Any Time is Grillin Time

[olbriar]

That looks far superior to my grilled cheeseburgers. My dinner was good but man that looks so yummy!

 

[olbriar]

Grilled teriyaki fresh salmon, panko breaded fresh cod, seared bay scallops, and garlic parmesan grilled broccoli. Happy wife, happy life.
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You made me hungry for grilled cod. I ran to Costco and scored some fresh caught fillets. Good fish is not abundant in Kansas. It's either farm raised or frozen. I grilled the cod tonight and it was yummy. I ate too much.
Tomorrow night I'm smoking then reverse searing some ribeye cap steaks that jumped into my basket while I was fishing... I mean shopping.

 

[olbriar]

Okay, so my cook didn't go as planned. I had no more than started the steaks and my wife had to run to town. I smoked the steaks like normal and pulled them from the smoker when they reached 120° but instead of searing them at that point, I wrapped and removed them and placed them in the hot box. They had to rest about two hours before I put the finish sear on them. The steaks turned out to be the best steaks I've eaten in my life. I don't think resting before the sear was the reason for the exquisite results but I won't be afraid to rest a steak again. The ribeye cap is an amazing cut and I lucked out and bought the best I've ever had.

 

[olbriar]

I finally got around to trying your bacon wrapped cheddar dogs tonight @Unforgiven .... Thanks!

 

[olbriar]

Does this look like fun or what?

 

[ocnbrze]

so i just bought a rack of pork for xmas. gonna brine it, but i'm thinking of putting it on the grill rather then roasting it. my family is literally grilling me on this idea. they think i want to grill everything....which is true, LOL.
but one i never have done a roast for xmas. and two i have never grilled for xmas. my family is more traditional. me, i always think outside of the box and is always looking to try something different.

i'm thinking of doing a pineapple, bourbon, and habanero glaze for it.

what do you guys think? should i go more traditional and do like a herb roasted in the oven rack of pork? or should i go with my idea of grilling it? i know both will be delicious.

thoughts?

 

[olbriar]

There is something to say for traditional dishes for the holiday. I think the pineapple, bourbon, pepper glaze sounds a lot more fun.

Christmas eve I'm doing dinner with my son and all of his family. We are eating Mexican dishes.
Christmas day at home the wife is baking a traditional turkey and all the fixins. It's a come whenever and stay as long as you like. Food will be served late afternoon if anyone is interested.

The few days leading up to the new year I will be at the river. Burgers, dogs, steak, and new years eve I plan to smoke up a turkey. For the past few years it's been the tradition to hang out at the cabin and party till the next year.

Tomorrow I'm smoking some chicken thighs and will put a sweet hot glaze on them.

If I don't gain a few pounds across the holidays it's not going to be from lack of good stuff to eat.

 

[Unforgiven]

I'm smoking a pulled pork today as it is a gift (on request) for my wife's grandfather. At 91, he wants some ready made home cooking in the freezer instead of useless baubles, so the family is stuffing his freezer with individual pot pies, lasagna, pulled pork, etc.

We are also doing Mexican on Christmas eve, so my contribution is chile. We got to family for Christmas and have a traditional turkey / ham dinner. Finally, on new years day we have Christmas with my side of the family. For the last couple years our new tradition is I load up my Traeger and bring it to my parents house and grill an entire rib roast while my wife and mother prep all the sides. I freeze the bones for year round dog treats.

 

[olbriar]

I've had my fill of turkey. It was great but I am ready for some beef. Tonight I'm grilling some hamburger steaks. Nothing fancy but tasty. Ground beef, diced onion, chopped bell pepper, egg, cracker crumbs, and salt and pepper formed into patties and grilled. I'm serving it with breaded and fried okra slices. Tomorrow I'm smoking an arm roast. I plan to simply saturate it with avocado oil and season with coarse salt and pepper. I will smoke it at 225° until I see a 160° internal temp then wrap it and continue to smoke until it reaches 195°. I'll rest it an hour or so before eating. Baked sweet potatoes and a crisp garlic salad will be the sides.

I'm heading to the cabin Monday and will be down there though Jan 1 and maybe longer. Burgers and brats are on the menu Monday. Tuesday I'm smoking a small bone in ham. Wednesday I'll make a huge pot of black eyed peas with the left over smoked ham. Side dishes will be whatever someone brings... always good and unpredictable.

 

[ocnbrze]

you are the only one besides my dad that puts crackers (ritz cracker to be precise) in their burger patties.

for me i keep my burger patties simple. i form the ground beef into patties and some salt and pepper and grill them to medium rare perfection. i put a little bit of ketchup and mustard with some good pickles, grilled onions, lettuce and tomatoes. occasionally (mainly summer) i would substitute grilled pineapples instead of tomatoes. ohhhh yeah a good white cheddar from wholefoods. (they have this 3yr old cheddar that is amazing!!!! i foget the name though).

 

[olbriar]

I like my burgers grilled and served much like you describe. Tonight I fixed what I call hamburger steaks. In reality, they are grilled meatloaf patties. I'll use about any sort of cracker for the filler. Tonight the crackers were just regular saltines. If I had a favorite cracker to use it would be the white cheddar cheez-it.

 

[Unforgiven]

you are the only one besides my dad that puts crackers (ritz cracker to be precise) in their burger patties.

I often substitute crushed crackers for breadcrumbs or panko. It's a safe swap.

I'm grilling some strips tonight, paired with Parmesan grilled broccoli (toss the broccoli with lemon juice, garlic, and parmesan, top with fresh grated parm and roast while the steaks rest). I got a surprise for my wife for a started, scallops wrapped in bacon.

My New Year's Day menu is coming together. I have a 17lb bone in rib roast that I'll trim tomorrow. Going to make homemade potatoes au gratin and bacon wrapped green beans on the Traeger while the roast rests. That on top of what my wife and mother prep for sides.

 

[olbriar]

That sounds so good! I'm anxious to hear the results of your bone in rib roast cook. I've passed up some wonderful looking rib roasts for lack of eaters at my house. It just might be the ticket for the Easter party at the cabin when I have more tummies to make happy.

Arm roast is not the ideal cut for the smoker. I took it in on trade when I gifted my GM Daniel Boone to my buddy's son. Prime cut marked private not for sale, it is the last of the meat that was gifted to me. All were excellent examples of privately raised beef. In any event, I smoked it today treating it the same as a chuck roast. It turned out quite tender but was borderline dry. It was a very lean cut that I would call done five to ten degrees sooner if I had know. No harm, no foul. We didn't give it to the dogs.

 

[olbriar]

I was forced to upgrade my phone this week. I had the day off so I spent my time fine tuning and finish setting things up again. One of the items was my wifi connection to my smoker. After I set it up on the new phone and smelling the smoke from the cooker, I just had to cook something out. I didn't have time for to smoke anything so I grilled out some burgers. But oh man they tasted good. Buttered and grilled buns, thick slice of mild cheddar, onion, and pickle chips made for a great burger.

 

[ocnbrze]

just curious as to your thoughts on this bad boy:

i believe it retails for:
24" $999
36"1199

 

[dontpanicbobby]

So what about these supposed Indoor Grilling devices. Anybody try one?

 

[Unforgiven]

just curious as to your thoughts on this bad boy:

i believe it retails for:
24" $999
36"1199

Get the 36" for $200 more, you'll thank me. In fact, get two, send one my way, and you won't even have to thank me.

Seriously,
Check the details. What gauge is the steel? I see straps along the lid attached to the handle, so I hope they are cosmetic and not for structural support, if so, the metal is thin. Is it insulated? The lid didn't look like it. You want to make sure you can control temp with little variation for long cooks and the thickness of the metal and insulation go a long way.

Ease of removing pellets to change flavor? That hopper looked huuuuuge. By today's standards my hopper (which holds about 14 lbs.) is small, but I can easily run the smoker through a 15 hour smoke for a brisket without refilling, and it is easy to scoop out the pellets if I want to change from Hickory to Apple. Newer models have a door at the bottom to empty the currently loaded pellets. The Weber may have one that didn't make the video.

Ease of cleaning? They mention the heat baffles for even distribution of heat, but what about cleaning them when they get coated with ash soaked grease? He sort of pan's the "one sheet of metal" that other grills use, but that isn't lazy, There is one baffle that goes over the burn box, and another large sheet of metal that serves as a baffle and directs all drippings to a collection bucket. These are designed to create a convection effect evenly distributing the heat. I "can" cook burgers and steaks without turning them, but I flip them anyway to get grill lines. I use one sheet of foil covering this one piece of metal and a foil pan in the grease collection bucket and the Traegers take less than 2 minutes to clean. And I'll concede that I do take it apart to clean it (3 pieces: grill grate, pan, baffle and quick vacuum), but I don't think you will completely avoid that with the Weber design.

I use an early version of the Weber thermostat, but nothing as advanced as what's at the tail end of the video. I don't like the level of handholding, but so long as I can turn it off and use it as an remote thermometer / temperature control I'm fine. I don't want my phone beeping every fifteen minutes telling me that I need to do this or that, or that it's nearly this or that. Smoking isn't baking. It isn't precise, but that's my opinion. I suppose it would be useful if you are just getting into it to get a level of comfort.

I'd tend to trust Weber, but they are new to the game. I remember 15 years ago or so Vermont Castings came out with a line of premium grills (same price range as similar Webers at the time). I grew up with Vermont Castings being the Cadillac of home heating wood stoves, so automatically projected that trust to their line of grills. Well, they turned out to be much lower quality in the details (ignitors, burners, grates), discontinued production after a year or so, and parts were unavailable.

Don't take any of that to say they are no good, they are just new to the market and questions need to be asked based on the information I was able to glean from the video. Weber may ultimately be better, or just as good doing it a different way.

 

[ocnbrze]

thanx @Unforgiven i just saw the video, now i need to see where i can see one myself before i take the plunge. i love weber products, never been let down before. but like you said, they are new to the game so mistakes or error in judgement is bound to happen which is why i want to check it out for myself.....and now i have some idea on what to look at before i buy it.

 

[Unforgiven]

thanx @Unforgiven i just saw the video, now i need to see where i can see one myself before i take the plunge. i love weber products, never been let down before. but like you said, they are new to the game so mistakes or error in judgement is bound to happen which is why i want to check it out for myself.....and now i have some idea on what to look at before i buy it.

There's a video on Amazon that answers some questions. Looks like they are shooting for traditional heat distribution instead of convection. I'm not sure if that's a pro or con, just saying its different.

 

[olbriar]

I agree 100% by all that @Unforgiven said about the Weber. Weber is a good name and is known for quality products. Their design to accomplish smoking as well as grilling might be great. To protect and then try to clean those heating baffles would put me off immediately. My smoker sits against a the brick wall of the back of my house. The hopper in the rear would not work for me either.
600° for a high temp is impressive however. The profile cooks are nothing new to WiFi connected smokers. I like to make my own calls on cooking and every cut of meat cooks differently. I would not want to be the first one on the block to own the new Weber. I would love to see one in action and talk to its owner. For a grand or more... you have a lot of buying options. So if you buy... you have to promise to bring us up to speed on the quality and ease of use.

 

[Unforgiven]

600° for a high temp is impressive however.

After I posted I noticed a 200° low end, so you will also be limited somewhat on smoking things, unless there is a smoke setting aside from that.

 

[dontpanicbobby]

So the indoor grillers are trash then?
I find that hard to believe.

 

[olbriar]

After I posted I noticed a 200° low end, so you will also be limited somewhat on smoking things, unless there is a smoke setting aside from that.

My take on the cooker with it's direct heat seems more of a pellet sourced grill and not a smoker. The video speaks of the smoke flavor they achieved with the Weber. I often grilled with a smolder box for flavor and it added some flavor. Perhaps with pellets as fuel there is a lot of flavor. It's interesting for sure. Tasting the end results would be the only test to compare the Weber to a Traeger like smoker.

On a side note: My new GM smoker throws a lot more smoke than the previous two I owned. It may even produce more smoke than the Traeger I have at the river. With that in mind, it does burn pellets at a faster rate just like the Traeger. I don't really taste the extra smoke on my meats. My first two GM models had nailed the sweet spot (pellet consumption to smoke/heat ratio) IMO. I'm not upset but enjoyed my savings and results of my first two GM smokers. The Weber might be in that sweet spot as well. Man there is a lot of unknowns about the Weber.

 

[olbriar]

So the indoor grillers are trash then?
I find that hard to believe.

I have zero idea Bobby. They may be great. I've never researched them or know of anyone that owns one. Such a cooker has never been a consideration for me because I love cooking outdoors. Youtube is likely a good source for information and testimonials. If you invest, please let us know how it works for you.

 

[olbriar]

I'm patiently waiting for some flat iron steaks to go on sale at my local market. What was once a cheap cut it now enjoys a popularity that has driven the price up to the ridiculous level. Even when they are priced to move the price is still inflated. I'm not talking big bucks... I'm talking about this stubborn old man. Hopefully they will go on sale soon because I'm out and way ready to smoke some.
If all else fails, I think I'll smoke some pork blade steaks or perhaps some chops this weekend. Both sound good to me.