Unfortunately my thread last year has faded into Bolivia, but this one will take it's place. The barbecue is on Monday, but the prep started yesterday when I bought all the meat. And today, I rubbed the briskets that I'll be smoking tomorrow. Two 12-pounders from Costco. Not the cheapest at 1.55/lb, but it saved me a trip since I was there already. Here they are unpacked and ready to be rubbed. And here they are rubbed with a combo of the Fiesta Brisket Rub and Montreal Steak Seasoning from the first pic. The fat caps And last but not least, the fat caps after I rubbed them too. The briskets are wrapped up in extra-heavy duty foil and are living in my fridge right now. They will go on the smoker tomorrow morning. For now, I'm going out to Lake Travis to have a little fun inbetween thunderstorms. More pics will be coming over the next two days.
Alright, the barbecue has officially started. I woke up bright and early this morning after taking my little brother downtown for the first time last night (he just turned 21), and tried not to wake him up, as he is passed out on the couch right now. But I had work to do. Namely, getting a fire started. I used a chimney starter to get the coals ready. I figured this picture might help, considering there was some confusion a few months back about where to put the newspaper. Then I lit the paper, and got a bunch of smoke while the chimney starter did its thing. About half an hour later, I was almost ready to put the coals in the smoker. You can see that the top isn't completely burned yet, but it's close enough for our purposes. I added the coals to the firebox. This is a good pic to see my makeshift way of keeping the coals elevated and away the damper, to get better airflow (there is also a grate underneath the coals to keep them up off the bottom). And then I added a few pieces of cured mesquite for the smoke. Then I closed everything up and let the pit get up close to the proper temperature. While that was happening, my dogs decided to keep watch. Kaci took the high ground and kept an eye on the neighbor's cat. And Kona watched the squirrels like a hawk. At around 9:30 the pit got up to around 200 degrees, so I put the briskets on. On a side note, look at the temperature reading - when I opened the door to put the briskets on that read in 180-190 range, 90 seconds later when I took this picture its reading 109; let that be a lesson as to why you don't want to peek while the meat is on the smoker - you'll lose temperature faster than you think. The fire was a little too close to the left brisket, so I made a makeshift baffle out of a large piece of extra-heavy duty foil and moved the briskets as far away from the fire as I could. I really wish I had a larger pit, but this will have to make due. After all that, I closed the doors and watched the temperature rise. It got up to 225 in about 10 minutes. I closed the damper on the fire box down a bit, and closed the flue to about half, and now it's just a waiting game, with lots of watching and probably unnecessary adjustments. But it makes me feel like I'm doing something useful when I play with the pit. I'll probably rotate the briskets around 12:30 or 1, so that's when the next update is going to be.
On me or the bbq? f**k those Burns' documentaries on Jazz and Baseball, this beats the hell out of them. I love the info on the dogs too. Question though. In the first pic, is Kona watching Kaci go over the fence?
I just rotated the briskets. The pit had stayed right around 230 for the last 3 hours or so, and I'm always happy to see that. I think the humidity in the air today is actually helping keep a more even temperature, I've noticed that when it's dryer I'll get bigger swings where the temperature meanders from about 240 to 200 for hours on end without me doing anything. Today, once I got the dampers set where I wanted them I never saw a reading above 231 or below 223. So I can't complain about the temperature control. Here's the next round of pics: This is what I saw when I opened the pit. Gloriousness. That foil baffle did a pretty good job, the left brisket didn't look burned at all. I rotated the briskets using those silicone mitts, they don't have the most tactile feel, but they work fine for moving briskets and ribs and the like. As you can tell, the briskets have shrunk up since there is a lot more room between them and the firebox, and I'm glad to have it. This is a good picture of the foil hanging down into the opening of the firebox a bit in order to deflect some of the heat, I must say it worked better than I expected, I'll probably start doing this on a regular basis. I poked around in the firebox and added a few more pieces of mesquite. I might have to add some more in a few hours. I'll probably take the briskets off around 3 or 3:30 to foil them and finish them in the oven. Usually I would leave them on the smoker longer (closer to 8 or 9 hours instead of 6), but I have to go meet the family out at the lake this afternoon. I don't mind leaving them in the oven while I'm gone, but I wouldn't feel comfortable leaving them on the pit where the fire could burn out or burn too hot or something. Looking and smelling good. Tomorrow is going to be a good day.
hornian - I don't want to hijack your thread, but where did you get Kaci? I'm thinking about getting one for my daughter (good excuse, right). I haven't had a dog since I was 13, but those dogs are just allsome.
if liquor stores are open, I'll need to show up early. my plan as of right now is to make mojitos, if you think they'd go over good there.
Well the briskets are off the pit. The temperature sorta bottomed out around 210 or so for the last hour, but no big deal. Now to the important part, the meat. Normally I'd only post one of these pics, but the pictures came out great and I think they all are important. Especially if you're like I was a few years ago when I started and didn't know what a brisket looked like when it came off the smoker. I was afraid I'd burnt my first brisket because it was so black, but nope, that's just how they look. That color is ALL flavor. I brought them inside in some of those disposable foilware trays that cost a couple bucks at HEB - I use the ones with the wire support underneath because that's a lot of meat. And I also put a sheet on the bottom so that I can lift the brisket out to wrap it easily. Trick of the trade. And now the briskets are wrapped up tight. I put them in the oven which I preheated to about 220. I'm going to go spend the afternoon at Lake Travis while these bad boys cook a bit longer. I'll try to get more pics when I get back tonight.
Here's a question that I'm not sure anyone will answer: I'm going to refrigerate the briskets and warm them up in the morning. And I'm thinking about slicing it when it is cold and warming it up sliced instead of warming up whole briskets and then slicing them. I've sliced a lot of briskets before, and when you're doing leftovers that have been refrigerated it is so much easier. If it's going to be cold anyway, why not just do it then? My only qualm is that it might get a bit dry when I warm it up in the oven, but if I put foil over the pans that should help a bunch. Thoughts?
One more post before I try to get some sleep. I took the briskets out of the oven around 10, and made some homemade barbecue sauce (that's a first, we'll see how it goes over, I don't use sauce with my 'cue, so hopefully even if it's not great it won't matter). And then I prepped the ribs for tomorrow morning. Pictures below. Ah the briskets are done. So juicy and tender. I let them rest open like that for about an hour and then put some foil to cover them and put them in the fridge. I'll warm them up tomorrow morning. One rack of pork spareribs, untrimmed. That's about to change. See that flap- It's got to go. Flap and some extraneous fat from the back of the ribs removed. Flipped it over, and then trimmed the extra meat off. I smoke that too, I just cut it off before the ribs go on the smoker. Repeat 4 times and this is what you get. That's pretty close to 20 lbs of pork spareribs right there. Now it's time to rub them. First, you squeeze some mustard on them. Anything works, this was just plain ol' French's Yellow Mustard. Then you spread it around and get a nice little base coat for your rub. I put on a good amount of the Fiesta Rib Rub, followed by some Montreal Steak Seasoning. Seriously, Fiesta + Montreal Steak is the basis for a great rub for just about anything you want to barbecue. Finally, I get my hands really dirty and rub the spices and mustard all together into a paste on the ribs. I only do the meat side, because it would be a waste of time to do the bone side. I wrapped those and put them in the fridge as well. I'm gong to try to get the chimney starter going at about 5:30 or so, and hopefully have the ribs on about 6 am. I'll check back in then. Night.
Omg this is like beef porn. Can you put a picture in there of your hands actually rubbing the beef? That might do it for me...
******* rain. Woke up at 5:30 this morning to the pitter-patter of rain on my metal roof. It sounded nice until I realized that I had to barbecue some more. So then I ousted my little brother from his slumber and had him help me put up one of the EZ-UP awnings over the pit so that I can work in the rain. This is what I'm dealing with: This is going to be interesting. The chimney starter is working right now, though I expect it to take a bit longer than usual. Luckily none of the charcoal or newspaper was wet, but it's 110% humidity right now. Please rain, go away.
