettle I will probably get the one that goes up to 750 degrees.

Here's a picture of my handy work - notice the symmetry of the thermometer and vent relative to the handle.