Yup, we had a family reunion today. My cousin and I got volunteered to cook pretty much all of the meat. "Pretty much all" meaning that there was some ham on a salad that we didn't cook. There might have been some bacon in the beans too. We started last night at ~6:30PM and didn't get anything into the smoker until after 8. We would have started earlier, but I took him and his father out four wheeling only to come up against a gate that wasn't there a couple of months ago blocking the fast way out of where I was, and I had to backtrack. I think that the gate may be blocking access to public lands, but that's another story. The first run was 36 lbs of spare ribs (12 racks,) and a 7.5lb butt. The ribs were done at about 2 or 2:30am, and the butt was in the stall range. He insists on mopping, and mopping 12 racks of ribs lets a lot of heat out. I like to put a thick rub on the things, then button up the smoker as much as possible. I took him home and was back at 3:30 to finish off the butt. By about 5:30, I called a friend and the conversation went something like this:
Me: Hey dude, what's up?
Jeff: Just walked into the office and am drinking some coffee.
Me: Nice. I'm drinking a beer right now.
Jeff: What the hell are you doing drinking a beer at 5:30AM?
Me: (As it's just starting to get light out and the birds are just starting to chirp) It's late.
Jeff: Huh? Oh, that's right. You're cooking. You stayed up all night?
Me: Yup.
It was done at about a quarter after 6, and I foiled the thing, threw it in a cooler stuffed with towels and went to sleep. When I woke up, my mom was there and I roped her into pulling the pork, and she made some callibacitas (corn, squash, green chile and cheese) with fresh yellow squash from my garden. The 2nd run was 4 ~5lb chickens and about 25 or so sausages of various kinds. I fired up the smoker about an hour before my cousin said he'd be back, he got there and put a simple rub (paprika, salt, pepper and garlic powder) on the chickens, we sat them on some beer cans and sat there drinking coffee alternating with beer. All in all, that took about 3 hours, with us putting the sausages on about 1:15 before the chicken was done. `
We were told that there would be about 60 people there, and figured that we'd have a little bit extra. What we weren't told was that at least half of them would be kids who wouldn't eat as much as adults, so about 1/3 of the ribs and 1/3 of the chicken was left over. I felt no guilt whatsoever when watching everybody else clean up after everybody was done eating. Counting prep time, that was about 18 hours of cooking in a 24 hour period.
I think I need to take my racks to a DIY car wash for the pressure washer now.
And I also have this strange feeling that I'm going to get asked to cook for family get togethers more often now. The next one will be in October because my almost 80 year old cousin is getting married, if he makes it that far. He's going downhill fast ):
Me: Hey dude, what's up?
Jeff: Just walked into the office and am drinking some coffee.
Me: Nice. I'm drinking a beer right now.
Jeff: What the hell are you doing drinking a beer at 5:30AM?
Me: (As it's just starting to get light out and the birds are just starting to chirp) It's late.
Jeff: Huh? Oh, that's right. You're cooking. You stayed up all night?
Me: Yup.
It was done at about a quarter after 6, and I foiled the thing, threw it in a cooler stuffed with towels and went to sleep. When I woke up, my mom was there and I roped her into pulling the pork, and she made some callibacitas (corn, squash, green chile and cheese) with fresh yellow squash from my garden. The 2nd run was 4 ~5lb chickens and about 25 or so sausages of various kinds. I fired up the smoker about an hour before my cousin said he'd be back, he got there and put a simple rub (paprika, salt, pepper and garlic powder) on the chickens, we sat them on some beer cans and sat there drinking coffee alternating with beer. All in all, that took about 3 hours, with us putting the sausages on about 1:15 before the chicken was done. `
We were told that there would be about 60 people there, and figured that we'd have a little bit extra. What we weren't told was that at least half of them would be kids who wouldn't eat as much as adults, so about 1/3 of the ribs and 1/3 of the chicken was left over. I felt no guilt whatsoever when watching everybody else clean up after everybody was done eating. Counting prep time, that was about 18 hours of cooking in a 24 hour period.
I think I need to take my racks to a DIY car wash for the pressure washer now.
And I also have this strange feeling that I'm going to get asked to cook for family get togethers more often now. The next one will be in October because my almost 80 year old cousin is getting married, if he makes it that far. He's going downhill fast ):
