Independence Day 2012 Ribfest

[ptrthgr8]

Hi, folks!

Yesterday was a great day! 13 pounds of pork ribs, 5 hours of wood fired slow cooking, lots of beer and other booze, great cigars, and good friends. There's no way things could turn out bad. Well, until we got into the fireworks after dark and I damned near blew off a finger being stupid with firecrackers. But all my digits survived, though I'll have one helluva burn mark/blister for a while. But this is about meat. Pig meat! On to the pics!

Here are ribs prior to seasoning. Quality meat from a local butcher. The only way to go:

Ribs stacked after seasoning. I used a mix of kosher salt (if you learn only one thing from Brazo let it be the greatness that is kosher salt) and a rather peppery steak seasoning made by the local butcher. I knew I'd be cooking with lots of wood (mostly hickory, but some mesquite as well) and would be finishing off with some BBQ sauce so I did only a light seasoning for cooking purposes:

Here's how they looked after the first hour.

Since I knew I was in for the long haul, I figured I might as well light up the first smoke of Independence Day 2012: Cohiba Siglo VI. Beer is a Sam Adams Porchrocker. Perfect combo for manning the grill all afternoon.

Here's how they looked after two hours:

At that point one of my friends showed up. The camera was pretty much forgotten and we shot the breeze, consumed beers, and generally had a good time. The ribs were finished with two sauces: I love Famous Dave’s Rich & Sassy sauce, while the wifey really likes the KC Masterpiece Original. Famous Dave’s is on the left and the KC is on the right. The KC sauce isn’t terrible, but it’s a little too sweet for my liking. But that’s what Princess wanted, so that’s exactly what she got. I’m in no hurry to not make the wifey happy. (Been working for me for over ten years… so… )

Here’s my first plate: awesome ribs, grill cooked sweet corn (lots o’ butter and some salt), and a New Belgium Somersault beer. And lots of paper towels.

After all were fed we moved on to the next round. More booze and cigars! I finally opened up the bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue Label King George V I’ve had for a few weeks. The regular Blue Label is decent, but not so special to justify the $200 price tag, IMO. The KGV, on the other hand, is pretty damned amazing. Lots of peat, but not overpowering… still very smooth. It’s not the sort of thing I would justify buying all the time, but for special occasions? Yeah, for sure.

With the first taste of the KGV my friend wanted to do a scotch tasting, so I pulled out my other bottles of Balvenie so we could sample several different flavors. I love the Portwood, but I think the KGV gives it a more competition than it can handle. But the price points are very different, too, and they’re very different flavor profiles, so it’s a bit of and apples/oranges type comparison. It was time to break out the BHK 56 I’ve been saving for nearly 8 months and move on to much relaxation. I knew I wanted to drink some Louis XIII with this cigar, but I left it up to my friend to decide which bottle we’d sample next. He chose wisely:

I loved seeing the bottles lined up on the table, so I poured a couple snifters of the Louis Tres, lit the candles, and got his ugly mug out of the frame. This photo will be my desktop background at work for a long time:

And that’s pretty much the end of our Independence Day 2012 Ribfest. We smoked another cigar later (LGC MdO #2s) and enjoyed some more of the KGV. Once darkness set in we moved outside for fun with fireworks. Aside from the aforementioned minor finger injury, everything was fine and dandy. But the day was certainly made more by the food, friends, booze, and cigars. Not a bad way to celebrate our nation’s birthday.

Cheers,

~ Greg ~

[mbrody]

Damn Greg, now I have to visit!!!

[nikesupremedunk]

Wow!! looks fantastic!! Sure hope you had a great time

[Scdalak]

Bloody Marvelous Greg...

[phoenix]

I'm still in the market for the KGV. That's the smooooothest blended Scotch with a hint of peat I know of. Do you still got the link to your buy?

[canadianbeaver]

WOWOWOWOW!! Inspired by David and looks like you did him proud. Beautiful meal and Scotch.

[Ginseng]

Well done! Looks like a helluva bash. :thumbsup:

Wilkey

[ptrthgr8]

I'm still in the market for the KGV. That's the smooooothest blended Scotch with a hint of peat I know of. Do you still got the link to your buy?

Sure do:

http://www.wineanthology.com/p-3013-johnnie-walker-king-george.aspx

Looks to still be on sale. Bonus!

~ Greg ~

[winelover]

Loved reading the above, what a fantastic time.

[brazoseagle]

Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!