Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

Hmmmmmm might have to try some of them wrapped in bacon when I do the next batch. Also thought about stuffing some of them with cream cheese. I think the smoker is going to add a ton of flavor to them.

 

So. Figured this would be the most appropriate place to post this.

Anyone have any good tips for dirty cooking steak or boned pork directly on wood coals? Going to add that to my resume in a couple of weeks.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=12&v=Q5y2voEWJ6U

 

I believe @Cold Iron did that a few weeks back

 

I'm excited. Location permitted we always have a camp fire going and grill on that. But I've never grilled directly on coals.

That vid goes along with what I was thinking. Something that can take a quick sear and cook while resting. I'm thinking a cut with bone would compliment it well.

 

This VVVVV

I eat mainly prime grade steak- capsteaks, ribeyes and porterhouse at that. But Alton Brown is right. Cooking a $8 lb. inside skirt steak on the coals then resting for 15 min. is right up there with them. Wish I could get an outside skirt steak but they almost all end up in Japan.

I wouldn't do a bone in or thick steak like this. Do the skirt steak and cut it exactly as he describes it is critical. And it is like meat butter, incredible.

He has several different videos out there with varying times. My next one will be 1.5 minutes per side and let it rest for 15 min. but this time in a cooler to let it cook more with the residue heat. It was good with 1 minute a side but could have used just a little bit more but I prefer med rare over rare. Still was freaking awesome



Reheated the left overs in oven and it was perfect, still juicy, tender, and flavorful.



HIGHLY recommend!

 

Would be good for one of these...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beefsteak_(banquet)

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/30/dining/30beef.html?pagewanted=all

 

Porterhouse. That might be the ticket

 

Hang in there. With Easter right around the corner hopefully are few more cuts of lamb are in the grocers coolers.

 

Personally I would not. Long before the dirty steak was a thing on occasion I'd cook meat on the coals. The skirt steak is the ticket. At least IME. Bet I have built at least 1,000 campfires over the years, at least. I would do the skirt steak on a fire if I had the right firewood. Your usually restricted to burning local woods in most parts of the country now. For capsteaks or ribeyes which is what I normally eat when camping I take my $60 Weber Jumbo Joe with me. A bag of charcoal and a few chunks of wood for smoke. Perfect every time.





Of course you can try it directly on the fire yourself and may like it. I would recommend that you take an instant read thermometer no matter how you do it.

 

I love rare meat but it scares the tar out of me so I dont eat it very often.

Looks good!

 

Aloha!

Trying to save on eating out all 10 days....tri tip on the condo grill. Haven’t used a damn gasser for a minute!

 

My first attempt at using my new Traeger, I made some wings...which turned out fantastic (forgot to get pics). I used the Traeger pellets for the wings.

My second time using the Traeger, I made the corned beef & cabbage using Lumberjack pellets.

I noticed that the Lumberjack pellets put off more ash inside the grill (blown around by the fan).

Anyone notice this, know what causes it (issue with Lumberjack pellets), or know how to prevent it?

Later.

 

It’s no big deal. You cant prevent it but it’s worth the flavor to use the better lumberjack pellets. The ash harms nothing.

 

As I've already got an adequate smoker, what would y'all suggest in the way of a gas grill? Are the infrared options worthwhile?

 

Is outside skirt steak different than the skirt steak I typically find at my local store?

 

I've not really seen the issue, but Lumberjack uses a higher content of the base flavor woods (not kiln dried filler) and they also do not de-bark that wood which causes more ash. It also give's more of that flavor woods actual flavor. The ash won't hurry anything and the stirring of it is probably from the fan inside the auger area. I don't really see it inside the area where the meat is but I do see it lying around when I do my cleaning of the entire thing (every month or so depending on amount of use).

 

The name fajita means "little belt" and refers to the shape of the outside skirt — anything else isn't really a fajita. But about 30 years ago the Federal Trade Commission changed the classification of the outside skirt steak to offal as long as the membrane was still attached. So somewhere around 90% of the US produced outside skirt goes to Japan where it doesn't get whacked with something like a 200% tariff like the rest of the US Beef does.

Inside skirt is tougher. But it is still extremely flavorful and as long as you cut it like Alton Brown shows in those videos it is can still be tender. Commercially most places use enzymes and marinate it to help it break down though. It really is a great piece of meat cooked the way he recommends. Would like to get my hands on an outside skirt still though.

 

Weber Genesis with sear station burner. Side burner comes in handy too. Been awhile but CR did a report on infrared grills compared to gas and it showed no real improvement on searing steaks over those with a gas searing station. Searing is really all it is good for. For quite awhile I know Weber refused to produce an infrared option on their grills but think they ended up doing it for a few years.

But don't cook a steak on a gas grill, please. It deserves better than that, at least IMO. Hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken yeah if you feel the need sure gasser. But not steak. A cheap kettle will do it justice, gas not so much.

 

Genesis II (newest latest greatest )... and done.