Meat on a Stick--A Really Big Stick!

Turns out turkey white meat is not the most popular protein at our Thanksgiving table. This year I got a small whole turkey, and 9 turkey thighs to smoke separately. The whole turkey was only 13 lbs, and it's gonna get rotisseried. This works really well with the Weber rotisserie attachment for the 22 inch kettle. The attachment is a 10 inch tall ring that sits between the kettle body and lid. The ring has a bracket to hold the electric motor, and pass thru holes for the spit. I prepared the turkey simply--just trussed it, and put salt and pepper in the cavity, and salt/pepper/baking powder on the outside of the bird. Thanks to J. Kenji Lopez Alt for the tip of adding the baking powder to aid in crisping the skin. Something about Ph levels--I don't know--I'm not a scientist. Let the turkey rest in the fridge after seasoning it to further dry the skin--I just did it for 4 hours, but overnite is better.

The grill setup I use is a slow n sear insert with charcoal lit at one end of the pile, and wood chunks placed on top of the pile. Put a drip pan under where the turkey is going to be to catch the smoked turkey fat and juices for the gravy.

Mount the spitted turkey on the rotisserie ring, cover, and ideally run the grill at 250 degrees til it's done (175 degrees in the thighs, 155 degrees in the breast). Mine takes about 4-5 hours. The slow n sear insert does a good job moderating the coal burning. This cook got away from me, and the grill temp spiked at 350 but I got it down to 280-300. Total cook time was 3.5 hours. So the lesson is PAY ATTENTION to your grill temp.

Pull the turkey when it hits the desired internal temps--they'll rise some while resting the bird for at least 20 to 40 minutes. Carve it up and enjoy. Strain the the smoked drippings for the gravy. Yum! 

Baby Back, Baby Back, Baby Back...Ribs!

A screaming deal at Costco Business made me come home with a 3 packs of Baby Back ribs. 97 cents a lb (works out to about $3 per slab. All the prep is standard--dry the slabs with towel, slash the bottom membrane, and cut in half (6 to 7 ribs per half), then season with your favorite rub. Mine was brown sugar, kosher salt, cumin, old bay, paprika, oregano, and red chili flakes.

This cook was on a weber kettle with the slow n sear insert for indirect cooking, and the weber rib stand to hold the slabs. I piled on some hickory chips and cherry chunks and got the temperature to a steady 250 degrees.

2 and a half hours into the cook, I flipped all the slabs bottom to top and front to back to cook them evenly.

Another hour and a half and the ribs were ready to get wrapped (in this case I just put them all in a tightly sealed pan) and go into a holding oven at 225 degrees for an hour.

Right out of the oven and ready for eating.

Good smoke penetration and the bark was fine. I was a little scared that I overcooked them. Baby backs are loin ribs and definitely run a little drier, but spooning some of the rendered fat/juice from the warming tray over the plated slab gave plenty of juice to dip the next bite-spot into.

All in all, a good cook. Ribs had some tooth, but came off the bone clean. $1.50 for a half slab--I'd take these over the costco hot dog.

Assorted Bone-in Pork Chops

How often are you at the store and pass by a screaming deal on assorted bone-in pork chops? Seems like every other week these things are on sale at one chain or another for something less than $2/lb. These are so quick and easy to cook, and for that price, they really can't be beat. Even if you you're feeding someone who doesn't want bone-in chops, you cut the meat off the bone of a loin rib chop, and then you get the cook's prerogative of gnawing on the bone yourself.

My basic quick easy way to cook these guys is to season them an hour or so before cooking and them put them right on a direct fire for about 3 minutes a side (these are skinny 1/2 inch chops.

This package had 4 rib loin chops, 2 t-bone chops (loin/fillet), and 2 shoulder chops. You can go any direction with the seasoning from the simplest Lawry's seasoned salt and cayenne, to a home made rub, to a wet marinade (Korean BBQ flavors would ROCK!)

To get good color and a little charring on these puppies, I had the grill open until flare-ups occurred--about 2 minutes on super hot coals, then cover for another 90 seconds and flip. Cook for another 3 minutes and remove them to rest for a few minutes in a warm pan. Serve with some BBQ sauce or just scarf them down. Sometimes I mop them with sauce on the grill to finish them, but too often I lose too much sauce that way. 

Ribs Again

Hey, we've been down this road over and over and over. But ribs keep coming in, and keep getting cooked, and keep getting eaten. I picked up some St. Louis cut ribs in a 3-slab pack at Costco Business, home of large format meat. Toweled them dry and cut each slab in half, then rubbed with a mixture of Diamond kosher salt, ground black pepper, red chili pepper flakes, smoked paprika, dried oregano, a little garlic powder, and a little ground white pepper (to complete the holy pepper trifecta (not counting the paprika).

Next I loaded the ribs onto the Weber with the Slow 'N Sear charcoal holder, and a Weber rib holder. Topped the charcoal with a hunk of cherry (I'm detecting a theme here), and closed the lid, getting the temperature to 275 degrees.

After an hour and a half, I spun the ribs 180 degrees (so top went to bottom, and front went to back) and closed the lid for another hour and a half at 250 to 275 degrees.

After the end of 3 hours total on the grill, unload the ribs into a hotel pan (or whatever will fit them) and cover tightly with foil. Place the pan in a 225 degree oven for between 1 and 2 hours, until the meat is practically falling off the bone. 

For those who want to work for their food, the ribs can be eaten without the going-in-the-oven step, but they are way more toothsome (al dente, steak-y) that way. Your monkey, your circus--enjoy them how you want. 

Pastrami

 For an easy pastrami, I recently picked up a bunch of meat-on-sale corned beef brisket points. After rinsing them off and drying them, I coated them in a thin layer of yellow mustard, and covered with equal parts of spice-grinder ground black pepper corns and coriander seeds.

Place the meat on the grill. As usual I'm using the Weber kettle, a Slow 'N Sear charcoal holder, and a chunk of cherry wood for smoke. The temp was about 275 for 4 hours.

After 4 hours, wrap in pink butcher paper and place back on the grill or in a 250 degree oven for 2 hours.

And finally, slice against the grain and enjoy in a fat stacked sandwich with sauerkraut and mustard!

Pork Loin Chops

Here's a solid go-to choice for cheap easy fast and tasty meals. When I go to Costco, I see these intimidating meat logs I affectionately call "large format meat." In this case I'm talking about whole pork loin. Just for an idea of how big this thing is, they are usually a little over 24 inches long, about 6 inches wide, and about 3 inches thick. The one I got the other day weighed in at 8.5 lbs, boneless. So this thing is all lean meat with a nice thin fat cap and hardly any inter-muscular fat. What all that means is if you overcook it or you'll end up with a large piece of shoe leather, so DON'T overcook it.

Thankfully, dealing with this ridiculous sized thing is super easy. Just slice open the package, dry the meat with a dishtowel and slice into 1-¼ to 1-1/2 inch thick boneless chops. Season all sides and let sit in the fridge on a wire rack in a baking sheet for at least 6 hours to dry brine the meat.

A simple seasoning I use is (by weight) equal parts Lawry's seasoned salt and Diamond kosher salt with the same amount of ground black pepper. I just take an empty spice container and put in 25 grams of Lawry's, 25 grams of kosher salt, and 50 grams of pepper and give it a good mix. 

The grill setup is also super easy. This is a classic indirect cook with hot coal and a wood chunk on one side of the grill and the loin chops on the other side. Line the bottom of the grill under the meat side with a piece of foil to catch the juice and fat drippings. Stand the chops on the grill to maximize capacity. You're going to need every inch for that number of chops. Try to leave a little breathing room between the chops so they are not touching each other or the walls of the grill. Also make sure they are not over live coal. 

For more smokey flavor, close the vents halfway to lower the grill temperature between 200-250 degrees and extend the cooking time. Or cook with wide open vents in the 325-350 degree range until the meat reaches an internal temperature of about 140 degrees.

At that point pull the chops off the grill and let rest for 10 minutes or so in a warmed, covered pan where carryover cooking will bring the meat's temperature to a safe 145 degrees. With wide open grill vents, check the meat temperature at 40 minutes. With a lower cooking temperature, you can check at 60-75 minutes. A remote thermometer is a great tool to take the guesswork out of the equation. Sometimes I use one but usually not. I ALWAYS use my ThermoWorks Super-Fast Thermapen™ instant read thermometer though. It measures accurately in a split second.

There you have it. Easy, tasty, smoky pork loin. Never be intimidated by those meat logs again!

Ribs, Simple Ribs

 Just like the brisket in the previous recipe, I'm cooking more on my kettle with the Slow and Sear insert. For ribs, I plan on 5 hours on the kettle. Light some coal on one end of the Slow and Sear, and top with some wood chunks (cherry, as usual in this case). I got some 4-5 rib St. Louis sections that I seasoned with some Costco's sweet mesquite seasoning and left covered in the fridge for a day.

I stand the ribs upright in the Weber rib holder, and smoke at 200 degrees for 2 hours. Then I turn the over and smoke them for another 2 hours at 250 degrees.

Then one more hour with the vents wide open to get a nice char on the ribs.

I then unload them into a hotel pan and cover it in foil. Pop that into an oven at 275 for an hour or so to finish off the fat render and melt the collagen.

You could probably enjoy them without this last oven step, but these ribs were super meaty and wanted to make sure they were fall-off-the-bone tender.

Just wow. I made it through 3 of these then had to throw in the towel.

So there you have it--nice smoke penetration, tender deliciousness. And add in some of my sweet smokey Fatboy BBQ sauce and this is good eatin.