November 13, 2009
Best barbecue ever
So far. But there were plenty of reasons it could have gone the other way.
Got the fire going late, so the brisket wasn't in the smoker until 9:45 a.m., which, anticipating twelve or more hours cooking meant a long stretch after dark. At the same time, Sweet Cheeks and I were trying to get the kitchen to the 98.5% done mark, meaning we had to install the stainless sink into the counter, add the faucets, re-create all the supply and waste plumbing under the sink, and figure out how to install the new dishwasher, too.
At one point, we were both on our backs, heads and shoulders under the sink, each trying to tighten little tiny nuts on the sink clips, feet sticking out into the kitchen, laughing our heads off. Someone should have gotten a picture.
Had a little trouble locking the new disposer in place, but the big channel locks finally managed it. Had to wire the thing twice, too, when the wire hanging out of the hole in the back wall proved to be about an inch short.
A couple three times in there I completely neglected to feed the fire on the smoker, which meant the temperature dropped to under 200 degrees, and of course I over compensated with more charcoal and hickory, so the temps then swung too high, like up to maybe 275. And there really wasn't enough room in there after I added three slabs of ribs about 11:00 a.m., so the slab that was closest to the fire got a little black on the bottom, but finished up early and was promptly eaten when it was brought inside the house.
And then while I fiddled with assorted plastic tubes, trying to connect disposers and drains and such, Sweet Cheeks took a look at the dishwasher drain line, and determined that we still didn't have the right piece, so she started calling Lowe's and got hung up on about four times, which likely has resulted in one or two people getting in trouble. At one point, she called Frigidaire to see what size drain line we really needed, since that's the kind of new dishwasher (bought at Lowe's) that we were trying to install, and Frigidaire said, "What happened to the drain line that came WITH your dishwasher?" Another call to Lowe's and that idiot said that if we didn't have the line, then Lowe's didn't have the line, and that's all there was to it. Click. Sweet Cheeks called right back, got the store Sales Manager on the line, and in about twenty seconds that guy had someone fetching a line from an unsold dishwasher and putting it aside for us. One of our neighbors brought it home for us, which made an interesting saga out of the thing.
And then I glued up the ABS waste pipe, wired up the dishwasher, had a couple glitches here and there, hooked up the supply lines with only mild troubles, pulled more ribs out of the heat, ate a bunch, kept the fire going for the brisket, and finally turned the water to the kitchen back on.
Well, we had a couple leaks, one of them Sweet Cheeks fixed just by tightening a nut, but the other one wasn't cooperative, and I think it's the threads on the little chrome shutoff valve. Will have to let it go until tomorrow.
But we've already repopulated the kitchen with most of the stuff and we're almost there. After I get the cold water working, then it's just a few baseboards and some other trim, a little caulking, and Yaaaaaaaaay!
So, after all that, I stuck a thermometer in the brisket, got a solid 180 degrees, let it go another half hour as I said I'd do last time, and I think I nailed it. There are some crispy parts, but mostly not, and the thing is falling apart delicious. Mmmmmmmm, fabulous. Oh, and the nine and a half pound brisket was only in the heat for about eleven hours, so I think I was running it a little hot today, after all was said and done. Can't say that I'll be able to refer back to it later as an informative data set with all the distraction happening around it, but there it is, as it happened.
