Brisket to go!

Wow. That's all I have to say. I've had trouble getting brisket right for some time. It's either on or off it seems. But this last weekend Cousin Alan and I cooked one using a fast method that Skee and I have been kicking around, and all I have to say is...Wow. It turned out great. This is by far the best brisket I've made to date. It was moist, juicy, tender and oh so good. I'm super pleased with the results. Here's the rundown of the cook prep and process we used.

I bought a USDA Choice packer brisket from Sam's. That's basically the flat and the point all in once piece with very little trimming, pretty much like you've seen on here before. I trimmed some of the fat off the brisket and then prepared a rub using kosher salt, black pepper, and white pepper, with basically 2/3 black to 1/3 white peppercorns. I ground the peppercorns in my spice grinder to a slightly course consistency. I used a little worschester sauce on the brisket to moisten it and then added the spices. That was pretty much it.

We got the egg up to temperature, 225 degrees, added some smoking chunks, the plate setter and then set the brisket down on the grid to begin cooking. We cooked the brisket like this until it reached a temperature of 165 degrees. We then wrapped the brisket in heavy duty aluminum foil and added the juice from one jar of pepperocini peppers, with a few peppers sprinkled on top (we figured it couldn't hurt...hehe) We then brought the temp of the egg up to 350 degrees, yeah that's hot! We then tested the brisket about every hour to hour and a half for doneness, we were looking for the temp probe to just slide in to the meat with very little resistance. After a few hours we pulled the brisket and then let it sit in a cooler to rest.

After about 2 hours we sliced the flat away from the point and proceded to slice up the flat. OMG...it was awesome! Definately the best I have done to date. We slopped a little of Cuz's special bbq sauce he got from Rudy's and we ate until we could hardly move. It was goodness. I can't wait to try this again. I'd cook one for Thanksgiving if I thought I could get away with it...hehe

Wow, it only took about 7 hours for this bad boy to cook! Another couple hours for a rest and it was fast compared to other brisket cooks I've done. Good stuff!

Smokin'!!!
The Alfster

You know why?....Chicken Thigh!

Yep, thought I've give some chicken thighs a try today. Oh man are they cheap, and they turned out really good. I couldn't believe the flavor on these babies, and they were so moist and juicy. I know, I know, chicken is chicken, and I do believe that, but I really liked these. I need to work on crisping the skins, but they still tasted good.

I did brine these the night before, I should have taken a pic, but forgot. May have been the cigar smoke...hehe

I used two different rubs, one of my own concoctions and then an Italian herb rub that I just had sitting around in my spice cabinet. I also left two of the thighs plain w/o any rub, I was just wanting to see the differences. I cooked them about four hours total, the last hour I brought the Egg temp up to 350 to help the skins crisp up. I also glazed them at finishing with some Dan T's Raspberry Chipolte sauce that I thinned a little with some apple juice. I should have eaten them straight away, but I was working on cleaning out the garage still (okay I was smoking a stogie) and I couldn't get to them right away. I have enough for lunch tomorrow...hehe!

Smokin',

The Alfster

Ribs Second Attempt

Here's my second attempt at the ribs. They turned out much better than the first attempt. I just lightly seasoned these. I smoke these for 3 hours, then foiled for an hour, and then brought up egg to grilling temps for about another hour.

They aren't perfect, but I'm still practicing. They were pretty good tho, just didn't look as good as I was hoping.

Here they are, I trimmed the ribs Saint Louis style and then rubbed each one lightly. One I did with only salt and pepper, the other one I did with a little rub I made up.

Here they are on the egg, notice I had to roll them and pin them with a skewer. I think a rib rack is in my immediate future. Although this worked pretty well. I was worried that they may be all funky when I foiled them, but they straightened out just fine. Those other pieces of meat are some of the trimmings from the ribs. You have to work at them a little bit, but there is some decent meat in there.

Here's the finished product, not the best looking, but they tasted pretty good. I've still got a lot of work to do before I get the style ribs I'm looking for. As for the meat they were really tender, maybe a bit too tender, the bones were just falling off of them when I had them on the grill.

Oh well, practice makes perfect, and I at least can eat my mistakes..hehe

Chase cleaned up the bones that dropped on the ground, he's good to have around for just such emergencies...hehe

Smokin',

The Alfster

The GridLifter!!!

Hey everyone, check out the cool Gridlifter that my buddy got me:
It's totally sweet! If you want one you can go to Lawn Ranger BBQ Tools and get one for your very own, of course I hear there is a bit of a wait, each one is custom made. Thanks Skee!

Jenks BBQ Competition

The Little Pig Town BBQ Competition team will be entering our first official contest.

The competition is on October 12&13 in Jenks on the Riverwalk. It should be a load of fun, I can't wait.

Here's the official website for more info:

http://www.riverwalkbbq.com/

Should be fun!

Smokin'

The Alfster

Jurassic Park is real

Here's the proof!

Dinosaur Eggs....

I've had people ask me what these are, i'm such a dolt that I didn't even think about posting the recipe, here it is:

Ground Sausage rolled into balls, in the middle is stuffed a little jalepeno slice (like from the jar) and a little cube of cheese. Smoked them for about an hour @ 225 degrees.

They make a great little appetizer.

Smokin',

Alfster

Hooters? No, but the next best thing...

Last year I took a trip to Denver and while there I visited The Breckenridge Brewery. Really good beer, but also good food. My buddy and I ordered the BBQ Chicken Wings and they blew our minds! Ever since I have been craving those smoked, BBQ wings, so today I tried my first attempt at smoking some wings.

I had heard that you can take frozen wings and throw them right on the smoker, so being the lazy guy I am, I decided to give it a whirl. I purchased a ginormous bag of wings from Sam's about a week ago. They have been sitting in my freezer just waiting to get cooked. Well, it can't get much simpler, I got the egg to around 250, threw some smoking wook on the coals, and using the indirect method I placed the rock solid, frozen wings directly on the grill ( actually I used one of those little cheap grill savers, but you get the idea.) I let the wings smoke for about 3 1/2 hours. I pulled the plate setter out and opened up the egg to get up to grilling temp then basted the wings in a Rasberry Chipolte sauce and put the wings back on to crisp up the skins. Then pretty much pulled them off and began shutting down the egg.

Well let me tell you. These definately gave me flashbacks to my Denver trip. They were good and smoky (but not over smoked), the rasberry chipolte gave them a little sweet and spicy kick, and with a beer, well...they were really good. I can't wait to "experiment" with wings again...perhaps tomorrow?

Oh, the beer...that's a Samuel Adams Summer Ale.

--Smokin!!!

The Alfster