mguerra

The last time I cooked a chuck roll, I did it Franklin style. Wrapped in paper when it hit 165º then finished it at 203º. It's painful to admit I liked it better than an excellent brisket. The texture and fat content are a perfect blend of the point and the flat of a brisket. Pulled beef is the tops. But this is Texas and I'm still doing briskets...

I asked before and I am asking again. Will a mod please create a separate, dedicated pressure cooker section?

In another thread I said I was going to cook my turkey in parts, instead of a whole bird. No futzing around icing the breast, foiling the legs, and so on. I skipped the brine altogether. Just threw it on the fire, indirect, at 350°, no rub, no butter, no nothing! Came out perfect!

What kind of roaster is that? I use a little Gene Cafe.

The Chefs Choice 610 and 615 get good reviews on Amazon and are reported to be very easy to clean up. I might get a 615. My neighbor has one and sliced up some wafer thin pork loin he roasted. Most excellent!

I keep a Meco Swinger II around, thinking I will use it for quick grilling, but I never do... If we have a big party I'm going to break it out and use for something, anything, just because we have it. It has a real sentimental value, I learned to cook with charcoal on it. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Meco-Swinger-Series-21.5-Square-Charcoal-Grill-Adjustable-Cooking-Grid-w-2-Folding-Side-Tables/12441316

We were talking about the Virtual Weber Bullet forum in another thread. I went over for a quick look and came across this: http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/tvwb-central-texas-barbecue-crawl-tips-for-planning-your-trip-1.html Wow, I can heartily recommend this vacation option! Living here in Kerrville, and for 9 years in Austin, I have eaten at most of these places and will attest to this guys story. If you want a fantastic BBQ centric trip, take this one. Fall, mid October or later, is a bit cooler. It's still mid 80's here so be advised.

HalfSmoke: I'm pretty sure this came from the Virtual Weber Bullet in the beginning. Larry R posted it here and he brought a lot of stuff to us from over there. That site is an excellent resource for all KKers, so everyone go check it out, if you are unaware: http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/index.html

The experiment was a success. My test was thighs, which is not the best test, breast would be the best. But there was only frozen breast at the store and I wanted to do my test immediately since I had the time yesterday. Any way the thighs took exactly one hour on the fire, indirect, at 350º, to hit 165º after their 2 minute pre-cook in the pressure. They were moist, just smoked enough and tasty. I did not really perceive the rub. My next test will be to cook direct, to get crispy skin for those who eat it. We don't, so that's why I cooked indirect yesterday. The skin was cooked but certainly not what the skin eaters want! We just toss it. Today I will buy a breast, thaw it, and cook it later this week. That will be a better test of the moisture retention properties of this cook method. I am looking forward to a very quick and easy turkey cook on Thanksgiving!

Interim update: The turkey came out of the pressure cooker after two minutes at 127º F and is on the 350º F fire now. Should cook very quickly. It smelled awesome coming out of the pressure vessel! The brine was 2 quarts of water, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup salt, and a fistful of poultry rub from World Spice. Simple brine for this proof of concept test. I am going to seriously diminish my workload this year. I am querying my guests as to what parts they want and will buy the turkey parts. They should all cook perfectly since I'm not trying to finish a whole bird all at once. No dorking around with foiling the legs, icing the breast and all that other happy horse.... I will pull each part off the fire at it's exact correct temp. The entire cook should be barely an hour, I am guessing. Standby...

As ya'll know I have gone pressure cooker crazy. Here is my latest test. Brine poultry under pressure for two minutes. Finish it on the grill. Honestly, if you pre- cook poultry in the pressure cooker before you grill/smoke it, there is probably no reason to brine at all. Why? A normal turkey cook benefits from brining because of the drying effect of the prolonged cook. If we pre-pressure cook, the turkey will be completely hydrated and not the least bit dry, with half (or something) of the cook done already. It will only take a quick cook over the fire to finish and get some smoke on it. Like that guy who boils his ribs before smoking them. That was on Guy Fieri's show. Now if you think an overnight brine adds flavor, that's another story. But I believe that a brine under pressure will impart the flavor as well. So I am testing this right now. I just brined some turkey under pressure for two minutes, will temp it to see how done it is already, and finish it on the fire. Results to follow later today... If it works, you won't have to boil up a brine, chill it, ice it, and then brine under ice overnight. It will SERIOUSLY decrease your brining workload.

This observation has been made many times over the years by many KK owners. Exactly what tony b says.

She had exploratory surgery 13 months ago, was found to be inoperable, and is still alive! Penny and I just thank God for each day we have with Lily. We figure it's God's grace and pressure cooker chicken. BTW that's Dixie in the picture, not Lily...

If you only grill on your KK you will miss out on most of what you paid for. It's a fine grill but you can grill on a cheap metal thing. Be sure to smoke some things, bake, roast, do pizza and so on. Your KK is a fantastic and versatile tool. The gang here is probably sick of hearing me say it, but to me the highest purpose of your KK is to smoke a pork shoulder. It's easy, hard to screw up, some of the best tasting meat you can prep. As far as grilling goes, you don't need a specific grilling temperature. You just need a good hot fire and you can see that with your eyes. Finish your meat by temperature. Your neighbor with the BGE can probably give you a lot of tips also.

After using a Mapp torch, a Looftlighter, wax cubes and every other durn thing I finally settled on a charcoal chimney, a brown paper bag, and an old blowdryer. You get a raging hot fire in 7 minutes.

One of my dogs has liver cancer and won't eat regular go food so I cook her chicken. I cook a chicken in the pressure cooker and keep the resulting broth in the pot. I bone out the chicken and throw all the bones, skin and so on back in the pot with the broth. I cook it for 20 minutes in the pressure cooker, and use a fat separator to get the stock. It is now double strength and has so much gelatin it solidifies in the fridge.

It can be hard to get pintos flavorful. I tried this and it came out VERY tasty. 2 cups pinto beans 7 ounce can mild green chiles 10 ounce can Rotel Original Diced Tomatos and Green Chiles 1 cup (more or less) diced onions Salt Ground Comino (Cumin) Place the beans and just enough water to cover them in a pressure cooker. Cook for one minute under pressure and allow to depressurize naturally. This replaces an overnight soak. Remove the beans from the vessel and set them aside. Brown the onions in the pressure cooker on the browning function. Use some oil or butter if you like. Return the beans to the vessel, put in the green chiles and the Rotel. Add enough water to cover the beans by about one inch. Beans need a lot of salt. Put in as much as you like. I use a shitload of comino because I like it, put in as much as you like. The comino gives it a Mexican flavor. Pressure cook for 20 minutes and allow to depressurize naturally. Enjoy those beans! The next time you make it adjust the salt and comino if you didn't like how it came out. I would have used some salt pork or bacon but didn't have any on hand and these came out great nonetheless. Use some pork if you like. These are as good as any beans I have ever had at any Mexican restaurant, anywhere anytime.

I'm bumping this thread again for those who weren't around in '09 when it first appeared. You don't want to miss this one.

The stuff in the pail is on amazon...

Obsessed with pyrotechnician hobby... I'll get over it. I shot my city municipal firework show on the Fourth of July. It was a shit ton of work in the 100º heat, but what a gas!

The random distribution of lump shapes and sizes causes this. If you like, do a test cook with a basket full of briquets. You will probably get a much more even burn pattern since they are uniform in size and shape. You can try to arrange the lump for a more even distribution, if you want to take the trouble. I don't.

I will expound a bit. The moistness and the texture of the meat is perfectly balanced. It's not as lean and dry as the flat on a brisket nor as fatty as the point. You get the rub all over the meat. On a brisket you don't get any rub on the internal surface of the flat nor the point, so when you split them, that surface of those two pieces is rub free. On the other hand it is a thick piece of meat so there is plenty of internal non smoked, non barked meat. I cooked it at 300 for the duration, it came out superb. How would it come out hotter and faster or lower and slower? You would have to experiment. Which I suggest you do...

I'm glad to see someone else likes this method. Try one wrapped in paper and compare it to the foil wrapped, see what you think.

So the cook ran from about 8 AM to about 4PM at about 300° the whole time. I got distracted fixing my mother in laws car and wrapped in paper at 180. Then at 190 I removed it from the fire and rested it for a couple hours. It came out super! About like a cross between brisket point and flat. I pulled it apart muscle by muscle and removed all the intermuscular fat and fascia. Then sort of chopped and shredded it. I really hate to admit that I might never do a brisket again, this is like the pulled pork of beef. It's basically the same cut, as a matter of fact. It's just insanely good and easy too. The shred photo is about a quarter of the whole piece.

Here is one of the original descriptions from way back. Of course we don't use the Weber protocols exactly but the Weber Virtual Bullet site is FULL of good info. And it has some great turkey advice... http://virtualweberbullet.com/chuckroll.html