Worked out best for us to cook Easter dinner today instead of Sunday.
Took a spiral cut ham and used Balsamic Coffee Glaze for glue and Yardbird for rub. The ham will be cooked on a wire mesh resting on a shallow pan of water.
I made up a glaze from butter pecan syrup, honey, a small amount of Yardbird, and a couple of shakes of smoked cayenne/habanero powder.
On to the MAK for an hour of smoke followed by an hour at 225, then we're ready to start brushing on the glaze, here I just finished the first coat.
While the ham chugs along at 225, I prepped some cheesy scalloped potatoes. Each layer is sliced russet potatoes, grated smoked cheddar and grated parmesan cheese, then spoon on half & half and sprinkle with BPS Desert Gold. I used four layers today, here I'm up to layer 2. On the top I drizzle melted butter and skip the cheese until the potatoes reach the desired doneness, then add the cheese and bake another 15-30 minutes.
Meanwhile, after three hours at 225 the MAK was ramped up to 325 to better caramelize the ham and get the smoker ready for the potatoes. Here the ham is done and will be FTC'ed until we're ready to eat.
The potatoes went on the MAK and after about an hour I moved them to the upper shelf and started the asparagus. (Garlic EVOO and BPS Double Secret, shake in a 1 gal baggie)
As the aparagus got done I grilled some pineapple spears brushed with the same glaze used for the ham. Here's a plated pic.
But wait, there's more...before the ham we baked a pineapple upside down cake. No pecans, no round pineapple slices...so, no artsy points, but man was it tasty!
It was a great tasting meal and my brother-in-law raved about the asparagus so much I sent him home with my spare bottle of BPS Dbl Secret (now I'll have to order more soon!) Thanks for looking, hope everyone has a great Easter!
Did Spatchcock chickens marinade with Smoke On Wheels BBQ Marinade and dusted with Plowboy's Yardbird.
Also, Did some Veg with Balsamic glaze and put them on Firewire.
Put them on my Traeger Deluxe, set to 325 degrees and cooked to 163 internal then let rest.
Veg on the Grill Grates
Finished product, Chicken was awesome but need to work on my Veg cooking skills.
It's nice to be home again. We went to Sam's on Tuesday and bought alot of other meats so there will be more to follow and hopefully I'll knock all the dust off my cooking skills. I'm missing a few photos and this is my first cook for the forum so please be gentle!
Craving some chicken off the grill so found some chicken pieces in the freezer that I thawed in the fridge overnight and used a garlic and herb marinade that I had in the fridge.
Marinaded the chicken in the fridge for a few hours then sprinkled it with some Big Poppa's Desert Gold Rub to add a little zip! On to the grill is goes...
Just about ready to pull of the grill. I could start eating right now!!
Close up!
I managed to get the chicken to the plate before I started eating it! Some chicken flavored rice, veggies and a crescent roll. Dinner is served!!!
Left for the store last night to buy a pork roast for today, I wasn't in the mood for the traditional ham or lamb, somewhere between here and there it changed to short ribs.....
when I got home I started dinner on the MAK and as soon as that came out carrot cake went in...
sprinkled the short ribs with some rosemary, thyme, black pepper and into a bag with some red wine for an overnight soak
this morning.....ribs, cream cheese, butter out of the fridge.......
short ribs dried, sprinkled with some black pepper and some BPS Double Secret
over a pool of wine, carrots, shallots, onion, garlic and some herbs
into the MAK, cream cheese frosting made.........
in the MAK on smoke for an hour, then 250 until they had good color
into a dutch oven with the wine/veggies & some beef broth
frosted the cake
pulled the short ribs out of the dutch oven and dutch oven into the beer fridge to cool down and separate the fat , fat skimmed and the juice reduced and thickened with a little butter/flour
started some polenta, finished it with some 2yo raw milk cheddar (smoked in the MAK a few months ago)
I’ve been looking and drooling over Sparky’s ribs since I joined this forum and decided it was time to get serious, step out of my comfort zone and try doing ribs again.
Here they are rubbed and wrapped to go into the fridge to soak up some flavor.
Then I put them on to the Weber with a magic pot full of cherry pellets.
After two hours of low and slow cooking, I pulled them off the grill to add some special Easter happiness and wrapped them in foil.
Here’s the final product plated with a citrus salad and garlic baguette.
Prepped the shank that was dropped off at my house... with mustard and Yardbird.
Prepped the beans the night before. Started with Bush original. Smoked some bacon,sausage and onions. Mixed that all together along with apple, BBQ sauce and some other seasonings.
Put the ham and beans on together at 7am on smoke for 1.5 hours. Then up to 250. Got to 125 around 10am.. hmmm... lowered back to 225 and spritzed with AJ every 30min. Glazed with a bourbon, maple syrup, orange and some other good stuff that I cooked down earlier.
Pulled around 1:15 and rested for 30 min. Turned out really good. Really juicy and the beans that the whole family loves.
No plated pics since when it walked in the door there was utter chaos! I love family.
My parents were driving 5 1/2 hours to spend Easter with Tanya and I and their requests was that we have ribs for them when they got here on Friday so I took out 3 racks of ribs on Tuesday to thaw, Wednesday afternoon my youngest 22 year old son calls me and said he was hitching a ride with grandma and grandpa to also spend Easter with us; so I pulled 3 more racks out of the freezer!
2 racks done with Balsamic Whiskey Glaze, Wee Willy's Whiskey marinade and finished with Paula Dean's Sweet Bourbon Glaze.
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2 racks done with Balsamic Whiskey Glaze, my wife's Tatonka Dust and finished with Paula Dean's Sweet Bourbon Glaze.
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2 racks done with Balsamic Cherry Glaze, 3 Eyz spice rub and finished with Blue's Hog Smokey Mountain Sauce.
I usually cook baby backs, but thought I'd try something a bit different. When trying to figure out how to cook them, there was no doubt where to go for research: Sparky. While I didn't FL like Sparky I took two things from his postings
Cook at 275
Rub just before cooking; not the night before
Toothpick test instead of bend test
If this cook wins an award or instantiates drooling, credit Sparky; if not, blame me.
3 racks of ribs from Costco
What to do for rub. My boss gave me a box of various Penzey spices at Christmas. I used the Chicken and Rib Rub for 2 racks and some Chris Lily Butt Rub for the 3rd rack.
Rubbed and waiting for the Mak to warm up.
I've had some success using a water pan and spritzing with apple juice rather than foiling. My focus this spring/summer is less work and more cooking. This seems easier than the Texas Crutch.
A beautiful day in Beaverton, OR. Blue skies; mid 70's and Vinnie calling the Dodger game on MLB TV.
When they pass the toothpick test, I put a little sauce on and sizzle them on the grill a few minutes. I used some bottled sauce from Buster's; a local barbecue shack.
All done.
I was pretty happy with the smoke ring...
...and the taste. Coleslaw and my bean recipe round out the meal
I've been working on my bean recipe for about 7 years; I think I've perfected it. You can find it here.
Have been fooling around with the idea of using a GoPro camera cooking etc.
So here are some clips from yesterdays cook. Which was a Strube Brisket that was fantastic, STL cut ribs. Grilled asparagus , Smoked Beets, A Potato Celery root, and onion dish with gruyere cheese,White wine and creme. Patty made a couple of cakes and then we did a special desert for effect and giggles.
Wow guys that was a great week of cooks. You did not make it easy to try being a judge. After looking a few times I think I have it figured now.
In third place is Rip. That was a great bunch of work on that dinner and it all looked great.
In second is Tenthunter. The extra work on that ham was incredible. I wish I could have had a slice or 2.
This week's big winner is Deb. Those ribs looked great. I stopped just shy of licking my screen. The cake was also very tasty looking.
Once again great job to everyone who entered. Thanks for hosting BP.