BBQ!

[Pissy]

Follow up on the canned/pickled summer sausage is that my dad had never heard of it.  Didn't get a chance to ask the Finnish guy. 

I'm smoking some salmon tomorrow.  Brining it now. While I was at the Publix buying the salmon, I eased over to the meat section and saw this.   I can't imagine anyone buying a FLAT for that much money. In texas the whole packers that include the tip are routinely .99 on sale.  3.99 normally.  I don't understand how it's remotely justifiable to charge that much money for the toughest cut on the cow. 

[RAGER]

That's gotta be a mistake. That should be about $3.50 per lb. Is it priced as pastrami?  Is it wagyu? 

[Pissy]

It's Choice.  It isn't a mistake. 

The only places I know of to get a whole packer brisket in town is Sam's club and the meat markets on either side of town.  The grocery stores only sell the flats.   Are the Pincahna's (sp?) i see actually the points?  Are tri-tip's actually points?   I genuinely don't know about the west coast cuts. 

[RAGER]

Smoked a couple pounds of the sockeye yesterday.



Pellicle


Smokin cherry chips

[Pissy]

Vünderful. 

[RAGER]

The place we ended up is kind of newish. It's the food concept at Little Beadt brewing which I'm a big fan of. Erik was interested in doing that concept there when they were changing food options but it didn't pan out.

The place we originally went was another brewery which I'm a fan of and was at their other location yesterday. They do occasional pop ups and this one was with Grasslands BBQ because they brewed a beer collaboratively. Their truck and man smoker is located in Hood River Oregon about an hour East in the Columbia River Gorge.

There's usually a line there too but it moves fast. I've said it before. They're one of the few that I've had where their sides don't suck. In fact they're very good and inventive. They change things up often while still retaining the stalwarts of bbq.

At the pop up this weekend they got annihilated all 3 days. Huge lines. They had to have grossed 10's of thousands. People were ordering the entire menu x2. That in itself made the waits longer. Instead of grabbing and going it was taking 10 minutes per order. If I'd have been by myself I probably would've stayed and just drank beers in line. I'm sure I would've know people there. I know people at that brewery so....

I'll just drive to Hood River. It's scenic. It's- great town full of great beer and food.

[Pissy]

I wonder why bbq can make people stand in lines like that.  The only other place I know of that does that that isn't bbq or touristy meccas like Katz or one of those famous Chicago pizza joints is The Beacon in Spartanburg SC.  But the line there is famous for being as fast as it is long, so you don't wait very long. 

The new BBQ joint here is Project BBQ.  This place does not have a line 200 people deep. They use an LP tank offset like at Franklin's.  The sausage is great.  The brisket when I had it unfortunately tasted like pot roast.  I don't remember how the pork was, and I didn't try the ribs. 



https://projectbbqjc.com

[renfield]

I finally caved and got a weber smokey mountain. Temp maintenance in the kettle was a bit of a pain; the WSM is truly a set-and-forget feat of engineering precision. So far we've just done quick stuff like fish and sausages to give me a feel for the unit; tonight we're doing an overnight brisket and I am going to literally sleep like a fucking baby knowing that it's rocking 237.5 all night.

I also got two slabs of pork belly, and you know perfectly goddam well what I intend on doing with them. Gonna go for a sweeter cure on one and a more savory on the other.

[Pissy]

Nice! Is it the 18"?   I have tons of information i can share on one of those (i have the 22") if you're interested. Lmk. 

I bought some pork belly too, eyeing bacon.  

[renfield]

I went for the 18. I am super interested!

[renfield]

Fail on the bark. We're at 175 so I'm wrapping it. Probably should have wrapped before the stall.



Should I unwrap it at like 200 and try to go for more bark?

[Pissy]

Maybe.   Is that just a flat or a whole packer? 

Actually I probably would.  You got nice burnt ends. 

[Pissy]

So, with my WSM, the first problem I had was that I couldn't keep enough charcoal in it.  Turned out that the coals were falling through the grate and getting extinguished in the bottom, where the moisture condenses.  I bought a second coal grate and put it on top of the first (and it nests perfectly inside the ring that came with the smoker), but turned 90° to keep the coals from falling through.  I ran it that way for a few years. 

Then I bought the seal kit and lid hinge that you see for sale.  And installed all of it.  It helped keep the temps more consistent.    But it still went through charcoal pretty quick.   

Then I bought the BBQ Guru's digi-Q temp controller (which is a blower, temp probe and a computer controller) and it really made a ton of difference.  Truly set it and forget it.  If I were to fill it to the max with charcoal, and set the target temp to 200, it would easily last 16 hours - in the summer, out of the wind.  With the temp controller, you don't need to fill the water pan.  I normally cover it with foil.  That slows down charcoal consumption a ton.  The water is primarily there to keep temperatures from spiking in either direction.  I've heard of people filling the pan with sand as well and I'm sure that works well, if you don't have a temp controller, but I haven't tried it.  

Unfortunately that temp controller is around $300 and the seal kit is like $80 if I remember correctly.  Adding that to the steep price of the WSM in general sucks.  The coal grate isn't much, and you can get it at Home Depot.  

[renfield]

It's just the flat; very difficult to find the whole packer.

I was wrong though, the temp is way under what I thought. Must have had the probe in a fat pocket or something. Always take multiple readings, kids!

One of the reasons I went with the 18 over the 22 is I was led to understand the temp management is much better than the fuel-hogging 22 (or the burns-too-hot 14 for that matter).

I've nonetheless had my eye on that digi-Q thingie because the mechanics of it just really appeal to me, but yeah so far I don't feel like I need it.

I will definitely be following your advice on the additional coal grate, because I'm losing half-burned briquettes.

The lid hinge seems like a fucking must as well. 

[Pissy]

I can imagine the 18 is more temp management compliant.  

The lid hinge does what it's supposed to, but it's one of those things that takes two hands when you feel like it should only take one when you close it.  Which means you have to put something down in order to free up your second hand.   At least that's the way it is on mine.  It's a lift first, then hinge down type of movement, and the lift has to be done just right or it won't clear the locking bit.  Easy to do with two hands, but not so much with one.  

[renfield]

I am pleased.

[RAGER]

That looks great. Let's see some cuts.

[renfield]

It's a little dry. Really tender and well-flavored, though. Half of it is going to go into this pot of chili I've got brewin



Maybe I'll try the tallow trick next time. This was a large improvement over my first brisket, and definitely better than I've had at many an actual BBQ joint. Overall I'm happy with it.

[RAGER]

Looks damn good to me. I think you're supposed to wear black nitrile gloves and squeeze it though.

[renfield]

Ha. Them youtube chefs and their moneyshots. Gotta get those clicks

[Pissy]

An HDR photo too.

Looks good.  It's next to impossible to keep a flat juicy. 

[Muffin Man]

nice colors on that brisket! yum

[renfield]

By the way one youtube BBQ chef I do really like is Harry Soo. His attitude is basically, "you could listen to other youtubers, or you could listen to me who regularly wins cashmoney in barbecue competitions". That said, the specifics of a lot of his methods seem strange and counterintuitive to me. Like, he swears that the best way to do pork butt is with no seasoning whatsoever until after the cook. "I know you won't believe me or try it, but it's true."

[RAGER]

I like that guy too. Either Ive mentioned him before or Pissy has. He changes with the variables. The guys that are like "I do it this way every time" probably have only one consistent result. They do it that way every time. But I'd bet their cooks vary. So seems to change it up.

[Pissy]

Something else to consider is that when you dive in to competition BBQ, they whole point of the cook changes.  I positive that Harry knows what he's doing, but he's also trying to make food that will stand out among many other entries, to a group of people whose taste buds will potentially be shot by the time they get to his submission.  What I've decided is that's the avenue that gets you a trophy at one if those events, but it isn't what makes great food on your table.  

In my neighborhood cookoffs, one time I beat out an experienced competition guy who thought he had a leg up on everyone because he had that experience.   But the judges were people from our neighborhood who didn't have KCBS (Kansa City Barbecue Society) experience, so they just were after what they liked the best.  And I won. 

My point is Harry Soo puts his competition winning methods out there for everyone to learn, but that won't necessarily make it better than yours for your crowd at home.  Have you seen how they dismantle a raw Boston Butt for competition?   Is crazy and something I wouldn't ever do at home.