Now Famous Dave himself owns a Meadow Creek Chicken Cooker. Watch what he has to say about Meadow Creek cookers.

I hope all this great weather is making you really itchy to fire up and make some ‘que.

If your barbecue has gone to the birds, don’t let that keep you from grilling up some burgers for dinner or smoking some good old butts this weekend.

It would be great if a brand new cooker would keep looking like new, but it’s certainly not the case. Paint peels, metal rusts, stainless steel turns nasty looking, and grates get cruddy. A dirty grill or smoker can be depressing. If yours is in a mess, you know what I mean.

Thankfully, a little scrubbing and polishing and painting can make a real difference. Even then, you might need some inspiration.

Here is a collection of pictures from picnics and cooks we pulled off in the last year. I am running behind in publishing them, so I packed some of the best ones into a photo gallery for you to enjoy.

Be inspired.  🙂

Please leave a comment to let me know what you think.

Lavern

Click on a photo to enlarge it and start the slideshow.

I had a birthday on March 6, and my wife and family gave me some really nice gifts. Today I want to share a list of those gifts and a few photos, but beyond that, I’ve turned it into my “BBQ Gear List (part 1)” because all these things help fire up the “fun and easy” part of barbecue.

You might be surprised to find out that I just got this stuff. Well, Marlin and I cook together a lot and I’ve been borrowing his torch etc., when I cook on my own. Sure is nice to have my own. 🙂

Here is the BBQ gear I got for my birthday this month:

I set up an Amazon Store with most of these items in case you want a place to buy this stuff online. Some of the items in the store are different from what I have personally, but I picked out similar items that I thought were a good choice.

Click here to visit our Amazon Store.

Electric Charcoal Lighter
Is lighting charcoal a pain? Do it the fun and easy way. I had no idea there was such a thing as an electric charcoal lighter until Marlin brought one to our family vacation last year. It’s got a handle, short cord, and a looped heating element. All you need is an extension cord with 110 v. Perfect for traveling or tight storage spaces. Bury it under some charcoal and within 10-15 minutes the charcoal will be ready to spread out.

Propane Weed Burner Torch
I don’t know of an easier, faster way to light charcoal than with a propane torch. It’s about all I use to light charcoal in my SQ36 Smoker. The torch is especially helpful for large tank smokers, such as the TS250 Smoker. The torch quickly brings the entire smoker up to 225 degrees, ready to roll. The torch makes firing an offset smoker a breeze.

Visit my aStore for a torch like I have.

Folding Table
If you are cooking close to a picnic table or a stationary work space, that’s great. Otherwise, get yourself a 4′ folding table at Lowe’s or something of that sort. You really need some space for your meat and equipment. Sometimes I even season my meat outside on the table instead of messing up the kitchen.

Hand-Pump Garden Sprayer
Spray apple juice on your meat about every hour to help keep it tender and juicy. At the right time of the year, you can pick up a small hand-pump sprayer at Lowe’s or even Dollar General. Or check out my aStore.

Accurate Thermometers
How long have you been cooking with cheapo thermometers that are deceiving you? It’s time to invest in accuracy if you want to enjoy fun and easy barbecues. You need at least two accurate thermometers: One to give you a reading in the cooking area, above the grate where your meat is, and one to measure the internal temperature of the meat.

My wife just gave me the ET-732 Wireless Thermometer (new model) from Maverick for my birthday. I haven’t used it yet, but it has great reviews on Amazon and Meathead recommends it too, plus I trust her judgment.

The thermometer has two probes; one for the meat and one for the smoker. And it’s wireless up to 300 feet away. It alarms you when the temperature falls outside a set range and even has a timer.

I would also recommend a simple digital probe thermometer, such as the RT600 from ThermoWorks. Again, spend a little money for quality and accuracy. Those cheap ones from Wal-Mart might be okay, but why not spend $25 for one with a thin tip that will give you a reading in 6 seconds?

Visit my aStore to take a look.

Catfish Skinner
Do you find it’s tough to remove the membrane on the back side of ribs? A catfish skinner makes the job quite a bit easier. Not a must-have, but one of those nice things that doesn’t cost much.

Chef’s Knife
Trimming ribs, brisket, and that sort of thing. A chef’s knife works a lot better than a paring knife. Get a knife sharpener to go with it and keep it super sharp.

Steak Knives
Steak knives? Plop steak on plate, cut it up, and eat it. Having said that, I think I must have the fanciest steak knife set around, with the Meadow Creek logo engraved on each knife! Nice gift from Marlin. What a brother. 🙂

Ro-Man Pork Puller
Hold on—this is a really cool invention. This gadget can pull pork like you’ve never seen. Mostly recommended if you have more to pull than you want to do by hand.

Visit www.porkpuller.com to watch a video and find out more.

Small Ash Shovel
Get one with a straight front edge to scoop all the ashes out of your firebox. Helps make clean-up a little more fun.

How did you like it?

I’d love to hear what you think. Was it helpful?

Besides choosing the right equipment, it’s important to have the right gear. Without the right tools and accessories, barbecue is frustrating and not so fun. And if you have any gear you’d like to recommend, let me know. I’ll consider it for a future Gear List. I think we can help each other learn and grow in the great big world of fun and easy barbecues.

Thanks for reading.  🙂

Lavern

Some of the people who took my survey a few months back asked for help in cooking for crowds. Today I want to share some key pointers regarding cooking for crowds.

Maybe you’re wondering…

• How much should I cook per person?
• What should I charge per plate?
• What size smoker or grill will cook for x people at one shot?
• Which pit will make this whole project fun and easy?

I really doubt you are looking for more stress in your life, so your best option is to get your birds (and pigs) all lined up before the time comes, so you can proceed with confidence.

Imagine knowing up front…

• “I am cooking the right amount of food, just a little extra to be safe.”
• “I know how much this event will cost me.”
• “The equipment I am using can easily handle all this food and it’s going to be a breeze.”
• “This cooker will help build our reputation and inspire awe in the crowd.”

These are key points in cooking for crowds.

I personally don’t cook for crowds much, but it is a ball of fun and can make you a ball of money too—if, you have your act together.

As I already said, one key point in cooking for large crowds, is knowing how much food to cook and what it will cost you.

If that is a challenge for you, you need to check out this free BBQ catering planner spreadsheet:

BBQ Catering Planner for Large Crowds

This calculator will help you if you know how many people you want to feed, but—

• You want a starting-point guideline for how much food to figure per person.
• You want to quickly calculate the food cost for an event, including your specific meats and sides.
• You want to quote large events with confidence and ease.

This calculator was put together by BBQ and catering experts, so they know your language. 🙂

Now for the equipment…

Another key point as a barbecue caterer is to choose a smoker or grill that can handle your size crowd, make the job easy, and impress the crowd (when cooking on-site).

Meadow Creek offers smokers, chicken cookers, and pig roasters in a nice range of sizes.

I put together some charts to help you choose the model that 1) can handle the amount of meat you want to cook and 2) will fit your crowd size.

Click here for my capacity charts.

Click here for my crowd sizes chart.

As for making the job easy and impressing the crowd, I’ll have to save that for another day.

Any Questions?

If you are having trouble making sense of my charts or need help choosing the right model cooker, let us know. You can call Marlin toll-free at 877-248-7753. Or send an email to sales@smokymtbarbecue.com.

We’re here to help you enjoy easy and profitable barbecues for many years to come.

Have fun,

Lavern

How’s it going? I’m loving this 52 degree weather! Sitting here in my office with the windows open, listening to the birds singing. The urge to go fire up that SQ36 is getting stronger!

A few months ago, I sent a survey to the people on my email list and a bunch of people said their biggest BBQ challenge is ribs. Despite some challenges, I want to say it’s very possible for you to cook outrageously-delicious ribs! 🙂

Read my article on how to smoke pork ribs that make you squeal and grunt. (You may even shed a few tears.)

But before we get into the recipe for smoking ribs, I’d like to address a few questions or concerns that came up in the survey I sent to my email list.

Common Rib Challenges

Here are some of the challenges and questions that came up in the survey. You can reply to this email if you have a problem that’s not mentioned here.

1. How do you get pork ribs to fall off the bone? This may come as a surprise, but perfect competition-style ribs do not fall off the bone. At that point, the ribs are overdone. On a perfect rib, the meat hangs on the bone, but comes off clean when you pull (or in our case, bite) it off the bone.
2. What kind of meat should I buy? You can buy pork ribs at your local supermarket or at a wholesale club. Wholesale clubs usually have better prices and selection. Plus their meat is often better quality. Fat equals flavor. Make sure the ribs have a good amount of fat along the rack. Ideally, there should be no bones sticking out past the sides of the slab.
3. What temp should I cook at? Target temperature for cooking low and slow is 225-250 degrees F.
4. Do you cook beef ribs the same way as pork ribs? I’m going to be honest. We have never cooked beef ribs, but I can’t think of any reason not to use the same methods and tricks we recommend for pork ribs.
5. How do I make my pork ribs tender without drying them out? If your ribs are turning out bouncy, then they are still not done. If they are dry and tough, you overcooked ’em. The sweet spot of the perfect rib is between those two points.

Pretty simple theory. But in real life it can be tough, literally.

Since ribs only have a small layer of meat around the bones, they are not nearly as forgiving as something like pork butts.

So, it comes down to your time and temperature. This is what you want to shoot for:

1. Even heat throughout the cooker, from one end of the cooking area to the other.
2. Consistent temperature while the ribs are cooking. Keep it low and slow.
3. Keep them in the heat until they are done, but no longer. (Read that again.)

By the way, this is a breeze on a Meadow Creek offset smoker. But I realize not everyone has the luxury of cooking on a Meadow Creek rig.

The truth is, you can cook great ribs on a yard-sale, rust-bucket Weber kettle grill. If you are trying to cook ribs low and slow on a regular grill, such as a Weber kettle grill, you’ve got to set it up for indirect heat. (On a kettle grill you would put your fire on the one side and the meat on the other with the top vent above the meat.)

Even then, it’s still easier to make outrageous ribs on an offset smoker with true indirect heat. But regardless of what you’re cooking on, keep in mind the three keys I shared above.

1. If you do have hot spots or too much direct heat, rotate the ribs every hour or so. Monitor the temp at the meat level, to make sure you’re not too hot.
2. If the temp in your smoking chamber rises and falls, it’s not the end of the world.
3. BUT check for doneness when you think it’s getting close. Do not pull them until they are done. Do not dry them out once they pass the doneness test (step #10).
   Also read step #2 on trimming the ribs. It’s important to know that sometimes one end of the slab can be done a while before the other end of the slab.

We normally don’t use foil for cooking ribs on a Meadow Creek offset smoker. But if I was smoking ribs on a regular grill rigged for indirect heat, I would probably use foil for the last part of the cook. (It’s important to leave the ribs in the smoke for the first part of the cook so they can absorb some flavor.)

Click here to read my article on how to smoke pork ribs that make you squeal and grunt.

Click here to learn more about Meadow Creek’s revolutionary BBQ smokers.

Feel free to leave a comment if you liked these tips or ask a question if you have any.

Have fun,

Lavern

Are you trying to learn authentic barbecue, the low and slow kind? There are some excellent websites and forums out there where you can learn a lot about real barbecue for free.

But sometimes it’s a whole lot easier when you can sit down and get the lessons in a systematic way.

That’s what Bill Anderson has done for you. His famous book, Competition BBQ Secrets, is a step-by-step guide on authentic, low and slow barbecue. He shows you how to slow smoke ribs, chickens, pork butts, and beef brisket.

I own this book myself and highly recommend it. It’s written in a down-to-earth style, with a clear intention to help you quickly learn how to cook competition style barbecue.

Bill and his team have learned the hard way—by experience. Today they are raking in money from prizes and ranking high in professional competitions. In other words, he knows what he’s talking about.

Whether you’re into competitions or just want to cook outrageous barbecue for family and friends, Competition BBQ Secrets is for you.

Here are some of the topics Bills covers in Competition BBQ Secrets:

• Types of smokers on the market
• How to light and manage your fire
• Types and flavors of wood
• How to brine
• How to marinate and inject
• What sauces and rubs to use (free recipes)
• How to smoke chicken
• How to trim spareribs
• How to smoke pork ribs
• How to smoke pork butts
• How to smoke a beef brisket
• How to smoke a turkey
• An introduction to barbecue competitions

Maybe you’ll have some extra time this weekend to sit down and relax. It would be a great time to pick up Bill’s book and prepare yourself for the coming barbecue season. Even if you’ve got quite a bit of experience, you can always learn a new tip here and there.

If you buy the eBook, you can download it instantly and read it today!

Click here to learn more.

Happy holidays!

Lavern

PS. It’s no secret that the links above are affiliate links to Bill’s website. If you click on my link and buy the eBook, I will get part of the profits. However, that’s beside the point. I am excited about sharing Bill’s book with you, regardless of whether I make a nickel or not. Oh, and by the way, you might not win a single competition or make a dime in competing. But you’ll certainly get some good advice.