Last Couple of Smokes

Below are some pictures from the last two weekends. Mmmm, lots of good eats.
Last weekend: ribs, baked beans, & a very small ham (not in picture).

The baked beans were delicious. My wife was going to bake them in the oven, I said why fire up the oven when the smoker is already hot.

Cooked these ribs side-by-side, the rack on the left was cooked 3-2-1 with foil and the one on the right was not wrapped and smoked for the same 6 hours. The main difference I noticed was more fat rendered out of the 3-2-1 rack. Both were very tender to the bite. The left rack was glazed with Apple-Jalapeno TPJ and the right rack was glazed with Strawberry-Habanero TPJ.


This weekend: stuffed jalapenos, stuffed mushrooms, 2 pork butts, & a brisket.

This brisket was smoked without foil. It’s been a long time since I’ve cooked one this way.

The point cooked to 200*, the middle of the flat read 185*, and the thin end of the flat read 195*.

My wife bought 24 peppers at the store but asked me to stop at the store on the way home to buy some mushrooms. I ended up buying another 12 peppers. (couldn’t help myself!)

Used a regular breakfast sausage this time instead of Chorizo and we like them better this way.

This is one of the two. It was 12:30 in the morning and I was too tired to pull it.

A new treat for our family, Bananas Foster. I’ve never grilled a banana before and it was dark outside, they got a little darker than I expected but they were GOOD.

The caramel sauce called for rum & banana liqueur. As you know I don’t have either in the house so I substituted for white grape/peach juice and apple juice then added a little artificial rum flavored extract to make up the difference. Everyone loved the fruity caramel sauce.



OK, so here’s what digging a hole in my yard is like! I don’t have a garden except for a few potted plants and anything I want to live through a Texas summer must be constantly watered. This isn’t a slighted sample, my whole yard and most of my neighbors are the same. We’re on a rock shelf. On the plus side, my house doesn’t shift with the weather.


It's been a while since I posted pictures so I had a few to upload . Enjoy!

Awesome images! Wish I could have helped you eat all that!

Man..PASS THE BBQ sauce!! LET'S EAT!!!!



-SuperDave71 and Janet

Bob you out do yourself everytime! I just wish you would start inviting me over sometime.


Thanks for sharing,
Missing Link.

Bob:
Great lookin' spread! The weekend can't come fast enough after seeing that array of food.

I'm curious about your brisket out of the foil: how'd it turn out and more importantly would you do it that way again?

Jim

The flat end was a little more cooked than usual but that's about all I could tell. The thin end of the flat has overcooked before even with foil (but that's how burnt ends began afterall). The point end was as tender and juicy as ever. Would I do it again? Sure, I don't see why not, but I think I'll stick with the foil method for now. Just like not foiling the ribs...I figured that I'd change it up this time to see how they compared. I want to try some more this way or reduce the foil time to prevent excessive meat shrinkage. (although I think a lot of the shrinkage is fat rendering) Sometimes I just get a wild hair and decide to try it a little different. Plus if someone has a question about cooking without "the crutch" I want to be able to help them too .

Bob,

Excellent as usual!

I am curious about foiling the brisket. Does foiling make it more tender? How about the bark, is it a really good bark?

Tony

Bob, you have a bad habit!

You make me HUNGRY every time you post pix of your latest cooks!

I love it Just wish I could be there to satisfy some of these hunger pangs. After seeing your pix, usually what I have handy in the kitchen, is like a far distant relative, many generations removed.

Thanks for sharing.
Longmill

Tony, I believe the foil traps in moisture and "steams" the brisket during the last hours of cooking. I've heard a few people say that this speeds up the cooking process a little, that it makes the brisket more tender, and more of the fat renders, but I won't claim to know if all that's true or not. As for the bark, it gets a little soft in the foil, whether you finish cooking it in foil or allow it to rest in a cooler wrapped for a couple hours, but to me it still taste just a great.

LM, you crank out some pretty fine Q too. I'm still waiting to see your first brisket.

Amazing as always!
I've got to add mushrooms to my weekend list now....

Bob, looks wonderful! How does the wife like having her dish turn all black and all from the smoking? I have never done beans B4. Maybe you don't leave them in long enough of blacken the pot. BTW are those pictures of your yard or the moon? If it weren't for the shovel in the first, which at first glance I missed, I thought that they were moon pix.

Bob, that is some seriously great looking food there.

Hey Ritch, how'd you make out from Rita?

Greek most of what you see stuck to the dish is apple juice overspray. The kids do the dishes (actually the dishwasher does most of the work ) but it came clean pretty easy. I've found that a little shot of oven cleaner makes light work of smoke discoloration.



Funny thing about my yard is; you'd probably have a better chance trying to get something to grow on the moon.

Bob everything looks great!!!!!!!! I just got my WSM today and I can't wait to try it. My maiden voyage will be two pork butts and a brisket.