Dan C. FL
TVWBB Pro
Saturday
Despite all of your positive reviews, I was still skeptical as to whether the vortex was really that great of a tool. But, I decided that it wasn't that expensive so a couple of weeks ago I ordered one. Saturday was the first time I got to use it. I did an initial burn out and let all of the charcoals burn completely out. Then, it was time to cook. I had some wings that the wife got from Costco and some jalapenos that a co-worker grew, which, of course, had to become ABTs. I ordered my vortex from Owens BBQ, which comes with their wing seasoning. I put that on some and then just salt and pepper for the others. There was also a recipe in there for wings that indicated the cooking time should be about an hour. Since I didn't know what I was doing, I used that as my cook time.
Here's the grill loaded up and ready for action:
I waited until 20 minutes to go turn the lid. I snuck a peak and determined that another couple of minutes and the ABTs would be a loss. So, I pulled them off...
From there on out, I turned the lid two more times (with 20 minutes in between) for a total cook time of an hour. The finished product:
Whoops!!! Way over done and dry.
I knew that I should've listened to you guys when you said about 40 minutes. Oh well, live and learn right? One question for next time, do you flip the wings? They seem to crisp plenty without flipping, thoughts?
Sunday
Sunday was a big cook day. The first priority was to smoke the bacon that I had been curing. I did two recipes: the first was a repeat of the Amazing Ribs recipe and the second was a maple bourbon bacon recipe that I found. I don't know why, but the Amazing Ribs recipe bacon did not turn out as sweet as the first batch did. Initially, I was planning on using pecan to smoke the bacon. After discovering they weren't as sweet as the first batch, I decided to use some Black Cherry wood that I got from Maine Grilling Woods.
The cook went pretty smoothly, cruised at 150* for about 4.5 hours, and hung out with the dogs (here's my sofa mate):
She wasn't much help...just slept most of the time.
Then, broke the snake and piled the remaining charcoal on the end to bump it up to about 210* and pulled the bacon at 145* and straight into the ice bath.
I sliced a couple of pieces off of each to sample after smoking. (The rest got frozen because I still have a pound of bacon in the fridge from last time.) This Black Cherry wood didn't seem to be as strong or distinct of a flavor as prior cherry woods that I've used. But, it tasted good. I may try again in the future with the other cherry wood that i have used. We'll see.
Dinner last night was tri tip. Same Maine Grilling Woods Acadian Oak (which is really good.) This time, I used the same ingredients that Chris has in the rub on the tri tip recipe, but rather than mix up measured amounts, I seasoned by eyeball. It was definitely less salty and was much better I also did potatoes cooked directly on the coals again. This time, I used vegetable oil and cooked them for about 20 minutes less (just under an hour). Since I was in the middle of doing bacon duty, potato duty, and trying to get the steak and other grill ready, I made a slight boo-boo. I intended to double wrap each potato in heavy duty aluminum foil. Well, somehow the wife's potato ended up wrapped in three pieces of ten foil. Oops.
As a result, her skin didn't get quite as crispy as mine did, but she wasn't going to eat the skin anyway.
Two grills and a smoker up and running:
I did a two zone fire again for the tri tip. Just about 15 minutes and I was up near 110*. Moved it over the coals and seared it for about 2 minutes per side, let her rest and voila:
I nailed the desired temp. the tri tip was really good, like I said earlier, it was less salty, which is a good thing. The wife loved the fluffiness of her potato and told me a couple of times that I nailed the tri tip. So, I'll call that a successful day of cooking. No plated pics because I was tooooo hungry from all of that cooking.
Happy Monday!!!
Despite all of your positive reviews, I was still skeptical as to whether the vortex was really that great of a tool. But, I decided that it wasn't that expensive so a couple of weeks ago I ordered one. Saturday was the first time I got to use it. I did an initial burn out and let all of the charcoals burn completely out. Then, it was time to cook. I had some wings that the wife got from Costco and some jalapenos that a co-worker grew, which, of course, had to become ABTs. I ordered my vortex from Owens BBQ, which comes with their wing seasoning. I put that on some and then just salt and pepper for the others. There was also a recipe in there for wings that indicated the cooking time should be about an hour. Since I didn't know what I was doing, I used that as my cook time.
Here's the grill loaded up and ready for action:
I waited until 20 minutes to go turn the lid. I snuck a peak and determined that another couple of minutes and the ABTs would be a loss. So, I pulled them off...
From there on out, I turned the lid two more times (with 20 minutes in between) for a total cook time of an hour. The finished product:
Whoops!!! Way over done and dry.
I knew that I should've listened to you guys when you said about 40 minutes. Oh well, live and learn right? One question for next time, do you flip the wings? They seem to crisp plenty without flipping, thoughts?Sunday
Sunday was a big cook day. The first priority was to smoke the bacon that I had been curing. I did two recipes: the first was a repeat of the Amazing Ribs recipe and the second was a maple bourbon bacon recipe that I found. I don't know why, but the Amazing Ribs recipe bacon did not turn out as sweet as the first batch did. Initially, I was planning on using pecan to smoke the bacon. After discovering they weren't as sweet as the first batch, I decided to use some Black Cherry wood that I got from Maine Grilling Woods.
The cook went pretty smoothly, cruised at 150* for about 4.5 hours, and hung out with the dogs (here's my sofa mate):
She wasn't much help...just slept most of the time.
Then, broke the snake and piled the remaining charcoal on the end to bump it up to about 210* and pulled the bacon at 145* and straight into the ice bath.
I sliced a couple of pieces off of each to sample after smoking. (The rest got frozen because I still have a pound of bacon in the fridge from last time.) This Black Cherry wood didn't seem to be as strong or distinct of a flavor as prior cherry woods that I've used. But, it tasted good. I may try again in the future with the other cherry wood that i have used. We'll see.
Dinner last night was tri tip. Same Maine Grilling Woods Acadian Oak (which is really good.) This time, I used the same ingredients that Chris has in the rub on the tri tip recipe, but rather than mix up measured amounts, I seasoned by eyeball. It was definitely less salty and was much better I also did potatoes cooked directly on the coals again. This time, I used vegetable oil and cooked them for about 20 minutes less (just under an hour). Since I was in the middle of doing bacon duty, potato duty, and trying to get the steak and other grill ready, I made a slight boo-boo. I intended to double wrap each potato in heavy duty aluminum foil. Well, somehow the wife's potato ended up wrapped in three pieces of ten foil. Oops.
As a result, her skin didn't get quite as crispy as mine did, but she wasn't going to eat the skin anyway. Two grills and a smoker up and running:
I did a two zone fire again for the tri tip. Just about 15 minutes and I was up near 110*. Moved it over the coals and seared it for about 2 minutes per side, let her rest and voila:
I nailed the desired temp. the tri tip was really good, like I said earlier, it was less salty, which is a good thing. The wife loved the fluffiness of her potato and told me a couple of times that I nailed the tri tip. So, I'll call that a successful day of cooking. No plated pics because I was tooooo hungry from all of that cooking.
Happy Monday!!!
