Lucky for us, the same folks at Thermapen shared this great video on how to test your meat thermometer in a proper ice bath.  That part where he shows the thermometer reading in the 50′s in an improper ice bath was me one time with the Thermapen’s younger, but still awesome, brother the Thermapen.  I thought I had a bum thermometer, until I realized I didn’t know what I didn’t know about ice baths.

So if you feel the need to check the calibration on your meat thermometer, check out this video and thank the Thermoworks folks for showing us the proper way to make an ice bath:

Ford versus Chevy has nothing on the charcoal versus gas debate.  You’ve noticed the folks on one side of the extreme.  They are the ones looking at you with a mix of pity and disgust while you check out the latest gas grills in the big box stores.  They would rather walk on their hot coals than be spotted in the propane exchange line.  I may be a grilling diplomat, but I say gas and charcoal for everyone!  Why not?  The best charcoal grill available costs around $100?

Since you landed on this page though, I’m just going to assume that you already have made the decision.  There is nothing better in my mind than sitting on the back porch, beverage in hand, with the smell of smoke from freshly lit coals.  This is grilling in its most simple form.  A charcoal grill is nothing more than a simple chamber to hold a heat source (charcoal in this case) with a grate to hold the meat over the fire and a lid to keep all of that wonderful smoke inside.  But, you ask, isn’t it more difficult for a beginner to cook on a charcoal grill?  Not so much, once you get the basics.  Lets take a look at the first thing you need to learn, how to light a charcoal grill.

Lighting a Charcoal Grill

1. The first step to lighting our charcoal grill is to remove the lid and cooking grate, so that the bottom charcoal grate is accessible.
2. Next, open the bottom grill vent all of the way to get air to our charcoal.
3. Now I will let you in on the first (not so) secret weapon to lighting our charcoal.  Weber makes a product called the Weber chimney starter that makes lighting charcoal easy and really speeds up the process of burning all of the coals down to get them ready for cooking.  Simply fill it up with charcoal and then create a fire under the cylinder to light the coals.  The chimney starter holds just the right amount of coals to cook a standard 22 and 1/2 inch kettle or similar grill.  If you have a smaller 18 inch grill, fill the cylinder to about 3/4 full.
4. If you don’t have a chimney starter yet, no problem.  Dump coals onto your charcoal grate until you have enough to cover the entire surface, two coals high.  Now rake or move all of the coals to the middle of the grate and create a pile so that they are all touching and can light off of each other.
5. Now we need a fire source!  The fire source is the second product I recommend from Weber.  I still use crumpled up newspapers in a pinch, but I love the Weber firestarter cubes.  The cubes are available at all of the big box stores for about $7 for a box of 24.  Simply place 2 of the cubes underneath the full charcoal chimney or under the outside edges of your charcoal pile and then light them with a match.  The cubes will light immediately when you touch them with a match and burn long enough to get the coals going.
6. If you don’t have the cubes yet, loosely roll and ball up three pages of newspaper and tuck them under the pile or chimney starter and then light with a match.  You can even spray the newspaper with a little cooking oil to make it burn longer.
7. Let the charcoal burn down until all of the coals have a layer of white ash.  This should take up to 15 minutes.
8. If you are using the chimney starter, put on protective gloves and carefully pour the lit coals onto the charcoal grate.
9. Using gloves and long handled tongs, spread the coals into an even surface about 2 coals deep for nice, even direct grilling.
10. Alternatively, if you are grilling thicker cuts of meat (more than 2 inches thick), create a layer on one side of the grill about 3 coals high and then a layer 1 coal high throughout the rest of the grill.  This will give you a nice, 2 zone cooking area.
11. Replace the cooking grate, open the vents on the lid and cover the grill until you are ready to cook!

Bacon.  Ah, my good friend bacon.  Not sure how we could live without you. The only thing better than good bacon, is good crispy bacon.

It isn’t easy to get good crispy bacon.  Many people that don’t know any better cook the bacon at a high temperature and get burned but chewy bacon.  In this post I’ll give you a quick run down on what I’ve found works.  And yes, since this is a grilling site, we’ll do it on the grill.

My favorite pan to use is a cast iron skillet.  At these prices, there is really no reason not to have a pre-seasoned cast iron skillet in your arsenal.

Starting with a cold pan, add 3 slices of bacon and put over a medium heat. You want to cook as much of the fat off the bacon without it burning. This means you may have to move the pan around a bit if it gets too hot and the bacon starts to burn or gets too cool and the bacon stops sizzling.  Either on a gas grill or a charcoal grill, you will want to make sure you have zones set up so that you can regulate the temperature and move to a cool zone if you need to. If you start to see any black on the raised rounded bumps of bacon or the edges, your pan is too hot and you should move it to a cool zone.

While cooking, continuously turn over the bacon so that it cooks evenly on both sides. Changing positions in the pan helps in case the are hotter areas in the pan.  As the bacon cooks it will render the fat into the pan.  If it gets to the point where the bacon is swimming in the grease, you should carefully drain it. This is very HOT stuff and is VERY flammable so do this very carefully. Never drain into water or your sink.  I usually drain into a large dry empty metal can or another pot and then let the grease cool completely before putting it into the garbage.

Depending on bacon thickness the bacon should be done in about 10-15 minutes. Look for the deep brown color. Move to paper towels in order to drain any remaining fat.

Enjoy!

Update: Recently read on Twitter that if you soak the bacon for a few minutes in cold water before frying, it will be even crispier.  Next time I fry bacon, I’ll give it a try and let you know how it turns out.

What’s not to love about a cut of meat with the word “tender” in it’s name? Beef tenderloin is right up there with my choices if I ever need to pick a last meal. If you have a special occasion coming up and want to impress your guest, this is the cut of meat you should splurge for at the butcher’s shop. Some cuts of meat require work to get great taste and optimal tenderness. With the beef tenderloin, all the cook needs to do is not screw it up.

The beef tenderloin is the cut of meat that provides us with the filet mignon. Just like the filet mignon, we want to keep the seasoning minimal and focus more on technique. Aside from over-seasoning, the easiest way to screw up a great beef tenderloin is to over-cook it! If there was ever a justification to purchase a good probe meat thermometer, this is it. You just paid a lot of money for this thing, what’s another $40 for a good probe thermometer that will allow you to monitor the progress?

Before we get into actually cooking this hunk of meat, we need to talk about trimming and preparing the tenderloin. If you can, I would suggest getting your butcher to trim the meat for you. You may pay more for it, but it will save you about 20 minutes of trimming time and also save you the trauma of removing so much waste from this expensive cut of meat. On the 6.5 lb. tenderloin I just prepared, I would estimate that I removed a pound of fat. That’s a lot of waste and it hurts to throw that stuff away after spending so much on the tenderloin. Entire articles have been written and some videos published on how to trim and prepare a tenderloin, so you can Google if you need more information. You are going to want to remove all of the fat and membrane (most will come off by pulling with your hands), the rubbery silver skin and the “chain”, which is a fatty piece of meat that runs down one side of the tenderloin. Once trimmed, fold a few inches of the thin end of the tenderloin over onto itself and secure with butcher’s twine.

Tie some twine around the tenderloin at about 2 inch intervals to hold the shape. Once the meat is trimmed and tied, you’re ready to get started cooking!

How to Grill a Beef Tenderloin

1. Allow the tenderloin to come to room temperature on the kitchen counter. This step is really important, so don’t skip it. If you don’t let the tenderloin (or any large cut of meat) come to room temperature, it won’t cook evenly.
2. While your tenderloin is warming up, go ahead and light the grill. We are going to cook this indirectly, so pile up the coals on one of your charcoal grill or light half of the burners on your gas grill.
3. For seasoning, less is definitely more here. I like to season mine with some fresh ground black pepper and just a little garlic powder. No salt is needed and might actually pull some of the moisture out. Rub the black pepper all over.
4. Now that the beef tenderloin has warmed to room temperature and your grill is hot, place the tenderloin over the hot part of the grill to sear. We want to sear (not burn!) all sides of the tenderloin to create a nice crust.
5. Once all sides are seared, insert your probe thermometer into the thickest part of the tenderloin and then move it over to the cool side of the grill.
6. Close the lid and leave it alone!
7. Maintain a grill temperature (on the cool side) of around 325 – 350. A 6 pound beef tenderloin should take a little over an hour to reach our magic temperature of 130 degrees. Don’t go by time though, cook to temperature.
8. Once the tenderloin hits 130 degrees, remove from the grill and place on a platter.
9. Allow the tenderloin to rest under aluminum foil for 15 minutes before carving. Serious, let it sit! If you don’t, all of those delicious juices will run out of the meat.
10. Remove the twine.
11. Carve either thick filets, or for maximum tenderness, thin slices and serve!

That’s all there is to this great piece of meat. The hardest part is the prep and I would recommend you get the meat guys to do the work for you there. Grilling technique is the key here and with a good probe meat thermometer, there’s nothing to it. I LOVE the Maverick RediChek remote meat thermometer. It has two probes that allow me to monitor both the meat and the grill temperature. I’d highly recommend it (and will in an article soon).

I don’t know why, but I’ve had a love affair with lamb (cooked lamb only) for years. If it is on the menu, I’m ordering it. If there is a reason to cook it, I’m on it. Even if there isn’t a reason to cook lamb, I’m on it. So when I was perusing the meat case at my local super market and saw some loin lamb chops staring back at me, how could I say no?

Lamb chops may be a fancy food to eat, but they are very simple to cook, especially on the grill.  Loin chops are the most tender and leanest of the variety of available lamb chops.  Of course that makes them the most expensive too, but worth the extra outlay of hard earned cash.  They can be easily identified by the T-bone.

Ingredients:
Lamb chops – about 1 inch thick
Dried rosemary 1/2 teaspoon per chop
Olive oil 1/2 tablespoon per chop
Salt – pinch per chop or to taste
Pepper – pinch per chop

Directions:
Step 1 – Trim the fat. Since we are grilling these lamb chops, it is best to trim the excess fat from the edges of the chop to reduce the flareups.  This fat won’t add flavor in the cooking process (it’s the marbled fat throughout the meat that adds flavor), and will only lead to oily flare ups.

Step 2 – Clean and season. Rinse and pat dry the chops.  Brush both sides of the chops with the olive oil. Sprinkle with the dried rosemary, salt and pepper.  So far, pretty easy!  Leave the meat out of the refrigerator to come up to room temperature for about 1/2 hour.

Step 3 – Grill prep. Next prepare your grill.  We’ll be cooking with an open lid on direct high heat.  If using a gas let the grill heat up with the lid closed for 10 to 15 minutes before grilling.  This will allow the grates to get hot which will make nice grill marks and add to the radiant heat.  If you are using charcoal, start your coals in a chimney and then spread out the coals to create the three zones: no coals; 1 layer of coals; and 2 layers of coals.

Once the grill is ready and the chops have been out of the fridge for 1/2 hour,  carefully oil the grates with a paper towel dabbed in vegetable oil (peanut works great).

Step 4 – Grill the chops. Add the lamb chops to the grill and grill over high heat with the lid open.  If you get any flareups, move the chop to a cooler part of the grill until the flames die down.  After about 4 minutes, turn the chops over and cook for another 4 to 5 minutes.  As always, this varies based on the temperature outside, the temp and thickness of the meat, and the grill temp.  If you use a instant read thermometer, 155° F is medium.

Step 5 – Let it rest. Remove the meat from the grill, cover and let it rest for 5 minutes.

Step 6 – Eat and enjoy! In this case I served it with roasted garlic and smoked tomato couscous and grilled asparagus. Don’t forget the mint sauce.

If you like this, you should try the leg of lamb.

Ah, the delicious flank steak. This cut of steak comes from one of the toughest muscles on the cow, but it has some of the best flavor on the animal. Flank steaks are also great candidates for a long bath in a delicious marinade. Marinade them in some lime, garlic, cilantro and jalapeno and I bet most of those slices won’t even make it to your grilled fajita bar!

Sorry, I got a little excited there, back to the point. We all have probably heard, or read on our grilling recipes, that tough muscles like flank steak or tri-tip roast should be sliced thinly against the grain. Most people probably give up on these tough cuts after eating slices that weren’t properly cut against the grain. The concept of slicing against the grain is to shorten the actual muscle fibers so that they are easier to chew. If you slice with the grain, those muscle fibers are really long and tough to chew. Think of a rubber band. If you (for some odd reason) wanted to consume a rubber band, would it be easier to chew up long strands or short? One might argue that you wouldn’t be able to chew even the short bands, but one might also admit you wouldn’t choke as easily as on the longer bands. Nonetheless, you get the point!

Still not following me? Well, luckily the Food Lab over at Serious Eats conducted a much more in-depth experiment into slicing meats against the grain. The article is filled with enough photos to make it easy to illustrate the technique, along with enough math and science to please us geeks.

Head on over to the article to learn how to slice that tough, but delicious, cut of meat. Then come on back over here for some delicious grilling this weekend using our cilantro lime flank steak recipe!

My goal this year is to experiment a lot more with flavors I haven’t really used in recipes.  I feel like I am kind of in a rut and tend to stick with the flavors I am most comfortable with.  We’ll see if my little experiment results in a coup attempt in my family at dinner time.  More on that later…

One of the best areas to experiment is with spices.  A simple grilled boneless chicken breast can be made into something awesome with the right combination of spices that you should have in your cupboard at all times.  Last night I made a quick Southwestern rub for chicken with chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, salt and pepper.  Simple, delicious!

The key to successfully experiment with such spices is knowing what each spice brings to the mix.  To that end, the Kitchn wrote up this awesome quick guide to the most common spices.  There is no substitute for sticking your finger in there and TASTING the spices, but this is a good start.  Funny, I just followed a recipe the other day for yellow rice.  I hadn’t really used Tumeric before and once I was done with the recipe, couldn’t really taste it in the dish.  According to this guide, it’s used more for the color than flavor…makes sense.

Check out the great spice quick guide from theKitchn.com.

Head on over to Jaden’s great TLC blog and check out the results…

Chef Paul’s Sweet and Smokey Ribs

It’s times like these where my oldest son is jealous of his friends that have fireplaces.  When the weather dips to an icy 60 degrees, it’s time to over-pay for a shrink-wrapped bundle of wood at the grocery store and light a fire, even if you have to turn on the AC.  After all, what’s the use in having a fireplace if you can’t roast some marshmallows once a year?  To tell the truth, I am a little jealous too this week.  I’m a sucker for off the wall cooking and grilling techniques and I love how this one brings us back to the days of the Pioneers.  If I had a fireplace, you can bet that I would be trying to roast our dinner over a nice hot fire.

If you have a fireplace, check out WikiHow’s article for ideas on how to cook with your indoor open flame.  I can see the  “human rotisserie” method getting old after the first 5 minutes, but they had me with the string turning method.  It would be worth cooking a chicken this way just to see my wife’s face when she came home.  Here’s a detailed video from firepit-and-grilling-guru.com:

Give it a shot next time you are snowed in.

I chose leg of lamb for this meal because I wanted to grill something fancy for Christmas Eve, and my sister was already planning on standing rib roast for Christmas day. Not much fancier than standing rib roast, but leg of lamb makes a close second.  I found a New Zealand boneless leg of lamb at my local grocery store, butterflied and rolled, wrapped in a mesh, just begging to be thrown on the rotisserie.  So I got the remainder of the ingredients and prepared to make a meal to impress my family.  In this recipe I made a pistachio and mustard encrusted boneless leg of lamb, rotisserie style.

Ingredients:
Boneless leg of lamb,  about 4.5  lbs
1 1/2 cup Dijon mustard
6 tablespoons red wine
6 cloves of garlic, minced
2 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary (I use kitchen scissors)
1 teaspoon ground pepper
1 cup chopped pistachios

Directions:

First I removed the lamb from the bag and rinsed.  The leg of lamb I bought was already de-boned butterflied, and rolled in a mesh.  But if you can’t find one already prepared like this, you can ask you butcher to prepare a leg of lamb for you or remove the bone yourself.  Once rinsed, skewer the lamb and make sure it is secure.  Balance the skewer according to your manufactures directions.  Let the lamb come to room temperature as you prepare the other ingredients.

To prepare the mustard mixture, in a large bowl, add the Dijon mustard, red wine, garlic, rosemary, and pepper and mix thoroughly.  Divide the mixture in half and set aside one half.  Slather the lamb in the mustard mix.  Anything that drips off you can add after you get the lamb going on the grill.

Prepare your grill for the rotisserie.  I remove my grates to give more clearance.  Heat the grill on high.  Once nice and hot, about 8 minutes on my grill add the lamb and start the rotisserie turning.  Reslather any of the mixture from the initial slathering that ran off the lamb (hopefully you had a plate under the lamb).

With an open lid, roast on high for 10 to 15 minutes until you have a golden brown crust on the lamb.

Now it’s time to slow things down.  I turned off my center burner and left on my front and back burner on low.  Add a pan of water under the lamb, with just enough water to cover the bottom of the pan.  Reduce the temperature down to low, about 300 to 325° F.  If your grill has left, right and center zones, turn off the zone that is directly under your lamb.  If you have charcoal, you’ll need to rearrange the coals so they are not directly under the lamb.  The pan of water will catch drippings which prevent flareups, regulate the temperature and will help keep the meat moist.

As usual, the amount of time you have to cook the lamb will vary greatly depending on the size of the lamb, your grill, and numerous other factors.  Mine took about 2 hours (about 1/2 hour per pound @ 325° F).  When the internal temperature gets to 145° F (for medium rare), turn off the grill and carefully remove the pan of water.

Slather the lamb with the remaining mustard.  Relight the grill, and put it on medium high, with the middle burner going again.  We want some direct heat to get the crust back on the lamb (you’ll find that the steam from pan of water may have caused your crust to drip off).  After about a minute, add the chopped pistachios.  I used a spoon to press them into the mustard and get them to stick, slowly rotating the lamb as I did this.

Cook for another 10 minutes until the crust is brown and crispy.

Remove from the grill.

While it is resting for 10 minutes, take lots of pictures until you get one that looks just right.  Well, that’s what I did anyway.

Then carve it up and serve.

We had sides of wild mushroom bread pudding, twice baked potatoes and green bean casserole.  And don’t forget the mint sauce for the lamb.

If you don’t have a rotisserie, this recipe is reason enough to get one.  The lamb turned out perfect and was the best I’ve ever had.  The complements were non-stop.  Here it the model I have, Weber 9890 Gas Barbecue Rotisserie.  If you have a char-broil, there is this one.  And this is a generic one that is supposed to fit many types of grills.

During this process, I learned it is good to have more than one thermometer.  My instant read thermometer decided to go on the fritz about an hour and a half into cooking, leaving me with an old school meat thermometer and the thermometer from my turkey fryer.  Nearly flying blind!  Fortunately I got lucky and it turned out perfect.  I’ve since bought this thermometer and this one as a backup.

Hope you enjoy!

Not this year though.  It’s “worse-ta-sure“.  I think “worse-ta-sheer” is also acceptable, but never, EVER, “war-chester-shire“.  As a matter of fact, that may be a New Year’s resolution I can stick with for 2010.  I am now making it my mission to educate people and finally eradicate WarChesterShire from the English language.  Who’s with me?

Market research shows that 40% of Americans grill all year-round.  TLC posted some tips on grilling in inclement weather for those less-than-perfect days.  I don’t (yet) have a covered outdoor kitchen, so I can attest to the value of a good, large umbrella to cover the grill:

I have a LOT of respect for those of you that can use their tips for grilling in the snow.  Send us some photos of grilling in the snow so we can remember why we love living in the Sunshine State this time of the year.  In return, we’ll post some video of us running for our lives during a Summer lightning storm when it is 99% outside…

Check out TLC‘s tips for grilling in bad weather.

Fancy remote thermometers that works on a rotisserie for $59.99

Cast iron skillet for $21.62

Grilling baskets and tray with lidded shaker for $19.99

Good oven mitts (or lobster costume) for $20.30

Turkey fryer kit for $124.99

Garlic press for $14.99

For the little griller: Melissa and Doug toy grill for $13.78

For the chef with everything: Ceramic Drunk Chicken Heads for $14.95

Villaware Pizza Grill for $99.99

and pizza peel for $32.50

Oven thermometer like this one for $9.95

Magic Bullet Express 17-Piece High-Speed Blender Mixing System for rubs and marinades for $54.99

Basically, coat the cast iron in a thin even layer of shortening and heat it upside-down between 325°F to 375°F for about an hour. It is best to use indirect heat. Let the cookware cool on the grill.

Using the grill is best since this will smoke a bit and would stink up your kitchen if you did it in the oven.

Hmm, I’m gonna have to build my own molecule model one of these days…

Once it is seasoned, don’t forget to try out some cornbread!

Ever since I built my own smoker, I have been obsessed with DIY cooking projects.  Here’s another cool project from Instructables.  Technically, it isn’t one of their documented projects, it was just included in comments on their page.  The body, lid and coal (fits one briquette) holder are made from an Altoid tin.  The grate is from an old computer power supply.  Pretty cool little fella.  Perfect for grilling one chicken wing at a time!

Do you trust that you are getting a full tank when you exchange?  The video report below suggests that you could be getting less than you paid for, even though the tank they exchanged did appear to be within a pound of the weight of a full tank.  The point is, without weighing the tank, you really don’t know.  If you want to be sure to only pay for the actual propane you are using, you need to take the tank to a place like U-Haul and pay by weight.  Take a look at the video below and decide for yourself.  If you are more comfortable with refilling, wander on over to U-Haul and save some money…

There are good and bad things about having a kid with the flu on Thanksgiving.  Both the good and bad have to do with family.  The bad is that when you are quarantined with a sick kid, you can’t go hang out with the rest of the family.  The good is that you have an excuse to stay at home, sit on the porch, smell the sweet smoke from the smoker all day and watch football!  I’d by lying if I said I didn’t enjoy a nice Thanksgiving at home without rushing around to see two families.

The best part is that I used our quarantined situation as an opportunity to really plan and smoke a turkey in my homemade smoker this year.  I recently tried fried turkey, since everyone is always raving about it.  Although I love how fast you can fry a turkey, it didn’t really impress me in the taste department.  This smoked turkey, however, was a real winner and I think I’ll have to celebrate half-Thanksgiving this coming year, just to have leftovers.

Choosing and Brining Your Turkey

You really don’t want a huge, stork-like turkey for smoking.  A 10 – 12 pound turkey is the perfect size for the smoker.  Make sure you buy a “natural” turkey, not one that says it has been “enhanced”, or “self-basted” with juices of any kind.  It’s pretty easy to tell once you read the label.  If you do happen to get an enhanced bird, just skip the brining process because an enhanced turkey means it has already been injected or soaked in a salty substance.

Once your turkey has been thawed (make sure you take out the neck and gizzards, but save the neck for the gravy!), it’s time to brine that sucker.  Brining adds a lot of moisture and taste to the bird.  If you have never brined meats before, you are about to start.  Rather than repeating ourselves, wander on over to our article on how to brine a turkey for the brine process and recipe.  Meet me back here once the turkey has soaked in the fridge….

Fire Up the Smoker and Get the Bird Ready

Ok, the bird has been soaking for a while (if it wasn’t already “enhanced”) and getting itself ready for it’s journey to smokey deliciousness.  It’s time to get the smoker going and make some final preparations to the turkey.  We need enough charcoal to smoke this baby for around 4 hours.  For my smoker, that means about a half of a bag of charcoal.  To enable my smoker to burn nice and evenly for that long, I need to make a ring of unlit charcoal and then dump a chimney-full of lit charcoal into the middle.  Here’s a visual:

Once the charcoal is lit, get your smoker into the “zone”, we are looking for 250 degrees.  If it creeps up around 300, no worries, just make sure you have some foil around to cover the breast so it doesn’t cook too quickly…we’ll talk about that later.

Now that the smoker is heating up, let’s get the turkey ready.  If your bird has a little clip holding the legs together, go ahead and remove that.  Remove any excess fat around the bottom opening of the bird, along with the tail while you are at it, but save those for the gravy pan!  Now rub the whole turkey down with some olive oil.  Using your fingers, gently separately the skin from the breast and work your fingers all the way to the top of the bird.  Now make sure you rub the inside of the breast with some olive oil as well.  Mix together some fresh chopped rosemary, Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper and rub the entire bird down with the mixture.  Make sure you stuff some in between the breast meat and skin as well.  This is an optional step, but if presentation is a big thing for you, you’ll want to create some socks and gloves out of aluminum foil.  Gloves and gloves?  Yeah, wrap the ends of the drumsticks and wing tips so they don’t burn to a crisp, like this:

Let’s Talk Wood, Smoke, Moisture and Gravy

One misconception about smoking meats is that you need a lot of smoke throughout the cooking process.  Turkey does not need a lot of smoke and as a matter of fact, you can ruin a good turkey with too much smoke.  For turkey and chicken, I like to use a fruit wood like apple.  I also prefer chunks over chips.  If you can get the chunks, you only need one chunk the size of a baseball for smoking a turkey.  If using chips, just use the same amount.  Throw your wood right over the coals right before you put the turkey in the smoker.

A pan of water under your turkey serves multiple purposes when smoking a whole turkey.  For one, it keeps a lot of moisture in the smoke chamber, that’s good for obvious reasons.  The second and third benefits involve catching the drippings from the turkey during the cooking process.  We need those delicious juices for the gravy!  The other benefit is easier clean up.  Ever seen all of the juice coming out of a turkey?  Want to clean that mess out of a of 55 gallon drum smoker?  I think not.

So let’s give that gravy a head start.  Place the neck, 2 onions, a few carrots and a sprig of rosemary into the pan and heat it up on the stove.  Once it’s about to start boiling, shut off the stove and transfer the pan to the smoker.  I installed an additional rack 7 inches under the smoking rack of my ugly drum smoker for this exact reason.  As the turkey cooks, it deposits it’s juices into the simmering pan of deliciousness below, all the while taking in that great moisture to stay nice and juicy!  Oh man, I can almost taste it again as I write this…

Ok, Enough Already, Let’s Smoke This Sucker!

Ok, I think we have covered everything.  We have a hot smoker, we’ve got a prepped bird and a pan to start making our gravy.  Throw your wood onto the coals and place the turkey on the cooking rack directly above the gravy pan and close the smoker.  Again, we want to cook at around 250 degrees.

After about an hour, remove the aluminum foil from the legs and wings.  At this point, loosely place a sheet of aluminum foil over the breast so that it doesn’t get too brown.  If you think it needs more time to brown up, you can cover it at a later time, just a warning that the breast will brown quickly and at some point you are going to want to cover it with the foil to make sure it doesn’t get too brown (burnt).

A 12 pound turkey will take around 3.5 – 4 hours to cook at 250 – 300 degrees, but go by meat temperature and not time!  When a meat thermometer placed into the thickest part of the breast (without hitting the bone!) reads between 155 – 160, the turkey is done.  Once it’s done, remove the turkey from the smoker, making sure to dump out all of those great juices into the gravy pan and then transfer the bird to a platter.  Loosely cover the turkey with foil for at least 20 minutes before you even think about trying to carve this sucker.  We want those juices to have a chance to settle back into the meat.

Use the turkey stock from the pan to make some good gravy, slice your turkey masterpiece and enjoy!  It was a real hit around my house, for all ages, even the sick little guy:

I think I have about overdone it with my new homemade smoker.  Any time my wife mentions cooking I usually blurt out “why don’t we smoke it?” before she can even finish her sentence.  She finally let me light the coals again this weekend while we were just sitting around watching football.  There’s something about watching football that makes me crave grilled chicken wings,  so I thought I’d try smoking some wings this time.  The only problem though is that smoked chicken usually has a nice soft skin.  Chicken wings on the other hand should have a crispy skin that can soak up all that delicious sauce (if you are in to that sort of thing).  Ah ha!  A perfect excuse to burn even more fuel, I’ll fire up the grill and crisp up the skins once they have cooked on the smoker!  Overkill?  Nah, it’s beautiful in Florida outside this time of the year, so why not extend my outdoor cooking duties?  Let’s take a look at the process.

For smoking any kind of chicken, I like to make a quick dry rub.  A simple dry rub can be thrown together from stuff you should always have in your pantry anyway.  Experiment by adding your own favorite spices, but this one will get you a good tasty foundation:

Ingredients
1 tablespoon Kosher salt
1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
2 teaspoons Paprika
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/8 teaspoon cayenne (start small and add more if you like spice)

Directions

1. First step is to fire up the smoker and get the coals burning while we get everything else ready.  Fill up a chimney starter with coals and let them burn down until you see ash forming on the top coals.
2. Once those have burned down, empty them into your smoker’s fire basket, open the ventilation and close the lid so she can heat up.  The wings only need about 45 minutes to cook at around 300 degrees, so no need to add unlit coals for a longer burn.
3. While the smoker is getting itself ready, throw together your rub and mix thoroughly.
4. I like to cut off the actual wing part of the chicken wings.  This is the wing tip that has no meat on it, but they somehow always leave it on when butchering the chicken.  It’s optional, but just takes up room on the smoker or grill.
5. Rub your wings down with the rub, throw a handful of wood chips on the smoker then place the wings on your smoker’s grate.
6. Get your smoker at a stable 300 – 315 degrees and let them smoke for about 45 minutes.
7. Once the wings have cooked on the smoker for 45 minutes, the meat should be cooked through.  Fire up your grill to medium.
   
8. Transfer your wings over to the grill and grill them for about 2 minutes per side.  This should be quick, we just want to crisp up the skin.  A little charring isn’t bad, but watch those flare ups!
9. Remove from the grill and either serve “dry” or toss them in your favorite wing sauce!
   

Don’t have any bottled wing sauce in your refrigerator?  It’s really easy to make with stuff you can just have sitting around the house.  Here’s a quick chicken wing sauce recipe:

Chicken Wing Sauce:
4 tablespoons Crystal or similar hot sauce (more to taste, depending on your preference for heat)
1 tablespoon white vinegar (increase a little if you add hot sauce)
2 tablespoons melted butter
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

Mix all of the ingredients thoroughly and that’s it!  I preferred the wings dry in this case actually.  I dipped a few in the wing sauce, but they were awesome with just the dry rub.  The smoky flavor combined with the spices were just right for my tastes, but the sauce also mixed well with the delicious smokiness.

The reason I have been cooking almost everything on my homemade smoker recently is because nothing tastes better than food cooked using something you built with your own two hands!  My cousin Drew can now attest to this fact with his new pride and joy, a homemade cowboy style grill.  Cowboy style grills are made to cook over the open flame of a wood fire using the direct heat of the flames and coals.  Drew’s design is great because it allows him to use the two grates to provide two different grilling temperatures.  As shown in this photo, his new grill handled the oysters on the half shell with parmesan and garlic, as well as the sausage and stuffed peppers.  Looks like a great cookout to me!

This set of grilling baskets and tray with lidded shaker on Amazon has me pretty excited.  This set comes with a smaller tray for grilling items you don’t want to fall through the grate, I could live without that tray, but it comes with the set.  I would seriously pay $25 for the lidded basket alone.  I love my Weber grill basket, but it falls short in two areas for me.  For one, I have to put on 2 oven mitts to remove the thing from the grill.  The lidded set pictured above has a handle so even if it gets hot, that’s only one mitt I need to wear.  The coolest part though is that there is a locking lid.  No longer will I have to use a spatula to move those little potatoes, shrimp or whatever around while grilling.  I can just grab the handle (with my one mitt) and give her a shake!  No more grilled foods going MIA in the bottom of the grill!  I also love the fact that there is little surface area to clean and look dirty.  The Weber basket looked great, right up until my first grilling.  It’s a little hard to clean and scratches easily.

I’m heading over to Amazon to pick one of these up today!

We had working lunch the other day (if talking about grilling is work) at the local J. Alexander’s.  If you haven’t been there, it’s one of those places where you can see the folks in the back cooking your meal.  Of course, the grill is conveniently located right by the waiting area so that you come in wanting a salad, but leave full of steak.  Steak was precisely what the guy was throwing on the grill as we were standing there watching through the glass.  As the cook placed the steak on the grill, he also placed a steak weight on top.  My first instinct was to run over and save that poor hunk of meat from the crushing force of the cast iron, but I resisted.  That little episode did make me wonder whether I was missing a good grilling tip, so I did a little research.

The idea behind the steak press is to apply additional pressure and heat to the top while grilling steak.  The added heat captured by the metal weight and then transferred to the top of the steak causes the steak to cook faster and more evenly.  Steak weights are recommended more often for people that like their steaks on the well done side, which explains why I have never felt the need to use one!  I like my steaks medium rare and personally feel that the reason a well-done steak is grey is because you have cooked out all of it’s soul .

What say you, GrillingCompanion readers?  Does your grilling arsenal contain a steak weight?

If you are going to smoke, grill, or fry a turkey (yes, even if you are going to roast it in the oven), it pays to brine the turkey first.  Do NOT brine a turkey that says it has been “enhanced” with salt and turkey brother, further brining will make the bird too salty.  The turkey will be more moist, and by choosing some good aromatic herbs to add to the brine, the turkey will have a much better flavor.

There aren’t any hard and fast rules to what should go into your brine.  I sometimes add brown sugar (about 1/2 cup per gallon) or apple juice, to give it a little sweetness.  Search around the Internet and you will find many variations, but the salt content is pretty much universal.  Here’s a cool way to see if you have enough salt in your brine.  Once your brine has cooled to room temperature, drop a raw egg into the solution.  It should float if you have enough salt.  I know, weird…Here is a basic brine to get you started:

Ingredients:
1 thawed or fresh turkey – not frozen. Not Kosher or self-basting as these have high salt content already.
1 cup table salt
1 gallon of cold water
3 to 5 sprigs of fresh rosemary
1 sprig of fresh sage
1 bunch of fresh thyme
1 large pot that is big enough to fit the turkey
enough room in the fridge to fit all of this

You can also use an oven bag from Reynolds if you don’t have a big enough pot to submerge the turkey, but you want to be careful (obviously) not to let the wings or a bone poke holes in the bag. Not enough room in the refrigerator? If you have a big cooler, they work great for brining as well. Just make sure you clean them well before and after (a little bleach water to kill all the bad stuff).

Heat a 1/2 gallon of the water over medium high heat. Add the salt. Stir until the salt is dissolved. Tie the herbs in a bouquets garnis (a what? yeah, that is what I said. It is a bunch of herbs tied with a string) and add to the water. Let it simmer for about 25 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool. Add the cold water and stir.

Clean out the turkey (none of that giblet stuff inside the cavity). Rinse it inside and out.

Add the turkey and water to the container you are going to brine in and refrigerate for 10 to 15 hours or overnight. If you didn’t plan well enough ahead and have only 4 to 6 hours to soak, double the salt. This way you can time it with when you are going to cook.  Make sure it is fully submerged.

After the long soak, remove the turkey from the brine. Dispose the brine water safely. Remember, these birds can carry salmonella, so disinfect any spills. Rinse the turkey inside and out. Now your turkey is brined and ready to cook.  At this point, the turkey doesn’t need a whole lot of additional seasoning.  A little fresh ground black pepper is fine, but do NOT add more salt.

Check out some other tips on brining.

You can try a variety of other spices, herbs and even sweeteners (honey, molasses, brown sugar, etc) to get different flavored turkeys.  Tell us your favorite brine recipe.  Go crazy!

So yeah, frying with no oil.  The thing even catches the drippings so that you can still make that gravy!  My only question is, how do you call it frying without oil?  I think I’d re brand it as Infrared Meat Cooker or Really Hot Crock Pot, but that’s just me….

Want one?  Go buy it here.  If you still want to use all of that oil you have sitting in the garage, we’ll show you how to make a fried turkey the old-fashioned way over here.  Just don’t use the Big Easy, infrared and oil might go BOOM.

I hope it’s this easy because with my luck, I’ll be wearing the rest of the day.

This is probably going to be one of the best things I learn all week!  I have eaten my weight in chicken wings over the years and I can’t believe I never had a single person in a sports bar show me this technique.  I actually started ordering all drums recently, just because I was tired of eating around the bones of the “flappers”.

Well, today is a new day.  Check out the video up above and learn how to eat chicken wings the right way.  I can’t think of a better reason to make one of my favorite grilled chicken recipes, grilled chicken wings this week, all flappers, just for practice.

From Lifehacker.

Since Halloween was on a Saturday this year, the neighborhood had a lot more time to plan a party.  At this point, most neighbors have been down to check out the new bbq smoker.  She’s now less ugly, with her new University of South Florida (Go BULLS!) paint job.   My wife decided to fully embrace my sudden smoking obsession for this occasion and proceeded to invite several people in the neighborhood to bring over their whole chicken to throw on the smoker.  Not that I mind, I just haven’t done a full load test on her (the smoker) yet and I wasn’t exactly sure how much meat I could smoke at one time.

As the 4th chicken showed up, I started to get a little nervous since it was the size of a small turkey.  I had to check the label twice, yep, it’s actually a chicken.  At this point, the smoker is all fired up and hovering around 250 degrees so I mixed up the following rub for the chicken:

Ingredients

2 tablespoons Kosher salt

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon onion powder

1 teaspoon thyme

1 teaspoon sage

1 tablespoon paprika

1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

Directions

I then washed and rinsed the whole chickens, made sure I removed everything from the cavity (I have forgotten before) and then rubbed them down with the rub.  At this point, 2 more chickens joined the party, bringing the grand total to 6 chickens.  Yeah, I was pretty much planning to throw that last one on the grill at this point.

I was pleasantly surprised when I realized I DID have enough room for 6 whole chickens.  As you can see, without an inch to spare, she actually was able to handle all of the fowl.

Once I had all of the chickens arranged, I placed the lid on the smoker and opened the hole in the top.  To smoke a whole chicken, you want to be at around 250 degrees for about 4 hours.  The main thing to remember is that the internal temperature of the breast meat should reach around 170 degrees.  Check the temps after 3 hours using a meat thermometer.  You’ll know you are getting close to smoked chicken deliciousness when the skin gets nice and dark.  My chicken turned out awesome and was done at pretty close to the 4 hour mark.

I had a little trouble maintaining a constant temperature while smoking the chickens.  I wasn’t off by much, but the temps were fluctuating from about 250 up to 300 degrees.  I may have been over compensating and closing down the top air hole too much when the temperature got too high.  I need to get this right or smoking a brisket all day is going to be a little more of an interactive process than I would like…

I’m learning a lot of BBQ vocabulary as I build my new smoker.  I am a firm believer in “fake it til you make it”.  So the other day when a BBQ aficionado asked “you seasoned that new smoker of yours, right”, I said “of course!” and then quickly pulled out my phone and jumped on Google to figure out what that meant.  As far as I can tell, “seasoning” a smoker just involves smoking something to burn off any residue from manufacturing and to coat the inside with smoke.  Well, considering the 3 alarm fire I had going in that thing a week ago, I don’t think I need to worry about residue of any kind.  I do though need to generate some smoke, so sounds like a good excuse to cook something!

Since I wasn’t quite sure how it would turn out, I didn’t want to spend a lot of money.  Walmart actually had packages of what they call “chicken parts” for pretty cheap.  Sounded so appetizing, I got two.  I was pleasantly surprised that each package contained 2 breasts and 2 thighs, along with chicken backs.  Yes, I said BACKS, the actual back of the chicken, spine and all.  I think I can live without those, so I tossed them.  I placed the other good pieces of chicken on the grill and an hour and a half later at about 300 degrees, I had some delicious chicken.  Once the smoker was going, I didn’t have to do a thing to maintain temperature, it was really easy.  The chicken really did turn out awesome, maybe even more so because I built this thing!  I’m pretty happy with this project so far, on to some pork and a lot longer smoking times…

]]> http://www.grillingcompanion.com/finally-smokin/feed/ 0 http://www.grillingcompanion.com/homemade-smoker/ http://www.grillingcompanion.com/homemade-smoker/#comments Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:45:51 +0000 Steve http://www.grillingcompanion.com/?p=1732

You know you are a real Cheapskate when you are trying to save $10 on building a $60 smoker that does the job of a $1000 smoker.  Well, that’s me.  As you already know, I am building a smoker.   The barrel that I am using to build this thing cost $8 on Craigslist, so needless to say, this is a cheap venture.  Starting out that cheap really got something going inside my competitive head and I decided I was going to build the cheapest smoker I could build.  As I started to add up the cost, I realized the tools needed to do this might cost more than the components that will live on the smoker.  In particular, the step drill bit needed to drill 1″ holes in a steel barrel.  I headed down to my favorite (cheap) hardware store and they had a 3/4″ step drill bit on sale for $6.99!  The 1 inch step bit was sold in a pack of 2 for $16, so I somehow lost all of my math skills at that very moment and convinced myself that 3/4 inch was “close enough” to 1 inch and bought the cheaper bit.

For those keeping score at home (like my lovely wife), this is the tally for my little smoker project:
1 steel barrel – $8
1 step drill bit – $6.99
1 Weber grill grate – $16
1 pit thermometer – $13
Misc. hardware – $5

So yeah, I am still under $50 for this thing!

Using my new bit, I quickly drill the holes needed at the bottom of the barrel for ventilation.  Again, if you want details on any of these steps, I can not explain them any better than the Pickeled Pig, so head on over there.  At this point, I can seriously taste the BBQ, I can’t wait to fire it up so I loaded up the charcoal basket with a chimney full of burning coals, threw on a few chicken breasts I had brined for 30 minutes and sealed up the smoker.  According to the Pickeled Pig, I should get around 300 degrees with everything wide open so that is where I start.  After sitting there for 10 minutes, I topped out at a little over 200 degrees and held steady.  So I am still 100 degrees shy of where I should be and I have no other holes to open to allow for more ventilation.  That’s when I started doing the math and realized that yeah, I really was missing out on some serious air flow by using that smaller bit!  I decided to drill another 3/4 inch hole and sure enough, my temps shot up to between 275 and 300.  Bingo!

Of course, all of this is assuming that the thermometer I found on sale for $13 is actually accurate, hmm, better check that thing next…

We have a love/hate relationship with meat thermometers around my house.  I hate that none of the ones I own can agree on a temperature and my wife loves to ruin them by submerging them in the sink while she’s doing the dishes (told you I’d write about it!).  It’s time to quit complaining and build my own!

Lucky for fellow Nerds like the staff at GC, there is the Nerd Kit!  The Nerd Kits consist of “electronic parts and wisdom” needed to explore your geeky, electronics side.  The kit looks just like the Motorola 6800 kit (chip and breadboard) I used in Logic Design class in college.  The only problem is that I had the smartest kid in class as my lab partner and he would crank through the assignments the night before, so I didn’t necessarily learn as much as I should have.  As a result, I’m still chewing on their explanation and code for the predictive filter.  Nonetheless, it’s a pretty cool project, complete with sample code.

Watch this video (a few times) to start wrapping your noodle around this project and then head over here to pick up a kit, if you dare:

There are many brands of smokers on the market.  I am sure there are some great ones out there, but the truly great smokers, ones that hold temperatures well with little fuss, cost a lot of money.  There in lies one of the main reasons I have never really gotten into smoking (meat, that is).  You see, if I bought a $1000 smoker, it better work well as a stove and fireplace because my wife would make me sleep outside with it.  The other reason I never really got into smoking is because it was always too much work.  I tried cheap smokers in the past and I spent hours in the yard trying to maintain a temperature.  It was WAY too stressful.

Is That a Trash Can?

The turning point in my barbecue life thus far was a party we were invited to at my friend Trey’s house.  The smell of barbecue that hit us as we walked up to the house was enough to wash away all of the ill will I had toward smokers and make me want to create some true, slow and low barbeque.  As we got a little closer to the house, we realized our barbecue was being cooked in what looked like a trash can!  Trey informed me that what I was looking at was referred to as an Ugly Drum Smoker or a UDS (makes it sound less redneck).  Built from a well, ugly drum, these smokers actually turn out to be very effective at holding temps.  Once I sampled the BBQ and got a closer look, the ugly drum started to appear beautiful to me through my BBQ-loving, tool collecting eyes.  I left that party knowing I NEEDED to build one of these things.  Coincidentally, this photo was taken before Trey, being the true ‘Tide fan he is, painted his smoker Alabama colors.  It’s no longer this “ugly”….

This brings me to last weekend, standing in the back yard watching a raging fire, clutching a garden hose and praying that the grass wasn’t too dry and the neighbors didn’t call the fire department.   Once Trey found out I wanted to build an UDS, he was nice enough to find me a barrel on Craigslist.  $8 cash and I had my cooking vessel.  The only thing left was to clean it by fire, hence the inferno in the backyard.  But wait, is it really worth the effort to build one of these things?

But Is It Really a Good Smoker?

Controlling air flow is of utmost importance when choosing or building a smoker.  If you do not have precise control of the air flowing into the smoker, you will be chasing temperatures around all day.  That’s what makes these ugly drum smokers so great.  Since it is such a closed system, you can control the air flowing into the smoker just by adjusting the bottom vent holes.  The more air allowed into the smoker, the hotter it will get.  300 – 325 degrees is about the max, anything above that and you are grilling anyway.

Playing With Fire

So yes, it is worth it, it’s an awesome smoker so let’s get back to the backyard inferno.  Even if you get a barrel that is “food grade”, it may have had a plastic lining and that is no good for cooking either.  Regardless of the barrel or drum’s origins, you really need a big fire to be sure it’s clean.  By a “big” fire, I mean a “big, flames shooting out of the top, paint melting off of the outside inferno” of a fire!  I drove to a place I knew sells firewood (we live in Florida, it’s rare to need firewood), but they were out.  On the way out of their property I saw a few old pallets stacked in the corner.  When I asked the guy about them he said, “that’s just trash”.  When I asked it I could take them he responded with “Five dollars?”… “But you said they were trash”.  I  loaded up my free wood and was on my way!  Turns out, old pallets are perfect and after burning 2 of them in my new barrel, I was sure nothing could have survived inside and the paint on the outside didn’t fare too well either.  See the paint melting off by the bottom hole?  That’s what we are after.  Nothing survived this fire…

Let’s Get Down To It, How to Build An Upright Smoker

Ok, so I spent all of that intro time talking about fire because that is actually the hardest part to this whole project.  If you live in close proximity to your neighbors, you may want to warn them you are going to burn a big fire in the backyard so they don’t call the fire department!  So let’s break this down in order:

Tools and Materials:

• 55 Gallon Drum with a removable lid and screw on cap (look on Craigslist, ask around at supermarkets, look in the yellow pages for “containers”, etc.)
• 1 inch Step drill bit for drilling holes in metal.  This could be the most expensive part of the project, so check around and/or order online.  I was able to get one from Harbor Freight for $13, but Lowe’s had them for $30!
• 22.5 inch Weber grill grate (Lowe’s has them, or online)
• 4 – 1.5″ x 1/4″ bolts, 1/4″ nuts and 1/4″ lock washers (to mount your grate)
• 3/4 inch brass ball valve, to control the air flow more precisely.  It’s optional when you are starting out, you can control air flow with as little as a refrigerator magnet partially covering the hole.
• Fire basket (we’ll get to that later)
• Pit (grill) thermometer
• The FREE MeatTemps app for iPhone to make sure you are cooking your meat to the right doneness temperature (worked in a shameless plug!)

Ugly Drum Smoker Build Steps:

1. Ok, let’s get to work.  First, we need to drill our 3/4 inch ventilation holes at the bottom of the drum.  To find the right spacing for the holes, wrap a string around the outside of the barrel to measure the circumference.  Now lay the string flat and measure to find the circumference.  For example, my 55 gallon drum has a circumference of about 69.5 inches.
2. Divide your circumference by 3 and mark the string at each of those intervals (23.17″ in my case).  Drill each hole at that distance and 3″ above the base of the drum.
3. If present, remove the seal around the inside lip of the lid.  It should be a rubber gasket and can be easily peeled off after starting it with a flat head screw driver.
4. Now that your holes are drilled, burn that baby to clean it out!
5. Now we want to mount our grate about 7 inches below the top of the drum to leave room for larger cuts of meat.  Using our same circumference string, divide it in 4 this time and drill holes for your 1/4 inch bolts at that interval (again, 17.38″ for my drum with a 69.5″ circumference).
6. In each hole, install the bolt from the outside, place a lock washer on the inside of the bolt and tighten on a nut.  This will make a nice platform for your grate.

That’s about it for the drum!  That leaves the fire basket, the holder for your charcoal and wood that will go into the bottom of the drum.  The basket needs to provide a way for ash to fall through as the coal burns down, otherwise the ash will choke out the fire.  I was able to use the lid from an old 18″ smoker and drill holes for ventilation.  Most others build their own.  Here’s a pretty typical design using an old 18″ grill grate, some flexible metal from Lowe’s and a few bolts:

Oh, one more thing. Don’t let the “ugly” in the ugly drum smoker stop you from getting creative!  I would say my ugly drum smoker isn’t that ugly these days.  Here she is representing the University of South Florida, GO BULLS!