Gratuitous Grill Thread 2014

[femurphy77]

We're going to expand our limited horizon this weekend and throw some chicken quarters on the smoker. We're still in the "getting to know your smoker" stage. I have a couple of remote digital thermometers that monitor grill temp and product temp. I've also installed a couple of quality thermometers in the smoker lid at cooking height. I am seeing a 20-70 variation in the digitals compared to the analogs with the digitals showing the higher temps. I tend to believe the digitals based on finished product. We'll be using the digitals exclusively for the chicken smoke.

 

[JollyMon]

Attempted my first brisket on Friday..... it didn't turn out well. Planned using a 1.5 hours per pound method for a 6 pounder. Should have only took 9 hours....with an additional few hours for rest. Cooking at 235-250, Hit my stall at 140 at 4:00pm, wrapped in foil (as tightly as I could).... 8:00pm came out of the stall and only rose to 160, come on 190 (is what I was thinking)....Wife bought a pizza cause she was hungry... 11pm, moved the probe around a few times to make sure it was accurate and still registered the same.... waited until 1:00am and still didn't move past 162.... I did something wrong.

I think I will just stick with the 3-2-1 method for ribs method as I know those will at least be done when I want them too.

 

[femurphy77]

JM, in our limited experience we've learned that the clock is just something you use to pace your beer drinking! We've been going strictly on temps and have been very pleased with the results. Real times have been running anywhere from 10-14 hours in the smoke. On the shorter timed smokes we just stretch it out for a few more hours so we have at least 12 in the smoke. Our first smoke based on time/pound was cooked but like crocodile Dundee said, " you can eat it but it tasted like ****"! WAY TOO tough! YMMV

 

[Mark-DuCo]

Attempted my first brisket on Friday..... it didn't turn out well. Planned using a 1.5 hours per pound method for a 6 pounder. Should have only took 9 hours....with an additional few hours for rest. Cooking at 235-250, Hit my stall at 140 at 4:00pm, wrapped in foil (as tightly as I could).... 8:00pm came out of the stall and only rose to 160, come on 190 (is what I was thinking)....Wife bought a pizza cause she was hungry... 11pm, moved the probe around a few times to make sure it was accurate and still registered the same.... waited until 1:00am and still didn't move past 162.... I did something wrong.

I think I will just stick with the 3-2-1 method for ribs method as I know those will at least be done when I want them too.

I would bump the heat up to speed up the cook, and also with a brisket you can't go buy a set time or temperature for done, you have to go by feel. When you stick a probe in it, it should be like going into a stick of butter, then pull it from the heat and rest it.

 

[jetmechG550]

The one pictured above went approximately 1 hour per pound but I use temp as a reference and I don't wrap in foil at any point. I generally cook at 250 for the duration of the cook, at around 190 I will move the probe and go by feel, if it's soft and goes right it in I pull it and wrap and let it rest for at least 30-60 minutes. I also pull the point at that time and only wrap the flat. The point gets cubed and turned in burnt ends which usually are gone before I finish slicing the flat. Briskets are finicky and far tougher to get right than one usually thinks.

 

[Hexlobular]

Attempted my first brisket on Friday..... it didn't turn out well. Planned using a 1.5 hours per pound method for a 6 pounder. Should have only took 9 hours....with an additional few hours for rest. Cooking at 235-250, Hit my stall at 140 at 4:00pm, wrapped in foil (as tightly as I could).... 8:00pm came out of the stall and only rose to 160, come on 190 (is what I was thinking)....Wife bought a pizza cause she was hungry... 11pm, moved the probe around a few times to make sure it was accurate and still registered the same.... waited until 1:00am and still didn't move past 162.... I did something wrong.

I think I will just stick with the 3-2-1 method for ribs method as I know those will at least be done when I want them too.

You can never go by time with brisket. It's done when it is, and not any sooner. If you do a 3-2-1 you'll treat your family to a nice hot block of shoe leather. The stall is important, and you have to let it run it's course, otherwise the water moisture will stay in, but the rest doesn't have a chance to break down properly, resulting in tough meat. Plan for 12 hours at a minimum, and go from there. I don't foil mine until well into the smoke, then put it in a roaster, put that in a big cooler stuffed with old patio chair pillows, and let it sit for two hours. After that, it's still too hot to pick up without potholders, and it will fall apart nicely.

 

[jetmechG550]

You can never go by time with brisket. It's done when it is, and not any sooner. If you do a 3-2-1 you'll treat your family to a nice hot block of shoe leather. The stall is important, and you have to let it run it's course, otherwise the water moisture will stay in, but the rest doesn't have a chance to break down properly, resulting in tough meat. Plan for 12 hours at a minimum, and go from there. I don't foil mine until well into the smoke, then put it in a roaster, put that in a big cooler stuffed with old patio chair pillows, and let it sit for two hours. After that, it's still too hot to pick up without potholders, and it will fall apart nicely.

I believe he was saying he was going to stick to ribs and doing the 3-2-1 method on them not cooking the brisket that way

 

[chezuki]

The golden rule of BBQ... "It ain't done 'til it's done."

 

[forgop]

Whether it's pork butts, brisket, or ribs, it's all done by feel and never by temp and a specified temp/time. For pork, I always go by the bone jiglge and for beef brisket, it's how the probe goes in as mentioned above.

I'm finally going to fire up the Traeger today with 2 pork butts and then throwing on boneless/skinless chicken breasts as I'm trying to conform to some sort of healty diiet at the moment. I'll do ribs later in the summer after I take some of the weight off I've gained in the past 6 months.

 

[phylodog]

Slightly off topic with this one but I need a distraction so... I smoked three chickens for our Independence day meal. Turned out great and these are my family's favorite.

Not sure why but they took a couple of hours longer than they normally do. I brined them for 24 hours in water, salt, brown sugar, molasses, granulated garlic and chili powder so they were still very moist. The only real difference was in the tenderness, they quite literally fell apart when I went to pull them. So I ended up with a pile of pulled & smoked yard bird.

Normally this would be the end of the story as anything that didn't make it into the above pictured pan would go into the trash, not this time. I read online about making stock with a smoked chicken carcass and decided to give it a shot. I tossed everything that was left into a large stock pot and added just enough water to cover the contents. To that I added six stalks of celery (cut into 4" sections), two large yellow onions (quartered), around a dozen of the baby carrots, a clove of elephant garlic (cut in half) and some kosher salt. I heated it all to a boil then dropped the temp down to a simmer and let it ride for four hours. After letting it cool for a bit I strained it all through cheese cloth draped in a colander to catch all of the solids. I ended up with six quarts and just vacuum sealed it in 2qt bags as we'll use it for soup and we tend to make large batches of soup. This stuff will henceforth be referred to as "liquid gold" in our house. My wife and I both had a little taste of it as we were packaging it up for the freezer and it is unreal.

I've never been a summer time guy but now I have yet another reason to look forward to fall. This stuff is going to make a phenomenal batch of sausage & lentil or sausage, potato & kale soup.

 

[Clay]

I smoked a little last year on a weber kettle, but I wanted to get some kind of kamado type cooker. I couldn't justify a BGE yet, so I bought a Chargriller Akorn last fall on sale. This past week I got my Pitmaster IQ110, so last night I decided to try my first kamado smoked boston butt for some pulled pork. Started it last night at midnight, and it was over 195 in 12 hours. I just pulled it out, pulled the bone (clean), wrapped it in foil and a towel, and its currently sitting in a cooler for at least a couple of hours to rest. So far from what little I've tasted it should be spectacular!

 

[chezuki]

Looks like a perfectly cooked butt Clay! I've been very tempted to pick up one of those Akorns. Have you used it for much else?

 

[Clay]

I actually use it for just about everything. since its insulated, it takes so little charcoal to cook lots of food with. My weber usually sits empty given a choice. (speaking of which, I should probably give consideration to selling my gas grill lol)

 

[Mark-DuCo]

The other day I stumbled upon a new product, Frank's Hot Sauce Powder. I got it from firehousepantry.com, and it is amazing on popcorn. Tonight I tried it as the rub on some smoked chicken wings.

The flavor of the wings was excellent, but I ended up saucing them as well, just not enough hot sauce flavor for me (more rub next time and I will apply it sooner.) This will definitely always be in my cabinet from now on and a staple on grilled or smoked hot wings.

 

[steveh_131]

Hot sauce powder? I gotta try that!

Pop quiz, hot shots. What is this and how do I smoke it:

I know that it's some kind of pork. And it has a long bone running down that top ridge.

Help me out grill bros!

 

[chezuki]

Hot sauce powder? I gotta try that!

Pop quiz, hot shots. What is this and how do I smoke it:

I know that it's some kind of pork. And it has a long bone running down that top ridge.

Help me out grill bros!

Pics no worky.

 

[steveh_131]

Pics no worky.

Try it now.

 

[chezuki]

Try it now.

That's a short loin. It's usually cut into the pork chops that resemble T-Bone steaks. Should be fine low and slow.

 

[Mark-DuCo]

.

 

[steveh_131]

That's a short loin. It's usually cut into the pork chops that resemble T-Bone steaks. Should be fine low and slow.

I believe you nailed it.