BARDSLJR

My son-in-law, Cory, is having his office party at their place (four houses down the street from us) and has requested my assistance in making pork shoulder for what is planned to be a big taco table tomorrow. So yesterday evening I set up up with the Kamado, got the Fireboard all ready, and liberally coated the two Costco pork shoulders with Dizzy Pig's classic Dizzy dust. This morning I started preheating the smoker and put the pork on the grill a little before 10. By my calculations, they will be ready about 8PM. BTW, I don't know what anyone else's experience with Fireboard is, but mine is mine is somewhere between good and great. It does a really fabulous job keeping the temperature plus or minus 5* of where I set it. 90 minutes in: temperature is a perfect 170*, one shoulder is 102*, the other is 8o,1: I will have to switch them on the grill in another hour or so. Stay tuned. Photos of the completed project later tonight. 26AC4152-2310-4CCC-8F76-7A0CDFBC2E0A.heic EB3896C9-9E44-4614-AC14-5EB319BB13C7.heic

I think on the Johnny Harris's bottle it says "best if heated before using, and I think that is true. I put some in a sauce pan and heat it on low for a few minutes. Boiling would not help it any.Shelf life in the refrigerator, like a lot of barbecue sauces, is pretty long because of the proportion of vinegar in the mix. Different stroke for different folks- to each his own- but I think this is so good I could eat it on white bread. They also make a mustard-based sauce which I would only use on chicken, and I find it cooks off quickly, so I would apply that right at the end of a cook, or right after i take the meat off the grill. There's another mustard-based sauce from Lillie's of Charleston, though, "Hab Mussy", that has quite a kick and a little heat, so that one is work exploring, too.

Hi, y'all, it's been a long time, but I have been busy cooking and growing stuff. I just want to post about Johnny Harris's barbecue sauce, which I discovered many years when we visited Savannah and Johnny Harris's restaurant was still open. Went there on a local recommendation for barbecue, and while the barbecue itself was, I guess, okay, but the sauce was, I thought, really remarkable. When we got home back to Shreveport (our home at the time) I started trying to replicate it, and never could get close. The internet was just starting to blossom with online discussion groups, and I joined a barbecue forum, and got around to a discussion of barbecue sauce and I. mentioned Johnny Harris's and failed attempts to replicate it. A nice woman on the forum gave a "cheater recipe" for it that came pretty close, and it became the base for my experimenting to make something closer to my own making. Over the years, I would experiment and tweak the recipe, gradually evolving it. It still didn't taste exactly like Johnny Harris's, which I was buying through mail order (the restaurant has closed in 2016, I think, but the name and recipe for the sauce was sold to a 3rd party, and the sauce is still produced and marketed over the internet, along with several other sauces (they do a great job on the shipping end, BTW.) Then, a couple of months ago the Johnny Harris Cookbook came out, and much to my surprise, they published the barbecue sauce recipe: sauce recipes are usually closely guarded secrets. It is not much like anything I would have expected. So here's my recipe, below, and I attached a photo of the recipe from the Johnny Harris's cookbook. Johnny Harris- Style Barbecue Sauce 2 tbsp chili powder 2 tbsp fine ground black pepper 2 tsp white sugar ½ tsp salt 4 cups catsup 1 cup yellow mustard 1/4th cup Worcestershire sauce 1/2 cup real cider vinegar (may experiment with other vinegars, like champagne vinegar or sherry vinegar) ¼ to ½ cup packed brown sugar (prefer dark) (May substitute honey, and add dark molasses. Should be to your taste. 2 tbsp butter 3 Tbsps fresh lemon juice Directions: Combine catsup in mustard in large pot. Warm on low heat. Stir in all ingredients except butter and lemon juice and mix thoroughly. Cook on low and stir frequently until well blended- 15 minutes. Remove from heat. Cool for 15 minutes. Add butter, stir until thoroughly blended. Add lemon juice to taste. Best if heated before using. Do not boil. This is the base recipe, and it is good for all meats- beef, chicken, pork, etc. I also usually use both honey and dark molasses (as above) for the sweetener. Taste at the end and add more honey or sugar or salt if needed. You could add cayenne pepper or hot sauce if you wanted it hotter- most of the heat in the recipe comes from the black pepper. I have also added several shots of espresso sometimes; tried dark chocolate once to good result; tried adding (separately orange marmalade or raspberry jam to give it a more fruit base.) You can also experiment using different vinegars (like champagne or Spanish sherry), but this is usually a lot more expensive for very subtle difference. You could also try adding a little cinnamon, Chinese five-spice, or both (not more than a teaspoon.) CDC1B288-7AE2-42F5-AA63-4AA328FF67EB.heic

Yup, I had been meaning to do this for a while, but I didn't have much to say....

Hey all, through an accident- I was stuck on the phone with Directv's so-called "technical assistance" group during the "wrapped" hour and ...mirable dictu- they actually turned out BETTER. So here's the story: Here is how I do it. It is a variation on the classic 2 hours in the open, 1 hour wrapped, 1 hour to finish recipe. *(This is for bablybacks. For St. Louis style ribs, it is 3/2/1.) I start the ribs out by bringing them to room temperature and sprinkling a heavy dusting of Dizzy Pig's* ( https://dizzypigbbq.com/?srsltid=AfmBOoppgD8X3mtmkuOC3NaN79iW5Y4Ntwk2r-eGpBscy4HDy2ZRqFkA) Dizzy Dust on the ribs, and spritz them down with a little water spray to help the rub sink into the meat. I put them in the smoker at 225 for 2 hours. For the wrap, I use aluminum foil, place a couple of bats of butter in each foil package, with brown sugar and again a heavy spiritizing of water or apple juice. They go meat side down in the foil- I find this helps them stay more moist and tender. Then back in the smoker for 1 1/2 hours. Then unwrapped, and finished in the smoker for 30-45 minutes. We prefer to serve our barbecue sauce on the side. BTW, I know there are as many barbecue sauce recipes out there as there televangelists in Texas, but I included mine and some side notes for your reading pleasure. I usually use applewood for smoking pork, sometimes mixed fruitwood, and post oak or hickory or a combination for beef. Since I increased the wrapped time from 60 to 90 minutes, and decreased the finishing time, my ribs are coming out much more juicy, and tender, but still very much done. Of course, I am here in Denver, at 5600 Ft, and our altitude, our humidity, etc, can make a difference.

Well, I think you're right about the 3/2/1/for St Louis style ribs but for babybacks I always understood it was 2/1/1. Be that as it may, I think we agree that these formulaic recipes are not based on any real experimentation or culinary science. Yesterday I found that 2 hours open, 1 1/2 hours wrapped, and about 30-45 minutes unwrapped to finish worked great for me. BTW, I have heard a lot about how good the KKs are at retaining moisture, and that may be, but we are up here in Denver where the humidity level is usually somewhere in the 20's, so a pan or two of water in the KK lower level works well for me here.

Okay, second try with a different browser....

I made perhaps the best version of babyback ribs, ever, yesterday, partially by accident, partly on purpose. Okay, so most of use the 2/1/1 method for babybacks, right? I have been experimenting with lengthening the amount of time the ribs spend moist-cooking in foil and decreasing the amount of time in the smoker after unwrapping-, so, instead of 2-1-1, more like 2- 1.5- .75. Yesterday I intended to leave the ribs extra long in the foil for cooking, and then I got stuck talking to Directv technical assistance (problems getting the remote to pair with my Bose soundbar) and probably moist-cooked the ribs for more like an hour; then I shortened the final unwrapped part of the cook to maybe 30 minutes. These were THE BEST ribs I have ever made, honestly. It brings up another broader issue: why do we believe that all these recipes are exactly designed for the dish they are cooking? Why is almost anything you bake at 350*? Why not 361, or 342, or 373? Why do we measure all our timing in very even increments? Why not 22 minutes instead of 30? Where is it written that everything must be in even hourly increments? Anyone else have any ideas or thoughts about this? For some reason the forum will not let me attach a photo this morning, so please take my word for it that the ribs were beautiful and delicious.

I got a 7lb lamb roast from Costco this afternoon and planned to cook it on my 32" KK this weekend. I've cooked a lot of roasts on the KK, but never a lamb roast. So, I imagine there are some of my KK peeps out there who have experience with this: recommendations, tips, instructions, recipes?

I think the freezing is an interesting idea. As for the smoke concern, perhaps one of the reasons this worked for me this time is that I used a 2/3rd-1/3rd mix of apple and cherry wood, and neither of those has a very strong flavor; if I had used oak or hickory the results might have been very different, e.g. , perhaps that creosote-like aftertaste.

Well, I am very pleased to report that it turned out GREAT. Maybe the best I've done yet. Good smoke and delicious, crunchy bark. Moist and tender. Everything I could want in pulled pork. We made sandwiches for dinner on big Hawaiian buns- mine with a coleslaw base and some good Johnny Harris's barbecue sauce. It was make-your-eyes-roll-to-the-back-of-your-head-and-see-god good. Haven't had that experience since the last time I wen to LA Barbecue in Austin and had the brisket sandwich. I think this is the recipe for me from now on. Interesting that there was such a variation in cooking time required for each of the four shoulders. I suppose variations in size and weight and maybe moisture content are the explanation, but one was at 203* at exactly 10 hours, as planned, and the last one took 11 1/2 hours to reach that temp. Interesting..... Since we had the smoker going, threw a chicken- halved- and a few breasts on there for good measure. Haven't tasted any of them yet.

I should also mention that I prepared the pork shoulders the night before, with a heavy dusting of Dizzy Pig's Crossroads southern rub mix, then rewrapped and back in the fridge overnight. It will be interesting to see how the bark comes out on these shoulders.

Perhaps of interest, and from one of my favorite periodicals (I subscribe only to Texas Monthly, Esquire, and the NY Times)..... https://www.texasmonthly.com/recipe/mimsys-crunk-coleslaw/ Daniel Vaughan is a gem, BTW.

Thanks, Tony, how are things in Iowa? We have a beautiful day in the 70s here n Denver today. It has been a long time....I just posted a note about today's cook effort.

Well, it has been a long time since I have visited the Forum, and even longer since I have posted, but yes, guys and gals, I am still alive and cooking. So, my best friend is coming in from Baton Rouge tomorrow for the week, and although Lee and Debbie love barbecue, he doesn't have a smoker and doesn't want to do it himself, so I am going to send him home with probably at least a whole pork shoulder, cut into serving sizes, vaccum-sealed and frozen. Happily, it reheats rather nicely, and especially since it is in a vacuum package already, sous vide is the preferred method. I got the smoker all prepared last night so I could start this morning around 8 for a 9 or 10 hour cook and got things going around that time. I don't know if anyone else does this, but I put my meat in the cold smoker first and then start it up- as Meathead Goldwyn tells us in his great book, "Meathead: The Science of Great Barbecue and Grilling", meat only absorbs smoke up to the point the surface temperature reaches 135* (F), so why not put your meat in the cold, in the cold smoker, and then start things up so you get the benefit of all that start-up time? Why wait until the smoker is at cooking temp goal (in this case, 270*)? Why not let the meat warm up gradually? So here we are at 8 AM (ish), the smoker just getting going, with four pork shoulders (thank you, Costco!): we are going to eat well, and and so will several of my neighbors, my two daughters and their families, and my friend Lee is going to go home with several pounds of, I hope, excellent smoked pork shoulder for pulled pork. It is now 10:45 and according to my Fireboard software, the shoulders are now somewhere around 120*, on their slow journey to 203* by late afternoon sometime. It's nice to be back, y'all.