Alton Brown makes BBQ

[HankB]

This is his Good Eats series which is getting long in the tooth. But some things never get old.

This was an interesting one. The program was about making pulled pork from a butt. He constructs a smoker using some clay pots and an electric hot plate. He passed up an opportunity to use a perfectly good red MT which is part of his collection (nice part of his collection IMO.)

As unusual as his "smoker" was I was more interested in how he treated the pork. First he used a brine with salt and molasses. I usually don't brine butts. Maybe I should try. I did like that he didn't put salt or sugar in his dry rub. Neither do I. Usually. But I do make a slurry of my dry rub with peanut oil before applying which AB does not.

I enjoy watching AB and still have much to learn. When he does grill over charcoal, I think I have only seen him use a Weber cooker.

[reillyranch]

I had a chance to meet Alton Brown a few years ago in his studio (in Atlanta). 

I had to referbush a old Weber Genesis Silver B that he had to do a retake on.  It seems on a previous episode he was lighting the Weber and said "always keep the lid open when lighting the grill" then he preceded to close the lid and light the grill.  Every time the episode ran his email would light up with fans pointing out his blooper.  So he called us in to fix the grill up to new condition so he could retake the scene. 

The cool part was when he told me that this was his personal grill.  I looked around his studio and saw a Wolf and GE Monogram gas grills, worth $1000's and said why would he have a Weber when he had these mega grills all around.  He said they were sponcers of the show, but the Weber was his and stays at his house.       

[HankB]

Cool story. Did he have a CI grate on it?

[SmoothSmoke]

Yeah I saw that show last night.  That red looked mighty fine too, two toned and all.  He also had a bandera smoker as well. 

[Troy]

before I owned a weber, I had built the ceramic planter smoker just like his.

While it was kinda fun, it wasn't ideal. Definitely not worth the $120 i had to spend.

[reillyranch]

I had to restore the Genesis B to orginal condition, so it had stamped porcelain steel grates.  I did not see the red Weber charcoal grill, but he did say he kept "his" Weber's at home. 

[mike.stavlund]

I am a big fan of AB's butt brine/rub combo.  It is my go-to for shoulders now.  I think the brine gets the salt and sweet down deep in the meat, allowing the rub to leave a nice bark without being too salty.   http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/pulled-pork-recipe/index.html

On a later hour-long BBQ special, he used the same brine but left off the rub.  I'm less interested in trying that. 

I haven't tried any of his homemade smokers, though I would like to try his hack where he cuts off the bottom of a terra-cotta pot, then inverts it inside a kettle to make a tandoor oven.  I need to find some long skewers, but I don't want to spend much cash on them.

(and yes, I am a huge Alton Brown nerd)

[mike.stavlund]

Reilly, it is awesome to hear about you doing expert grill restoration for AB.  In my book, that makes you a celebrity. 

And as long as I'm geeking out on Alton, I think the red grill on that show is the immediate predecessor to the Master Touch, the One-Touch Plus.  It had everything that a MT has except for the ash can (AB's show grill has an ash can retrofitted with screws driven into the leg sockets).  I know all of this because I found a red One-Touch Plus at an estate sale this summer.  I cleaned it up, added an ash can (with hose clamps, in my case), and briefly considered posting it on Craigslist as an "Alton Brown Replica Weber Kettle".  Then I realized that a.) I love that grill and would never want to part with it, and b.) no one else is as big of an AB nerd as I am, so no one else would care.