Grilling, Smoking, BBQ, etc. WAYCT (What Are You Cooking Today) Outdoor Edition
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looks great!
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Looks really good. Congratulations! I’ve only done brisket flats as I don’t have enough room to do the point as well. Towards the end of the cook I’ll spray the brisket with a mixture of apple juice and water. Seems to help with the dryness. Also put some water and bourbon in my drip pan.I’m guessing you got your brisket from a butcher. Do you know if it was choice or prime. Doesn’t look like you wrapped/used the Texas crutch either. I’ve found that to help with the dryness as well.
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The big ol slabs of meat in this thread look incredible…my wife being Vegan has put a serious damper on my at-home meat prep for the last few years
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Thanks folks, it is damn fine!
So I did 225F rock steady and the point behaved well, but the flat completely did a different deal. The temperature graph looked like an hourglass as they diverged and then came together and then diverged again at the end. The flat never reached temp (defective probe? no idea what happened there) but even so I feel like it should have been pulled sooner. It was very strange to see not just stalls, but temperature going down pretty substantially when the pit temperature was steady. I did spray with 50:50 water:apple cider vinegar and I did a faux cambro after pulling the meats. The meat was chioce from Costco, and I wet aged for 45 days in the cryovac it came sealed in.
I didn't use a crutch. I do really love a nice bark and the cooker can hold a temperature for a very long time so I went without this time. The changes I'll do next will be injecting beef broth into the flat instead of dry brining and smoking at a slightly higher pit temperature. I won't change anything about the point, it was as good as it gets IMO. I will eventually try a pink butcher paper crutch if the next flat isn't perfection.
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In recent years I’ve been getting Prime cut brisket from my butcher. That and the Maverick Pro thermometer have been game changers for me. It’s more expensive, $80 for an 8lb flat,but if I’m going to be putting all that effort I’d don’t mind spending a little more. I recently,also, experienced steadily declining temps,with a pork butt,when the pit temp was remaining consistent. Took 2 hours to cook through it. Thanks for sharing all the info.
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Thanks folks, it is damn fine!
So I did 225F rock steady and the point behaved well, but the flat completely did a different deal. The temperature graph looked like an hourglass as they diverged and then came together and then diverged again at the end. The flat never reached temp (defective probe? no idea what happened there) but even so I feel like it should have been pulled sooner. It was very strange to see not just stalls, but temperature going down pretty substantially when the pit temperature was steady. I did spray with 50:50 water:apple cider vinegar and I did a faux cambro after pulling the meats. The meat was chioce from Costco, and I wet aged for 45 days in the cryovac it came sealed in.
I didn't use a crutch. I do really love a nice bark and the cooker can hold a temperature for a very long time so I went without this time. The changes I'll do next will be injecting beef broth into the flat instead of dry brining and smoking at a slightly higher pit temperature. I won't change anything about the point, it was as good as it gets IMO. I will eventually try a pink butcher paper crutch if the next flat isn't perfection.
The point and flat do tend to cook quite differently, only thing I can say is probes are helpful but there's no substitute for fondling your meat when you're getting in the region temp wise, you just want to have a prod for that classic jiggle
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yeah my mind is in the gutter. fondle then probe
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Hey guys, looking for a BBQ/smoker recommendation. Is the Big Green Egg the way to go? Something better or less expensive out there? I don't mind Big Green Egg money if it's going to last me and cook great food.
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I think kamados (like the Big Green Egg) are the best if you don't mind the hassle of charcoal and the associated preparation and being patient enough / having the time to get the temp dialed in (sometimes you just want to use a gas grill to sear off something quickly). I think the best kamado, though, is the Primo Oval, because instead of being circular like traditional kamados, the Oval gives you several advantages while retaining what makes kamados so great. First, you can fit more ribs and other long items like salmon filets on there without needing a rib rack or to upsize your cooker; in general, there's more capacity because of a more efficient layout. Second, and most importantly, you can configure multiple temperature zones zones. So, I can be slow-roasting something in one area and searing something in another. This is not possible in a traditional kamado. Beyond that, the way that Primo designed the grill grates (reversible–can have your meat close to the fire or farther from the fire depending on how they are flipped) and associated accessories (like heat deflectors that can be applied to either or both sides of the grills, a firebox divider to keep the heat on one side, etc) afford you a ton of different configurations to do all kinds of different things concurrently on the cooker rather than tasking it with one thing at a time. They do make a gas version as well. I have the Large charcoal and it is the best cooker I have ever used. The XL would give you the capacity for a very large party.
The biggest disadvantage is that they are not cheap, and you need a few accessories to get the most out of it: deflector plate racks and deflector plates (these allow you to isolate the heat from the meat to do low and slow), a firebox divider can be helpful if you want to keep the heat on one side (I have not actually used mine yet, but it does help with zone cooking). Finally, extender grates both boost your grill capacity and afford you more temperature zones. There are also other things I don't have like griddles and I think now a rotisserie.
I think it's the best cooker on the planet because of its extreme flexibility.
Finally, the Smobot is recommended (for ANY kamado-style cooker) if you are doing things like shoulders or briskets that go overnight. This brilliant device replaces your daisy wheel with an actuated daisy wheel. It has a pit and two meat temperature probes, so you basically set it and forget it. There is an app for your phone and a website you can use to monitor the cook. It will alert you when the pit reaches your desired temperature (or strays from it by a configured number of degrees) and when each of the probed meats reaches a desired temperature. It takes advantage of what makes kamados great: their extreme efficiency and ability to maintain steady temperatures for long periods. Placing a fan on a kamado as all other temperature management systems do to me is sacrilege. And it is not as practical, because it is harder to run something like that that runs continuously off a USB battery if there is not an outlet handy. Smobot just makes little micro-adjustments to the daisy wheel the same way you learn to do manually with a kamado to maintain temp, and can keep temperatures for literal days depending on the size kamado you have.
They're built like brick shithouses and such a simple design it will outlast us all.
Finally, if it matters, they are made in America.
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@setandsetting - It kinda depends what you want to do with it. Is it a specialized or a polyvalent machine you want?
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Thanks everyone! And especially thanks @mclaincausey for that extensive writeup! I am looking for a charcoal grill, not gas. The Primo Large sure looks like an endgame piece that I probably will never need another grill in my lifetime.
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That's how I feel about mine. My wife bought it for me as a birthday present and I feel like she will never be able to top it.
I love Jealous Devil lump coal for it. My large + Smobot has kept 225F steady for over 20 hours before and there were still coals left.
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I think @LewisStonehouse or @scarfmace might be,better,able to help you out. I got nothing.
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https://prosmokebbq.co.uk/products/16-long-horn-7-in-1-smoker
This looks cool, but would be even cooler with reverse flow. Need it to have thick walls which this reputedly does. All I can say is that cheap ones really suck and have dramatic temperature gradients from the firebox to the exhaust and tend to leak, complicating the cook (can’t maintain steady temperature without constant attention) and wasting fuel. Offsets have become regarded as kind of “manly” or something so people will buy them for the wrong reasons. To get a good one that is worth the money is an expensive prospect as far as I’m aware.
My experience with them was that I bought a cheap one and hated it. Friends I have who use them have commercial grade ones that they either purchased or fabricated from propane tanks.
