Pork butts were on the WSM today with the intention of reviewing a bottle of Big Ed’s Heirloom BBQ Sauce that the folks at Pigtail Brands were nice enough to send me before the holidays. Butts were prepared using my normal method, and after about 8 hours on the WSM were ready to come off and rest in a cooler for awhile.

After about a half hour, the butts were pulled and ready for sandwiches. It took a bit longer to pull them today; I wish someone could tell me where my pulling gloves got off to. I suspect they are at Pigdog’s lake house, as I seem to remember hauling some butts over there in August while still intact. No worries though; after some time with the bear claws and a quick finish with nitrile gloves, we were ready for sandwich assembly.

As you can see from the picture above, the meat already was very moist and well covered with flavorings from the bark. Here’s where the review process went horribly wrong. Although I applied a liberal amount of the Big Ed’s Heirloom BBQ sauce to each sandwich, it was difficult to tell where my normal seasonings left off and the Big Ed’s picked up.

A closer examination of the ingredient list and quick perusal of the literature they included with the sauce very quickly revealed that the vinegar-based sauce contains many of the same ingredients in the sop mix used in my normal recipe for pulled pork. Add to that the slaw had a vinegar-based dressing on it, and it sort of ruined my plans for an objective review of the sauce.

Having said that, dinner was excellent. And there is a recipe for chicken with Big Ed’s that was included with the reading material. I should probably read that closely before attempting to review this again.

Who knows, I might even follow the recipe…

Auntie is visiting and made her annual pilgrimage to Pacific Northwest Best Fish. I think she may be in a rut, as she brought home groceries that looked suspiciously like those from her visit a year ago. Not that I’m complaining as sturgeon was once again on the grill.

Rather than mess with success, the sturgeon was fixed the same as last year; brushed with EVOO, sprinkled with fresh ground salt and pepper, and grilled directly over the coals on a Frogmat. Joining it on the grill were crab-stuffed mushrooms and zucchini slices brushed with EVOO and sprinkled with salt, pepper, thyme, and parmesan cheese.

A simple sauce of lemon-butter with scallions went over the fish, and dinner was served. As before, the sturgeon did not disappoint and disappeared from diners’ plates without being “shared”.

Now imagine if this guy had decided to do a parody entitled “Like a Sturgeon” instead of this one…

Our friends over at DivaQ BBQ have posted a very comprehensive look at Vintage and Retro BBQ. For a nice blast from the past stop on by and browse through the offerings.

Time again for the monthly installment of the WTF meal, also known as the 4-Ingredient Challenge. The four ingredients this month were turkey, cauliflower, cranberries, and flour tortillas. Nothing says Thanksgiving like flour tortillas…

I was apparently challenged at the produce store as well, and confused the four ingredients to mean that four colors of cauliflower were required as well. Fortunately we have a great produce store…

Ok, Pigdog is no longer reading this now that he’s seen that picture. Now I can show a picture of the turkey breast rubbed with garlic and sage, then smoked on the BS Keg for a few hours at 325°F without having to worry about him dropping by for leftovers.

Before you ask, we did take the hair net off the turkey before carving. The final plated meal of Smoked Turkey Breast with Cranberry Glaze, and Roasted Cauliflower was topped off with flour tortilla strips brushed with melted butter, sprinkled with a pinch of salt and ground sage, then baked in the toaster oven. See, I do know how to use indoor cooking devices…

Three out of four diners were very happy with the results, while the soon-to-be (at time of cooking, but no longer) birthday girl decided cauliflower wasn’t her thing.

As for the cranberry sauce, I cheated and let the expert (my wife) fix that; all I did was take the results and hit them with the immersion blender. For those that wish the recipe (one I highly recommend) it can be found in last November’s 4-Ingredient Challenge post. Quick tip: if you intend to turn this into a glaze, you must use the immersion blender right as it comes out of the oven and serve it hot.

As always, make sure you check out how the other bloggers handled this month’s challenge. And be sure and tune in again next month when the ingredients get real stupid (that’s right, I am responsible for the impending December Disaster).

About this month’s “On Our Grills” 4 Ingredient Challenge Bloggers

The BBQ Grail
The BBQ Grail website was created in 2007, initially to document the author’s quest to find the perfect backyard BBQ experience. Since that time The BBQ Grail has become one of the more popular BBQ blogs on the internet and is listed on Alltop.com as one of the top BBQ blogs.

Grill Adventures by Broadcast Marc
Grill Adventures by broadcastmarc was started in March of 2010. According to the author, he started the BBQ thing when he was 30, before that they ate a lot outside and had fun, but when kids came into their life they started serious cooking. Most of it is really healthy. The grill has a special place in his heart because they love to do things outside. Everything he makes is an adventure, and sometimes they use the books. They try to grill as much as they can year round.

Oshawa Ogre’s Views, News & BBQ’s
Wilfred is somewhat of a newcomer to the BBQ scene having only done standard grilling for most of his 50 years, He found and became passionate about Low & Slow about 2 years ago. and that passion also morphed into a second hobby which is writing. Oshawa Ogre’s Views News & BBQ’s has been a project that has taken on a life of it’s own and blessed him with many many new friends in the BBQ community on Twitter, facebook and through the blog.

The Dutchess Cooks
After years of cooking, grilling, baking and reading other people’s blogs, she thought “why not start my own blog?” And she did, in 2010, but after a short period of time a blog wasn’t enough and the she started her own website. In her own words: “It’s not my goal to publish or come up with fancy and difficult recipes: just good and delicious food with an international twist! Straight from my plate to yours!”

Last Thursday Pigdog and I snuck into Northern California when the authorities weren’t looking in an attempt to relieve the natives of some of their excess food. We were following up on rumors that there was to be a gathering of the BBQ Brethren in backyards and parking lots, complete with all the normal excess of cooked meat that generally accompanies gatherings of this clan. Along the way we scouted out potential sites for future gatherings. This one had some nice grounds, but the bathrooms were a bit small and difficult to get to…

This one was another possibility, but we didn’t like that there was still a pumpkin on the porch several days after Halloween and the possibility of being mistaken for the former residents and being egged by ex-employees. Or current ones, for that matter…

So we wandered into the hills of Pleasanton and followed the smell of suckling pig stuffed with fruit. This turned out to be a good plan as we ended up in the backyard of Brethren Marty with a bunch of other hungry folks and a spread that included not only the pitted pig but also some heavenly pastrami, BBQ paella, outrageous cole slaw, to-die-for cheesecake, spinach balls (who knew?), and a bunch of other stuff that was trotted out over the course of a very entertaining evening. Oh, and beer. Really good beer. Fortunately, Marty invited his neighbors, and a good time was had by all (although there appeared to be a few folks suffering the next morning). I’d love to show pictures, but my hands were greasy from pulling the pig and no cameras were harmed during the course of the evening. Besides, what goes on in Pleasanton stays in Pleasanton.

Saturday found us in the parking lot of Greenleaf BBQ in downtown Livermore. Somehow Tim from Greenleaf BBQ had convinced his fellow merchants to let us take over the parking lot again this year for purposes of charring meat, drinking beer, and telling tall tales. Apparently they have short memories. According to Sir Porkalot the the day went something like this:

• 1:30am – Unloaded 1200lb smoker (with a little help from a winch, wench?, no…winch)
• Cheese & Ale soup with crusty bread
• Beer
• Ribs – Style A
• Stuffed pork tenderloin
• Beer
• Ribs – Style B
• Spam Sliders – simple but amazing
• Beer
• Ribs – Style C
• Sliced open my index finger
• Beer
• Beer
• Chicken with Habanero Death Dust
• Beer
• Tri-tip stuffed with sausage (I can’t make this stuff up)
• Beer
• Ribs Style D
• Beef Ribs
• Beer
• Brisket empanada (I think)
• Mac & Cheese
• Pulled Pork
• Beer
• More soup
• Breakfast type Fatty
• Fatty with Habanero Death Dust
• Beer
• Beer
• Another Spam Slider (oh yes I did)
• Brisket
• More Habanero Chicken
• Beer
• Ribs Style E
• Sausage Bread (wow)
• Whole beef tenderloin (filet mignon) with a Lobster/Scallop magically inserted in the middle and topped with Bearnaise sauce, and of course…wrapped in bacon
• Beer
• More fatties being passed around
• Another tri-tip shows up
• Water
• Oh what the hell…beer
• Mixed berry Cobbler

I wasn’t there at 1:30 in the morning for the smoker unloading, and I didn’t match him on the beer drinking, but as near as I can remember the rundown of the menu looks pretty accurate. And as near as we can determine, none of his finger ended up on anyones plate.

As expected, there were a variety of grills in attendance again this year. That’s Pigdog standing behind the Easy-Up looking fondly at JB’s grill. That grill was by far and away the most prolific of the day; I think JB cooked enough for all of us all by himself.

The UDS on the handicap parking emblem was presented to Landarc BBQ (Bob, of Bob’s Brew and Que fame for all the assistance he has given to other Brethren over time. This was a real work of art, all the way from the extra-large welded air nipples right down to the custom wood-carved handles.

The CrockaQue also made the trip again this year, and although nowhere near as impressive as Bob’s custom UDS and JB’s monster meat machine still managed to hold its own. After all, where do you think those Spam Sliders came from?

Now how does one follow up a couple of days like that? Well, in our case we joined our good friends Rob (Into the Flames, currently distracted by his Red Boat Fish Sauce venture, more on that in a later post), Bob (Landarc BBQ, mentioned above), Tom (aka Big Butz BBQ), and Matt and Charlotte (from Phat Matt’s BBQ in Oakland) for lunch on Sunday at Mission Chinese in San Francisco. We’ve heard a lot about this place, and I have to say it more than lived up to expectations. If you ever find yourself in San Francisco with a hankering for Chinese BBQ that is not run-of-the-mill, get yourself down there and have some Thrice Cooked Bacon. And some Kung Pao Pastrami. While you’re at it, add some Sizzling Cumin Lamb and Spicy Buckwheat Noodles. For those of you that like hot food, don’t miss the Mongolian Long Beans. And although we didn’t try it, the Smoked Beef Brisket is also supposed to be very good. All I can say is that this is not your ordinary Chinese food, and it’ll put a look on your face like this:

The rest of Sunday was a bit of a blur; bakeries, driving over the Golden Gate bridge, a bizarre Applebee’s experience that I won’t recount in detail. We’ll leave that one by saying that dessert was free after all the other festivities. Who ever heard of bruschetta anything without tomatoes?

Yesterday was all about driving home via the coastal route. Highlight of the day (food-wise) was lunch at the Samoa Cookhouse. If you ever find yourself in Eureka, make time to have a meal here. Don’t worry about what you are going to order, they’ll tell you what you are having to eat, and there will be plenty of it. Plan on sharing, but don’t worry about running out of food.

The low point from a food perspective was the McDonald’s we ate at in Reedsport, OR. All I can say is that their bathroom is fairly clean, or at least it was before I got finished with it. And no, I didn’t order a McRib.

I’ll finish with proof that although I likely gained a pound or two on the trip, I still have a way to go before I catch up with this guy…

It’s time once again for the 4-Ingredient Challenge, and once again it comes with several disclaimers. First, the title might include the words “Meatless Monday”, but that is only because it is being posted on Monday. I plan on having an all-meat dinner tonight to make up for what I did to us on Sunday. Second, I wasn’t responsible for the protein for this challenge in spite of what Larry from The BBQ Grail will tell you. And last, I don’t even intend to do this again, nor do I endorse any of you trying this one at home.

The four ingredients this month? Tofu, potatoes, peas (of any sort), and melon. Originally the melon was cheese, until it was pointed out that cheese is not a fruit (although my wife would have you believe that it is). As such, it is my understanding that a few of this month’s participants actually got this out of the way early in the month before the discrepancy was pointed out. Personally, I believe that they chose to ignore the melons. I fully expect to see mashed potatoes, tofu, and peas with a cheese topping baked into it…

At any rate, I finally came up with a concept after racking my brain for a couple of weeks (and spending an inordinate amount of time looking at vegetarian sites on the Internet). It involved cooking potatoes, tofu, and watermelon cubes on the BS Keg.

The taters were trashbag style using the same spices as the last few cooks. What can I say, I’m in a rut. While I was at it, I cut the tofu into cubes and dusted it with some Rub Company Original recipe, stabbed it with wooden skewers, and put it on the grill with some skewered watermelon. Oh, and I also prepared some tofu just for The BBQ Grail.

I don’t care for peas, but do like fresh snow peas, so they were chopped and mixed with the greens that formed the base of the salad that resulted from all this nonsense. The dressing was a mix of EVOO and balsamic vinegar, and some chopped cilantro was added to the salad mix to give it some zing. The grilled ingredients were stacked on top, and joined by some feta cheese.

The resulting salad wasn’t actually that bad, although the taters didn’t work very well with it (even though they were tasty by themselves). The tofu? Well, like white rice, it tasted like what was put on it. SWMBO was on me for not marinating the tofu, but that was part of my plan. I don’t want to have her think I might be interested in fixing it again…

As for the carved tofu, it was brushed with BBQ sauce in order to insure it was truly FauxQue. Larry, this photo is for you:

As with all the other 4-Ingredient Challenges, we seem to have picked up a few new bloggers this month. Be sure and check out what they did; some of them are serious cooks and might have actually turned this meal into something good.

About this month’s “On Our Grills” 4 Ingredient Challenge Bloggers

The BBQ Grail
The BBQ Grail website was created in 2007, initially to document the author’s quest to find the perfect backyard BBQ experience. Since that time The BBQ Grail has become one of the more popular BBQ blogs on the internet and is listed on Alltop.com as one of the top BBQ blogs.

Grill Adventures by Broadcast Marc
Grill Adventures by broadcastmarc was started in March of 2010. According to the author, he started the BBQ thing when he was 30, before that they ate a lot outside and had fun, but when kids came into their life they started serious cooking. Most of it is really healthy. The grill has a special place in his heart because they love to do things outside. Everything he makes is an adventure, and sometimes they use the books. They try to grill as much as they can year round.

Nibble Me This
Nibble Me This is Chris Grove’s blog about his misadventures in live fire cooking. ”I have no culinary training….I’m just entertaining myself with fire and food”.

Bob’s Brew and ‘Que
Bob started Bob’s Brew and ‘Que in August of 2009 with the intent of sharing his views on food and drink. Originally focused on BBQ and Homebrew, it was inevitable that the influences of his upbringing in the San Francisco Bay Area and it’s wealth of ingredients as well as his heritage as an American of Japanese ancestry would help focus his blog, as it has his approach to food and drink.

Cooking, by the seat of my Pants!
Cooking by the seat of my Pants began life as a way to document Jerry Russell’s culinary misadventures. Since then it has become his way to encourage people to cook without boundaries or recipes. To just get in the kitchen and cook something from the heart.

Better Recipes “The Daily Dish”
Kristina has been writing “The Daily Dish” for www.BetterRecipes.com for the past two years. The blog covers a wide variety of recipes, but firing up the grill truly lights up her passion for food! She was named “America’s Next Pork Personality” by Guy Fieri for one of her grilled pork dishes, won the outdoor grilling division of the National Beef Cook-Off, and her winning grilled lamb-burger took her all the way to the land Down Under with Meat and Livestock Australia. The “4-Ingredient Challenge” is a fun and exciting way to get creative on the grill!

Livefire
Livefire cooking is about taking ordinary cooking and adding the flavor of fire to it, whether in high heat grilling, low heat smoking or indirect heat for baking. It’s about taking the primitive element of fire and harnessing it to make great food.

The nice folks at Pirate Jonny’s sent me some more spice mixes to review. I think it had something to do with my complaint about the Jerk spices being milder than expected, or possibly the comment regarding the scarcity of Caribbean Cowboys. If nothing else, you have to hand it to them for persistence. At any rate, a package containing three more seasoning samples showed up a couple of weeks ago and I finally got around to putting the Cuban Mojo to the test tonight. And as usual, I didn’t follow the instructions (well, suggestions) on the package.

The Cuban Mojo package clearly states that it is to be used on “Ribs-Pork-Chicken-Fish, veggies & eggs”. I didn’t have any of that on hand, but I did have a couple of game hens. They are sort of like the Chicken part of that “Ribs-Pork-Chicken-Fish” thing. At any rate, I dusted them up with the contents of the package, and on the BS Keg they went.

The mix had a definite hint of citrus flavor in it, along with something that should not be inhaled unless you really like uncontrolled sneezing. The mix is a fine powder, and really set off the sinuses when I inadvertently inhaled it while sprinkling it on the hens. Don’t say I didn’t warn you…

The hens were served with some tater wedges (think Trashbag Potatoes, only thicker) prepared with EVOO, The Rub Company Original, and some granulated garlic. The meal was rounded out with tomatoes and mozzarella sliced over salad greens, drizzled with EVOO, balsamic vinegar, and sparkled with dried basil, pepper, and salt. I would have preferred this with fresh basil and no salad greens, but sometimes you work with what you have on hand…

The hens might not have been a good choice for the Cuban Mojo seasoning. The test package was .6 of an ounce, and the finished result was mostly the taste of game hens with just a hint of the seasoning mix. The citrus flavor was the most pronounced, but so subtle that those of us with burned-out taste buds could barely discern. The flavor was good, but there just wasn’t enough of it. If I was to do this again, I would put it on a mild fish and would imagine that I would be very happy with it. Or use it with skinless chicken breasts so that the flavorings wouldn’t be overwhelmed by the taste of game hen skin.

Or maybe I should have held out until I could have located some of that “Ribs-Pork-Chicken-Fish” critter…

Another night, another batch of take-and-bake pizzas. Might as well get caught up with an overdue post from the weekend…

On Saturday, a group of bloggers, Tweeters, and other social media misfits got together in Oakland (CA) for a meat-up at Phat Matt’s BBQ. And what kind of a meat-up would it be without, well… MEAT! Pulled pork, brisket, and smoked tri-tip for starters…

And for the record, there were homemade side dishes besides the sweet potatoes in the above picture.

Not shown in the picture above was the mac and cheese. That particular photo wasn’t decent enough to make the cut and appear in the blog. But it was more than worthy of being consumed. And in case anyone is concerned that the first plate of meat looked a little skimpy for several folks, there were Pig Nuggets as well.

In order to give a scale comparison for the next few pictures, here is what my first serving looked like on a platter that was at least a foot wide.

Those Pig Nuggets were served on a platter of a similar size. And if you are wondering about Phat Matt’s ability to cook them to perfection, perhaps this picture will help.

But wait, there’s more. The clear star of this meal was the plate of not-so-short beef ribs.

To do justice to these, here’s a picture of Sir Porkalot branching out and working over one of these monster dino bones. And in case you were wondering, that’s BBQ Grail and your’s truly in the mirror. I’m the one that was too lazy to stand up…

Since I have a reputation to uphold, I finished off one of these myself. I offer up the following as proof. And again, for scale purposes, notice the spare rib bones in the upper right of the plate.

Now if these pictures don’t convince you to stop by Phat Matt’s BBQ for a meal next time you are in the Bay Area, don’t forget that Charlotte makes desserts from scratch. We dined on two different types of pig candy, and naturally there was cobbler (both strawberry and peach). I would have included pictures of the desserts, but they all disappeared too fast…

A great time was had by all that showed. I won’t mention those that chose to be elsewhere for whatever reason; I figure it was their loss, not mine.

I was going to title this post “The Evolution of Grilling and Yet Another Use for Leftover Pulled Pork”, but ultimately decided to go with Odds and Ends, a title I might use again in the future when I have stuff I want to talk about that doesn’t necessarily warrant a post by itself.

First up is an infographic from Become.com called The Evolution of Grilling that was brought to my attention by one of their contributors. She said nice things about my blog, so I’m not sure how closely she follows it, but the infographic was interesting enough to reproduce here. Click on it if you want to see the bigger version at its original location…

It’s been an interesting few days. The family is back with me now at the lake while the remodeling of our home continues. I didn’t think it warranted a post of its own, but we did have pulled pork salad rolls on their first day back. It seems they were tired of seeing pictures like the one that follows when they are hundreds of miles away from home…

And finally, today we found yet another use for leftover pulled pork, although it isn’t a happy topic. Cocoa, the resident No Excuses BBQ mascot and wonder dog with wacky ears had to make an emergency visit to the vet this morning. The initial diagnosis is that she will be seeing more vets later in the week as she has been diagnosed with what they think is Cervical Stenosis, also known as “Wobbler Syndrome”. Essentially this is a spinal cord compression that makes it very difficult for her to walk and (if this is truly what she has) will likely require surgery to correct. She’s home today and is taking steroids until she can see a specialist (who knew they had dog neurologists?).
At any rate, hiding the pills in the pulled pork made for one of the easiest pill-giving sessions I’ve ever experienced in all the time I’ve owned pets. Works better than peanut butter, and isn’t near as messy.

But I’ll be darned if I’m going to cook up a couple of butts just for the dog…

The last sample packet from Pirate Jonny went on chicken breasts and taters tonight. This particular packet was the Barrr-B-Q Rub, which according to the packet can be used on ribs, pork, chicken, fish, veggies, and eggs. This particular variety contained little to no salt, was sweeter than the Caribbean Cowboy, and didn’t have any heat to it at all.

The chicken turned out pretty good. The taters were a bit on the bland side, but once hit with a sprinkle of salt and dipped in sour cream they were more than satisfactory. All in all, this was a good rub, but in my opinion would have been improved by adding something with a bit of a kick. I know for a fact that this is a personal preference thing, so for those of you out there that don’t like the heat, this would be a great rub for. It certainly has a different flavor profile than most other rubs I’ve tried, and I wouldn’t hesitate to use it on my friends and family, especially those that have more tender palates than mine.