Grilling, Smoking, BBQ, etc. WAYCT (What Are You Cooking Today) Outdoor Edition
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Thinking about it the hard bit of bbq has nothing to do with meat/seasoning/cooking, it's building/maintaining a fire that gives a consistent(ish) temp and clean smoke
This.
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Thanks @seawolf As a Mid-Southerner my focus with smoking has always been on pork (and to a lesser extent chicken, especially jerk over allspice wood, leaves, and berries), but I am eager to get into smoking beef.
I like the hot sauce slather and the idea of spritzing without any sugar involved.
A story about Aaron Franklin: some pitmaster friends of mine opened up a restaurant in Vancouver, WA (Portland suburb across the border) called The Smokin' Oak. They do Texas-style barbecue based on my friend Bryan's family recipes and have a craft cocktail program as well. In doing their research for the restaurant, they toured all the famous central TX pits. When they did Franklin, Aaron was on his way out but he greeted them warmly and told the pitmaster to tell them everything they needed to know. They incorporated some of Franklin's ideas into their smoker design, then added some additional hooks for smoking sausage links and shared that enhancement back with Aaron.
Then, some months later, they randomly ran into him at the airport and caught up with each other (maybe ATX, not sure).
I like how collegial Aaron was in helping them out. One day I would love to try his brisket but I'm not big on lines especially when there's not going to be a wait at numerous really good places within an hour of Austin (like Kreuz Market, where I went last time I was in the region).
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Little rack of ribs for dinner
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Red Snapper. Olive oil, salt, pepper and lemon. Corn was soaked in water for a few hours before going on the grill.
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I had some friend comming over last weekend and made a typical Turkish Chicken Durum on a spit.
5kg of chicken thighs slowly rotating, never had a more crisp bark and soft centre then this. I wish I took some pictures when it was done but as usual, I'm too bussy with cooking
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When they did Franklin, Aaron was on his way out but he greeted them warmly and told the pitmaster to tell them everything they needed to know.
I've heard nothing but good things about him. Why not share the knowledge? He's very well established now, and nothing will change that by sharing what he knows.
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Baby backs with a homemade barbecue sauce and Rendezvous rub. And some lettuces from the garden with a tomato water and garden spring onion vinaigrette, potato wedges, grilled corn, grilled pineapple.
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Thank you! It was great. Kamados take a lot of the challenge out of it. Just dial in the temp and use a timer. This was 3-2-1 (really 3-2-0.5-0.5 because I don't sauce until the final half hour) over Jealous Devil coal, pecan, apple, and cherry. Then I opened up the intake and daisy wheel to grill the corn and pineapple. I was impressed with how quickly the cooker went from low and slow to rippin' hot with only those adjustments.
As I move into brisket and double cook times, I'll be adding a Smobot, which is a robotically controlled kamado daisy wheel with meat and atmospheric temperature probes. You set target temperatures for meat and air and let her rip. I feel like this is the purest way to "cheat" on temperature management on kamados. Adding a fan as a cheat to such an efficient cooker, when all you need is for the daisy chain to continuously micro-adjust, is like tits on a bishop to me. And if you can't plug in whatever module you're using, a Smobot uses far less energy so should be fine with a USB battery.
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@mclaincausey I was thinking on getting a controller myself but finally never got to it and now I know my settings by heart, so I don't even need it anymore. Saved me a couple $$. Honestly, on a decent kamado (like your primo) a controller is not needed.
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Mostly agreed, which is why I learned the cooker first. The exception is long cooks overnight or where I want to be able to manage the cooker remotely. Same thing with smart home devices. I can flip a light switch, but sometimes it’s nice to be able to manage lights remotely or place them on automatic cycles.
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Rotisserie rib roast on the joe today
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More fun with beef over the weekend!
1.2kg ribeye on a skilled with Wagyu beef fat. The crust on this was next level!
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Gorgeous @scarfmace ! I like the cast iron. Hard to beat the temperature transfer of physical contact. I use a cast iron plancha in the bottom of my Oval, placed on the racks intended for heat deflectors, to get it close to the coals and rippin' hot.
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Thx @mclaincausey, I love cast iron aswell! Only downside is that it's quite heavy so in my home kitchen I work with carbon steel mostly, Carbon steel should hold up fine in the bbq aswell but require just a little more TLC and I can't always be bothered
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Y'all like pork? What about big ole butts? With homemade riff on a Columbia gold or a mid-south ketchup-based sauce and homemade slaw.
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I like big butts and I cant deny–--!
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Great looking combo, I can almost taste it
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Whole ribeye reversed seared on the kamado today
