mguerra

A little different taste This coffee cardamom rub was good; I made up a variant that is my current go-to rub. I don't measure, just eyeball. I like very strong and powerful flavors, so I use a lot of the spices. The base is brown sugar, I eyeball what I think is enough to cover the meat. The second most ingredient is paprika. Then, cinnamon, cardamom, ground ginger, any kind of ground red pepper, like ancho, cayenne or whatever is on hand, and ground cloves. Sometimes I might throw in some garlic, oregano or comino. The brown sugar tends to clump, so I put the rub mixture through a whirly blade coffee grinder briefly to achieve a good mix. I put a light dusting of Kosher salt on the meat, wait a few minutes, and then apply the rub. It is best to use very fresh and aromatic spices, old stuff has lost all its' volatile flavors. You might think your meat will taste like a pumpkin pie with this rub, but it doesn't! I put it on everything, pork butts, ribs, brisket, it is super. It's not the same as Sauerbraten, but the aromatics will make you think of it a little.

Another high temp brisket Did another round roast yesterday, at 325, with a Fall spice rub, and some Worcestershire in the foil. I pulled it off at 160 this time. I'm going to keep pulling these off at 10 lower temps each time til I find the right finish temp. 160 was a solid medium plus. It was very moist, and probably as tender as a round roast gets. Also, while I was at it, I did another 325 brisket. Cooked at 325 til it hit 160, and then foiled; cooked until tender. Same excellent results as before, the flat not dried out at all. It took a little longer than it otherwise might, I think because I left the entire huge fat cap on. And I left all the intermuscular fat and connective tissue between the point and the flat. A little trimming would probably shorten the cook. It was about 5-1/2 hours total. It occurs to me that a hybrid low and slow/ high heat cook can work for a brisket. If you need to go do something else or want to start your cook at night, start off at 200 to 225. Then, when you get home or get up, kick up the temp to 325 or 350, and foil at 160, to finish. This could give you a lot of flexibility in your time planning.

Dust Storm A shop vac works great to clean out your ashes. However...cleaning out the shop vac filter is a serious pain, I just did it, and I won't do it again! Scrape out the ashes.

thanks!! Wow, I didn't expect you would actually reveal all the details! I'm no competition cook, but I'll sure try this at home. Thank you sir.

Round Roast Would a round roast cook well by the high temp/ foil method? Previously, we have discussed how a very lean roast, like a center cut shoulder, or round, does not fare well when cooked low and slow, to a finish temp of 180 or more. Try this, and they come out way too dry. That method should be reserved for briskets and butts. (Well, maybe not briskets anymore!)So tonight I tried this: I took a very cold bottom round, rubbed it with a Weber steak rub, and put it on a 200 degree fire to get some smoke. After about four hours, I foiled it and bumped the temp up to 325. A round roast is not going to get as tender as a brisket, so I did finish it by temp, not feel. I took it off at 170. It was slightly more done than a lot of people might like, but it was not dried out! I like my beef medium. Anyway I consider this a good success. Also, I collected a lot of juice in the foil and poured it off into a separator. The basic concept is to cook unfoiled for a while, then foil til finished. The details of how long to cook unfoiled, and how to determine finish after foiling, will vary by cut of meat. We now know how to do it with a brisket. By continuing to experiment with other cuts, like tonights round roast, we can perfect this! When I first got my KK, I was convinced there was no need to foil anything, but I believe foiling has a place. Note that the four hours before foil gave a good smoke ring and bark.

ACT FAST! Digi Q for a good price, does not include KK adapter: http://primogrillforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5677

Drink the beer, recycle the can! Just put the damn bird on the grill and cook it! It's a KK, it will come out perfect.

mini Don't forget Mac Mini. It's a little box about the size of two packs of playing cards. Hook it up to your keyboard, display and mouse, and you are in to Mac for a value price! Check it out: http://www.apple.com/macmini/

secrets What, if anything, can you share regarding your brisket technique? Must be good!

Careful I have found that you want to do a quick, fairly high heat grill, on vegetables. You just want a slight smoke taste, just enough to detect. This way your taste buds will know the veg was on a grill, but no more. If they spend any extended period on the grill, they get too smoky. Once I cooked some asparagus for a while with the lid shut, they were absolutely inedible, like pure smoke. And I love heavy smoke. Also on vegetables, cook with the lid open! Alternatively some veg you can foil while cooking to keep the smoke off. I haven't tried baked potatoes, not sure how to do them correctly.

Once you go Mac... The day I switched to Mac, I never looked back! Consider, you spent somewhere between 2000 to 4000 for a "grill" because you wanted the best. Well, apply that thinking to your computer purchase, it's worth a few extra bucks to go Mac. They are so much easier to use and hassle free than a PC, those TV ads are actually accurate! I keep one pos PC around the house, and NEVER use it. What I'm talking about is regular consumer use, surfing, email, music, photos and so on. Perhaps there are some specific applications where PC is superior, but I'm unaware. Go to an Apple store and they will show you. Mac is where it's at.

Yeah baby! Oh boy, do those Weber guys know a thing or two!!! This method of brisket cooking is so superior I don't know where to start. The flat came out as moist and juicy as any point, and the point was out of this world. One huge benefit of the foiling is you catch a pot load of juice. Chop/ shred some of that brisket, put it in a bowl and pour on some of the juice, scarf it down with a fork, that's the tops!! I used to think the Weber guys foiled because their cookers flowed so much air it dried out the meat. But I think that's not it. Foiling from 160 degrees on just does something open cooking doesn't. This brisket is about as moist and juicy as a pulled pork! The cook was 5 hours, period. I did bump up the temp from 290 to 325 after foiling. There's no real plateau, just foil it at 160 and start checking for tenderness about an hour later. If it's not tender at first check, check at half hour intervals thereafter. You don't need to be popping the lid open every ten or fifteen minutes. I was surprised 5 hours totally tenderized this meat. If you are having a party, you can absolutely be assured that you can start your cook 6 hours before serving time. Pull it off when it's done, wrap in a towel, and serve when ready. No need for an overnighter. Everything you need to know is in that thread I linked to above. Read it, do it, you'll appreciate brisket in a whole new way.

link Here's a link to their thread: http://tvwbb.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tp ... 6360093154 Looks like they are going 350ish, not 290. I'll stick at 290 til done and see what happens! In foil now...

Weber forum technique. Since getting such good results with chuck roasts, I'm kind of off briskets. But, I decided to try the weber forum high heat brisket method. The KK is chugging along at 290 with a big packer on, in a few minutes I'm going to foil it when it hits 160. My thought has been you don't need to foil anything in a KK, so I'm just trying this faster cook method out of curiosity. Those guys cook these briskets in about four hours more or less and say they come out super; we'll see... They check for doneness by feel, not temp, I'll try that too. Report to follow.

All this rib talk fired me up so I just made some. Baby backs. My rub was brown sugar, paprika, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, cloves, cayenne pepper and a little Kosher salt. I do a straight four hour cook, no foil, no liquid, just an indirect cook. Yowser they good!!! The KK cooks 'em up so moist you don't need any foil or liquid. Sides are olive oil-garlic sauteed spinach with toasted pine nuts and craisins; and garlic mashers. Yummy. And the final topper is the 1999 Malescot St. Exupery, Margaux. A little heaven on Earth.

here you go Here's the link to the Chris Lilly Today Show, Big Bob Gibson's ribs, we were discussing earlier this summer: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/30686511/

opportunists My hounds have gone down into the canyon behind the house and drug up old dead half rotten deer. Seems to be their favorite snack, and they don't ever get sick, either. Just doing what any wild pack of dogs would do! Survival behavior.

more info Can you tell us more about her Korean/ California fusion marinades and her all wrong technique? Your best guesses if you don't know for sure. Could be a good jumping off point for some experimentation.

Gnaw on this! One of the best chew toys you can give your dog is an antler. They will consume a rawhide in a few minutes, but chew on an antler for months. When it gets small enough to be a choking hazard, take it away. I cut the prongs off so they can't flip one back into their eye while chewing, you just want one linear piece. You can just walk around and find shed antlers, or ask hunters to give you some. They last forever and your dogs absolutely love 'em! Unfortunately, if you have more than one dog, they will set up one hell of a ruckus trying to take them away from each other. And don't think you can solve that by giving them each their own, doesn't work.

common denominator I have noticed 4 hours at 250 to be the most common recommendation for cooking baby backs. There was a rib show on the Travel Channel yesterday, and most of the cooks were 250 for 4 hours, all over the country.

labor It's the same number of tiles applied in the same places, the only variance is the color. The tile installer has merely to pick a tile from one of two color piles. The layout pattern only had to be done once for all the double color schemes. The extra labor should be pretty minimal.

bones revisited The only problem I have had with the dogs eating bones is that they get up in the middle of the night and puke up the eaten bone mush all over the bedroom floor. One time Biggles went over to the neighbors and made a snack of one of their chickens. The only thing left was two chicken feet and one feather, neatly arranged on the porch. He survived, fatly, bones and all!

Sunbrella Sunbrella, the Johhnyboy cover material, is pretty good product! See: http://www.sunbrella.com/na/marine_exterior.php

done? I also noticed that a chicken cooked to 175 thigh on the KK doesn't quite "seem done". My guess is the KK retains so much moisture in the bird, it seems that way. I'm pretty confident the chicken was safe, but I might just cook mine a little more in future, if only for a slightly less rubbery texture.

sadly I used to, all the time! But... then I got married.