Our good friend Leslie Haywood and fellow Shark Tank alumni has a great grilling accessory called Grill Charms. Think wine charms, but for the grill!!!
Leslie came up with the idea for Grill Charms at a dinner party she was hosting when her husband served her an extra hot Jamaican Jerk piece of chicken instead of the mild one she had requested – he had forgotten which piece was which on the grill. Since this event goal has been to “insure every American gets what they want – how they want it – hot off the grill.”
Grilling season is just around the corner – make sure you check out Grill Charms. Pork Barrel BBQ and Grill Charms are a perfect combination for any great BBQ!!! Check out Leslie’s appearance on Shark Tank!
Here Part II on our series of the most important BBQ tools:
Rib Rack – We love to cook ribs – they are easy to cook, and with a little bit of Pork Barrel BBQ’s All American Spice Rub – they are guaranteed to be a big success at the party. A major part of grilling or cooking is space management. We’ve talked about a lot of important tools on this blog – if you bbq a lot, epecially bbq ribs on your bbq smoker or grill – a rib rack is a key tool of the trade. Read more.
Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker – We have a number of events and BBQ competitions coming up this summer and needed to increase our capacity to cook a lot of great BBQ! What is really amazing about the Smokey Mountain Cooker (we got two of the 22.5 inch models) is that it can hold 12 slabs of ribs, 4-8 pork shoulders, 3-6 briskets, and even 4 turkeys! Read more. And even more here.
The great thing about BBQ and grilling is that you don’t need too many BBQ tools to be successful. If you have a BBQ grill and a fuel source you pretty much have all you need to take a few ingredients and turn them into a delicious meal. Here’s Part I of a collection of some of our favorite posts on the essential tools of BBQ – think of it as a list of the Top BBQ Tools!
Charcoal Chimney – Besides your BBQ grill, the single most important BBQ tool you need to be a successful pit-master is a charcoal chimney! What’s a charcoal chimney you ask? A charcoal chimney lets you quickly light your charcoal without having to use any lighter fluid. Ensuring from the start that your BBQ food won’t taste like lighter fluid is a good thing! Read more.
Meat Thermometer – Many of the best BBQ Pit Masters can tell when the meat on their smoker is done just by sight and touch. For those of us that don’t have BBQ ESP we have to rely on a meat thermometer. When cooking a pork shoulder, brisket or chicken a meat thermometer is an essential tool for the BBQ backyard griller. Read more.
Hardwood Lump Charcoal – Lump charcoal is the end product of the process of burning chunks of hardwood in the absence of oxygen. It is almost like your sticking a piece of oak or hickory in the grill so it is the most natural and pure form of charcoal you can buy. We think lump charcoal gives BBQ a much better flavor than BBQ briquettes and it lights easy, burns hotter, and produces far less ash than briquettes. Read more.
We love to cook ribs – in fact, I just smoked two slabs yesterday – they are so easy to cook, and with a little bit of Pork Barrel BBQ’s All American Spice Rub – they are guaranteed to be a big success at dinner or any party you are throwing. A big part of grilling and smoking is space management. We’ve talked about a lot of important tools on this blog – if you bbq a lot, epecially ribs on your smoker or grill – a rib rack is a key tool of the trade! We use the 22.5 inch Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker, and always use a rib rack to make sure we can fit all the ribs we are smoking into the smoker. There are a lot of good choices – however, make sure you get a heavy duty one, I’ve seen some that bend at the mere site of ribs!
We’re pretty crazy about Pork at Pork Barrel BBQ and we thought it might be interesting to give you a quick run down on some of the breeds of heritage pork that is available today.
Berkshire – The most popular breed of heritage pork is the Berkshire from England. The Berkshire is known for its sweet and well marbled flesh.
Duroc – A local favorite in the eastern United States, the Duroc provides juicy and full flavored meat.
Ossabaw – The Ossabaw is a feral bread of hog that comes from Ossabaw Island, Georgia. The bonus with this hog, whose meat is a bit gamy in flavor, is that it is packed with monounsaturated fat.
Red Wattle – The Red Wattle is a rare pig that comes from the South Pacific island of New Caledonia. This hog has a good meat to fat ratio that makes it great for curred meats and salumi (and who doesn’t like good salumi?).
Tamworth – The Tamworth, another heritage breed from England, is also great for curred meats and sausages. Maybe most importantly, this breed is said to make the best bacon of any hog variety.
You probably won’t find these variates in your local grocery store or butcher shops, but thanks to the Internet you can order them online. In Washington, DC be sure to visit our friends at Wagshals – they sale Ibirico Pork (the only place in the United States to do so).
Check out the following websites for more information and to order these and other heritage breeds of pork.
Setting up the new Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker Smoker was a lot of fun, but we knew the real fun wouldn’t start until we were able put some meat in the smoker and invite friends over to taste the end product. We had heard and read all kinds of great reviews about the Smokey Mountain Cooker Smoker, but being from the Show-Me State we decided it was time for the smoker to “Show Us” what it was made of and that is exactly what it did over the Memorial Day weekend.
At 8:00 a.m. on Sunday I started the charcoal and began to settle in for a long day of smoking. I started the process by filling my Weber Charcoal Chimney up with Cowboy Hardwood Charcoal and let the coals get nice and hot.
Once the coals were fired up and ready to go I dumped them in to the bottom of the smoker.
Next, I poured the remainder of the bag of charcoal onto the lit coals – this provided enough fuel for about 7 hours of smoking.
After all of the charcoal was on the smoker I placed 7 good sized chunks of Hickory onto the coals for smoking. I normally like to do a mix of hickory and oak, but I was out of oak today so I just used hickory.
After all of the fuel was in the smoker and ready to go I placed the body of the smoker on the base and installed the water pan. I filled the water pan with 6 cans of Bud Light.
While the charcoal in the chimney was lighting I rubbed a pork shoulder (on both sides) with extra virgin olive oil and Pork Barrel BBQ’s All American Spice Rub – the best all-purpose dry rub around.
At 8:30 a.m. the coals were ready, the hickory was on and the water pan was filled with beer and we were ready to start smoking. I placed the first grill rack into the smoker and placed the pork shoulder onto it.
I like to smoke my meats at a temperature of 250 degrees.
While the pork shoulder was beginning to smoke I applied extra virgin olive oil and Pork Barrel BBQ’s All American Spice Rub dry rub to a brisket in the same fashion as I had done with the pork shoulder.
At 10:00 a.m. I placed the brisket in to the smoker on the same rack as the pork shoulder. The picture below is of the brisket just being put onto the grill rack and the pork shoulder after 1.5 hours inside the smoker.
While the pork shoulder and brisket were smoking I cleaned two racks of ribs – make sure you take the membrane off of the ribs before you cook them!!! I applied extra virgin olive oil and Pork Barrel BBQ’s All American Spice Rub dry rub to the ribs and let them set for about 30 minutes.
At 11:30 a.m. I placed the second grill rack in to the smoker and placed my rib rack on the grill. I then placed my two racks of ribs in the rib rack.
Finally, I prepared a whole chicken in the same fashion as the other meats (extra virgin olive oil and Pork Barrel BBQ’s All American Spice Rub dry rub). The chicken went on the grill at 2:30 p.m.
The below picture is at 6:30 p.m. just before pulling all of the meat off of the smoker. The chicken had been in the smoker for 4 hours, the ribs for 7 hours, the brisket for 8.5 hours and the pork shoulder for 10 hours.
Here is the final product – ribs and pulled pork!!
More of the final product – chicken and brisket (notice the nice smoke ring on the brisket).
Heath and the final meal – smoked pulled pork, smoked brisket, smoked ribs, smoked turkey, corn on the cob, baked potatoes, salad and some nice bread – a great meal that was shared with some great friends!!
After our first use of the Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker Smoker I must say that the smoker lived up to the reviews – she worked like a charm. We can’t wait to get our two Smokey Mountain Cooker’s out on the Competitive BBQ circuit this year!
We’ll keep you posted on all of her stories as she produces some of the best BBQ you’ll ever have.Don’t forget to visit us on the web at www.porkbarrelbbq.com!!
Pork Barrel BBQ recently acquired two Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker Smokers. Over the Memorial Day Weekend I put one together and tried it out for the first time. The following post hits on the highlights of assembling the Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker Smoker.
The Smokey Mountain Cooker Smoker comes in a large box and is relatively easy to assemble. It took me about 25 minutes to go from an unopened box to a smoker that was ready for cooking.
The first step in the assembly of the smoker is to attach the three legs to the heat shield that goes under the smoker – this is a heat shield and not an ash catch.
Next you attach the bottom of the smoker to the three legs and heat shield.
After you’ve installed the legs to the bottom of the smoker install the charcoal grate and ring.
Next put the body of the smoker onto the base of the smoker.
Next you install four brackets to the inside of the base and place the water bowl inside the base.
Next put the first of the two grill grates into the smoker.
The final step is putting the second grill grate into the smoker.
Place the lid onto the smoker and you have a finished product!
The Finished Product with its protective cover!
We have heard nothing but great things about the Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker Smoker and can’t wait to try ours out. Check back soon for a post on how the maiden smoking with our new grills went.
We are always on the look out for interesting BBQ gadgets, dry rubs, bbq sauces, grills and smokers. A loyal supporter of Pork Barrel BBQ sent us this picture from a hardware store in Midland, TX of a pig grill (and in the background you can see a bull grill). We have to admit that this has been placed on the Pork Barrel BBQ wish list, but we aren’t quite prepared to drop the $1,599.00 necessary to put this beauty in your backyard.
If you find any interesting BBQ gadgets, dry rubs, bbq sauces, grills, smokers or anything else related to barbecue that you think would make a good post on this site email us the details at porkbarrelbbq@gmail.com.
We spend entirely too much time searching the web for information on BBQ, Barbecue, Barbeque and Spice Rubs! We thought we would create a page that has some of our favorite BBQ and Spice Rub links – we will add to this page over the coming days and months – if you have a favorite BBQ or Spice Rub link, or own your own Barbeque or Spice Rub company and want to be included on this page – please send us an email to porkbarrelbbq@gmail.com. Also, if all this reading makes you hungry – please visit our favorite BBQ and Spice Rub siteand be sure to order some of our All American Spice Rub!
Best BBQ Joints in America
Arthur Bryant’s BBQ – Arthur Bryant was know as the “King of Ribs” and some have called him the most renowned barbequer in the history of barbeque. Read Our Review
Dickie Doo Bar-B-Que – Dickie Doo-Bar-B-Que has the best B.B.Q. Beans we’ve ever had – they are amazing and will put a smile on your face!! Read Our Review
Gates Bar-B-Q – We are confident that we put a few members of the Gates family through college with the amount of money that left our wallets in exchange for a Mixed Plate, Beef on Bun, or Burnt End Sandwich. Read Our Review
Jammin Joe’s BBQ – We are a huge fan of their Pulled Pork Sandwich – they provide a very generous portion, with a great sauce. Read Our Review
Oklahoma Joe’s Barbecue – Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have a great lunch inside a gas station? If so, look no further than Oklahoma Joe’s in Kansas City, Kansas. Read Our Review
Bodean’s in London – Next time you’re in London and you’re craving a little bit of home why not drop into one of Bodean’s locations in Soho, Tower Hill, Clapham, Fulham, or Westbourne Grove? Read Our Review
Chimney Smoker – An essential tool – your coals are ready in 15 minutes, and you never have to use lighter fluid!
Hardwood Lump Charcoal – The best way to cook – burns hot and true, and contains no additives to ruin the taste of your barbeque or spice rub.
Meat Thermometer – The only way to know that its done and safe – nothing is worse than undercooked BBQ!
Other Great BBQ Sites
The Salt Lick – BBQ joint outside Austin, Texas – if we ever get to Austin, this one looks like it will make it on our Best BBQ Joints in America list.
We have a number of events and BBQ competitions coming up this summer and needed to increase our capacity to cook a lot of great BBQ! What is really amazing about the Smokey Mountain Cooker (we got two of the 22.5 inch models) is that it can hold 12 slabs of ribs, 4-8 pork shoulders, 3-6 briskets, and even 4 turkeys! I smoke a lot of BBQ on my Chargriller, but to be honest it takes a lot of work keeping it fired at the correct temperature. With the Smokey Mountain Cooker I can fire up a pile of lump charcoal and wood chunks in the bottom and come back 10-12 hours later and to a well maintained and perfect temperature – you can’t beat that.
We came to the decision to buy this particular smoker thanks to The Virtual Weber Bullet website. What a great website it is too – it’s really one of the best BBQ sites I have found. Thanks to the folks at The Virtual Weber Bullet site for helping us make a great decision – we’ll keep you posted on our smoking success! Be sure to follow the Pork Barrel BBQ website for more information on our products.
