Lunch! 12/11/21

 

Brisket smoke 11/9/21

 

This was the last of our $1.79/lb briskets we had stored in my wife's nephew's freezer.  His smoker is in storage so we smoked this one for his family.  We followed our usual procedure and had a few quality control bites at the end.

Brisket smoke 11/7/21

 

If you'll remember, some months back, we found choice briskets on sale for $1.79/lb.  We picked up three, which my wife's nephew was kind enough to store in his giant freezer.  They are preparing to move so we decided we would smoke the last two, one for us, one for them.  This is the first one.  

It started off at 14.6 lbs, but I had to trim off about 3 lbs of fat.  We followed the usual prep steps for our little bullet smoker.  It was trimmed, cut in half, and sprinkled liberally with North Main All N 1 spice.  After 6 hours on the smoker this was the result.  The little pieces on the top are the "snacky bits" of meat that were left from trimming.

Both halves went into heavy foil and into the oven at 250 degrees.

After 4 hours in the oven, the temperature probe showed 201 degrees and slipped into the meat like butter.  The pan went into a cooler lined with towels to rest over night.  The house smelled wonderful!

The next morning we unwrapped and cut the brisket into large chunks for the fridge.  I have found it retains a lot more moisture if you don't slice until you need it.  

After a few samples, the chunks went into the fridge to feed us for the next week or so.  

We plan to do brisket #2 on Tuesday.

Blues, Bandits, & BBQ, Oak Cliff, 11/6/21

 

https://www.gooakcliff.org/blues-bandits-bbq

This is one of our favorite annual festivals and we were very happy to see them back in action this year.  Held at Kidd Springs Park in Oak Cliff, this year's fest was held on a glorious Fall day with temperatures in the mid 70's and light winds.  It was very laid back with lots of kids and dogs wandering around while live music happened on a small stage.  

This year's fest seemed smaller than usual, I only counted 13 teams, but I think the food was better than it usually is.  There did not seem to be much sliced brisket on offer, however at least 7 booths offered ribs.  There were a lot of the usual pulled pork and brisket tacos.  

My favorite bites of the day included ribs from White Rock Cue and Team Meat Sweats, and pork belly bites from Mijos.  

Previous fests have featured lots of seating, but there was none this year.  Fortunately we had brought our concert chairs.

Blues, Bandits, & BBQ, Oak Cliff, 11/6/21 more photos

 

Dayne's Craft BBQ. Fort Worth 10/23/21

 

Any questions??

More ribs, 8/14/21

 

Most of our rib cook last week went to a party.  They were so good I decided we needed some for us.  My Mrs picked up 2 more racks while they were still on sale for $1.94/lb.  They sat in the fridge until Saturday when we smoked them.

As usual, a quick trim was all that was needed.  The back flap and a few other snacky bits were retained for meat candy.  After trim each rack was cut in half to fit in our little bullet smoker. All were seasoned with North Main BBQ All N 1 seasoning.  

Into the smoke they went for 4 hours.  After a thorough smoking, the halves were pulled from the smoker and a thick layer of  Green's Honey Chipotle BBQ sauce was slathered on.  Next they were tightly wrapped in foil and into a 250 degree oven for another hour. 

They came out moist, tender, and delicious.  We ate about half a rack and put the rest in the fridge to warm up this week.  They warm up great!

Rib Time 8/7/21

 

Ribs are on sale for $1.94/lb so it's time to fire up the smoker again. Most of these will go with my wife to a party this afternoon, but I'll save half a rack for quality control purposes.  These didn't require a lot of trimming but I did save the flaps and a bit of trimmed meat from an extra piece of backbone for snacky bits.  I leave the membrane on the back because I'm lazy, plus there's not much meat there anyway.  A liberal dusting with North Main BBQ All N 1 seasoning and into the smoke they went.  These were nice large spare ribs and they barely fit into our little smoker.  We figure 4 hours with pecan and oak smoke, then an hour in the oven to finish.  

After 4 hours in the smoker with lots of good oak and pecan smoke we found this on the top rack.  

We pulled the ribs, coated with Green's Honey Chipolte BBQ sauce, wrapped tightly in foil, then into a 250 degree oven for another hour.  

After an hour in the oven the desired tenderness was spot on.  A quick sample found the ribs moist,  tender, and delicious.  Since most of these went over to a party with my Mrs, we may smoke another couple of racks later this week, just for us!