Redhook Ale Sausage Fest 2010

You may have noticed I missed posting last week. Between running around getting everything ready for Sausage Fest, starting a new co-op pre-school, which had some 3-hour thing I needed to do almost every day, and attending a 4-hour writing workshop (yay!), I never caught my breath.

Then the weekend hit. Besides preparing "bites" for 2000 at an outdoor beer, meat, and music festival on the Redhook Ale Brewery grounds, we also had a wedding for over 200 the next day, another catering, and a ton of large pick up orders for the big football weekend.

Poor Eric. Friday night I saw him between the hours of 2:45 am 5:45am, the time he went to bed, and the time he got up to go back to work. I know of no other person than my husband that can time hundreds of pounds of meat for multiple functions with a demeanor so calm, he makes others nervous. You see, he is most comfortable in the eye of chaos. Give him a 12-item menu for a complicated wedding, and he's fine. Throw in a hail storm and 30 mph winds and he's downright chipper.

For Sausagefest we decided to make pulled pork sliders, chopped jerk beef sliders, and MOINK balls (Me: What do think of this menu, honey? Him: Whatever. You're going to do it no matter what I say). The festival expected 2000 guests minimum, so each of the 11 vendors were instructed to provide 2000 tastes of each item.

I do a lot of catering math, so I knew that it wasn't possible for one person to eat one of each menu item from 11 vendors. Most vendors served 3 items, so 33 times 2-4 oz of meat per person would be about 6 pounds of meat per person.

Still, I knew the MOINK balls, a steal at only a buck each, were going to fly out the tent. We soon learned just how much labor it takes to make 2000 bacon-wrapped meatballs. I'm glad we did, because we sold at least 1500 of them in about 6 hours.

I was on the ball station for a long stretch. It was relentless. All day I heard, "Double ball! Combo with a ball! Pork slider with a ball! Nine meatballs!" I kept trying to find a bottle of water, but the ball orders wouldn't stop. We traded food with the great folks at Salumi, and I only had time to eat one delicious slice of cured pork. I don't know what happened to the other plates they sent over, but hope someone on our staff was able to eat it.

Molly Moon's Ice cream was right next door. I'd had visions of trading tastes with them throughout the day. We both had lines 30 people deep that didn't let up for 4 hours or more. At one point I couldn't hear the orders anymore. I'd repeat it, then the order would float away from my brain.

That's when I begged some icecream from the two people scooping like machines in their spiffy ice cream truck. We traded protein for dairy and that little bit of maple-bacon ice cream I savored in a 2-minute break, saved me. Yep, I can say I've been saved by Molly Moon's ice cream, gosh bless 'em.

It was intense, a blast, and I saw a number of friends there. I didn't get to roam, like I'd hoped, but as you can see, we took our new smoker on her maiden voyage, and she smoked like a champ. I'm already booking caterings with her, so she's off and running.

Pre-school is settling down, as is the summer, so I hope to post more frequently. Fall is my favorite season. Creative juices flow more readily, and the rainy months in our little corner of the country beg for blog posts about stews, smoked turkey, and squash on the grill.

It's also time to take a long, deep breath. Did you breath deeply just now? Good. So did I.

Char-Broil® Infrared BBQ All-star Pork Smack-Down

And another video! Can you tell that I just learned how to embed videos? It's like a whole new world just opened up. In this video, Mike "The Pirate" Hedrick wins. He was a blast to "work" with at the
Char-Broil stage.

Oh Thank Goodness I Love It

Ever since Barry "CB" Martin and the folks at Char-Broil asked me to guest chef at Memphis in May, I've been thrilled...but with one hesitation. I'd never cooked on an infrared grill. What if I didn't like it?

At home I've always preferred charcoal grills, and ever since we shot our last gas grill, we didn't feel the need to replace it. So when the above little Quantum infrared grill show up yesterday (was it really only yesterday? I feel like we've known each other so much longer), I took a deep breath and said hello.

It's important to get to know your equipment and I always find hello is a nice ice breaker.
Then I fired her up.

Since yesterday I've cooked pork chops, sausages, pork loin cutlets, a roasted pork loin and a gorgeous fillet of black cod. Don't worry, I've had people over to help eat all of this.

Here is my initial impression: I love it!!! I really do. And thank goodness I do because I'm going to be talking about it all next week. But truly I'm a believer.

Let me tell you why.

Char-Broil would have me blab about the science of it all. It heats the food upon contact, not the air...yada yada yada.

I like it because when it is hitting 600 degrees I can still wave my hand over the grill grate. It never feels too hot or out of control. I don't even think a flare up is possible on this thing.

Then there is the fact that every thing I cooked was tender and juicy. I could pat myself on the back and say, Damn I'm good, but truth be told, all the cook times were full of distractions. Baby girl has been super clingy, like she knows I'm going away next week. She cries every time I put her down. My 4-yr old is on a constant hunt for sharp objects. Tonight I actually heard him shout, "I need something sharp!" as he tried to break through the tool shed door. We've had birthdays and neighbors dropping in and staff forgetting they were working...

It's amazing we ate food in the past two days. Yet I've been churning out perfect plates of meat to those passing through our little corner zoo, thanks to my trusty Quantum infrared grill.

Lastly, it's a snap to clean. I'd read mixed reviews about cleaning infrared grills because of the tiny little holes. I don't know what those people are cooking, but I merely lifted up the grate once it was cool, brushed it with my grill brush, and it was clean.

Easy.

I'm going to be talking up this grill to some seriously hardcore barbecue people at Memphis in May, but I would also recommend this grill to a beginner. It's understated. Instead of making a big show with flames and smoke, it quietly sears your food at 600-700 degrees without hardly a murmur. It's just the sort of equipment that someone tentative on the grill could get the hang of right away.

Now all I have to do is convince old school barbecue folks steeped in tradition, that this is not cheating. It's just good.

Central Texas Barbecue Series: Iron Works BBQ

I fell a little behind along the book tour in my posts about other barbecue restaurants I've tried on the road. The thing is, of all that I sampled along the way, only the barbecue joints in Austin and Lockhart got me excited. Those places I tried in Atlanta and Birmingham were decent, but not wow. Admittedly, as things got busy, I didn't get to many places in those cities, so I don't consider my sampling to be ample enough for a scientific study.

But if ever there was a control group, it would have to be Central Texas. When I started this book tour, I made a point to leave some time in each city to chow down on the local barbecue. Austin required a longer stay, in part because I hadn't seen my cousin in ages, but also because of the sheer number of restaurants I wanted to hit was staggering.

I reached about half of my list. In Austin, I first went to Ruby's BBQ, which I reviewed here. Next on my list was Iron works BBQ. This place by far got the most thumbs up on twitter, so it was on my must-go list.
When El and I went to lunch at Iron Works, the first indication that it would be good was the full parking lot. The second was the deep smoke that hit us as we walked in.

We ordered at the counter, in full view of the smokers. They had an old pit for holding the meat, but I could see two Southern Pride smokers in the kitchen.

To be honest, I don't love these smokers. They are the standard for restaurants, but I often find something lacking in the 'cue. If you know me and my book, you know I don't take a hardcore stance on smokers. I also know what it is like to run a barbecue restaurant in a city, that has fire and health requirements that don't necessarily allow for a wood pit. But whenever I go to a joint with Southern Pride smokers, I find the meat to be on the dry side.

I hoped Iron Works would prove me wrong.

The meat man at the counter was genuinely friendly. I ordered a combo plate that had brisket, sausage, and a big ol' beef rib, plus sides. I also ordered the pork loin sandwich.

First taste went to the brisket. It was a center of the deckle cut (again!), so no bark on my slices, nor any lean. Like, Ruby's, it was good, but not great. I was beginning to think that this is what they throw at the tourists, and give the best stuff to the regulars.

The sausage....mmmm. Again with the sausage. Such a perfect blend of flavors, texture, and deeply smoky. Delish. I want to find sausage in Seattle like this. Or make it.

But the best part, the Queen Bee of the plate, was that beef rib. This baby was so thick, tender, moist, and flavorful, that I forgot all about the brisket. Beef short ribs aren't the easiest cut to serve in a restaurant. They vary in size quite a bit, even on the same rack, they have a fair amount of fat, which can off-put the customer and be tough if not given enough time, dry if too much. It's a tightrope walk. And they are expensive. Most people don't get that they are three times as expensive as pork ribs.

That's why we only do them as a special on Fridays at Smokin' Pete's (though, to be honest, we have them more than that. We only promise them on Fridays).

This beef rib had a lightly sweet rub on it, and cooked to perfection. It almost seemed liked they'd butterflied it, which is something I'll have to try when we get home. Baby girl wouldn't give up the bone.

The sides? Not much to write about. Potato salad from Sysco, or it just tasted that way. Beans, a decent scratch pinto bean that is typical in Texas. The plates were accompanied with white bread, as is the custom in Texas.

The pork loin sandwich? Hmm. I have to say I'd never put a smoked pork loin sandwich on a restaurant menu. There is so little fat in the loin that you can't hold it for any length of time before it dries out. I smoke it at home, and love it. In fact we did it here on Shauna and Danny Ahern's (aka Gluten Free Girl and the Chef) pork blog Pork, Knife & Spoon (more about that later).

The pork loin sandwich, which was dirt cheap at $4.50, was three slices on a naked bun. The meat was on the dry side, no matter how much of their tangy sauce I put on it. HOWEVER, the next day, slathered with mayo and pickles, by golly that sandwich was tasty. So what if it was on the dry side, it's pork loin! It still was flavorful and smoky, and...let me say it...gutsy.

But wait, there's more! Cobbler. Blackberry cobbler. Is there a photo? No. We dove into to that before I remembered to take a shot of it. Cobbler isn't all that photogenic anyhow. Not if it's good. Pretty cobbler never tastes as good as the messy homemade stuff. That's what this was. Messy, just the right of sweet to counteract the tartness of the berries, warm and gooey.

Overall, I liked Iron Works BBQ. It wasn't all perfect, but their beef rib saved the day. The ambiance was pure Texas; lots of wood, western memorabilia, an open air porch, overlooking a green space, comfortable and inviting. The service was friendly and relaxed. Plenty of extra touches like butcher paper on a roll labeled "Doggy Bag Supplies" were helpful and given with a wink. I like a place with a sense of humor. Iron Works doesn't take itself so seriously that they forget good service.

I'll be guest blogging a review of The Salt Lick on Man Up BBQ soon. My next post on Central Texas will be at the famous Kreuz Market. Is it all they say it is? Find out here.