Big Green Eggheads

[Gthunter5]

I've been known to fire up the egg a few times...

 

[txav8r]

Dang, that is 6 half chickens! You feeding an army?

 

[Gthunter5]

Ya that was a fun one

Ribs are my favorite to smoke. I don't make fall off the bone ribs. I don't like them. I do use a mustard base sauce I whip together to coat them for last 45minutes or so

 

[txav8r]

@Gthunter5 I like to do my ribs dry, and to pull off, not fall off, the bone. Or rather the bones pulls out pretty easy. I like them in a warm St. Louis style sauce. My favorite, so far anyway, is Sticky Pig. It is an incredible sauce. It is what I like
On the pulled pork too. Speaking of, I just out two pork butts on the egg!!! And got a batch of charro beans and cole slaw in the works again for this afternoon!

 

[txav8r]

It took 30 minutes this morning, from lighting only one spot in the egg, filled to the top of the fire ring with Rockwood Lump, to reach 300F. As forgiving as a pork butt is, no sense in dilly dallying with a 225F cook for 10 hours when at 300-325, I can geterdone in a little over 5 hours with same bark, same moisture. I put it on my adjustable rig today since I have two butts on with an oval ceramic stone under for indirect. I have a 9" x 13" foil drip pan with about 1" of water and orange juice in it. I am smoking with about 3 chunks of peach wood split into smaller chunks. I sprinkled some apple chips in the lump mix as well. Also bought some of the "bear claw" meat shredders to try out today.

Edit...forgot to add that I used amazing ribs "Memphis Dust" recipe for the rub.

 

[steined]

The bear claw meat shredders work great! At least when the meat is tender enough!!

 

[dbrunone]

I need a BBQ'ing 101 class. I have a tendency to cook everything way too fast on way too high of a temp.

This guy will teach you the basics of texas-style BBQ...his recipes are very simple but turn out some delicious results. He also teaches how to select and prep/trim meat as well. He owns Franklin BBQ in Austin...they open at 11am each day and have a line waiting to get in starting at 8am....so the guy knows what hes doing. http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC556b-Cl0Fp02iMc96yoJbg

 

[txav8r]

I enjoyed the videos! I watched several. Aaron Franklin gives some detailed instruction, anyone could follow it easily, especially his sauce recipe. But to be clear, this is Texas style BBQ, even the pork...and we really don't do pork BBQ, as Aaron mentions, in Texas. At least we are not known for it. Now get this...I'm a native Texan, but I like pork ribs St. Louis style, pulled pork Carolina style...and I will stick with Texas style for beef!!! Same with my rubs and sauces. I am going to do a molasses, brown sugar and vinegar style sauce on my ribs and pork butt, and mustard sauces on beef. But hey...I am a total rookie. I got less than a year of egging under my belt, and I love it. But Texas is beef country and I will leave the pork BBQ to the experts...and they are from Memphis eastward!

Damn those butts smell good! I'm in the stall at 172f internal. I have let my egg drop casually from 300 to about 270f now. When I hit 185 internal, I going to mop the butts with the same
Mop I used to build bark last week. It isn't thick like the sauce that I like, it is just to glaze and introduce more moisture. I am enjoying another Bauza (Arturo Fuente) cigar and a kostritzer swartzbeir. Wish you were here!

 

[Detonate]

This is not the thread to read when you skipped lunch....

 

[txav8r]

Sorry Jim...the butts are done!

 

[MikeyL]

I have an offset smoker, works well except tending the coals/wood to keep the temp consistent.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ............ finally = !!!!!!!!!!!!!! Someone who truly understands cooking BBQ (always a NOUN ! - Never a verb !) the right way.
Mikey Lulejian - Finishing up 20 lbs of pork shoulder butts over SOUTHERN RED OAK & HICKORY !
(Klose Backyard Chef - AND - a Tejas Wood Fajita Cooker/Grill - both courtesy of Houston, Texas

 

[txav8r]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ............ finally = !!!!!!!!!!!!!! Someone who truly understands cooking BBQ (always a NOUN ! - Never a verb !) the right way.
Mikey Lulejian - Finishing up 20 lbs of pork shoulder butts over SOUTHERN RED OAK & HICKORY !
(Klose Backyard Chef - AND - a Tejas Wood Fajita Cooker/Grill - both courtesy of Houston, Texas

Off topic!

 

[eastcoaster]

Mel just cooked up a crock pot of your Lupe Tortilla Charo bean receipe. Just awsome!

 

[MikeyL]

"OFF TOPIC" ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

ROFL !

Many Thanks !

Oh ! Did I tell you how great my Southern Red Oak/Hickory smoked pulled pork turned out ? I am SURE you are awaiting this news with bad ..... i mean baited ..... breath !

 

[txav8r]

@MikeyL I thought you would get a kick out of that! I want to hear about your pulled pork! Mine turned out great. I will edit this with a pic off the phone in a minute or two. I am smoking with lump charcoal which is nothing but hardwoods that are charred and generally a mix of oak/hickory/pecan/and whatever else the lump manufacturers get. The Rockwood I like is more controlled and mostly oak/hickory/pecan because of the area it comes from. But I mixed in peach and apple chunks (not charcoal) in my firebox so that it was actively smoking for the majority of the cook. Your two cookers you mentioned, are those trade names? I am going to google them. The good thing about an egg is never having to add more wood as it will do a slow cook on one load...generally. My butts were not at 195F internal until yesterday at about 5PM. That was an 8 hour and 45 minute cook!

@eastcoaster We had the Lupe Tortilla Charros yesterday too! They were better this time I think. Since the pork took about 3 hours longer than I expected, the beans stayed on keep warm that extra time in the crock pot and really melded all those flavors together. It is generally the second day that they are best but when we ate last night about 7:30, after the butts had rested sufficiently, it was awesome! Clara made a nice cole slaw to go with it. Glad you liked the beans. It is my go to recipe now for just beans. I am adding probably more tomatoes because I added two pretty big ones to a double recipe. And it is hard to find small onions, so the onion is probably more too. But even if the ratios vary a little, it is still dang good beans!

 

[txav8r]

Sometimes the written word is taken for a lecture instead of for the sharing of learned experience that it is. So in that light, I am a noob at both the egg and the art of BBQ and smoke. But I do pass along what I have learned and enjoy doing so. Yet I still learn everyday.

Something about my cook yesterday confuses me. A few weeks ago, I did a similar sized pork butt and it took about 5 hours at an average of 300F grid temp to reach 195 internal. During the cook, my meat probe hit 195 at the 4 hour point and that is when I intended to take the meat off the egg, but when I stuck it in several places with my thermapen, I saw the actual internal temp was closer to 180 than 195. So I mopped it with a thin glaze for moisture and moved the probe to where the pen was registering 180 and it matched. Left it on another hour or so until I had 195 internal again. It was divine meat. So this week, with two butts on the egg, I chased the grid temp just a little more but still probably averaged 300F for 5 hours and still at 185 internal meat temp but thought I had passed the stall point. So I open to mop again and check temps in different places on the butts and discover that it too is low at about 165 really. And it takes another 3 hours to finally reach 195. Pretty much the same outdoor temps and humidity's and I actually had to add just a little lump toward the end as my temps started declining about an hour before it finished and I was getting impatient. It had declined to around 275 grid temp and I was accepting and liked that, because some of the professional pit guys (and guys using the pitmaster or digiQ probe and temp controllers) do that very thing with blower control. They ramp up, hold until it is finishing, and ramp down to almost match the pit to the internal they are going for. Granted, expert backyard masters don't do this and many of them cook strictly to time...but the proof in the pudding is told by internal meat temp, and without it, degree of doneness will vary.

Any ideas on why the variation in time? And any advice on how I can get better probe placement to get my internal meat temps right during the cook? I am always looking for the thickest part of the meat away from the bone. But who knows if the tip of the probe is in a fat vein or in the muscle? So tips appreciated!

 

[txav8r]

@MikeyL MANY THANKS MIKE! I just received the gift and it is awesome, a batch and the recipe! You just can't beat a deal like that...many thanks, I can't wait to try all three recipes, of course, the one is in the jar. Is that the quantity of rub that it makes, to fill the mayonnaise jar? You have to love a good rub!

 

[txav8r]

In celebration of today's boat deal...angus tenderloin filets, corn, and baked taters! Vino too of course!

 

[txav8r]

@cane.mba , post up the egg mod!

 

[cane.mba]

Will do! A starting the thread in a few minutes... Time to google some examples!