The Birth of the RIB-O-LATER!

 You have often heard the term" Christmas in July", used by retail stores to advertise really great savings.  The term does apply in this particular situation, the Rib-O-Later was my Christmas present, from my two nephews.  Due to a busy schedule and a long winter, I did not get a chance to assemble my new " Toy". I took the opportunity to get the additional rung needed, for the drum and assemble it together.

 Under the direction of a fellow BBQ-Brethren friend known as "Cowgirl",  she made the assembly process go so much quicker. Once the top portion of the spare drum was cut out, I used one of the top bands to secure it to the main drum.  As you can see in the pictures below, the band was secured using a" C" clamp. the holes were drilled approximately 7 inches from the top of the extended portion, to ensure that the lid would not interfere with the rotation of the stainless steel planks.  I was able to procure 35 inch rotisserie rod and motor from my local Lowe's home improvement store on sale, for the Fourth of July weekend.

 The whole assembly took approximately about two hours including the drilling.  In preparation for this particular groundbreaking cook, we had six racks of baby back ribs that were rubbed using John Henry's Pecan rub, for about 24 hours.  We were able to get the four racks on the planks and let them cook for approximately 4 1/2 hours.  The ribs were periodically sprayed with apple juice during the cook.

 The one thing that I really like about this Rib-O-Later is that it provides an even cook, to all the ribs, because of the rotisserie.  Having cooked several racks of ribs, on the UDS, I can honestly tell you that it has been a problem in the past.  After several trial and errors, we have become accustomed to the moving the ribs around on the grates to ensure an even cook.  This eliminates the need for the rearranging and is one less thing that you have to worry about.  This would also work great for sausages, thighs, salmon, pork and beef loins, vegetables and anything else that you could imagine.  I could also use the extension with the Rib-O-Later on my Weber kettle, when I am not smoking and need for the heat to be kicked up a notch or two.

I seriously recommend this product and you can expect to see more posts with the different uses that I will find for it.  This was definitely a great gift!  Thank you for looking!

Sweet Easter Treats

This Easter we did quite a bit of cooking. After the briskets were trimmed,  we started out by injecting the two briskets with our" secret" marinade.  They marinade for approximately 18 hours, in the refrigerator.  Unfortunately, when we are doing competition, you do not have that amount of time to marinade the brisket, but since these were orders for Easter, we let them marinate a little bit longer, to get full taste of the marinade.

 After the briskets, were ready, we took them out of the icebox and let them sit at room temperature for about 30 min. or so, to take the chill off the meat. We then prepared our brisket rub, which was generously rubbed on all sides of the brisket.  Meanwhile, the charcoal chimney was lit and we used approximately 4 chunks of  Mesquite  wood.  The Mesquite gives the brisket a nice smoky flavor that is not overpowering.

 We also had an order for pulled pork.  The pork butts were rubbed using EVOO and then applied John Henry's pecan rub.  The UDS was started with Kingsford charcoal and five chunks of pecan wood.

 Once the brisket was done, it was foiled and allow to rest in a cooler for about an hour.  After the resting period, it was ready to be sliced up.  He noticed that pink ring along the outer edges of the brisket, it is what is known as the smoke ring.  The smoke ring actually is created due to the smoking of the wood and does not mean that it is dry.  These particular briskets were very moist and tender.

this is award-winning brisket at its best

You can see how moist and juicy this brisket turned out. This will surely be the star of the dinner table.  Hope you all had a great and wonderful Easter!  Thanks for checking out our blog.