Well before we get right down to it prehaps I should mention that today was an exceptional day for smoking (bitter sarcism injected throughout that last statement), if I had not been forced, have already prepared my meat for smoking I would have just thrown in the towel for smoking today, but I had no choice, so I did what you do when you have no choice.  Upon rising at 0900 this morning it was rainy and windy, so I thought I would wait tell after noon to smoke my fatty, after all it had already been rolled.  Well noon brought around no positive change in the weather so I just did what I had to do, I got the charcoal ready.

Smokin' on a rainy day

I digress so after getting the smoker going in less than ideal smoking weather I popped the fatty on the smoker and let it smoke for 1…2…3…did I mention it was windy…4 hours until the thermometer read 165.

My Fatty on the smoker

Once it was done I pulled it off, let it rest and then dug in.

Picture of the Fatty

A sliced fatty

All said and done it was worth the effort, my tomato basil fatty has been my first fatty but certainly not my last.  It took a chunk of the day to smoke this fatty over charcoal and bits of hickory and cherry but it was worth it.  It was a culinary delight and an arterial nightmare.

Disclaimer:  While I may rave that this was in fact a delicious meal it would not be right to omit the opinion of my wife, who claims it was good but salty, it was certainly a man meal.

Tagged with: , , , , ,

While this ia  new concept to me many of you may be turned off by the title, I would encourage you to roll on.  Like its contraband counter part the fatty we are talking about must first be rolled, so that is where this process will begin.  But before we do perhaps we should look at a definition of what exactly is a fatty.  A fatty is a bit of sausage rolled out filled with some tasty goodness rolled up, wrapped in bacon and smoked (more info over at Smoking Meat Forums.  Having never assembled, much less smoked one of these tasty looking things I thought I would give it a try.  So I took some pork sausage and bacon out of the freezer last night and tonight assembled my master piece I will smoke it in the morning.  Below is my ordeal in a step by step fashion with pictures.

1.The Pork Sausage all rolled out.

Pork Sausage Rolled out for the Fatty

2. The bacon weave found out after all was said and done a much easier looking way to accomplish the same thing.

Bacon Weave awaiting the Fatty

3. Getting the fillings ready to the tomato basil fatty

The Fatty all filled up with Tomatoes, Basil and Mozz Cheese

4. The Fatty ready for the smoker…

The Fatty waiting for the smoker

It almost looks tasty enough to eat right now, but in the morning I shall throw it in the smoker and try it for lunch.  Check back later tomorrow for an update.

Tagged with: , , , , ,

Well the day finally came, the ribs were rubbed last night and it was cooking time today.   Because I am either proud or crazy or both, I opted not to borrow either of the smokers available to me and smoked (cooked) these ribs on my Weber Charcoal grill.  This was quite a task.  It was rather windy here and I had no idea holding a temperature at 230°F would be such a chore, but hey they are cooked and they were tasty.  But the real question which of the two rubs won? And why is there a piece of chicken in the picture?

Some delicious ribs all cooked up and ready to devour
Some delicious ribs all cooked up and ready to devour

Well let me answer the chicken question first.  I wanted to see how a BBQ rub stacked up on chicken and I must say quite well it was delicious and like the ribs surprisingly juicy after such a long cooking time.  So which rub won?  Well I will be using them both again but for different reasons.  The Butt Rub was in my opinion the best tasting rub, it was spicy and seemed to absorb the smoke ALOT better than the BBQ 3000, it also colored nicely.  The BBQ 3000 on the other hand was delicious, it also colored nicely, however it did not seem to absorb the smoke nearly as well.  It did however has an incredible sweet taste that almost made up for the lack of spice.

Like I said I will keep both of these rubs in my cupboard and use them both in the future, however, I will be looking forward to using the Butt Rub a wee bit more than the BBQ 3000.

Tagged with: , , , , , ,

It’s only recently that I have realized the simplicity and remarkable flavor of dry rubs.  While I was in Gatlinburg recently I picked up Bad Byron’s Butt Rub from the Pepper Palace (go there if in Gatlinburg or Myrtle Beach or St. Augustine or online at www.pepperpalace.com), back home I had already received the Penzey’s Spices (what I don’t grow I get from these guys, they have some amazing stuff) BBQ 3000.

img_2328
BBQ 3000 v. Butt Rub the rubs

As fate would have it I have a couple of country style pork ribs in the freezer and a good day to grill/smoke out tomorrow.  I will be attempting to smoke these fine specimens of meat on my Weber charcoal grill.  Should be interesting.  That said I prepared the meat by rubbing it a day ahead.  And here is what I have come up with.

img_2329
BBQ 3000 v. Butt Rub the rubbed meat

After rubbing both of these rubs into the meat I must say they both have a very pleasant aroma but the Butt Rub rubs much better into the meat where as the BBQ 3000 has a tendancy to clump and not want to rub well.  I guess tomorrow is the day we find out what these rubs are made of.  Off to bed for some grilling sleep!

Tagged with: , , , ,