Smokers (BBQ - not grilling)

[Fred W]

Yeah, stainless is nice, but definitely not worth the price of admission. Maybe if you were some kind of neat freak and felt you need to clean your grill after every cook. Ive read about those deviants.

Im more in tune with the cast iron cooking crowd, who believes the worst thing you can do is to put soap and water on a cooking vessel. I scrape the heavy goo out once in a while but the grease and smoke layer is what helps preserve our ferrous pits on the inside.

When I was brewing everything was stainless, but everything had to be sanitized before and after every brew. Cooking is a lot different than fermenting in that way.

 

[Knifemaker]

Well, the only advantage to stainless steel is it doesn't rust. My propane grill is 12 years old, sits out all year with no cover... and other than rust on the cast iron burners (which I've replaced 3 times) the rest of the grill is still going strong. A few bad welds have gone bad, but compared to a few regular carbon steel cookers I've owned, stainless steel does rock.

But as you said, the price of admission may not pay off in the long run. Four to five carbon steel grills are still cheaper than one stainless one.

My point was "if I was rich" ...which I definitely am not....I'd build a UDS with a stainless steel barrel. But compare $600 for stainless to $10 for carbon steel? If I'm lucky I got another 20 years on this planet, I doubt I'll be here long enough to see that $10 drum rust out.

My pit does collect rust. I sand it down and hit it with more high temp paint. It too will likely last longer than me.

 

[Knifemaker]

Well, back to actual smoking... Fathers Day plan is to smoke some pork steaks. I know some of you on the coasts are asking "What the **** is a pork steak?" Everyone who lives in St.Louis knows

They are just sliced steaks from a pork butt. There are many ways to cook them, smoking being one.

Photos to follow....

 

[Fred W]

Im interested. Never heard of this but am intrigued.

 

[Knifemaker]

One of many ways to cook pork steaks:

https://grillinfools.com/blog/2009/03/25/a-midwestern-bbq-staple-pork-steaks/

I have perhaps 4 different recipes I've used over the years. I'll post my favorite after the smoke. (This will be my first time smoking them). Some recipes for these are similar to recipes for "country ribs"

Guess some of you aren't familiar with toasted ravioli either ....

 

[Bounce]

Well, the only advantage to stainless steel is it doesn't rust.

Well, you say that...

 

[Fred W]

Couple of roaster chickens going on the OK Joe pit tomorrow. Time to start the brining now.

 

[Knifemaker]

So here is what a pork steak looks like:

So, put six of these in a brine/marinade:

Which consisted of 3/4 quart of apple juice, 1/2 cup kosher salt, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 12oz water, tablespoon of garlic powder and 1/2 cup apple vinegar. Will sit there overnight.

 

[Fred W]

My chicken brine is even simpler: 2 cups water, 1/4 cup kosher, 1/4 cup brown sugar, and 2 beers, in a zip lock bag with each whole chicken. The beers were free and had been sitting around for a while. Figured this would be a good way to use em.

Those pork steaks look interesting.

 

[Knifemaker]

Okay, here's the game plan. Made up another batch of pork rub this morning. Steaks will be removed from brine, then coated with rub.

Into the smoker with copious amounts of applewood and smoked for an hour and a half @ 225-235 F.

Then removed from smoker, spayed with apple juice and wrapped individually in foil. Back in the smoker to "bake" (no wood needed here) for another hour at the same temperatures.

Lastly, removed from foil, slathered with BBQ sauce, and back on the pit for 10-15 minutes to thicken up the sauce.

To complicate things, I'm also cooking burgers on my grill. If the timing works out, the last step above for the pork steaks I'll use the grill instead of the smoker, as I think some direct heat to carmalize the sauce will be better.

Anyway, photo later, and a Happy Fathers Day to all you motherfkrs out there

Pork steaks rubbed and ready for smoke (there's 6, they are double stacked in the pan)

 

[Knifemaker]

Off the smoker and on to the foil wrap:

 

[Knifemaker]

How they look after the foil and sauced

And in a pan to wait in the oven while I cook the burgers.

 

[Blind Squirrel]

The main reason a pork butt is cooked as long as it is, is to allow the connective tissues and fat time to break down and convert into collagen. 160 is done, but it needs to slowly get to 190+ to "do its thing". My concern is that you will come out with tough pork steaks.

 

[Knifemaker]

The main reason a pork butt is cooked as long as it is, is to allow the connective tissues and fat time to break down and convert into collagen. 160 is done, but it needs to slowly get to 190+ to "do its thing". My concern is that you will come out with tough pork steaks.

Nope. You could cut them with a fork. The key is that hour wrapped in foil. Everyone commented on how juicy and tender they were .

You have to understand that you are cooking a "steak" not a big hunk of meat. These were 3/4-1" thick. At 225-235 degrees for 2-1/2 hours I'm pretty sure at some point they reached 190 degrees. I didn't use a temperature probe to check them, it's all about time. When wrapped in foil you are basically steaming them. (212 F at ambient pressure) So for something that thick, much of the fat is rendered down (and I have the burn to prove it )

Us folks in St.Louis been cooking these for decades, we know what we are doing

The other way I have cooked pork steaks is to marinate overnight in Italian dressing. (Which is just vinegar, oil, spices and salt.) You then put them on fairly hot grill, just long enough to brown the meat and get a bit of a burn on the fat on the edges. You then put them in a lasagna pan, and cover them with BBQ sauce. They should be submerged. Cover with foil and put in the oven at 275 for 4 to 5 hours.

They come out tender as hell.

There's quite a few different ways to do them, but the same concept of "slow and low" is usually followed, and even the basic grilling proceedures you'll find are likely reaching temperatures closer to 190-200 at some point. Obviously thinner steaks cook quicker.

These puppies I cooked were about 18oz each. Was an effort to eat one by myself.... but I did it

 

[Auburn]

Father's day - babybacks on the Traeger.

Ribs tasted great, spent great time with family!

 

[Bounce]

KM: Doesn't the Q sauce drown out the flavors you worked hard to get into the meat?

 

[Knifemaker]

KM: Doesn't the Q sauce drown out the flavors you worked hard to get into the meat?

Not really. If you put ketchup and mustard on a hot dog, do you not taste the hot dog?

Here, the BBQ sauce is part of the equation when you're cooking pork steaks. 40+ years of eating these and I've ever been anywhere that served them without a coating of BBQ sauce. If you dip a piece of lobster tail into melted butter, it's the thing that compliments it, it's not like you're just eating butter.

You're not swallowing each piece whole, even being tender, you're still chewing it. You mouth pretty much swallows the liquids right off, and then it as you chew you get the flavors of the meat. These were about an inch thick, so although the photo seems to show a lot of sauce on them, it doesn't overshadow the meat.

Normally these are grilled not smoked. Note that they only were smoked for 90 minutes....the smoke ring was only about 1/8" on each side, but the smoke flavor was present.

I've had them cooked as above in a pan of a sauce, and you can tell the ones that were cooked too long because all you taste is the sauce and the meat is just mushy. (I did ribs like that once, big mistake)

Everyone in the St. Louis area has their own way they cook these things. Remember it's not a high priced piece of meat. When smoking a whole butt you're taking it slow to get as much smokiness you can into it and get the fats to render. You can't really cook a pork steak too long, because being just a slice it can quickly dry out. Many spray them down every few minutes (if not wrapping them in foil) to prevent this. And many sauce them up as soon as they are placed on the grill and continuously baste more on as they cook to achieve the same. This is likely why pork steaks that aren't slathered with sauce are unheard of.

All the folks at the house were natives. They complimented me on how juicy and very tender the meat was, and that's pretty much all you can ask for

It was funny, my son in laws mom asked how I made the sauce, as she "loved it" . I had to be honest...I said I made it by getting a bowl, opening the bottle, and pouring it into the bowl. (Sweet Baby Rays Original) granted I did add some apple juice, some beer, and some red wine. So looks like Ray has picked up a new customer.

On another note, looks like I'll be picking up my drum tomorrow

 

[Fred W]

The pork steaks and ribs look fantastic boys. My mouth is watering here at 8AM!

Took the roaster chickens out of their beer brine just before noon, rinsed them thoroughly, and patted them dry. Trussed the drumsticks and put toothpicks in to close the skin up at each end, then greased them up with Canola oil and sprinkled with Memphis Dust rub.

I wasn't entirely sure how I wanted to cook them yesterday right up until the last minute. I've got the new Pit Boss blower to try out, but I just didn't feel like hooking up all the high tech, and went old school instead.

Lit a small lump charcoal fire in the OK Joe to bring it up to temp and then started feeding it dry wood splits. Mostly wild cherry, but a little maple also. The wood had been sitting cut and split in my shed for a couple of years so it was very dry. Tried to keep the pit temp up to 275 - 300 adding a couple new splits every 20-30 minutes. Got some really clean, thin blue smoke throughout the entire 3 1/2 hours I had the Chix on.

End result was quite delicious. I was concerned that it might have been too much smoke for the mild chicken, but it was actually quite subtle and clean tasting. The skin was still not what I would call crispy, but nobody around my house ever eats the skin anyway, except on the drums. We ate one of the two and have the second one to eat during the week.

Life is good.

 

[Knifemaker]

That's some good looking chicken. If you use melted butter instead of Canola oil you'll get that nice brown crispy skin...but if you don't eat it it's not worth the trouble

Unfortunately the wife doesn't care for (whole) roast chicken, and I have issues digesting chicken parts other than breasts or well trimmed thighs. Guess it's the chicken fat.

 

[Fred W]

Canola oil is just a light coating to hold the rub. Butter can burn where canola wont.

Not much fat in a chicken that you have rendering on the pit at 300F for 3 1/2 hours. I had toyed with the idea of spatchcocking the birds, and probably will do that next time, and raise the pit temp even higher, which isnt all that hard when burning wood. A big part of the temp regulation is how much fuel you add on. 2 splits added gets you 250, 3 gets you 300, etc.

Now I need an excuse to use my new pit boss blower and DigiQ with charcoal on the offset. Guess that means I need to do some pork ribs. Darned the bad luck!