Social Saturday is BBQ Day V3 - How big is your meat?

[Rob Battisti]

Hot and fast really works well when combined with an injection and a moist cooking environment. It shocked the hell out of me too, but to this day my best brisket is when I cook them hot and fast. I inject with some beef stock / beef base and let it marinate for about 12 hours, then right into a 325F smoker for about 2.5 hours. Then I'll place the brisket in a foil pan and cover the pan with foil, and right back into the smoker (or oven) until I hit 205F in the thickest part of the point. I'll wrap the whole pan in a few towels and then stuff it in a cooler (no ice) for about 2-4 hours. Absolutely the most tender and juiciest brisket.

I'll try that out this weekend! Will post some pictures!

 

[PUO3]

I don't know how to bbq that well...just came in to see how big everyones meat is

Pictures incoming

 

[usmctanker242]

I'll try that out this weekend! Will post some pictures!

One thing I didn't mention is that when you do cook hot and fast you have to watch out a bit with your rubs. Sugars will burn much easier when cooking hotter... here's the rub Myron gives in his book for doing brisket.

-1 teaspoon kosher salt
-2 tablespoons coarsely ground black pepper
-1 teaspoon sugar (doesn't say white or brown, but I actually prefer light brown sugar)
-1/2 teaspoon chipotle pepper powder
-1/2 teaspoon chili powder
-1 teaspoon garlic powder
-1 teaspoon granulated dried onion

Overall this is a great rub but I actually tend to use a bit more black pepper... this is very much a Texas-style rub and it's amazing and well balanced. Good luck man, can't wait to see the results.

 

[MASShole]

Tomorrow I'm doing ribs and pork belly strips. Never done pork belly strips, but I don't think it'll take that long and we can cube them for dipping as apps.

 

[usmctanker242]

@MASShole ,

Looks good man. I am wanting to do pork belly myself but I have never gotten around to it. Are you planning on doing it "burnt end" style? Chef Tom, from All Things BBQ, made a great video about it and he started out by cutting it into strips just like you've done, so I was just curious. I'm posting the video just to throw it out there.

 

[usmctanker242]

So anybody tried that BBQ Box by Myron Mixon?
https://bbqbox.com/

Basically it's a subscription service where each month he puts together a little box which has a recipe, a rub, a sauce, some wood chips, and a little snack. The rub and sauce are meant to be used on the meat in the recipe, and of course you can use the wood chips. My wife started the service for me because she thought it would be interesting and I was intrigued.

First box comes and that's a pork butt box... comes with Myron's own Original Meat Rub, his own Hog Sauce, a pouch of bacon jerky from Park Barrel BBQ, a small bag of maple wood chips, and his recipe for pork butt (same recipe as in his books). It was a good box and both his rub and sauce were amazing, so we stuck with the subscription service.

Next month it was his Chicken Wing recipe... came with Big Bob Gibson's Meat Rub and White BBQ Sauce (mayonnaise sauce), a very VERY small bag of wood chips (worthless, barely bigger than sawdust), and some corn-nut thing. Pretty shitty box overall and both the rub and the sauce were underwhelming. I had heard about the "Alabama White Sauce" for a while and I was excited to try it, but it's definitely not something which would appeal to most people I think... feels very regional.

We decided to give it another go and I got the next (and final box for me) this morning : Pork Ribs box with Carolina Q rub (from rtbbq.com) and their Swine Shine bbq sauce, a small bag of bbq chips, and more of that shitty apple wood sawdust garbage. I tried the rub and it was very bland, not idea how they are charging $7.25 for that rub, and the sauce was horrendous : my wife almost threw up and had to cleanse the palette afterwards. The sauce tasted like someone took white vinegar and mixed it 50/50 with a shitty tomato ketchup. Unbelievably abrasive and I live in North Carolina so I've had quite a few of these vinegar sauces, but this one was absolutely inedible. So for $30 I got a rub and sauce which I threw away, a $1 bag of chips, and some sawdust. Unreal, so I went ahead and cancelled the subscription service.

Just wondering if anybody else had give it a try and maybe had different results. Feels like a very insulting cash grab from Myron... love the concept of getting different regional rubs and sauces, but outside of his original box, you're paying almost a 100% markup for the privilege. The first box had about $26 worth or retail products, so for $30 you got all that plus his recipe, so not bad. 2nd box had about $14 of retail products, and the 3rd (final) box had about $16 worth of retail products. Severely underwhelming to say the least.

 

[NoGoodNamesLeft]

ruler says 6.5 bpel but mirror says its much smaller

 

[sleepwalk]

Hot and fast really works well when combined with an injection and a moist cooking environment. It shocked the hell out of me too, but to this day my best brisket is when I cook them hot and fast. I inject with some beef stock / beef base and let it marinate for about 12 hours, then right into a 325F smoker for about 2.5 hours. Then I'll place the brisket in a foil pan and cover the pan with foil, and right back into the smoker (or oven) until I hit 205F in the thickest part of the point. I'll wrap the whole pan in a few towels and then stuff it in a cooler (no ice) for about 2-4 hours. Absolutely the most tender and juiciest brisket.

That's how I do mine. Sugarless, coffee-based rub. In the BGE for for an hour plus, pull it and wrap in foil, put it back on until temp hits, pull it and wrap in towel, sit on counter or throw it in a cooler for an hour or two.

 

[GhostZ06]

Ya know i just noticed something about this thread. Only Aussie post in here since their just as anal as us Texans about grilling meat.


i'd think one of the euro boys would have started on this. That being said i might be able to pick up a smoker a lot sooner then i thought, any idea what brand i should go with? From what i got from Tanker is to start with some ribs as my first meat to smoke? i'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to this stuff to prevent arguing with other Texans...So looking forward to the advise

 

[milkmandanl]

So I had to make a small lateral move from the pit I wanted to this pit due to timing issues. Here's what I've got in the works now... already paid for, just waiting for it to be built and delivered.

I'm pretty excited about it... my only concern is that the main smoking chamber is only 5 feet long, so I'm not too sure about the size of a hog I can get in there. I live in North Carolina so hogs are king out here, but I'm thinking I could probably get a 100Lb hog in there without too much trouble. Truth be told I don't even know how to cook a whole hog right now, so we'll see if I end up getting a lot of requests for them.

This pit is pretty great though... reverse flow offset, two door smoking chamber, and then the charcoal grill at the end. Great thing is the grill has a damper to the smoking chamber, so I can actually get some smoke on the meat as I'm grilling it. The vertical smoker on top of the firebox has a damper system as well, so it can act as a warming box or a smoking chamber.

Overall I'm pretty stoked... got my business all setup, just need my pit and the paperwork for the permits to be fully processed and I'll be ready to go. I even got my logo finished off, but waiting for the trademark to go through before I post it. haha

Looks awesome and excellent step in seeing your dream come to life!

 

[mushishi]

Thinking about doing my first brisket. Is injecting the meat mandatory? I tty yo keep things as simple as possible and dont like to fuss much.

 

[usmctanker242]

Thinking about doing my first brisket. Is injecting the meat mandatory? I tty yo keep things as simple as possible and dont like to fuss much.

Injection is NEVER mandatory. In fact, for your first few cooks, I would generally recommend against it as long as you're cooking "low and slow" at around 225-250F. This way you get to taste the actual flavors of the meat, and you can decide to inject on your next cook if you feel the meat needs some extra flavor or moisture.

For power cooking, or hot and fast cooking, injection certainly gives you a better chance of retaining moisture deep inside the meat and kind of increases the margin of error.

What kind of cooker are you using?

 

[Rob Battisti]

Was 14 degrees both yesterday and today. No smoke for me unfortunately

 

[mushishi]

Injection is NEVER mandatory. In fact, for your first few cooks, I would generally recommend against it as long as you're cooking "low and slow" at around 225-250F. This way you get to taste the actual flavors of the meat, and you can decide to inject on your next cook if you feel the meat needs some extra flavor or moisture.

For power cooking, or hot and fast cooking, injection certainly gives you a better chance of retaining moisture deep inside the meat and kind of increases the margin of error.

What kind of cooker are you using?

I have a kamado from costco and one of those fans to regulate temperature.

Thanks tanker, will get a brisket and give it a go.

 

[usmctanker242]

I have a kamado from costco and one of those fans to regulate temperature.

Thanks tanker, will get a brisket and give it a go.

Nice, kamado's are perfect for holding in moisture, I think you'll do just fine. If you have any questions about cooks times and temps, or rubs, or whatever, feel free to ask.

 

[mushishi]

Nice, kamado's are perfect for holding in moisture, I think you'll do just fine. If you have any questions about cooks times and temps, or rubs, or whatever, feel free to ask.

Thanks again, will probably go salt and pepper for the first cook and see how it goes, shooting for 250ish. Gonna do some reasesrch for the cook now.

 

[usmctanker242]

Thanks again, will probably go salt and pepper for the first cook and see how it goes, shooting for 250ish. Gonna do some reasesrch for the cook now.

Sounds pretty solid, make sure you use Kosher salt rather than table salt. Kosher salt is much easier to see, so you know how much you're actually putting on. I also wouldn't rub it down until about an hour or so before you're ready to put it on your smoker, otherwise that salty flavor can become overpowering.

250F you're looking at about an hour per pound. I would suggest just going straight through, no spritzing or wrapping, until you hit about 200F internal temp on the point end of the meat. The probe should slide in and out like you were sticking into butter, so if it's still a bit tight or firm let it cook for a bit longer and check again. Then loosely wrap the meat in foil and let it rest for about an hour before slicing.

 

[MASShole]

@MASShole ,

Looks good man. I am wanting to do pork belly myself but I have never gotten around to it. Are you planning on doing it "burnt end" style? Chef Tom, from All Things BBQ, made a great video about it and he started out by cutting it into strips just like you've done, so I was just curious. I'm posting the video just to throw it out there.

Kind of my plan, except I prefer to allow people to dip in a sauce of their choice instead of glazing a sauce on it. They've been the smoker at 225 for about 1 hour so far, and I'm really thinking at their size 2 hours will be fine.

Ribs are in the oven at 200 now. Did 3 hours, 5 mops, at 250.

Will take pics when it's all done.

 

[MASShole]

I have a kamado from costco and one of those fans to regulate temperature.

Thanks tanker, will get a brisket and give it a go.

I don't think it's mandatory either, but I do it now. Keeps moisture well.

Make sure you mop every so often. Brisket can be easy to overdo quickly if the chamber doesn't stay moist.

 

[MASShole]

Ya know i just noticed something about this thread. Only Aussie post in here since their just as anal as us Texans about grilling meat.


i'd think one of the euro boys would have started on this. That being said i might be able to pick up a smoker a lot sooner then i thought, any idea what brand i should go with? From what i got from Tanker is to start with some ribs as my first meat to smoke? i'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to this stuff to prevent arguing with other Texans...So looking forward to the advise

I'm not in TX

And Europeans aren't super into traditional BBQ. For them it's more braising/stew/slow roasting instead of pit cooking. Just different, but still amazing results.