I honestly can't remember how many years we have had this event. In 1999, we skipped a year -- we had Corwin's first month banquent instead. But generally, we have held this barbecue on the last Saturday in June, and we've done it since shortly after we moved in to the house. So I am guessing that we would have started in 1996. If so, this was the tenth. (And if we had done one in 1999, this would have been the eleventh.)
On Thursday, with Brie to help with Corwin-wrangling, we got the sausages and the main course -- forty pieces of pork tenderloin. Mid Year Barbecue prep had been underway since Wednesday, when Jill and Peter did a massive round of yard work.
Friday morning, I made the char siu marinade, unwrapped the tenderloin, and repackaged them in ziplock bags to marinate overnight.
The char siu marinade recipe for this year (it tends to vary a bit) was as follows:
in a large non-stick pot on low head, I added
8 squirts of ketchup
8 glugs of teriyaki sauce
8 bottles of char siu sauce
1 bottle of hoisin sauce
16 shakes of white pepper
24 shakes of garlic powder
This mixture was allowed to warm up as it was slowly stirred. One of the eight empty char siu bottles was refilled with the heated mixture and allowed to cool.
The meat was prepared by first rinsing in cold water. With one scoop of marinade in the bottom of a ziplock bag, five tenderloins were added to the bag. On top, a light sprinkling of salt, four shakes of white pepper, and a glug of cider vinegar. Then a second scoop of char siu marinade. The bag was then sealed, and squished around to get the meat coated with the marinade.
In the preparation process, no raw meat was ever allowed to touch the supply of amrinade in the pot. Leftover marinade in the pot was set aside for use as sauce.
The bags of meat were left in the fridge overnight.
Friday afternoon, I went on a road trip with Brie, and got more supplies. On our way home, we picked up Corwin from school at the end of his last day of Grade One.
On Saturday morning, I refilled the propane tanks. This year, I had a tank which had gone past its ten year limit. The guy at the service station offered to fill the tank anyway -- something which has to make you nervous about what people actually do with old tanks.
Michael and Lorna dropped by in the early afternoon, and we did the beer, ice, and fruit run. After unloading, there was enough time to relax and hang out. Around 2:00pm, the Phinneys arrived -- sadly, without Elaine, who had a camping weekend with her colleagues on the same weekend. With Bob, I did the chicken wing run -- 200 medium wings from the St. Louis Bar and Grill -- and the Mid Year Barbecue was in full swing.
Starting around 3:00, other people began to arrive.
Around 4:30 or 5:00, after the chicken wings and the sausages, the tenderloins were hauled out and thrown on the barbecue to cook on low heat. The bottle of char siu mix set aside at the beginning was used to brush on the meat (actaully spooned on and rubbed in with a spoon because of the viscosity of the sauce).
I wasn't as happy with the meat this year as I was last year, because I felt that the heat had been overdone. However, no one seemed to mind.
So, another successful Mid Year Barbecue goes down in history.
There were 60 people this year, and the event ran from about noon to midnight. And for the record, I seriously overestimated the amount of meat needed. Again.
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