BBQ Exhaustion

T

Texas Turtle

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Okay, so somebody suggested some que for Labor Day and I, naturally, jumped in with both feet. Yanked a butt out of the freezer that had been languishing since May, stopped by HEB and picked up a couple of chickens and three racks of St. Louis ribs. My oldest daughter called and said that she would come but it would help if we could keep the world's cutest grandbaby Saturday and Sunday night. One of the few things I like better than firing up the cookers is playing with my grandchild, so I said heck yeah. Then everybody decides they want the que for lunch instead of supper, so the time line gets accelerated by 6 hours. Put rugrat to bed at 8:30 Sunday night. Rubbed and injected butt and put in cooler with ice to hold. Set up WSM for butt, offset for ribs & chicken. Went to bed at 10:30, got up at 12:00 and started fire in WSM. Put butt on at 2:00, kept watch on IQUE110 for 30 minutes to confirm solid 250 at grate. Went back to bed and got up at 5:00. Started fire in offset, prepped ribs and put on at 6:30. Cleaned and spatchcocked chickens. Wrapped butt at 165, ribs at 8:30. Put chickens on at 9:00, glazed and rewrapped ribs. Unwrapped and reglazed ribs at 11:00, checked chickens and found them at perfect temp. Wrapped and coolered. IT gauge on butt said 205, unwrapped and pulled bone. Rewrapped and coolered. So I'm basically finished at 11:00 and lunch is at 1:00. Pulled and sauced butt at 12:00. Carved ribs & chicken at 12:30 and lunch was pretty much perfect, althoiugh we had a couple of no-shows and lots of leftovers. Typical BBQ experience, right? Problem is, I'm dead on my feet and hurt all over. I have a surgical consultation at M D Anderson tomorrow at 8:00 and I'm going to feel like heck. The ultimate question: Am I the only one who gets wore out like this when he cooks or is it just that at 61 years of age with stage 4 cancer I'm too damned old to spend three days keeping up with 40 pounds of boundless energy that expects Grandpa to spend all day playing with him and then stay up virtually all night staring at an array of thermometers on the back porch? (I know this is ridiculously long, sorry.)
 
I am worn out from the brisket cook I did, and I am 52. Health problems bite into your energy. I figure there are two types of energy, that which we can easily replenish, with food, water and sleep; and the type that is more about core life energy. When we get sick, our bodies fight with that "deeper" energy and it saps us.

For me, I can no longer easily sustain that amount of energy expenditure. I am in loads of pain, and have been since early Sunday morning, due to the being up and moving from the brisket cook. You just have to measure what is important to you.
 
I hear ya. I spent Saturday cooking for my coworkers to eat tomorrow. did a boston butt and two links of sausage. even though I know and trust my WSM to do it's duty(and it did), my paranoia/ocd kept me checking/tending to it frequently. Sunday, I was cooking for family. Doing 2 racks of ribs, a whole chicken and a link of sausage. I did this cook with my first bare pan cook(no foil, no water, no nada), and had some temp issues. at one point the dome thermo was darn near pegged, meaning my grate temp was prolly close to 400. did some vent knocking and managed to bring the temps back down. all in all, it was a good cook, ribs tasted great, but were a bit bark heavy. everything else was fine. btw-ribs were the only meat on when my temps ran away for a bit, which I think is the cause of the heavy black color.
 
That is why I started to cook H&F I get up at 630 - 7 I put on the coffee & fire the pit, meat on by 8 done by 2 at the latest. no stress no 3 days to recover, I get to enjoy the day. Start later, Cook hotter, Finish sooner. Praying for ya.
 
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I'm a big fan of low stress cooks. You'll learn tips and tricks along the way and things you can eliminate that you're doing now.
 
God bless you - I'd have been running on fumes sucking wind less than half way through that schedule. Wow!
 
I would say that is pretty damn amazing.
And a prayer was said. Good luck.
 
I just did 100lbs of meat for my 36 birthday/end of summer cookout. I was beat tired sunday and spent the whole day on the beach relaxing and came home and was in bed before 9pm. Today my feet were stilling hurting and I ended up taking 2 naps because I was still tired!
 
I'm 33 and the last 4 weekends I've been completely worn out every Sunday. 2 all night cooks by myself, 1 competition by myself, and an all day cook starting at 3 am by myself.

Usually takes me till Friday to get back on a regular sleeping schedule so I can screw it back up Friday night and Saturday.
 
28 and I do alright...sometimes. Depends on schedule.

At the end of the day, meat is just meat, but your grand kids are ALWAYS worth it. I def miss my grandfather so much.
 
I'm praying for you too. I'm 55 and I'm a survivor. I'm still waiting for grandchildren.
 
I'm beat from the weekend, but come next weekend I'll be wishing I had another 3 day one to get burnt out on again.
 
Bludawg said:
That is why I started to cook H&F I get up at 630 - 7 I put on the coffee & fire the pit, meat on by 8 done by 2 at the latest. no stress no 3 days to recover, I get to enjoy the day. Start later, Cook hotter, Finish sooner. Praying for ya.
Click to expand...

Tried my first H&F cook on Sunday. One 7.5 lb butt. Started charcoal basket at 9 - meat in UDS at 10:15. Temps ran 275 - 315 mostly around 290. Butt hit 205 at 3:45 - the bone pulled out with ease. Foiled and in cooler until 6.
Tasted great & got some yard work done also without having to deal with early/late time table.
I'm convinced this is the way to go.
 
Bludawg said:
That is why I started to cook H&F I get up at 630 - 7 I put on the coffee & fire the pit, meat on by 8 done by 2 at the latest. no stress no 3 days to recover, I get to enjoy the day. Start later, Cook hotter, Finish sooner. Praying for ya.
Click to expand...

I'm heading where Bludawg is, but slowly. I used to have lots of cooks where eatin' time was 12:00noon; I've moved most of them to dinner time... Also, mostly for the reasons stated above, I no longer compete. I would sooo love to get back in there and do it again, but I cant keep doing KCBS 90% of the work (ALL the work) and MBN 60-70% of the work... I just cant.
 
sbshaveice said:
Guys, it's a hobby and aren't hobbies supposed to be fun?
Click to expand...
Yes, and I had a great time cooking and serving that food. But, it takes a lot out of me, to give up that cooking would also take a lot out of me.

On edit: And this is partially why, considering how much I like cooking, and competing, I would like to do competition, but, do not. I can no longer work in a manner that would let me enjoy the comp, considering what it costs, and it wears me down. Even just being one part of a team, it takes it's toll. But, once or twice a month, cooking for friends or family, I am going to be there.
 
I'm 44, and I can barely move today after the long weekend of cooking. That said, I can't wait to fire the smoker up again. My wife is sick of BBQ, so I need to find something else to cook on the pit (maybe lobster?)

Prayers for your recovery! I just had a friend make it through stage 4 colon cancer, and she's now clean & in the clear! Hang in there.
 
OK, I'm not sure if this is whining or one-upping but… Thursday night I injected 40 ham hocks and cooked them Friday morning. Since then I’ve cooked another 100 hocks, learned to run a deep-fryer - cooking four different items and burning the absolute chit out of my hand in the process (don’t tip those tongs backwards, boys and girls!), and I walked about 37 miles.
Oh yeah, and I’ve been running the kitchen for the 50,000+ person event this year. On Saturday my cozy little empire was sitting at 122° in the back corner, in front of a fan. Just trying to keep my peeps happy and hydrated, and losing them all every few hours so I could start all over again, is a full-time job. Add in the logistics and the bazillion little jobs that everyone else is too busy to do and…I’m tired. I am whupped. I don’t know if I’ll make it to my 53rd birthday this Sunday. (grin)

But back to the spirit of this thread – those of us who are called upon to cook for others should be proud! Whether it’s one rack of ribs or God knows what, we rise to the occasion and COOK.

You go, brothers and sisters. Get some.
 
Arlin, you answered a riddle for me, I had a pair of tongs that had this weird arrow shaped cut in the handle, just before they widened out, I always wondered why a hole there. Now I know. Thanks for your sacrifice.
 
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