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Tomorrow’s Dinner

Wednesday’s dinner will be these two Boston butts. The rub is on and they’ll go in the smoker late this evening. I am looking forward to these. They are rubbed with The Renowned Mr. Brown. Yummy!

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The Ultimate Summer Sandwich

Long before I owned a Weber grill I had heard of Weber’s Big Book of Grilling. In the circles I travel, this is one of the books on grilling. Even the guy who loaded the OTG into the Explorer mentioned the barbecue sauce recipe. Realizing I needed some help with charcoal grilling since the purchase, I checked this out of the library. It has proven to be a good resource for me.

Today went nothing like I had planned. It was my hope to awake early and get the rub on the chicken breasts and refrigerated. (Interestingly enough, the rub didn’t seem like it would impart much flavor. I was wrong.) That didn’t happen until about 11:00. Needing to be in the fridge for four to six hours, I announced that my creation wouldn’t be ready until four-ish. “Is that dinner?” I was asked. Dinner, breakfast, call it what you want; it’ll be ready at four.

But then along came a secondary plan and I grilled the cheeseburgers for lunch and decided this could wait until regular dinnertime. And that it did.

The pesto is very flavorful. I used pecans instead of pine nuts since I had them on hand. The goat cheese was very nice. I guess I was a bit heavy on the cayenne in the rub for both Gert and I tasted the bite in the final dish. I liked that a lot.

I am very pleased with this simple sandwich. The after-taste is heavenly. It wouldn’t be one of my meals if I didn’t frig something up. When I went to rub the chicken I realized I had pulled tenders and not breasts. Sigh . . . I rubbed them anyhow and decided I would figure something out. That was stopping off at Wal-mart and picking up a discounted grill pan. This will be useful for other foods in the future. It is not a nice as the one at Home Depot, but it was half the price. Because I used tenders instead of breasts, these only took a couple minutes on the grill.

The baguette I purchased was perfect: nice and crusty on the outside and soft and pully on the inside. I spread the pesto on the bottom half and the goat cheese on the top. I then placed the grilled chicken on topped with arugula and red onion. Such a simple sandwich but oh so tasty. I give this a big thumb’s up!

We’ve been eating well this summer. Yummy!

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Charcoal Hamburgers

Each summer I seem to take on a new thing to learn. I taught myself Perl one summer. Photoshop was another. I studied South Jersey history about a decade ago. This summer, without really planning on it, I have taken up smoking and grilling.

The non-plan began last summer. I began reading some sites and was intrigued by smoking meats. Learning during my many years, I did not rush right out and purchase a smoker. I decided to wait and learn some more. I did and still didn’t purchase one. This summer was in full swing when I got the bug again and went out purchased my WSM. I have been having a blast smoking meats. I am getting better at it too. There are two butts waiting for their time in the smoker.

As much as I like smoked meat, there is a time for just plain ol’ grilling too. As I read all the boards I have, I was amazed at how many grills these folks have. While building and outdoor patio with built-in equipment would be nice, it is not something I’ll be doing anytime soon nor will I have three WSMs, and one of each kind of grill Weber makes. That just isn’t in the cards.

Nevertheless, the POC Char-Broil wasn’t holding its own. I got almost six seasons out it, so in a way I feel fortunate. Many folks get two. I was prepared to re-build it and not upgrade, but the expense of doing that was not prudent. I bit the bullet and purchased a Weber kettle.

While I am very happy with my new toy, I still have a lot to learn. Cooking with charcoal is different than gas. And I allowed myself over the years to turn into one of those gas and burn grillers without putting a whole lot of care into the craft. As I read about charcoal grilling, I am learning my old habits have to change. That will be a benefit to our palates.

Not wanting to go with the frozen patties, when I saw some nice ground chuck at BJ’s today, I picked up a package. I separated this monster package and kept out some for lunch. Much like the fillets I cooked recently, the “experts” generally call for a plain preparation for burgers. Who am I to argue? I figure I need to get back into the habit of checking temps, so this would be good practice. I read somewhere (Steven Raichlen, I believe) about putting a pat of butter in the middle of the burger to help keep the meat moist as it grills. I did so. I know my mother and sister are cringing at that.

Otherwise, all I did was season the patties once they were on the grill and on the turn. I would like a nice digital kitchen scale. Absent that, I eyeball most stuff. I figure these were about one-third pounders.

I still need to be a bit better on toasting of the rolls. Other than that, I believe these were the best burgers I have ever cooked. Awesome! Five to seven minutes per side. The center was medium/medium-well and juicy. They were also perfectly seasoned, ifisaysomyself.

There will be plenty of mistakes as I re-learn charcoal grilling, but I am looking forward to each outing. It is wonderful sitting on the deck, taking in the birds in the woods, grilling a meal, and resting. In the words of John Barlow, this must be heaven.
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Christening the Kettle

Last evening we christened the kettle. It’s been a long time since I’ve cooked with charcoal. I have a lot to learn.

My grilling buddies recommended two books for me to read:Weber’s Big Book of Grilling and How to Grill by Steven Raichlen. I found both in local libraries. I skimmed both and settled in with How to Grill. This book is written exactly as I need it to be: step-by-step with photographs. I am most impressed with this book.

Even so, leave it to me and I can mess things up. Much like most unskilled grillers, I scorched my steaks. First off, I had thin steaks. But more to the point, I think my grill was too hot. The experts said to begin with a full chimney of lighted coals. They indicated that would be ~50 coals. My chimney must hold more as I know I had more like 75 or so coals. The grill seemed hot, even after waiting 10 minutes or so before putting the food on.

While I have grilled corn before, I never did so without the husks. I tied them back as Raichlen instructed. It makes for a nice presentation. We liked the corn. We liked it a lot! I probably could have gone another minute or so, but it was very tasty. I basted the corn with garlic butter. Yummy!

The steaks I did simply: just a little salt and pepper. I finished it with a dash of EVOO. They tasted fine, but were well-done. My in-laws would have loved them.

I’ll get better. I need thicker cuts, I know. The sear cooked the damn thing through before the turn. Oh well.

It’s been a fun summer of smoking and now charcoal grilling. Lots of good food on the horizon.
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Hodge Podge Pork Butt

I pulled the second Boston butt I had from the freezer the other day to let it thaw. The idea was that I was going to start this late Saturday evening and we would have it Sunday for dinner. But Saturday was a long day and I just didn’t feel up to smoking late night. I waited for Sunday evening.

Without thinking things through, I began smoking at 7:45 p.m. D’oh! That would mean I would need to be up at 4:00 a.m. to flip the butt. Stupid. I ended up spending the night awake with my smoking. Ah, true love.

Noting that the WSM runs hot, I decided to shut down the vents earlier thinking it would still rise in temperature but cap the spikes. It was good thinking but it didn’t work. My temps kept climbing to a whopping 321°F. Wow! The only thing I can think of is that I am adding too much wood. I really don’t think that is it as I had only about eight pieces in and not all were even fist-size.

I am hopeful that these spikes will settle down in future smokes. I ended up smoking this 6.5-lb. butt for about 11 hours. I guess timewise that is about right, although I was thinking it was to go a bit longer.

The weather was still and not hot. No wind to cause those temperature spikes.

I call this a hodge podge butt because I used leftover ingredients for this without following a specific recipe. I had some rub left from the ribs earlier in the week and some rub I had from a while ago. I mixed them together, rubbed the butt, and let it sit for several hours.

Other than the temperature spikes, all went well with this smoke. No issues. I am becoming comfortable with what I am doing. I did not open the lid until the turn. I re-positioned the probe late in the smoke too.

I used a finishing sauce this time. I am convinced the first butt was overcooked, but looking for ways to keep things moist, I read about finishing sauces. I used Jeff’s sauce. He states only to use about half for the butt I used. I think I could have used the whole cup.

The butt was much more moist coming off the smoker than the first one. The finishing sauce added a little more moisture too. I liked the moisture of this butt. It was not wet, but it was not dry. I think this is just about right. Gert was impressed and announced this was the perfect moisture for her.

While the moisture was good, the taste was not as good as the first one. The first butt was highly flavorable. The smoky taste was heavenly. That was missing this time around. The smoke ring was not nearly as pronounced. The rub obviously was not up to par. The bark was not as thick either. I really liked the first rub I used and shall return to it.

The goal for the next butt is to combine the flavor of the first butt with the moisture of the second.

There is plenty left over. We had these on seeded rolls. Yummy! We’ll be eating these for the next couple days. We have a container all ready for another neighbor too.

It’s fun learning this craft.
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