well, folks - this was certainly an interesting journey. i'll try to tell the story but keep it a little shorter than my original post!
we were running about 15 minutes to a half-hour late all day yesterday, but did get there, get the ECBs set up and had meat on by 130pm - then someone said that he was pretty sure the turn-in time was 630, so i figured heck yeah, it's all good. interestingly enough, we were one of only three teams smoking, and i was the only one with ECBs. the other two smoking teams consisted of an entire trailer that looked like a whole shed on wheels (very nice) and another one that looked like a large home oil-heating tank modified into a smoker - both were nice pits. the rest were grilling (indirect heat) on gas grills in batches and one was cooking over a long charcoal set-up that looked like a sawed-off horse trough on legs. the fellow next to me is a neighbor of mine - he was on a gas grill and there were a lot of good smells coming out of his grill.
i didn't get as much smoke going as i wanted, i think due to OVERsoaking the woodchips in the foil pouches and also the fact that the grates were extremely full with little or no room between most meat portions. we squeezed the pouches dry and opened them up more than we would have normally, and this helped. i must reiterate here that if you haven't tried an equal blend of cherry, maple and apple, give it a try sometime for some of the sweetest, most outdoorsy smoke aroma and flavor you can imagine. my cherry and apple came from the makers of the little chief smoker, and if i remember correctly there is a bit of alder blended in as well. in any case, it was just right - there just didn't seem to be enough of it! also, i used a combination of kingsford lump and a new one that we found in great falls called cowboy band (bought at home depot) both performed well and i like them both, although the cowboy brand has a little less smoke smell, it does have more chunks that are the right size. too much of kingsford's stuff seems too small, but it smells great when it is going.
we smoked for two hours, then wrapped each grate entirely in foil and put them back on for 2 hours as per the 2/2/1 concept. temperature control was pretty good except at the beginning it took longer than i wanted to to get up to temp (this was most likely because we only had hot - not boiling- water available to fill the water pans) and at the end i had trouble staying where i wanted to be as the charcoal started to fall off and we tried to replace it with hot coals, but for the most part it was OK. running three ECBs is a bit like coordinating a 3-ring circus when it comes to tending the charcoal and mopping the meat (if anyone is interested in the mop recipe, see my post topic titled "tweaking a good rib rub" or shoot me a PM - it's good stuff!), but other than that things pretty much took care of themselves.
when we removed the foil, i stoked up the heat a bit and threw on the last foil pouches, as well as a few dry chips, in order to get a heavy does of smoke in that last hour. maybe 15 minutes later, a guy comes out and tells eveyone to bring em in. i look at my watch - 6pm - well, so much for 630! i try to keep them on as long as possoble, but ended up having to bring them in after smoking only a half hour (during the final stage), so it turned out to be a 2/2/.5. not quite what i wanted, but hey, i was here just for fun anyway, so i wasn't too concerned. we piled the ribs (which had been pre-cut by the organizers of the event into long portions across the bones - country style ribs were also long portions) onto two foil-lined platters and carried them in with our heads held high.
let me interject here that by design, my oldest son was to stay at home, prepare the finishing glaze (recipe in post above) and bring it right before 630pm. because of the fact that we ended up bringing them in sooner, he actually arrived right after we had the ribs on the platter and covered with foil. it would have been almost perfect timing under the original plan, but as it was, it was a little late - i decided to turn this procedural lemon into lemonade by serving the glaze on the side as a finishing sauce. the yellowish color (which would be considered extremely unique in these parts) would add a great visual contrast as well as good flavor, and give them something to talk about.
when we got in, we discovered that everyone else's ribs had recently been cut into slightly-larger-than-bite-sized portions and laid out in serving pans on a long table. each portion was skewered with a different-colored toothpick. because we had stayed out so long trying to squeeze that last bit of smoke in, we had missed this opportunity for portioning and skewering.
i found out then (newbie that i was!) that people who wanted to attend the feed paid the door charge, came in, walked the line and got a sample of each entry, then voted on a sheet of paper for their favorite based on the color/type of toothpick. a good, fair way to do it, i judged (no pun intended!). also, each team's entries were, technically, to be served by someone other than the team members. we ended up having to do this ourselves, but i was glad for the opportunity because this gave me a chance to greet each person and answer any questions that they might have. also, i immediately decided that instead of serving the glaze on the side as a sauce, i would drizzle it over the platters and trust gravity (and the shifitng around as we cut them into portions) to make sure each portion got a bit of the color and flavor of the glaze. as it turns out, this idea worked better than expected but not quite perfectly.
two factors complicated the situation. the first was that the only open spot left was at the starting end of the long table, so we were last inside but first on the line. this meant that while i or my oldest son was serving, the younger two boys were cutting and tooth-picking them. it looked a little hectic but at the same time it looked "busy" if you know what i mean, like a team in motion. the other hindering factor was that they ran out of toothpicks in our color (restaurant toothpicks wrapped with orange foil at one end) so we ended up serving about half of our portions with a restaurant toothpick that was colored yellow. my oldest boy did a good job of explaining this to as many comers as possible. meanwhile the 6-yr old played out his part as mascot (which didn't require much acting from him as he is quite a character). he went around talking to people and cadging samles of each entry, then decided he was going to vote for the dad of his buddy down the table instead of mine. what can i say, he's a great kid when it comes to comic relief.
(to be continued next post - ran over the limit!)
we were running about 15 minutes to a half-hour late all day yesterday, but did get there, get the ECBs set up and had meat on by 130pm - then someone said that he was pretty sure the turn-in time was 630, so i figured heck yeah, it's all good. interestingly enough, we were one of only three teams smoking, and i was the only one with ECBs. the other two smoking teams consisted of an entire trailer that looked like a whole shed on wheels (very nice) and another one that looked like a large home oil-heating tank modified into a smoker - both were nice pits. the rest were grilling (indirect heat) on gas grills in batches and one was cooking over a long charcoal set-up that looked like a sawed-off horse trough on legs. the fellow next to me is a neighbor of mine - he was on a gas grill and there were a lot of good smells coming out of his grill.
i didn't get as much smoke going as i wanted, i think due to OVERsoaking the woodchips in the foil pouches and also the fact that the grates were extremely full with little or no room between most meat portions. we squeezed the pouches dry and opened them up more than we would have normally, and this helped. i must reiterate here that if you haven't tried an equal blend of cherry, maple and apple, give it a try sometime for some of the sweetest, most outdoorsy smoke aroma and flavor you can imagine. my cherry and apple came from the makers of the little chief smoker, and if i remember correctly there is a bit of alder blended in as well. in any case, it was just right - there just didn't seem to be enough of it! also, i used a combination of kingsford lump and a new one that we found in great falls called cowboy band (bought at home depot) both performed well and i like them both, although the cowboy brand has a little less smoke smell, it does have more chunks that are the right size. too much of kingsford's stuff seems too small, but it smells great when it is going.
we smoked for two hours, then wrapped each grate entirely in foil and put them back on for 2 hours as per the 2/2/1 concept. temperature control was pretty good except at the beginning it took longer than i wanted to to get up to temp (this was most likely because we only had hot - not boiling- water available to fill the water pans) and at the end i had trouble staying where i wanted to be as the charcoal started to fall off and we tried to replace it with hot coals, but for the most part it was OK. running three ECBs is a bit like coordinating a 3-ring circus when it comes to tending the charcoal and mopping the meat (if anyone is interested in the mop recipe, see my post topic titled "tweaking a good rib rub" or shoot me a PM - it's good stuff!), but other than that things pretty much took care of themselves.
when we removed the foil, i stoked up the heat a bit and threw on the last foil pouches, as well as a few dry chips, in order to get a heavy does of smoke in that last hour. maybe 15 minutes later, a guy comes out and tells eveyone to bring em in. i look at my watch - 6pm - well, so much for 630! i try to keep them on as long as possoble, but ended up having to bring them in after smoking only a half hour (during the final stage), so it turned out to be a 2/2/.5. not quite what i wanted, but hey, i was here just for fun anyway, so i wasn't too concerned. we piled the ribs (which had been pre-cut by the organizers of the event into long portions across the bones - country style ribs were also long portions) onto two foil-lined platters and carried them in with our heads held high.
let me interject here that by design, my oldest son was to stay at home, prepare the finishing glaze (recipe in post above) and bring it right before 630pm. because of the fact that we ended up bringing them in sooner, he actually arrived right after we had the ribs on the platter and covered with foil. it would have been almost perfect timing under the original plan, but as it was, it was a little late - i decided to turn this procedural lemon into lemonade by serving the glaze on the side as a finishing sauce. the yellowish color (which would be considered extremely unique in these parts) would add a great visual contrast as well as good flavor, and give them something to talk about.
when we got in, we discovered that everyone else's ribs had recently been cut into slightly-larger-than-bite-sized portions and laid out in serving pans on a long table. each portion was skewered with a different-colored toothpick. because we had stayed out so long trying to squeeze that last bit of smoke in, we had missed this opportunity for portioning and skewering.
i found out then (newbie that i was!) that people who wanted to attend the feed paid the door charge, came in, walked the line and got a sample of each entry, then voted on a sheet of paper for their favorite based on the color/type of toothpick. a good, fair way to do it, i judged (no pun intended!). also, each team's entries were, technically, to be served by someone other than the team members. we ended up having to do this ourselves, but i was glad for the opportunity because this gave me a chance to greet each person and answer any questions that they might have. also, i immediately decided that instead of serving the glaze on the side as a sauce, i would drizzle it over the platters and trust gravity (and the shifitng around as we cut them into portions) to make sure each portion got a bit of the color and flavor of the glaze. as it turns out, this idea worked better than expected but not quite perfectly.
two factors complicated the situation. the first was that the only open spot left was at the starting end of the long table, so we were last inside but first on the line. this meant that while i or my oldest son was serving, the younger two boys were cutting and tooth-picking them. it looked a little hectic but at the same time it looked "busy" if you know what i mean, like a team in motion. the other hindering factor was that they ran out of toothpicks in our color (restaurant toothpicks wrapped with orange foil at one end) so we ended up serving about half of our portions with a restaurant toothpick that was colored yellow. my oldest boy did a good job of explaining this to as many comers as possible. meanwhile the 6-yr old played out his part as mascot (which didn't require much acting from him as he is quite a character). he went around talking to people and cadging samles of each entry, then decided he was going to vote for the dad of his buddy down the table instead of mine. what can i say, he's a great kid when it comes to comic relief.
(to be continued next post - ran over the limit!)
