My Memorial Day Multi-Meat Feast

[Seboke]

Thought I was too drunk to get this out tonight, but now I can't sleep...

Bear with me in case I have a lot of mis-spells, I'm doing this whole post off my iPad. And my fingers ain't exactly calibrated right now...

Started at around 9:00 Saturday. No frills initially, the big reason for the cook was to feed a Mem Day / wedding party for the president of the local Special Forces Association that has adopted me as their BBQ guy. His gig was 12 lbs of pulled pork, 12 lbs bulled brisket, and 5 pounds of pulled chicken. With that, 4 pans of beans and 3 pans of coleslaw.

Starting out with the pork, nothing special, just halved 3 butts and rubbed down with my pork rub.

Just hitting the grates...


Followed by the briskets....


Nothing fancy about the briskets either. Had 3 flats from 7.5 lbs to 8.5. Just treated them like chucks, with a good dusting of my beef rub.

I've been talking of doing these dinos for some time now, and with the in-laws in town and the smoker going anyway, a perfect opportunity! The cryo-vac pack had 5 racks. I skinned the membrane (a chore THAT was...) and used a spoon to scrape the gobs of fat off the bone side. Wish I had pics of that, but momma don't like me getting critter fat on the nice camera...

I got them on next, trying to time out everything so our chow was offset from the smoker needing attention while we ate.

Here's the dinos just getting on. Got them on the bottom under the briskets so beef drips drop on beef...


Gonna break this up into a few posts so I don't lose all this iPad tapping...

[Fire it up]

I skinned the membrane (a chore THAT was...)

If ever the membrane gives you too much trouble you can always make several small cuts into it and the ribs will come out fine with no toughness to the membrane.
Generally I always remove but a few times have gone the other route and it works out fine.

Keep those pics coming, things are looking to be mighty tasty

[Seboke]

Picking back up, Next to hit the grate was the chicken. Now my lang, the bottom grate on the firebox side is by far the hottest place in the chamber. But the top rack, same side, right under the stack, gets a lot of good heat, but great smoke flow. I normally like the chicken to be on the top, but keeping with the rule of NOTHING ever cooks under chicken, they went below the butts. But since I was pulling the birds, pork drips on the chicken was no problem since I lose the skin when I pull it.

Here's 5 birds, spatchcocked and halved, with my chicken dust, no brine..
(on edit, here's the chicken...)


up next, for my table, a friend bagged a feral pig a while back, wanted me to smoke it for him. I didn't have the time, so I rented him my Lang for $100 and he gave me a ham to boot. Prolly about 4 lbs. Hit it with the chicken dust and got it going...


Here's the money shot of everything loaded up...


To be continued...

[Seboke]

I don't bother with checking temp till about 4 hours into the cook. 10 more degrees to hit 160...


Chicken looking good after 2.5 hours...


Briskies humming along, keeping temp pace with the butts...

[DeejayDebi]

MMMmmmMMmmmmMmmm! Everything looks so fine!

[SmokinLee]

Dang Ken, always love the way you load up a smoker....

[MossyMO]

Very nice, I'm impressed; maybe one day if I ever grow up the wife will let me get a smoker like that (never happen, wife agree's)!

[Seboke]

Moving right along...

Birds, butts and briskies all ready to go to foil...






I don't "foil" anymore, but drop the meat in foil pans and cover with foil after a splash. Same concept (according to me). Got 3 butt halves in one full-size pan, all three briskets stacked up in one, and 8 of the bird halves in one big pan, the other two in a half pan. I only foil chicken if I am pulling it.

The brisket and butts, I let them go till they hit 200. The chicken, I had them on the grate for 2.5 hours, then in the foil for 1.5. I usually get 5 to 6 pound chickens and halve them, and 4 hours total cook time seems to be spot on. I also never brine the birds when I'm pulling. I figger all the spices in the rub gets into the meat just fine with the steaming from foiling...

The ham was in the "cold spot" till I got everything foiled up and could move it to the hotter end. Was about at 130 here before the move...


Stay tuned...

[Seboke]

Let's not forget about the dinos! Here they are after their time in the foil. I did them 2-2-1.


The ham got to 165 and I pulled it, foiled it and rested it for an hour before slicing.

Next up, everything out...

[Seboke]

Money shots of the dinos...






All sliced and panned...


The ham getting ready for the knife...


And post-op...


OMFG! The dinos and ham were abso-fargin-lutely insanely good!

Next, after dinner pulling party

[GratefulDave]

!

If ever the membrane gives you too much trouble you can always make several small cuts into it and the ribs will come out fine with no toughness to the membrane.
Generally I always remove but a few times have gone the other route and it works out fine.

Keep those pics coming, things are looking to be mighty tasty

The membrane on dino bones to me has always been a whole nuther beast compared to pork ribs of any variety. That stuff is like pulling leather straight off the cow! I usually end up filleting it from the meat instead of just being able to pull it free. I like the dinos, but prefer the piggie hands down. Your smoke looks AWESOME!

[GratefulDave]

OK I just took the time to look at all of the pics before speaking out. Holy Shizzi!! What a job well done. I am so impressed that I feel totally jealous! Wish I had the space for that kid of cook! To say the least!

Dave

[Seboke]

Me and pops-in-law getting on some chicken pulling... His first...


Here's the big pan...


And getting up close...


And in action...


See all the liquid created...

Same with the butts - lotsa juices...


No different with the briskets, except the pan was so full, imagine my cussin' when I pulled that pan to take it to the cooler wearing sandals. Yep, got a good pour right on top of my foot...


Nice smoke ring, (not so nice lighting...)


Finishing up...

[Seboke]

This morning, getting ready for the gig...

Beans mixed, ready to pan and into the oven...


And sad to say, this is the last pic I got....
Pulled brisket...


Thanks y'all for checking out my posts! Hope y'all enjoy it as much as I like sharing it!

Ken

[GrueLurks]

That is just amazing. That brisket looks insanely delicious. I feel so puny with my piddly smoke tonight! all night long!