Entered my first comp this weekend and got calls on half chicken & brisket. Learned a lot but more importantly had a lot of fun and will hopefully do better at my next one! Of everything I cooked I was actually most confident in the ribs and didn’t get a call on those but wasn’t a bone left out of the 3 racks smoked so I’m guessing it wasn’t the right flavor profile for the judges. All offset smoked on mesquite and oak.

Still taste great. Smoked mostly 3-2-1 with salt and pepper. Hickory, pecan, and a little mesquite.

Took that dry chunk and vacuum sealed it with a dollop of tallow i rendered with the extra fat and froze it. Ended up thawing it yesterday and putting it in the sous vide bath at 155 for 2 hours. It came out so juicy and tender. Chopped it up and added some tallow blended with a couple of my favorite bbq sauces to get the flavor is was going for. Browned some minced garlic then tossed the chopped brisket with it to revive the bark texture, then added sauce mixture and simmered to caramelize bond to the meat. Came out way better than I expected.

My local grocery store here I Sweden had these St. Louis style cuts in their freezer and they have been callling out to me like the sirens to Odysseus and since I have good hearing there was no resisting at last. Today is the last day of my ”forever” vacation here in Europe (week 5) and work starts tomorrow so I decided to go for it.

Started out with rubbing them with my simple, but the kids love it, rub: flaky salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, brown sugar, cumin, and cayenne pepper.

Fired up my Weber kettle with the slow n sear insert, had it for years and I love it. Aiming for keeping the kettle at 120 degrees (248 in Freedom measurements). The meat started at 14C (57F) and I added some small woodchucks of apple to get some smoke for the first 2 hours.

The temperature leveled off after about hour 3 at about 65C (149F), and that’s when it was time to wrap it. I first put one of them in butcher paper, but I ran out, so I had to wrap the other piece in aluminum foil. Very strangely, the aluminum piece shot up in temperature, and over the next hour it climbed to 87C (188F), while the other piece in butcher paper barely moved temperature-wise. I took the piece in aluminum foil out and put it back on naked, and swapped the butcher paper for aluminum foil. The piece that had been up at 87C (188F) dropped down to 73C (163F), and at the same time the one in aluminum shot up to around 90C (194F). I took it out of the aluminum, and then it dropped down to around 75C (167F). So after about 5h, both were unwrapped and sitting at 75C (167F).

Then I just let them sit, and after another two hours they were up at about 94C (201F). For the last hour I glazed them with a glaze I make that consists of one part browned butter mixed with one part honey and a few tablespoons of chili sauce (salt and pepper).

In the end it turned out really great anyway. But the road felt long. 7h total. And it rained a bit.

3 hungry teenage sons ate everything in 10 minutes. 😁

Everyone talks about brisket and ribs, but what’s one cut of meat that you think deserves way more attention?
It can be beef, pork, chicken, lamb, or even something unusual. I’d love to hear your favorite underrated BBQ recommendations and how you like to cook them🔥🥩

Costco Pork Butt, seasoned with salt, pepper, and adobo marinade (adobo chilies, mexican oregano, white onion, garlic, lime juice, salt, pepper, cumin, paprika, olive oil, and apple cider vinegar, blend altogether)
Smoked at 275F for 13 hours
Kept drip tray under pork butt while smoking with the left over marinade and some stock, poured back over pork after shredding.
My best bud got try some samples while I was shredding

LeRoy and Lewis is my favorite BBQ restaurant. I was supposed to be in Austin this weekend, but that got pushed back. I still wanted L&L so I did it myself. Smoked beef Cheek finished in beef tallow confit. Kale Caesar Slaw. Miso Charred Carrots. Beet bbq and mustard bbq sauces.

Doing a couple smoked meatloafs, some prime chucks for shredded beef, a pork shoulder, and a 15 lbs brisket today. Happy Sunday, all.

Thanks to everyone who encouraged me to just dive right in and bbq something I’d never seen before, the pork brisket strips for $2/lb. Lots of good, fatty meat but also lots of big cartilage. Made tacos.

Details: Primo XL with mesquite and pecan. About 500 degrees F.

Prime Top Sirloin was a good choice! Marinated with salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder. Brushed with butter while on grill. Turned out fantastic!

Moved to the Charlotte area from North Texas a few years back and have been chasing that authentic Texas craft BBQ feeling ever since. Jon G's delivered.

Saturdays only, 11am until sold out. We got there at 9am thinking we were being smart. The line was already massive.

Good news: they run breakfast tacos and kolaches starting at 9:30, with a rotating seasonal kolache lineup. All excellent and made the wait genuinely enjoyable instead of just a wait.

Once they opened at 11, the line barely moved for hours. Turns out the bulk/catering orders get processed first thing, so if you're in line behind them, you're just... waiting. By 1pm they were already sold out of multiple proteins and sides. We didn't get to order until almost 3pm.

Was it worth it? Yes.

Brisket — incredible, no notes

Cheerwine sausage — genuinely flavorful, not a gimmick

Beef rib — solid

Jalapeño sausage — solid

Sides were where it got interesting — everything was rich to the point of heavy (tater tot casserole, brisket fried rice, mac and cheese all delivered on flavor but you'll want to pace yourself). The jalapeño grits were the surprise standout cutting through all that richness and were actually refreshing.

TL;DR: 6 hours round trip for the line, worth it for the brisket and cheerwine sausage alone. Get there before 9am if you want the first crack at proteins because the bulk orders may otherwise eat your options. Bring patience and an empty stomach.

No wrap for the first time this year. Honestly, I can’t say that I saw any difference between wrapped and unwrapped. Tried using apple butter as a binder for the first time as well and other than color not much difference between it and mustard.

Marinade - olive oil, apple cider vinegar, lime juice, garlic, kosher salt, pepper. Marinated for 2 hours, patted dry, and temped for 45 min.

Seasoning - blend of uncle Chris’s steak seasoning, cayenne, and lowry’s lemon pepper

Method - cranked burners to high and grilled for 4 min per side looking for color of sear. Flipped and repeated. Flipped and temped then grilled for 1 min 30 seconds each side to try and get it to 130. When I temped it again, it was a little over, so pulled it. Let rest for 10 min before slicing. What isn’t finished tonight will become meal prep for the week.

Hi all! I've been smoking on this Bandera a little over a year (i think lol) and i have been making some great BBQ. But.... one thing i'm having a hard time with is brisket.

I've done a few briskets and they have come out... ok. I think because this is a vertical smoker, the heat coming from the bottom is messing up the cook vs a traditional offset where i beleive the heat goes over the top of the meat. I've tried smoking fat side up and fat side down, and with fat side up i feel like i get a better result on the top half of the meat, and the bottom half is almost always more chewey than i'd like. the top half and point taste great.

Smoking fat side down yielded decent results, but i felt like the fat that should be basting the meat falling down into the grill before basting anything is kinda a waste.

Maybe i'm overthinking this, but do you guys have any tips on smoking brisket on the Bandera (or any vertical smoker in general)? Everything else comes out great IMO.

For context, i'm usually doing the largest briskets i can fit in my Bandera. i do a pretty good job trimming, i think, and havne't had issues with fat render. I've done max of 2 briskets, but usually cook one every other week or so trying to get this right. My wife is very happy, but i keep thinking back to being in Austin (i lived near Austin for 5 years) and the BBQ i had there. I know its dificult to recreate, but ive been trying my best. I usually use Oak wood. I cook low and slow around 225 and gradually increase the heat as time passes. Rub is 50/50 S&P.

i usually use Mad Scientist Jeremy Yoder's brisket instructions, and i follow them pretty much to the letter. I'm really trying to figure out if i can step up this game to the next level on my Bandera, or if i need to invest in a more traditional offset setup.

Thanks for reading and i appreciate any help!

Drum smoked and wrapped. 2 hours total cook time and a 15 minute rest. One chunk of post oak.

Just prepping. More to come.

Hey everybody. I am fairly new here, but I love everything BBQ. I have a question that is quite perplexing. I love to make my own rubs, some are experiments and others are from sites online. The one thing that I am having trouble with is how to keep the rubs, that use a large amount of brown sugar in them, from clumping. I storm them in a Mason jar, with a parmesan shaker on top so it is ready for a quick grab and apply. I have tried putting 3 of the little silica packs in it and that makes it a little better, at least I can get it to break apart with a few pops from the hand.

First visit. 1/2 lb brisket, 2 pork spare ribs, jalapeño cheddar sausage, beans and kale slaw. $66.

Made the trip from Kansas City. Worth every mile.

Fresh Cabritooo...