The BBQ Pit Blog

Peach Wood Smoked Chicken on the Weber - Indirect Heat

It had been a while since I had used my Weber Grill so the the boys and I decided to smoke some chickens over the weekend.  We ended up having to do some inventory of our dry rub and BBQ sauce ingredients before we got started. 

The boys helped make our red sauce and the dry rub that we put on the chickens.  Although they love to tell their friends about how good the BBQ they cook tastes, they also follow the BBQ Code of Honor to never reveal the secret recipes for our sauce and dry rub :o)

We started out with 2 whole chickens and put the dry rub on them.  We then put charcoal on one side of the Weber Grill and placed the 2 chickens on the opposite side of the Weber Grill creating the Indirect Heat method.  The following link -  Difference between direct & indirect cooking - will give you some great information about the differences between direct and indirect cooking. 

We added a couple of chunks of Peach Wood and then cooked the chicken on the Weber about 3 hours.  The Birds were ready once the breast meat reached 160 degrees and the legs are easy to "shake". 

We are looking forward to our next opportunity to smoke some more BBQ this weekend and start to do some practice runs cooking ribs and chicken for the upcoming Birmingham Habitat For Humanity BBQ Contest in June.

Unbelievable Double Smoked Hams

It has been a while since I have smoked hams so I figured I would smoke a few for some friends recently.  You just can't beat a smoked ham when it comes to flavor and the ability to feed a large number of people.  They just absorb the smoke so well and when smoked properly they are one of the best tasting smoked meats.

I always buy hams from the grocery store that are pre-cooked and they turn out great. The hams I bought were half hams and were the shank end. 

The shank end has a lot of flavor and the smoke from the wood really sinks in to make a great flavor. Recipes Tips - Info on Hams is a great site that explains the different variety of hams.

I made my dry rub out of brown sugar, paprika, pepper, seasoning salt, and a few other secret ingredients before applying liberally to the hams. 

I smoked these 10 pound half hams for about 5 hours each at 275 degrees with pecan wood.  From the pictures you can see how they had turned a dark brown on the outside and the "face of the meat had started to fall apart. 

I used my Traeger Smoker which is an electric wood pellet fed smoker to cook these hams.  With it 35 degrees outside you can't beat a smoker that you can really "set it and forget it". 

Since pre-cooked hams are ready to eat even before you smoke them, you don't have to worry about  getting them "done".  The secret is to smoke them long enough to penetrate the ham with the right amount of smoke flavor and allow the ham to start to fall off the bone.  If you cook them till they are  160 internal then great, you can slice them and they will turn out fine.  But if you dare to enter BBQ Nirvana, then go to 195 degrees and have "pulled ham". 

I like to leave my ham uncovered and let the outside of the ham darken but if you prefer you can wrap the ham in tinfoil after it reaches 165 degrees internal and let it cook on to 195 degrees internal so the outside still looks shiny/tan but still falls apart.

A smoked ham is going to be better than any oven baked pineapple glazed ham or one from the "old store" down the road.

7 Bone Chuck Roast - It is a good day to eat meat!

This past weekend I decided to cook a 7 bone chuck roast on my Traeger Grill.  Recipe Tips Website defines the 7 Bone Chuck Roast as a crosscut beef roast from the shoulder blade portion of the chuck primal. It gets its name from the crosscut of bone within the roast that is shaped like a "7". The 7-bone roast is one of the most popular for pot-roasting.

When this cut of meat is smoked properly, it is "fall apart" good and tastes completely different then the typical pot roast this cut of meat has traditionally been used for over the years.  

This 7-bone roast weighed in at 5 pounds and required about 5 hours of smoking time.

I used a dry rub that consisted of Paprika, Seasoning Salt, Garlic Powder, Pepper, and Sugar.  I also used Pecan pellets in the Traeger Grill to give the meat a great flavor.  Pecan adds some great flavor to meat that is a mild, nutty and sweet flavor all mixed into one.  I like to use it when cooking pork or beef due to its unique flavor. 

In this photo I have put the dry rubbbed roast on the Traeger Grill and am about to set the temperature to smoke the roast at 250 degrees for the next 5 hours. 

While this roast smoked I made a horseradish sauce for dipping the meat in once ready to serve.  I like to mix a 1/4 cup of sour cream with a 1/4 cup of mayonaise.  I then add 1 to 2 tablespoons of horseradish and mix.  The more horseradish the hotter the sauce.

Once the roast has smoked for 5 hours I was able to pull some of the meat into pieces with a fork and other areas of the roast were sliced.   The smoke set into the roast very well adding a great Smoke Ring to the meat. 

Training One of the Twins on Mastering the Art of BBQ Butts

I was cooking Boston Butts this weekend for some friends and decided it was time to introduce one of my twin boys to the art of smoking Boston Butts.  For those not familiar with the Boston Butt, it actually comes from the Hog's shoulder vs. the "other end" of the hog which produces the Hams.......  Wikipedia gives a brief description of where the the term Boston Butt originated from around the time of the  Revolutionary War.

I started out smoking these two Boston Butts with charcoal, oak, and cherry wood.  I had applied my dry rub to the butts which includes sugar, pepper, paprika, garlic powder, and a few other "classified" ingredients.  All my ingredients and processes are memorized to avoid any chance of an accidental discovery by anyone.....

My wife thinks I might be slight paranoid about my recipes but come on...who doesn't have a grandmother that makes the best food ever but she can't tell you how much of each ingredient they use because they don't have it written down..... Grandmothers have practiced the "secret code" practiced by BBQ Pit Masters well before BBQ became cool.

Ok, back to the Boston Butts.  These Butts weighed in at around 8 pounds each so I smoked them for around 12 hours until my "BBQ Pit Master In Training" determined using the temperature gauge that the internal temperature of the butts had reached 195 degrees.  Once pulled off the smoker, the butts will continue to cook for a while reaching the 200 degree internal temperature.  At this point I wrapped these butts in tinfoil so they would be ready for our friends to pick up and for us to deliver.   

There is nothing more rewarding than passing down the art and wisdom of smoking true BBQ to a younger generation. 

As you can tell from my About Me section on the blog, I was influenced by many people during my baptism by fire into BBQ.  Whether it was my Dad that grilled out almost every night when I was growing up or Crutchfield that introduced me to the art of "low and slow" BBQ, BBQ is an art that requires plenty of practice and absorbing expertise from other greats of BBQ.      

Smoking a 19 Pound Chuck Roll - Fire in the Hole!

I have been smoking 4 to 5 pound beef chuck roasts the past year and recently decided that I wanted to find a larger chuck roast to smoke.  While at Sam's Club I asked the "Meat Man" to pick me out a larger chuck roast from the cooler and he  told me that I should just buy a whole Chuck Roll.  He then proceeded to bring out a 19 pound boneless Chuck Roll.  When it comes to BBQ, bigger is better, and I had just discovered a massive cut of meat to put on the smoker. 

The Virtual Weber Bullet Website describes the Chuck Roll as "One of nine primal cuts that come from a side of beef. Essentially the shoulder of the cow, the chuck consists of part of the neck and backbone, the first five ribs, and portions of the shoulder blade and upper arm. It weighs in at 66-106 pounds or more. 

The chuck primal is broken down into smaller, subprimal cuts. One of these is the chuck roll. Chuck roll is sort of the pork butt of beef.  It has the structure of pork butt--lots of muscle, fat, and connective tissue coming together from a bunch of different directions--and is easier to pull or shred than to slice."

After purchasing this I had to get it prepared for the smoker.  I injected the Chuck Roll with red wine, worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, melted butter, and seasoning salt so that it would have some good seasoning/marinade in the meat during the long smoking  process.  I then made my "top secret" dry rub that I applied liberally to the Chuck Roll. 

Next step was adding it to the smoker.  It just barely fit on the smoker and after I took this picture I added some tinfoil around the ends of the meat because the lid was actually touching the meat once it was placed on the smoker.  Cherry/Oak wood was added next and this bodacious cut of meat began the low and slow smoking process at 9pm.  

I can't resist thinking about how this would make a great episode of the Travel Channel's Man Vs. Food with Adam Richman where he attempts to eat the entire Chuck Roll in less than one hour flat.  No sides, just a 19 pound chuck roast and one glass of water....

After 20 hours the Chuck Roll was finally ready to come off the smoker.  The internal temperature had reached 195 degrees internal which means the fat has rendered and the meat is falling apart.  This

is the same process that a pork butt will go through as well because of its fat content.  The Chuck Roll has enough fat inside and out to also achieve the same results of delicious  "pulled beef". 

I look forward to doing this again.  Whether you are smoking a 4 pound chuck roast or a 20 pound chuck roll, the taste is unbelievable.  So when you decide you want to shake it up a bit and get away form the traditional pork butt or brisket, the Chuck Roll is the way to go.....

9 Pound Boston Butt Smoked on Brinkmann Electric Smoker

I didn't have the time or energy this weekend to get my Lang Smoker out, the cadillac of wood smokers.  Ben Lang makes Lang Smokers in Nahunta, Georgia and they are great for the big BBQ's but for doing just 1 or 2 Boston Butts, I decided to go with my Brinkmann Electric Smoker.  Yes, to many BBQ enthusiast there isn't room for anything but wood and charcoal when it comes to BBQ but when you need to get the job done and still want to produce some good quality BBQ, the electric smoker is the way to go.  Especially if you want to get some sleep at night after putting on a 9 pound Boston Butt.  Secret to it is making sure to use the right amount of wood on top of the electric element so you end up with a good Smoke Ring .   As you can tell from the picture, the Brinkmaan has seen its share of long nights of BBQ.

I put my "top secret" dry rub on the 9 pound boston butt around 9:30 PM on Friday night and then had the Butt on the smoker around 10:00 PM.  I filled up the water pan about half full that goes in the smoker and put in a few chunks of peach and cherry wood in the bottom near the heating elements.  I added some more wood around 11:30pm and then again the following morning at 8am.  Around 1 pm on Saturday the Boston Butt was internally at a temperature of 175 degrees.  At this point I wrapped it in foil and let it cook until it reached 195 degrees at which point I took it off the smoker and let it rest. 

At 195 to 200 degrees internal, the pork butt will reach a tenderness that allows the entire Butt to be pulled apart with a fork or by hand.  The Brinkmann Electric Smoker I own is an older one and keeps a temperature of around 220 degrees which is on the low end of what I would prefer to cook at temperature wise but "low and slow" works every time.  Being able to "set it and forget it" to cook bbq is great when you want to cook those large pieces of meat but still get some sleep at night. 

Yes, even a BBQ addict like myself who has spent 14 hours straight in 30 degree weather cooking BBQ with my wood burning Lang Smoker sometimes has to cheat a bit and plug in the electric smoker.  Anything I can do to help increase revenues at Alabama Power :)   

An electric smoker is a great way to cook large cuts of meat such as ribeye roasts, boston butts, sirloins, whole chickens, and turkeys.  It basically allows you to keep from cooking your meat too hot or even burning the meat.  Key to making great bbq on the electric is using the right amount of wood to add enough smoke flavor to penetrate the meat.  If you can master the cooking times to keep the meat tender, then tweaking the amount of wood to get the right flavor will take you to the next level of bodacious BBQ. 

Fireplace Grill is a HOMERUN!!

Christmas has come and gone and I got a great surprise present from my wife.  She bought me a Fireplace Grill from SpitJack which makes pig rotisseries, grills, smokers, and other unique BBQ equipment that you just don't find at the local hardware or retail store.   

If I didn't already have enough outdoor grills and smokers, I now have the ability to grill and bbq inside  the house.  While most people are sitting around their fireplaces roasting marshmallows or just having a great quiet family moment, we have pork tenderloin, ribeye steaks, and greek chicken sizzling in the fireplace.  Romantic, I know.....

The grill was simple to put together and is easy to use.  I built the fire with oak and cherry wood, then let it burn a couple of hours until the fire started to die down and the embers were bright red. I then slid the grill into the fireplace and put the cooking grate on top.  Next was just adding the meat. I started the meat closer to the back of the fireplace which is the hottest area and then moved the meat towards the front to get it to away from the flame but close enough to the fire to still cook well. 

The smoke flavor from the wood was outstanding and the meat was very tender.  This product is just a great way to continue cooking through the winter time without having to fight the cold weather outside.

For all of you that just have to grill and bbq year round, the answer is now here.  I have to say that I have to rank the originator of the spitjack fireplace grill up there with the greatest minds of all time.....   No more excuses for not grilling out in the winter because it is too cold outside, or you might get sick in the freezing weather, No more excuses now - 365 days of grilling and bbq is now at your fingertips.....

Thanksgiving Feast - Smoked Turkey

Another successful Thanksgiving has passed and it was a great day for smoking Turkeys and Ribs.  This is the first year that I actually brined a Turkey before smoking it and the results were great. The Cookshack website has a great Brining article with recipes that really makes it easy for someone to make a brine.  

The Cookshack Website states that "brining in a saltwater mixture before you smoke typically will add flavor, tenderness and typically reduces cooking times. Our poultry and pork have much less fat than they used to, which means they tend to dry out more quickly when cooked and to be less flavorful than in the past. Brining is chemistry in action".

I made a brine by mixing water, sugar, honey, soy sauce, and pepper together and heating it on the stove until the sugar dissolved in the brine.  I then put the turkey in an oven bag, poured the brine(after it had cooled to room temperature) over the turkey that was in the oven bag.   I then placed the turkey/brine in a small cooler with ice to keep it in the safe temperature range.  I know others that will put the turkey in a container or new 5 gallon bucket with the brine, then refrigerate it. 

After the turkey had been in the brine for 48 hours I dried it off and put in on the smoker.  I also decided to put on 2 slabs of ribs and a turkey breast.  Pecan and Cherry wood were used for smoking and I got the Lang Smoker up to 300 degrees.  When smoking whole Turkeys, Breasts, or whole chickens I like to get my temperature up to 300 degrees so that I am still in that "smoking range" but I am able to cook the birds quick enough so they don't have a chance to really dry out during the smoking process. 

The turkey weighed 16 pounds and as you can see from the picture it took on a great golden brown color from the smoke.  The turkey breast to the left of the whole turkey is less brown because it doesn't require the length of time the whole turkey does to reach the ideal temperature. 

I have to say the brined turkey was great.  The sweet/salty combination of the brine was not overpowering but did flavor the turkey enough to really give it a good flavor.  It also seemed to allow the turkey to keep moist as well.  I look forward to using other brine recipes to enhance the flavor and moistness of turkeys, chickens, and other birds that I smoke in the future. 

St. Louis Style Ribs Smoked Today

Saturday became "Rib Day" at the Wade house today.  The smell of cherry wood smoke was rising through the early morning air in Vestavia Forest.  I had applied my dry rub to the ribs and had them on the grill cooking them indirect starting at 8 AM with an expected 12 noon lunch.  

I suspect I might have been the only fool -  I meant BBQ enthusiast -  out this morning with the  temperature in the 40's putting ribs on but it warmed up quickly.  Since I was smoking the ribs on my Weber grill I had to use rib racks to fit the slabs on the grill. 

I originally purchased Spare Ribs and cut the brisket bone(rib tip) off which turned these into St. Louis ribs. 

The meat on the left side of the grill is the brisket bone meat.  These are great cut up and put into pork and beans or just served cut into pieces for appetizers.

I am gearing up for Thanksgiving now and will be smoking brined turkeys Thursday, so more to come soon.

Wild Game Cookoff - Sweet Taste of Victory

The Alabama Wildlife Federation held its annual cookoff on September 18th at the Birmingham Zoo. There were around 20 teams that competed this year in the event which has 3 categories which included Wild Game, Fish, and Fowl.  

Ted's Restaurant entered the event and competed in the wild game and the fish categories.  We grilled deer tenderloin and served it with a blackberry sauce for the game category.  In the fish category we fried catfish and served it covered in a cajun crawfish cream sauce.  

At the end of the night's event attended by over 1000 visitors, Ted's Restaurant took 1st place in the Wild Game category with our grilled deer tenderloin covered in blackberry sauce.  We also took 2nd place in presentation based on the way that dish looked visually to the judges.  

Our team was made up of Tasos Touloupis, owner of Ted's Restaurant, Jeff Latham with Porter Capital, and myself.  We were all very excited about taking the Big Win at the event and expanding our style of cooking to include the Wild Game Competition.  

Dinner at John's City Diner Leads to Green Top BBQ.......

I attended a Birmingham Chamber event at the Summit Club tonight in downtown Birmingham.  After the event I met my wife at John's City Diner which back in the day was known as John's Restaurant.  I always enjoy eating at John's because of its history and the great food and service. 

Tonight though was one of those nights that brought back some great memories.  I don't know if it was because we were there very late and it was almost empty, if it was the waitress telling stories of the older patrons arguing about if the new food or the food from the past was better, but it really reminded me of the old days and  why I cater BBQ the way I do ----to give people something to remember and talk about for years to come..(more to come on this topic)

Lets go back to 1980, it is Saturday in Jasper, Alabama, and it is the end of the month - that means payday..... The Wade family loads up and heads east on 78 Highway towards Birmingham to shop at Eastwood Mall and then to John's Restaurant for dinner.  Of course back in the day , you had Baby Doe's, The Bright Star, Joy Young's, Green Top BBQ, and John's Restaurant -that was the best..........Man do I wish Joy Young's was still around but lets get back to the story........

I can still remember the family waiting in line to get in John's.  We ordered John's Restaurant's famous steaks, fried shrimp(that was seafood back then, you didn't have 30 seafood restaurants in town like you do now), and John's famous slaw with that homemade French Dressing....You always felt like you were on top of the world after eating at John's Restaurant.  Like Bear Bryant said "I can't define class, but I sure can recognize it when I see it", and John's City Diner had class back then and still does today.

There is just something about how food brings people together and how the older restaurants that we went to years back are still the one's we go to now or we wish were still around.  I like John's City Diner because the waiters and waitresses tell me their name, they are friendly, they know the history of the restaurant, and they let me ramble about how when I was 5 years old I sat in this same booth with my
family ......That is a restaurant, that is food.........

It is the same reason I have to stop at Green Top BBQ every time I make the trip home to Jasper.  BBQ cooked over an open wood fire pit and you better know how to order it when the waitress asks for your order -  outside, inside, chopped, or sliced........It has history.......my family stopped there every time we traveled to Legion Field-"The Old Grey Lady" to watch Alabama play football.  We order BBQ from there for the holidays, they know us by name, and the BBQ is OLD SCHOOL........  It Ain't Pretty on the outside but the BBQ is legendary.... 

My rambling blog post tonight reminds me that BBQ isn't supposed to be pretty, petite, shiny, brand new, or served on fancy plates........BBQ is about going back, way back, back when it was ok to spill bbq sauce on your shirt, back when the whole family sat around the TV watching Alabama and Auburn playing football at Legion Field while eating Green Top BBQ or Crutchfield's smoked pork shoulder, back when you could just order a bbq sandwich and it only came with a bag of golden flake potato chips, back when Coca Cola or Grapico in the bottle was the drink of choice to go with your chopped outside meat bbq sandwich............... 

I can go on and on about John's City Diner and Green Top BBQ because they are classics, landmarks, remind us of past great times and more to follow.  That is why I partnered with Ted's Restaurant which has been around for 35 years in downtown Birmingham... combining their history of great meats and vegetables with my traditional BBQ......trying to make a classic of our own.

Smoking BBQ on a Charcoal Grill or Gas Grill

I get asked all the time about how to make mouth watering BBQ at home using a small charcoal grill or even a gas grill.  When I am not catering events I do use a Weber 22 1/2 inch charcoal grill to cook meals for our family.  Although I would love to break out my 7 foot Lang Smoker and smoke a giant piece of meat for the family, my wife reminds me that can be a bit overkill for a family of four....Go figure...

Charcoal Grills - For those of you with a charcoal grill you will want to have your coals & wood chunks/chips burning on one side of your grill and your meat on the opposite side of the grill.  This allows you to cook indirect which slowly cooks the meat and allows the meat to stay very moist.  The  heat/smoke produced from the fire will surround the meat and produce great BBQ. The picture on the right shows the coals and wood chips on one side of the grill and the rack of ribs on the other side. 

When you place the lid on the grill make sure to have the lid air vents open and located on the side where you meat is located.  You can cook all kinds of meat this way including chicken pieces, whole chicken, ribeye roasts, sausage, etc.....  I would recommend starting with just chicken breasts, thighs, pork ribs, or wings to just get a hang of it.  Then work your way up to doing ribeye roasts, whole chickens, pork loins and other larger cuts that will take a bit longer to cook.  Invest in a meat thermometer for checking the temps on your meat and also document your cooking times so you will be able to repeat your success each time. 

Gas Grills - I have to tell you there are BBQ enthusiasts across the world that will not use the word BBQ and Gas together.  The argument between gas vs. charcoal/wood is similar to the battle between the Hatfield's and McCoy's or better yet Rocky & Clubber Lang in Rocky 111 ... Hands down in my opinion charcoal and/or wood cooked BBQ is the best tasting when done properly.  But there are so many people out there with gas grills that I wanted to discuss how to produce a great quality BBQ on a gas grill. 

You will basically follow the same Indirect Cooking procedure as with the charcoal grill.  Light only one side/panel of your gas grill.  Place your meat on the opposite end of the grill over the unlit panel.  Make a tinfoil pouch and fill it up with a couple of  hand-fulls  of wood chips.  Close up the chips in the foil and then put them over the lit panel on your grill (place pouch on the burner itself and not the grill grate). Poke a few holes in the foil on top and that will allow the smoke to release.  You can soak the wood chips in water before adding but dry chips will work fine as well.  Most gas grills come with a temperature gauge mounted in the top so try to keep your temp at 250-325 degrees while cooking.  Also, use a meat thermometer to determine when your meat is done on larger cuts and chicken.

Wood Chips/Chunks - Go to your local BBQ store or grill section of WalMart, Home Depot, etc...department store and buy some wood chips or chunks.  I recommend peach, cherry, pecan, or hickory for pork butts, pork loins, ribs, chicken, Turkey, and lamb.  For ribeye roasts I suggest pecan or hickory chips.  In Birmingham, the  The Smoke & Fire Place in Vestavia Hills on Highway 31 across from Mark's Outdoors carries the largest supply of wood chips in the area.   You can also buy a cast iron or steel smoker box as well that will hold the chips instead of using a self made tinfoil pouch.

FYI - the larger the grill or smoker doesn't mean that it will produce a better BBQ.  You can cook great bbq on a charcoal grill or a gas grill.  Steaks are great for grilling but when it comes to chicken, roasts, leg of lamb, pork butts, ribs, turkeys, other large cuts, go with the indirect cooking method and you and your guests will be knocked out by the flavor and moisture.  Give yourself some extra time to get the food done on the first couple tries because you will probably end up checking on the meat a bit more than once you get this method down.  Once you start to master this indirect cooking method you will be amazed by the taste and flavor of the food. 

4th Annual Pig Roast - PARTY

The 4th annual Pig Roast aka "Boar Bash" at Swann's house in Vestavia  was another huge success this year.  We had the largest turnout ever with over 120 guests at one point awaiting the unveiling of the star of the party - a 130 pound pig  slow smoked to perfection.

Each year this party brings attendees from all over the Southeast and I have to call it like it is - this party has reached legendary status.  We are going to have to move this party to the Civic Center or take it on the road to Walker County!!!

If there was a list of the top parties in Alabama, the "Boar Bash" would  rank up at the top.  I know most of you think the Boar Bash sign in the picture was professionally done by a Graphic Artist but it actually is the same sign from 2005, we just add the current year and
X out the previous - Art at its best :o)

We started smoking the pig at midnight Friday night and at 5pm on Saturday the pig was smoked to perfection 17 hours later.  A combination of charcoal and cherry wood was used to provide a great flavor to the meat.  Temperature on the smoker stayed between 275 and 325 degrees through the night. For some of the guests, this was their first "pig pickin" but for many of our return guests, this was another opportunity to eat some mouth watering pork.  I have catered many events before, but a Pig Roast is just one of those that is so unique and everyone loves it.

In this picture we have just taken the pig off the smoker and I am about to remove all the skin which has helped keep the meat moist during the smoking process.  When cooking a pig this size, the meat when cooked to perfection will be the most tender/moist meat you will ever eat.  Once the skin is removed the pig is then ready for everyone to come and pull the meat from the tenderloin, hams, boston butts, picnic, ribs, and/or bacon. 

You can tell who has been to a "pig picken"  before because they know exactly which pieces they want to get and rush to the pig to get in line.  First timers always sort of just stare at the pig for a while, then try a small piece(get someone else to get them a small piece), and then the next thing you know they have a fork out and end up with a plate full of pork shoulder- Never Fails.......

This year's party will be talked about for months to come and preparation for next years event will start up as usual once college football season winds down.  Oh, I guess I forgot about the live music.  What did you think, a pig roast without live country music ...Come On....

 

Pulled Pork for 100

I was fortunate to get to cook BBQ again for the Church of the Highlands / Tittusville AOH Church of God  prayer luncheon Saturday.  Pulled Pork was chosen as the main course.

I had seasoned eight Boston Butts with my dry rub the night before and then smoked the Butts for 12 hours over Cherry Wood.  For a BBQ enthusiast like myself, this is the best meat to smoke.  It also goes along way when feeding a hungry crowd.

The outside surface (bark) of the Butts was dark and crisp. The bark still held a good amount of the sweet flavor from the dry rub.  The smoke from the cherry wood had really infused well into the meat and gave it a great flavor that complimented the pork.

The Butts had been smoked to the ideal internal temperature.  This allowed the fat inside the butts to render which in turn made the meat moist and pull off the bone (Pulled Pork). 

The raw weight of the uncooked Butts was 56 pounds.  After smoking the Butts and shrinkage that occurs during cooking, we ended up with about 30 pounds of pulled pork which was plenty of food for the luncheon. 

For sides we had coleslaw, baked beans, and BBQ buns.  Brownies were for dessert.

We had a great group that helped put on the event, prepare the food, and serve all the attendees.  We are all looking forward to
the next one!!!

Let's Talk Ribs

I get a lot of questions about the different styles of ribs that are on the market today.  The three most popular ribs are Baby Back, Spare, and St. Louis. The good thing about all of these ribs is that when smoked properly, they all are delicious. They are also found at most of the grocery store meat departments I have been to in Birmingham, AL.

I have smoked all 3 styles while catering and I personally lean a bit more towards the St. Louis style ribs because of the flavor and appearance.  I know other BBQ enthusiasts that lean towards the Baby Back. It really just depends on your preference and what you believe showcases your bbq expertise.  If you are new to BBQ'ing then buy all three styles and give them all a try. Let your family or friends try them and give you their opinion on which one's they like.  I don't think you will have much trouble getting some "samplers" to try out your ribs.

The website www.allbbq.com/index.php does a fabulous job of describing these styles of ribs.  They also provide a great illustration of the different pork cuts on the market today.  The information below is from their website.

Baby Back Ribs - Baby backs are also called loin back ribs. The grocery stores usually label them as loin backs. Baby backs are usually smaller in size and have a fairly pronounced curve to the bone. The meat is leaner than spareribs so be sure to reduce your cooking time accordingly. Baby backs are most often confused with St Louis cut spareribs because they are similar in size. But St Louis style ribs will be much flatter with more fat and meat.

Spareribs - A full slab of spareribs is hard to confuse with any other type of BBQ rib type. The sparerib comes from the side and belly of the pig and they are larger than baby backs, contain more fat, and are flatter than baby backs. The extra fat provides more flavor. Most slow smoking BBQ rib enthusiasts prefer the taste of the sparerib over the baby backs. It is also a cheaper cut of BBQ rib.

St Louis Cut - This is a sparerib that has been trimmed to remove the tips or brisket end of the spareribs. There is also a flap of meat called the skirt on a full rack of spareribs that is removed. The result is a fairly flat rack of ribs that is easier to handle, looks nicer, and cooks up more evenly.

                  

4th Annual Hog Roast in Vestavia

It is time again for the annual Hog Roast at Swann's house in Vestavia Hills. This party averages around 120 to 150 guests and has become legendary.  There is always an acoustic country band and a plethora of slow cooked bbq.  You know Robert's neighbors have got to look forward to this party!!!  August 9th has been selected for this years "Boar Bash" as it is now referred.

The following picture is the star of last year's party - a 100 pound hog that we spit roasted for 12 hours over a combination of charcoal, peach and pecan wood.  Only the love of bbq would drive us to spend a day in 95 degree weather, standing around hot burning coals, cooking this hog to perfection.

Once the hog is cooked we place it on a buffet table and the guests will come through the buffet line and use their forks to pull the pork off the hog and place it on their plates.  Nothing like a "Pig Pickin" in the middle of Vestavia Hills!!!

We also cook several whole chickens and Alabama made Conecuh sausage to go along with the hog. Baked beans and coleslaw are served as sides although a true bbq glutton has no need for sides.......

We are getting ready to order the hog for this year's party and we are going to smoke the
hog in my Lang 84 smoker.  Ben Lang manufactures these awesome "stick burners" in Georgia and this pit has cooked thousands of pounds of bbq through the years. I will have some great pics to post after this year's party and hopefully Swann's neighbors will tolerate him for another year after this party..... 

How the BBQ Journey Started

My journey into the depths of BBQ began early on as a child growing up in Walker County, Alabama. I would sit on the back deck of our house and watch my Dad grill steaks, chicken, pork, roasts, and any other piece of meat fortunate enough to end up being placed on the old charcoal grill. The grill itself was a testament of time based on how long it held together through the years and the flavor it held. If there was a hall of fame for grills, it would have been inducted its first year of eligibility. 

You could see smoke coming from the Wade’s house on Pawnee Circle almost every night. And if the neighborhood filled of smoke wasn’t evidence enough of dad’s love of the grill, there was a mountain of charcoal ash behind our house as proof. To this day we joke about climbing that charcoal hill as kids and riding our sleds down it during the rare snow falls. Yes, only in Walker County.

The next step in my journey occurred when my Grandfather introduced me to Crutchfield. Crutchfield was a well known Barber in Jasper, Alabama but he was famous for his BBQ. Through the years I would get to enjoy Crutchfield’s smoked chickens and pork shoulders that he would bring to my Grandparents house accompanied by his “secret” red sauce. 

I was fortunate to get a chance to witness Crutchfield cook BBQ at the Walker County Lake one Fourth of July. I can still remember the smell of smoked chicken in the air and the taste of that “secret” red sauce that had to be simmered for hours. The anticipation was overwhelming while we all waited on Crutchfield to make the decision that the chicken had reached the end of its BBQ journey and was ready for us all to enjoy. Crutchfield was a master of the “low and slow” BBQ process and a legend to this day.

This early baptism by fire into BBQ has taken me on a journey from that back deck of our house on Pawnee Circle to the BBQ catering I now do for companies and organizations across the state of Alabama. To me, BBQ is about Crutchfield’s “secret” red sauce, Dad’s charcoal ash hill, and my journey to take the art of slow smoked BBQ to the masses. For a BBQ addict, there is nothing better than hearing “This is the best BBQ I have ever tasted.”