December 2017

Set your thermometer's alarms, toss another apple log in your firebox, grab a beverage and let's take a peek together at what's been going on in The Pit the last month..it's HOT From The Pit, December 2017!

December's Gold Medal Giveaway Winner, "bushybro", a.k.a. Sadiki Nicholas!

December's Gold Medal Giveaway Winner is Pitmaster Club Charter Member bushybro, a.k.a. Sadiki Nicholas.

Sadiki says "I never gave the monthly giveaways a thought when I joined, I just wanted to be able to smoke a decent rack of ribs in the backyard, plus I've never won anything in my life, LOL." "This not only turns out to be an awesome Christmas present, but my birthday is also this month. I am also scheduled to be back home with the family at the end of January so this works out perfectly."

Sadiki will return home from work in Kuwait next month to not only his family waiting for him, but also a brand new Hasty-Bake Gourmet 256 Dual Finish Charcoal Grill, valued at $1,399.00! Wish him safe travels and a congrats in his Pit announcement topic here!

Remember- as a Pitmaster Club member, YOU have the same odds as anyone else with a USA delivery address and you get automatic monthly entry, so make sure to keep @AmazingRibs.com in your email safe list so you don't miss that email when it comes! It WILL be one of you!

Videos With Pitmaster Professionals

Don't forget to catch up on our collection of video interviews with Pitmaster Professors! Clint Cantwell, AmazingRibs.com's lead writer and food photographer, interviews some of the great names in the biz, such as: John Stika, Ph.D - President of Certified Angus Beef brand Greg Rempe - AmazingRibs.com's PitCaster and BBQ Central Show radio host Max Good - AmazingRibs.com's Vice President of Product Reviews Robyn Medlin Lindars - GrillGirl.com Carolyn Wells - Executive Director of KCBS Noah Glanville - Pit Barrel Cooker Co. Brad & Brooke Orrison - "The Shed" BBQ & Blues Joint in Ocean Springs, MS Plus many more big names, including Harry Soo, Dr. Greg Blonder, John Markus, Brad Barrett, Ted Reader, and Chris Lilly! To see the whole catalogue, click here.

Show Us Your New Grills/Smokers!

We just love seeing our fellow members' new MCS acquisitions, nearly as much as you love showing them off, and since it's the holiday season we want to see what you got! So, stop by our Grills & Smokers channel and show off your new cookers, whether it was a present from a friend, a loved one, or a much-deserved gift from yourself! Or, if you participated in The Pit's "Secret Santa" program this year, swing by the "Show Us What Santa Brought For You!" topic created by Spinaker to show off your goodies and see everyone else's! Don't forget to watch The Pit next November as the 2018 Secret Santa program kicks off, headed up by Atalanta and Spinaker! Lastly, ribeyeguy started a topic asking if you received every BBQ Pitmaster's most prized possession - meat - in his topic "Meat gifts, did you get any?" So stop by any or all of the above, and join your fellow pitmasters in showing off your latest acquisitions!

For more BBQ cartoons created just for us by Jerry King, click here!

Show Us What You're Cookin'!

And perhaps everyone's favorite portion of the newsletter, the Show Us What You're Cookin' Highlight Reel! This is merely a sampling of the many wonderful pictures of food our members have shared, there's far more in the thread itself. These highlights date from mid-Nov. to late-Dec.

Steve R. kicks things off this month with this mouth watering brisket shot from his Weber Ranch Kettle (the BIG one)!

Aside from the typical BBQ meats, what catches your eye more than a beautiful pizza? To me, very few things! Here's Powersmoke_80's "PFB" (pellet-fired Bandera, a clever pellet mod to an Oklahoma Joe Bandera smoker he created) pizza. I'm still not sure why I didn't get a call to share this one while it was still hot...

Here's OneEyedJack's 2-pound Prime tomahawk ribeye cook with a spinach souffle and no-fuss tater tots. That's what I call wall-to-wall pink!

Such a beautiful sight, HawkerXP's porterhouse cooked on his kettle with his Slow 'N Sear, using ABC Barbecue's "cold grate technique" for easy reverse sear.

Something different! Moderator Spinaker decided to bread some previously sous-vided ribs with panko and deep fry them as an experiment. The result? "I am absolutely doing this again", he said, "only with a ginger Kung Pao Sauce. These were too good, unbelievably tender with a crunchy out side." I'm sold!

This month we have quite a few outside-of-the-box dishes sizzled up for our enjoyment- like this "Mac N Cheese Burger" with a chuck, sirloin and bacon grind burger patty, from the Pit's pro chef and recent culinary school graduate HouseHomey. Comfort food at its finest! Guess which place is on my dinner stop if I'm ever in California?

Another different yet delicious looking creation, this time from Fuzzydaddy, it's what he calls "sriracha-mayo charred Spam cubes". Spam ya say? Well if you're like me you're wondering how it was. "Different. Very tasty", he says!

More uniqueness- leftover homemade mac n cheese waffles from Shify! "Crispy gooey and delicious", he says .

Ernest says he has "a sick mind" to make this. I disagree, I think he has a beautiful mind! An inviting gluten-free breakfast sandwich made of sausage, bacon, eggs and cheese!

All Mudkat tells us about this is that it's a "beef bowl". Good enough for me!

Here's a sneak peek at themastersmechanic's annual tamale day. "My daughter and I made 200 tamales - smoked pork and chicken, both red and green chili", he says. "We love giving these out every Christmas season." He also says "most photos are top secret" and these are a couple shots that made it past the family recipe review board!

Back to some more standard BBQ & grilling fare, here's a drool-worthy peek at gabulldog's prime rib cook! Fantastic!

Another prime rib, this time from 7over, cooked on his PBC!

Here's Hulagn1971's marinated, sous vide & seared pork loin, drizzled with raspberry chipotle on top!

A glamour shot to get your heart thumping- ecowper shares this beautiful shot of his brisket, latkes and asparagus cook.

A really nice pork butt from PJBowmaster , cooked on a balmy (and rare) 50 degree day in Michigan in December on his kettle with some apple wood

Not to be outdone, Ericm shares his own pork butt cook from his 13hr smoke on his GMG pellet grill

Taking a break from the proteins, Skip shares his cinnamon star bread. I can almost smell it from here, Skip!

Attjack is smoking some cheese on his kettle!

Beef ribs! Beef ribs make me happy. And right now ClarkD is on my good side for sharing these beautiful looking beef ribs that he cooked on his BGE with Steven Raichlen's rub. ClarkD says these are his first attempt at beefies which is hard to believe, they look "pro" good!

Steve B has quite the spread here- pork butts, beef ribs, and chucks, and his efforts paid off nicely!

Just look at this stuffed pork loin with raspberry chipotle glaze from Troutman! Using a modified Harry Soo recipe, he says it's a keeper in his book, and he gives us his recipe too!

Wrapping it up is a gorgeous ham from jlazar in his first attempt at Meathead's pre-cooked ham recipe with Chris Lilly's spicy apricot glaze!

It'd be easy to keep going, but we have to end it somewhere even though it's hard to stop. Stay tuned for next month's collection. To see all the above posts as well as many others that we just didn't have room for, be sure to visit the new Show Us What You're Cooking, Vol 8, Winter 2017-2018 topic, and be sure to show off your handy work!

AR's Pitmaster Club Shirts On Sale!

BowlingConcepts.com, makers of our custom Pitmaster Club shirts, has agreed to run a sale through Sunday, Dec 31st. Monday January 1st, 2018 the price goes back to normal. The sale includes both men's & women's styles, and is valid on all colors & sizes from XS-4XL that are still in stock.

Feed The Flame!

With most of the USA, Canada, and our other Nordic friends in the grips of winter, shots of red & orange from flames and glowing embers create such an appealing glow that we can almost feel the warmth through our screens. Let's look back at some of the most recent of these amazing shots that our members have snapped of their fire & flame from our Pit topic, "Feed the Flame"!

Kicking this section off is this stunning action shot of the PBC glowing from an after dark rib cook, courtesy of BourBonQ, which he shared in the Show Us What You're Cooking topic

From psinderson warming up his kettle

Mudkat is firing up the coals for his Smokey Joe

Beefchop firing up his Shirley stickburner

Getting the Lang ready, courtesy of 6th Borough BBQ

AmazingRibs.com's own 'Head Fire Starter' Paul Sidoriak, or allsid as we know him in The Pit, shares this great shot from his picanha cook on his Kamado Joe's Joetisserie

This shot comes courtesy of 2 Pit members- Spinaker shares this pic he took of Skip firing up his Egg when he was able to visit him earlier this month!

Polarbear777 doing a little "afterburner" cooking

"Rude Boy" is getting fired up, courtesy of moderator Henrik

Wrapping it up is this killer shot from our El Salvador friend & Pit member, gijsveltman!

If you snap a great live fire shot, be sure to share it in our Feed the Flame topic!

Meat-Up in Memphis Canceled - For Now

Alas, we will not be able to hold a Pitmaster Club Meat-Up in Memphis in June 2018 as previously planned. We won't bore you with the details, but a number of events conspired to pull the plug (not the least of which is the deadline on Meathead's next book). But, we are determined to pull this off on an annual basis and we think we have a good plan, we just need a little more time to make it happen. Stay tuned, we will shout it from the rooftops when we figure out anew plan!

Catch up on the PitCasts!

Don't forget to learn a little bit about your fellow Pit members by listening to Greg Rempe's recent weekly interviews on his members only PitCasts, posted each week on Thursday!

Here are the most recent interviews: Skip - November 23 The Quarterly Meathead Report - November 30 Hogdog6 - December 7 Phrogpilot73 - December 14 "Throwback Segments" - December 21 Greg Rempe wants to hear from YOU! Drop by Greg's Pit topic and volunteer to be a guest on his PitCast show so you can tell us about yourself, your cooking inspiration(s), your goals and so on. He makes it easy & he makes it fun.

Don't worry, he edits out those moments where you trip over your own tongue. So even if you're like me or Meathead, Greg will still make you sound good!

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"HOT From The Pit" is the exclusive members only monthly newsletter of the AmazingRibs.com Pitmaster Club from Aaron "Huskee" Lyons, Manager of the Pitmaster Club. You're receiving this because you're awesome and you're a member of the Club! For past issues check out the newsletter archive in The Pit.

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