Grillroteca

[Root]

I am slowly getting into brining & smoking

This (https://www.instagram.com/p/BY_sLt3F79x/) was 8 pounds of brisket, brined for 12 days (salt, bit of sugar, onion, garlic) then rubbed with black pepper, coriander, mustard seeds, garlic and smoked for 8 hours @ between 200 & 300 (my temp controlling was shit...) on a Monolith Kamado, over apple chips.

Possibly the best thing I've ever tasted. Can't wait to make another.

Beautiful. Whole peppercorns or just very coarse grind? Do you know the internal temp when it came off?

[Root]

Smoked chicken wings tonight. So good.

[omaniphil]

Prepped a pork shoulder with a rub of brown sugar, kosher salt, black pepper, paprika, garlic, and cayenne. Making pulled pork tacos for dinner tomorrow. Pictures to come. Early dinner, so I need to start the smoke around 7am.

oops. ate it before I could take pictures.

[DeriHughes]

Beautiful. Whole peppercorns or just very coarse grind? Do you know the internal temp when it came off?

Coarse grind - chucked all the rub mix in a small blender and chopped it up. Internal temp got to 185, I then wrapped in foil and gave it another 2 hours to get to 200. I've just bought some butcher's paper for the wrapping stage as I think it helps keep a good crust on the meat - will be trying that next time.

[Allentown]

Prepped a pork shoulder with a rub of brown sugar, kosher salt, black pepper, paprika, garlic, and cayenne. Making pulled pork tacos for dinner tomorrow. Pictures to come. Early dinner, so I need to start the smoke around 7am.

Yesssss
Will be interested to hear about a dry brine. IMO pork shoulder seems to be a nice, easy way to work on smoking/grilling, because it's pretty low effort and usually turns out quite good.

[DeriHughes]

My next two projects. Probably more pastrami, not sure yet how to play the ribs.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BZjoq-Sgy6Q/

[DeriHughes]

Smoked my beef ribs today. 4lb of ribs, rubbed with a coarse ground pepper, salt, chili, paprika mix. Smoked on a Monolith Kabano grill over charcoal and oak chunks for 10 hours, to an internal of 190.



Could have done with slightly longer to get to 200, a few bits weren't quite melting perfectly, but still bloody good

[Root]

Brisket from this past weekend. Turned out just ok. The flat was a little dry, and the point shredded apart. I meant to wrap the damn thing at the stall, but it cooked so much more quickly than I hoped, and I didn't want to finish it early (was for a party) so I just let it stall. It still finished an hour early and I held it in a cooler for 3.5 hours. Brisket is frustrating.

The bark was fantastic though:

[Root]

Smoked my beef ribs today. 4lb of ribs, rubbed with a coarse ground pepper, salt, chili, paprika mix. Smoked on a Monolith Kabano grill over charcoal and oak chunks for 10 hours, to an internal of 190.



Could have done with slightly longer to get to 200, a few bits weren't quite melting perfectly, but still bloody good

Beautiful. I really need to do beef ribs again.

[DeriHughes]

Brisket from this past weekend. Turned out just ok. The flat was a little dry, and the point shredded apart. I meant to wrap the damn thing at the stall, but it cooked so much more quickly than I hoped, and I didn't want to finish it early (was for a party) so I just let it stall. It still finished an hour early and I held it in a cooler for 3.5 hours. Brisket is frustrating.

The bark was fantastic though:

That is a thing of beauty

[Root]

Smoked a beef chuck roast on the kettle tonight. Turned out absolutely amazing. Put down a drip pan and made gravy with the drippings. I will be doing it all again.

[Hanley]

Smoked a beef chuck roast on the kettle tonight. Turned out absolutely amazing. Put down a drip pan and made gravy with the drippings. I will be doing it all again.

Didn’t you try one a few weeks ago that was meh?

What’d you use for time & temp?

I’m gone get me a chuck roast today

[Root]

About two hours smoked with cherry wood at 250 to 275. In the Weber kettle with a big pan of water over the coals. Then two hours wrapped in butcher paper at higher temp. Like 325, occasionally higher. Salted 3 or 4 days in advance. Rubbed with Big Bad Beef Rub before going on.

[Allentown]

Pork shoulder: wet or dry heat? I've always done it dry, but I'm thinking I want to try it with water over the coals next time for the first ~2 hours unless others have recommendations. I did a small shoulder Saturday evening that turned out decent despite my best efforts to ruin it- got it out of the freezer Friday morning because I forgot on Thursday, so it was still mostly frozen when I put it in the brown sugar brine Friday night. Had planned to start the grill Saturday morning, but was exhausted from spending all night coughing into a pillow on the couch. Lit the grill during a light sprinkle, which turned into a downpour just as I stepped back inside. Put the lid on top of the chimney, and hoped there would be enough air and block enough water. Dumped the lit coals onto the (wet) unlit coals, and remembered I needed to grill a bunch of chicken for Sunday as well. So I filled the coal half with chicken, put the partly frozen shoulder over a pan on the other side, and hoped the combo of wet unlit coals and chicken drippings wouldn't put out the grill. Took about half an hour to grill the chicken, in a downpour, before I could close down the bottom vent and add the wood (hickory). At which point, we were supposed to be meeting our neighbor at the bar up the street. So we left, figuring we would be gone for less than an hour. Well an hour later (left late, waited for our even later neighbor to order drinks, decided to get breadsticks, moved tables...) we hadn't gotten our food yet, so I drove home to check and with no chicken-related lid removal and exposure to the rain, all the coals finally lit and the grill was 450 on the lid thermometer (250 when I left). Shoulder was 150 in the middle. So I closed the bottom vent further, and went back to the bar. Pulled it off when we got home, decided to just finish it in the slow cooker sunday morning, when I realized I forgot to put any rub on it.

It still turned out "bar that has a 'pulled pork sandwich' on the menu" good.

[Root]

I'm a believer in wet heat. I did two pork butts yesterday and had a water pan over the coals for most of the smoking phase. I'm a believer, but I think the amount of steam from that might have been a little too much even. It turned out more than moist enough, and could've had better bark, but that's probably because the smoking temp was a bit low (I think) because of (I think) wind. Smoked from 5 AM to 12 PM, at which point the internal was only like 130. Since I wanted to be ready to eat around 3 or 4, I wrapped both in butcher paper and put them in the oven at 325. They were ready by about 3:30 and tasted absolutely great.

I'm coming to the conclusion that the Weber makes tastier food than the Akorn. I think that, because the Akorn consumes fuel so slowly, that the wood never burns hot enough to get that desirable "thin blue" smoke, and ends up just tasting kind of bitter.



I've also ordered a Slow n' Sear and the Drip n' Griddle pan, which should be here Wednesday. Much excite.

[Hanley]

I've also ordered a Slow n' Sear and the Drip n' Griddle pan, which should be here Wednesday. Much excite.

Nerd!

Takes a little while to get technique for both "slow" and "sear" down, but it works really well.

I can't bring myself to get a drip and griddle. It just seems like a big thing that would be annoying to clean.

Why the investment in the kettle? Are you and the Akorn fighting?

[Root]

I've also ordered a Slow n' Sear and the Drip n' Griddle pan, which should be here Wednesday. Much excite.

Nerd!

Takes a little while to get technique for both "slow" and "sear" down, but it works really well.

I can't bring myself to get a drip and griddle. It just seems like a big thing that would be annoying to clean.

Why the investment in the kettle? Are you and the Akorn fighting?

The Akorn is nice, but you have to watch it super close to make sure the temperature doesn't go exponential. Once it gets too hot, it's impossible to cool down, and it's just fucking stressful. Also what I said about burning too slow and making bitter smoke.

I'm really excited about the griddle. That plus the slow n sear just makes everything so damn convenient for low and slow. Don't have to foil the unused lower grate, don't have to put down a drip pan, don't need a separate water pan, etc. Plus, it'll be nice to just have a griddle to cook on instead of bring my cast iron skillet out and dealing with the fact that it's an awkward shape for the grill.

What's difficult about the technique for both "slow" and "sear?" Got any tips for me?

[Hanley]

What's difficult about the technique for both "slow" and "sear?" Got any tips for me?

Actually "slow" and "highish-heat slow" (say for a turkey) are pretty straight forward. Just follow their advice.

"Sear" is tricky. The heat output is just insane. I had to totally alter my approach. You - literally - cannot step away from the grill and should probably be flipping the meat every 15-20 seconds.

Also, the slow and sear works perfectly for reverse searing. After the indirect cooking, just keep the lid off, open the vents fully and let the charcoal get screaming hot.

[Allentown]

So wouldn't there be less air getting to the coals with the slow & sear? Or, is the bottom open? I'll be honest, I can't tell from the pictures on Amazon.
Also, is there something about it that would slow the burn similar to the snake method, or would you just put unlit along one side and dump lit into the other?

[Hanley]

So wouldn't there be less air getting to the coals with the slow & sear? Or, is the bottom open? I'll be honest, I can't tell from the pictures on Amazon.

Bottom is open.

The slow and sear is incredibly well thought out. The inventor actually dropped into a discussion on StSt and explained all his design decisions. Even the tapered shape of the water trough was designed to optimize something (which I cannot recall).