Now that my car can move under its own power, count us in - 2 Crumpackers + 2 friends. Planning to bring chips, popper dip & some cash.
Now that my car can move under its own power, count us in - 2 Crumpackers + 2 friends. Planning to bring chips, popper dip & some cash.
Update from redshift/team space racing. Showing up Friday morning with RV and 5 folks in total. Looking forward to the thrash!
- Josh
Aight... all over but the cryin', I mean smokin'.
Good news - I expect there will be a little pulled pork left over on Friday night, no promises, first come first served. And, you might not like it anyway.
Bad news - Sean is unable to attend, so... but my son is coming as newly promoted Asst. Head Smoker Assistant, so there's that.
Because Hallett, and the "defection" of several of the stalwart AI/CMC to AMCM, we're trying a joint Saturday dinner with AMCM. Some different people, slightly different vibe... until the brisket is sliced and beer is flowing. Feel free to give any feedback on how it works out. Or doesn't work out in your eyes.
See you guys Thu/Fri and we'll see if we're missing anything. Travel safe.
I'm sure everybody will take one last look... come chat with me in passing Friday morning but I think, based on all our prior events, we'll be good to go for Saturday night.
Going just a little light on ribs for Midnight Ribs so we might ration early... but better than tossing a bunch out.
I will have my oldest and middle boy is tow, so for just my part of the Mosty clan we are 3!
Will be shopping for bottom shelf cookies tomorrow morning!
Hello everyone
Looking forward to meeting you all. I think I met a few of you at COTA
Bringing a few of us ai guys down from central.
Guess we will be the meat in the middle of the stock cars and CMC cars.
See you soon.
Ted Johnson
Central Region AI Director
tl;dr - food successful, some rando's got in line early, let's make it better, gimme your $0.02. Or $20, your call.
RECAP
2 smokers/45-ish lbs. of pellets
30+ ish lbs of brisket
10 racks of ribs
4-5 recipes of Rub 2.0
5-6 bottles of BBQ sauce
6lbs of beans
Chips and dips out the wazoo
Buffalo chicken dip
Smoked Mac & Cheese
Jalapeno poppers
Nanner puddin'
Guac
Fruits 'n veggies
buns/bread/tortillas
cups/plates/napkins/plastic ware
60+ ish folks or so I believe
Crumpacker dip
Some ice cream
Some cobbler
Bottom Shelf Cookies
Greeen beans?
Numerous cash contributors
See, I lost track of the spread because there was a ton of it. Another Hallett dining experience success - but, please provide feedback, positive or negative. If you feel like you need to do it anonymously, that will be interesting but DM me if you don't want it public. It's all very much appreciated. Sean and I like doing it and greatly enjoy the fellowship of friends and family over some "potentially average" BBQ.
CONS
Let's call it the "can we make it better:"
Head count
We struggle a little with making sure we get the amounts close. You guys know Sean couldn't make it, and I made a conscious decision to try to shoot a little closer to the RSVP number, erring to the side of potentially "too little." What I believe happened is that we had some drive-by customers in line ahead of our group regulars.
PROS
RSVP
Participation - I think nearly everybody, that was not an invited guest, brought something
Almost enough
Let me be blunt - this was a bit of an experiment given the movement of several of the guys into AMCM. I thought the best thing for this Hallett was to coordinate the two groups given the nature of the event, and knowing it was a bit of an experiment and why I think the feedback is helpful.
Let's work backward - Midnight Ribs(tm) crushed it! 10 racks and barely teeny scraps left; folks were scraping up the leftovers. We did miss the labeling so for the scorecard some were Sticky Sweet/Sweet Heat and some straight up Sticky Sweet. There was a motion and a second to review (perhaps) when we eat those things since we lose people being so late. Express your thoughts on moving it up a bit.
Brisket - we put them on around 4pm on Friday evening. The BBQ Math says roughly 1.2 hours/lb. then allow 4-5 hours for resting. For those of you playing at home, the resting is the second most important part; cooking to 205F is the most. STUPID BRISKET. So both were done right around 7am Saturday morning. You did the quick math - they were wrapped in foil/towels in a cooler in the sun all day, 11 hours, and still almost too hot to handle when we sliced them.
Brisket 1 rated B-; arguable the lean end came up a little dry.
Brisket 2 rated A; potentially a little better. It was stupid good.
NEXT YEAR
So what's next? Oh yeah, I/we expect to plan on doing it again in 2022; I mean the raceport is already paid for. I think we could have easily eaten ~5lbs more brisket. I think we could have eaten 1, maybe 2 more racks of ribs. It was a combo in timing that the cobblers were done when they were. But all that includes some drive-bys that I will say were unaccounted for. Equipment wise we can do 3 briskets/10 racks of ribs. If we swap smokers we can do 4 brisket/12 ribs pretty easily. We have to go to 3 smokers to get much beyond that.
I don't want to literally issue tickets/wristband - but it would create some numbers certainty. I don't mind having a little leftover, but we've stranded a lot of food in the past. Let me know what you guys, rooks and vets, think about this. Especially the new guys - how did this work out for you?
I did have the thought that we could just prep up a whole brisket for the Hallett workers and staff. At least then it's known ahead of time that they have a slab of meat to allocate how they want.
That's enough for now.
Thank you for putting this together. I'm sure it was a ton of work, and I appreciate it.
Great job Dave and Son. Delicious. I reduced the beans from 10# to 6#.
We should do our best on rsvp, then factor in contingencies (drive-by’s and Hallett crew). If the contingency is necessary, we have leftovers. I was stuffed and I appreciate you opening it up to guests.
Rook comment: Thanks!
Thank you for organizing and cooking. Greatly appreciated. From someone who does not camp a lot, glad I could be one of the "Numerous cash contributors" instead of having to bring food.
Not sure where else to post pictures so posting here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/xSqSg39LuNGstLSW9
Please let me know if need to be moved elsewhere. Some amusing and some not so much but easier to keep all together instead of sorting thru.
Thank everyone so much for support and guidance on my first time out.
Thanks Dave and Son -missed Sean this time. Myself and everyone else appreciates the time you put into it and I probably don't realize how much it takes but glad you enjoy doing it.
Unfortunately the success of what you do means more people show up who didn't RSVP, then people who are drive bys invite others on social media and before you know it you could have a catering business going. (That's my idea and I'll take less of a cut than Hallet-lol) Same thing has happened over the years with Midnight Ribs and that's all part of the fun in bringing groups together of course. There is just a limit to the amount available to produce and I don't know how you get around that without either planning to feed the whole complex, having tickets, some system that opened it up to drive bys for leftovers, but maybe someone has a great idea.
I love the thought of brisket for the Hallett workers and I would gladly chip in some money for them or maybe use the gate money to buy a brisket for their staff. My guess is they would like that when the track goes cold and they gather for a drink. Also, want to say I miss Indian and his pickled jars of vegetables and the way he pulled me out of the tire wall. My son didn't get the pleasure to enjoy his company unfortunately but I'll make sure and tell my son about him.
No issues with moving Midnight Ribs around, making it a moving target, keeping it midnight, or whatever. Yeah, it's late and I was tired but it's also part of the experience as no way my son would miss them and I bet he tells his kids about it at some point in the future, too. He tells everyone they are the best and then they ask him what are midnight ribs and he tries to explain-cool.
If anyone wants my recipe for smoked macaroni and cheese, here it is.
I tripled the recipe for Hallett, and then saved some back in the freezer after the two foil trays were overfilled.
If you're in a hurry, you can do the same thing with a Costco macaroni and cheese, and it works almost as well.
16 ounce package elbow macaroni
¼ cup butter
¼ cup all purpose flour
3 cups milk
8 ounces cream cheese, cut into large chunks
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
2 cups extra sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded
2 cups Gouda cheese shredded
1 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded
(Optional) 1 jar of green chili sauce
1. Load the wood tray with one small handful of wood chips and preheat the smoker to 225° F.
2. Cook pasta according to package instructions. In a medium saucepan, melt butter, and whisk flour into the butter. Cook over medium heat for 2 minutes, until sauce is bubbly and thick. Whisk in milk and bring to a boil. Cook 5 minutes until thickened. Stir in cream cheese until mixture is smooth. Add salt and pepper.
3. In a large bowl, combine 1 cup Cheddar, 1 cup Gouda cheese, Parmesan cheese, pasta, and cream sauce. Spoon mixture into an 11 by 9 ½-inch aluminum roasting pan coated with nonstick cooking spray. Sprinkle top with remaining Cheddar cheese and Gouda cheese.
4. Place in smoker and cook 2 hours at 225° F, until brown, bubbly and delicious.