What is DT smoking?!? (or cooking with DT) :)

[Drunk Tank]

Sounds awesome, DT. I'm on my way and should be there in a few hours. Need me to pick up anything?

If you make it, I'm buying!!!

[Drunk Tank]

New Years Eve

Had The Tick and his family over for new years eve. Had a blast! Good food and good company, what more could you ask for.

Cooked some Tri-Tip and shrimp. It was pretty good.

Cool fire pic!



Shrimp






Trip Tip. I did a reverse sear on it. Cooked indirect @ 350° until medium/rare then seared at very high temps for 1 min a side. Finished product was medium on the bigger ones and medium-well on the smaller ones. The egg was so hot, I had flames shooting 2 feet out of the top vent when I put the meat back on, it was a bit scary. I shut the vents down to kill the flames, but I caused a backdraft when I opened the dome and burnt the hair on my arms. Good times.







After dinner we played Dance Off with the Kinnect on Xbox. Those pictures will not get posted, but it was great fun! We had a blast!

[Drunk Tank]

Grilled Rack of Lamb

Tonight I made some grilled rack of lamb. I needed an entry into a weekly throwdown on one of the BBQ forums I am on and the theme was "Nouveau Quisine"...with the foo foo plating, etc....




First of all, this was my first ever attempt at rack of lamb....and all I can say is..WHY DID I WAIT SO LONG!?!?!?!?!? The family loved it, even my picky youngsters.



First, a little marinade/rub of kosher salt, cracked black peppercorns, garlic, rosemary and olive oil.






Then into the vacuum sealer to help open the pores of the meat a bit to let the goodness permeate the lamb. I marinated it for about 10 hours in the fridge.


For the sauce, I decided to make a mint chimichurri using parsley, mint, red wine vinegar, olive oil, garlic, red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper.




For the sides, I made roasted garlic mashed potatoes and some grilled shrimp. I used purple potatoes to be different. I had never even seen purple potatoes before, but they caught my eye with browsing the produce aisle, so I thought, why not? They turned out great!



To finish the plate, I added some mixed greens, shaved radish, and dehydrated cranberries drizzled with a bit of balsamic vinegar, olive oil and a bit of sea salt and cracked black pepper. The lamb was a perfect medium/rare (although the pics make it look washed out, it was a perfect pink!)

My attempt at fanciful plating.....








It was very good and something I'll definately cook again!

[Jeff Lebowski]

Question for DT, FM, Moliere, etc.:

I sometimes use the FTC (foil-towel-cooler) method to keep meat warm and make it more tender and juicy after cooking. However, it seems to me that the function of the foil is to contain the juices and the function of the towel and cooler is to provide insulation and maintain the temp. But why not just wrap in foil and put in a covered roasting pan in the oven at 180 degrees? Wouldn't this accomplish the same thing without worrying about the heat escaping after a couple of hours?

I am trying this today on a couple of pork roasts.

[Drunk Tank]

Question for DT, FM, Moliere, etc.:

I sometimes use the FTC (foil-towel-cooler) method to keep meat warm and make it more tender and juicy after cooking. However, it seems to me that the function of the foil is to contain the juices and the function of the towel and cooler is to provide insulation and maintain the temp. But why not just wrap in foil and put in a covered roasting pan in the oven at 180 degrees? Wouldn't this accomplish the same thing without worrying about the heat escaping after a couple of hours?

I am trying this today on a couple of pork roasts.

I dont see why it wouldnt work. Just make sure you have an air tight seal on the meat so the moisture doesnt escape. Also, make sure your oven temp is accurate. My last oven (kitchenaid) was about 15 degrees off when tested with my digital temp probe. It also had worse temp swings than my Traeger.

I am looking for a good deal on a Cambro insulated food tray carrier for my FTC duties. Just preheat with a pot of boiling water and you can keep the meat warm for hours on end. Plus they hold alot.

[Jeff Lebowski]

I dont see why it wouldnt work. Just make sure you have an air tight seal on the meat so the moisture doesnt escape. Also, make sure your oven temp is accurate. My last oven (kitchenaid) was about 15 degrees off when tested with my digital temp probe. It also had worse temp swings than my Traeger.

I am looking for a good deal on a Cambro insulated food tray carrier for my FTC duties. Just preheat with a pot of boiling water and you can keep the meat warm for hours on end. Plus they hold alot.

Thanks.

Yeah, it seemed to work fine. But for some reason my pulled pork ended up with kind of a burnt flavor. Not sure why. I did the foil wrap earlier that I normally do and the bottom half of the meat got a little soggy from the juices that came off. Maybe that affected the flavor somehow. Do you foil wrap during the last part of your cooking on pork roasts?

I also used straight apple instead of an apple/hickory combo I used last time.

[Drunk Tank]

Thanks.

Yeah, it seemed to work fine. But for some reason my pulled pork ended up with kind of a burnt flavor. Not sure why. I did the foil wrap earlier that I normally do and the bottom half of the meat got a little soggy from the juices that came off. Maybe that affected the flavor somehow. Do you foil wrap during the last part of your cooking on pork roasts?

I also used straight apple instead of an apple/hickory combo I used last time.

I usually don't foil when it is on the smoker. Only time is use foil is the FTC.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Moliere]

Question for DT, FM, Moliere, etc.:

I sometimes use the FTC (foil-towel-cooler) method to keep meat warm and make it more tender and juicy after cooking. However, it seems to me that the function of the foil is to contain the juices and the function of the towel and cooler is to provide insulation and maintain the temp. But why not just wrap in foil and put in a covered roasting pan in the oven at 180 degrees? Wouldn't this accomplish the same thing without worrying about the heat escaping after a couple of hours?

I am trying this today on a couple of pork roasts.

I've never tried that so it might work. I FTC my briskets and butts and they easily hold their temp for 5 hours. That's the maximum that I've read you should hold them, otherwise they are bound to break down too much and get mushy. I suspect putting it in an oven for a couple hours would make it mushy as well but I really don't know. If you try it let us know how it turns out.

Holding the temp of less dense meats is tougher, but the variance in cooking time is a lot less so you can usually time them better to alleviate much need for FTC. My briskets have cooked in as little as 6 hours and as long as 12 hours.

No matter what, a 30 minute rest period is needed after pulling from the oven/smoker.

[Donuthole]

I suspect putting it in an oven for a couple hours would make it mushy as well but I really don't know. If you try it let us know how it turns out.

My prediction: It works fine but gives the pork a burnt flavor.

[Bo Diddley]

OK, I have been meaning to post these for a while and I was going to put this in the Traeger thread but I can't find it (search index is still corrupted) so I am going to post it here in DT's thread. We did our turkey a few days early so for Thanksgiving I did a couple of chuck roasts from Costco on the Traeger.

First of all, I applied a liberal amount of prime rib rub, wrapped them up, and put them in the fridge overnight.



Put them on the grill with the remote temperature probe. Cooked at 250 degrees using a mixture of alder and pecan pellets.



Cooked until the internal temp was ~145 degrees. Took a little under two hours.



Some parts of the roast were medium and some were medium rare. While we ate this one I left the other one on and cooked it a little longer since some of the family prefer it more well done. Both roasts were tender and had a wonderful flavor. I decided to mix up a batch of horseradish sauce using this recipe and it was great.



We made quesadillas with the leftovers.

My wife has a chuck roast she bought from Walmart that she's planning to put in the crock pot tomorrow morning. I was thinking, why not smoke it? It weighs in at an underwhelming 2.68 pounds, with a fat cap on one side. Have you ever smoked a roast that small?

[Jeff Lebowski]

My wife has a chuck roast she bought from Walmart that she's planning to put in the crock pot tomorrow morning. I was thinking, why not smoke it? It weighs in at an underwhelming 2.68 pounds, with a fat cap on one side. Have you ever smoked a roast that small?

No. But don’t let that stop you.

[Bo Diddley]

No. But don’t let that stop you.

With our schedules tomorrow, I don't think smoking will work, so I'm going to do it on Monday, and make gumbo tomorrow.

[The_Tick]

What is the deal with all of the Photobucket photos?

[mtnbiker]

What is the deal with all of the Photobucket photos?

A couple of years ago photobucket decided to shut down any 2nd-party linking of photos from their site, unless you ante up cash for a subscription. Money-grubbing jerks, if you ask me.