One aspect of the Hasty Bake that I love (and I am now testing their new 357 model) is that you can raise and lower the coals. This makes it supeerb at steaks. I get a nice thick one, 1.5 - 2" and start it with the coals banked to one side and down low, the meat on the indirect side, and slowly warm the meat to about 120F, with just a puff of wood smoke. Then I bounch the coals together to form a great mass of energy, raise it up as high as possible (I remove the channel for drips so the coals can get as close to the food grate as possible), and move the meat over the heat, and sear with the lid open, until it hits about 128-130. No resting. Straight to table for the cow. Straight to heaven for wife and me. Have fun with you HB!
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Thanks for the tips, Meathead. Being a geeky process engineer person, I've been trying to learn more about how the coals can be managed on this cooker. I think it's going to be a fun toy for a person like me.
Not sure a 357 fits into my budget, but it sure is tempting. I especially like that it does not have a glass cover. It's a constant chore to cleaning the glass in my wood stove door. I'm not looking forward to keeping the HB glass clean, especially after a multi-hour smoke.
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Thanks everyone! I'm hearing this good advice --allow extra time to get the charcoal going properly
use two-zone cooking for the first cooks to help me learn how to manage the fire
chicken, tri tip, abd wibeyes!! are good choices for these first shorter, faster cooks
chuck or butt are good choices for the first slower, lower cooks
I think chicken and wibeye!! followed by tri tip are at the top of my list for the next few cooks. Tri tip requires a 30 minute drive to a butcher who will cut them for me, but chicken and decent ribeye are easy to find.
I know Hasty Bake recommends lump charcoal but I'm also reading that people are getting good results from using Kingsford original briquets (that's what you call KBB, amirite?).Comment
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My first cook on the Hasty Bake was chicken legs and baked beans. Last night was a little nippy to be cooking outside (10F / -12C), so thank goodness it was dead calm.
I first did a test burn with KBB briquettes and no food for about 1 1/2 hours. I played with the vents and raising and lowering the charcoal tray to adjust temps.
I then decided to cook the chicken on the spur of the moment. That was a decision clearly made by a charcoal rookie, since I realized shortly after putting the chicken on the grill that cold food and dwindling fuel are not a good combination. I had to add some more briquettes and live through the inevitable wait until they got burning well. A whole different deal than just quick changing the propane tank on a gasser!
Despite that miscalculation, the chicken ended up nicely cooked through with crispy skin and juicy meat. It had a much better smoke flavor than the best I've ever managed to get from an Amazen pellet tube in my Weber gasser.
I still can't say I'm in love with that glass window, but I can live with it. During the 2 1/2 hours while the fire was still going strong, the glass gradually got more and more obscured as smoke condensed on it, so I'm not convinced it will be much use during a cook. (The cold weather might have had something to do with the glass getting so dirty so quick, so the jury is still out.)
But being able to peek inside the cooker was interesting while it lasted. I was able to see how humid the cook chamber stayed. It was so cold out, the humidity was condensing on the sides of the cooker and leaving the glass beaded with moisture.
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I agree with your advice, Max Good . I clean my woodstove window pretty much after every burn if using it only occasionally or about every day if burning continuously. It is a ~lot~ less work on the whole to keep the glass clean that way. I suspect the cooker glass won't get that super hard, baked on coating like the woodstove glass, so it will not be as hard to clean, but I have yet to know that for sure.
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Roast Chicken for the win!Comment
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Looking good! Winner winner chicken dinner for sure.
I agree with you about that window, based on your photo. For those of us who grill and smoke year 'round, a window in a smoker should still be made to work by the manufacturer. I can see that cleaning it with every cook could be a PITAnkle but hey, if you can see your stuff smoking, it might be worth it. I wonder what Max Good has to say about that window.
Still and all, it sure looks like a sweet cooker.
Kathryn
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I agree about the glass being unnecessary and a PIA to keep clean. I’d probably just let it gunk up to the point that you can’t even tell it’s glass anymore.Comment
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You can get a replacement for that window and they will send you a stainless steel replacement. Not an expensive upgrade either.Comment
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I might get a solid panel to replace the glass, but I'll live with the glass for awhile and make sure it bothers me enough to make a change.
I was looking at it in the daylight today and see quite a bit staining that shows a fair bit of smoke was creeping out from under the bottom edge of the lid. Wonder if a strip of nomex gasket would be useful there?
I'm not sure the gaps on the sides of the lid are big enough for even the thinnest gasket, however, so the gaps there might be something a person would just have to live with. Feedback is welcome on this point, however.Comment
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Congratulations on a successful first cook with your HB. I agree with Red Man that if the glass is hard to clean then don’t. Is your temp probe holding up the lid? I run the probe through one of the vent holes on mine. If you need a temporary gasket you can make one out of rolled up or folded aluminum foil to see if it helps maintain your temperatures.Comment
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I made sure the cable for the thermocouple wasn't holding the door up -- that was one thing I was wondering myself. The front shelf sits on the top of the cooker body and there's a slightly wider (but small) gap to one side of the shelf that's big enough for the cable to run freely into the cooker.
Thanks for the tip about using foil to seal gaps, at least to test things out. I'm all for that idea! I'll give it a try.
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My second cook was an 8 pound ham. I followed Malcolm Reed's tutorial fairly closely: https://howtobbqright.com/2019/12/05...ed-smoked-ham/ and was very happy with the result. I did make a different glaze.
The Hasty Bake settled at about 300 F for most of the cook. That was a little higher than Malcolm's suggestion of 275F but ham is a forgiving meat. It remained moist inside with a nicely chewy crust that wasn't dry or hard. I did a fuse burn using the method described here: https://pitmaster.amazingribs.com/fo...with-questions
I got about 4 hours of useful cooking time at 300F using about 4 1/2 pounds of KBB briquettes (that's about 80 briqs, although I didn't count). I thought that was pretty good for a rookie.
Sides were steamed garden peas, mashed sweet taters (with NO marshmallows!), sage, apple, and bread dressing (the stuff in the Stargazer pan), with cranberry relish and Huskee's shawsh on the side. My son and husband ate till they were stuffed. No room for the apple pie I baked! Oh, well, there's always tomorrow....Attached FilesLast edited by IowaGirl; December 20, 2019, 07:44 PM.Comment
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Oh my...All looks sooo good!! I am envious you have a HB and I don't...Just Kidding.....well..maybe....maybe not......Awesome cook....next some Lobsters and Barracuda..
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A nice thing about this HB is how you can raise or lower the firebox to adjust the temp at the grate. I haven't done this a lot, so I'm still figuring it out. It looked like I could get a 10-20 F variation in temp by adjusting the height from the "smoke" position to the next higher "bake" position.
As the fire started to die down, I raised the firebox as high as I could and eked out maybe 20 more minutes of cook time although with gradually falling temps. The firebricks I used for the fuse burn prevented me from raising it real close to the grates, but I got as close as I could.
I also used Bill P's advice and put a folded strip of foil where the door rests on the cooker body. That reduced the biggest uncontrolled air leak, and I think this was a big help. There are other, smaller leaks, but I realized yesterday that some are gradually going to go away as those places get gunked up with smoke.Comment
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Last night was my third use of the HB to do some cold smoking. I smoked cheese, nuts, and salt.
I can say now that the HB window is a lot easier to clean than my woodstove window. A light spritz of Zep degreaser, Windex, Simple Green, or other general purpose cleaner, wait a few seconds, and wipe clean with a paper towel or wad of newspaper.
Max Good is right -- it's a lot less hassle overall to clean the glass after every use rather than let crud accumulate and bake on. I normally wipe down the work surfaces, lid, etc. after every use, so I've just added the inside of the window to my cleaning routine.
I'd like to add a gasket to the lid, but I'm not sure what kind to get. Needs to be thin and easy to compress -- the gaps are narrow and the lid isn't all that heavy. Any suggestions?Last edited by IowaGirl; December 26, 2019, 06:46 PM.Comment
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Just finished up another cook on the HB -- 2 pork butts totaling 15 pounds. I trimmed the bone out of both and then trimmed away the thinner portions of meat that wrapped around each bone. Cut those parts into about 5 pounds of cubed meat to make carnitas. The remaining roasts were 5 pounds apiece. They were dry brined, rubbed with Memphis Meat Dust, and smoked at 275-300F / 135-150C until tender (about 6-7 hours)
Carnitas -- Cut meat into cubes about 2" on a side. Season meat with 1/2 tsp salt per pound. Pack meat tightly into a pan mixed with sliced onion, smashed garlic, and your rub or seasonings of choice. MMD is nice, as is cumin based seasoning. I used one large onion and 5 cloves of fresh garlic for 5 pounds of cubed meat, and I think that amount could have been doubled. Pour 1/2 to 3/4 of melted lard (or vegetable oil) over the meat. Fat should cover a little over half of the meat leaving some exposed to get some smoke. Smoke at 275-300F / 135-150C until tender (about 3 hours), stirring once or twice to expose fresh surfaces of the meat to the smoke. Remove meat from pan and lightly shred the meat and pick out large pieces of fat as desired. Pour juices into a bowl and remove some or all of the fat. Pour juices back onto the meat and mix. Serve with tortillas and various sides. Or vacuum pack and freeze. About 6 ounces of cooked meat per package make 2 generous servings.
As if the day hadn't already been long enough, I had enough coals to smoke some nuts. I used Malcolm Reed's recipe as mentioned in this thread -- https://pitmaster.amazingribs.com/fo...candied-pecans -- for the seasoning although I increased the sugar from 2 Tablespoons to 3 Tbl. Smoked the nuts about 1 hour at about 275F / 135C. They turned out crispy and just right. No need for a crisp-up in the oven. I'm snacking on some right now, but they'll taste a lot better in a few days.
I used about 160 briquettes of Kingsford Original (KBB) for this entire cook. It took me about an hour of tinkering to get the temperature stabilized. The weather didn't help -- low 20s F, overcast, with a variable breeze. I put a windbreak around the cooker and that did a lot to bring the grate temp up to where I wanted it.
I estimate I got about 8 hours of useful cooking time at 275-325F. I filled the firebox about level (about 120 KBB briquettes) and started the fire in a corner of the firebox. I gently added the remaining 40 briquettes about 3 hours into the useful cook time.
I was very happy how things turned out.Comment
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