Smoked meatballs

[RonB]

These meatballs are a 50/50 blend of ground beef and ground pork, plus other "meatbally" stuff. So I couldn't decide if this post should go in "beef" or "pork". And I was going to post it in the show us thread, but then decided to post it here.

The reason I posted it here was just a curious observation. If you look at the meatballs, the ones farthest from the hot coals are slightly browner than the ones closest to the heat. That seems a bit odd to me. The charcoal is in the SnS, and there is a DnG on the charcoal grate. I ran the kettle with the vents wide open and with one chunk of hickory to help it run a bit hotter. I wanted a hot fire to brown the outside of the MBs as much as possible on a short cook. The lid vent was opposite the coals.

They turned out pretty darn good with more smoke than I thought. There was enough smoke flavor that I think it was a bit much for the marinara sauce I made to go with it. I'm thinking meatball sandwich with sauce and cheese might be a better way to go.



I almost forgot to take a photo of the finished dinner...



And again, the colors are off. I save as srgb as I do on all the sites I post on. This is the only site that changes the colors.....

[HouseHomey]

Hey buddy. Maybe it's your bright sunshiney personality that Is defeating the pit posting defenses. They need a better force field.

I finish mine in the marinara and it's less smokey with more depth the next day. Any sweet also comes out better too.

I love them for sammiches.

id eat that.

[Steve B]

The sweetness comes from the cinnamon. haha

[HouseHomey]

Funny Steve

[Spinaker]

Interesting.......

Here is my thought and this is total speculation. The meatballs closest to the fire were hotter, and thus picking up less smoke as cooler surfaces attract more smoke. With the top damper was over the meataballs in order to draw the smoke across the food, maybe this had an effect on the color. Did the meatballs at the back taste smokier than those closest to the fire?


I will pass this on to the Doc as well and see what he thinks.

[HouseHomey]

Interesting, isn't that like the same thing as when opening an oven door and getting a heat blast? Very interesting. Latent heat?

[Troutman]

I was thinking the same thing, bet he had the top vent over the back meatballs and the smoke got drawn into that zone more intensely. Just a thought.

[Jerod Broussard]

The outer edge of the kettle runs hottest with the SnS. That is why you put the legs of a whole chicken or turkey facing away from the SnS.

[HouseHomey]

I never figured that was the SnS. Thanks man!

[docblonder]

Just spitballing here (I only trust multiple observations and measurements, easy to be deceived by a single event), but if the coals were very hot, then infrared radiation can bounce along the inside of the lid and reflect down to the far side. Bypassing the nearby meatballs. Think of a lamp sitting where the coals are- the nearby meatballs are in the shadow. They are also closer to the steam/humidity if you were running the SNS with water in the vertical tank.

Just a guess until you do the experiment....

[HouseHomey]

That's why you are the Doc. But I think the rest of us should speculate as we would not want the facts to get in he way of a good story.

[shify]

My guess (and a total shot in the dark) is that the ones on the outside got a blast of heat from the dome/outer wall of the grill since they were the closest to the wall/lid, so the direct radiant (or is it convection?) heat was stronger on those meatballs compared to the rest

[Spinaker]

Great discussion here.

See, these guys know more about the physics of a kettle than me. It has probably been two years since I have cooked on one. :/ HouseHomey

[Skip]

Spinaker, you just need a TaLLer kettle!

[Spinaker]

Very true! Skip

[HouseHomey]

Bwhahaha

[hoovarmin]

To add some more science to this discussion, I say it was the Kettle Gremlins. They mess with my cooks all the time.

[HouseHomey]

I think they sometimes come in and blow on my coals.

[Troutman]

Forget the science for a moment (sorry Doc) but them meaties look great. I just recently started doing them that way myself. Cook 'em and freeze them in small batches, great with marinara sauce to heat through and serve (as you have obviously done). Try a third meat to the mix, veal! makes for an interesting depth of flavor.

[HouseHomey]

Veal is fantastic. But you really need to whomp it and let it rest before shaping or after.

[CaptainMike]

Following HouseHomey 's inspiration I did them with 50/50 beef and lamb, yummy

[HouseHomey]

You da man! They looked great. That's why you outrank us. Just something about that lamb though, right? Soft, plllow-eee amazingzing good when your grinding your own. Shoot!! I'm hungry now!

[tbob4]

Did you have water in the reservoir? If so, my guess is that the environment closer to the SnS was more humid. With vents wide open, the water would evaporate up, leaving a different moisture level across the cooking surface. I find the same thing in my one of my cabinet smokers. I typically smoke with a water pan. If I close the top vent a bit it changes the environment.

[Spinaker]

Cabinet smoker? Do tell. BTW how do NOT have your signature done yet?!?!

[tbob4]

Signature? I'm going to figure out how to do that. My cabinet is the ICU: https://californiacustomsmokers.net/Videos.php I also have a mini-meat locker from the same place.

[FlaBouy]

I suspect that is the thermal profile of the kettle and Doc's speculation is correct. I spent a bit of time tweaking/watching the smoke and heat profile on my RecTec and talking to the designers. They "calibrate" their algorithm in the controller across 36 points in the chamber and I have watched the smoke roll up the sides and then get drawn across the center of the grates due to the exhaust placement. It is assumed on my part that the heat follows this profile closely. I suspect you can arrange your exhaust on the kettle to a different angle from the SNS pan and watch the "browning" effect shift with the exhaust placement. Maybe I am just reading to much into it but I actually visualize the smoke and heat pathways when I place meat on the grate based on what I want to see in the temperature ramp of the internals over the course of a smoke. I am a design engineer so we look at this most every day in the industrial environment in bakeries and process equipment. We look at blower speeds, exhaust damper placement, burner profiles, etc. etc to determine how to meet a ramp profile that a customer requires for his product. It is the same in a smoker to a lesser degree. The sad part is I cannot turn this thought process off when I am trying to relax, thus dictating that Mr. Blanton is my wing man and Sous Chef on the line most days. Take any or all of that for what it's worth or toss it in the wood pile..

[HouseHomey]

When trying to relax I have the same problem with fried chicken, tacos and flautas with flour tortillas.

[Troutman]

I think you're spot on. Aaron Franklin in his book goes into the way he designs his fire boxes and how they exit into his cooking chamber (which is always round) to best envelope his meat in smoke. He makes his briskets as aerodynamic as possible at the point end to best capture the smoke as it touches the large pepper flakes in his rub. Same idea, same principle, get the smoke to touch the meat as a dynamic process. Guess that's the structural engineer in me

[FlaBouy]

LOL... I could never get my mind around Euler-Bernoulli so I decided to chase sparks for a living. Most occasions when asked what I do, I just simplify my response to "I make robots dance.. "..

[RonB]

Thanx all for your thoughts. There was no water in the water pan, and I did not track which meatballs I ate, (I do wish I had tracked which I ate though...). And the coals were very hot with the addition of a burning chunk of hickory to bump the temp a b it more.

[6th Borough BBQ]

Those look great!