Author: /u/ThornGodOfPricks

Morning everyone! Who’s ready to see some non-BoB tainted football?!?

What are you cooking for the game today? Like I said Wednesday I’m on the road now until next Monday so unfortunately I’m going to miss firing up the smoker, but feel free to discuss what you’re cooking or smoking or really whatever else you want!

Let’s go Texans! F**k the Glitter Kitties!

So, first, gotta give a shoutout to the Astros for rustling all of the Jimmies right now.

Second, GOD it feels refreshing being out from under the authoritative grasp of the former Butt-chin-in-chief.

Third, I’m a little sad today. I’m going on vacation starting Sunday and I’ll be gone until the next Monday. While that’s a much-needed break (literally going to a cabin in the woods) it will be the longest I’ve gone without tossing something on the smoker since buying it in late July. I’ll definitely being going through hickory withdrawals.

I still wanted to do this thread because I enjoy talking about meat smoking and cooking and whatever else with everyone, and I’ll plan on still making the Sunday thread for the gameday cook!

Since there’s been a lot of confusion with my threads lately I figured I needed to toss meat in the title today. But hey, feel free to talk about what you’re smoking smoking too. I’ve got a couple of joints of Sky Walker and a little loose flower too, so I’m good to go lol.

As far as the smoker, I’ve had turkey legs in a brine since yesterday morning and am just about to pull them out once I get the fire started.

Gonna be a medieval kind of day, we’ll see if the Texans can follow suit and get medieval on some Vikings asses.

Edit 1: just got the legs on the cooker. Went with an ancho chili rub, much like the one I use on wings, and I’m pretty sure its gonna be awesome. Trying to carry that optimism into the game, but also I’m not exactly getting my hopes up.

Edit 2: today’s smoke is going really well. Last week I had to adjust the fire every 15 minutes and it got kind of frustrating. Today, its rolling right along with only a couple dips or spikes, not having to tend much at all. Love smokes like this, let’s me just sit back, enjoy the aroma, drink a beer and be outside on a beautiful day.

Well, we are all in a great place mentally after the first few weeks, huh? Honestly, the best time I’ve had during these early game weeks has been talking about meat smoking and such with everyone, so let’s keep it going!

First, pork butt last Sunday turned out AMAZING! I highly reccomend just doing a simple rub of salt, pepper, onion and garlic powder and paprika, its fantastic. And it was probably one of my most tedious smokes to date. The fire wouldn’t start where I wanted, was constantly tending it, and it STILL turned out great. I guess there’s a lesson in persistence there that could be applied to the Texans, but I’m gonna wait until they show me something to actually be excited about.

For this week, I’m gonna do some turkey legs. My first gameday smoke on the Thursday we played the Chiefs (f**k I want Biennemy as our coach) was turkey breast and it turned out well, but it was a little peppery. Also, I miss the renaissance fair down in Houston, so having a big ol’ Turkey leg to munch on at least gives me that feeling.

Morning everyone! Woke up about 8 to get the fire started and got my pork butt on about half an hour ago. I thought about starting it at 4 so itll be ready for the game, but I’m actually going to smoke some wings as well and toss those on for the game and have pulled pork for tonight.

What are you planning on smoking/cooking/eating for gameday? What’s your thoughts on the game today? I think the boys will continue to improve (despite lackluster coaching) and at the very least I think this will be a damn good game.

Edit 1: Got a nice look at the pork butt but when I just put the wings on and it’s looking good, already picking up some color an hour in. The fire has been a bit temperamental this morning but hey, that’s fire. All I can do is guide it, itll do what it wants from there.

There’s a lot of negative energy in the sub obviously after our start, but I absolutely loved discussing my brisket with y’all on Sunday. It was a nice way to talk about some things, football or not, and I think that’s a good thing while we go through a tough time as a fanbase.

So I’m probably going to do some pulled pork for Sunday. This will be my second attempt at pulled pork, but the first since I really locked in on my “style” of smoking (all wood-fire, constant flame going, super clean smoke) so I’m pretty excited to get it going. This will also be my first second attempt at a longer smoke (I’ve done chicken a couple times, but that’s just 2 hours compared to 8 for pork butt) so that’s always exciting.

Hoping smoking a “butt” (which actually comes from the shoulder) is symbolic of our boys smoking some Steeler ass on Sunday!

In past years, O’Brien has always been a coach-speak nonsense guy (which, as an actual reporter myself I understand that in pressers that’s kind of what happens, you get better stuff in smaller interview settings anyway) but he’s always been attentive and energetic and agree losses he would come in fired up.

This morning he’s a man defeated. Holy s**t, he just looks exhausted. He knows he’s in over his head, and you can see it in his answers. It’s a lot of “I don’t know” and “we have to be better” but in an exasperated way.

Reminds of Kubiak in the 2-14 season.

I’ve gotten into smoking since moving to a house out of my apartment, and I’m finally doing my first brisket today. I’ve done about 7 smokes so far and they started off pretty good and have gotten progressively better.

I’m hoping that’s how the Texans are. Started off shaky, found some rhythm and now able to put out a good product.

As long as one of these turns out I’m good.

Edit 1: Well I’m gonna be up all night, so might as well share the journey with you guys. Don’t need to be bugging friends and family who are rightfully sleeping.

Brisket went on about 20 minutes ago, fire is holding strong and smoker is hanging around 270 so all is good. Gotta throw a bigger long on the fire soon to give me a long burn, current logs are just starting to break up.