Troble

@Syzygies i was fortunate enough to have an office in Austin for a few years and was flying out there every 2 weeks and I got to eat a lot of BBQ. I ate at Franklin's, Stubb's Salt Lick, Slab BBQ, La Barbecue. I like Franklin's brisket, but that is because I am a brisket man and prefer the salt & pepper rub. I have had Carolina BBQ and as mentioned earlier I've eaten KC BBQ a number of times and I have determined that for me I am a central TX BBQ like guy but that is mainly due to the fact that I like brisket best and I am not the biggest fan of sauce. KC is all about the ribs and I agree with you that there were some great tiny "hole in the wall" shack type places that I went to that I can't even remember the name of now that were always consistently good. So for me I like TX, KC and Carolina BBQ in that order, with the asterik that I have yet to make the pillgramage to eat at Rodney Scott's place

I do believe that some of the stuff us KK owners here cook on this forum is up there with the best of the best, however the one element that I am missing in my personal repetoiire is that I don't yet make my own kick ass BBQ sauce. It's one of my goals for 2021 to learn how to create my own "signature" BBQ sauce.

I always appreciate your tips @Syzygiesthank you for sharing so much of your knowledge. I will definitely look into the BBQ book you recommended above. 

@jonji need to do the roasted sweet potatoes those look great. You cook those in the oven? Great job on the tri-tip cook

Congrats on the most I’ve birthday. When’s the big day? 
 

thanks for the tip about the restaurant, fortunately for me I am a crazy OCD travel planner and my specialty is booking awesome things 1 year+ out. I definitely won’t be traveling a trip to AU unless it’s a year out and I’ll 100% be going to his restaurant. Dare I say Basher that we shall likely have to meet at said event.
 

One of my best friends (who’s from Sydney) just moved out to the country there and bought some land with his mum. I’m not even sure what town it is but his Instagram pictures say “south gundurima”. I’ve promised him and my kids I’ll take them down there at some point but not for a few years when the kids can manage the long flight

16 hours ago, Forrest said:

Probably if the ground is flat and you tip him.

@braindoc I’d be shocked if they didn’t have a pallet Jack. Take Forrest’s advice abs have some cash and I’m sure they’ll help you as long as they can sheen it around your pretty. If you need to go over grass or dirt run out and get a couple of sheets of plywood to lay down 

I haven’t watched that link yet. Will try to get to it today but congrats on that grill. I want something like that but not sure I’ve got space (translation - the OK from the Mrs)

I think I’ve made the joke before that if I wasn’t married with kids and was going and single I’d be stalking Lennox at his restaurant and figuring out how I could work in that kitchen. He is truly inspiring. Thanks for sharing I hadn’t seen or heard of that and I’m super excited to watch it when I get some time to focus on it 

@Jadeite congratulations that’s a good looking grill 

He’s my favorite 

@Basher you referring to this?

https://www.theworlds50best.com/stories/News/50-best-masterclass-lennox-hastie-teaches-how-to-barbecue-like-a-pro-.html

The source of truth has spoken! Great write up @jonj wish I had this info before I went out there. 

I was going out to KC once a quarter for work for about 18 months and got taken to many of the best BBQ joints by locals. Most locals swear by Joe’s which was great but I preferred Q39 personally. Here’s a decent list to get you started 

https://www.travelchannel.com/interests/food-and-drink/kansas-city-bbq--6-top-picks-you-wont-want-to-miss

heres another solid list 

https://www.kansascitymag.com/the-10-best-kansas-city-bbq-spots-we-ate-at-50-plus-spots-to-pick-em/

Nice skewers and meal @tony b

@jeffshoaf good looking butt!

I made tri tip tonight, really been leaning on that cut as it allows my wife to have the more well done end pieces and I can have the medium pieces in the middle 

marinated the tri tip in soy sauce, garlic powder and Montreal steak seasoning for 2 days. Cooked it indirect with mesquite wood then finished on lower grate. Turned out perfect for both of us 

slow baked sweet potato served with Greek yogurt 

grilled asparagus with olive oil, salt, black pepper & garlic powder 

I had some leftover beef broth and a small package of leftover mushrooms that I’d be throwing out in a day or two and since I’ve been on a sauce kick I decided to wing it and make a sauce and see what happened. Let’s call it a Au ju. Beef broth, red onion, mushrooms, garlic, Dijon mustard, soy sauce, brown sugar and black pepper, finished with a bit of meat juice after slicing. Turned out good!

6 hours ago, tony b said:

There's a reason for that - it's KETCHUP!! 😝

I’ve had high quality ketchup at the hipster Gastropubs in San Diego. There is such a thing. 

@MacKenziedo you make your own ketchup?

And I was proud of my meal last night.....great looking cooks folks. Well done!

Bone in Duroc pork chop. Rubbed with olive oil, Peruvian pink salt, black pepper, garlic powder, brown sugar & rosemary 

roasted baby potatoes with olive oil, truffle salt, black pepper & thyme 

Iowa sweet corn w/butter, salt & pepper 

roasted baby carrots with Momofoku savory seasoning 

served with balsamic Pinot noir red wine reduction sauce 

@Basher good looking chops. Love Thai salad 

@jonj mouth watering plate. Well done

Anchor steam was first, never really cared for it, always thought it tasted like barnacles. Started drinking Sierra Nevada and Sam Adam’s in college, I’d bring my own 6 pack to parties cause I didn’t like cheap keg beer. Stumbled upon Arrogant Bastard in 1998 when I was 19 years old and began my love affair with local San Diego beers 

@tony b my game was bad that’s why I chose to sit down and take in the view. Course is getting ready for US Open in June so it’s hard enough but 25mph winds coming into your face from the Ocean only make it harder. By hole 17 I was ready to cry uncle 

@jonj yesterday at Torrey Pines South 

@tony b my cucumbers started to flower today, as did the Thai peppers. Been harvesting my strawberries every morning the past week. Sadly the one thing I want most Aji Amarillo has not sprouted from seed 

@tekobo I’m definitely obsessed. I’ve been pissed off all day about not executing my pork but good and getting flustered. I usually reserve judgement on my BBQ till I eat it the next day and I just ate it again, not terrible but nothing close to my standard for pork butt. I need to jump back on the horse again as soon as possible 

@tekobo I’m going to cook it flat on the grate and then flip it towards the end to crisp the skin 

I had the same thought about me messing with the recipe but A. I usually sissy’s have cayenne and red pepper fishes at home and as I was mixing everything up I realized I didn’t and I did not want to go to store (again) so I improvised. The other thing was when cooking pork shoulder you usually wrap it in foil with liquid and obviously his hog recipe didnt call for that, so because it was taking so long to cook and I was starting to get worried about dinner I thought I had to wrap it and given that I was in the pool with the kids enjoying a couple of beers, I made a snap decision to wrap it like I normally do and it just didn’t work.. 

I had a jar of rub leftover that I saved so I tasted it again it tasted fine so I’m left to thinking it was my Thai chili sauce that didn’t go well. I’ve used it before but I think I put way too much in. Recipe says two tablespoons I used the entire bottle. Not smart. I was panicking cause I was 17 hours into the cook abs it was still 160 and I was watching my kids swim while trying to wrap the pork. Snap decision. Bad decision. I think I’ll grill a pork chop with my leftover rub to see how it tastes 

in general though my style of bbq at least with Brisket is salt & pepper only. The pork butt I use the slap yo daddy recipe I posted earlier. 
 

I think for the pig I’ll stick to mostly salt & pepper. The challenge I have with that cool is my wife’s Brazilian friends will be coming and Brazilians don’t like heat, they think black pepper is spicy and there no way I can use this sauce recipe or rub which called for red pepper flakes. I thought his sauce was spicy and granted I didn’t execute it right but I could tell based on the spoon taste  it was too  spicy. 
 

this is why I started this process now when I plan to do the cook in a month. I’ve got some tinkering to do and lucky for me you did a test cook and showed me that the main grate is the best way to go for now. I came to that conclusion before you even finished your cook when I saw you seeing that pig up I said to myself “there no way I can do that”. So at least for my part that was hugely helpful. 

I put the pork butt on at 12:50am last night. It was a 10lb bone in butt which is a little on the heavy side. Usually mine are about 8.5-9lbs, but I didn’t think it was a big deal. Put it on at 215 degrees and it cooked from 1am-6am at 215. I know lot of you use fancy thermometer gadgets but I don’t. I use the Tru-tel and my fingers to gauge temp as well as an instant read thermometer. Bumped the temp up to 225 at 6:30am. 
 

started spraying the butt with apple juice every 30 minutes from 6:30am-12pm. First temp reading at 12pm was 140 degrees. Strange.....went to gym, went to store for Cole slaw, came back at 2:30pm and temp was 150.....strange. Bumped up temp to 250 cooked another 90 minutes temp reading was 158....strange 

wrapped the butt in foil added beer, butter, siracha and sweet Thai chili sauce like I normally do and bumped the temp up to 275. 
 

checked back at 5:00pm temp was 160.....strange. Moved butt from indirect heat to direct on top grate and left it till 6:30pm, when it finally reached 195 internal temp. Pulled it out let it rest for an hour notice a ton of liquid in the foil pouch after and did what I normally do which is pull the pork, sprinkle some brown sugar on it and put it under the broiler for 10 minutes to crisp it. 
 

tried to make the Rodney Sauce BBQ sauce but didn’t follow instructions and mixed all ingredients at once instead of warming the vinegar and adding ingredients in slowly. Good thing my wife told me to pick up a bottle of sweet baby Ray’s bbq sauce when I went to get Cole slaw cause the sauce is

1. Too spicy and

2. Too runny to use since I start it earlier 

took pork out of broiler and served on my normal Hawaiian rolls. It tasted good but something tasted foreign and almost over powering. Not sure if it was cause I used a bottle of Thai sweet chili sauce with the foil step but ive used it before but perhaps not the entire bottle.still there was a distinct, foreign taste. It could be the MSG, could be too much Thai chili sauce 

Food was good but both my wife and I preferred my original method of cooking pork butt which is the slap yo daddy method. I’m glad I did a test cook cause I definitely wouldn’t want to do a pig this way. I’m sticking to my tried and true method that we’ve used for  over 15 years.  https://www.slapyodaddybbq.com/2012/04/slap-yo-daddy-bone-in-pork-butt-2/https://www.slapyodaddybbq.com/2012/04/slap-yo-daddy-bone-in-pork-butt-2/

good experiment but sometimes you don’t mess with a good thing. It’s possible the weird taste was the fact that I substituted cayenne pepper and red pepper flakes for paprika and chili powder (since I did t have cayenne & red pepper), but I don’t think so. I’ve used those spices before, this tasted different and I wasn’t a fan of it 

@tekobocan you ship some of those my way? Looks amazing 

@Syzygies @tekobo I’m simply trying the recipe from the person who’s most well known for smoking hogs and I’m gonna report back on my thoughts after I eat it. 
 

@Syzygies maybe you should let the James Beard foundation know that Rodney Scott is a cheater 😀

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/living/food-drink/article210780499.html

2 hours ago, tony b said:

You just didn't know it. It's naturally occurring in a lot of foods, like mushrooms, aged parmesan cheese and soy sauce - can you say "umami?" 

Yeah I get that but I’ve never used t as a slice I’ve only eaten Chinese food that says “No MSG”. Mushrooms, aged Parmesan and soy sauce are 3 of my favorite flavors so all that makes sense to my taste buds