Cherry Mojito Party

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bbquzz

Master Chef
Joined
Sep 17, 2009
Messages
5,011
Location
Newark, OH & Indian River, MI
I have loads of life long friend in the same bay as our summer cottage on Mullett Lake in Northrern Michigan. Michigan Black Cherries come in season during July so for the past several years I have hosted an Cherry Mojito party for my neighbors. Cherry Mojito are made with cherries fermented in lime juice and sugar for a day or two and then put in a glass with vodka and some club soda. This year rather than my usual snacks I wanted to treat the neighbors to a pulled pork dinner. We did a few chips and dips, but the primary appetizers were Moinks and ABT's and the main course was pulled pork, corn bread, baked beans and cole slaw.


I got the butts for a local butcher and these were not enhanced, this was a first for me. This party can range for 50-100 people so I did 6 butts. There are 9 of us in the cottage so I figured we would eat any not used for the party.



Because I bought 6, I got a price of $1.99 a lb. and think I had about 50 lbs. total. I figured a 50% yield and 3 - 4 sammies per lb. I figured I could feed about 75 adults + or -, but knew I would have loads of kids too so there would probably be left overs.



Not sure why but I found the un-enhanced butts to have a much thicker fat cap, so I trimmed it up.



I did have a real concern that I could fit 6 butts on my 22.5 WSM, so I checked it out and found I could have done 8 if needed.



Here are all 6 rubbed, and ready to go in the fridge for about 12 hours. I made my own Southern Succor rub from the Smoke and Spice book.



Here are the butts on the lower rack.


Here are the 3 on the upper rack.



Here is the finished product on the top rack.



And here are the 3 on the bottom that finished about 15 minutes after the top. All came off at 190°. As you can tell from all the probes I did use my Guru for this cook.



I put the butt on at 9PM on Saturday night and they came off about 2PM Sunday. I wrapped them until 5:30 PM and pulled them. The party started at 6PM The bone pulled out easily and I have to say this was my best effort.



It had a great bark and nice smoke ring, I used Apple and Hickory wood.



The new Chaney gill was moved into its new summer home down by the lake and my crew was getting it ready for the appetizers.



The ABT's were stuffed with hot sausage, cream cheese, cheddar cheese and some Pig Powder. The Moinks were rubbed with some brown sugar, chili powder and Pig Powder, once they were almost done we dunk them in La Choy sweet sour sauce and back on the grill to get sticky. We got rave reviews on both of these.



My crew was my Nephew Rory from LA and my two future Sons-in-law Wil and Joel. I could not have pulled this off without them.



Of course I had to do a little supervising.



This is the first batch and there was a little learning curve. We did about 100 ABT's and 150 Moinks and there were no left-overs. I think that means people liked them.



This is a shot of the bar with the jars of the cherries. The drink is served with a spoon so you can eat the cherries easily when the vodka is gone.



More of the crew, my twin daughters, Amy and Liz tended the bar.



We take an annual picture and by my count we ended up with over 60 people this year. The weather was super considering the rest of the country is having a heat wave we were at 72° and sunny.



We even got a beautiful sunset to close the party.

 
Great looking food and pics. Looks like a great time, thanks for sharing. I sure do miss Michigan black cherries. We used to go and pick bushels of them when I was a kid.
 
Your KILLIN' me bbquzz!!!!! The food looks great, the lake looks great, the Chaney patio looks great and your daughters look great too! :D ;) :oops: :mrgreen: They look like they're identical. I'm an identical twin myself. Youngest by 5 minutes. It's fun being a twin...most of the time.

You're right, the 22.5" WSM will hold 8 butts no problem. As you noticed though, the cook time gets extended with a large load, even though you used the guru to keep a constant temp. :roll: ;) . Did you have to add charcoal during the cook?

Great looking party. I'll keep my eyes on the mail for my invite next year!! ;)
 
Shores said:
Your KILLIN' me bbquzz!!!!! The food looks great, the lake looks great, the Chaney patio looks great and your daughters look great too! :D ;) :oops: :mrgreen: They look like they're identical. I'm an identical twin myself. Youngest by 5 minutes. It's fun being a twin...most of the time.

You're right, the 22.5" WSM will hold 8 butts no problem. As you noticed though, the cook time gets extended with a large load, even though you used the guru to keep a constant temp. :roll: ;) . Did you have to add charcoal during the cook?

Great looking party. I'll keep my eyes on the mail for my invite next year!! ;)

Thanks for all the kind words. I went to bed at midnight and set the alarm for 6 but woke at 5 and put in a pretty good load of RO and then again at 10:30 AM I topped it off. It held very well at 225 for the full cook. I have read enough here on the Forum that I knew 50 lbs. of cold meat would pull the temp down and take longer to get done. I was getting a little nervous because I was shooting to be done by 1PM, but 2PM enough time for them to rest and get pulled. The girls are identical and I think they would agree with you it is fun to have a twin, they are great girls.
 
That's the way to have a PARTY!
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Now that's a party!

Could you please tell us how to marinate those cherries? Pitted?

How much sugar and lime juice to how many cherries?

I would make that drink in a minute!
 
mar52 said:
Now that's a party!

Could you please tell us how to marinate those cherries? Pitted?

How much sugar and lime juice to how many cherries?

I would make that drink in a minute!

I'm embarrassed to say it is a Martha Stewart recipe (Google Martha Stewart Cherry Mojito for her recipe) that I revised :D I use glass apothecary jars with 3 lbs of pitted cherries, the juice of 10 limes and a cup of white sugar, you let it sit for a day or two. Martha recommends a premium vodka, but we always use the cheapest. Put some cherries in the glass, as much vodka as you would like and soda water. My two bartenders told me they were adding a little Cherry 7UP as they did no think the drink was sweet enough. I have to say the marinated cherries are great even without the vodka.
 

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