50th Birthday Party-Q with Q-VIEW

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slingerland

Fire Starter
Original poster
Jul 29, 2012
70
11
Little Rock, Arkansas
I just turned 50, and my wife asked me what I wanted to do for it.  So (tongue-in-cheek) I suggested a local steakhouse.  She took me seriously and said "WHAT?  We'll have 15 family members coming!  I can't afford to take us all out to eat there!!!"  Then after a moment she saw me grin ans realized I was being flippant.

"So..." she said, "You want to BBQ for your birthday?"  My grin was enough answer.  We planned a "simple" BBQ menu: pork butt, smoked chuck roast, BBQ beans, cornbread (two kinds actually), roasted potatoes, smokie sausages (appetizers), corn, salad stuff. 

But the weather decided to mess with us.  A rain front would be moving in, but the day kept changing... maybe my b-day would be clear, maybe not, maybe windy, etc.  I do not have a covered area to smoke/grill, and I do not have an EZ Canopy, either.  Rain would shut me down.

So we tweaked the menu.  I posted a question here about storing pork in the fridge (THANKS!!!! for the answers!) and gave up on the chuck roast.  Not a perfect solution since two of our kids really don't like pork.  But we moved forward with the queue.
 
So we moved forward with the B-Day plans.  At B-Day (minus 2) the weather was clear, but rain would be moving in.  So I waited until the last minute and started the pork butt.

I rubbed it the night before with a rub that the family seems to prefer.  My family is a mix of American South (Tennessee/Arkansas) and Korean (wife's family.)  The Koreans LOVE their spices, while the boring Arkies (my family) like mild and sweet.  The bud I use has a bit of heat, and the Koreans could use a spicier BBQ sauce.


After sitting overnight in the fridge I built up the Minion snake.  My charcoal smoker rig is a Weber 22.5 OTG capped with a Cajun Bandit extender.  In short, a poor man's WSM.  It's not perfect, and temp control is not great, but for chunk meats like a pork shoulder or chuck roast, it works fine.


Pork shoulder is started... and off we go!



Then the weather changed suddenly!  A pop-up shower developed and was heading for my house!  I had to quickly engineer a solution.  So I grabbed my wife's umbrella (without asking) and "there, I fixed it!"



And here's the pork shoulder just before being wrapped.  At this point I wrapped it with foil inside a pan, and finished in the oven inside.

 
Cake.gif
 Happy Birthday!
worthless.gif


Happy smoken.

David
 
 
So we moved forward with the B-Day plans.  At B-Day (minus 2) the weather was clear, but rain would be moving in.  So I waited until the last minute and started the pork butt.

I rubbed it the night before with a rub that the family seems to prefer.  My family is a mix of American South (Tennessee/Arkansas) and Korean (wife's family.)  The Koreans LOVE their spices, while the boring Arkies (my family) like mild and sweet.  The bud I use has a bit of heat, and the Koreans could use a spicier BBQ sauce.


After sitting overnight in the fridge I built up the Minion snake.  My charcoal smoker rig is a Weber 22.5 OTG capped with a Cajun Bandit extender.  In short, a poor man's WSM.  It's not perfect, and temp control is not great, but for chunk meats like a pork shoulder or chuck roast, it works fine.


Pork shoulder is started... and off we go!



Then the weather changed suddenly!  A pop-up shower developed and was heading for my house!  I had to quickly engineer a solution.  So I grabbed my wife's umbrella (without asking) and "there, I fixed it!"



And here's the pork shoulder just before being wrapped.  At this point I wrapped it with foil inside a pan, and finished in the oven inside.

Looks GREAT! I bet it taste so good!

Happy smoken.

David
 
B-DAY!

The night before B-Day, the firm weather forecast called for clear skies, with high winds in the morning, winds calming after lunch.  It was a last minute decision, but I decided to make two pans of Myron Mixon's "cupcake chicken."  I made up a half batch of rub with two differences: table sugar in place of the dark brown sugar, and I left out the cayenne.  The folks who would prefer the chicken also preferred milder spicing.

Here's the chicken in the pan:


Given I needed tight temp controls, I chose to use my propane gasser.  (I use this one for ribs, too.)  I used some painter's tape and aluminum foil to rig up a wind break.

 
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We all had a great time!  As we get older, the family moves apart and moves forward; these get-togethers are further apart and mean more when they happen.  Everybody said how much they preferred the BBQ over going to a restaurant.

So when my mother gave me my birthday present, everybody clapped, hugged and cried:


WSM 18.5! 
 
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