I was planning on a 1.5 hour cook and it went longer than expected… but it was worth the wait!

I usually don’t follow a recipe for my meatloaf cooks and just take the basic 3 lbs meat + 3 eggs + 1.5 cups breadcrumbs and wing it from there based on what I have on hand.

But today’s meatloaf came out so good I decided to write it down as best I can remember.

Here’s the list of ingredients:

• 2lb ground beef
• 1 lb ground pork
• 3 eggs lightly beaten
• 1.5 cups breadcrumbs (mix of seasoned italian and panko because that’s what I had)
• 1 largish onion – 1/2 grated and half chopped
• Warning: grating an onion too fast may cause juices to fly in your eye and this burns!
• 4 cloves finely chopped garlic
• 1/2 cup Blues Hog Smoky Mountain BBQ sauce
• couple or so shakes of worcestire
• generous amount of Montreal Steak seasoning

Squished everything together in a big bowl with my hands and formed two loaves or roughly equal size.

Put the loaves on a rack in a half foil pan and seasoned with Meat Church Gospel.

Fired up the Big Green Egg and added a split of hickory.

Smoked around 250-275 degrees for about 1.5 hours then glazed with more of the BBQ sauce.

Then it took about 40 more minutes to get to 160 degrees internal.

Sliced and ate!

Give this a shot as I made it or adjust for your own tastes. Enjoy!

It turns out that I was asking the wrong question.  I should have been asking what temperature should I smoke too?

To turn out consistently good BBQ you must cook to a temperature.

First, cooking to a temperature is first a matter of safety.  How many times have you pulled a burger or chicken off the grill and when you bite into it it is still bloody red inside?

Some min/ sample temps

And second, cooking to a temperature gives you the consistency you need to turn out good BBQ every time you cook.

When planning your cook time there are some rules of thumb you can use.

Brisket 1.5 hours/lb
Turkey
Pork Butt

But every piece of meat will cook differently so be sure to leave some extra time in your schedule.

So if you’re not cooking by time what temps should you cook to?

Once again here are some rules of thumb…

Brisket 1.5 hours/lb
Turkey
Pork Butt

But every person has their own preferred doneness for meat.  We suggest keeping a log and tracking you preference for your finished temps.

How do you measure temp?  Cheapie, thermapen, probe  put some pics

Be sure to insert your probe or thermometer into the thickest part of the meat.

There was some leftover Alabama White BBQ Sauce in the fridge from a recent cook  and one final turkey in the freezer from the Thanksgiving Day sales so smoked turkey sounded like a good idea.

Today was  cold (40 degrees) and rainy but this is what you do when you are a BBQ Nut.  Plus the smell of smoke always makes things better.

Start with the brine…

I always like to brine my turkeys when I smoke them.  The brine helps keep them moist and adds a little flavor too.  The following measurements are ballpark as I was making up this brine on the fly with stuff I had around.

2 Gallons of Water
1 Cup Kosher Salt
1 Cup Brown Sugar
2 Oranges (Halved, Juiced, Thrown in)
1 Lime (Halved, Juiced, Thrown in)
1 TBS Rosemary
1 TBS Thyme

Our 16+ pound bird soaked in the brine for 38 hours.

Then the spatchcock…

Would you like your turkey to cook faster?  Would you like more flavor in your turkey?  Would you like it moist and evenly cooked throughout?  If so, then it may be time to spatchcock your next bird.

The first time you try this it may seem a little intimidating but I assure you after doing it once you’ll be an expert.  TIP – Use a pair of strong/heavy duty/sharp poultry shears.

To spatchcock your turkey, first locate the backbone and cut down both sides.  Then take the backbone out.  Flip the turkey over and press down to snap the breast bone.  Voila… you’re done!

Next the rub…

This particular bird got coated with spray butter and a healthy dose of Penzeys Northwoods rub.  I made sure to get plenty of the butter and rub under the skin also.

The Penzeys Northwoods Seasoning is great on poultry.  It is made from coarse flake salt, paprika, black pepper, thyme, rosemary, garlic and chipotle.

Then onto the drum…

The UDS was fired up and ready to go around noon.  For this cook I kept the grate temperature around 275 degrees + or – and used a mix of hickory and apple wood to provide the smoke flavor.

Right at the 4 hour mark all the turkey parts had reached 170-180 degrees.  At this point it was flipped over to put the skin side down for 30 minutes to crisp up the skin.

Time to eat…

Well not quite time to eat yet but a sample was required while my son and I waited for the rest of the family to return for dinner.  We took off the wings and coated them with a healthy dose of the Alabama White BBQ Sauce.

The wing with the white sauce was tasty!  It was hard to not keep eating just the turkey but we did and it was worth the wait as the whole meal came out delicious.

Despite the nasty weather this smoked turkey made it seem like it was sunny and 75 today!

For years I’ve heard about Alabama White BBQ Sauce but had never tried it.  This would be the perfect opportunity to give it a shot.

White BBQ sauce is a North Alabama regional specialty.  Most people outside of this area have never even heard of it. seo companies  The sauce is mayonnaise based and has a tangy flavor.  It is good on chicken, turkey, and even pork but locals eat it on everything.

A quick history lesson…  Big Bob Gibson of Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q in Decatur, Alabama came up with the white BBQ sauce back in 1925 for his restaurant.  Back in that time vinegar and mustard based sauces were typical.  Bob didn’t particularly like them on his chicken so he created the mayo based white sauce.  The same secret recipe continues to be used at the restaurant and is bottled and for sale around the country.

Unfortunately our local grocery store doesn’t carry the sauce and I didn’t have time to order, so after some research here is the recipe I used to make mine.

Alabama White BBQ Sauce Recipe

2 cups mayo (I prefer Duke’s)
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup apple juice
2 teaspoons prepared horseradish
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons freshly squeezed juice from 1 lemon
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon mustard powder
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Put all ingredients into a bowl and whisk or blend in a food processor to combine. Let sit for 30 minutes, then use immediately or transfer to a jar and store in refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

Well I’ve got to tell you… THIS STUFF WAS GOOD!  I smoked and pulled a 6 pound chicken, mixed a little sauce in with the chicken, and then had more white BBQ sauce in a bottle on the side.  Four of us had wiped out the chicken before I could even get a picture.

The Crimson Tide easily rolled to a 42-14 victory over the #1 ranked Fighting Irish to win their 3rd BCS Championship in four years and the smoked chicken with Alabama White BBQ Sauce was a big winner too!

Early in the morning I put the chicken legs into Ziploc bags  to marinade in a bath of Carolina Treet.  Just after mid-day the earthquake hit!  Our house rattled, pictures on the walls got crooked, stuff fell off of shelves, and that chicken got a little extra vibrating while marinating.  During the day we had several smaller aftershocks too.  Talk about Shake and Bake!

About 2 hours before dinner I took the chicken out of the marinade and generously dusted the legs with Plowboys Yardbird Rub.  Yardbird is a rub I use for a lot of different cooks. slovenia .  It is excellent on poultry and just as good on pork.

I fired up the smoker and used a mix of hickory and cherry wood.  Once the smoker reached 275 degrees in went the chicken legs.  They cooked for about 1.5 hours and had reached about 165 degrees.

To wrap this cook up I very lightly glazed the chicken legs in a mixture of Pork Barrel BBQ Sauce Sweet and Head Country BBQ Sauce.  Then back into the smoker at 325 degrees for the final 15 minutes.

These chicken legs turned out delicious! Multi-layers of flavor hit you with each bite.  The tang from the Carolina Treet, the zip from the Plowboys rub, and sweet spice from the sauce.

These smoked chickens legs will definitely shake-up your next meal!

I looked in the refrigerator yesterday and found two corned beef briskets.  I’ve smoked plenty of briskets but I wondered what would happen if you smoked a corned beef brisket.  After getting permission from my wife to experiment on one of them it was off to the internet for some research.

Just when I think I’m starting to become knowledgeable about meat and smoking… WHAM… I realize that I actually still have a lot to learn!  What I learned was that if you take a brisket and pickle it you get corned beef brisket and if pastrami rub is added then smoked you get pastrami.  So of course I had to try it!

Here’s the procedure I followed…

A. Soak the corned beef brisket to remove some of the salt.

I soaked it in the fridge for about 5 hours.  I changed the water twice during that time.

B. Put on a thin coating of yellow mustard and rub it with a mix of black pepper (lots), ground coriander, brown sugar, garlic powder, and onion powder.  Let it rest overnight in the fridge.

C. Smoked with a mix of hickory and mesquite at 225-250 degrees until it hit 160.

D. Foiled with a little of my kid’s wild cherry juice box (no apple juice was in the house) until 190.

E. Let it rest for an hour or so in the foil.

F. Tasted a sample to see how it came out.  I liked it and my wife declared it tastes like pastrami to her too.

F. Put in the fridge to cut and eat the next day.

I just kind of winged this whole deal… no measurements on the rub and guessed at the cook temps… but it seems to have worked out.

One Day Later… The Final Report…

WOW…  This pastrami is amazing!

Before slicing my pastrami, I went to the deli and bought the most expensive pastrami they had.  I wanted to do a taste comparison between homemade pastrami and store bought.

The homemade pastrami won hands down! It had so much more flavor than the store bought.  I will definitely be doing this cook again.  Now all I need is a meat slicer

It was a gloomy, rainy day here in the DC area.  So what better way to shake off the blues than to fire up the GOSM.  Today’s lunch menu included ABTs and stuffed smoked burgers.

The jalapenos were giant so I decided to go boat style.  Sliced them up, filled them with cream cheese (chive & onion), grated cheddar, then wrapped in bacon.

They spent about 2.5 hours in the smoker at 250 degrees until the bacon crisped up.

Our lunch main course was smoked stuffed burgers.  If you’ve never had one these are a real treat.  Smokey beef flavor on the outside and juicy goodness inside.  MMMMMM…

The stuffing was onions, mushrooms, 1/2 jalapeno, and a slice of bacon sauteed in butter and dry sherry.  Thin burgers patties were loaded with the sauteed goodness and some cheese then closed with another thin burger patty.

These were smoked for almost 2 hours to 160 degrees.  We had some hickory chunks in the smoke box.

I called this the “First Attempt” because although the sauce was very good (“Tasty, that’s really Tasty!”  according to Mark K.) I think I could have done better and plan to try again.

Here’s the BBQ sauce ingredients…

¾ Cup Yellow Mustard
¾ Cup Red Wine Vinegar
½ Cup White Sugar
3 Tbsp. Dark Brown Sugar
2 Tbsp. Butter
2 Tsp. Salt
½ Tbsp. Worcestershire Sauce
½ Tsp. Soy Sauce
½ Tsp. Tabasco Sauce
1½ Tsp. Course Ground Black Pepper
1 Tsp. White Pepper

Put all the ingredients in a saucepan, stir them up, and then bring them to a boil.  Reduce the heat and let simmer for at least 30 minutes.

SoFlaQuer offers up this tip…  Use a handheld upright blender at the simmer point to really give it a good blend and aerate the sauce. It makes for a much smoother finished product.  I didn’t have a handheld blender so I gave the sauce a good whisking at this point.

Once the Mustard Sauce is the consistency you want let it stand at room temperature 1 hour before serving.  Store it in the refrigerator after that.

Well, I liked the flavor of this Carolina Mustard Sauce a lot!  It was sweet and tangy in just the right amounts.

It was very good on pork.  It was also very good as a dipping sauce.  I became addicted to dipping pretzels in it.

The finished product was a lot thicker than I expected.  Maybe I boiled it too long.

As luck would have it my wife had just picked up a Pork Loin Country Style Ribs Boneless Value Pack.  Check out the directions… it made me cringe!

PLEASE NEVER BOIL YOUR RIBS!

I dusted these ribs with some of Texas BBQ Rub’s Original Recipe.

The ribs then went into the smoker at 225F with some hickory wood.

After the ribs hit 150F internal temp they were wrapped in foil with some honey, brown sugar, and apple juice.  They stayed in the foil until they reached 190F.  I took them out of the foil and hit them again with the Texas BBQ Rub then back on the smoker to finish up.

These ribs were moist, tender, juicy, and flavorful.  We really liked the flavor the Texas BBQ Rub put in the outer crust.

None of us have ever competed in a sanctioned contest so we are doing our best to learn all that we can before our first competition.

One tip we have repeatedly read is to take the KCBS Certified BBQ Judging class.  From this you can learn the inside scoop on what the judges are looking for with respect to presentation, taste, and tenderness when judging competitions.

So we have taken the plunge and myself and Mark K have signed up for the April 8th, 2011 class at Meadow Creek BBQ in New Holland, PA.  Which is my daughter Zoe’s birthday and she has already forgiven me for missing the big day (it was either because she really likes my Q or perhaps it was the bigger present bribe I may have mentioned ).

We’ll report back in April with what we’ve learned and if you’re gonna be there be sure to let us know so we can say hi.

For a complete list of KCBS Judging Classes visit www.kcbs.us/classes.php