Hanging meatball basket similar to fzxdoc 's sawed off sausage basket

[ptehan]

Hi everyone, this is my first post. My wife got me the PBC for Christmas (she couldn't move the box to hide it so I get it early!) I can't wait to try it.

I know the hinged grate is an option but I am considering hanging basket(s) of meatballs along with sausage and chicken the way fzxdoc cooks sausage.

Smoking all the meat on my kettle make's Grandma's sauce incredible. The PBC will be even better and I can cook more at a time.

Do you guys think meatballs will work this way? This board is great and I've already learned a lot from it even though I haven't done my first PBC cook yet. Thanks.

[Voodoo]

Should work and sounds great. I would just watch for too much fat dripping onto the coals. Might end up getting sooty. I know drippings cause smoke, but I think there's a limit to how much is a good thing. If you do 2 or 3#, may end up needing to fashion a drip catch to hang under the basket.
Let us know.

[Danjohnston949]

ptehan, Congratulations on the New Smoker and Welcome to the Pit! Tell us how it works for you! Eat Well and Prosper! From Fargo ND, Dan

[David Parrish]

Should work and sounds great. I would just watch for too much fat dripping onto the coals. Might end up getting sooty. I know drippings cause smoke, but I think there's a limit to how much is a good thing.

Recently PBC added instructions on how you can use fewer coals for shorter cooks. They did this, IMHO, due to customer feedback that it seems extreme to use 8 lbs of charcoal for every cook, and these customers wanted methods for using less charcoal. I know the customer is always supposed to be right, but sometimes, maybe they aren't.

Voodoo your comment is a great cautionary tale against using fewer coals. Part of the thing that makes the PBC work so well is the large bed of coals sitting under the meat that captures the juices and turns them into "burnt offering" awesomeness. Fewer coals can be bad, though, when you have food that cooks fast but has a lot of dripping fat. The drippings can overwhelm the fewer coals and cause you problems. Snuffed out coals and bad smoke, just for starters.

Using fewer coals might save you money, but at the end of the day it's about the food, charcoal is cheap, just fill the basket up and have fun!

[fzxdoc]

I agree with David Parrish that I have the most consistent cooks when I use a basket that is full for most cooks. On occasion, I'll fill it 3/4 full. When I've used fewer coals, I've not been happy with the fire--it has taken more tending to get good results. YMMV.

Congrats, ptehan on your Christmas gift! You're going to have a great time with it. If it was me, I'd go full bore with those meatballs, but would do a test run before planning on having a load of 'em for a waiting and hungry family. When I do sausages, there is a lot of dripping fat, but to my mind that's what makes the chicken cooking alongside them taste even better. Be sure to spray the sawed-off sausage basket well with Pam before loading it up with meatballs because my sausages stick unless it do that. Let us know how it works out for you!

Kathryn

[jecucolo]

I was planning to do the same thing for Christmas Eve.

[ptehan]

I agree with David Parrish that I have the most consistent cooks when I use a basket that is full for most cooks. On occasion, I'll fill it 3/4 full. When I've used fewer coals, I've not been happy with the fire--it has taken more tending to get good results. YMMV.

Congrats, ptehan on your Christmas gift! You're going to have a great time with it. If it was me, I'd go full bore with those meatballs, but would do a test run before planning on having a load of 'em for a waiting and hungry family. When I do sausages, there is a lot of dripping fat, but to my mind that's what makes the chicken cooking alongside them taste even better. Be sure to spray the sawed-off sausage basket well with Pam before loading it up with meatballs because my sausages stick unless it do that. Let us know how it works out for you!

Kathryn

I should've mentioned that it never occurred to me to smoke a chuckie for pulled beef until reading your posts. (I did a lot of research here, you should get a commission.) It's a hit with my wife, my 4 year old, and my one year old. And it's excellent in chili too, like you've posted.

Here's the sauce and meatballs recipe fwiw. Nothing earth shattering, trying to make myself useful here.
2 lbs ground beef
2 eggs
3 cloves garlic graded (i used garlic flakes, there's equivalent measurements on the container)
2 to 3 tablespoons romano cheese
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
salt pepper
3 tablespoons chopped onion or 1/2 small onion chopped (I use flakes for this too, equivalent measure on the container)
5 to 6 slices of regular white sandwich bread. Soak 3 slices under the tap, squeeze out at much water as you can. Mix with the unsoaked bread so it all gets wet, then mix with the other ingredients. I like it better this way than using crumbs.
Form the meatballs and smoke with sausage and chicken (i just season with salt and pepper for thi)

Sauce
3 cans of Hunts tomato sause (big cans) 29 ox
12 ox Hunts tomato paste
Salt, pepper and 1/3 cup sugar to taste
2 more tablespoons of parsley
2 bay leaves
Add the cooked meatballs, sausage, and chicken
Add one large can of water or more to sauce as needed
Cook low for 2 to 3 hrs, stirring occasionally

I love the smokiness, not sure that's how Grandma did it in Vasto but I like it

[David Parrish]

Please throw this in the Recipes and Techniques channel! Hamburger Sub Channel would work nicely.

[fzxdoc]

This looks really good, Guest. Sunday gravy at its finest. I love tomato sauces with only a fewwell-chosen ingredients so that the flavor of the meat shines.

Right now I put smoked chuck and smoked hot Italian sausage in my meat sauce for lasagna and spaghetti. I'm going to swap out the chuck in spaghetti for your meatball idea, though, the next time around. Thanks for the inspiration!

Kathryn

[fuzzydaddy]

Welcome aboard ptehan! I'll want to try your recipe sometimes. Sounds delicious.

[fuzzydaddy]

ptehan, based on your recipe, I'm cooking these today on my Weber + SnS. When I have time I'll update with the mods I made, finished pictures, and how they were. Thank-you again for the recipe!

[fzxdoc]

fuzzydaddy , you're making me hungry. I'm eagerly awaiting your full report.

Kathryn

[fuzzydaddy]

I messed up and did not get any pictures of them finished. About 30 minutes at 350 they were 165-170 IT with my Thermapen. Very moist. Will post my full recipe when at a computer. I was too focused on these pork loins on my BGE.

[fuzzydaddy]

Here's the recipe after my substitutions / changes, and a photo with them on my 22" Kettle and SnS. I have tried to bold the differences from the original recipe above from ptehan. The finish photo I did not take (lol) would show them medium-brown, not a lot of shrinkage, and they held together very well. I served these without any sauce at a potluck at my family's Christmas get-together today. Plenty of flavor without sauce.

2 lbs 80/20 ground chuck
2 eggs
1 tsp granulated garlic
3 tablespoons romano cheese
1 tablespoon Herbs de Provence from Penzeys before grinding fine (substituted for parsley)
1 tsp table salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp onion powder
6 slices of regular white sandwich bread. 1/2 of them wet with water, then squeezed out the excess water.

I mixed everything but the ground chuck together well, then mixed in the ground chuck.

I used a 1/4 cup bowl to put the mix in to measure so they would be close to equal size. This is 1.5x the above recipe since my ground chuck was 3 lbs. Cooked ~350 for about 30 minutes, when the IT was 165-170 over 1/2 dozen spot checks.

These are my first ever meatballs to prepare and cook.

[fzxdoc]

OMGoodness, fuzzydaddy --those pork loins look amazing! Congrats on doing such a good job in your BGE.

I can just imagine how delicious those meatballs turned out on your Weber+SnS combo. Just tell me there were no leftovers so I won't embarrass myself by stalking your Weber and SnS.

Kathryn