Weekend Cooks - What Went Right, What Went Wrong

DoubleEgger

There were lots of great grub posted this weekend. Was there anything you tried this weekend that was a hit? Anything that didn't turned out as planned? Tell us about your weekend cooks, what went right and what went wrong. 

GoooDawgs

I did a 12.5 pound CAB Prime brisket and a peach preserve pork butt.  Pork was spot on, and brisket was a solid B to B- for me.  Excellent point and middle flat was great, but the end was a bit dry.  It passed the bend test and could hold up under it's own weight without breaking, but I think it must have been a little underdone still since it was dry but not crumbling.  Flat was between 199-203 all over, but still felt a little tight when I picked it up underneath.   

Of course, we're our own worst critics because everyone demolished it. But alas, the flat never looks as juicy and moist as when I have it in Austin...  the chase continues! 

hoosier_egger

Egg cooks turned out great. However, yesterday morning I had 1.5 lbs of bacon on the Blackstone and got distracted by prepping ribs for the egg. Finally remembered the bacon after about 10 minutes...

It was burnt to hell and back...Oops

lkapigian

We do a lot of Free Cooks for special occasions, this week for a Celebration of Life and it happened to be at a local Bar, we don't charge, dont get paid  and I never mind people taking food home, but for some reason it got under my Skin Saturday when I saw someone haul 6 plates of food to the car

What went wrong, me getting upset about food, I was mad at myself for something so trivial.............We went to give, and that is all that should have mattered, maybe it was the heat, maybe the long day, but I felt I was a hypocrite

DoubleEgger

Thanks for sharing that @lkapigian. It’s definitely tough when you feel like your generosity is being taken advantage of. Take it as a compliment! If your food sucked, no one would take it home. Lol. Hopefully those extra plates went to someone who could use a good meal. 

WeberWho

lkapigian said:

We do a lot of Free Cooks for special occasions, this week for a Celebration of Life and it happened to be at a local Bar, we don't charge, dont get paid  and I never mind people taking food home, but for some reason it got under my Skin Saturday when I saw someone haul 6 plates of food to the car

What went wrong, me getting upset about food, I was mad at myself for something so trivial.............We went to give, and that is all that should have mattered, maybe it was the heat, maybe the long day, but I felt I was a hypocrite

It sounds like you're a great guy and let that weight rest on that other guys shoulders who left with 6 plates. Next time you can mention something if you see it happen again. Maybe money and food are tight at home for the guy. Very cool lkapigian. I'm sure it was very much appreciated by everyone 

lkapigian

WeberWho said:

lkapigian said:

We do a lot of Free Cooks for special occasions, this week for a Celebration of Life and it happened to be at a local Bar, we don't charge, dont get paid  and I never mind people taking food home, but for some reason it got under my Skin Saturday when I saw someone haul 6 plates of food to the car

What went wrong, me getting upset about food, I was mad at myself for something so trivial.............We went to give, and that is all that should have mattered, maybe it was the heat, maybe the long day, but I felt I was a hypocrite

It sounds like you're a great guy and let that weight rest on that other guys shoulders who left with 6 plates. Next time you can mention something if you see it happen again. Maybe money and food are tight at home for the guy. Very cool lkapigian. I'm sure it was very much appreciated by everyone 

When this entered my mind is when I felt like crap---When we think we are having a bad day, realize there is always someone worse off 

NorthPilot06

lkapigian said:

WeberWho said:

lkapigian said:

We do a lot of Free Cooks for special occasions, this week for a Celebration of Life and it happened to be at a local Bar, we don't charge, dont get paid  and I never mind people taking food home, but for some reason it got under my Skin Saturday when I saw someone haul 6 plates of food to the car

What went wrong, me getting upset about food, I was mad at myself for something so trivial.............We went to give, and that is all that should have mattered, maybe it was the heat, maybe the long day, but I felt I was a hypocrite

It sounds like you're a great guy and let that weight rest on that other guys shoulders who left with 6 plates. Next time you can mention something if you see it happen again. Maybe money and food are tight at home for the guy. Very cool lkapigian. I'm sure it was very much appreciated by everyone 

When this entered my mind is when I felt like crap---When we think we are having a bad day, realize there is always someone worse off 

Kudos to you @lkapigian for your generosity!  I'm certain you made a difference in the lives of many this weekend

Kent8621

my life got in the way, went to swap brakes out on the car and a caliper pin was seized so I had to remove the caliper, get it out and cleaned and then bled the brakes and that is always longer than you expect, then the neighbor put the idea of swimming in the kids head and its hard to talk a 2 and 4 yr old down.  so we ended up a local taco truck for dinner and I cooked some thighs for them about 9pm.  not cooking related but that is what went wrong for me.

Gulfcoastguy

lkapigian said:

We do a lot of Free Cooks for special occasions, this week for a Celebration of Life and it happened to be at a local Bar, we don't charge, dont get paid  and I never mind people taking food home, but for some reason it got under my Skin Saturday when I saw someone haul 6 plates of food to the car

What went wrong, me getting upset about food, I was mad at myself for something so trivial.............We went to give, and that is all that should have mattered, maybe it was the heat, maybe the long day, but I felt I was a hypocrite

Five hungry kids at home? Shut in neighbors?  We never know everyone’s story. 

NorthPilot06

Kent8621 said:

my life got in the way, went to swap brakes out on the car and a caliper pin was seized so I had to remove the caliper, get it out and cleaned and then bled the brakes and that is always longer than you expect, then the neighbor put the idea of swimming in the kids head and its hard to talk a 2 and 4 yr old down.  so we ended up a local taco truck for dinner and I cooked some thighs for them about 9pm.  not cooking related but that is what went wrong for me.

Oh man, I changed SWMBO’s brake pads on Friday but the caliper pins weren’t seized, thankfully. That adds a lot of incremental effort. 

TEXASBGE2018

lkapigian said:

When this entered my mind is when I felt like crap---When we think we are having a bad day, realize there is always someone worse off 

That's good on you for doing all that but I would have thought the same thing you did and been mad initially. Unfortunately in todays society there are lots of people that would and do take advantage of situations like that.  Again good on you for being willing to help but also don't feel bad for questioning what seemed to me at least to be someone possibly taking advantage of your generosity. 

frazzdaddy

Rib-eye cook Sat night went really well all though SWMBO lost patience waiting for me to get pictures. Stuffed pork loin was great but I will pull it at @170 next time. I thought it too dry. They said it was great. Butternut squash could have gone longer, but flavor was good. Brussel sprouts were good but SWMBOS bacon fried sprouts are better than mine,no contest

frazzdaddy

Gulfcoastguy said:

lkapigian said:

We do a lot of Free Cooks for special occasions, this week for a Celebration of Life and it happened to be at a local Bar, we don't charge, dont get paid  and I never mind people taking food home, but for some reason it got under my Skin Saturday when I saw someone haul 6 plates of food to the car

What went wrong, me getting upset about food, I was mad at myself for something so trivial.............We went to give, and that is all that should have mattered, maybe it was the heat, maybe the long day, but I felt I was a hypocrite

Five hungry kids at home? Shut in neighbors?  We never know everyone’s story. 

@ikapigian, Nah ,Great job! Don't sweat the small stuff. Just know that somebody got an awesome meal because of your efforts.

JohnInCarolina

Try as I might, I don’t think I quite earned my pizza merit badge this weekend.

SciAggie

I made an apple galette for dessert last night and the oven was a leetle too hot...

No worries. I made another. It came out better. I left the oven door open (wood oven) and moved the pie to a cooler location. 

These threads are fun. Not ALL of our cooks turn out amazing. At least not all of mine. We just don’t advertise those...

NorthPilot06

@SciAggie the second looks awesome. Glad to see you back on the forum!

DoubleEgger

Helluva recovery @SciAggie

unoriginalusername

I did back to back turkeys. The first one, while my guests praised it was not very good. The rubbery texture skin was the most off putting. 

Todays was prepped the same (24hr brine, spatchcocked and rubbed in butter and herbs) but this time I waited until the egg was 325 before putting on the bird and the billowy smoke had cleared out. 

Best turkey ever ... insane flavour and moisture content 

unoriginalusername

Ps - i also did homemade natural cured bacon which went horribly wrong. Dry brined with salt and brown sugar for 7 days. Wife was concerned so I added salt twice and when all was said and done the bacon came out like a salt block. 

Need to try again. 

NPHuskerFL

SciAggie said:

These threads are fun. Not ALL of our cooks turn out amazing. At least not all of mine. We just don’t advertise those...

Failure and humility is a strong learning force.  I've had my fair share of failures and like I always say...the wildlife in my area are well fed may very well know me by name So much so that I had to stop for quite awhile because we (I) was bringing in bears to our area. 🐻
Pics are somewhere on my phone or in my Google cloud.

DoubleEgger

unoriginalusername said:

I did back to back turkeys. The first one, while my guests praised it was not very good. The rubbery texture skin was the most off putting. 

Todays was prepped the same (24hr brine, spatchcocked and rubbed in butter and herbs) but this time I waited until the egg was 325 before putting on the bird and the billowy smoke had cleared out. 

Best turkey ever ... insane flavour and moisture content 

Great looking bird. You ought to be proud of that one. 

lkapigian

unoriginalusername said:

Ps - i also did homemade natural cured bacon which went horribly wrong. Dry brined with salt and brown sugar for 7 days. Wife was concerned so I added salt twice and when all was said and done the bacon came out like a salt block. 

Need to try again. 

You may have been able to desalinate with an overnight soak changing the water a few times 

smokingal

I got to use my new CGS setup over the weekend and made some missteps or oversights.  Forgot to bring something outside to set the AR on and then tried to use some hickory wood dust in lieu of wood chunks without removing the adjustable rig. You can see where this is going.  Luckily I hadn't placed the food on yet.  That would have been even messier.

SamIAm2

Friday Salmon cook went well but life got in the way of the Picnic Shoulder cook. Ceiling fan crapped out and I had to clean out the storage room to make room for the replacement refrigerator coming tomorrow. Taking apart a French door, bottom freezer to get it thru two door openings took up most of yesterday. SWMBO's doctor appointment and locating a replacement fan and subsequent installation kept me from putting on the two shoulders until 3 hours ago. Naked shoulders on the Large cruising along at 235 dome temp.

Total weight close to 15 lbs. Going old school again, no electronics. I am retired so for me it is still a weekend cook.  

Gym

Spatched a turkey so hard her wing fell off! Turned out great! 3rd cook for Xl. 

DoubleEgger

Have you done the naked shoulders before @SamIAm2

SamIAm2

@DoubleEgger - nope, just thought it might be interesting. Sometimes I just go for really simple cooks. Do you have any insights you care to share? 

Jeremiah

Made a frozen pizza. Guess that counts as right and wrong. 

bgebrent

Jeremiah said:

Made a frozen pizza. Guess that counts as right and wrong. 

Only wrong.

mEGG_My_Day

I had a great lamb chop cook.  Followed it up with buffalo burgers.  I don’t know why I bother with them anymore.  They always end up dry and tasteless.  This weekend’s attempt was no different.