The party for my in-laws 50th wedding anniversary was yesterday and I am pleased to report the food was excellent, no need to read further since I have no pictures. But if you have nothing better to do a story/report follows.
I have been cooking practice briskets (thank you Walmart for $1.99/lb briskets) in the WSM trying to get my technique and timeline dialed in (the axiom that BBQ is ready when it's ready rings true) and cooking low/slow without foil wrap makes it even more true. The timeline in the practice runs turned out to be very loose 11-16 hours for a ~13 lb brisket, with 15-20 degree average temperature difference making hours worth of time difference, but the technique produces fantastic brisket. My neighbor and lunch buddies at work benefitted from my practice runs (my wife and I got brisket overload).
I also had to cook several chickens before I was satisfied with the end product. Initially I was cooking them to a temperature and regardless that three food thermometers declared them done, the meat was too squishy for my taste, so the thermometer became an indicator to alert me when to start doing the leg shake test and that works better for me. The chicken timeline is pretty consistent though coming in at ~3 hours.
I also tried cooking some ABTs for practice, using the common recipe and technique from the internet BBQ websites, they cooked just fine but I found them extremely lacking in flavor.
I decided to fix them I would concoct my own filling recipe.
For a pre-party snack I made a batch of smoked nuts (recipe from BBQ Pit Boys) that turned out to be interesting. Everyone thought they were OK but would have liked them better if they were just roasted with the seasoning but without the smoke. In the BBQ Pit Boys video he cooked them in a weber charcoal grill without adding additional smoke wood, but said adding it would be OK which I did (apple wood).
I think I am going to make a sugar glaze to sweeten up the nuts today and see if that will balance the smoky flavor.
Ok, the party lunch was scheduled for 12:00 Saturday.
Backing out the timeline I knew I had to allow up to 16 hours for the brisket cooking at an average 240 degrees and 3 1/2 hours for the chickens cooking around 270 degrees.
I got the WSM going and the brisket (12.5lb) and a pork roast (4lb for ABT stuffing) in the cooker at 4:00pm Friday.
In the practice cooks I learned what works for me is to load the WSM charcoal ring to the top with a 3lb coffee can in the middle to pour 3/4 chimney of lit coals into and to start the cook with the intake vents set so only one is open a good sized crack.
Using this method to start the fire the WSM worked up to a stable 230 degrees in one hour. I checked the temperature every 1/2 hour and it was +/-4 degrees, we went out for dinner and when we got back at 9:30pm the grate temperature on the WSM was 226 degrees. Normally I would not have done anything to the cooker and just gone to bed.....but.... I started worrying about being ~10 degrees low on the temperature and keeping my timeline...sooooo... I opened a second intake vent a crack.....from that point on I fought the temperature all night....by being antsy I turned a rock solid temperature into an absolute roller coaster and got no sleep...I might as well have been tending a ECB stick burner.
The little pork roast was done at 1:00am and when I pulled it I unknowingly sat the lid of the WSM down on the thermometer wire and if I thought I had been fighting the temperature earlier I was wrong....by 1:30am the temperature was 290 and rising fast. The vents had no control I finally checked the lid and found the problem but the coal bed was raging and I had to choke it down...by this time I was fairly well convinced my meal was going to be a disaster.
At 3:00am the brisket internal temperature was 183 and my grate temp was still yoyoing depending on my vents from 215 to 260...the typical vent setting were choking it and anything more let it run away. I stopped taking notes at 3:00 since the only lesson to learn is don't mess with the WSM once I get it running stable and BBQ is ready when it's ready regardless of a serving schedule.
After closing the vents from a runaway I fell asleep and woke at 6:00am and the grate temp was 196 degrees and the meat temp was still at 185. I have needed 190-195+ on the practice briskets to get the right probe feel and I didn't think I could get that temperature by 8:00. I don't know why but I took my skewer and probed the brisket, it probed perfectly, if I had cooked to 190+ it would have been mush meat.
I was two hours ahead on the timeline but there was no other choice but to wrap it and put it in the cooler to hold.
I took the WSM apart and tended the coal bed, there was a lot of charcoal left and using a shovel I got it centered up in a pile, I got rid of the brisket drippings collected on the foil liner in the water pan and rewrapped the pan, I set the vents to the "normal chicken" configuration of top vent 100% open, intake vents set two closed, and one open ~25%.
Went inside and started getting the chickens ready to go into the cooker.
At 7:30am I checked the WSM and it was running 267 degrees (this is what it did in the practice cooks), at 8:00am I put the chickens in the WSM.
To say I was tired would be an understatement but there was a ton of work left to do so I got started peeling potatoes, and chopping onions, and bell peppers.
When the beans and potatoes were prepped and in the oven I thought about blowing off the ABTs but I had bought all the stuff and without serving to a crowd it would have ended up being discarded.
From my practice run with the ABTs I thought the peppers would be better with meat filling instead of all cheese so the pork roast was cooked for that purpose.
I pulled the refrigerated pork roast apart and we all (wife, the dogbert, and I) thought it tasted very good and that is what we nibbled on for breakfast.
I used one brick of Philly cream cheese, a couple hand fills of shredded cheddar, and by eye added SPOG, cumin, and chili powder and mixed all this together.
In another bowl I mixed small amounts of pulled pork and cheese concoction, I would estimate it was 60/40 ratio pork to cheese mix. I didn't intend to use all of the pork but by the time all the peppers were prepped there was none left.
The jalapeños were giant beautiful peppers from Central Market.
I cut the top off, cored them with a spoon handle, and stuffed them with the pork/cheese concoction, and tooth picked the top back on.
The bell peppers were cut into sections that formed scoops and made bell pepper poppers.
I had intended to wrap the peppers with bacon and cook them on the gas grill but I just didn't have the time to do it.
Around 10:30 I put the peppers in the WSM with the chickens.
The chickens were ready at ~11:30 and even though some of the peppers could have used a little more time they were all acceptably soft/tender and it was time to pack the coolers and get the food to the party so they were pulled with the chickens.
All the worrying I did over the brisket was wasted energy, it was fabulous and I think if I had just left the WSM alone and went to bed the results would have been the same, and I would have enjoyed the party a lot more too. Lesson learned on that front...don't mess with the WSM.
I am pretty basic when it comes to brisket seasoning, I use SPOG sprinkled on individually by eye. After the rub was applied the brisket rested uncovered in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours.
This was the first prime packer I have cooked, and I could certainly tell a difference in the meat, my wife who has 'suffered' through eating a lot of brisket during the practice cooks (most were select grade briskets) told me she could tell a difference in the meat too.
The chickens were seasoned with Klose poultry seasoning.
My mother-in-law and sister-in-law gave the chicken high praise (I didn't sample it, actually I was so tired and stressed I didn't really eat very much).
The peppers turned out great, I really liked the filling I made.
The first jalapeño I had was flavorful and mild, I decided I needed another one...holy smokes that second one just about set me on fire, the first one was cooked a little softer than the first so I have recommended the leftovers being thrown in the oven and cooked until completely soft to see if that tones down the heat.
The potatoes were basic but surprisingly good, peeled and sliced into discs, onion chopped coarse, potatoes and onions layered in baking pan with salt/pepper sprinkled sparingly on each layer, butter pats placed on top, two slices of crisp bacon crushed and sprinkled across top, foil covered, oven cooked at 350 until fork tender.
My sweet beans start life as canned beans but they get doctored up pretty good and taste great. Big can (or two or three depending on how much you want to make) of Bush Original Baked Beans my adds are diced onion and bell pepper, brown sugar, catsup, mustard, KC Masterpiece Original BBQ sauce, and 3-4 slices crisp crumbled bacon. Sorry but I am not really a recipe cook, I add by eye until it looks right to me and I cook it till it looks and feels right. Mix all ingredients together in the baking pan and cook uncovered in the oven at 350, when the onion/pepper is cooked soft the beans are considered done, they are better if they are cooked until the top is browned a little bit.
If you got through all that thanks for reading it.
In the end the party and the food was a great success, my in-laws were very pleased.
I guess it's just as hard to really mess it up as it is to really get it perfect.
