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[Chris__M]

So I've been doing little bits here and there, but life is insane busy at the moment, and I've been quite neglecting the new smoker.

So I placed an order for Thursday from my favourite online butcher, and spent Friday (a non-working day for me) doing stuff in the house and the garden, while a pork butt and a brisket piece cooked.

It went on right up to my normal bedtime, and - getting older - I find I need to keep to regular hours. So the pork rested for an hour, before being sauced and refrigerated, while the brisket was left in the butcher paper overnight, in a cooler.

So this morning was a surprise for me.

The pulled pork looks a bit fatty, but I know when I reheat it, it will all stir in nicely.

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As for the brisket, I am really pleased with this, and it tastes excellent.

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I have a friend coming around for dinner tonight, and then I have 3 other friends coming over tomorrow afternoon.

As well as these two dishes, I also have burgers, wurst and some mutton mince that I might experiment with along the lines of smash burgers.

[Chris__M]

Insanely busy = handling the purchase of a new EV, and everything that goes with it - updating household electrics, charging point etc. + gearing up to my impending retirement, and getting the pension in place (it's flexible, and will be sometime first quarter of 2022)

[jdmessner]

Looks like you are going to have a great weekend. I like the idea of removing the pork early and finishing it off later. The brisket looks good too. Hope you enjoy the food and time with friends.

[Chris__M]

I find that if I am cooking - especially BBQ - and entertaining people, it ends up being 90% cooking and 10% entertaining.

I also obsess and suffer terribly from "will it be ok?"

So for anything like pulled pork or brisket, I always prefer to cook ahead, when I have time and no hungry mouths to worry about. I can then taste the food in advance and satisfy myself.

Then when guests come, it is quickly reheated. This can be done in the oven, but I tend to be doing sausage and burgers and sides as well, so I think it looks more theatrical coming from the grill. For the two of us tonight, I simply have put a couple of portions of each in foil trays to reheat. Tomorrow, the rest is likely to get heated in a couple of skillets.

Today's guest is my friend Sarah, who couldn't make tomorrow, and she is going to be cursing. Because normally when she comes over, she takes away foil trays of leftovers, but with 3 hungry mouths tomorrow, she is going to have to make do with what she eats tonight.

[02ebz06]

I find that if I am cooking - especially BBQ - and entertaining people, it ends up being 90% cooking and 10% entertaining.

I know what you mean.  When I host poker night, I am in the kitchen the whole time and don't get to play cornhole (the pre eating & poker entertainment).
Last Saturday, I made the Pork Carne Guisada on Friday so just had to put in in the slow cooker Saturday.
Was much better.

[Bar-B-Lew]

I remember the days of having 50-75 people over and trying to cook everything and have it ready when people got there.  I didn't even want to eat any of the food by that time.  The last few times I cook in advance and froze and reheated or had in the fridge from a day or two before and reheated.  Put it in some commercial steam tables in the morning until it got hot then turned it down to hold at serving temp.  That was much easier but the cleanup at the end of the night still sucked.

[Bentley]

How will you serve the 2 meats?

[Chris__M]

For today, my guest knows what she likes, so I left it up to her.

The pulled pork was reheated in a foil tray, the brisket also, quite thickly sliced and with some of my new favourite Firefly Texas sauce (a local company) just to keep it moist.

Plus burgers and two wurst, the latter which didn't get eaten at all - I know what my breakfast is going to be!

I'd already cooked some nice jacket potatoes, with the skins oiled and salted. And we had a selection of rolls and wraps.

I had a burger in a roll, then some pulled pork in a (store-bought) tortilla wrap. I quite like pulled pork that way. (Edit: I forgot to mention the (store-bought) apple and beetroot coleslaw, which is amazing with pork.)

A good while later, I hit the brisket, and laid it out in a sub roll - it was brilliant.

Sarah ate her pulled pork as a topping to a jacket potato, and then had another topped potato to follow!

She then had some of the brisket in a roll, and announced that she was suprised that she like the brisket more. She is used to and really likes my pulled pork (which is sauced using cider vinegar and mustard, and the juices from the pork), but I've only recently started work on my brisket.

My friends tomorrow are more likely to be just meat piled on bread, followed by more meat piled on bread - they are bringing salad and sides

[Chris__M]

If I end up with any pulled pork left (possible, but unlikely), I've been thinking for some time about something like char-sui steam buns, but with pulled pork instead.

Having said that, I'm about to place a repeat order for a couple of week's time - so if we eat it all, I'll have another opportunity.

[Chris__M]

This is only the second time I have had guests round for food since the height of the COVID lockdown. Three times tomorrow.

We are all vaccinated, but all being sensible. This evening was mostly spent outdoors, with us only coming in about 7:30, then having a final cup of tea before Sarah hit the road.

It is nice to begin to get back to normal again. Although my beagle doesn't understand where all these people are coming from. In her house, as well!

[Bentley]

Kind of like a Bánh bao?

...I've been thinking for some time about something like char-sui steam buns, but with pulled pork instead.

[Chris__M]

Today's guests are running late - they warned me, so no problem.

Have baked some more spuds and the pork is bubbling. Keeping the temperature relatively low, now those things are ready. When they arrive, we will serve the pork and spuds and crank up the grill for burgers and sausages.

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Brisket is on a covered carving board, served cold.

Yum.

[Brushpopper]

What temp and for how long did you cook the potatoes?  Everything looks great 

[Chris__M]

What temp and for how long did you cook the potatoes?  Everything looks great 

Potatoes are usually done in 40-45 minutes in a 390°F oven. I often cook them in an airfryer at that temperature, but as the grill was going on, anyway...

As it happens, when I heard my guests were going to be delayed (motivating a teenager) I turned the grill down to 240°F. So although they were in for longer, they were nicely cooked. My standard way with potatoes is to prick them with a fork or knife, then lightly coat with oil (corn or vegetable is fine), then sprinkle with salt.

[Chris__M]

Guests have just gone - everything was very tasty, and we all ate our fill, then sat around talking about music (another hobby).

Mike preferred the brisket, and Anne the pulled pork, which suggests they were both up to standard. Teenager ate some of both, but then brightened up when presented with something recognisable - burgers.

The surprise for me today - I did get around to trying mutton smashburgers. I hadn't ever attempted even a beef smashburger before, and didn't have the handy tool I had seen on Youtube, just a spatula and something to press it down. I lightly seasoned the mutton mince, then formed it into balls, and squashed each one onto the griddle, holding it down until a crust formed, then flip.

An absolute success, which I will definitely do again - in fact, I have a second pack of mutton mince in the fridge.

Sorry, no further photos, as we were too busy eating and chatting. But I'll take some pics when I next do the mutton thing.