Pizza last night using the pizza attachment. The 900 was set to 570F which took just a few minutes to heat up after the charcoal startup but I let the stone heat soak for another 15 minutes. The pizza was thin crust with tomato sauce, onions, half pepperoni, half mussels, with shredded mozzarella and parmesan on top cooked for 6 minutes. This came out exceptionally well, uniformly cooked on top and bottom with small charred areas on both sides. It seems the pizza attachment works very well and is easy to setup and put away. Definitely a win.
I'm still experimenting with the MB 900 and cooked a top sirloin cap roast I got from Costco. We really like this cut because of the great beefy flavor, but it tends to be a bit tough. I've done this sous vide plus sear and it came out well but this time I tried it in the 900 cooked at 225F till it reached 125F internal, about 30 min. Next time I'll go to 120F I think. Then I let it rest, wrapped, while I cranked the 900 up to 700F. It developed a nice sear in about 5 minutes or less at 700F, I didn't time it, just checked after a few minutes.
For smoke I put some hickory chunks into the chute with the charcoal. However, since I've got a lot of hickory pellets left from my pellet smoker, I decided to put a handful into the ash box. Since the meat was only on for 30 min. or so I wanted to get a quick blast of smoke to start, and it did that quite well.
My wife made roasted kabocha squash and escarole and this is how it looked. Mild smoky flavor, good sear, as tender as the sous vide version. I just wish the 900 would reliably go lower so it could smoke longer.
Last night's experiment (meal) was Branzino cooked at 700F to 115F internal. This was almost perfect, just a little more smoke flavor would have been ideal. Next time I'm going to put a handful of hickory pellets into the ash pit just before putting the fish on. Otherwise really excellent with soft meat and very crisp skin.
It took just 5 minutes to get up to 700F.
I'm using an EERO mesh WiFi so we have very good coverage over the whole house and yard, however, the WiFi app is very dangerous IMHO. The problem is that it disconnects from the smoker frequently and doesn't give a clear indication on the screen that its showing old data! I've stopped using it.
Incidentally, if you haven't tried Branzino, I highly recommend it. It's European Sea Bass that's being farm raised in tanks in Ct.
Last edited by NCARalph; April 26, 2023, 11:31 AM.
I tried an experiment with the pizza shroud last night for searing steak. The pizza shroud was set up without the stone, cover, or the side baffles, just the shroud to concentrate the heat in about half the grill area. The idea was to get a really hot sear similar to what's possible directly searing on a charcoal grill. This was easy to set up and use.
First, I cooked the steak to 120F internal with the 900 running at 200F. After letting the steak rest while the 900 got up to 700F indicated, I seared it for about 15 sec per side, cover closed, right over the center of the grill where the shroud was concentrating the heat.
This was all quite amazing. My IR remote thermometer, which goes up to 1000F, pinned out, so it was over 1000F at the surface of the grill. With the top open, which shuts off the fan, a lot of flame was coming out of the manifold openings extending 2 or 3 inches up towards the grill. I imagine with the top closed and the fan running it was right up to the grill. With the top closed I could hear puff sounds as the drippings off the meat hit the manifold and burst into flame. The bottom of the steak and the grill were in flames when I opened the lid.
The resulting sear was beyond what I've gotten on a direct charcoal grill. Deep grill marks, very smoky slightly charred surface, although very tasty in a campfire kind of way. My conclusion is that while fun to do and very distinctive, I prefer just searing by running it for several minutes at 700F without the pizza shroud. If anyone is partial to "Eisenhower" steak though, this will definitely do it.
A comment on the Master Built phone app: It's a piece of CR*P!
I very nearly ruined the steak described above because it disconnected from the smoker but the display kept running as if it were live. It wasn't, it was actually frozen, showing the last temp readings it had received although the smoke effect kept running making me think it was OK. Fortunately, I realized it had been on long enough and checked and rescued the steak just in time.
We have a multi-node Eero mesh WiFi system that has excellent coverage over the entire back yard and inside the house. There is no issue with WiFi connectivity.
Never again. From now on I use my ThermoPro remote thermometer. The Master Built app is the worst of all worlds, it works very nicely a lot of the time, but silently fails occasionally.
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