Pre-Lent Ribs, and a couple other cooks

Theophan

I'm getting ready for no more meat from this coming Monday until mid-April (a church thing, preparation for Easter), so of course I'm chowing DOWN on meat this week.    I think the ribs I made this evening were the best ribs I've ever had in my life!  Same recipe I've made several times, but somehow this time they were just perfect.  I think I often overcook them, and these were very smoky, great bark, but still very juicy.  And the sauce!  I've raved about this before, the "Bourbon-Glazed Ribs" recipe from the Smoke & Spice book, WOW -- that sauce should be ILLEGAL it's so good!  (The recipe's been posted on this forum before.)

I've also cooked a few other things recently that just didn't seem to merit posting here, so I'm tacking them on to this post.  First, the ribs (sorry I didn't snap a picture actually on the Egg).  I also had some pork "blade steaks" or something like that.  Didn't know what to do with them, cooked them with the ribs, same way.  Way overcooked, but really yummy, and my wife loves pork that's overcooked, so she was in heaven):








Here are a couple of somewhat older cooks.  First, a flank steak that had been marinated in a coriander teriyaki marinade.  Unusual, really good, but I'm not sure quite good enough to make again.  Sort of an odd shaped flank steak, and way thicker in some parts than others, hard to cook evenly:








And my second attempt at pulled beef.  The first time I made Clay's Pulled Beef, and it was really good.  This time I followed @NonaScott with beef broth, pepperoncini, BBQ sauce, etc., and it was also delicious, but I had too small a chuck roast for the amounts of the other stuff that I used, and it was too heavy on the pepperoncini and a bit salty from the broth.  Another time, with a higher proportion of beef, I think it'll be great.  I still want to try the pepper stout beef I've seen here.  Here's the chuck roast, about done smoking:



Here it is on top of the braising stuff in a CI dutch oven:



Pulled:



Final product:



The chuck roast looked pretty big in the store, but especially when it cooked, it was way too small for the amount of other stuff.  Still tasty, though.

pgprescott

You can now fast for a MONTH! Nice work all around. 

Killit_and_Grillit

@Theophan. Good luck with your fast. I had a friend come over a few weeks ago that was on a David fast. No meat 21 days. He straight up called my Egg the Devil tempting him in the desert. 

You should leave this place. We will see you in April. I don't need your slip on my eternal soul 

caliking

Some splendid cooks. Happy vegetarian weeks to you!

Theophan

Thanks, folks!  

I'll miss the meat, probably won't cook anything on my BGEs (I've grilled tofu a few times, can't say it was wonderful), but oddly enough, I actually enjoy going vegan for a while a few times a year (It actually adds up to around half the year, I think).  I hate to admit it but I think I actually feel a little better, feel a little healthier, when I'm vegan, but I can' help it, when it's time meat's allowed again, I'm READY to eat some meat again!    I guess I like the alternating "seasons" of meat and non-meat.  So it's all good.

spray

Great cooks.  That flank steak looks fantastic to me.

Theophan

Many thanks!!!

bhedges1987

Wow. Every picture truly looks very good. 

SmokingPiney

Excellent! 

buzd504

Lent doesn't start until Ash Wednesday, which is 3/1 this year.

Theophan

buzd504 said:

Lent doesn't start until Ash Wednesday, which is 3/1 this year.

You're right, but only for Western Churches.  But I'm not in a Western Church.

It's a long story, which probably no one here will find interesting in the least , but in 1054, what had been one Church across the entire Christian world split into two, which came to be called the Catholic Church in Western Europe, and the Orthodox Church in the Middle East, Greece, much of Eastern Europe, Russia, etc..  Hundreds of years later, there was the Protestant Reformation in the West.

The date for Easter is calculated differently by Western Churches and the Orthodox Church.  Once in a while, such as this year, they wind up being the same day.  But exactly what days are included in Lent also are calculated differently.  In the West, Lent begins on a Wednesday, but in the Orthodox Church, Lent begins on a Monday.  So this year, Lent in the Orthodox Church begins 2 days earlier than in Western Churches even though Easter is the same day this year.

However, in the Orthodox Church there is also an additional week before Lent when we can still eat dairy, eggs and fish, but no meat.  So for us, no meat starts on 2/20, and then we're vegan starting a week later on 2/27. Then on Easter, 4/16 this year, we can eat anything we want again.