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Buttin’ Down a Memorial Weekend

May 30th, 2010
by Tom.
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Boston Butts Smoking in Smoker

Happy Memorial Day.  On the weekend where we remember our heroes both living and dying, we wish all the very best.  May your smokers be smoking, your grills be grilling, your refrigerators be chilling, and your TVs be a racin’.  Please take some time to thank a veteran or at least be thankful of today’s freedoms provided through great sacrifice.  Cheers!

We have two pork boston butts smoking today.  Tracey will be heading to the market soon to pick up the compliments.  We’re having a vinegar based cole slaw, collard greens, and who knows what else she’ll come back with.  Other than the pork butts, we’re shooting for easy today.  Easy livin’ is our theme.

We’re mixing things up with the pork butt today in two areas: 1) prep and 2) fire.

With prep, we rubbed the pork butt down about an hour before smoking.  Normally we apply a dry rub at least 18 hours before cooking.  Today we are using a dry rub recipe from Big Bob Gibson’s BBQ Book by Chris Lilly and thought we would switch up our technique too.  Validation, right?

The fire technique is going through a good bit of testing too.  First we’re using a combination of briquette, wood, and lump charcoal.  Secondly, we’re building a secondary fire in the Weber to feed the smoker.  Sounds nutty and it might be.

Our primary fire was started with natural lump charcoal.  We brought the smoker up to around 425 then added briquettes.  The temp peaked at about 500 before I choked it down to 220.  I then added two sticks of cherry wood (barked removed) just minutes before the pork butts went in.

With the second fire, I’ve built a base of briquettes for low and slow heat.  I plan to add two larger sticks of hickory and burn those down into coal.  I’ll use the hot coals from the Weber to refuel the primary fire.

This is quite different from our normal approach but very similar to when I used the Weber exclusively for all my outdoor cooking.  The briquettes maintain their temperature better over longer periods of cooking.  The lump charcoal is great when you need smoke and heat – at the beginning of the cooking process, not at the end.  The wood is ideal for well, hard wood smoke to penetrate the meat.  We really need the hardwood for the first half of the cooking not after.

Over the entire 8-10 hours of cooking, I’m attempting to eliminate heat spikes and burn off in the smoker.  I’ve observed when adding charcoal to the smoker inevitably coal dust can move through the smoke chamber.  There is also a “burn off” effect in fumes and heat.  Both of these impacts taste of the bark and meat I believe.

So the overall goal with today’s testing is to a) understand how rub time makes a difference and b) improve quality of taste and cook time.

We’ll be posting through the day. Check back in or follow the tweets from Twitter.

Salud!

Summer Mix 2010: Low on Cash

May 26th, 2010
by Tom.
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A few months ago I went searching for something familiar.  When you’ve been commuting 800+ miles for a year it’s pretty easy to forget what’s real.  So we turned our attention to music and found some new artists to mix in with old favorites.  The result is this year’s Summer Mix.

For the select few who have interest, we present Summer Mix 2010: Low on Cash.

  • “Back Where I Started”, The Derek Trucks Band
  • “Love Is the Only Way”, Robert Randolph & The Family Band featuring Dave Matthews
  • “The Truth”, JJ Grey & Mofro
  • “Stop This Train”, John Mayer
  • “Making Memories”, Rush
  • “Lay Lady Lay”, Anthony Hamilton, Buddy Guy & Robert Randolph
  • “Caravan (Live)”, Van Morrison
  • “Low on Cash”, Eric Lindell
  • “The Righteous Path”, The Drive-By Truckers
  • “Goodbye Daughters of the Revolution”, The Black Crowes
  • “Don’t Stop Believin’”, Pickin’ On Series
  • “Big White Gate”, Grace Potter & The Nocturnals
  • “Up All Night”, Widespread Panic
  • “Old Dirt Hill (Bring That Beat Back)”, Dave Matthews Band
  • “In the Colors”, Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals
  • “Still Alive and Well”, Carolyn Wonderland
  • “Almost Cut My Hair”, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

Liner Notes:

The tracks are in no certain order.  The intent was to assemble tunes that went well together regardless of order.  In fact, the mix takes on it different persona each time you play it on “shuffle.”

Yes, we had to keep the Journey cover.  It started out being fun.  It’s still fun and the bluegrass works with the blue riffs of the rock.  Make sure to listen to it all the way through to get the full effect.  It’s a great mix ender when the iPod places it there!

New this year: the interactive mix on YouTube.  You can also download the mix from iTunes minus “Caravan” and “Lay Lady Lay” (see below).

Cheers!

Cheeseburgers in ParaLAN

May 23rd, 2010
by Tom.
1 comment

The Memorial Day countdown is in full effect.  We’re releasing the Mix, smoking pigs, and getting some much needed time with family and friends.  It also looks like this will be our last in St. Louis.  So we better make it count!

Burger talk and recipes have been catching my eyes and ears as we near summer.  The work gang hit a new burger bar next to the office this past week called Current.  I tried the Pittsburger, a slant on the infamous Pittsburgh style deli sandwich: a half-pound burger piled high with slaw and fries and drizzled with Thousand Island dressing.  Don’t worry dear, I only ate half.

With my brain on burgers, I naturally turned to memories of the good ol’ days growing up in Slidell.  We ate large!  “Daddy Burgers” graced our Weber and dinner table year round.  Dad would make gigantic burgers that stood at least 8” off a plate.  I think he tried to outdo himself every time he made them because as I started to grow the burgers never got smaller.

When we had kids, I brought back the tradition.  Tracey and the girls couldn’t eat them.  They plump while cooking even if you make a dimple, smash them between plates, or use any modern day viral Internet trick. We used to have competitions to see who could stack the highest burger.  Today the kids just shake their heads.

Dad’s Basic “Daddy Burger”

  • 80/20 beef or ground chuck.  One or a couple of pounds depending on how many burgers you’re making.
  • Garlic Powder
  • Salt & Pepper
  • Egg
  • Worcestershire Sauce
  • Minced Yellow Onion

This is your basic burger.  Break up your ground beef into a mixing bowl.  One egg will cover up to two pounds.  You’ll want the egg to keep your beef together on a hot grill, particularly if you like your burgers well done.  Leave it out if you’re on the rare side.

Dad always covered the meat with a layer of garlic powder.  Several of pinches of salt and pepper did the trick from that department.  The Worcestershire sauce was liberally dashed in.  You don’t want the burgers so drenched in the sauce that the meat changes color. So cut short before you get to that point.

Ah the onion (totally optional)… One of my siblings, who shall remain nameless, hated the mere sight of onions.  Dad would do a great mince job, add them to the meat, and the brother would never even know.  I never knew until adulthood.  I still gut laugh thinking about it.

Aside from tricking children to eat onions, they serve another particular purpose.  With the onions minced so small, they literally fall apart in the meat and add a ton of flavor.  Check it out if you’re feeling frisky.

Dad made simple patties.  First create a ball just smaller than a baseball then smash with your hands until it resists going further.  The patties will be an inch thick at least.  Sprinkle both sides with salt, pepper, and more garlic powder.

The burgers take about 8 minutes to cook for medium rare, shorter if your patties are thin.  Help prevent burger abuse by not cutting into a patty while on the grill to check doneness.  Trust the time or use your spatchula to press on the center. A Jell-O feeling is rare.  Spongy feel is medium rare.  Stress ball would be medium.  Brick… well, don’t do that.

Dress it up with your favorite fixin’s and go make some memories!  Cheers.

Associated links from/for the week:

What I Got

May 18th, 2010
by Tom.
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Re-immersing myself at LAN with the summer mix notes helped me realize that the site is four years old this month.  I’ve looked back at many of our posts to reflect on the life and times and asked myself lots of questions: Why did we do this?  Why did we continue?  What have we learned?  Why keep doing it?  What were we thinking?  All relevant questions.

LAN really started as a way to talk smack during a competition.  Then it became a great way to communicate with family and friends.  That’s all it was intended to do; “Mom, didn’t you see that on the blog? Where you been girlfriend?!”

Along the way some other things happened.  For one we learned skills to apply to our trade.  We experimented with other blog concepts to understand how content gets discovered and uncovered.  STL BBQ Review, which go figure, hasn’t been updated since the start of MBA school 2+ years ago, was fun.  We got that site within the first 3 search results for St. Louis BBQ within weeks of having it live and it stayed there for over a year even though it wasn’t updated.  I miss doing the BBQ thing.

We’ve learned not just about WordPress but really how open source or sharing information online is powering the web and changing the world.  I know that sounds kooky for this site given our shenanigans but when someone from across the world sees a three word phrase in a random post and emails a question, it’s really cool.  When you’re in China and the great “wall” blocks you from updating your site, it provides perspective.  Sharing and the technology that enables an Elaine dancer like me to have a voice can move people.  (Support Net Neutrality by the way!)

The writing, at times, has helped hone back in on our creative side.  It’s never been great – I never was a good writer, but it has improved over time.  It also has been therapeutic and most of you that have read the craziness here know that.  When talking out loud is needed, this blog has been a good friend whether you read it or not (and I do look at the analytics).

Something happened a year ago.  Well a couple of things happened.  First Dad passed and we just didn’t feel our pork butt antics were worth reporting.  Total bummer.  Dad was an avid reader.

Secondly, I took some criticism for publicly posting certain types of content (insert craft brew picture here) in places more private than this blog.  That caused me to really think what I was doing and why.  It also caused me to pause and in reflecting, compromise values.  I’m not doing that moving forward.

Transparency and openness is real power.  Coercion for control is not.

There’s a difference between flying off the handle irresponsibly and responsibly sharing stories and content that encourage communication.  I certainly have had my share of 5am wake-up calls with slight panic that the previous day’s writing may have crossed the line.  I’ve removed some postings, edited others, yet left the majority of them alone.  It’s the ones over the last year that I wrote and never posted out of concern over what a certain individual or individuals may gossip about that I regret removing.

I lead an interactive marketing business.  If I’m not online learning, interacting, connecting, and sharing I’m not doing my job.

So will LAN be around in another 4 years?  Who knows.  Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, etc. all seem to be taking the place of weekend warrior bloggers like myself.  Although at the rate Facebook shares private information about its users without consent, LAN may survive.  We can promise to continue posting where our homes on the web are.  We will share our butt pics and tips and write many more provocative postings about rubbing butts too.  We may even continue to slam the Bammer faithful.  It’s what we do.

War Damn Eagle!

Teasin’ the Mix

May 17th, 2010
by Tom.
2 comments

It’s sounds kind of corny but here in the office late at night the summer mix sounds as good as fried pickles at a local Richmond diner.  I told Panovec several nights ago that I couldn’t stop listening to the tunes.  He said “really!”  ”Yep!” I replied.

There’s no braggin’, no competition, no beatin’ down on anyone this year.  I’m workin’ on the mix for me, for me.  You want to ride along, be prepared for a solid groove with some antics. There’s plenty of soul and rhythm.  There’s plenty of new interests with many influencers of old.

Want some teasers?  Follow the twitter feed.  I decided this morning that I would slowly roll out the mix through Twitter.  There will be bits and pieces that will make you wonder “what the heck is he thinking?”  Hopefully by the time we get to Memorial Day the entire mix will make some sense.  If not… aeh.  We won’t worry about it.

That’s right, a little St. Louis did rub off on us!

Salud!

Mixin’ in May

May 15th, 2010
by Tom.
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“Dancin’ across the water with galleons and guns..” then getting eaten alive by mosquitoes and searching for a good drinking hole seems to sum up the last 3 years for us.   We bolted to St. Louis in 2007 for new opportunity.  Jumped right into business school.  Took a new job back in the Commonwealth less than two years after the move.  Commuted back and forth from the Lou to Virginia for the past year.  Now here in May it may appear that we’re permanently going to be settling back in Virginia for a while.  Knock on wood.

So the summer mix without me really knowing it has turned into more of a joy ride of tunes conjuring up feelings of what this summer has in store for us.  Turns out past mixes have been that way too.  In 2007, we created a mix featuring live tunes expressing various feelings of our move to St. Louis.

I spent the beginning of that summer without Tracey and the girls and actually think Memorial Day was spent alone – a first holiday in many without smoking a pork butt.  ”Thing Called Love”, “Some Kind of Wonderful”, and “Pride and Joy” were direct reflections of the family at the time.  Also on the disk, Willie Nelson performing “Whiskey River”, a salute to Dad.   I saw Willie for the first time live in Richmond last summer.

Of course a live summer mix wouldn’t be complete without DMB, who have now become staples each summer for us.  This year we have tickets to five shows.  Our tickets to the 6/16 show in St. Louis may end up being our last show in St. Louis.  We have tickets to the three Gorge shows and DC too.  DMB announced this past week they are taking 2011 off.  So this year’s show may be the last of DMB for a while too.

Cheers!

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