OK, polishing off homework assignment #1 -- kind of funny since it's september and I'm a high school teacher so this is what my students are supposed to be up to right now 
I'm excited to find a place to chatter and get advice about cooking with fire (the way nature intended us to do!)
I am a pretty experienced and competent home cook with pretty wide-ranging taste in food. I have about 25 years of experience grilling on a Weber kettle. Chris Schlesinger's book "Thrill of the Grill" really got me going back in the day, partly about technique, but a lot on attitude. He just was clear that cooking with fire is fun.
I dig grilling everything from sausages, steaks and chicken, to vegetables, shellfish, and whole fish. Maybe my favorite thing ever to eat from the grill was Jennifer McLagan's recipie for twice cooked pork belly: braised in beer than seared on the grill.
I have some experience with low and slow, but I am far from expert. I have spent years fussing with all kinds of jury-rigging to smoke stuff in the Weber: brisket has been a family favorite; bluefish is great, especially when we catch more than we can eat right then, my son and I even experimented once with octopus...did not turn out well. Last month, with the Weber rusting out I took the plunge into Kamado-land with a Primo oval XL. (Meathead's review here helped me along the way. And then I bought the book.)
I have lots of bbq goals, but I generally just want to up my low-and-slow game.
This may not be what is looked for in introduction postings, but I thought I would (1) describe a recent cook and (2) look for some advice after a recent failure. Let me know if these items should really be posted elsewhere.
#1 - there is joy in mudville:
I wanted to inaugurate the kamado by smoking a brisket. I have smoked brisket from my supermarket and been happy with the results, but not blown away. Meathead has a thing or two to say about quality, so I thought I'd wise up. Off I went to nearby pasture-raised butcher where young people with gas station uniforms and tattoos will cut you any part of a steer they haven't already sold that week. (And charge you handsomely. But the meat is just plain superior.)
Sadly, the brisket is gone. I ask for suggestions. Let's look in the cooler, they say, and they start carting out big pieces of cow. We settle on a "Denver Flap." What f*k is a Denver Flap? Turns out it's aft of the brisket, running down toward ribs. One end of the cut includes part of a flatcut brisket, the other end is short ribs. Hell yeah.
So:
Un.B.Forking.Leevable
Youngest son, about to leave for college, had friends over. They were nearly speechless with pleasure. Fat-averse girls asked for thirds. His girlfriend said: "I think I might just die. And that's OK." The neighborhood vegans turned up drooling on my front porch.
#2 -- my question:
You probably noticed that meat is not the only thing in the picture above. I did the almonds on a whim (I mean, there was already a bigass ceramic oven smoking away in my back yard, right? can't let that go to waste, right? I'm from New England? mom raised me to be a thrifty yankee and everything? must not disappoint) I smoked them as per meathead's recipe, with Memphis Dust.
Delicious.
With teenagers in the house, plus me and my wife (and the neighbor who dropped in because what was that smelling so good last night?) a pound of almonds was gone pronto.
Damn, I thought, that was easy, I should try that again so I can start experimenting. Maybe a bunch of different smoked nuts this winter might do for the holiday gift season?
I've run the same recipe 2x more, and never with the same success. Seriously, the next two batches just sucked. They were bland, they seemed under roasted and under flavored.
First batch of almonds were cheapies from Trader Joes. The other ones were from Overpriced Grocery. It could be that it's just the source almonds, and I plan to test that out this week after work. But it doesn't really explain the under roasting. I have pretty good confidence in the temp probe I threaded into the Kamado, and it agrees with another instant read digital I have.
When the almond come out of the smoker -- and this was true for the good batch and the lame batches -- they're flaccid -- soft and a little tasteless. And this tells me that a taste test for doneness is unreliable.
Any suggestions?
Thanks all, glad to be here.
I'm excited to find a place to chatter and get advice about cooking with fire (the way nature intended us to do!)
I am a pretty experienced and competent home cook with pretty wide-ranging taste in food. I have about 25 years of experience grilling on a Weber kettle. Chris Schlesinger's book "Thrill of the Grill" really got me going back in the day, partly about technique, but a lot on attitude. He just was clear that cooking with fire is fun.
I dig grilling everything from sausages, steaks and chicken, to vegetables, shellfish, and whole fish. Maybe my favorite thing ever to eat from the grill was Jennifer McLagan's recipie for twice cooked pork belly: braised in beer than seared on the grill.
I have some experience with low and slow, but I am far from expert. I have spent years fussing with all kinds of jury-rigging to smoke stuff in the Weber: brisket has been a family favorite; bluefish is great, especially when we catch more than we can eat right then, my son and I even experimented once with octopus...did not turn out well. Last month, with the Weber rusting out I took the plunge into Kamado-land with a Primo oval XL. (Meathead's review here helped me along the way. And then I bought the book.)
I have lots of bbq goals, but I generally just want to up my low-and-slow game.
This may not be what is looked for in introduction postings, but I thought I would (1) describe a recent cook and (2) look for some advice after a recent failure. Let me know if these items should really be posted elsewhere.
#1 - there is joy in mudville:
I wanted to inaugurate the kamado by smoking a brisket. I have smoked brisket from my supermarket and been happy with the results, but not blown away. Meathead has a thing or two to say about quality, so I thought I'd wise up. Off I went to nearby pasture-raised butcher where young people with gas station uniforms and tattoos will cut you any part of a steer they haven't already sold that week. (And charge you handsomely. But the meat is just plain superior.)
Sadly, the brisket is gone. I ask for suggestions. Let's look in the cooler, they say, and they start carting out big pieces of cow. We settle on a "Denver Flap." What f*k is a Denver Flap? Turns out it's aft of the brisket, running down toward ribs. One end of the cut includes part of a flatcut brisket, the other end is short ribs. Hell yeah.
So:
- 9 lb denver flap got an overnight dry brine, then Meatheads Big Bad Beef rub.
- Primo stabilized at 225F according to temp probe dropped down the vent (I know homework said to put thermometer types in signature, but I don't remember the brand and I'm too lazy right now to go all the way to the kitchen. Later, I promise.)
- Pizza stones used as deflectors (the Primo ceramic deflectors didn't get delivered till later that day)
- Hickory chunks in with the coals every half hour for the first couple of hours.
- Total cook time 9:30am to 7pm.
- Stalled in late afternoon so I took Meathead's advice and used the crutch -- full foil wrap around 4:30p when internal temp flattened off around 170°F.
- Final internal temp 205° -- rested in a cooler 20m while the cornbread finished.
Un.B.Forking.Leevable
Youngest son, about to leave for college, had friends over. They were nearly speechless with pleasure. Fat-averse girls asked for thirds. His girlfriend said: "I think I might just die. And that's OK." The neighborhood vegans turned up drooling on my front porch.
#2 -- my question:
You probably noticed that meat is not the only thing in the picture above. I did the almonds on a whim (I mean, there was already a bigass ceramic oven smoking away in my back yard, right? can't let that go to waste, right? I'm from New England? mom raised me to be a thrifty yankee and everything? must not disappoint) I smoked them as per meathead's recipe, with Memphis Dust.
Delicious.
With teenagers in the house, plus me and my wife (and the neighbor who dropped in because what was that smelling so good last night?) a pound of almonds was gone pronto.
Damn, I thought, that was easy, I should try that again so I can start experimenting. Maybe a bunch of different smoked nuts this winter might do for the holiday gift season?
I've run the same recipe 2x more, and never with the same success. Seriously, the next two batches just sucked. They were bland, they seemed under roasted and under flavored.
First batch of almonds were cheapies from Trader Joes. The other ones were from Overpriced Grocery. It could be that it's just the source almonds, and I plan to test that out this week after work. But it doesn't really explain the under roasting. I have pretty good confidence in the temp probe I threaded into the Kamado, and it agrees with another instant read digital I have.
When the almond come out of the smoker -- and this was true for the good batch and the lame batches -- they're flaccid -- soft and a little tasteless. And this tells me that a taste test for doneness is unreliable.
Any suggestions?
Thanks all, glad to be here.
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