Day After Christmas Ribs

This will be my first post as I go post, so lets get 'er underway. As I said earlier, I've been craving my OWN ribs for a few weeks now, so what better time than Christmas break.

I once again decided to reach into my Tasty Licks sample pack and go with the Ribit Rib Rub. However, with the ribs being the size they are. I was forced to go with two separate packs. Dawn picked the Smokin' Good BBQ Rub for the second half.

I used my new Parring Knife (out of my 3 piece set Dawn's mother gave me for Christmas) to do the trimming and prep work. I left a little more fat that I usually do. Johnny Trigg talks about how he likes leaving most of the fat, because it's the main flavor source. I trimmed off the big hunks, but left the rest.

Before the ribs went in. I decided to take put all of my BBQ/Cooking related Christmas presents together for a family photo haha. Not pictured is the 3 piece set of knives (they were in the dish washer already)

Everything is preheated, and the ribs are now going in at 1:45.

The ribs have been cooking for 3 hours, and around every hour I've added Apple Juice or (a potential new secret weapon) Stubb's Bar-B-Q Baste. The first hour was the AJ the second Stubb's, and then at hour 3 I lined the foil with AJ and coated again with Stubb's.

The Rib's are out of the foil, and have another coating of Stubb's for the final stage. They've been out for about 20 minutes now and I'm deciding if I want to add sauce or try the flavors the way they are now ... they'll probably stay for another 20 minutes or so.

HOLY COW!!!!! I just made the perfect ribs. I've made juicy tender ribs before, but these were PERFECT. Pictures to come shortly ....

Here's the ribs as they just came off the rack

Plated with Dawn's homemade oven fries (which were AMAZING) ... and a lil Jack

They say a perfect rib is when you can bite into it and leave your mouth impression in the meat ... well ... here ya go ...

The aftermath of my plate ... nothing but clean bones and dirty napkins. A perfectly cooked perfect dinner to a perfect Christmas weekend.

Christmas Eve Steaks

After turning down an offer to eat Waffle House for Christmas Eve. My g/f and I decided we wanted to steaks. We stopped in the grocery store and picked up a pack of New York strips after opening some presents and went home for prep.

We first added some Balsamic Vinegar and Whesirsirsirsirsirsire Sauce. Once the steaks had a layer of sauces I added the Tasty Licks Ribeye Rub and let the steaks sit for approx 45 minutes.

While the steaks were marinating I preheated the grill around 500. I threw the steaks on and 10 and 4, and switched to 2 and 8 for cross sears.

While I was grilling the steaks. Dawn (my g/f) was making Cajun Spiced Twice Baked Potatoes.

A flair up from the drippings caused the steaks to be closer to well done than the desired medium I prefer, but overall it was a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner ... and maybe a new tradition.

Merry Christmas Eve

As everyone prepares to have sugar plums dance in their heads tonight, I already have ribs dancing in mine. I haven't done ribs in nearly a month, and for the first time ever I can say "I'm craving my OWN ribs." Thanks again to a fellow brethren, I will be using a new rub for this rack. I'm going to us the "Ribit Rib Rub" from Tasty Licks BBQ Sample Pack.

First Smoked Pork Butt

My g/f and I came back from our cruise to the Bahamas, and went to the grocery store to pick up some dinner. We picked up a sales paper, and noticed they had their Pork Butt's on sale. I had been wanting to try my hand at a butt, so I convinced her (which wasn't hard to do) that we needed to grab one. Once we got to the meat section, we realized they only had one left, a 9.6 lb butt. I immediately went to The BBQ Brethren for tips and recipes on how to cook it.

With the guidance of the Brethren I made Chris Lilly's injection. I woke up Sunday morning at 5a.m. to injected the butt and rub it with my Yardbird rub. Once the butt was filled with injection and covered with the rub I went back to bed for 2 hours.

At 7 I went outside and fired up the smoker, and put my digital thermometer in so I could see when the temp got built up. I set the thermometer to 350, because I knew it'd be safe because I just wanted to look at the temp. As I take the below pic, the alarm on the thermometer goes off. I look at the receiver and it's reading 415. Puzzled I open the door and the smoker is on fire. The ribs dripped into the water pan (which was empty at this point) and the drippings caught on fire. I put the flames out, and got everything back under control.

The butt hit the smoker at 8a.m. around 280 degrees. Once the meat when in the smoker. I took the thermometer and placed it as close to the center as I could. To help keep the butt moist. I sprayed with my buddy Apple Juice approx every hour.

Once the butt got up to 160 I pulled it out (with my fancy custom made BBQ mitts) and wrapped it up in foil, so the inside would continue cooking but the outside wouldn't bark up anymore.

At 5:15 the temp had reached 193 (just a hair shy of my 195-200 goal). I pulled it out of the smoker, wrapped it in an extra towel, and placed it in a room temp cooler to rest. After an hour and 15 minutes it was time to eat.

First pork butt comes out of the smoker and the bone pulls clean out. I would have liked more flavor to the meat, but for a first time I really couldn't complain with the outcome. I must say ... it was the best pulled pork I've ever made ;-)

Porterhouse T-Bone Steak (Manly Sized Meat Throwdown)

For my second Throwdown appearance. I choose to enter the Manly Sized Meat Throwdown. For my entry I decided to go with a 1.6lb Porterhouse T-Bone Steak from our local butcher shop.

The day before the cook I let it marinate in some Sam Adams Cherry Wheat (I wish I'd added more, because it would be great flavor).

Approximately an hour before the cook I added some worsirisrisrisrisire sauce and McCormic's steak seasoning.

Threw the steak on the gasser at 500 for a good sear.

After 15-20 minutes (and near perfect grill marks) she was ready to go.

The color of the picture doesn't show the true color. The steak came off near perfectly evenly cooked, and right at medium (where it was entended to be).

No piece was left behind.

Beer Can and Bacon Chicken

Getting back to the grill. We had some friends come over and decided to make a Beer Can Chicken. We've had the stand for a while, but have never thought to actually make one. We found a recipe on the Food Network's website that also included bacon ... VIEW FULL RECIPE HERE

The recipe calls for a 2-3lb chicken, but we were hungry and went after a 5lber. Once I mixed the spices together for the rub. We poured some in the cavity, and rubbed the rest on the outside and inside the skin of the bird. I drank half of the beer and added the garlic to the rest (you only want to use half of a beer, because the garlic will react with the beer and cause some spewing)

The chicken went on the grill around 450 degrees for about 20 minutes, and then the temp was turned down to 380 for close to an hour (my temps and times had to be adjusted for the larger bird I used) ... Needless to say ... it came out perfect.

Every single plate was cleared, and nearly every ounce of meat was pulled from the bone.

The Outside In Burger

For the Fast Food ThrownDown on The BBQ Brethren I decided to go with a burger that I've been doing lately. In early May 2011 I went on a cruise to Bermuda with my g/f and my sister and her husband. We went to a resturant called The Frog and The Onion (if you ever go this is a MUST). I'm not a fan of onions or basically anything. I ordered the Bacon Cheeseburger because I THOUGHT it'd be a safe order. I took one bite and couldn't stop talking about how delicious it was. Once I looked down I saw the meat was filled with diced peppers and onions. Since it was so good, I closed my eyes and finished that bad boy.

For the ThrowDown I took the burger a step further. Thus creating the Outside In Burger. I'm sure it's been done before, but that's what I'll call it ... and it's my blog so that's all that matters. To go with the burger, and since it's a "Fast Food meal", I also added some home made fries.

Using the fancy slicer my g/f has I sliced 2 (not the 3 shown) potatoes into fries.

Layed them on a pan, and covered them with a "3 Beer BBQ Rub"

I diced the 1/4 of the green pepper, 1/4 of the onion, and precooked the bacon. I mixed the pepper and onion in the meat adding some whirsirsirsirsirsirsirsire sauce and McCormic Gormet Burger seasoning. Added some Pepper Jack cheese and the bacon to the middle then combined the "bottom" and "top" patties.

The "Slice of Life" picture comes with the burger sitting on a Fuddrucker's bun and plated with the finished fries.

A look at the inside of the Outside In Burger shows how everything mixed together, and came out AMAZING!!!!!

Ribs Take 3

The saying goes, the 3rd time is the charm. Well, that is absolutely what happened here. Since the Plowboys was so deliscious on the tough ribs the last time. I used it again for a better comparison from cook to cook.  

I don't have any cook pictures from this run, but I had these in the smoker around 280-300 for 3 hours. Every hour or so, I would open the smoker and give the ribs a nice cover of Apple Juice. After 3 hours I pulled the ribs out, and wrapped them in HD Foil (adding Apple Juice to the inside of the foil for moisture). The ribs cooked in the foil for close to 2 hours before they came out to finish cooking. I added the ribs back to the smoker with another coat for Apple Juice. They sat in there for approximately 30 minutes before I added Stubb's Spicy BBQ sauce and Sticky Fingers Carolina Sweet sauce. Needless to say ... these are by far the best ribs that have came off my smoker. They were a tad big over cooked (too fall off the bone), but far from bad.