I saw a caterpillar...

From caterpillar to butterfly

On my other blog, read all about how this crazy caterpillar chose my front steps to change into a butterfly

Smoked Fatty, with Bacon!

Fatty's ready for sauce

Yesterday I made a smoked fatty wrapped in a bacon weave. A fatty is just another name for a BBQ'd log of breakfast sausage, in this case Jimmy Dean's Spicy Sausage. I smeared the sausage with plain yellow mustard and liberally covered it with my homemade pork rub. I put in the fridge for a few hours to let it think about what I was about about to do to it.

About an hour before I was planning to put it in the smoker I took the sausage out of the fridge and made the bacon weave. It turned out a 5x6 weave covered it perfectly.

Bacon weave is go!

Fatty ready for the smoker

I put it on the smoker with lump charcoal and hickory and apple wood chunks.

Smokin'!

The first picture up above shows the fatty after about three hours. Then it was time to sauce the puppy!

Saucy!

I used O'Baby BBQ Sauce. Does anyone know if they're still in business? The website has a 2013 copyright date and the shop link goes to a dead Etsy page...

Anyway, another 30 minutes or so in the smoker and then the fatty was ready!

And there it is, the finished fatty with an extra drizzle of O'Baby's.

And it was MINE, ALL MINE!

Look at that shine!

You can't see it, but there's a smoke ring

MINE!

Smoked Tri Tip

Tri tip with tomato and onions

This weekend I decided to smoke a tri tip roast. The roast was a little under three and a half pounds.

Yesterday I smeared yellow mustard on the tri tip and covered it with my steak rub. I put it in a dish, covered, overnight in the fridge.

This morning I started up the offset smoker with regular charcoal. When it was up to temp I added some hickory and apple wood chunks I'd soaked overnight.

I put the tri tip in the smoker and let it go for a few hours, until the internal temp was about 115 degrees.

Tri tip just started on the smoker

The smoker smoking

Tri tip on the grill to char

Tri tip about to be sliced

Then I put the tri tip on a small Weber grill over direct heat for about five minutes each side. I brought it in and let it rest for at least fifteen minutes and the sliced it thin. Slapped it on a plate with some sliced tomatoes and red onion drizzled with Italian dressing and covered with shredded cheese.

Good eats.

Tomahawk Cut Rib-Eyes

One sweet rib-eye with roasted potatoes and steamed veggies.

 I picked up a couple of bone-in rib-eyes from Olde Towne Butcher last weekend. They were about two inches thick (probably a bit thicker, next time I'll measure them), tomahawk cut with a bone handle sticking out. Because of how thick they were I planned to reverse-sear them on the grill. I drizzled some canola oil on them and then gave the steaks a healthy covering of my go-to beef rub, AmazingRibs.com's Big Bad Beef Rub (Note: I use their original rub recipe with salt).

The reverse sear: I set up my Weber grill for indirect cooking with charcoal. The rib-eyes went on the indirect side, each with a remote temperature probe so I could monitor the cooking process. I flipped them when they got to about 70 degrees internal temperature. I put them over the coals when their temps got to about 105 degrees. I flipped them once more and took them off the grill at about 130 degrees and let them rest.

Before.

After, resting.

For sides I steamed some veggies (to add color to the plate) and made oven-roasted potatoes using Lipton Onion Soup mix (these are a great easy side for almost anything).

The rib-eyes were like butter. They always are from Olde Towne Butcher. I'll probably do it again this weekend.

Look at that juicy rib-eye!

Keyword: Grilled

Grilled andouille sausage, grilled onion, and grilled tomato.

Before and After

 
Chicken wings on the grill do not last long after they're done.

Tomahawk Rib-Eye on the Grill

Perfectly cooked rib-eye.

Wow. It's been awhile since I posted anything. That doesn't mean I've not been having any BBQ adventures! Here's the most recent one.

I came home yesterday to find my best friend in the whole wide world, my wife Annie, had gone to Olde Towne Butcher (Facebook) and procured a two pound tomahawk cut rib-eye. Just for me. This baby was so big I knew I could grill it only one way: the reverse sear!

Now normal people like Bobby Flay will tell you to sear the meat over high heat and then finish it off over low indirect heat. This will work fine, but I have better results reversing the process. I cook the meat on the indirect side of the grill until it's almost done, then sear it off over high heat to finish. Look at that picture on the left. With the reverse sear you get a nice even color throughout the meat and an excellent crust on the outside. I think doing it the other way gives you less pink in the middle (did I say I was shooting for medium rare?).

It hangs off the plate!

So the first thing I did was lightly coat the monster meat with canola oil and give it a dusting of Amazing Ribs Big Bad Beef Rub (original recipe with salt). You can see what a monster cut that was. It didn't even fit on a regular dinner plate!

Now it's grilling time. Since this was a weekday I decided to use the gas grill. I put a good amount of mesquite and apple wood chips in the smoker box on the direct side of the grill.

Indirect, half-way done.

The meat went on the indirect side with a thermometer probe. I planned to flip it when it was 75°-80°F. This picture was when I was about to flip it after about 15 minutes. Of course I wrapped the exposed bone in aluminum foil so it wouldn't burn.

After about another 10-55 minutes the meat was about 105°F so I moved it over to the direct side of the grill. When it was at 115°F I flipped it again and then took it off when it hit 125°F.

After it rested for about 10 minutes I dove i. Perfectly cooked, buttery tender!

This is how you cook a rib-eye!

This baby is searing!