Grilled Sand and Witches by Leah R Cutter

Author:Leah R Cutter
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781644704080
Publisher: Knotted Road Press

Chapter Fifteen

As the evening wore down, AJ went back to the campgrounds with Gabby so they could talk in private.

Elanor prepared the pork butts while Gabby started stoking up the fires in Inez, their smoker. AJ had no idea of all the prep work that went into meat, between trimming it to perfection, injecting it, as well as seasoning it.

Las Chicas would smoke four pork butts. However, they would only turn in a handful of meat to the judges. This was why there would be so much BBQ available for the general public to taste on Sunday, after the contestants started turning in their product.

That was actually the same case with all of competition meats: they prepared a lot and only sent in the best of the best to the judges. Cooking four briskets and only sending in six slices. Preparing two dozen chicken thighs and only being judged on six of them. Ribs, too.

Elanor kicked them both out of the RV while she finished prepping the pork, insisting on doing it by herself. AJ pulled up a camp chair and wrapped a handy blanket around herself while Gabby tended the flames.

“I always have to start with a real fire,” Gabby said into the quiet night. The sun had set, and the air was chilled. “I don’t know why. You’d think that if I started the fire magically that it would be easier to control magically for the rest of the night. But for whatever reason, despite the fact that it’s a real fire burning real wood, a fire that’s started magically goes through peaks and troughs that aren’t explained by whatever I’m feeding it.”

“Could that be so that it doesn’t burn out of control?” AJ mused. “If it dies down naturally, you won’t be burning down an entire forest?”

Gabby shrugged as she continued to load more sticks of firewood into the firebox that was set to one side of the smoker.

Inez looked like two big black oil drums that had been welded together end to end, then set on their sides. Hinged doors were set into the middle of both drums, a chimney stuck up on the right, and a large, rectangular box on the left. The idea was for the smoke to travel from the fire box on the one side, across the meat in the center, then up out of the chimney. Large pans of water rested under the meat grates inside the drums to keep everything moist. Thermometers were set into the hinged doors, but Gabby also had probes sticking into the meat that she could monitor.

AJ had seen many smokers that weekend, most of them painted. There was even one that looked like a small, green, military tank. It was controlled remotely and moved around on treads. Inez was one of the few that was pure black with no logo on the side.

“She’s a dark lady,” Gabby had explained earlier in the week when AJ had asked about the lack of markings. “She rarely shows her colors to anyone.

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