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

[Davedacarpainter]

Honestly I think the pineapple thing would work best on lower grade cuts of meat. You know to try to make it tender like a more expensive cut. We have actually been getting all of our steaks from a local butcher. We live in Enterprise, obviously, and he drives somewhere in Georgia every week to get his meat for the week. So far they have been excellent. We just over did it on these.

When we lived in Baton Rouge I could get prime select filet mignon. OMG that stuff was good! But ridiculously expensive. Same for the Rib-eye.

I love messing around with the grill and trying different things, as a lot of us do! For Christmas I got a Thermapen. This thing is great!

Thermapen® ONE

Specializing in cool, unique and professional temperature tools. Super-Fast thermocouples, thermistors, infrared thermometers, data logging and more.

www.thermoworks.com

I've been working on cooking the meat in indirect heat until I get it close to core temp. I have the other side of the grill very hot with the coals close to the grates. The last couple of minutes I throw the steaks on that side of the grill to give them some char and to pick up some nice grill marks.

I like my steaks medium rare at most, so I go for a pretty low core temp. 118 or so when I put them on the sear side of the grill. I also use charcoal or a mix of briquettes and hardwood lump charcoal.

It always blows me away when someone orders a steak well done or crispy. Then they usually want something link 57 sauce to coat it in. If someone is coming to my house that I know likes there steak that way. I will cook it for them that way, but I make them bring there own meat. I refuse to destroy a good steak that I paid good money for.

I do have the gas grill but I haven't converted it back to propane, so I cant use it at the moment. I like it best for cooking vegetables or larger pieces of meat that require a lot of time to cook. It's an indirect grill and is either on or off. No in-between.

I've got to get that ceramic grill fixed!

A guy here at work got a ceramic just like mine with two DigiQs for $400. Mine was free, but its broke, and it didn't come with a DigiQ...

I ordered an mk4 thermapen on wednesday!

I don’t know if I’ll have it in time for tomorrow, I paid for two day delivery. We’ll see.....

 

[Davedacarpainter]

It’s the weekend again, what to do, what to do...........

Ooops, that’s another thread I frequent

St. Louis ribs and bologna for the smoker this weekend. I’ll save the next brisket for next weekend. It’ll be a three day weekend, I’ll want that extra day to recover.....

Next weekend i will perfect the smoking of a brisket.

 

[Noobz347]

I keep forgetting to post these.

I'm sure you've all done it. You were at the store and saw these amazing looking jumbo hot dog franks and had to have them. You get home, you Cooke em up and they are just about the hot-doggiest hot dogs that ever hot dogged. I mean... You find your self wishing for more bun and less hot dog and it just isn't very good. You should have just stuck with the normal size and all would have been good.

I have found the miracle exception at Walmart:



These damned things are amazing. They are also [huge]. Hands down, the best Jumbo hot-dog I have ever had.


On a side note: A case of Negro Modello aged for 7 years within the confines of a camper is 10 times better than a new case just purchased. Recent discovery, I had no damned idea

I am currently aging a case for a year to see if I get similar results.

 

[Noobz347]

BTW, I cooked the hot-dogs in cast iron each time. I have not Grilled one yet. I can only imagine... maybe a little bit of smoke?

 

[Davedacarpainter]

I got the bologna prepped and in the smoker. This will be the lunch meal, ribs are for dinner, I’ll get them in the smoker at about 10:30.

 

[Noobz347]

What kind of bologna?

 

[Davedacarpainter]

What kind of bologna?

Beef

Its really good without more cooking already.

 

[Davedacarpainter]

I got the ribs ready, couple minutes more and in they go.

 

[Davedacarpainter]

Ribs smoked for three hours, now to wrap them in foil and put a little apple cider in with them to do some braising for a couple hours.

 

[Davedacarpainter]

I never showed a finish picture of the ribs for you guys, sorry, three of my kids and one of my nieces came over and things got hectic.

Here’s one wrack all cooked. Kids loved them

Next saturday I’m going to cook a brisket again with the modifications I talked about from last time.

 

[Davedacarpainter]

As much as I really hate to drink early in the morning, I just don’t have a choice.....you see, I’m smoking another brisket today. So I really don’t have a choice, right? Am I right here?

Im doing this brisket a little different than the last one. First off I removed the point muscle from the flat before throwing it on the smoker. Second, I bought an extra point so I could be sure to have a mess of burnt ins. I’m also using a rub this time instead of just salt and pepper, I’m in Oklahoma, who needs Texas style?

I’ll be checking the temps with my snazzy new thermapen today as well.

 

[Ronin38]

Same Dirty Bastard I was hanging around with last night.

 

[Davedacarpainter]

Time to wrap the point muscle. They were both at 160*.

The flat is at around 145*, maybe an hour more for it. The points are wrapped and back in the smoker, maybe three hours to get them to 195* and cut them up for burnt ends.

 

[Davedacarpainter]

The flat is doing the stall thing on temperature, it’s about 155*. I decided to go ahead and take it out and wrap it in foil.

I‘m wrapping the flat in foil because it doesn’t have the fat layers the points do and I can add a little extra fat into the covered stage. I’m using butter for the fat addition. Plus a little brown sugar for seasoning. I’m mainly wrapping it in foil so I can add a little beef stock in the final cooking stage to braise the beef a bit. The flat needs the help. I’ll loose that nice bark it built up during the smoking stage, but that’s ok with me.

 

[Davedacarpainter]

Pulled the points and cut them into cubes, sauced them, in the pan and back in the smoker.

 

[Davedacarpainter]

Ok, all done, mess is cleaned up and I thought I should post this last post before I lapse into a seriously earned meat coma.

First, finished burnt ends. They turned out perfect, meat candy.

Second, the flat turned out excellent as well. Just the right tenderness. I was very pleased with the tenderness and connectivity of the slices. Excellent knife droop of a slice.

Third, a nice little brisket sandwich with a small amount of bbq sauce and bread and butter pickles on a hot dog bun.

Ok guys, that’s it, time to pass out

 

[Olivethefet]

Dave, how do you like the pin?

 

[Davedacarpainter]

Dave, how do you like the pin?

It’s fantastic . I’ll have to take a picture of my old thermometer so you can see the difference.

Definitely worth the money.

It’s just a little easier to read, lol.

 

[Davedacarpainter]

For those interested in the wood I used to smoke the brisket, I used a mix of about 2/3 hickory and 1/3 pecan.

To me 100% hickory gives the meat a slightly sourish burnt finishing flavor.

100% pecan is so bland and sweet you’ll only know you smoked the meat because you watched your smoker put out smoke for hours. It does have a nice little nutty flavor though, that’s why I used it as a supplementary wood. I guess a fruit wood would work nice as well.

 

[IIGood]

Having completed the grill rehab a couple weeks ago, I gave it a pretty good workout this weekend and gave the stove a much needed rest.

Saturday was filet mignon, baked potatoes, and green beans with mushrooms and garlic.

Sunday was barbecued chicken, corn on the cob, and red potatoes and onions in a garlic butter.

Tonight was just burgers, brats, and hot dogs with grilled squash and zucchini. Also potato salad.

Great weekend!