Birthday smoke

Well my daughter's birthday party is tomorrow. She wanted pulled pork, and I wanted brisket. So I'll be cooking both in the smoker. County Market has a great price on the butt 99 cents a pound - that's almost 1/2 price! I'm also thinking about doing a fattie for lunch while waiting on the rest of the stuff to get done. I'll post up some pics as the cook progresses.

Here's the recipe I used for one of the sauces.
Honey Beer BBQ sauce
1 small onion chopped
1 clove garlic minced
1 tablespoon cooking oil
3/4 cup chili sauce
1/2 cup beer
1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons Worchestershire sauce
1 tablespoon prepared mustard
In a saucepan cook the chopped onion and minced garlic in cooking oil
until the onion is tender. Stir in the remaining ingredients and bring to boil.
Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 20 to 25 minutes.

I changed it up a bit and doubled the recipe. Instead of 3/4 cup chili sauce, I used 1/4 cup chili sauce and 1/2 cup of mild taco sauce. I also added about 3/4 cup of mild salsa. For the beer, I used my home brew honey wheat beer. I was a little concerned because my beer has a hoppy bite. But it worked good. I also used olive oil for the oil. And when it was all done I ran it through the blender to finely chop the chunky bits up. This does have a bit of a bite to it but it tastes good to me.

This is the other sauce I made up. My wife likes this one.
Daddy's Lip Smackin Sweet bbq sauce and rib glaze

1 Cup Organic Ketchup(sweetened with Agave instead of Corn Syrup; from Whole Foods); or substitute Tomato Sauce or Paste(if so, add an additional 1/4 cup of honey)
2 Cups Apple Cider Vinegar
1 Half Cup Honey
4 TBSP Onion Powder
3 TBSP Garlic Powder
2 TBSP Mustard
1 TBSP Cayenne Pepper
1 TBSP Sea Salt

Blend and simmer on medium heat for 30 minutes. Chill to thicken.

We're going to the store in a little while to get the meat. I can't hardly wait until tomorrow's feast!

Sounds pretty good!

That sounds real good i can almost taste the fattie to lolol, happy birthday hope it's an awesome party for you all.

Ok so here's the meat I picked up today.


That's a pretty good looking butt if I say so myself.

This is a flat cut brisket. It doesn't have as much fat as the regular cut corned beef brisket does. But the meat looks great. Guess I should have taken a picture of the other side of the package. Oh well in the morning I'll post some more pics before I put it on the smoker.

Here's the meat rubbed down and ready for the cooker.



Here's how I modified a $5.00 Walmart thermometer so I could be a little more sure of the grill temps.



It holds about 1/4 inch below the grate, and about the middle of the box.


It took about the first hour to just get the temp regulated to where I wanted it. The top vent is wide open and the firebox vent is 1/2 open. Ok now it's time to get the fatty going.

Here's the fatty. 2 pounds Bob Evan's sausage with the rub. The easy way to roll out the sausage is to put it in a gallon zip lock bag and then use a rolling pin.


Here's the bacon weave. I bought 2 pounds of bacon and laid the bacon strips sideways. That's about the right width for the sausage.


Here's the extra bacon fried and cut up on the sausage. I also applied more rub.


Here's the fatty rolled up with the bacon. You have to roll up the sausage first and then roll it again with the bacon weave. I hit it with more rub, and then tossed it on the cooker.

Here it is 2 hours into the cook. The temp of the shoulder is 115, so it's got a while to go. I didn't start my second chimney of charcoal early enough so the temp go down to about 215. The fatty has been on about 15 minutes. I'm using peach wood for the smoke -- it was free! I'm adding about 4 ounces of wood every 45 minutes.

That sure looks goos....I bet it tastes good too.

First fatty was a huge success!




Bacon inside sausage wrapped in bacon. Yummm Ohhhhh

I was forever adjusting the intake to get the temp where I wanted it. I had to poke under the coals to knock the ash out of the way. I finally had better results with running the intake open and adjusting the exhaust.

Lokks good buddy.

Oh man ridge that looks awesome, now i am going to have to get to the meat market and see what deals they have o meat, and that fatty just looks awesome also yum yum yum i bet everyone was stuffed with a meal like that.

Thats looks dam good!!!

Here is the finished product.
Pork shoulder


Brisket


Both were awesome. The party went well too. I wound up drinking more than I should have. Today was pretty slow for me. I had to take a couple of NASCAR naps while watching the race.

Looks great, Ridge!~! Glad the party and meal was a huge success!~! Nothing better than a family get-together!~! LOL on the Nascar Nap....