Well, it was such a great gathering it's gonna take two posts to get it all documented. Friday is already covered, now it's time to get to the main event.
Got the Egg dialed in and went in to get a few minutes sleep. As the surface temp of the meat went up, so did the temp in the Egg. Gerald tweaked the vents to get the temp back down. I checked it several times throughout the night and his adjustment was perfect. Here is where the temp was at 4:30 Saturday morning
Brisket and pork butt also at 4:30 in the morning
Done and in the house to get wrapped and into the cooler
Now to Saturday morning breakfast. The griddle fired up and loaded with a bunch of stuff, all of which I made. That was my only contribution to breakfast. We had pepper crusted bacon, maple and brown sugar bacon, Buckboard bacon, sausage patties, and smoked ham steaks
Gerald working on the sausage gravy. Cooking in a Dutch oven on the grill, also with my homemade breakfast sausage
Biscuits on the grill to cook
Breakfast spread all laid out
Connie making omelettes to order
My breakfast plate
Had to have one more biscuit with Doug's plum jam. God this stuff is good!!
Time to get the ribs on the BGE. Can't believe I got all three on without having to cut one rack and put half in front and the other half in back.
Piedmontese sirloin roasts prepped with Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. These will be smoked and reverse seared
Ricky firing up the Santa Maria grill to get the Turkey going
Turkey on the rotisserie
4# of fresh shrimp peeled, veins removed, seasoned with EVOO and my Cajun spice mix
This is a sign Tracy made in one of her craft sessions. It's been on the counter in the laundry room for several weeks and I thought this would be an appropriate time to put it up. Went out to the garage and fabricated some brackets real quick and hung it on the handrail
Folks hanging out int he pool
Ribs all done and ready to slice
Appetizer plate with cured and dry aged Soppressata, Ginger and Vermouth sausage, and some smoked extra sharp cheddar
A bowl full of spicy pickled garlic. This stuff is amazing!! The spice brine came from our friend
Steve H
He used it to pickle some Kielbasa and it sounded like it'd be great for garlic. This was started about a month and a half ago and is just off the charts. Steve....I tagged you because you asked me for an update. Here it is: MAKE SOME NOW!! It was actually one of the biggest hits of the party.
Brisket all sliced and into the roasting pan to keep warm
Sirloin roasts all done. Didn't get any pics of them while they were on the sear burner of the grill. I smoked them to an IT of 118* to 120* then shut the smoker down. Just before we were ready to serve the meal, I flash blasted them at 1100* to get the crust and get them up to an IT of 132*. These were by far my best effort ever on any roast I've ever cooked!!
Pork butt all pulled and into the crock pot to keep warm
Bird about done and ready to take off. Look at the way this thing is just glistening.
Turkey all sliced up and ready to serve
Dinner all laid out in the kitchen....pretty much covering every square inch (couple of pics)
My dinner plate for starters. There was just WAY too many offerings to get some of everything on one plate. Among all the stuff was another batch of Susan's amazing beans and the slaw left from last night.
Here is a surprise. This is Taylor having a plate of food. He was in the kitchen with me eating some of everything I was getting ready for over 2 hours. The man must have consumed two full meals just "sampling" everything before dinner was actually served.
Probably one of the best desserts I've ever had. It is French vanilla ice cream, Connie's cheesecake squares, Doug's homemade brandied plums, then everything drizzled with the juice from the plums. This is simply indescribable!! I could see this being the death of me :-)
Folks back in the pool for a post dinner swim
Ladies and gentlemen, make no mistake about it, I am exhausted. What started out as an event with three people sharing cooking duties turned into a one pony show....and I was that pony....with the exception of Ricky doing the turkey. This was pretty much a 40 hour non-stop marathon run for me. There were times on Saturday that I questioned what the heck I'd gotten myself into. There were also times I questioned my sanity :-) It all boiled down to me telling Zach that I'd do whatever I could and the last thing in the world I wanted to happen was him being let down after all the work he'd done.
SUMMARY:
Although I'm worn the Hell out, I am honored that Zach asked me to be his compadre on this one. It was his brain child from the beginning and he put a LOT of time and work into getting it going. I'm heart broken that he missed out on most of it due to his responsibilities at work. He has a plan for next year though and it's not going to happen a second time.
Ricky....that was the absolute best turkey I have ever eaten....bar none!! He brined it for 3 days, injected it with Turkey Gold, rubbed it with squirt butter, then seasoned it with an Italian seasoning I had on hand. Once that thing was on the rotisserie he watched over it like it was his first born child. There was a LOT of love that went into that bird before it showed up on my dinner plate. IMHO, that turkey stole the show!! What makes it really interesting is that he had never done anything even close to what he did with that bird. It was his first ever attempt and came out nothing short of amazing.
The brisket and pork were both outstanding. Juicy, tender, and fantastically flavorful. Half of both got eaten before dinner was even served. Folks just kept nibbling.....
Ribs were the best I've ever done. Absolutely nailed them. Cooked at 275* for 4 hours, no glaze, and no wrap. Just seasoning and smoke. There were those who said the ribs were the star of the meal.
Sirloin roasts were perfect and the crust from the sear was SOOOO good. Some folks thought they were the highlight of the meal.
Even though I had my doubts yesterday, now that the smoke has cleared and I have some amazing memories (and a few pics) I'd do it again tomorrow if somebody asked me to.
Time for a margarita....
Robert
Got the Egg dialed in and went in to get a few minutes sleep. As the surface temp of the meat went up, so did the temp in the Egg. Gerald tweaked the vents to get the temp back down. I checked it several times throughout the night and his adjustment was perfect. Here is where the temp was at 4:30 Saturday morning
Brisket and pork butt also at 4:30 in the morning
Done and in the house to get wrapped and into the cooler
Now to Saturday morning breakfast. The griddle fired up and loaded with a bunch of stuff, all of which I made. That was my only contribution to breakfast. We had pepper crusted bacon, maple and brown sugar bacon, Buckboard bacon, sausage patties, and smoked ham steaks
Gerald working on the sausage gravy. Cooking in a Dutch oven on the grill, also with my homemade breakfast sausage
Biscuits on the grill to cook
Breakfast spread all laid out
Connie making omelettes to order
My breakfast plate
Had to have one more biscuit with Doug's plum jam. God this stuff is good!!
Time to get the ribs on the BGE. Can't believe I got all three on without having to cut one rack and put half in front and the other half in back.
Piedmontese sirloin roasts prepped with Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. These will be smoked and reverse seared
Ricky firing up the Santa Maria grill to get the Turkey going
Turkey on the rotisserie
4# of fresh shrimp peeled, veins removed, seasoned with EVOO and my Cajun spice mix
This is a sign Tracy made in one of her craft sessions. It's been on the counter in the laundry room for several weeks and I thought this would be an appropriate time to put it up. Went out to the garage and fabricated some brackets real quick and hung it on the handrail
Folks hanging out int he pool
Ribs all done and ready to slice
Appetizer plate with cured and dry aged Soppressata, Ginger and Vermouth sausage, and some smoked extra sharp cheddar
A bowl full of spicy pickled garlic. This stuff is amazing!! The spice brine came from our friend
Steve H
He used it to pickle some Kielbasa and it sounded like it'd be great for garlic. This was started about a month and a half ago and is just off the charts. Steve....I tagged you because you asked me for an update. Here it is: MAKE SOME NOW!! It was actually one of the biggest hits of the party.
Brisket all sliced and into the roasting pan to keep warm
Sirloin roasts all done. Didn't get any pics of them while they were on the sear burner of the grill. I smoked them to an IT of 118* to 120* then shut the smoker down. Just before we were ready to serve the meal, I flash blasted them at 1100* to get the crust and get them up to an IT of 132*. These were by far my best effort ever on any roast I've ever cooked!!
Pork butt all pulled and into the crock pot to keep warm
Bird about done and ready to take off. Look at the way this thing is just glistening.
Turkey all sliced up and ready to serve
Dinner all laid out in the kitchen....pretty much covering every square inch (couple of pics)
My dinner plate for starters. There was just WAY too many offerings to get some of everything on one plate. Among all the stuff was another batch of Susan's amazing beans and the slaw left from last night.
Here is a surprise. This is Taylor having a plate of food. He was in the kitchen with me eating some of everything I was getting ready for over 2 hours. The man must have consumed two full meals just "sampling" everything before dinner was actually served.
Probably one of the best desserts I've ever had. It is French vanilla ice cream, Connie's cheesecake squares, Doug's homemade brandied plums, then everything drizzled with the juice from the plums. This is simply indescribable!! I could see this being the death of me :-)
Folks back in the pool for a post dinner swim
Ladies and gentlemen, make no mistake about it, I am exhausted. What started out as an event with three people sharing cooking duties turned into a one pony show....and I was that pony....with the exception of Ricky doing the turkey. This was pretty much a 40 hour non-stop marathon run for me. There were times on Saturday that I questioned what the heck I'd gotten myself into. There were also times I questioned my sanity :-) It all boiled down to me telling Zach that I'd do whatever I could and the last thing in the world I wanted to happen was him being let down after all the work he'd done.
SUMMARY:
Although I'm worn the Hell out, I am honored that Zach asked me to be his compadre on this one. It was his brain child from the beginning and he put a LOT of time and work into getting it going. I'm heart broken that he missed out on most of it due to his responsibilities at work. He has a plan for next year though and it's not going to happen a second time.
Ricky....that was the absolute best turkey I have ever eaten....bar none!! He brined it for 3 days, injected it with Turkey Gold, rubbed it with squirt butter, then seasoned it with an Italian seasoning I had on hand. Once that thing was on the rotisserie he watched over it like it was his first born child. There was a LOT of love that went into that bird before it showed up on my dinner plate. IMHO, that turkey stole the show!! What makes it really interesting is that he had never done anything even close to what he did with that bird. It was his first ever attempt and came out nothing short of amazing.
The brisket and pork were both outstanding. Juicy, tender, and fantastically flavorful. Half of both got eaten before dinner was even served. Folks just kept nibbling.....
Ribs were the best I've ever done. Absolutely nailed them. Cooked at 275* for 4 hours, no glaze, and no wrap. Just seasoning and smoke. There were those who said the ribs were the star of the meal.
Sirloin roasts were perfect and the crust from the sear was SOOOO good. Some folks thought they were the highlight of the meal.
Even though I had my doubts yesterday, now that the smoke has cleared and I have some amazing memories (and a few pics) I'd do it again tomorrow if somebody asked me to.
Time for a margarita....
Robert
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