For starters I bought a new thermometer at my local hardware store (and Big Green Egg dealer) on Friday. It's a Maverick ET-73 with a Big Green Egg branding all over it. This particular hardware store is known for being really expensive and I over-paid for this little jobber, but I put a premium on having it right away vs. waiting on shipping, etc. At least that's what I told myself. Plus, I guess I supported a local business in a tough economy. I'm great at rationalizing, by the way.
Then I got two butts to cook up weighing 8.5 lbs and 6.5 lbs. I rubbed them thusly using a variation on Elder Ward's recipe:
Rub
· 2 Tbs. kosher salt
· 2 Tbs. raw sugar
· 2 Tbs. brown sugar
· 2 Tbs. ground cumin seed
· 2 Tbs. chili powder
· 2 Tbs. cracked black pepper
· 1 Tbs. cayenne pepper
· 2 Tbs. kosher salt
· 2 Tbs. raw sugar
· 2 Tbs. brown sugar
· 2 Tbs. ground cumin seed
· 2 Tbs. chili powder
· 2 Tbs. cracked black pepper
· 1 Tbs. cayenne pepper
Even with the alarms set on my thermometer to tell me if any temps got out of my desired range, I woke up on my own at 3:30 am (5 hours into the cook) to check my remote sensor on the night side table. Yikes! The grate temp was almost 250f, which meant my dome temp was even higher. So I got out of bed to make some adjustments and snap this photo below. Things seemed to be going ok.
The next morning I whipped up some slaw--again leaning on the Elder Ward recipe. I doubled this given the large crew we were expecting.
Mary Lee's, "I Fought the Slaw and The Slaw Won".
These are from the Jack Daniel's old time Barbecue cookbook by Vince Staten. (with an Elder Ward twist)
· 3 LBS. cabbage
· 3 ribs of celery
· 1 onion (yellow)
· 1 bell pepper
· 3 carrots
· 2 C sugar (Hawaiian when you can get it.)
Shred, chop or dice all and mix with sugar. Set cabbage mixture aside.
· 1/2 Cup of white vinegar
· 1/2 Cup of Apple Cider vinegar
· 1/2 C olive oil
· 1 tsp kosher salt
Bring all to a boil and pour over cabbage mixture and chill overnight.
Clearly, I didn't start the night before, but I figured I had enough time for it to all stew. Here's the slaw with the sugar on it before I poured the boiling mixture over it. Oh and having made this recipe before I cut the sugar by half since it was too sweet for my taste last time.
In theory we should have had lots of leftovers, but folks had seconds and thirds of everything and we pretty much wiped it all out. The second butt to be pulled sat out for folks to pick at and pull their own sandwich-sized serving so it made for a great late-night snackin.
When you add to all this the beautiful weather on Saturday, it was a great weekend with some great cookin' and good eatin'. Awesome. Thanks for reading.
Dang, Gray, those butts have a VERY NICE bark on them. Did they take less time, this time? They look really good, dude.
ReplyDeletenew toys new toys new toys!!!
ReplyDeleteAnd those butts look terrific, my record is 4 butts, served 55 neighbors for a neighborhood labor Day party.
And I am saving that slaw recipe
All my friends have big butts but yours look best.
ReplyDeleteThe butts look great. I am doing two butts later this week to see the difference in rub/injection and just rub. I hope they turn out as good as yours did!
ReplyDeleteChris: Thanks, they were great.
ReplyDeleteA Year On The Grill: New toys are the best. 55 people? Now I know what to shoot for.
Kim: Thanks. You don't think this grill makes my butts look too big?
JHM: Good luck this week. I'll be curious to know what you think of the injection method. I've never done that for a butt.