dls

Friend of mine did 4 good size butts recently for a party the following day. Took them off at 190, loosely foiled, and gradually cooled. Then pulled and put into large plastic containers and refrigerated. Following day, put pulled pork in a couple of large crockpots, stirred in sauce, warmed, and served. Great taste with no stress.

Funny - Kind of going through the same thing. Smoking a brisket today (6.5 lb flat) in an electric smoker set at 225F. Shooting for the same 190F. At 172F internal had to run out on a couple of errands. Returned an hour later and internal was 167F - WTF. Cranked it up to 250F (max. temp.) and turned oven on to 300F for back up. Family and guests now staring at me with the "When are we going to eat?" look. I'm giving it 30 more minutes in the smoker then off to the oven if need be. Ahh - the joy (and perils) of smoking.

Chad - Butt looks pretty good. I'm not sure I buy the slashing routine but, I'm sure you'll let us know. You have not made mention of internal temps. Are you monitoring them? If so, how have they been running?

Thanks for the news on Fifi. What is all that stuff on the link? Has she gone vegetarian? Smoking oysters is something I want to try. I love smoked oysters. I got a seafood rack with this thing. Real fine mesh so nothing falls through. Don't need it for fish, but it'll work great with oysters... and those small Maine shrimp I froze up this winter. Don't know how they'll turn out but I'm going to give it a try after a quick strong brine. Thanks for the tips on the oysters. Got any ideas on temp, how long, and wood to use? I generally use cherry (with maybe a little apple) for fish. Man, maybe we'll start a smokin' movement here at Gullet. Backyards, apartment balconies, you name it. That smell of good smoke curling up everywhere. I'm smoking a brisket in my Smokette today and the mention of oysters inspired me to do some as an app. Method I use is a variation of a recipe that (I think) I found in "Smoke & Spice" (Jamison). Shuck 2 doz. oysters - Reserve bottom shell and liquor. Combine oyster liquor with 1/2 C bottled clam juice, 3 T each freshly squeezed lemon and lime juice, 3 T EVOO, 1 T freshly cracked black pepper, 5 minced garlic cloves and 1 t grated ginger. Put oysters in a resealable plastic bag, pour marinade over oysters, seal and refrigerate 45-60 minutes. Drain oysters and reserve marinade. Bring marinade to a boil then reduce heat to a simmer. Place oysters in bottom shell and then put on a small grill rack. Place rack over a disposable aluminum pan containing 12 ice cubes. Brush oysters with marinade and place in smoker. Smoke at 180F for 45 minutes. Remove oysters and brush with additional marinade. Serve as is or with your preferred topping. I normally just go with a couple of dashes of Crystal. Good woods to use are cherry, apple, or alder. I'm using hickory today because that's all I have left. In a Smokette, 1.5 oz. to 2 oz. is all you'll need.

I've smoked a lot of butts but I've never done one on a kettle. I would not even attempt it it. You're going to need at least 1.5 per pound assuming that you can maintain a constant smoke temp of 225F (Good Luck). At 8 lbs, thats 12 hours and, with a kettle, you're going to be very busy during that time. As suggested by others upthread I recommend that you run it for about 6 hours under smoke then finish in the 225F oven to an internal of 190F. A couple of tips.... 1. If the butt is fairly lean, apply a generous coat of mayo. It's basically oil (fat) in the first place and you'll never taste the mayo with the finished product. 2. At 190F, yank the butt, double foil it, wrap it in an old bath towel, and place in a cooler for an hour. Remove from the cooler and pull. It will still be very warm. You'll end up with a much better and moister product than if pulled straight from the smoker/oven.

Another one to try is smokey roux. Trim excess fat from a smoked brisket. Render and make roux as you normally would. Adds great flavor and depth to any roux based dish.

Then go get one without fear. I keep my Cookshack on a large wooden deck just off my kitchen. Wood chunks are put in a covered aluminum box that slides over the heating element. You then insert item to be smoked, close front door, and it's sealed. No problem or worry whatsoever.

vogelap - While I was on the commuter train tonight, something struck me that, as a culinary student, you might enjoy during your stay in Sarasota. Not too long ago, Marcella and Victor Hazan retired and are living on LBK. Their son, Giuliano, and his family also live in Sarasota. A couple of times a month, Giuliano teaches a cooking class at a little Italian market that I frequent on Constitution Ave known as Casa Italia. Occasionally, M & V join him. You may want to check it out and see if he is doing anything during your stay - 941-924-1179. I know that the schedule is limited during the summer months but, give it a shot if you're interested.

That sounds familiar. I think maybe I've eaten there... Or is it Old Salty Dog that also serves the same way? Whichever it is, I'm remembering a place that is really close to MOAT MARINE LABS... Is that New Pass or is it OSD? Salty Dog is accross the street from Mote Marine. New Pass is on the same road, same side as Salty Dog but at the corner when you turn off of Gulf Of Mexico Drive. Now that I think about it, New Pass is not on LBK. It's at the far north end of Lido Key just before the bridge to LBK.

Feel free to bounce your ideas off me. Not familiar with the market or Harry's Continental. I'll have to check them out on my next trip there. Had dinner at Pattigeorge a few months ago and overall experience was pretty good. I can't comment on the spottiness myself but I've heard others say the same. Mattison's on LBK is primarily a steak house. Chef/Owner has a couple of other places (different styles) including one on Main Street that's a good call for a casual lunch. Be forewarned on New Pass Bait & Grill. It's exactly that. A bait shop, a few boat slips, and a "order and pay at window 1 - pick up at window 2" type of place with a few picnic tables. Basically' it's burgers, fish sandwiches, cold beer, etc. Best when Bahama John sets up his barbeque rig on the weekends.

Congrats Nick. Looks to me like you have a Cookshack Smokette. Got the same unit as a gift this past Xmas and love it. Use it a couple of times weekly. Best smoker that I've ever owned. Takes a little getting used to but, once you get the hang of it, you'll be smoking like crazy. Hint # 1 - You don't need much wood with this unit. A 2 oz. chunk is about all for most smokes. Maybe even a little less for fish. Hint # 2 - If you have not already done so, you should check out the Cookshack forums here. . A pretty active community with a lot of good tips and guidance on using the unit.

Though Sarasota has some very good restaurants, there are none that I would consider "life altering". With that in mind.... Foodie Destination: In addition to previously mentioned EH and BB, another excellent choice on LBK that I just remembered is Maison Blanche (French). I've dined there several times and it has always been excellent.Could not find a website but a review at the following link http://www.4sarasota.com/review/maison_blanche.html For "date night", I would rank MB and BB a tie for first (both excellent - just different styles) and EH a close second. A bonus is that they are all well within your driving limits. Family Dinner: A few suggestions on LBK would be Pattigeorge, Mattisons, and Cafe On The Bay. A little further north on Holmes Beach, DaGeorgio is a good pick. In downtown Sarasota, better choices include Divino, Uva Rara, Mediterraneo, Bijou Cafe, Zak's and Zoria. In South Sarasota, 2 places that I've eaten at recently that I enjoyed were Selva Grill and La Parigot . On Siesta Key, there's Ophelia's. General Grub: Il Panifico, IMO, is more of a take out deli and food shop than it is a restaurant. Maybe I missed something. Not familiar with Gulf Drive Cafe. On the north end of LBK, there's Moore's Stone Crab. A the south end, there's a real funky place called the New Pass Bait & Grill. On some weekends, a fellow by the name of Bahama John pulls in a grill and smoker for some very good barbeque. In downtown Sarasota, there are a lot of options, mostly on or around Main Street. One that comes to mind is a little French place on known as C'est La Vie. Finally, I've eaten at most of the restaurants on St Armands and honestly cannot think of one that I would want to return to. Foremost among the group is the Columbia. It's gone straight downhill over the past few years. Wife, daughter, and I had lunch there a couple months ago and after about 3 bites of our respective meals, we decide to just pay the bill and leave. Many others, especially the locals, share my opinion. Many of the places mentioned have websites. I'll leave it to you to do the research. A pretty good site for independent diner reviews can be found at www.4sarasota.com. Can't help re scuba diving. Does not seem to be a popular activity in Sarasota. More sailing, general boating,and fishing.

vogelap - I'll second Euphemia Haye. Another one of my favorites is the Beach Bistro located on Anna Maria Island which is the next barrier island north of Longboat. Link to info here: http://www.beachbistro.com/. Great food and a beautiful location. I have a second residence in Sarasota and spend about a week a month there (in fact, just returned from there last night). Since I cannot recall the last time that I "ate in" there, I'm very familiar with Sarasota's dining scene. Sarasota has some excellent restaurants and more than a fair share overrated ones. If you'll provide a little more guidance on what you're looking for (cuisine, location, max. driving distance, etc), I'll be glad to make additional recommendations. If you have not done so already, you may want to check out the lisitngs in the restaurant section of the Sarasota magazine at this link http://www.sarasotamagazine.com/Pages/dining/dine.asp It's not all inclusive but it's about the best there is available. One thing to watch out for - You're going to be there in mid-August which is the peak of Sarasota's "off season". Since it is so slow at that time, many of the better restaurants are closed for the month.

Re: Your Para. 1 - The policy was presented to me after the card was charged. Verified with Amex that the charge was processed well before the second call from Hyatt when the policy was mentioned. Re: Your Para. 2 - I'm well aware that I can contact Amex, or any other credit card company, and dispute the charge. I'm also aware of the fact that it can then become something of a "He Said/She Said" kind of pissing contest. As I said earlier, if something would have forced a cancellation, I would have disputed the charges. Nothing did. At the end of the day, with a few twists, it all worked out. The point deals with the non-refundable cancellation policy and lack of prior notice. Re: Your Para 3 - I've spent the last 35 years of my life, and approximately 85% of my time, traveling throughout the world on business. Needless to say, I've dined out, or been out for drinks, quite a bit. At certain bars, it's quite common to pay for your drinks upon receiving them. I never, however, have been required to have a credit card imprinted. In any event, this was a restaurant, not a bar, that required payment, prior to service, being received. Re Your Para 4 - Your comment regarding "contingency reservation" might have meaning somewhere but not here. As stated, MIL wanted to go here and I was able to reserve. Why would I, or anyone else, make reservations elsewhere when the venue of choice had been secured?

Let's see if I have this correct. You say "I don't have a problem with any of this" If, when making a reservation 3 weeks in advance, the restaurant did not notify you of their rather aggressive cancellation policy before charging your credit card in full (including tax/grat) on a non-refundable basis, you would not have a problem? If the same restaurant, after your credit card had been charged, later informed you of the policy and stated very emphatically that there would be no refund in the event of an emergency, illness, and even death, you would not have a problem? If the server at this restaurant told you that, in order to get a drink, you had to prepay in cash before he could get it from the bar, you would not have a problem? Give me a break. One thing that I forgot to mention earlier was that I asked if, in the event of an unavoidable but timely cancellation, could the monies already charged be applied to a later function. Nope. Regarding the tax and gratuity, I don't have any issues here other than the manner in how they were pre-applied by suprise. First, you're going to pay the tax anyway. Second, I don't have a problem with the %. The servers don't dictate how much work they do or don't do at this type of function. Frankly, I probably would have done 20% had it been left up to me.

No - busboy did. We did, however, have to get clean silver and napkins from an empty table near us.

The total net price quoted both online and by the person taking the reservation for our group was $158.00. Unknown to me, Amex was billed $195.74 at the time of reservation - difference was $10.88 tax (.07%) / $26.86 gratuity (.17%). Servers duties included pouring 5 glasses of OJ, pouring 3 cups of coffe and refreshing 2, and serving 4 cocktails. All other service provided by ourselves. Not bad huh.

All I did was laugh and think to myself "Relax - This will be over soon". Sort of the same thing I do when I see my dentist except he does not require a non-refundable pre-payment for services rendered or not.

Returned from "Prepaid Brunch" a little earlier today. A couple of observations...... First, my wife and I abhor eating out on any of the big 3 special occasion days - Mothers Day, Valentines Day, and NYE. Second, We abhor even more self-service brunches. As I stated before however, this was not about us and our likes or dislikes. My mil expressed a desire to do a certain thing and that was fine. That being said, overall, it was a pretty decent experience. Seated immediately in a large but, very tastefully decorated and comfortable banquet room. I would guess that there aproximately 300 people in attendance. A second, and similar room for service, was even more impressive. Service, as it were, was professional, effiecient, and gracious. I counted 10 "live" stations. There were separate stations carving beef, ham, turkey, pork, and salmon. There were 4 omelet stations and even a rissoto station. There must have been 60 or 70 additional stations with self service for everything from apps to desert. Even a small station for kids with a variety of things such as dry cereal, PBJ sandwiches, pizza, etc. No long waits and the food quality, which was replaced frequently, was excellent. Those who enjoy this sort of thing would have been extremely pleased. Even though I'm pissed off regarding the reservation/cancellation policy, I must give them credit on the product and service provided. BTW - No McD products offered. As an aside, we were aked by our server (?) if we would like a complimentary glass of house champagne or a Mimosa. Mil took the Mimosa. Fil, wife, and I opted for Bloody Marys, which were not complimentary. Server returned to the table a couple of minutes later and stated that he had just been informed by the bar of a new policy (another) dictating that cocktails had to be paid for in advance and by cash. I paid of course. Soooo - I guess the crux of my bitch regarding the reservation/cancellation policy is even more emphasized now. Other than this, everything else was fine assuming, of course, that one likes this form of dining. Also, though I failed to ask, it appeared to me that the policy applys only to the Sunday brunches, special occasion or not. I'm the type of person that's very anal about cancelling reservations the moment that I know that I need to. I also call ahead to say that I'm running late even if it's only a few minutes. I've even paid a couple of late cancellation penalties when it was unavoidable and without comment. My bitch with Hyatt in general deals with the severity of the penalty (100%) and the fact that you must prepay in full at the time of reservation. My personal bitch is that I was not even informed of the policy until after my card had been charged. Had I not been contacted regarding a seating time issue, I would not have known until late last week when I received my Amex bill. Had I been made aware of the policy at the time of my initial call, we definately would have been dining elsewhere. Obviously, if for some reson a cancellation had been necessary, I would simply dispute it with Amex under "Product/Service Billed For Not Received" category. One commenter upthread mentioned that I should contact Hyatt voicing my displeasure with the policy. I normally would do that. In this case however, I've chosen to post it as a topic on the eGullet forum. I have no doubt that a number of individuals of the Hyatt food service team are either members or visitors to the forum and review it, at least, on occasion. The message of "many to many" on a public forum of the depth and breadth of eGullet is much stronger than the private message of "one to one". Obviously, I will not be returning to Hyatt.

The manager stated "It's our new policy that we have just started". Did not say if the policy was special occasion or not. I'm sure that they would not leave the table empty if they had a need for it.

Nope....It's Hyatt, at least at that location. As so stated by the manager.

Like many, I'll be celebrating Mothers Day today. Our group includes my wife, daughter, and my wife's parents. About 3 weeks ago I asked my wife what she would like to do - stay home, go out to eat, etc. She checked with her mother who said she would like to go out to brunch. For location, my wife deferred to her mother who said she would like to go to The Hyatt Lodge on McDonalds Corporate campus in Oak Brook, IL. It's a small hotel with a couple of restaurants that's owned by McDonalds and managed by Hyatt. It's used primarily by those visiting McDonalds Corporate but also open to the public. I've eaten here 2 or 3 times and, while it's nothing special, it's all right. Most importantly though, it's Mothers Day and I've learned to defer on choice of venue. Checked their website and confirmed time, and prices (2 adults @ $38, 2 seniors @ $33, 1 child @ $16, total $158 ex tax/grat). Called and prices were confirmed once again. Booked 12:00 noon since the in-laws like to eat early. Gave credit card number and contact phone number. About an hour later, restaurant called back and said 12:00 noon was a problem and could we do 12:45 PM. I confirmed. She then said she previously forgot to tell me credit card would be billed for the full amount when making the reservation, tax/grat would automatically added, and that there would be no refund in the event of cancellation. Since I was in the middle of a meeting, I did not have time to discuss this new twist. Later in the day, I contacted Amex and, sure enough, my card had been billed for $196. Called the restaurant and asked for a manager. The party who answered the phone confirmed the procedure an assured me that it was quite common . When I asked what would be done in the event of a forced emergency, illness, even death, I was then assured that there would be no problem in transferring the reservations to another party(ies) since they had already been paid for . After cooling off, I chose to do nothing unless something arose forcing a cancellation (nothing has). Again, it's Mothers Day and this what the MIL selected. In my entire lifetime of dining out, I have never encountered anything even remotely like this. Has anybody out there ever heard of such a cancellation policy?

Willie - Since I got a pretty good smoker awhile back, I have no longer have a need to order pulled pork. I just do my own. Ditto for brisket and other items. That said, below are links to a number of sources that I have ordered from previously that you may want to consider. If forced to, I would give the edge to Maurice's but they all are pretty good in their own way. Just a matter of personal preference and taste. Might be interesting and fun to get a small order from each source with their respective house sauces and do a pulled pork "tasting". http://www.bishopsbbq.com/ http://www.kingsbbq.com/ http://www.mauricesbbq.com/ http://www.montgomeryinn.com/index.html http://www.stickyfingersonline.com/ Ronnie - Regarding your quest for mail order brisket, there are tons of places in Texas that ship great brisket. Try a search on Google. I used to get mine from a joint on South Padre Island that was excellent. Can't recall the name but, if I locate it later, I'll post it. Also, If you have not already seen it, you may want to link to the thread below started by chefrodrigo regarding his tour of Texas BBQ spots. Everytime I look at it I get ravenous. One spot mentioned prominently is Smitty's. I've been there a couple of times and the BBQ is outstanding. I'm pretty sure they do mail order. If so, go for it. You won't be disappointed. http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=40051

Here's a pretty good source for extracts http://www.sweatnspice.com/products.php?id=15 Check out the one at 16,000,000 Scoville units.

For a very comprehensive selection of hot sauces, try http://www.sweatnspice.com/