Stubborn Pork Butts

So this ended up being a strange cook in that it took forever. The largest butt (7.5 lbs) took 26 hours to cook. For the record that was 3 loads of coal filled to the top of the fire box. Now when it was ready it just fell to pieces as I was trying to get it off of my Big Green Egg.

Back in October I had great success using Elder Ward's recipe for NC pulled pork.
So if it ain't broke . . . I like that recipe because it gives you a rub, a sauce, a road map for the cook (including detailed instructions on how to load your coal for a long cook). Furthermore, the slaw recipe listed there is tasty and the hush puppies are incredible.

The smaller butts were smokier, dryer and tougher than the big guy. The takeaway here is that I think it's good to do the larger cuts if you're going to make the effort. The photo above is from one of the smaller butts. You can see that it's a little stringy. But I liked the natural light that came in through the kitchen on this shot.

Below is the good stuff. I daresay that it was worth the 26 hr wait.

Since We've no place to go

So the winter weather kept us from making our way up to Washington DC for the wedding of Gray's roommate from when he lived in Seattle. It did NOT keep us from putting on some pork butts to keep things merry and bright. We can't wait to tear it up tomorrow. Should be good eatin'.

Pork Spare Ribs

Got up early on Sunday morning to get these things on for lunch during the Panthers game.


This was about 8 1/2 lbs of ribs from Costco.


The rub was simply 1 lb brown sugar with 1 cup of salt.









One hour later


We let these things go for about 6 hours at 225.


About an hour before they came off we slapped on some Sweet Baby Ray's Vidalia Onion sauce.



Shortly after that we started picking little bits here and there.


It was time to eat.


In other news, the NFL still considers it a win


--even if you just outscore Tampa Bay. We'll take it!

Crazy Gravy

Mmm. Gravy.

Turkey

The turkey came out very nicely. We bought frozen birds last Sunday and they thawed all week in the fridge. They were still a little crunchy on Friday, but were ready to go come Saturday. Heather put the 11 pounder in the oven and Labon and I took on the 14 lb turkey.

The biggest learning experience here was that you can't fill your Egg with the shakes at the bottom of the bag and hope to sustain a long burn. As I filled the fire box I thought we were in for trouble. The temps did ok for a while, but with no space between the coals, the airflow was a real problem. The Egg needed a fan right at the bottom vent all day just to keep the coals going. They finally crapped out after about 4 hours only and we had to dump in fresh coals from a chimney starter.

All-in the bird was done after 5 hours and change. It came out very moist and tasty with all the herbs and seasonings. I have to say my personal favorite from all of this was the gravy recipe. I'm not much of a gravy fan, but will want to have this on the table in the future without question.

Juicy goodness.

Turkey Lurkin'

Saturday brings another opportunity to get familiar with the Egg. Labon and Bill will help get a whole turkey cooked using another recipe from nakedwhiz.com. This time we're doing Mad Max's Turkey and Gravy. More to come.