Results are in

Yesterday's schedule was just plain hectic. Since Wife and Son were leaving for Miami early this morning, Wife spend all day prepping for her 20th HS reunion, and all night packing. Dinner was pretty much her time off. So I had Son with me most of the day, taking him to tennis, getting my haircut, having lunch, doing some food shopping - all while making the brisket.

I wanted to really give it the time in the grill it needed, but because of the cooler temperature and the constant wind, the kettle was cooling off much faster than I expected. So I did spend quite some time reloading briquettes to keep the temperature up. And as good as the Cook's Illustrated recipe is, if the procedure deviates from the recipe, they don't really tell you how to get back on track. Honestly, I'm still pretty new at all this to be able to throw caution to the wind and play it all by ear.

Nevertheless, 7 hours on the grill gave a great char and a brisket just on the north side of getting dry. It had great taste, but just wasn't as tender as I was hoping. I did take it off heat at around 195 degrees internal temp, but that was at the thickest part, and the thinner areas were the ones that were a little drier. Still, that simple salt/pepper/sugar seasoning crisps so well, and their Texas-style BBQ sauce is such a perfect blend of tomato-sweet and vinegar-tang, that putting the sauce on made for a fantastic combo.

The goat cheese toast points came out really well - just a hunk of softened cheese with chopped parsley, chives, and thyme mixed in. Not much different than what you can find in a store, but fresher.

Asparagus was really good grilled, but I lost 2 or 3 spears through the grates on the gas grill. Will be cleaning that today.

And although I had forgotten about them and was too full anyway, the smoked potatoes were awesome. My mom and I pecked at half of one while we were cleaning up. The skin was really crisp, the the potato inside was just perfectly done. They took over three hours, so I should have put them on earlier in the brisket's timeframe, but then the temp inside the grill may have been too hot and they may have cooked too fast. Since the brisket is so big and needs to stay away from the heat, the potatoes naturally must be placed closer to the coals. Experience will tell, because I'll definitely try them again.

All in all, another really pleasing meal, especially given that I just didn't have the time all day to nurse and watch over the kettle. No pics either, unfortunately. But I'm sure I added a few pounds to the waistline yesterday as a nice memory. That's a picture no one needs to see.

Oops

Totally slept through the alarm at 5am. Looks like we'll being eating 2 hours later than I had hoped.

Brisket prep

At 10pm tonight, I just finished rinsing the brisket and scoring the fat cap. Alarm is set for 5am to get it into the brine for two hours... hopefully I'll actually wake up before 6am (pinched spinal nerve + pain killers & muscle relaxants = tired grillguy).

My wood chunks are soaking as of now as well.

Tomorrow I'll brine some corn for the grill, and the rest of the menu should be:

• Grilled goat cheese garlic toasts
• Asparagus with goat cheese and rosemary
• Smoked potatoes
• Texas-style BBQ sauce

If all goes as planned, it should turn out better than my first (and only other) attempt at smoked brisket. Much of the main menu points are the same. This time though, I want to start earlier and let the whole thing finish in the kettle, as opposed to having to heat it in the grill to get to temperature. Hence the way-too-early start time.

Plus, I've got the pinched nerve, which does make maneuvering a little painful. What we do for good Q....

Saturday's weather report...

Calls for a short brine, lots of rub, steady heat in the 300's and some smoke in the air. Chance of mopping sauce about 80%. Moisture level in my brisket, high.

An hour or so later...

Target temperature was reached, but I was again unhappy with the charring. Not sure if I used too much rub or not, but thinking back to my first brisket, that was what I was hoping for - great char on the outside, awesome tender flavor on the inside. So, I took some quick action:

Some new coals at the ready, I put them down so I could finish the tri tip over some direct heat and get some searing. Worked pretty well after 10 minutes or so:

And I can't complain with the results:

My first smoke ring!

 

It smells a bit like jerky with the seasonings in the rub, but tastes pretty darn good. I think it would actually go better with some BBQ sauce, which I may whip up tonight. It is a very beefy-tasting cut of meat, and seems to be able to take some strong flavors. I'm not sure if searing last helped the smoke penetrate better or not, but it does have a smokey taste - I wound up using cherry wood instead of mesquite, just for kicks.

All in all, not bad for two hours work. Back to cleaning.

On your mark...

250, just as I wanted it. The thermometer on the side suffered an unfortunate heat accident, making it unable to switch to Fahrenheit. Thanks to the internets for conversions of a target temp of 135 or so.  

Smokenator setup

Here's the basic Smokenator setup. I use the coal grate to hold it in place on the bottom, and nudge it under the cooking grate tabs. Not how it says to position it in the manual, but that way doesn't work, at least in the Performer. Four dozen unlit briquettes placed inside, then the dozen lit coals are added with soaked wood chunks. The pan of water is put in place. I've used warm to hot water so far, figuring the heat of the coals won't be wasted trying to heat the water.

This does produce very consistent temps, and long smoking times, with very little charcoal used at all. However, I've noticed only a little radiant heat, so charring doesn't seem likely using this. But as I get more experienced with smoking, this will probably become a valuable tool.

Feelin' dirty

With wife and son gone, I've got about 10 useful hours to get stuff done around the house. I wanted to give the Summit a good cleaning, after receiving some Hot & Foamy cleaner. It works pretty well, but you definitely don't want to breathe the stuff. A simple wipedown with a vinegar/water solution cleaned everything up.

Here's the starting mess after I cleaned the grates.

I covered the burner tubes with the wide version of tin foil that fits perfectly front to back, which I thought was actually pretty smart of me.

After maybe 45 minutes total, it doesn't look half bad. I have some other product that would really get the grates clean, but I would need to let them soak in boiling water, and I don't have anything large enough to hold them.

I'm now soaking some wood chunks for the attempt at tri tip. I'm debating using the Smokenator or not, but since it's not even 11am, I can try smoking it and if it doesn't finish for lunch, then it's on until dinner. I'm just afraid that the Smokenator doesn't allow the rub to char any because it keeps the temp so low, but I'll try to keep it around 250 this time. I also just cleaned the Performer, and I'm still amazed at how little charcoal I used for that 7-hour first attempt at ribs last weekend. It'll at least pay for itself that way...

Oddly, more laundry beckons...

Tri tip vs Smokenator

Wife and son are in Florida visiting family, gone since Wednesday until Sunday. Sadly, instead of living out a Risky Business sort of temporary bachelorhood, I've been working, getting house stuff done, and getting to some long-needed cleaning. Tomorrow isn't even a real Saturday off, because I have to head down to work around 8p. I've got a whole list of things I need to get done tomorrow, and I don't get home until Sunday evening, so amidst all this work I've set myself up to do I'm going to try smoking a tri tip.

Paprika, chili powder, cayenne, garlic powder, ground ginger, dry mustard, kosher salt and pepper - recipe from here. No idea how the rub will turn out, but it was one of the few recipes I found online for smoked tri tip, versus regular grill roasted. This is sitting in the fridge overnight, and could wind up either tomorrow's lunch or dinner.

Hopefully, I'll get a little more experience with the Smokenator tomorrow, as even though I still want to do this low & slow, I don't want it as low & slow as my first time using it. Not sure if a new recipe with a cut of meat I've never tried is the right way to go, but I have to learn somehow.

Back to folding laundry.

The day after

OK, the ribs did not hold up as leftovers nearly as well as the last time I made them. For being on so long originally, they were a little dry and not really tasty at all. I actually required BBQ sauce, something I've learned I should be loathe to use.

I think the culprit is the time. Low and slow at 220 or so might be good for brisket and shoulder and all, but I think ribs need a little more heat and less time, maybe a mopping as well, at least if you plan on smoking for 4-5 hours max. But that's the fun in grilling & BBQing - learning and modifying, perfecting & eating.

My son actually liked the ribs tonight though. Maybe his 5 y/o palette needs a little developing, but it's nice to have a fan...

Seven hours later...

Well, it wound up taking seven hours before my wife and I decided it was time to eat. I could not believe how well the Smokenator worked, but I guess I was not ready for ribs done at such a low temp and figuring the amount of time they would take. Had they been started in the morning, this would not have been a problem. But I started at 2:30 pm and just couldn't wait to eat any longer.

I was easily able to hold the temp around 220 the whole time with very little vent management. But these two baby backs were on the heavy side to start with, and I'm thinking that next time I'm going to let the temp hover around 250-275. They didn't get any crisping from the dry rub, and even after 7 hours when I picked them up, they bent, but the meat did not pull away.

When I'm ready to try a brisket, this will be great. But next time for ribs I need to accelerate things a bit. I'm definitely a believer in the product though - you use very few briquettes overall, and the control really is amazing.

After such a long wait, I owed wife some dessert. Thanks to a good friend I visited the weekend before in Cleveland (hi Matt!), I learned that pineapples are actually something worth eating... as long as they're soaked in coconut milk, sprinkled with turbinado sugar, and grilled for a bit longer than I did them.

Not much is as pretty as a blue flame at night. I also learned that the grill lights on the Summit are pretty useful, as they do light up the front 2/3rd's of the grill quite nicely, especially since my grill is set up such that the patio light is directly behind the cover. Have to work a bit more on that dessert, but it's the only time I'll willingly eat pineapples.

Four hours and counting...

 The Smokenator is proving to be an awesome accessory to have in your arsenal. About 50 coals have provided four hours of 220-240 degree smoking so far, and some of them haven't even caught "fire" yet. It's a bit unwieldy to work with under the main food grate so it'll take a few more runs before I've mastered where the coals and chunks go to require as little maintenance as possible, but per the manufacturer instructions I only lit about a dozen coals and added them to the unlit ones, meaning the unlit ones slowly catch on over a few hours. My baby backs are taking much longer than I would have hoped for, but when they eventually finish I'm sure they're going to be incredible. More to follow!

Anticipation

It's been quite a while since I've been able to do any real grilling, other than some burgers or dogs. This weekend is kinda shot, and I was expecting to play some golf tomorrow with some friends coming into town. But their schedule got messed up and they couldn't make it. Wife and I are going away for the night, but we should be back around lunchtime tomorrow, so I decided to defrost some baby backs and spice them up, refrigerate them overnight, and smoke them tomorrow using the Smokenator for the first time. I want to try it out and get some practice runs in leading up to Labor Day weekend, and a patio party we're throwing at the end of September. Can't wait until tomorrow around 5 pm....