[thebigbaker]

Here's what I cooked up yesterday.  Some baby backs and chicken. Usually I do whole chickens, but I tried something different this time and cut my chicken up into pieces.  Smoked w/ apple wood and basted w/ a peach bbq sauce I made.  Smoked the ribs two hrs, put them in foil w/ apple juice, squeeze butter on top w/ a little more rub and smoked for another 1.5 hours.  Took them out of the foil, basted w/ sauce and cooked another 30 minutes.  Smaller pieces of chicken cooked in about 2.5 hrs and the breasts went about 3.5 hrs.  Everything came out awesome w/ great smoke flavor and very juicy.

   

[thebigbaker]

Phil, that brisket looks awesome!  Have you ever tried to do burnt ends with the brisket?  My next brisket I do I'm going to try to do some burnt ends.

[bluesman]

Man...oh...man...that looks very tasty.  So much so that I posted the pic again.

[thebigbaker]

Thanks Ron, I'm lucky enough to have some family members in Alabama that run a very successful competition BBQ team.  I've learned a lot from them and my neighbors here in Denver are certainly are appreciative of that!  Good BBQ and some good Homebrew keeps my house busy w/ visitors on the weekends during the summer! 

[bluesman]

Some babybacks that I smoked a week ago.  My iphone pic just doesn't do justice. They were tasty though. 

[thebigbaker]

Some babybacks that I smoked a week ago.  My iphone pic just doesn't do justice. They were tasty though. 

Those look mighty tasty!  I took what I learned from my water/bullet smoker and incorporated it into smoking on my pit.  I always place pans of apple juice under my meat to help keep the meet moist.  Sometimes I'll place my pan of baked beans (which is usually layered w/bacon) under my meat to catch some of the "goodness" that falls from the meat, something I'm sure my doctor does not want me to do!

[phillamb168]

The answer my friends is blowin' in the wind: I didn't use enough smoke. For two hours at the beginning of the cook, any time the smoke stopped I would add 4 ounces of wood. That took care of it.

I have found that with oak, hickory, guava, and kiawe (mesquite) too much smoke makes the meat taste bitter.  I smoke at the beginning of the cook, but go with just heat for the last 80% of the cook time.

Exactly, I smoke for 2 hours and then stop all smoke (except the occasional cigar...).

---

BTW, I may have somewhat misled all of you. I had this on the egg for smoking for about two hours, and then I brought it inside and sat it in my oven at ~220 for the rest of the night and following morning. I COULD NOT tell a difference. I have no interest in being worried about whether or not my bbq will keep up temp during an overnight cook of an expensive piece of meat. So from now on, I use the egg for the first ~2 hours of smoking and then into the oven (with a pan of water below) it goes. I mean, why not?

[phillamb168]

Phil, that brisket looks awesome!  Have you ever tried to do burnt ends with the brisket?  My next brisket I do I'm going to try to do some burnt ends.

I was gonna, and then I got sidetracked making 6 dozen sliders for a party on the 4th. Oof.

Speaking of parties - we had a bunch of people over on 1 July for our 4th celebration because (of course) it's not a national holiday here. Here are some pics:


Beer... Extreme left on hand pump is Boont Amber from Anderson Valley; in the kegerator are American Blonde and American Amber. No lack of hops here.


My second kid's godfather is Patrick, here at left. He's a big iron chef/top chef fan and likes to cook and despite being 14 years old follows orders fairly well! We cooked a ton (~120) of sliders that day


I broke out the sous vide machine and my PID & march pump to cook the sausages. We had about 80 of them, 2/3rds of which were homemade, and I wanted to make sure they got cooked correctly. I'll be doing this again - set up the water oven next to the grill so they could go straight on to coals once cooked. Worked like a charm.


Watermelon, fruit, pulled pork, artichoke & spinach dip, veggie platter with french onion dip & Tyrokafteri (roasted red pepper & feta dip), salsa & chips, and baked beans. Everything you see here is homemade.


Crowd starts to grow. We had about 65 people all told, including little ones... which means...


A couple babysitters = good idea


Of course the food helps keep 'em in line


Speaking of which - sliders!


There was also grilled camembert. Really quite good & melty.


For dessert we had four kinds of homemade popsicles: raspberry basil, peach bourbon, rhubarb jasmin, and blueberry moonshine.


And also peanut butter pie.


One thing that didn't make it because I forgot to blanch them before stuffing: jalapeno poppers. I ended up having to throw them out, because they were just too too hot.


Following an old tradition, reading the (abridged) Declaration of Independence (In French, as translated by one T. Jefferson)


We also had a bluegrass band come out. That was a #gooddecision. percy.free.fr




To top everything off, we launched about 12 red white & blue floating lanterns.

[bluesman]

Wow phil...you really know how to throw a nice party.  Looks like a lot of fun, not to mention some good music, brews and bbq.  I love sliders! 

[deepsouth]

awesome phil

[kylekohlmorgen]

Phil - an awesome way to celebrate the 4th!

Was the camembert completely wrapped in foil or did you poke holes to let a little smoke in? I've never smoked  it before, but I've always thought smoked brie would be a good schmear on a pulled pork slider.

[thebigbaker]

Awesome looking celebration Phil!

[dbeechum]

Well crap.. I feel like a slacker.

[euge]

Wow. And at the party I went to they burned the hotdogs.

Looks like you know how to throw a party.

[phillamb168]

Well crap.. I feel like a slacker.

As well you should. BACK TO WORK!