carpetbagger, esq.

hoss and others, the full post re my butts can be found here in the "behold my butt!" thread

warning: this post is very long with lots of pics!!!! well, i guess it's time for everyone to check out my bbq. things started easily enough - i volunteered to prepare the main item for the 4th of july g2g that my gf's family was having. what did i pick? bbq! why? well, it seemed like a good excuse to smoke my first shoulder, and with about 17 people showing up, i figured i could really experiment. so, my first thought was a whole shoulder and a couple of sauces to go with it. after some research, i decided to go with pork butts, as they were more forgiving. on monday, the order went in to houston's meat & produce (a small meat market in mt juliet, tn). on friday, i picked them up. the size was perfect, weighing in at about 15 lbs. unfortunately, they were not the same size. i already started thinking about how one would be done before the other, but we'll get to that later. once i had them home, the next issue was going to be prep work. rub or no rub? what about a brine? long story short, i skipped brining due to some unforseen cooler issues and went with a rub. since i was experimenting and had two butts, why not make two rubs? the first rub, which went on the smaller butt, is a western nc style rub. the larger butt got a west tn/memphis style rub, as i figured the fam would be more interested in tn style bbq. that went off fairly well, although my gf thought it was a tad spicy. i chalked that up to her having a concentrated blast of rub flavor, and that the sammiches wouldn't be as strong. once the rubs were done, i applied them to the butts, wrapped them up in plastic wrap and set them in the fridge overnight. next up, sauces. with 15+ people coming, i wasn't sure what everyone preferred, so i figured i would give them a choice. going with the carolina and tn theme, i made three sauces. the first was an eastern nc sauce. after that, a south carolina mustard sauce. yes, it's the recipegullet offering from mark. i figured it would be fairly adventurous for them as i don't believe they've had that kind of sauce before. finally, a nashville sauce. it's not really indicative of nashville imho, but the guy who is credited with it is from here. this is a very very sweet sauce, with molasses, brown sugar and ketchup base. at this point, it was 2:30am, and time to hit the sack. 7:30am came damn early. too early! hickory wood chunks went in my silky o'sullivan's diver bucket for soaking while i got the chimney lit and made my injection. since i've been all over the bbq map so far, it was time to add in another region - alabama! i found a recipe by chris lilly (of big bob gibson bbq fame), as it was pretty simple - apple juice, water, sugar, salt, worcestershire sauce. once the chimney was lit, the butts went on at 8:15am. the larger butt went on the top rack, as i figured it would take longer and with hot air rising, it could benefit from a slightly higher temp. i was hoping to use the minion method, but as i found out, it was not to be. the smoker hit 225* nicely, and then when i checked on it 30 minutes later, it was at 400*!! after a few f-bombs and other assorted exclamations of pure joy </sarcasm>, i removed the canister to see that all of the charcoal had basically been lit, and turning grey. fan-fricking-tastic. i removed a bunch of charcoal, enough to overflow my chimney, and it came down to 300. after about an hour or so of fidgeting with the temperature, i got it around 250* and resigned myself to sitting and basically staring at the new thermometer I added. the temp seems to hold okay with this smoker. it doesn't really spike too much, and it doesn't take many coals to keep it between 225* and 250*. i was a little concerned when the internal temp had jumped to 112* by the end of hour 1, and was 142* by the end of hour 2. it seemed too early to be that warm. after some additional fire adjustments, i was able to get it to slow down, and then the stall came in the upper 150s. the stall lasted a few hours, probably close to 4 total, and then broke into the 160s. when the smaller butt hit 170*, i took the temp of the big one, and it was about 158* or so. i guess that seems about right. i wasnt' expecthing them to be the same temp. based on the weight difference, i didn't think 10* would be a big deal. for those keeping track at home, i hit 170* in the small one right at 8 hours. at 12.5 hours, the small one hit 196, so it went in the cooler to finish up. as for the larger one, it was a royal pita. it hung at 183 for-effing-ever. and i left to go check on something, come back, and the fire is lower as is the temp. great! so this is easily going to be a 16hr butt. good thing i started as early as i did. after an hour, it was time to pull... fear my smoke ring! after leaving it in the fridge overnight and reheating it in the oven this morning, it was ready to serve. most people seemed to gravitate towards either the nc vinegar or nashville sweet sauce. the south carolina sauce was neglected, and it very well may have been my favorite (the nashville sweet is damn good). everyone seemed to really enjoy it, and they all took home a ziploc bag full of meat. i guess in the end, that makes up for the long day and "frantic wtf do i do?" now moments. oh, and in case anyone was wondering, this was the full layout this afternoon: sweet and unsweet tea homemade lemonade both kinds of pulled pork (nc and memphis) 3 sauces (eastern nc, south carolina, nashville) potato salad cream corn deviled eggs green pea salad (think 7-layer salad minus lettuce) baked beans mac and cheese fresh-sliced cucumber cherry fluff chess pie pea pickin' cake chocolate cake banana pudding peach cobbler

no, just a lawyer! OH SNAP!

will post more later tonight once they're done, but so far: i prepared 2 rubs last night, applied and wrapped up in the fridge. also figured i would just make the sauces while i was at it since i had pulled all the ingredients out earlier. was up til about 2:30 working on them and some other things. up at 7:30 to get the wood chunks soaking and prepare the chimney. short version - minion method did not work well at all to start. WAY too hot! how hot? like 400* hot. so after a lot of charcoal removal, it's where it should be. the smaller butt is getting too warm to fast imho. already at 140* after 2 hrs. i don't have a probe in the larger one, so i have no idea where that's at. the smaller one is on the bottom level, although i may swap them at some point. i do plan on having a full writeup later, so stay tuned... hopefully these aren't beyond salvation.

shrimp sammiches at pompano joe's and the back porch are good, and both places are wallet and kid-friendly.

alf - cats.

a classic food-related exchange: Mrs. Murphy: Help you two? Elwood: Do you have any white bread ma'am? Mrs. Murphy: Yeah. Elwood: I'll have some toasted white bread please. Mrs. Murphy: You want butter or jam on that, honey? Elwood: No ma'am, dry. Jake: Do you have any fried chicken ma'am? Mrs. Murphy: Best damned chicken in the state. Jake: Bring me four fried chickens and a Coke. Mrs. Murphy: You want chicken wings or chicken legs? Jake: Four fried chickens and a Coke. Elwood: And some dry white toast please. Mrs. Murphy: Ya'all want anything to drink with that? Elwood: No ma'am. Jake: A Coke. Mrs. Murphy: Be right back. and for those of you who have no idea what this is from, please run to blockbuster and rent the blues brothers.

eric cartman, lover of pot pies, cheesy poofs and the swiss colony beef log. "no kitty that's my pot pie! that's a bad kitty!"

i don't think anyone in the fam is a brisket person. this really is a pork family. in fact, i think we have pork at every g2g, and most of the veggies are cooked with pork somehow. brisket is something i'll try down the road. for now, i'll stick with the more forgiving pork butt. good luck to you!

story here she just has not had a good year or two.

there's a new guy on the block - mothership bbq. i haven't been yet, but just left a bunch of q's for him on his blog. his restaurant website is here.

thanks everyone! after thinking it over more, i think i am going to change my order to two butts. besides the reduced cooking time, i think it would be good to try a few things out and compare the results. by doing two butts, i can use a rub on one while doing the other naked. ideally, i will pair the rub to one of the sauces. right now, i'm doing a south carolina, eastern north carolina and nashville/tn sauce so everyone can get what they want. lan, good idea about the chickens. maybe i'll throw one or two on there. if i do that, i could make one to be paired with some northern alabama white sauce....mmmm....white sauce </homer>. talk about sacrilege, i think i prefer the white sauce at hog heaven (here in nashville) to the original at big bob gibson's in decatur, al. ooo, and cornell chicken for the other. hmmm...this has possiblities. talk about some regional variety - ny, nc, sc, tn and al all in one meal! now i really might be biting off more than i can chew! just when i was making things easier...

yeah, i've read that thread before. it has some good info in it after the first couple of pages detailing al dente's butt. i'm actually pretty damn nervous about making this shoulder. it's probably a combo of feeding a bunch of people with something as subjective as bbq, the stress of figuring out if everything is going okay for over a 15 hour period of time (and probably more like 18 hours), and figuring out what kind of mods i need to do to my cheapo smoker before i even get to cooking! it all just seems rather imposing - at least moreso than other things i have done in the past. i have a super cheap brinkmann that i got as a gift (see below) and it doesn't seem up to the task. first of all, the temp gauge says "warm/ideal/hot." wtf marketing genius came up with this imprecise gauge?!?!?! he should be fired on the spot. there's also no vents on this (unless you assume the charcoal replaement door is a vent), unlike the wsm bullet. i have already picked up an additional thermometer that has a 200-500 degree range on it, and i may drill some holes in it and attach a vent cover. i guess i'll have plenty of time to make sauces!!!

hey y'all... saturday is d-day for me. i'm doing my first shoulder. the meat market i ordered from said their average shoulder is about 15lbs. i'm preparing this for roughly a dozen people, but could swell up to about 16 or so. i was hoping to have some leftovers for myself and the guests (assuming it tastes good!), but i'm wondering if this is simply too much bbq! assuming i lose a little over 1/3rd while it's smoking, that knocks it down to a little under 10lbs cooked pork. most everyone will be adults, and they all have big appetites (let's just say a lot of us are supersized). do you think 1/3rd lb per person is a fair estimate? if so, then i will be somewhere around 4-5lbs of meat with another 4 or 5 in leftovers. i guess split up amongst everyone that's not horrible. there should be 4 families attending, so they would each get 1lb to take home. i think i may have convinced myself i'm not getting too much, but i would love to hear everyone's thoughts and advice! in order to answer some q's in advance: pregame injecting - yes, probably apple juice? brining - overnight (still trying to work on keeping it cool) gameday wood - hickory (wouldn't mind getting apple though) coal - probalby just normal kingsford method - minion pending further research smoker - el cheapo brinkmann vertical gourmet smoker menu sauces - 3: vinegar, mustard, red/sweet sides - baked beans, potato salad, creamed corn, ??? desserts - hopefully some fried pies and homemade ice cream

good luck with the restaurant! where is it located? i saw that mothership bbq opened up in berry hill part recently. i'm kinda surprised he closes at 2 on saturday, but whatever. send out the directions and i'll try and swing by this weekend.

low fat beef + tomato sauce - bacon - grilled doughnut != the luther burger. that is not an official entry. thanks for playing, and please try again.

because someone must get the short end of the stick.

i don't know how you eat fish after an event like that.

whatever. paula deen's kids are coming at it from a differnet angle than say al roker (not a food pro), alton brown (neci alum), bobby flay (obviously a pro), or rachel ray (the hojo girl). it's still remains to be seen how much they can do to avoid making this seem redundant.

looks like i'm off the to the market this weekend. i have an idea for something, but have no clue as to how much or little i need of the various ingredients.

speaking of pimped out grills, has anyone seen the Fuego?

quick question - did chris lilly not offer you yankees some of his signature chicken in white sauce? it hasn't been mentioned in any post afaik, and i would think that would have been quite the new experience for most of the people in attendance.

how about starting the day at flying biscuit, lunch at the varsity and finishing it with some chicken and waffles? i think ice cube would agree with me that this sounds like a good day.

nuevo is certainly off the beaten path when you look at the road it's on. the drinks are certainly worth it, even if the food can be soso. does the flying biscuit count as off the beaten path? it never seems touristy when i go there.

jaymes, i am still trying to see how this show is anything different than the same old food network programming. paula deen's kids are getting a show where they are doing a travel show highlighting small businesses (which will probably be "off the beaten path") alton brown has a new show, that even cognac says is similar. bobby flay's foodnation takes you "off the beaten" path exploring local food people and/or restaurants. foodfinds hit up little bakeries and restaurants weren't tourist traps. roker on the road and best do the same, to an extent. i think rachel ray tries to do a mix of touristy and non-touristy stuff in her shows. inevitably, people seem to have a problem with her selections. so that's 8 freaking shows about travel and food and where to go, all of which are trying to find that hidden gem. i really don't see what a 9th is adding, especially based on the list of cities. it would be great if the producers could explain the niche that they feel is being left out right now per the current food network programming.