Hey Everyone. I just wanted you all to know that the Q last night was a tremendous success. The ironic thing was is that the purpose of the cookout was to debut the new grill but due to the late afternoon thunderstorms that we had I was unable to fire it up.
First the brisket took 22.5 hours but was absolutely the best Brisket I've ever had in my life. I eventually had to foil the brisket (with the rain coming in), because I was concerned it wouldn't get done. I did several temp checks on the brisket and found that the flat was done way before the deckel, so I took the brisket out of the smoker, separated the deckel from the flat, trimmed the deckel of fat and returned it to the smoker for an additional 4 hours. I took the juices that accumulated in the aluminum foil and added it to a portion of my BBQ sauce that I reserved, equal parts sauce to Brisket drippings and beef broth to make a BBQ broth that I set aside for the burnt ends. When the burnt ends were done the exterior was carmalized to the point that the brisket tasted like BBQ candy. It was the best tasting beef I have ever eaten. Tender and juicy on the outside with a crisp sweet exterior. I honestly couldn't tell which I like better, the burnt ends with or without sauce. Simply outstanding!
The ribs were the last item put into the smoker and the first one done. I used a rib rack that I had bought from Gator pit (pictures on file). It holds six racks of ribs. This rack is very heavy duty, weighs a ton and the ribs (baby backs) easily slipped in but were held snugly in place. When I checked the ribs after about one hour, I could hear them sizzling in the rack. My guess is that the heat of the smoker caused the rack to get very hot and because they were in close contact to the ribs had a carmelizing effect on the exterior, thus no need to finish on the grill which was a good thing since it was unavailable because of the rain. I'll share the secret to these great ribs. The night before I removed the membrane and liberally sprinkled the ribs with Texas BBQ Rub and wrapped the ribs with saran wrap and then let them sit overnight. The next worning the ribs exterior had the look of molasses. Now here is the secret. Before I put the ribs in the smoker, I covered the ribs with Brown Sugar and then waited until the sugar liquified from the meats juices and then added an final sprinkling of Texxas BBQ Rub, placed them in the rib rack and cooked for 3 hours. I foiled the ribs for another two hours. At that point the ribs were starting to fall apart. Next time I will probably cook 2 hours and then foil one. I put them back in the dry heat of the smoker to try and get them to firm up a bit which they did. These were litterally falling off the bone, breaking under their own weight ribs which by competition standards were overcooked yet the end ribs did still have a little pull in them. These ribs were so good that I refused to sauce them and served the sauce on the side. Most ate them without the sauce and the sauce was good.
The pulled pork was fantastic also. Had a nice smoke ring. I wrapped the
butts in foil and them wrapped them in a towel and placed them in a preheated cooler. I only pulled one of the butts for dinner. The other one was still hot hours after it was pulled from the smoker.
A side note. At about 4:30 yesterday UPS delivered my pecan logs that I had ordered so next cook I'll experiment with it. I also used the meat slicer to slice paper thin brisket slices from the flat for sandwiches, piled them high on grilled buttered buns, topped with a little BBQ sauce, and provolone cheese. These were great sandwiches. I have to admint I stole the idea from Oklahoma Joe's (Z man sandwich) with the only exception being OK Joes also tops their sandwiches with Onion Rings which I didn't do but I will try someday.
Sides consisted of creamy cole slaw (sorry), BBQ beans (tonight Ill divide into two batches and add pulled pork to one and chopped brisket to the other), honey basted buttermilk cornbread, french fries, and Key Lime Pie for dessert.
Now here is the ultimate compliment that I received last night. One of the couples there were Jewish so I cooked some chcken breasts for them out of respect to their religion. When they saw the ribs and the pulled pork they actully told me they couldn't help but try the ribs and pork butt and that this was the first time either had eaten any pork products in over 20 years. I told them that I had cooked chicken for them and they shouldn't feel pressured to eat pork just becuase it was there but they insisted. The look on their faces devouring those ribs was as the commercial says, priceless.
Sorry for the long winded message but the results were incredible and I just had to share.
Kloset