hoovarmin On it! I'm all staged to sear the ribeyes I've got in the meat jacuzzi for tonight's dinner... full chimney of KBB ready to light. 
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Now we're talking! Can't wait to see the post. Love your backyard, btw. You've gotta be on cloud nine about now. -
DaveD It’s a great feeling when you have a stress free professional job done! From your pics, I was impressed with the job they did, looks like they did it right with no shortcuts. It really turned out nice!
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It's a beauty for sure! Enjoy!Comment
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Alrighty, here's the first fire on the new deck: searing a pair of mondo Choice bone-in ribeyes from Wild Fork that I ran this afternoon in the sous vide at 131F/55C for a few hours. They were nearly identical in weight at 1.35lb/610g. Dry brined them overnight, then hit with some granulated garlic and coarse black pepper, vac sealed with a glug of EVOO and a bay leaf.
After the meat jacuzzi, patted the steaks dry and sprinkled on some Uncle Chris's Gourmet Steak Seasoning (which is, as we all know, Extra Fancy). Meanwhile the chimney of KBB got raging.
Onto the SnS kettle to sear using cold grate technique. I sprinkled some shreds and fragments of mesquite from my bag of smoking chunks onto the coals right before the meat went on, to produce a tiny touch of smoke during the sear.
Plated with Them Taters and broccoli. SO good! Tender and juicy with a huge beefy flavor. Paired with an Olema cabernet out of Sonoma County in California, a big, berrylicious cab with low tannins, went great with the steak.
The deck is inaugurated
Last edited by DaveD; March 9, 2024, 08:07 AM.Comment
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Nice way to break that new deck in. That cold grate method is a real winner, if there are only two steaks. It gets a beautiful crust on the meat. You did a nice job with it.
KathrynComment
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That's the way to break in the new deck!Comment
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Total excellences Great finish to break-in!!!!
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Hey there, resurrecting this thread one last time to document my first "real" cook on the new deck. The steak searing was the inauguration, akin to smashing the bottle of champagne on the ship as it launches. This is the full shakedown cruise
I'll be using both the SnS kettle and the Pit Boss Copperhead 5 pellet rig today. On the kettle will be a very meaty rack of spare ribs from Wild Fork (they consistently arrive with the membrane already removed, a very nice touch) in typical low and slow style, with B&B coals and hickory chunks. In the pellet smoker will be an experiment in vegetable smoking: a full head of cauliflower, following this process at the License to Grill site.
Another absolutely glorious spring day here in NoVA. Dawned clear and cool at 45F/7C, but by late morning it's up to 69F/20C under sunny skies and very light breezes. Dew point is a very dry 32F/0C, making for relative humidities around 40%.
Dry brined the ribs overnight, and hit them with Jenni In A Bottle, my pal's secret-recipe rib rub. They're quite substantial, so it was not hard to get a temp probe in one end.
First thing this morning, I got the cauliflower prepped. The marinade consists of soy sauce, apple cider vinegar, EVOO, granulated garlic, granulated onion, smoked paprika, salt, and pepper.
First I microwaved the trimmed head for 3.5 minutes on full power to get the interior a head start (geddit??), hopefully it will be evenly cooked throughout by the time the exterior is properly done. Then into a ziploc with the marinade.
I've been flipping it over every 45 min or so all day for equal coverage. They'll go in the Pit Boss at a set point of 225F/107C (after 45 min or so on the low-T "smoke" setting) and cook for several hours. I'll stick a temp probe in there too, although I don't have much sense for what a final IT ought to be... 200ish F? [EDIT: found info online, IT target is 210F/99C.]
Fire in the hole! Kettle just lit, targeting ribs on the grate at 12:30pm and the cauliflower in about 2:30, targeting dinner at 6-6:30. My lovely bride is going to make some "crash hot" taters, little red ones parboiled and then squashed flat-ish and roasted in the oven with some onion wedges.
See ya later with updates.Last edited by DaveD; March 16, 2024, 10:27 AM.Comment
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Houston, we have cleared the tower...
It's been taking more riding of the vents today than usual, no doubt the thermal mass of that fridge-temp rack making its presence felt...
Cauli goes on in about 90 minutes!Comment
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Looking great. Would love to hear how the cauliflower comes out. Sounds like a delicious recipe and inaugural meal.Comment
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Update time! Cauliflower in the Pit Boss on "smoke" at 2:30. Here's how it looked after five hours in the drink:
Into the PB we go.
Meanwhile, ribs are fully nominal, cruising along nicely, IT is 153F/67C.
And the new geometry is such that it's a snap to monitor the two cookers from my single Fireboard unit.
BTW, that's what you get when you put the Copperhead on "smoke"... they mean it! Temp of that setting is sitting right around 120F/50C today, which is pretty typical (ambient temp has a lot to do with it).
I just bumped up the set point on the Copperhead to 225F/107C, here's how the cauli looks after 45 min on "smoke". IT is 65/18. Can't say I see a ton of color from smoke yet.
The kettle has settled at 250-260/120-125, which is fine by me. The ribs are producing some significant juices, plus I spritzed lightly, and the ribs are actually stalling.
And I'm digging making smoke with two machines at once
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Welp, things are proceeding more slowly than I'd anticipated. Ribs are at 186/85, cauli at 150/66. I've let the kettle's temp drift up to near 300/150 and the Copperhead's now cruising at 285/140. This has quickened the pace some, but we'll still be eating an hour or so later than planned...
Oh - and: Smokers gonna smoke.
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Last update before we plate in about half an hour. Ribs are at 195/90, probing very tender. Cauli can't seem to get much above 150/65, but when I poke it with the insta-read, it's feeling pretty tender. It's been in there for six hours, it's gotta be done!
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Alrighty, deliverables. Ribs were fantastic, but the cauliflower was not so good. The marinade was waaaaaay too much vinegar, it really stood out, and I'm not a vinegar fan in general. And it just didn't get cooked enough even in four hours. Needs to go at a higher temp, at least 300F/150C, even with a prelim microwave step. My lovely bride made it abundantly clear that she feels no need of us to try this particular experiment again, however, given that our usual method in the kitchen oven is consistently good...
Seriously meaty ribs!!
My lovely bride's crash hots:
Plated.
The ribs were just amazing, and the taters were great too. Just didn't work out on the cauli.
Thanks for following along Night night!
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Beautiful cooking space and those wibs definitely were worthy of the Hall of Fame of BBQ! They looked awesome! What did you spritz with, BTW, just curious, maybe I missed it?
Great job!Comment
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