Spring...

Thank the Lord I made it through another winter.



Two things I'm itching to do this spring, fire the pit up for some 'Q' and attempt once again to do a smoked meatloaf and try to make some smoked grilled oysters.

The smoked meatloaf...I talked to WhiteTrashBBQ last year and tried it out and it was good, but I need to work on it some more, I didn't really have the right pan to grill this in.

Next the grilled oysters...

I love grilled shrimp and fish but I have only eaten oysters on the half shell.

When I saw a recipe for smoked grilled oysters that looked and read good, I said to myself I'm going to have to try that.

So my (To Cook) list is coming out of the closet for a new year of trial and error.

Lucky me...

The man who follows the crowd will usually get no further than the crowd. The man who walks alone is likely to find himself in places no one has ever been.

Big Daddy

It's been awhile...

Sorry it's been awhile since I've posted to this blog.

I've done some experimenting with the pit this summer. Heating the pit with charcoal then switching to wood for cooking. Heating the pit with lump charcoal then switching to wood for cooking or heating the pit then cook with charcoal and wood.

Which of these methods works better? Well they all do...up to a point.

Lump charcoal and wood creates less ash to deal with in the fire box, but...you can have temperature spikes when more fuel is added. The trick is to get your pit temperature were you want it, then go with a smaller fire during cooking.

A pure wood fire in the pit box will work but you have to have plenty of air flow to burn clean, unless you burn the wood first into coals, then add it to the firebox, this is something I have not done yet.

I do not have any fancy gadget's or gizmo's or guru's on my pit. I'm totally old school pit master, fire tender style of barbecue cooking. It's done when it's done.

I've tried different charcoals (from what can be found here in Nashville) and found a few that work well. I'll name and talk about these later in a different post.

It's 'bout time to ice down some brews and watch some football.

The man who follows the crowd will usually get no further than the crowd. The man who walks alone is likely to find himself in places no one has ever been.

Big Daddy

Rib Cook...

Always a stumbling stone somewhere...









I had talked about using the Nature-Glo lump charcoal and liking it a lot. Burns clean, very little ash, pure wood. I got it at Gordon Food Service here in Nashville.

Now...they don't carry it anymore. They stock their own brand of lump. I've used their charcoal before so I thought, what the hell, I'll give it a shot.

Never again...

It's true when they say you get what you pay for.

The Nature-Glo lump was $12 a bag, the GFS (Gordon Food Service) lump was $9 a bag.

Nature-Glo is good solid wood lump, no scrap wood. The GFS lump was trash wood kind of like Cowboy Lump when it started out. Cowboy has improved their quality some, but not enough.

GFS had a burnt smell to it too, I could tell it was scrap wood and not of very good quality scrap wood at that. So that brand will definitely not grace my firebox.

Luckily, I still had some Nature-Glo left to cook with...

The only other lump that is available around here is the Big Green Egg brand made by Royal Oak. A friend of mine cooks with it and he really likes it. It's about $15 a bag so I'll give it a try and see what happens.

Green Egg is a pretty big brand name. If I don't like it...I'll just have to order Nature-Glo on line and be done with it...

(I am not a sponsor nor a salesman for Nature-Glo. If I was, I would have a garage full of it and wouldn't be complaining about not being able to find it.)

The man who follows the crowd will usually get no further than the crowd. The man who walks alone is likely to find himself in places no one has ever been.

Big Daddy

Charcoal...part II

I used this lump and I like it. I'll have to be careful though because it does burn hotter than regular charcoal.

The pit did want to run hot at first, until I got use to this, but it didn't take me long and it was my fault, but she calmed down and settled in.



And the price was good too.

12 dollars for a 22 lb bag is not bad at all.



I'll do a few more cooks as soon as work settles down and experiment a little more with lump to see how little is needed and how long it will last to get my firebox timing in order.



Cooking is like therapy, it keeps me from doing dishes...
Big Daddy

Charcoal...

The last cook was done with regular charcoal and it produced a lot of ash to be contended with. The next cook will be done with lump charcoal.



I've read the reviews and this can be purchased here locally with no problem, so I'll give it a try. I can't find Rancher lump around here and I would like to try the Weekend Warrior lump, but I don't think it would be worth the price of shipping it from New England to Tennessee.

So I'll just try the Nature-Glo and see what happens.



Cooking is like therapy, it keeps me from doing dishes...
Big Daddy

Fire in the hole...

I fired up the pit and I was pleased by how she acted.

The only thing I didn't like was... I'm exposed to Mother Nature's misfortune and temperament and she showed me her butt by raining on my parade.

That... put me behind by at least 2 hours on cooking. That will not cut it in a competition.

The pit will be good for bulk cooks in decent weather, but if it rains...I'm screwed.




Some major work will have to be done to the trailer to cover this cooker up, or I might have to go a different route altogether for competition.

Everything turned out great...but by competition standards, I would not have made the turn in times...

And that...is not good.

Cooking is like therapy, it keeps me from doing dishes...
Big Daddy

Test Cook...

The weather has been the holdup for getting the jacks welded on the trailer and also, the hold up for me, on beginning any kind of test cook.



I'm really wanting to get started on that part of the game. Until I find out how this pit is going to cook and the time involved in cooking, I'm just dead in the water right now.

It's said, a good pit master can cook on anything. That I can do, but I don't want to go into any competition with out knowing my pit or without any game plan.

So... I may just run test cooks this year and bring Hillbilly Rib Runners into full competition mode next year. Right now I have my sauce and rub recipes ready.

I'm getting there, slowly but surely.



Cooking is like therapy, it keeps me from doing dishes...
Big Daddy