Tonight I’ll be grilling bone-in country cut ribs indirect over cherry wood smoke seasoned with coarse black pepper and Everglades seasoning. Correct, Pat’s Homade on the last two turns. Inside we will have a pot of fresh zipper peas and Ms. Jan’s AuGratin potatoes. Beautiful day here today which leaves the back porch open and ready for your leisure. Adult libations are available as desired. Life is good in Gator Nation!
Tonight we’re taking the night off in the kitchen and picking up supper from one of our local restaurants. Ms. Jan is pizza hungry so Fat John’s Pizza it is! Ice cold longnecks and chilled wine to accompany our meal. Life is good in Gator Nation!
I got a 10 lbs pork shoulder over the weekend… 99 cents a lbs. Amazes me when you look at the size of that piece meat and realize you paid less than 10 bucks for it. Anyhoo …I cut off about 3 pounds of it, to freeze for Cuban pulled pork in the crockpot for another day. I had the remainder rubbed and ready go for an overnighter on the Egg tonight. Now it’s freaking raining. Weather app had 8% chance as the highest. Annoying. I’ll check the radar to see if tonight is a go.
At seven pounds I wake up early but I have done overnights when at the ten pound range. You really have to know your ceramic skills to trust it when asleep.
The overnight thing takes a lot of stress off the wife. I start the grill around 7, have the temp regulated by 9, meat goes on. Set the alarm for a 2am check.
Started early and the butt is on. I’ll check it before bed then again at 2. A low & slow at 230 degrees… should be ready to wrap and pull by noon tomorrow. Kitchen will be spotless by the time she gets home.
I use a remote thermometer. For overnights, I can put one probe on the grate to keep track of the cooker temp, can set an alarm for high and low to make sure it stays where it’s supposed to. Can put another probe in the meat with an alarm to wake me up if it hits a temp I need to do something at.
If I was still doing my Weber I would absolutely go that route. It was constant going back & forth, reacting & overreacting. It was a lot of work for 12 - 14 hours. I feel I’ve hit the sweet spot with the egg. I fiddle around with the temp for an hour or two. Lock it in where I want it and place the butt on it. It hasn’t failed me yet and with those first 8-10 hours it doesn’t need much attention. More importantly, and I can’t stress this enough, when going overnight you don’t get stares from your wife as she is wiping the floor picking up rub dust residue off the floor or wiping charcoal fingerprints on the sliding glass doors all day long. Set it, forget it, go to sleep and make sure the kitchen stuff is complete before she gets home the next day.
@scooterp I think you hit the nail on the head (at least for me) with regards to constant temperatures-the sweet spot for longer cooking times on the egg. So many brands of lump charcoal, I have settled on FOGO Premium because it gives you medium to medium large size pieces which burn slower and truer for longer cooks as opposed to the bags of lump charcoal that you get so many small broken pieces that burn up too fast and cause temperature fluctuations. At least that’s my explanation for even cooking temperatures.
The butt was done around 9:30. It’s already pulled and lightly sauced with my own vinegar base sauce. The slaw is finished. I went S Carolina style with vinegar/mustard base. Beans are prepped and ready to go in the oven later. All that’s left is a thorough clean up.
Tonight we’re having fried cubed steak and gravy, freshly steamed green cabbage, and Ms. Jan’s homemade Mac’n’cheese. Beautiful day here today-we’re actually supposed to get some rain tomorrow. The back porch is open and ready for your leisure. To go along with our normal libations I share a tumbler of Henry McKenna Bottled-in-Bond with my Dad in the evening this week. He passed away 22 years ago this Thursday (10-13-2003). Bourbon was his favorite so I try my best to visit with him the week of losing him. I miss him more, not less and am proud that I do. Life is good in Gator Nation!
Clam linguini tonight. And kamado style (Big Green Egg, Kamado Joe and the like) are perfect for getting a consistent temperature without a whole lot of attention.
Tonight we’re going to be cooking inside as we have an afternoon/evening of rain on the radar-and boy are we in need of the rain. We are having fried boneless pork chops, petite butter beans and sweet corn, and white rice topped with Rotel tomatoes. Adult libations are available as desired. Life is good in Gator Nation!
Leftover chicken caccatori. I spent some time looking up the history of the dish. It started in the 14th century well before tomatoes were introduced to Italy. I then looked up the history of tomatoes being introduced to Italy and then it all made sense. The Italian word for tomato is pomodoro. It literally means gold apple. The first tomatoes brought to Italy were yellow and not red.
Tonight we’re having breakfast for supper. It’ll be fried beef cubed steak, grits and eggs, and Ms. Jan’s homemade biscuits. She’s also got some of her homemade strawberry freezer jam that will be sitting on the table beside the bread basket. Pretty day today but a lil’muggy behind the rain yesterday-no dust in the air though. We got 2.5” of rain yesterday. The back porch Yeti is restocked and Ms. Jan’s wine is chilled. Life is good in Gator Nation!
Yesterday was classic chili day. It was raining most of the day and I needed a project. Turned out fantastic. Ate mine with saltines this time. Today is high 60s and absolutely gorgeous outside. Preparing 2 pizzas for the grill… 1-Prosciutto/Arugula with mozzarella & shallots …2-Standard pepperoni & red onion. Also a tossed salad. Happy Friday gents!
Today my wife asked me to work on our rental house that was trashed by the previous tenants so I did and she is making dinner. I hope that the Kilz premium primer will hide the olive drab paint that they applied in one bedroom.
