Weekend Pork Butt and Brisket

I started cooking some pork butts and a brisket today. I've got two boneless 5 lb. butts and a 14 lb. brisket on the smoker. Here's a picture from 6 a.m. when I was kicking everything off.

Currently everything is humming along just fine. The smoker is pegged at 230 degrees.

Adding water to my insulated McCullough 2 x 2

We've had 90 something inches of snow so far this year and a month with temps in the lower single digits. This weekend we're close to 35 degrees for highs, but it's still cold enough that cooking all day requires an insulated smoker.

Once I get it up to temp it maintains cooking temps very well.

Memorial Day Weekend BBQ Activities




BBQ Guy prepping brisket

For the holiday I cooked brisket, 2 pork butts and 2 whole chickens. On top of that, it was my favorite day of auto racing all year long, so I thought, "why not make it better by cooking some bbq too?!"

Pork Butt Spice Rub Recipe

1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup salt
2 tablespoons garlic powder
2 tablespoons onion powder
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 teaspoon chipotle powder





BBQ Chicken Rub Recipe

2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon Kosher salt
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon lemon pepper
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon of rosemary sprinkled in the cavity

Weber Smokey Mountain and Backwoods Party vertical water smokers



BBQ Guy seasoning whole chickens

Beer cans firmly seated in the chicken "roosts"

Three hours later, here's what beer can chicken looks like

"Resting" the chicken before pulling

Pulled bbq chicken sliders

It was a fun filled day of bbq and racing. I've never made pulled bbq chicken before, but it turned out very well.

Linda made "white bbq sauce" for the chicken too. It's popular in northern Alabama, but I've never tried it before either. It was unusual, but very tasty. Next time I think we'll use less vinegar to reduce the "bite" a little bit.



BBQ beef brisket close-up

We finished everything off by slicing a nice looking brisket. The picture above was taken after slicing, but before adding a thin brushing of bbq sauce on both sides of each slice. Ummm, good stuff!

And for desert, Linda made a nice looking rhubarb pie.

Rhubarb pie with the crust protector still in place.
The metal ring protects the outer crust from over cooking.

Real BarBQ Canton

I lived in Plymouth, Michigan from 2004 - 2007 and during that time there wasn't a barbecue restaurant to speak of in the Plymouth-Canton area. So after we moved back to the area in July 2011, I was kind of excited to see an "Opening Soon" sign on Ford Road announcing a new barbecue restaurant.

I lived in temporary housing for several months waiting to close on our home and stopped by the restaurant several times hoping to eat some barbecue. My smokers were in storage and I wanted to cure the craving for some 'que. But each time I pulled in the parking lot, the "Opening Soon" sign was still being displayed.

We were running errands today in Canton and were surprised to see Real BarBQ open for business. After cooking 35 lbs of brisket and pork butt for a work event later this week, we weren't craving bbq but after waiting 10 1/2 months for the opening we couldn't resist giving it a try.

Pork ribs, beef brisket, burnt end baked beans, coleslaw and cornbread.



The house bbq sauce at Real BarBQ

I ordered the Ribs + 1 (my plus 1 was brisket) and Linda ordered the Real Chop Shop (pulled pork served on a brioche roll).

While we waited for our meal, I was offered a tour of the kitchen. I didn't ask for permission to take a picture, but they did show me the Southern Pride they cook everything on - 1,100 lbs of pork butts is a lot of barbecue goodness.

I liked the ribs and brisket. I'm partial to my own homemade bbq, but it was good restaurant bbq. The atmosphere is very nice - actually much nicer than I anticipated. The staff is very friendly and the kitchen was organized and clean. Linda is a tough critic for pulled pork and didn't "love" it.

We'll definitely go back and will certainly recommend it to friends and co-workers. After driving an hour to eat at Slow's in Detroit to be told there was a 3 hour wait, it's good to know there is a nice bbq restaurant option much closer to home.

In case you're wondering what a brioche roll (I know I was) here is the definition from Wikipedia: brioche

Pork Butt Barbecue

We're hoping to take a few days vacation (if the tropical weather formations cooperate).  Linda suggested that we whip up some pulled pork to take along for sandwiches and reduce our dependency on eating out and to minimize prep time and allow more "vacation time".

Today, I am barbecuing two bone-in-butts on the Weber Smokey Mountain.  We're meeting another family and a nephew or two might join us too. Ten pounds of pulled pork should do the trick perfectly. 

These butts were injected with a mixture of apple juice, honey, and Bad Byron's Butt Rub.  More rub was applied and then the butts were refrigerated overnight for cooking this morning.

As bbq goes, pork butts are very low maintenance.  Put them on the cooker. Check back in 4 hours. Wrap in aluminum foil.  Check the internal temp after 3 more hours and they'll be close to done.  Easy, simple, delicious.

December BBQ Pictures from Florida

Here are some pictures from yesterday's Christmas gift cook. For those from colder climates....it was in the mid-70's and sunshine.  It sure beats the 19 degrees when I was in Missouri last week.



Pork butts in McCullough insulated 2 x 2 vertical smoker


Brisket on WSM



Pulled pork butt steaming hot



Sliced brisket prior to sauce

BBQ for Christmas

Tonight I am sitting in for The BBQ Guy because he is busy on a very important duty assigned by his wife (me) and Santa. Last year we started giving barbecue and our favorite bbq sauce, Blues Hog, to those hard to buy for folks on our list.

While we were competing we purchased a vacuum sealer from Cabela’s to reduce the amount of waste we had during practice sessions, this is the perfect way to seal and freeze the bbq gifts. So what do I put under the tree? I take a picture of the final product and put the photo along with the barbecue sauce in a box under the tree.

The toughest part for us was sneaking the cooler into my mom’s house and hiding the Que in the freezer. It was a hit last year with my brother- in- law and father , so this year I expanded our list to include nephew, brother –in-law, father, and two more friends.

So as I type in the Lazy Boy the BBQ Guy is busy as a beaver in the kitchen preparing four pork butts, two packer briskets, and three racks of ribs for a long day with the smokers tomorrow .

There is more than 60 lbs of meat in the picture that will go on the smoker bright and early tomorrow.