It's Grilling Time! The Official Stangnet Grill/Smoke Thread

For any one interested the super secret recipe for the burgers I've been cooking here it is:
2.5 lb 80/20 ground chuck
2 TBS garlic powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 TBS onion powder
3 TBS Worcestershire
1 Stick of butter shredded

My wife uses the food processor to work the butter then mixes it in with the meat. You can also hollow out a space in the patty and put a pat of butter in there and cover it up with meat. Make sure to have a water bottle around to take care of the flame ups!
 
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Ok guys, another weekend and another chance to work on the great burger quest.

Last weekend was the high end grocer meat, which beat the heck out of walmart meat.

This weekend I got five pounds of burger from Perry's Meat Market, a local butcher shop that's been in business since 1940. As a kid in the mid sixties I would go with my dad when he would buy meat from there.

I made one test grocery burger and one test butcher burger. 1/2 pound each and used Weber's Gourmet Burger seasoning (no rave reviews there, it's ok though).

My family found out about my quest and have graciously volunteered there time and taste buds to help judging the better hamburger meat. They're nice like that.
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This is my old weber grille that has served me faithfully for fifteen years now. I'll use it till it rusts out and finally get a nice grill. I lust a little over the Big Green Egg grills.

There's no comparison. The butcher hamburger is FAR superior to the high end grocery store.

Geez it made some great hamburgers. I've just recently came out of my meat coma and am able to type this review.

I did grille a few hot links for desert after the burgers.

Don't let anyone kid you, meat sweats are real.
 
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Those look great! Nothing wrong with a good old Weber. It doesn't take a $1,000 grill to cook good food. It takes good meat and knowing what the heck your doing with those tongs!

I'll have to look into finding some butcher shop meat here local. What kind of meat did you get, plan hamburger, ground chuck, ground sirloin, 80/20, 90/10 something else? That makes a huge difference in my opinion. Blending different meats can create some great flavors as well.
 
Those look great! Nothing wrong with a good old Weber. It doesn't take a $1,000 grill to cook good food. It takes good meat and knowing what the heck your doing with those tongs!

I'll have to look into finding some butcher shop meat here local. What kind of meat did you get, plan hamburger, ground chuck, ground sirloin, 80/20, 90/10 something else? That makes a huge difference in my opinion. Blending different meats can create some great flavors as well.
Truthfully? I didn't ask the ladies at the butcher shop. It was just the meat they ground that morning.

I normally won't cook hamburgers with any less fat content than 20%.

I've heard of the blended cuts being used for hamburger meat and there's being a significant difference depending on what you use. Maybe I'll make that my next step in the quest.

For right now though, the butcher is the winner.

I'm going to take a break next weekend and test the ribeye steaks out from the butcher.
 
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I've tried leaner but the meat doesn't stay together nearly as well and they dont taste as good.

Adding a little ground pork, 20%ish, is pretty good. It's not a hamburger but the wife makes an excellent meatloaf using beef, pork, and veal.

I think I'll add some ground Italian sausage next time just to see how it turns out.
 
Only thing to watch using Italian sausage is that some of it can be pretty spicy. You may or may not want to account for that. ;)
Spicy isn't really an issue for me, but the misses doesn't like it. I always get the ground "mild" Italian sausage. It's great in spaghetti. I like using it and substituting Penne noodles instead of regular spaghetti noodles.

The meatloaf is excellent. I didn't even really like meatloaf until she started making her three meat meatloaf!
 
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Outdoor cooking was in high gear over the weekend! We had company down, so we were obligated to provide good food! Started off with butter burgers which were a big hit.

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Followed it up with some good old Jambalaya.

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Then rounded it out with baby back ribs. They were a new recipe that the wife found. You cook them for 4 hours in the oven then finish them on the grill. They turned out awesome! Needless to say. No one when hungry over the weekend!
 
Outdoor cooking was in high gear over the weekend! We had company down, so we were obligated to provide good food! Started off with butter burgers which were a big hit.

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Followed it up with some good old Jambalaya.

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Then rounded it out with baby back ribs. They were a new recipe that the wife found. You cook them for 4 hours in the oven then finish them on the grill. They turned out awesome! Needless to say. No one when hungry over the weekend!


We were having trouble getting our ribs to come out right on the grill. The last few times we did the oven first thing. It definitely works!!!
 
So today I'm getting my mustang out of divorce storage, Yay!

What's that got to do with grilling? I'm going to feed and water the guys helping me.

It'll be Bratwurst Day today.

There's a local German restaurant that's been in business for most of my life. They have a butcher shop/deli LOADED with various types of homemade brats. I'll get a sampling of maybe five or six types.

Beer, brats and Booger (my car's name).
 
So, bratwurst day was excellent. I'll have to do that again. The local German restaurant (Siegi's) had over twelve varieties to choose from. I bought five different kinds, four of each. Everybody loved it. Tasty, tasty meal.
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Now for today! I have discovered Nirvana, and it's not a band.

Today is ribeye day...........:taco:(I need a dancing ribeye @Noobz347).

I meant to compare a steak from the high end grocer, Perry's meat market, and Seigi's Deli and Meat Market (basically another butcher shop).

I screwed up slightly. Yesterday I bought a nice prime ribeye from the grocer. Beautiful marbling, looked magnificent really. As a note, this has been my goto place for what I believed were awesome steaks........ahhhh foolish ignorance......

Then while I was buying those awesome brats from Siegi's, I bought a sweet looking prime ribeye from their meat case.

I intended to get a couple from Perry's Meat Market, but the logistics in picking up my car and getting back to Perry's yesterday just didn't work out. Guess who's not open on Sundays?

So i got a couple more beautiful looking steaks from Reasor's (the higher end grocer).

I can only cook three steaks at a time on the weber grill, so I cooked the Reasor's steaks first.
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Then came the Siegi's steak.
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So, the results? Let me say again that I thought the Reasor's steaks were the ultimate, really I did!

The results, OMG, the results! The Siegi's steak made the Reasor's steaks seem like cardboard! I cannot believe how much better the Siegi's steak was. I really thought the reasor's steaks were wonderful. The Reasor's steaks made walmart and Sam's steak seem like cuts from a bad animal.

The Siegi's steak was soooooo tender and soooooo much more flavorful!

Good gosh fellas, get your grilling meat from a butcher! I will never buy from the high end grocer again!

Where does this leave my taste test now? Why in a very exciting place!!! Next paycheck I'll be comparing Perry's Meat Market against Siegi's.

My taste buds are delighted by this taste test and I'll be dreaming of two weekends from now. Lol.
 
All that food looks great! The only problem I can see with it is the fact that I wasn't there to help you eat it! I know what you mean about the difference in the higher quality meats. I haven't found a local butcher where I am now, but when I lived in Baton Rouge there was a local grocery store called Calandros. Not a butcher, but they carried grade A prime select meat. It wasn't cheap, but man they were good!
 
So saturday, today is chicken breast day.

I'm not a huge chicken fan, but i can appreciate a good breast
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It's high end grocer to butcher shop test again. Charcoal is warming up right now, soon we'll be cooking meat.

BTW, tomorrow will be butcher shop hamburger mixed 2-1 with their italian sausage. Bitchin burger sunday.
 
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Funny, without a wife with you, grilling is very exciting!

Here they are cooked, just waiting for them eight minute cool down now!
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I like eating a lot, lol. It's a wonder i'm not four hundred pounds.
 
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So, my chicken findings......

There is a "slight" difference between the two. The butcher chicken isn't OMG better like the cow. It is better though.

Fairly even test, best chicken breast from Perry's compared to the best chicken breast from the high end grocer (Reasor's).

A little Lowerys as the main seasoning on both.

So, what does this add up to? While you're at the butchers buying your real manly meat (cow) and the wife, because she's on a "diet", wants her chicken, :nonono: buy their chicken. It really is better. It's not like the ribeye difference, but better.
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So, like I mentioned, tomorrow is the hamburger/italian sausage day. I really can't wait to give a review on that!

Next weekend is butcher to butcher on the ribeye steaks! I'm not expecting earth shattering results. I expect them to be close in flavor and texture.

I have to note, while I'm not a big fan of filet mignon, a customer ahead of me at Perry's ordered a couple filet steaks. They looked absolutely incredible! Maybe when I'm settled on who has the best ribeye I'll branch out into what I consider the "lesser meats":eek:.