Benny's After-Tax Weekend Cooks

[Benny L.]

Howdy Gang-

I took a long break from smoking during the holidays and due to my job doing taxes during the first part of the spring, but I've been jonesing more and more for some good quality smoke time. I've been doing lots of tri tips and mini brisket flats when I find time, but now that I survived another April 15 I wanted to go nuts, and I figure it's time to post some pics again.

A month or two ago I grabbed a two-pack of cryovaced pork picnics on the cheap and have had those in the freezer, and I moved them down to the fridge earlier this week. Those are on the docket later this weekend. I went shopping yesterday, and I picked up a nice 12lb Choice packer, a pork loin, a boneless leg of lamb (inspired by posts from Sean S., Paul K and others), and a CAB chuck roast on super sale. We'll see how far I get, but I plan on cooking everything this weekend.

Fortunately I looked at the weather report yesterday and it called for rain, so I set up the smoker on my covered front poorch. Got a nice downpour today, and I can still enjoy some time chilling with my cooker.

First up was the chuck roast, which I did last night. I wanted to post as it was in progress, but I was also drinking a couple of beers and I don't know how to operate the wife's Mac computer all that well. Let's just say that getting frustrated and drinking a couple more beers did not enhance my computer skills.

In any case, Tom Thumb (Dallas area Safeway) has CAB chuck roasts on sale for $1.77/lb so I grabbed a nice looking one. I haven't done one in a while and had no real plans for it, so I went with a modified version of the Smoked Chuck Roast el Adobo I've tried before. Just did the rub, subbing 2T Ancho, 1T Guajillo, and 1T Aji Amarillo for the paprika and chili powder, and threw it on the smoker overnight. To be honest I was more intent on drinking than smoking last night, so I just let it cruise in the mid 200s, didn't bother foiling, and pulled it this morning after about 13 hours (~3hr/lb) when I checked and it was nice and tender. I think foiling and cooking for a little shorter time would have left the meat a little more moist, but still it was easily pull-able with a nice bark and good flavor. I plan on using the meat with the chipotle/adobo sauce for some killer soft tacos, so this will do just fine. Man I love the beefy flavor of chuck roast, and I'm gonna have to go grab a couple more at that price. Never done burgers with home-ground beef before, but this might be a good time to try!




EDIT: And yes, the accountant in me realized I should have had a couple roasts on there. I'm having to buy charcoal by the bag since I ran out of my Labor Day supply, so the fuel cost almost as much as the meat I cooked last night!!

 

[Tim Johnson]

Looks great Benny!!!

 

[Benny L.]

Alright, it's 12:30am Sunday morning, so time for an update! So here is an arbitrary read-out as I'm getting something cooking right now, which I'll get to in my next post.



My overall smoking schedule was thrown off a bit. I planned to do my pork loin Friday night for dinner, but wife got home late and was more interested in a quick but filling snack. Oh? Beef nachos you say!?



Nothing gourmet, just chips, a can of Ranch Style beans I mashed up real quick, sharp cheddar, salsa, couple dollops of sour cream, then crunched up and sprinkled some Mexican oregano and some of the leftover rub from the chuck smoke. Knockout!

Today, Saturday, it was sprinkling on and off. I was trying to pull weeds in the front yard (been neglecting things due to work...), and next door the girls who just moved in were roto-tilling up the front yard. I figure we could all use some inspiration, so I fired up the WSM and got the pork loin going.

I started marinating it yesterday afternoon in a store-bought Caribbean jerk marinade, expecting to leave it in for a few hours, but ended up doing it overnight. No ill effect as far as I can tell! I've read some recipes/posts about smoking at 225-250, and just as many that advocate 325-350, and as many more that recommend to do it on the grill. I'm pretty laid back, so I split the difference and did it on the WSM ~300, mainly because that's where she settled without me bugging with it.

The times I've done pork loin before, I've just straight-up smoked it and carved like a roast. I've read some great posts recommending smoking then slicing into chops and finishing on the grill, so I figure I'd give that a whirl. [I tried backtracking to a particular post, and failed. J. Biesinger comes to mind, so thank you J and/or whomever else has suggested this method!] My plan was to smoke over cherry until ~135-145 internal, then slice and sear. It got away from me at the very end, and I pulled the loin off at 160 internal, but it still turned out phenomenal. I covered and rested for just a bit, and went back to remove the WSM middle section and put the grate over the charcoal ring. I sliced the loin into chops, painted both sides of each chop with a fresh dose of the jerk marinade, and grilled in a couple batches to give just a bit of a sear. Next time I'll make sure to pull the loin closer to 140 so I can sear more thoroughly, but these are already the best chops I've ever done. I shared with the neighbors, who were thoroughly tortured while I was smoking, and I think I made some life-long friends!

Too bad we're moving this summer! Some pics from this stage of the cook:

 

[Benny L.]

2:00am and all's well!!

So the next item up for smoking is... Pork Picnics!! What better way to spend a Saturday night?

I bought this double-cryo pack back during the winter holidays, and had them in the freezer ever since. Earlier this week I realized smoking time was upon me, so I moved them to the fridge.

Just for the fun of it, I'm trimming the rind off one and just scoring the rind on the other. I'm all about lazy BBQ, so I'm curious to see how much difference it makes. In reality, I think it took longer to do the scoring. I'm not a skilled butcher, but I trimmed the ring on the one in < 4 minutes, and I'm sure it took longer than that on the other. Whatever.

I'm using a high-tech proprietary rub blend tonight. I keep a ziploc bag of leftover rub recipes, and the rindless picnic got a rub that is a combination of a basic BBQ rub from a Paul Kirk cookbook, some chipotle experiment of mine, BRITU seasoned-salt, and cumin/chile rub from the chuck roast. For the rind-ed picnic, I wanted something fiestier, so I added 1T granulated garlic, 1T crushed Mexican oregano, and 2T Aji Amarillo powder to what I had left of the other rub. You can definitely tell a difference between the rubs due to the addition of the garlic and the beautiful yellow chili.

After rubbing them down, I popped them on the WSM with a 50/50 mix of hickory and cherry. (Yes, I'm low on smoke wood and hesitant to buy much with an impending move...)




Normally I'd smoke these close to 225 and give them a solid 16+ hours. Since I hope to free up the smoker for a couple more projects tomorrow, I'm going to kick it up a bit, but as I've been writing all this mess I really haven't done much to get it fired up. Here's a pic of my current condition.



[Yes, I know there was a pumpkin in the first pic of my therm. Don't ask, it's the wife's.

Since I've been sitting out on the porch swing I moved some of my junk around to block off the edge of the porch so I could let the dog out here. Here's a shameless pic of my girl at the park this week...]



I'ma fire it up a bit, then head inside and crank up the PS3! PS - been listening to lots of Sufjan Stevens tonight. I think I really dig this guy. Any y'all listen to him, gimme a shout!

 

[Larry Wolfe]

Benny, Benny, Benny, your pictures are torcher!!! I have many hours until my chuck roast is done and I'm drooling over yours that you're already enjoying!!!! The nachos, (one of my favorite things to make with leftover BBQ) looked incredible as well, not to forget the pork loin! You are the Lance Armstrong of BBQ God this weekend!!!

 

[Dave/G]

The weekend after the 15th has to be the greatest. I feel your pain not being able to smoke much during the tax rush. Great looking pics. I got my feet wet again with some kettle grilled salmon and yesterday did an 8 lb brisket flat. I'm running low on frozen packets of pulled pork and chuck so they are coming up soon. Again, fine looking food.

 

[j biesinger]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">The times I've done pork loin before, I've just straight-up smoked it and carved like a roast. I've read some great posts recommending smoking then slicing into chops and finishing on the grill, so I figure I'd give that a whirl. [I tried backtracking to a particular post, and failed. J. Biesinger comes to mind, so thank you J and/or whomever else has suggested this method!] My plan was to smoke over cherry until ~135-145 internal, then slice and sear. It got away from me at the very end, and I pulled the loin off at 160 internal, but it still turned out phenomenal. I covered and rested for just a bit, and went back to remove the WSM middle section and put the grate over the charcoal ring. I sliced the loin into chops, painted both sides of each chop with a fresh dose of the jerk marinade, and grilled in a couple batches to give just a bit of a sear. Next time I'll make sure to pull the loin closer to 140 so I can sear more thoroughly, but these are already the best chops I've ever done. I shared with the neighbors, who were thoroughly tortured while I was smoking, and I think I made some life-long friends! Wink Too bad we're moving this summer! Some pics from this stage of the cook: </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Glad to see someone tried this protocol, and it worked for you. If you plan on another go, I recommend brining the loin, it help keep things moist if you over shoot your target temp. I think I pull the loin at 130-135, and let it rest a bit before slicing. I also recommend a quick glaze during the sear. I mention all this because I'm not sure where that post is either.

Nice work on the smoking. I had a similar situation in that I was on vacation and during 2 days I killed: a brisket, a small pork loin, a rack of ribs, 8 chicken thighs, 6 chickens, and 3 pork butts.

I like the beef adobo idea. The chickens and the butts were for a party where tacos were on the menu. I made an adobo paste for the butts. I think the selection worked out well, but I have reservations about serving pork and chicken. If I would have seen your post earlier, I might have went with beef and chicken.

 

[JimK]

You are a machine, Benny. It all looks great. What's going on the WSM today?

 

[Benny L.]

Thanks for the comments you guys! I just can't tell you how much fun I'm having.

Yesterday evening the wife and I went over to an art festival in Ft. Worth. Her idea... she likes to paint and make jewelry and stuff... me, if I look at a picture I can tell you if I like it or not, and that's about it. Mostly I like looking at photos of other people's barbeque.

Anyhow, it was a hell of a good time. Blocks upon blocks downtown all squared off for the party, gotta be over a hundred artists with paintings, photos, sculptures, jewelry, etc. Drank a few beers, ate some surprisingly great boiled crawfish that shamed anything I've had at a restaurant outside of LA and one place in Houston. [They let the bugs soak in the spicy boil, instead of trying to shake the seasoning on after the fact. Win!] Listened to some good musicians/bands including this dude. We walked by and I just thought "Oh, miscellaneous 'world music' performer." but ended up sitting and listening for a good long while. Seriously mesmerizing stuff!

Anyway, I digress. It's just such a trip coming back down to normal working hours and having time on the weekend to spend like a normal person! I know everyone goes through busy and/or stressful times at work, and honestly I'm very thankful to HAVE lots of work that keeps me busy, if you know what I mean.

On to the food! After my post last night around 2:00 I set the lid ajar just the slightest bit. I went to bed around 3:00, and the temp had stabilized right around 300* so that seemed pretty appropriate. [When you're used to working until midnight, it ain't no big deal staying up drinking and smoking until 3:00 on a Saturday

] Set the temp remote on my nightstand just figuring I'd get up whenever, and started waking up around 8:30. By 9:00 the remote was saying my piggies were just about at 200* internal, and I was pretty much awake, so I figured it was time to get going. The bones jiggled nicely in both, they both had a great strong but not crunchy bark, and were absolutely tender and juicy when prodded gently with a fork. Pulled them off into a deep pan which I foiled over and stuck in the un-heated oven to hold until lunch. Tasted some of the leftover bits that stuck to the grate and WOW! Haven't done butts in a long time and forgot how good these turn out! Will post pics of the finished product once I pull them. What's the only logical thing to do next? Grab another beer, hot squat, fill that charcoal ring back up, and kick up the fire for a HH packer!! Coming soon!

 

[Benny L.]

1:30 on Sunday and all is well!!

For the hell of it, here's my view from the porch swing as I write:



Right after I pulled the picnics off the smoker this morning, I reloaded the charcoal ring with the ends of a couple misc. bags, and propped the lid a bit to stoke the fire up. Pulled the 12lb packer out of the fridge, took some whacks at the hard white fat (out of habit, mostly), and realized I needed to come up with a rub. I used almost all of my "baggie o' mystery" on the picnics last night, so I grabbed my Paul Kirk CHAMPIONSHIP BARBEQUE cookbook for inspiration.

Now, I don't begrudge Mr. Kirk for his successful business career one bit. But based on what I've learned here and from personal experience, some of this stuff is just silly. I flip to the seasoning/rub section, and the first one to catch my eye is "The Baron's Barbeque Spice". Cool, I like some heat. Ingredient #1: 2Tbsp sweet Hungarian paprika. Ingredient #2: 1 Tbsp dry mustard. FAIL. Next recipe, "Barbeque Seasoning and Rub". The description reads "This rub is complex and worth a try. Your next pork butt or slab of ribs will be a winner. With this rub, you get an extra smoky hit from the hickory salt, which is available, along with the horseradish powder, from better spice companies such as McCormick's." I don't even know where to begin with that. The good news is that I bought this book for $1 at my BBQs Galore closeout sale.

Also please note that I decided to use real salt and a couple chunks of hickory wood on my brisket, instead of some garbage I bought from McCormick's.

For what it's worth, I just opened my cabinet and started grabbing things that I like. I think the rub turned out to be something like:
2 Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp Kosher salt
1 Tbsp granulated garlic
1 Tbsp granulated onion
2 Tbsp Mexican oregeno
1+ Tbsp New Mexico hot red ground chili
Dash (leftover) New Mexico green ground chili
1 Tbsp Allepo pepper
1 Tbsp Guajillo ground chili
1 Tbsp Aji Amarillo ground chili

I found the NM chili powders in the back of my cabinet from a good while ago. If I knew I had them, I'd have use those on the picnics last night. I love hot NM chili on pork! Oh well. This rub has some firepower, but on my tongue it comes sweet at first then a nice lingering heat. Rubbed the brisket and wedged it on the WSM about 10:30. Yeah, I really should foil the tips there, but whatever. I'm just glad I passed on the 14lb-er sitting next to it in the store!

Another complete side note, but I paid $1.79/lb for this packer. $1.99 is about what I normally see when not on sale, but around here you can easily get them for $0.99/lb on sale in the summer. The stores I got to usually have a bizarre mix of both Select and Choice packers for the same price. Anyway, picking up some odds and ends at a different store yesterday, I was poking through the meat counter and saw their packers. $1.99/lb, nothing special. Flipped one over, and was shocked to see not a black Select stamp or a blue Choice stamp, but a red PRIME stamp! WTH? I seriously stood there a couple minutes thinking about it, but I already had so much meat on the schedule I didn't buy it. Sure I could have stuck it in the freezer for later, but that seems like a hell of a thing to do to a prime brisket. Still I probably would have taken better care of it than Average Joe. It just at this very moment occurred to me that I could have put my choice packer in the freezer and cooked the prime packer today, but I guess it's a little late for all that!

Anyway, my point is just to remind everybody to look closely at the meat any time you're in the store, you never know what you'll find! (This was at the Albertson's on Lemmon @ Central if any Dallas-area peeps wanna go take a peek!). I also happened across a load of bone-in lamb legs marked and priced as boneless legs at the little Tom Thumb by Preston Square (Preston/NW HWY) just the other day, so it can also work against you! I'm convinced that the average TVWBB reader has 10x the meat knowledge as the average grocery store "butcher", so use it to your advantage!

Sooo... the packer went on ~ 10:30 this morning. About 12:30 I took a peek... it was smelling and looking great! I want a little more bark before I foil, so I let it keep chugging while I pulled the pork. A half hour later I foiled it up (happens to be 167 internal) and I'll check on it around 3:00.





The piggies turned out great! I mixed up a quick finishing sauce based off of both Bryan S and Kevin Kruger's recipes, plus the kitchen sink. First pulled the picnic that I'd removed the rind from, and it was perfect. First pic is before the finishing sauce, second is after, just to see if the is a noticeable difference to the eye. Then pulled the rind-ed picnic. Interestingly, there was one muscled that was tough to pull but most of the rest was exceedingly tender (more like butt than picnic) so I really have to just chalk this up to the specific roast rather than keeping the rind intact. As for the rind... this is something else! It takes bark to a whole new level. It's like pig fat jerky! It's not of a consistency that I'd mix in with the PP itself, but good lord, I chewed on some of that while working on the picnic, and the taste and texture is off the hook! A little crunchy, and mostly chewy, and GOOD! I put a hunk of it in the back for the pic. Don't know if I'll cook picnics with the rind on next time, or if I'll cook the rind separately or what, but this needs further investigation. Any tips are more than welcome!

 

[Benny L.]

5:30 and all is well!!

At 3:00 I checked on the brisket, and it needed a little more time. At 3:30 the flat felt nice and tender, so I separated it from the point and put each back on to cook unfoiled. (Just wanted to tighten up the bark on the flat a bit, hopefully.) Gave the flat ~20 min unfoiled, then brought it inside to rest under foil. Got to talking with the folks on the phone so let it sit a little longer than I planned, but after 45 min it was still hot and sliced beautifully. I carved it up then poured the reserved juices over it. Ain't gonna win one of those princess contests with the KGB or whatever you call it, but if you took a taste I bet you'd sit down to have a snack with me for a while!! Actually a pretty mild/sweet smoke flavor thanks to 50% cherry, and the mix of chilis in the rub comes through just great. The brisket is just spicy enough to leave you looking for a bite of potato salad or a swig of cold beer before your next bite. Perfect for my taste!

The point is still out there smoking in the 200s for the last two hours or so. I'll probably bring it in soon to chop, sauce, and return to the smoker for Burt Ends. Never done 'em before but they look damn good, so I figured I might as well.

I still have one piece of meat left (the boneless leg of lamb), and hopefully the wife will wake up in time for me to cook this for a real sit-down dinner. (She works at the children's hospital, and last night she did a 11pm-7am shift.) I know how I'm cooking it one way or the other, I just hope I get to serve it "live" instead of reheated. Hope you guys and gals are having a great Sunday too!

 

[Benny L.]

6:30 and all's well!!

Brisket flat is packed away in convenient size bags, so I figure I'd see about that point.

I knew the wife had a brownie pan just the right size I was looking for. I'm pretty surprised I didn't wake her up looking for it, 'cause I must have pulled out half her trays from the pantry to find it and made one hell of a clatter, but I found the one I was looking for. I'm sure she'll appreciate it later!

Normally, I would rather eat my own diarrhea than taste some BBQ smothered in Bull-Eye or KC Masterpiece sauce, and fortunately I had plenty of SBR and Stubbs on hand for the ends. The third ingredient in the pic is for the chef, not the recipe. Yeah, I should drink better stuff, but I'm in the mood for LOTS of light beers right now. I'll let these do their thing for a while and bring them in later...

 

[Benny L.]

Just thought I'd circle back and post up the last cook of the marathon. I was too exhausted and beer-ed to upload and write any more, but not so much I wasn't still cooking and taking pics...

I had marinated a boneless leg of lamb overnight in a yogurt + garam masala marinade taken directly from Sean S.' post in the grilling section recently. Never used garam masala before, but I will again! I'm a newb when it comes to lamb, so I poked around a couple recipes and did this on the fly to try and minimize the chance of ruining an entire leg. I separated the boneless leg into three separate smaller roasts, ala Chris' method under Cooking Topics. I then cooked these the same way I did the pork loin earlier... this time smoked ~350 until a nice rare, then sliced into "chops" and quickly seared over direct heat. We had done a lot of sampling/snacking during the day, but I still wanted to have a plated dinner. I sliced up some sweet potatoes that I smoked/grilled along with the lamb, a little sauteed squash, fresh cold tomato, and pita. The wife raved about how the flavor of the lamb turned out, and the texture was good but we both agreed next time to either skip the sear or slice-n-sear earlier. Still it was very nice, and I'm tempted to try both the lamb and Indian seasonings again soon.



To polish things off I had planned on a light dessert. When I was picking up the garam masala and some other goodies at Penzey's, the lady at the checkout asked if I had tried the baked apple cinnamon pancake in their latest catalog (upper right hand corner on the cover)... apparently lots of customers have been talking about it. It didn't need any fancy ingredients and seemed easy to do, so I gave it a whirl and we liked it. Didn't have any cream to whip up for a topping, but paired it with a dollop of peach-champagne sorbet. Really nice way to cut the heaviness of the lamb and all the barbeque from that day. Needless to say, I got my fill of smoking and drinking over the weekend, and now my fridge and freezer are fully stocked. My only regret is that I didn't tackle any poultry, but I guess there's next weekend...