Fire In The Hole!

Up b'fore the crack of dawn t'day, 'bout 5:30 AM ... got mah pot of dat good black Community Cawfee perkin' real good, then commenced to the smoke shop & fired up the smoker 'bout 6 AM ... when that got goin' good I throwed on a couppla sticks of hickory & put mah lil' bovine babies in for a 10 hr. smoke nap ~ smellin' good on da bayou now, ah garrontee ~ go t'sleep mah lil' babies...

Weather sure is strange this mornin', though ... cain't quite put mah finger on it ... there's an ill wind blowin' & it's wayyy too hot and muggy for this early in the day, tru dat. Gonna batten down the hatches, and hope for the best ~ looks like we in fer a bumpy ride!

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Mais, we 'bout 4 hours into this smoke session ... things is goin' just like they 'posed t'did ... WSM chuggin' along at 250* wit dat thin blue curl of hickory smoke smellin' up the neighborhood ~ sooo, I figured ah better turn mah attention to some slaw. I ain't fersure, but I think there's some kinda law dat requires slaw wit bbq (The Slaw Law) ... so I hauled off & made some. This ain't yer ordinary slaw, though ... this is Kaw-Cajun Slaw ... kicked up with about 40 cloves of garlic, carrots, Vidalia onions, green bell peppers, and I don't know whut all ... then dressed wit a hot sweet/vinegar/tomato dressing ... kinda like a copper pennies dressing. When it cools down a tad, I'm gonna throw a lil' chiffonade of fresh mint in it, just for grits & shiggles~~

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Noon: At the 6 hour mark ... lookin' good, internal meat temp 160* ... another hour or so, and then mebbe I'll wrap ~ mebbe not. Threw another chunk of hickory on ~ back to sleep mah lil' babies......

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2:30 PM: At the 8 1/2 hour mark ... startin' to git a nice bark ~ lookin' like bbq ~ internal meat temp 185* ... wrapped in foil & put'em back in smoker ... one more hour oughtta do it, to reach target temps around 200*

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5 PM: Just finished pulling/chopping this awesome bbq beef ... foiled at 2:30, back into smoker till 3:30, then removed from smoker @ 200* internal & put in a dry cooler to rest for another hour ... then chopped it. All told, an 11 hour process, low & slow, and worth every damn minute of it ... this ain't no quick citified store-bought bbq ~ damn straight. Now ... it's Miller Time. Stay in the smoke, y'all....

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7 PM: Good things come to those who wait...