Memorial Day Cook

Short week this week as expected with the holiday and all.  I am starting to get frustrated with the home building process. Honestly I don’t know why I didn't expect this to happen…I guess I was just being dumb in thinking that it would get moving the day after we closed. I think realistically it will not be finished until mid to late September. Whatever. Still need to pick out flooring and talk about a few other things with the design but right now any forward progress is what we are looking for.

Memorial Day BBQ- I purchased a little gizmo called “The BBQ Guru” that is intended to help control the temps a bit more effectively in most wood/charcoal fired cookers. Basically what it is a watertight programmable device that is connected to a 10 CFM fan that will pulse off/on to stoke the fire for an indefinite amount of time.  You set the temp to whatever you desire; close all the bottom vents on the cooker and let the fan do the work. It’s really a great idea and seemed to work very well under the right conditions.

Here is a photo of the set up. It looks a little robotic with the whole contraption but well worth the results.

I was able to figure out a few things that I was previously un aware of. First off, the temperature that I had  been cooking at prior to using the controller were considerably higher than my targeted 225 while manually setting vents and adjusting the temps. This was evidenced by the much longer cooking period…the shoulders never got to the target of 195F internal and I decided to pull them anyway as we were all getting hungry. Important note: The target temp of 195 is not the temp that the pork is safe to consume…realistically is in the 160 range. For smoking a shoulder the magic happens at around 195F. It’s at this point the shoulders have broken down to the point all the fat renders out of the meat making for a juicy and tender product once you start shredding. In my experience anything south of the 195 mark makes the shoulders a little tougher and not quite as juicy.

The other thing that I noted is that I stink at cooking ribs. My technique is not consistent enough to produce the same quality every time. It also might be that I was still operating the cooker at the 225F mark and realistically the temps should be a bit higher than that. The other thing I did was instead of foil wrapping the ribs I instead put them all in an aluminum pan and covered them in foil. Bad idea. I was using spares trimmed to STL style and truthfully I have not had good luck with them and I think I am not using high enough heat and long enough cook times. I want to give it another try in the near future at a higher temp and see what the outcome is. They looked good just didn’t have that fall off the bone texture I like. I need to try to get a little more consistent to attempt a competition cook that I am thinking about next May.

Lots of experimenting with this weekend and for the most part it turned out OK…Pork shoulders were the stand out. I fired the smoker up around 2 pm on Saturday to try some chicken thighs and didn't shut it off till Sunday at about 5:30pm adding charcoal only once.

I didn't get a ton of pictures with this cook as I drank my way through most of it!

Busy Time..

It’s been a while since I have had a chance to update the blog…..It’s been a busy summer. We are gearing up for our first family vacation to Florida in the next few weeks. We have just come off what for us has been the busiest couple of weeks of the year. Sam turned 2 at the end of June and we had family come in from all over. The weather at that time was perfect so we utilized the grill and tried a number of different things over the last few weeks…..it’s been pretty fun. I even attempted my first brisket and it for the most part turned out good.  I have done Everything from New Mexican Pork Tenderloin to Atomic buffalo turds.  Lately it’s been record heat here in St. Louis and we have really been trying to stay indoors as much as possible.

A few new things over the last few weeks….my first attempt at a true brisket and cooking for a crowd. Ali’s parents were in town for this one and who better to judge good brisket than people from Texas.  In Texas it’s all about beef. If you have ever been to a BBQ joint there you can find pork but it’s rare. I have never been a big fan of Texas BBQ for the simple reason to me I don’t think it has as much flavor as the other styles and you need loads of smoke and seasoning to “Help” get results. For the most part, Brisket that I have sampled has been on the dry side and further cemented my feelings on it.  On the other hand I can see how others feel the same about Pork…with all the injections and rubs used on shoulders and ribs. I still feel the actual meat has more flavor.

With that said....Ali purchased a 9lb brisket from Costco. There has been much talk online about the “Packer Cut” vs the “Flat” cut. The Packer is incorporates the Flat and the point sections and usually is left un trimmed. Here in Missouri it apparently is hard to find a true packer cut…most stores only stock the flat cuts and this was the story where ever I looked. To be honest I was not sure what I even had after we bought it…sounds stupid but really had no idea. From what I read….packer cuts are usually over 12lbs  and really are preferred for smoking as they don’t dry out as fast and generally produce a moist flavorful product. I was sure I had a Flat cut and we proceeded anyhow.

Prepping the brisket was the same as a shoulder or any other large roast. I used a seasoning that the in-laws brought up from Houston.  Here is a pic of the jar.

I slathered the brisket in mustard and applied a liberal dose of rub and wrapped it in plastic to hold overnight. The hard part was when to start the cook. All the info I was reading told me this would be an overnight cook but they primarily were talking about the packer cuts….I was sure I had a flat. I did not want to dry it out so the plan was a early morning start. I was completely burned out from the previous day and we had some spare ribs as back ups so that was that.

I ended up firing the Weber up around 6 am using the Minion method and tossed the brisket on the bottom rack and figured we would be eating around 6 or so.  

At about 1pm the ribs went on. I feel like I have this down pretty good and if the temps of the cooker do not fluctuate wildly the ribs usually turn out pretty darn good. I usually follow the 3-2-1 method and finish them over direct heat on the kettle. This helps to take away some of the moisture that the Steam/Foiling puts into the meat. It also has an effect on the sauce I use. The Tennessee Red Sauce tends to get a more complex flavor when you apply some heat to caramelize some of the sugars.  Highly recommend.

Anyhow…I was thinking that the brisket would not be done in time for dinner so I went ahead and foiled it along with the ribs. If you didn’t know…this does two things 1. It speeds cooking time by trapping the residual heat that’s in  brisket already and 2. It holds in the moisture that is being released by the meat.  In a way it’s almost like basting the brisket. Some feel that it makes the rub soft and mushy but I didn’t see any difference. Typical Brisket is cooked to 190F and while that seems high there is good reason. The reason for such high cooking temps is that it will give the meat a chance to breakdown all the nasty connective tissues and fats tenderizing the cut and transforming a horrible, nasty old cut of meat into a fine meal.

I was shooting for a dinner time of around 6pm…..the brisket it 188F around 4pm so I took it off and stuck it in the cooler to rest…still foiled of course.  Pulled the ribs off and prepared to feast around 6.

To my pleasure…..the brisket was amazing. Most of it anyway. There were a few flaws on my part. I think I should have let it smoke unfoiled longer instead of forcing the cook by wrapping the brisket. Even at 9lbs the rule of thumb at 225F is 1.5 hours per pound and mine was done in roughly 9 hours so it was a bit rushed.  Also cutting the brisket has a major impact on texture and taste. Slicing it should be against the grain for best results. The grain changes as you go so you need to pay attention. Let me clarify that the brisket itself had great taste and for the most part was not dry. The middle section was a bit chewy and my thoughts on that are that it didn’t spend enough time in critical temp zone to break down the tissues. Overall it was a success…..The Texans raved about it and that is a good test for sure. Ribs were fantastic as well……nothing new there!

Some Recent Items:

New Mexican Rubbed Pork Tenderloin

Atomic Buffalo Turds

St. Louis Style Ribs

Start of Summer

The end of May has arrived much quicker than I would have ever imagined. This means a lot of things around our house. Its the beginning of Gibson's swim season, Vacations, Birthday's and most importantly BBQ starts to go full swing. I never really shut down in the winter but I will admit I don't enjoy it nearly as much as being ableget some yard work done and enjoy a cold beer while Q'n some random cut of meat. Today...was one of the days I long for after coming out of the subfreezing St. Louis winter.

On the menu today was something I have never done....Spare ribs trimmed to the St. Louis Style. When you talk ribs around here I typically go for Baby Backs.  The last few cooks I have been getting weird results with BB's. This is for a couple of reasons I think. First, the crio packs that I usually buy at Costco never really contain uniform slabs. They come in packs of three and are very decent quality but they seem to always vary greatly in weight from slab to slab. This results in at least one of them being over done and dry no matter what I do. Spare ribs are the section below the baby backs and tend to be more uniform and have a little bit more fat on them to render off during the cooking process. They do take a bit more prep than baby backs but I think now they might be worht the trouble.

I had Ali pick up two packs from Diebergs as opposed to Costco out of connivence. They looked  pretty darn good. They came pre trimmed with the bits and pieces neatly arranged in the pack. The one thing I do like about the Costco Baby Backs is the membrane is already removed. If you are cooking for a lot of people this is a real time saver. I can t speak of their Spares but would assume they also have the membrane pre removed. 

For this cook I wanted to try separate rubs for each slab to figure out what might be the "ringer" for the season. I do like Charlie Virgo's rub and use a variation of my own but did not have any on hand so went with the jar I picked up at Figuero's. The other was "Blues Hog" rub that I received from my Brother In-Law for Christmas. Also I decided to only sauce one slab and chose the Blues Hog to hold the honors.  Arthur Bryant's (mostly salt) was chosen to season the trimmings. I pre rubbed the ribs about 24 hours prior to the cook.

As far as cooking....I planed to go with the "Texas Crutch" or 3-2-1 method for both slabs. This involves cooking the ribs low and slow at around 225-250F for 3 hours, Wrapping the slabs in HD foil and adding liquid (in my case 1/2 can of beer to each slab). This allows the liquid to flash to steam and really break down the connective tissues and a. Then the next step is to un-wrap and cook for an additional 1 hour to help firm up the outer skin and create some bark. That was at least the plan. 

I started the cook as usual following the Minion Method to bring the cooker up to temp. Foiled the water pan and added cold water and assembled the cooker. Added the ribs using the handy rack I picked up at Cabbala's and set the remote thermometer to keep an eye on the cooker temp. As far as smoking woods...I used a handful of Mesquite and one good chunk of Pecan wood. Notice the word "Chunk"....avoid the chipped woods in the smoker...they just burn up rather than slowly burn. Also no real need to presoak the chunks, just throw them in.

 A bit on the thermometer....I found this gem on Amazon and it allows you do do a couple of things....one is monitor the cooker temp and the meat at the same time wordlessly with the included module. Second, you can set it up to alarm when the cooker drops below a given temp or when the meat is nearing a determined temp. This comes in handy for over night cooks.  I recommend it for anyone running a smoker. For this cook, I only used the cooker probe to monitor the temp at the upper grid. Yea, I am that good.  One thing I noticed during this cook that I had not experienced prior...the temps were much, much harder to control. The cooker wanted to run hotter than the target temp. It got to the point I shut down two vents entirely to maintain the 225-250 target temp at the upper cooking grids. The Weber Smoky Mountain Cooker has two cooking grids...one in the middle and one at the top. These two grids do have different temps while in operation...the lower grid runs cooler than the upper. This is due the water pan sits right below it acting as both a heat sink and indirect barrier as well as the convective action of the smoker itself. The upper grid runs at least 10-15 degrees warmer and the very top of the cooker dome is hotter still. I usually see another 10-15 degree increase from the upper grid to the dome.   See the cutaway view Below.

Every new WSM manufactured now  includes a factory installed thermometer in the dome lid. While its a great tool to indicate temp you need to do a little math if you are going to rely on it to determine what the cooking grids really are seeing. Back to the temp trouble today.....One thing that was different today than in the past was that the wind was really whipping around and for the first time we had temps over 90.  In fact when I pulled the cover off to get this whole thing started, the temp gauge on the lid was already reading 130 just from sitting in the sun. 

Back to the cook....at the three hour mark I pulled the slabs and foiled them. Added the Beer and put them back on. It was at this point I found the drawback of the 18.5" Dia. Weber....In order to make them fit on the cooking grid they needed to be turned on their sides. With the ribs out of the foil this is not a problem (See Photo to left) but once they are wrapped and the liquid is added, there was the possibility of the foil ripping and spilling the liquid down the sides of the cooker and hitting the hot coals. When this happens, the coals release tons of ash into the cooker and that is never good on the food.  The HD Foil really is a necessity in this case....not one pin hole or rip while manipulating them into place. Mostly luck I think. Weber also offers a 22.5" Dia. Smoker FYI. 

I sprung a little early to unwrap the goods due to the cooker running hotter than usual and during the process to my surprise the first slab I grabbed literally pulled apart with the tongs. Hmm.  I ended up pulling at least two bones right out of the slab. They were done at this point for sure. They had been on the cooker for 4.5 hours at this point. Rather than running the cooker wide open to boost the temps for the finial portion of the cook I decided to fire up the kettle and put a little direct heat on them to help firm them up. Smeared some Tennessee Red Sauce on and gave it some heat to help the sugars caramelize give a little bark.  This process literally took 3-4 minutes. So the 3-2-1 method really turned in to the 3-1.5-.5. If I could have stabilised the cooker at the target temp, I think the ribs would have not been so loose and would have held their shape through the whole process. Regardless, this was not competition quality it was taste I was going for.

What came off the grill can only be described as heaven. The Ribs rubbed with Blues hog and slathered with Tennessee Red Sauce were un believable. The sauce really did change flavor once the heat got to it. It melds fantastically with the rub and the pork. Literally every rib fell off the bone and so juicy words don't due it justice. Minus a few little problems, this one was a great start to summer and most definably will be repeated again!