SQWIB Live From Sunny Philadelphia "Detailed Post"

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sqwib

Smoking Guru
Original poster
OTBS Member
Sep 25, 2007
5,962
1,034
Philadelphia
As promised in my Live From Sunny Philadelphia Post.

updated 2/4/13, added beer photo

This post goes out to my Buddy "Bear", get well soon my Friend.



Ok so this is my second annual Meatfest, Man Day
Originally named... see the email invitation below.

Rich's 2nd Annual

Call out sick, Drink Beer, Whiskey and Cook Tons of Meat on a Fire party!

No Woman or Kids allowed
 
DECEMBER 14, 2012
 
Time 9 am - the wife gets home

email or call to reserve your spot today
Rich
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This has been shortened by my friends and family to Meat Fest and Man Day.
I Sort of Like "Man Day", maybe we can replace Monday with Manday, just a thought.
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Ok here we go!
Prepped most of the stuff the night before.
 ​
  • Started off with some goose I had in the freezer, made some skewers with Sweet and Sour Sauce.
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  • Beef Teriyaki Skewers
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  • Tenderized with a Jaccard Tenderizer, what a great tool. You can tell which piece is tenderized.
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  • Barbecue Pork Loin skewers. I used my Basic Pork Rub for these.
  • 1/3 cup coarse salt (kosher or sea)
  • 1-1/2 cup (packed) Brown Sugar
  • 1-1/4 cup paprika
  • 1 Tbsp freshly coarse ground black pepper
  • 2 Tbsp garlic powder
  • ¼ cup dried onion flakes
  • ¼ cup onion powder
  • 1 tsp cayenne pepper
  • 2 tsp chili powder
  • 2 tsp coriander
  • 1 Tbsp rosemary
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  • Hot wing sauce for Buffalo Skewers and Buffalo Wings.
  • Butter
  • Franks Red Hot
  • Brown Sugar
  • Bleu Cheese Dressing
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 ​
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  • Everything is wrapped and placed in the refrigerator. It really is nice having a second refrigerator for all this kind of stuff, plus if it smells up the refrigerator, the wife unit won't kill me.
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 ​

  • Now onto the pork.
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  • I had to half this guy, I wasn't willing to wait for a 20 pound whole Ham to finish on the pit. It took a bit of work but I split it in half.
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 ​

  • Sure is "PERTY", isn't it.
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Most of the fat is trimmed and then rubbed with my

Philly Style Dry Rub:

  •     ¼ c. kosher salt (updated, was 1/4 cup , increase to 1/2 cup if using low sodium broth in the finishing sauce)
  •     ¼ c. black pepper (freshly ground if possible)
  •     ½ c. Italian seasoning (OR equal parts: basil, oregano and rosemary)
  •     ½  c. Minced Onion Flakes
  •     2 tsp. chili powder
  •     2, 7- 10lb Pork Butt
  • Added 1/4 cup of Montreal Steak Seasoning for this cook
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Alright, The Sweet and Sour Goose Skewers, Buffalo Chicken Skewers, Beef Teryikai Skewers and Pork Barbecue skewers are done. (Everything tastes better on a stick)
The Buffalo Wings are done
The pork is all rubbed and resting nicely in the refrigerator
.


 ​
Woo Hoo! it's Friday Morning.
I take my Daughter to School and head back home.

Its 7:45 and I'm ready to go...it's gonna be a long day.


  • Out at the pit and the weather is perfect, I like it on the chilly side.
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  • Its a little damp out but that will clear up soon.
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Ok the pit is fired up with my junk wood, the propane log lighter is on high.
After about a half hour, I get the pork out and prep everything.
Drip pans are in place, water is added, after I add the water it steamed up pretty good.


  • Pork is on
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  • Prepping
  • I place a few things of water on the firepit, the coffee pot water is for adding hot water to the water pan, and there's also a large can, not shown, that i use for placing my utensils in after stirring foods and touching the meats.
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  • Still steaming.
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I get out my Maverick but don't place in the meat yet but use the pit temp probe, Thermapen is ready, start the timer for the pork on my Taylor thermos.
Wipe down the table with Clorox cleanup, get my Fire pit gloves and meat gloves out, heavy duty foil, steamer pans, and a few rags one wet one dry and a few towels



  • Get my Philly Style Fire ready, pallets and Pizza boxes.
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  • Now it's time to prep the Baby Back Ribs. It's nice to have a big enough table on the pit to prep stuff like ribs.
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  • Readying my Favorite mop.(Equal parts for the inquisitive)
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  • Silverskin is removed.
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  • Mopped bone side
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  • Rubbed bone side.
[h2]http://Rib Rub: [/h2]
  • 3 tablespoons light brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon cayenne powder
  • 2 tablespoons garlic powder
  • 2 tablespoons onion powder
  • 2 tablespoons white pepper
  • 2 tablespoons kosher salt
  • 1 tablespoon dry mustard, such as Coleman's 
  • 1 tablespoon course black pepper
  • 5 teaspoons seafood seasoning, such as Old Bay
  • 1 teaspoon ginger powder
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  • Mopped meat side
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  • Rubbed Meat side
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  • Onto the pit
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Many of you that read my 1st Call out of work sick party know that was the last year with my Lab Lucy (smoking bud#1)

  • Well here is my new smoking Bud Maggie (smoking bud #2). She really loves drinking from the pond.
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  • It's time to get the fire started, I have a few pallets that I'm going to burn down and get a good coal base before the cooking wood gets here, I wont cook over pallets.
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  • Woo Hoo! the real wood is here, for all of you that read my Charcoal Retort post using the Wasp Beetle wood, this is the same wood.
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  • Pallets are burnt down to coals and we start adding the ash. after the ash has a good coal bed, we start cooking, Figured I would start with the wings and Coffee.
  • It was only Adam and myself at this point so I didn't want to start breakfast just yet.


  • Adam had a 7 pound loin that he had brought over, we mopped with the same mop as the ribs and rubbed it real good with Montreal Steak Seasoning and added to the pit.
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  • Wings are cooked directly over the fire after the sauce was brought up to a boil.
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  • My brother and his two sons just got here and a camping buddy John, so I figured I would start breakfast. Coffee started perking so I removed from the cooking grate and placed next to the fire ring
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  • Damn, they already hit the keg, it's still a wee bit early for me, I got a long day ahead of me.
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  • Adam finishing up the wings before I start the skewers.
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  • Next up is the Sweet and Sour Goose Skewers.
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  • The wings were definitely a hit. It's a shame I can't say the same for the goose, it was inedible. It had a good texture but had a metal taste like blood, I tried saving it by mopping with teriyaki and soy sauce...we just could not eat it. It may have been a better idea to slow roast on the pit.
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  • Pork skewers, these were a hit everybody loved them but me, they were OK but not my favorite. Note the two goose legs in the upper left, we kept daring each other to eat one, keep an eye out for those legs, I am sure you will see them again in this post.
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  • Jim cutting some ash.The guys wouldn't let me cut any wood because I had a "Cardiac Cath" scheduled for Tuesday and I guess they thought I was going to have a heart attack. lol.
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  • A few more guests arrive by noon.
  • Threw on the Beef Teriyaki Skewers.
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Well we kicked the half of Killians (there was only a few pitchers we got out of it), No worries, we had plenty of beer We had some Coors Light ugh!, A few different varieties of Abita and a few of Samuel Adams, and some Stella.
  • Threw on the Buffalo Wing Skewers.
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  • Back to the pit., threw on some beans earlier, foiled the pork, Adam threw on a whole chicken and I started Glazing the ribs.
[h2]http://BBQ Sauce: [/h2]
  • 3 cups ketchup
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1 cup rice wine vinegar
  • 1/2 cup stone ground mustard
  • 1/3 cup Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 1 tablespoon sea salt
I made this sauce before and really liked it, I liked it better making it with the substitute ingredients than the recommended ingredients, below is my version that I prefer over the original.
[h2]http://BBQ Sauce:(Modified)[/h2]
  • 3 cups ketchup
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1 cup Cider Vinegar
  • 1/2 cup Yellow Mustard
  • 1/3 cup Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 1 tablespoon sea salt
I also cut this in half sometimes with a mix of KC Masterpiece and Sweet Baby Rays.
  • The ribs were mopped often and I started building the glaze about an hour before they came off, glazed bone side once and meat side 3-4 times
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  • Setting up the glaze on the firepit
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  • Ribs rested for about ten minutes, then were sliced for munching. I'm glad I snapped this pic, because I'm starting to feel the alcohol and it seems like the morning lasted forever and once we hit noon the day just took off.
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  • Not really sure what's going on here, sometimes I'm in my own little world, snapping off pictures.
  • Temp was about 60 degrees at this point.
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  • Threw on the Pork Loin, same mop as the ribs and rub as the pork.
  • This will be sliced up for "Philly Style Pork Sammies".
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  • I think the beer is starting to kick in, remember the Goose Leg I talked about earlier, well see if you can find it in the next two photos.
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They made a Tiki torch out of the leg, with a little help from some gasoline.

  • Kids!

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  • The little sneak got a hold of this bottle and chewed the lid off, I snapped a few photos before I took the bottle away from her, there was only a mouthful left but was afraid she'd break the glass and get cut. Funny thing, 90 percent of this JD went on pork cooks.
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  • Looks like me, earlier today.

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I had a few buddies stay over and we stayed up til around 1:30 watching some movies, I got them settled in and went upstairs and bothered my Daughter and her boyfriend for about an hour, then the wife unit came down and told me to the leave the kids alone, hmmmm... I know she's 19 and a smart girl but I guess the father instinct was coming out, her boyfriend left a few minutes after I went to bed.

Well everyone had a great time and are already asking about next years Man Day. We ended up with 10 people including myself, that's 9 more than last years party.

The pork was pretty good and I averaged about 60 minutes per pound, running the pit at 250, however I got distracted a few times and let it drop to 225 while I was cooking on the firepit.

I shredded all the pork but one half of the whole ham. All the pork took 60 minutes a pound except the one half of the whole ham. It was closer to my usual average of 82 minutes per pound. This cook really affects my average cook time.

Half of the Pulled Pork went with my brother, he was having both his boys birthdays celebration Saturday night. We had three parties that night that were all the same time. Scout Christmas Party, My daughters best friends sweet 16 party and both my Nephews birthday party, well we made all three. We were committed to the scout party as I am the Webelo 2 den leader and my wife is the Assistant Scout Cub Master.

It was nice to hear a lot of compliments on the Pulled Pork from my brothers crowd as well as the rave reviews of "Man Day".
  • One of the halves from the ham was reheated in the oven at 250 for half hour or so then shredded, the pic below is that piece. It appears dry in the photo but it isn't dry, it's cold, the pork did not heat through completely but oddly enough it shredded ok...a bit harder on the cold meat as the grease in the meat was still a bit waxy but the outside was easy to shred.
  • So for all you folks that are afraid to reheat and shred, its no biggie, just make sure to foil and place in a drip pan.
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  • The Pork loin was refrigerated and sliced up the following day for Hot Pork Sandwiches and they were awesome
     as usual.
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  • Niiiice... let's have a closer peek!
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  • On the slicer.

 

  • As old as this slicer is, it does a beautiful job slicing...Thanks Dave, Dave is a buddy of my brothers that gave it to me.
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  • About 7-8 pounds sliced and ready for some Hot Pork Sandwiches.
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Quick note...when I make the pork sandwiches, the gravy is heated in the crock pot then turned off, the cold meat is then added, this prevents the meat from cooking any further and getting that fall apart crumbly texture.

I hope you enjoyed my little soirée and hope to see you next year.

Oh! Almost forgot, here's a few of the beverages enjoyed!

 
Last edited:
That looks 100x better than any disney world vacation I've ever been on. I think I now need to do one myself. 
 
Looked like a damn good time.  Thanks for sharing the great pics.  I think I might start an annual event like this for my friends once my smoking skills are honed.
 
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