A barbecue adventure, the saga unfolds.

Beef. It’s what for dinner.

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Not the prettiest, but it’ll do. Smoked to 110* then seared.

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It looks weird because I trimmed that big ol’ chink of fat off after it set. Need to get a dog, because all that’s left is the bone.
 
I recently discovered my new favorite steak cut...the bavette. I'd heard of them, but never had one. They're sometimes called the butcher's cut, as a lot of them get taken home and never make it to the cold case. The are a little similar to a skirt steak and a flank steak, but the grain is more open, and they tend to be more tender. They soak up marinade like a sponge.
I'd won a gift certificate to Porter Road in a BBQ competition, so I made a bavette part of the order. A whole bavette weighs about three pounds, and it is best cooked on a very hot grill for just 2 or 3 minutes a side. We had it three nights in a row, first as a steak, marinated in olive oil, red wine vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, and Worcestershire. This was served with freshly made chimichurri. We used a Mexican marinade the next night, and made a killer batch of fajitas. Night three, we went back to the exact recipe from the first night.

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My smoker looks a little underwhelming with only two pork butts. I just added 2 pounds of brats, though.

Earlier I had a 2-3lb top loin roast working. Took 2 hrs to reach 130F for med rare.

The lighting on this picture doesn’t show how good it really looks. This will end up being thin sliced for roast beef sandwiches.


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I wish I had discovered tri tip a lot earlier.

It’s being stocked here, but only in the last year or two; something about increased demand.

I’ll pick one up some time soon and try it out.
 
It’s being stocked here, but only in the last year or two; something about increased demand.

I’ll pick one up some time soon and try it out.
I’ve been searing over direct heat, then finishing with indirect. S&P or a good steak seasoning works. @Sac Arrow can explain the trick to cutting against the grain. The grain takes a right angle turn about the mid point.
 
I’ve been searing over direct heat, then finishing with indirect. S&P or a good steak seasoning works. @Sac Arrow can explain the trick to cutting against the grain. The grain takes a right angle turn about the mid point.
There is a line through where the grain changes angle. Cut through that line to separate it in to two pieces, then cut those cross grain.
 
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Stubbs BBQ rub. Not sugary, not overpowering, just good bbq flavor.
 
I got my notice yesterday: I’m selected for judging another contest next Saturday. I have another one the following Saturday.

And a couple days ago I got notice I’m in the Royal, judging the open category. Hard to tell right now but there could be 500-ish teams in the open. It’s held at the Kansas Speedway infield.

I have two more in there somewhere.
 
Hey guys,
So my wife got me a pit boss dual pellet grill and I'm making my first brisket this Sunday for my kids back to school party. I have made ribs and pulled pork on it so i'm not an exact newbie. Anyways, I bout a 14lb brisket and I want to serve it to people probably around 2pm on Sunday. I have been reading about different cooks and it seems like the temps vary between 200-250deg. I also need to cook some ribs and pulled pork as well. I was thinking of starting the cook the night before around 9p at 200 then next am increase the temp and throw on the pork followed by the ribs. What do you guys think?
 
This’ll he fun. Depending how thick the fat layer is on the brisket is really going to impact cooking time. Well trimmed and seasoned with Hard Core Carnivore Black that plan is okay, but I prefer 215* to do a brisket and ribs cook I pull the brisket when the internal temp is 203* and you can’t get there if the grate temp is 200. I don’t like the 3-2-1 ribs method, but a lot of folks do and it works at 215*, albeit a bit faster.

If I’m doing a combo, when the brisket hits 185, the ribs go on. When the brisket comes off, I run the smoker up to 250* to finish the ribs. Plan 4-6hrs total for the ribs.
 
Serve at 2pm?

Figure the brisket and butts need resting about an hour and it will take 30 min, at least, to pull and slice. So they come off at 12:30p.

An 8-10lb butt at 225-250 could take up to 10 hrs so it needs to go on at 2am. If you separate the brisket flat from the point they could take 8 hrs. Otherwise a 14 pounder could take maybe 10, so 2am-4am start time.

Ribs will probably take 4-ish hrs, so start them around 8 am. They don’t need to rest as long as the heavy cuts.

Err on the side of getting done too early vs too late.
 
@francisco collazos

I re-read my post and need to make a comment on times. Those are based on my experience and my smoker and assume you foil wrap at 165. Brisket times vary greatly on how you trim.

Since this is a new-to-you smoker, probably best to set the temp to 250-ish instead of 225-ish.

If you don’t have a wireless temp probe, get yourself an early Christmas present.

This is what I have:

I’m a fan of Heath Riles. He has lots of videos showing trimming and cooking techniques. See what he suggests for times and temps. He does a lot of things I don’t do, but the times and temps hem suggests are a good guide.


And I say all that this morning as get ready to head out to judge a contest. Competition bbq has transitioned from low and slow to hot and fast, and some of us old school guys don’t think that’s for the best. But time marches on, I guess.
 
…Competition bbq has transitioned from low and slow to hot and fast, and some of us old school guys don’t think that’s for the best. But time marches on, I guess.
From a tradition standpoint or from a quality of food product?
 
What's causing the change, and how does it change the resulting meat?
From a tradition standpoint or from a quality of food product?

A lot of people that cook at home get told, "Hey, that's pretty good! You should enter a contest!"

But contest cooking is different. I'm a member of the Kansas City BBQ Society (KCBS) and have competed for 35-ish years until I retired last fall, and have judged now for maybe 10(?) years and plan to go as long as I can. KCBS sanctions contests all over the world, and is the largest BBQ association out there. KCBS contest rules are consistent, judge training is consistent, judging criteria is consistent, and scores *should be* consistent. But...rules have changed and teams have found ways to use them to their advantage.

Low-and-slow was always the BBQ "way", but there was no requirement. The only requirement is the flavor profile preferred by KCBS. If brisket A tastes like brisket B, but was cooked at a different time and temp, is that OK? Someone figured - "Hey, why should I take 6 hrs to cook ribs when I can do it in 3?" So they came up with a cooking profile that allowed them to cut their cook time in half. That worked its way around to pork butt and brisket. Chicken, the 4th meat category, has never taken very long to cook anyway so that's not been a big deal.

Now you'll see drum smokers as the majority of cookers. They'll run around 325 or hotter, and tend to roast rather than slow cook. A rule change in pork butt has made a big difference in that category, and the hot/fast method has made a big difference in brisket.

Brisket cooked hot and fast tends to taste and look like roast beef and not the brisket you're used to seeing at your local bbq joint or at home. There's very little, if any, bark. And the briskets that are typically used by the top teams are Wagyu. So, rather than take a cheaper brisket, cook it low and slow to turn it tender and give it a nice bark, you can get a $200 brisket, cook it hot and fast, and end up with something that's buttery tender. Is that better than the old-timers? It's different, that's for sure. It does make for a delicious brisket slice for judging, but is it really the same thing as "bbq"? That's something that's worthy of discussion over a beer or three and there really isn't a right or wrong answer. There are a lot of new teams out there, and this is the only style of cooking they know.

Pork butt in KCBS competitions is something I really need to get in touch with upper management about. I don't like the current rule interpretations, it's almost cheating. I don't have my old rule books laying around in easy reach, so I'll have to paraphrase. Anyone that cooks BBQ knows what a pork butt is. Inside that big chunk of meat are several discrete muscles. One makes for good pulled pork, one will pull apart into "tubes", and another one is called the "money muscle" and is typically sliced into medallions. The MM is considered the delicacy. It's also very hard to cook it just right for slicing. If it's overdone by even a few minutes it will fall apart if you try to slice it. The rules used to say that the butt had to be cooked as a single piece until it reached 165 and then it could be separated. Teams would cut off the money muscle and set it aside while they cooked the rest of the butt to a higher temp for easy pulling. Somewhere over the years the verbiage changed and the rules, or interpretation, now allows for only the money muscle to be cooked. So teams have started doing that. Instead of cooking a butt, they just cook the money muscle and instead of taking 12 hrs or more, they can get that piece done in almost no time at all. Again, is that the spirit of BBQ?

Contest cooking used to be an extension of backyard cooking, but it's turned into a business and a cooking style of its own.
 
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A lot of people that cook at home get told, "Hey, that's pretty good! You should enter a contest!"

But contest cooking is different. I'm a member of the Kansas City BBQ Association (KCBS) and have competed for 35-ish years until I retired last fall, and have judged now for maybe 10(?) years and plan to go as long as I can. KCBS sanctions contests all over the world, and is the largest BBQ association out there. KCBS contest rules are consistent, judge training is consistent, judging criteria is consistent, and scores *should be* consistent. But...rules have changed and teams have found ways to use them to their advantage.

Low-and-slow was always the BBQ "way", but there was no requirement. The only requirement is the flavor profile preferred by KCBS. If brisket A tastes like brisket B, but was cooked at a different time and temp, is that OK? Someone figured - "Hey, why should I take 6 hrs to cook ribs when I can do it in 3?" So they came up with a cooking profile that allowed them to cut their cook time in half. That worked its way around to pork butt and brisket. Chicken, the 4th meat category, has never taken very long to cook anyway so that's not been a big deal.

Now you'll see drum smokers as the majority of cookers. They'll run around 325 or hotter, and tend to roast rather than slow cook. A rule change in pork butt has made a big difference in that category, and the hot/fast method has made a big difference in brisket.

Brisket cooked hot and fast tends to taste and look like roast beef and not the brisket you're used to seeing at your local bbq joint or at home. There's very little, if any, bark. And the briskets that are typically used by the top teams are Wagyu. So, rather than take a cheaper brisket, cook it low and slow to turn it tender and give it a nice bark, you can get a $200 brisket, cook it hot and fast, and end up with something that's buttery tender. Is that better than the old-timers? It's different, that's for sure. It does make for a delicious brisket slice for judging, but is it really the same thing as "bbq"? That's something that's worthy of discussion over a beer or three and there really isn't a right or wrong answer. There are a lot of new teams out there, and this is the only style of cooking they know.

Pork butt in KCBS competitions is something I really need to get in touch with upper management about. I don't like the current rule interpretations, it's almost cheating. I don't have my old rule books laying around in easy reach, so I'll have to paraphrase. Anyone that cooks BBQ knows what a pork butt is. Inside that big chunk of meat are several discrete muscles. One makes for good pulled pork, one will pull apart into "tubes", and another one is called the "money muscle" and is typically sliced into medallions. The MM is considered the delicacy. It's also very hard to cook it just right for slicing. If it's overdone by even a few minutes it will fall apart if you try to slice it. The rules used to say that the butt had to be cooked as a single piece until it reached 165 and then it could be separated. Teams would cut off the money muscle and set it aside while they cooked the rest of the butt to a higher temp for easy pulling. Somewhere over the years the verbiage changed and the rules, or interpretation, now allows for only the money muscle to be cooked. So teams have started doing that. Instead of cooking a butt, they just cook the money muscle and instead of taking 12 hrs or more, they can get that piece done in almost no time at all. Again, is that the spirit of BBQ?

Contest cooking used to be an extension of backyard cooking, but it's turned into a business and a cooking style of its own.

That all makes perfect sense; good food for thought.

I’s prefer the organizer to hand everybody an untrimmed select brisket and tell them to have at it, you can sleep when you’re dead and oh, by the way, that pork’s gotta be done whole. But brisket ain’t brisket without bark and I can’t fathom a hot & fast wagyu burnt end.
 
That all makes perfect sense; good food for thought.

I’s prefer the organizer to hand everybody an untrimmed select brisket and tell them to have at it, you can sleep when you’re dead and oh, by the way, that pork’s gotta be done whole. But brisket ain’t brisket without bark and I can’t fathom a hot & fast wagyu burnt end.
That's one thing I've said before, "If I were King, I would hand each team a brisket, all the same, and then see what happens." I'd go ahead and make it a choice or prime, though. Some of those select briskets can be really tough no matter how much effort you put into it. Then you're starting to encourage some heavy-duty injecting action to add internal moisture. Cooking times and temps, well, there really isn't a fair way to set those standards.

And no, it's getting more and more rare to see burnt ends being turned in. It happens, but it's not usual anymore.
 
Thanks everyone so I ended up starting the brisket Saturday night around 7:00 p.m. I started at a temperature of 225 and around 10:30 I was looking at the tap and it was showing a 148. At that point I thought it was going to overcook that night so I dropped it down to 200. Then I got paranoid that we would get carbon monoxide exposure so I ended up grabbing my Century unit and plugging it in the room. Next morning I woke up at 5:00 and to my surprise the temperature was 165 so I took it out wrapped it with butcher paper increased the temp to 250 and then started my pulled pork and threw the ribs on there as well. Around 10:30 I noticed it was running about 195 so I took it out and put it in the oven to finish a 300 which took about an hour then I took it out and put it in a cooler. I served everyone around 2:00 p.m. I thought the pulled pork could have gone a little bit longer and the ribs could have gone a little bit longer than I should have wrapped it. The brisket tasted pretty good seem to have a pretty hard exterior I think I might overcooked it a little
 

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Congrats! Wasn’t that hard, was it

… Around 10:30 I noticed it was running about 195 so I took it out and put it in the oven to finish a 300 ….The brisket tasted pretty good seem to have a pretty hard exterior I think I might overcooked it a little

Just a guess, but that hour in the oven at 300* likely contributed to your texture. You would have been just as safe wrapping the brisket in a towel and throwing it in a cooler. My over has a hold warm setting of 175*, which is what I use when I pull my briskets.

That chunk of beef retains warmth long enough to finish cooking the brisket without additional heat.
 
Congrats! Wasn’t that hard, was it



Just a guess, but that hour in the oven at 300* likely contributed to your texture. You would have been just as safe wrapping the brisket in a towel and throwing it in a cooler. My over has a hold warm setting of 175*, which is what I use when I pull my briskets.

That chunk of beef retains warmth long enough to finish cooking the brisket without additional heat.
Yeah it probed pretty easy but it was just sitting at 195 for a while so I was worried but you are right. You live and learn but everyone loved the brisket
 
Looking at your brisket and then looking at what usually gets turned in at a contest and it’s easy to see why contest cooking is different.

I often see entries that are even more dark brown than this. Much closer to a roast beef color.

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I haven't posted a cook in a while, mostly because we were moving and I wasn't able to smoke anything in a while. I finally broke the drought on Saturday, after first spending way too much time trying to get my WSM cooker bent back into a round shape, after NorthAmerican Moving Services squashed it into an oval. The amount of damage they did to our household goods was incredible, we're still celebrating each time we unwrap something they didn't break. But I digress.

Anyway, I got three racks of ribs at Costco, all quite meaty, reasonably well marbled, and in a decent approximation of a St. Louis cut. These went on the almost-round Weber over cherry and hickory chunks on Kingsford Professional charcoal, which Costco seems to have resumed selling after their failed attempt to convert their shoppers to Kirkland Professional charcoal. I had used Chain Reaction rub as the base layer...it's pretty hot...and Kosmo's Killer Bee Honey rub for the top coat, to add some sweetness back in.

The only photos I took were maybe two hours in. There is a third rack of ribs on the lower smoker rack, along with the trimmed ends from all, since the racks have to be trimmed down to about 14" to fit side-by-side in the 18" Weber.

After three hours, I wrapped them for an hour, with honey, brown sugar, and butter, then unwrapped and sauced, giving them another 30 minutes to set the sauce. They've been a big hit, and it's a treat to be able to enjoy them on the deck of our new home in Idaho.


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I haven't posted a cook in a while, mostly because we were moving and I wasn't able to smoke anything in a while. I finally broke the drought on Saturday, after first spending way too much time trying to get my WSM cooker bent back into a round shape, after NorthAmerican Moving Services squashed it into an oval. The amount of damage they did to our household goods was incredible, we're still celebrating each time we unwrap something they didn't break. But I digress.

Anyway, I got three racks of ribs at Costco, all quite meaty, reasonably well marbled, and in a decent approximation of a St. Louis cut. These went on the almost-round Weber over cherry and hickory chunks on Kingsford Professional charcoal, which Costco seems to have resumed selling after their failed attempt to convert their shoppers to Kirkland Professional charcoal. I had used Chain Reaction rub as the base layer...it's pretty hot...and Kosmo's Killer Bee Honey rub for the top coat, to add some sweetness back in.

The only photos I took were maybe two hours in. There is a third rack of ribs on the lower smoker rack, along with the trimmed ends from all, since the racks have to be trimmed down to about 14" to fit side-by-side in the 18" Weber.

After three hours, I wrapped them for an hour, with honey, brown sugar, and butter, then unwrapped and sauced, giving them another 30 minutes to set the sauce. They've been a big hit, and it's a treat to be able to enjoy them on the deck of our new home in Idaho.


View attachment 132372View attachment 132373 View attachment 132374
Life is good.
 
I haven't posted a cook in a while, mostly because we were moving and I wasn't able to smoke anything in a while. I finally broke the drought on Saturday, after first spending way too much time trying to get my WSM cooker bent back into a round shape, after NorthAmerican Moving Services squashed it into an oval. The amount of damage they did to our household goods was incredible, we're still celebrating each time we unwrap something they didn't break. But I digress.

Anyway, I got three racks of ribs at Costco, all quite meaty, reasonably well marbled, and in a decent approximation of a St. Louis cut. These went on the almost-round Weber over cherry and hickory chunks on Kingsford Professional charcoal, which Costco seems to have resumed selling after their failed attempt to convert their shoppers to Kirkland Professional charcoal. I had used Chain Reaction rub as the base layer...it's pretty hot...and Kosmo's Killer Bee Honey rub for the top coat, to add some sweetness back in.

The only photos I took were maybe two hours in. There is a third rack of ribs on the lower smoker rack, along with the trimmed ends from all, since the racks have to be trimmed down to about 14" to fit side-by-side in the 18" Weber.

After three hours, I wrapped them for an hour, with honey, brown sugar, and butter, then unwrapped and sauced, giving them another 30 minutes to set the sauce. They've been a big hit, and it's a treat to be able to enjoy them on the deck of our new home in Idaho.


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The last time I did ribs I had to work to get them to fit on my WSM.

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I keep telling myself I want to do another smoker project. I like pork butts/pulled pork, but the problem is they aren't that much better smoked than slow cooked in the crock pot. And brisket is too time intensive unless I try to fast cook it, plus decent sized briskets are hard to come by here. I'll probably just stick with pork ribs for the time being.
 
Looking at your brisket and then looking at what usually gets turned in at a contest and it’s easy to see why contest cooking is different.

I often see entries that are even more dark brown than this. Much closer to a roast beef color.

View attachment 132371

You’re right that does look like roast beef. It’s also a depressing sight.
 
I keep telling myself I want to do another smoker project. I like pork butts/pulled pork, but the problem is they aren't that much better smoked than slow cooked in the crock pot. And brisket is too time intensive unless I try to fast cook it, plus decent sized briskets are hard to come by here. I'll probably just stick with pork ribs for the time being.
Top round roast.

Garlic pepper or some other black pepper based rub.

Smoke it until med rare, about 130-135. I can’t remember how long it took, but I’m pretty sure it was less than 2 hrs.

Let it cool as much as you want. Then slice it thin for some outstanding roast beef sandwiches.

The lighting isn’t great here, but it really was a nice med rare.

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I keep telling myself I want to do another smoker project. I like pork butts/pulled pork, but the problem is they aren't that much better smoked than slow cooked in the crock pot. And brisket is too time intensive unless I try to fast cook it, plus decent sized briskets are hard to come by here. I'll probably just stick with pork ribs for the time being.
I agree and if you want a delicious latin twist on that pork, take 1/4 cup of adobo, 2 packets of sazon, a but load of garlic cloves (8-10) chopped and mix with about 1/3 cup of olive oil. Mix it to create a paste and then rub the paste over the pork and while you're at it throw it a bunch of sliced onions and let it sit in the fridge over night. Next morning pop it on the slow cooker and by the end of the day you will have a delicious Spanish pork.
 
Mathew, and movers.

Standard rule is 3 moves equals a fire...........
 
Ugly Baby BBQ finished 38 out of 65, but they are #1 in our hearts.

This contest had the normal 4-meats, but also had 3 ancillary categories: pasta, turkey, and desert.

Because not many teams did pasta, I didn't get selected to judge it, so I just watched to see what got turned in. Lots of mac and cheese, some with bacon, some with brisket. One had big lobster chunks and two lobster tails, and that one looked really good. Some others were summer salads, cold with fresh vegetables and cream sauce.

The turkey was...ok. I like doing turkey at home because it's so hard to screw up. But sometimes you try so hard not to screw it up that you screw it up. And a lot of the turkey entries today were screwed up. Dry, tough, bland.

Desert is always fun, because there really are no rules. There will be big slices of cheesecakes, individual cheesecakes, all sorts of baked goods, and sometimes things like ice cream. One of the things I got today was a layered slice of cheesecake on the bottom, carrot cake on the top.

Overall, the meat entries were really all over the scale. That's not a bad thing. There were some top national teams there today, and there were other teams that might have been trying their first contests. You have to start somewhere and the pros and the beginners all cook the same things.

Last night they had a really nice fireworks show. There was also a whiskey pub crawl, so there were lots of people listing to port. Today there was beer tasting and a homebrew contest. I didn't do the whiskey tasting last night, I had to drive the back roads to the hotel late last night and didn't need to make that any more interesting, and I didn't do any beer tasting today because I was judging.

One of the guys on one of the teams found out his truck had been hit pretty hard by a Fri night hit and run. Yesterday I was parked very close to his truck, on a one way street with parallel parking on both sides. He was on one side and I was on the other. When I was heading back to my car last night I saw a cop car with the lights on, but by the time I got to my car he was gone. This morning I parked in that same spot and got out of my car at same time the guy was looking at his truck. I was parked directly across from him. Someone had smashed the back right corner of his F150. That's what the cop was looking at last night. Crushed that whole quarter panel and flattened the exhaust against the tire. I talked with him a little this morning, then again in the afternoon as we were getting ready to leave. He said the other driver eventually turned herself in. A local shopkeeper heading home last night, not drinking, just not paying attention, and then drove off. I can't imaging what her vehicle looks like after seeing the damage to the truck.

Life is good.
 
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Well I am switching up the rubs.
Lemon pepper works well for chicken.

Maybe try a chicken soak. I like soaking chicken parts for maybe 2 hrs, I don't bother brining for a long time.

I usually keep a package of this in my pantry:


Then I can mix up a qt or however much I want, add it to a zip-lock bag, and toss in the chicken. Refrigerate for a few hours. It usually works best for me to rinse it off, so I'll drain the bag, add fresh water, shake the chicken around, drain, and repeat. Then season and cook.
 
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