Brayden's Birthday Boston Butts

We always have Brayden's birthday party over Memorial Day weekend. I usually grill burgers and hotdogs. This year I wanted to do something different in addition to the burger and dogs. I wanted to make some smoked pulled pork. I am a on grilling and BBQ forum called TVWBB. Every Saturday of Memorial Day weekend they have a WSM Smoke Day. I bought my first smoker earlier this year so this was the first year I was able to participate in it. I had a pork shoulder already in the freezer that I had bought on sale. As the day got closer I decided I should probably buy a second pork shoulder just in case. I was trying to plan out the smoke in my head so that it would be ready in time for the party since it takes quite a long time. I had never smoked more than one shoulder at a time so I wasn't sure if adding a second would require extra time. I asked that question on the TVWBB forum. I had originally planned on getting up at 4:00 to get it going. Some guys said it would take longer while others said it shouldn't add too much extra time. I decided before going to bed that I would just start it at midnight and do an overnight cook to play it safe. It would be pretty embarrassing to have a party and the food not be ready. I started out by making my own rub. The rub is a simple basic BBQ rub consisting of brown sugar, white sugar, kosher salt, black pepper, paprika, chili powder, garlic powder and onion powder. I rubbed down the shoulders with this blend of spices.

I set up the smoker by putting some charcoal in the ring, added a couple of pieces of cherry smoke wood, filled the ring to the top with more charcoal and then I added a few more pieces of cherry wood.

Pork shoulder are fatty and full of fibrous connective tissues, so you have to cook them over a long period of time, you want to make sure to keep the heat low and cook it slow. Cooking it low and slow ensures the fat and the fibrous tissues melt to make it tender and juicy. Anyway, to cook it slow I took 12 briquettes out of charcoal ring and lit them using my compact chimney. Once they were lit and ashed over, I dumped them into the middle of the charcoal ring to get it going. I put the middle section on and filled the water pan with hot water. In a vertical smoker, the water pan is directly above the charcoal. The water pan lets the food be cooked indirectly. When it is full of water, it acts like a heat sink and keeps the temperature low in the smoker. Plus the steam from the water boiling off keeps the food moist. I was able to get the shoulders on the smoker right at midnight just in time for WSM Smoke Day.

I wanted to make sure the temperature came up to at least 220 degrees and held steady.

By that time it was already 1:00. I have the 14.5" WSM so I knew it would only burn for 4-5 hours before needing more charcoal. I set my alarm for 0430 to check on it. The temperature was still holding steady, but first round of charcoal and wood was about gone. The temp of the shoulders were sitting right around 159 degrees.

I took out a bunch of the already lit coals and put them in the chimney starter. I then emptied out the ash from the smoker into my kettle grill. I dumped in another full ring of charcoal and added the lit coals on top and let it get back up to temperature. I also added more water to the water pan. I went back to bed around 5:00. I had to repeat the same process at 9:30. At about 10:30, the shoulders hit 195 degrees.

The party was not starting until 3:00 and we did not plan on eating until at least 5:00. I wrapped the shoulders in foil and then two bath towels and put them in the cold oven. Ideally, a cooler would be the place to put them, but they were being utilized for drinks for the party. When it was time to pull the pork, the shoulders were still nice and warm. The pork pulled apart really easily.

I think everyone liked the pork since I started out with about 17.2 lbs of shoulder and after everyone ate, I had maybe 1-2 lbs left.

That was even with having burgers and hotdogs. I would say the pulled pork was a pretty huge success. Sorry for the long winded post.  Thanks for looking!

Chuck

Grilled Meatloaf

We didn't have anything going on today, so I was trying to think of something good to grill for dinner. I thought about grilling pizza, but my wife said she would rather order pizza from Nancy's than go through all that work. Plus it is pretty messy. I then got the idea of grilling a meatloaf. Of course I would have to convince the kids first. Ella likes bacon, so I won her over by saying I would wrap it in bacon. Steph was pretty easy to convince too. Brayden was still on the fence though. I told him it would be like a BIG hamburger. That got him. :)  Here is the list of ingredients I used:

1.3 lbs ground chuck
1.3 lbs ground pork
1/2 a sweet onion chopped coarsely
1 red bell pepper chopped coarsely
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 egg
3/4 C bread crumbs
Worcestershire sauce
Kosher salt
Black pepper
My home made BBQ rub
18 slices of bacon

I normally throw in ingredients and don't really measure, so that is why some of the ingredients do not have measurements by them. With so much meat, I knew I had to split it up into two loaves otherwise it would take forever to cook. I fired up both the Genesis and the kettle. I set up both grills for indirect grilling since the meat loaves were going to take approximately an hour each to grill. While the grills were preheating, I mixed the first 10 ingredients together in a large bowl and set aside.

Now came the fun part, weaving the bacon. Weaving bacon is not as hard as it looks. I laid out 4 slices of bacon next to each other on top of parchment paper. I folded down the second and fourth slice. I then laid a slice across where the folded bacon was and then unfolded the second and fourth slices. Next I folded up the first and third slices and laid another slice across. I then unfolded the first and third slice. I continued until my bacon weave was done.

I then took approximately half of the meat mixture and laid it on top of the bacon weave. I formed the meat mixture into a loaf like form. I then folded the parchment paper around the meat mixture until the bacon stuck to the meat. I took all of this and laid it in a foil pan with the bacon ends on the bottom. I folded the ends under the loaf and formed it a little more.  They looked like little works of art.  LOL!

I took some of my home made BBQ rub and sprinkled it over the loaves.

By this time the grills were ready to go. I took a couple of small chunks of hickory smoke wood and threw it on top of the charcoal. I put the loaves on the grills foil pan and all. I checked the temperature about 30 minutes in to makes sure the were cooking at a good pace.

They were both about 120 degrees. After about another 30 minutes, I spread some BBQ sauce over the top of the loaves.

I checked them again in 15 minutes and they were both around 165 degrees which is where I wanted them. I pulled them off of the grill and let them sit for a few minutes.

 

I sliced them both with an electric knife and they were done perfectly.

 

I have always wanted to try grilled meatloaf and am glad I was able to do it today. I thought it was pretty tasty. The hickory gave the one loaf a really nice flavor. I didn't use quite enough of it though. Now I know for next time. If you haven't tried grilled meatloaf, I would highly recommend it. Thanks for looking!

Chuck

NY Strip Steak Heaven

Ever since my grilling protege, Brad made steaks for the first time on his kettle, I have been jonesing for a good steak smothered with onions and mushrooms. I told my wife Jenny that I don't care what anyone says, I am having steak for dinner tonight. We went grocery shopping at Meijer, but they did not have any good steaks out. Off to Caputo's we went. I found a family pack of 4 NY strips that looked decent, so I snatched them up.

I went basic as far as seasoning the steaks goes. I only used kosher salt, granulated garlic and black pepper.

Kosher salt really bring out a nice flavor in meat. I seasoned the baby bella mushrooms and onions with garlic salt, chili powder, black pepper and threw butter on top.

One of our friends had told me her husband likes to use a little hickory smoke wood when he grills steak. This sounded so awesome, I had to give it a try. Knowing Jenny and the kids wouldn't like the smokey steaks, I fired up two grills. I used the gas for their steaks and the onions and shrooms. I fired up the little Smokey Joe for my steak.

When grilling good cuts of steak, always grill on high heat and NEVER WALK AWAY FROM THE GRILL FOR TOO LONG. Right Brad? LOL! There is a lot of fat content in beef.  During the cooking process, the fat liquifies and can cause some big flare ups. You have to be ready for the flare ups and move the steak so they don't burn. Anyway, I threw the onions and shrooms on the grill first because I knew those would take longer to cook than the steaks. I let those go for about 5 minutes before throwing the steaks on the gas grill too.

Once the charcoal in the Smokey Joe was ready and the cooking grate was preheated, I threw in a couple of small chunks of the hickory smoke wood. The hickory caught fire and started smoking nice, so I threw my steak on the grill and put the lid on so the steak can catch some of that smokey goodness.

Make sure you only flip steak only one time halfway through cooking. After about 15 minutes on the gasser and 10 minutes on the Smokey Joe, I pulled all the steaks off, brought them inside and covered them with foil and let them rest.

As meat is cooked the proteins shrink and force out the juices which is why the more done a piece of meat is, the dryer it is. Resting meat allows the tissues to relax as it cools and also allows the remaining juices to redistribute back into the meat making it more moist. Covering meat with foil while resting creates steam that helps keeps the meat moist too. Anyway, not long after I brought in the steaks, the onions and shrooms were ready to be taken off the grill.

I was so excited and couldn't wait to tear into this meaty greatness of a meal. I got my steak ready and piled it high with onions and mushrooms.

I had also made a new boxed potato side I had found. It was made by Idahoan and called steakhouse bacon and ranch red potatoes. They were alright.  Not what I was expecting. Normally, I like my steaks rare, but because of using the hickory, I went for medium rare so the steak could absorb more of the smokiness. I cut it open and it was done perfectly.

That first bite was like heaven on earth. The hickory added a really great flavor to the steak. As I suspected, I gave Jenny and Stephanie a sample of my steak and they both didn't really like it. If you have not tried using hickory smoke wood with steak before, I highly recommend it! This was a meal that exceeded my expectations. I cannot wait to make it again! Thank for looking!

Chuck

Italian Sausage And Peppers

Tonight I grilled a meal I have made many many times before, but tonight was different because I actually had time to fire up the kettle to grill it. There is nothing special about this meal, but it tastes so good! I filled up the chimney with fresh charcoal and lit a Weber paraffin wax cube to get the coals going.

While that was heating up, I prepped the peppers and onions.

I like to grill these in a cast iron grill pan. I drizzled them with basil and garlic infused olive oil and sprinkled seasoned salt on them too.

Not long after prepping the veggies, the charcoal was ready to be dumped out of the chimney and repositioned for this cook.

I went with a 3 zone fire. High was towards the front of the grill, medium low was towards the middle and cool was on the opposite side. I put the cooking grate on the grill and let it heat up for about 5 minutes. After the 5 minutes, I used a wire brush to scrape the cooking grate. I then placed the cast iron grill pan with the peppers and onions over high heat section and the sausages over the medium low heat section.

When cooking raw pork sausages, you have to make sure they are cooked thoroughly without burning the outside of the sausages. To accomplish this, you have to make sure to turn the sausages every 5 minutes or so. Take special care not to puncture the skin of the sausage, otherwise the liquified fat will spray out and cause major flare ups which can burn the sausages if you are not watching closely. After about 20 minutes, the peppers and onions were done so I pulled them off.

I left the sausages on for another 5 minutes. I then pulled the sausages off and let them rest for about 5 minutes. I do this so that hot juices do not come spraying out of the sausage when cut and cause serious injury, plus it allows the juices to evenly distribute through the sausage as it cools. I sliced up the sausage, cut up the peppers and onions and mixed them together with some spaghetti sauce.

This is a simple yet delicious meal. Thanks for looking!

Chuck