Scorehead wrote:
Chris_in_joliet wrote:
Last week was the first time we did the corn on the cob in the husk and I do have to say, while it was kind of a pain in the ass it smelled so good. The smell it gave off for the half hour it was cooking was unreal.
Thats really the best way to grill corn. Just make sure you soak the ears in water before you throw them on the grill.
Soaking is overrated in my opinion. I don't know how you guys are cooking corn -- does the lid pop off cause the kernels are popping in your 600 degree grill? I haven't had a problem just cleaning them and then re-covering them in their green dress. I also then remove the rest at the grill site before bringing it inside. Definitely adds a nice smoky flavor to the corn -- very tasty.
We had a little party on Sunday which turned out very well. I took three chickens and brined them late in the night (made an oreo cheesecake while I was waiting for them to finish.) Took them out, rinsed them off, then slept for five hours or so. Tossed that on a barrel smoker over a charcoal/cherry mix, only put rub on one. I put two 4.5 lb pork shoulders on a Orion Cooker (google it) with the rub according to Mrs. Newper's friend's mom recipe. She was hesitant that I put it in that thing, but god bless her she has some faith in me when it comes to cooking. She is insistent that these things get cooking even though the party invite time is listed as 1 to 2, and she wants everything ready at 2. I am trying to convince her that you have appetizers and things out and you really want to aim for 3 at the earliest, but I relent. Well, the chicken is done at 12:30 (as I predicted) so now I have the task of figuring out how to keep these six half chickens warm without drying out. I put three each on baking pans and throw them in the oven. Set it to the lowest setting of 170 then as soon as it beeps that it hits temperature, I turn it off. I wait thirty minutes, then repeat. The Orion Cooker can't be opened during the cooking, and they say 4.5 hours, so I open after 4.25 hours and it is definitely done... a little more than I would have wanted. Take it out, wrap it in foil, leave it on the counter for an hour. And guess what, by now it is 3 pm. So I throw on the broiler for 10 minutes to crisp up that chicken. Mrs. Newper takes on the task of shredding the pork, I'm cooking some succotash on the range and boiling water for some corn. After 10 minutes, out comes the chicken where I do a pretty poor job of breaking it down into the 4 components (got better as I went along), still trying to stir the succotash and wait for that corn to boil. I then turn the oven on to throw in the peach cobbler, slide that puppy in, and start working the butter into the dough. I get the dough with butter where I am pretty much happy with it, then Mrs. Newper rings the dinner bell and all come in the kitchen. I sit to the side waiting for some water to boil to add to the dough, it gets 80% there, I say screw it, and I mix it in. 7 minutes later, drop some on the cobbler, and throw it back in the oven. Wash my hands and I am done.
Very pleased with the results. Both the pork and the chicken were very good even by my standards. The chicken skin was actually bite through (first time I had tried the broiler trick) so I was very, very happy about that, and of course the smoke got right through the whole bird. The pork was as Mrs. Newper remembered her friend's mom making it, and it actually did well after resting for a while... we served it with three options for saucing -- apple butter based BBQ w/ some "moonshine", a garlic BBQ sauce, and a mayo based BBQ sauce. Have about one chicken for leftovers and maybe two pork sandwiches. About 5 ears of corn too. Overall it was pretty decent.