I got them home and it didn’t take long before the package was opened.

Look at all the goodness inside!

Heated one up…

First impression! Oh my gosh! These are disgusting!

To bad, it had all the ingredients. Bacon, Cheese and Muffins…what a waste.

Courtesy: Todd’s DIrt

A few weeks ago a fellow member of the BBQ Brethren asked on the forum if any one had ever tried Todd’s Dirt. They wanted to know if someone could make any type of recommendation. No one could.

After visiting Todd’s website and reading about Dirt I decided to bite the bullet and buy some. A few days later the package arrived. Shipping was super fast.

Finding the time to grill something has been a challenge, but tonight I stopped at Costco on my way home from work and picked up some Tri-Tip steaks. My mom is in town and I needed to do a little cooking for her.

My first thought when opening the container of Dirt was that it smelled a great deal like Poultry Seasoning. I was a little concerned because I was cooking beef. But I decided to continue on.

This isn’t a “rub” it’s a seasoning. As you can see from the first picture DIRT is loaded with herbs and spices. I’m not very good at identify herbs and spices but I could tell there was Oregano in it (it’s in the ingredient list).

The smell coming off the Weber Kettle was fantastic. I could tel already I was in for a treat.

One of the aspects of this seasoning is that it doesn’t come off on the grill like others. It sticks. After they came off the grill I couldn’t wait to give it a try.

Let me just be blunt about Todd’s Dirt. This stuff ROCKS! Everyone at the table raved about the flavors. It complimented the beef without covering up the flavor. I couldn’t believe how good this stuff is.

I also ordered the “seafood” version and can’t wait to give it a try this weekend. Todd’s Dirt is also gluten and MSG free.

Todd’s Dirt is available at www.toddsdirt.com. The website is a little hard to navigate so dig around until you find the spot to order. (I hope they fix this someday.)

I love smoking chuck roasts. This particular cut of beef is simply wonderful after several hours on the smoker. It provides a great “pulled” meat and the yield is fantastic.

I was at my local Sam’s Club the other day looking to purchase a couple of chuck roasts for some shredded beef tacos. I wanted to try smoking the beef to give the tacos a little different flavor profile than normal.

They had some three and four pound chuck roasts and the price was pretty competitive. I inquired about the case price and since it was over a dollar a pound cheaper I bought 53 pounds of chuck roasts.
I got the case home and inside was three cryo packs of meat. I figured they would be like buying pork butts. A couple of individual cuts of meat inside each cryo. Nope, wasn’t going to be like that. One giant cut of meat. The Chuck Roll.

After a good coating of rub the chuck roll went on the Weber Smokey Mountain. A few hours in it looked pretty good:

After 16 hours at 225 degrees I was able to pull this piece of meat of the smoker and put into the cooler for a few hours of rest before pulling it.

What was really great about cooking the Chuck Roll was that it gave me a great new yield. I probably only lost about 15% of the weight during the cooking. The marbling in the meat kept it very moist, without having to inject.

I’ve got two more of these monsters in the freezer and can’t wait to get them cooking. There’s so much you can do with leftover pulled beef. I should have some fun in the weeks to come experimenting with new dishes to serve.

Just returned home from spending the day in Fairfield, California at the West Coast BBQ Championships, where I had the chance to meet some long time “online” friend, eat some bbq and judge the contest. Below are a few pictures of the event.

There were lots of great pits there. Here a few of the “different” ones:

Looking down the street at all the contestants:

Here’s a picture of my friends Gary and Brian of Notley Que BBQ. The took 6th Overall with a 1st Place Walk in Brisket and an 8th Place Walk in Pork.

I had a such a great time. I’ll be writing about the judging experience in a day or two after I’ve had a chance to think about it a little more in a restful state of mind.

The vast majority of the time the recipe has something to do with boiling the ribs. This is such a sin against good meat. I blame television chefs and newspaper/magazine writers for this horrible trend.

I was prepared for much the same when I picked up the Sacramento Bee this morning. I was surprised and thankful to read one of the first and only newspaper recipes that not only didn’t include boiling ribs, it actually recommended against it.

Gwen Schoen’s article and video is first rate. It’s great to know there are indeed some people in the media who can actually BBQ. Gwen’s no poser here. And I’d take this technique over that “Throwdown” chef any day.

What’s Cooking: Stick to your ribs.

(Rib Photo Courtesy of the Sacramento Bee/Scott R. Craig)

Here they are on the grill. It took me almost 90 minutes to grill all of the kabobs.

I also made a “smokey fajita sauce” and a pineapple salsa to go with everyone

I had to make time today to cook the pork butts for pulled pork. It’s going to be a great time with good good.

I started by rubbing down the butts with John Henry’s Apple Chipotle Rub and injecting with apple juice.

Here’s a couple pictures of the WSM chugging away. What a great smoker this thing is.

After a couple of hours the two butts were at temperatures that were far apart. It’s weird how that happens.

I peeked after a few hours. They were looking good.

And here they are ready for the cooler.

And of course, as usual, a big piece fell off that had to be eaten.

Apple/Olive Spatchcocked Turkey

I did a little cooking for the wedding of some friends daughter and the WSM came in handy. Here’s a few pictures of everything. It was a great time. Exhausting, but fun.

Here’s a couple of my smokers hard at work. The ever faithful UDS (Ugly Drum Smoker) and the new WSM.

I came up with an new appetizer for the wedding. Pre-made and cooked beef meatballs wrapped in a little bacon, sprinkled with a good dose of Plowboy’s Yardbird Rub and smoked until the bacon was crispy. I call them MOINK BALLS (Beef = Moo, Pork = Oink. Put them together and you have MOINK.)

Here they are smoking away on the WSM:

The Moink Balls were then glazed with a Raspberry Chipotle Balsamic sauce:

Here’s a few pictures of the rest of the spread. Hoisin Pork and Teriyaki Chicken rounded out the little menu.

Lots of hype. And the experience lived up to the hype.

I ordered the Brisket Plate with corn bread and greens. And all of it was fantastic. I made sure I ordered the sauce on the side so that I could check out the meat before I ate it. Nice smoke aroma, awesome bark and fantastic smoke ring. The brisket was moist, tender and not to fatty. It may have been the best restaurant brisket I’ve ever had.

The greens were fantastic. Not all mushy like a lot of restaurant greens are. They were firm and had a great flavor.

And corn bread:

I’ll be going back every time I visit my client. Awesome job all the way around. Great food, great service and great atmosphere.