...or yesterday, rather!
A tasty pile of q tends to garner plenty of appreciation wherever and whenever it appears (except perhaps in a group of vegans). When the venue is an outdoor party on a huge deck and yard in a beautiful country setting, on a day with perfect weather, and the audience is a group of hungry martial artists who have trained all day with nothing but a light lunch to sustain them...well, it's hard to imagine a happier or more congenial bunch of q eaters.
We had a big party planned after a day-long seminar at the dojo, so I stopped off at a local market (Foster's in Greenfield MA) earlier last week to order a butt and a brisket -- untrimmed please! Friday afternoon my former q apprentice Dave and I picked them up, plus a couple of large salmon fillets -- Foster's always gets a big fish delivery on Friday, so we didn't even have to pre-order.
We brined the salmon, then started it over alder wood around midafternoon on Dave's custom offset, which started out as this Char-Grill fake made up to look like an offset smoker that Dave picked up for a song at Home Depot. Turns out that among Dave's many talents, he's a welder, so he fixed its little red wagon by welding on a firebox, and it's now a pretty good little smoker, although it has some issues with ash buildup choking the fire because the chamber isn't all that it could be. A couple hours later, we started a packer flat brisket on my WSM, over a mix of maple and apple and just a bit of hickory. Then once the salmon was done, we started a butt on the custom. Hung out for a few hours on the deck, made sure everything was at the right temp and had enough fuel for the night, then went to bed.
My apprentice got up in the AM and found everything at the right temps, foiled it all and put it in a cooler with some towels...then we were off to sweat all day. When the hard work was done, back to the apprentice's homeplace, where the beer was on ice in the big cooler in the shade, the deck chairs were just waiting for tired bodies, the sun was shining, the breeze was blowing just enough to keep the mosquitos at bay, and the meat was ready for pulling and slicing. The guests showed up right on schedule with side dishes, desserts and tasty beverages, and a most contented and congenial party was had by all!
So, here are some of my thoughts:
<UL TYPE=SQUARE>
<LI>As delicious as barbecue is in the abstract, as with all good food, hunger is the best sauce and good company is the best seasoning. Hungry, happy, friendly people are the one ingredient that a great barbecue can't do without!
<LI>Having a crew is a good thing, even if you could do it all yourself. My q apprentice has graduated with flying colors, and is a most excellent cooking companion (and his wife is completely sold on barbecue as the way to feed hungry hordes when you want to be doing something other than cooking all day).
<LI>It may be cheaper to get meat at BJ's or Costco, but your local butcher appreciates your business -- and if you give him/her your feedback (and a few samples), will go the extra mile for you the next time you need that special cut.
<LI>Getting a slow, solemn nod and a "You done good" from a Mississippi native and serious q'er is pretty awesome -- particularly when it comes without "--for a couple of Yankees!"
<LI>I really like the fact that the WSM is trivially portable in my Matrix wagon.
<LI>When it's time to trim and prep, good sharp knives are so important. I'd forgotten mine, and the prep was a lot more work than it had to be.
<LI>I had a great sauce recipe for beef once, and I lost it, and it's been eating my guts ever since. I could have sworn I got it from the Weber grilling cookbook, but I couldn't find it when I went looking. It had coffee, and I've tried a few coffee recipes since, but none of them are it. If anyone knows of a great sauce for beef that came from some Weber publication, I'd love to know what it is.
[/list]
A tasty pile of q tends to garner plenty of appreciation wherever and whenever it appears (except perhaps in a group of vegans). When the venue is an outdoor party on a huge deck and yard in a beautiful country setting, on a day with perfect weather, and the audience is a group of hungry martial artists who have trained all day with nothing but a light lunch to sustain them...well, it's hard to imagine a happier or more congenial bunch of q eaters.
We had a big party planned after a day-long seminar at the dojo, so I stopped off at a local market (Foster's in Greenfield MA) earlier last week to order a butt and a brisket -- untrimmed please! Friday afternoon my former q apprentice Dave and I picked them up, plus a couple of large salmon fillets -- Foster's always gets a big fish delivery on Friday, so we didn't even have to pre-order.
We brined the salmon, then started it over alder wood around midafternoon on Dave's custom offset, which started out as this Char-Grill fake made up to look like an offset smoker that Dave picked up for a song at Home Depot. Turns out that among Dave's many talents, he's a welder, so he fixed its little red wagon by welding on a firebox, and it's now a pretty good little smoker, although it has some issues with ash buildup choking the fire because the chamber isn't all that it could be. A couple hours later, we started a packer flat brisket on my WSM, over a mix of maple and apple and just a bit of hickory. Then once the salmon was done, we started a butt on the custom. Hung out for a few hours on the deck, made sure everything was at the right temp and had enough fuel for the night, then went to bed.
My apprentice got up in the AM and found everything at the right temps, foiled it all and put it in a cooler with some towels...then we were off to sweat all day. When the hard work was done, back to the apprentice's homeplace, where the beer was on ice in the big cooler in the shade, the deck chairs were just waiting for tired bodies, the sun was shining, the breeze was blowing just enough to keep the mosquitos at bay, and the meat was ready for pulling and slicing. The guests showed up right on schedule with side dishes, desserts and tasty beverages, and a most contented and congenial party was had by all!
So, here are some of my thoughts:
<UL TYPE=SQUARE>
<LI>As delicious as barbecue is in the abstract, as with all good food, hunger is the best sauce and good company is the best seasoning. Hungry, happy, friendly people are the one ingredient that a great barbecue can't do without!
<LI>Having a crew is a good thing, even if you could do it all yourself. My q apprentice has graduated with flying colors, and is a most excellent cooking companion (and his wife is completely sold on barbecue as the way to feed hungry hordes when you want to be doing something other than cooking all day).
<LI>It may be cheaper to get meat at BJ's or Costco, but your local butcher appreciates your business -- and if you give him/her your feedback (and a few samples), will go the extra mile for you the next time you need that special cut.
<LI>Getting a slow, solemn nod and a "You done good" from a Mississippi native and serious q'er is pretty awesome -- particularly when it comes without "--for a couple of Yankees!"
<LI>I really like the fact that the WSM is trivially portable in my Matrix wagon.
<LI>When it's time to trim and prep, good sharp knives are so important. I'd forgotten mine, and the prep was a lot more work than it had to be.
<LI>I had a great sauce recipe for beef once, and I lost it, and it's been eating my guts ever since. I could have sworn I got it from the Weber grilling cookbook, but I couldn't find it when I went looking. It had coffee, and I've tried a few coffee recipes since, but none of them are it. If anyone knows of a great sauce for beef that came from some Weber publication, I'd love to know what it is.
[/list]
