Archive for January, 2008

Best ribs ever…

Hey Bill, I bought your book and recently used your rib recipe……best ribs I ever have made!!!!! 

Tom
Houston Texas

Is your book a “cookbook”?

Bill,

Am I correct in that your book contains a lot of “how to” ideas rather than just a book of receipts.  I need to know a lot of the tricks of the trade.  Thank you for responding.

Ron

Pork shoulder shrinkage

Bill,
More BBQ questions…
My son’s Boy Scout Troop is going to do a fundraising dinner in April. We’ve decided to do pulled pork as the main entrée.
I am suggesting to the troop that we smoke whole pork shoulders (fresh). We plan to feed about 450 people and Want to plan to have 50 lbs extra as a cushion and sell as individual pounds to walk in that we can’t serve.
Here’s my question for you…
I’m guessing the shoulders to weigh in about 14 to 16 lbs each…
To end up with 6 oz of meat per person, is 25% shrinkage close for pork shoulder?
6 oz * 450 people = 2700 oz /16 = 168.75 lbs + 50 extra = 218.75…291.2 * 25% shrinkage would equal 218 lbs net.
291 / 15 average weight of whole shoulder = 19.4 shoulders needed for dinner.
Please look over my calculation to see if you think I’m on track.
I think the 6 oz of meat is a little shy, do you think 25% shrinkage is realistic? 
Chris, Phyllis, Ethan, Olivia, Jackson, & Teddy 

Barbecue wood

The link you sent me abouut the different woods is it your website? If
so I’ll order from you I want to get some apple wood which is hard to
get here on the gulfcoast of Alabama.
Thanks!

Any drawbacks to the Traeger Lil’ Tex?

Hi:
I noticed in reading your ?Competitive Secrets? book that you are now cooking on a Lil Texas from Traeger. Do you enjoy the Traeger when you replaced your Lang smoker? Do you know of any drawbacks? Most of my cooking is family and I was considering the Lil Texas, but do you use it in competition. Is the Lil Texas able to perform what you need it for in competition (ribs, brisket and pulled pork)? How is the size (I?m trying to decide if the Texas would be better than the Lil Texas)? Thanks for any help you may give me.
Happy Smoking!!
Your Savannah friend in NJ —— Dave

Butts not getting up to temperature

I love your book that is where I got the idea to get the Lang.  I love the size just not having to “feed the beast” all the time.  Also on my first time at a competition it was like some meat cooked better than others, the pork never got to the right temp to pull.  Does the amount of meat on the cooker have a major impact on the cooking times?  We have only been to one competition with the Lang last year.  We had 2 pork butts (from Sam’s Club where 2 are in a package) 5 briskets and the chicken thighs.  There was plenty of room but just did not seem to cook everything to the temps I wanted.  We put the butts and brisket on at about 9:00 on Friday night but the pork butts never got to the temp I needed and 2 of the briskets were good and the other 3 were not.
Thanks for your help
Tony

BBQ Book

We are having a superbowl party Feb 3rd  we are having 35 guests and are making BBQ. HELP can I get your book quickly……….

Thank you
Donna E

How to build a barbecue smoker

I have ordered your book of the website and I absolutely love it but I was
wondering if there is a website out there that will show you how to build a
grill? I have a 270 gal drum and a boat trl that I was going to mount the
drum on but I was just wondering if there is a website that can show some
different types of grills that are mounted on trl because I would like to put
a firebox on one side of the drum to keep the heat from being under the meat.
If you know of any place where I could get this info it would be very helpful
THANKS   KIP

Smoking 5lb Pork Picnic

Bought both your BBQ book and Maverick thermometer off ebay…both have brought my smoking up a notch, for sure….question for you, having a local sale on pork shoulder, usually get on sale for $0.99/lb for ten pounders but a local Chinese market selling smaller cuts 4-5 lbs for $0.59/lb…saw them today and they have the fat cap on them, but the butcher will not cut me a 8-10 lb one,  just offering what is out there…never smoked something this small, worried it may dry out, any advice? Sale ends this weekend so if good want a few of these suckers….thanks

bob

BBQ Contests and/or BBQ concessions…

Bill,
I bought the Maverick thermometer, however the meat probe will not work on a rotisserie cooker.  I can use the meat probe to test the doness of the meat when I think it is about done.  I like the unit it is very accurate and I have calibrated all my thermometers by it.  I have a question if possible?  My wife and I are retired and I love to cook BBQ.  I can cook good ribs, boston butt, and chicken.  I have not yet tried to cook a beef brisket but plan to soon by your directions in the book.  I also have a complete catering trailer I built myself which can be used to cook anything.  We have thought about entering some of the BBQ Cook Off contest.  Read the rest of this entry »