Summertime...Barbeques, Grills & Smokers!

That sounds terrific. I love grilled asparagus too.

 

I was able to source most of the parts I needed to resuscitate my 1961 Imperial Kamado for much less than I had hoped to spend. The parts will be on their way Monday. I may have to retro fit a BGE damper, but have some measuring and figgering to do first. I still have a lot of work to do, but am pretty excited to get this guy going again.

To celebrate, I did a couple slow and low apple smoked chickens on the Weber kettle today and took a half bird to 3 of my neighbors.

 

Got up to 70 or so today so I got out the grill for the first time this year. Nothing too fancy: brats, burgers and chicken legs:



Tomorrow's supposed to be rainy, and Monday only a high of 35. Today we pretended it was summer.

 

Beautiful outdoor grill set up. I have designed quite a few and it has definitely become the thing to have in recent years!
Here's a photo of what we did today.

 

That stuff looks good guys. I was blessed with another lovely day and could not let it pass.

Here are a couple racks about an hour in to the process.

 

Oh man oh man...when i´m looking at those pictures,i start to sweat... Hopefully the temperatures here in Germany will be soon this high,that i can go out to the lake and start grillin with a few friends. Sit back,relax,drinking some beer,doing some good conversation or listen to music...

 

And a follow up. Here they are about to come off the grill...

 

As a red blooded south African I love a good braai. I cook on both high heat for rare rumps and a cool heat for fattier cuts. Biggest I've cooked is a 4.3kg Texan steak

 

Now I am officially hungry, those look amazing.

An update from our crawfish boil. We had about 10lbs left over from our original 100. I peeled the remaining 1o lbs and put the tails in a container. Yesterday I purchased some large whole portabella mushrooms and removed the stem. I mixed the crawfish tails in with a block of cream cheese, shredded parmesan cheese, white cheddar cheese. and some dried herb seasoning. I filled the inside of the mushroom with this mixture and baked at 375 for about 30 mins. The results were some extremely fattening, but amazing tasting crawfish stuffed mushrooms.

 

An 11 lb (4.3 kg) steak is a beast. I hope you had some friends to help enjoy it.

Those sound fantastic.

 

An 8 lb Boston Butt - rubbed, injected, and ready to hit the smoker at 8AM this morning.

 

Off the smoker at 187°F. Wrapped and resting for an hour or two before being pulled. You can see the meat pulling back from the bone in the bottom left of the photo. Should be good

 

Spareribs from a local farmer, Chuck F's special pork rub, 4 hours of oak smoke at 225, then a couple more hours at 225, immediately after they came off the smoker I hit them with a brown sugar/cider vinegar/mustard-based glaze.



Should have pulled them half an hour earlier, but they were still good. Thin bits were a little on the dry side.

 

They look tasty.

 

Although I often have a spicy tomato-based sauce, I do enjoy the tang of a good sweet mustard/vinegar glaze. Well done!

 

About 7 hours in to an nice 8 lb pork shoulder.

 

Just made a quick BBQ pork tenderloin for dinner. First time and it turned out perfect!

 

Very Nice. Looks tasty.

 

Nice job! I concur with Dale: "Looks tasty!"
Tenderloin, because of its leanness, can be challenging. Too long on the fire, it becomes dry and tough.
That's the beauty of pork shoulder/butt: enough fat you don't have to be as watchful—'tis more forgiving of the error-prone chef. I should know…Ive forgotten my share on the BBQ...

 

Boston butt, rubbed and ready to go on the smoker at 8am yesterday:



I use a hybrid method, 5-6 hours on the smoker at 225, then I finish in the oven at 275 in a roasting pan to an internal temp of 195. Cuts down on cooking time and also preserves some juices in the pan that'd otherwise drip away. Also makes the whole house smell like barbecue. My daughter, who's three, said "it's porky in here! Porky pork pork!"

I almost forgot to get a photo before pulling it. Here it is out of the oven, about 5:30, and after I just started to tear it apart:



And here it is pulled and sauced:



Used an Eastern Carolina sauce, cider vinegar, brown sugar, a tablespoon of my rub, a tablespoon of fish sauce, pinch of salt.

Made a nice 4th of July main dish, though just a bit too much for the five of us to finish. Had a full 4 pounds of meat left over. What a shame...