Another butt over brisket

Just because. We've finished our brisket before vacation and have no more pulled pork left. We do have some back loin ribs, a little more than one rack left. That's all the reason I need. OK, there's another reason. My neighbor runs the Winfield Criterium which is coming up this weekend. I gave her some of the back loin ribs (it was her husband who watched our house while we were out of town.) Last year I cooked for their after party (for everyone who helped put it on) and made - by their request - fajitas. They bought onions, peppers and beef brisket. Oy! I almost panicked when I saw that but quickly researched marinades and settled on one that included lemon juice and vinegar (IIRC) with the hope that it would tenderize the beef a bit. I also sliced the brisket up for maximum exposure. It marinated overnight and was good but still a bit on the rangy side. I think that's just not the right cut of beef for fajitas. This year I'm hoping to convince them that something off the smoker would be better. I hope some brisket and pulled pork talks for me. ;)

I picked out the biggest brisket at Sam's which was just shy of 10 lb. The brisket is a two pack that ran about 16 3/4 lb.

I'm starting this late afternoon so it looks like it will be a long night or an early morning. Plus it will have to go for several hours on its own while we head off to hot dog night.

Weather is hot at 90° and sunny. There is a light of wind reported at about 5 mph but feels like a bit more. Temperature down to 67° by the time the meat came off in the wee hours.

I'm using pretty much the same recipe as last time I did butt over brisket with some modifications as listed below. (I have fresh rosemary but forgot to buy garlic.) The Coffee rub recipe is not worth repeating. You can see it at Raichlen's Primal Grill web site. For the pork, I went with:

• 1 Tbsp black Pepper
• 1 Tbsp Rosemary
• 1/2 Tbsp Coriander
• 1 Tbsp Hungarian Paprika.
• 1 Tbsp Adobo seasoning
• 1 Tsp Cayenne pepper
• 1/2 Tbsp Cumin
• 2 Tbsp powdered garlic

This is going on the WSM where I'm using Royal Oak lump and for smoking wood, mesquite, hickory, apple, black walnut and box elder. I started with about a gallon of hot tap water in the bowl. The meat probe of the ET-72 is in the thickest part of the brisket on the lower grate.

time	temp	comment
3:15 PM		Lit coals on, meat on and buttoned up with one bottom vent half open as seems to work well for me..
3:30	237°/245°/57° (grate/dome/meat)	Temps spiked a bit due to a well lit fire but is settling down a bit after closing up the smoker.
4:08	255°/245°/90°
5:16	263°/250°/136°	closed the vent a little bit - hardly at all.
10:19	219°/215°/172°	That's pretty good for 5 hours of inattention. I'll open a bottom vent a little bit more and stir the coals. Whoops! I fond that one of the bottom vents which I thought had been closed was actually open about half way, so to this point
12:18	240°/?/182°
12:54	220°/215?/185°	Threw in some more lump. Pork is at about 172°.
2:30	230°/225°/195°	Beef off and meat probe switched to pork (now 184°.)
2:40		Decided to take the pork off s well. It looks done.

I wrapped all pieces of meat in foil and put in a cooler for an extended rest (til morning) prior to slicing and pulling. They both turned out to be the tenderest pieces of meat I have ever smoked. The pork was almost too tender. I think that the extended rest was the reason for this. The beef was also very juicy.

The only thing I might do differently is double check which vents are open to keep the fire better controlled. I would have liked a slightly lower smoke temperature but the results were great!

Back Ribs with some rub tests

I owe some friends and these are things I cannot pay back with money. I chose back loin ribs from Sams. (Based on the size, I think they qualify as baby back ribs, but I'm no expert.) I'm also going to perform some rub experiments. I cut off three end ribs so the racks fit better. I'm going to try a variety of other rubs on those micro-racks. But since I made larger quantities of two popular rubs (BRITU, Raichlen's Memphis rub) I'm going to do a rack of each of those too.

Temperature is presently at 79°, sunny and wind is very light (reported at 10 mph but I'm skeptical.)

Most of the ribs will be rubbed with the rub I used for Mother's Day with some changes. I used fresh rosemary form the garden and powdered garlic since we were out of bulbs. I also mixed up some other rubs to try for the sake of comparison:

1. Plain with oil
2. Salt and black pepper with oil
3. Salt, black pepper, garlic powder and Adobo with oil
4. BRITU (Best Ribs in the Universe)
5. Raichlen's Memphis Rub (From his Barbecue Bible book, but I'm not going to mop.)
6. Salt, brown sugar, black pepper and Adobo with oil

I'm using toothpicks broken in half and stuck into the edge of the ribs (between bones) to provide identification. I hope they don't fall out otherwise I'll be guessing which is which.

This smoke is on my 18 1/2" WSM (Weber Smokey Mountain.) I'll be using water in the bowl and the third grate so I can lay two racks of ribs on each grate. For the fire I'm using Royal Oak lump charcoal with chunks of hickory, box elder (maple) and crab apple for smoking wood.

time	temp	comment
10:45 AM		All rubs have been applied.
11:10		Lit charcoal chimney on propane (Yay Performer!) and set on a Minion lay.
11:20		Lit chimney dumped on unlit coals. One gallon of hot tap water in bowl and smoker closed up. Top vent is wide open (as always) and one bottom vent left 1/2 open (other two bottom vents closed.)
11:30		Meat on!
11:50	167°/190°(grate/dome)
1:05	194°/200°	Progress is good!
2:34	198°/210°
		Hmmm... What was that reading and what time was it? Anyway, at that point I stirred the fire a bit and threw in some more hickory and apple.
4:53	189°/195°	I stirred the coals a bit more and opened another bottom vent to 1/2. the ribs still look good but they're a ways away.
5:10	177°/195°	Gave it a shot of air to fire up the coals a bit. Temp seems to be recovering.
5:37	201°/195°
5:45	200°/195°	Opened one bottom vent full (two at 1/2 and one at full open.) Almost time for dinner!
6:10	233°/215°	Took samples 1 & 2 off for dinner - Hungry!
6:20	250°/	Closed one vent - the full open one.
7:00		Meat off!

This is about an hour into the smoke.

About 5 hours

Ready to come off

That's a nice pile of ribs!

Here's an evaluation of the various rubs.

1. Plain with oil - Surprisingly good! It goes to show that the primary flavor is from the pork and the smoke and the rub just adds additional layers of flavor.
2. Salt and black pepper with oil - Again very good with the improvement of the salt and pepper which provides minimal heat.
3. Salt, black pepper, garlic powder and Adobo with oil - Also good with the addition of some heat from the Adobo seasoning.
4. BRITU (Best Ribs in the Universe) This is good, but IMO not the best in the universe. But it is produce juicy ribs.
5. Raichlen's Memphis Rub (From his Barbecue Bible book, but I'm not going to mop.) At present, my favorite. I think the mustard gives it a nice tang and the cayenne gives it some heat. and it is juicy.
6. Salt, brown sugar, black pepper and Adobo with oil - Pretty good flavor for a simple rub. I little dryer but nice and spicy.

My rub - Not as good as Raichlen's. I should cut back a bit on the rosemary and the heat. I could add some mustard as well. An open question remains salt and sugar. Particularly with sugar, I'm just not sure it adds much. I'll have to taste test again tomorrow and re-evaluate, checking for moistness as well as flavor.

One thing seems clear. It is not necessary to add a lot of flavor. Hickory, apple and maple do that just fine. Subtle flavors and a little heat are all that is really needed.

Brisket for the 4th of July

I actually did this on the 3rd of July when we were expecting family (kids and grandkid!) Power was out so I could not blog but fortunately I could smoke. Here is an account of the brisket.

I started with a 6 3/4 lb brisket from Sams. I found it to be reasonably well trimmed (not a 1/2" fat cap like some previous purchases.) I again went with the coffee rub describd by Steve Raichlen and aso made up a lbatch of Red Eye BBQ sauce. Some day I may try something different, but for now these work well for me. I applied the rub about 8:00 AM. On the smoker I tried something a little different this time. I smoked the meat fat cap down with a couple strips of bacon on the top of each piece of meat.

Weather was hot - 80° in the morning and mid nineties in the afternoon. Sun was hot and wind was calm to very light breezes. It was not a good day to play outside but was an excellent day to smoke.

This cook will go on the mini-WSM and the brisket was cut in half into two approximately triangular shaped pieces to fit the 14 1/2" grates. Fire was using lump along with some mesquite, oak, box elder and apple for smoking woods. I lit some lump on a charcoal chimney and put that on a Minion lay at 8:45. At 8:55 I closed up the smoker and set the bottom vent to about 1/3 open. I'm also trying a new lid thermometer which projects a little further into the cooker than the last one. It should provide better readings. Grate and meat temperatures are using a Maverick ET-73. The stainless water bowl is about half full of warm water.

time	temp	comment
9:05 AM	158°/?/? grate/lid/meat	Meat on! Shortly after putting the meat on temp spiked at 325° but a recheck indicated that the grate probe had slipped down and was just above the space between water bowl and cooker, just above the fire. Dome temp at that time was about 150°.
9:23	268°/160°/63°
9:48	244°/180°/102°	Looks good.
10:14	194°/170°/132°	Dropping a bit too much, open bottom vent to about 1/2.
10:50	206°/185°/154°	Looking a little better.
11:33	208°/190°/167°
11:54	200°/?/170°	Time to stir the pot fire. Added some more oak and
1:02	200°/170°/172°	Open bottom vent full.
3:10	280°/200°/185°	Looks like the fire recovered and perhaps the water boiled out of the pan as well. Anyway, probed the meat and it seemed tender enough so I took it off.

Results: Everyone liked it. It seemed neither drier nor more moist than previous smokes. Putting the fat cap down probably matters more when there is no water bowl between the meat and the fire. It also could have been more tender, but slicing across the grain means that makes little difference.

What to do differently next time: Make more Red Eye sauce! Cindy used it up already. Need a double or triple batch I guess. I should try taking the meat to a higher temperature. Actually, since I had two pieces of meat, I could have taken one off and left the other on a little longer.

Summer Spares

While on vacation I had some BBQ. It was OK, but I really thought "I need to fire up my smoker!" We're back and I had some spares in the freezer which I took out last night. Today I smeared them with my usual mix except that I used Rosemary, Sage, Oregano and Garlic from the garden. I also added some Thyme based on Alton Brown's recipe. It will be marinating for a bit (45 minutes?) while I prep the smoker.

Weather is 83°, hot and sunny with practically no wind.


This is going to be smoked in the 18 1/2" WSM with some remaing Grove lump and some Stubbs briquettes. I grabbed a handful of wood chunks consisting of some maple, walnut, apple and possibly some cherry to which I added some hickory for smoking woods. This will be a somewhat unattended cook to a large extent. At about 6:00 PM we need to head out. I plan to have things stabilized by then at a somewhat lower temp and then will allow that it will droop as the evening proceeds. Hopefully they won't overcook by the time we get home.

time	temp	comment
4:20 PM		Set partially lit chimney on the fire lay.
4:32		Fire was roaring! Amazing how fast it goes on a hot day. I put about 3 quarts of hot water in the bowl and buttoned the smoker up. I closed two bottom vents fully and left one about 1/2 open. Within about a minute the grate probe is reading 281°. And the meat probe sitting on the table for my Platinum is reading 125°.
4:40	285°/?(grate/lid)	Meat on!
4:46	288°/230°	Went to about 1/3 open on the remaining open bottom vent.
4:56	233°/?	Dropping faster than I would like. Did I close off too much? I may need to adjust up more.
5:09	229°/?
5:38	215°	Opening the bottom vent up a bit.
5:56	238°	Looks good temperature wise.
6:10	244°	heading out.
11:00	195°	Meat off! Temperature drooped as expected. The meat really hadn't pulled back on the bone and when lifted in the middle, the ribs flexed a little. It could probably smoke a little longer to make more tender ribs but I like mine a bit toothsome and deemed them done.

Flavor - Good! I haven't decided if I took them off prematurely or they were done. The meat is tender 

I'm not sure I would do anything different.

Mother's Day back loin ribs

That's what Mom (*) wants and we're having company so I got two cryovac packs of three racks each from Sam's club. They had no spare ribs so I went with loin back ribs. (SWMBO had requested back ribs but my original plan was to do some of each.) Target serving time is 3:00 PM. I should have these on the fire by about 8:00 AM (based on previous cooks) but that's not critical since I can easily bump it up with additional heat.

Weather is going to be beautiful today. We're at 57° right now and the temperature is climbing fast with full sun and practically no wind at about 5 mph.

I'm using my typical wet rub (dry ingredients + peanut oil + lots of crushed garlic.) In the rub went:

• 1 1/2 Tbsp. Coarse grind black pepper.
• 2 Tbsp. ground Sage
• 1 Tbsp. Coriander (**)
• 2 Tbsp ground Rosemary (**)
• 1 Tbsp ground dried Oregano flakes. (**)
• 1 Tbsp. ground Chili Ancho
• 1 Tsp. ground Chili Chipotle
• 1 Tsp. Cumin
• 1 1/2 bulb crushed garlic (not clove, bulb.)
• Enough peanut oil to make this mixture a slurry.

(**) These herbs and spices were ground in the Krupps whirling blade coffee grinder that has been repurposed as a spice grinder.

These are going into the regular WSM of course. I'll be using the third rack since I like to smoke ribs flat. This is going to be a big load for the smoker. I'm firing with Grove lump from Woodman's (very nice mix of sizes with very little fines.) For smoking wood I'm using Hickory, Box Elder, Black Walnut, Apple and one piece of Cherry. The 22" WSM would be ideal for this size cook but I can get by with the 18". I just cut the last three ribs off each rack and then I can fit two racks and the extra pieces on each rack.

Later on I'll fire up something else to roast some red peppers and then bake some foiled potatoes. Maybe time to use the 18 1/2 which hasn't been fired up in years.

time	temp	comment
8:00 AM	°	Lit coals on the Minion lay. closed bottom vents to (0, 0, 1/2) (The numbers indicate the approximate fraction that each of the three bottom vents is open. 0 => closed, 1 => wide open)
8:20		Meat on!
8:30	169°/? (grate/lid)
9:25	180°/190°	I'm happy with this start. I can bump the temp later if necessary to hit my target time.
10:03	178°/190°	Opened the bottom vent a bit to (0,0,3/4)
10:30	176°/185°	Need to bump this up a bit - stirred the fire and went to (0,1,1) on the vents.
11:09	192°/220°	Bump working - back to (0,0,1)
11:58	192°/230°	Threw some Box Elder, Apple and Walnut on the fire. Higher lid temp than smoker temp is a puzzlement. But the smoke is progressing. I peeked in and the meat is starting to darken a bit but there is no hint of pulling back off the bones. When the spuds are finished, I'll see if I can add those coals to the smoker to give it a little bump.
2:45	242°/200°	Flipped the ribs over. They are starting to pull back on the bone but did not pass the "break when you pick them up" test. They should be done soon but I miss the 3:00 target.
3:30		Meat off!

(grate/lid) Temperatures are recorded using the built in lit thermometer and the smoker temperature probe of a Maverick ET-73 hanging near the edge of the top rack.

I didn't get pix of the final results as it was time to eat and other food to get served. But part way through they looked like this.

Everyone liked the ribs. They were pretty moist and had good smoky flavor, but I felt the spice mix left a bit to be desired. I dunno... I just felt they could have been better.

While the ribs were smoking I fired up some more lump in the 18 and fire roasted some red peppers and then closed things up to bake some foil wrapped spuds. Temp reading I'm getting with a thermometer inserted through a vent is about 425° Peppers were done in minutes on a very hot and open grill and the spuds were started around the edge. Once the peppers were done about 11:30 the spuds were spread over the coals, one bottom vent was closed (1,1,0) and the lid put on.

Once the peppers are roasted, the skins slip off easily and I slice them into strips and dress with white wine vinegar and lemon juice.

Next time I do this many ribs, I should take the three-rib mini-racks and experiment on them with different rubs and perhaps smoking conditions. I could do them in the mini while the almost full racks smoke in the WSM.

(*) Not my mom but the mother of our children. When they were young I had started to call her 'mom.' She pointed out that I was not her mother and I was directed to call her Cindy. I did so and soon our sons were calling her Cindy as well. She sighed and said "OK, call me mom."

Not another rotisserie chicken

I picked up a couple chickens a couple days ago with the thought that I'd put them on the rotisserie again. That works well, but I decided that I wanted to be a little more adventurous and use charcoal. Unfortunately I have nothing that burns charcoal and on which I can  mount a rotating spit. I recall some recipes on Primal Grill that involved a bird split in half so I decided to go that way. It seems like the perfect task for my big Weber. I settled on the recipe for Java Chicken with cafe latte BBQ sauce. It sounded pretty good to me, particularly since I like the coffee rub on brisket (what we had for lunch today) and this started out as coffee rub for chicken. I'll take advantage of the extra space on the grate to grill some zucchini to go along with the chicken.

Weather today has included rain and thunder showers but that may be behind us for the rest of the day - I hope! Temperature is about 63° F right now and wind is light at about 6 mph. The sky remains cloudy and I can hear thunder in the distance.

I mixed the rub per the recipe making a double batch and then split the chicken, saving the back bone, breastbone, giblets and fat and skin trimmings for stock. Then about 3:30 PM I rubbed the chicken and returned it to the refrigerator to marinate a bit while I prepared the kettle.

I'm using lump charcoal and an aluminum drip pan in the middle. I'll use my Maverick ET-73 to monitor cooker temperature so I can shoot for about 350° F. I think I'll use oak and mesquite for smoking woods for this one.  The charcoal chimney goes on the propane burner about 4:15 PM and put on the charcoal grate at 4:18. At 4:30 I dumped the coals onto either side of the fire grate and put the meat on. Before closing up the cooker I put some oak and mesquite on each side of the indirect fire lay. Within minutes the temp is up to 360° so I closed the bottom vent to about 3/4 open.

While the chicken was getting started I set about making the Mocha Mop Sauce and the Cafe Latte Barbecue Sauce. Joke's on me! Care Latte is identical to the Redeye recipe Raichlen provides for beef brisket and I just made some a couple days ago. I'll use that for the chicken then. I'm not a huge fan of mops but this one has both beer and coffee in addition to chocolate so it seems worth a try. As far as the mop goes, it was Dark Magic coffee and Ranger India Pale Ale for the brew.

Here's the chicken ready for the second mop.

time	temp	comment
4:35 PM	?°	Meat on! Starting with top and bottom vents wide open.
5:00	350°	Temperature measurement was spot on! Woops... It just dropped to 329°. I guess I'll open the bottom vent wide open again.
5:14	302°	All vents open and temp still dropping. :( Time to open up and mop and see what's going on! Fire looked robust on one side and not so robust on the other. I added more oak and a few Stubbs briquettes on the not so robust side to see what happens. Chicken looks OK but not moving too fast.
5:30	310°	Mop again.
5:46	310°	Mop again. Flipped the birds and mopped the bottom too. I also added about a half dozen lit briquettes to the laggard side of the fire.
6:00	273°	This time it looks like the robust side of the fire had nearly exhausted the fuel. I added some lump to both sides. I also flipped the birds back up and mopped again.
6:45	327°	Mopped again, mop sauce almost gone. I poked the birds a bit and they were between 155° and 160°. I'm going to take the zucchini out and grill it over the coals with some green onions. Next I slather on a bit of redeye sauce and set it over the coals for 2 minutes.
7:00		Chicken off.

Chicken was still a little bloody at the joints which was to be expected, I suppose. Skin did not crisp due to the extended cooking time. However the white meat was very moist and the chicken was delicious.

When cooking something on the big grill that's going to take over an hour, I need to start with more than a full chimney or charcoal. I can probably light one chimney and pour it out on to some unlit coal. If I need instant high heat, then it's going to take to be two chimneys.

Jonesing for brisket

I've been jonesing for brisket recently so when SWMBO asked if she could pick up anything from Sam's Club I asked her to get a brisket. She came up with this:

Weather is 66° with wind light at about 10 mph. The sky is partly cloudy but we could have almost anything as the day progresses.

Once again I'm using Raichlen's coffee rub with not a lot of marinate time. I guess I should have done that last night, but I'm not sure it matters much for this.

This brisket is just about 14" tip to tip so I plan to put it on the upper rack of the mini. I plan to use some left over charcoal and smoking wood augmented with some lump and mesquite smoking wood. I placed couple handfuls of barely lit coals in the chimney on top of the fire lay about 10:00. This has the effect of starting the coals and wood below it while the coals in the chimney continue to start. At about 10:20 I dumped the coals from the chimney on the fire lay, poured a quart of hot water in the bowl and assembled the mini-WSM. I started out with the bottom vent about 1/3 open and the top fully open. Within about ten minutes the cooker temperature is approaching 200° F so I put the meat on.

It barely fits but should pull back a bit as it starts to cook. Had it been any bigger, I would have cut it in half and divided it between the upper and lower grate. Today - just the upper grate.

time	temp	comment
10:28 AM	?/200°	Meat on!
10:46	65°/214°
10:57	88°/235°	Too much heat - need to trim the bottom vent back a bit. (I don;t want to boil away all of the water too soon.)
11:15	120°/244°	still hotter than I want - trimming a wee bit more.
11:43	147°/221°	That's better.
11:58	153°/217°	Overshoot - trim slightly open now.
1:51	166°/221°	Back from grocery shopping - nice!
2:58	165°/241°	Stalled! Cooker temp has crept up from previous reading. I'll speculate that the water in the pan is now gone. I'll let the temp drift up a bit to drive the brisket toward being done.
3:23	164°/247°	WTF! What's going on?
4:04	167°/217°	OK, meat is moving up again and now the smoker temp is dropping. Time to open it and look at the coals. Stirred the coals and refilled the basket with lump left over from last night's grilling.
4:28	164°/282°	Restabilizing after opening the cooker and adding fuel. Need to cut back on the bottom air vent a bit.
5:12	189°/265°	Need to poke it I think. Still firm. Good time to drop a couple foiled spuds on the coals.
5:50	197°/219°	Still a little firm, just flipped the spuds. They need more time. I'm almost ready to take the brisket off to let it rest. But I haven't made any redeye sauce yet.
6:05	198°/257°	Time to rest the brisket.

Here it is ready to come off the smoker.

I took it to a little higher temperature this time and consequently it seems a little more tender. It's also on the verge of being dry (at least at the thinner end.) It has a thin smoke ring and once again, it is delicious!

The result of refueling was that plenty plenty of fuel was left over. I dumped it in my Platinum and used it to grill some Chorizo Quesadillas following Weber's recipe of the week.

They're appearance on the grill does not do justice to how good they tasted. They were a bit overstuffed. I didn't follow the recipe exactly but I don;t think this is the kind of recipe where proportions are that important. I used a mix of pepper jack and sharp cheddar cheese. I should have drained the chorizo on paper toweling rather than drain in the pan as it was still giving up grease when served.