doing anything different this bbq season?


 
P

Pinny

TVWBB Super Fan
BBQ season is well underway for most everyone here. Are you doing anything different this year? Any specific special plans?

Personally, I have started using the 22" alot, in order to have enough space for multiple heat zones on the same grill. I have discovered how nice it is to be able to keep food hot, yet off the fire. My guests really appreciate that. I still have to play around with this in order to avoid over cooking.

Another thing I'm planning for this season is too really get the hang of grilling steaks and smoking ribs. They've always been prohibitively expensive to experiment with, but my wife's grandma got me a huge freezer full of steaks and ribs as a present. Even frozen is much better than nothing.

There's a couple other small things I have trouble with that I want to work on, like figuring out the right amount of smoke wood to use, and proper usage of my thermometer (for some reason, my thermapen says the chicken is at 180, but it's still red inside). Small stuff like that.

Anybody else doing anything different or new this spring/summer?
 
Going to use less rub on my ribs and chicken. I think I've been using too much and it kind of overpowers the meat. So, I'm going to play with the amounts of rub I use this year and see what happens.
 
I'm going to do a few overnight marinades with the food saver and use my WSM more. I'm not the greatest at getting the temps just right.

I'm also going to try my hand at a few turkeys this summer so I'm ready for T-Giving.
 
1. Use less cumin. Overdid it on cumin based rubs last year. Now looking elsewhere for flavor.

2. Use the SJS/G more - wanna do a mini-WSM using it - but have get at it. Also, need to learn how to keep the fire hot while the lid is on.

3. Find a grilled/roasted chicken recipe that my wife will like. I know this is blasphemy, but I'm tired of large chunks of pork and beef.
 
I plan to make a better burger.
No matter what I try, they never seem to have the beef flavor, like the ones from a good burger joint.
 
Originally posted by Bob Correll:
I plan to make a better burger.
No matter what I try, they never seem to have the beef flavor, like the ones from a good burger joint.
Click to expand...

The secret to that burger joint flavor is probably Accent (MSG).
 
@K Kruger, I temp in the thickest part of the chicken. I typically insert the needle gently, and push down until I get the lowest reading possible (ie: it'll be 200 at the surface, then below that, 175, then below that, 180).

@Paul Lai, I didn't know there was such a thing as too much cumin!
 
I temp in the thickest part of the chicken.
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Are you talking the thickest part of the chicken as in breast? thigh? Or the thickest part of whatever pieces you're cooking?

Red meat? Red at the bone? around the joint?
 
I'm going to try to start running my MSM without water. It seems that whenever I do overnights now it's for a party or medium sized get together among friends. Since I've always used water and I'm cooking for others I'm hesitant to alter from my comfort zone. I want to change that.
 
If I can convince (or hide it from my wife) I might be fixing up a weber kettle I saw at a local "recycle depot".
Actually if I really got adventurous there is a FANTASTIC old cast BBQ there. It has two "lids" one for the grill chamber and one for the rotisserie chamber. If I was handy I could easily convert to charcoal and use the rotisserie chamber for fanastic indirect cooks.

If anyone in Ontario wants a project... let me know!! haha
 
I'm going to try to start running my MSM without water.
Click to expand...
Go for it Don! I switched and haven't looked back. Easy peasy!
I plan to keep on smokin' and just do it all better.
icon_cool.gif
 
Home smoking/grilling for me is always wide open. However, one thing that I have been mulling over for some time is making all the traditional components of choucroute garnie from scratch and assembling and cooking it all in the wsm. Not sure if it'll happen this year.

As for comp cooking, I have a sample of butcher's injection that I need to try out on a brisket. And I got some crazy ideas for tackling chicken.

And someday I'll get around to cooking a butt without foil and do an actual l/s brisket for as looooong as it takes.
 
Aside form the usuals (brisket, pork butt, sausages, pork/beef ribs etc), I'm also planning on Lamb, Meat Loaf, and a suckling pig for starters.
 
I plan to get back to the basics. Simplifying things, maybe I don’t use the wireless probe every time. Go more by feel.
 
I plan to make a better burger.
No matter what I try, they never seem to have the beef flavor, like the ones from a good burger joint.
Click to expand...

Bob, are you grinding your own meat? I started over a year ago, and burgers taste 100x better. Mind you, a lot of burger joints use flat tops, so different flavor profile than over charcoal grill, so you might not get exactly the flavour you're after.

AS far as the Dechaine family goes...I really want to smoke a lamb shoulder. Something about pulled lamb (or mutton) just sounds like it'll taste great.

new techniques, not sure yet. I've already made the switch from full water pan to no water, and am happy with the results. A tweak I'm considering is foiling the ends of ribs so as to avoid the overcooked end pieces.
 
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