Birthday Que for the Brewer!
The Brewer’s birthday was yesterday (5/23), so I invited the knucklehead and his lovely wife up to our place for so BBQ and socializing. He’s a big fan of anything Que’d, so I knew this would be the best birthday gift I could give him.
I slow cooked beef brisket, pork shoulder and chicken on my new grill (more on the new grill later). Since I timed the food to come off the grill around 3:00 in the afternoon, I got up at 5:30 and started smoking the stuff around 7:00 once the grills were hot.
Here’s what the meat looked like in process:
This was a really good practice session for me. I was most pleased with the brisket. This was only the third time I’d ever done it and it finally came out tender. I’ve also created an excellent “sop” to add flavor and moisture to it. It adds a great red color too.
I do think I need to inject the sop into the meat prior to cooking to ensure more moisture in the meat.
I was a little disappointed with the bark on the shoulder, although it tasted fine. I forgot to brush it with mustard during the last hour of cooking like I usually do, so the bark didn’t taste very good. Plus, I had it a bit too close to the firebox opening and charred some of the edges. However, I’ve created a nice mustard based sauce that works really well with pulled pork. It turned a bit of a disappointment into a pretty tasty meat!
I also threw on a whole chicken rubbed with my Caribbean seasoning. I utilized my Maverick thermometers for the chicken and the pork, and as a result they came out with perfect consistency and internal temperatures!
To this feast we added fresh cornbread, Farmer Girl’s fantastic baked beans and salads. It was quite a spread! Happy birthday, Brewer!
Mule
I slow cooked beef brisket, pork shoulder and chicken on my new grill (more on the new grill later). Since I timed the food to come off the grill around 3:00 in the afternoon, I got up at 5:30 and started smoking the stuff around 7:00 once the grills were hot.
Here’s what the meat looked like in process:
This was a really good practice session for me. I was most pleased with the brisket. This was only the third time I’d ever done it and it finally came out tender. I’ve also created an excellent “sop” to add flavor and moisture to it. It adds a great red color too.
I do think I need to inject the sop into the meat prior to cooking to ensure more moisture in the meat.
I was a little disappointed with the bark on the shoulder, although it tasted fine. I forgot to brush it with mustard during the last hour of cooking like I usually do, so the bark didn’t taste very good. Plus, I had it a bit too close to the firebox opening and charred some of the edges. However, I’ve created a nice mustard based sauce that works really well with pulled pork. It turned a bit of a disappointment into a pretty tasty meat!
I also threw on a whole chicken rubbed with my Caribbean seasoning. I utilized my Maverick thermometers for the chicken and the pork, and as a result they came out with perfect consistency and internal temperatures!
To this feast we added fresh cornbread, Farmer Girl’s fantastic baked beans and salads. It was quite a spread! Happy birthday, Brewer!
Mule
