I am a smoker, the BBQ type.

[ponyo]

Smoked/indirect grilled some wings on the Weber kettle. I still had lot of charcoal leftover in the kettle from grilling pork loin last week so I dumped it in the Weber charcoal basket and reused it for the wings. I placed the charcoal basket in the center and placed the wings around it. I sprinkled on Lawry's seasoned salt as rub for the wings. I placed couple of small pieces apple wood on the center of the grilling grate for the smoke. Total cook time was about an hour. I flipped the wings every 20 minutes. I decided not to sauce the wings at the end and instead used Chick-fil-A Polynesian and Zesty Buffalo sauce packets as dipping sauces. Wings were cooked crisp and all the fat rendered just the way I like it. This will be my go to method to cook wings from now on. After using the charcoal basket, I can't see how Vortex can cook the wings any better. It's the same thing except the Weber charcoal basket is way more versatile and cost $15 vs $42 for the Vortex.

 

[HomerJS]

Nice!! All you need now is a football game and some beer. I also like celery with my wings but probably goes against norm

 

[lupi]

They do look good, but I still prefer mine with the hard breaded crust from frying.

 

[ponyo]

Nice!! All you need now is a football game and some beer. I also like celery with my wings but probably goes against norm

Every place down here serves celery with wings. I like to dip the celery and wings in ranch dressing.

They do look good, but I still prefer mine with the hard breaded crust from frying.

I prefer naked fried wings since that's what I grew up eating. But this is the closest to fried wings I've made using the grill.

 

[Jeeebus]

Made a standing rib roast / prime rib on the Big Joe today. Total cook time around 2 hours @ 225 - 250, finished with some searing on all sides @ 600 or so. Nailed it. Rib roast was around 5 lbs with two bones. Chewing on the bones like a mangy dog was the best part.

 

[ponyo]

^^absolutely perfect. Cooked exactly how I like it.

I went to Costco Business Center to buy some cheap beef to make jerky. I got lucky and they had some discounted expiring beef they put out on display. I was able to buy four packages of choice boneless chuck short ribs for $4 /lb, marked down from $6.79 /lb and two packages of cap off inside round for $2 /lb, marked down from $3.59 /lb. I love finding and buying discounted expiring beef because I'm getting wet aged beef at a discount. I'm going to make beef jerky with the inside round and the use the short ribs for soups, braise, korean bbq, and smoking. $4/lb is absolute steal for boneless. The same cut boneless short ribs is $10 /lb at my local Costco.

 

[lupi]

that is a good buy, in bulk even.

 

[SZLiao214]

Is it alternator size yet?

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Damn you!! Now I want short ribs for dinner.

 

[ponyo]

I bought two more Weber kettles from Walmart. It's the Weber kettle premium 22". It's what I really wanted but had to settle for the regular original last week since the premium wasn't on clearance. I found a Walmart across town that had two of the premium in stock at clearance price so I drove there and picked it up. Paid $35 each. I'm officially done buying any more Weber kettles.

 

[Denly]

I guess this belong here, question to you guys. I burned off a few pine log in the firepit when cleaning the yard over the weekend, at the end it become a nice slow burning fire. I was going to have steak that night anyway so I put the steak on the grate and place it about 1ft about it. About 1 1/2 hrs later I made the fire strong for finish and it came out perfect. Everything was great except there is a hint of sour, is it because I leave it there too long? The type of wood? Would like to do it again but I prefer not to have the hint of sour.

 

[Kaido]

Learned a neat little trick from my MIL last night for doing baked potatoes - you can squeeze them after cooking to get the restaurant texture! But first, here is the recipe I used:

http://www.copykat.com/2012/08/12/outback-steakhouse-baked-potato/

Outback Steakhouse Salted-Jacket Baked Potatoes: (copycat recipe)

Preheat the oven to 350F:

1. Wash & dry russet potatoes (I use small & medium-sized potatoes)
2. Dip a paper towel in canola oil & lightly coat each potato by hand (or if you're doing a lot, just throw them in a bowl & mix by hand...dish soap will de-grease your hands after)
3. Lightly salt each potato with Kosher salt
4. Do NOT poke holes in the potatoes. As pointed out by the recipe, potatoes only explode when you overcook them!
5. Bake the potatoes for at least 60 minutes on a cookie sheet or cake tray (although my oven is le crap, took closer to 90 minutes for the fork test to push through easily)

Once done, remove them & let them cool down for a few minutes. The trick my MIL showed me is to (1) slice in half long-ways (don't cut all the way through), and (2) put your fingers at each split end and push in, like you're compressing it. The inside of the potato will break up just right, without having to smash it up with a fork. Comes out PERFECT!

 

[HomerJS]

I guess this belong here, question to you guys. I burned off a few pine log in the firepit when cleaning the yard over the weekend, at the end it become a nice slow burning fire. I was going to have steak that night anyway so I put the steak on the grate and place it about 1ft about it. About 1 1/2 hrs later I made the fire strong for finish and it came out perfect. Everything was great except there is a hint of sour, is it because I leave it there too long? The type of wood? Would like to do it again but I prefer not to have the hint of sour.

It was the type of wood. Pine is soft wood with embedded oils. Not recommended for smoking

 

[ponyo]

Home Depot and Lowe's have the Kingsford 2-pack 18.6-lb charcoal blue bags on sale for $9.88 through 9/4. It's their annual Labor Day sale. This will be the last major holiday sale of the year until next year Memorial Day. So if you're running low and plan to grill through the winter, this is the time to stock up. I will be picking up couple of bags.

 

[ponyo]

I made new Texas style rub from the recipe shared by John Lewis. I believe this is the true rub recipe used by Franklin BBQ. John Lewis doesn't mention the MSG salt but I added it because I believe that's the final missing ingredient as that gives true 50/50 black pepper to salt ratio.

8 parts coarse ground pepper
3 parts Lawry's seasoned salt
3 parts kosher salt
1 part granulated garlic
1 part MSG salt

I used 1 tablespoon as 1 part. I haven't had the chance to use it as it's been raining here because of the storm from Hurricane Harvey. I also made the 50/50 yellow mustard and pickle juice binder to use with the rub.

 

[zinfamous]

Learned a neat little trick from my MIL last night for doing baked potatoes - you can squeeze them after cooking to get the restaurant texture! But first, here is the recipe I used:

http://www.copykat.com/2012/08/12/outback-steakhouse-baked-potato/

Outback Steakhouse Salted-Jacket Baked Potatoes: (copycat recipe)

Preheat the oven to 350F:

1. Wash & dry russet potatoes (I use small & medium-sized potatoes)
2. Dip a paper towel in canola oil & lightly coat each potato by hand (or if you're doing a lot, just throw them in a bowl & mix by hand...dish soap will de-grease your hands after)
3. Lightly salt each potato with Kosher salt
4. Do NOT poke holes in the potatoes. As pointed out by the recipe, potatoes only explode when you overcook them!
5. Bake the potatoes for at least 60 minutes on a cookie sheet or cake tray (although my oven is le crap, took closer to 90 minutes for the fork test to push through easily)

Once done, remove them & let them cool down for a few minutes. The trick my MIL showed me is to (1) slice in half long-ways (don't cut all the way through), and (2) put your fingers at each split end and push in, like you're compressing it. The inside of the potato will break up just right, without having to smash it up with a fork. Comes out PERFECT!

I believe Outback encases their potatoes in lard. Canola oil is super weak sauce, my friend.

 

[ponyo]

Smoking beef ribs again. This time I'm using the new Texas style rub I made couple days ago. I slathered the ribs with mixture of pickle juice and yellow mustard before sprinkling on the new rub. Smoking the ribs with hickory and apple wood in the Big Joe at 275 F.

This is at the start.

2 hours in and the ribs on the right are already almost done. It's reading around 195-200 in most places and already probe tender in lot of areas. I'm going to give it another 15-20 minutes and pull the right ribs off the smoker. The left ribs probably need another 30 minutes or so. The ribs cooked so fast I didn't have time to spritz the ribs with apple cider vinegar and worchestershire sauce.

 

[ponyo]

The beef ribs were ridiculously good. The rub is a keeper and what I will use on beef and pork going forward. It wasn't too peppery and had the right amount of salt. I don't know if the pickle juice and mustard added anything but I don't think it hurt. I might try cooking without it on the next cook to see if I can spot the difference but it's cheap so I will likely keep using it. The ribs cooked in less than 3 hours total so maybe the pickle juice and mustard helped cook faster. I don't know but I got great smoke ring for smoking for less than 3 hours. I didn't even add that much hickory or apple chunks.

I took two small bites.

 

[ponyo]

I went to my local Costco to buy some wings to grill tonight for the football game when I saw some Prime packers. This is the first time I've seen any packer of any kind at my local Costco location, let alone prime. So I felt obligated to buy one to show support. I went through all the briskets and chose one I felt bent the best. That's how I choose which brisket to buy. Nice uniform size along with thick flat is nice but what's the most important to me is the brisket needs to be really flexible and not stiff.

 

[ponyo]

Used some of the leftover beef ribs in ramen. I used Philips pasta maker machine to make fresh ramen noodles but used instant ramen soup base. Once I get the asian pasta discs delivered from Australia, I should be able to make proper shaped fresh ramen noodles. I'm going to buy some pork bones and chicken feet to make proper ramen broth once I get my ramen pasta disc.

 

[ponyo]

I've been buying and stocking up on more cheap beef. Last week, I picked up bunch of nice trimmed chuck roast for $2.99 /lb at Sprouts. And couple days ago, I picked up some more prime brisket and choice boneless short ribs from Costco. I paid $2.69 /lb for nice small floppy prime brisket packer. That's the cheapest price I paid for prime brisket yet. I wanted to buy more but I'm out of freezer space. I paid $4 /lb for the choice boneless short ribs.

I've been experimenting more with binders. My binder of choice is now 50/50 yellow mustard and pickle juice followed by sriracha hot sauce. Sriracha adds nice heat to the finished smoked meat that I like. And I've been playing around with injecting the meat. I injected the chuck roast with my homemade korean galbi marinade prior to smoking and I really liked the added flavor that provided. My wife and daughter both commented the marinade injection kicked up the flavor of the smoked chuck roast a notch especially the inside where the flavor can be kind of boring. And I have been playing around with smoking frozen meat. I smoked frozen brisket, chuck roast, short ribs, pork butt, and pork spare ribs without completely thawing. What I've found is frozen doesn't make difference other than adding about an hour or two to the total cook time and you can't inject frozen meat. And binders and rubs don't stick as well but you can add more rub as the meat cooks and thaws in the smoker. So you can take completely frozen meat out of the freezer and place that straight into the smoker and do the cook. Every frozen cook I've done turned out great and I could not really tell any difference.

 

[Kaido]

 

[ponyo]

I haven't posted in this thread in awhile but I haven't stopped smoking. I think I've finally figured out the process to smoke great brisket. I use combination of wet aged prime brisket, my version of John Lewis's Texas style rub, and Myron Mixon's brisket cooking method. I've done this twice and both times ended up with the best brisket I've had. Yesterday, I smoked more than 60 days wet aged USDA prime brisket packer. It's the same brisket I bought on Sept 23 you can see from the picture couple posts up. I don't have any proof but I think wet aging helps the meat cook faster and helps with the tenderness. The competition guys like Myron cook with great piece of meat like Gold grade Wagyu brisket. I'm not cooking competition so Costco prime brisket that I wet age at home is more than good substitute IMO and allows me to mimic Myron's cook. Myron's smoked brisket process is simple. Inject the brisket with beef broth. Then two hours at 300 in the smoke for color naked - no spritz, no peeking, 2+ hours in a pan with a rack tightly covered to cook through, looking for an IT of 205. Rest for 2 to 4 hours covered. Yesterday, I cooked at 280 F grate temperature on the Big Kamado Joe and finished smoking brisket packer in 3.5 hours. That is extremely fast. And the finished product was fantastic. Here's some pics.

10.74 pounds Costco prime brisket packer. It's been wet aging in my garage fridge since Sept 23.

Trimmed picture. I didn't have to trim much. It was a beautiful piece of meat with minimal fat.

Rubbed with Texas style rub, injected with beef broth, and placed fat side up on the Big Joe. The smoker grate temperature was around 270 F. But I should've placed the meat fat side down since I injected from the meat side and not the fat side. I didn't think about my error until about an hour and half into the cook. But I decided it was too late at that point and left it alone.

Picture of the brisket at the 2 hour mark. The smoker grate temperature was around 280 F. Brisket internal temp was around 162 F. The exterior color of the brisket looked good so I decided it was time to place it in the foil pan. I had placed pan of mac & cheese in the smoker about 10 minutes prior but I removed it after I took this pic. The brisket foil pan was too large and the Big Joe lid wouldn't close with both pans in the smoker. So I moved the small mac & cheese foil pan to the oven. I added bunch of sweet potatoes on the vacated grate space.

Hour and half later in the covered foil pan, the brisket temp hit 205 F according to my wireless Maverick probe. I double checked with Thermapen and sure enough it was 205 F and it probed butter tender everywhere. So it was time to remove the brisket from the smoker. Total cooking time for the brisket in the smoker from start to finish was 3 hours and 30 minutes at around 280 F. That's really quick.

Picture of the finished brisket with 10 minute rest. I removed the foil cover to let it cool. After the 10 minutes venting, I wrapped the brisket tight with aluminum foil and placed it in the ice cooler wrapped in towels for almost 3 hours until dinner time.

After the 3 hour rest, I sliced it and it was extremely juicy and full of liquid. I only cut portion of the flat to eat and left everything else whole so I could use it for deli style sandwich meat later. The flat slices were outstanding, full of flavor and not dry at all. Best I made.

 

[Ns1]

 

[NetWareHead]

Looks great and the moisture in the meat is readily apparent. Excellent work!