Hurtado BBQ, Arlington 1/13/25

 

https://hurtadobbq.com/

sampled 1/13/25

Finding craft BBQ on a Monday can be tough since many craft joints are only open on select days.  Usually, Monday and Tuesday are not one of those days.  Hurtado is an exception, so when one of my friends wanted to "meat up" on a Monday, I asked if he would mind driving to Arlington.  I think after this amazing meal he will be driving to Arlington more often.

Hurtardo Barbecue, Arlington 1/5/25

 

https://hurtadobbq.com/

sampled 1/5/25 at 11 am

There was a cold north wind blowing so we showed up about 5 minutes before they opened at 11 am.  There were 6 folks in line in front of us but we didn't have long to wait.  They opened right on time and the food was awesome as always.  I grabbed my usual Texas Trinity, 4 twinkies and half a pound of the pork belly burnt ends.  The pork belly burnt ends were Green's quality and I polished off half a pound with my meal.  My-T-Fine eatin'.

I was a little reluctant to go today due to the fact a certain football team was playing very close by.  We drove past several parking lots with their $40 signs out front.  I was concerned they might be very crowded and we might have a tough time finding a spot, but there were no problems.  In fact it seemed most of their business today was to-go, so we had no problems getting a seat in their small dining room.  

I thought long and hard about getting some more pork belly burnt ends to go, but we still have a bunch of smoked pork loin in the fridge.  Next time!

Dayne's Craft BBQ, Aledo 11/13/24

 https://daynescraftbarbecue.com/

Wowzers.

Green's experimenting with twinkies, 10/12/24

 

https://greenstexasbbq.com/

sampled 10/12/24

I was up at Green's last Saturday and still have a few pieces of brisket and pork belly bites left in the fridge (they warm up great).   For whatever reason, I took a look at Green's facebook page this morning and lo and behold, he had a photo of a big pan full of Texas twinkies, or torpedoes, or poppers, or whatever you want to call those big jalapenos stuffed with brisket and wrapped in bacon.  I knew I needed to give his a try, so I headed up there about 10:30 am and was surprised to find myself first in line.  Usually there are a couple of other crazy BBQ folks waiting by then, but I guess today I was the craziest.

I ordered 6 twinkies, 4 orders of pork belly bites, some brisket biscuits, and a pound of sliced brisket from the fatty end.  Somehow, they mixed up my order and I got home with a sliced brisket sandwich instead of a pound of sliced.  I think it had 2/3 pound of brisket ends on it so I did not take it back.  It was delicious.  The twinkies were average sized jalapenos, not the monster ones some places have.  Each was filled with chopped brisket but I did not detect any cheese filling, which is fine by me.  The bacon was well cooked but not crispy as it is done at some other places.  He is only charging $3.50 each and at that price they make a fine little addition to his menu.  Those things are very labor intensive, so I doubt they will be a regular item, but I will definitely add some to my order if they are available next time.

When I left there were 20 people in line behind me.  It pays to go early!

Hurtado's BBQ, 8/1/24

 

https://hurtadobbq.com/

sampled 8/1/24 about 11:15 am

Scott celebrated his birthday recently and when I asked where he wanted to go for his birthday lunch he said, "Hurtado's!"  There was almost no line at 11 am but they were working hard on a lot of pick up orders.  Our food came out quickly and everything was just as good as it looks.  I even had a few bacon burnt ends and Texas Twinkies to take home for later.  I told Scott he needs to have more birthdays.  

17 pounds of Pork Loin, 7/13/24

 

So my Mrs spotted a good sale on boneless pork loin a few weeks back and came home with 2 weighing a total of about 8 and a half pounds.  We found that they would fit well in our little bullet smoker, so she went back and got 2 more.  They went into the freezer until this week when we decided to thaw them and smoke on Saturday.

They only needed a little trimming and a healthy dose of Green's  "All N 1" seasoning and into the smoker they went at 11:15 am. 

About an hour into the smoke, I went out and found the temperature had dropped and there was a big puddle coming from under the smoker.  At first, I thought the fat dripping from the meat had overflowed the water pan, even though I had left room in the water pan for quite a bit of dripping fat.  However, when I pulled the barrel off the coals, I found the coals were drenched and the water level was far from full.  A small hole had developed in the bottom of the water pan and about half the water had drained into the coals and wood.  Now what?

The first thing we did was to get the loins into the oven at 250 degrees while we pondered the situation.  I cleaned out the drenched coals into an aluminum pan and took the fire pan out into the sun to dry off.  Fortunately, the sun was shining hot and it was above 90 degrees so the pan dried out quickly.  

My Mrs had the perfect answer for our dilemma.  We dropped an aluminum pie pan into the bottom of the empty water pan and sat 2 small aluminum loaf pans with water into the pie pan.  No more leaking today!  I started a fresh set of coals.  When we got them burning well we transferred the loins from the oven back to the grates of our smoker using a big heavy spatula I use for briskets.  It was fun moving the hot loins, but no further disasters occurred.  I dropped some new oak and pecan wood onto the coals and we were back to smoking again.   

At 6 pm we pulled the loins and checked the temperature.  They were a bit overcooked, around 180 when we were looking for about 150, but after a 20 minute rest they still tasted great!  After they had cooled, we wrapped two of the loins tightly in plastic wrap and put them in the freezer in freezer bags.  The other two we shall munch on for the next few days.  

Dayne's Craft BBQ, Aledo 6/6/24

 

https://daynescraftbarbecue.com/

visited 6/6/24 about 11 am

I think the two photos above tell the story.  However I will add that they served their first ever stuffed potato today.  We were there for the celebration and it looked pretty durned good.