It's Bar-B-Que Season!

[Norm]

I do grill out year around but it is so much more pleasant when it's not -20° below zero. Ya dats a good one! I always consider Memorial Day as the official kickoff to grilling outside. Today I'm trying out making my own hamburger buns for some grilled hamburgers.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/HAMBURGER-BUNS-242614

I'm also having baked beans and baked potatoes all made on the weber kettle grill. The wild asparagus is also coming up so I'm grilling some of it also. If you don't hear from me for a couple of days you know I overdosed. Ya dats a good one!

Anyone else doing any grilling?

[WV_hillbilly]

  Yep  did Tbones on my Weber last night . I thru a couple of chunks of lump mezquite with the regular charcoal.  O my were they good .

[sawguy21]

I put a new burner in ours yesterday and we tested it with a pack of ribs. They were some good along with a big dollop of potato salad. 8)

[Texas Ranger]

Texans, being some  what different, grill year round, of course, it may be cause we only have two seasons, Christmas, and the rest. 8)

[Tom]

We had two of those "thick" Rib Steaks, cooked over a Red Bay fire, a baked sweet potato with butter and some ice cold sweet tea.  I wanted some bread but couldn't find a place to put it. 

[WV_hillbilly]

  It wasn't Barbque but  still delicious .  Just got done  deepfrying shrimp,  oysters and onion rings outside  . I dipped  eveything I ate in Texas Pete .  Now I'm lookin for a place to lay down for a while , then it's apple cobbler and vanilla bean ice cream for dessert .   

[LeeB]

I made some chinese food tonight from some left over fajita meet i grilled a while back. Does that count?
I have to agree with TR. BBQ season is all year round. Kinda tough in the rain though.

[WDH]

Grilled hamburgers, beans, and cole slaw.  Hard to beat that combo.........

[Tom]

Hotdogs, beans and tea

[Don_Papenburg]

I got my new fire door and oven door made for tha brick oven so I tried them out today .  So as to not waste the heat I stuck two sausages in the oven and put the new oven door in place .  It worked good cause there were no cats sitting below the oven waiting for handouts like when the grill is smokin. Baked Sausage was good.

[ohsoloco]

Denise got a Weber look-alike last year, and I gotta say I like it better than the concrete blocks I was using before....I'm up off the ground now  :D  I don't bother buying charcoal since I have so much scrap wood lying around.  Just get a nice fire going with my hardwood scraps (I usually use my cherry edgings).  Let 'em burn down and then go to town    Had T-bones on Saturday, and last night I grilled some butterflied chicken breasts to go with the risotto I cooked up  ;D   

[zopi]

Haven't griiled in a while, but I have a shiny new beef tenderloin in the fridge..guess I'm gonna..

It's a good thing, making filet Mingon, when one lives in the bacon capital of the free world..

I did make some cherry smoked ribs a couple months ago....MMMMMM!

[ohsoloco]

I'd love to build myself a good hot-smoker...anyone got any pics of theirs  ???  I have a beef brisket in the freezer that would be a good candidate for the low-and-slow method   

Those coals are so DanG hot when I burn down that wood on the grill, that it's hot-and-fast.  The steaks are charred on the outside, and medium/medium rare on the inside....luckily that's just how I like my steaks  ;D

[WDH]

I want to grill a beef brisket, but I have never done it before.  A month ago at our annual trout fishing trip, one of the group cooked a beef brisket that was outstanding.  He seasoned it very liberally with blackened seasoning (and some other secret ingredient) and browned/seared it on both sides over hot coals.  It probably took 20 minutes per side to brown the meat.  Then he wrapped it in foil and let it cook over low coals for a couple of hours.  The juices stayed in the foil self-basting the meat. 

Is that the way to do it?  The results were very good, assuming that I can reproduce them. 

What do you think is the best way to grill a beef brisket and what seasoning would you use?

[LeeB]

Just pulled 2 sirloins and 4 pork loin steaks off the grill. Waiting for the salad to get finished. Some new potatoes with butter and cilantro, a glass of merlot and crusty bread to round it out.

[semologger]

We had country pork ribs on the Gas Grill. I have been putting a few cedar and hickory pieces between the drip plate and the rack. Makes a good flavor. A big old salad. Also kiwi for desert. I like to cut up some of the meat, put it in the salad with a little ranch and barbecue sauce.

[zopi]

I'd love to build myself a good hot-smoker...anyone got any pics of theirs  ???  I have a beef brisket in the freezer that would be a good candidate for the low-and-slow method   

Those coals are so DanG hot when I burn down that wood on the grill, that it's hot-and-fast.  The steaks are charred on the outside, and medium/medium rare on the inside....luckily that's just how I like my steaks  ;D

I don't have pics of mine, but i can tell you...look at the cheesy horizontal smokers
at a big box store...don't buy one, you will surely regret it if you are at all serious about BBQ,
fortunately I got mine before they started to suck..

Look at the the thing and think 100lb propane tank for the grill body, and 30 lb propane tank for the firebox...couple of recommendations..have the exhaust stack exit the body as close to the centerline of the grill body as possible..helps keep heat up in the top..
Put a baffle or two between the firebox and the body..radiant heat is not your friend, and it is
easy to drop an extra baffle in or pull one out than deal with the agony of overcooked dry
BBQ..

get a few fire bricks and set them in the bottom of the grill body, this will add thermal mass and prevent temp spikes..

don't mount a thermometer in the top of the grill body...dunno who the moron was that came up with that idea..but it provides misleading information..don't care how hot the top of the smoker is, i care how hot the center of the meat is and the air temp at the level of the meat..

getch a couple of digital remote thermometers..one for air temp and one for meat temp..saves you having to open the smoker as often..

I dont' burn solid hardwood..it's a pain and it's too easy to creosote the meat in a small cooker, I will start a bucket of charcoal, and drop it in the firebox, adding one or two chunks as
the cooking goes along..i only use very small chunks of barkless hard wood for my smoke,
it's much easier to control the level of smoke..easy is good, especially when the cook is seasoned with beer..

and finally...cheat..nobody cares how you get there as long as the BBQ will win trophies..I
hit my ribs with a dry rub, add a bit of whole butter or bacon drippings and wrap each rack in aluminum foil and cook them to within a couple hours of done..slow as I can..drain off the
drippings (and save! makes great gravy!) open the foil up and add the hardwood for smoke..makes for a nice mild smoke, depending on how much wood you use..again, much easier to control....for roasts however smoke longer for deeper penetration..

ok..so now you have this neat hot smoker...but..you can use it as a cold smoker..go get one of those cheap wal mart one burner hot plates...and a small cast iron skillet...clean out your firebox and set the burner in there and feed the cord out the damper..put a handful of chips
in the skillet and cover it with aluminum foil..punch a few holes in the foil..keeps it from flaring...

for cold smoking my favorite thing to make is cheese, but i will take a plate of green olives,
and sprinkle them with garlic powder and drizzle with olive oil...smoke them, drop em in the food processor with a chunk of softened cream cheese...makes a hell of a dip..

smoked salt is also nice..

can you tell I like to babble about BBQ...

[semologger]

You talk bar b Q like most to politics. Um do you have a diagram of that smoker. Wow Sound like a nice one. When are we eating?

[LeeB]

Sawed a little wood, burn't slabs, and grilled some burgers, made s'mores 

.

Good time had.

[york]

zopi,your right about the box store smoker-have one and is junk-can`t control the heat,only by how much charcoal you use...

Just got a BGE.....big green egg-will try soon.....

[Norm]

I got one too York. Have not had a chance to try it out but if the weather holds this weekend I'm going to break mine in.

[zopi]

zopi,your right about the box store smoker-have one and is junk-can`t control the heat,only by how much charcoal you use...

Just got a BGE.....big green egg-will try soon.....

can't control the heat at all in em...I love mine, it's just like the box store stuff, but it's all
1/4" plate...and i insulate the cooking chamber when I'm slow cooking in it..

I WANT a BGE!  Oh, I'm drooling for a tagine of lamb now...

[zopi]

You talk bar b Q like most to politics. Um do you have a diagram of that smoker. Wow Sound like a nice one. When are we eating?

Nope..hate polyticks, pro sports and not too fond of religion in general, but great BBQ is the answer to
life's woes! I have an uncle who wins trophies regularly, which means my BBQ has to be better than his..
mine doesn't last long enough to compete!  He Does do brisket better tho'..but he lives in west TX..go figure..

i don't have a diagram but here's a link to the picture...

http://www.pricescan.com/ItemImages/ImagesL/729333.jpg

It's a brinkman cimmarron...love that thing.

[york]

Hey guys,
the smoker i got from lowes looks like the Brinkman-c but is a poor copy,light sheet metal and leaks air and has no mass.....

Just got the large BGE-with the metal base-cost big bucks-will try out next week end,maybe just burgers,to get the feel of this thing...

[Norm]

I'm a big fan of hamburgers York, even go so far as to make my own buns.



Let us know how they turn out.