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Food Do you grill, bbq, smoke?

Discussion in 'Tilted Food' started by Borla, Aug 3, 2011.

  1. snowy

    snowy so kawaii Staff Member

    Ugh, I'm so hungry, but I can't eat any of this food right now. @Borla I'm probably going to have to make some of your wife's potato pancakes.
     
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  2. RedSneaker

    RedSneaker Very Tilted

    @borla make some candied bacon. Mmmm. I live vicariously through your culinary adventures:)
     
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  3. Borla

    Borla Moderator Staff Member



    I actually had a request for that this weekend, but decided to try the maple, bourbon pork belly in its place. The pork belly is Kurobuta from Snake River Farms, so it should be good.

    That will be the appetizer, and I'm doing a brisket Friday as well. :cool:
     
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  4. RedSneaker

    RedSneaker Very Tilted

    I can't wait to see pictures!
     
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  5. Chris Noyb

    Chris Noyb Get in, buckle up, hang on, & be quiet.

    Location:
    Large City, TX

    From what I've read, no personal experience, the BGE is king......and is priced accordingly. Some of the owners of the Akorn and Kamado who are serious "smokers" make modifications to them. If I wanted to test the waters for serious smoking, I'd start with the 'budget' Acorn, learn what to do and not to do, then consider a BGE down the road.
     
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  6. Borla

    Borla Moderator Staff Member

    Some swear by the Primo as well. But, as you said, most with Akorns or Kamados end up doing some mods to make them more conducive to the long smoke times something like a 15lb brisket needs.

    I'm comfortable sleeping 6-8 hours through the night while my BGE smokes away. You'd need a controller or some mods to do the same with the other units. Some will argue the cheaper purchase price and the time investment are worth it to upgrade them. For some people it may be.
     
  7. Chris Noyb

    Chris Noyb Get in, buckle up, hang on, & be quiet.

    Location:
    Large City, TX

    I'm not familiar with the Primo. I can see guys (& gals) who enjoy DIY & tinkering being willing to make some mods. When I was researching the three smokers previously mentioned, I came across several cyber conversations where guys exchanged advice & tips. It sounded like some of the "mods" were simply correcting fit & finish issues that should've been done correctly at the factory. Maybe I'll run across at least an Acorn in my thrift/resale store searches :D (being cheap is easy when you're broke).
     
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  8. Borla

    Borla Moderator Staff Member

    Yeah, most of the mods I've seen done involve improving the air control.



    Here is tonight's grilling.

    Flat iron steak from SRV.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
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  9. Chris Noyb

    Chris Noyb Get in, buckle up, hang on, & be quiet.

    Location:
    Large City, TX
    Borla, do you believe in cleaning the grill, or letting juices bake on? I've always felt the build-up protected the metal, but some folks like to clean them regularly.
     
  10. Borla

    Borla Moderator Staff Member

    I have heavy cast iron grates.

    I occasionally use a wire brush on them when they are hot. Usually if I've smoked something with a rub on it that has transferred to the grates and I am now going to grill something that I don't want to get the rub on when grilling. But I never wash them, and never do anything beyond a wire brush to clean them.
     
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  11. omega

    omega Very Tilted

    Wire brush and heat is all you need. The heat will sterilize and char everything, the wire brush will knock everything off.
     
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  12. Borla

    Borla Moderator Staff Member

    Hey @Chris Noyb, I posted the pics last night from my phone, and just now looked at them full sized on a PC.

    You can pretty much answer your "do you clean your grates" question by looking at the grates in that second pic. Not too much cleaning action going on there. Just lots and lots of grilling awesomeness burned into them. I call that "just broke in". :p
     
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  13. Chris Noyb

    Chris Noyb Get in, buckle up, hang on, & be quiet.

    Location:
    Large City, TX

    Those photos--I viewed them on a laptop--are why I asked. I did write grills :oops: when I meant grates.

    I'm amazed what some people can do with a simple smoker like you can buy anywhere, even the grocery store. I knew an old guy who retrieved rusted ones from trash piles, bent flat metal to cover the holes, and he would cook just about anything you could name on them. FTR that's not a slam on better smoker$. Kind of like guitars--Cheap in the rights hands sound good, expensive in the wrong hands sounds bad.
     
  14. Borla

    Borla Moderator Staff Member


    I started on a cheap Chargriller off-set that was like $160 brand new. I made some great meat on it. It is completely do-able.

    The advantage of some of the high dollar smokers is repeatability, flexibility, and less baby sitting. If I wanted that Chargriller to stay within a 10-15 degree range, I had to check on it every 15 minutes or less, fiddle with vents, put wet wood on the fire, add fuel, etc. It was a lot of work. I personally like it to be real fire and real smoke (as opposed to gas or electric smokers), but I don't want to have to go to THAT much effort. :p
     
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  15. snowy

    snowy so kawaii Staff Member


    Based on what I've seen with Traegers, very much this. I can certainly smoke something on my Weber One-Touch, but it requires a lot of effort and finagling on my part. My FIL pretty much sets the Traeger and leaves it be.
     
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  16. Borla

    Borla Moderator Staff Member

    Brisket went on before sunrise.

    Pork belly and baked beans will go on late morning or very early afternoon.
     
  17. Borla

    Borla Moderator Staff Member

    Baked beans just went on.

    Soaked beans overnight.

    Chopped up an onion, a jalapeno pepper, and a pound of bacon. Fried the bacon and drained part of the grease. Stirred in the pepper and onion. Added some dark brown sugar, molasses, and tomato paste. Got that nice, hot, and gooey, then stirred in the drained beans, added some salt, pepper, and cayenne. Then mixed some vegetable stock in with some of the bean water and dumped that in there too. Brought it all up to a boil, stirred it a bit, then threw it in the smoker.

    Pork belly will be put on in maybe two hours.
     
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  18. Borla

    Borla Moderator Staff Member

    Brisket, Dutch oven with baked beans, and just threw the pork belly on.

    [​IMG]
     
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  19. Borla

    Borla Moderator Staff Member

    And the wood guy just dropped off two face cords of wood. Hickory and cherry. And he says he is bidding on a pecan tree that I can have if he gets it. Pecan is very rare around here.

    [​IMG]
     
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  20. Borla

    Borla Moderator Staff Member

    I got tied up with our guests and finishing the food and never updated this thread.


    The pork belly was a massive hit. I personally thought it had too much mustard seed on it for my tastes, but everyone said I was crazy for thinking that. Yesterday we took some of the leftovers and fried them in the cast iron skillet. I will say that was pretty epic.

    Brisket was really good.

    The baked beans were insane. This is the first time I've done them, and they will definitely be a staple on smoker days. Absolutely awesome.
     
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