BBQ and Grilling megathread

[CroFlames]

I used the picnic cut and my results weren't terrible, but not as good as the shoulder blade.

[Northendzone]

For dinner tonight I am making bacon wrapped boneless skinless chicken thighs, and the chicken thighs have a cream chEese jalapeño popper in them.

This has got to taste awesome

[InglewoodFan]

Briskets were on sale at Costco for $10 off. Nice big ones, I grabbed a 16 lb one that I trimmed about 2lb of fat off of. I haven't fired up the smoker in a couple years because of life etc. So here I am on a Sunday night, babysitting the barrel smoker. Temps are hanging in, I'm a bit worried about the forecast drop to 1C. Should pull it off just before lunch tomorrow. Rest and carve it up, should be able to vac seal a few good meals out of it.

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[Royle9]

Originally Posted by InglewoodFan

Briskets were on sale at Costco for $10 off. Nice big ones, I grabbed a 16 lb one that I trimmed about 2lb of fat off of. I haven't fired up the smoker in a couple years because of life etc. So here I am on a Sunday night, babysitting the barrel smoker. Temps are hanging in, I'm a bit worried about the forecast drop to 1C. Should pull it off just before lunch tomorrow. Rest and carve it up, should be able to vac seal a few good meals out of it.

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Brisket prices have gone through the roof it seems.
Picked up a 12lb (trimmed) from Bon Ton for tonight's dinner (turned out amazing) but it ran me just over $150.00 (fed 6 adults and 2 kids with leftovers for all)

But 13.99 lb is crazy.
What was Costcos? I assume it was a packer brisket.

[InglewoodFan]

Originally Posted by Royle9

Brisket prices have gone through the roof it seems.

Picked up a 12lb (trimmed) from Bon Ton for tonight's dinner (turned out amazing) but it ran me just over $150.00 (fed 6 adults and 2 kids with leftovers for all)



But 13.99 lb is crazy.

What was Costcos? I assume it was a packer brisket.

Yep, packer brisket - $11.99/kg with $10 off at the till. 8.6 kg for $93.

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[bagofpucks]

Keep an eye out at sobeys. At the start of the month they had cryovacced full briskets for $5/lb, so I picked up two on 15% Tuesday. Have my first one on the smoker right now.

What’s everyone’s thoughts on how long you can keep a cryovacced brisket in the fridge? Google tells me 1-3 months.

[InglewoodFan]

Originally Posted by InglewoodFan

Briskets were on sale at Costco for $10 off. Nice big ones, I grabbed a 16 lb one that I trimmed about 2lb of fat off of. I haven't fired up the smoker in a couple years because of life etc. So here I am on a Sunday night, babysitting the barrel smoker. Temps are hanging in, I'm a bit worried about the forecast drop to 1C. Should pull it off just before lunch tomorrow. Rest and carve it up, should be able to vac seal a few good meals out of it.

So that was a massive fail. I had the temperature dip a bit overnight while I dozed, no lower than 200F. But I could never get this one out of the stall, wrapped it and everything. I have three temp probes both in the meat and the barbecue and all my temps looked good. I just couldn't put enough heat into it to get it past about 165F. After 20+ hours I had to cut my losses. The flavor isn't bad but the meat is super tough. Will get chopped up and vac sealed for chili or whatever.

[edslunch]

I did a small (1 lb since I was testing) brisket with 27 hour sous vide @155F followed by a 2 hour smoke. I am very pleased with the results. It lost a huge amount of liquid during sous vide so the end result was very tender, it sliced well, but wasn’t juicy. I’m never going to pull an all-nighter with my Smokey Mountain but would 100% do this technique again. It’s not going to win any competitions but definitely pleased the crowd.

[Northendzone]

i have only done one brisket on my smoker and it took me about 3 hrs with the smoker set at around 250. i want to say the brisket was a medium sized piece of meat.

am i doing this wrong as i could not imagine doing this overnight and not winding up with shoe leather

if it matters i have a masterbuilt "upright style" propane smoker.

[Doctorfever]

Originally Posted by InglewoodFan

So that was a massive fail. I had the temperature dip a bit overnight while I dozed, no lower than 200F. But I could never get this one out of the stall, wrapped it and everything. I have three temp probes both in the meat and the barbecue and all my temps looked good. I just couldn't put enough heat into it to get it past about 165F. After 20+ hours I had to cut my losses. The flavor isn't bad but the meat is super tough. Will get chopped up and vac sealed for chili or whatever.

Keep in mind next time it might be easier to wrap and finish in your oven. Easy temperature control.

I had to do it once out of necessity.

[edslunch]

Originally Posted by Northendzone

i have only done one brisket on my smoker and it took me about 3 hrs with the smoker set at around 250. i want to say the brisket was a medium sized piece of meat.

am i doing this wrong as i could not imagine doing this overnight and not winding up with shoe leather

if it matters i have a masterbuilt "upright style" propane smoker.

It’s counter-intuitive….the longer you smoke it the more liquid it loses, but at some point the connective tissues melt into glorious gelatinous deliciousness, making you forget about the ordinary juices you lost earlier. That point is 5-7 hours for ribs, 24+ hours for brisket based on what I’ve heard.

[Royle9]

Do not cook to time, you have to cook to temperature/tenderness with Brisket.

I've had 11-15lb briskets take 7-8 hours and I've had some take 12+ hours.
So many variables w/ heat etc that its always best to stick to your temperature and use your probes accordingly.

I usually go 225/250 for a slower brisket or 300 for a "hot and fast"

Wrap @ 170 and then let it go the rest of the way, it will stall/hold during this time but leave it be until somewhere from 205-210 depending on your liking.

Let it rest for 2 hours + (I never let it dip below 150 after resting)

Took me a few times to get this figured out on my smoker, but since then I've nailed just about every one.

[Royle9]

Last night I finally decided to give pork belly burnt ends a try.
Watched numerous videos on it and always thought it would be harder to replicate for some reason.

Wow was I wrong.

Absolute insanity in terms of flavour/texture I was blown away.
All be it very rich obviously as you're essentially turning 3.5 lbs of bacon into a burnt end meal.

3.5 hours @ 250 on a pan (letting them confit in their own fat basically) and then off to cover with sauce, little brown sugar and a bit more rub. Back on for 45 minutes and they were ready to go.

Super tender, super flavorful and turned out amazing. Had to stop myself from eating so much, I couldn't help but feel I was eating way too much bacon.

Give it a try, you wont be disappointed and the half slab of pork belly was about $30.00 vs a $150.00 brisket or a $85.00 point.

[Leeman4Gilmour]

Originally Posted by Royle9

Do not cook to time, you have to cook to temperature/tenderness with Brisket.

I've had 11-15lb briskets take 7-8 hours and I've had some take 12+ hours.
So many variables w/ heat etc that its always best to stick to your temperature and use your probes accordingly.

I usually go 225/250 for a slower brisket or 300 for a "hot and fast"

Wrap @ 170 and then let it go the rest of the way, it will stall/hold during this time but leave it be until somewhere from 205-210 depending on your liking.

Let it rest for 2 hours + (I never let it dip below 150 after resting)

Took me a few times to get this figured out on my smoker, but since then I've nailed just about every one.

I've only tried brisket once and it didn't work out well at all. I had to pull it way too early in order to get supper on the table at a reasonable time. How do you plan dinner (especially a big crowd) when cook times can vary by up to 4 hours? Do you have to cook one day and serve the next?

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by Leeman4Gilmour

I've only tried brisket once and it didn't work out well at all. I had to pull it way too early in order to get supper on the table at a reasonable time. How do you plan dinner (especially a big crowd) when cook times can vary by up to 4 hours? Do you have to cook one day and serve the next?

You plan for it to be done around noon or 1 pm and leave it wrapped longer if needed. You don’t do brisket for dinner and have to cut it short to meet dinner time.

[brocoli]

Originally Posted by Royle9

Last night I finally decided to give pork belly burnt ends a try.
Watched numerous videos on it and always thought it would be harder to replicate for some reason.

Wow was I wrong.

Absolute insanity in terms of flavour/texture I was blown away.
All be it very rich obviously as you're essentially turning 3.5 lbs of bacon into a burnt end meal.

3.5 hours @ 250 on a pan (letting them confit in their own fat basically) and then off to cover with sauce, little brown sugar and a bit more rub. Back on for 45 minutes and they were ready to go.

This is one of my favourite treats to make for my friends. I've found it best to do a spicy rub with a sweet sauce. Always fat side up and it just melts to finsh. I also spritz it with apple juice as it cooks every 30 minutes or so.

[bc-chris]

i had my mens hockey team over on saturday night for a windup party - what a blast!!!

i made 10lbs of beef jerky on friday and then smoked 10 racks of ribs on saturday.

i'm still not sure what my neighbours thought as i ran around my back yard cheering and continuously hitting the 'goal' button on my budweiser red light when the av's got their third goal! ha! ha! i do know there were a few of the guys from my team that were NOT impressed! ha! what a great night!

[Northendzone]

chris - when you make your jerky do you get the meat sliced at the butcher shop?

i have always sliced it at home myself, and found that to the the most painful part of the process cook.

[bc-chris]

Originally Posted by Northendzone

chris - when you make your jerky do you get the meat sliced at the butcher shop?

i have always sliced it at home myself, and found that to the the most painful part of the process cook.

no - i slice it myself. i can't remember where i read this trick but it works great....

i buy roasts (inside round, outside round, eye of the round, etc - whatever is least expensive) and then cut the roasts into 1.25"-1.5" thick steaks. put the steaks on a cookie tray and throw them into the freezer for 30-45 minutes... enough time for them to stiffen up but not frozen solid. then i use a meat slicer to slice up the steaks into 1/4" thick strips - it works fantastic - but the key is to freeze the steaks for a bit before slicing (even with the meat slicer)!

i don't have a crazy fancy meat slicer or anything. i think i got it on sale at princess auto for something like $50 4-5 years ago.
i'm sure a good sharp knife would work fine, but i like how with the meat slicer if makes the strips a very consistent thickness which makes the smoking time easier (if you have thin and thick strips then the thin ones are done waaaay before the thicker ones).

another thing i do is i usually take the jerky out of the smoker after about an hour and 15 minutes to an hour and a half and finish the dehydration process on cookie sheets in the oven. this way the meat already has tons of smoke flavour and i can get the next batch in the smoker sooner!

[Two Fivenagame]

Originally Posted by Leeman4Gilmour

I've only tried brisket once and it didn't work out well at all. I had to pull it way too early in order to get supper on the table at a reasonable time. How do you plan dinner (especially a big crowd) when cook times can vary by up to 4 hours? Do you have to cook one day and serve the next?

I used to fear the dinner time vs good BBQ takes what it takes paradox. Until I discovered a little trick...

Invest in a cooler large enough to fit a slab of meat wrapped in butcher paper and towels. Not too big.

I once finished a whole brisket around 1pm with dinner planned for 6. Wrapped it up and kept it in a cooler for the afternoon. When I took it out 4-5 hours later, it was still a hot juicy slab of mouth watering sex on a plate..... that's actually what my guests called it.