Hot 'N Fast Pork Butts / Weber Performer

This cook was done on my Gen 2 Weber Performer running the Slow ‘N Sear charcoal accessory. The temperature used was about 325-340 degrees measured on the cooking grid. 

The two  butts were pretty large and weighed a total of19.4 pounds. I trimmed the fat off of the fat side and then cut each butt into two pieces. This will give me about 25% more surface area for bark and also cut the cooking time down as the pieces are smaller. 

The butts were then injected with Chris Lilly’s 6 time World Champion pork injection and then rubbed with SGH rub. 

Ready to go on the kettle

I believe I had a full load on the Performer!

Got this cook started about daylight this morning and hoping to get the cook done by about noon before it gets too hot.

Cooked the butts for about 2hours and 45 minutes and then wrapped them with some Stubb’s Pork Marinade and placed them back on the grill. 

After a little over three more hours, I started getting the butts off of the cooker. The total cooking time was 6.2 hours.

After a rest period, I unwrapped the meat and got it ready to pull. 

The results of my cook...

Beef Ribs / Weber Rotisserie

This is my first rotisserie cook in my new to me Weber Stainless Steel Performer and also using the Slow ‘N Sear to control the cook. 

The short ribs came from Wally-World and looked pretty good with quite a bit of meat on them. 

Prepped them with some rub and black pepper and got them mounted into my rotisserie basket. 

I also prepped some root crops to go under my ribs. They included some new potatoes, sweet potatoes, and onions. Along with some salt and black pepper, I used some rosemary and thyme for additional flavor for my veggies. 

Fired up the Slow ‘N Sear and then loaded my treats. 

Was a very moist morning with a very heavy dew and I am sure about 100 percent humidity...everything was wet and sticky. 

Cooked the ribs to about 200 degrees internal or until the bones started falling out and took them off of the cooker. 

Removed the remaining bones and got the food ready for the table.

Wife liked her ribs straight up and I put a little sauce on one of mine. They were good either way!

Making State Fair Pork-Burgers

I don’t usually measure very close for this great treat as I don’t think you can screw it up. However, I did measure a little closer on this last batch so I could post my recipe.



Ingredients:

2 pork butts ( The two I did yesterday weighed 15.85 pounds)
4 packages of dry Lipton Onion Soup
10 cloves of garlic
3 cups of finely chopped onion
4 TBL dried basil
3 TBL your favorite pork rub
2 TBL butcher cut black pepper or other black pepper
3/4 cup Worcestershire Sauce



First step is to cut the meat off of the bones into pieces that will fit your grinder.
Many stores that sell pork butts with do this for you to save you some work and the cost of a grinder.



Next step is to run it thru your grinder.



Sprinkle the balance of the ingredients into the pan or bowl and with your hands, mix it up well to be sure the ingredients are well blended.



Cover the pan of pork and place it into the fridge for at least overnight to give it time for the flavors to meld into the treat.



I like to put it up into one pound packages for the freezer.



Get ready to throw rocks at all the burgers you have ever tasted as this burger is about as good as it gets. Cook only to about 160 degrees internal for the best results.

Competition Steak Cook Off / Mo Money

There is an upcoming “Praise the Lard” SCA competition steak cooking contest in Murpheysboro, Illinois in September and it sure looks good to me. Along with the low entry fee of just $100 dollars and that includes the meat as well, and a nice prize fund of $2600 dollars with $1000 for the winner, it has even gotten better!

SCA and Kingsford have teamed up for the “Kingsford Challenge” which will double the winners prize if you are using the Kingsford Professional Briquets. On top of that, Grill Grates will pay the top placing team using their product an additional $500 dollars for their effort.

Sure seems like a bargain to me...heck, if a fellow gets lucky and wins this event, he could collect as much as $2500 dollars for his $100 dollar entry fee which like I said even includes the meat. Nice prize for a 2-3 hour event.

Since I am signed up for this event, I need to change my charcoal from lump over the the Kingsford Professional Briquets to qualify for the larger prize. I have done so with my Weber Jumbo Joe and have worked out the correct amount for the temperature I want for steak and now need to work out the correct amount on my Cobb Grill as I plan to use it in one of these events.



I tried 20 briquets for this first try and am hoping for a cooking temperature of 620-650 measured on top of the Grill Grates for my steak cooking.



Steak ready to go on the cooker after a one hour warm-up with the rub applied.



Just nailed it...after a 25 minute warmup on my Grill Grates, I had a temp of 650 degrees which is perfect for my method with the steak.



To fill out my cook, I also did three of my homemade 1/3 pound pork burgers on the back side of the Grill Grates.



The results of the cook.





Now, I do like steak but not near as much as one of my 1/3rd pound pork burgers on a slider bun. Added some lettuce, a slice of onion and tomato and then a nice amount of horsey sauce and I enjoyed a very nice 2 bib meal. The steak can wait...

Slow 'N Sear Country Ribs and more

Purchased the Slow ‘N Sear a few months back and just got around to trying it out on my Gen 2 Weber Performer along with some country style ribs, brats, and pork burgers.



The two country style ribs on the left are cut off of the upper portion of the shoulder or pork butt and in my world, are really not country ribs at all. The six remaining real country ribs which are cut out of the back or loin are what I have cooked for over 50 years when I can find them. Both are pretty good but must be cooked quite differently.

I took the ribs out of the cold fridge and rubbed them up with some SGH rub and left them on the counter to come up to the sweat stage.

I followed the instructions on the Slow ‘N Sear and started about 6-7 briquets in the corner of the unit. After they had ashed over, I poured in about 2/3rd of a Weber chimney full of briquets and let it go with all vents open.



By now my ribs were ready and up to a sweat.



Placed the ribs on the kettle with the two larger butt cut ribs closer to the fire as they will take longer to get done. I also add two big chunks of hickory to the fire as I needed much smoke in not much time for the loin cut ribs. Got the cooker dialed in at about 285-300 degrees and cooked the loin cut ribs for about 30 minutes and then sauced them with the new Heinz Memphis Sweet and Spicy sauce. At about 45 minutes into the cook I had an internal on the loin cut ribs of about 140-145 and I took them off as they are done.



Let the butt cut ribs go about an hour longer and I wrapped them with some goodies. I also added my Grill Grates to the kettle at this time. Upped the temp on the cooker for some indirect grilling.



I added a package of Brats along with a couple of fresh cut hot Hungarian yellow wax peppers out of the garden to the back side of the Grill Grates. The Brats cooked quickly and I checked my butt cut ribs and found them at 200 internal so they all came off the cooker together.



Next up was five of my Pork Burgers and I placed them on the Performer.



I also opened up the vents all the way to increase the temp for the burgers.





The results of my first cook with the Slow ‘N Sear looked great. I found it very easy to use and it sure controls the kettle very well. I do like it and think it’s a great addition or accessory for the Weber kettle.







For an “off the shelf sauce”, I thought that the Heinz Memphis was pretty good. I think mixing it with some Tennessee Red would really make it great.

Weber Gen 1 SS Performer

I have had this wonderful old cooker on my “want list” for a few years although I wanted it in either Red Mist or Plum color but just couldn’t find one that was in good enough shape to restore in my area.





Finally an older gentleman in a little town about 15 miles from the house listed a black Generation 1 Stainless Steel Performer with a nice looking Stainless Steel top on the Craigslist along with the original cover that looked pretty good.

After seeing it, it did indeed look pretty good but had the wrong lid on it and he didn’t know that as he had bought it used. It had some other problems but I thought it would be a good project to start with as the older Weber parts are pretty easy to get.

I had it in my mind that I didn’t want black as about 75% of these cookers came in black but I think this black one will make me a fine cooker. (I’ll keep looking for something suitable in red mist or plum).



Decided to keep the standard Weber lid that was on the cooker as I have never really liked the thermometer mounted in the handle of the lid on the Gen 1 Performers. I purchased a Weber short thermometer along with the Weber Bezel and installed it into the lid. I also purchased the small plastic piece for the vent adjustment tab, a new hinged cooking grid, and installed them and this took care of my lid problem.

Cleaned her up a little and washed all the crud off and found I had a pretty nice old Performer. Purchased new castors and a few other items and got the grill ready for use.





Gonna be fun using this Performer.





I have a SS rotisserie setup that I think would match up nice with this SS Performer and I might just make this my go to rotisserie charcoal cooker.