Smokers (BBQ - not grilling)

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...We planted some mint in the garden last year. It is growing like weeds...Not sure if it winters over up there in NH...
Mint and catnip are in the same family and are hearty in Ma and NH when planted in the ground except for the far northern tip of NH. They will take over the garden if not kept bound in by edging or borders. Your job is to drink enough Mojitos and Juleps to keep it in check :)

 
I get ribs in cryovac at Costco at $2.99/lb, and they have the silver skin membrane removed. I've never had any complaints about the meat. I can spend more in the Strip District meat markets, and not get a lot of return on investment. Costco pack them 3 to the package, but they are often available on styrofoam tray/plastic at the same price individually or in pairs.

 
I get ribs in cryovac at Costco at $2.99/lb, and they have the silver skin membrane removed. I've never had any complaints about the meat. I can spend more in the Strip District meat markets, and not get a lot of return on investment. Costco pack them 3 to the package, but they are often available on styrofoam tray/plastic at the same price individually or in pairs.
+1

 
I am going to be converting about 8 pounds of flank steak to jerky this weekend in my Rec Tec Pellet smoker in preparation for a camping trip to the UP this August. Can't wait for both!

May experiment with some Indian inspired marinades this time.

 
Going to try something a little different for Sunday supper... I've got a couple of fresh, Chuck Roasts, known as poor man's brisket. They were selling them for $3 a pound, brisket is running closer to 5 around here. (though I saw some for $4 on sale. If I had a bigger fridge I'd lay one down for a while)

From what I've read you just cook the Chuck up like a boneless pork butt and it will pull / shred nicely. Be firing up the grille in a little while. Wish me luck!

 
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I'm looking forward to seeing how the chuck turns out. It would be great to find a good use for that less expensive cut. I guess if you can make a pot roast from it, a slow cook should be fine, but I'd be concerned about it being dry.

 
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I was planning on smoking some chicken rapped in bacon stuffed with pepper today. The wife and the oldest son say no way dad. So now they will be just going on the regular grill.

Bummed,

Dave

 
Sucks to be living with boring pallets in the same house......

I make things, if the people in the house don't like what I make - they are welcome to cook for themselves. Never compromise.

Thankfully, my woman and I love mostly all the same things, if there is something that will not agree with her, she doesn't care and will make a simple little thing for herself, but its very rare she would have to. Her kids have been raised by their boring father who makes boring food so they have been trained, but I'm turning them around slowly but surely. I love lots and lots of flavors, there is almost nothing I won't eat or try to make.

Fight the good fight Dave !!!

 
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Going to try something a little different for Sunday supper... I've got a couple of fresh, Chuck Roasts, known as poor man's brisket. They were selling them for $3 a pound, brisket is running closer to 5 around here. (though I saw some for $4 on sale. If I had a bigger fridge I'd lay one down for a while)
From what I've read you just cook the Chuck up like a boneless pork butt and it will pull / shred nicely. Be firing up the grille in a little while. Wish me luck!
Another good use for that shredded chuck roast is toquettos. Spice the meat with taco seasoning and roll it up in corn tortillas and fry'um. If you don't like fried foods, you can use the meat for burritos too.

Never smoked a chuck roast either, but have as mentioned done them in a slow cooker, general principle is the same. Maybe baste it with beef stock to keep it moist?

 
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Ok, KM, it's "Taquitos," as in, "little tacos." Do NOT fry them. That's a Chimichanga.

For taquitos, heat up your meat and then dip corn tortillas, one at a time, in hot vegetable oil for about a second. Dip in and pull out. When you have all the tortillas dipped, lay them flat and put some meat and cheese (if you want) in them. Just a pinched line down the center. Then roll them up and put them on a cookie sheet or cake pan. You may have to toothpick them if you don't stagger them correctly.

You can put some cheese on top, cover them and bake them for about 25 minutes. You can use ground meat, shredded chicken, or another shredded meat. Have Salsa on hand, so you can dip them as you eat them.

Dont use too much meat, or they won't roll and the tortilla will break. Don't dip them too long, or they will get hard and not roll. You can use your favorite oil for the dipping. My wife like coconut oil. You don't need taco seasoning, unless that's the flavor you want. Sometimes, we'll throw green Chile in with the meat for the last few minutes of heating it. Mmmmmmmmmmm, green Chile taquitos rock with homemade salsa.

 
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Spoiler alert: Smoked Chuck is the Bomb Diggety!
punk.gif


Not long after I posted my intentions yesterday, I fired up the OK Joe, got Chuck Roast and his little brother Chuckie out of the fridge where they had been quietly resting since dry brining them noon time the day before, sprinkled a healthy coating of Meathead's "Big Bad Beef Rub" and they were ready for cookin'

The before:

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Smoked these at ~250-ish using the Stubbs charcoal briquettes and some Mesquite wood chunks. One advantage of the Offset Smoker over a vertical is you can easily toss the wood chunks on the fire one at a time throughout the smoke, rather than having to try and bury them in the minion pile of charcoal. My experience is that the buried ones all seem to go off early in the smoke and you get the voluminous white smoke at the beginning and not much of anything later. Throwing a chunk in the firebox every 30 minutes or so keep a steady and continuous thin blue smoke going, and I think that is probably better for getting smoke flavor into the meat.

Flipped and flopped the roasts a couple of times through the cooking. I had intended to cook them for ~ 4-5 hours then stick them into a disposable roaster pan and seal the top with foil with some liquid in the bottom (either beer or beef bouillon), but got kind'a lazy in the heat of the day (it was a scorcher here yesterday) and since the stall was not too long, opted to just cook them without any crutching or wrapping at all. Meat went on at 8: 30 AM and hit my 197 F internal target temp at 4PM, so total time on the smoker was 7 1/2 hours. Not bad considering no crutch.

Wrapped them in foil and towels, and into the faux cambrio (cooler) for an hour. Unwrapped them just before dinner and marveled at their color

The after:

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They may look to the uninitiated like just a couple of burnt up turds. But oh no... they were not.

Pulled one of the two clods, and about 1/3 of the other. It shredded up by hand (with gloves, still very hot) quite easily. and of course we had to sneak us a few tastes before serving, just to be sure it was "OK". The Big Bad Beef rub is not for the meek at heart. It has a real nice peppery, spicy flavor, concentrated by the smoke and dark flavor of the bark. Yumm-eee!

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Dinner is served!

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It was unanimously determined to be awesomely delish! We ate the pulled beef either plain or on rolls with choice of sauces. Wow, what great beefy flavor. I recommend trying this for sure.

That's some yellow zucchini fresh from my Son in Law's garden in the upper right. None of us had ever had it before. Cooked it on the grille in a foil pouch. It was really good, a lot like summer squash.

And then, after dinner I sliced up the rest of the 2nd roast a' la Brisket, for sandwich making through the week I tell you what... that Chuck is a pretty damn good substitute for Brisket at less cost and about half the cooking time of a big ol' brisket.

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Now... pulled Beef is no substitute for pulled Pork. The latter is still my favorite. There is something special about the taste of rendered down and crisp pork fat that makes me delirious. But this Chuck Roast dealio is a great change of pace when you've got a hankerin' for some cow meat.

 
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Ok, KM, it's "Taquitos," as in, "little tacos." Do NOT fry them. That's a Chimichanga. For taquitos, heat up your meat and then dip corn tortillas, one at a time, in hot vegetable oil for about a second. Dip in and pull out. When you have all the tortillas dipped, lay them flat and put some meat and cheese (if you want) in them. Just a pinched line down the center. Then roll them up and put them on a cookie sheet or cake pan. You may have to toothpick them if you don't stagger them correctly.

You can put some cheese on top, cover them and bake them for about 25 minutes. You can use ground meat, shredded chicken, or another shredded meat. Have Salsa on hand, so you can dip them as you eat them.

Dont use too much meat, or they won't roll and the tortilla will break. Don't dip them too long, or they will get hard and not roll. You can use your favorite oil for the dipping. My wife like coconut oil. You don't need taco seasoning, unless that's the flavor you want. Sometimes, we'll throw green Chile in with the meat for the last few minutes of heating it. Mmmmmmmmmmm, green Chile taquitos rock with homemade salsa.
Taquitos (toquettos was spell correct...sorry) up here are in fact fried. From wiki:
"A taquito (Spanish pronunciation: [taˈkito], lit. Spanish for "small taco"[1]), tacos dorados,[2] rolled taco,[3] or flauta (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈflauta], lit. Spanish for "flute") is a Mexican food dish most often consisting of a small rolled-up tortilla and some type of filling,[4] including beef, cheese or chicken.[5] The filled tortilla is crisp-fried. The dish is often topped with condiments such as sour cream and guacamole.[5] Corn tortillas are generally used to make taquitos; the dish is more commonly known as flautas when they are larger than their taquito counterparts, and can be made with either flour or corn tortillas although using corn is more traditional.[6] In some areas, such as New Mexico, taquito refers not to the rolled-up tortilla dish, but rather a smaller version of the taco."

Have seen recipes for baking them, but if I'm going to heat up oil in a pan anyway, I'd just go with crisp-fried. But next time I'll try baking them as you posted...likely abit healthier. The shredded meat works well as the long pieces don't fall out like ground meat would. Never put cheese in them either, but I do season the meat somehow, even if it's just a bit of Tabasco. Served with guacamole it's one of my favorite Mexican dishes.

That meat looks awesome Fred. Didn't think it take that long to cook them...isn't 197 degrees a bit high for beef? Will definitely try this myself before I do a whole brisqutte.

 
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That meat looks awesome Fred. Didn't think it take that long to cook them...isn't 197 degrees a bit high for beef? Will definitely try this myself before I do a whole brisqutte.
No, not high. Some people cook it as high at 205F, but I'd want it to be in a steam environment (Braising in a crutch) or you will risk drying the meat out. These are the same temps you cook a Beef Brisket to. The idea is to render out as much fat as possible and and to break down the collagen to make the tough meat cuts tender. If you quit too early it won't pull, or be nearly as tender or flavorful for slicing.

For a leaner, more tender beef cut you would only cook to normal beef medium rare temp (around 140F).

 
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That meat looks awesome Fred. Didn't think it take that long to cook them...isn't 197 degrees a bit high for beef? Will definitely try this myself before I do a whole brisqutte.
No, not high. Some people cook it as high at 205F, but I'd want it to be in a steam environment (Braising in a crutch) or you will risk drying the meat out. These are the same temps you cook a Beef Brisket to. The idea is to render out as much fat as possible and and to break down the collagen to make the tough meat cuts tender. If you quit too early it won't pull, or be nearly as tender or flavorful for slicing.

For a leaner, more tender beef cut you would only cook to normal beef medium rare temp (around 140F).
Ah, didn't really think about it....as I'll put a roast in a crock pot for 8 hours, and the low setting is usually around 200F, and I'm sure after that time the internal temperature is about the same.

Well, I'm going to go ahead and pick up 6 racks of the baby backs in the cryovac bag for this Saturday, and either a whole pork loin or three tenderloins. Everyone I've talked to says you really can't find BB's any other way, and even the folks at the pig farm say that's how they market theirs too.

(Reading all this stuff still gets me hungry.......)

 
Oh yeah... I forgot to report back to you. I checked in my market when I was grabbing the Chuck Roasts and the most prevalent brand of baby back ribs in cryovac bags is from Smithfield.

There is another brand I see there that is less famous.

 
I cooked a package of Smithfield ribs yesterday on my gas grill (Blasphemy, I know). I've got a wood chip box that I use for a little smoke - I had a piece of cherry wood lying around and it made just enough smoke. I rubbed the ribs with some Applewood and mesquite rub, along with our local seasoning. I made some good grill marks all around from the cast iron grill plates on my grill. Cooked them about 45 minutes unwrapped, about an hour wrapped low and slow, and then let them skin over with the sauce after I shut the grill off and brought the temperature down.

Not worthy of a photo here, for sure. But they tasted pretty good. Plenty tender, too.

My sauce:

- Kraft Hickory Smoke BBQ sauce (base)

- Apple juice

- Brown sugar

- Dijon mustard

- Cumin

- chilli power

- Lea and Perrins sauce

- Balsamic vinegar

- red wine vinegar

 
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