Monday
18Jan2010
Monday
09Nov2009
Farmland Riblets and Rib Tips
Monday, November 9, 2009 at 08:42PM 
For News Years Eve I wanted to make Riblets and Rib Tips for my friends and family. As of late these have become rather popular as they are cheap to buy and quite tasty if cooked right. I have bought a 10lb box from $10-$13 from the local grocery store. So what are Riblets or Rib Tips? Well Rib Tips are the leftover trimmings to make a St. Louis style rack of ribs look good and square. Riblets are cut from the back of spare ribs. If you cook them to fast your meat will be crispy and dry out like Beef Jerkey. That would be very bad. Make sure that you alert your guests that there will be many small flat bones.
I find that smoking the Tips and Riblets with Hickory at temperature of 140-180 degrees is ideal. I will do this for not more than 2-3 hours. I will then transfer the rib tips to a 6qt crock pot for slow cooking. You can slow cook these for up to 12 hours making them very tender and moist.
Saturday
27Sep2008
Saturday Night Pork Shoulder
Saturday, September 27, 2008 at 09:02PM 
One of my good friends was having his 40th birthday and was gifted a 15lb Pork Shoulder with the bone in. Kinda of exciting! I prepared it by rinsing a drying the meat thoroughly. Rubbed the pork generously with seasonings. Then wrapped it saran wrap and threw it in the fridge for 24-36 hours. Before smoking I let it rest for an hour at room temperature.
A large piece of meat such as a 15lb pork shoulder requires some patience. You should expect at least 15-20 hours of cooking time to reach your intended internal temperature of 200 degrees. Since a pork shoulder has a lot of fatty fiber- it really will not start to render down till your meat hits 180 degrees. So be patient- you will be rewarded with some good barbecue.
So my plan was to let my smoker run at 180-200 degrees until the pork shoulder hit 170 degrees. Then I turned it up to 225-250 degrees to finish the run to 200 degrees internal. I did use straight apple-cider vinegar in a spray bottle and sprayed the meat once every half hour when I increased the temperature.
We had a lot of fun with this barbecue and the pork shoulder turned out great. We had approximately a 1/2 inch smoke ring and the pork was easy to pull.
Saturday
23Aug2008
Infamous Beer Can Chicken
Saturday, August 23, 2008 at 10:31PM 
My chickens finally thawed after almost a week in the fridge. In most cases I do like to brine my chicken. It adds another level of moisture that is worth the extra hour of time. However I was pressed with time today and went with the Beer Can method. I will start by rinsing my chicken from the inside out. Then I will dry the outside of chicken with about 12 paper towels. I will apply my rub and seasoning to the inside and outside of the chicken.
Now for the can of liquid. I have used Coca-Cola, Water, Lemonade, and Beer. I have found that Lemonade and Beer add the most flavor to the chicken and have chosen to use Miller Lite beer in this method. The most important step in Beer Can Chicken is using the right size of chicken. If your chicken is too big it will simply fall over- now with that in mind I have found that a 3-4 pound chicken works best.
I chose to use mesquite wood for todays smoke and heated the grill to about 280 degrees. My target temperature will be 160 degrees in the chicken breast and expect this to be reached in about 80 minutes. So insert your canned beverage into the cavity of the chicken and place on the grill. I will pull the legs forward and tuck them under the breast forming a tripod with the can in the back. I will always use a electronic thermometer and will insert the probe into thick part of the chicken breast. Now you can try the method and share your results.
Thursday
21Aug2008
Red Barron Pepperoni Sausage Pizza on the Traeger
Thursday, August 21, 2008 at 07:42PM 
I originally wanted to smoke and roast 2 whole chickens tonight. But the chickens in my fridge have yet to thaw completely so a Red Barron Pepperoni Sausage Pizza was placed on the menu for tonights dinner. So I loaded the hopper with Maple wood pellets turned the grill on high. At 300 degrees I rubbed the grilling racks lightly with vegetable oil and placed my frozen pizza to bake. Checked the grill at 20 minutes and removed my pizza. The crust had a hint of the maple smoke but was not overpowering. The nice thing about the Traeger Grill is that there is a good amount of convection which gave the pizza a great crisp crust. Give it a try.
