In a world where... (movie trailer guys voice)

there's one man, one grill, and only ten days to clear the fridge, can he do it?

Mrs. SpecialEd and the two SpecialEd boys are flying out tomorrow morning (July 4th) for sunny, southern, California for ten days. That leaves me alone with the two SpecialEd dogs and the GrillDome for ten days!

I've already stocked up on ribs, lamb, chicken, the makings for "Fatties," BBQ beans and a tandoori, yogurt marinade for the chicken and lamb. I even have a commission for pulled pork for next week. All I need now is a little cooperation from the weather.

What am I going to do with all this food? What better way to bribe people into helping me getting a few things done around the house while the family is away!

BTW, "Fatties" has nothing to do with illegal substances, (though as deadly as they are, they should be!) Here is a recipe for Fatties from a great BBQ site by a fellow "Domer," Mike Stines of Cape Cod Barbecue.

Enjoy!

(I'll post pics as I go)

Let the ribbing begin!

Believe it or not, with all the BBQ'ing I've done, I've never cooked ribs. Heck for all intents and purposes, I've never eaten ribs. Something to do with a chilhood hangup on eating sloppy food with my fingers.

Well since my smoker is quickly coming up on a year old, and I've got pulled pork, pork tenderloins, spatchcocked chicken and burgers, beans and even meatloaf down pat and my brisket is pretty fair, I figured it was time. No self-respecting pit master can look at his reflection in his shiny cooker lid for too long if he/she hasn't worked on perfecting ribs.

I did a variation of the standard 3-1-1 method that worked out to be more like 3-1.5-1, (Thanks again to Gowan of the GrillDome Forum and a BBQ competition near you)where the ribs are cooked indirect at a grill temperature of 235 degrees. After three hours I wrapped them in foil and in lieu of cider or apple jucie which I did not have, I poured a little of my wife's beloved Diet Coke in the foil (and the drip pan). After an hour and a half in foil, I put the ribs back on unwrapped for another hour to firm up.

I did these ribs "dry" using Cookshack's Rib Rub, only putting sauce on at the table. I rubbed them down last night and put them in the fridge. Fired up the gril this morning and had the ribs on by 10:15. I used a Weber Rib Rack similar to the one pictured, so I could fit four racks at one time. They came off just before 4:00.

Not perfected by a longshot, but not bad either. Especially for a first time. My two boys, even ate them!

Get Stoked! When technolgy meets art in the backyard...

Anyone who has visited this site before knows my fondness for authentic BBQ! While my GrillDome does an amazing job of maintaining a steady temperature on its own, there can be many variables that can turn an overnight cook into a disaster.

• The quality or moisture content of your wood or charcoal


• Weather conditions(nothing like a strong wind to turn your low 'n slow into a blast furnace)


• How well you assembled your wood or charcoal


• The fickleness and whims of the BBQ Gods

BUT, there is hope and that hope can be found in technology. I'm sure the legendary Pit masters of yore are rolling in their hickory smoked caskets but for the average backyard enthusiast like myself (who might wear an occasional python boot) and can't afford to take a chance with 30 lbs of meat there is the Stoker from Rock's Bar-B-Que.

"The Stoker is a temperature control device for any wood or charcoal burning cooker."

That's right. This little gizmo either feeds the pit with a fan or shuts off the air completely to maintain a preset temperature. It also has connections for food probes so you can monitor the internal temperature of your food and set an alarm to let you know when it's done!

I put said 30 lbs of pork shoulders in the Dome last night around 7:00, set the pit temperature for 225 and let it go. When I got up this morning 12 hours later the pit temp was 227 degrees and the shoulders were just coming out of the "plateau" where all the magic happens. A couple hours later I had four roasts wrapped in foil and resting in a cooler.

It may seem pricey to some but what would you pay for peace of mind and a good night's sleep? No worrying about flameouts, no bad meat, no getting up every couple hours to "check on the fire."

All I did was get my family hooked on my Que and they chipped in and got me the Stoker. Thanks guys! It worked like a champ and did everything it was supposed to do!

For you Geeks out there, it also comes with an Ethernet connection so you can monitor and control it through a web browser! I know of at least two third party programs that allow graphing or even having the unit call your cell phone with a text message to let you know your food is done!

Coffee-Crusted Pork Tenderloins with Redeye BBQ Sauce!

This past weekend I decided to try something a little different and cooked Coffee-Crusted Pork Tenderloins with Redeye BBQ Sauce. This recipe came from a book by Steve Raichlen called BBQ USA: 425 Fiery Recipes from All Across America.
It's a basic BBQ rub with the addition of freshly ground coffee beans and a dash of cocoa. The flavors blend in with the rest of the rub and don't overpower but give the meat a nice little zing. The Redeye BBQ Sauce however does stand out with a BIG zing that makes the pork -- and whatever else it comes in contact with -- stand up and bark! Spicy, flavorful crust on the outside and not enough E's in tEnderloin to describe the inside.

Steve Raichlen has several books on BBQ and one dedicated entirely to Beer in the Butt style Chicken. I am particulary fond of his book, Barbecue! Bible : Sauces, Rubs, and Marinades, Bastes, Butters, and Glazes.You can spend several days traveling the world without ever leaving your kitchen (or back deck actually since it's BBQ) and I have.

I apologize for the picture quality of the finished plate. Once again in our enthusiasm, we ate most of it before I remembered to take a picture.

Did I bite off more than I can cue?

Hell no! Turns out I bit off just as much as I could cue, and if I really tried I could probably have fit a little more. Yes, that's 30 (well 29 1/2 actually) pounds of smoky, porky goodness!

Back story: Starting last September, I promised all the SpecialEd siblings I would BBQ or gill them something for their birthdays. SpecialEd sisters, 3 and 7's birthdays fall two days apart and they both decided on pulled pork. Once the rest of the gang heard there would be some pork shoulders cooking (an overnight process) I started getting feelers about "do you have room for another?" etc. Since it basically takes the same amount of time and charcoal to cook two three or even four as it does one, I decided to "fill the grill."

So I wheel myself down to my local Costco (the only "Big Box" store that matters) and check out their double-packed pork shoulders. Great horny toads, they only have one in the meat case... (a total of 12.5 lbs.) Fortunately they found me another that was 16.5 lbs.

Once I get home I'm staring at 29 lbs. of boneless pork shoulder thinking, "What have I done?" There's no way I can manage all this! Once my initial panic subsides we get down to business. I say "we" because it became a family affair. SpecialEd Boy #1 and SpecialEd, Auxiliary Backup Boy#2 love to play with the Cajun Injector and the spicy rubs and Mrs. SpecialEd did a bangup job tying the roasts up so they would stay together and fit mo better on the grills. (that is her lovely hand covered in "Slap Ya Mama" rub and giving the thumbs up sign).

SpEd Boy#1 and I fired up the grill around 2PM on Saturday afternoon. Mrs. SpEd and I loaded the grills up with meat and let the Grilldome do it's thing.

The pork was done around 11am Sunday morning. We wrapped those babies up in foil and towels and put them in a cooler for "resting"

I drove them over to my childhood home where SpEd Sisters 5 and 7 live and sat back. SpEd Sister #3 showed up and grabbed her birthday roast, SpEd Sister #7 started pulling hers, then the rest of the gang came out of the woodwork and descended on the remaining two roasts. Thank goodness for Ziploc bags! It was all over so fast, nothing left but the smell of hickory smoke and dirty dishes... until next time that is!

Weather clear, track fast!

First we had snow, then slop then more slop. Then we had wind... I mean WIND! Two days of steady wind with gusts up to 50 mph. Today the sun was out and the wind was much tamer. Time to fire up the grill again before I go through withdraw.

Temperature outside 34 degrees F. Temp inside the grill, 350. Temp inside the chicken when I pulled it off the grill, 170.

My grill is hot, my clothes smell smoky, there is grilled chicken and burgers in the fridge... all is sunny in the world! Now, if we can just get Christmas over with...

D'oh!

I forgot to take pictures!

I cooked up a feast this past weekend but I was so wrapped up in cooking I forgot to take pictures. Nobody's going to read a blog about food with out pictures!(food porn).

Anyway, I cooked a boneless leg of lamb in two pieces. One with a Tandoori marinade and one with a Persian yogurt & saffron marinade. I also cooked up two pork loins and several burgers for the kids and other non risk takers. For those that ate the lamb, the Tandoori was the big hit. For the others the pork loins were their usual, smoky, spicy, goodness! (Burgers weren't bad either.) All cooked on the Grilldome, of course.

Turkey Time

Yesterday I smoked a turkey breast. Now that might sound fairly basic and it is how I got my smoke-cooking start about 25 years ago, but I haven’t smoke-cooked a turkey in probably 15 or more years. Actually until I got my Grilldome cooker this past July, I hadn’t smoke-cooked anything in at least 15 years.

That all changed, obviously, when I bought my cooker this past summer and started making up for lost time. Even though I went at it like a man possessed, I never got around to doing turkey, especially since they are not always readily available in the summer months. I have cooked lots of pork,(shoulders and loins), chickens, (whole, spatchcocked, drumsticks and breasts), a couple briskets, burgers and even smoked some BBQed baked beans. But no turkey.

This past week my FIL brought over a turkey breast he got free from racking up points/dollars at his supermarket. My wife probably won’t let me cook the Thanksgiving bird on the Grilldome so I jumped on this opportunity to finally get back in the turkey game.

Back in the old days, I knew nothing of rubs, injections or brining. I just threw the bird on the grill heaped on the wood chips and let it go. I always enjoyed the results but these days I am trying to take things to a new level. So, for the first time ever I have soaked this bird overnight in a brine solution; Kosher salt, brown sugar, maple syrup, garlic, and a few other dry seasonings. I put it on the grill after stabilizing the temperature at 300 degrees. That’s a bit high for normal smoking but a good temperature for a turkey breast. Three hours and 15 minutes later, the breast was done at a temperature of 170 degrees. Very moist, no dry spots, a hint of sweetness and a good smoke flavor. I think I will be doing some more experiments with brine solutions in the coming weeks.

Why am I here?

I don't really have anything to say. At least nothing of interest that anyone would want to hear. Basically I'm here to learn how to use Blogger efficiently. My wife has a Blog Let Me Say This About That, and I am tired of listening to her bitch and moan every time she tries to post a new entry or pictures, etc. She sits in a corner and uses her laptop so I can't see what she is trying to do so I can't help her. So, here I am to sort this all out for her (and my) peace of mind!


Here is a picture of a recent pork shoulder cook that I did.


This is two "Boston Butts" that have just been put on my Grilldome cooker. Injected the night before with a homemade concoction, smeared with mustard and rubbed with some Dizzy Pig rubs. One with Dizzy Dust and one with Swamp Venom.



A little while later when the hickory chunks start doing their magic. Time to shut the lid because... "If you're lookin' you ain't cookin'!




Finally done! The first one came off and was wrapped in foil and towels with TLC and sent over to my sister's house for her annual cookout. The second one (pictured) is for me! Well actually, I did give half of that to another sister for her birthday present.

This was after about 20 hours at or very near 225 degrees. Some truly Hellacius pulled pork!