Saturday, January 19, 2008

Charlotte's Secret Revealed

Well, I've watched "National Treasure" a number of times and have never really figured out the true meaning of the first big clue - "The Secret Lies with Charlotte." That is ... until today. As you know, I have named my WSM (that's Weber Smokey Mountain Smoker) "Charlotte." Why? Because. No other reason.

Well, today, I put Charlotte to the test. We did a brisket, a butt and some ribs. We were going to do chicken, but didn't have room on the smoker or time on the clock. That will have to wait until another day. The total cooking time was as follows:

Brisket (13 pounds): 18 1/2 hours
Butt (9 pounds): 14 1/2 hours
Ribs (5 pounds): 4 hours

All in all, the meal turned out quite good. I also make a couple of sauces. The first sauce is the vinegar sauce that I perfected over the summer. It's quite yummy. The second sauce is the second go round at the sauce I am trying to invent. I tweaked it a little from last time. It's much better, but needs some more tweaking. Oh well, I guess perfection takes time.

I also tweaked my rub a little. It was much better than before. In fact, the bark on the butt and brisket was quite amazing. However, I think that I need to tweak it a little more. The rubs and sauces are truly works in progress.

All in all, there was about 27 pounds of meat and we only invited my dad over to help eat. Let's just say we are all FULL!! Also, a guy in our ward nearly cut his finger off with a saw this week. We took some to their family. There's nothing better to do with BBQ than share it.

Here are some pictures of the finished product:

First: The Butt. This has to be the best smoke ring I've ever gotten. It was nearly an inch thick in most places. This butt was AMAZINGLY tender and juicy. Far and away the best one I've ever made:
Second: The Ribs. The ribs actually turned out pretty darn good. I think I could have cooked them a little longer. They did not pull from the bone as well as I would have liked. Here is "Rib Queen" holding some of the ribs:

Here they are cut up:
And again.
Third: The Brisket. The brisket turned out OK. I think that I over-smoked it. Michelle said it was pretty good. It didn't taste too bad. Just a little too smokey.
As I said, the food was loved by all. I tried to save some for other friends and family, but the kids just ate it all up. Even Zander (7 months) couldn't keep his hands off of the meat. Here's the proof:

Still going ...

And going ...
Needless to say, the weekend was an overall success. I'm very pleased with the WSM ... for the most part. I think I want to try cooking with sand in the water tray instead of water. it just seemed that the steam and smoke made for a HUGE mess. Granted, it was all in the smoker, but I'm pretty anal about things being somewhat clean.
That's all for now ... However, I assure you there will be more ...

2 comments:

Ma and pa said...

the meat was great. the kids were all excited to get some little tast of the meat. Paul you did great.

Dad

Jayson, Megan, Dawson & Creed said...

Looks YUMMY!! My mouth is watering.