Emergency help from BBQ gurus!

[Nole Lou]

Ok, I roped myself into doing the bbq for my son's boy scout campout this weekend. They mentioned this site has a big bbq pit, so they'd be doing a cook for all the boys. I guess I was thinking grilling, chicken and hamburgers, etc. I volunteered to deal with that, because there isn't much I can do on these things, I'm not an outdoorsman.

So anyway, I get the email yesterday that they've got the food, and they're planning to do a low and slow with several pork butts. Which is fine, and even better for me, as it gives me an excuse to babysit the food all day and not do any woodsy activities or anything.

I know what I've doing around a pork butt pretty well, but the kicker is they tell me that it's just a big open pit style setup, no cover at all. So I'm not sure the best way to attack this, if you can't close a lid.

I'm thinking the plan is to build the fire on one side, and have the meat offset on the other, with water pans underneath, to do offset cooking. Should I be thinking about trying to use foil to put some kind of "hood" over the meat?

I'm told they're bringing three bags of lump and a bag of hickory logs (not my choice). I'm thinking maybe the best bet is to soak hickory logs overnight. In the morning build a lump fire, and then put the soaked hickory logs on. Or should I just build a campfire-style fire with the logs?

Without any air control, should I be concerned about keeping the fire going long enough to cook all day?

Any other advice around doing low and slow pork butts on an open grill would be appreciated!

 

[Fijimn]

I would pre-cook the butts, then throw the trays on the pit to warm up. But if you have to cook this style, I suggest bringing a couple of thermostats to monitor the heat at grate level, a rake and shovel. Build a fire with the lump coals and spread around until you get proper heat level, burn the hard wood logs offset and shovel the coals into the pit. You want to avoid open flames.

 

[On Iowa]

I would pre-cook the butts, then throw the trays on the pit to warm up. But if you have to cook this style, I suggest bringing a couple of thermostats to monitor the heat at great level, a rake and shovel. Build a fire with the lump coals and spread around until you get proper heat level, burn the hard wood logs offset and shovel the coals into the pit. You want to avoid open flames.

I'd do this, and I'd fashion a lid out of loose foil, or take the lid to a kettle with you and use it. Soaking the hickory is useless. Surface water doesn't penetrate deep enough into the wood to really slow the burn.

 

[MIKE_G]

They're boy scouts. They're just gonna put ketchup on it anyway.

 

[PoopandBoogers]

I'd do this, and I'd fashion a lid out of loose foil, or take the lid to a kettle with you and use it. Soaking the hickory is useless. Surface water doesn't penetrate deep enough into the wood to really slow the burn.

Thats what i was thinking. Bring a lid to a grill to cover. Its gonna be a sonofa to keep a constant temp to get an even cook. Ibwas thinking a spit roast type of deal, but once the meat starts breaking down it would just fall off the spit.

Can you just do a bunch of rottiserie chickens with different spices, like cajun, jerk, honey etc?

 

[FSUTribe76]

Ok, I roped myself into doing the bbq for my son's boy scout campout this weekend. They mentioned this site has a big bbq pit, so they'd be doing a cook for all the boys. I guess I was thinking grilling, chicken and hamburgers, etc. I volunteered to deal with that, because there isn't much I can do on these things, I'm not an outdoorsman.

So anyway, I get the email yesterday that they've got the food, and they're planning to do a low and slow with several pork butts. Which is fine, and even better for me, as it gives me an excuse to babysit the food all day and not do any woodsy activities or anything.

I know what I've doing around a pork butt pretty well, but the kicker is they tell me that it's just a big open pit style setup, no cover at all. So I'm not sure the best way to attack this, if you can't close a lid.

I'm thinking the plan is to build the fire on one side, and have the meat offset on the other, with water pans underneath, to do offset cooking. Should I be thinking about trying to use foil to put some kind of "hood" over the meat?

I'm told they're bringing three bags of lump and a bag of hickory logs (not my choice). I'm thinking maybe the best bet is to soak hickory logs overnight. In the morning build a lump fire, and then put the soaked hickory logs on. Or should I just build a campfire-style fire with the logs?

Without any air control, should I be concerned about keeping the fire going long enough to cook all day?

Any other advice around doing low and slow pork butts on an open grill would be appreciated!

Good news: Pork is hard to mess up.

Bad news: One of the few ways to mess up pork is through open pit because of the lack of temperature control and direct heat aspect.

I'd honestly be tempted to dig and do an Earth oven like the Hawaiian kalua/"luau", NZ hangi, Mexican pibil, Incan huatia, Chilean curanto, etc... Basically every Native American tribe and most of humanity used Earth ovens to cook large game so you can even frame it as an educational opportunity/history lesson.

Just a thought, but it would be far easier to get at least a mediocre result with a covered Earth oven than with an open pit (for large cuts of pork, the open pit is fine for shorter cooked cuts of meat like fish, other seafood, chicken, steaks and even pork chops/steaks).

 

[On Iowa]

Also, I'd figure on cooking the meat to about 165 internal temp and slicing rather than pulling it. Once you have it with enough bark on it, you can always foil it and finish it that way. In foil, you could go to 195 easily to pull.

 

[Nole Lou]

Ok, this confirms I've got my work cut out for me. As expected. Thanks.

On the negative side, I can't precook it, that won't be an option. And I won't be able to pull of an earth pit. These guys are awesome scout leaders, but they don't know food at all. I'm not particularly established or respected in this group, and if I volunteer to do this, and then dig a hole to cook in while this huge pit sits cold, they'll throw me off the project before I even get started. That said, I do like that idea, and I'm intrigued by trying that concept at another campout, where I could sell it from the outset as something I want to do. It is a good fit like you said, educationally.

On the positive side, I just got off the phone with a guy that was at the campsite before. He said it's a pretty well equipped pit, including air controls, it just doesn't have any cover. I'm going to cross my fingers and hope that I can cover the pit with foil after the meat goes on. I'll know tonight when we get there what my options are.

If I'm lucky, it will be a closed pit all the way around with air control, and the grate will be set down into the pit a bit, so I can just cover the top with foil and hold it down with rocks. I'll build the fire on one side, and put the meat on the other side over water.

I'm definitely planning on slicing or chopping it rather than pulling it, and I'm bringing my cleaver.

Luckily, the bar is pretty low with this crew. The food these guys eat at these campouts, not just the kids but the adults, is pretty consistently terrible. If it doesn't kill them, and it's slathered with Sweet Baby Ray's, they'll be thrilled. If I actually manage to achieve a mediocre result, it will be legendary.

If worst comes to worst and it's not getting done, I'll slice it into "country ribs", cook it over the flame, and then chop it.

 

[Nole Lou]

I would pre-cook the butts, then throw the trays on the pit to warm up. But if you have to cook this style, I suggest bringing a couple of thermostats to monitor the heat at grate level, a rake and shovel. Build a fire with the lump coals and spread around until you get proper heat level, burn the hard wood logs offset and shovel the coals into the pit. You want to avoid open flames.

Thanks, that's good advice. I'm definitely bringing my remote thermometers.

 

[Nole Lou]

I'd do this, and I'd fashion a lid out of loose foil, or take the lid to a kettle with you and use it. Soaking the hickory is useless. Surface water doesn't penetrate deep enough into the wood to really slow the burn.

Good, one less thing to bother with then.

 

[NotGuiltyNole]

Get a few large clay planter pots at HD or Lowe's and cover the inside with foil or wash them. Treat your pork as you would at home with Rub/injection/etc... Put them on the pit near the coals, but not directly over. Basically where it starts to feel uncomfortable on your hand when you count 5, do not touch the grate. Occasionally put coals underneath to keep the temp up. You can cook anywhere between 225 and 375, just try to stay about the same temp. Put the butts close together, but not touching, and put the pot(s) on them as a lid. Cook fat side down, this is your buffer from the heat, fat side up is BS. You will discard the fat, so if it chars a bit that is OK. Once they reach an internal of 160, tightly wrap each one in foil and put them back on with the pot as a lid. You will stall in the 160's for 1-3 hours depending on the butt. Just embrace the stall and do not freak out and bring the temp up too high. Take them to 200-205 internal. Once they are at that range pull them off and put in a cooler for 2-6 hours. The rest in a cooler is the most important step. If you pull too quick you will be eating shoe laces When ready to eat pull and enjoy.

If you cannot do the clay pots use a few foil pans stacked together. It will take longer but will work, just put a rock on top of them so they do not blow away.

Let me know if you have any other questions. I cook on the KCBS with decent success and love to talk Que.

 

[Formerly Rockymtnole]

Did you volunteer to handle the BBQ or did you volunteer for them to tell you what you're making, how to make it and when?

Tell em don't worry, it's a camp out, the kids will be full so back the hell off and let me take care of it.

 

[SeaPA]

Get a few large clay planter pots at HD or Lowe's and cover the inside with foil or wash them. Treat your pork as you would at home with Rub/injection/etc... Put them on the pit near the coals, but not directly over. Basically where it starts to feel uncomfortable on your hand when you count 5, do not touch the grate. Occasionally put coals underneath to keep the temp up. You can cook anywhere between 225 and 375, just try to stay about the same temp. Put the butts close together, but not touching, and put the pot(s) on them as a lid. Cook fat side down, this is your buffer from the heat, fat side up is BS. You will discard the fat, so if it chars a bit that is OK. Once they reach an internal of 160, tightly wrap each one in foil and put them back on with the pot as a lid. You will stall in the 160's for 1-3 hours depending on the butt. Just embrace the stall and do not freak out and bring the temp up too high. Take them to 200-205 internal. Once they are at that range pull them off and put in a cooler for 2-6 hours. The rest in a cooler is the most important step. If you pull too quick you will be eating shoe laces When ready to eat pull and enjoy.

If you cannot do the clay pots use a few foil pans stacked together. It will take longer but will work, just put a rock on top of them so they do not blow away.

Let me know if you have any other questions. I cook on the KCBS with decent success and love to talk Que.

That sounds like a great plan.

 

[62Nole]

Can you let the scouts have a couple of brews?

 

[FSUTribe76]

Ok, this confirms I've got my work cut out for me. As expected. Thanks.

On the negative side, I can't precook it, that won't be an option. And I won't be able to pull of an earth pit. These guys are awesome scout leaders, but they don't know food at all. I'm not particularly established or respected in this group, and if I volunteer to do this, and then dig a hole to cook in while this huge pit sits cold, they'll throw me off the project before I even get started. That said, I do like that idea, and I'm intrigued by trying that concept at another campout, where I could sell it from the outset as something I want to do. It is a good fit like you said, educationally.

On the positive side, I just got off the phone with a guy that was at the campsite before. He said it's a pretty well equipped pit, including air controls, it just doesn't have any cover. I'm going to cross my fingers and hope that I can cover the pit with foil after the meat goes on. I'll know tonight when we get there what my options are.

If I'm lucky, it will be a closed pit all the way around with air control, and the grate will be set down into the pit a bit, so I can just cover the top with foil and hold it down with rocks. I'll build the fire on one side, and put the meat on the other side over water.

I'm definitely planning on slicing or chopping it rather than pulling it, and I'm bringing my cleaver.

Luckily, the bar is pretty low with this crew. The food these guys eat at these campouts, not just the kids but the adults, is pretty consistently terrible. If it doesn't kill them, and it's slathered with Sweet Baby Ray's, they'll be thrilled. If I actually manage to achieve a mediocre result, it will be legendary.

If worst comes to worst and it's not getting done, I'll slice it into "country ribs", cook it over the flame, and then chop it.

Well if you're stuck doing open pit with basically direct heat, I'd take a couple of steps to try to offset the fact your cooking instrument will be %*%*. Part of what I was going to say was covered by NotGuiltyNole so just insert his comments here and then add.

1) I'd brine it ahead of time. Normally I wouldn't bother as pork is probably the easiest meat to cook other than fatty farmed salmon, but since there's no way of knowing how your pit is going to handle I would get it nice and wet beforehand to handle the periodic flameups (that's what she said).

2) For the first 4/5 of what you think will be the cooking time based on the average temperature you're reading, wrap the butts in burlap sacks, towels or tshirts you buy (the cheapo wife beaters) or want to get rid of (making sure to run the sacks, towels and/or tshirts through a hot wash cycle with no detergent). Then soak the cloth in Apple cider vinegar (or even better coconut or palm vinegar from an Asian store as it's milder) and then wrap the butts covered in soaked cloth with aluminium foil. That will help keep everything moist. Then just carefully (ie with heat resistant gloves) remove the cloth and finish for a couple of minutes exposed to add some smoke flavor and char while crisping up the outside.

That's how I would handle it if forced to do it open pit style.

 

[Formerly Rockymtnole]

Well if you're stuck doing open pit with basically direct heat, I'd take a couple of steps to try to offset the fact your cooking instrument will be %*%*. Part of what I was going to say was covered by NotGuiltyNole so just insert his comments here and then add.

1) I'd brine it ahead of time. Normally I wouldn't bother as pork is probably the easiest meat to cook other than fatty farmed salmon, but since there's no way of knowing how your pit is going to handle I would get it nice and wet beforehand to handle the periodic flameups (that's what she said).

2) For the first 4/5 of what you think will be the cooking time based on the average temperature you're reading, wrap the butts in burlap sacks, towels or tshirts you buy (the cheapo wife beaters) or want to get rid of (making sure to run the sacks, towels and/or tshirts through a hot wash cycle with no detergent). Then soak the cloth in Apple cider vinegar (or even better coconut or palm vinegar from an Asian store as it's milder) and then wrap the butts covered in soaked cloth with aluminium foil. That will help keep everything moist. Then just carefully (ie with heat resistant gloves) remove the cloth and finish for a couple of minutes exposed to add some smoke flavor and char while crisping up the outside.

That's how I would handle it if forced to do it open pit style.

Or, just call the nearest Sonny's, deliver it to you in the nearest parking lot then set it up in the pit. Then have a beer while you wait for the group to get back from their hike.

 

[NotGuiltyNole]

You can also buy the Smithfield Extra Tender butts. They are prebrined. Lots of teams swear by them, but I think they taste "hammy". Saves you a step on injecting or brining. I personally use and love Victory Lane Pork Injection. It is the same as concept as a brine.

 

[RangerNole]

Get a few large clay planter pots at HD or Lowe's and cover the inside with foil or wash them. Treat your pork as you would at home with Rub/injection/etc... Put them on the pit near the coals, but not directly over. Basically where it starts to feel uncomfortable on your hand when you count 5, do not touch the grate. Occasionally put coals underneath to keep the temp up. You can cook anywhere between 225 and 375, just try to stay about the same temp. Put the butts close together, but not touching, and put the pot(s) on them as a lid. Cook fat side down, this is your buffer from the heat, fat side up is BS. You will discard the fat, so if it chars a bit that is OK. Once they reach an internal of 160, tightly wrap each one in foil and put them back on with the pot as a lid. You will stall in the 160's for 1-3 hours depending on the butt. Just embrace the stall and do not freak out and bring the temp up too high. Take them to 200-205 internal. Once they are at that range pull them off and put in a cooler for 2-6 hours. The rest in a cooler is the most important step. If you pull too quick you will be eating shoe laces When ready to eat pull and enjoy.

If you cannot do the clay pots use a few foil pans stacked together. It will take longer but will work, just put a rock on top of them so they do not blow away.

Let me know if you have any other questions. I cook on the KCBS with decent success and love to talk Que.

Wow you are either a genius or can make anything sound like a good idea. I am trying this at some point in my life.

 

[Gonolz]

Please take pics throughout the whole process. If this doesn't go smoothly, you might as well be able to entertain the Locker Room with a step by step of how it went wrong.

No comment from Phin in this thread??

 

[Nole Lou]

Ok, this is not what I was expecting but that's probably good. I'll try to figure out how to post pics from my phone. Could use tips.

 

[Nole Lou]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/yf7hjnfn4qf09ev/20170324_215117.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/y03ytbwndsdvyub/20170324_215634.jpg?dl=0

 

[Fijimn]

Lol...you might want to cut those butts and cook country style on those "yes ole hearths" in the cabin.

 

[travnole]

good luck, tell the boys if they clean out the old coals they can go Snipe hunting. They're in season.

 

[Nole Lou]

It's like what they used to have at Banjos in Tallahassee.

I've got two fumes in the top of the pit up out of the chimney.

Most important thing I need to know. There are two racks, obviously the merry goes on the top rack, but there is a second rack half way up. Does the charcoal/wood go on the middle rack so that ash falls to the bottom of the pit? Or does the fire go in the floor of the pit with some kind of diffuser on the middle rack?

 

[Nole Lou]

good luck, tell the boys if they clean out the old coals they can go Snipe hunting. They're in season.

It's a mess. I'm going to be shoveling out the ash half the night. It's full past the doors.

 

[Fijimn]

good luck, tell the boys if they clean out the old coals they can go Snipe hunting. They're in season.

Weather is good for snipe; but they need to make their. Snipe call extra high due to the warm winter.

 

[BelemNole]

It's like what they used to have at Banjos in Tallahassee.

I've got two fumes in the top of the pit up out of the chimney.

Most important thing I need to know. There are two racks, obviously the merry goes on the top rack, but there is a second rack half way up. Does the charcoal/wood go on the middle rack so that ash falls to the bottom of the pit? Or does the fire go in the floor of the pit with some kind of diffuser on the middle rack?

I'd put the coals on the middle rack so there is air flow

 

[SoddyNole]

plus

Problem solved and tell the scout master to either let you cook the butt they way you want or he can cook the damn thing himself. There is no need to get this stupid in cooking a friggen pork butt. I suspect the kids most likely would rather have a burger or hot dog anyway.

 

[cfbfan23]

Feed the scouts. Let the Locker Room unite and turn around this terrible predicament. We're thinking of you, Lou.

This has been a top-notch thread.

 

[JohnnieHolmesNole]

I'd go beat the *** of whomever came up with the ridiculous idea that "we're going to do a low and slow on an open hearth." Seriously, go ask that SOB exactly what he had in mind for this arrangement. What he "wants" really isn't compatible with the facilities you will be using.

 

[SeaPA]

Hope it all comes out ok, but why the hell are you doing a low&slow cook on a campout with boy scouts? Should be doing some kind of campfire cooking - either hot dogs on a roasting stick, or a hobo dinner (each person wraps up meat, potatoes, carrots, celery in a foil pouch, drop it right in the fire)

 

[JohnnieHolmesNole]

Hope it all comes out ok, but why the hell are you doing a low&slow cook on a campout with boy scouts? Should be doing some kind of campfire cooking - either hot dogs on a roasting stick, or a hobo dinner (each person wraps up meat, potatoes, carrots, celery in a foil pouch, drop it right in the fire)

Bingo. Again, who came up with this ridiculous idea, and then lateraled it to the OP for execution? "No" is sometimes a great response.

 

[Nole Lou]

They always do camp cooking, this was a special idea because they knew it has this thing.

As for me telling them to shove it, if I don't do it, someone else will. Someone that even less knows what they're doing. I've got to eat to...so I volunteered so as to just try to salvage this thing to something edible.

Anyway...pork butts are done and resting, too soon as expected. They will be too dry...D+ at best. The thing is, having done this once, I think I could have done a good B- if I could do over a couple key things. I gave up to quickly on the chamber getting warmed up, and by the time I did it was too hot. With no way to bring it down but let it burn out. If I would have just kept a smaller, less hot fire in the bottom, we'd have been better by half.

Those are grades by what I can usually do, not relative to restaurant or competition calibre.

Slather bbq sauce in it and it's still going to be better that the dried beef stew they usually have. But I really know I could have done better.

Now there's a dozen racks of ribs on LOL.

 

[Nole Lou]

Ok...14 hours later...It's over. I'm pleased it came out as well as it did. Holding it for a few hours saved the pork butts. They were burned pretty bad, but softened up well enough for the burned outsides to be chopped in. Not as juicy as it could be, but not as dried out as I feared. Totally edible with a little vinegar sauce mixed in.

The ribs were actually pretty decent. The chicken was spot on, because it was basically grilled, and my grilled bone in chicken with my special marinade can't miss.

Overall, grades compared to what I could do myself at home:

Pork butt: C- to C
Ribs: B-
Chicken: B+

Obviously, not compared to real hobbyists or competitors. Good enough for everyone to be thrilled here LOL.

I'll post some pictures Monday.

Thanks for those who did have some advice.

 

[Nole Lou]

Ok...so here's the photoplay of how it all went down...

So I'm expecting a big outdoor, open pit/grill scenario, and when I get there, it's inside the shelter, and it's this hearth/oven type setup:

The middle rack is right between the upper doors and bottom doors. And this thing is a mess:

And there are ashes accumulated past the bottom doors, almost all the way to the middle rack:

So I spent most of the Friday night trying to wash off the grates, and shoveling as much ash as I could out of the pit. I shoveled out an entire garbage can full before I hit a layer where it was compacted solid. I wasn't going to try to smash it up, so that was going to be good enough. But that remaining ash pretty much decided for me that I would need the fuel on the middle rack, not in the bottom of the pit.

The racks were just too disgusting to cook directly on (and I'm not all that squeamish about that) so I had to foil the racks. This looks like the foil is solid, but I did break it through between the grates.

Now, the Major Screwup #1 is that I bought "heavy duty" foil when I saw it at the dollar store, when I ran in to pick up some cheap tongs. Turns out, not unexpectedly, that it is thinner than the foil around a stick of juicy fruit. That became a major problem later.

So we put the butts on the racks and covered with a hood of foil.

So here's Major Screwup #2, the most crucial one. My original plan was to have the butts on that right side, and have a moderate fire on the left side, to cook the butts indirectly. With the design of the cooker, I wasn't sure if the chamber would heat enough to make that happen. And as happens so much with barbecue screwups, impatience was the enemy. I was unhappy with how the chamber just wasn't heating up, and assumed that the design wouldn't let it. In reality, at 5am, the brick structure was ice cold, and probably needed 1-2 hours to warm up.

The first response was to build the fire on the left side bigger, and then when that didn't do it, to put the coals under the butts directly to have it over a low-moderate direct heat. The end result was exactly what I didn't wan't...over high direct heat:

Obviously, you can see the problem there. I would have been ok with a fire that hot offset, or over direct heat with a very small fire, but that was the worst of both worlds. And with the design, there's almost nothing you can do to bring the fire down...you just have to let it burn out. I was able to move some coals to the other side and reduce the direct heat somewhat, but not very much.

I did pretty good with the smoke. Two techniques worked pretty decent. Either wrapping the hickory logs in foil and punching holes in it, and putting it in the fire directly, or putting it unfoiled in the fire until it caught, tamping out the flames, and moving it into the lower chamber to smolder. I used variations of both techniques depending on what kind of fire I had going.

Which was another problem. The guy supplying the charcoal brought three bags of Rockwood. When I first saw that, my heart soared...I used Rockwood for a while and it showed that he know what he was doing. But then it sank a bit, when I remembered why I stopped buying Rockwood...I got a couple bags of chips and dust, and I'm not about $35 bags of chips and dust. Unfortunately, these bags were terrible...95% chips and dust...I would never recommend Rockwood after that. I was spending the whole day shovelling chips into the fire, trying to keep it from going out, but not get too hot. If I'd just had a decent bag of lump with some big chunks/logs that would burn evenly for a while, that would have gone a long way.

At this point, I knew we needed a couple things. I needed some real heavy foil to wrap these in, because they'd be done earlier than planned, and I'd need that for the ribs, and I needed something to be able to grill the chicken on because these wide grates weren't going to cut it. So I headed off for the nearest Walmart 35 minutes away (actually across the GA border into Alabama) and got some real foil, and some cheap mesh grill topper type deals.

So anyway, I got back, and despite my best efforts, low and slow became high and fast...I'd blasted right on through the stall at about 5-6 hours...

The temperatures were headed past 200 at this point...I insisted we had to take them off and just hope to hold them if we wanted something edible at all. And you can see what the direct heat did to the bottom part of the butt. There was what appeared to be a good half inch+ of completely burned, inedible charcoalized layer on each one. And here is where that damn foil got me. The guy that provided the butts put his own rub on them, all really sweet stuff (Honey, Lemon Pepper, Pecan...WTF, really?), which was a nightmare for direct heat obviously. And it melded to the damn foil, and the foil being so light it was nearly impossible to get off. So I spent about 30 minutes just trying to pick the foil off the bottoms of these butts so I could wrap them and put them in a cooler. I was really upset at myself at this point. I was figuring on the bottom 25% of each butt would have to be shaved off, just to get to some dry meat you could eat. We wrapped them up tight with heavy duty foil and stacked them in a gatorade style cooler to hold.

Out came the ribs. Before I left, I had grabbed a bag of rub from the freezer, left over from the last cook I did about a month ago. And fortunately, the guy that brought the meet thankfully forgot his rub, so I was able to use mine without a fight. He probably had some peanut butter and jelly rub in mind or some nonsense. So I grabbed some mustard and we layed down my rub on the ribs. You can see those grill topper things I bought.

So this is the way way I decided to tackle the ribs. Because the ribs would cover the whole surface, indirect wasn't an option. So I was going to need to cook directly, over as low a fire as I could reasonably maintain with chips of lump. So I covered all the grates with heavy duty foil, and went about poking numerous holes to let smoke through. Then I laid the grill toppers on top of the foil, oiled them, and laid out the ribs.

And then I covered them loosely with another row of foil...somehow I missed getting a picture of them with the foil over them or what they looked like at the end. They went for about five hours, with me applying smoke for the first couple hours and then just trying to maintain temperatures hot enough to cook them but not to burn them. Pulled them and foiled them to hold them. By this point I had other guys start the process of pulling the pork butts and chopping the ribs, because I had chicken to do.

I had insisted right up front before we went to be able to do my own chicken. I've got an awesome marinade that kills it for bone in grilled chicken, and if I was going to try to draw a line somewhere, it was going to be about that. So Friday morning before we left I'd whipped up about a gallon, and Saturday morning after we got the butts on, I'd put all the chicken in my marinade for about 8 hours.

I left the same foil covering I'd had for the ribs, and just put another layer of the grill toppers and oiled them up real good. At least now we were flat out grilling, not playing around with any low and slow, so I knew this could turn out great, but it was still going to be a challenge, it was 76 or so legs and thigh to do all at the same time...

I even managed to make enough room for another guy to jump in and make some vegetables..

And of everything...I rocked the chicken...even managing all those pieces at once, and dealing with those cruddy grill toppers, I lost the skin on ONE piece...everything else, skin was brown, crispy and intact...

I knew that at least, no matter what, the chicken would be good.

So I finally can turn to see how the pork prep is going.

Hmmm...that doesn't look all that bad...

Turns out the resting had softened the burned edges enough to just chop them up and mix them in. I didn't get a good picture before it was pulled, but I had a pretty nice smoke ring...you can see a bit of it on a few shreds here...

So that looks like it might be about edible... how about the ribs?

Hmm...not bad at all...not falling off the bone, but biting off clean...did I actually nail the ribs?

On the table...here's all the food...front three are all pulled pork. In the back row, two full trays of ribs cut up, and the back right tray is piled up chicken...these are turkey cooking sized pans...

People lost their minds over it. Couldn't stop talking about how great it was. When we arrived back yesterday, the adults split the leftovers up between them. As I mentioned yesterday, the ribs and chicken were pretty good, and the pulled pork was surprisingly ok. Considering the volume of food I was dealing with and the cooking space and the lousy charcoal, I probably couldn't have done much better. Basically, it shows that pork products are pretty damn forgiving and if you can get them to the right temperature you're going to end up with something pretty edible.

 

[BelemNole]

Only about half the photos are showing.

 

[Nole Lou]

Only about half the photos are showing.

Crap. I don't know why. I've got them in google images...I'll see what I can do...

 

[Nole Lou]

Hopefully they're working now...

 

[cfbfan23]

The rib that's showing looks pretty good.

 

[GoNolesTX]

TTIWWP