Home smoking/BBQ

[Whagwan]

Got the Pitt Cue cookbook which has some great recipes in it, I'll be doing smoked rolled lamb breast with merguez sausage at the weekend.

This turned out really well, did it with smoked halloumi fries, cauliflower couscous salad and crunchy capers...

On the positive two restauranteur friends have offered me pop-ups at their places from my facebook posts. Nowhere near enough experience or capacity yet but something to think about when I've got my drum built and got a couple of big cooks under my belt...

 

[equationgirl]

This turned out really well, did it with smoked halloumi fries, cauliflower couscous salad and crunchy capers...

On the positive two restauranteur friends have offered me pop-ups at their places from my facebook posts. Nowhere near enough experience or capacity yet but something to think about when I've got my drum built and got a couple of big cooks under my belt...

I don't like pork, but that looks amazing - I'd try it. And fab news about the pop - up offers!

 

[Whagwan]

I don't like pork, but that looks amazing - I'd try it. And fab news about the pop - up offers!

It's actually lamb breast with merguez sausages which are also lamb, cheers anyway!

 

[equationgirl]

It's actually lamb breast with merguez sausages which are also lamb, cheers anyway!

Ah, the pinkness through me. Looks good though, and I don't like lamb either!

 

[Gerry1time]

Hello thread.

Not sure I've checked in here as much as I should after asking for advice, for which apologies, have been travelling with work again. All advice was gratefuly received and thoroughly read up on over the last few weeks.

Anyway, just wanted to check in and say I did my first cook on my new Weber today. A barbecue for our next door neighbours, one of whom has a heart of gold covered in a thick external layer of criticial cynicism. So I was expecting low marks, but no!

I did a 1kg brisket using the recipe on Amazing Ribs, and it came up an absolute treat. Chucked a bit of hickory wood in there for smokiness, and it totally worked, though I might use a little more next time. He came back for seconds, thirds and fourths even. Winning.

The baby back ribs I did didn't work so well though. Not because the Amazing Ribs recipe didn't work, far from it, but because there was so ittle meat on them that the minimum recommended three hours for them was way too long and they completely dried out. Next time I'm going to get proper meaty ribs, not measly ones ordered from this place online, organic as they may be.

But yes, it was a whole new world of barbecuing compared with what I've done before, and it was awesome. That Weber is a serious piece of kit, love it, and am totally going to do more with it over this summer.

Whilst we were sat out eating, it even rained for the first time in weeks and weeks. A textbook British barbecue.

 

[not-bono-ever]

obvs i have a gas one now- can i add some wood to it for a bit of flavour ? it not soemthing i have thought about befre, as i have never had one...

 

[UnderOpenSky]

obvs i have a gas one now- can i add some wood to it for a bit of flavour ? it not soemthing i have thought about befre, as i have never had one...

No personal experience, but I have read of people adding wood chips in foil packets for just this. In fact I believe you can get special things just to do this.

 

[Whagwan]

Yup, wood chips in foil or a smoker box, I've even seen these in Asda ...

 

[alex_]

No personal experience, but I have read of people adding wood chips in foil packets for just this. In fact I believe you can get special things just to do this.

Wrap wood chips in foil packets and chuck them under the grill.

I’ve done this on my dads gas bbq.

The real issue is that most gas bbqs aren’t designed to keep heat in very well, so the smoke just billows out of all the holes.

Alex

 

[alex_]

I spent the weekend cooking on one of these




Cooking on wood all weekend - gas ? We don’t even need charcoal !

It was quite fun, temperature control was quite challenging. Bacon cooked on it tasted fucking amazing.

I learned a lot about temperature control, which will really help with charcoal technique.

To get a high enough temperature to cook some steaks I made a massive fire and then when it was time to cook wedged in some big new logs underneath to raise all the really hot bits closer to the grill.

I had a probe thermometer so the steaks were perfect, if I’d not had that they’d have been on and off about 3 times.

OTOH I was lying by a fire in 30 degree heat.

Alex

 

[Whagwan]

Dirty steaks cooked straight on the charcoal are pretty high up on the list...

 

[UnderOpenSky]

There's some seriously impressive BBQing going on recently here.

I've been away to much, but working from home this week. Going to grab some chicken legs on the way home from work and have a think about something more ambitious for later in the week. Got some kebab sticks recently that havnt been used yet, so may try playing with them and making a big marinaded thing.

 

[Whagwan]

I've heard that the kellybab is the future of chicken kebabs...

The Kelly Bab

 

[spitfire]

I've heard that the kellybab is the future of chicken kebabs...

The Kelly Bab

Hah! I was going to post that as well. I’ve not made it yet though have you? Everyone raves about it.

 

[Whagwan]

Nah, haven't done it personally, it's on the list though... (currently below the ox cheeks, short ribs and second lamb breast in the freezer.)

 

[UnderOpenSky]

I've heard that the kellybab is the future of chicken kebabs...

The Kelly Bab

That's the one I'm going to try. Although probably not 1.8kg!

 

[alex_]

Dirty steaks cooked straight on the charcoal are pretty high up on the list...

It needs to be a thickish leanish piece of beef.

I’ve never done this and it was better than normal steak technique. So I obviously need to practice it.

If it’s too thick it’ll be raw on the inside too fatty and the fat will burn all over the meat, I suspect the ideal technique is a couple of minutes like this on each side to get a char and then indirect for enough minutes to hit the correct temperature.

Alex

 

[spitfire]

Dirty steaks cooked straight on the charcoal are pretty high up on the list...

I've done this, it's great, I used rib-eye.

And don't use briquettes! They're gritty......

 

[Whagwan]

Just had a wood dust spiral for cold smoking delivered from Wish.

I AM NOT OBSESSED.

 

[Whagwan]

RE Dirty steak- Was gonna do it with some skirt a la Alton Brown here:

 

[spitfire]

Oh yes.

 

[Whagwan]

Did a shit load of ribs yesterday for the football with people coming over. When I was in Morrisons I spotted a little bit of skirt for £1.50 half price.

Been wanting to cook dirty steak (as above) for a while and got some onglet/hangar on order but this was an ideal little bit to trial.
Dry brined the steak for 1hr prior to cooking, healthy coating of fresh black pepper and lots of salt.
In the meantime let a chimney of lumpwoid (not Briquettes) get full on white hot with all the charcoal totally coated in white ash. Decant into your bbq, quick blow to move most of the ash (it doesn't really stick anyway) and slap the steak straight onto the charcoal (try to have an unaware bystander in eyeshot for maximum effect!)
45-60 secs a side, wrap in foil and stand for 10-15 mins then thinly slice against the grain.

10/10 wb. Absolutely spot on.

It's reverse sear for decent cuts as usual, but can afford a lot more onglet/skirt so that'll be going dirty. Need to buy some decent restaurant grade lumpwoid to make it even better though.

 

[alex_]

Just did beef ribs, bizarrely the thickest one was best cooked and the thinnest was much less well cooked ( still delicious and tender, but needed slicing ) thinking about this possibly the position on the grill.

I put the meat on at 0900, took the kids to a party and it was all ready at 1700.

This summer I’ve done brisket, pork shoulder and beef ribs.

Whoever posted on here about the snake technique has transformed my bbq technique, the snake is just so easy i’d Imagine I could cook something on here for 18-20 hours with minimal involvement - eg do something overnight.

So having done beef ribs, brisket and pork shoulder - what should i smoke next ?

Alex

 

[alex_]

Dupe deleted

 

[equationgirl]

Just did beef ribs, bizarrely the thickest one was best cooked and the thinnest was much less well cooked ( still delicious and tender, but needed slicing ) thinking about this possibly the position on the grill.

I put the meat on at 0900, took the kids to a party and it was all ready at 1700.

This summer I’ve done brisket, pork shoulder and beef ribs.

Whoever posted on here about the snake technique has transformed my bbq technique, the snake is just so easy i’d Imagine I could cook something on here for 18-20 hours with minimal involvement - eg do something overnight.

So having done beef ribs, brisket and pork shoulder - what should i smoke next ?

Alex

What about a spatchcocked chicken?

 

[spitfire]

Just did beef ribs, bizarrely the thickest one was best cooked and the thinnest was much less well cooked ( still delicious and tender, but needed slicing ) thinking about this possibly the position on the grill.

I put the meat on at 0900, took the kids to a party and it was all ready at 1700.

This summer I’ve done brisket, pork shoulder and beef ribs.

Whoever posted on here about the snake technique has transformed my bbq technique, the snake is just so easy i’d Imagine I could cook something on here for 18-20 hours with minimal involvement - eg do something overnight.

So having done beef ribs, brisket and pork shoulder - what should i smoke next ?

Alex

What about a spatchcocked chicken?

Spatchcocked chicken is really nice but is a fairly quick cook. If you wanted to do something ambitious and lengthy my friend Chris (who knows a lot more about this than I do) raves about goat.

More information here: Pit issue 03

It is an excellent magazine, if a little pricey. But I don't think they are shifting huge units so economies of scale etc...

Also worth a subscribe (freeeeee).

UK BBQ Mag

 

[Gerry1time]

Hello again, quick question. Thermometer wise, the Inkbird 4XS or 4XR? Can't see the difference between them, although one's almost twice the price of the other.

 

[Gerry1time]

The other day I was in my local butcher, and he had a *really* lovely looking piece of pork belly, along with the sort of genuinely free range provenance for it that you can go and look up. I had to buy it, and have decided to make another round of twice cooked pork belly, based on this receipe, which I've been cooking for years - Twice-cooked pork belly with an onion & apple velouté

Two differences this time though. I've normally not bothered with the rosemary, coriander seed and star anise, and focussed more on the salt, to the point it's sometimes been marinated in a dark green salt paste. This time I've added the coriander and star anise back in, and massively lessened the salt levels, almost back to what they should be. I've still left out the rosemary though, I just don't think it works that well with pork.

The second difference is that I'm going to try to cook it on my BBQ with a touch of applewood smoke thrown in. Normally it's slow roasted in an oven with foil over it, but I'm going to try to BBQ it in a pyrex dish, no foil covering, with a jar of goose fat to go with it to keep it moist. Am thinking a tray of water on the lower level of the BBQ too. No idea if this is going to work, but I'm game for seeing what happens and learning from it

So, some photos of work so far.

The ingredients. I doubled up on everything from the recipe basically. I'm also holding back a bunch of thyme and a head of garlic to roast the belly with after washing off the salty marinade.



The pork and the rub after it's been blended up. Definitely a rougher mix than it usually is when you scale back on the salt.


The pork with the rub on it, now sitting in the fridge, probably until Sunday.

 

[Crispy]

My cheapo charcoal kettle finally gave in to rust, so I have given in to inevitability and bought a "proper" bbq with closing lid, adjustable fire tray, temperature gauge etc. Tomorrow I will attempt to jerk chicken. Wish me luck!

 

[spitfire]

The other day I was in my local butcher, and he had a *really* lovely looking piece of pork belly, along with the sort of genuinely free range provenance for it that you can go and look up. I had to buy it, and have decided to make another round of twice cooked pork belly, based on this receipe, which I've been cooking for years - Twice-cooked pork belly with an onion & apple velouté

Two differences this time though. I've normally not bothered with the rosemary, coriander seed and star anise, and focussed more on the salt, to the point it's sometimes been marinated in a dark green salt paste. This time I've added the coriander and star anise back in, and massively lessened the salt levels, almost back to what they should be. I've still left out the rosemary though, I just don't think it works that well with pork.

The second difference is that I'm going to try to cook it on my BBQ with a touch of applewood smoke thrown in. Normally it's slow roasted in an oven with foil over it, but I'm going to try to BBQ it in a pyrex dish, no foil covering, with a jar of goose fat to go with it to keep it moist. Am thinking a tray of water on the lower level of the BBQ too. No idea if this is going to work, but I'm game for seeing what happens and learning from it

So, some photos of work so far.

The ingredients. I doubled up on everything from the recipe basically. I'm also holding back a bunch of thyme and a head of garlic to roast the belly with after washing off the salty marinade.

View attachment 141714

The pork and the rub after it's been blended up. Definitely a rougher mix than it usually is when you scale back on the salt.

View attachment 141715
The pork with the rub on it, now sitting in the fridge, probably until Sunday.

View attachment 141716

My cheapo charcoal kettle finally gave in to rust, so I have given in to inevitability and bought a "proper" bbq with closing lid, adjustable fire tray, temperature gauge etc. Tomorrow I will attempt to jerk chicken. Wish me luck!

Look forward to seeing the results of that pork belly.

And good luck Crispy !