Rue Morgue Burger - A Bunless Burger Delight

The Beef Rue Morgue is a wild bunless burger that starts with a bed of crispy golden fries. Then it is layered with Edgar’s drunken chili, queso, a thick burger, and topped with a perfect sunny-side-up egg.

This is my version of the Beef Rue Morgue, one of the fabulous burgers served at Poe’s Tavern in Atlantic Beach, FL. Any trip back home isn’t complete for me without a trip to this Edgar Allen Poe-themed tavern because of its killer burger lineup.

Crispy fries, drunken chili, creamy queso, and a perfectly cooked burger with a sunny-side-up egg on top...yes, please!

You don’t need a recipe for a burger, but here’s what I was thinking and what I did to make mine tasty and delicious like theirs.

Of course, I cooked mine on a Big Green Egg grill but a flat top would be good too.

Smoked Pork Butt and Spare Ribs: Notes from Memorial Day Weekend Cook on the Big Green Egg

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We had a porkilicous BBQ dinner yesterday that was tender, smoky, and all kinds of delicious.

Spicy Smoked Pork Butt

Bourbon Barrel Smoked Spare Ribs

Southern-style Potato Salad

Bush's Smokehouse Grillin' Beans

Smoked pork butt and spare ribs for the win!

This isn't a recipe post, just a summary of the cook. Here are my notes, thoughts, and some pictures of how everything went.

Meat Prep

My Food City had Smithfield pork butts and Smithfield spare ribs on sale for the weekend so I picked up one of each.

Pork Butt Prep

The pork butt weighed in just over 9 pounds. When picking pork butts, I look for a rectangular shape, not a lot of excess fat, a prominent money muscle, and a vibrant color (not pale pink). 

• Timing - I like to do this so that my pork butt has 12 hours to rest in the fridge before smoking.
• Trimming - None, this Smithfield pork butt was nicely trimmed of any excess fat. The one downside is that a deep gash almost cut off the money muscle. The gash was sort of like we do for competition pork butts to expose the money muscle to smoke, but the cut was much deeper, almost all the way through.
• Injection - I inject mainly for flavor rather than moisture. I used Chris Lilly's recipe for his World Championship Pork Shoulder from his first book. The apple juice gives it sweetness, the salt seasons it, the cayenne gives it a hint of heat, and the Worcestershire sauce adds that umami "fifth taste". 
• Rub - We opted for a spicy pork butt this time. Instead of a sweet rub like my Southern Sweet recipe or Meat Church Honey Hog, I pulled out the Albukirky Seasonings Anchonero rub. As the name implies, Anchonero has ancho (smoky, dark) and habanero (heat, bright) chiles. 

Fat cap down on a wire rack in a half-sized steam pan. You can see I had the money muscle leaning against the steam pan in the front. If you look about 2 inches back, you can see a fine line that was the cut that I mentioned. If I did this without a steam pan, I would have tied the money muscle to the roast so it didn't flop open and cook faster than the rest of the roast.

Gorgonzola and Roasted Garlic Sauce for Steaks, Beef Roasts, and Burgers

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This is the recipe for the sauce that we served with reverse-seared beef tenderloin at the 2023 Chain of Lakes Eggfest. We won 1st place there and this sauce was definitely one of the reasons that we did so well. A lot of folks asked for this recipe so here it is. 

About Gorgonzola Sauce

This sauce is rich in texture and flavor. Loaded with heavy cream, the sauce is like velvet. It has the flavor trifecta with gorgonzola cheese, green peppercorn, and roasted garlic. It is excellent on:

• Beef roasts, such as beef tenderloin or rib roasts,
• Steaks, including ribeye, porterhouse, strip and filet, and
• Big juicy burgers!

Green Peppercorns

Green peppercorns are just black peppercorns that aren't sun-dried. 

• Green peppercorns have a fragrant aroma and have a more fruity flavor.
• Green peppercorns have less heat and are less astringent in flavor than black peppercorns.
• Green peppercorns are more tender, so I crush mine in a mortar and pestle to get rustic, coarse bits for my sauce.
• Substitute - If you can't find green peppercorns (I mail order ours), you can probably find those little pepper grinders full of tri-color pepper in any grocery store. Coarsely ground tri-color pepper will work, just dial back the quantity to about 1 teaspoon.

Here's the recipe.

Appetizer Idea: Fried Mashed Potato Cakes with Brisket and Pimento Cheese

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I smoked a brisket last weekend and while it was tender, delicious, and amazing, that is just the start of this post.

One night last week, I made twice-baked potatoes with some of this tasty brisket and leftover pimento cheese that Alexis had made.

Twice-Baked Potatoes

The process is simple. 

• I baked two large Idaho bakers on the Egg until they were tender. 
• I sliced the top off and scoops the steaming potato pulp into a large bowl. 
• There I added about a cup of chopped brisket and a heaping amount of pimento cheese. 
• I stuffed most of this mix back into the potato shells.

I put the potatoes on a tray into a Big Green Egg set up for indirect heat and running at 350°f. I topped them with a few pats of butter and let them run for 20 minutes.

2023 Chain of Lakes Eggfest

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Once again, I'm super proud of the Nibble Me This grilling team. Last weekend, we cooked in the 2023 Chain of Lakes Eggfest and the hungry crowds voted us as the 2023 Champions.

I couldn't ask to cook with a better group of friends and family.

But even better, this grilled food festival is an annual fund-raiser hosted by Mannix Pools and Grills for Girls Inc. and the local Boys and Girls Club. The top 3 placing teams - TromboKing, Pork's Peak, and Nibble Me This - not only donated our cash prizes back to the charities but the 3 teams also MATCHED that with an additional donation, totaling $5,000 extra for the two clubs.

Here is a look back at the event.

Planning

Before we light the first fire, Rhonda (team captain and my sister) and I plan it all out.

• What to serve - We look at things that are crowd favorites, can be prepped ahead of time, and have short cook times so we can keep the food coming out.
• How much to serve - We create a demand forecast by taking the number of ticket presales and typically double that to account for walk-up sales.
• What to take - We coordinate our equipment & supplies lists so that team members bring everything we need but not 2 and 3 of everything since space is a premium.

Pre-Prep

Since we only have 2 hours before gates open on the event day, we have to smoke our green chile-seasoned pork butts during the week. Rhonda did two of these for Jordan's Drunk Pickles and I did one for the Smoked Pork Taquitos.

Eight-pound pork butt seasoned with Albukirky's Green Chile Seasoning. For smoke, I used Jealous Devil Smoke Wood blocks that I cut down to cubes for the kamado grill. I used the Thermoworks Signal with a Billows fan to run the Big Green Egg grill at 250°f.
Thermoworks Signal [Affiliate Link] (currently $59 off)
Thermoworks Billows [Affiliate Link]

Avocado, Chorizo, and Pepper Jack Cheeseburger

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A chorizo, avocado, and pepper jack cheeseburger is a delicious twist on the classic American cheeseburger. This burger features a juicy patty made from ground chuck and topped with gooey melted pepper jack cheese. We crown it with creamy avocado and flavorful chorizo. The combination of smoky, spicy, and creamy flavors creates a mouthwatering burger experience that's sure to satisfy any craving.

Alexis was craving a griddle-cooked burger while I wanted mine grilled. No problem. I used my modular cast-iron grate from Craycort, which let me swap a grate section out with a griddle plate as shown below.

I've been using cast iron grates from Craycort for about 14 years. In addition to being a fantastic cast-iron grate, the modular design lets you add other components like this griddle, a vegetable wok, or a chicken throne. 
Craycort

Not that you need a recipe for a burger, but here is what we did.

New Year's Day Pork Butt

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I was only planning on smoking that brisket for New Years' Day but Food City had pork butts for $1.49 per pound and I couldn't resist picking one up. 

Smoked pork butt finishing on the Big Green Egg.

Meat Prep

I kept it simple. I started with an 8.7-pound Smithfield bone-in pork shoulder butt roast.

• Trimming - None needed.
• Injection - I injected it with a simple solution of 12 ounces of apple juice and 2 tablespoons of kosher salt.
• Seasoning - I heavily coated the pork butt with Fire and Smoke BBQ Company's Second City Sweet BBQ Rub. I covered it and let it dry brine for 6 hours in the fridge. 

New Years Eve Brisket Cook

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We welcomed in 2023 by smoking a whole brisket and a pork butt overnight on New Year's Eve. Here's my notes about how the brisket cook went.

Meat Prep

I started with an 18-pound USDA Prime, Certified Angus Beef Brand whole brisket.

• Wet aging - I wet-aged the brisket in the original packaging for a few extra weeks.
• Trimming - I did a competition-style trim, meaning I separated the point from the flat. I mainly did that so it would fit in a large Big Green Egg but I also like getting bark on all sides of the point.
• Injection - I injected it with 2 cups of plain beef stock, skipping the typical phosphate-basted injections used in competitions. 
• Seasoning - I used Thunderbird's Bravo Bark Builder for Beef and let it dry brine for about 6 hours before smoking. Usually, I do at least 10-12 hours but I was short on time and figured that some time was better than none, right?

This brisket was a long boy! That meant I pretty much had to trim it comp-style, which separates the point and the flat. Otherwise, it would be too long to fit inside one of my large Big Green Egg kamado grills.