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[Mambopoa]

Not much to report. Did some BBQ for the street party.

I had a problem with the smoker, so I need to order new parts. I was surprised to see I have had it 4 years now.

Not much to tell, but did a few bits without any rubs, to please the locals

[Joric]

That looks nice! 

I've got mould in my smoker. Never had that problem before. But I am used to my stainless steel grill and that minimal cleaning philosophy of smokers looked very strange to me from the first moment on. I want something, that I can put in the dishwasher (stainless steel grillage) and want to utilize a wire brush to get off remains. That "you need the patina" talk is rubbish.

A bigger kettle grill suitable for nice indirect grilling can do BBQ, too. At least there are tons of videos available on that topic. My problem: I want to use charcoal rather than briquette and don't know, if that would work for BBQ and how you could handle refilling (if that was even necessary). I mean... you have to open the whole thing to put more charcoal in, right?

[Mambopoa]

I have used my 57cm weber to do indirect, it worked well, but you need the good grill.
I used the side baskets, so you need the grill with the lift up sides, so you can add more as you go along.
https://thebbqshop.co.uk/17436-57cm-stainless-hinged-grid-bbq-accessories
I have seen the snake method, never tried it, but that does need briquettes.

I have not had the mould problem, my friend does.
The difference is, he will finish cooking and close the door.
I will run mine for 15 minutes over 200c to burn off any left over food etc.

[Joric]

Well, I do BBQ at 110-130°C. I am far, far away from 200°C. As I only burn charcoal I cant even get my smoker to that temperature. And when I burn wood, my neighbours complain about the smoke. So yeah, that might be a problem. 

[Mambopoa]

I still think loading up some charcoal, open the dampers and chimney, you will get some heat that will dry out any left over food inside. Which is all you really want to do.
Can try brushing most of it off and should prevent mould returning.

[Mambopoa]

New week, new BBQ.

Not much in the photos, as they sort of look like the last....

But I am experimenting with "Hot and Fast" rather than "Low and Slow"
Basically you are cooking at 165c rather than 110c.

Worked ok so far, but need to keep trying.
With this method you need to keep spraying or mopping the meat.
I was happy with the nice crust on the meat I got. But not as good as low and slow.

So when I can, 5kg beef and 5kg pork and try again.
I feel I will need to inject and mop a lot. But really want to see the results.

[Mambopoa]

Photo:



Not the best, plus rained a lot.
So the only one I really got.

[Joric]

wohoo. 165°C is really hot for BBQ. I tried around 135°C and that worked well. You save some time and it's not too far away from 110°C. What you might wanna try: Start real hot - i.e. 200-250°C - for the crust and then let the grill/smoker cool down to 110°C to slowly cook the meat inside. I want to try that... I mean, you do it all the time when using an oven... so it should work.

Problem: how do you do it with just one grill? You can't just lower temp like you do on your kitchen oven.

Afaik you got more than one grill - so go for it! If you are done with the meat and it sits in the 110°C smoker, use the hot grill for sausages and snacks! 

[Mambopoa]

135c is a common temperature to cook at, many people do.
The barrel smokers usually run that hot.

With tougher cuts like brisket point, it does need a long time to break down the meat and become tender.
So with these higher times, wrapping and resting becomes far more important.
In someways you dont save as much time as you think.
You also get less smoke penetration, as the wood is getting a better combustion and less smoke.

With my type of smoker, it is easy to program the different temperature. Can even time that through the app.
But charcoal or wood would be harder to do.
Have to let it almost burn out and then slowly add coals to keep that low temp.

I will try again with 165c with the same cuts I normally use.
See if the larger cuts of meat handle this higher temp.

[Joric]

My new kettle grill arrived today - I am doing the "burn in" atm. Roesler F60 Air. It's heavy, it's big and let my have a look into the future: there will be meat.

It sits at 300°C atm, I am burning charcoal. So far everything looks good.

[Mambopoa]

Oohh new grill!

I did not know you were treating yourself.
Took a quick look, looks nice and all the fun bits you need for offset grilling.

Look forward to seeing what you do with it.

[Joric]

Oohh new grill!

I did not know you were treating yourself.
Took a quick look, looks nice and all the fun bits you need for offset grilling.

Look forward to seeing what you do with it.

Funny thing. Had a talk with a colleague and he complained about his father in law always stalling things badly. So with 2 free days last week (I just had to take a break from work) I thought it would be the perfect time to not stall on the what-grill-do-I-really-want question but to trust my gut feeling. I always hated kettle grills because I didn't know where to put the lid - and that problem is gone here. So when I saw it for the first time I thought - hey this is smart! I want one! And didn't buy. I then found out, that you can fold the grate and put in the dishwasher. Call me  silly, but I like the idea of a clean grate when I put my meat on it. I hope, it will serve me well over the next few years.

1st grill test was very successful. I bought 2 lamb chops - already with some marinade. I took off most of it, flipped them for about 3mins directly over the hot charcoal and set aside on an indirect spot. Tried the 1st one after a few minutes - wonderful. Tender, but not "melting", very few slightly chewy bits. 2nd one after 10 more minutes. I expected a disaster - but it was wonderful, too. Keep in mind - on steaks personally I am looking for the point just before well done. To my mind the meat is most tender at that point, while early and late rare stages got another "bite" feeling towards "raw". Think of sushi vs. buttery smooth and tender fish. Sushi has a certain "raw" feeling. Just when this raw feeling in the meat is gone --> perfect steak for me. And I can happily live with well done, especially when this adds more "meaty" flavour. It's overdone when it starts to get dry. So compared to other people I get a wider comfort zone around the well done point. Most restaurants and even steakhouses can't do steaks the way I like them, although I explain it every time. 80% of the time I get burnt-ouside-raw-inside, the others are dry and dead. Frustrating. Why do people even burn their steaks on the outside? Dark, roasty brown - nice. Flavour! But pitch black? Better eat charcoal right away if you like that - it's way cheaper than a good steak.

Today I tried to get the kettle into BBQ temp range - no chance. 200-250°C with a full load of pre-heated briquettes  no matter what I did. With only half of the coal left I added a few coco briquettes while still having everything pretty much closed. After a while it settled at around 150°C on the lid thermometer and a tad below 135°C at grate level, which is fine by me.

2hrs+ into the cooking it looks like this. I will go the most easy and most lazy way: I'll do nothing to the ribs until they are almost done. Then coating with some BBQ sauce for the last 30mins. As with the baking I am looking for very basic and easy stuff. If it even looks or sounds stressful I won't do it. I'll take care of the temp and give it the time it needs and hope for good food in the end.

Have a nice weekend!
 

[Joric]

1st "classic" grilling was only so-so. I had for about an hour 200-250°C, but then the temp dropped. I wasn't expecting that. Refilling and heating up again took quite some time, so it was a very late lunch. Indirect grilling worked well. I messed up with the steak - decided to try "backwards", but need more practice with that. Came out very well done. A chuck eye is only about 2,5cm-3cm thick here in Germany, but it's good meat and was on sale... Next time I'll do it "forward" with just a bit of resting.

[Aerendur]

Yum. That stuff all looks really good. Garden will be done next week, then it's finally time to consider my garden kitchen. Looking at several options, but atm a kamado style bbq (green egg / bastard) seems to fit best.

I want to be able to do:
- oldschool bbq
- make pizzas
- bake bread
- and lots of other stuff.

Preferably in the one thing. So if you have any input, even if its, don't get one device, get multiple, I'd be interested in hearing how and why!

[Mambopoa]

Sounds like you already want a Big Green Egg.

The only issue I have heard about them is they are hard to top up with coals.

So the kettle style grills, you usually have the grate that lifts up at the sides for more coals or wood.
Ceramic BBQs often struggle with topping up, so keep that in mind.
Low and slow, you could be cooking for 12 hours and having to lift out bits to top up can be a pain.

Saying that, you only really talk about grilling. So the 1 hour cook time is all you need there.

I would be interested to hear what Jor thinks, he uses a kettle more than me, I only grill on mine.

Pizza is in the uuni and smoking/baking in the big smoker.