The Cook Continuation of 2025 – What the heck has happened? Why no updates?
So, as is my way of things, last year I was super active and updating regularly, this year I have not been active in updating but not because I’ve not been doing things but because I have been plain flat-out and not had the time.
This year has flown by, the amount I have cooked is by far reduced (as I way saying in the last post), mainly because I have just been too busy more than anything. I still have things I want to cook in 2025 but it’s just not going to happen. I have no time.
So what has happened?
Well, I did cook the Pork Belly and Brisketta over Easter and then everything went crazy and essentially non-stop every weekend since.
In May I cooked my double stuffed cheese burgers in Krispy Kreme buns.
We also got 2 kittens – Tux & Edo, both black and white Tuxedo cats, half brothers and cousins at the same time (same dad, different mums, mums are sisters). Now 9 months old (at time of writing) they are huge and gonna be very big cats.
Then we went to Lithuania for our first competition of the year, judging both SCA on the Saturday and KCBS on the Sunday.
We stayed at a very lovely spa hotel. We want to go back next year as we actually did have a relaxing time while at the comp as we also had time to enjoy the spa!
It was our first & only competition abroad this year too. Hopefully we can change that next year. A possibility of going to a comp in Canada may actually be on the cards (having discounted the idea in October), will have to see how things work out.
I also came back and very soon after bought a gas pizza over. I still have not bought a gas bottle for it, this will be rectified in 2026.
Lithuania was swiftly followed the next weekend with the first ever BBQ comp at the Malton Food Festival in Yorkshire. A Competition of pig – The Whole Hog.
No, no-one cooked a whole pig (I would have liked that though) but several rounds, each displaying a different part of the pig and requiring using different cooking techniques. It was a lovely event in a beautiful.
2 Weekends later, in Gloucestershire, was the Haley’s Fruit Farm BBQ Competition and the only KCBS comp in the UK. There were some stunning burgers, baking and surprising vegetable dishes on the first day, during the freestyle comp. It was another juicy weekend of food.
June is a bit of a blur, I’m not entirely sure what happened in June, there was certainly no cooking. There was a planning meeting for a wedding reception though….
A wedding blessing type thing in November for a lovely couple. They had everything in place, and they wanted BBQ for their reception…for 150 people. This was to consist of Tandoori chicken with flatbread, tzatziki, salad, potato salad.
They also wanted Ginger, Lime & Honey ribs with potato dauphinois & coleslaw.
The recipe planning started, the hunt for enough ribs was on, the charcoal purchased (I’m glad I managed to get 10 bags of the Big K Charcoal I use as they went out of stock for MONTHS).
I managed to get hold of 20 racks of the Swift Ribs from various local FarmFoods. I also knew I needed to cook around 24KG of chicken kebab so researched pricing from Costco and WingYip for the thighs, eventually planning on using WingYip for cost.
More on this soon.
In July I had a brisket I wanted to cook, but in my silly head I thought….last year you did 24 hour pulled pork, 24 hour lamb shoulder, what about 24 hour brisket.
Yes, I really did cook brisket for 24 hours.
I seasoned it with a cowboy style rub (I can’t remember who’s it was I’m afraid), put it in the smoker with plenty of wood and left it alone, topping up the charcoal when needed, checking in occasionally and pulling it out when it hit 205. The bark was insane and I thought it was going to be dry but I was very wrong, it was lovely and juicy. It was enjoyed by all who ate it and hailed as my best brisket yet (not 100% sure of that myself but I’ll take it).
There was also a birthday party in July with Moink balls and Chicken Wings (the moinks came out dry, I was not happy)
In August, I thought, why not cook a massive slab of pork belly. That was fantastic, although I did have to remove the skin at the end to get it to crisp up.
Then it was the Maldon Smoke & Fire Festival in Essex – a fun 2 days of Freestyle Competition. I always enjoy going and I was happy to be able to take part in both days this year. There were so many different things on offer, the teams really out did themselves on what was presented to us with some interesting ideas on the different themes.
I also moved my red Weber Kettle from home to work and cooked burgers for lunch one day.
Wedding planning continues with a test cook of the ribs.
I have found a recipe that I was comfortable trying. I also wanted to make sure that they were cooked and eaten in the same way they would be at the wedding so for this batch, I started cooking at 7pm on a Thursday evening, once I got back from work.
I knew I couldn’t cook 20 racks of ribs on the day of the wedding so they would need to be cooked in batches over a couple of days.
The original idea was to vac seal and then use Sous Vide to reheat. Advise was given to yes, vac seal but then wrap the sealed ribs in foil and reheat on the BBQ – 350f for around 45mins.
Ok, so the recipe. for a wet rub, combine the following in a bowl (for 1 rack of ribs) 6g of fresh grated ginger, 1 teaspoon of ground cumin, 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon, 26g of brown sugar, 2 teaspoons of salt, 1 tablespoon of lime zest.
This went on the outside of the ribs (I did 4 racks) and after 2 hours of cooking, I wrapped these with more brown sugar, plenty of honey and some butter.
Back on the smoker for 2 hours and then 30-45mins with the foil open.
At 1am I was having fun removing the ribs.
First off, half my vac seal bags failed when trying to pour the liquid from the wrap into the bag. With shoes soaked in a honey, butter & sugar mixture, I managed to get more bags sorted, got the ribs into them with enough juice and I knew they were over cooked, they were already falling off the bone.
I put my shoes in the wash and went to bed, leaving the ribs to cool in their sealed bags and put them in the fridge in the morning.
Saturday comes and we got set making the potatoes and got the smoker ready to re-heat the ribs.
And I was quite surprised with the results. Yes, they were over cooked (note, 4 hours tops required for the cook) but that was fine and we all thought they needed more ginger zing. Ok, note for next time, Ginger Puree instead of fresh grated and more lime possibly.
However, due to circumstances completely beyond the couple’s control (and honestly it had nothing to do with them and they did everything they could) they couldn’t use the venue they had sorted, which meant having to find somewhere else (in a relatively short time for something that usually needs to be booked well in advance) and this meant no outside catering.
Oh well, I have charcoal and ribs to last a good while now.
I honestly hold no ill towards them, I even attended the wedding. They are like family.
At the start of September, I cooked a whole pork loin, still need to work on the level of cheese, seems to just vanish.
My wife and I then celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary.
We went to Bruges for a couple of days, BBQ was of course on the menu
The first night we found a very nice place doing all you could eat ribs….we managed 1 rack each. This was mainly down to the menu saying it came with jacket potato or fries. We both opted for fries to be told there was a menu error and it came with both.
The potato also came with a very nice season butter and that filled us both up. I knew we should avoid it but the butter was too good to resist.
The following night we went to a restaurant that cooked everything over open flame. I was impressed by how well cooked everything was, with 1 chap cooking all the meats. I have picanha steak, I asked for rare and I got exactly what I wanted. It was a beautiful meal and we want to go back to spend more time there, more to see and more to eat.
In October, I then said I was essentially done for cooks for friends for the year but I would have 1 last hurrah and go all out on it
I cooked more Ginger, Lime & Honey Ribs, Pork Belly Burnt Ends, 24 Hour Brisket, 24 Hour Pulled pork. Pulled pork could have done with longer but it is the way it is. There was lots left over and many doggy bags given.
IF I somehow find time this year, I still want to cook the 6kg turkey breast I have in the freezer and also the gammon for Christmas, although I suspect these will be into the new year. I don’t have a weekend free at all to cook them and I go away on the 21st for Christmas. I would do the gammon on the 20th but something has landed in the diary, so these will be either for New Year or just into 2026.
2026 then
Turkey Breast, Beef Ribs, Steak, Pork Ribs, Pork Belly, Meat loaf, Smash Burgers
And this is just from the meat I have in the freezer already. I have a feeling I’ll have more time to cook in 2026 (I really am praying that something comes off in the near future that will allow that, allow more comps to be attended and a couple of holidays). We just have to wait and see.
