The Twelve Days of …

[LA Pork Butt]

The Twelve Days of Christmas Cooks is the theme of this thread. I grew up in a tradition of the twelve days of Christmas were a time to slow down and celebrate. I am going to try to honor that tradition by cooking something different every day on my new Weber Searwood XL600 pellet cooker. It should be fun!

Huskee if this belongs somewhere else please move it. As you requested that I share my impressions of the cooker, I’ll be doing so on a daily basis. My initial impression is that this cooker is a beast. In fact I think I am going to call it the Beast. By my estimates are that it will accommodate four briskets, or 60# of Boston Butt, or with rib racks 21 racks of ribs. It is solidly built weighing over 160 pounds and takes two people to assemble. My son helped me assemble it confirming that two heads are better than one and four hands can accomplish more than two. We assembled it in less than an hour. It is like having an outdoor oven that adds smoke to food. I am somewhat sequentially changed so learning to operate it took more than one YouTube video, but it is a piece of cake now. One of the neat features is the addition of two hooks on the backside of the cooker to hang the secondary grate. I smoke roasted some cauliflower the other day, and I appreciated the ability to control the cook’s outcome.

Later today I’ll post the results of the Christmas cook of Wing Appitizers.

[JCBBQ]

Pellet King Cake for 12th Night!!!

[LA Pork Butt]

I was thinking about capping this thread off with a King Cake. That is part of my tradition, too!

[JCBBQ]

LA Pork Butt Awesome! Send me your recipe 🙏

[LA Pork Butt]

I have a recipe or two someplace, but I think we only tried once or twice. I live in Dallas now, but they still are available in the grocery stores. I will see if I can locate a recipe for you.

[LA Pork Butt]

JCBBQ Here is one I located.

[JCBBQ]

Thank you! Merry Christmas

[Jerod Broussard]

Make sure the baby is larger than 25mm for the King Cake.

[LA Pork Butt]

The Beast

[klflowers]

Purty

[Jerod Broussard]

Get it durty!!!

[Draznnl]

Looks nice, but way too clean. Can’t wait to see your cooks on there.

[LA Pork Butt]

Christmas - Day 1 - The results are in.

I followed the advice of multiple posters which was to put the food on before you fire up the pellet smoker. So the wings went on. I set the Searwood for 375. It took between 10 and 12 minutes to get up to 375. I typically do wings at 375 on my Big Green Egg with a diffuser - 30 minutes, flip for 20 and sauce for 10. I placed these wings on the hottest part of the Searwood and cooked them for 20 minutes, flipped them for another 20 and sauced them for 10. They were a little drier than my BGE wings, so next time think I will try 15, flip for 15 and sauce for 10. My guests felt that they were sorter on smoke than the BGE which I guess should be expected. I will be exploring the Boost mode in the future.

Here are the results.

Half sauced and half plain.

They were popular.

During the cook I added some cauliflower, and when the cook was finished rather than putting the Yam Mama Cakes (sorry no pics) in the oven I bumped the temp up to 475 and put them on for 10 minutes. The cook confirmed for me putting the food on cold adds smoke.

I am loving the app. You can start the shut down from the app. This could turn me in to a real couch potato.

Tomorrow’s cook Christmas - Day 2 - Smoked boneless skinless chicken thighs.

[SheilaAnn]

Love this!! And love this idea!

[Huskee]

LA Pork Butt Sunny, are you planning to add each cook into this here topic, or do you plan to start a new topic for each cook?

[LA Pork Butt]

Huskee I was planning to add each cook to this thread so it would be about the cooker and not any particular cook. But if you think it would be better on individual cooks let me know. The chicken thighs are in the smoker as I type.

[LA Pork Butt]

On the second day of Christmas

I pickled brined six boneless skinless chicken things and salt brined another eight. I seasoned them with Sucklebuster’s Klucker Dust. I cooked them on smoke boost for an hour and forty-five minutes and then raised the cooking temp to 350 for fear that if I left them on boost they might dry out before they reached the target temp.



Medication affects my ability to taste smoke, so I asked my wife. She was of no help! All I got was they were good.

I am loving the app. Weber’s previous venture igrill was not that great.

On third day of Christmas it will be Hamburgers cooked on manual.

[LA Pork Butt]

The 3rd day of Christmas - grilled hamburgers

I don’t know how most people start out BBQing or Grilling. For me it was BBQ, and I have a ton more experience with low and slow and smoke roasting than I do grilling. We don’t eat a lot of beef so if I cook hamburgers four times a year that will be plenty. I am sure frequent grillers will see this cook as a pieced of cake. I’m still learning.

I cooked these 80/20 burgers at 450 after seasoning them with Sucklebuster’s 1836 beef rub. I set the Searwood in the manual mode. At this point I am not sure what the difference is between cooking in the low and slow mode and cooking in manual mode. Maybe a few YouTube videos and experience will answer that for me.

I an still learning grilling burgers, so any tips you can share are welcomed.



4th Day of Christmas - Grilled Shrimp Tacos

[SheilaAnn]

CandySueQ Tony Chachere’s makes me sneeze! Whenever I use it, I sneeze!

“TC….. hits me every time!” I exclaim from the kitchen…

[Panhead John]

Same here, I love Tony’s and sneeze almost every time I use it.

[LegoMySearwood]

The Weber Searwood's Manual Mode provides consistent, high heat for open-lid cooking like searing burgers or using a griddle, setting heat intensity from 1 (low) to 10 (high) via the controller dial, overriding the usual temperature regulation for tasks needing direct, steady flame. I was thinking about getting the griddle, but I wouldn't know where to put it when not in use...

[LA Pork Butt]

The 4th Day of Christmas - Grilled shrimp

I have more experience with grilled shrimp. I did these at 350 with Denny Mike’s Seafood Seasoning.


Tomorrow - the 5th Day of Christmas - Tritip A La Brisket

[LA Pork Butt]

The 5th Day of Christmas - Tritip A La Brisket.

I’ve only done TriTip three other times. The first time I cooked it like a brisket, and I liked the results. The other two times I tried cooking it California style and didn’t particularly like the results. Maybe that is because we like our beef medium, and medium rare is a better fit. Anyway I cooked this one like a brisket.. The review on Amazing Ribs indicated that the Searwood ran 15 degrees cooler than it registered, so instead of 225 I cooked it at 250 to an internal temp of 203. I wrapped just before the internal temp reached 160. The entire cook took five and a half hours.

So here are the results.



It had a nice smoke ring and my wife said it had a good smokey flavor. I was pressed for time, so i didn’t do the usual wrap and hold which I think would have benefited this cook.

The 6th Day of Christmas - Hot Smoked Salmon

I am loving this cooker more and more. The convenience is awesome.I can put temperature alerts on the app, but I haven’t yet figured our if I can add an alarm.

[klflowers]

Pellet grills are awesome. I did a spatchcocked chicken on the chimp yesterday, came out perfect. I'm leaning towards replacing the Bronco with a full size pellet grill.

[LA Pork Butt]

klflowers The Searwood XL 600 is a beast and the ease of cooking is wonderful. I estimate it can handle 60# of pork shoulder, or four briskets, and with racks 21 racks of ribs.

[LA Pork Butt]

The 6th Day of Christmas - Schmancy Hot Smoked Salmon

I did thirty minutes of smoke boost which cooks at 180 to add smoke and then bumped it up to 240 for forty-five to bring the internal temp up to 135. Here is what it looked like.



This is only day 6, but if you get a new cooker I would highly recommend cooking on it daily as a way to get to know your cooker. I am pretty sure when I complete day 12 I am going to really know this cooker. Right now the only downside I see is that I don’t want to think about the start up and cleanup time my other cookers take.

The 7th day of Christmas - New York Strip Steaks

This will be the test as to whether this cooker can sear steaks at 650.

[Purc]

Thanks for doing this and taking us along. I don't have a pellet grill but enjoy this journey so that when I win the monthly drawing......

[LA Pork Butt]

The 7th day of Christmas - New York Strip Steaks

I am inexperienced doing steaks. This one was a choice and appeared to have pretty good marveling. I put it on the boost mode which is adding smoke at 180 and held it there for fifty-five minutes until it reached an internal temperature of 115.



Once it reached 115 I took it off covering it and then cranked the grill up to 600 which took 12 minutes to reach. Then I switched it over to manual which is designed to cook with the lid up. I set it at the highest mark 10 which is supposed to get to 650. I then seared it a minute on each side for a total of 4 minutes which over shot my target of 130 medium. So, I am wondering if I should have started searing at a lower temperature.




Cutting it I though medium was right on.



The 8th day of Christmas - Fruit and Nut Stuffed Pork Loin.

[SheilaAnn]

You are killing it! 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼

[STEbbq]

Naw, 115 was a good timing so just shorter time searing.

[klflowers]

What STEbbq said

[LA Pork Butt]

The 8th day of Christmas - Fruit and Nut Stuffed Pork Loin.

I butterflied the pork loin and brined it over night. I cooked it at 240 to an internal temp of 140 for 2 hours and 10 minutes. There wasn’t much smoke imparted. It was stuffed with apricot preserves dried apples, prunes, raisins and chopped almonds. I think I should have not relied on the brine for flavor. Maybe I should add some Creole seasoning.




The 9th day of Christmas - Smoked Shrimp Tacos