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.

The Original Rou Hutchins BBQ, 6/2/24

 

https://www.royhutchinsbbq.com/

Finally got a chance to take the BBQ elevator up to the second floor and have a meal up there in the crow's nest.  They have fountain drinks and dessert up there, too.  A very nice set up.  Today I went with a couple of Texas twinkies, 2 ribs, and half a pound of pork belly burnt ends.  They all went away.

Brisket smoke 5/26/24

                          

As often happens, choice brisket is on sale this weekend for Memorial Day.  My Mrs picked up a couple for $1.87/lb, more than half off.  Today is one of the few days where thunderstorms are supposedly not going to pop up, so I thought we'd better get one on the smoker.

I did my usual process, trimming off about 2 pounds of excess fat, cutting in half for our little bullet smoker, and sprinkling liberally with Green's All N 1 rub.  It went on the smoker at 10:15 am with charcoal, oak, and pecan wood.  A wind storm had conveniently dropped a nice dry pecan limb in our yard last night and it is going right into the smoker.  We should have some tasty brisket ready about 8:30 tonight.

When I took the trimmed fat and trash out to the trash can, I found this little lady nearby digging a hole for her eggs.  She was working low and slow, just like our smoker.

I think it is a red eared slider and the eggs will probably be unfertilized, but I will put a protection cage around them anyway.  We'll know in 60-90 days.  If she hangs around maybe I will take her some brisket.

After 6 hours in the smoker, we pulled the brisket halves and wrapped them in Reynolds cooking bags.

Next they went into the oven for another 4 hours at 250 degrees.  After checking the temp at a perfect 202 degrees, they went into a cooler to rest overnight. 

The result was tender, moist, smokey brisket that will keep us smiling all week long.  

Miss red ears vamoosed so we didn't even have to share.

Brix Barbecue, Fort Worth 4/28/24

 

https://brixbarbecue.com/

sampled 4/28/24 around noon

I have passed this place several times during off hours and finally got the chance to sample their que today.  I got there around 11:20 and found a short line, just 2 folks in front of me.  I grabbed my usual Texas Trinity and went out to their nice covered picnic table patio to wait for my food.  And wait I did!  It took 30 minutes for my food to come out.  I think there must have been a longer line before I arrived and they were playing catch up on the dine in and to go orders.  

The brisket was moist and tender with well rendered fat but did not have a hint of smoke flavor.  The pork rib was also well cooked and left a perfect bite mark.  The jalapeno & Tillamook Cheddar sausage was full of cheese, but had a particularly tough casing and there was little jalapeno flavor.  

This place is just down the street from Panther City BBQ and is a nice option when their line is too long to stand in.