Beef Ribs (and some veggies.)

Pulled a four bone rack of beef ribs from the freezer. Just over 2 lb. Not an excess of meat on them, but should be good enough for dinner. They'll go on the mini-WSM for a nominal four hours.

Weather is warm and windy. Temperature is reported at 82°F and wind is about 20 mph and gusty. The sky is mostly cloudy. We may get some rain/thunderstorms before the cook is done.

Beef will be simple with salt (coarse sea salt) and coarse ground black pepper. I drizzled a little canola oil on the upper surface of the beef as well to promote moistness.

Cook is on the mini-WSM using mostly left over charcoal from previous cooks. A couple chunks of mesquite were added for smoke. I may throw some apple, oak and mesquite chips in later. With the smoker closed up, the top vent is full open (as always) and the two bottom vents are open about 1/4" each. I'd like to see temps around 275-300°F. On the 18 kettle, I've started some lump and plan to roast some red peppers. When they're done, I'll put some foiled spuds on the coals. Eventually I'll roast some broccoli and green onions as well.

A few new coals and the potatoes go right on them.

When the meat came off the mini-WSM, I dumped the remaining coals in the kettle to replenish that fire for grilling vegetables.

time	temp	comment
2:25 PM		Ribs on!
2:49	243° grate	I'd like to see a little more heat so I opened the second bottom vent a little.
3:01	248°	Light rain starting and I can hear the rumble of distant thunder.
3:08	246°	Raining harder now. :( Hopefully will pass by momentarily.
3:20	244°	Sun is out and smoker temp is recovering - Yay! Foil wrapped spuds on the kettle in the coals.
3:51	264°	Sun is back out, thunder in the distance and it is hot and muggy!
4:10	264°	Threw some oak chips on the fire. Spuds may be done. Need to squeeze them with some oven mitts to see.
4:22	240°	Temperature inexplicably dropping following application of oak chips so I stirred the fire a bit. Spuds off the coals and onto the safe zone.
4:53	273°
5:21	261	Meat off. OK, done in three hours.

grate => ET-732 cooker probe sticking in the grommet in the mid-section.

This picture is about half way through the cook.

And the closest I came to a plated picture.

The beef was good - these are probably the best beef ribs I've made and the difference was cooking them a little longer. That renders off more of the fat. Though these had little meat on them, the meat was tender and juicy. The food cooked on the other cooker came out well too. Most of the peppers were reserved for making a spread but I put a little in the salad. Potatoes, broccoli and onions were good. The onions are actually a little stringy but flavor is mild and sweet. I guess we get more fiber from them. ;)

There is nothing I need to do differently next time. I could have used a second Smokey Joe instead of the 18" kettle, but I'm not sure I have a cast iron grate that will fit a Smokey Joe.

Four Boston Butts

Need some pulled pork for the ChiTech tech fair tomorrow and some more to take to Kamp Koegel over the Memorial Day holiday. We also plan to serve pulled pork when the kids visit tomorrow. I purchased two twin packs from Sam's Club that were just over 13 lb each.

(The labels have older labels undrneath. Last week butts were $1.28 at Sams. Grrr...)

Weather at the start of the smoke is 67°F with light clouds and no wind - ideal conditions! We expect to hit mid 70s and there might be some scattered showers (though none on the radar yet.) We peaked at 74° at about 1:00 and now we're at 67°. It did eventually drizzle for the last hour or two of the cook.

I prepared a rub similar to the one I used for this cook with the addition of Ancho powder and some salt and sugar and some mustard seed. Something else I did differently was to not make a slurry with the rub and oil. I just put it on dry. It seems like the rub went a little farther as a result.

• 2 Tbsp black Pepper (whole)
• 2 Tbsp Rosemary (dry, whole)
• 1 Tbsp Coriander (whole)
• 1 Tbsp mustard seed
• 2 Tbsp Hungarian Paprika.
• 1 Tbsp Adobo seasoning
• 1 Tbsp powdered onion
• 2 Tsp Cayenne pepper
• 1 Tbsp Cumin
• 2 Tbsp powdered garlic
• 1 Tbsp Kosher salt
• 2 Tbsp sugar

One butt will get Slap Yo' Daddy original meat rub as a comparison. (I scored 'X' marks in the fat on this one to identify it.)

I'm also doing a Jimmy Dean Sage Sausage fatty. Half of it got some Big Poppa Happy Ending Finishing Rub.

Here are the butts rubbed and ready to go. They probably sat there about 2 hours while I prepared the cooker and the fire settled.

My initial plan was to smoke on the 18" WSM (Weber Smokey Mountain) but after looking at the size of the butts and the 18" grate, I decided to use the 22" WSM. It is fired with Royal Oak briquettes and for smoking wood I'm using hickory, apple, box elder and one chunk of black walnut. I'm going with a foiled water pan to see how that goes. After starting the fire I closed up the cooker which seemed to be producing a lot of smoke. I let it run for about 40 minutes before putting the meat on. Temperatures are being measured using using both ET-732 and ET-73.

time	temp	comment
9:10 AM		Smoker closed up. Closed bottom vents to one about 1/2 open.
9:18		Lid at 200 and smoke shooting out of the lid vent and every other crack. Need to let the fire settle a little before proceeding.
9:50		Meat on! (Grate was about 260°)
10:05	57°/230°/116°/235° (pork/grate/fatty/lid)	Off to a good start.
10:33	70°/246°/165°/	I think I need to probe the fatty with a hand held probe. It may be done! No. Repositioned to get a better reading - 132°.
11:11	93°/261°/166°/255°	Fatty off and resting. (And a little carved from the end is delicious!) At this point the meat probe from the ET-73 is left on the top grate to provide a second cooker temperature measurement.
12:22	133°/280°/280°/265°	Cruising along, doing fine, having a fatty sandwich for lunch!
1:37	167°/253°/253°/240°	Knocked the coals about a bit. Threw in a couple small pieces of hickory and apple.
2:27	178°/253°/248°/235°
3:10	181°/241°/243°/235°	Time to throw on some more briquettes.
4:12	187°/259°/250°/255°
5:19	192°/253°/251°/230°	Bone wiggle says top butts are done. They're coming off and butts on bottom racks will be checked. Two butts on the bottom need a little more time. Bottom butt is presently probing at 181°. Light rain starting.
6:22	187°/284°/***/220°	Light rain continues. I wiggled the bones on the remaining two and I think they need a little more time.
6:58	189°/228°/***/210°	Need to stir the coals. Coals nearly gone - threw a few more in. Butts nearly done.
7:37	190°/293°/***/***	Last two butts off and resting.

(pork/grate/fatty/lid) => pork and grate are on the ET-732 and the fatty is on the ET-73. The grate temperature is measured at the bottom grate.

The fatty came off after about an hour and twenty minutes and was delicious! I sliced a little and made a sandwich for lunch. This was a nice little treat while I waited for the smoke to proceed.

The two butts on the top rack were done first.

They came off at 5:20 PM. As is typical when I lift them, some of the meat stuck to the grate and provided some small pieces to taste. :D Very good! I think it was some with the S-Y-D rub. It seemed a little salty. Here are the first two to come off the cooker.

And all four done and ready to rest.

The butts were very tasty. I'm not sure I could tell much difference between the two rubs except that mine had a hint of black pepper whereas the Slap Yo' Daddy was a little salty. These flavors are only noticeable when tasting the bark. In the final mix I doubt they will make anything more than a very subtle difference.

I could probably have left the butts on a little longer. This is the first time I tried to determine doneness using the 'wiggle the bone' technique. The butts were still a little firm. Not making an oil based slurry for the rub did not seem to make any difference.

Country Ribs and Ground Turkey

Cindy wanted to get a pork shoulder to make Carne de Puerco. She couldn't find a shoulder (not knowing it was also called a pork butt) and got country ribs instead. Not to worry... country ribs are just a butt sliced into 2" thick slabs. There is actually a benefit for smoking since there is more exposed area so there will be more smoky flavor. (I should mention that while Carne de Puerco is traditionally made by boiling the pork in a pot with the seasonings, I'll start it in the smoker and then we'll finish it in the traditional method.) The other thing to cook is ground turkey to be used for some  Moroccan White Bean Turkey.

Weather is gorgeous with full sun, temperature already at 70° and wind light at 3-5 mph.

I rubbed the pork with Slap Yo' Daddy original meat rub to which I added some ground Ancho and a little ground Chipotle for a Mexican slant. To the turkey I added garlic cloves and a the spices that substitute for the PC Moroccan rub.

This is going to smoke in the mini-WSM. The turkey is in a medium Dutch oven (with no cover) on the bottom rack and the pork on the top. I'm using Royal Oak bisquettes with a mix of smoking wood including hickory, cherry and maple chunks with some Jack Daniels oak chips and mesquite chips. The water pan is still foiled from my last cook (smoking a ham last Thursday.) This is using the Smokey Joe Gold and I have a single bottom vent cracked open to keep temps low. Temperature is measured using the Maverick ET-732 with the long curved cooker probe stuck between the Dutch oven and the side of the cooker.

time	temp	comment
10:09 AM	°	Meat on!
10:24	189°	Cooker temperature is pretty much where I want it.
10:56	187°	Going to open the cooker so I can stir the turkey.
11:16	234°	Following the last opening, I opened the vent a bit.
11:40	252°	time to stir turkey again.
12:52	277°	time to take the pork off.

Turkey was very tasty.

The pork was a little heavily spiced and a little chewy. That was by design because I expected to use it in another recipe but we wound up having some for dinner. It was a little hot but still good.

The only thing I would like to do differently is put food to be smoked in a shallower cast iron pan (which I do not have.) Perhaps I should get a 12" fry pan and cut the handle off. :D

Tea Smoked Duck

I found a couple small (2 1/2 lb) frozen skinless ducks while defrosting the freezer. I put them in the refrigerator for a slow thaw with plans to smoke them. I've done them before using the info from Steve Raichlen's site Primal Grill.

Weather... Holy cow! Last night and yesterday we had the most rain and flooding since we moved here in '87. Water is flowing over our street by the creek and parallel streets on either side are closed due to flooding. Right now it is raining lightly, temperature is 60°F and wind is light.

I put the ducks into a ziplock gallon bag (they barely fit) and added a double recipe of the marinade last night. This morning I flipped the bag over to help distribute the marinade.

I decided to fire up the 18.5 kettle - my oldest Weber - for this cook. It has the daisy wheel dampers (like the WSM) which will provide better temperature control compared to the one touch system on modern kettles. I'm using some of that funny shaped Royal Oak briquettes with some apple and cherry chunks as well as the tea smoking mix wrapped in foil. I used about half a chimney of briquettes. One bottom vent is closed and two others are open about 1/3. They're a little loose so they are probably admitting more air than I really want. The charcoal slightly overflows a single charcoal basket. Temperature is monitored using the dual purpose probe on the ET-732 stuck through the vent. This is probably not the best, but I don't think temperature is critical for fowl. I'll check for doneness using the Maverick Weekend Warrior probe.

time	temp	comment
2:21 PM		Ducks on!
2:38	361°
3:05	358°	Brushed birds with some sesame oil.
3:30	325°	Threw a couple more briquettes on though there seemed to be plenty left of the original charge. Poked a thermo in the duck breasts and they were 155-160° so they should be done soon. I also rotated them to put the other side closer to the fire.

They were good!

No need to do anything different. :D

What to do with those Easter eggs?

Smoke them!

Weather is frosty at 32°F and wind light at just under 10 mph.

Eggs were boiled and peeled. We never got around to coloring them. :(

This is going to be a quick smoke on the mini. I did use the mini-chimney again. :D I added a couple small chunks of cherry for smoke wood. I started out with both vents on the SJG (Smokey Joe Gold) about 1/3 open but at about 5 minutes I closed one completely. I also then added an empty water pan which I had left out.

time	temp	comment
9:45 AM	°	Eggs on!
9:49	333°/255° (grate/lid)	Added empty water pan.
9:55	271°/?	That's better - I don't need too much heat in the eggs.
10:05	289°/240°	Eggs off!

Results

I just need to remember to put the diffuser pan in place before starting the smoke.

But wait! There's more. I was wondering what else to do with a hot smoker and decided to throw the three rib bones on that I had trimmed off the standing rib roast when carving it. That should make a nice lunch. :D


Outside temp is now up to 34°F.

I opened the mini-WSM up and threw on a few more pieces of lump. I had already closed it up, but the vents on the SJG do not close very tightly so some coals were still burning. I also threw on a couple pieces of oak and a chunk of mesquite. In a few minutes the wood was smouldering so I closed things up and put the meat on. I also opened one bottom vent about 25%.

time	temp	comment
10:45 AM		Bones on!
10:51	307°/?
10:56	322°/210°	Closed the single bottom vent to just a crack open. (Top vent still wide open.)
11:30	319°/?	Meat off.

The ribs and other piece were very tasty but the rib was pretty gristly. I put the other two back on a much cooler grill (225-250°) and left them on for a couple hours. I'll find out if that helped when I eat them.

Standing Rib Roast for Easter

I've wanted to do a standing rib roast for a long time. We just never had an excuse to o that until now. It's a great main course for Easter and they're on sale. I got a 9 1/4 pound roast for $4.99/lb.

 It's a nice looking piece of meat with lots of marbling.

Weather is beautiful today with temps at about 45° at the beginning of the cook and hitting upper 50s midway through. Wind was brisk at first but mid-cook is stiff at 22mph with gusts to 28.

I wrapped the roast it in clean towels for about 3 days for 'dry aging.'  Rub will be simple consisting of salt, pepper and coriander. The plan is to slow cook at about 225° to an IT of about 118°. Then the meat will be rested while a kettle is fired up to 'nuclear' for a nice hot reverse sear.

The initial portion of the cook will be done on the 18.5 WSM (Weber Smokey Mountain.) Water pan will be foiled and left dry. I'm using the Royal Oak briquettes (the sort of dumbbell shaped ones.) I've got some oak with a little mesquite and black walnut for smoking woods. This was my second opportunity to use my new mini-chimney today. :D

time	temp	comment
10:39AM		Lit chimney set on fire lay.
10:51		Lit chimney dumped on the coals and cooker closed up, top vent open and one bottom vent open.
11:05	?/260°/? (meat/grate/lid)	11:05 Closing bottom to about 50% of one vent.
11:17	?/270°/230°	Meat on! Closing the single bottom vent to about 25% and top vent to about 50%
11:27	32°/244°/?	Temp moderate and dropping slowly. Holding off on further adjustment for now. (Open top vent at 11:31)
11:53	36°/239°/200°
1:17 PM	75°/230°/200°
1:53	91°/257°/220°	Temps climbing as wind comes up. 18 mph with gusts to 25. Temperature is now 56°. Closed top vent to about 2/3.
2:16	100°/246°/?	Closed bottom vent to even smaller than before.
3:10	117°/234°/?	Meat off to rest!

(meat/grate/lid) => (ET-732 meat probe, ET-732 cooker probe, lid thermometer)

Here is the roast ready to rest.

After the rest, it went on a screaming hot grill to sear, but I did not keep it on there long as it caused grease fires almost immediately.

The roast came out very well for my first attempt. I sliced off the bones before carving it turned out to be pretty rare. It released almost no moisture while resting but did give up bright red juice while carving. I served end cuts for those who prefer their meat a little more cooked, I also offered to throw some on a hot cast iron pan to finish it a little more but no one took me up on the offer.

Flavor was terrific. Exposed surfaces had a pleasantly smoky flavor and the pepper, salt and coriander worked well with the meat.

Cindy made a fancy fruit salad to go with.

We also had (among other sides) grilled asparagus and Duchess potatoes.

I don't think I would do anything during the cook any differently. Instead of trying to sear on a kettle, I might try using the smoker and just firing it up as hot as I can get it. I think it would also make more sense to trim all of the fat that I can prior to dry aging.

Another run at Good Pizza™

And now for something entirely different. I've been working on pizza lately for a couple reasons. First, I like pizza. OK, one reason. I think I can make a healthy pizza too. I've been trying whole wheat dough for the crust. It's a bit of work, but I hope it will be worth the effort. For this batch I'm using a recipe I found at this blog. Unlike the previous recipe I tried, this one uses 100% whole wheat. I started it two days ago and took the two dough components out of the refrigerator at 11:00 AM.  The biga (with yeast) is on the right and even in the refrigerator it has risen.

At about 2:30 PM I combined them (using molasses instead of honey) and then let it rise for a while on a heating pad.

After turning it out, I cut it into four parts and spread one out on my 14 inch pizza peel (my new toy. :D ) The first pizza I made used pulled pork for meat and I added peppers, onions, mushrooms and several kinds of cheese. Before adding the toppings, I spread some EVOO infused with garlic on the dough. I'm not sure if that's the proper way to make a pizza but I like the garlic.

I had lit two full chimneys of lump charcoal in the Performer and preheated the firebrick in the oven to 250°F. The bed of coals spread pretty much across the entire charcoal grate. I threw a couple chunks of oak in for some smoking wood. I allowed some time to preheat the firebrick (while building the pizza) and then it went on the fire. I also tilt the lid a little to provide a gap of about 1/2" on one side. Without that the fire seems to starve for air.

Weather was warm (relatively) at 41°F with wind light at about 10 mph. the sky was overcast but bright.

Below are some time/temp milestones for this cook.

time	temp	comment
4:15 PM	420°/230° (lid/brick)	pre-warmed firebrick on the hot grill
4:30	430°/460°
4:35	460°/600°	Heating up fast!
4:37		First pie on!
4:41		Cheese melting and toppings curling.
		First pie off! (Forgot to check time.)
4:58	500°/685°	Second pies on (on CI griddles.)
		Second pies off!

(lid/brick) => (Performer lid thermometer / IR thermometer reading off the firebrick)

The first pie was slightly burned on the bottom. In fact, it left some charred material on the bricks. Yet the cheese had not yet browned. Toppings were cooked, but not quite to my liking. With the firebrick getting even hotter, I decided to use cast iron tortilla griddles for the next pies. I divided the next lump of dough in half again and built two pies using some smoked chicken. They cooked more evenly top to bottom. The only problem was that one cooked faster than the other and overcooked a bit. Fortunately one was just about perfect (and that's the word that Cindy used to describe it.)

The first pie looks OK on top, but the bottom is a little charred.

This one baked on the griddle was just right.

(It looks a little burned at the edge in the picture, but that is just how the whole wheat dough browns.)

If I'm going to use a peel, I really ought to get a second one. It would be nice to have one free to build the next pizza on before I remove the previous one from the grill. I'm not eager to move the assembled pizza (on raw dough) any more than absolutely necessary. The other thing I need to do is get the heat balance between top and bottom right. That means either more heat on the top or less on the bottom (firebrick.) One thing I might do is just continue to use the cast iron griddle. I can get a 14" CI pizza griddle (not Lodge, unfortunately) at Bed Bath & Beyond. I might also try modifying the arrangement of the firebrick and coals. I could leave one of the side bricks out and mound the fire toward that end of the cooker to put more heat over the platform and less on the platform itself. Of course that would result in less even heat and I would have to rotate the pie for more even cooking. I still have half the dough left so I'll have an opportunity to take another shot at this Friday.