Smoking Wood Test: Hickory

Hickory is one of the most popular smoking woods and a mainstay of my pulled pork. I've fooled around testing other woods and now it's time to see what Hickory does.

As with other tests, I'm smoking Salmon, Tilapia, pork, chicken, beef and a potato. This time I have a sort of Yukon Gold potato, but I think it is actually a generic equivalent. I've also resupplied the pork (country ribs), Salmon and beef patties. We've had Salmon a couple times recently, just before we headed out for vacation and again on our return, but I grilled it those times (with blackening seasoning mix.) But I digress.

Weather this afternoon is 86° F with full sun and light wind at about 6 mph.

I'm using briquettes for the fire (Kingsford Blue) since the bag is open.

5:30		lit coals on a modified minion lay with several chunks of Hickory interspersed. Both bottom and top vents are full open and there is about a quart of water in the bowl.
5:35		Water in the bowl and meat on!
5:55	198°,230° (*)	Coming along nicely, closed the bottom vent to about 1/2
6:25	191°, 225°	Fish and patties are coming off. They're done.
6:45	226°, 245°	Closed the bottom vent just a bit more a few minutes ago.
7:15	234°	I thought the pork and chicken would be done by now but apparently they are not.
7:35	299°, 340°	Opening the smoker to check doneness of the chicken and pork really got the fire fired up! I've almost completely closed the bottom vent.
7:50	287°, 300°	Chicken and pork off!

(*) Maverick, Dome temperatures measured with the Maverick probe hanging through the top vent and a thermometer probe inserted in a hole in the cover.

Fish and beef came off first.

And later the pork and chicken.

Here's an initial impression of the flavor added by Hickory:

• Chicken legs - Good smoky flavor.
• Pork country rib - Good smoky flavor.
• Tilapia fillet - This had that sort of typical muddy taste with a nice smoke flavor blended in.
• Beef patties - Nice mild Hickory smoke flavor.
• Salmon fillet - Nice Hickory smoke flavor.
• White potato, halved - Even the spuds seemed to benefit from Hickory with a nice mild smoky flavor.

Initial impression: Hickory is quite good on both fish and meat. I can see why it is so popular.  It's a bit tangy but seems to work well with both meat and fish. Later in the evening, I took a little taste of the chicken and pork and they were good too. It is a somewhat stronger flavor than some of the other smoking woods, but it seems pretty mellow and seems to blend well various foods.

More Beef Back Ribs

They were on sale again (or still?) So I bought 3 packages that looked like they had the most meat on the bone. Once again meat is seasoned only with coarse (Kosher) salt and pepper.

These are going on the kettle again. That worked well last time. I'm going to try to hold a little tighter temperature control though and perhaps cook them a little longer than last time. I'll aim for 250°-275° F or thereabouts. (All temps are Fahrenheit.) Fire prep is with lump (some Mesquite and some Royal Oak Steak House.) This time I remembered to put the drip pan in the middle of the grill to help enforce the indirect aspect of mounding the coals on either side. I also threw a couple hands full of oak, apple and a few hickory chips on the lit coals for some smoke.

Weather is 90°, light wind (10 mph.) and full sun. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWXcjYNZais) I should get a lot of mileage out of my lump today!

I'm also using my Maverick remote reading thermometer dropped in the top vent for a second temperature reading. It spiked early to 290°  while the lid thermo went just above 250°. I cut back on the bottom vent a bit more and the Maverick is now reading 283° and dropping slowly. I'll probably open it up just a bit. I don't want to extinguish the charcoal.

I can work on my latest CL find while I keep an eye on the meat. I got a 2001 Weber Genesis Silver B gasser for free. :D Better yet, it included a set of stainless steel grates and flavorizer bars. These are normal wear items on a Weber gasser but the SS variants should last just about forever. It included a tank and a cover. (The cover was for a smaller gasser like my Genesis Silver A.) This is pretty cool as I now have a sport of matched pair of Weber gassers.

4:00 PM		meat on!
4:12	290°/250° (grate/lid)	Cut back on bottom vent a little bit.
4:30	272°/255°	Added a tiny bit on the bottom vent to stabilize temperature which is slowly dropping.
4:48	278°/	Looks good!
5:05	272°/230°	("Looks good" in the previous comment was euphemistic. I didn't look at the meat.) This time I did look at the meat and ... Looks good! :D With better temperature control the meat is not pulling back from the ends of the ribs yet. I flipped them (concave side now up.) and will leave them upside down for a bit before I flip them back.
5:30	276°	(Was 282° a few minutes ago.)
6:00	268°	Flipped the ribs back (convex side up) and stirred the coals a bit. They are starting to pull back on the bone. Also opened the bottom vent just a bit.
7:00	300°	Meat off! Now to let it rest while I grill up some spuds on my new gasser!

They look pretty good when they came of.

Spuds on the new gasser.

Grill marks, baby!

One rib is enough for a meal!

They taste as good as before. The one I had seemed to be a little gristly. I had difficulty pulling the membrane off the back and that may be why. I do think they left a bit more fat in the drip pan than before.

(grate/lid) temperature refers to the Maverick probe dangled in the lid vent vs. the lid temperature indicated by the thermometer built into the lid handle. (The lid thermometer has been calibrated using boiling water and is accurate.)

Rotisserie Chicken

I scored a rotisserie for my little Weber gasser (Weber Genesis Silver A.) I was really hoping for a rotisserie for a 22 1/2" Kettle because I prefer charcoal for cooking meat. But this came up on Craigslist for $5 and was for sale in the next town over. I pounced on it - didn't even negotiate price! It turned out to be brand new. It had been taken out of the original carton, but the various parts had not been removed from their bags. It's pretty much brand new. And it has grooves in the spit for a 32" span so I plan to investigate making a ring that will allow me to use it with my 22 1/2" kettle. A 55 gallon drum is about the right size.

Weather today is 85° F with full sun and light wind (6-10 mph.)

Back to the chicken. I picked up a couple 4 ¾ lb. fryers and I'll try two different recipes for them. The first is a rather generic "Roadside Chicken" recipe I found on the  Virtual Weber Bulletin Board. I tried to follow it faithfully but I'm afraid that a little bit of Hungarian Paprika fell into the mix. <shrug> I guess that will serve to add a bit of zing to the final result. Starting at 9:30 one of the birds is marinating in the mix (sans oil.)

The other recipe is a reprint of a Steven Raichlen recipe for Spit-Roasted Honey LIme Huli Huli Chicken (FLCL chicken? :p ) I'll cook both fairly slow and put some Apple wood chips in a smoke box for some smoke flavor.

I wound up taking the grates off the grill for extra clearance. I also had to tie the birds some more to keep them under control as they rotated. I hope that's enough. I spitted them more or less through the body cavity and that allows the birds to flop back and forth a bit even though I have the forks at the body cavity end.

Birds went on the grill at 11:00 AM and I set it to medium on the front burner. No need to cremate them! After letting this running for about half an hour (and opening several times to baste the Roadside Chicken) It seems to stabilize at about 275° F. That seems a little low as recipes I'm looking up on lie recommend 375°. I'm also not convinced that the thermometer at the end of the cooker accurately reflects the temperature the chicken sees. I think I had best aim for something in the low 300s.

Woah! A nudge on the burner control can have a HUGE result. I need to watch this a little more carefully. I found the temperature reading over 400° and smoke pouring form the cooker. I opened it up and the RS bird had blackened skin that was splitting. Surprisingly the other bird looked more normal. I basted it again and cut temperature back to where I had it before. I'm going to put my Maverick in there so I can monitor temps a little more closely. (Time: 12:05 PM)

12:20 - Maverick reads 305° and the thermometer 310°. Seems like pretty good agreement. I basted the RS chicken again, brushing on lots of marinade to try to wash some of the soot off. :( I'm supposed to baste the Huli Huli chicken with the glaze 10 minutes prior to finishing. I wonder how long that will be. I should probably get a meat temperature measurement.

12:25 - RS chicken - 150°, HH Chicken, 140°. (Note that during the overtemp excursion, the string burned off the RS chicken allowing the legs to splay. I should tie them again I guess.

12:55 - temp back up to 390°. Time to baste, measure and take temperatures.

1:00 - RS - 170°, HH - 162°. Basted both and they'll come off in 10 minutes.

1:11 - Meat off! I'll let it rest while I watch today's TDF finish (DVR delay.) They don't look quite so bad as they did when nearly engulfed in flames!

Despite the difficulties, the chicken came out pretty good. The skin was a little crispier on the Roadside variant (on the left in the picture above.) Both were very tasty.

Things to do better next time:

• Fasten birds to spit better so they don't flop.
• Monitor temperature better!
• Work on mount for counterweight. It didn't hold and was pretty useless.

More Ribs

We're still enjoying the backs and spares I smoked up a few days ago but I wanted to try something different for the July 4th holiday. Inspired by Steve Raichlen's beef back ribs Gaucho style, I got some beef back ribs from Wheaton Meats. My next stop was Valli Produce and they had been back ribs as well, and on sale. So I got some more. The rack from WM was the whole one and weighed in at 4 ¼ lb and the ones from Valli at 1 ¾ lb.

These will not be smoked. Raichlen roasted them spitted next to an open ground fire Fogo de Chao style. Instead, I will use a large kettle and cook using indirect heat. I'm firing my weber with Mesquite lump and will throw some Apple and Hickory chips on for some smoke. I'm starting out with all vents wide open. Seasoning for the beef is coarse salt and fresh cracked black pepper. (One of the few times I'm cooking meat with no garlic!)

Before I put the meat on, I roasted three peppers right on the coals to make a Middle East inspired roasted pepper dip.

Meat went on the grill about 4:15 PM. by 4:30 the temp had stabilized at about 270° F. I'm happy with that. I could go a bit higher, but the thermometer is directly above the meat so it's probably reading just a bit on the low side.

45 minutes and the meat was pulling back on the bone, but I saw some blood when I turned them so I guess they're OK. Better hurry with the veggies! At one hour temp had dropped off about 10° which was just fine. Temperature continued to slowly drift down and at 6:00 PM it was down to about 250° when I took the meat off.

As good as these look, man does not live by meat alone. My most recent addition to my Weber collection is a small gasser that's great for grilling vegetables without heating up the house.

I have a pretty decent cast iron grate for it that has a flat upper surface and bars about 3/4" top to bottom. With a little preheating it puts great grill marks on the food.

The result was a delicious dinner. I toasted some whole wheat pita on the gasser (brushed with some EVOO and sesame seed) and we had that with the fire roasted red pepper dip while the ribs rested. I did manage to eat two of the ribs, but should have stopped at one. After all, each rib is over half a pound. Yukon Gold potatoes brushed with some EVOO and sprinkled with slat and black pepper made a great complement to the ribs.

I should add a couple of notes about the roasted red pepper dip. I tried to copy one of Steve Raichlen's preparations from hus BBQ U series. It starts with peppers roasted directly on the coals. That way they peel easily once cool. I used:

4 red peppers
1 can garbanzos (chickpeas)
7 oz Feta cheese
2 cloves garlic
(Blend these and add)
juice from one lemon
1/4 C EVOO
salt
cayenne
black pepper

We served the dip on whole wheat pita toasted with a bit of EVOO and sesame seeds. The dip was very tasty but a bit runny. Next time maybe drain and rinse the garbanzos. I just drained them this time.

Time to do some pork ribs.

Ribs and Weber and I go way back. We received an 18 1/2" Weber kettle for a wedding present (which we still have, in fact.) I'm sorry to say that I didn't try it for a year or two. I was young and ignorant. Finally one day I bought some ribs and charcoal and fired the Weber up and slow cooked the ribs. They were one of the best things I ever tasted! I immediately regretted not trying the Weber sooner and used it more or less for the nearly four decades since.

I've had the Weber smoker for almost two years and I've never made ribs on it. I always backed off due to the cost of ribs vs. the cost of a butt (or more often the rib tip trimmings I get at Woodman's.) But there's something special about gnawing meat off the bone. And ever since that first time I made ribs on the kettle they've held a special place in my heart (or at least on my palate. ;) )

With what I've learned about grilling, BBQing and smoking in the decades since, I should be able to make them that much better. Maybe my fear is that they won't live up to my expectations. Anyway, I pulled the trigger today with 1 lb spare ribs and 8 ¾ lb back ribs. I'll pass on the baby backs this time, but I will get a chance to compare and contrast the spares with the backs.

There are schemes for foiling the ribs part way through and then finishing with a sauce to make them fall-off-the-bone tender. That's not my preference. I'm going to go with a dry rub and smoke them as slowly as I possibly can.

Weather - 79°, sunny and light wind (10 mph.)

I seasoned the meat with Jeff's dry rub (*)  with some modifications:

• Hungarian Paprika and cut amount to 1/4.
• No chili powder. I use Cumin and Cayenne instead.
• Added some ground coriander as well.
• Added Rosemary because it goes so well with pork.

They look like this when ready to go on.

For the fire I'm going to go with Mesquite lump from Sam's and for smoking wood I'll add Hickory, pear, Mesquite, Box Elder and Cherry. That should provide a nice mix for pork.

5:20 PM		Chimney full of Mesquite lump on a side burner. (Lights fast!)
5:29		Lit coals on the fire. Actually the fire had a pretty good start just from setting the chimney on top of the fire lay. I immediately closed two bottom vents and left the third about 1/2 open. I'll give it a few minutes to stabilize and put some meat on!
5:47		Meat on!
6:11	185°	Waiting for temp to come back up.
6:21	194°/190 (grate/dome)
6:49	198°
7:04	198°/195°	Coming along just fine!
7:46	201°/195°
8:07	194°/195°	Opened one partial bottom vent full to support increasing burn/temp.
8:25	224°/195°	closed that vent just a tad. Don't want it to run away!
9:30	233°	Took a peek inside and flipped the ribs. At this point they don't look as good as the ones on the kettle. That may be because they are not as far along as I was more successful at controlling temps on the WSM
9:50	208°/190°	Nudging the vent open just a bit. seems like a bit of a balancing act holding the right temp here.
10:10	199°/185°	Opening that bottom vent full open again.
10:35	204°/190°
10:45	200°	Time to stir the coals a bit. Some on the side and back never lit well.
11:30	204°/185°	More stirrage of the coals and opened another bottom vent. A bit of higher heat near the end will help to brown the ribs. Temp control was so low most of the water is still left in the water bowl.
11:40	224°	That's better.
12:30	236°
12:45	242°	Checked again and looks like they're done as well. I brought them inside to rest.

OK, starting more coal to run on a 22 1/2" Kettle. Can't fit three slabs of spares and three slabs of back ribs on two grates in the smoker. As it was, I had to trim the ends of the ribs on the smoker to fit. (I should probably get a second bottom grate and add supports for it midway between top and bottom grates for use with flat stuff like ribs.) I used Mesquite lump again and sprinkled hickory and apple chips on them and stuck a couple cherry chunks in for good measure.

6:05		Meat on! They overlap, but I'll handle that when turning them. I don't have the benefit of electronic temperature measurement. The dome temp (dial thermometer in the lid) was about 200° when I put the meat on.
6:20	215°	cutting back a wee bit on the bottom vent. I think thet the dome temp reads low and I prefer to keep this on the low side.
6:49	230°	Flipped them on to the meat side.
7:04	240°
7:46	250°	Flipped again. Temp is higher than I want. I cut back on the bottom vent a bit more. The spares are starting to pull back on the bome already. That's too soon!
8:07	225°	More like it!
8:25	220°	Perfect!
9:30	180°	Added some unlit lump to bring temp back up. Will need to check in a few minutes for temp control.
9:50	240°	Closing the bottom vent a bit.
10:10	240°	Closing even more.
10:35	225°
11:30	225°	Meat off! I tried to pick up the back rib and it broke. The spare was similarly tender. It's inside resting but I snuck a taste.

(*) This is from http://www.smoking-meat.com/. Jeff sells the recipe to make a couple bucks and probably help support the site. I won't spoil that by publishing his recipe here but I will describe some of my tweaks.

Here's what they looked like when they came off. First the ones cooked on the kettle.

 

And the ones cooked a little lower and slower in the WSM.

Initial impressions. The slabs came off the kettle first due to higher temperature. Flavor was good with a nice (not overbearing) smoky taste. Some parts of the spares which were particularly thin were overdone to the point where they were jerky-like (and that's being kind.) Between the Cayenne and Hungarian Paprika they're a bit on the hot side, but not too hot for me. Some Sweet Baby Ray's will probably offset that. The back ribs exhibited none of those dry areas because they were thicker overall.

I'm going to taste the ones from the WSM after they rest or perhaps in the morning. I've already eaten way more than I should this time of night. ;)

Smoking Wood Test: Pecan

Time for another smoking wood test. This time some store bought Pecan chunks.

Once again, the mix is Salmon, Tilapia, pork, chicken, beef and a potato. There is no seasoning other than some oil to promote moistness. As usual, the test is performed in the mini-WSM (Weber Smoky Mountain) using the single smoking wood and Royal Oak lump charcoal.

I have also installed a dome thermometer in the lid to compare readings with the Maverick remote.

Weather is 81°, sunny and light wind (13 mph.)

4:12 PM		Meat, fish and veggies on!
4:23	235°/150° (*)
4:28	230°	Holding off on the temptation to open the bottom vent, recalling that the grate always tends to read low on the mini.
4:40	242°/270°	Beef patties! Still on the counter. So I took the fish off and put the beef patties on.
4:59	243°	Just ordered LOTR-EE (BR) :D
5:25	227°/170°	Burger patties shrinking so they're off. Checking temp on the pork and it's at 160°. I'll wait for it to hit 165° to allow the chickenlegs to finish.
5:39	245°/°	Pork at 168245°/° - time to take the remaining meats off! (Chicken, pork and a split spud.)

(*) grate/dome - Grate is measured at the top grate using the Maverick remote and dome is read from a dial thermometer installed through a hole in the cover.

Here is what the results looked like:

Here's an initial impression of the flavor added by Pecan:

• Chicken legs - mild very pleasant smoky flavor.
• Pork country rib - subtle pleasant smoky flavor.
• Tilapia fillet - mild smoky flavor.
• Beef patties - extremely subtle, not sure I can even taste the smoke.
• Salmon fillet - mild smoky flavor.
• White potato, halved - mild smoky flavor.

Overall, Pecan reminds me a bit of cherry in that it seems to work well with fish and fowl and is relatively mild. This is a surprise as I expected something more along the lines of Hickory.

A very special bird.

I am happy. I had a very special bird to prepare and I feel like I did it justice.

Our son and daughter in law used to raise chickens and turkeys on their 6 acres out in the country. A job promotion has resulted in the need to move and the result is no more turkeys and chickens for the foreseeable future.

These birds were raised in chicken and turkey tractors. These are enclosures without floors that can be moved around the yard to allow the fowl to forage for whatever they can find to eat in addition to the feed they are provided. While not the same as free range, I think they come close. This 18 ½ pound turkey may be the last of these home raised birds. I think that my preparation did this excellent bird justice and I'd like to document the process here.

I started by brining the bird. I used a combination of two brines that I had found from different sources. The first was provided by Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass. It starts with two quarts of apple juice and a cup of pickling salt to which I added garlic and onion powder. That wasn't enough brine so I made an additional 2 quarts with 1 cup salt and ¾ cup dark brown sugar. I put the turkey in a plastic cooking bag, poured in the brine and sealed it up with as little air as possible. This went into a cooler with some ice. I turned the bird periodically to expose all of it to the brine which pooled at the bottom of the bag. The bird was in the brine from 4:00 PM one day until 1:00 PM the next.

I removed the bird from the brine and rinsed it and patted dry before applying an oil rub seasoned with crushed Garlic,  Sage, Cumin, Coriander, Marjoram, Thyme and Hungarian Paprika.

Smoking was done in an 18 ½" Weber Smoky Mountain (WSM.) This bird was a perfect size to fit the grate and it was not necessary to stand it on its head like I had to do with the 26 pounder I did last Thanksgiving. I chose to use "Best of the West" Mesquite lump charcoal with chunks of Box Elder, Oak, Cherry and a little Black Walnut. The fire was built using the Minion method with a full chimney full of lit lump distributed on top of the rest of the lump and smoking wood. Since fowl benefits less from low 'n slow I did not use water in the bowl but instead foiled it to catch drippings. After adding the lit coals and assembling the weber with all vents wide open, it took about ten minutes for the smoker to hit 300° F. At that time I closed two of three bottom vents fully and closed the third about half way.

Once the smoker hit 300° F I put the bird on the bottom grate and watched temperature. Ten minutes later the temperature had already recovered to 255° F. Fifteen minutes later it had  dropped to 245° F and then started climbing slowly. At three hours it was at 277° F and I adjusted air flow for the first and only time. I closed the one partially open bottom vent just a tiny bit. The result was that at four hours when the turkey hit 160° F, the smoker had dropped back to 254° F. One thing I really like about the WSM is temperature stability once you get the hang of getting it set right. When I finally opened the smoker, this is what greeted me:

Here it is fully rested and ready to carve:

I covered the bird with a foil tent and put it in a slightly warm oven to rest. (Just the pilot - about 110° F.) I had to run to the store for a few things so the turkey wound up resting nearly two hours before I carved it. There was certainly no harm done. That bird is delicious. I carved some breast meat and took some dark meat off one of the drumsticks and both were tender, juicy and had a wonderful smoky flavor.

The meat just under the skin is a little salty. Perhaps I need to use a little less salt in my next brine. In all other respects it is exquisite. I'll need to set some aside for the next time we get together with our son and his bride so I can show them how much we appreciate their efforts raising such an excellent bird.